Barry Levine says, “Google has taken another step toward becoming a one-stop, cloud-based solution for major media companies. Late last week, the tech giant announced its acquisition of Mountain View, California-based video platform Anvato. Deal terms were not made public. Anvato’s Media Content Platform automates the encoding, editing, publishing and secure distribution of video across different platforms, and it will now become part of Google’s Cloud Platform. Previously, Google offered cloud-based rendering, media archiving, video transcoding, distribution and similar services. This... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “With the news that over half of the trillions of Google searches happen on mobile, Google announced Tuesday that it will soon change the way advertisers set bids for targeting ads by device type in AdWords. Other coming changes announced at Googler Performance Summit in San Francisco include an update to Google text ads on all devices and responsive mobile display ads that can access native mobile ad inventory on the Google Display Network. The change in bidding is significant in that it accomplishes two things: 1. Untethers desktop and tablet bids; and 2. Allows advertisers... [...]

Patrick Kulp says, “Google’s advertisers may soon figure much more prominently into the terrain of the company’s maps feature. A new type of ad offering will let companies buy the ability to place a small logo image over their physical locations on Google Maps, the search giant announced on Tuesday. Such ads are already available in Google-owned navigation app Waze. Other new ads within Google Maps will allow retailers to peddle in-store discounts on specific products or display an inventory search of a nearby store when users search relevant terms within Maps. If someone were... [...]

Carly Stec says, “What’s the most viewable ad size? How does page position influence viewability? Is viewability affected by ad blocking applications? And what’s an average viewability rate, anyways? These are the questions many were left with when the Media Rating Council lifted its Viewable Impression Advisory back in 2014. As a result of this change, marketers and advertisers switched their focus from served impressions to viewable impressions. What’s the difference? Quite simply, served impressions are counted when the ad is displayed. As for viewable impressions, take... [...]

John Boitnott says, “Successful businesses consistently search for new ways to reach customers, not only through new channels of communication, but through the channels they use each day. Google, as one of the top tools used by consumers everywhere, has the attention of almost every brand. If they can find a way to reach Google users through their searches, businesses realize they can increase brand recognition and bring in new customers. Google has worked hard to make sure its paid ads deliver real value to business. This keeps companies paying for the service even when they could get clicks... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Today, Google announced that display ads created in Flash now will be converted automatically to HTML5 to make them eligible for viewing on mobile devices and browsers that do not support Flash. The feature was originally announced last fall among a slew of updates designed to make Google’s display formats more mobile-friendly. The ads will be converted when advertisers upload Flash ads to AdWords directly or through third-party tools. Until now, Google displayed a static image backup of an ad where Flash wasn’t supported. Now the ads will display as fully interactive... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Back in June, Google launched dynamic remarketing for retailers in on the Google Display Network and said it was testing the ads in the travel and education verticals. This week, the company announced dynamic remarketing is rolling out across all verticals including education, hotels, flights, real estate and more. Dynamic remarketing (or retargeting) ads that automatically insert product or items related to those that users viewed on a website. The service is not unique to Google, but now AdWords advertisers can run dynamic retargeting campaigns within the platform.... [...]

The latest ‘Web Marketing Today’ blog post is titled “Testing Google Ads to Maximize Sales”. Andy Curry says, “Advertising with Google can seem daunting and expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing. Other than learning Google’s system, the best thing you can do is test your ads against each other for optimal results. The biggest mistake people make is running an ad without testing it to see if it could generate more profit — it nearly always can. When first starting this process, there are three things in your ad to consider: the headline, the body copy, and the URL”. Testing... [...]