Brett Crosby from the Google Analytics team talked about a number of new and recently announced features to Google Analytics. To recap the announcement here’s a quick video that Justin created. Look for more blog posts in the next couple of weeks talking about these changes. Overall, some really cool stuff, especially the new AdWords reports.

Ready to set up goals on your website? This 7 minute video walks through the steps required to create conversion goals in Google Analytics. You’ll learn about different types of goals, how to calculate goal values, when and where to use different match types and more. With goals configured in your Analytics profiles you’ll be on your way to understanding how your visitors interact with your site from the perspective of conversions:

Are you ready to set up Google Analytics on your website? If so, then you’ve found the right place. In this 7 minute video, you’ll learn how to create a Google Analytics account, install the new GA.js tracking code, and be on your way to a wealth of information about how people find and use your website:

Webshare is a Google Analytics Authorized consultancy and can help you set up, configure, and analyze this invaluable data. We offer customized analytics training as well as Google Analytics consulting for any project.

Microsoft’s Project Gatineau is now in beta and being tested by the public. On October 29th they began inviting certain users to sign up for the beta, although you do need to be an adCenter user to be granted an invitation. At this time it is not known when Microsoft will release it for all customers to use.

Gatineau is Microsoft’s “answer” to Google’s Analytics, and they state that it won’t be exactly the same as Analytics (and of course they say it will be better). Ian Thomas of Microsoft’s Digital Advertising Solutions group has a blog specifically discussing Gatineau, and in it he states, “We think there’s room in the market for another service of this nature; plus, we have some stuff up our sleeves that we hope you’ll like and which will differentiate us from Google’s and others’ offerings.” He went on to note that “we have more resources than DeepMetrix did (development team has more than quadrupled since the acquisition, for example), so hopefully we won’t disappoint you.” Microsoft’s attainment of DeepMetrix tipped off the internet community that the software giant was looking to get into web analytics. Gatineau is the name of the Canadian city where DeepMetrix was based for a number of years.

Ian goes on in his more recent blogs to give us just a taste of something we may see from Gatineau, and I’ve tried to capture some differences between this and Google Analytics. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of Gatineau is that it has the ability to track some demographic data (such as usage statistics between men and women) for users that have a Microsoft Live ID and are logged in as they browse the web. Another feature is the ability to map the document hierarchy from your content management system into the tool and see this in Gatineau’s reports. The tool also includes similar things that Google Analytics already does but in a different way, including funnel reports, outbound link tracking, inbound referrals, ROI reports, goal analysis, and client system reports.

At this time, Gatineau is not getting much attention, but we’ll be watching to see how Microsoft’s entry into the Analytics game unfolds. It is also likely that the features introduced with Gatineau could be incorporated into the market’s current offering of web analytics tools, but we’ll let time tell. We at WebShare are evaluating Gatineau and its capabilities to understand where it shines and where it lacks, and will continue to communicate on this new service from Microsoft and let you know how it might (or might not) benefit you.

WebShare, LLC is a full service Internet Marketing firm specializing in Search and Conversion Marketing. We offer a variety of services to help you make the most of your search marketing efforts, and get an edge on your competitors.

If you’re using Site Targeting in your Google Adwords advertising strategy, then you’ll want to know about the two changes that Google announced to this feature this yesterday.

Google Adwords Site Targeting has been around for a couple of years now and has allowed advertisers to broaden the scope of where their advertisements might appear by leveraging a large and established network of websites that have the ability to display Google Ads. An advertiser had the ability to browse through the myriad websites within Google’s Content Network and choose those that it would like to display text, image, and even video ads on.

Yesterday Google took this two steps further, and here’s the highlights:

1) Advertisers may now select not only the site they wish their ads to appear on, but also the specific section and location of the website. Why is this important? Well, let’s say you’re using Google ads to generate business selling all inclusive cruise packages. Wouldn’t it be nice to tell Google to show your ads in the travel section of your chosen news site? Or the cruises section of the travel magazine website you’ve selected?

Absolutely, and now you can.As a side note, this change prompted Google to change the name of this feature from “Site Targeting” to “Placement Targeting.”

2) Advertisers now have the ability to choose a Cost Per Click (CPC) bidding option. Until now, Site Targeting (oops, “Placement Targeting”) has relied on Cost Per Impression (CPM), or a price per 1,000 impressions of your ad. If you’ve been at Adwords long enough, you know that one of the most important features of paid search is the ability to turn many dials to zero in on the optimal financial well being of your campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords. A CPC model gives you a little more control over what you’re willing to spend for each visitor that your ad brings to your website.

Keep in mind that CPM models still do have a purpose – if you’re interested in maximum exposure and branding type activities, you’ll still be able to choose this option.

If you’d like to give Placement Targeting a try, you can get started for as little as a $0.01 bid in the CPC model or $0.25 for your first 1,000 impressions. Just log into your account, navigate to your main “Online Campaigns” table on the Campaign Summary page, and click on “Placement-targeted” in the Create New Campaign option on the top right.

WebShare is a Google AdWords Qualified Company, and if you need consulting or training on your Google AdWords account, we can help. From in depth training modules on pay per click marketing to daily active management, WebShare has the Adwords Consulting solution to fit your needs.

This past week Google held its annual analyst day and they also recently reported their Q3 2007 earnings. Nick Fox, director of product management in the advertising division made the statement during Analyst day, “the quality of ads is still quite low”. He was referring to the sponsored ads displayed on Google’s search and content networks, and Nick was clearly telling analysts that Google Adwords can still bring in a whole lot of money for the search engine gorilla.

Now just as a majority of us tend to get sick of hearing about the “big dog” winning all the time, at first I cringed with jealousy at the thought of Google making even more money than they do today. But the reality is…he’s right. The quality of the majority of ads displayed is poor.

Why is this? Have people lost creativity in their ad writing? Maybe, but I don’t think so for the greater part. I think it is because people misunderstand the power of continually improving their pay per click campaigns. Most people seem to have a “put up a billboard and field the calls it generates” mentality when it comes to pay per click. That strategy only works for a lucky few, and even for those lucky few it can always be done better. The key to a good pay per click campaign is the pay per click management of that campaign.

It is how someone effectively oversees the ads and distribution of the bids continually. Managing a pay per click campaign requires attention at the keyword, adgroup, and ad level, and one of the most important aspects of the management is constantly improving the quality of the ads themselves with testing. Constant testing will improve your ad campaigns in their ability to (a) attract clicks and (b) attract clicks that are likely to convert. You need to be testing unless you are converting at 100%, which is highly unlikely. It makes simple business sense.

So if pay per click management is one of the most important things to do for your advertising budget, then why are people simply neglecting it? We believe it comes down to time and resources. Companies need to put in the resources to manage their pay per click campaigns to get effective results. Some campaigns need to be managed on a daily basis, and this can significantly draw time from a smaller business’s pool of people. If your business is having trouble finding the time and people to manage campaigns, then there are options that can give you an alternative to neglecting your pay per click advertising. WebShare offers different levels of pay per click management that can meet your needs, from training to active day to day management. We can provide your business the resources and consulting to effectively manage your accounts with Google Adwords, Yahoo! Marketing Solutions, or Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.

WebShare is a Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador and Google AdWords Qualified Company, and can help you with your Google AdWords Management as well as your Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, and Ask.com paid search accounts. We help clients maximize their advertising budgets with solutions that range from training to active daily management. We look forward to helping bring you to the next level.