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Oct 9, 2008 at 4:15pm Eastern by Matt McGee    Google Puts New AdSense Ads Under Maps The continued success of Google Maps gives Google another growing revenue stream to tap into, and that’s what they’re doing with the placement of new AdSense ads immediately under maps on Google Maps. The ads don’t show up on all searches, but they do appear on enough searches to suggest this is more than a limited test. Amit Agarwal is seeing these ads in India, for example. Dave Shaw, who first alerted us via email, is seeing it in the UK. The screenshot above shows how the new ad placement looks on a search in Google Maps for [seattle real estate]. Moving out of a major city into a much smaller city suggests that Google needs to improve its targeting on these ads. A search for [west richland real estate] reveals an ad for a company in Richland, PA. (West Richland is a small city in Washington state.) Unlike the regular Local Business Ads that show up to the left of the map, which take you to the map “popup” for that advertiser, clicking on the ads below the map take you straight to the advertiser’s website. There’s more coverage of this on Techmeme.

In depth: the ultimate search marketing optimization guide, part 1: the basics In last week's article, I mentioned a post called the AdCenter Optimization Quick Reference Guide on the adCenter Community Site by Shefali Singla. It has some basic tips and tricks (albeit Microsoft specific) for optimizing accounts. I remember having something similar when I worked at a search agency some years ago, so I thought I'd expand upon that listing, make it more platform generic, and hopefully create a good checklist of things to think about when doing your daily optimizing.

"As part of Google's recent acquisition of DoubleClick, the Performics affiliate network is now a part of Google. To consolidate our offerings, we will be phasing out the AdWords pay-per-action beta, and the product will be retired on during the last week of August. Pay-per-action campaigns and all related data will be removed from all AdWords accounts the last week of October." So, if you have any CPA business in AdWords right now, it would seem that you should make sure to back up all of your data immediately... A follow-up announcement on the AdWords blog unveils the next step: "The Google Affiliate Network, previously known as DoubleClick Performics Affiliate, has been in operation since 1998. Through the network, advertisers can open their ads to all publishers in the network, or select specific publishers that match their criteria. You can set a CPA for your entire campaign or establish custom payment schedules for specific publishers -- such as a higher CPA for a particularly optimal placement. The Google Affiliate Network is currently a separate product from AdWords and AdSense. As with AdSense, publishers must apply and be accepted into the network." You can check out the home page for the new Google Affiliate Network here. I think this will be a very smart media channel and I've already signed up to learn more and get started.

YouTube's 'Buzz Targeting' Sells Ad Space on Soon-to-Be Viral Videos What is the difference between'algorithm' and 'alchemy'? Google has introduced "Buzz Targeting" on YouTube, a new way to wring ad dollars from the video site. Buzz Targeting highlights videos that are about to go viral amongst YouTube users. The algorithm examines videos being favorited and distributed across other sites, among other criteria, then gives advertisers the opportunity to advertise around them. Ads incorporated on the ground floor can then piggy-back the video's popularity. Movie studio Lionsgate was among the first beta testers for Buzz Targeting. The studio placed ads for The Forbidden Kingdom alongside 500 entertainment-related videos. While no figures on the campaign's success were presented, Danielle DePalma of Lionsgate said the program "allowed us to reach a very large, diverse audience." It remains unclear how Buzz Targeting incorporates factors like demographic or location-based criteria. And while the notion of algorithmically gauging a video's ascension into pop culture is comforting, some skepticism is warranted. At ad:tech New York last year, video blogger Kevin Nalty admitted to being uncertain why some videos go viral and others do not. The wisest course, he told audience members of a user-generated video panel, is to keep your cost of entry down. Nalty, known as "Nalts" on YouTube, produced over 500 videos before 2008.

Demographics now available in YouTube Insight 5/15/2008 08:05:00 AM Posted by Nick Jakobi, Product Manager, YouTubeWhen we first announced YouTube Insight, our free video analytics tool for YouTube, we were excited to see just how users, partners, and advertisers might creatively use information about the viewing trends of their videos. We've since learned that some users and partners are modifying their upload schedules based on when they know their audience is tuning in, and advertisers are studying geographic traffic patterns to assess the effectiveness of regional ad campaigns.Today we've added some new features to Insight. One is a new demographics tab that displays view count information broken down by age group (such as ages 18-24), gender, or a combination of the two, to help you get a better understanding of the makeup of your YouTube audience. We show you general information about your viewers in anonymous and aggregate form, based on the birth date and gender information that users share with us when they create YouTube accounts. This means that individual users can't be personally identified.Insight now also displays statistics based on the combined total views of all the videos you've uploaded. Just as you can explore the view counts and popularity of individual videos, with this feature you can see your account's total number of views, and your relative popularity on YouTube compared to other users, based on geographic location.As with Insight's other features, we hope this new information helps you learn how to create more compelling content that best engages the audiences you want to reach. You can find these new metrics under the "Demographics" tab within the Insight dashboard. Click on the "Insight" button under "Account > My Videos."

AdWords 301: Advanced - The 301 session is recommended for advertisers who already understand the basic fundamentals of advertising on AdWords. Topics include campaign best practices, advanced optimization techniques, and split testing. There is also a deep dive into the Content Network and advanced bidding strategies. . Note – These seminars are NOT put on by Google. They are partners of Google. However, my guess is that they’re going to be at least halfway decent if Google is promoting them. You can learn more about the seminars including registration dateshere.