Google offers a bunch of free information tools that marketers can use to grow their business. They're especially useful and relevant now as budgets are tighter, while at the same time the need to grow your business has never been greater. The latest episode of Data Driven Discussions focuses on two of Avinash's favorite tools in addition to Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer: Insights for Search and Ad Planner.
Both can be hugely informative and useful for any marketer. In this video, after typically making sure Nick, our Google Analytics Developer Relations Manager, is on his toes, Avinash, the Analytics Evangelist here at Google, gives real world use cases from his own experience using each of these products.
He uses Insights For Search to find out the actual demand around a keyword, product, trend or even industry, broken down by geography and clearly showing whether "interest over time" is growing or waning. Below, you can see a screen shot of an Insights For Search comparison between the terms "AdWords" and "Google Analytics."
Take a look at this great article on more ways to use Insights For Search, including choosing advertising messages, examining seasonality, creating brand associations, and entering new markets.
Next, Avinash discusses Ad Planner which is even more useful for a marketer. It tells marketers what websites their target customers are likely to visit so that they can make more informed advertising decisions. Avinash takes us through the Ad Planner process, where you type in an example website, keyword or demographic information which reflects the audience you're looking for, and out pops a list of sites related to those conditions, as well as traffic and demographic estimates about that site. It's incredibly easy and is a wealth of information! If you've ever wondered what sites to target - now you know. And you can even go one step further and create and save a media plan right within the tool.
And here's a video on using Ad Planner:
And at the end of the Data Driven Discussions episode, Avinash goes so far as to basically call me a dork. Though, an insult from our Analytics Evangelist is somehow like a slap on the back from a buddy who wants you to succeed.
