Spring is in bloom in most places, trees and flowers are growing (or at least the snow is melting), and more agencies and marketers are upgrading! It’s the perfect season to learn and master DoubleClick Campaign Manager based on your role and how you use the product. We offer multiple learning options, from the basics to more advanced topics like In-Stream Video, Attribution, and more – so come check us out!

Register for the eLearning and see upcoming webinars via the Training page in the DCM or DFA Help Centers (sign-in required).

Start with DCM Academy and Fundamentals eLearning

Are you an ad trafficker, analyst, or media planner just getting started? Try DCM Academy for easy-to-use learning paths that guide you through core Help Center articles and online training material, including the recently-launched DCM Fundamentals eLearning and Certification. 

Pass the exam and get a printable certificate of completion demonstrating your knowledge of DoubleClick Campaign Manager.

Join a DoubleClick Campaign Manager webinar

Whether you’re starting to upgrade to DCM or you’ve already made the move, attend these webinars to better understand and use the product.

DCM Fundamentals – 4/29 and 6/10
Similar to the eLearning, this 2.5 hour webinar will teach you everything from how third-party ad serving works to the steps needed to set up Floodlight tags and traffic your first campaign. This session also touches on Remarketing. Attend this webinar if you need an introduction to the fundamentals and want to learn best practices.

DFA6 to DCM for Existing Users – 4/2, 4/16, 4/30, 5/14, 5/28, 6/11, 6/25
Learn what's changed in DoubleClick Campaign Manager. Get a demo of the key differences compared to DFA6. Attend this webinar if you’ve been using DFA6 and want to know about functionality and workflow differences between DFA and DoubleClick Campaign Manager before you upgrade.  

Campaign Trafficking Demo – 4/9, 5/7, and 6/4
Join our product trainer for a live walk through of how to create a campaign and assign campaign elements.

Prerequisites: This session is a companion to the DCM Fundamentals eLearning, and assumes that attendees have taken the DCM eLearning and Certification or attended the DCM Fundamentals webinar. Before attending, you should already know how DoubleClick Campaign Manager defines a campaign, placement, ad, and creative.

Advanced webinars

In these webinars, we’ll discuss featured topics to help you more effectively manage your campaigns. Before attending, make sure you’re familiar with basic reporting and DFA6/DoubleClick Campaign Manager concepts.

Understanding In-Stream Video – 4/17
In this session, you'll learn the basics of trafficking In-Stream Video creatives in DCM.

Reporting: Report Builder – 4/3, 5/1, and 6/5
Learn how to run reports in Report Builder, and slice and dice data in the Summary tab (dashboard view). Get a demo of Reporting along with how to pull common reports, including Standard/Performance, Reach, and Floodlight.

Reporting: Attribution – 5/15
In this session, you’ll learn about the attribution options available in Reporting, and uses for Multi-channel funnels, Attribution, and Modeling. This session is also helpful if you’re upgrading from DFA to DCM and want to expand your knowledge of what the Reporting tool offers.

Prerequisites: Users should have familiarity with ad trafficking in DFA6 or DoubleClick Campaign Manager before attending these sessions. If you’re not familiar with DoubleClick Campaign Manager or DFA6, attend the Fundamentals webinar session first.

DFA webinars

Still using DFA6? That’s okay, we still offer plenty of training! Get trained online with DFA Fundamentals eLearning and Certification (eLearnings available in Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian, and more). We also offer webinars for DFA6 Fundamentals and MediaVisor.

DFA Fundamentals – 4/23 and 6/4
DFA Fundamentals is the first step if you’re new to third-party ad serving and DFA6. This webinar mainly focuses on the basics of ad trafficking, but also touches briefly on Floodlight tags and DFA Reporting.

MediaVisor Fundamentals – 4/22 and 6/17
Learn the most common uses of MediaVisor, including how to plan and create campaigns, advertisers, and site placements. You’ll also learn how to send RFPs and IOs, as well as how to traffic placements from MediaVisor to DFA.

Some sessions mention prerequisites where we recommend background knowledge. Be sure to note these to get the most out of each session. Lastly, be aware of any regional time differences before enrolling in any live sessions.

Running into a scheduling conflict? Check out the pre-recorded webinars in the DCM Help Center, and the DFA Help Center – you might find a pre-recorded session ready to watch.

Don’t forget to sign up for the DoubleClick Digest to get the latest DoubleClick news, research, events, and product updates!

Posted by Sarah Payne, DoubleClick Campaign Manager Product Trainer

Studio Certified developers, do you want to tell the world that you can create innovative ads designed for users to connect with brands? With DoubleClick Studio’s Engagement Ads Certification, you can get certified in building ads that marry the art of brand building with the science of performance display.

Engagement Ads are tuned to user engagement – not clicks, letting brands connect with users through multiple creative formats. Ads are available on a cost-per-engagement (CPE) basis, allowing advertisers to bid and pay only for user engagement.

Watch this video:

Engagement Ads fit in standard display units, allowing them to scale across the web and then expand to a larger format after an innovative two-second hover delay. This delay eliminates nearly all accidental expansions, providing a better user experience and more accurate reporting to advertisers.

With this flexibility, the richness of a campaign using Engagement Ads depends on the story the brand wants to tell and the type of content they want to promote. Creatives can range from rich, interactive videos built in DoubleClick Studio to immersive brand experiences using HTML5, CSS3, and WebGL – all without leaving the ad format on the publisher’s website.

Check out an Engagement Ad format in action.

Engagement Ads badge certification gives you:

• A badge that identifies you as a Studio Certified user able to create Engagement format ads
• Promotion via DoubleClick Rich Media properties and associated sites

You also receive the benefits of the Studio Certification Program, including exclusive access to betas and product features, DoubleClick hosted events and workshops, and a badge you can use for self-promotion.

Pass the exam and get the badge to demonstrate your expertise in creating rich ads to boost user engagement. Take the Engagement Ads exam and get certified.

Note: You must be Studio Certified in Core Flash or HTML5 to take the Engagement Ads certification exam.

Not Studio Certified? No worries! Get Certified today. We have these Studio Certification badges available:

1. Core Studio Certification exam for Flash and HTML5 developers
2. Integrated QA Certification
3. Advanced Badge Certification for Dynamic creatives, VPAID creatives, and YouTube mastheads

Learn more about Studio Certification in the Rich Media Gallery.

Posted by Paige Birnbaum, Program Manager, DoubleClick Studio Certification

On top of running your promotional campaigns, keeping an eye on bids, and leading client meetings, staying up-to-date with new DoubleClick Search features can be a challenge. We want to make sure you have the opportunity to discover and take advantage of the features that can make a difference to your business.

Today, we’re excited to announce guided help in executive reporting. Guided help walks you through specific UI workflows, step-by-step, to help you become a master of the feature. Today, we’re launching two useful tours:

• Change the order of metrics and charts: learn how to further customize individual charts and pages.
• Report downloads: see how you can download your reporting data for offline analysis.

We encourage you to explore Guided Help in the DoubleClick Search UI. Within the Executive Reports tab, navigate to the Help tab in the right-hand corner. Under the Take a Tour header, you can select one of the two tours available. We’re also considering adding Guided Help workflows to other DoubleClick Search features in the future.

  

If you have questions, feedback, or workflow ideas about Guided Help, please chat with your DoubleClick Search Account team.

To follow up on our Channel Intelligence and DoubleClick Search announcement in February, we held a Google Hangout earlier this week, where our Product Managers discussed the power of data to build great text ad and Product Listing Ad campaigns -- and how retailers can do it even better through an integrated solution.

If you missed the hangout, not to worry -- you can watch the full recording below to learn about how our teams work together to deliver a better e-commerce experience for retailers. 

Stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog and DoubleClick Google+ page for more developments around our Channel Intelligence and DoubleClick Search integration. 

In February, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):

• Report on impression share You can now report on impression share for keywords in your AdWords engine accounts in DS. Impression share is the number of impressions you’ve received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. With impression share metrics, you can easily track how many of the overall potential impressions you’re capturing. Learn more.

• Easy access to agency and advertiser data, and faster account navigation We’ve completed the rollout of two DS UI changes that are designed to enhance usability and workflow efficiency.

• The new agency view: Enables viewing and reporting across multiple advertisers. This view shows key data from multiple advertisers in one integrated, consistent view to help advertisers more easily act on big opportunities.

• The new navigation bar: Provides a more usable way to quickly find and access information across your advertisers. It includes a new horizontal layout, a search-as-you-type function, favorites labels, and keyboard shortcuts.

To learn more, read this blog post and this Help Center section.

We also made the following feature updates:

• Improvements to automated rules and bulk edits We made the following improvements to automated rules and bulk edits (including scheduled edits) in DoubleClick Search:

• Bulk edits and automated rules at the advertiser level
  When you navigate to an advertiser with all engine accounts, or navigate to an advertiser with an engine type (e.g., All AdWords accounts), you’ll now see the Edit and Rules buttons above the table.

• Bulk edits and automated rules for objects within labels
  When you click Labels in the left nav and then click a specific label, you’ll now be able to apply bulk edits and automated rules after navigating to the campaigns, ad groups, keywords, or ads in the label.

• Change min/max bid in bulk for keywords
  Change min/max bid for bid strategies is a new option when setting up a bulk edit or automated rule for keywords.

• Change budgets across engine accounts
  For rules and bulk edits on Bing Ads campaigns, we combined the Change daily budget and Change monthly budget options into one Change budget option. This allows you to change budgets in bulk across Google AdWords and Bing Ads engine accounts.

• Change labels in bulk for ads
  Change label is a new option when setting up a bulk edit or automated rule for ads.

• See the source of your bulk edit or automated rule
  When you click Bulk operations in the left nav, the new Changed by column on the Bulk operations page shows the source of the edit or rule.
• For one-time bulk edits, the column displays the user’s email address.
• For scheduled edits, the column displays Scheduled edit: {scheduled edit name}.
• For automated rules, the column displays Rule: {rule name} with a link to the Rule details page.

• Sitelink descriptions in DS DS now supports syncing and managing multi-line descriptive text for AdWords sitelinks.

• New LENGTH() function for inventory templates Inventory templates for ads and keywords now support the LENGTH() function, which returns the length of a string or other value. With this function, you can create templates that respond to the length of a field, as in the following example that outputs “generic” if the BRAND field is blank: [IF(LENGTH(BRAND) > 0, BRAND, "generic")]. Learn more.

Watch the recorded webinar for February features to see these updates in action.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Marketers and agencies have countless opportunities to engage audiences with rich formats across channels and devices. But today, organizations are using an average of 4.7 ad tech platforms to execute what should be a seamless experience across search, display, video, mobile, and more.

Many forward-thinking organizations know the real opportunity lies in creating unified, cross-channel experiences that span multiple touchpoints. In a new Think Insights article, Marco Bertozzi, Executive Managing Director at VivaKi, explains the benefits of adopting a unified solution to unlock the full potential of digital marketing. Check out the article on the Think Insights page here.

The AdWords team recently announced availability of the AdWords API for Shopping campaigns, letting search management platforms support this new way of managing, bidding, and reporting on Product Listing Ads. As an extension of the DoubleClick Search Commerce Suite, today we’re excited to announce that DoubleClick Search is offering beta support for Shopping campaigns. Clients should reach out to their Account Managers for access to these capabilities.

With this release, we’ve integrated AdWords’ streamlined, flexible workflows and powerful reporting tools for Shopping campaigns seamlessly with the DoubleClick Search platform. This will let advertisers:

1. Efficiently create and manage Shopping campaigns with faster workflow and automation tools. DoubleClick Search features the same intuitive interface for managing product groups as found in AdWords. Additionally, you can use existing DoubleClick Search tools like bulk edits to make large-scale changes to your Shopping campaigns, or schedule edits to automate changes to product groups, based on criteria that you determine.
2. Surface insights quickly with real-time, product-centric reporting. With DoubleClick Floodlight tags, you can track real-time conversions back to the individual product and product group. Formula columns let you create custom columns for products and product groups to track the metrics most valuable to you. You can dynamically roll up the product-level data along your most relevant product attributes, like categories or brands. You can also use cross-campaign reports for insights across your campaigns and ad groups. 

To see how to set up, manage, and report on Shopping campaigns in DoubleClick Search, check out a preview video here.

With this first wave of Shopping campaigns support, we look forward to further helping marketers run effective search campaigns in powerful new ways. Over the next few months, we’ll continue to roll out support for additional features, including algorithmic bid optimization for Shopping campaigns.

For more information, reach out to your DoubleClick Search account manager to see how you can get started with Shopping campaigns today.

As an industry, we know that getting in front of the right user is just half the story. A campaign’s creative is a critical component that can make or break campaign success. And as the people who design and develop that creative message, creative agencies need to be experts at their craft, with a deep understanding of the tools of their trade and the ability to promote that expertise across the complicated ecosystem of players that compose the advertising landscape. 

Here at DoubleClick, we recognize this need and have spent the past year and a half developing a robust training and certification program for our creative agency partners. By becoming a DoubleClick Studio and QA Certified Partner -- a “Jedi” so to speak -- you put yourself in the driver’s seat to build creative faster, with fewer issues, and ship it on your own timeline. 

Our DoubleClick Studio Training and Certification program enables you to:

• Work more efficiently by taking control of your turnaround times 
• Build your expertise in the Studio product and keep your skills fresh 
• Promote your expertise as a Certified Partner to prove you’re the best for the job 

Over a thousand people in the creative industry have already become Certified Partners, representing individuals and agencies across the globe, and every day we're adding more. Here are five of them to tell you a bit about their experience: 

Beyond the core Studio and QA certifications, you can hone your skills further and demonstrate your “specialist” abilities with additional badges, including Dynamic, Masthead, and VPAID badges. These advanced certifications can help you create innovative, out-of-the-box approaches to digital creative that can set you apart from the crowd. 

Ready to get started? 
Visit the Studio Certification page. You can take all of our exams through this portal. Each exam takes ~1-2 hours to complete and has accompanying training materials to help you if you get stuck. 

Still unsure? 
Every day for the month of March, we’ll provide tips, fun facts and case studies about DoubleClick Studio and the Studio Certification program. Check back here each day for a new, unlocked Tip of the Day. Today’s tip features Tom Miller, Founder and Owner of Creative Ocean, sharing his experience with Studio Certification. 

Posted by Becky Chappell, Product Marketing, DoubleClick

During the 2013 holidays, we shared some tips and tricks on how to adjust your bid strategies to take advantage of seasonal opportunities. Today, we wanted to take a look back and highlight one of our holiday success stories with the DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite for real-time bid optimization. The following story comes from the VivaKi Search Hub -- VivaKi’s marketing support service that uses a deep knowledge of DoubleClick Search to drive results for their advertisers’ search programs.  

One of the VivaKi Search Hub’s advertisers, a large retail brand, looked to the team to overhaul their current strategies for maximizing results over the 2013 Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days. To prepare for this peak time, the team turned to the DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite to automate bids based on real-time conversion data, and respond immediately to market changes. 

Timothy Lackhouse, Team Lead for Bid Strategy at the VivaKi Search Hub, was in charge of managing the advertiser’s bid strategies. “The bid strategies in DoubleClick Search are incredibly clear to set up and modify,” said Lackhouse. “With near real-time and granular reporting, we don’t need to spend countless hours or days waiting for the data. We’re able to get a deep level of insight into our performance right away -- assessing what’s working, what’s not, and making tweaks as necessary.” 

Within days of launching the new bid strategies, the positive results were irrefutable. During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the VivaKi Search Hub was able to increase its advertiser’s conversions by 360 percent while lowering CPO by 27 percent -- all while saving 90 minutes a day. 

To get the full scoop on the VivaKi Search Hub’s success with the Performance Bidding Suite, read the full customer story here. Stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog and Google+ page for even more customer success stories.