Marketing Resources

Google announced a number of new and upcoming features for Google Analytics today. The features, Google says, focus on three things: power, flexibility, and intelligence.

It is the intelligence aspect, which Google places the most prominence on, and this comes in the form of a feature called "Analytics Intelligence," which will provide users with automatic alerts of significant changes in the data patterns of their site metrics and dimensions over daily, weekly, and monthly periods. Users can be notified by email or right within the Google Analytics user interface.

Google has also added goals for "time on site" and "pages per visit," as well as the ability to define up to 20 goals per profile. Here's some more on that:

Google Analytics now tracks mobile websites and mobile apps so you can better measure your mobile marketing efforts. They will be adding a code snippet for users to add to their mobile sites. PHP, Perl, JSP, and ASPX sites will be supported.

"iPhone and Android mobile application developers can now also track how users engage with apps, just as with tracking engagement on a website," says Dai Pham of the Google Analytics Team. "What's more, for apps on Android devices, usage can be tied back to ad campaigns: from ad to marketplace to download to engagement."

They have also added Advanced Table Filtering, which allows you to filter the rows in a table based on different metric conditions. Here's more on that feature:

Now when you create a Custom Report, you can select Unique Visitors as a metric against any dimensions in Google Analytics, and they are also adding multiple custom variables to the tracking API and making it easy to share Custom Reports and Advanced Segments.

Google says that it will be going into more detail on the new features in the coming days on the Google Analytics Blog. The features will be appearing in Google Analytics accounts gradually over the coming weeks.

Google has introduced a new type of ad for local businesses called Local Listing Ads. They are designed to display when users search for a business in its local area. Google says it's the easiest way to advertise your business to local customers on Google, because they require no maintenance. 

The ads just consist of a business name, contact information (with a unique phone number from Google for tracking purposes), and a link. The units will appear on Google.com in local results at the top of the results page, and in Google Maps.

"Unlike Google AdWords, Local Listing Ads require no management of ad creative, keywords, bidding or budget management," the company says. "After you select a standard category that best describes your business, Google determines the cost that ensures the ad is seen by the highest number of people looking for businesses like yours in your location."

Google says local listing ads provide advertisers with:

- Ads shown on Google.com and Google Maps

-  A flat monthly fee based on your location and business category

-  First 30 days free

-  No bid or keyword management

-  Free call-tracking, announcing each forwarded customer call ('This caller brought to you by Google')

-  Full report on the number of calls, clicks to your ad, requests for driving directions, and clicks to your info window on Google Maps

-  The option to cancel your ad at any time

Following is how your ads would look on Google.com and on Google Maps:

According to Google, over 80% of people look to Google for local information, and this is a way to make you listing stand out. The ads are targeted only to people who are near your business.

As an added bonus, so you know when the ad has been effective, Google says you'll hear "this call brought to you by Google" with every call made from your ad.

Payment for Local Listing Ads is a flat monthly fee, which varies by location and business category. Advertisers pay the same each month no matter how many times people click or view your ad. Google says advertisers will be given the chance to confirm the monthly flat fee that is unlikely to change frequently or be notified of the change 30 days in advance via email and your LBC account message.

Local Listing Ads are only being tested right now. For the time being, they're available in San Francisco and San Diego. It's hard to say when they will become available for all.