Last week’s updates to Google Web Designer included cool new features that make it easier for creative designers and developers to build robust HTML5 creative. These features, combined with DoubleClick’s audience and environment information can help advertisers and agencies improve creative messaging for even more successful cross-screen marketing campaigns.

Today’s consumers expect to see tailored and relevant ads, and DoubleClick Dynamic Creative can help you use the information about who is viewing an ad to build smarter and more relevant creatives for every viewer. Learn about DoubleClick Dynamic Creative today by visiting our Dynamic Solutions page on the Rich Media Gallery and joining this week’s training webinar series.

Watch this video:

Find DoubleClick Dynamic Creative solutions by vertical.
Check out our Dynamic Creative Solutions page in the Rich Media Gallery to learn how to get started with DoubleClick Rich Media Dynamic Creative. You’ll find industry-specific information, best practices and creative examples for retail, travel, auto, and telecom verticals.

Join this week’s DoubleClick Dynamic Creative webinar series.
Want to learn more in an interactive environment? Join our product experts for this week’s DoubleClick Dynamic Creative webinar series. See the schedule below and register through the links below.

Introduction to Dynamic Creative – 8/12 at 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST
Learn about the benefits of DoubleClick Dynamic Creative and see how it works. You’ll also learn the differences between basic and advanced formats, how to set up and make changes, and how to use advanced targeting. Register

Advanced Dynamic Creative Workflow – 8/13 at 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST
Learn the advanced dynamic creative workflow. We’ll cover the pre-launch, launch, and post-launch processes for advanced formats, along with advanced dynamic strategy kits. You’ll also learn troubleshooting tips and tricks to help you with the more advanced dynamic creatives. Register

Dynamic Creative Best Practices – 8/14 at 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST
Build your knowledge and learn best practices for designing, developing, and revising dynamic creative. We’ll cover advanced features, like creative dimension filtering, autosizing, and more. Register

If you’ve taken Fundamentals training for DoubleClick Campaign Manager and DoubleClick Rich Media, these resources will help you better understand how to implement dynamic creative. If you haven’t already, be sure to take DoubleClick Campaign Manager Fundamentals and Rich Media Fundamentals and get your certificate of completion.

Watch a pre-recorded webinar.
Can’t make this week’s webinar series? No worries! You can watch a recorded webinar in our Help Center to learn more dynamic creative best practices. While you’re there, be sure to read about our latest release notes.

Stay connected with DoubleClick Training by subscribing to training updates.

Posted by Ilinka Zaharčeva, DoubleClick Rich Media Product Trainer

Marius Veltman’s thought experiment yesterday utilized the Tech Lab’s Full Page Flex and Motion Sensor components to enable viewers to navigate the scenery of the ad in full screen, by tilting their mobile device. 

This component is just one example of many that are being developed by Google’s new Tech Lab, a project created by Google’s Creative Technical Consultants to produce new innovations, push the boundaries of rich media and partner with creative agencies to help take these solutions to the next level. Even the best designers and developers need inspiration, and the Tech Lab has been established to help our DoubleClick Studio Certified Partners experiment with the latest, most innovative ad formats and features for their campaigns. 

HTML5 is still a bit of a “wild west,” both risky and alluring in that it is unchartered territory. There is space for creative designers and developers to experiment with new executions. As Marius pointed out in his article, “the experimentation process … is crucial to developing new ideas and pushing the creative envelope.” 

The Tech Lab helps designers and developers build never-before-seen formats and features into their rich media campaigns. These fresh ideas haven’t been used in many (if any) campaigns before, meaning they are exciting but also untested; but these are the realities of living on the edge of technology. 

To date, the Tech Lab has created 15 innovative formats and features, and today the group is launching three new ones for HTML5:

• HTML5 Autoplay Video: Start any video within an HTML5 creative automatically, without requiring a user interaction.
• HTML5 Shake and Shout: Boost your HTML5 creatives by adding cool interactions: Let people blow or shout onto their device and the mic will pick up the cue; or let them shake the phone and the accelerometer will pick up the cue. 
• HTML5 Twitter Widget: Boost your HTML5 creative’s social IQ by adding the twitter widget and letting viewers view, tweet, retweet, and follow your twitter account directly from your mobile ads. 

If you’re a DoubleClick Studio Certified partner, reach out to your DoubleClick rep to begin working with the Tech Lab. To become a Studio Certified partner, visit our exam page. 

Posted by Becky Chappell, Product Marketing Manager, Google Web Designer

Yesterday, we announced a revamped Google Web Designer, brimming with new features that make it even easier for creative designers and developers to build robust HTML5 creative. 

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Marius Veltman, a rich media expert from Holland and a life-long creative technologist. We first met Marius last year when he tested out the alpha version of Google Web Designer and gave us a list of improvements for the product.

For this launch, Marius gave us a peek into his world as an artist and designer and helped us push the limits of HTML5 with a “Google Web Designer Thought Experiment.” We asked him to create an awesome HTML5 ad unit, using only Google Web Designer, that takes advantage of different device form factors and successfully conveys a brand’s message. 

We selected the Google Cultural Institute as the brand and used the Street View imagery from their Great Barrier Reef World Wonders Collection as the assets. We then set out on an adventure through Holland to document Marius’s creative process as he worked to develop the ad.

Watch as Marius’s sketches come to life through the medium of HTML5 and the help of Google Web Designer. Marius's ideas develop in parallel to his own story as a designer. Then, check out the actual ad unit and learn more about his process.

Posted by Becky Chappell, Product Marketing, Google Web Designer

Back in May we launched custom Floodlight variables (CFVs) in DoubleClick Search. CFVs allow you to track and report on non-PII user activity associated with conversions. If you use Floodlight tags to track conversions, you can now leverage CFV data in your DoubleClick Search reports.

CFVs can be either metrics or dimensions. Metrics reflect numeric data and dimensions reflect alphanumeric or numeric strings. Let’s say that I represent a bank and created a metric to capture the number of credit card sign ups and a dimension to track different credit card types, such as cc gold, cc silver...etc. With both metric and dimension data in DoubleClick Search I’m able to analyze the number of sign ups for each credit card type and make decisions about how to allocate the bank’s advertising budget.

Once CFVs are available in DoubleClick Search you can include CFV metrics in Floodlight columns and/or filter results by CFV dimensions. For example, I may want to see the number of credit card sign ups for a specific Floodlight tag and credit card type, such as “CC Gold”. For more info, please refer to this article.

For views containing Floodlight data, such as Actions, Transactions, or Floodlight columns, you can report on CFV dimensions using segmentation or dimension grouping. For example, I may want to understand how the different credit card types are performing across ad groups within a campaign. Segmenting a report by a CFV dimension will return a row with each ad group and CFV dimension value combination (e.g. one row for ad group #1 and cc gold & one row for ad group #1 and cc silver). If instead I want an aggregated view of CFV dimension data, I can select the CFV dimension from the Dimensions tab. This will return a row with data for each CFV dimension value (e.g. one row for cc gold & one row for cc silver).    

To take advantage of this feature you’ll need to take the following steps:

1. Create CFVs in DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM). More info.
2. Add the CFVS to the Floodlight tags on your website. More info.
3. Set up CFVs within the Advertiser Settings section in DS. More info.

We encourage you to give CFVs a whirl and share your feedback and findings with your DS account management team.

Almost one year ago, we launched Google Web Designer, a free, easy-to-use, professional-grade HTML5 authoring tool. Over that year, we’ve seen increased adoption of HTML5 and Google Web Designer across the industry.

Fast facts, one year in: 

• In the first half of 2014, DoubleClick Rich Media ad impressions from HTML5 grew 140% compared to the second half of 2013.
• Ads built with Google Web Designer have garnered 2.5B impressions since the launch of the product.
• Over 20% of Google Web Designer’s user base are returning users and 72% are located outside the United States. 
• We partnered with the IAB to launch the “Make Mobile Work” Initiative, which has reached thousands of people through press outreach, an industry open letter, and quarterly webinar series.
• Advertisers are seeing performance improvements as a result of adopting HTML5. For example, TalkTalk decreased their eCPA by 12% and reduced their backup image rate by 13% by adding HTML5 to their campaign. 

So what’s launching in Google Web Designer? 

Today’s launch provides more granular control and creative flexibility to creative developers and designers, and allows them to easily build more interactive and animated HTML5 content and get it published quickly.

• Revamped Events and Components allow designers to make any element interactive, and customize the types of interactivity within their creative. 
• The updated timeline provides more granular control for designers to easily build animated content. 
• Tighter integrations with Google Drive, DoubleClick Studio, DoubleClick Campaign Manager and AdWords let users collaborate on their works-in-progress and publish finished units more quickly. This integration marks the first time that AdWords will support HTML5 ads.

Simplifying cross-screen advertising

In addition to Google Web Designer, we are continuing to develop tools to make it easier for advertisers and agencies to build successful cross-screen advertising campaigns. 

We recently launched several features in DoubleClick to help you execute and measure your campaigns across screens, including in-app remarketing and conversion tracking in DoubleClick Campaign Manager. We also launched MRAID 2.0 support in DoubleClick Studio and we have certified 69 large publishers and networks for in-app formats, meaning developers can build mobile in-app ads with the confidence that they’ll be accepted across more publishers and networks. 

Through its integration with Google Web Designer, AdWords now supports HTML5 ad creatives. In addition, Flash ads that are uploaded to Adwords will automatically be converted into HTML5 ads and can be uploaded via AdWords Editor and other 3rd party tools coming soon. Over the next few months, we’ll also be releasing tools and services that will resize ads to some of the most popular mobile sizes, without requiring any additional work on the part of the agencies.

Want to learn more?

• Creative Agencies:
• Visit our revamped website and download the product for free. 
• Register for our Google Web Designer overview webinar on Wednesday Aug. 13th. Our lead Product Manager and Creative Technical Consultant will walk through the new Google Web Designer features and demo some cool creative executions. 
• Media Agencies:
• Register for our third webinar in the Make Mobile Work Series, focused on best practices for mobile targeting, on Tuesday, Aug. 12th. Google will be presenting alongside speakers from Millennial and Facebook.

Posted by Sean Kranzberg and Tony Mowatt, Engineering Manager and Lead Product Manager for Google Web Designer