These days we're constantly connected, shifting from one device to another for communication, shopping and entertainment.

Our research revealed the average person in the UK has three connected devices while 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal. These 'sequential screeners' now expect a superb experience regardless of what they're using to browse on, whether PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone, hybrid device or television.

Businesses have an opportunity to increase engagement and drive conversions by creating a great user experience that serves consumers across all of these browsing options. To support your business in establishing a winning strategy, today we're launching a new initiative on Think Insights dedicated to making your website work across multiple devices.

Who uses multiple devices? What do they value when they search? How do people prefer to browse when they're using more than one screen? We tackle all of these in one infographic - which also explains three implementation options for developing your website to function at its best across multiple devices.

These new Think Insights pages provide links to loads of useful resources too. A testing tool helps businesses like yours to analyse website load speeds on mobile and desktop. We've also included examples of great multi-device strategies - read how PlusNet grew its sales on mobile tenfold. Baines & Ernst increased mobile conversions 51% and Towergate increase mobile visits 218%.

This launch aims to provide industry-leading best practices, case studies and tools to enable you to optimise your site across screens and devices.

Article by Matt Brocklehurst, Product Marketing Manager, Google

This year lowcostholidays.com, a global online travel agent, wanted to drive awareness of their brand in new European markets. They turned to YouTube for innovative advertising options. ‘We wanted to reach our audience at a different stage of their research, particularly at the top funnel stage, and measure their engagement with our brand,’ explains Claire Goodenough, Marketing manager at lowcostholidays.com.

What did they do? They utilised two distinctive advertising options on YouTube: a bespoke TrueView ad and a Homepage Takeover. 

TrueView:

TrueView ads are pre-roll videos that run on content across YouTube. As the ad starts, the user is presented with a choice of skipping or watching the ad and advertisers are only charged when a user chooses to watch. Consequently users who choose to watch are likely to be more engaged.

The 30-second video that lowcostholidays.com produced was designed specifically for TrueView, in order to take advantage of the features that the ad format offers. In the opening few seconds, the ad invited the viewer to participate in a quiz to win a voucher code applicable to a future holiday. Once ‘hooked’ the viewer was then presented with a range of enticing holiday photographs, and at the end could guess the destination of the photos to win the discount. Annotations appeared throughout the video to encourage users to complete the quiz. lowcostholidays.com tested various targeting options and ensured they were targeting a relevant audience.

Homepage Takeover:

In addition, lowcostholidays.com ran a Masthead Lite on YouTube’s homepage for 24 hours in Ireland, affording massive reach in a concentrated time period. The ad unit consisted of an image banner as well as a video. Careful scheduling helped lowcostholidays.com maximize results. ‘We were able to pick what we deemed the most relevant day in terms of YouTube visits within our market and how it was aligned with our usual visitor behavior calendar,’ Claire explains. ‘Taking over the YouTube homepage for one day allowed us the broadest YouTube reach possible.’

Results:

An astonishing 80% of the Masthead’s traffic was from new visitors.  ‘This was our aim,’ explains Claire, ‘to get broader targeting and reach people who hadn’t heard of our brand before.’

The TrueView campaign also produced excellent outcomes. ‘Our initial objective was to drive brand awareness, which was achieved: our TrueView ad saw a much higher new visitor rate than we normally see,’ reports Claire. ‘Also, it was great that we achieved sales from TrueView at a CPA similar to some of our Search campaigns. Seeing conversions was certainly a bonus. The effort we put into targeting and making bespoke videos for TrueView paid off.’

Next steps:

lowcostholidays.com are extending their reach by testing engagement ads as well as Mobile Roadblocks. Claire adds, ‘after the success we’ve had with YouTube, it’s something we would definitely keep as a constant on our annual marketing plan’.

Click here to view the full case study 

Article by Anna Tong, Industry Manager for Travel

Baines & Ernst is a leading provider of debt solutions in the UK. In dealing in such a complex subject area, the company’s aim in terms of digital is to help users understand its products. And from all accounts, that’s something it seems to be doing better than ever, thanks to the launch of a new responsive web design (RWD) site. On mobiles, pages per visit have increased by 11%, average visit duration is up 30% and mobile bounce rate is down 8%. Most impressively though, mobile conversions are up by 51% since the RWD site’s debut.

When Baines & Ernst first grasped that mobile usage was on the rise, the decision was made to launch mobile-specific search advertising in late 2011, incorporating both sitelinks and click-to-call functionality. Positive results from this led Baines & Ernst to create a mobile-optimised site that launched in the second half of 2012.

While the additional site helped provide a better experience to growing numbers of mobile users, maintaining fresh content on both the desktop and mobile site proved to be an inefficient use of resource. Through testing and research, Baines & Ernst discovered a solution that would satisfy its goals. The main focus was to deliver a consistent user experience across all devices so potential customers could find the right information on any screen. The team initiated the build of an entirely new site incorporating the best practices of RWD.

Using RWD enabled Baines & Ernst to optimise its site experience across different screen sizes without creating multiple websites. By using flexible templates, CSS media queries and JavaScript events, the new RWD site responds to a user’s screen size and orientation, and then adjusts images, layouts and content visibility in accordance. It also harnesses novel device capabilities such as dragging, swiping and other gestures recognised by touch devices. All of this can be layered onto a single repository of HTML content, so while there’s only one content file to be maintained, it can be delivered across all devices.

Since most consumers lack deep familiarity with financial solutions, the company’s online presence is a critical tool for explaining Baines & Ernst products. As more and more consumers are researching these kinds of products away from their desktop computers, the move to an RWD site has proved a very savvy one. Read more of the Baines & Ernst RWD success story here.

Posted by Matt Brocklehurst, Product Marketing Manager, Google

As a company covering more than 200 specialist insurance products for niche markets ranging from holiday homes to private helicopters, the array of information found on Towergate’s website is extensive. Because users need to access this content whenever and wherever suits them best, the company wanted to efficiently optimise site experience across all devices and screens. By adopting strategies to respond to the demands of a multi-screen world, Towergate boosted mobile visits by 218% and tablet visits by 236%.

Towergate’s first move was to rebuild its website using responsive web design (RWD). The result is a device-independent solution that caters for all and is well placed to embrace new smartphones, tablets and other web-enabled devices. The approach circumnavigates the need to maintain separate websites for various devices, offering a significant savings in time and resource.

In terms of digital marketing, Towergate’s goal is the same regardless of device – to drive a high volume of quality leads to the site, who in turn will to either buy online or make contact with a skilled advisor. Not long after the completion of Towergate Insurance’s new RWD site, the company upgraded all of its AdWords marketing to enhanced campaigns in the span of a single afternoon – in total around 150 campaigns across 15 different accounts – and can now make bid adjustments in the AdWords interface for mobile so that the appropriate Towergate ad is automatically served to the right user.

Thanks to the advanced reporting features in enhanced campaigns, Towergate can refine its efforts even further. Performance metrics have consequently made great strides forward. “The new site has given us more confidence to increase bids across all devices, which has led to improvements. Conversion rates tend to fluctuate seasonally, but in general visit to lead rates across the board are on the rise,” reveals Towergate’s PPC Manager, Keith Mowbray.

Read more about the multi-screen success of Towergate Insurance in the full case story here.

Article by Matt Brocklehurst, Product Marketing Manager, Google

There was a time when only editors of the world’s style bibles got the chance to sit on the front row of a fashion show, when the catwalk was the exclusive domain of top models, and when stylists and makeup artists were the only ones lucky enough to join in the backstage excitement of London Fashion Week.

But this February Topshop reinvented its fashion show and simultaneously democratised the thrill of London Fashion Week. How? By partnering with Google+ in a groundbreaking series of inventive online happenings. The programme not only grabbed headlines – a key goal of every brand’s fashion week involvement – but also stimulated deep engagement with the Topshop audience. The programme had four components – Be the Model, Be Part of the Team, Be the Front Row Fashionista and Be The Buyer.

Be The Model afforded a rare opportunity for fans to get a model’s-eye view of fashion week. Top models Cara Delevingne, Jourdan Dunn, Rosie Tapner and Ashleigh Good wore HD micro cameras – “model cams” – so online viewers could see and feel what models experience as they stride down the runway. And at Topshop’s Oxford Street flagship fans could enter a special Google+ booth and try on their favourite outfits. From the booth, an animated picture was instantly uploaded to the Topshop’s Be the Model Google+ event page.

Be Part of the Team included an exclusive hangout on air behind the scenes at Topshop’s headquarters with a host of fashion insiders, such as Kate Phelan (Topshop Creative Director), Emma Farrow (Topshop Head of Design), Hannah Murray (international make-up artist) and Beth Fenton (show stylist). Two lucky Topshop fans were allowed to post questions just before the start of the show.

Be the Front Row Fashionista featured a red carpet hangout on air on the day of the show and allowed viewers to get a unique perspective from the front row. After the arrival of leading celebrities like Kate Bosworth, One Direction star Louis Tomlinson and Pixie Geldolf, the hotly anticipated show was streamed on Topshop.com, in Topshop’s Oxford Circus store and on all of Google’s platforms through a special customised YouTube gadget.

Be The Buyer saw the launch of a hangout app that enabled users to pick and choose their favourite items to share with friends on Google+. Topshop chose the best fashion collection from among these and awarded one stylish winner a free shopping spree. The app was promoted on Topshop’s homepage through a leaderboard that dynamically ranked the most popular of all the shared items.

The programme delivered fantastic results:

• 4 million views across all platforms
• 2.5 million views from YouTube
• G+ posts viewed over 400,000 times, a +400% increase
• Comments increased by 340% per day
• Reshares increased by 275% per day
• +1s increased by over 400% per day
• 7,500 live views of red carpet hangout
• 600 animated photos posted from in-store booth
• Average 11-minute engagement with hangout app, 52% reshares
• 300,000 new G+ followers in two weeks
• 2 million views from TrueView ads
• 400+ press mentions (inc. Guardian, Vogue, CNN video, FastCompany, Vogue IT & FR)

To learn more about the future of fashion, read the full case study here. 

Post by Natalia Cano, Product Marketing Manager, Google+

Suppose that we could have hopped onto a flying sleigh for a quick trip around the world during Christmas. What would we have seen from up high? The twinkling lights of millions of multi-screen homes. This was a multi-screen Christmas season. People shopped online at all times, from everywhere, on all kinds of devices.

Cyber Monday, the first Monday after the Thanks­giv­ing hol­i­day in the US and the busiest online shopping day of the year, provided people with limitless opportunities to shop and save while being constantly connected. Thanksgiving may not be a European holiday and Cyber Monday may not be a well used term on the streets of Paris, Madrid and Milan, but our research proves that Europeans are just as likely to begin their shopping sprees in the week after Thanksgiving as their American counterparts. What's even more interesting - in Europe - is that shoppers were getting a head start with their mobile devices the Sunday before Cyber Monday.

We looked at several popular Christmas present search queries across the US and Europe, and discovered a surge of mobile queries on Sunday 25th November. In the United Kingdom, for example, mobile queries for electronics surged 103% YoY on the 25th when people were using their phones while out shopping. The following day, people turned to their PCs and tablets to take advantage of Cyber Monday deals while at work and we saw PC and Tablet (where we see similar search behaviour) queries grow by 105% YoY for top electronic gifts.

               

These same multi-screen trends carried us into 2013 as people researched how to shed those extra Christmas pounds and get healthier in the new year. On New Year's Eve, people did their research on smartphones while shopping for last minute outfits or getting their hair done. In the United Kingdom, mobile search queries rose 288% YoY on New Year’s Eve for gyms, cleanses and diets. And on New Year's Day, as people sat on their sofas at home recuperating, search queries on PCs and tablets rose 128% YoY for gyms, cleanses and diets.

Advertising implications for businesses
So we know that today's shoppers are constantly connected. We know they move seamlessly between many screens, in the moment, without second thoughts. And on all screens, they search. Now that we know that, what do we do?

One good answer is to think about context. All these new search patterns have created a world of new context-based marketing opportunities. When you know the time of day, a shopper's general location and the kind of device that they’re using, you can guess quite a lot about what they may be looking for and where they are in the buying cycle.

Need help? Upgrade to enhanced campaigns in AdWords to make your cross-device advertising smarter, more powerful and more measurable. Enhanced campaigns can help:

1. Manage your bids across devices, locations and time.

2. Show the right ad creative, sitelink, app or extension based on user context and what the device can handle.

3. Track conversions like calls. And soon, you will be able to track digital downloads, in-store purchases and other cross-device conversions.

Get the context right on the next day of note, say Mother’s Day or Easter. To learn more about AdWords enhanced campaigns click here.

Posted by: Suzanne Mumford, Product Marketing Manager - Mobile Ads

Source: Google Internal Data. Growth based on YoY data.
*Top electronic gifts defined as smartphones, tablets, ereaders, mp3 players.

Gumtree a network of online classifieds and community websites, wanted to extend the reach of their TV advertising on YouTube using TrueView ads. To achieve this, Gumtree harnessed the power of Google data to get the right ads in front of the right searchers.

Using TrueView ads Gumtree achieved a 26% view rate (45% above the benchmark), whilst maintaining a low cost per view at 2p (75% below the benchmark). Gumtree were also able to attract new visitors to their website with 59% of visitors from YouTube new to Gumtree.

Sam Diamond, Head of Brand and Communications at Gumtree highlighted the importance of YouTube in their media strategy by saying 'We found TrueView easy to use, and an effective way of extending the reach of our TV advertising. We gained lots of interesting insight from our trial, and will now always consider YouTube as part of our media strategy'.

You can find the full Gumtree YouTube channel here.

For further details on YouTube TrueView ads click here or watch the short video below.

Posted by Ali Turhan, Industry Analyst - Agency Strategy

In previous posts we have highlighted the creative ways that Ocado and LateRooms.com are using Google+. We'd like to share with you two videos from them on why Google+ is working for their brands.

LateRooms.com, a hotel aggregator matching customers around the planet with suitable hotel rooms, is using hangouts to discuss top destinations, providing travel tips to their customers and have experienced a 9%CTR uplift in search as a result of social extensions. See what they have to say...



Internet grocery retailer Ocado has done a series of hangouts with Great British Chefs who cooked for customers and these hangouts were promoted via True View ads on YouTube, which resulted in 167k engaged views. The Ocado YouTube channel views went from 50k to 230k in the space of a week thanks to the hangout, without including the people who live-streamed the event (which numbered to about 60 individuals at any given time). Ocado is also using social extensions and experiencing a 30% CTR uplift in Search as a result.


Posted by +Natalia Cano

With its inherently digital focus, internet grocery retailer Ocado has established itself as an early adopter of new technologies, so it comes as no surprise that the company embraced Google+ as soon as it could – and has already started reaping some tasty benefits.

The opportunity for Google+ to contribute to improved search rankings was a convincing reason to launch the brand’s Google+ page. By adopting social extensions, Ocado ads became instantly more compelling, and click-through rates increased by 30%.

Hangouts are a clever way that Ocado has brought food-centric content to life. The company capitalised on its existing Great British Chefs initiative and used Google+ to produce a live event where the chefs cooked for customers. Ocado promoted the hangouts via True View ads on YouTube, which resulted in 167k engaged views. The Ocado YouTube channel views went from 50k to 230k in the space of a week thanks to the hangout, without including the people who live-streamed the event (which numbered about 60 individuals at any given time).

The experience has led Ocado to consider further possibilities for moving images. They are keen not to use text-based feeds as what they really want is to get people excited about food, and images are a great way of differentiating. In addition to hangouts and images, Ocado has embraced the Google+ badge which appears on the check-out page with the aim of making the shopping experience social through gifting and sharing.

In future, Ocado has plans for more hangouts on the Google+ page, as well as ideas for more video and channel-specific content. The intention is to deliver the sights and sounds – if not the tastes and aromas – of Ocado products straight to users’ screens.

Find out more about Ocado’s recipe for success by reading the full case study here.

Posted by +Natalia Cano

Are you an Agency or Advertiser managing international business? Are you after market insights from specific countries? Then take a look at the new Global Business Map on Think Insights.

The Global Business Map provides a country profile for 48 countries on 6 different continents. The country profiles give an overview of fundamental country facts and specific market insights. We have collected those metrics most relevant for uncovering market potential and to help you recognise business opportunities. For instance, did you know that Brazil is one of the top five countries worldwide for mobile Internet usage, whilst in Israel users spend on average 11.1 hours on social sites, more than double the global average?

This guide also provides an introduction to products and tools available at Google, which can help you get acquainted with the different ways to reach out and connect with your target markets.

Each country page contains the following data:

• Basic Facts: official country name, capital, area, top-level domain, official or most spoken language, local currency, age distribution and GDP in terms of purchasing power parity and rank. GDP in each country has been expressed in US Dollars.
• Demographics: Population (total, growth and country rank), a breakdown of the age distribution according to gender and age group, median age.
• Internet statistics: The Internet penetration of the population, the total number of broadband and fixed Internet subscriptions, as found by the International Telecommunications Union.
• Google Contact: The email address that you can use to get in touch with our local representatives. They will be happy to give you more insight into the statistics you can find in the pages here and connect your ideas with the appropriate Google products.

We hope this information helps you unlock new opportunities.

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

The question is no longer “Why should I invest in mobile?” - we’ve all read statistics about the tremendous adoption of mobile and tablet devices - but “How should I invest in mobile?”

A new addition to thinkwithgoogle.co.uk is the The Mobile Playbook:UK - a guide to winning with mobile. So if you need answers to crucial questions such as:

• How does mobile change our value proposition?
• How does mobile impact our digital destinations?
• Is our organisation adapting to mobile?
• How should marketing adapt to mobile?
• How can we connect with our tablet audience?

Then check out The Mobile Playbook...

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

When H&M produces hot new collections, the Swedish fashion retailer knows just how to get the word out. With around 2,500 stores spread across 44 markets, not only does the company engage in traditional forms of marketing, but also integrates its social media with other communication activities. An early adopter of Google+, today H&M has more fans on the platform than any other retail brand – over 940,000 followers.

Unique, exclusive content wins followers
Instead of replicating the experience of shopping in the store or on the website, their page supplies a steady stream of interactive content tailored specifically to the Google+ audience. H&M publishes unique coverage, including a captivating range of exclusive collection previews, contests and behind the scenes footage, such as a Vogue editor preparing for an H&M photo shoot. Their most popular posts are the ones for their top collections with Beckham, Versace and Marni.

Using ripples to understand trendsetting
H&M has a very high rate of shared posts. Their team can “View Ripples” to see who has shared content and what has been said. In this way, the ripples feature lets H&M see how posts spread across Google+, who’s sharing and resharing the content and whose opinions matter. The feature can be used to identify influencers and see how communities form around content. The larger the circles in ripples, the larger the reach they might have.

Social extensions to integrate their social strategy into search
Another feature H&M uses are social extensions in its AdWords advertising. Social extensions help the company obtain a higher number of brand recommendations, +1’s and direct traffic to their Google+ page, effectively increasing their number of followers by doing so. On average H&M has achieved a 22% CTR uplift on all their AdWords campaigns thanks to implementing social extensions.

It’s all adding up...

All of this has contributed in great levels of engagement from fans with the following results so far:

• Average number of +1’s per post: 72
• Average number of reshares per post: 11
• Average number of comments per post: 22

To learn more about H&M’s inspirational example, read the full case study here.

Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ for Businesses

If you were watching the exceptional vocal achievements of the contestants like 100 million Europeans on Saturday 26th, it is likely that you had a smartphone or a tablet device in your hand at the same time.

From our recent Our Mobile Planet research, we know that consumers actively use their smartphones when multi-tasking with other media and more than 50% of Europeans do this while watching the TV. We therefore wanted to understand how Eurovision viewers were using their mobile devices during the finals by analyzing Google search results.

Top 10 mobile Eurovision countries - share of Google search queries related to Eurovision

Looking at related search queries from all 42 Eurovision countries on the day of and day before the finals of the Song Contest, we saw an increase in the share of smartphone and tablet searches by nearly 50% from Eurovision 2011. Consumers in a handful of European countries were particularly savvy, actively using their mobile devices to learn more about the mind-blowing performances they saw on screen. More than 54% of Eurovision fans in Denmark searched from mobile devices, along with more than 40% in both Switzerland and Norway. Additionally, Denmark and Norway had the highest share of Eurovision searches conducted on tablets with 11% of Norway’s and 14% of Denmark’s Eurovision queries occurring on tablets.

Tablets and smartphones come out when the show starts - please note this does not show absolute search volume

Looking at a timeline of searches for Eurovision (normalized based on total search queries for each device type), shows us that these mobile and tablet searches were largely complementary to desktop searches. At the primetime of the Eurovision finals, on the evening of May 26th, we observed that people were switching to their smartphones and tablets with more than 38% of queries coming from mobile devices. This is similar to previous search data showing that tablets come out as the sun goes down. The large screen and compact form factor of tablets favour usage in front of the TV and from previous studies we know that the top browsing location is on the couch.

So, how can advertisers take advantage of all these multi-tasking mobile consumers? Make sure that you are on their screen with Google Mobile Ads so that you can get in front of them at the right time with the right ad formats. This way, if a customer sees your TV commercial and then picks up their phone to find more information, you may show up at the top of the results.

You can easily show your ads only when your customers are on their couch looking for information thanks to custom scheduling in AdWords. Or, you can configure your account to bid more aggressively at the times of the day that correspond with your television advertisements.

And don’t forget to add a mobile specific call-to-action such as a clickable phone number for potential customers holding a phone in their hand. You should also ensure that the site your users see on their smartphones is mobile optimized for the best user experience. With all that done you can sit back, relax and watch the stunning performance of Loreen from Sweden who finally won the Eurovision Song Contest.

Posted by Frank Albert Coates, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile & Social ads EMEA

LateRooms.com aims to be a truly global brand, matching customers around the planet with suitable hotel rooms. They measure their Google+ success through engagement – numbers of fans, interactions with users, how many times people share content and mention their brand.

Google+ matches LateRooms.com’s social media objectives
When the team launched a Google+ page, they quickly saw that – unlike some of the other social networking channels they use – followers were from all over the world, not just one or two isolated geographical regions. But instant worldwide scope wasn’t the only quick win; Google+ also provided a host of tools that help maintain the brand’s personal feel.

Hangouts and photos allow LateRooms.com to engage at a personal level with fans
The LateRooms.com +page features pictures of the members of the team, who also sign posts and messages by name. They’re using hangouts too, a feature unique to Google+ that offers high-quality video chat. By organising a hangout with renowned adventure expert Ray Mears, they effectively brought to life the idea LateRooms.com is not only a worldwide contender, but also one that you can also interact with on a one-to-one level.

Ripples help LateRooms.com identify brand influencers
Ripples are another distinctive component of Google+ and these help LateRooms.com identify brand influencers by showing how posts spread across the platform. LateRooms.com is approaching 600,000 followers on Google+, has had one post that has been shared over 2,500 times and another that’s been shared 2,000 times – and counting. Both of these garnered approximately 500 comments, the maximum allowed.

Next up: focusing on social extensions and circles
LateRooms.com focus areas include the use of circles, another feature unique to Google+, and expanding their use of social extensions. This feature is helping LateRooms.com obtain a higher number of brand recommendations, +1’s and direct traffic to their Google+ page. They’re benefiting from a 9% CTR uplift so far and have decided to enable social extensions on all their Adwords campaigns.

To learn how to replicate LateRooms.com’s success, read the full case study here.

Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ for Businesses

Cadbury has become the European brand with the largest number of followers on Google+, currently at 1.2 million. Their Google+ success is having a strong impact on their overall marketing strategy, especially by improving the performance of their Search campaigns. The question is how exactly did they do this...?

Their first step was to create a Google+ page. As featured in a previous blog post, Cadbury used hangouts to interact in real time with Olympic athletes and chocolate experts, and to participate in creating the chocolate replica Google+ page. By promoting their hangouts, Cadbury grew their Google+ follower base by 150,000 people.

They also used circles to segment their followers according to their chocolate preferences and unveiled a brand-new product launch, the Dairy Milk Bubbly Bar, which has achieved a strong impact with sales already over £8M.

However, where they are seeing tremendous results is in their search campaigns. Since they started using social extensions, which links Cadbury’s Google+ page to its AdWords campaigns, they have achieved a 17% uplift in CTR across all their AdWords campaigns. Now when you search for “Cadbury” and see the relevant ad, recommendations from your friends are displayed directly with it, making the ad much more relevant to you. By clicking on the social extension, you directly land on Cadbury’s Google+ page and can start following all the great content they are posting.

And since Cadbury installed the Google+ badge on its homepage, it’s now easier than ever for fans to follow the brand; Cadbury gains 10,000 new followers on average per day and have had an increase of 7.5% in traffic from Google URLs.

To continue benefiting from their Google+ success, Cadbury are looking to include a Google+ social stream that will pull in their most recent updates into a re-launch of their homepage, which will be happening soon. Stay tuned to the Cadbury Google+ Page to learn how Cadbury continue to innovate to make their Google+ experience a success...!

Find out more about Cadbury’s http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsuccess with Google+ by reading the full case study here.

Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ For Businesses

Last year we introduced Hangouts On Air to a limited number of broadcasters, enabling them to go live with friends and fans, for all the world to see. Since then, this small community has grown the feature in lots of creative ways. This week we launched Hangouts on Air to Google+ users worldwide. So if you or your client have something to say you can now go live in front of a global audience!

Cadbury, one of the biggest names in chocolate, was an early adopter of Google+. After becoming one of the most successful brands on the platform, they expanded their reach with Google+ Hangouts on Air. From carving their Google+ Page out of chocolate and challenging an Olympian, to hanging out with their chocolate taste testers - watch the video below to see how Cadbury uses Hangouts on Air to engage their followers.



What does Cadbury do to achieve success?

• Maintains a very strong Google+ page, including frequent, creative, engaging Hangouts on Air.
• Encourages participation in Hangouts by members of Cadbury’s loyal Google+ Circles.
• Directly connects followers across the globe with Cadbury products, promotions, and personalities via Hangouts.

Download the full case study here and discover Cadbury’s tips for success.

Businesses can use Google+ Hangouts on Air in many ways – launching products, making announcements, conducting focus groups, connecting with personalities and much more. Hangouts on Air lets you broadcast, whenever you want, to followers, colleagues, or the whole world. Once you’ve finished your Hangout, Google will upload the full-length recording to your YouTube account.

Download the Hangouts on Air technical guide here and sing to the world!

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

Mashable is an independent news site devoted to digital culture and technology and was one of the first publishers to join Google+. Since joining, Mashable has been building their audience on the platform, growing Google+ into one of their top 10 sources of referral traffic. See video below with Mashable’s Community Manager, Meghan Peters.



Mashable has used their Google+ page to expand their audience and deliver content in new ways. For example, Mashable has been using Hangouts, a live multi-person video chat tool, to meet their audience face to face, creating deeper interactions.

Hangouts has also connected Mashable employees with each other. With their headquarters in New York City and editors scattered across the U.S. and Europe, Mashable now uses Hangouts as a virtual meeting tool. The screenshare feature even helps Meghan train remote staff who can follow along with her presentations.

Mashable has learned by doing, and that all started by creating a Google+ page. Megan’s Top Tips:

• Be active: Meghan credits Mashable’s success in part to its strong and persistent presence on Google+.
• Add Google+ plugins: When Mashable added the Google+ badge to their homepage, they increased their Google+ page audience by 38 percent.
• Co-create: Another key to keeping Mashable’s fans engaged is its innovative approach to audience interaction and brand co-creation. A contest run via Mashable’s site to design their Google+ page sparked a wave of enthusiasm.

Mashable has set a great example by building a strong audience on Google+ through its use of in-depth posts, interactive Hangouts, and creative promotions, including the Google+ badge and +1 button.

Follow Mashable on Google+ and download the full case study here.

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team