Pretty much the entire UK and European search engine marketing community has been on tenterhooks about this, rumour was we were all meant to receive the final draft yesterday, and then we heard it might be by post this morning.  Finally the ETP eagle has landed...

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As announced last month, we are launching Google's first ever pan-European Third Party Programme (the "Programme"), on January 1, 2006 – a fundamental shift in our business relationship aimed at leveling the playing field among all advertisers and empowering third parties to build a sustainable future for search through the adoption of best practice.

The key components of the Programme are:

1.    Best Practice Funding
Tiered, growth-rewarding financial support for resources, education and training

2.    Service & Support
Enabling third parties to effectively leverage the expertise & resource within Google

3.    Tools
Providing products which enable our third parties to work more creatively, effectively and productively

4.    Process Enhancement
Refining and enhancing commercial processes to optimise workflow

We would like to provide you with further details on the Programme and, in particular, how the Best Practice Funding will work.

Best Practice Funding

Google Best Practice Funding is a scheme open to all qualifying third parties and is an initiative aimed at driving an improvement in the quality of high-scale search marketing and gaining recognition for the discipline within the traditional marketing arena.

Criteria

There are five criteria you must meet to be eligible for Best Practice Funding. They are:

1)    You must be in MCC and registered for Google Advertising Professionals
2)    Your MCC billing address must be in EMEA
3)    You have two qualified Google Advertising Professional-certified at the individual level
4)    You must be an agency, SEM or independent consultant managing accounts on behalf of more than one advertiser
5)    You must achieve a minimum of EUR 250k of quarterly eligible spend

In addition, for individual accounts to be eligible, they must meet the following criteria:

1)    EMEA Targeting
·    Only accounts that exclusively target EMEA countries are eligible for compensation
·    Geo-targeting of "all countries" and a pre-dominantly European language (Italian, French, Danish, etc.) is accepted. Exception: Spanish, Portuguese and English

2)    Overdue Accounts
·    Accounts with overdue monies are excluded

3)    Actively Managed
·    Only accounts that are actively managed are included

4)    Third Party Advertisers
·    Only accounts that are managed on behalf of third party advertisers (independent and unrelated companies) are included

Q1 2006 Introductory Catalyst

For Q1 only, we are introducing an introductory growth catalyst based upon eligible Q1 spend  which will benefit all qualifying third parties eligible to take part in the Programme. Your account manager will communicate to you the exact details of how this will work, and you will receive the exact details in the post.

Implementation

You will need to prepare your MCC and all accounts in it prior to the launch of the Programme.  You will also need to monitor your MCC and the accounts in it following launch.  In particular please note the following:

·    You must structure all accounts and MCCs to link up to a single 'master' MCC
·    All 3p communications and payments will be made to master MCC
·    You must ensure that  your  full legal entity name and address is entered in the master MCC
·    You must manage geo-targeting of accounts: accounts are only eligible for funding if all their campaigns target EMEA
·    You may need to split some accounts which currently cover eligible and non-eligible country/language combinations to maximise the number of eligible accounts.

Your account manager will be in contact with you over the next few weeks to help walk you through the above points.

Tools

Even if you as an agency do not fulfil all the criteria to be eligible for Best Practice Funding, you can still benefit from the other components to the Programme.

Google Advertising Professionals for Companies

All third parties which qualify for the Programme automatically qualify as Google Advertising Professional for Companies. In addition, those with a minimum of $100k quarterly spend (or local currency equivalent) and 2 Google Advertising Professionals also qualify for Google Advertising Professionals for Companies.

The benefits:

·    Google recognition as a Company with Qualified and tested AdWords Professionals
·    You will be able to use the official Qualified Google Advertising Professional for Companies Logo, which can be displayed on your website and other materials to showcase your skills and assure existing clients
and attract new ones
·    You benefit from distinction as a skilled company
·    You should achieve increased productivity with the advanced tools made available to you

How do I get my team certified?

·    Your CS representative is your first port of call and will provide guidance and supporting expertise
·    The course consists of 12 web-based training modules and each module is less than thirty minutes long
·    The exam consists of 100 multiple-choice questions and the pass requirement is 75% correct answers
·    To maintain Qualified status, participants must take the exam every two years

Urchin

·    Further details will be provided to you week commencing November 14th.
·    In essence, Urchin is a sophisticated enterprise-class web analytics solution that is easy to use and helps users understand how people find, navigate, and convert on their websites
·    If you require further information, contact your account manager and/or CS Rep to set up a meeting or call during the week of the 14th to walk you through the new Urchin
·    We will  provide you with details on how to implement Urchin

Other tools for third parties

We will be launching several new tools in addition to Urchin over the next 6 months, specifically designed with third parties in mind to address your current AdWords pain points. These tools will help you achieve your search marketing goals and fully leverage AdWords' value proposition for your clients. As each tool launches over the next few months, we will be in contact with further details.

Already launched this month is the Keyword Tool:

·    Get more data to help you select keywords that may better reach your campaigns goals - see advertiser competition & search volume on keywords, view keywords listed by cost & ad position estimates.
·    Get more timely, current and recent keywords
·    Improved UI & new features - such as the ability to build a master keyword list, to add keywords directly into your ad group and to get traffic estimates on a proposed keyword list
·    For English-language UI users ONLY - get keyword variations based on the content of a destination URL that you provide to us