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Tag: AdWords

  • Google Shopping Campaigns Get New Features

    Google announced the launch of some new features for advertisers using Shopping Campaigns.

    First, there’s a new product groups tab view at the campaign and account levels in AdWords to make it easier for advertisers to compare performance data and make changes across across all product groups accordingly.

    There is also a new product groups filtering to help advertisers select which product groups to optimize, such as the ones with the best cost-per-conversion, without having to manually review all groups.

    There’s a mobile bid adjustment simulator available at the campaign level to help advertisers “size up your mobile opportunity” as you change your mobile bid modifier.

    There are conversion estimates included in bid simulator to give you insight on how may conversions your ads may have received if a different bid was used.

    Finally, there are performance metrics in the subdivision dialog. These include clicks and cost per conversion, and as Google says, can help you structure your product groups based on performance.

    For more on how to utilize the new features, read this.

    Image via Google

  • AdWords Turns 15, Google Celebrates With Stat-Heavy Timeline Infographic

    Google officially released AdWords on October 23, 2000. While its birthday was technically last week, Google is celebrating it today with a walk down memory lane and an infograhpic full of stats.

    “In the last 15 years, we’ve witnessed tremendous shifts in consumer behavior and advances in technology,” the company said in a blog post. “Along the way, Google has innovated to bring consumers more immediate, relevant answers in the moments that matter. AdWords started out as an advertising tool for the desktop world that’s transformed through the years with new formats and capabilities. It’s improved to enable businesses to thrive in a world where the smartphone has become consumers’ constant companion — to provide directions, suggestions for new apps to install, and more.”

    When AdWords first launched, it started with 350 advertisers. It has grown to over a million today.

    AdWords Turns 15
    For the fun of it, you can read the original press release announcing AdWords below.

    Google Launches Self-Service Advertising Program

    Google’s AdWords Program Offers Every Business a Fully Automated, Comprehensive and Quick Way to Start an Online Advertising Campaign

    MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – October 23, 2000 – Google Inc., developer of the award-winning Google search engine, today announced the immediate availability of AdWords(TM), a new program that enables any advertiser to purchase individualized and affordable keyword advertising that appears instantly on the google.com search results page. The AdWords program is an extension of Google’s premium sponsorship program announced in August. The expanded service is available on Google’s homepage or at the AdWords link atadwords.google.com, where users will find all the necessary design and reporting tools to get an online advertising campaign started.

    Since the beta debut of AdWords earlier this month, the program has seen widespread adoption by approximately 350 businesses and advertising agencies worldwide. The AdWords program offers advertisers the same highly targeted ad serving technology as the premium sponsorship program, and through a simple to use self-service system, enables advertisers to sign up and monitor a campaign directly from the Google website.

    “Google has carefully built and scaled the AdWords program to address the needs of any business by providing a one-stop resource that is affordable and easy to use,” said Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and CEO. “AdWords offers the most technologically advanced features available, enabling any advertiser to quickly design a flexible program that best fits its online marketing goals and budget.”

    Google’s AdWords program is designed to offer a simple advertising solution for every business, including brick-and-mortar retail outlets such as electronic or home furnishing stores and small family-run businesses such as a restaurants or floral shops. Google has differentiated its AdWords program with several key features, including the ability to fine-tune ads in real-time, post new ads instantly, monitor ad statistics, and track inventory and cost-per-day impression estimates–so advertisers can pace their actual spending limits.

    “It’s refreshing to find a self-service advertising program like Google’s AdWords program, with which we see great click-throughs and have the flexibility to decide our advertising expenditure upfront,” said Genie Livingstone, marketing manager for eyeondomain.com. “The AdWords program is one of the best kept secrets on the web.” Similar to its premium sponsorship program, Google’s AdWords program enables advertisers to purchase carefully selected keywords that target potential customers by serving an ad that matches a user’s search query. The result is a highly targeted ad that appears only if a user enters the same keywords or phrase that an advertiser has purchased, ensuring advertisers will be delivered a prequalified visitor and will not pay for “off target” impressions.

    For example, entering the query “buy domain” into the search box on Google’s home page produces search results and an AdWords text advertisement that appears to the right of Google’s search results and relates to purchasing a domain name on the eyeondomain.com website. This enhances the overall search experience for Google users by providing relevant, useful information on the search results page, and benefits advertisers by increasing the likelihood that users will click on a specifically targeted ad.

    Google’s quick-loading AdWords text ads appear to the right of the Google search results and are highlighted as sponsored links, clearly separate from the search results. Google’s premium sponsorship ads will continue to appear at the top of the search results page. Google does not use GIFs, pop-ups, animations, or flashing logos, keeping its website clutter-free and focused on search.

    Google’s AdWords program offers the following features:

    • New ads appear instantly: Ads are online immediately after an order is placed.
    • Ad preview tools: Shows how an advertisement will look before it’s posted on Google’s search results page.
    • Unlimited ad creation: Advertisers can create and run as many different versions of an ad to see which ones get the best response from users.
    • Advanced keyword targeting options: Several targeting options are available to enable the fine-tuning of a campaign, including keywords, negative keywords, phrase matches, and exact matches.
    • Web-based reporting tools: Instant access to online reporting tools that deliver click-through rates and number of impressions delivered.
    • Ad performance feedback: Advertisers see real-time feedback–in the form of a visitor interest bar–to gauge the overall effectiveness and popularity of an ad.

    Google’s superior effectiveness as a search resource is gaining widespread acclaim from its growing number of loyal users, who currently conduct more than 20 million searches per day on google.com. Google’s overall web traffic continues to increase by 3 million queries per day each month. The AdWords program provides low-cost exposure on one of the industry’s leading search engines with CPMs from $15 or 1.5 cents an impression, $12 or 1.2 cents an impression, and $10 or 1 cent an impression, for the top, middle, and bottom ad unit positions, respectively.

    “With a growing number of Internet users selecting the Google search engine as their primary search destination site, Google offers businesses and ad agencies an efficient way to reach new customers worldwide,” said Omid Kordestani, vice president of Business Development and Sales at Google. “Google’s AdWords program makes it easy for anyone–even those who have little or no online advertising experience–to purchase targeted and affordable advertising on one of the web’s most trafficked and popular search engines, making it a superior value in online advertising.”

    About Google

    Google Inc. provides the best Internet search experience, and accomplishes this for tens of millions of users daily by delivering a powerful, fast, and easy-to-use search service for finding the most relevant information. Google’s technological innovations have powered the company to numerous awards, including Best Search Engine on the Internet from Yahoo! Internet Life; Top Ten Best Cybertech of 1999 byTIME magazine; Technical Excellence Award from PC Magazine; and this year’s Webby Award for Best Technical Achievement; and a WIRED Readers Raves award for Most Intelligent Agent.

    Google offers free search services through its own destination web site at www.google.com, as well as co-branded search solutions for more than 100 of the Internet’s premier information content and portal developers in more than 20 countries. Customers who rely on Google include Yahoo!, Netscape Netcenter, a subsidiary of America Online, RedHat, and Washingtonpost.com. A privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif., Google was founded by Stanford doctoral students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. Investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, and partners John Doerr and Michael Moritz serve on the Google board with Ram Shriram.

    Google Contacts:

    Kimberly Vogel
    (650) 930-3533
    kimberly@google.com

    Cindy McCaffrey
    (650) 930-3524
    cindy@google.com

    ###

    Google and AdWords are trademarks of Google, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

    Images via Google

  • Cross-Device Data Added To Conversions Column in AdWords, Integrated with Automated Bidding

    Google announced on Tuesday that cross-device conversions will begin rolling out at the keyword level and can be included in the main Conversions column in AdWords starting today. The column already includes website sales, phone calls, and app downloads.

    The thinking is that advertisers will be able to better take action on insights when all conversions are shown in one place. They can use the information as they enable automated bidding to optimize.

    “People turn to multiple devices throughout the day to shop, communicate and stay entertained,” says AdWords Bidding senior product manager Wilfred Yeung. “From a laptop at work to a tablet in the living room, we move sequentially and seamlessly between many device types to get stuff done. In fact, nearly 40% of online shoppers start their research on a smartphone and make their final purchase on a computer or tablet. That’s why for several years, we’ve invested in cross-device conversions across Search, Display and Shopping. Advertisers around the world are now capturing the full value of their AdWords campaigns by using cross-device insights to measure up to 16% more conversions.”

    “We are committed to helping you gain insight into the new conversion types that are part of a constantly connected, multi-screen world so that you can make the best advertising decisions possible,” says Yeung.

    Advertisers can activate cross-device conversions in automated bidding by going to settings under Tools>Conversions and ensuring that the Conversion bid metric is set to “Conversions” as opposed to “Converted Clicks.” Then click “include advanced conversions” and the check box to include cross-device and other advanced conversions.

    Google has more information about how to factor cross-device conversions into automated bidding here.

    Image via Google

  • AdWords Gets New Customization Feature

    Google announced a new feature for AdWords to let advertisers dynamically customize their ad text based on where people are searching for their business. This builds on ad customizers, which the company launched last year.

    “With ad customizers, you can dynamically insert relevant information into your text ads, based on information you upload via a feed to AdWords,” the company said in a Google+ update. “For example, a retailer can automatically show how many hours are left in their time-sensitive promotion, an airline can show the number of flights still available on a given day, and a restaurant can dynamically share special discounts for unique days of the week with their customers.”

    Google suggests using the feature to share your most up-to-date inventory, unique shipping times for specific regions, or specific discounts, promotions, or events for each of your locations.

    “Ad customizers lets you create more relevant ad text at scale so your customers can get the most up to date and helpful information about your business, wherever they’re searching,” Google says.

    There’s a help center article here that gets into how ads are matched to geographic locations, and explains recent locations, advanced location options, related cities, etc.

    Image via AdWords

  • Google Announces AdWords Audience Insights, 100% GDN Viewability, Dynamic Remarketing Improvements

    Google Announces AdWords Audience Insights, 100% GDN Viewability, Dynamic Remarketing Improvements

    Google announced new tools for advertisers including AdWords Audience Insights, 100% Viewability on the Google Display Network, and enhancements to dynamic remarketing.

    Audience Insights

    The AdWords Audience Insights Reports give advertisers aggregate information about people on their remarketing lists, such as demographics, interests, locations, and device usage. The reports are available in the AdWords interface so action can be taken relatively easily.

    Google uses the example that if most people converted on a site are jazz enthusiasts, the advertiser could add that as an affinity audience to the campaign. Another example it uses is targeting the 25 to 34-year-old female demographic if that’s what a large percentage of your customers are.

    “BASE, a Belgian telecommunications company, used AdWords audience insights and discovered cycling enthusiasts were twice as likely as the average customer to buy a mobile phone subscription,” Google says. “Based on this insight, BASE engaged with cycling enthusiasts on the GDN and doubled its conversions. BASE now uses AdWords audience insights to inform its campaigns, online and offline.”

    Viewability

    Google says 56% of display ads have never had a chance to be view because they were below the fold, scrolled out of view, or in a background tab. To make things better for advertisers, it’s not going to charge them for ads that aren’t viewable.

    “Soon, we’ll make the GDN one of the only media platforms where advertisers don’t pay for an ad impression unless it was viewable. This means your media dollars will only be spent where they can have impact. In the next few months, all campaigns that buy on a CPM basis will be upgraded to be viewable CPM (vCPM).”

    More on vCPM vs. CPM bidding here.

    Remarketing

    Finally, Google announced enhancements to dynamic remarketing that enable ads to be automatically re-shaped and re-sized to fit all devices. Ads will also be “touched up” to look better on whatever device it’s being displayed on.

    “For example, if your logo is predominantly blue and yellow, AdWords may use these colors to shade the border and background of your ad,” the company says. “We’ll even try out varying color combinations and use the ones that drive the best performance. As always, you have control to make changes to these selections based on your personal style and preferences.”

    You can read more about all of the new offerings as well as an example of how Sony Playstation is using Audience Insights here.

    Image via Google

  • Google Announces Email Address Targeting With ‘Customer Match’

    Google is now going to let advertisers target people whose email addresses they have and others who are similar to those people. This is Customer Match, which Google is announcing at Advertising Week’s Times Center Stage on Monday. It lets advertisers target users of Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail.

    To use Customer Match, advertisers upload a list of email addresses, which can be matched to signed-in users on Google. Advertisers can then build campaigns and ads specifically for these audiences.

    “70% of online consumers agree that the quality, timing, and relevance of a brand’s message influences their perception of a brand,” says Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce at Google. “Google is in a unique position to connect consumers with your business in the most relevant ways. Whether they’re searching on Google, checking promotions on Gmail, or watching videos on YouTube, we can deliver the most relevant information based on what they’re doing, wherever they are, when they’re looking, and on any device they’re using. Today, we’re building on these capabilities with new ads innovations to deliver even more relevance.”

    “When it comes to your most valuable customers, they expect even more from you,” Ramaswamy adds. “And now, Google can help you reach customers that you already have a relationship with — like those in your loyalty program or who have made a previous purchase — in ways that are most relevant to their intent and context.”

    Advertisers using Customer Match can generate “Similar Audiences” to reach customers on YouTube and Gmail who Google thinks are likely to be interested in what the advertiser is selling.

    The new capabilities will be rolling out to all advertisers over the next several weeks.

    As others have pointed out, the email address targeting is something that’s already in use by Google rivals Facebook and Twitter.

    Image via Google

  • Google Announces Dynamic Callout Extensions For AdWords

    Google announced new dynamic callout extensions for AdWords ads. These are an automated extension that highlights specific business and product information in Google search ads.

    The company launched callout extensions last year to allow businesses to add text highlighting specific info about products and services. The dynamic ones update appropriately.

    “Dynamic callouts are generated based on the information on your website, helping reduce the amount of time you spend managing individual callouts,” Google says. However, it’s important to continue adding and optimizing callouts because dynamic callouts may not show for all advertisers. You can add your own callouts at the account, campaign, or ad group level. We’ll always prioritize showing the callouts you provide over dynamic callouts.”

    “Dynamic callouts can boost the average performance of your ads and are a factor in Ad Rank, however advertisers have the option to disable them,” it adds.

    Google is rolling out dynamic callouts globally over the coming weeks. They’ll only be available in English at first.

    Image via Google

  • Today In Google Charging Advertisers For Bogus Ads News…

    Today In Google Charging Advertisers For Bogus Ads News…

    AdWords advertisers have won the ability to sue Google over ads placed on error pages as the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco disagreed with a prior ruling from a lower court judge, which rejected their request for class action status.

    According to the advertisers, the search giant billed them for ads that appeared on error pages and parked domains between July 2994 and March 2008. Bloomberg Business reports:

    Monday’s appeals court ruling returns the case to a trial judge for further consideration. The appellate panel also sided with the advertisers related to a method for determining damages in the case…U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila in San Jose, California, denied class certification in January 2012, partly because it would be difficult to determine which advertisers had been hurt by the placement of their ads. Davila also found that some clicks on ads on those pages could have resulted in sales for the advertisers, according to Monday’s decision.

    Google is not commenting on the matter.

    Separately, in somewhat related news, there’s a new study out that reportedly shows that the company has been charging YouTube advertisers even when it thinks ads were viewed by robots. Google has commented on that. Business Insider shares this statement from the company:

    We’re contacting the researchers to discuss their findings further. We take invalid traffic very seriously and have invested significantly in the technology and team that keep this out of our systems. The vast majority of invalid traffic is filtered from our systems before advertisers are ever charged.

    It will be very interesting to see how both of these narratives progress.

    Image via Google

  • Google Changes Ad Click Referrers

    Google Changes Ad Click Referrers

    Google announced on Friday that it is updating the referer of ad clicks in an effort to improve security and system reliability for Google Search users.

    Beginning next month, the referrer for “many” ad clicks will contain the Google domain from which the click occurred, such as https://www.google.com or https://www.google.ca. They will no longer be communicating specific paths like google.com/aclk or googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk.

    “While the referrer will no longer differentiate Google’s organic search clicks from ad clicks, and in some cases may be absent entirely, there are still multiple strategies to track the origin of your clicks,” Google said in a Google+ post.

    The company suggests using auto-tagging (gclid), custom campaign parameters (utm), and/or ValueTrack parameters.

    Google says the change is a continuation of its general user security efforts, adding that users are safer when sites use HTTPS rather than HTTP.

    “By default, browsers do not pass a referrer from HTTPS sites to HTTP sites, the company says in the post. “To minimize advertiser disruption, we implemented a custom ads solution back when the Google search page migration to HTTPS took place. Now, many modern web browsers provide better control over referrer behavior via the meta referrer tag. This development is an improvement over our previously-implemented custom ads solution both in terms of reliability and latency.”

    Google began using HTTPS as a ranking signal in search last year.

    Image via Google

  • Google Extends Forwarding Numbers To The North

    Google Extends Forwarding Numbers To The North

    Last summer, Google introduced website call conversions to let advertisers track calls that occur after an ad click. It involves putting a snippet of code on your site, and measuring calls through a Google dynamically inserted Google forwarding number from potential customers who skipped the click-to-call portion of your ad, and checked out your site first.

    Last fall, Google launched local forwarding numbers that utilize area codes local to where the business is located to inspire more clicks or calls from users who may prefer to call a number with a recognizable area code. This was initially just available in the U.S.

    On Tuesday, Google announced the expansion of forwarding numbers to Canada.

    “The ability to call a business is often critical in helping potential customers complete a purchase,” writes AdWords product manager Amit Agarwal in a blog post. “In fact, 61% of mobile searchers say it’s extremely important to be able to call a business during the purchase phase of the shopping process. Measuring these phone calls to your business is essential for understanding the full value of Google search ads and making informed decisions for acquiring new customers. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of Google forwarding numbers in Canada.”

    “In addition to measuring call conversions, Google forwarding numbers also allow you to assign a conversion value,” says Agarwal. ” or example, a business might assign a revenue value to calls that last over 5 minutes. By measuring these calls, you can automatically optimize your keyword bids to drive more valuable calls using Target ROAS. This flexible bid strategy factors in signals like device, location, and time of day to make auction-time bid adjustments that maximize call conversion value, while reaching your business goals.”

    Canadian businesses can learn more about utilizing all of this here.

    Images via Google

  • Google Offers Native Gmail Ads To All AdWords Advertisers

    Google Offers Native Gmail Ads To All AdWords Advertisers

    Google announced that native Gmail ads are now available to all advertisers in AdWords. Advertisers can manage the ads by setting up a Display Network campaign and creating a Gmail format in the Ad Gallery.

    The ads have two main parts – collapsed and expanded. The collapsed unit is what users see at first. It looks basically like a message they’d see in their inbox, but is clearly labeled as an ad. When the user clicks, it expands for more details. The expanded unit is a full-page native ad that “recreates the informational and visual richness of a landing page,” as Google puts it. After the user clicks to expand, any additional clicks are free. These include clicks that let the user save the ad or forward it to other people.

    “Advertisers can choose from several customizable Gmail ads templates for the expanded ad unit,” Google says. “They can feature a single image, highlight a promotion that combines an image with a description and call-to-action button, or showcase multiple products at once. The custom HTML format offers the greatest amount of flexibility in how you configure your assets and allows you to create an even richer ad experience by including videos, forms, phone numbers, and multiple links and calls-to-action.”

    “You can use most of the display targeting options you’re already familiar with likekeywords, affinity audiences, demographics, and topics,” the company adds. “For example, a sports apparel advertiser could select relevant topics like ‘Fitness’ and ‘Sporting Goods’ or reach people in the ‘Health & Fitness Buffs’ or ‘Running Enthusiasts’ affinity audiences.”

    Gmail users can manage ad settings (which applies to all of Google) to remove unwanted ads from specific advertisers or opt out of interest-based advertising.

    Image via Google

  • Google Launches AdWords Express Home Service Ads In Beta

    Google Launches AdWords Express Home Service Ads In Beta

    Google announced new AdWords Express home service ads in beta for plumbers, locksmiths, house cleaners, and handymen in select cities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. These allow local home service businesses to appear prominently in Google.com for related queries as qualified professionals with ratings and phone numbers.

    Here’s what the ads look like:

    home-services

    “Here’s how home service ads work,” Googles says. “Let’s say you own a home cleaning business in San Jose. Simply tell us about your business, get qualified, and we’ll take care of the rest. Google will organize the information you give us into a polished profile page for your business, which includes a professional photo. When someone in your service area searches for ‘house cleaners’ or other related terms, we’ll show your profile within an expandable listing at the top of Google search results.”

    “Customers can read detailed reviews, submit a service request, or call your business directly for more information,” the company adds. “And to help ensure that you and your customers receive the best experience possible, home service ads are only available to businesses that have been screened and qualified.”

    Google has an application for businesses interested in participating in the ads here.

    It’s unclear when the ads might become available beyond the Bay Area, but as availability broadens, they’re sure to draw a great deal of interest from local advertisers.

    Image via Google

  • Google Launches Structured Snippet Extensions For AdWords

    Google Launches Structured Snippet Extensions For AdWords

    Google announced that it is starting to roll out structured snippet extensions for text ads. These enable advertisers to provide structured information to show up in their ads.

    You can select a predefined header and enter a list of customized values that make sense for your business. Google uses the example of a hotel brand promoting a hotel property and creating a structured snippet for “Amenities” like so:

    Screen Shot 2015-08-27 at 4.52.23 PM

    “Earlier this year, we introduced dynamic structured snippets,” says product manager Senthil Hariramasamy. “This automated ad extension gives your customers a better sense of the content on your website before they click on your ad. Whether it’s highlighting a list of hotel amenities or top clothing brands, dynamic structured snippets make your search ads more relevant and helpful while saving you time and simplifying campaign management.”

    “Over the past few months, many of you have been seeing tremendous success with dynamic structured snippets,” Hariramasamy adds. “And we’ve heard that you sometimes want to customize the information that shows in this format.”

    That’s where the new extensions come in. Google talks about when to use structured snippets and when to use callouts here.

    The new feature will be rolling out to all AdWords accounts over the coming weeks.

    Image via Google

  • Google Launches Automated Extension For Shopping Ads

    Google Launches Automated Extension For Shopping Ads

    Google announced the launch of new automated extensions for shopping ads (PLAs). This is in reaction to advertisers promoting text to highlight special offers and free shipping.

    The extensions automatically show up with the ads without any extra cost to the advertiser, using existing info provided in the Merchant Center settings and data feeds. They show free shipping and price drop info as shoppers come across the ads.

    “Based on initial results, we’re seeing shoppers prefer these new automated extensions over promotional text and advertisers are getting better click through rates with it too,” says product manager Tom Beyer. “Thus, we’ll be retiring promotional text at the end of September 2015 and start surfacing automated extensions more frequently instead.”

    “For those who use promotional text, no additional action is needed,” he adds. “Your ads won’t be otherwise affected and will continue to reach shoppers searching on Google. If you want to highlight other offers aside from free shipping and sale prices, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of our other shopping extensions.”

    These include Merchant promotions for sharing discounts/promo codes, product ratings for displaying aggregated star ratings/links to customer reviews, and Trusted Stores certification.

    The extension’s availability varies by country.

    Image via AdWords

  • Google Shopping Gets New Bidding Solutions

    Google Shopping Gets New Bidding Solutions

    Google announced that its giving advertisers new bidding strategies for Shopping Campaigns, which will help them “go go beyond manual max CPC bidding to deliver specific bids for each auction, tailored to people’s context.”

    Under Bid Strategies, you’ll now find Maximize Clicks, Enhanced CPC, and Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

    bidding

    Maximize Clicks is for those looking to get as much traffic as possible within their budget, as it automatically adjusts bids. The company says it’s a great way to promote doorbusters on your website or in-store with loal inventory ads.

    “If you want to manage your own bids or use a third-party bidding platform, enhanced CPC is your best bet,” says Google Shopping product management Dimitris Meretakis. “It dynamically optimizes on top of your bid in real-time so you get more conversions or sales at a similar cost. We’re seeing advertisers get as many as 7% more conversions at the same cost with eCPC!”

    “If you don’t have time to manage your bids manually and are revenue-driven, let target return on ad spend (ROAS) do the heavy bidding lifting,” Meretakis adds. “With target ROAS, you choose your desired ROAS and it’ll dynamically bid so products that’ll drive more revenue will get higher bids.”

    That option is actually in beta, and is only available to a small group of retailers, but those interested in using it can apply to be an early adopter. There’s a form here.

    Google says it will be looking for and investing in more ways to make campaign management and bidding more effective, so look out for more on that front.

    Images via Google

  • AdWords App Adds Billing, Column, Performance Table Updates

    AdWords App Adds Billing, Column, Performance Table Updates

    This past March, Google finally launched an AdWords app for Android, offering advertisers the ability to manage campaigns on the go. They can use the app to view and manage ad performance, view campaign stats, update bids and budgets, get real-time alerts and notifications, act on suggestions to improve campaigns, and call a Google expert when needed.

    On Thursday, Google announced an update for the app, which it says has been installed hundreds of thousands of times in 195 countries.

    The update includes a new billing summary, additional columns, and updates to performance tables.

    “We created the new billing summary to help you manage payment options, and provide you with an easy-to-see dashboard of your billing and payment information,” says AdWords product manager Cameron McKnight. “For example, you can now view payment history, add and update your payment method (add a new card, set up a backup card, or edit an expiration date), and edit your billing profile – all from your Android smartphone.”

    Screen Shot 2015-08-06 at 3.19.03 PM

    “The app now also has additional columns — for conversions, impression share and campaigns — that can be added to your performance tables so you can view and make quick optimizations on the go,” McKnight added. “For example, if a campaign is limited by budget, you can quickly adjust it. Or, you can monitor your keywords’ conversion metrics and adjust bids in a few taps to help you meet your performance goals.”

    Finally, performance tables for campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads let you horizontally scroll through more columns to see more about your performance.

    No word on when exactly the iOS app is coming, but Google does insist that it’s on the way.

    Images via Google

  • Google Announces Report Editor For AdWords

    Google announced on Wednesday that it will roll out Report Editor in AdWords over the next few months. This is a new tool that lets advertisers build custom tables and charts that can be segmented, sorted, and filtered as they like.

    There are drag and drop actions that let you sort, filter, and “pivot” data to help you focus on the right information. You can also visualize data in pie, bar, or line charts, and apply segmentations to analyze data with “finer granularity,” as Google puts it.

    Screen Shot 2015-08-06 at 9.14.59 AM

    “Getting started with the Report Editor is easy,” says Jon Diorio, Group Product Manager for Google AdWords. “For example, to examine performance across devices, simply drag and drop the metrics and dimensions you like into your table or chart. You can look at metrics like impressions, clicks, and conversions, and then add dimensions like device, campaign, or ad group to segment your data further.”

    “Visualizing data in a chart can make your data more actionable,” Diorio adds. “Charts can quickly unveil performance trends that may be missed when looking at numbers alone. Now, you can instantly create a line, pie, or bar chart to surface your key insights. Want to try a different visualization? It just takes a click to instantly switch between different charts and tables. Just like tables, you can save and share your charts with others or set them to run regularly.”

    Screen Shot 2015-08-06 at 9.16.53 AM

    As mentioned, this is all rolling out over the coming months, so you’re probably not going to get access to it right away. Google says you’ll know you can use it when you see the new Reports tab in your account.

    Image via Google

  • Google Adds Bulk Uploads To Shopping Campaigns

    Google announced a new bulk uploads feature for Shopping Campaigns in AdWords. These enable advertisers to add new product groups, change or delete existing groups, and change bids with a single bulk action.

    bulk

    “Since the introduction of Shopping campaigns, we’ve been working hard to introduce new features enabling you to scale your campaigns in an easy-to-use way,” Google said in an AdWords Google+ update. “For example, we announced a flattened view of product groups last year, allowing you to sort and analyze your inventory performance.”

    “Today, we’re excited to introduce a new feature that’ll make campaign management easier and faster for you: ability to restructure product groups with bulk uploads,” it added.

    In addition to product groups and bids, bulk uploads can be used for tracking templates and custom parameters. You can download an editable report, make changes in the document, and then upload the updated version back into your account, and then your changes can be previewed and automatically applied.

    As Google notes in a help center article, for tracking templates and custom parameters, you can make changes to all product groups that are not subdivided, excluding the ones marked “Excluded.”

    Last month, Google announced a slew of shopping-related advertising features. More on these here.

    Images via Google

  • Google Launches New Dynamic Search Ads

    Google’s Dynamic Search Ads product (DSA) has been around for three years, but on Monday, Google announced a major revamp. The new version is immediately available to all advertisers.

    The ads crawl and index your site, but also organize its content into recommended categories for targeting your ads. These categories are customized to your products and services. They include samples of the queries you’ll target, the text ads that will appear, and your landing pages.

    “DSA helps you reach your customers with the right information, in the moments they’re searching — without the need to manage keywords,” explains AdWords senior product manager Jen Huang. “Using Google’s organic web crawling technology, DSA indexes your website to determine which searches to show ads for. If a search is relevant to the content on your website, Google will automatically create an ad to enter into the auction. Your ads’ headlines and landing pages are generated based on the products and services you offer, and what people are searching for. These highly targeted ads also complement other AdWords campaigns by delivering value for relevant searches that aren’t covered by existing keywords.”

    “Now, there’s an even more powerful way for you to reach your customers,” she adds. “In addition to crawling and indexing your website, DSA now organizes your website content into recommended categories for targeting your ads. Recommended categories are customized to your products and services, for example “furniture,” and only trigger ads for search queries where you have a relevant landing page. Each category can also be refined to show additional, more specific categories.”

    Recommendations are based on performance of your existing keywords that target similar queries.

    According to Google, the first DSA campaign takes less than ten minute to set up thanks to an improved workflow.

    Image via Google

  • YouTube Launches 360 Degree Video Ads

    YouTube Launches 360 Degree Video Ads

    Google just announced the launch of 360 degree video ads on YouTube.

    Google introduced 360-degree videos on YouTube back in March. From the viewer’s perspective, they were particularly cool when viewed on Android, as you could move your phone around to alter the perspective. You could use your mouse to drag it around on the desktop, but it just wasn’t the same. Google added support to iOS as well as its Cardboard virtual reality platform in May.

    In an announcement on the AdWords blog, YouTube Ads product manager JR Futrell says:

    We’re thrilled that as soon as the ability to create 360 video became available to YouTube creators, brands immediately began experimenting with this new tool to deliver engrossing consumer experiences. Since then, we’ve seen stunning videos from Coca-Cola, Stella Artois and Nike, among others (check them out onCardboard!). And for those videos that were run as ads, campaign results have been impressive: for instance, Coca-Cola’s 360 video celebrating the 100th anniversary of their iconic bottle design outperformed standard in-stream video ad view-through rates by 36%.
     
    And today, Bud Light becomes the first advertiser in the US to launch 360 video running in TrueView ads. The series of ads feature three different events from Whatever, USA – Bud  Light’s takeover of Catalina Island. The immersive ads drop you right in the middle of the action, including a performance by Diplo, the welcome parade, and the “Turn of An Era” 1920’s themed party.

    The ads are compatible with YouTube HTML5 Rich Media Mastheads and TrueView in-stream and in-display units.

    Special cameras are required for creating the videos. Models include Ricoh Theta, Kodak SP360, Giroptic 360cam, and IC Real Tech Allie, all of which are already available or coming soon.

    Here’s an example from Bud Light:

    YouTube has step-by-step instructions for uploading 360 degree videos here.

    360 degree video ads on Facebook are happening as well as the social network continues to position itself closer and closer to YouTube. Facebook also announced 360 degree videos for the News Feed at its F8 conference in March. Last month, they debuted 360 degree views in mobile ads at Cannes Lions.

  • Google Just Revealed A Bunch Of New Shopping Features

    Google announced a bunch of new features for advertisers to encourage more sales from shoppers.

    For one, a new enhancement to product listing ads on mobile devices expands the ads as the user swipes to show more information such as product ratings and availability at nearby stores. Google says this will result in more qualified traffic driven directly to retailers.

    swipe

    The feature will hit Chrome for Android this month and iOS in the coming months.

    There are also new efforts in conversational search aimed at helping shoppers and advertisers.

    Vice President of product management Jonathan Alferness explains, “On searches for the top-rated products, such as ‘Best women’s Nike running shoes,’ we’re starting to show newly-designed shopping ads with authoritative rankings and product ratings. The new design is so helpful to those specific users that we’ve seen click-through-rate increases of up to 11% for retailers for these queries.3 Product queries that include ‘reviews’ or ‘recommendations’ are also increasingly common, so we’re showing new product review cards with product ratings and snippets from the most useful reviews from around the web. Finally, shoppers who want to learn more about a product’s features, like the resolution of the camera they’re considering purchasing, may now see a product attribute card with the most relevant information.”

    conversational

    Google is also going to start showing more local inventory ads than before, prioritizing them over over shopping ads on local intent shopping queries, such as “coffee maker near me”. Google says this increased clicks on shopping ads by 85% for such queries.

    coffee

    Google is also releasing two new shopping cards for Google Now – the in-store card, which appears when a shopper is near a store and the price drop card, which highlights price reductions.

    google-now-cards

    Google is working with select shopping apps like eBay, Flipkart, and Zalando to add dee plinks to their apps in the shopping ads.

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    Finally, the new feature that is getting the most buzz is the ability to purchase right on Google.

    Alferness explains, “To help smartphone shoppers buy with ease from their favorite retailers, we’ll be testing Purchases on Google. When a shopper searches on mobile for a product such as “women’s hoodies”, she may see a shopping ad with ‘Buy on Google’ text. After clicking the ad, she’s taken to a retailer-branded product page hosted by Google. Checkout is seamless, simple, and secure, thanks to saved payment credentials in her Google Account.”

    POG - Under Armour

    Google says this leads to better mobile conversions because of a simplified checkout process, and those using it only pay for clicks on the shopping ads to the product page. Clicks and interactions on the product page (which Google hosts) are free. Google provides purchase protection for customers, but retailers “own the customer communication” and can offer the option to receive marketing and promotional messages.

    According to Google, mobile devices used before or during shopping trips influenced nearly a trillion dollars in the U.S. (about 28% of in-store sales).

    Images via Google