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Tag: Search Funnels

  • Google Ditching 4 Search Funnels Columns in AdWords

    Google launched Search Funnels columns a little over two years ago (three years after first introducing Search Funnels reports), enabling advertisers to incorporate Search Funnels data into their everyday optimizations by adding the columns to their campaign, ad group, keyword and ad tabs.

    Google announced on Friday that starting early next month, it is removing four Search Funnels columns from its reporting. The ones on the chopping block are: +Assist Clicks, +Assist Impressions, +Assist Clicks/Last Clicks, and +Assist Impressions/Last Clicks.

    The reason Google is canning these columns is that people have apparently found them too confusing in combination with other available columns.

    Google explains in a Google+ post:

    In AdWords, Search Funnels show you how users search for your products before converting. When you enable Search Funnels columns in the Campaigns tab, you can see how often a particular keyword, like “nyc hotels,” assists conversions that eventually happen through other, more specific keywords, like “3 star hotels manhattan.”

    AdWords currently offers two kinds of Search Funnels columns which are closely related: “Assist Clicks” and “Click-Assisted Conversions”. Many advertisers have shared feedback that the difference between these 2 kinds of columns is not very clear.

    If you use any of the ones that they’re getting rid of, Google says you should switch to Click-Assisted Conversions columns, which it says are more relevant from an optimization standpoint.

    “It’s more useful to know how many conversions were assisted by a particular keyword, rather than to know how often a particular keyword appeared on any conversion path,” Google says.

    The changes will take effect in the Campaigns tab, the AdWords API, and in Search Funnels itself, where the Assist Clicks and Impressions report will both be removed. The Campaigns tab will have six Search Funnels columns instead of ten.

    The remaining columns will include: click assisted conversions, impression assisted conversions, click assisted con version value, impression assisted conversion value, click assisted conversions/last click conversions, and impression assisted conversions/last click conversions.

    The exact date when Google will cut the columns is unclear, but we’re probably talking a month max, so go ahead and say goodbye.

    Image via Google+

  • Google Adds Search Funnel Columns In AdWords Tabs

    Google announced the launch of new Search Funnels columns in AdWords so advertisers can add them to their campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ad tabs.

    “Search Funnels show you how users search for products before converting, allowing you to make better informed decisions in AdWords. Now, we’re making it easier than ever to incorporate Search Funnels data into your everyday optimizations,” Google AdWords product manager Dan Friedman says.

    “If you’ve enabled conversion tracking, you’ll be able to see a new section within the column customizer for Search Funnels,” he explains. “This section will allow you to add columns for many common Search Funnels metrics, such as assist clicks, click assisted conversions, and assist impressions.”

    The feature is rolling out over the course of the next couple days.

  • Google Tells You All About How To Use Search Funnels

    Google recently hosted a 50-minute webinar on AdWords Search Funnels. Google has shared the video in its entirety, so if this is an area you want to learn more about, dig in:

    Google doesn’t stop there, however. Simon Rosen, Global Sales Lead for Search Funnels and AdWords Conversion Tracking, wrote a lengthy blog post addressing a number of questions users had from the webinar, but that Google was unable to get to.

    Read that here.

    “Search Funnels uncovers a crucial part of the path to conversion by showing all of your Google search ads that a user either saw or clicked on, before they converted for you,” says Rosen. “However, you may be interested in understanding how your customers interact with your other online channels too.”

    If that is the case, Google is hosting another webinar dealing with Google Analytics’ Multi-channel Funnels on August 9.

  • Google Search Funnels Interface Redesigned

    Back in 2010, Google launched Search Funnels, an AdWords tool, which helps advertisers make decisions based on search impressions and clicks so they can try to improve their conversion rates.

    The tool has received a refresh. The previous version will be available for the next few weeks, but if you use the tool, you may as well start getting used to the new one.

    One new feature is the ability to compare date ranges. This helps you determine how your funnel has changed on a year-to-year basis.

    Search Funnels date ranges

    Another new feature is the ability to access drill-down dimensions via tabs, which appear at the top left of the Search Funnels tables.

    Users can also view total conversions and conversion value right next to each other.

    “We’ve also made it easier to create persistent drill-down filters so you can view multiple reports focusing on the same analysis,” says product manager Laura Holmes. “For example, if you’d like to do an analysis based on ‘all the Top Paths where the first click was Campaign XYZ,’ you can now Save this drill-down and then click through multiple reports. If you no longer want to have this view, just click the ‘Clear’ button above the report title and you’ll return to the unfiltered version of the report.”

  • Google Introduces AdWords Search Funnels Reports

    Last night, your humble author watched an episode of The X-Files in which a sick boy got a new liver.  The twist was this: the boy got a new liver after a man who built Rube Goldberg machines survived four attempts on his life and won the lottery.  And a new set of reports known as AdWords Search Funnels acknowledges the same principle of cause and effect.

    Search Funnels (which is currently in beta) should help advertisers see any sort of complicated processes that are at work.  Essentially, if two or more clicks over the course of as many as 30 days contribute to a sale, companies can now more easily recognize the sequence of events.

    A post on the Inside AdWords blog explained, "AdWords Search Funnels are a set of reports describing the ad click and impression behavior on Google.com that leads up to a conversion.  In addition to a Top Conversions report, Search Funnels consist of 7 reports including Assisted Conversions, First and Last Click Analysis, Time Lag, and Path Length."

    The following video contains more information if you’re interested, although it’s not nearly as entertaining as that season seven episode of The X-Files.

    The Search Funnels beta should roll out over the next several weeks, at which point advertisers will be able to find it in the "Conversions" section of their accounts.