Google Announces its new Adwords features

So it’s that exciting time of year again when Google announces its latest large scale developments for Adwords users, but just what delights has Google got in store for us this year? Last year’s changes were a little on the controversial side, with blood pressures running high as many stressed over the new mandatory change; Enhanced Campaigns. Enhanced Campaigns were launched with the aim of simplifying Adwords and increasing reach, but in real terms it was seen as a loss of control and for many it had an initial negative impact on CPCs. It is easy, therefore to panic every time Google declare their intention to announce new features, but let us not forget the other more positive changes that came last year along side Enhanced Campaigns. One of the most exciting was arguably the introduction of Estimated Total Conversions showing that Google really was studying the bigger picture. They understood that present human behaviour patterns indicate that people move from one device to another on a daily basis when both browsing and buying.

Despite the exciting new features that came last year, it will still, no doubt, come as a relief to many that the most recent updates to the Adwords platform as announced on April 22nd 2014, are optional…..to a degree. That means you can pick and chose what to experiment with and what to ignore, or you can just carry on as you are. It would be a shame however to do this, as the new features that are to be rolled out over the coming months offer some great new opportunities for businesses of all sizes to regain some control over their accounts. The most notable announcement was that of the ‘New Enterprise-Class Tools’.

Although there are several new features coming soon it will delight many users to know that nothing is being retired specifically because of these. It is worth remembering, however, that Google is to retire the regular Product Listing Ads (PLA) by the end of August in favour of their shopping campaigns (which you can read more about here), and some of the ‘New Enterprise-Class Tools’ could well mark the beginning of the end for the Adwords Editor as more actions are added to the platform itself.

So what are these ‘New Enterprise-Class Tools’ and what other features have Google revealed? Let’s take a look at Googles new adwords features.

‘Enterprise-Class Tools’

Whether intended as an attack on Adwords Management Platforms such as Marin or Kenshoo, or a truly genuine response to those asking for more help to manage increasingly large accounts and campaigns more effectively , the following new features will I’m sure manage to seduce many businesses away from using outside platforms. It might also come as a surprise to learn that these swarve new features are not limited to businesses of a particular size or annual ad spend, but will be available to all. Not that third-party platforms should have any cause for concern just yet, there will always be those who don’t wish to get their hands dirty and embrace the new enterprise-level Adwords management functionality. For those that can’t wait for the new workflow, reporting and optimisation tools here is what we know so far:

1. Increase In Bulk Actions – Previously many bulk actions were only available in the Adwords editor and other third party systems, now control is given to the Adwords platform itself. You will be able to set up things such as location targeting and ad rotation across thousands of campaigns actually on the Adwords platform. Large numbers of ads can be updated quickly, across several campaigns with just a few clicks on the interface. A particularly useful element for things such as seasonal promotions or price changes.

2. Automated Bidding – Expanding on what they’ve already started, Google are now adding the ability to maximise conversions or revenue by giving advertisers the power to set efficiency targets and business goals. Again this was an action previously limited to third-party platforms.

3. Enhanced Reporting – Appropriately nicknamed ‘Excel for Adwords’ this is perhaps the most exciting new feature. What was once a laborious task importing, exporting and formatting data downloaded from Adwords in spreadsheets can now be done directly on the platform using a multi-dimensional analysis tool. Drag and drop pivot tables could make downloading and formatting data in Excel a thing of the past. Using a variety of new visualisation tools it will be easy to analyse your data as well as turn it into tables, graphs and charts (including line, bar and pie charts!) which can then be downloaded and shared.

4. ‘Your Own Lab’ – Life is not always straightforward and making decisions when there are number of variables at play can be extremely difficult. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but not much use when the moment has gone and the mistakes have been made. Well worry no more! This new tool allows advertisers to create draft campaigns and experiment with a variety of features before fully committing to an idea. You can stage and test new ideas using a percentage of your live traffic, enabling you to make a more data driven decision. Plus there are hardly any limits to what you can play with – adjust everything from bid changes, new keywords, and campaign settings to setting special bids for times and locations, experimenting with ad formats and so much more! So if you have ever wondered what affect an idea you have on an account will have, then you can measure it easily within this powerful new adwords feature.

It’s Not About Mobile It’s About Consumers!

Perhaps not the best opener to a marketing conference there has ever been, but the Enterprise-Class Tools would have been a tough act to follow, Google decided to lead their event with their new Mobile App Ads. This is not an entirely new area for Google as they have already begun to make inroads with things such as the AdMob Network and App Promotion Ad Format. The following new features aim to promote apps further making them easier to find and download as well as more engaging:

1. Improved Targeting – Google want you to be able reach people who are most likely to engage with your business or service, and become a valued customer. With better targeting you should be able to reach people based on the apps they currently use, how often they use these apps, the sorts of in-app purchases they make, and their app download history. For example if you are a fitness enthusiast and use various apps to measure how many steps you take a day or how far you cycle then you could possibly see an ad for an app that would measure your calorie consumption.

2. More Ad Impressions – App Promotion Ads should begin appearing as people watch YouTube videos on mobile devices. App installs will also become available as an enhancement to the current TrueView offering. Both these should increase ad inventory especially considering that 40% of YouTube views take place on mobile.

3. Deeper Re-Engagement – It might come as a shock to know but 80% of apps that are downloaded are only ever used once and then trashed. Getting an app downloaded is only the beginning of the problem, gaining the person as a customer and keeping them engaged can be a lot harder work. Google have announced that they are now launching a new re-engagement campaign in Adwords for both search and display. Using this customers will be taken directly to already-installed apps and relevant pages encouraging further engagement.

4. App Analytics Measurement – In the near future advertisers will be able to measure conversions across the entire life-cycle of an app; from installation, to re-engagement, to in-app purchases, pretty impressive ay!

Before we get too excited about these new developments in app marketing it is worth noting that so far Google have not developed any new identifiers, such as a new mobile cookie, nor have they confirmed that these new features will be implemented on apps outside of the Google Play Store. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that for now Android will most definitely take priority over iOS.

So will all this be enough to tempt advertisers to move away from third-party management software? In theory I’m sure that it will, providing you don’t mind doing some of the hard work yourself. However the proof will be in the pudding as they say! The one thing that remains is for us to see how well these wonderful new toys work when they’re here. In the meantime Google have also promised that they are still working on investing in Estimated Total Conversions which includes both off and online conversions, but as of yet they have nothing new to announce on the matter. Fingers crossed they eventually do find a solution to tracking off- line conversions!