We’re sharing three of our favourite AdWords updates so far in 2018 that we think will give your business a competitive edge!
Google are constantly adding new features to the AdWords interface, most of which aren’t even announced! For the most part, many of these updates help with the management of AdWords campaigns and help to make things more efficient and user friendly. While these are great for agencies and account managers, we know that what business owners really want to know is what new features in AdWords they can use to get an edge over competitors.
From the abundance of AdWords updates this year, we have compiled our favourites that are important to your brand.
2018 AdWords Updates:
1. Outstream Ads
Introducing “outstream ads”, a new video format to reach your audience beyond YouTube. These are a new format of video ads built exclusively for mobile devices, which can be displayed on Google Partner videos. Video partner websites are carefully vetted and must meet Google’s inventory quality standards.
For a while now we have been able to show the traditional in-stream ads or bumper video ads on Google Partner videos, but this new format – outstream ads – works a little differently. They are designed especially for mobiles and tablets and to create a positive user experience, they play automatically on mute when a user comes across them and the users can tap to play the audio if they’re interested – or just scroll past.
As mobile is becoming an integral part of user behaviour and the overall purchasing experience, it is vital that we as advertisers are making the most of these available touchpoints. These ads are charged on a view per impression basis (vCPM), where an ad counts as viewable when 50% of the ad screen space is visible for two seconds or more.
You can then measure the impact of your ads by reviewing how many people went and searched your brand on Google after viewing your ads through “custom intent audiences”.
To find out more about how outstream ads can give you a competitive edge and view an example, visit the AdWords blog.
2. Higher level of reporting for click-to-message ads
Firstly, let’s explain click-to-message ads. By setting up a message extension, you can give users an option click on your ad to launch their SMS app with a pre-written message tailored to the product or service they’re interested in. For example, if you run a hairdressing salon, they can send or edit your pre-written message saying something like “I’m interested in an appointment. Please text me back with your available times today”. Click-to-message extensions were introduced in late 2016, but in March this year, Google updated their reporting capabilities. Through Message Reporting, you can now get information on:
- Chat Rate: How often users start a conversation with you after seeing your message extension
- Chat start time: The timestamp for when a user sends you a message to initiate a conversation
- Messages: The total number of messages exchanged between you and a user in a single chat
With 65% of consumers saying they’d consider using messaging to connect with a business, it’s an ideal and user friendly way to get a competitive edge.
3. Benchmark pricing reports for Google Shopping
Before you get too excited, this was only announced a few days ago on the AdWords blog as becoming “available soon”, but we have included it anyway as we think it’s super handy! AdWords will soon add a “benchmark price” column for Google Shopping campaigns, so that you can see how other retailers selling the same product compare to you. While this is only important for resellers of other brands, it’s going to save them a bunch of time doing their own searches trolling the Shopping page and manually writing down which competitors are selling it cheaper. Knowing about this update and utilising it regularly is a clear-cut way to get a competitive edge!
It can be seen that many of these new features are focusing on multi-channel marketing methods. Using a combination of marketing channels is becoming vital as you need to be where your customers are. It is inevitable that this is the marketing of the future, and moving on this quickly is what will give you the competitive edge.
Need Help with these AdWords Updates?
If you’d like to chat about how we can incorporate these new features into your AdWords campaign, please get in touch!
