Google Adwords is a fantastic service that has delivered a great deal of value to a wide array of businesses. It allows people to create bespoke ads and display them on the search engine to appear when people look for specific things. The aim is to attract people to click the ad and visit their website so they can browse and make a purchase.
The service has helped businesses to make great returns from their websites, driving traffic and enjoying increased enquiries and purchases. It also offers huge rewards for Google, contributing more to their revenue than any other aspect of their business.
At the Google Performance Summit in May 2016 the company revealed that they were looking at making changes to their Adwords service. The announcement generated a huge amount of interest because it had the potential to cause a big impact on countless businesses. There were several ideas mentioned, including expanding ads, bidding for separate devices and responsive display ads.
On Tuesday 26th July the rollout of expanded text ads (ETAs) began. These are very different to the standard adverts people will be used to creating in Adwords. The original ads feature a single headline of 25 characters and two description lines of 35 each. An ETA is much longer with double headlines of 30 characters and a description that can be up to 80.
The expansion of the ads offers big benefits for advertisers, giving them more space to be creative and provide information about what they offer. The move was devised with mobile users in mind, ensuring they could see more details on each ad.
For a period people will be able to create both standard and ETA ads so advertisers can run their own tests and ensure they create the best adverts. From October 26th 2016 people will no longer be able to create and upload new standard ads, instead they will only be able to use the new format. There has been no release regarding if and when existing adverts in the old style will no longer run.
Google is giving advertisers every opportunity to frequent themselves with the new style of ads. They have even published a new guide for best practices with ETAs.
Separate device bidding is the second big change that has been introduced to Adwords. The rollout is expected to take a few months to reach all accounts but when it does land advertisers will have the power to specify what type of device they want their ads to be visible on. This means they can specifically target people using tablets, mobile devices like smartphones, and computers.
The ability to focus on different devices offers advertisers even more opportunities to tailor their strategies. It means they can experiment and get an idea of how people are visiting their website. For example they could set up a campaign one month and target a specific device to see what kind of conversion and returns it offers. They can then switch device in each of the next months and explore the differences. This can reveal some really useful things.
Responsive display ads for native inventory are the third big news item. When using them the advertiser needs to provide a short 25 character headline and a longer 90 character one, a description of the same length, an image and the URL of a landing page. Google will auto-generate these. They can be visible all across the Google Display Network (GDN) on all kinds of device.
As you can see Google Adwords has advanced a great deal. The new features have the potential to offer an array of benefits for users. It will be interesting to see how people adjust to them and derive the biggest rewards possible. If you need any advice Web Consultancy is happy to help and you can consult the best practice guidelines too.