Google is rolling out new changes on AdWords with the goal of helping marketers and businesses step up their game on a playing field that’s becoming more mobile-centric.
“Over the last several years, we’ve discovered that accounting for mobile and designing for mobile-first are two very different things. That’s why we’ve completely transformed how we think about and build AdWords,” Google stated.
Why Shift to Mobile-First?
In recent years, AdWords have implemented changes with mobile users in mind. It should come as no surprise as there are trillions of searches made on Google each year and more than half of those queries are keyed in through a mobile device.
So, what can advertisers expect from Google AdWords in the coming months? Here are the updates that are underway.
AdWords is increasing the word count for text ad copy. With the new update, advertisers can expect longer headlines and description lines. From the 25-character allocation, it will increase to two sets of 30-character headlines, signifying a 140% increase in text space. Meanwhile, description lines will soon shift from two 35-character lines to one 80-character line, indicating 14% more words allowed.
Display URLs will also shift from being manually inputted to becoming automatically extracted from your final URL.
These new features are designed to make ads more effective across different types and sizes of screens, especially for mobile.
Responsive Ads
With the new update, you no longer have to worry about creating ads for different spaces because Google will generate them for you. All you need to do is just provide the images, headlines, descriptions, and final URLs. This means that your ads will look more natural or native in the space—website or app—that they will be displayed on.
Bidding Systems for each Device Type
One of the changes that you should watch out for is a new bidding system where you can control and adjust separate bids for ads on mobile, desktop, or tablet. With that, you can focus more on the device or platform that’s more appropriate for the campaign.
Local Search Ads on Google.com and Google Maps
With local search ads appearing on Google.com and Maps, you have higher chances of increasing actual visits or in-store traffic to your business location.
Branding opportunities are increased through promotion pins on Maps—which features a business logo as opposed to the generic location pin. Once clicked, it can showcase a mobile inventory ad format.
Local business pages are also getting a new look and features such as special offers and product inventory sections, which help clients see what you got in-store before they even set foot in it.
Better tracking of in-store traffic
Online and offline activities are becoming very well integrated with each other. To make sure how your ads are translating into store visits, Google is coming up with an update to help you measure it better, especially so that majority of sales or transactions happen in actual business locations.
Google announced these updates during the Performance Summit that took place on May 24, 2016.
With these updates, advertisers can expect more flexibility and opportunities to make the campaign more effective and rack up both online and offline conversions. But it’s a matter of being ready with these changes as well. As early as now, increase your quality scores and start gearing up for these new features, so that you can secure the top ad space as soon as changes take effect.
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