Google Product Listing Ad Sellers Exceed 100,000 – 1st October 2012 Having announced PLAs (product listing ads) in May and started the transition in July, Google have been able to amass in excess of 100,000 merchants, using this product offering. This product is essentially a comparison shopping engine. The 100k milestone has been reached just as usage of this product will come at a cost from the 1st of October. It’s therefore important retailers are aware of the impact this may have on their sales and the potential opportunities available to them, within the new landscape. The background to this move from Google is to claw back some of the market share from Amazon for product research as a first port of call. Amazon’s share has increased by 70%, whilst Google’s has almost halved in the past 3 years, as potential customers view the former as serving their ultimate purpose (namely to purchase something), whereas Google can be confusing with its many tabs and at times confusing results. Additionally, Amazon is often cited in top 20 lists for most recognised/trusted brands, increasing its appeal. Although it’s easy to think advertisers would be worried about the effects of paying for these listings and what repercussions this may have on the sales volumes accrued to date without payment, early research suggests an increase in sales at a lower CPA. It would appear the advantage at this relatively early stage of adoption, is the lower competition, which affords similarly low costs for the retailer. Yet as the headline of this piece suggests, there are ever increasing subscribers to the model which could have the converse effect over time, or see costs level out in the next few months as competitors push prices up. Ultimately, what is important for sellers to note is the need to adopt this new iteration of Google’s shopping product, to boost their sales and revenue. Irrespective of whether one pays or not, they would be missing valuable customers by forgoing this feature, as users will visit other ecommerce sites instead such as Amazon, as recent years’ trends point to. The potential is huge for advertisers as the land is still fertile so to speak and a great many sales can be made for relatively little ad spend, in the coming months leading up to Christmas. As for next year, bidding at product level could ensure a healthier long term market share. – Jafar Mahir More Details: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2208511/More-Than-100000-SellersHave-Inventory-in-New-Google-Shopping-Model http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2196747/Amazon-Passes-Google-asTop-Destination-for-Shopping-Research-Report
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2205507/Product-Ads-101-A-RealLook-at-PLAs-Debunking-Hype-Fear
Google 'Remarketing in Search' BETA Launched – 1st October 2012 In the past week Google have launch a 'Remarketing in Search' targeting option in Beta. This will effectively work like the standard remarketing system that many advertisers use within display, but will allow advertisers to also now use new remarketing lists to specific target customers who are searching for their product through the SERPs with even more tailored ad copy for individual users. – Kevin Ting More details: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2208956/Google-LaunchesRemarketing-in-Search-in-Beta
New York Major Declares "Search Week" – 3rd October 2012 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially declared the week of October 1 as Search Week. The proclamation was issued in recognition of New York’s advertising and marketing heritage, SMX’s fifth year of drawing digital marketing talent into the city to network, and the continued growth of the city’s digital industry. Search Week plays host to a variety of search focused expo's and conferences giving agencies with the change to network with clients and partners, and is greatly helping to raise the profile of Search in New York. The question is: how do we inspire Boris to grant London our very own Search Week? – Chris Richardson More details: http://searchengineland.com/mayor-bloomberg-declares-search-week-innyc-135027
Google adWords Impression Share Reporting Improvement: Coming Soon... – 3rd October 2012 In early November, Google AdWords will improve its Impression Share Reporting. The following improvement will be rolled out soon. Distinct search and display columns. New columns will be added to cleanly separate search and display impression share. “Hour of day” segmentation. Advertisers will be able to see how their ad coverage varies by the hour. This new feature is particularly helpful, which can help users to set up and review ad scheduling strategy. Filters, charts and rules. Advertisers will be able to apply filters, see charts, and create automated rules using IS metrics. Accuracy. Google will improve the accuracy of how we calculate impression share data. Along with these improvements, Google AdWords will make change to the availability of historical IS reporting data. Historical Impression Share data before 01 Oct 2012 won’t be available from early November. In February 2013, existing IS columns and data will be permanently retired. If you want to keep your historical impression share data, you’d better preserve an offline copy before the end of this October. – Blair Liu More details: http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/impression-share-reportingchanges.html
The Top 11 Current & Future AdWords Innovations – 4th October 2012 It seems each week another announcement is made about tweaks & optimisations to Google's AdWords service (which is refreshing to see Google practicing what their AdWords tutorials preach). With this in mind it would seem appropriate to condense the 11 most exciting current and potential new features into one handy list.. So here, in no particular order, it is. 1. App Promotions -
This gives the ability to target app users by promoting your own app based on a target CPA. This seems just seems rather sensible. 2. Comparison Ads Currently in Beta. Currently being tested on the financial industry, this feature shows the user comparisons of product factors such as interest rates. This level of transparency will no doubt give clients sleepless nights about their price offerings but it's all helping Google to develop themselves as an information provider. 3. Remarketing Through Analytics Google Anaylitics allows for the user to build up a highly targeted remarketing list. Much easier to use than AdWords and fully integrated, this service allows the user to target audiences based on factors such as site, referral, section of a site and endless other opportunities. Google describe this feature as "making sure your brand is top of mind when they’re ready to buy –- can radically improve ROI.". 4. Dynamic Display Ads Moving Display ads from a 90's static into a dynamic new decade, Dynamic display ads are able to pull data from Google merchant and be optimised based on factors such as site and behaviour. 5. Offer Extensions Google's blurb reads "Offer extensions let you distribute offers online in a highly targeted fashion. As well as engaging customers, they allow advertisers to measure offer performance by tracking metrics like impressions, clicks, number of offers printed, saved and emailed, as well as online conversions. Offer extensions complement your existing campaigns to help you increase current customer loyalty and attract new customers." A really nice touch and a way to take up more screen real estate. The user no longer has to search for vouchers on a site, they get them on the search page. Time and money saved = Happy customer. 6. Remarketing In Search Finally Google are developing remarketing so as to be able to target customers in the SERP rather than just the display network. The article below explains the potential benefits for Remarketing In Search. One key benefit this gives the advertiser is to serve a more relevant copy to the customer based on keyword history (although, the Big Brother approach is highly frowned upon, so don't expect to have ads specifically asking 'James' if he is interested in a pair of 34" leg stonewashed jeans to be approved.).
7. Reminders Another nice touch will allow users to set a reminder for any advertised event such as product launches, sales or even nightclub opening times. This will be a great addition for events brands such as Cineworld, where the user could set a reminder about an up coming movie. The advertiser would then have a lead and be able to send extremely targeted ads & correspondence through email. Whilst the consumer isn't currently in market, when they will be they won't need to search for anything else as the advertiser will have in effect 'reserved' the customer. 8. Enhanced Sitelinks -
Sitelinks have received a welcome enhancement in recent weeks. Once again the main gain of the tweak is that the advertiser can take up more real estate on the SERP. Google report that the new Sitelink format is deemed more useful by consumers and also have a ''significantly higher CTR'' than the old format. 9. Product Listings Based on a keyword search, the sponsored area of the SERP is filled with relevant product listings (connected through a Google Merchant account). Appearance is still based on CPA/CPC. Similarly to comparison ads, this offers a level of transparency for the user and will mean that business' may need to rethink their positioning and price structure. 10. Media Ads This offers the ability to include a video thumbnail in an ad. Particularly useful for the film industry, this format has two links. One for a website and another for an expandable video. This of course takes up more of the screen and offers an extra element of interaction.
11. Communication Ad Extensions Whilst this feature has been around for a while now, it definitely needed to be included in this list. It offers the option to include a range of CTAs (such as 'Get Offers' or 'Subscribe To Newsletter') for which the user inputs their email address directly in the SERP. This is a great way for the advertiser to build a database of their audience and offers the ability to have a conversation without the user needing to visit the website. The possibilities for all types of clients look set to grow dramatically once these features are all fully integrated into AdWords and Google have certainly left us with some thinking and planning to do. Having said this, in true industry style, it won't be long until we are asking... what's next? – Andy Negus