No More Specific Device Targeting Campaigns in Adwords? – 7th February 2013 In a world where device use and device availability is diverse, where the lines are becoming increasingly blurred between desktop PCs and tablets and mobiles, Google have made a major announcement to its Adwords Platform this week called ‘Enhanced Campaigns’. In news that may come as a bit of shock and sure to raise many more questions than answers in the next couple of weeks, Google have decided to remove device targeting at campaign level from their offering. YouTube Trailer for Enhanced Campaigns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yV9rzYo4Jrk #! See below for a summary of major changes coming within the next 6 months:
Campaign level device targeting removed While many advertisers have historically been advised best practice is to split out campaigns by device, Google are now re-writing this rule by disabling device targeting functionality within Adwords. This means that advertisers will have just the one campaign for all device types and will not be able separate desktop/tablet/mobile activity into different campaigns. This means that all campaigns will be opted into mobile/tablet/desktop by default, as users will no longer have the option to exclude a device at campaign level (mobile can be opted out of by using a bid multiplier at campaign level only).
Contextual Targeted Ads As Google remove the campaign level device targeting settings, these are being replaced by tighter controls on ad copy. Going forwards advertisers will be able to specify creative as ‘mobile preferred’ to ensure that it is displayed on the most appropriate devices.
“Marketers will still see the same reports for mobile (CPC, CTR, etc.) and they'll actually get more reports to show how effectively mobile is driving conversions like calls and app downloads so they can compare ROI. They can also use mobilepreferred ads and extensions to control the message in their mobile ads, just now without them having to break out hundreds of separate campaigns. If they value mobile more, they can set a lower base bid and then crank up the mobile bid adjustment so that they're bidding higher for mobile searches.” - Google spokeperson
See below for some earlier feedback on this announcement and expect even further debate to follow in the coming weeks: “While we may still have those insights, we now have no way to target our campaigns accordingly to serve the most relevant ad to the most interested audience. That seems to move away from Google’s mandate of delivering relevancy with every interaction with the search engine.” - Paul DeJarnatt, Vice President and Group Director at Starcom USA
Google have said however that advertisers will have up to 6 months to adjust their existing Adwords campaign and migrate to the new format. New campaigns will be ‘enhanced’. Further articles surrounding announcement: Tech Crunch - Google Launches ‘Enhanced Campaigns’ To Manage CrossDevice Campaigns In AdWords Search Engine Watch - Google AdWords New Enhanced Campaigns Connect Ads with Multi-Device Consumers Business Insiders - Google Just Blasted Away The Wall Between Desktop And Mobile Ads Small Business Trends - New AdWords Enhanced Campaigns: 5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know -
Kevin Ting
More information at: http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/02/adwords-enhanced-campaigns-smallbusinesses.html http://www.businessinsider.com/google-blends-desktop-and-mobile-ads2013-2 http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/06/google-adwords-enhanced-campaigns/ http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2242048/Google-AdWords-NewEnhanced-Campaigns-Connect-Ads-With-Multi-Device-Consumers
More Adwords Changes Coming Your Way – 6th February 2013 While Enhanced Campaign will take the headlines in the world of search this week, there a number of other updates that may be of interest to advertisers that will receive a less mixed reception. Location Based Bidding This feature will allow users to bid by location, so for example if a mobile users is closer to a physical branch for the advertiser they can choose to bid higher based on manual location selection or by linking to Google+ Local. Sitelink Level Reporting This is a long awaited feature that will allow advertisers to report on performance metrics of each specific sitelink, but also to see performance of the actually ad when that sitelink was shown. Ad Group Level Ad Extensions This feature will enable even more granular ad extensions on an ad group level that will allow advertisers to have tighter control and flexibility to tailor ad copy to improve relevancy. Ad Extension Scheduling As the title suggests, this will allow advertisers to schedule ad extensions in a similar way that you can currently schedule ad copy. This may be very useful for out of working hours phone numbers, or countdowns for promotion to increase urgency and relevancy to even further improve performance for advertisers. Cross-Device Attribution Little is known about this update, but it is likely Google will use data from users that are logged into Google across devices through Google Chrome/Android to monitor behaviour on multiple platforms to help advertisers understand cross-channel attribution impact on performance. -
Kevin Ting
More information at: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2242069/Google-AdWordsEnhanced-Campaigns-The-Good-Bad-Uncool
Yahoo Partner with Google for Contextual Ads – 7th February 2013 Yahoo has just announced that they have made a deal to allow Google to show contextual ads throughout Yahoo’s properties and co-branded sites. Despite being in a search partnership with Bing, and also displaying contextual ads as part of Bing’s content network, Yahoo had the following to say on the new partnership: “By adding Google to our list of world-class contextual ads partners, we’ll be able to expand our network, which means we can serve users with ads that are even more meaningful.” -
Kevin Ting
More information at: http://marketingland.com/yahoo-strikes-deal-to-run-contextual-ads-fromgoogle-32799
ICO Cookie Policy Recognises Implied Consent – 6th February 2013 In 2011, the ICO set out changes to the cookies policy to ensure that websites provided a valid form of consent when a user landed on their page. With the policy change taking effect, web users have become more aware of how cookies work and in turn the ICO have announced yet another change regarding cookie consent. Last week, the ICO announced they are set to advocate a new model for cookie compliance. The new model means that messaging about cookies does not need to appear so prominently and does not require a valid form of consent to be actioned. Instead user consent is implied by them simply by visiting the page. Starcom MediaVest has outlined the key changes of the policy and how they are likely to take shape when visiting a site:
Cookies set on arrival to the site
New cookies banner displayed to explain that the website uses cookies and that cookies have been set
New ‘Cookies’ page (separate from a Privacy notice, but linked to and from it) to increase prominence of the information
Users given clear, detailed information about the cookies set and how to manage them, and new buttons allowing users to delete or allow non-essential cookies
Limit the geographical information collected by their analytics cookies
The change in policy mirrors a better understanding of how cookies work amongst the general public and provide for a better user experience for site users who will no longer need to click to register their consent before entering a site. Steps needed to take place to comply with the change in the policy are still unclear, and any direction is likely to be provided by the ICO website found here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communic ations/the_guide/cookies.aspx -
Hannah Struve
More information at: http://www.cookielaw.org/blog/2013/2/1/ico-website-creates-new-impliedconsent-reference-model.aspx
Social Media hitting the News – 30th January 2013 Last year, brands advertising during the Super Bowl split their focus on Twitter and Facebook with eight mentions each on commercials aired during the game. This year, brands recognised that Twitter is where they need to try to attract the online conversation around one of the world's biggest events. So, for Twitter, the change from eight mentions to 26 is a gain of more than 300 percent, while Facebook saw a 50 percent drop in mentions. Big brand adverts included M&Ms (#betterwithmms), Audi (#braverywins), Hyundai (#pickyourteam) and Bud Light (#herewego) - all of which included hashtags, or a logo or URL referring to Twitter in the copy. There was one reference made to Instagram, whilst none were made to Youtube or Google+.
Furthermore, the power of running a successful Twitter account was demonstrated by Oreo, who reacted to the momentary power cut, and posted an almost instantaneous reaction (see below), which resulted in more than 12,000 retweets - thus creating a very powerful and incredibly cost-effective piece of marketing . -
Jude Skipwith
More information at: http://marketingland.com/game-over-twitter-mentioned-in-50-of-superbowl-commercials-facebook-only-8-google-shut-out-32420 http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/how-oreo-got-that-twitter-ad-upso-fast