Google Ads is one of the most sought-after mediums of marketing. The results it can produce do wonders to boost a brand’s visibility and sales. Let’s look at how Google Ads has transformed in recent years to become a more effective version of itself.
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Performance Max Campaigns With Minimal Human Intervention
Up until recently, Google Ads campaigns were only the playing field for experienced advertisers. This was because everything had to be done manually, and for novice marketers and business owners, it seemed daunting. Be it bidding on your choice of keywords or your choice of sites for ad placements, the decision could be difficult if you are new to the world of Google. That is why the search engine’s move towards automated advertising has been a blessing because everything would be taken off of the shoulders of advertisers.
The move was referred to as the Smart Campaigns initially. In 2021, Performance Max came along, being a more advanced tool for campaigning. These took over the task of targeting and optimization, making running campaigns a walk in the park as human involvement became minimal.
With automation came two major benefits.
- The optimization of ads became simplified with a real-time process called Audience Signals. This enabled the search engine to show the ads to the users who had a higher chance of converting.
- Advertisers can widen their reach substantially and get better conversions. This was because the campaigns will be run over every channel Google owns. YouTube, Display, Maps, Gmail, everything would be at your fingertips.
As an advertiser, all you would need to do is;
- Define the objectives and goals of the campaign;
- Provide the ad creatives; it could be the copy, the images, videos, and such;
- Assign the budget;
- Get the bidding out of the way in terms of CPA and conversions;
- And finally, mention the location, language, and scheduling.
And rest would be taken care of by Google.
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New Local Campaign Formats For Better Visibility
Local campaigns have proven to be pretty monumental in expanding the reach of local businesses. Now, Google has made them even more significant for them. In the last year, the search engine has added new promotional methods to Google Maps, making it easier for your consumers to navigate you.
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Auto Suggest Ads
As the name says, these ads suggest your business in the results of users looking for services like yours near their location. Searching for ‘burgers’ will show the users an ad for a burger joint nearby on their search results.
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Similar Places Ads
A user searched for a particular local restaurant, but it ended up being closed. That’s when these ads work, seizing an opportunity to become the better alternative as Maps would show your business with the label, ‘Similar and Open.’
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Navigational Ads
These are the most discreet and subtle. They would pop up the user’s navigational route without him ever searching for it. The user only needs to be close by, and the promoted business would automatically get promoted; no input is needed.
There is another addition to the local ad campaign format outside of Google Maps that has been quite successful for local businesses.
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Inventory Ads
Through these ads, you can sell your products in the local market through your Shopping Network. ‘In-store today’, ‘pick up later,’ or curbside pickup’ are labels used with them, making your shopping campaigns much more effective.
All of these ads target a high-intent context, especially Auto-suggest and Similar places; you would definitely experience a higher conversion rate when they run.
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Video Action and Discovery Ads Campaigns Now Has Target ROAS Bidding
Target Return On Advertising Spend or tROAS is a strategy all advertisers leverage. It enables advertisers to bid based on your predicted average conversion value and not the rate. However, it wasn’t available on Video Action and Discovery Ads campaigns, and that has changed now.
As long as you have set the values for the conversions, you are tracking with an average ROAS from your existing campaigns and generated a minimum number of conversions in the past 30 days. For the Video Action campaign, the number is 15, and for Discovery campaigns, it's 75, with a stipulation of 10 conversions being in the last 7 days. With a recommended increase of 2 times the average daily budget, gathering data for the tROAS bidding becomes more efficient.
Target ROAS works in a way that lets you optimize your bids every time. The target is set by you based on your ad spend and sales goal, which is your conversion value. Based on those, Google automatically maximizes your conversion value and makes you reach your tROAS effortlessly.
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Video Action Campaigns Come With Product Feeds Now
Less time for conversion;
Enhanced sales attribution;
And more sales;
These are the accomplishments of product feeds for marketers using video action ads for e-commerce businesses. When the user sees your ad, your product listing appears in a panel below it. If the user becomes inclined to click on it, it will take him to a custom landing page to pacify his need for more information about the product before converting.
The only glitch with product feeds in video action campaigns is that they, unfortunately, do not work on the landscape mode of the user’s phone.
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The Emphasis on First-Party Data to Enhance Google Ads
Let’s talk about first-party data first. It is any information related to your prospects that your marketing team has accumulated. It may include the names and email addresses of people who have interacted with your web forms, people who’ve created an account on your site, or any existing client, consumer, partner, or prospect. Collecting this information is completely legal and ethical.
eBooks, whitepapers, webinars;
Chatbots;
Newsletters or email sign-ups;
And, of course, Google ads;
First-party data can be gathered from several different means. However, it is important to consider two aspects when handling the same.
- The data needs to be fed to a proper system. Sending, storing, analyzing, and using first-party data becomes easy when you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution, a Data Management Platform (DMP), and an Analytics and Reporting Tool such as Google Analytics.
- And you also need to ensure that you have enabled the proper integrations with the required solutions to make extraction of the data seamless, as well as sharing and acting on the insights you may need. A data orchestration platform placates this requirement easily.
How do Google Ads Campaigns benefit from first-party data?
Identifying and comprehending intent is the primary benefit of accumulating first-party data. For instance, every lead that was generated from your recent webinar could be leveraged to create a new campaign that would be focused on providing that audience with the exact information they need because you would have a better understanding of their requirements based on their previous interactions with you.
This would also work for whitepapers, ebooks, or any other lead generation campaign. Thus, the greatest benefit of utilizing first-party data in Google Ads is that the prospects move faster through the sales funnel.
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Your Keyword Research Strategy Will Have to Change
Keywords are the heart and soul of all things Google and Google Ads are no different. However, in recent times, the data leading to apt audience targeting has shrunken to the degree that more research has become a massive requirement.
Conducting research and doing it through the proper channels is important, as only then can consumer behavior be portrayed the right way. For the same, you have to listen to your audience with a keen ear. From their engagements on social media channels to their reviews of your products and the sources of information they go to, you need to comprehend every dimension of your consumer's interaction with you and your brand.
Using analytical software or a call tracking system can help you listen to your customers better. With the aid of machine learning, you can effectively create the keyword language necessary to understand consumer trends.
Forms, comments, surveys, chats, or online communities like Quora and Reddit all act as a getaway to the consumer needs, and you have to get on them to create an effective Google Ads Campaign.
Saying that, we would also like to point out that keywords are losing some of their charms. For instance, Performance Max campaigns do not have any need for keywords. So, maybe keywords will disappear completely in the future?
Conclusion
From everything we have discussed in the blog, it suffices to say that Google Ads is on the path to becoming a well-oiled machine that will only generate positive outcomes for all your marketing endeavors.
