We live in a constantly changing Digital world. At home or at work, we are more connected than ever before – we shop on the internet, listen to music, and watch live streaming games. When we are out and about, we use our Mobile phone to find the nearest star bucks, apps to stay in touch with friends, or keep up with the family finances.
There is increased similarity in user behavior when on Desktop, Tablet or Mobile phone. Over the next several months, Google is planning to roll out a new campaign structure in ad words that will precisely capture this trend – leverage user Behavior than the Device. Its called Google Enhanced Campaigns.
The Opportunity
We all know setting up campaigns in ad words can be complex with hundreds of ad groups and thousands of keywords. Enhanced campaigns will reduce the complexity by combining all devices targeting into a single campaign, and give advertisers the ability to manage bids based on devices, location and time of day, all from a single campaign instead of multiple campaigns.
For example, a company that wants to reach out to “on the go” customers within 5 miles of their store can increase bids by 25% on smart phones during business hours, or decrease bids by 50 % during hours when the store is closed. They can increase bids on smart phones or decrease bids on desktops, all from a single campaign depending upon their needs. This allows for more targeting and efficient ROI.
In addition, Google may provide more visibility into cross-device attribution, which has been a major industry challenge. For example, a user who started their search on a Mobile phone may have later converted by making a purchase on their desktop computer.
The Challenge
Advertisers may no longer be able to create device specific campaigns. Which means, they will not be able to exclude devices at the campaign level. All keywords will trigger ads across all devices.
For example – Advertisers whose campaigns did not perform well on Tablets because they lacked a good Tablet specific shopping experience could opt out of advertising from these devices. This may not be possible to the full extent with this roll out This means advertisers will need to focus on improving their Tablet and Mobile site experience if they want to fully leverage traffic coming from these devices. With Google being such a big revenue driver for a lot of businesses, advertisers may need to re look at the site creative strategy at a device level.
There could also be an overall increase in CPC due to more advertisers now competing on smart phones and tablets.
Like it or hate it, overall, this appears to be the first serious push towards adopting Mobile advertising seriously. The future is Mobile, advertisers can run, but they cannot hide.
A lot of information is still coming in. You can also find more information at Google’s website below
https://www.google.com/adwords/enhancedcampaigns/features/
Aneja Raj
Abey John
<rant on>
Aneja, this is a smart move for Google NOT for advertisers. 🙂
The spin of targeting user behavior over devices is a sly snake-oil salesman pitch to sell functionality which will ultimately end up costing advertisers more per conversion (acquisition) while it is being dressed up as something else. Conversions are not uniform across devices and therefore your creatives need to adjust to the device context to maximize conversion. By eliminating device specific targeting you are effectively up shit creek when it comes to conversions while the impressions may look peachy.
This is same bullshit argument they gave when they rolled out ‘not provided’ for Google Analytics. However I don’t think they will be able to withstand advertiser pressure eventually and will allow device exclusion filters.
BUT for 90% of advertisers this will be the default setting and they’ll end up paying the Google Adwords stupidity tax. Most advertisers are not going to change anything and accept the google default which in turn will translate into a revenue bump for Google.
This is mostly driven by Larry Page’s mirror-mirror-on-the-wall love affair and his desire to suck up to adulation from Wall Street as the next biz tycoon. And Wall Street will only love you if you are delivering quarter-over-quarter revenue increases.
</rant off>
I haven’t dived into enhanced campaigns yet and this is my reading the tea leaves at first blush. If they allow device specific creatives – If I am on desktop show this ad, if on tablet show this ad, if on smartphone show this ad – this will be a seamless ad experience and could probably improve conversions and ultimately I that’s the way advertising is headed in anycase. Your ass gets cookied permanently and machines build your psychographic profile and serve context aware ads whereever you go. Which is going to be the new angst – your value is totally tied to your revenue potential…which in turn creates new insecurities of relative self worth and fuels behavior that has ultimately nothing to do with your ‘true worth’ … sigh…brave new world
Aneja Raj
Not surprised by your feedback. There is mixed reaction from the industry overall. Some positives and some negatives. Creative and bids will be device specific. The level of targeting they are offering now will make it super relevant for the advertiser.
Consider this – why pay $2 CPC for a pizza store ad when your store is 30 miles away. Its highly unlikely that the user will convert and you have a positive ROI. The new targeting will allow you to lower the bid the farther you are from the store. You stand a better chance of converting a customer with a + ROI.
The flip side is the volatility in the bids as everyone now will compete in all devices. CPC might go higher.
Better chance for this to work in US as people rely heavily on their Mobile and Tablets – at home an when outside.
Nikhil Raj R
So RIP Tablet targeting! The usage of tablet is getting more close to the desktop usage. Their difference is getting blurred. We have Windows Surface device which can operate as both a notebook and a tablet. Google is of the belief that differentiating tablets from desktop is not needed since tablet and desktop search trends are getting almost similar.
The real reason behind Enhanced Campaigns is the rise in mobile advertising. They want to close the gap between Desktop CPC and Mobile CPC. Mobile CPC is rising and it will reach the same CPC as of a desktop ad. Also many advertisers choose not to target mobile devices because of their doubt with mobile ROI. The ROI from mobile advertising is improving. I think it will be great for small businesses to get the full advantage of mobile and desktop with Enhanced Campaigns.
Here is a Q&A on Enhance Campaigns published by Koozai.
Aneja Raj
Agreed Nikhil. This will push advertisers to build mobile and tablet specific landing pages. More jobs will be created as well!
Nikhil Raj R
Google is pushing responsive web design these days. Enhanced campaigns will make sure that RWD is the best option available!
Aneja Raj
That could be a reason as well. But if the media planners and marketers don’t plan for the change, they might be in big trouble later this year. CPC is going to fluctuate big time.
Nikhil Raj R
I don’t remember the last time when Google reverted “back” to the old method after a new update or release. So quite sure that Google will not turn back. Marketers and Medias will have to adjust to the Google updates, otherwise go for another good option. How about Bing? No chance right! So the winner will be Google!
Aneja Raj
completely agree with you. Bing does not have much market share anyways
Abey John
Good FAQ Nikhil. Confirms my suspicions. Google is tossing up so many configuration options that we are goin to get butt fucked trying to keep it straight and sane. Aneja, from what I read creatives are not device specific and you have to manually set bids to -100% to exclude devices. And budgets are also not device specific. Well nothin for it but to belt up and dive in. More money for the middle man. Not something I want to tell my clients.
Aneja Raj
My rep at Google HQ told me creative will be device specific. For now desktop and tablets will have the same creative, but mobile will have different. With regards to manually setting bids to exclude devices, again you are correct, but you can only exclude Mobile at this time, not tablets. Google is still accepting feedback from advertisers. So a lot may change – fingers crossed.
Abey John
Lets hope so.
Aneja Raj
John – In US the adoption to Mobile will be faster. What do you think about the Indian Market? Will agencies and clients embrace this move easily? From what I have generally seen, they are very ROI focused vs. having a larger integrated approach where mobile is one of the many channels that contributes in the overall purchase cycle. Mobile not necessarily leading to a direct purchase, but creating that Intent.
Abey John
Call me Abey. I don’t have Indian clients so I wouldn’t know. But from what I’ve heard the scene is not really ROI focused. Indian agencies for the most part – again reading the tea leaves – dont give a crap about ROI and cost per acquisition is just a fudgy number that they try to bury under the “branding” and “mind share” kool aid. It works for large consumer brands but for the average businessman? Zilch. The agency doesn’t care as long as they make their margin. I am yet to hear any agency talk in terms of cost per acquisition and conversion optimization. Just pour on the money if CPC is expensive. Good news for Google – they can spin up some airy fairy powerpoint and the talking heads will nod along wisely and fall into line and use maybe 10% of the functionality. No different from before the enhanced campaigns roll out. They dont understand the machine and worse they don’t want to understand. Google of course doesn’t give a crap either. I think the break down is 80% of their revenue comes from 3% of advertisers. Everyone else is just testing population.
Aneja Raj
The Agencies in US have already started the migration process. Especially large advertisers who use 3rd party bid management tools. Takes more time to integrate
Abey John
Yeah we’ve also started the migration but no 3rd party tool thankfully so it should be fairly straightforward.
Aneja Raj
I don’t think most people realize the potential impact this could have on their business if they are dependent on paid search
Daman Anand
This reminds me of an article which I read some times back where the Mac users were shown higher prices (of same products) compared to user accessing the website through other desktops.
Abey John
Those who are dependent on paid search will be paying attention. But sadly most people let it run on default and either maintain the spend for branding or see it as another channel in the overall mix. Typical reaction after trying Adwords is – too expensive, it is only for big companies, etc.
Abey John
Lol Daman, that’s right. The reverse has also happened. I remember vaguely this was for some hotel site. They would show one price to first time visitor and based on some on site behaviour they wold drop the price on the next visit. Somebody noticed it and spread the word and lotta people managed to take advantage of the discount before the hotel caught on and yanked the campaign. 🙂
Aneja Raj
That is correct Daman. I think Orbitz priced hotel rooms at a higher rate for Mac users compared to PC. Seemed unethical. With Google, they are only increasing / decreasing bids for the advertisers based on the level of targeting. The product price remains the same for the end user.
Aneja Raj
Its more or less official. The rule out is expected to happen in July this year.
Abey John
Brad Geddes reports that the system is still buggy and he’s lost data and sitelinks are vanishing. So july seems about right to get out of bug testing.
Aneja Raj
Cannot agree more with you. Sitelinks are indeed missing. Happened with me personally:)