5 major changes to Google Ads: Everything you need to know

For the past few years, Google has been making major announcements in the spring, usually revolving around mobile. In 2013, they announced Enhanced Campaigns, which eliminated the old, established practice of creating separate desktop and mobile campaigns. Since then, we've seen more and more mobile ad types and features every year, and this year is no different.

Google continues to emphasize the "Mobile First" aspect, meaning that the appearance of the SERP is changing in a way that favors the mobile experience. Naturally, paid ads must also adapt to the mobile-first world. Google has introduced some new and interesting changes to... Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) introduced.

1. New local search ads in Google Maps

Erin Sagin wrote about Google's announcement that Maps will be part of the Search Network, speculating that "we will probably see significantly more ads on the map platform".

She was right. Google had introduced the so-called "next generation" of local search ads. These new ads will appear both within Google Maps (in the app as well as in the desktop and mobile versions). Website) as well as on Google.com.

In the new ads, brand logos and offers appear directly on the map surface, not just next to it. For example, if you search for [electronics store] in Google Maps, you will see the following:

The Logo Best Buy is clearly visible on the map. Clicking on this logo will take you to this mobile local inventory display format:

Why the focus on Google Maps?

Google Maps now has more than one billion users. People visit 1,5 billion destinations based on their Google searches. As Google has determined, location-based searches account for almost a third of all mobile search queries.

To drive more online traffic from Maps to local businesses, Google is working on other new ad formats, such as promotion pins.

In addition, Google is revamping its local business pages. There are two key changes: advertisers can highlight in-store promotions, and users can browse local inventory.

However, ad targeting here is somewhat complicated. Ads are displayed based on search queries. Google also considers various contextual signals (similar to display advertising), such as personal browsing history, similar users, time of day, interests, and behaviors.

This should unlock a good amount of local ad inventory. I know I use Google Maps quite often—not as much as Search, but when I'm looking for local businesses, I check Maps or Search just as frequently.

2. Expanded text ads get double headlines & more characters

Google has removed the right-hand ads from the desktop SERP because it wanted to create a more consistent Google experience across all devices. Text ads are about to undergo a significant change.

With the new, expanded text ads, headlines will be much larger. Advertisers will soon be able to run two 30-character headlines instead of a single 25-character headline. In initial tests, Google found that this change dramatically increased click-through rates (CTR) – by up to 25 percent.

At WordStream, we found that adding an ad or call extension to mobile text ads increased the click-through rate (CTR) by about 12 percent. It therefore makes perfect sense that the CTRs for double headlines would be even higher.

In addition to more clicks, Google said that longer headlines are more useful for advertisers. They lead to better-qualified traffic for advertisers.

This change is massive – literally. Especially with so little space on a smartphone screen, this headline change is great news for advertisers. As usual, it's not so much for those on the organic search results page.

Furthermore, Google is increasing the number of characters that can appear in the description line. Advertisers will soon be able to write a single 80-character description line. This represents an increase of 5 characters from the previous 35-character description line.
Note that these larger ads will appear on both mobile and desktop devices. You should take advantage of this opportunity immediately, rather than letting your competitors outdo you with larger ads.

3. Improved measurement of in-store conversions

You know that people are on your AdWordsClicking on ads drives traffic to your local business, but how much exactly? Google Ads helps businesses bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds. Conversions are therefore measured in-store.

Technically, this wasn't "new," but it's still a pretty big deal. Soon, in-store conversions will be available to more types of businesses. After all, 90 percent of sales still happen in physical stores, not online.

The beauty of this is that Google simply looks at the phone's location history. It can determine whether the person who searched for and clicked on your ad actually went into the store.

Google cited Nissan UK as an example, which found that 6 percent of people who clicked on the ads went to the dealership. This resulted in a 25-fold return on investment.

4. New responsive display indicators

Get ready for responsive display ads. Soon, all you'll need to do is provide Google with a URL, headline, description, and image. Google will create responsive ads for you. You can then run ads that adapt to the content of the websites and apps on the Google Display Network (GDN) where they appear, including native ad inventory.

That's really cool, because it's tedious to create ads for all the different formats (skyscraper, leaderboard, square, rectangle, etc.). Google eliminates this hassle with Responsive Display Ads. They find the best format for your ad depending on where it's shown.

5. Changes to the equipment tender

Finally, there are some changes to the Google ad bidding process.

Currently, advertisers set a base desktop bid and then multiply mobile bids on that base bid. This was introduced with Enhanced Campaigns. (And tablets remain stuck at the desktop level, which many PPC people have complained about. Tablet search only accounts for about 5% of traffic and isn't growing.)

In the future, all of this will be decoupled. You will have the option to set bids for mobile devices, desktops, and tablets independently, or to make them interdependent. This gives advertisers more flexibility and reinforces Google's "mobile-first" stance. (Why start with desktop bidding when everything is shifting to "mobile-first"?)

A note about the updated Google Ads interface

At the Performance Summit, Google also unveiled an early look at the redesigned Google Ads interface.

We live in a mobile world. More than 50 percent of the trillions of search queries conducted on Google each year come from mobile phones.

For this reason, Google develops mobile innovations every year to offer users a compelling experience. This ensures that advertisers can reach consumers at crucial moments.

You must at least utilize mobile ad formats and prepare for these new formats on the horizon to ensure you attract and convert mobile searchers when they are using commercial search queries and want to quickly find a business.

Source: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/05/24/google-mobile-first