On July 26th, Google released three new, highly anticipated AdWords features specifically designed to make it possible for advertisers to capitalize on today’s mobile-centric consumers. For advertisers, adopting the new features, expanded text ads, responsive display ads and device bidding, as soon as possible will give them a leg up on their competition. Below are a few important details regarding each these innovative new features.
Expanded Text Ads
Expanded text ads (ETAs) offer two headlines that allow for 30 characters each, along with an 80-character description. This means that the new ad is a whopping 50% larger than AdWords’ traditional text ads. Because they’ve been developed for mobile, expanded text ads respond to the screen size of the device that they are being viewed with. Google will be retiring their old text ad option on October 26th so you’ll want to figure out the new option as soon as possible.
Responsive/Mobile Friendly Display Ads
Similar to ETAs, Google’s new, innovative display ads will adjust themselves depending on the size of the screen they’re being delivered on. The new display ad features 25 and 90 character headlines, along with a 90 character description, image and URL, all fitting in conveniently across Google’s entire display network.
Device Bidding
Now you’ll be able to conveniently set specific device bid modifications for computers, tablets and smartphones. Those who aren’t that familiar with the process can also use Google’s Smart Bidding automated option. During the next few weeks’ users will also have the ability to use Smart Bidding to establish CPA (cost per acquisition) goals that can be specific to all devices.
Starting on August 16th, Google will also begin to automatically make cross-device conversion by default. When it comes to advertisers that currently have AdWords accounts, this new change will begin rolling out on September 6th as the default conversion type. The good news is that AdWords’ advertisers can start doing it now manually. For marketers, the obvious advantage of this change is that they will have much easier access to information and data regarding how their ads are doing across all devices. This level of detail will also present invaluable information regarding a business’s target audience.
Let’s face it, the shift to mobile is here – it’s not just a change we need to deal with in the future. This means that businesses who want to thrive need to get on board now if they haven’t already. There are trillions of searches performed on Google every year and more than half of these searches take place on mobile. On top of that, if you take the time to browse through the search engines, you’ll find that an increasing number of them are responsive/mobile friendly. Why? Because these savvy businesses are aware that over 50% of all web traffic today is coming from tablets and smartphones. They also paid attention to the April 15th announcement from Google that they’re going to start ranking mobile friendly sites higher. In an effort to help marketers achieve success in this mobile-first environment, Google has been, and will continue to, remodel AdWords, re-thinking everything from bidding and creatives to measurement and workflow. We can’t wait to see what they do next.