Google wants you to stop testing AdWords ads…

There’s always plenty happening in the fast-moving world of online search and advertising. Here’s a summary of key things that caught our eye last week…

 

Not sure which ad is best? Just leave it to us says Google

In Google we trust...

Last week Google notified AdWords advertisers that ad rotation options would be reduced to two choices: optimise or rotate indefinitely.

On the surface, it’s a minor change and one that won’t bother many advertisers, if any at all. After all, what goes away is simply the option to auto-rotate ads for 90 days and then let Google show those with the best click-through rate.

But stick with me here, as there’s more to this than meets the eye.

Google wants you to stop testing AdWords ads: just let it do the testing. Machine learning, the argument goes, will give you better results if you let it, and Google has a much greater data set to work with than any individual advertiser.

So: optimise or rotate indefinitely? The obvious answer is to optimise, but that just means more click-throughs and not always more conversions or lower CPAs.

There is a third (and better) way: use a Smart Bidding strategy. With Smart Bidding, you’re relying on Google machine learning to optimise to a target CPA, ROAS, required daily spend or (with enhanced CPC) greater likelihood of conversion.

Manual bidding and even ad rotation are still options — but for how much longer? Read more

 

AMP ads to get even faster

Google has announced speed and viewability enhancements for Ads served on AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). ‘Fast Fetch’ ad request and rendering will mean ads are faster and potentially have improved viewability rates. Read more

 

Bing Ads platform providing more insights

Bing Ads advertisers who have implemented the Universal Event Tag can now see the estimated conversion impact when looking at budget suggestions in their accounts. These conversion estimates are based on various budget recommendations or their own budget value. Read More

 

Google Adds Cards to Images – SEO Opportunity

Last month Google rolled out a badge feature that can help images stand out in mobile search results. Site owners can help ensure relevant badges appear on their images with the use of structured data markup for recipes; products: and videos. Google will automatically badge GIFs, without the need of any markup. Read more

 

Google bites the EU bullet, avoiding more fines

Tick, tock…Tuesday’s fast approaching. That’s when Google must let the European Union know what it’s going to do to ensure its search result pages no longer favour its own shopping service over those of others in the region.

Bloomberg reports that Google is ready to comply with EU demands, rather than risk further fines.

Changes need to be in effect by September 28 or Google may be fined five percent of its daily revenue (over $US5m) for each day it delays. Read more

 

What we’ve been reading this week

 

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About the Author SureFire

These search marketing news updates feature articles of interest picked up through the week by the SureFire team.

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