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