Google Ads will begin rolling out image extensions to desktop devices in the coming weeks, the company announced Tuesday. This update also applies to dynamic image extensions.
A Search ad with an image extension on desktop. Image: Google
Why we care. Image extensions may help make your ads more visually appealing, which might encourage visitors to click on them. In a few weeks, they will also be available on desktop, enabling you to show relevant images to users whether they’re at home or on the go.
If you’re already running image extensions on mobile, they’ll automatically show on desktop devices as this update rolls out, so make sure to monitor performance so that you can assess whether this is something that’s worthwhile for your brand.
Image extensions on desktop. Prior to this update, image extensions only showed on mobile devices. For advertisers that are already using image extensions, their ads will automatically show with image extensions on desktop devices as this update rolls out.
Desktop device performance can be broken out by segmenting your data by “Device.”
Dynamic image extensions are also expanding. This update also brings dynamic image extensions, which automatically select the most relevant image from your ad’s landing page, to desktop devices. In addition, dynamic image extensions are also now available for all languages.
Stock image library. Google has also added a free, searchable library of stock images to help advertisers source visuals. To access the library, select “Stock Images” when you’re asked to choose an image for your image extension. Stock images can be cropped to a square or landscape format from directly within Google Ads before adding it to your image extension.
Google is ending some election ads exemptions, adding new election ads serving options and changing verification requirements. Two new policy updates have been issued, one around new content policies and the other around new advertiser verifications.
Ending election ad serving exceptions. Google said starting on February 15, 2022 the Google Ads Political content policy will be updated and enforced to eliminate existing products, services, and news exemptions to Election Ads policies worldwide.
This means that ads for products, services, and news will no longer be exempt from Google Election Ads policies. Google said that if you want to advertise products, services, and news with ad content in scope of the policy, for example an ad featuring a current candidate or officeholder, Google will be subject to the respective Election Ads policy, including the requirement that they apply for Election Ads verification in order to run these ads.
If you violate that policy, Google said it will not lead to immediate account suspension without prior warning. A warning will be issued at least seven days prior to any suspension of your account.
Expanding election ad serving options. Google will also expand ad serving options for election related content. This will be expanded on February 15, 2022 along with the new ad serving exceptions listed above.
Currently, election ads can serve only in the country or region to which the ad content pertains. But as of February 15, 2022, advertisers who have completed either election ads or advertiser identity verification will be eligible to serve ads in their home country or region that are in scope of an election ads policy pertaining to a different country or region. Google said “advertisers will not be permitted to serve election ads outside of their home country or region. For example, a verified New Zealand advertiser will be eligible to run in New Zealand an ad featuring an EU candidate or officeholder, but would not be permitted to run that same ad in the EU.”
New verification requirements. Google on January 24, 2022 will start to enforce new verification requirements, where Google said it will no longer accept W9 forms for identity verification for US election ads verification. Instead, for employer identification number (EIN) verification, Google will accept the following forms:
Any document, notice, or letter either issued by the IRS or stamped by the IRS that states the Organization’s name and EIN;
Forms submitted to the IRS, such as 8871 or 990, if available on the IRS website;
Certificates of Business Incorporation;
The most recent SEC filing;
Bank statements dated within the last 3 months;
Business credit reports from Experian, Equifax, TransUnion or Dun & Bradstreet.
You can learn more about this verification change over here.
Why we care. If you are supporting clients or managing your own ads in the election or political space, you will want to carefully review these new changes. When February 15, 2022 comes around, Google will begin enforcing these changes and you want to make sure your ads are running without any issues.
The Google Ads API has been updated to support Performance Max campaigns, Keyword Planner and recommendations, the company announced Friday. Within the announcement, Google also reiterated that the AdWords API will no longer be available beginning in April 2022, at which point it will be replaced by the Google Ads API.
Why we care
These updates add more flexibility and use cases to the Google Ads API. Keyword Planner can help advertisers identify keyword ideas, and supporting it within the API may provide PPC professionals (and possibly SEOs as well) with more possibilities to make better use of that data.
Though Performance Max campaigns are already designed to be easy to manage, having API support means that some advertisers won’t have to head to the Google Ads web interface just to make adjustments to their Performance Max campaigns.
Additionally, the deprecation of the AdWords API was first announced in April 2021. Marketers should ensure that they’ll be ready to switch over to the Google Ads API before the April 2022 deadline.
Google has confirmed a bug with the most recent version of Google Ads Editor. The issue seems to be with the bulk image ad uploads process. Google is aware of the issue and said the team is working on resolving it.
Confirmation. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, replied on Twitter saying “The team is aware of a recent issue that may be impacting image ad uploads in Editor and is working to address it. Changing versions won’t help in this case. I’ve passed this along and will let you know if I learn anything new.”
No work around. Google said that reverting to an older version of Google Ads Editor won’t resolve the issue. Google said it has to fix the issue for it to be resolved. So hang tight and be patient or if you really need to upload image ads, then you can try to do so through the web interface or maybe the API.
Google Ads Editor. Google Ads Editor is a desktop program for Windows or Mac that makes managing your Google Ads more efficient. Google Ads Editor is a free, downloadable application for managing your Google Ads campaigns. It allows you to download one or more accounts, make changes offline, then upload the changes to back into Google Ads. Google Ads Editor can help you save time and make it easier to make changes in bulk.
But when things do not work, it can be frustrating.
The complaint. Here is the complain from Josh B. on Twitter:
Hi Josh, The team is aware of a recent issue that may be impacting image ad uploads in Editor and is working to address it. Changing versions won’t help in this case. I’ve passed this along and will let you know if I learn anything new.
So far, I do not see an update that this has been fixed yet.
Why we care. If you are having issues with Google Ads Editor’s ad image uploader, you are not alone. Google is working on a fix, so maybe avoid using it if you can work on other areas of your Google Ads campaigns.
A new experiments workflow is rolling out to select Google Ads accounts, according to reports from numerous PPC professionals. Tip of the hat to Dario from the Marketing O’Clock Discord channel for first spotting this update. Google declined to provide a specific date for when this feature will roll out more widely.
Why we care. Marketers that often use experiments to identify ways to optimize their campaigns may feel that it is “super annoying” to have to create a draft first. This new workflow eliminates that step, making the process less clunky, which can save advertisers time.
Likewise, being able to sync changes from the base campaign and receiving customized reporting based on experiment goals can also be a timesaver and make Google Ads experiments that much more useful for advertisers.
The new Google Ads experiments page. Advertisers that have access to the new experiments page may see the following notice: “The new experiments page allows you to create experiment campaigns without creating a draft, automatically sync changes from your base campaign to your trial campaign, and receive customized reporting based on experiment goals.” Tip of the hat to Brett Bodofsky for sharing the notice on Twitter.
Below are screen captures of the new workflow, courtesy of Greg Finn from Cypress North.
Image: Greg Finn.
The left-hand navigation has been updated from “Drafts & experiments” to just “Experiments” to reflect the change.
Image: Greg Finn.
There are three options: Optimize text ads, video experiment and custom experiment.
A tour of the “optimize text ads” option. Image: Greg Finn.
Not just for advertisers in the U.S.Michele Senatore, a digital marketer based in Italy, also spotted the update. Google has not stated whether this update will roll out globally.
What Google said. “We do a lot of experiments and we’re always testing to find new ways to improve the experience for our advertisers, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land when asked about the new experiments workflow.
Beginning on March 1, 2022, Google AdSense’s Matched content widget will only show ads, the company announced Wednesday. To go along with the change, Google is also rebranding Matched content as “Multiplex ads.”
What’s changing.Launched in 2015 as a free recommendation service that enables sites to promote their own content, along with ads (which can be disabled), to visitors, the Matched content widget will continue to function that way until February 28, 2022.
An example of a Matched content widget. Image: Google.
“Due to decreasing usage of the content promotion service, and positive customer feedback and performance results from the ads-only Matched content ad format, we’ve decided to turn down the content promotion service and convert all existing Matched content units to only show ads,” Google said in the announcement, “This also applies to Matched content units that have the ‘Monetize with Ads’ option turned off.”
Fresh rebrand, new rules. To be eligible for Matched content, sites must contain a minimum number of unique pages and meet a traffic volume requirement. With the change and subsequent rebrand as Multiplex ads, these requirements will be lifted and the ad type will be available to all AdSense publishers.
After March 1, 2022, the Matched content page in the AdSense interface will be removed and the Matched content unit editor will be updated to show the new ads-only format.
Why we care. Sites that were using the Matched content widget to show users a mix of their own content and ads will, as of March 1, only be showing ads. This change will happen automatically, even if you have the “Monetize with Ads” option switched off.
If you don’t want the widget to only show ads, you should remove it before March 1.
The latest earnings announcements from Alphabet and Facebook have made it abundantly clear that the consumer privacy movement is creating a competitive advantage for Google. It’s important that businesses understand this reality as Big Tech firms enact tougher privacy controls.
Since January 2020, both Apple and Google have made some big moves in the name of protecting consumer privacy. These changes are affecting businesses everywhere:
In January 2020, Google said that the company would phase out third-party cookies on Chrome, the world’s most popular browser. As a result, advertisers would lose the ability to serve up highly targeted ads based on tracking consumer activity on Chrome. Google later postponed its timetable for doing this after regulators stepped in and insisted on having oversight with the process.
In 2021, Apple enacted the Application Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy control as part of an update to its operating system for Apple devices. ATT requires apps to get the user’s permission before tracking their data across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising, or sharing their data with data brokers. As much as 96% of users in the United States are opting out of having their behavior tracked.
These changes are doing something else, too: they’re making Google stronger.
The impact of Google’s privacy controls
Phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome helps Google in two important ways and makes its ecosystem stronger. The demise of third-party cookies is quite convenient for Google sites such as Google Maps and YouTube. That’s because they use first-party cookies to track user behavior. Therefore, those sites become more appealing to advertisers that wish to continue serving up targeted ads working with Google. As Alphabet reported, YouTube’s advertising revenue for the third-quarter 2021 was $7.2 billion, up from $5.04 billion a year ago.
Meanwhile, Google is building its own open-source program that is intended to help businesses serve up targeted ads without using third-party data. This program is known as FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts). FLoC will make it possible for businesses to group people based on their common browsing behavior instead of using third-party cookies. According to a Google blog post, “Our tests of FLoC to reach in-market and affinity Google Audiences show that advertisers can expect to see at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising. The specific result depends on the strength of the clustering algorithm that FLoC uses and the type of audience being reached.”
I cannot overstate how important it is for Google to grow its ad revenues, which were $53 billion for the third quarter. Google is clearly succeeding. But a number of players, notably Amazon Advertising and Facebook, present a threat. Google will do everything in its power to fend off its competition and grow its cash cow.
But, why bother to do all this? Because Google is reading the room: Consumer privacy has been a hot-button issue in recent years. Legislators all over the world have been pressuring Big Tech to protect consumer privacy more carefully. And, you have to give Google credit for how adroitly the company is acting here. The company is making its own sites more attractive while giving advertisers the means to continue working with Google Advertising using its own open-source program.
The impact of Apple’s privacy controls
Apple’s ATT is already having an impact in some interesting ways. First off, as users opt-out of having their privacy tracked, social media sites such as Facebook, which track user behavior to serve up targeted ads, are taking a $10 billion revenue hit (and counting). This also affects Google’s ad rival Facebook — thus helping Google. In addition, some advertisers are taking their business to the Google Android operating system, creating another boon for Google. As The Wall Street Journal noted, “ . . . many brands have shifted their ad spending to Google because its flagship search-ad business relies on customer intent—users’ search terms immediately reveal what they are interested in—rather than data collected from app and web tracking.”
What businesses should do
It’s important that businesses continue to watch and react. Even though Google’s war on third-party cookies was slowed down by regulators, the writing is on the wall: advertisers need to be prepared to tap into their first-party data to create more relevant content. This means, among other things, monitoring the tools that Google is developing to help advertisers do that.
Advertisers should also keep a close eye on how retailers such as Amazon and Walmart are successfully mining their own first-party data to offer targeted ad products. Google is not the only game in town. Retailer-based advertising gives businesses the means to reach people who are shopping with an intent to buy. After all, Amazon is the most popular platform for product search. But, more importantly, it’s time for businesses to lean on their own data to build relationships.
Google’s responsive search ads (RSAs) have existed alongside the original expanded text ads (ETAs) since May 2018, giving marketers more formats for their campaigns. Since then, RSAs have not only become the default, but are set to be the sole text ad format going forward.
“As we’ve suspected, RSAs will become the only ad format that you’re going to be able to use, at least as far as a plain text ad,” said Frederick Vallaeys, co-founder and CEO of PPC management software company Optmyzr, in his session at SMX Next.
Marketers would be wise to start optimizing RSAs to stay ahead of their competitors. Here are four tactics Vallaeys recommends marketers use to improve their effectiveness.
Use more headline variants
Headline variants can allow marketers to use more keywords, which can enable their RSAs to reach more potential customers.
“If you give Google more variations then the CTR goes up because they’re able to show the right ad to the right user at the right time,” said Vallaeys.
However, spikes in CTR don’t necessarily correlate with increased conversion rates. Data shows they actually decrease with more headlines.
Image: Frederick Vallaeys
Fortunately, adding more headlines also increases total impressions as it gives Google more flexibility to create the ideal ad for each situation, leading to more impressions per RSA.
Image: Frederick Vallaeys
“Conversion rate seems to go down the more variety you introduce,” Vallaeys said, “But at the end of the day, the thing we care about is impressions and conversions per ad unit.”
“We recommend taking full advantage of all the flexibility Google gives you, using those 15 headline variations and all the descriptions as well,” he added.
Analyze asset labels
Google Ads’ asset labels show which assets are performing well and which assets you should replace after the RSAs serve. Vallaeys recommends watching these assets for two weeks, then replacing those that are underperforming.
Image: Frederick Vallaeys
“This is when you open up your RSA and you look at the different headlines and description lines,” said Vallaeys.
“This label they [Google] give you is based on actual performance,” he added, “So it’s a good thing to optimize against.”
Review combination reports
The combinations report show marketers what ad combinations are served up most often. These can provide marketers with insights into how Google’s optimization algorithms are working — and whether any mistakes have been made.
“It’s a good thing to look at to make sure there’s no crazy ad text combinations,” Vallaeys said. “If you’ve used a number of headlines, Google could put it together and all of the sudden it says something you’re not happy with. This is a great place to see what are the most common combinations of ads that Google serves.”
Image: Frederick Vallaeys
The assets in these reports should be reviewed to see how many impressions they’re receiving as well. If certain assets receive low impressions, it might be time to replace them.
Put smart bidding automation in place
Marketers should combine automation to help prevent ads from showing up to the wrong groups, Vallaeys says.
“If you’re doing manual bidding and letting Google show your RSAs to less-likely-to-convert audience members, then that’s problematic because your manual bids are not going to handle that,” said Vallaeys.
“But if you combine smart bidding with Google automatically showing the right ad — even doing a little bit more broad match — you can get good results,” he added.
Image: Frederick Vallaeys
This tactic is backed up by search data as well. Marketers who switch from ETAs to RSAs, using the same assets, in campaigns that use broad match and smart bidding see an average of 20% more conversions at a similar cost per conversion, according to Google.
A mix and match approach to bidding like this can help marketers get the most out of Google’s automation. And, the ability to use A/B testing within the RSAs can help achieve the desired results. If automation is the future of search ads, marketers would be wise to use Google’s machine learning systems to their fullest extent.
Advertisers can now create campaigns, review Search trends and view more explanations with performance insights in the Google Ads mobile app, the company announced Friday.
Why we care. The new mobile app features enable greater flexibility for SMBs and PPC practitioners to keep tabs on their campaigns or make adjustments from anywhere.
Search trends on mobile can enable advertisers to quickly identify popular searches that may be relevant to their business. And, advertisers can immediately act on that information since they’re now able to create campaigns within the mobile app.
And, the performance insights explanations can help advertisers identify the causes behind performance fluctuations, even the positive fluctuations. This can help them understand what worked so that they can repeat those tactics in the future.
Create campaigns from anywhere. Advertisers can now create Search campaigns directly in the Google Ads mobile app by tapping the plus icon on the bottom-right of their screen, as shown below.
The campaign creation workflow in the Google Ads mobile app. Image: Google.
Advertisers can select a campaign type, where they would like their ads to appear as well as adjust other campaign settings.
Search trends in the mobile app. This feature shows advertisers trends insights for products and services relevant to their business. Tapping on a Search trend shows popular searches associated with that particular trend — a grocery store might see a trend for “pies & tarts” with growing searches for “pumpkin pie,” Google provided as an example.
Search trends in the Google Ads mobile app. Image: Google.
Advertisers can create custom notifications to alert them when new search trends are relevant to their account. And, recommendations may also accompany search trends.
More explanations in performance insights. Advertisers can now see explanations based on changes to their bid and budget strategies as well as shifts in search interest. Performance insights for positive performance changes are also now available.
Performance insights explanations in the Google Ads mobile app. Image: Google.
Recommendations may also appear in your performance insights as well.
Four new features — consumer interest insights, audience insights, change history insights and auction insights, and demand forecasts — will be rolling out in beta to the Google Ads Insights page globally in the coming weeks, the company announced Thursday.
Why we care. If the predictions are accurate, demand forecasts can help brands better anticipate emerging trends so that they can plan their inventory and campaigns accordingly. However, user behavior has been unpredictable since the start of the pandemic, so make sure to evaluate demand forecast predictions with your own data before making decisions based on them.
The consumer interest and audience insights enable advertisers to learn more about how customers are searching for their offerings, as well as the themes they’re interested in and the ad copy that most resonates with them.
Zooming out, Google Ads’ product updates and offerings over the last few years have been designed to make advertising easier for SMBs, which may not have the resources to hire a full-time PPC professional or enlist the help of an agency. The Insights page is free and these features are likely to provide actionable information to all advertisers on Google’s platform, but its benefit will be greater for businesses that otherwise may not have had access to these trends.
Consumer interest insights. This feature aggregates and anonymizes the top-performing search query themes that drive performance in your campaigns. It tells you the number of people who searched for each theme, the theme’s growth and how it performed in your account.
Audience insights. This feature is aimed at helping advertisers learn about the interests and affinities of audiences that are seeing their ads, particularly the user groups that Google’s automation has identified as driving strong performance. Additionally, audience insights can enable advertisers to identify what creative resonates with their audience.
Demand forecasts. Instead of focusing on historical performance trends, demand forecasts use machine learning and past seasonal search trends to predict emerging search interests over the next 180 days.
These forecasts are personalized to your account, so advertisers will only see trends based on the categories they advertise in. Data is updated daily and predictions are replaced with real data as it comes in. The forecast may also adjust daily to improve accuracy.
Change history insights and auction insights. This feature can be used to better understand how shifting auction competition or changes you, the advertiser, made in your account affect performance.
