Advertisers will no longer see the Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value bid strategies for search campaigns, Google announced Thursday. As per the company’s announcement back in April, Maximize conversions will continue to be available with an optional target CPA and Maximize conversion value will be available with an optional target ROAS.

tCPA and tROAS are going away soon. “In the next few weeks, you’ll no longer have the option of using the old Target CPA [tCPA] and Target ROAS [tROAS] bid strategies for standard campaigns,” Google said in the announcement, “Instead, use the updated bid strategies by setting optional targets. This update only applies to campaign-level strategies; portfolio bid strategies will be updated next year.”

This means that, sometime in the next few weeks, advertisers will lose the ability to create new campaigns via the old tCPA and tROAS strategies, but existing tCPA and tROAS campaigns will continue to function as usual — at least until Google migrates the campaigns over to the new format sometime in 2022.

Why we care. This update will not affect bidding behavior: “Using Maximize conversions with a target CPA will have the same bidding behavior as Target CPA,” Google said, “Likewise, using Maximize conversion value with a target ROAS will have the same bidding behavior as Target ROAS.” PPC professionals should be aware of this change so they know how to create the appropriate campaigns moving forward.

For now, existing tCPA and tROAS campaigns will continue to run as usual. “We’ll give advance notice before automatically switching these old bid strategies to the new format in 2022,” Google said, “This switch will not have any impact on bidding behavior.”

The post Google removes standalone Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value strategies appeared first on Search Engine Land.

As retailers prepare for the holiday shopping season, Google is launching new sections in its search results to showcase deals, rolling out tools to highlight promotions and expanding reporting capabilities in Google Merchant Center, the company announced Wednesday.

The new deals sections. The new “Deals related to your search” section shows discounted or competitively priced products from retailers across the web. This section is live now and can be found in the Shopping tab.

Additionally, when users search for deals during major retail sales events, such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Google will show a new carousel that highlights relevant deals, alongside other related sales information. This new SERP feature will be available in October — right in time for the aforementioned shopping holidays.

Promotions and deals uploaded via Google Merchant Center are automatically shown to users on the Shopping tab, even if the retailer or manufacturer isn’t running ads on Google. “Offers are shown based on factors such as the discount itself, how popular a product is, how popular the site it’s listed on is and more,” Google said in the announcement.

New promotions tools. Google is rolling out two new ways for merchants to attract new customers and highlight their promotions:

• Merchants can now indicate that a promotion is only available to first-time customers (for example, a “10% off for new customers” promotion). These promotions will still be shown to everyone, but only eligible shoppers will be able to access the promotional price.
• Promotions can now be highlighted on free listings in the Shopping tab. To do so, navigate to the promotions tab in Google Merchant Center and select which promotions you want to have appear in free listings (or, alternatively, supported by ad spend).

Expanded best sellers report. Historical best seller data and relative demand data are coming to the best seller report in Google Merchant Center.

This report can be accessed once a merchant opts into market insights in Merchant Center or Google BigQuery.

Why we care. The new deals sections may present retailers with opportunities to showcase their competitively priced products. This may also help retailers attract new customers during their most important times of the year, major shopping holidays. Additionally, the deals carousel will appear on the main results page, so users are more likely to see those deals since they don’t have to move over to the Shopping tab first.

The new promotional tools can help merchants draw attention to their sales and attract first-time customers.

Historical best seller data can be used to inform decisions ahead of upcoming shopping holidays. And, relative demand data can help merchants compare demand between products in the same category and country, which may help them stock the right products.

The post Google announces new deals sections, promotional tools and expanded reporting ahead of the holiday shopping season appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Starting in September 2021, Google Ads will begin testing a new three-strikes pilot program for accounts that repeatedly violate ad policies.

“Warnings and strikes will be issued for violations of our Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Unapproved Substances and Dangerous Products or Services policies—this includes ads promoting deceptive behavior or products such as the creation of false documents, hacking services, and spyware, as well as tobacco, drugs and weapons, among other types of content,” the company said in a new Help Center News Announcement. These ads types have been prohibited for a while, but the system to punish those who don’t abide by the policies is new.

Penalties in the strikes system. The system starts with a warning and no penalties for an initial violation. From there, each violation has an increasingly stringent penalty until the account is finally suspended.