Google Ads suffered from a reporting delay for a portion of conversions using data-driven attribution. The issue occurred between 7:54 p.m. and 12:34 p.m. PST on February 9.
The issue has been resolved and the company is working on recovering the attribution data. Once resolved, the data will be reflected in reporting. Bidding was not affected, Ginny Marvin, Google’s ads product liaison, has confirmed.
Why we care. If you’re missing conversion data in Google Ads from February 9, this could be why. Any time data goes missing, it can impact your ability to assess campaign performance (and make decisions based on those assessments) as well as reporting for stakeholders.
The issue has been fixed, so we shouldn’t have to worry about it moving forward, but it’s a good idea to make note of when the issue occurred and to let stakeholders know.
About data-driven attribution. Data-driven attribution uses machine learning to understand how each marketing touchpoint contributed to a conversion, which may result in reporting that more accurately reflects your users’ full marketing journey. In September 2021, Google announced that this model would become the default attribution model for all new Google Ads conversion actions.
This is a move away from last-click attribution, the previous default model, in which only the final interaction is counted toward the attribution.
Google Ads has announced three changes to the way automated extensions – a type of ad extension that is created dynamically for your ad when it’s “predicted to improve your performance.”
Here’s what’s changing in Google Ads automated extensions:
1: Automated and manual extensions can be shown together. Starting in mid-March, automated extensions can be shown with manually created extensions. So if you have created two sitelinks manually, Google ads can show two dynamic sitelinks, for a total of four sitelinks.
2: Reporting. In the coming weeks, Google Ads will provide a report for “Automatically created” extensions. You can view these in the table view of the Extensions page.
The Google Ads Extensions page.
3: Can be added at ad group, campaign, or account level. Also starting in mid-March, sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets from higher levels in your account can serve with extensions of the same type from lower levels. Here’s a before and after from Google Ads that illustrates what this change looks like:
Google Ads before and after: how sitelinks will be served.
Why we care. In a keyword: click-through rate. Google said in their announcement that when four sitelinks advertisers can see a 20% higher CTR. As always, results will vary. So make sure to check the performance data of your automated extensions. You can always pause or remove any underperforming extensions.
Google is testing a new ad label in search results, the company confirmed to Search Engine Land. The experimental label (shown below) differs from the current ad label in that it is enclosed by a green box, which may help users distinguish it from organic results.
Image: Amir Shahzeidi.
Tip of the hat to Amir Shahzeidi for bringing this to our attention.
Side-by-side comparison. Below is an image, created by Greg Finn, comparing the experimental label (left) with the current label.
Image: Greg Finn.
In addition to being enclosed by a green box, the experimental label is not followed by any other text, unlike the example of the current label shown above.
Different tests, but related. In January, Google was seen testing favicons in text ads. Despite being quite different, this latest test is related to the same series of tests as the favicons.
“This is part of a series of small experiments to help users more easily identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads they may see for a given query,” a Google spokesperson told us. “We are always testing new ways to improve the experience for users on the search results page, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now.”
Why we care. Over the years, the design of Google’s ad labels has made paid listings trickier to distinguish from organic ones. However, this latest test seems to be a step back from that trend — it actually resembles the green, boxed label from 2017.
Whenever Google makes changes to the design of the ad label, those changes can impact clickthrough rates. Since this change might make it easier to identify ads, some advertisers may see a decline in CTR if the experiment receives a wider rollout.
However, others have not been able to replicate this test, so at this time, we’re not sure where else this label might appear (outside of app ads).
Google is testing ad descriptions with bullets, Ginny Marvin, the company’s ads product liaison, confirmed via Twitter on Wednesday.
Image: Mark Williams-Cook.
In the screenshot of the test (above), we can see up to three bullet points within one ad. The bullet points in the example above show a mixture of descriptions and CTAs. Tip of the hat to Mark Williams-Cook for bringing this to our attention.
Why we care. Within ads, a bulleted list may be used to showcase unique selling points, product features or additional CTAs. The more relevant information you’re able to pack into an ad, the more likely it is that the ad will drive engagement — bullet lists can help keep that information scannable for potential customers.
Google’s confirmation. “Yes, this is an experiment to show ad descriptions with bullets,” Marvin said, adding, “We’re always experimenting and don’t have anything more to share on this at the moment.”
Other recent Google Ads tests. Google Ads is always testing out new features and ad formats. Over the last few weeks, the platform has also been seen testing favicons in text ads and, underneath the hood, global site tags with automatic collection. As is the case with bulleted descriptions, Google did not say whether these features will eventually receive a wider rollout.
Google has revamped Search Ads 360, its enterprise campaign management platform, the company announced Tuesday. The update includes support for some newer Google Ads features (like Performance Max and Discovery campaigns), greater support for other search engines, a refreshed UI as well as workflow improvements.
The refresh Search Ads 360 interface. Image: Google.
The new experience will start rolling out over the next few months. Google will share migration timelines as the year goes on.
Support for most new features. The new Search Ads 360 was redesigned and rebuilt using the same technology that powers Google Ads. Having this common technology as the foundation enables support for most new Google Ads features, such as Performance Max and Discovery campaigns.
More support for other search engines. One of Search Ads 360’s main selling points is the ability to manage your ads across different channels, including other search engines. Search Ads 360’s updated infrastructure allows Google to add support for more features from other search engines.
For example, the updated platform now supports over 10 additional Microsoft Advertising features, including responsive search ads, call extensions, local inventory ads and additional Microsoft audience types like customer match. Support for Yahoo! Japan’s Dynamic Ads for Search and sitelink extension scheduling are also now available.
Google will continue to add more features and channel support in the coming quarters.
New advanced features for enterprises. In addition to support for existing features, Google is also rolling out completely new features for Search Ads 360.
“For instance, the new Search Ads 360 takes enterprise workflows to the next level by giving you new ways to centralize and scale your day-to-day tasks and key activities — like campaign management, automated rules and labels — and you’ll now be able to make these changes across multiple advertisers at the same time,” Google said in the announcement.
The company is also making upgrades to existing features: The “Performance Center,” which will become available later this year, is touted as an improved budget management planner with support for enterprise planning capabilities, like improved forecasting across search engines.
And, the existing inventory management and ad builder tools will be unified into one feature, which will be called “Templates.” Templates is also expected to become available later this year.
Refreshed UI. Google also updated Search Ads 360’s interface, borrowing elements from the Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising UIs. This may make navigation more efficient since advertisers may already be familiar with it.
Why we care. The updates Google has made to Search Ads 360 should help you get more work done in one place, which may also help you save time. Since more data and controls are centralized, this may present a more holistic view of your paid search campaigns across channels, which can facilitate better decision-making.
We have a client with angry customers. Really angry customers.
They are angry because they had unsubscribed from our client’s emails, and yet kept seeing our client in their Gmail inboxes.
“Enough!” They cried. “Stop spamming us with emails!”
Our client email and customer support teams dug in. They investigated. They researched. They scratched their heads. What was going on?
Finally, they connected with broader teams, and eventually this came to our desks.
We’re the supporting agency for this particular client’s Shopping Ads, and immediately we suspected that this was due to a campaign type Google had created a couple of years prior: Smart Shopping Campaigns.
After back and forth with Google (email from that correspondence shared below), we confirmed that this was indeed what was happening.
Perhaps you’ve seen the same thing with your own customers? If that’s the case, and you’re using Discovery, Smart Shopping, or Performance Max campaigns, then you may have the same issue.
The problem
What’s really happening here? Is Google Ads actually sending emails to customers?
Well, no (at least, I don’t believe so).
They’re Gmail ads, more than likely landing in the Promotions tab (based on the layout of your inbox), but the friction seems to come about when these ads fall into the inboxes of the non-techy people who are uninitiated into the complex cult of digital marketing nomenclature.
Here’s what I believe is happening: customers unsubscribe from a brand email account, and then wonder why they are still “seeing that brand” in their inbox. They don’t fully realize they are seeing ads instead of emails. (In their defense, those ads sure do put on a good act as an email.)
In fact, I’ll even go out on a limb to say I’m a little surprised this isn’t a violation of some of the permissions and privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA – though I will more quickly note that I’m not a lawyer and just surmising there.
To the normal non-marketer out in the world, is a business paid placement in the Sponsored Tabs really all that different from a business-sent email in the Sponsored Tabs (aside from one saying “Ad”)?
In reality, customers don’t care. They’re seeing a brand they chose to no longer engage with – and are angry about it.
Here enters the friction. Google is serving ads in a platform entirely different than the email marketing provider used to send or manage email customers – and yet the customer doesn’t care about those details.
After all, when you boil these two entities down to their simplest form, they are both business promotional efforts from a single brand.
The temporary, less-than-ideal, not-great fix
What can a business do about this to avoid showing Gmail ads to customers who have unsubscribed?
Well, in the Discovery Campaign, a person could create and exclude a Customer Match audience list of the email addresses of those who have unsubscribed (noting the limits required to do so). However, this option is currently unavailable in Smart Shopping and Performance Max, so there is no way to exclude specific unsubscribers from seeing ads in these campaign types.
Rather, the advertiser must rely on a more reactionary approach, waiting until someone has complained to them, and then instructing the CSR’s to reply with one of two options:
Help the customer find the “Stop Seeing This Ad” option on that ad. (To my knowledge, this doesn’t shut off all brand ads to that customer, only that specific ad. Let’s call this the Whack-A-Mole customer option. Spoiler: they’ll still hate your brand over this).
Get the customer to reply with their IP Address, and then exclude that IP address manually from each applicable campaign. This is not a viable long-term option because most IPs are dynamic, which means it will all change again at some point in the near future.
The better solution*
I realize there are other things that come into play in these decisions, but the better option would likely be for Google to allow some sort of synchronization between email marketing solutions and Gmail-Serving campaigns, or to allow for the same exclusion Customer Match list in Smart Shopping and Performance Max as they allow in Discovery.
The trick here is that smaller lists will likely be limited in serving per Google support documentation here.
In other words, they are potentially unusable by all of the smaller advertisers out there who don’t have enough subscribers to meet the list requirements!
Rock, meet hard place!
Regardless, that’s my understanding of this complex issue. I’ve reached out to Google with my concerns and will update the article when I hear back.
If you have ever wondered what is going on with email complaints from customers, now you know!
Google is testing global site tags with automatic collection of user-provided data, which is one of the setup methods for enhanced conversions. Advertisers must select the automatic setup option (it is not turned on by default) and accept customer data terms before they can use it.
The automatic collection option for global site tags. Image: Dario Zannoni.
This feature is currently in beta testing and may not be available to all advertisers. Tip of the hat to Dario Zannoni for bringing this to our attention.
The global site tag and enhanced conversions. The global site tag is used to track conversions in Google Ads. It works together with another piece of code, such as an event snippet or phone snippet, that tells the global site tag when to track a conversion.
Enhanced conversions, introduced in May 2021, allow tags to use consented, first-party data to provide a more detailed view of how users convert after engaging with an ad. Enhanced conversions can be set up within Google Tag Manager (manually) or with the global site tag.
Why we care. This feature makes it easier for advertisers to leverage enhanced conversions. It may be particularly helpful for SMBs that may not have the experience to implement enhanced conversions manually.
Additionally, conversion measurement solutions like enhanced conversions may become increasingly valuable tools as we continue the slow march towards the deprecation of third-party cookies.
With Google on its way to over $200b per year in ad revenues, companies that aren’t yet advertising online should think long and hard about why everyone else but them seems to be growing their business with Google Ads.
Perhaps they’ve tried and failed. Let’s face it: Especially in recent years, Google advertising has gotten increasingly automated, yet strangely also more complex with a multitude of campaign types, bidding strategies, and targeting options to choose from.
In what appears to be an effort to simplify, Google recently introduced a new, streamlined, all-in-one automated-campaign type: Performance Max. This new campaign needs minimal setup and promises to run a company’s ads as appropriate across Google’s six primary advertising channels: Search, Maps, Display, Gmail, Discover and YouTube.
But as with any automation, Performance Max shouldn’t be thought of as a set-it-and-forget-it campaign. After all, as we’ve established many times before, the best PPC results come from humans and automation working together. Or as Frederick Vallaeys put it in his first book, Digital Marketing in an AI World:
What inputs does Performance Max use?
To get started with automated ads on Google, you need to provide:
Your marketing objectives and goals
Budget
Creative assets
Text
Images
Video (optional, since this will auto-generate)
Geo-targets
Feeds (optional)
Google My Business
Google Merchant Center
Dynamic Ads feed
Business data feeds
Audience signals (optional)
First-party Audiences, including remarketing lists
Google Audiences, including custom audiences
From there, automation is off to the races and promises to show your ad when it expects to be able to get you a conversion.
Where do Performance Max ads run?
To find conversions that meet your stated objectives, Performance Max can, as appropriate, automatically serve your ad across its six channels: Search, Maps, Display, Gmail, Discover, and YouTube. Performance Max will replace Smart Shopping and Local campaigns but is intended to be a supplement rather than a replacement for the other campaign types like Search and Display.
Image source: Google.com January 2022
For new advertisers, this is a big deal and significant simplification because the same possible coverage would have previously required creating a separate campaign for each channel. And for advertisers who are just getting started with Google Ads, they may not have the time, or necessary experience and skill, to set up each and every one of these campaigns correctly to drive success. Now, with only a single campaign to create, advertisers can start seeing immediate results and focus on optimizing those aspects of their campaigns that have the biggest upside potential.
What could go wrong?
It’s important to understand what any automation’s capabilities and limitations are. If you overestimate an automation’s capabilities, and it fails to deliver, you really have only yourself to blame.
A good analogy is to self-driving cars’ five levels of automation, as defined by the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) and National Traffic and Highway Safety Administration:
In Los Angeles, a driver is now being prosecuted for vehicular manslaughter for letting his “self-driving” car run a red light and killing two people in the process. The driver treated his car’s capabilities like a level 5 automation when in fact, it was just a level 2 automation or a driver-assistance feature.
Likewise, in PPC, Performance Max campaigns are not level 5 fully self-driving automation, but more like a level 2 or 3 assist feature. Performance Max handles a narrowly defined task quite well, but it lacks context to be able to do it fully alone.
It’s up to you, the human advertiser, to supply that context, which includes your ultimate business goals. As an account or campaign manager, you’re in the driver’s seat. Google automation can’t be held accountable when problems arise.
So what can go wrong…
1. You give the automation incomplete goals.
Think of automation in PPC as your newest team member. When a new person joins your team, whether they’re a hired consultant or a new full-timer, you’ve got to teach them about your business, like your goals and how you make money. If you share incomplete information, for example, by failing to specify that you don’t just want leads but rather leads that convert into sales, they will probably do a poor job.
It’s the same with PPC automation. For example, if you tell the automated Google Ads system that your goal is to get leads, it will probably get you lots of leads. But that wasn’t your real goal. You want leads that turn into customers. It’s critical to have a way to feed this and other goal-related data back to Google so they can deliver what you truly want.
Tools like Optmyzr can help advertisers create value rules to help steer Google automation to better quality conversions.
2. You supply Google with poorly optimized feeds.
If you sell stuff, or you have multiple business locations, you can give this data to Google through one of their many structured data formats. In the case of products, this is a Google Merchant Feed.
Google then uses the data from the feed to decide what searches are relevant to your offer and show what it deems the best image, title, and price in each ad. But if your feed contains incomplete data, or if your title text is poorly optimized, your ads will look and feel worse than your competitors’, and you’ll either get fewer or more expensive conversions.
While long-time PPC pros may stress the importance of keywords, bids, and creative, Performance Max lets you control almost none of this. In Fred Vallaeys’s just-published second book, Unlevel the Playing Field: The Biggest Mindshift in PPC History, he explains that modern PPC managers shouldn’t manage every detail but should rather know how to manage Google Ads on the periphery, where they interface with the automated system.
Knowing how to optimize a feed is a great example of this. The feed connects to the ads system, where Google’s automation takes over and turns it into keywords, targeting, and the ads themselves.
And if you want more control, PPC software can help turn your feed into keywords, ads, and campaigns from a template you control.
3. You don’t leverage first-party data.
As privacy concerns mount, there’s a big shift away from third-party data in online advertising. That means that first-party data is gaining in importance. If you have a list of existing customers, feed that first-party data into your Google Ads campaigns to improve targeting. Yes, over time, Google AI could probably learn what type of audience would be best to target. But why let the system potentially waste thousands of dollars to learn what you could have told it right from the start?
And with more advanced PPC tools, you can bring virtually any first-party data into a rule engine to automate your PPC decision-making.
4. You fail to write “helpful” ad components.
If you’re used to advertising on social media and similar platforms, you may have gotten used to writing ads or posts that aim to be attention-getting above all. After all, when a user is rapidly swiping down their feed, the best way to stop them maybe with a controversial title or catchy image.
Things are different and more complicated with Google Ads. People use Google to search for things they already know they need. If you can help them, there’s no need to stop them in their tracks. Instead, aim to answer their questions and assure them that yours is the best possible solution to their problem. How will you help them? That means including unique value propositions and clear calls to action in the ad text components that will then make up the various parts of your Responsive Search Ads (RSAs).
For more great insights about how to create effective RSAs, take a look at Optmyzr’s 2021 RSA research and its RSA presentation at SMX Next.
Automation-layering tools can help you avoid these mistakes
So while Google makes it ever easier to run automatic PPC ads, the reality is that these campaigns will deliver far better results with your ongoing help and optimization. You can either do this work manually or get help from automations you manage and control, like those available in PPC-management software suites like Optmyzr.
“Automation layering” is what we call automation you install that provides checks and balances to Google’s automation. This is automation you, the manager sitting in the driver’s seat, insert in the interface between you and the Google Ads system. To do this, you don’t need to spend inordinate amounts of time monitoring all the minutiae of the ad engine. Instead, use simple rules and scripts to do this work for you. You can then focus on the strategic elements that add the most value when you, the human driver, deploy them in the system.
Automation layering PPC software doesn’t have to cost a lot. Optmyzr recently introduced Optmyzr Lite, a free tier of service specifically designed for new Google advertisers with single-business ad budgets under $10k per month. Advertisers get access to a dashboard, reports, audits, and optimization suggestions different from and independent of those Google provides. It’s a great way to monitor and correct Google AI when it could use your help, as it inevitably will at times. Many advertisers say: don’t let the auctioneer tell you how or when to bid. Optmyzr Lite is a trustworthy third-party tool that can offer a different perspective on how to optimize your Google Ads account so that you can focus on growing your business.
Google will notify all Partners of their current status. Those that have already met the new requirements will receive their Partners badge immediately and those that have not will receive their badge as soon as they meet all the requirements.
Google initially announced requirement changes to this program in February 2020, but the launch was delayed due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which also gave the company time to integrate feedback from advertisers into the final version of the requirements.
The new Partner requirements. Agencies were not happy with the first iteration of Google’s new Partners program requirements: The company had doubled the 90-day spend threshold (from $10,000 to $20,000), added an optimization score requirement and extended the Google Ads certification criteria to half of eligible users (up from just one).
After receiving feedback from the paid search community, Google kept the 90-day threshold at $10,000 and enabled advertisers to accept or dismiss recommendations to improve their optimization score. The official launch of the new Partners program (and the associated requirement changes) was also postponed until now.
To be eligible for the new Google Partners program, advertisers must:
Achieve an optimization score of 70%.
Spend $10,000 across all of a partner’s managed accounts within a 90-day period.
Have at least 50% of designated account strategists certified in Google Ads, with at least one certification in each product area (Search, Display, Video, etc.) with campaign spend of $500 (or more) in 90 days.
Premier Partners requirements. Agencies that meet Partners requirements and are within the top 3% of participating agencies in their country are eligible to become Premier Partners. The top 3% is evaluated annually; the factors that determine the top 3% include, but aren’t limited to:
Client growth – Ability for partners to grow their existing clients and acquire new clients, measured by year-over-year ads spend growth and ads spend among first-time Google Ads clients.
Client retention – Demonstrated ability to sustain client business, measured by the percentage of clients retained year-over-year.
Product diversification – Demonstrated investment in results-focused product mix beyond Search, measured by the percentage of spend in Display, Apps, Video, and Shopping each calendar year.
Annual ads spend – Investment in Google Ads or Google Marketing Platform, measured by spend across managed accounts each calendar year.
New benefits for Partners and Premier Partners. In addition to existing program benefits, all Partners that meet the new requirements will be eligible for “High-value offers,” which are $500 Google Ads credits (previously $100) for new clients. New clients will have 60 days (previously 30 days) to spend $500 to qualify for the $500 credit.
Moving forward, high-value offers will only be available to Google Partners and Premier Partners. For Members, the current promotional offers will still be available to apply to client
accounts until the end of March.
And, beginning later this month, all Partners will be listed in Google’s new Partners directory, which will be available globally to all advertisers.
Google has published a document detailing program benefits for those that would like to learn more.
Benefits just for Premier Partners. Premier Partner status is awarded to the top 3% of partners in each country. Google Ads is now offering its Premier Partners the following:
Product betas – Receive ongoing access to the most current product betas.
Advanced Google Ads support – Access 24-hour advanced ads support.
Executive experiences – Attend invite-only industry events, such as roundtable discussions with Google leaders, sessions with other Premier Partners and opportunities to hear from industry thought leaders.
Premier Partner Awards – The Premier Partner Awards highlight excellence in digital marketing and showcase Premier Partners that help drive results for clients with Google Ads.
Newly redesigned 2022 Premier Partner badge.
Why we care. We’ve known about these changes for quite some time and now they’ve taken effect, which means that if you haven’t already met the new requirements, you may no longer have Partner status.
Additionally, there may now be a more urgent need to meet the new requirements, particularly the certification requirement: “The main requirement we have seen some Partners not meet is the Certification Requirement,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land when asked about what may be holding agencies back from earning their Partner badges. “The majority are meeting both the Performance [optimization score] and Spend requirements.”
Alphabet, parent company of Google, released its earnings report yesterday for its fourth quarter. In it, we learned Google search advertising revenue increased 35% compared to the same quarter in 2020.
Overall, Alphabet reported Q4 revenue of $75.3 billion, up 32% from $52.8 billion vs. Q4 2020. For fiscal year 2021, Alphabet revenue was $257.6 billion, an impressive 41% increase from $182.5 billion in FY 2020.
Total Google advertising up 32.5%. In Q4, total Google advertising brought in $61.2 billion in revenue. In Q4 2020, that figure was $46.2 billion. “Total Google advertising” includes Google search and other, YouTube advertising, and Google Network.
Philipp Schindler, Google’s SVP and chief business officer, said on the Alphabet earnings call that this growth was driven by “broad-based strength in advertiser spend and strong consumer online activity. In the fourth quarter, retail was again by far the largest contributor to year-on-year growth of our ads business. Finance, media and entertainment and travel were also strong contributors.”
And in fiscal year 2021, total Google advertising grew 42.5% year over year compared to 2020 – $209.5 billion vs. $146.9 billion.
Wondering what percent of Alphabet’s total revenue came from Google advertising in 2021? That would be 82%.
Google Search & other up 35.7%. In Q4, search advertising accounted for $43.3 billion in revenue, Alphabet reported. In Q4 2020, that number was $31.9 billion.
Looking at fiscal year 2021, Google search and other brought in just under $149 billion, an increase of 43% over $104 billion in 2020.
YouTube Advertising up 25.3%. In Q4, YouTube advertising accounted for $8.6 billion in revenue. In Q4 2020, that number was $6.8 billion.
For fiscal year 2021, YouTube advertising brought in $28.8 billion, an increase of 45.8% over $19.7 billion in 2020.
Google Network up 25.5%. In Q4, the Google network accounted for $9.3 billion in revenue. In Q4 2020, that number was $7.4 billion
For fiscal year 2021, Google network brought in $31.7 billion in revenue, up 37.2% versus $23 billion in 2020.
Why we care. Last week, Microsoft reported its search revenue, a much smaller $3 billion by comparison during the same time period. Clearly, Google is the behemoth in search advertising. This provides even more proof that brands and businesses are investing in paid search advertising on Google. During the earnings call, Google highlighted advances in AI, machine learning, and automation as ways they are helping advertisers find opportunities. The big question: is Google delivering enough conversions and the best ROI? Schindler noted that “there’s a lot of intelligence in our auction to deliver great ROI for advertisers, but there’s always more we can do.”
