During the Step Inside AdWords livestream last week, Googlers Jerry Dischler and Paul Feng clued us all into the innovations Google AdWords has in store for the next year. And guess what? Everying hinges on user experience.
As advertisers, we often get caught up thinking about how best to reach users on their devices. But in his speech, Jerry Dischler, VP of AdWords Product Development, reminded us that “it’s not really about devices. It’s about connecting people to the content that they care about, whether they’re online, on mobile sites, or in apps.”
So although it’s important for advertisers to understand how to effectively target users on desktop, tablet, and mobile, it’s just as important to show ads that are useful and interesting to the people they reach. If you’re showing ads to users who don’t have an interest, you’re not going to get anywhere.
With many existing abilities within AdWords for detailed demographic, contextual, and keyword targeting, it’s already common practice to selectively serve ads toward the right kind of audience. But with more variation in devices comes more complicated targeting and conversion measurement. Google knows this and wants to continue to offer more tools that allow advertisers the insight they need to serve this relevant ad content.
Understanding user experience for better Google advertising
Being able to connect users to advertising content that is actually applicable to their needs is a win-win for advertisers and consumers. But advertisers can only make this happen if they have the tools. Better tracking across devices, app integration, and ad innovation will be necessary for helping advertisers understand how their advertising is landing with their consumers — and this is where Google is headed in the near future.
Along with improving ad relevancy and targeting, according to Dischler, this means integrating app downloads, YouTube, and video advertising, as well as stepping up our ability to read data and test new strategies. This year, Google is working on:
- Better app integration
- in-platform bulk action capabilities
- goal-based bidding, and…
…new solutions for tracking offline conversions! Yes, you heard that right. We may soon have a solution for tracking offline conversions! Conversion tracking is essential for targeting and improving overall campaign efficiency, but those who drive in-store sales are forced to miss out on this metric because of obvious reasons.
In his Step Inside AdWords speech, Dischler offered Express (the clothing retailer) as a success story. The store saw a 102% return from in-store sales when their agency was able to start tracking offline conversions.
But as far as Google’s new process for tracking offline, we’re still in the dark. Will it involve Google Wallet, perhaps? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
To wrap up the presentation, Paul Feng, AdWords PM Lead, offered some more detailed insight into projects that we can count on being a little closer to their completion date.
1. New in-platform reporting capabilities
Instead of downloading reports as Excel spreadsheets and fiddling with them to create a better presentation, new reporting features in the “Reports” section of AdWords will allow you to create multi-dimensional reports within the platform itself. Using the metrics of your choosing, you will soon be able to create an in-depth analysis in a table format or even a graph — without leaving the interface.
2. Test our a new strategy on a percentage of your traffic in Drafts
This tool takes split testing to the next level. Instead of having to build an entirely new campaign and pause your existing advertising to try new strategies, you can now set up a draft campaign and test your new targets on a percentage of your traffic. Within this tool, you can also view and compare the results of your experiment and determine a strategy that will be most effective.
While the more conceptual ideas proposed by Dishler may be a little further away, we can expect to see the tools Feng introduced in the next few months. Stay tuned!
