At the 2016 Google Performance Summit, Google announced there would be some major changes and additions to their AdWords, Analytics and Maps tools coming up this year. These changes will have a big effect on your current mobile marketing strategies.
While many of these changes are still being tested and aren’t fully released yet, it’s a good idea to know what’s coming up so you can stay ahead of the game.
Not everyone has a spare hour to watch the video footage from the Performance Summit, so I’ve summarized the video to make it easier for you to keep track of these important upcoming changes.
The dramatic rise in cellphone usage toward buying decisions is what influenced Google to make these updates. Google focused on the idea of “micromoments”, which are essentially moments of our lives that we use search engines for instant access or answers to, via our mobile devices.
If you need to know where to get dinner, how to fix your sink, or what to buy your dad for Father’s Day, all you have to do is type your search into Google and you instantly have the world at your thumbs. This shift has had major influences on how people plan and shop, so Google is upgrading these popular tools to reflect the rise of mobile usage:
Google Ads
Google Bids
Google Maps
Google AdWords
Google Analytics 360 Suite
Mobile First!
Mobile is no longer the sidekick, it’s the leader. Our cellphones aren’t just a gadget anymore, they’re a huge part of our daily lives. They’re our dictionaries, directions, yellow pages and so much more- so it’s no surprise they’ve now outgrown the larger, more inconvenient desktop. If for some reason you have not optimized your website for mobile yet, now is a good time to jump on board, because this mobile trend is only going to keep growing.
Google Ads
Billboards, magazine ads, and pop-ups are far too large in size for this generation. Google has upgraded Google Ads to help you create mobile ads that have shown up to 20% increase in CTR during their testing phase.
One of the biggest changes to Google Ads is longer headlines and longer descriptions. This may sound odd because cellphones are smaller, but they actually bring you more business by bringing the customer more information. Mobile users will be provided with 50% more text in ads, which means 50% more information to try to persuade users to click on your ad.
Start thinking about how you’ll use the new 80-character description length and longer headlines in your upcoming ads to increase your CTR.
Ads are going to get even more competitive, so make sure you provide these items so that Google can format a fully optimized mobile ad that will drive more traffic to your site:
• A longer, catchier headline
• Informative 80-character length description
• High quality image (include alt text of best ranking keyword)
• A tagged URL (include best ranking keyword)
Google Bids
If you’re worried about wasting money on your ads in Google Bids, Google now makes it easier to see which devices are getting clicks, and which aren’t. Google has upgraded Bids for individual bid adjustments for each device type so you don’t waste any extra money on devices with low ROIs.
Demographics for search ads allows you to reach new visitors by adjusting bids to a specific demographic for your search ads. One company noticed a 65% increase in CTR with demographic ads.
You can also bid on “Similar Audiences for Search”, which reaches searchers who have interests that are similar to your previous visitors. So now you can remarket to people who have already visited your site, and to anyone who looks up similar search terms as those visitors, but have not yet visited your site.
Google maps
Mobile is bringing business back to brick and mortar stores. Although online shopping is still popular, people prefer to use their mobile devices to search for something that they can get in a physical location right away. According to Google, 90% of global sales will happen in stores instead of online.
Since nearly 1/3 of mobile searches are related to location, and location related searches have grown 50% in the past year, Google realized the potential in location based advertisements in Google Maps.
With new local search ads, you can include promo text and store inventory to your customizable business page to drive searchers to your location.
They have also created promoted pins, which allow customers to see promoted businesses along their route. By using beacon signals, Google Maps is increasing their accuracy and improving existing location data.
New or updated features of Google Maps include:
• Popular times to help avoid lines for store fronts
• Reviews for businesses
• Promoted pins pop up in route
• Customizable business page that can include images, hours, inventory, directions and other important store information
Google AdWords has 3 New Design Principles
Identify Opportunities-Clearer visuals for identifying top performing campaigns, top performing devices, and top performing ads by hour of the day.
Focus on Your Business– A new campaign creation flow allows you tell Google your marketing objectives, and Google will save you hours of time by recommending features to help you achieve those goals.
Accomplish More in Less Time-A simpler layout allows you to view the most important features, like targeting, to your main dashboard. Devices, locations and scheduling are accessible with a single click from anywhere in your account.
These new designs will be incorporated into AdWords–No upgrading or migration necessary.
The New Google Analytics 360 Suite Tools
Google Analytics is getting a makeover, a full 360 degree makeover to be exact. The new Analytics 360 Suite has 5 tools that will help you save time, share data, and analyze data across devices:
• Optimize 360
• Audience Center 360
• Tag Manager 360
• Data Studio 360
• Attribution 360
Deep Integration increases testing agility and reduces set up times. You can integrate your current audiences and goals from analytics to run site experiments in a few minutes instead of a few days.
Simple collaboration in the Data Studio allows you to access data, create reports and share them all in one spot quickly. No more emailing links and attachments back and forth. Now you can create your reports and share all of your information in one spot just like you would on Google Docs.
Built-in intelligence uses Google assistant to give you analytics answers as quickly as you would get them from a regular search inquiry. The Google assistant can sift through your business data to answer questions with a simple number, answer, or table on the spot.
These new tools were designed so that Ads tools and Analytics tools are integrated, easier to use, and allow access and sharing options.
If you want more details than what I’ve outlined, here’s the hour long video that you can watch when you have the time.
The post Google Changes That Will Reshape Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Digital Style.