The Search Marketer’s Guide for Migrating to Enhanced Campaigns

By Kye Mou May 28th, 2013

Since Google’s announcement in early February of this year, Marin Software has been rapidly developing and releasing initial support for enhanced campaigns. This includes, but is not limited to, the ability to create enhanced campaigns, set mobile bid adjustments, generate mobile preferred ads, and bulk and multi-edit enhanced campaign settings. Each of these critical features enables Marin users to efficiently manage, report on, and optimize enhanced campaigns.

However, as the July 22, 2013 migration deadline approaches, Marin understands the importance of preparing campaigns not only for the initial migration of legacy campaigns to enhanced campaigns, but also the eventual merging of separate desktop, tablet, and mobile device targeted campaigns. To help search marketers navigate through this time of change and successfully migrate to enhanced campaigns, Marin has created a comprehensive campaign migration guide.

This guide will help search marketers:

• Understand what enhanced campaigns are.
• Establish a plan for migrating to enhanced campaigns.
• Review the requirements for merging campaigns.
• Execute best practices for ensuring post-migration success.

Download the comprehensive 12 page guide for migrating to enhanced campaigns, here.

Register for the webinar on Thursday, June 6th at 10am PST, here.

Google Is Listening: Enhancing the Enhanced Campaign

By Kye Mou April 11th, 2013

On Tuesday Google announced that advertisers will soon be able to set mobile bid adjustments at the ad group level, in addition to the campaign level, for enhanced campaigns. This comes on the heels of Google’s release of two new ValueTrack parameters: {ifmobile:[value]} and {ifnotmobile:[value]}. Google also indicated July 22, 2013 as the start of the migration deadline, when AdWords will begin automatically upgrading legacy campaigns to enhanced campaigns.

These recent announcements shouldn’t come as a surprise to search marketers. Google has historically made adjustments to new AdWords features as market demands became more evident. (A recent example is last year’s update to the campaign ad rotation settings.) Sophisticated search marketers have been asking for additional enhanced campaign features to provide additional control and transparency for optimizing their paid search programs. Today, we’ll review the two recently announced enhancements to enhanced campaigns and discuss their importance to search marketers who operate in a multi-device world.

Ad Group Mobile Bid Adjustment

Before this Announcement: A mobile bid adjustment could only be set at the campaign level, which allows advertisers to boost desktop keyword bids for searches on mobile devices by -100% to 300% across the entire campaign.

The Ask from Marketers: Search marketers are used to granularity. From management to reporting to optimization, sophisticated marketers often desire to operate at the most granular levels possible, which often means making decisions down at the keyword level. The reason is that clicks, cost, conversions, and revenue data are all attributed at the keyword level; and in order to optimize bids and maximize performance, keyword-level bids needed to be calculated and applied individually.

The Updated Approach: Google will now allow advertisers to set a mobile bid adjustment at the ad group level. Once implemented, the same boost range, from -100% to 300%, can be applied to all desktop keyword bids within a given ad group for searches made on mobile devices. The campaign level mobile bid adjustment will be ignored if an ad group level bid adjustment has been set.

What It Means: The enhancement to allow group-level mobile bid adjustments provides search marketers with additional control over their enhanced campaigns and mobile performance. For advertisers that follow account best practices, where ad groups contain a small set of like or similar performing keywords, this enhancement should meet the requirements for most paid search programs. Although some search marketers may long for keyword-level mobile bid adjustments, keep in mind that the goal of enhanced campaigns is to simplify the way advertisers manage their paid search campaigns across device, location, and time of day. Group-level adjustments appear to be a reasonable and effective compromise.

{ifmobile} and {ifnotmobile} ValueTrack Parameter

Before this Announcement: Search marketers could only leverage one landing page across all devices rather than have the ability to direct users to optimized landing pages based on device. The other option was to remove keyword level destination URLs in favor of creative level URLs.

The Ask from Marketers: Screen sizes and user behavior varies significantly between desktop and mobile devices. Presenting users with a device-specific landing page is critical to improving the user experience and maximizing paid search performance. Consequently, advertisers wanted the ability to define two destination URLs at the keyword level in order to present the most relevant content and optimal experience based on the device the user is searching on.

The Updated Approach: The {ifmobile} and {ifnotmobile} ValueTrack parameters will enable search marketers to direct users to device-specific landing pages at the keyword level. Additionally, these new parameters enable the measurement of the effectiveness of campaigns by device for advertisers who are unable to leverage the {device} ValueTrack parameter.

What It Means: The ability to assign a device-specific landing page falls directly in line with Google’s approach to a multi-device world—helping advertisers reach consumers with the right ad experience based on device, location, and time of day. As users move across device, this enhancement will enable search marketers to remain relevant and engaging.

Google Is Listening

Clearly, Google is open to enhancing enhanced campaigns based on industry feedback. However, I wouldn’t expect any further changes to be announced ahead of the migration deadline as advertisers nail down their migration plans and establish revised best practices before heading into the holiday season. In order for enhanced campaigns to be a win-win-win solution (for Google, the consumer, and the advertiser), Google will need to continue collecting and applying market feedback, especially once all advertisers have migrated over to enhanced campaigns.

Tablet Devices and the Future of Paid Search

By Kye Mou March 27th, 2013

Over the last three years, the rapid proliferation of tablet devices has changed the way consumers and advertisers interact across the search landscape. Consumers now rely on their tablets more than ever before to gain access to local business information, product details, reviews, coupons, and competitors. And advertisers responded with relevant ads targeted towards these tablet users.

However, the way these devices are used by consumers today has resulted in a seismic shift in thinking by Google. In an effort to simplify the management of paid search campaigns across devices, location, and time of day, Google upgraded AdWords with enhanced campaigns in early February. According to Google and their data, the line between desktops and tablets is blurring, with search behavior and engagement on the two devices aligning.

A recent 2013 mobile report: The State of Mobile Search Advertising – How Smartphones and Tablets are Changing Paid Search released by Marin Software supports Google’s claim that consumer behavior on tablets and desktops share increasing similarities. However, the data also validates the perception that desktops and tablets are inherently different and perform accordingly so. Regardless, to remain successful in a multi-device world, search marketers must embrace enhanced campaigns and continue delivering a relevant and engaging ad experience.

What Does the Data Say?

Over the last two years, tablets have become a device segment that search marketers can’t ignore. In fact, the share of overall paid search clicks served by Google on tablets increased from 6% to 10.7% in 2012. Consumers are increasingly using tablet devices to research and make purchases on-the-go and, more importantly, in the comfort of their home where desktop devices have traditionally reigned. Marin projects that by the end of 2013, the share of tablet clicks will double in the US, accounting for 20% of Google’s paid search clicks.

In 2012, paid search conversion rates for tablet devices increased by 31%, while smartphone and desktop conversion rates increased by 9% and 7%, respectively. By December 2013, Marin estimates that tablet conversion rates will surpass those of desktops. In addition to this rapid rise in conversion rate, Marin also found that tablet ads are continuing to outperform desktop ads. Click-through rates (CTR) for search ads on tablets were 37% higher than ads delivered on desktops, with the average cost-per-click (CPC) on tablets 17% lower than on desktops. As a result, advertisers increased paid search spend on tablets to capitalize on this opportunity; and by the end of 2012, the share of spend on these devices had increased to 10%, eclipsing the share of spend on smartphones for the first time in history.

Different, But Equal

Tablets will certainly play a crucial role in the future of paid search, but whether the line between desktops and tablets will continue to converge and blur, or diverge and remain distinct, has yet to be seen. Even though these two devices share similarities in search behavior, they continue to perform differently. Perhaps this is a result of their unique user experiences—desktops with their large screens, mouses, and primarily fixed locations; versus tablets and their touchscreens, smaller search real-estate, and portability. Marin’s mobile report appears to support the notion that different user experiences result in varying ad performance. As a result, we expect Google’s enhanced campaigns to evolve as the market demand for additional functionality becomes evident.

The New Multi-Device World

With the migration to enhanced campaigns underway, search marketers must now prepare for a desktop-and-tablet-combined world. Gone are the days of separating campaigns to target these devices individually. Campaigns and landing pages must now be optimized with both the desktop and tablet user in mind. Two strategies that marketers are implementing today include: limiting the amount of Flash-based content on websites, as iPads don’t support Adobe Flash, and using finger-friendly buttons and links.

In an already highly competitive search landscape, enhanced campaigns will change the way advertisers engage with consumers. Sophisticated search marketers will need to continue investing in technology and reestablish best practices in order to successfully drive media and acquire revenue in the new multi-device world.

Download the comprehensive 15 page global mobile report here.

The Great Debate Over Enhanced Campaigns at SMX West

By Kye Mou March 13th, 2013

In the two days spent speaking and exhibiting at SMX West this week, it was clear that Google enhanced campaigns are at the top of every search marketer’s mind. With the mid-year migration deadline around the corner, marketers were keen to ask the important questions. Throughout our time in the Expo Hall and during two of our speaking opportunities, Marin engaged in several candid discussions regarding enhanced campaigns and what Google’s recent change to AdWords means for search marketers. Here’s what we heard.

Everyone’s On the First Page

Many search marketers were unaware of enhanced campaigns when it was first announced in early February. Without the formal beta process that Google typically leverages—a process used for major features like Product Listing Ads, remarketing, Dynamic Search Ads, etc.—enhanced campaigns was unleashed upon the search world in one fell swoop. Some search marketers we spoke to are struggling to understand what it means for their day-to-day campaign management and optimization tactics.

Think Everybody. Think!

Success in the age of enhanced campaigns hinges on the ability to establish “enhanced” best practices. Though the testing of enhanced campaigns appears to be limited so far, it hasn’t stopped search marketers from making assumptions and applying their expertise towards new tactics and strategies. Below are two of the “best practices” we overheard at SMX West:

• Specify device within ad creative: To engage users on specific devices, specify the device of choice within the ad creative. Including device-specific tokens like “mobile” remains a best practice, but these become even more critical for search marketers to include in their ad creative for increasing relevance. For advertisers who only want to engage tablet or smartphone users, use the tokens “tablet” or “iPhone” for example. This may reduce the number of desktop clicks on ads intended for tablet users or miscellaneous smartphone clicks on ads intended for iPhone users.
• Separate campaigns by location target: Continue splitting out campaigns by location targets. This enables search marketers to continue tracking conversions and revenue by geography and calculate bids based on segmented performance. Furthermore, generate ad creative that leverage geo-specific identifiers. For example, within a campaign that’s targeting San Francisco, use the keyword “San Francisco” within ad creative to increase relevance and user engagement.

Enhancing the Enhanced Campaign

When enhanced campaigns were first announced, many mobile app and gaming companies expressed a desire to target campaigns to a specific mobile device or device operating system (i.e. iPhone, HTC, iOS, Android). After speaking with a few marketers who attended the session on enhanced campaigns, it appears that Google will allow advertisers to target specific mobile devices and device operating systems for the display network with enhanced campaigns. Given market feedback it wouldn’t be surprising to see Google begin tweaking enhanced campaign features to provide marketers with these additional controls.

The Clock Is Ticking

Marin Software supports enhanced campaigns now. Establishing new best practices before the upcoming migration deadline is important. Conferences and expos like SMX West provide an invaluable look into what search marketers are thinking and what they require to be successful in the age of enhanced campaigns. Marin will be exhibiting at SES NY later this month and we look forward to another great forum for discussing enhanced campaigns. We hope to see you there!

Search Marketing Insights from SES London

By Rebecca Momberg February 26th, 2013

Last week was the 14th annual SES conference in London. I was delighted to host two round-table sessions focusing on paid search tactics and want to share some of the topics that were discussed. A variety of search marketers from around Europe attended the round table sessions, representing almost every vertical from retail to travel; education to automotive; finance to entertainment, and everything in-between.

Enhanced Campaigns: Google’s recent announcement has created a lot of buzz in the industry; Marin’s recent blog post on the topic highlights the benefits and concerns that advertisers should consider. Many advertisers are planning to augment their geo-targeting strategy with the new location based bid multipliers removing the need to create separate campaigns with bespoke targeting and bids. Budget control across devices is causing concern; however, the general outlook is positive. Marin is advising users to leverage as much data as possible to inform their bid multiplier strategy and embark on a test and learn cycle of optimisation.

Attribution: In-channel, cross-channel, on- and off-line attribution all came up. Opinions varied as to how much time to dedicate to analysing and testing attribution models. StylistPick reaped rewards following the integration of Marin’s easy-to-deploy multi-click, multi-channel attribution model. For more information, take a moment to read the case study.

Tracking attribution and optimizing for mobile were growing concerns for many advertisers; who are worried about under-valuing the importance of mobile due to the inability to quantify users’ mobile research—e.g. linking a mobile search to an offline conversion, or a conversion made on a different device. We anticipate that over the course of 2013 many advertisers will look to address this challenge through the use of voucher codes. AMF bowling is one advertiser who has already put this in place, read more here.

Ad Text Best Practice: Copy writing seems to have taken a bit of a backseat in the world of big data with many advertisers neglecting to regularly refresh their copy in favour of number crunching, bid optimization, and attribution. However, advertisers who regularly refresh copy see ongoing benefits through reduced CPCs and increased CTRs.

Here are some tips that were shared during the round-table sessions:

• Spend time with creative teams responsible for TV, radio and press advertising, these people are specialists in coming up with messaging and many of the ideas generated in brain storming exercises can make great text ads.
• Run competitions to get the creative juices flowing in your search team. Have each person create two text ad variants, set them live and use an automated AB testing tool to judge the winner!

The turnout and feedback provided during these round-table sessions were phenomenal. Marin would like to send a big thank you to everyone who attended and imparted their knowledge and opinions. If you have any thoughts regarding the topics above, please feel free to leave your comment below.

Marin in the News: Tablets > Desktops…Almost

By Greg Kunkel February 20th, 2013

Last week, our mobile report caught the eyes of many journalists, including the Wall Street Journal. However, Wired’s interpretation of the data gave me pause to think further on the trend of consumers ditching their desktops and laptops in favor of tablets. As Michael Copeland points out, tablets are no longer just for watching movies while on the train home, checking emails, or passing the time with Angry Birds. As the power and performance of tablets increases and bandwidth becomes more available, firing up the ‘ol tower computer is becoming a thing of the past. Our data certainly supports the notion.

Tablets are the future that much seems certain, but in a post Google enhanced campaigns world where tablets and desktops are “equal”, which one drives the innovation? Prior to enhanced campaigns, the two devices were treated as separate. Ad innovation for desktops progressed along its own path while tablets were busy carving out one of their own. Now that both are AdWords roomies, will future ad innovation be of a desktop lineage or part of the tablet revolution? The two devices and their user experiences certainly aren’t the same; computers with their large screens, mouses, and primarily fixed locations versus tablets and their touch screens, smaller search real-estate, and portability. Does Google continue to favor market share? If so, for how long? Or, do Google and tablets become BFFs?

Only time will tell.

Google’s New “Enhanced Campaigns”: What It Means for Search Marketers

By Kye Mou February 7th, 2013

Yesterday Google announced the rollout of enhanced campaigns, a major AdWords product release that attempts to simplify the management of campaigns across devices. With enhanced campaigns, search marketers will be able to target consumers based on device, location, and time of day through a single campaign. However, for search marketers that currently leverage separate desktop, tablet, and mobile campaigns, Google’s enhanced campaigns will remove some of the control and transparency we’re used to having. Additional details on enhanced campaigns can be found here.

What Does This Mean? To understand the implications of Google’s enhanced campaigns, let’s review the benefits and concerns.

Benefits

• Mobile preferred creative: Search marketers will now be able to create mobile preferred ad creative that are delivered to users based on their device or when they’re searching.
• Consolidated and simplified bid management: Search marketers can now leverage bid adjustments to manage bids across devices, locations, time of day, and more from within a single campaign.

• Enhanced ad extensions management: Search marketers can now assign ad extensions at the ad group level and display ads across devices with the appropriate ad creative, sitelink, app, or extension, without having to manage multiple campaigns for every combination of device, location, and time of day. Furthermore, ad extensions can now be scheduled to turn on and off, such as during times when phone operators are unavailable.
• Advanced sitelinks management: Search marketers can now report on the performance metrics for individual ad sitelinks and monitor their approval status.
• New conversion types: Search marketers will now have the ability to track and report on calls and app downloads, enabling the optimization of campaigns based on these conversion types.

Concerns

• Device specific budgets: In combing all devices into a single campaign, budgets will also be combined, eliminating the ability for search marketers to set separate, device-optimized budgets across desktop-, tablet-, and mobile-only campaigns.
• Mobile-only campaigns: Without the ability to opt out of desktop/tablet device targeting, search marketers will no longer be able to leverage mobile-only campaigns. This may significantly impact advertisers, like mobile app and gaming companies, who only wish to advertise on mobile devices.
• Tablet specific optimization strategies: With tablet device targeting now combined with desktop, search marketers who have specific tablet strategies in place will lose that functionality.
• Bidding on mobile keywords: Since mobile bids are boosted by a percentage of desktop/tablet bids at the campaign level, search marketers can no longer calculate individual mobile keyword bids based on performance. Furthermore, bidding to a preferred position for specific mobile keywords to combat the limited SERP real estate on mobile devices is no longer possible.
• Bid multipliers: The requirement to layer bid multipliers based on device, location, and time of day introduces significant complexities for calculating optimal keyword bids. Furthermore, since bid adjustments are applied at the campaign level, separate time of day multipliers can’t be set for separate locations. For example: +20% for New York and +50% on Saturdays, and -20% for Chicago and -50% on Saturdays.
• Targeting mobile operating systems: Search marketers can no longer target campaigns to a specific mobile device or device operating system (i.e. iPhone, HTC, iOS, Android).

Google plans to roll out enhanced campaigns across advertisers over the next few weeks. As a result, advertisers may not have immediate access to this feature within their accounts. By mid-2013, all campaigns are expected to have been transitioned to enhanced campaigns.