Google Ads & Analytics Innovations Keynote Highlights

May 27, 2016 4:32 pm Published by admin

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Google recently announced several new updates coming to AdWords and Analytics. With these updates, they continue their focus on Mobile-first design, improving consumer usability, and introduced some new integrations within their product line. For AdWords, they continue to focus on their marketing process while enabling advertisers to better reach consumers effectively with expanded text ads, responsive display ads, and enhanced targeting options. For Analytics, the two new products are focused on improving workflow efficiency. At Element 360, we’re excited about the coming changes and look forward to adding these to our ever-present list of experiments. Check out our highlights and the full video below:

AdWords Updates:

1. Text Ads – Headlines and descriptions are getting longer. Currently they’re limited to a one line 25-character headline, however they’re extending it to two 30-character headlines. Descriptions are changing from two 35-character description lines to one consolidated 80-character line.
2. Display Ads – Google is testing responsive display ads on the GDN, and we’ve noticed they’re already testing this in some of our accounts. Through the new Responsive Ad Creation Tool, all that’s necessary to create responsive ads is an image, headline, description, and URL. We don’t anticipate using this as we generally provide more research-based solutions for our clients utilizing the GDN.
3. Bids – This one is a game changer: bid adjustments for individual devices. Currently we can only adjust bids for mobile devices specifically (up or down), however this change would enable us to focus on the highest performing devices without a workaround.
4. Google Maps Ads – They’re adding more information for these ads to highlight specific products or services relevant to the user’s search. Shopping items, special offers, among others are being attached to these ads to help people find what they’re looking for a bit quicker. In addition, they’re adding branded icons to the map instead of the generic icons.
5. The New Interface – Google is also testing out a new interface which is planned to launch in 2017 with some advertisers who opt in to be a part of the test. This new interface is intended to be much cleaner and user-friendly while retaining the configuration of existing campaigns.

Analytics Updates:

1. For Analytics-360 users, two new products were announced: Optimize 360 and Data Studio 360.
2. Optimize 360 is a testing and experimenting platform that enables advertisers to launch experiments significantly faster than previously noted.
3. Data Studio 360 is a reporting platform that enables connection between Adwords and Analytics in a drag and drop report building software. This software allows collaboration and sharing features similar to Google Drive and Docs. Additionally, a free version of Data Studio 360, Data Studio, is available to Analytics users but is limited to 5 reports.

Full video: