Google made a bunch of AdWords announcements at an AdWords event on Tuesday. The event, which was streamed live on the Internet is available to watch in its entirety here:
“Consumers, particularly on mobile devices, now have higher expectations than ever before – they want everything right, and they want everything right away,” says Jerry Dischler, Vice President, Product Management for AdWords “This requires that marketers answer their needs in the moment, whenever and wherever they are. Our investments in mobile are driven by consumers’ expectations for immediacy and relevance in the moment. Based on your feedback and our insights about how people search for information, we’ve built a whole new generation of ad experiences that are richer, more engaging and designed for screen-swipes instead of mouse-clicks so we meet consumers’ needs, right when they are looking.”
This new generation of ad experiences includes new features for the automotive, hotel, and mortgage categories.
There’s a new search ad format called Automobile Ads, which take the user from Google.com to a carousel of car images that show how a car looks from different angles inside and out. Tapping an image brings up additional info about the car, such as horsepower and estimated MPG. There’s a Dealers link, which will take the use to a page with nearby dealer listings.
Google also introduced Hotel Ads, which will show globally for Google hotel partners around the world. These show current prices from various sources and a link to book a reservation on the hotel’s site.
A couple years ago, Google launched a tool for comparing car insurance in Europe, and finally launched it in the U.S. earlier this year. At the AdWords event, the company announced the expansion of this feature to mortgages in the U.S. under the Google Compare brand.
“Whether someone is a first-time home-buyer or looking to refinance, consumers will soon be able to find the latest mortgage rates from multiple mortgage providers, and review a customized set of criteria like interest rate, terms of the loan and fees,” says Dischler. “They’ll be able to apply directly with an approved lender or speak to a qualified adviser for more information, directly from the Google search ad.”
Google also made a couple of announcements related to automation. For automated bidding, there’s a new reporting dashboard, which the company says “provides more transparency and control as you evaluate the performance of bid strategies over time.” This includes new simulation tools to show the tradeoff between volume and cost at different CPA targets.
Also in the automation department, for dynamic search adds, Google announced recommended category targets based on website content, suggested CPCs for every category, and more visibility into ads that will show and pages where customers will land.
Finally, Google is giving advertisers some new measurement tools for AdWords attribution, cross-device conversions, and marketing experiments.
Google is making it so you can select an attribution model for each of your conversion types. Your choice will be reflected in reporting and integrated into automated bidding. They’re also adding data-driven attribution, which uses your own conversion data to calculate the actual contribution of keywords.
Later this year, cross-device conversions will be integrated into automated bidding. Google says this is part of a broader update that will give advertisers the option to include cross-device conversions as part of the Conversions column.
“This morning, we introduced new tools to help marketers measure the incremental impact generated from your Google ads,” says Dischler. “HomeAway, a global vacation rental marketplace, worked with the Google account team and learned that its Google Display Network ads are driving a 49% lift in click-related traffic to its website.”
There’s a case study on that here.
Images via Google