© Jellyfish Online Marketing Ltd 2013

Jellyfish POV AdWords Enhanced Campaigns:

Overview and Implications 7th February 2013

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Introduction On 6

th February 2013, Google officially announced what is arguably the most

significant change to the AdWords platform since….well, since AdWords began! The update is officially called AdWords Enhanced Campaigns, and in this POV we’ll provide a brief overview of the update, key features, and implications for PPC in 2013 and beyond. Note that this initial analysis is based on a preliminary presentation delivered by Google to select agency partners earlier this month – as full documentation is released, we’ll be providing further information and analysis.

What are Enhanced Campaigns (EC)? According to Google, EC will simplify the complexity of creating and executing campaigns that target multiple devices across locations, time of day etc. Instead of creating device specific campaigns for mobile, tablet and desktop, all devices will be served within the same campaign. Yes, you read that correctly! In a bit more detail, desktop and tablet campaigns are treated as a singular entity. Bid strategy will be aligned and we will not be able to (for example) specify budget for specific device types. Within the EC structure there will be a ‘weighted’ bid modifier for mobile (so that you can opt to decrease mobile bids by -100%, or by up to +300%), but you cannot categorically opt out of serving to mobile devices. And you definitely cannot serve to mobile only. So, to re-cap, all existing desktop / tablet / mobile campaigns will be merged into a single EC. Also, there will be no device specific targeting… Some Google products are conceptually similar to EC. For example, you can’t choose which search partners you serve your ads on; it’s all or none. Or the ability to opt out of session-based matching has never been an option. But the difference here is that the quality of search partner traffic does not vary a great deal. Mobile and tablet traffic and interactions do vary by significant degrees.

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EC details…so far EC includes three main features: Smart ads – EC campaigns will be able to serve customised messaging based on context, location and device, which applies to ad headline, text, URL, extensions. The mechanics of this are to be confirmed, but presumably dynamic components will be assigned based on rules set up by advertisers. The big question is of course how these rules around content, location and device and customised messaging will be controlled by you, the advertiser. Ad copy testing protocols are also tbc at this stage. Other features of smart ads include the ability to schedule ad extensions, plus improved control over site links. Bid adjustments – will be based on time, location, device, but within the new EC structure, and with its inherent pros and cons – see above. Advanced reporting – EC will deliver a range of improved reporting features including ‘advanced’ call tracking (no details on this), cross device conversion tracking (no date on this), app download reporting and in store conversion tracking (for example, using coupon codes and relevant offer ad extensions – US only to start).

How soon will EC roll out? Selected brands will receive direct communications from Google on Thursday 7

th February. Once full support and best practice documentation is released, EC

will begin to roll out immediately, and advice from Google is not to create any new campaigns that are split out by device type from now on. There will be a six month grace period, so by Q3 2013 all existing campaigns will require migration to this new structure.

EC in practice – some scenarios to consider

Flash content on landing pages – you’ll no longer be able to stop tablet users from visiting your pages via non-flash compatible devices e.g. iPad. It may be that your ads would be served less frequently on tablets over time as Google detects that the landing page may not be suitable for that device type, but to what lengths they do this remains to be seen.

The impact of amalgamating tablet and desktop at campaign level brings into question how historic strategies based on position will migrate effectively from currently device specific campaigns. For example, a campaign targeting solely tablets can be managed to appear in the top 3 positions, avoiding the issue of appearing at the

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very bottom of the SERPS even though your average position is 4. Whereas your desktop strategy might allow for an average position of 5 or even 6 as the traffic and performance metrics appearing on the right hand side of the desktop SERPs may allow for this. Managing these two associated variables is now possible; how will EC allow for this in the future?

You may have different goals for mobile compared to desktop. Perhaps

serving customised content because a mobile user might be more likely to be in an information gathering stage as opposed to the buying stage, or you simply get very different ROI on mobile because it’s more difficult to navigate through a purchase process on a small screen. With EC, it will be more difficult to bid manage accordingly, hence potentially wasting money on mobile traffic.

If you only sell mobile products like ringtones, your ads will be showing

on desktop whether you want them to or not.

Consider location targeting. How will this be affected by these changes? If you have extremely targeted campaigns for specific geo-targeted locations and Google is essentially choosing where and when your ads are displayed, are you investing in the locations that bring you the most return?

Note that the scenarios listed may seem rather negative, but could be negated / managed depending on the efficiency of the optimisation engine that we assume will ‘power’ EC. Stay tuned for more….. The analytics viewpoint - ensure correct integration between AdWords and Google Analytics With the forthcoming changes, it’s never been more important to ensure you have correct implementation of your Google Analytics and AdWord accounts. There’s a wealth of information Google Analytics provides. Integration can offer the additional benefits of specific audience information, such as mobile and tablet device used to drive the conversion. With the use of segmentation in Google Analytics, even the most granular of detail can be displayed. Upon integration, conversion data is present within its own report. This can be correlated with Ecommerce data to gauge sale performance by paid keyword to gain a true understanding of contribution.

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For those that would like to go the extra mile, it is possible to greatly enhance visibility by utilising third party products, such as Infinity Call Tracking. This fills the missing gap between users who have entered via a paid keyword and generated a phone lead. Infinity operates by producing a unique number dependent on paid keyword. Integration with Google Analytics is now also available to view call data directly in the interface itself.

Summary and observations What is Google trying to achieve, and what does this mean for advertisers?

EC will make the creation and roll-out of multi-device campaigns quicker and easier – no need to replicate across device types. With burgeoning device proliferation in mind, and the convergence of user journeys across tablets, laptops, desktops, this may be a good thing from a scale and simplicity perspective.

Current levels of control over device / location specific campaigns will

be eroded as Google takes over / automates optimisation. This will (in theory) encourage advertisers to ‘think mobile’, and to ensure that a multi-device strategy is implemented from the get go. So, for example, expect the deployment of responsive design content to climb up digital agendas very quickly!

Overall campaign efficiencies may decrease if brands cannot deliver

competitive and well-optimised mobile / tablet experiences - you’ll be paying for the traffic, whether you like it or not!

EC may encourage new advertisers into the market, possibly smaller

brands who have been previously discouraged by the apparent complexity of context / device and location aware targeting.

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Overall, it feels like EC could be great news for brand and engagement focused PPC campaigns, and / or less sophisticated agencies and brands. From an acquisition perspective, EC seems less good, and may remove significant control and granularity from complex high-budget activity.

About Jellyfish Jellyfish was born at the same time as PPC advertising back in 1999. In our early years, we concentrated exclusively on paid search and we got pretty good at it. We focused our efforts on perfecting paid search in publishing and by 2005 we had a turnover of £5 million and were dominating the sector. By 2011, our turnover had increased to over £25 million and we were employing more than 80 staff across three continents. We expanded our service offering as a response to our clients' needs and the ever changing digital landscape. Today we are at the forefront of digital marketing, pushing boundaries and getting results. Our success is down to great people, innovative ideas and lots of hard work.

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Contributors

Richard Hartley Senior PPC Manager richard.hartley@jellyfish.co.uk

Gavin Stevens Senior PPC Manager gavin.stevens@jellyfish.co.uk

Caroline Constable Senior PPC Manager caroline.constable@jellyfish.co.uk

Matt Owen Head of UK Agency matt.owen@jellyfish.co.uk

Jamie Hammond Head of Analytics and Optimisation jamie.hammond@jellyfish.co.uk