Google Updates

What’s New In Google Ads – Latest Updates For The Year 2020

Google Ads has come a long way in the last 20 years and has evolved to become one of the most indispensable platforms for advertisers across the globe. Reportedly for the year 2019, Google and Facebook together pulled in 70% of all digital ad spends in India with multiple touchpoints on offer.

As far as the Google ecosystem is concerned, from the introduction of paid ads in 2000 or instant search feature in 2010, the landscape of today involves a visibly appealing integration of organic listings, paid search ads, shopping ads, and app promotion ads. Add to this the voice search ability which is seeing 270 percent year on year growth, and what you get is a richer experience enabling users to seamlessly consume content, avail a service, or buy a product. (Data Source: Google India)

Google in the Year 2020 has been no exception, with multiple betas and features launched to extract more insights, increase touchpoints, and improve the personalization aspect of every user journey.

Major Voice Players in India
Age wise split of voice searches in India since Q1 2018 (Source: Global Web Index)

Below are some of the top features to unlock performance on Google Ads.

Search Ad Image Extension

Currently available on only mobile devices, image extension serves as a 1×1 clickable image on the bottom right portion of the ad. Also, what can be used is a dynamic image extension that extracts images dynamically from the ad’s landing page.

Image Extension
Sample Screenshot of Image Extension

Early results show up to a 2-3 percentage point higher CTRs compared to any other ad extension CTRs.

Smart Shopping Campaigns

These campaigns enable the machine learning to activate most relevant audience on most profitable placements by using smart bidding strategies

Available ad types:

  • Product Shopping Ads
  • Local Inventory Ads
  • Display Ads
Available Placements within Smart Shopping Campaigns

Seasonality Adjustment

Creating a seasonality adjustment helps schedule a conversion rate adjustment for estimated changes due to an upcoming event (ideal for short events of 1-7 days).

Search Explanations

With the explanations tab, one can see a change in Search Campaign or Ad Group performance with a click of a button. It is currently available for campaigns using manual or eCPC bidding only with a maximum lookback window of 90 days.

Sample Screenshot of Search Explanations

Keyword Planner Update

Google recently added a new beta feature to the Keyword Planner called Refine Keywords which is a tool that automatically categorizes the keywords basis brand or non-brand, company, product colour, gender, competitors, and various other concept groups. This helps narrow the search analysis, allows easy refinement of new keywords pertaining to a specific brand, and essentially saves time in the overall process.

Sample Screenshot of Refine Keywords feature

With the constant rollout of such new betas and features, it becomes imperative for brands and account managers to leverage this expansion of scope and take more informed decisions basis insights drawn out of these experimentations.

Credits: Siddharth Arora, Anurag Pandey