In the previous month, product managers of
AdWords answered questions before a live audience at SMX East. Prominent
Googler and Columnist, Matt Lawson, recalls the discussion.
In the previous month, at the “Learn with
Google” classroom at SMX East, three of our expert AdWords product managers sat
right before a fishbowl replete with conference attendees (which is pictured
above) and just answered questions thrown at them. There was no pre-written
script; therefore, these Googlers had to be prepared to answer almost anything,
especially with regard to private label PPC.
This was followed by an hour-long session
of individuals gaining a deeper insight of new products, sharing feedback with
members of the team (which has been circulated to all relevant individuals),
and learning how to be more effective with regard to advertising.
It was good to hear what individuals wanted
to know about AdWords; therefore, I have included the top 10 questions and
answers from that session.
Before we commence with those questions and
answers, I would like to mention that more Q&As are in the pipeline at
Learn with Google classrooms. The first such session is scheduled for SMX West
2016 in the month of March. Ensure that you drop by because we would love to
answer your queries.
Therefore, let’s get cracking.
(1)
In recent times, we have been witnessing the “below first page minimum bid”
message appear much more regularly in our account, without any major changes to
the account. What is going on?
We have recently incorporated a change that
enhances the quality of the estimates for new and low volume keywords.
Therefore, you may witness a status change for those sections of your accounts.
For the rest of the keywords, there may be alterations in the competition or
the ad quality. You need to review the Auctions Insights Report to check the
evolution of your competitors and review your keywords’ performance details to
get an insight into the quality factors.
(2) We
have witnessed significant increases in CPCs with regard to brand keywords over
the course of years, which was also confirmed by RKG in their latest report.
What is going on?
There are multiple factors that can impact
the average CPCs with regard to your account. Alterations in CPC over the
passage of time are considered to be expected behavior as the auction is quite
dynamic. If you are witnessing major changes over specific time periods, view a
longer window and check how those numbers have stacked up over the course of
time.
In addition, brand keywords can be
specifically susceptible to one outlier, throwing off a complete percentage. If
there is a quite a large gap between your bid amount and the CPC that you pay
most often, your average can grow unexpectedly. Mentioned below is a chart that
illustrates this point. This chart has been pulled up from an article I had
written a few months ago:
Max CPC
|
Total Clicks
|
Clicks @ $0.01
|
Clicks @ $0.11
|
Avg CPC
|
$0.11
|
10
|
9
|
1
|
$0.02
|
$0.09
|
9
|
9
|
0
|
$0.01
|
Bottom Line: Pay attention to longer date ranges and peruse for outliers to obtain an accurate read when it comes to how your brand CPCs are precisely changing. Lastly, if you feel that you are paying excessively, you may reduce your bid to stick to your budget.
(3) We
are witnessing a large amount of mobile traffic, but have not witnessed
conversion volume in comparison with desktop. What actions do we need to
undertake to achieve more mobile conversions?
It is possible that individuals are
converting from mobile; however, they may be converting in non-traditional
ways. Things such as cross-device and online-to-store conversions are common with
mobile users, and these conversions may not be appearing as traditional
conversions with regard to AdWords. Perform a review of all your “All
Conversions” column for greater insight into these kinds of conversions.
In addition, mobile users have diverse
expectations from traditional desktop users with regard to their online
experience; therefore, please check out “mobile best practices” to effectively
connect with those specific users.
(4)
If my search advertisement is displayed on Google Play, but the individual does
not click on the advertisement, do reporting metrics exist that give me the
ability to optimize performance?
Search terms and metrics from Google Play
can be availed in your normal reporting. It is extremely important to note that
these metrics are folded into general statistics in your Google.com reports.
You cannot witness Play performance in a specific way; however, the queries
that individuals are looking for that trigger your ad will be readily available
in a majority of cases.
(5) We
are aware of the fact that individuals convert extremely well within a
particular distance from a specific target location. In what way we can exclude
showing my ads to individuals who are beyond the proximity of that target
location?
Utilize radius targeting to reach out to
users who are within a specific distance. If you target only these specific
areas, then AdWords will not target users beyond that region (unless their search
history provides an indication of an interest in that region). If you have a
preference for targeting individuals within a specified radius, you can
effectively update your advanced location targeting to appear only for physicallocations.
(6)
What action is Google undertaking for effective protection to advertisers from
spam and fraud?
Google tackles invalid activity in a
very serious manner. Through maintenance of clean platforms, we have developed
an advertising environment that provides a level-playing field, where
publishers and advertisers, regardless of size, have the chance to succeed. It
is extremely vital to maintain publishers’ and advertisers’ trust by ensuring
that invalid activity stays out of platforms and networks.
We utilize manual as well as automated
detection systems in combination with human research and machine learning for
identifying anomalies with regard to traffic patterns and blocking activities
that are considered to be fraudulent or invalid. For more info with regard to
how we prevent invalid traffic, you should visit the Ad Traffic QualityResource Center. For more instances when it comes to stopping bad ad practices,
please go through coverage of our report from the earlier part of this year.
(7)
My clients desire manual bidding, and I have to confront challenges in
convincing them to opt for automated bidding. Can you explain in detail in what
manner does your automated bidding system calculates bids?
Our strategies when it comes to
automated bids efficiently adjust your bids at the time of auction for every
impression, based on several factors. Therefore, instead of some basic
adjustments, you obtain subtle yet powerful shades of all relevant factors
along with the correlation effects between those specific signals.
This may include things such as
precise wording of the query, the specific device along with the OS, time of
the day, and several other factors such as type of browser or what remarketing list
that individuals may belong to through previous visits to your website.
All these signals can be effectively
factored in during an impression so that you obtain the most sensible bid for
that particular context. This procedure is continuously repeated each time your
advertisement enters an auction. For more information, have a look at our Guide
to Automated Bidding or a Q&A that I published with regard to automated
bidding earlier this year.
(8)
What is the pricing model when it comes to universal app campaigns?
Universal App Campaigns utilize a
cost-per-install model. When you finalize your bids for app installs, remember that
your budget will be utilized to obtain as many installs as possible with regard
to your set amount. Therefore, if you set your daily budget at $30 and your
targeted cost-per-install is three dollars, you are aiming for nearly 10
installs each day through your ads.
(9)
For the reasons of security and privacy, in what way can advertisers bypass
their agencies efficiently when it comes to uploading email lists directly into
AdWords for the purpose of Customer Match?
The process of uploading emails occurs
in AdWords interface. If you can access your AdWords account, you can yourself
upload customer lists. To upload a list in a secure manner, you can use the
SHA-256 algorithm for all your email addresses, which is a standard method of
one-way hashing. Detailed instructions to complete these processes areavailable in the AdWords Help Center.
(10)
Individuals have multiple email addresses both personal and professional for
the purpose of recovery. Does Customer Match reach out to all these emails or
only the primary one? In addition, can advertisers upload any email address, or
does it need to be a Gmail one?
Advertisers can efficiently upload any type
of email address. It need not be a Gmail one. Our advanced systems will check
to ensure that the email address matches a Google Account that exists. Keep in
mind that you can create a Google account even with any type of email address,
not necessarily a Gmail address.
Customer Match will assist you in reaching
any of the emails that you upload that have a Google Account (which is
verified) affiliated with them. You will still require the right keywords,
settings, bids, and the quality in place. Customer Match is just a way to
enhance your traditional AdWords campaigns.
These were the 10 selected questions
out of the many more that were asked at SMX. We love talking about AdWords;
therefore, look out for more Q&As at future conferences.
