Author Archives: Charissa Yee

Put a bow on your holiday app marketing with new innovations to find high-value users

The holiday season is upon us, and millions of people around the world are looking forward to unwrapping their new devices and downloading their favorite apps. People have more choice in apps than ever before, making it critical for brands and developers to deliver useful and delightful experiences.

We introduced the next generation of Universal App Campaigns to help marketers show your apps to the iOS and Android customers that matter most, based on your specific business goals. Today, we’re announcing three new innovations to make your holiday app campaigns more engaging and effective.

Create immersive video ads magically with AutoDirector

People love watching video, and with 1B+ users around the world1, YouTube is the place they go to watch.

Now, advertisers using Universal App Campaigns can easily show their app in action using sight, sound, and motion with AutoDirector --- a new innovation that automatically creates immersive and engaging video ads.

AutoDirector gathers your app's description and ratings, selects the best images of your app from the App Store or Google Play, and even picks the music to give your app a soundtrack. Our machine learning models work behind-the-scenes to figure out which version of those videos gets more people to install and engage with your app across YouTube and the 1M+ apps in the Google Display Network.
App promotion video created by AutoDirector for OLX, a Brazilian shopping app

Advertisers all over the world are using videos created through AutoDirector to help their dollars go further with Universal App Campaigns. According to Caio Ferreira, Performance Marketing Manager, OLX Brazil: "The new AutoDirector videos helped the OLX performance marketing team deliver 78% more conversions through AdWords ... Amazing!" Learn more.

New ways to showcase your app on Google Play

People discover apps in a variety of ways, and nearly half of users find new apps while browsing on their phone’s app store2.

Today, we are announcing a new ad placement in Google Play, exclusively for advertisers running Universal App Campaigns. As people browse apps in the Google Play Store, they may see ads in a carousel alongside other app recommendations. For example, we may suggest a new game like Tap Paradise Cove to users who install the YouTube Gaming app.

Tap Paradise Cove recommendation shown to a user after installing the YouTube Gaming app

We encourage advertisers to monitor their campaigns as there may be some natural changes in performance and delivery as we roll out these new placements.

Using Play data to find users who are likely to make a purchase

There’s no better place to be than front and center on Google Play when users are in the market for related apps. But finding customers who are likely to engage with your app past the install is far more complex.

Now, there’s an easier way to find these customers that matter most. Android developers who use in-app billing can now count in-app purchases as conversions in AdWords without any technical integration. Then you can use Universal App Campaigns to automatically find more of these valuable users who are more likely to make an in-app purchase in the future.

Options for reporting app conversions with Universal App Campaigns in AdWords

And it doesn’t end there. Android and iOS developers can define any in-app actions that matter -- from beating a level of Tap Paradise Cove, to subscribing to HBO Now, to viewing an available hotel room on trivago -- and find new users who are more likely to take those actions. Advertisers can integrate in-app conversion data with AdWords through Firebase Analytics or other third-party measurement providers.

There are 4M+ apps vying for users’ attention this holiday season. With these innovations, we hope Universal App Campaigns will make it easier for you to reach users that will install and engage with your app well into the new year.

Posted by Sissie Hsiao, Product Director, Mobile App Advertising
Please see our Official Guide to Finding Mobile App Users to learn more about getting started before the holidays.


1. https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/en-GB/statistics.html
2. Google/Ipsos, U.S., “How People Discover, Use, and Stay Engaged With Apps,” n=999, based on smartphone users aged 16-64, Sept. 2016.

Source: Inside AdWords


How Consumers Will Shop—and What They’ll Buy—This Holiday Season

Smartphones have become consumers’ trusted shopping companions. Mobile shopping searches surged in 2015, passing desktop for the first time on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.1 This year, we see supershoppers continuing to turn to their phones for research and purchases.

In fact, for many consumers, smartphones have become a “door-to-the-store.” And that is particularly true during the holidays. Seventy-six percent of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day.2

As we head into the one of the busiest shopping weeks of the year, Google data reveals how consumers will shop and what they'll buy.

Women purchase early while men play the waiting game

Women drive the mobile web, searching for and buying products at twice the rate of men throughout the entire holiday season. The week of Christmas, however, men are more likely to complete their mobile purchases.3

Hatchimals and Nintendo top shoppers’ gift lists this year

Consumers are already on the hunt. Top trending product searches for the first two weeks of November include the Nintendo Entertainment System and Hatchimals -- that’s right, stuffed animals that hatch.4
And while many shoppers can zero in on what they want, others search for inspiration and ideas. Last year, mobile searches related to "unique gifts" grew more than 65% compared to the 2014 holiday season, while mobile searches related to "cool gifts" grew more than 80%.5

On Black Friday, stores are most crowded in the afternoon

Although Black Friday is often associated with early birds, store foot traffic typically peaks in the afternoon between noon and 4:00 p.m.6 But people are shopping all day long. Shopping searches on mobile remain steady throughout the day as shoppers take advantage of Black Friday deals and plan their trips to the store.7


New Englanders love a good deal

Though Black Friday weekend is the rare retail event that pulls even reluctant shoppers into stores, some areas of the country are more interested in deals than others.

By 10:00 a.m. on Black Friday, more than one-quarter of New England shoppers are already on the hunt for a good deal, having stepped inside a department store or shopping center. The rest of the country lags behind an hour.8 And the same is true on mobile: people living in New Hampshire search for more product-related deals than people in other states.9

But even before stores open—and long after they close—consumers continue to shop. Last Thanksgiving, 59% of shopping searches on mobile took place before stores opened. Shopping continued well into the evening, with mobile shopping searches peaking at 8:00 p.m.10


The way consumers shop and behave during the holiday season is rapidly changing, from the way they create their gift lists to the way they purchase. Shoppers are proving that both with their fingertips and their feet.

For more data about mobile search trends and shopper foot traffic on Black Friday, check out our infographic “What Google Data Reveals About Black Friday Shoppers.”

Natalie Zmuda, Managing Editor, Think with Google
Elizabeth Fabiani, Product Marketing Manager, Google Shopping

1. Google Search Data, Nov. 2014 vs. Nov. 2015, U.S.
2. Google/Purchased Digital Diary: How Consumers Solve Their Needs in the Moment, May 2016, Representative sample of U.S. Smartphone users = 1000, Local searchers = 634, Purchases = 1,140
3. Google Analytics, aggregated, anonymized data from U.S. accounts that are opted into sharing benchmark data; mobile only, shopping vertical, Nov. 15, 2015 - Dec. 31, 2015.
4. Google Shopping Insights, U.S., all devices, Nov. 1 - Nov. 13, 2016.
5. Google Search Data, U.S., apparel, home & garden, beauty & personal care, computers & electronics, gifts, toys & games, photo & video, Nov.–Dec. 2014 vs. Nov.–Dec. 2015.
6. Google Data, Aggregated, anonymized store traffic for clothing, electronics, and toy stores from a sample of U.S. users that have turned on Location History, Nov. 2015.
7. Google Search Data, U.S., apparel, computer & electronics, and games & toys. mobile only. Nov. 2015.
8. Google Data, Aggregated anonymized store traffic for clothing, electronics, and toy stores from a sample of U.S. users that have turned on Location History; Store traffic after midnight attributed to Black Friday, Nov. 2015.
9. Google Search Data, U.S., apparel, home & garden, beauty & personal care, computers & electronics, gifts, toys & games, photo & video; mobile only. Nov. 2015, U.S.
10. Google Data, Aggregated, anonymized store traffic for Clothing, Electronics and Toy stores from a sample of U.S. users that have turned on Location History; Google Search Data, U.S., Apparel, Computer & Electronics and Games & Toys; Stores considered open after 6 P.M. on Thanksgiving, November 2015.

Source: Inside AdWords


Serve up the perfect message this holiday season

Right now supershoppers are online, looking for great holiday gifts to give their family and friends -- from the coolest gadgets to the latest styles. In fact, 4 in 5 smartphone holiday shoppers use their phone during spare moments or while doing other activities.1 This means it’s important for you to be present wherever and whenever people are browsing their favorite apps and websites. To reach these consumers with a perfectly crafted message this holiday season, check out three of our latest display ad innovations:


Deliver beautiful catalog experiences with Gmail ads

During the holidays, shoppers look to their inboxes to get updates from their favorite brands. Now you can be there with beautiful catalog experiences that wow them. When people click on your Gmail ad, it expands to show up to four rich images or videos, with descriptions. For example, a beauty brand can show customers Black Friday deals on eyeshadow trios and matching eyeliner. These ads automatically adapt to any device, so people can scroll through your beautiful imagery wherever and whenever they’re using Gmail.
A beautiful catalog experience in Gmail ads

Customize your message with responsive ads

It’s easier than ever to keep your ads in tune with the season. We recently introduced responsive ads, which help you reach more people because they adapt to fit millions of websites and apps on the Google Display Network (GDN). Responsive ads also give you the flexibility to customize your message for the holidays -- without doing heavy lifting. Simply provide holiday-themed headlines, a description, an image, and your URL -- and Google automatically designs beautiful responsive ads that can run across the GDN. That means it’s a snap to add holiday promotions and seasonal products to your campaigns. iZettle, a payment technology company, used responsive ads and drove a 2x increase in conversion rate compared to text ads.


Help customers find you with location extensions

When people know where to find you this holiday season, they’re more likely to stop by your business. Location extensions for display lets you highlight your address, Google Maps directions, and photos in your ad so you can turn online clicks into foot traffic to your store. The Home Depot used location extensions for display to reach consumers actively browsing their phones near the brand’s most popular stores, driving an 8X in-store ROI.

It’s the most important time of the year for many businesses. Delivering the right message can mean the difference between customers choosing your business -- or another one. Whether you’re trying to drive sales on your website or bring people into your stores, we hope these innovations will help you tell your story and win more customers this holiday season.

Posted by Brad Bender, Vice President of Display and Video Advertising
1. Google/Ipsos, "Post-Holiday Shopping Intentions Study—Total Shoppers Report," base: used smartphone for holiday shopping, n=410, Jan. 2016.

Source: Inside AdWords


Introducing the AdWords Marketing Goals Website

As marketers, you’re always looking for more effective ways to achieve business goals - from getting customers to discover your brand to encouraging them to buy something from your site, and everything in between. Today, we are introducing a new AdWords website that puts your goals front and center, and shows you which ads work best to accomplish those goals. You can also use this site to find info on our latest ad innovations, success stories from other marketers and best practices guides.

For example, if you’re a multi-channel retailer driving foot traffic into your store, learn about Google solutions like ads with store directions that can help people find your nearest business location.



Or if you just launched a new app and want to make sure the right people discover it, you can find best practices to get more high-value users to engage with your app. You can also draw inspiration from businesses like GrubHub that ran ads to connect with customers the moment they're searching for new apps in the Google Play store.


Check back in on the site regularly as we'll continue to add content. Also, help us ensure that the site is as useful as possible by sharing your feedback. We look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions.


Posted by Anthony Chavez, Product Management Director, Advertiser Platform, Google

Source: Inside AdWords


The Year of the Supershopper

We all have that friend - the one who somehow knows the latest brands, the season’s must-have products, and where to find the best deals at the snap of a finger. In years past, this friend was an enigma, making us wonder how does he (she?) do it?

Today, we can all be that friend. With the ability to instantly discover, research, and purchase, shoppers around the world are more informed and more efficient than ever before - they’ve transformed into supershoppers seemingly overnight.

But what defines supershoppers? And what does this mean for retailers trying to win them over this holiday season? Let’s find out.

They Keep Their Options Open

Last year, more than 50% of holiday shoppers said they were open to purchasing from new retailers1. This is especially true online. More than three-quarters of smartphone shoppers who usually go to the same physical stores when they shop for products are very open to new retailers and brands online2. Why? Mobile makes it easy to explore all of your options no matter when or where you’re shopping. In fact, after searching on Google, 76% of mobile shoppers have changed their mind about which retailer or brand to purchase3.

Mobile is Their Muse

It used to be that shoppers would thumb through catalogues or stare longingly at the holiday window displays, but mobile is now the super shopper’s go-to source for inspiration. Sixty-four percent of smartphone shoppers turn to mobile search for ideas about what to buy before heading into store4. And 1 in 4 mobile video viewers in the U.S. have visited YouTube for help with a purchase decision while they were at a store or visiting a store's website5.

But shoppers aren’t only making purchase decisions, they’re discovering new brands and products along the way: more than half of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their phones6.

They Want the Best - Not the Cheapest

In July we learned that shoppers are on the quest for the best - and this still rings true more than ever today. Last holiday, mobile searches related to “best gift” grew 70% year over year while mobile searches related to cheap or inexpensive gifts grew about 35%7. They’re also willing to do the research to the make the best decision: on YouTube, mobile watch time for product review videos has grown 60% year over year8.

But supershoppers don’t only want the best - they want personalized, unique, cool gifts. Mobile searches related to “unique gifts” grew more than 65% while mobile searches related to “cool gifts” grew a whopping 80%9.

Mobile is Their Door to the Store

Although more and more people are willing to buy on mobile, we know that mobile is still used predominantly as a door to the store. In fact, 76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase10.

Once they’re inside your store, they expect the experience to be a seamless one: more than 40% of smartphone shoppers want retailers to automatically surface relevant information such as the location of the item in the store, a special deal or related products11.

They Shop ‘Til they Drop

Supershoppers live up to their name as the holiday season progresses. From November through mid-December we see online conversion rates increase across devices. Last year, on mobile alone, they jumped 30% on Black Friday and 50% on Cyber Monday when compared to November 112.
mobile-conversion-hz.jpg


Here Are a Few Tips to Reach Today’s Supershopper


  1. Get your holiday campaigns in shape: Use a combination of search and video ads to reach shoppers across all their digital touchpoints. Ensure your products stand out by reading our list of optimization do’s and don’ts as well as our best practices for TrueView video ads.
  2. Be Present on Mobile: use mobile bid adjustments to ensure your brand is present no matter when people are shopping. For search campaigns, you can send mobile users to the right pages on your site by using mobile URLs in expanded text ads.
  3. Manage Your Bids Efficiently and Effectively: Use Smart Bidding in AdWords or DoubleClick Search to maximize your performance. Improve your bidding for sales and promotions by using Business Events in DoubleClick Search.
  4. Bring your Brand into the Consideration Set: as shoppers are more open to new brands online, help shoppers discover your brand and products through category keywords and audience targeting formats like TrueView for shopping. You can use TrueView video discovery ads to target YouTube search pages relevant for your brand.
  5. Don’t Miss Out on People Who are Willing to Buy Your Products: Monitor your budgets and review your click-share daily to make sure you’re not losing out on shoppers ready to buy. Increase bids and budgets as conversion rates rise, and don’t forget to keep the lights on even after the holiday season ends! Finally, don't forget to use store visits or store sales to make sure offline sales are accounted for.
Julie Krueger, Retail Managing Director, Google
1. Google/ Ipsos, Post Holiday Shopping Intentions Study - Total Shoppers Report, Jan 2016, Base: US Holiday Shoppers, n=1,500
2. Google/Euromonitor International, Micro-Moments Survey, US, July 2016, Smartphone shoppers = 1000, Same store shoppers = 801
3. Google/Euromonitor International, Micro-Moments Survey, US, July 2016, Smartphone shoppers = 1000
4. Google/Euromonitor International, Micro-Moments Survey, US, July 2016, Smartphone shoppers = 1000
5. Google-commissioned Ipsos Brand Building on Mobile Survey, U.S., December 2015 n=1000, 18-54 year olds
6. Google/Ipsos, "Consumers in the Micro-Moment," Wave 3, U.S., n=1291 online smartphone users 18+, August 2015.
7. Source: Google Search Data, Apparel, Home & garden, Beauty & personal care, Computers & electronics, Gifts, Toys & games, Photo & video, Nov-Dec 2014 vs Nov-Dec 2015, United States.
8. YouTube data, U.S., Classification as a “Product Review" video was based on public data such as headlines and tags, and may not account for every such video available on YouTube, Nov - Dec 2014 and Nov - Dec 2015
9. Google Search Data, Apparel, Home & garden, Beauty & personal care, Computers & electronics, Gifts, Toys & games, Photo & video, Nov-Dec 2014 vs Nov-Dec 2015, United States.
10. Google/Purchased Digital Diary: How Consumers Solve Their Needs in the Moment, May 2016, Representative sample of US Smartphone users = 1000. Local searchers = 634, Purchases = 1,140
11. Google/Euromonitor International, Micro-Moments Survey, US, July 2016, Smartphone shoppers = 1000
12. Google Analytics Shopping category data, Nov 1, 2015–December 14, 2015, United States

Source: Inside AdWords


Click-to-message ads bring a new and easy way to talk to customers

If you’re inviting a friend to dinner or asking them about the best hotels in New York City, you’re probably doing it through mobile messaging. Nearly two thirds of smartphone owners use messaging more than five times a day to communicate with others.1 And people aren’t limiting their use of messaging to social communications - 65% of consumers say they’d consider using messaging to connect with a business to get information about a product or service, or to schedule an in-person appointment.2

In the coming weeks, we’re introducing click-to-message ads to bring the efficiency and effectiveness of messaging to search ads. By setting up a message extension, you’ll give users an easy way to text you to start a conversation and continue it whenever is most convenient for them.

Tapping on the texting option launches a user’s SMS app with a pre-written message tailored to the product or service they’re interested in. For example, if you’re a travel advertiser and someone messages you after searching for New York City hotels, they can send or edit your pre-written message text, “I’m interested in a reservation. Please text me back with more information.”

Many advertisers are already using click-to-message ads to take advantage of a new and faster way to connect with consumers on mobile to increase conversion rates:

"Click-to-message ads have proven to be a great way to help prequalified customers start the hotel reservation process in a way that is convenient and easy for them. They can text an agent to get questions answered, continue the conversation on their own timetable, and trade booking information before completing the final checkout over the phone or on our website. It's a seamless and streamlined process that helps increase brand trust. The conversion rate on message extensions is 41% higher compared to other ad extensions. Paired with customer support software, they’ve also allowed our agents to respond to requests in a more efficient and cost-effective way. ”

- Gabe Thayn, Director of Search Marketing, TravelPASS Group

"Click-to-message is a useful tool that allows consumers to engage with our business in a way that’s comfortable and efficient for them. They could be on their commute or in a rush, so they can text us quickly through click-to-message. It’s also a good medium to get questions answered that aren’t addressed on our website, or to reach us during hours when our office is closed. Our main performance objective is to help customers as much as possible - when we take care of their questions and needs in a helpful, relevant way, that leads to better business results."
- Gavin Chan, Digital Marketing Manager, AnyVan

"The results from click-to-message have been phenomenal and we've seen a 80% higher conversion rate when compared to other similar channels. We can now tap into an important consumer base that prefers to use SMS to learn more about our insurance products. Besides giving users a new way to get in touch with us, we feel this is by far the fastest and most cost-effective way to connect with them."
- Gavin Parker, Paid Search Manager, Auto & General 

“We started testing click-to-message as soon as we heard about it. Text messaging is a popular medium of communication among young professionals and the opportunity to engage them through SMS is very exciting. We sell industrial equipment and supplies, which can be very technical. Sometimes customers don’t have time to talk over a web chat or phone conversation, but still need more information. Messaging helps simplify these exchanges and the customer response has been very positive since they can post a question and follow up in their own time."
- Ashar Mairaj, VP of Marketing, Global Industrial


Mobile users have more flexibility than ever to choose how they want to connect with businesses. Through messaging, you can initiate valuable conversations with them by tapping into one of their most preferred modes of communication. Learn more about click-to-message ads by visiting the Help Center. Also read our new best practices to learn how to use click-to-message ads to build a faster consumer experience on mobile and deliver useful information that gets customers closer to purchasing.

Posted by Amit Agarwal, Senior Product Manager, Mobile Search Ads
1. Google Consumer Surveys, US, Canada, UK, Australia, October 2016, Base: Respondents who own a smartphone and use it to access the Internet (n = 1,262 in US, n = 1,222 in UK, n = 567 in Canada, n = 563 in Australia)
2. Google Consumer Surveys, US, Canada, UK, Australia, October 2016, Base: Respondents who own a smartphone and use it to access the Internet (n = 1,036 in US, n = 1,032 in UK, n = 489 in Canada, n = 485 in Australia)

Source: Inside AdWords


Google Shopping partners with ecommerce platforms to make selling online easier than ever this holiday season

When it comes to attracting customers over the busy holiday season, showcasing your products online can help you get in front of more people, and many retailers already use ecommerce platforms to upload and promote their products online. Today, we’re excited to announce partnerships with three major ecommerce platforms -- BigCommerce, PrestaShop, and Magento -- to make it easier than ever before to get started on Google Shopping for the holidays, and beyond. If you’re using any one of these platforms (or if you’re thinking of using one of these platforms), our new partnerships let you easily submit your product information to Google Shopping and quickly reach millions of new customers searching for what you sell.

Get up and running on Google in just a few clicks

With this direct integration, you can save time and extra work by using your existing BigCommerce, Prestashop, or Magento account to easily submit your product data to fuel a new Google Shopping campaign.


With just a few clicks, your product information is populated in your Merchant Center account, helping you reach new shoppers on Google.com and other Google properties. This integration lets you:

  • Find new customers, right where they’re searching. Connect your products to the customers who matter most -- the ones searching for what you sell.
  • Easily display your rich product imagery and details. Put your product images, price, and other differentiators front and center, so that searching shoppers can easily find you.
  • Get up and running quickly, minimizing your holiday workload. Use the product information you’ve already entered in your ecommerce platform without needing to submit this information separately to Google.
  • Showcase your newest inventory. Roll out new products to Google Shopping, simply by adding products to your ecommerce store.


Early successes

We’ve been testing this technical integration with our ecommerce platform partners, and have already seen impressive results from small businesses, brand new to Google Shopping.

Peter Baseio, founder and CEO of baby product company Organic Munchkin, connected his BigCommerce account to Google Shopping to reach new customers with rich, visual ads. “Google Shopping allows our products to be listed in a visual format, increasing brand awareness for our niche market, as well as revenue,” said Baseio. “It has tripled our revenue stream, bringing in customers we never knew we had access to."

Sam Gong, co-founder of Man Crates, used the integration to help tens of thousands of new customers find their unique assortment of gifts. "Google Shopping is an incredibly cost-effective way for us to reach new customers on long-tail search terms and recapture visitors that have found Man Crates through one of our primary marketing campaigns,” said Gong. “It's well integrated with BigCommerce, incredibly easy to setup, and easy to measure and manage on an ongoing basis. It’s an absolute no-brainer for just about any ecommerce business."

Ready to get started?

If you’re not using an ecommerce platform today, find out how to sign up for one by checking out the BigCommerce, PrestaShop, or Magento website. If you’re already using one of these platforms, visit our Help Center or the BigCommerce, PrestaShop, and Magento help pages to learn more.

Posted by James Summerfield, Senior Software Engineer, Google Shopping

Source: Inside AdWords


AdWords Editor now supports mobile-first innovations, Gmail ad templates, and more

The shift to mobile has happened. And as marketers on the frontline, you need tools that help you build mobile-first experiences at scale. AdWords Editor is here to help -- and just in time for the holidays. The latest version (11.6) includes support for universal app campaigns, Gmail ad templates, and much more.

Universal app campaigns

Developers and marketers know it’s not just about driving app installs, it’s about delivering valuable actions within your apps. AdWords Editor now supports universal app campaigns (UAC), which help you find the customers that matter most to you, based on your defined business goals. With UAC, you can find valuable users for your app across Google Search, Play, YouTube, and within apps and mobile websites on the Display Network. Create and edit universal app campaigns in AdWords Editor today.

Gmail ad templates

With Gmail ads, you can reach the 1B+ Gmail users around the world. Gmail ads provide a relevant way for you to connect with them as they're browsing promotional emails. AdWords Editor now supports Gmail image templates and Gmail single promotion templates so you can easily create, manage, and edit your Gmail ads, in bulk, alongside the rest of your ads.

Expanded text ads

As a reminder, support for expanded text ads is also available in AdWords Editor. Expanded text ads provide more ad space so you can showcase additional details about your brand, products, and services. Check out our best practices guide for tips and tricks on writing compelling ads.

Responsive ads

Responsive ads adapt to the increasingly diverse mix of content types and screen sizes across the Google Display Network. You can now create and edit responsive ads in AdWord Editor.

And more…

The latest version of AdWords Editor also includes:

  • Device bid adjustments allow you to maintain the efficiency of managing a consolidated campaign that reaches consumers across devices, while giving you more control to set individual bid adjustments for each device type.
  • Enhancements to advanced search, including an easier way to create filters.
  • Scheduled downloads to help you stay on top of recent changes and performance statistics


Learn more about these updates in the AdWords Editor Help Center or download AdWords Editor here.

Posted by Blake Reese, Senior Product Manager, AdWords Editor

Source: Inside AdWords


Search audience ad innovations see strong momentum

Consumer expectations for immediacy and relevance are higher than ever, and successful brands are those that connect with consumers in those critical moments — the I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to-buy moments. Based on our deep understanding of intent and context, we’ve built products like remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) and Customer Match to help you be there and be relevant in those moments. Today, at SMX East in New York City, I’ll be sharing new insight into these ad innovations.

RLSA gets even better

RLSA makes it easy to connect with customers who are already familiar with your business by allowing you to adjust your search ads, bids, and keywords based on their past activity on your website. Starting today, we’re introducing improvements to RLSA to give you more flexibility and help drive better performance:
  • Reach your customers across devices. If someone visits your website on their laptop or tablet, you can now reach them with more relevant ads when they search on their phone.
  • Keep site visitors in your list for 540 days. This longer membership duration makes it easier for businesses with seasonality or high consideration products to reach their customers.
  • Add your remarketing lists at the campaign level later this year, making it faster and easier to use RLSA. This will work for Customer Match too.
Since RLSA’s initial launch, advertisers like Intel, TransUnion and David Jones have seen tremendous results.

Customer Match delivers results, especially when used with RLSA

Customer Match helps you reach your highest-value customers across Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail. We’ve found that advertisers using Customer Match and RLSA in combination are seeing strong performance.

At SMX East I shared this insight that we learned from many advertisers who are seeing great results. Wine Enthusiast, a retailer for all things wine, combined RLSA with Customer Match and saw a 3x increase in ROI compared to search campaigns that used keyword targeting alone.

Demographics for search ads

Demographics for search ads (DFSA) has started rolling out to all advertisers globally. DFSA lets you adjust bids for ages and genders, and even exclude them, to help you reach specific groups of customers, as well as report on how they impact your campaigns. Learn more.

Let’s say you’re a clothing retailer, and the majority of your customers are millennials — DFSA can help you to reach this audience more effectively. For example, you might increase your bids for users ages 18 to 34 to drive more sales from this valuable group of consumers.
Pairing insights like this with your search strategy can help you be there for your customers with the most relevant ad experience possible. Here are some advertisers who’ve seen success:

"DFSA was clearly a product we wanted to implement on our top campaigns. Since applying bids based on age, we've seen big gains in efficiency and engagement: searchers that DFSA identifies as over the age of 45 have shown a 65% higher CTR and a 15% lower CPA." — Rene Rios, Director of Membership Development at AARP


“With DFSA, we can concentrate our marketing dollars on the audiences most important to us. By employing bid modifiers for women ages 25 to 44, we saw CPA decreases of 25% in our campaigns compared to normal search.” — Ya-Yung Cheng, Sr. Director of Digital Marketing & CRM at Sylvan Learning



Jerry Dischler, Vice President of Product Management, AdWords

Source: Inside AdWords


New digital innovations to close the loop for advertisers

Mobile phones have created new ways for consumers to engage with brands, often blurring the physical and digital worlds. People research products online and go into a store to buy. They see a brand on TV and then go online to learn more. Or they watch mobile videos on their commutes that inspire them to book a trip when they’re back home on their laptops.




However your audience engages, only Google has the scale and the tools to help you reach people in the moments that truly matter and measure impact across devices and channels.

I look forward to sharing several new innovations with you on Monday morning at Advertising Week’s Times Center Stage -- all of which are designed to help you close the loop between television and digital, online and offline, and mobile and desktop.

Close the loop between TV and digital with Brand Lift 

For the last several years, we’ve been investing in our Brand Lift product to show marketers how YouTube campaigns impact brand metrics like awareness and purchase intent -- throughout the entire consumer journey.

Today, we’re extending the capabilities of Brand Lift to TV campaigns to show marketers how TV ads increase Google and YouTube searches for your brand compared to YouTube campaigns. From early tests, we've seen that YouTube generates almost 2x searches per impression than TV generates.1




Brand Lift for TV requires very little set-up – you don’t even need to provide your media schedule. As long as you’re running Brand Lift on both a TV campaign and a YouTube campaign, we’ll be able to report the incremental searches for your brand.

"We are excited to see the work Google is doing to better understand the impact of video. Brand Lift now presents us with a way to specifically, credibly, and scientifically compare the effectiveness of cross media campaigns. This is interesting to Volkswagen as we move closer to measuring TV and digital platforms (like YouTube) on even ground." - Paige Parrent, Digital Media Manager, Volkswagen Marketing

Close the loop between online ads and offline sales 

In addition to the interaction between TV, YouTube and online search, there is now a real connection between online ads and offline visits to stores: 30% of smartphone users who visit a website or app on their phones buy something in a store within 24 hours.2

That’s why we’re introducing location extensions and store visits measurement for the Google Display Network -- to help marketers close the loop between online ads and offline sales. As consumers browse their favorite websites or interact with their favorite apps, you can reach them with ads that show your business address, Google Maps directions and photos. It’s a high-impact, immediate way to increase foot traffic to your store.


For The Home Depot, location extensions for display ads reached consumers actively browsing their phones near the brand’s most popular stores, delivering an 8X in-store ROI. “Mobile location extensions for display really proved their worth very quickly,” says Umut Dincer, Director of Online Marketing for The Home Depot. “We're able to reach DIYers who are close to our stores and make a 'just-in-time' connection that brings them the information they really want in their I-want-to-buy-it moments.” [Full story]

So how do marketers measure the impact of these online ads? Store visits for display measures the impact of your Display Network ads on actual visits to your store, hotel, auto dealership or restaurant. With the power of Google Maps technology, we have access to the exact dimensions of over 200 million stores globally to deliver 99% accuracy in reported visits.3 Only Google can deliver this level of precision and scale. [Learn more]

Close the loop across devices 

The final loop to close is the one across all the devices people use -- phones, tablets, laptops and everything in between. Today, we’re introducing cross-device remarketing for Google Display Network and DoubleClick Bid Manager to help you reach the same user across devices, apps, and sites. You can now tell a single story to your audience and decide how frequently they see your ad across devices.

Let’s say you’re a retailer and want to build a customized Halloween campaign. With cross-device remarketing, you can reach your customers with an “It’s almost Halloween” ad on their phone during the morning commute. Later in the day, you can follow up with a limited time offer on decorations and recipes when they’re browsing a tablet at home.

All of these innovations will be rolling out over the course of the next few months.

It’s a privilege to build products that help brands close the loop for measurement, reach and engagement. We’re excited to share more details about these innovations with you throughout Advertising Week, and I look forward to your feedback as we continue this journey together.

Join the conversation at #GoogleAW2016.

Posted by Brad Bender, Vice President of Display and Video Advertising 

1.  Google Internal meta-analysis of 1188 U.S. studies, August 2015 - April 2016.
2.  Google/Purchased Digital Diary: How Consumers Solve Their Needs in the Moment, May 2016, Representative sample of US smartphone users = 1000, Visited a Website or App = 721.
3.  Store visits are calculated using conservative data thresholds with 99% certainty that reported visits are less than or equal to actual visits.

Source: Inside AdWords