Archive for the ‘seo news’ Category
Monday, October 17th, 2022
The new Focused View campaign objective allows brands only pay when users have voluntarily watched an ad for at least 6 seconds or when they interacted with the ad within the first 6 seconds (whichever comes first).
What this means. Focused View is the new Video View campaign type. Selecting the Focused View objective means that ads are shown to users who are truly paying attention and voluntarily engaging with the brand.
Focused View allows TikTok to optimize for two different kinds of engagement:
- Emotional engagement through content consumption: Targeting users who are most likely to view your ad for at least six seconds
- Tangible engagement through interaction: Targeting users who are more likely to actively engage with an ad by liking, sharing, following or clicking
Early adopters. During its Alpha phase, Samsung used Focused View on their Summer of Galaxy campaign, aimed at driving awareness and engagement for their Galaxy products. The 6-second Focused View objective helped to drive:
- +11% increase in ad recall
- +18% improvement in 2-second CPVs
- +53% increase in average watch time per view
- 2.8x increase in completion rate
Release date. Focused View will be available to advertisers, globally, on October 20.
Dig deeper. You can read the announcement from TikTok here.
Why we care. Advertisers who use TikTok to promote their brands can use the new Focused View campaign objective to show their ads to users they know are paying attention. Ideally, this would increase engagement and conversions. With all new features and products, advertisers should test the new campaign objective when it is released.
The post TikTok has a new Focused View campaign objective appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Monday, October 17th, 2022
TikTok has just announced three new features aimed at enhancing the LIVE experience and promoting greater brand safety, something that the app has been accused of neglecting in the past.
The three new features are:
- The introduction of Multi-Guest
- Increasing the LIVE minimum age from 16 to 18
- Introducing safety reminders for all LIVE guests
TikTok is on a roll lately now announcing these updates and features just moments after launching Focused View, a new campaign objective targeting engaged users.
Let’s dive in.
The introduction of Multi-Guest
Through Multi-Guest, hosts can now go LIVE with up to 5 guests using a grid or panel layout, keeping audiences engaged as they respond to questions, host how-to videos, or just hosting a casual hangout.
Once LIVE, creators can tap the three dots to change some settings, including the ability to flip the camera, add effects and stickers, filter comments, and add moderators.
Increasing the LIVE minimum age from 16 to 18
Currently, people must be aged 16 or over to host a LIVE. From November 23, the minimum age will increase from 16 to 18. Additionally, younger teens need to be aged 16 or older to access Direct Messaging and 18 or older to send virtual gifts or access monetization features.
In addition, TikTok will introduce a new way for creators to choose if they’d prefer to only reach an adult audience in their LIVE.
Safety reminders for all LIVE guests
LIVE creators can already use the keyword filtering tool to limit comments they feel aren’t appropriate. In the coming weeks, TikTok is also rolling out an updated version of this feature that will send a reminder to people and suggest new keywords they may want to consider adding to their filter list.
To do this, the tool looks at the content a creator most commonly removes from their LIVE, spotting similar words in these comments and then suggesting the host may want to add these words to their filter list.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmMedium” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmCampaign” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmSource” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmContent” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”pageLink” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”ipAddress” value=”” />
Dig deeper. You can read the full announcement from TikTok here.
Why we care. Brands, advertisers, and creators who use the LIVE feature now have more control over who sees their content, as well as allowing them to add additional moderators and filters as needed.
Creators seem to be embracing the new changes adding “Moderators and keywords are a huge help to ensure that I can focus on my LIVE shows… without having to worry about internet trolls.”
The post 3 new TikTok LIVE features, updates, and policies appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Monday, October 17th, 2022
YouTube has just announced three new features for advertisers to reach people where and when they’re watching the most. The three new features are spread across shopping, audio, and streaming in what YouTube calls the YouTube Effect (the unique dynamic between YouTube creators and viewers).
Moment Blast
Moment Blast gives advertisers prime positioning on YouTube Select content on connected TVs (CTV) and other devices, plus a Branded Title Card and optional Masthead placement.
Moment Blast is intended for brands looking to raise awareness during key moments, like major sporting events, movie releases or product launches.
In the announcement, YouTube says “People have always connected in front of the TV screen, but YouTube gives them the unique chance to bond over shared passions — like watching live-streamed concerts, fitness classes or even religious ceremonies together. They feel a similar connection to the ads they get, too.” YouTube also says 59% of respondents in a survey feel that ads they see on YouTube are more relevant than on linear TV or other streaming apps.
This seems like an obvious statistic since linear TV doesn’t use the same targeting options as Google/YouTube. Additionally, many advertisers and brands haven’t quite adopted using CTV as a reliable, cost-effective advertising method.
Additionally, YouTube’s claim that viewers feel a similar shared connection to ads sounds like a stretch.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmMedium” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmCampaign” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmSource” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmContent” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”pageLink” value=”” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”ipAddress” value=”” />
Expanded product feeds for Discovery Ads
YouTube will be expanding product feeds to Discovery ads to help advertisers scale their social media creative and reach more engaged viewers. Soon, product feeds will also include local offers, allowing brands to show real-time availability for products in their Google Merchant Center so people can find the most convenient place to buy.
Creators will also be able to transform their content into virtual storefronts. Additionally, more creators will have the ability to tag products in their videos and Shorts.
These features will be available on November 10.
Reach music and podcast listeners
Audio ads are now globally available to buy in Google Ads and Display & Video 360. Audio ads are designed to reach people on audio surfaces and in listening-first states.
Podcast targeting is also now available globally. “With Podcast targeting, brands and agencies can specifically reach podcast listeners.”
Dig deeper. Read the announcement from Google here.
Why we care. These new features will give brands and advertisers new ways to reach audiences that are engaged with their content, as well as additional mediums to test such as audio ads.
The post 3 new YouTube streaming, shopping, and audio features appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Monday, October 17th, 2022
The new Pinterest API for Conversions gives advertisers a full view of their campaign performance as well as actions their audience took on their site, and it will be integrated with tag management partner Google Tag Manager and commerce partner Shopify.
The Pinterest Trends Tool. Pinterest is expanding the capabilities of its Trends Tool which came out in 2019 to help advertisers worldwide gain deeper insights into the behavior of Pinterest users and to use that information in planning their campaigns.
New updates. New Trends Tool updates also announced include three new features:
- A widget on the Pinterest Trends homepage that lets advertisers see what has been trending with their engaged users and followers over the past 90 days
- Trends filtered by demographic, place, time and topic
- And new trend types, including seasonal trends, to help brands better align their content and marketing calendars with times when users are most engaged with those specific topics
Early API adopters. Pinterest also said hundreds of advertisers worldwide have already implemented the tagless, server-to-server solution, and early results included improvements of 14% in CPAs on average for optimized CPM campaigns when using both the API for Conversions and tags, compared with tags only, and a 36% average increase in attributed conversion volume under the same conditions.
Though the new API was most frequently used for lower-funnel actions such as checkouts, they are also seeing success in full-funnel actions like page visits and add to cart.
What Pinterest says.
“Pinterest is uniquely positioned at the intersection of discovery and commerce, where inspiration meets intent. We are investing across our advertising platform to help businesses around the world reach their goals and connect with leaned in consumers at every stage of the campaign lifecycle.”
Pinterest chief revenue officer Bill Watkins
Why we care. The API and new features allow advertisers to view and predict trends, what users engage with, and how their future (and holiday) campaigns will stack up. They also give advertisers a more in-depth look at their conversion data and additional discovery tools for their audience.
The post The Pinterest Trends Tool is expanding with a new API for Conversions appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Sunday, October 16th, 2022
TechCrunch recently highlighted how Google is changing their ad labeling on mobile devices.
A few big changes include:
- ad label removed from individual ad units
- where the unit-level label was instead becomes a favicon
- a “Sponsored” label above ads
- the URL will show right of the favicon & now the site title will be in a slightly larger font above the URL
An example of the new layout is here:
Displaying a site title & the favicon will allow advertisers to get brand exposure, even if they don’t get the click, while the extra emphasis on site name could lead to shifting of ad clicks away from unbranded sites toward branded sites. It may also cause a lift in clicks on precisely matching domains, though that remains to be seen & likely dependes upon many other factors. The favicon and site name in the ads likely impact consumer recall, which can bleed into organic rankings.
After TechCrunch made the above post a Google spokesperson chimed in with an update
Changes to the appearance of Search ads and ads labeling are the result of rigorous user testing across many different dimensions and methodologies, including user understanding and response, advertiser quality and effectiveness, and overall impact of the Search experience. We’ve been conducting these tests for more than a year to ensure that users can identify the source of their Search ads and where they are coming from, and that paid content is clearly labeled and distinguishable from search results as Google Search continues to evolve
The fact it was pre-announced & tested for so long indicates it is both likely to last a while and will in aggregate shift clicks away from the organic result set to the paid ads.
Courtesy of SEO Book.com
Friday, October 14th, 2022
Google is now rolling out what it calls “site names” in the mobile search results. Site names more prominently show the name of the website, as opposed to just the URL, at the top of the snippet. With the site name, Google also announced the size and shape of the favicon will be displayed next to the site name and URL of the search result snippet.
What it looks like. Here is a GIF of this new site name and favicon placement:
Availability. Site names are currently available for the Google mobile search results in English, French, Japanese, and German. Google said it will be rolling out to additional languages over the next few months. As an FYI, we saw Google testing this several weeks ago.
Controlling site names. Google explained that Google Search uses a number of ways to identify the site name for the search result. But if you want, you can use structured data on your home page to communicate to Google what the site name should be for your site. Google has specific documentation on this new Site name structured data available over here.
Upgrading the favicon. Google is also recommending revisiting the documentation for favicons for the latest best practices. Google is now also recommending you provide an icon that’s at least 48px, and follows the existing favicon guidelines.
Ads. This is also coming to ads, so the size of the site name, favicons, and also the ad label will be more prominent in mobile search. In fact, Google is rolling out the “Sponsored” label in mobile search, officially replacing the “Ads” label from Janaury 2020.
Why the change. Google said the change is to help provide “even more information about the sites that you see so you can feel confident about the websites you visit.”
Why we care. With any change to Google Search and the design of the search results, searchers may click differently. So monitor your click through rate in Google Search Console and see if you need to make changes to your site name and/or favicon to make any improvements to your click through rate from Google Search.
The post Google rolling out site names and updated favicon logos in search results appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, October 14th, 2022
A handful of powerful targeting features will be removed in early 2023 according to a Google Ads help article.
The help article, “Optimize your Video campaign for more conversions” contains a content targeting section that recommends avoiding the addition of content targeting (by keywords, topics or placements) in campaigns.
Furthermore, the article mentions that in early 2023 all existing content targeting settings will be automatically removed “from video campaigns that drive conversions.”
A major blow to targeting? These content targeting options are beloved by many advertisers due to the granularity they provide. Placements could target YouTube Channels, specific videos, video lineups, URLs, Apps, or collections.
With the current targeting, advertisers could match ads to channels/videos to deliver more customized messages to audiences. This change will effectively put an end to the hyper-targeting that made YouTube so appealing for ad dollars.
Another major blow is the loss of keyword targeting on the self-proclaimed 2nd largest search engine in the world. The removal of query targeting on a (video) search engine hurts.
While keywords on YouTube haven’t historically been as powerful as traditional search, it has been a way for advertisers to help answer queries with their video content. There is no doubt that advertisers will need to get more creative in order to hit their target audience.
What will happen to existing campaign when the change occurs? Advertisers running YouTube content targeting campaigns that leverage keywords, topics or placements will have the targeting removed. The article states:
“All existing content targeting settings will be automatically removed from video campaigns that drive conversions.”
We’ve reached out to Google for more clarification on this, but if you are running placement/keyword/topic targeting, this could wreak havoc on your campaigns. Stay tuned for this transition date as you won’t want to have all targeted swept from your accounts.
Why we care. A major benefit of YouTube ads has been the powerful targeting options, many of which will now be removed early next year. For performance marketers, the ability to fine-tune ads to channels or videos will no longer exist nor will the use of keywords on the second-largest search engine. These clearly can’t be chalked up to privacy or PII issues, but rather as a fundamental change away from content targeting options on the network.
If you are running ads using content targeting options, you should stay tuned to updates as those targeting settings will be automatically removed from your campaigns. With less targeting, you’ll reach a larger audience and may spend more on less qualified users.
The post Google Ads to discontinue content targeting for YouTube conversion campaigns in 2023 appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, October 14th, 2022
Google is rolling out a new search ad label, replacing the black “Ad” label with a new bold black text “Sponsored” label. This is rolling out in conjunction with the new site names and larger favicons in the mobile search results, Google announced.
What is looks like. Here is a screenshot of the new bold black “Sponsored” text ad label for the Google Ads:
Why the change. Google said this is to help “make sense of the information you see is ensuring that ads are clearly labeled.” A more prominent ad label, should do that, the search company said.
The new ad label, labeled “Sponsored,” is now featured on its own line in the top-left corner of Google Search ads.
Some ad label history. We will be updating our visual history of Google ad labels at some point, but for a quick refresher, Google rolled out a new treatment for labeling text ads in mobile search results in May 2019. In January 2020, Google extended that ad labeling and favicon treatment to desktop and quickly faced broad backlash over the further blurring of ads and organic listings, which Google hadn’t seen with the change to mobile. The company almost immediately backtracked and began experimenting with several treatment variations on desktop.
In 2007, Google changed the long-standing shaded background indicating the ads section of the page from blue to yellow. In 2008, it then briefly tried a green background before reverting back to yellow. Google continued to test variations of background colors including bright blue and a light violet. In 2010, violet officially replaced the yellow, but only lasted about a year before yellow reappeared in 2011. In 2013, Google tweaked the yellow to a paler shade, which would close out the era of background shading.
At the end of 2013, Google removed the background shading and began testing a yellow ad label next to each text ad. The yellow “Ad” label rolled out globally in 2014 in a much smaller size than first appeared in the initial testing. In 2016, a new green label marked the first time the color of an ad demarcation matched the color of an element in both the ads and organic listings: the display URL. A year later, Google kept the green, but inverted the treatments so that the font was green with a thin green border on a white background. This past year’s update to the black label does away with the border altogether, further, the display URL is now black to match the “Ad” label.
Note, we also spotted Google testing the Sponsored label many months ago.
Why we care. Google said “this new label and its prominent position continues to meet our high standards for being distinguishable from search results and builds on our existing efforts to make information about paid content clear.”
A more distinguishable ad label may result in changes to your click through rates on your ads, so take notice and track to see if clicks go up or down over a period of time.
The post Google Ads label is now a bold black text Sponsored label appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, October 14th, 2022
Retail is an ever-changing industry, but the last few years have been particularly disruptive. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered dramatic shifts in consumer behavior that left many retailers struggling to keep up. These factors, combined with the growing influence of Amazon, increasing consumer privacy regulations and deprecating third-party cookies, are only exacerbating the need for transformation in retail that emphasizes customer relationships.
The companies that have been most successful in adapting to these challenges share one critical commonality: they prioritize the collection and use of privacy-compliant first-party customer data as a competitive asset. The Comoto Family of Brands is one such retailer.
In a recent MarTech session, Comoto’s Dana Green joined BlueConic’s Jackie Rousseau-Anderson to discuss how they are using a customer data platform to unify customer data across multiple brands and systems and activate it across channels to deliver more engaging customer interactions.
Putting data at the heart of customer engagement
As America’s largest power sports aftermarket retailer, Comoto is home to Cycle Gear, J&P Cycles and RevZilla.com. With over 150 stores nationwide and e-commerce sites for all three brands, the company manages a complex ecosystem of customer data housed in a multitude of systems.
“Data has always been foundational to our strategies,” said Green, “but it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of information you have.”
That realization led Comoto on an introspective journey to transform how they access and use customer data to unlock the potential of their marketing channels. BlueConic’s customer data platform (CDP) has been a core component in its transformation.
Choosing the right optimization strategy
When it comes to optimizing their e-commerce sites, Green and her team have traditionally relied on Comoto’s UX and Research teams to provide a testing plan based on qualitative customer research. Using BlueConic’s A/B testing and optimization capabilities, the company can marry qualitative and quantitative methods for a more in-depth understanding of its customers.
“When making big updates to our website, we typically have a theory that we’re looking to improve upon. With BlueConic, we can perform A/B testing on our site to validate the research we’ve done with our customers and supplement it with hard data,” said Green.
She noted that even simple A/B tests could produce some big wins. “Our customers have a true enthusiast culture when it comes to riding, but what they shop for often depends on their riding style. So, we decided to test a shop-by-category module on our homepage that resulted in a very positive incremental lift. Just having the ability to provide someone with a custom experience based on the categories they are most interested in is an easy win for us that has a surprisingly big impact.”
Green and her team have since used BlueConic to ramp up their A/B testing efforts. “We have a lineup of things that we want to test at this point. For the most part, whenever we finished a test, it usually begs another question.” But she also cautions others to start small, as tests can get complicated. To tee up tests for success, she recommends:
- Testing something that’s going to have enough traffic to get a good read on what you’re trying to answer.
- Making sure you’re clear with your hypothesis and what you’re trying to solve.
- Defining clear success metrics.
Moving from touchpoints to journeys
Green and her team have also been able to use the learnings from A/B testing as building blocks for the larger, end-to-end customer experience. “The real power we’ve been working on is transitioning to creating lifecycles. So, not just optimizing our site, but making sure we’re connecting that experience with our other channels,” said Green.
The customer lifecycle orchestration capabilities in BlueConic enable Green and her team to move beyond channel-specific campaign workflows and instead orchestrate cross-channel lifecycle marketing programs that are responsive to each customer’s unique journey based on the real-time, unified customer profile data.
“When we’re sending an email — how are we thinking about the experience in which they’re landing on? Or when a paid ad is driving to the website, what can we do to personalize that experience?”
She also noted that sometimes very seemingly simple components, like adjusting to where somebody lives or their primary interest areas, can be a really compelling way to develop a connection with customers.
“We have a blog called Common Tread that features amazing content. The data available in BlueConic not only enables us to understand how and when consumers engage with us on Common Thread, but also tailor our communications based on their individual interests. If they are an adventure rider and we just posted an article on an adventure bike, for example, we can promote the article and introduce them to the Common Thread experience.”
Operationalizing a CDP
Green noted it’s not enough to simply add a CDP to your business infrastructure and expect to immediately reap the benefits. Like any marketing technology, success (or failure) with a CDP often comes down to an ability to effectively manage change within the organization. For Green, education and communication have been key.
“We achieve some of that just by inviting more folks throughout the business to our quarterly reviews on what we’re working on,” said Green. “We used to be set up so our email and onsite teams would meet separately with BlueConic,” she continued. “Now, we meet together so we can work on our combined strategies across both channels. So just making sure to that the communication between the teams is connected has been a really easy, simple win.”
Since the addition of a CDP also fundamentally changes how companies can and should work, Green stresses the importance of alignment on the goals, use cases (immediate priorities and long-term road map), timing and expected outcomes for a CDP implementation across all levels of the organization.
“Our tech team is very busy with a lot of big priorities, which I’m sure a lot of people can relate to,” she explained. The ability to access the unified, actionable data in BlueConic and use it to create compelling experiences on the site without tapping the tech team has been a huge help for us. That way, we can keep moving and grooving and trying new things without being held up when our tech partners are focused on other priorities.”
For others who are embarking on their own customer engagement transformation journey, Green has some advice: “Just make sure that you pick a partner that’s going to listen to your business problems and what you’re trying to achieve as a business. Only then can you truly unlock the full potential of your investment.”
The post The Comoto Family of Brands accelerates omnichannel marketing with first-party data appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, October 13th, 2022
After years of perfecting ad optimization strategies for expanded text ads (ETAs), advertisers must now re-learn optimization for responsive search ads (RSAs), the new default ad text format on Google since July 2022. Due to their newness, a strong consensus about optimization best practices for RSAs has yet to emerge. But there are known pitfalls we already know to avoid.
Read on if you’d like to learn some of the most common mistakes advertisers make when working with RSAs and how to use PPC management tools like the Google Ads UI or Optmyzr to prevent or fix them.
Automation layering puts humans in charge of improving PPC performance
RSA optimization follows a now familiar pattern where the best results are achieved by leaning into automation rather than fighting it. Here’s the formula for success in the age of PPC automation which Optmyzr’s co-founder Fred Vallaeys shared in his book “Unlevel the Playing Field”:
Machines + humans > machines alone
But with a looming recession and more scrutiny on the performance of digital ads, the humans of PPC are about to become even busier than they already are, and organizations might consider foregoing the significant benefits humans can bring to results and rely on just the automations from the ad engines. But for advertisers who want more results, more profits, and less wasted ad spend, technology can come to the rescue in the form of automation layering.
In automation layering, humans create lightweight automations to regain control of ad engine automations. Automation layers can set safeguards and boundaries or feed first-party data into the sophisticated Google AI that now controls much of what humans used to manage. Together this makes PPC perform better and faster while making fewer costly mistakes. The formula becomes:
Google’s AI automations + human-controlled automation layers > Google’s automations alone
So let’s take a look at five of the most common mistakes we see with RSAs and how to fix them with automation layering.
1. Still relying on uneditable legacy ads
As of shortly before the sunset of ETAs, Optmyzr’s analysis of over 13,000 Google Ads accounts found that a whopping 7.7% of advertisers had never created an RSA yet.
Percentage of accounts that contain responsive search ads. Source: 2022 Optmyzr study of RSA performance of 13,671 randomly chosen Google Ads accounts.
Having only ETAs is risky because once they stop performing as expected, they can’t be optimized. They also can’t be edited to reflect new promotions, something you’ll likely need to do as Q4 promotions ramp up across the industry.
Part of the reason some advertisers still rely on uneditable ETAs is that it can be hard to find ad groups that haven’t made the transition to RSAs yet. Those ad groups simply continue to run and may look fine in reports, obscuring the fact they’re running on outdated ad formats.
To transition your final ad groups to RSAs, scripts can come in handy. Optmyzr has an RSA migration script that downloads all ad groups without RSAs and prefills a bulk sheet with suggested ads. Because they’re in a spreadsheet format, it’s much easier to go through it quickly to make edits before posting them back to Google.
2. Ignoring your history of high-performing campaigns
If you ran search campaigns in Google Ads before RSAs became the default ad type, you’re already ahead of everyone starting now, especially if you also followed a few other best-practice guidelines:
- Use of automated bidding or Smart Bidding
- Proper use of seasonality adjustments
- Offline conversion imports
Older accounts also have a leg up because they have more data, and machines thrive on data to learn patterns.
Advertisers transitioning existing accounts can use their best-performing ETA headlines and descriptions to start new RSAs. This action offers on average a 7% lift in conversions at a similar cost per conversion. This migration can easily be achieved with our RSA migration utility for Google and Microsoft.
3. Testing responsive search ads by conversion rate
The single largest mistake, short of ignoring RSAs completely, is when advertisers treat their RSAs like ETAs during testing. RSAs have the unique ability to adapt what they show to boost their relevance to any search query that comes in. Because they are built to increase relevance on the fly, they have better quality scores and get far more impressions than ETAs.
We found that ad groups with RSAs got 2.1 times more impressions than those with no RSAs. These additional impressions are the reason why modern ad optimization strategies must be revised and brought up-to-date as we’ll illustrate next.
The old way of ad optimization favors the ad that delivers the most conversions per impression. But now that the ads, and not just the keywords, play a large role in determining the potential impressions, impressions themselves must also be factored into the analysis.
Look at the example below, where the ETA ad has a roughly 10% better conversions-per-impression ratio but gets only half the impressions as the RSA. The bottom line is the ETA ad delivers fewer conversions, primarily because it gets so many fewer impressions.
Old way: Focused on conversion rates or conversions per impression
New way: Focused on conversions within CPA or ROAS limits
In Optmyzr, advertisers control the algorithm that decides how A/B ad tests are decided. For example, you can limit the analysis to only compare ads that have similar impression volume. By enabling this power-user feature, you avoid pausing ads with lower conversions per impression that would have gotten more conversions due to their outsize impression volume.
4. Not experimenting with pinning
As we said before, we believe that humans + machines > machines alone. In addition to writing good assets, pinning is another easy way for humans to control the machines.
When pinning is taken to the extreme and one asset is pinned to every location, our study found the highest CTRs and conversion rates.
But before you go pin every part of your RSAs, don’t forget that high CTRs and high conversion rates are useless without impressions. The same pinning that produced better CTR and conversion rate is unfortunately responsible for limiting the impressions these ads get.
Google’s machines prefer when you allow them flexibility. In terms of RSAs, we found that the impressions per ad increase as you give the machines more options by adding more assets.
As for the impact of pinning just one asset per location, this leads to significantly fewer impressions for the RSA than when multiple assets are pinned to each location.
Pinning helps you control the machines, so use it to test ways to balance volume with quality. The best way to get statistically meaningful results is by using Google’s built-in ad variations tool which is part of their experiments framework. Optmyzr users can accelerate their own experimentation by using our Campaign Experiments dashboard to stay on top of all the experiments you run across the many accounts and campaigns you manage.
5. Not pairing RSAs with Smart Bidding and Broad Match
Automation likes it when advertisers remove constraints. We saw this in the data above when impressions soar by simply adding more ad text variations to an RSA. This also holds true for removing other constraints. So when you want more conversions, cautiously loosen up the match types to allow RSAs to show your ads for even more queries.
We’re not recommending a wholesale shift to broad match. Instead, test it while paying close attention to the query data and adding negative keywords as needed. This even works for Performance Max campaigns which can have negative keywords, either by asking your Google rep to add them to the campaign or by adding them to a shared negative list that is associated with the Performance Max campaign.
But loosening the reigns is only effective when you combine multiple tools for an effective automation layering strategy. Specifically, RSAs should be used in conjunction with automated bidding. Automated bidding can lower bids when it shows an RSA for a query with a more tenuous relevance to whatever your business sells.
Let’s illustrate this with an example. With a static $5 max CPC bid, the machine will bid $5 regardless of whether it believes the user is 20% or 80% likely to convert. In the case of the 20% probability, a $5 click means a $25 CPA ($5 / 0.20), whereas with the 80% probability, it’ll be a $6.25 CPA ($5 / 0.8). Smart bidding can account for the difference in conversion probability between different queries and help achieve a more consistent ROAS or CPA.
Conclusion
Google is adding more automations all the time and RSAs can drive incremental conversions at a reasonable cost, especially when complemented by other machine learning capabilities like Smart Bidding.
Optmyzr’s PPC optimization suite is evolving right alongside Google and now offers a full range of capabilities for creating, testing, and optimizing RSA assets and the ad groups/campaigns they run in. If you’d like to try it, take advantage of our free 14-day trial.
To learn more about modern ad optimization, sign up for UnLevel to get access to free RSA-focused content from Anne Bui (Puffer), Zenia Johnson (Outside Inc), Jyll Saskin Gales (Jyll.ca) and many more.
The post 5 ways you’re hurting account performance when it comes to RSAs appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
