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Reddit is building an Ads API, first 4 partners announced

Written on October 27, 2022 at 8:20 pm, by admin

Reddit is working on a new Ads API and have just announced their first four alpha partners. The partners will be integrated into the API and are helping build solution that will inevitably help advertisers build, scale, and optimize campaigns.

Who are the partners. The four partners involved in Reddit’s new venture are:

• Vidmob
• Sprinklr
• adMixt
• PMG

Who will benefit. Reddit’s API will benefit advertisers spending at scale, as well as self-serve advertisers who are using Reddit ads for the first time.

Release date. The API is still in development and there is no release date published at this time. Reddit says they are looking to “bring more strategic developers on board in the coming months.” 

What Reddit says. “We have long had the aspiration to build an ecosystem of partners via our API that enables more effective and efficient campaign management on our platform. The Reddit Ads API will allow a global, diverse set of partners and clients to access all the capabilities we have built and continue to develop to drive performance,” said Reddit COO, Jen Wong. “These foundational alpha partners represent some of the best and brightest across the industry in terms of innovation, creativity and adtech. Having them join our developer ecosystem is tremendously exciting.”

Why we care. The new API will help advertisers discover new audiences, trends, and additional data they need to optimize their campaigns for conversions.

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GA4 gets new homepage experience, 5 new features

Written on October 27, 2022 at 8:20 pm, by admin

Google has just unveiled several new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) updates, including a new homepage experience, real-time behavioral modeling reports, and custom channel grouping.

Insights through machine learning

Behavioral modeling. Behavior modeling with real time reporting will give advertisers a complete picture of user behavior as it happens, in a privacy-centric way. 

Behavior modeling uses machine learning to fill in the gaps of your understanding of customer behavior when cookies and other identifiers aren’t available.

Real-time updates will be available in the near future to give advertisers a complete view of the customer journey as it’s happening.

The new home page experience. Originally previewed at Google Marketing Live and available to all advertisers as of today, is personalized for customers, highlighting key top-line trends, real-time behavior and their most viewed reports. Additionally, it uses machine learning to look for trends and insights and surfaces them directly to advertisers on the home page.

Integrations and solutions to power better ROI

Data-driven attribution (DDA). DDA was introduced into GA4 earlier this year, after becoming the default for all ads conversions last fall. Soon, Google will launch custom channel grouping, a feature that lets advertisers combine different channels to compare cost-per-acquisition and return-on-ad-spend based on data-driven attribution. For example, businesses will be able to compare the performance of their paid search brand with their non-brand campaigns.

Integration with Campaign Manager 360. With this integration, you’ll be able to see a more complete picture of your campaign performance alongside web and app behavioral metrics. 

GA4 Setup Assistant updates

Universal Analytics (UA) is sunsetting in 2023, so to help advertisers complete the transition easily, Google is rolling out an update early next year that will automatically help standard UA users set up their GA4 properties.

Google’s step-by-step guide will help you migrate to GA4 on your own if you choose to opt out of using the Setup Assistant. If you choose to utilize the Setup Assistant, you can access it in the admin section of your UA property.

Beginning early next year, the Setup Assistant will create a new Google Analytics 4 property for each standard UA property that doesn’t already have one. It should also be noted “the new GA4 properties will be connected with the corresponding UA properties to match your privacy and collection settings. They’ll also enable equivalent basic features such as goals and Google Ads links,” Google said.

New migration deadline for 360 customers

Additionally, we acknowledge that this is a complex transition, especially for enterprise customers which is why we’re pushing the migration deadline for 360 customers from October 2023 to July 2024, to ensure a successful setup. 

Dig deeper. You can read the full announcement and more details on the features on the Google Marketing Blog.

Why we care. GA4 has been an inconvenient thorn in the garden of marketing. Maybe that’s being dramatic, but most advertisers are putting off implementing the new Analytics property to the very last minute. This is a bad idea.

If you haven’t set up GA4 yet, get started on it asap. Utilize the Setup Assistant to begin collecting data, then go back later and customize your dashboard and create additional views.

These new features are only helpful if you’re actually using the product.

More resources. Check out these additional resources to help you set up and get the most out of GA4:

• 11 steps to setting up a successful GA4 property
• GA4 now has an enhanced measurement option for Form interactions
• Your guide to Google Analytics 4 attribution
• Google Analytics 4: A breakdown of Demographic and Tech details reports
• Google Analytics 4 integration now available for Ads Manager
• How to migrate to Google Analytics 4: A step-by-step guide

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YouTube trim video tool turns videos into 6-second bumper ads

Written on October 26, 2022 at 5:20 pm, by admin

The new trim video tool from YouTube turns your videos into 6-second videos that you can use for bumper ads. How convenient!

Machine learning strikes again. The new tool is now available globally in Google Ads, making it easy for advertisers to create bumper ads. The tool is powered by a machine learning model that identifies important scenes and brand elements from the original video and adapts them for shorter formats, Google says.

Not new(s). The tool was first introduced in 2019 as Bumper Machine and Google says that since then it “has helped hundreds of brands drive more reach, frequency and efficiency by effortlessly generating 6-second bumper ads. It improves on the Bumper Machine beta in many ways, with an enhanced machine learning model that can better select clips to adapt into shorter formats and an interface with more intuitive editing capabilities.”

Dig deeper. Learn more about the new trim tool in the Google Ads Help Center.

Why we care. The new tool can be used by advertisers to quickly create bumper ads if they don’t have the cutting and editing resources available to larger businesses. The new feature also allows you to test multiple ads much faster, as all of the videos created will be available in the asset library.

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Meta Q3 earnings: ad revenue declined 4%, but monthly users showing promise

Written on October 26, 2022 at 5:20 pm, by admin

Meta shared its 2022 Q3 earnings today and, as expected, performance left a lot to be desired. Advertising revenue came in at $27.2 billion, down roughly 4% year-over-year. 

The positives. Overall ad impressions were up 17%, while the cost per ad decreased 18% YoY.

Monthly active users on the platform increased 2% to 2.96 billion YoY.

Not news. Meta isn’t alone when it comes to underperforming earnings. This week Google and Microsoft also released worse-than-expected results, to the disappointment of investors. SNAP also reported their slowest-ever quarterly growth last week, but added 6% more monthly users.

Frankly, Meta’s poor performance is (probably) no surprise to anyone. Meta shares are down nearly 60% YTD and inflation, a shaky economy, and privacy changes certainly contribute. At closing today, shared decreased another 7.69%.

iOS and ongoing TikTok competition. Meta is still dealing with a host of challenges due to the implementation of iOS14, including growing competition from TikTok, all of which have taken a toll on Meta’s ability to drive interest in both organic and advertising users.

Internal company documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal, indicate that Instagram users cumulatively are spending 17.6 million hours a day watching Reels, less than one-tenth of the 197.8 million hours TikTok users spend each day on that platform.

What meta says. “Our community continues to grow and I’m pleased with the strong engagement we’re seeing driven by progress on our discovery engine and products like Reels,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. “While we face near-term challenges on revenue, the fundamentals are there for a return to stronger revenue growth. We’re approaching 2023 with a focus on prioritization and efficiency that will help us navigate the current environment and emerge an even stronger company.”

Dig deeper. You can review the Meta Investor Relations site with slides and a Webcast replay here.

Why we care. This quarters disappointing financials for both search and social could be a sign of an even bigger economic pitfall. Advertisers should prepare for higher CPCs, staff cuts, and increased costs all around.

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Google API v12 released

Written on October 26, 2022 at 5:20 pm, by admin

Google has just announced the release of v12 of the API.

Here are the highlights. Taken directly from the Google Ads Developer Blog.

• Added support for new recommendations: RaiseTargetCpaBidTooLowRecommendation and ForecastingSetTargetRoasRecommendation.
• Added primary_status and primary_status_reasons to Campaign to provide insight into why a campaign is not serving or not serving optimally.
• Added support for linked portfolio bidding strategies and campaign budget. You can modify these links using bulk mutates.
• conversion_tracking_id will always be greater than 0 for all customers. In the previous versions, this field could be 0 for customers who had never created any conversion actions.
• Updated SmartCampaignSuggestService.SuggestKeywordThemes to generate more keyword theme suggestions for Smart campaigns, including free-form keyword themes.
• Local Services campaigns now support individual location targeting, except for proximity targeting.
• Remove CampaignExperimentService in favor of the previously added new experiments.
• Removed support for creating new Smart Display campaigns. To achieve the same goals, we suggest using standard Display campaigns.
• Removed support for creating a new Gmail ad. Use Discovery campaigns instead.
• Removed GenerateProductMixIdeas from ReachPlanService.
• (For allowlisted customers) Added support for adding, updating, and removing CampaignAsset and AdGroupAsset with the field_type: AD_IMAGE (Image assets).
• Added support for mutating and retrieving location asset sets for test accounts only. The location assets for the asset sets are automatically generated and non-mutable.

Update your Client Library. Developers who want to utilize these new features will need to ensure their Client Libraries are updated.

Dig deeper. Get more information about the new release from the Developer Blog.

Why we care. The new API includes updated conversion tracking, removed support for certain features and campaigns, and supports additional services such as location targeting. Developers who utilize APIs should update their Client Libraries and implement the changes so they have the most updated features.

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3 new Google Performance Max features to plan campaigns, customize assets, and measure results

Written on October 26, 2022 at 5:20 pm, by admin

Google is anticipating a busy holiday season this year. In preparation, they have just announced three new Performance Max features to help advertisers plan effective campaigns, customize their asset strategy, and evaluate your results.

The Performance Planner

Advertisers can use the new Performance Planner to create campaign plans and understand how to invest their budgets while maximizing ROI. The new planner is being launched now and will be available to all advertisers in the coming weeks.

Planner features. With the Performance Planner, advertisers can forecast how their campaigns may perform in the future, as well as what can happen when certain elements like bidding strategies are implemented.

Customizing your asset strategy

Asset group scheduling. Asset group scheduling rolled out earlier this month. Now, you can add automated rules which allow you to schedule asset groups so they can be paused and enabled as needed. With scheduling, you can run ads at specific times of the day, or create and run different asset groups ahead of time.

More headlines to get your message across. The number of headlines you can upload to your Performance Max asset groups will increase from 5 to 15. Google says that by adding more headlines “you can take advantage of machine learning’s ability to create and test even more combinations to find the best-performing variations.” 

Evaluating results

Performance explanations. Explanations help you identify what’s driving performance fluctuations, diagnose issues, and view recommendations. You can see these in the explanations panels and they are available for all Performance max campaigns.

First-party audience insights. A cookieless future is imminent, but it doesn’t have to mean the end of accurate targeting. Now, you can add your data segments as audience signals in your Performance max campaigns. In the coming weeks, your data segments will be added to audience insights in the Insights page. These insights may help you understand the value of your first-party data and see which of your customer lists may be converting best. 

Dig deeper. You can read the announcement from Google here.

Best practices. Google suggests the following best practices as you plan your holiday campaigns:

1. A few days leading up to peak holiday periods, make sure to adjust your Performance Max campaign budgets and ROAS or CPA targets to maximize your visibility when consumers are shopping. 
2. Consider using seasonality adjustments if you have a promotion, sale, or event where you expect to see drastic changes in conversion rates or values over a short period of time. You should only use seasonality adjustments for brief, infrequent events where you expect a temporary, but significant change (e.g. greater than 30%) that will last less than 7 days. 
3. If you want to prioritize certain products this holiday season, you can create a separate Performance Max campaign with its own target and budget to promote these products. However, if you just want to highlight new holiday creative assets, you can create a new asset group for these in your existing Performance Max campaigns and pause your evergreen asset groups, if needed. 

Why we care. The new features may help Performance Max advertisers optimize, measure, and take advantage of additional asset features. If you’re using Performance max, you should test and utilize these new features as soon as possible, ahead of the holiday season, to drive the most benefit.

Regarding Google’s best practices, I’m skeptical of their advice to wait “A few days leading up to peak holiday periods” to make such drastic changes. Come on, Google.

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Google search study: 25.6% of desktop, 17.3% of mobile are zero-click

Written on October 25, 2022 at 2:18 pm, by admin

A new Semrush study has found that zero-click Google searches aren’t quite the boogeyman they’ve been made out to be in SEO circles in recent years. 

Where clicks went. Here’s an image summing up the findings for desktop Google searches:

Image credit: Semrush

• Organic clicks: 45.1%
• Zero clicks: 25.6%
• Keyword change (zero-click, query refinement): 17.9% 
• Clicks to other Google properties (eg, images, news, shopping) 9.7%
• Paid clicks: 1.8%

And here’s an image summing up the findings for mobile Google searches:

Image credit: Semrush

• Organic clicks: 43.1%
• Keyword change (zero-click, query refinement): 29.3% 
• Zero clicks: 17.3%
• Clicks to other Google properties (eg, images, news, shopping) 10.3%
• Paid clicks: 0.02%

Another interesting finding (though perhaps not entirely surprising) is that searchers didn’t spend much time analyzing search results, according to Semrush. Most searchers decide what to click on within 15 seconds.

So why are there zero clicks? There’s no one answer to this question. We know that consumers want answers – typically as fast as possible. Google now provides more of those answers than ever in the form of various search features (e.g., time, weather, movie showtimes, even direct answers).

Methodology. The study was conducted by Semrush in May, based on an anonymous sample of 20,000 U.S. desktop and mobile users. Semrush analyzed a total of 609,809 search queries (308,978 on desktop, 146,390 on mobile).

Semrush vs. past studies. SparkToro did a pair of studies (in 2019 and 2020). Here’s Search Engine Land’s coverage of those reports:

• 2019: 49% of all Google searches are no-click
• 2020: Zero-click Google searches rose to nearly 65%

Both studies had, let’s say, issues. Barry Schwartz outlined some of those issues on Search Engine Roundtable.

Had there been another analysis this year or last by SparkToro, I’d imagine Google zero-click searches would be somewhere around 85%. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Read the study. It’s definitely an interesting read that I highly recommend reading. See Semrush’s Zero-Clicks Study.

Why we care. Since 2019, there has been a lot of noise made about how Google is stealing clicks for itself. Google’s Danny Sullivan offered more context, pointing out that Google sends more traffic to websites every year and laying out some logical reasons why certain queries don’t end with a click on a website. 

Admittedly, two things can be true – Google can send more traffic to websites than ever, and reduce the number of searches that otherwise would have gone to websites had it not introduced its own products or search features that directly compete in organic search.

In my opinion (as well as the opinions of many other smart SEO professionals I know): those past zero-click “studies” were misleading at best, and nonsense at worst. And they got way more attention than they deserved because the math never really added up. I applaud Semrush’s efforts in providing more context and a greater, more nuanced (read: less biased) analysis.

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Four new Apple Search Ad placement options

Written on October 25, 2022 at 2:18 pm, by admin

Apple now has four new options for advertisers to drive visibility and downloads in the App Store. The new placements are:

• Today tab
• Search tab
• Search results
• Product pages — while browsing

The Today tab. The Today tab lets you reach people with high-impact creative on the front page of the App Store. The ad creative for the Today tab placements are based on a custom product page you set up in App Store Connect, and must be approved for advertising before your ad can run.

Search tab. Ads on this tab let you reach users before they search for something specific, with an ad that appears prominently at the top of the suggested apps list on the Search tab.

Search results ads. These let you reach users when they search for something specific, with an ad at the top of relevant search results. To match your ad with potential customers’ search terms, you can choose your own keywords or use the ones that Apple suggests. Matching is based on a direct signal of customers’ intent — their search query.

Product pages – while browsing. These ads let you reach people while they browse apps on relevant pages across the App Store, whether their journey started on the App Store or from an outside link. When interested users have scrolled to the bottom of relevant product pages, ads appear at the top of the You Might Also Like list.

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How ads are created. Apple ads are created using the metadata and assets you upload in App Store Connect. Search tab and product page ads feature app name, icon, and subtitle. Today tab ads are created using a custom product page you set up in App Store Connect. For search results ads, you can create a default ad that’s based on your app’s product page, or you can create ad variations from custom product pages you set up in App Store Connect.

Why we care. Advertisers who run ads on Apple Search now have four options to showcase their product or app in the App Store. Like with any new platform or product, advertisers should test the different placement options and compare performance to determine the best options for their business.

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Email marketing is continually developing. Are you keeping up?

Written on October 25, 2022 at 2:18 pm, by admin

Email may have been around since the dawn of the internet, but the space doesn’t stand still. Email marketing, and the technology that enables it, have evolved to deal with challenges like spam and deliverability and also to take advantage of opportunities, such as the ever-increasing sophistication of data usage for hyper-personalization.

Developments in the email marketing platform environment, especially consolidation and integrations between parts of the tech stack, mean that the practice of email marketing is constantly changing. Additionally, external factors like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection and Hide My Email, mean that marketers and their vendor partners need to adapt.

Download MarTech’s “Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide” to stay up to date and learn about new and better features in the latest generation of email technology. This 51-page report is your source for the latest news, trends, opportunities and challenges facing this market as seen by industry leaders, vendors and their customers.

Complete the form below to get your copy.

This report is sponsored by Salesforce and Cordial.

Can’t see the form? Click here.

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Google Ads turns 22: A look back at the biggest changes and advances in search

Written on October 25, 2022 at 2:18 pm, by admin

Every five years Search Engine Land likes to put together a sort of birthday tribute to the search engine, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics giant that we know as Google. Take a look at their big 2-0.

But given all that’s happened in search the last two years, we think it’s about time to pop the champagne, cut the cake, and settle in for a new, yearly, honoring.

Let’s get to it!

2021-2022

Keyword match types

Keyword match types seem to be the gift that keeps on giving, or in Google’s case, taking away. This time Google’s simplified phrase match worried advertisers with some acknowledging how similarly BMM and phrase match have behaved, and others denouncing the change as a move to strip away more data and controls from advertisers so that Google can extract as much profit from auctions as possible.

Farewell, broad-match modified keywords. Google expanded phrase-match to be included in broad match, to the chagrin of advertisers everywhere. 

Audiences

Advertisers will be able to use connected TV campaigns to target viewers across YouTube and “most” other connected TV apps. The new development will bring affinity, in-market, and demographic audience segments to connected TVs.

Advertisers will be able to reuse audiences across campaigns. When you build an audience to use in a campaign, Google Ads will save it so you can use it again in a future campaign.

Google Ads is renaming some key terms in your audience report and throughout Google Ads. You may have seen this already in some accounts. Google revealed this via this help documentation in September 2021.

RSAs and the end of ETAs

Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) became the default ad type in 2021. RSAs allow advertisers to input multiple headlines and ad copy variations, and Google Ads uses machine learning to determine which variations to use based on what queries people are searching for. 

An open beta allowed advertisers to see Display ads alongside search and YouTube for the first time in the Google Ads attribution report. Advertisers can see the ads in Top Paths, Model Comparison, Assisted Conversions and Path Metrics reports.

Automated vehicle ads were launched. The new format uses vehicle data feeds in Google Merchant Center to match users’ searches with ads.

Nine new policies were added to the three-strike system to target clickbait, misleading ad design, and more.

Automation

Bundled bid strategies have replaced standalone options. The Target CPA (tCPA) and Target ROAS (tROAS) Smart Bidding strategies will be bundled with the Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value bid strategies, respectively, Google announced Tuesday. Moving forward, Maximize Conversions will have an optional tCPA field, and Maximize Conversion Value will have an optional tROAS field.

Everyone’s favorite campaign type, Performance Max, became available to all advertisers. PMax includes Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, though Google eventually sunsetted Smart Shopping campaigns for good starting in January 2022.

Changes to automated extensions include extensions being shown together, an “Automatically Created Extensions” report, and the ability to add them at ad group, campaign, or account level.

Privacy Concerns Deepen

The depreciation of third-party cookies was supposed to happen in 2022 but was ultimately pushed to 2023. With that, an alternative targeting technology known as Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) was opened for advertiser testing in Q2 2021, with adoption slated for Q4 2022.

The FLEDGE sandbox has been unveiled along with plans to roll out several Privacy Sandbox initiatives on Android, including the Topics API, the FLEDGE API for custom audiences and remarketing, and the Attribution Reporting API. It began testing in March 2022.

Honorable mentions

• Ads Editor version 2.0 is released
• Placement reports for Performance Max campaigns
• Testing favicons in text ads
• Goodbye to Gmail campaigns
• A revamped Search360
• AdWords API sunsetted
• Three new travel products

2015-2020

Audiences

Google’s 20th gave rise to an era of predictive marketing, using AI and machine learning to identify intent and predict customer needs, behavior and marketing outcomes.

YouTube gains access to Google data for audience targeting, effectively improving ad targeting and measurement across search and YouTube. 

GA4 was also introduced, giving users expanded predictive insights, deeper integration with Google Ads, cross-device measurement capabilities and more granular data controls. 

Keyword match-type decline

The way we manage search terms has changed. Close variants are no longer what they used to be and marketers are being forced to adapt to machine learning. “Google says its machine learning is now good enough to determine when a query has the same intent as a keyword with a high enough rate of success that advertisers will see an overall performance lift.” Awkward.

Google has loosened the reigns on close variant keywords. Broad match is super broad, exact match is more like phrase match, and phrase match is, well, gone?

Privacy concerns have forced Google to limit Search terms reporting. In a statement from Google, a spokesperson said, “In order to maintain our standards of privacy and strengthen our protections around user data, we have made changes to our Search Terms Report to only include terms that a significant number of users searched for. We’re continuing to invest in new and efficient ways to share insights that enable advertisers to make critical business decisions.”

Automation ramps up

RSAs and the start of the end for Expanded Text Ads began in 2020. The option for text ads was no longer the default option in the Ads dropdown. Advertisers are seeing only Responsive Search Ad (RSA) and Call ad. 

Local Campaigns were introduced and aimed to drive in-store visits. Google automatically optimizes ad delivery across Search, YouTube, Maps and websites and apps in its ad networks.

Smart Campaigns debuted and were designed for small and local businesses that don’t have dedicated marketing staff and may not even have websites.

Smart Campaigns became the default campaign type for new advertisers in Google Ads. The campaigns are almost entirely automated and goals include phone calls, website visits and requests for directions.

Honorable mentions

Other new advancements in Search included:

• Hotel ads
• Cross-device reporting
• Surfaces across Google

2000 launch to 2015

While this is by no means a complete list, here are a few product development highlights from when Google launched the AdWords platform in 2000, all the way up to their 15th birthday.

2000

Google launched its new self-service advertising program called AdWords. The program enabled “any advertiser to purchase individualized and affordable keyword advertising that appears instantly on the google.com search results page.”

The AdWords program replaced Google’s first ad program called Premium Sponsorships.

Check out this article we found from The Search Engine Report in 2000.

2006

In 2006 Google decided to push forward with testing newspaper ads. If you’re curious, you can read the results here.

In the same year, they also began testing in-stream video ads with Beet.tv.

2007

Google started promoting audio ads. The landing page it takes you to tells you to call one of Google’s sales offices if you wanted to advertise on the radio.

Pay-per-action ads were launched this year, allowing advertisers to only pay when their preferred action was completed, such as a sale or click.  

Google also began testing its Keyword Tool, showing the number of the previous month’s searches. The tool shows actual numbers in search volume for the previous month for keywords. 

Also happening this year, Google acquired DoubleClick from The New York Times for $3.1 billion.

In July Google announced that those personalized ads you see are influenced by previous searches. In response, Google said “What you’re seeing is that we look at the user’s previous query and see how well it intersects with the current query. If it’s significant, we’ll use it to help targeting on the current query. We simply look at what’s in the referring URL (every time you load a web page, the HTTP header includes your previous URL as the “referrer”).”

Google reaches 1 million advertisers! “An analyst from UBS estimated Google has between 1.3 million and 1.5 million advertisers. According to the analyst, it shows there is still room for a lot more growth in terms of the advertiser base.” 

2008

Google pitched its media buying dashboard to very skeptical agencies.

Google also announced third-party tracking for the content network. Thanks, Google!

This same year, Google also began testing showing product ads in search results.

The Inside AdWords Google Blog announced that all US-based advertisers should now have the TV ads option in their account. In fact, you should see the option after logging in to your AdWords account at the bottom, where it says “Other Campaign Types.”

2009

Google’s newspaper ads initiative shuts down. Google said they are discontinuing this service because “the current Print Ads product is not the right solution.”

Google announced that they’re officially shutting down Google Audio Ads and Google Radio Automation.

The Google Base blog announced the launch of the new Google Merchant Center. The Merchant Center is replacing Google Base for those who submit products to Google. 

Google Blog announced you can now buy YouTube Promoted Video ads directly in the Google AdWords console. Previously, all YouTube Promoted Video ads were managed on YouTube at ads.youtube.com. 

Google has acquired AdMob (www.admob.com), a popular mobile display ad company, for $750 million. This acquisition gives Google access to AdMob’s more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications.

2010

Google has announced a new lab-type area called Google Ad Innovations, which is where it’ll “show you some of our latest ideas around advertising technologies and get your feedback.” Think of it as Google Labs for Ads.

Google has enabled access to the AdWords dashboard and other features for smartphone users. It’s configurable and provides on-the-go access to account data and stats. The new mobile interface is currently available for iPhone, Android and Palm/WebOS users. 

Google starts testing a feature with a small number of advertisers in which a phone number can be included within the ad to help them more effectively engage with customers who prefer to connect over the phone.

A new keyword type, broad match modifier, begins testing.

Google Product Listing Ads are offered to all advertisers

2011

Google is now letting AdWords advertisers automatically optimize what ads display most based on conversion rates.

Google will begin charging $1.00 for calls completed using the unique number it provisions, but solely when the call originates from someone using a computer who dials the number themselves from a phone. When the call is from a mobile device, or someone on a PC calls from the computer itself by clicking, the standard click charges apply. Previously, the calls dialed on a phone were free, as they didn’t involve a click, per se.

Google rolls out the ability to target ads to users by interest based on their previous browsing activity, or behavior, to all of its advertisers. 

Cost per lead tests start. Google is testing search and display versions of a cost-per-lead ad format that would allow users to request an advertiser contact them. 

Google is opening wider a beta test of Dynamic Search Ads. This ad type is designed for retailers or other advertisers with a large, often-changing inventory. Google automatically generates ad copy, based on the advertiser’s template. 

Google officially announced it would begin serving AdWords at the bottom of search engine results pages on Google.com. 

2012

Google Product Search is renamed to Google Shopping and only merchants that paid will be listed. 

Google is testing the effect of adding “Trusted Stores” badges to qualifying advertisers’ search ads, as it considers deploying the badges more widely.

Google introduced the ability to target more than 30,000 ZIP codes in AdWords, giving advertisers the ability to find potential customers in a familiar, granular way. Another new feature, Location Insertion, is aimed at letting advertisers with multiple locations create one ad, and have information dynamically inserted depending on the user’s query or location.

Google released a new report — Auction Insights — that helps marketers understand how their ads stand, compared to others in the same auctions.

Testing begins for a new ad format on its Hotel Finder product that lets marketers bid to appear at the top of search results. Promoted Hotels ads are ranked based on a combination of bid and quality score, and are sold on a CPC basis. 

The remarketing tag gets a makeover.

Google has begun notifying merchants that it won’t allow them to continue listing weapons-related items for sale in Google Shopping. 

2013

Google announced plans to add enhanced campaigns for AdWords to aid with campaign management catered to multiple-device users. The enhanced campaigns aimed to include advanced reports about users. This move was controversial among advertisers.

Ad group-level mobile bid adjustments started to roll out.

The AdWords Keyword Planner finally launches.

Google has announced the official beta for Image Extensions in AdWords. 

Google announced the beta release of Review Extensions which allows advertisers to append a quote of endorsement from a reputable publication in their AdWords ads. 

2014

CNBC reports that Google is now banning porn businesses from utilizing their ad network.

To help retailers maintain consistent visibility in PLAs, Google has launched “automatic item updates” in AdWords.

Google announced it is extending its popular product listing ads (PLAs) to retail and e-commerce sites across the Google Search Network. The ads are served via a new Google product called AdSense for Shopping.

Automated Extensions report starts rolling out.

AdWords 11 is launched. Google released a fully-redesigned version of AdWords Editor that supports several of the bulk editing features that have recently been added to the web interface and introduces new functionality to the desktop tool.

2015

By 2015 Google maintained nearly 64 percent of search share on desktop and almost 90 percent of mobile in the US.

The Google shared library is sunsetted.

Google launches dynamic structured snippets for AdWords. The automated extensions display industry-specific, structured information about products and services on advertisers’ sites.

Google has opened up access to its home services ad program in AdWords Express. The home services ad program launched in beta in the San Francisco area to connect service providers with local residents searching for help. 

Starting in October, Google changed the conversions columns to include only those conversions that are set for optimization: i.e., optimized conversion actions.

Google launched Smart Goals in early December. Smart Goals are designed for advertisers that don’t or can’t have conversion tracking on their sites. It aggregates conversion data from the thousands of sites that opt to share data with Google Analytics and, with machine learning, identifies visits deemed most likely to convert on the advertiser’s site.

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