Dave McIninch says, “Today, Google ends support for Converted Clicks in Google AdWords. Advertisers still using this metric in reports or for Target CPA bidding need to take a few steps to successfully migrate to the Conversions metrics instead.This article outlines how this change may affect you and what you need to do.What This Change MeansConverted Clicks is a metric that came about in 2001 with the introduction of conversion tracking, and has lost much of its relevance since AdWords made updates to the Conversions column in 2015, at which point AdWords encouraged anyone still using... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google introduced a new format for YouTube TrueView video ads on Wednesday: TrueView for action.Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP of ads and commerce at Google, made the announcement at the DMEXCO conference in Germany on Wednesday.The new ad format follows other goal-driven TrueView formats — TrueView for app promotion and TrueView for shopping — designed to move video advertising on YouTube beyond general branding.Ramaswamy said Google will test TrueView for action ads throughout the year. A Google spokesperson says the reporting and user experience are being fine-tuned,... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, ”Google hasn’t made it official, but the company has been telling some customers that there is a new minimum for Seller Ratings extensions to display in AdWords ads. Businesses must accumulate at least 150 reviews in the past 12 months, up from just 30.Seller Ratings extensions show automatically in AdWords ads when certain criteria are met.The policy has not been updated online yet, but according to at least one agency, the change is already affecting customers in many markets, including the UK, US and EU“.Google now requires more reviews for Seller Ratings... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google has removed the policy of limiting AdSense ads to three ads per page. The move can largely be seen as a response to mobile, on which pages have turned into never-ending streams and a specific ads-per-page policy doesn’t make much sense.A Google spokesperson confirmed the update to Marketing Land:“We’re always fine tuning our policies to make sure they reflect the current environment. In one recent change, we stopped limiting the number of AdSense ads that could appear on a page and instead now look at the overall balance of content and ads on a page.... [...]

Andy Taylor says, “Since July 26, 2016, expanded text ads (ETAs) have been live in AdWords. This new ad format, which was launched with mobile users in mind, allows advertisers to create longer text ads with two headlines of up to 30 characters each and a single 80-character description line.Advertisers have been testing the new format alongside standard text ads, and dozens of analyses looking at click-through rate (CTR) for standard vs. expanded text ads have been published across the industry, with varying levels of detail. (Google’s July announcement also came with its own assortment... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google is testing a new overview in the Opportunities tab in AdWords that gives advertisers an “Account Health Score for Search.”The feature was spotted and first reported by the team at Receptional, a UK-based digital marketing agency. As Receptional points out, the idea is similar to that of WordStream’s AdWords Grader, showing an overall score and a more detailed assessment.Clicking on the View Campaigns button brings up campaign overview with Health Scores listed for each and links to recommendations“.Google tests showing an overall Health Score for... [...]

Samantha Shannon says, “If you have ever run a Google AdWords campaign, you know how overwhelming maintaining an account can be. Luckily, Google has many features and tools that make managing campaigns easier and more successful. The catch? It is up to us to utilize them. Today, I am talking about an advanced feature that can help advertisers better reach customers by matching their search query. This seemingly magical feature is called keyword insertion.What is Keyword Insertion?Simply put, keyword insertion allows you to customize ad text based on the search term a customer uses. This... [...]

Sean Philip says, “With Google unleashing several new Adwords features in the first half of 2016, advertisers should take this as an opportunity to maximise their paid search campaigns.Here’s how…The updatesDuring the first half of 2016 Google announced two fundamental changes to its Adwords real estate.It launched ‘Expanded text ads’, with both ad headline and description lines increasing in length and it removed the familiar ‘sidebar’ paid search ads (on the right of the results page), introducing an additional spot for paid search listings above the organic results”.Six... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Google’s Product Listing Ads accounted for 46% of retailers’ Google paid search clicks in the quarter, a three percentage point increase from the first quarter. The image-focused ads are set to account for more than half of retailers’ paid search clicks by the end of the year, according to a new report by performance marketing agency Merkle Group Inc.The report finds that Google’s push to eliminate ads from the right side of search results has helped boost PLA click volume 73% year over year in the second quarter, outpacing the 43% growth in PLA spending. The cost... [...]

Barry Levine says, “Google has taken another step toward becoming a one-stop, cloud-based solution for major media companies.Late last week, the tech giant announced its acquisition of Mountain View, California-based video platform Anvato. Deal terms were not made public.Anvato’s Media Content Platform automates the encoding, editing, publishing and secure distribution of video across different platforms, and it will now become part of Google’s Cloud Platform. Previously, Google offered cloud-based rendering, media archiving, video transcoding, distribution and similar services.This... [...]