AdWords MENA Blog: June 2015

Reminder: Upgrade your URLs by July 1, 2015

Sunday, June 28, 2015

In February, we announced Upgraded URLs - a faster and easier way to manage your URLs in AdWords. With Upgraded URLs, you’ll be able to manage your landing page and tracking information separately using the new final URL and tracking template fields. Check out this video to learn more about the benefits of Upgraded URLs.Starting on July 1st, all advertisers will need to start using Upgraded URLs in place of destination URLs. If you’ve already updated your URLs to Upgraded URLs, then you’re all set and no further action is required. If you haven’t upgraded yet, read on to find out what will happen to your ads1 and URLs starting July 1, 2015, and your options for the upgrade.What happens starting July 1, 2015Starting on July 1st, please prepare for the following changes:

Destination URLs can no longer be edited or created. Any new URLs will need to be created using the newUpgraded URL fields.

Destination URLs will be automatically moved to the new final URL field for any ad groups in your account that do not contain cross-domain redirect URLs.² In your AdWords account, you will receive an alert informing you of any remaining ad groups that were not upgraded.

Any ads with destination URLs that have not been updated to Upgraded URLs will stop serving in a few months. We’ll let you know 30 days before your ads stop serving by email and with an alert in your account.

Frequently asked questionsSee answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about the upgrade below.Q: Do I need to upgrade if I don’t use URL tracking, or if I only use auto-tagging? A: No, you can wait for the auto-upgrade starting on July 1st. Our system will automatically move your destination URLs into the new final URL fields, and your reporting columns will update to reflect these changes. During the auto-upgrade, your ad performance statistics will not be reset, and your ads will not be required to go through policy review.Q: Which URL types will not automatically be upgraded and eventually stop serving? A: URLs that fall under this category include those that contain the following: cross-domain redirects, the “{copy}” ValueTrack parameter, tracking parameters using “{}” that are not an AdWords ValueTrack parameter, or a domain different from the one used in your ad’s display URL. Please manually upgrade these URLs prior to July 1st. Q: How do I upgrade my cross-domain URLs? A: Use the basic or advanced method with help from our upgrade guide for these URLs, making sure to upgrade both your paused and active URLs. Please work with your third party tool provider if you need help.Q: Will my ad stats be reset during the upgrade? A: To preserve your ad stats, use the automated or basic upgrade methods, or wait for our system to auto-upgrade your URLs. Your performance statistics will be retained and your ads will not need to go through policy review. If you don’t mind re-setting your ads stats and taking full advantage of the benefits of Upgraded URLs, then use the advanced upgrade method. This lets you use the new tracking templates and theValueTrack parameters. Any changes made after this upgrade will not reset your ad stats. As a reminder, you can still access all historical performance statistics for your removed ads through your AdWords reports.Q: I use dynamic tracking in my URLs, what do I need to do? A: You will need to manually upgrade your URLs using the basic upgrade method before July 1st.Learn more.For additional details, please see the FAQ on our upgrade guide.Help with the upgradeWe know that this update requires some work from you, and we’re here to help. Here are some resources to help you pick the best upgrade option and guide you through the process.

Upgrade guide: learn how to upgrade your URLs at https://g.co/ads/upgradedurls

AdWords Editor 11.1: use Editor to upgrade your URLs

HOA: watch step-by-step instructions for upgrading your URLs using bulksheets

URL builder: build URLs using the new Upgraded URLs format

URL tester: test your landing pages and tracking templates

We look forward to your continued success with AdWords. Please contact us at any time for help with the upgrade.Posted by Leo Sei, Product Manager, Google AdWords

¹Everywhere we say ads, we also mean URLs used in keywords, sitelinks, auto-targets, and other targeting options available for the Search Network, Display Network and Shopping.

²Destination URLs using cross domain redirects - meaning your URLs redirect to a site other than your domain - are not eligible for the auto-upgrade. You must manually upgrade your URLs with help from the upgrade guide.

Introducing cross-account campaign management and reporting enhancements for manager accounts (MCC)

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Designed with some of our most sophisticated advertisers in mind, an AdWords manager account is a powerful tool for monitoring and managing multiple accounts. To help save you time and provide more visibility into account performance, we’re introducing a number of exciting enhancements, including cross-account campaign management, powerful reporting tools, and improved account navigation.Manage your campaigns at scaleCreating reports and making quick changes to campaigns across multiple accounts can be incredibly time consuming. To help you manage and report on all of your campaigns at scale, from a single view, we’ve added a new “Campaigns” view to the manager account dashboard.The campaign-level actions you’re familiar with at the individual account level are now available at the manager account level. You can add columns, apply segments, and set filters to report on campaign performance for up to 20 selected accounts. Or, you can take action by quickly updating daily budgets and enabling or pausing your campaigns across those accounts. You can also create a new campaign for any individual account right from your manager account.

Create better, more insightful reportsData freshness in the manager account dashboard now matches the rest of AdWords. This means you no longer have to navigate to individual accounts for the most up-to-date reporting metrics. To make the dashboard reports more useful, you can now select a custom date range beyond the last 90 days, and compare it to any period you want. We’ve also added more reporting columns, including conversions, as well as the ability to chart performance directly in the dashboard.

To help you explore your account data in more meaningful ways, we’ve added advanced segmentation and filtering tools. Quickly slice your data based on what matters most to your business, such as by network, click type, or device. Then, apply filters to help identify new opportunities or to simply see the data you’re interested in.If you use sub-manager accounts, there’s also a new dropdown to help you refine your dashboard to only show performance data across directly linked sub-manager and individual accounts, all linked sub-manager and individual accounts, or all linked individual accounts.

Navigate faster between accountsFinally, we’ve made it easier to find the account you want to view. You can now search for or select the manager account or individual account you want to jump to by expanding the dropdown at the top of your AdWords account.

Customer storiesMany customers are already seeing early success with these enhancements to manager accounts.

“Our product line recently expanded, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of AdWords accounts we manage. However, the ability to identify meaningful trends in campaign performance and take action where it’s most impactful — all from a single view — not only saves us 4-5 hours each week, but also gives us more confidence in the health of our accounts.” — Katherine Doty, Global Search Marketing Manager at Rosetta Stone

“We have over 90 individual AdWords accounts and rely on a strong campaign naming convention to effectively manage all of them. Thanks to the new campaigns view in our manager account, we can now manage and optimize all our campaigns from a single view. This saves us countless hours since we no longer have to click through and manage our campaigns, account by account.” — Jeremy Legrand, Head of SEM at Kaymu New enhancements, new nameTo simplify our naming convention and align with these new enhancements, we’ll no longer use “My Client Center” and “MCC” to refer to AdWords manager accounts. Throughout the year, you’ll see these changes reflected across the AdWords Help Center and in our future communications.You can take a tour in AdWords of the new enhancements, or learn more about manager accounts in the AdWordsHelp Center.Posted by Zak Stern, Product Manager, AdWords

New media partnerships and ad solutions for mobile app promotion

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

As complexity increases in the app ecosystem, successful developers are looking for new ways to measure, manage, and optimize across multiple ad networks and operating systems. This morning, at our annual I/O conference, we announced via Livestream a new set of media partnerships and ads offerings designed to meet the unique needs of mobile app marketers.

Transparent, open and reliable measurement solutions

For app developers looking to drive installs and engagement, it’s critical to understand the effectiveness of various media partners and placements. That’s why we have been investing in solutions to help developers apply consistent measures across a fragmented ecosystem of ad networks, and understand the quality of users that each delivers.

Google Analytics for Apps provides an industry-leading solution for in-app analytics that is increasingly benefiting advertisers as they seek more transparency into ad effectiveness across networks. You can already use Google Analytics to track the performance of your mobile app install campaigns and understand the lifetime value of your users on both Android and iOS. As of today, we’ve built partnerships with 20+ ad networks including InMobi and Millennial Media since launching iOS conversion tracking late last year. Data integration with these partners provides a comprehensive view of app value across networks based on the metrics developers care about (i.e., LTV and retention), helping you make better decisions on where to spend your advertising dollars. In the next few months, you’ll be able to “postback” your conversions to referring networks in order to optimize your traffic -- all made possible with a single SDK.

And it's not just about our measurement solutions. We recognize that developers should have choices when it comes to attribution vendors, and are committed to open solutions for the industry. That’s why we also announced the ability to integrate app install and event data from key third party measurement partners into AdWords. Working with third parties, including Adjust, Appsflyer, Apsalar, Kochava, and Tune, we are able to increase measurement accuracy between different trackers in AdWords, ensuring your data is accurate and reliable.

By partnering with these leading ad platforms and tracking systems, we believe we can make the entire mobile apps ecosystem stronger and more connected — all with the goal of making developers more successful.

But we didn’t stop there.

It’s easier than ever to promote your apps across Google

For developers looking to promote their app, we offer a variety of placements across Google Search, the AdMob network, mobile sites, and YouTube. And earlier this year, we announced Search Ads on Google Play. By showing ads alongside app search results, you can reach consumers right when they’re looking for a new app, at the moment they are ready to install.

Today we announced Universal App Campaigns, a new campaign type that allows advertisers to reach consumers across Google media more efficiently and effectively. Universal App Campaigns offers a simple way to set up install ads for your Android apps in AdWords or directly from the Google Play Developer Console.

With a single campaign, you can scale your reach across Google Search, the AdMob network, mobile sites, YouTube and Google Play. Just provide us with a few inputs about your app — what your ad creative will say, the audience you wish to reach, and how much you want to spend — we’ll do the rest for you. Behind the scenes, our ad creation and bidding engines will help maximize performance for your campaigns so you can spend more time building and enhancing your apps. Search Ads on Google Play and Universal App Campaigns will be rolled out to developers and advertisers in the coming months.

Complete solutions for your entire business

Today at I/O we also announced solutions to help you develop apps, engage users organically, and earn more money from your app. Our innovations in analytics and ads are designed to complement these offerings, and allow you to grow your business with measurement solutions that are open and reliable, and promotion tools that make ad buying easier and more effective. Thank you to all the developers out there who are building these experiences. We look forward to engaging with your apps and supporting your ongoing innovation by working closely with you and your partners in the ecosystem.