AdWords MENA Blog

Enhancing the Google Display Network with new innovations

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Consumers have higher expectations than ever because of mobile — they want everything right, and they want everything right away. To connect with consumers in the intent-rich moments when they want to buy, find or do something, marketers are increasingly turning to programmatic advertising — which uses data and technology to reach the right person at the right time. The Google Display Network (GDN) brings this sophisticated technology to all advertisers so you can be there in the moments that matter the most for your brand.Today we’re introducing several tools that further enhance what the GDN offers for display advertisers.More transparency: take action with AdWords audience insightsWhen you understand your customers well — like their age, location, and interests — you can make more informed decisions about your marketing programs. AdWords audience insights give advertisers aggregate information about people on your remarketing lists, including demographics, interests, locations, and device usage.1 Since these reports are available right in AdWords, you can quickly and easily take action on the insights. For example, if most people who converted on your site are jazz enthusiasts, you may wish to add this affinity audience to your campaign. Or, if many of your customers are females between the ages of 25 and 34, you might want to customize your ad creative to appeal to this demographic. Learn more.

Example: AdWords audience insights shows 30% of customers on this remarketing list are 25-34 years old
compared to an average of 19.9% in the US.

BASE, a Belgian telecommunications company, used AdWords audience insights and discovered cycling enthusiasts were twice as likely as the average customer to buy a mobile phone subscription. Based on this insight, BASE engaged with cycling enthusiasts on the GDN and doubled its conversions. BASE now uses AdWords audience insights to inform its campaigns, online and offline.

Sony PlayStation discovered classical music enthusiasts were likely to engage with its brand using AdWords audience insights. Sony then connected with this audience on the GDN and drove a 31% higher view-through rate than with its average affinity audience. This allowed Sony to capture more views for its budget. Now, Sony uses AdWords audience insights to uncover the best audiences for its new campaigns.More accountability: the GDN is going 100% viewableMost display ads — — never had a chance to be viewed because they were below the fold, scrolled out of view, or in a background tab. Soon, we’ll make the GDN one of the only media platforms where advertisers don’t pay for an ad impression unless it was viewable. This means your media dollars will only be spent where they can have impact. In the next few months, all campaigns that buy on a CPM basis will be upgraded to be viewable CPM (vCPM).More impact: a fresh approach to dynamic remarketing adsPeople use devices of varying shapes and sizes, engaging with content that can be horizontal, vertical, tapped, swiped or pinched. This means ads must be flexible so they can show across varying placements. Today, we introduced enhancements to dynamic remarketing so ads can be automatically re-shaped and re-sized to fit all device types. Ads are also touched up to look great on any mobile or desktop site, or app. For example, if your logo is predominantly blue and yellow, AdWords may use these colors to shade the border and background of your ad. We’ll even try out varying color combinations and use the ones that drive the best performance. As always, you have control to make changes to these selections based on your personal style and preferences.Meeting consumer expectations requires technology to answer their needs the moment they have them, wherever they are, whatever kind of device or screen they are using. Programmatic advertising ensures that brands are there in those important moments when decisions are made and preferences are shaped. Our hope is that the GDN brings this enterprise-level technology to all advertisers so you can be there at the moments when it matters most for your brand.Posted by Brad Bender, VP of Product Management, Google Display Network
1 All insights are based on anonymized, aggregated data.

Google brings you closer to your customers in the moments that matter

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Mobile has changed the game for both consumers and brands. Consumer expectations for immediacy and relevance are higher than ever, and successful brands are those that connect with people in the moments that matter most to them -- the I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to-do, and I-want-to-buy moments. Google is a company built on meeting people’s needs in the moment. Through our ads innovations, we’ve brought that ability to businesses large and small.On Monday afternoon at Advertising Week’s Times Center Stage, I’ll be announcing two new products, Customer Match and Universal App Campaigns, to help you be there and be relevant in those intent-rich moments that truly matter.Reach your most valuable customers with Customer Match70% of online consumers agree that the quality, timing, and relevance of a brand’s message influences their perception of a brand.1 Google is in a unique position to connect consumers with your business in the most relevant ways. Whether they’re searching on Google, checking promotions on Gmail, or watching videos on YouTube, we can deliver the most relevant information based on what they’re doing, wherever they are, when they’re looking, and on any device they’re using. Today, we’re building on these capabilities with new ads innovations to deliver even more relevance.When it comes to your most valuable customers, they expect even more from you. And now, Google can help you reach customers that you already have a relationship with -- like those in your loyalty program or who have made a previous purchase -- in ways that are most relevant to their intent and context.Customer Match is a new product designed to help you reach your highest-value customers on Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail -- when it matters most. Customer Match allows you to upload a list of email addresses, which can be matched to signed-in users on Google in a secure and privacy-safe way. From there, you can build campaigns and ads specifically designed to reach your audience. Users can control the ads they see, including Customer Match ads, by opting out of personalized ads or by muting or blocking ads from individual advertisers through Google Ads Settings. Let's say you’re a travel brand. You can now reach people who have joined your rewards program as they plan their next trip. For example, when these rewards members search for “non-stop flights to new york” on Google.com, you can show relevant ads at the top of their search results on any device right when they’re looking to fly to New York. And when those members are watching their favorite videos on YouTube or catching up on Gmail, you can show ads that inspire them to plan their next trip.Using Customer Match, you can also generate Similar Audiences to reach new customers on YouTube and Gmail who are likely to be interested in your products and services. For example, you can drive awareness on YouTube for new non-stop flights by showing TrueView ads to prospective customers who have similar interests and characteristics to your rewards members.With Customer Match, your brand is right there, with the right message, at the moment your customer is most receptive. Only Google can help you do this to delight your most loyal customers in the moments that truly matter.Customer Match and Similar Audiences will be rolling out to all advertisers over the next few weeks. Learn More.Promote your apps with unparalleled reachPeople discover new apps in many ways: online searches, recommendations while watching their favorite videos, and in-app suggestions. If your business has an app, you need a scalable way to reach the customers that are most likely to install your app -- across a variety of channels.Starting today, Universal App Campaigns will be available to all developers and advertisers as a new AdWords campaign type that helps you connect with app users across Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, and the Google Display Network (GDN). In just a few simple steps, you can promote your app with unparalleled reach across the world’s largest network and platforms. Let’s say you’ve built an adventure game. With Universal App Campaigns, you have unparalleled reach: you can drive installs on YouTube, the platform with 1B+ users who watch hundreds of millions of hours of content everyday. Your ads can also reach specific audiences across 650K apps and 2M+ websites in the GDN. And importantly, Universal App Campaigns tap into intent-rich searches like “adventure games” and “puzzle games” that are happening throughout the day on Google Search and Google Play so your app can be seen when people are looking to download something new.All you need to do is give us your desired cost-per-install and we do the rest. Universal App Campaigns are the one-stop-shop campaign type that scales your reach and maximizes Android app installs across Google’s entire suite of ad platforms. We’ve automated campaign set-up by pulling in your app images, videos, and app description directly from your Google Play store listing to generate ad formats that look amazing wherever they’re placed.

From there, our systems will optimize your campaigns using dynamic learning to maximize app install volume at your target cost-per-install. By testing different versions of your ad text and app images in each of the eligible Google networks, we determine the highest-performing variations so only your best ads show. Learn more.The energy and buzz at Advertising Week 2015 (Join the conversation) reinforces what an exciting time it is to be a marketer. I’m privileged to get to build products that help brands tell their stories and connect with consumers in the moments that really matter to them.Posted by Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce

The power of video meets the capabilities of AdWords – all TrueView campaigns now in AdWords

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

You know how you have to go to a special section within AdWords to create and manage your TrueView video campaigns? And jump back and forth when you want to report and optimize across all your campaigns? And you still can’t take advantage of AdWords bulk tools for your video campaigns? Well, good news, friends: those days are now over. TrueView is joining Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns within the core AdWords interface.

With the simplicity of a single interface and a more consistent experience, AdWords makes it easier for you to optimize across campaign types. Plus, you can take advantage of powerful bulk management tools to save time and effort when working on multiple TrueView campaigns. And now that all campaign types share the same structure, we can bring you new features for video, faster than ever before.

Now if you’ll follow us, we’d love to show you around…

In the top left corner, you can find the campaign type selector. This is useful to see only campaigns of a certain type. For instance, selecting “Video” gives you a view of your campaigns that looks similar to AdWords for video – meaning you’ll see only the tabs and columns that are most relevant for managing video campaigns. And best of all, we remember your column preferences whenever you switch among views, so you don’t need to change them around each time you toggle campaign types.

Campaign type selector

We’re also replacing targeting groups with ad groups, the basic building blocks for Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns. Now every ad group will have a single TrueView format, either in-stream or in-display. Though each ad group has only one format, campaigns can have multiple ad groups so you can still run both in-stream and in-display ads in the same campaign. To create a new campaign, just click the +CAMPAIGN button, click the newVideo campaign type, and then create new ad groups within each campaign by clicking +AD GROUP.

Ad group creation
Now that TrueView has joined the party in AdWords, you’ll have access to a trove of goodies designed to help you manage, optimize, and report on accounts with lots of campaigns. For instance, bulk UI editing lets you modify information for multiple campaigns at once – directly from the UI, and bulk uploads let you download a snapshot of your campaigns, make changes en masse, and upload the changes live to your account. And report scheduling gives you the ability to set up a schedule for reports to run automatically, and have them emailed regularly to account users.

Bulk edits
Reporting for video campaigns is getting more powerful as well, as you’ll now have the ability to filter your results to isolate things like campaign name, label, cost, and conversions.

Filters
You’ll also see popular video features in familiar places in AdWords. For example, video remarketing is now in theAdWords shared library and YouTube account linking is in the Linked accounts section. Plus you’ll be able to see analytics for your video ads within the new "Videos" tab, and manage your targeting within the "Video targeting" tab.

Creating remarketing lists

Linking YouTube channels

Customers who’ve previewed the new interface found it saves them time and offers more powerful reporting. "As avid users of TrueView, we were eager to beta test the new TrueView in AdWords, and see how the change impacted our most complex campaign setups," said Pixability CTO Andreas Goeldi. "The increased functionality allows for improved workflow, better reporting, and significant time saved."
Whether your goals are to drive direct response or to build your brand, you now have a single, unified tool to address your full range of marketing goals. Starting today, you’ll be able to upgrade your campaigns to the new ad group structure, and say goodbye to those days of going to “All Video Campaigns” to get to your TrueView campaigns. To upgrade, just head to AdWords for video by clicking All video campaigns (once more, for old time’s sake) and click into the Upgrade Center to easily switch over all your campaigns in one fell swoop. And don’t worry – all your historical stats and targeting will carry over (just drill down to the campaign level to see them). If you’d rather not upgrade your campaigns yourself, no problem – we’ll automatically upgrade your campaigns, starting in six weeks.
And if you’re a video type of person (we certainly are!), check out all the content of this blog post in video form here.
For more information, check out the AdWords Help Center.

Search Ads on Google Play and new app promo tools roll out to advertisers and developers

Monday, August 3, 2015

People turn to their phones billions of times a day for I want-to-know, I want-to-go, I want-to-do, and I want-to-buy moments. And in these intent-rich moments, they often turn to apps to get what they need. Runners may search for a “mileage tracker” app as they start training for a marathon, foodies may look for “restaurant” apps to check out the trendiest new places in town, and frequent fliers may search for “top games” to play before a long flight. In fact, search is one of the biggest drivers of app installs in the Play Store.That’s why we’re investing in new ways to help people discover apps with Search Ads on Google Play and innovating on new technologies to simplify campaign management and improve measurement for developers.They’ve arrived: Search Ads on Google PlaySearch Ads on Google Play will begin to roll out today to all advertisers and developers who use Search app installcampaigns on AdWords.

Google Play reaches more than 1 billion people on Android devices in more than 190 countries. With such an extensive reach, Search Ads on Google Play can provide consumers new ways to discover apps that they otherwise might have missed and help developers drive more awareness of their apps.Companies like Booking.com and Nordeus are already extending their app promotion strategy to include showing ads on the Play Store.

Tomislav Mihajlović, CMO of Nordeus shared that, "Search has already been a key component of our app promotion strategy to reach high-quality users. With new Search Ads on Google Play, we have an even bigger opportunity to connect with people in the moments they’re looking for new apps to download. We are already seeing significantly more app installs from Search with the addition of Google Play inventory for our game Top Eleven.”
Improved conversion tracking for AndroidAs we expand the opportunities for developers to promote their apps, we’re also committed to providing conversion tracking tools that work seamlessly across channels and align with whichever measurement solution a developer chooses to use. That’s why we’re introducing Android first app opens, a new conversion tracking solution that measures when a user first opens an app after clicking on an ad and completing an Android app install. In addition to providing app conversion tracking across Search, Display and YouTube, this new solution also allows developers to better align the conversion volume they see in AdWords with the data they see in a third-party measurement solution. First app opens are the standard conversion type for third-party solutions, so we’re working with key partners like Tune, AppsFlyer, Kochava, Adjust and Apsalar to ensure data consistency and give developers the freedom to use reporting and optimization features across AdWords and third-party solutions of their choice.An even easier way to scale your app install ads across Google networksIn a few weeks, Universal App Campaigns will make it even easier to promote your apps on Google Play and across all Google properties, including: Search, YouTube, the AdMob in-app network, and the 2M+ sites on the Google Display Network. Simply let us know what your ad will say, who you want to reach, your budget and target cost-per-install, and we’ll do the rest.As the apps ecosystem continues to grow, we’re dedicated to creating products that help developers get their apps to the users who will love them. From adding search ads to Google Play, to improving Android conversion tracking and simplifying campaign management with Universal App Campaigns, we hope these new tools will bring even more success to our app developer community.Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, Director, Product Management, Mobile Search Ads

Introducing more powerful Dynamic Search Ads, built for your business

Monday, August 3, 2015

Whether it’s “hotels near me” or “nearby hotels,” people often search for the same things differently. So reaching your customers in the moments that matter can sometimes be a moving target. In fact, of the billions of searches made on Google every day, 15% of them have never been seen before.1 Couple that with shifting product inventory and content hidden deep within your website, people don’t always find what they’re looking for. That’s why three years ago we introduced Dynamic Search Ads (DSA).Today, we’re excited to announce that DSA has been enhanced and retooled from the ground up, and is now available to all advertisers globally. What’s Dynamic Search Ads?DSA helps you reach your customers with the right information, in the moments they’re searching -- without the need to manage keywords. Using Google’s organic web crawling technology, DSA indexes your website to determine which searches to show ads for. If a search is relevant to the content on your website, Google will automatically create an ad to enter into the auction. Your ads’ headlines and landing pages are generated based on the products and services you offer, and what people are searching for. These highly targeted ads also complement other AdWords campaigns by delivering value for relevant searches that aren’t covered by existing keywords.Show ads based on your websiteNow, there’s an even more powerful way for you to reach your customers. In addition to crawling and indexing your website, DSA now organizes your website content into recommended categories for targeting your ads. Recommended categories are customized to your products and services, for example “furniture,” and only trigger ads for search queries where you have a relevant landing page. Each category can also be refined to show additional, more specific categories.

Recommended categories for DSA

For example, you might drill into the recommended category for “furniture” to advertise just your “dining room furniture” or “living room furniture.” Select as many or as few categories as you want, or select the option to show ads based on your entire website.Ad previews and insightful recommendationsOnce you’ve selected your categories, we’ve added new tools to provide more transparency into how your ads will show. For each recommended category, you’ll now see samples of the search queries you’ll be targeting, the text ads that’ll appear, and the pages your customers will land on. To help get your campaign started, a recommended bid is also calculated for each category. These recommendations are based on the performance of your existing keywords that are targeting similar search queries.
Many customers have seen early success with these enhancements to Dynamic Search Ads.

As a global player, trivago constantly faced the challenge of covering their huge hotel inventory throughout all markets. DSA and the new categories allowed them to do just that, even in markets with limited resources. Leveraging the scalability of DSA, trivago was able to roll out DSA to over 25 markets in a short period of time.

Hayneedle.com, one of the nation’s largest online retailers, helped beta test DSA. They used their new recommended categories to deliver a 5% incremental lift in qualified search traffic to their website.
Immense reach with incredible easeDSA is now more powerful than ever -- and it takes less than 10 minutes to set up your first campaign. An improved workflow guides you through campaign creation, which includes a more intuitive way to ensure your ad templates remain relevant to your dynamic ad targets.You can learn more about Dynamic Search Ads in the AdWords Help Center.Posted by Jen Huang, Senior Product Manager, AdWords

¹Internal Google data.

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