At their Performance Summit, Google announced new mobile features and upgrades to be added for AdWords marketers and entrepreneurs. Mobile has become the go-to device for search, and AdWords has tailored its new upgrades for performance on smartphones.
It’s not a coincidence Adwords is putting a great deal of emphasis on mobile-targeting:
• More than half of Google searches happen on mobile, and more than half of all web traffic is coming through smartphones and tablets.
• Location-related mobile searches is growing 50% faster than all mobile searches.
Google has redesigned AdWords bidding, workflow, and analytics. Changes are coming for how text and display ads perform, and how advertisers can optimize campaigns. Advertisements will automatically be sized to fit the screen of the popular smartphones. New expanded text ads will be available in AdWords to provide more ad space, and showcase additional information about products and services before the ad is clicked.
Key Changes for Text Ads
Headlines:
Current: One 25-character headline
Available Soon: Two 30-character headlines
Longer Description line:
Current: Two 35-character description lines
Available Soon: One consolidated 80-character description line
Relevant display URL:
Current: Manually entered display URL. Any Mismatch between display, final and landing page URLs will cause your ad to be disapproved.
Available Soon: Domain automatically extracted from your final URL to ensure accuracy. You can customize the URL path.
With these changes, your ads will go much further for the on-the-go mobile consumer. Googles early testing has reported increases in click-through rates of up to 20% compared to the current text ads.
Bidding Changes:
Marketers will receive more control and flexibility on bidding for specific devices. You will soon be able to make bid adjustments for each device type, whether it’s mobile, desktop or tablet. These changes will optimize your ability to reach your target market and stretch your investment dollars further.
Google Maps Changes:
With nearly a third of all mobile searches being related to location, Google has introduced new local search ads across Google Maps. This will allow advertisers to use location extensions to showcase their locations when a consumer searches for something “near me” or if someone is near your location searching for your type of business.