Google announced the launch of several exciting products to advertisers during its Google Performance Summit today, and mobile is getting the lion’s share of the attention.
As smartphones have shifted from “the next big thing” to ubiquitous parts of life, Google has redesigned AdWords to reflect this massive consumer change. Expanded text ads in AdWords will be optimized to fit the screens of the most popular smartphones, offering more ad space to get messages across. Some early testers noted clickthrough rate jumps of as much as 20 percent compared to the current text ads.
In an official Inside AdWords Blog post, Senior Vice President of Ads and Commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy touted AdWords’ ability to take the guesswork out of designing responsive ads:
“How do display ads look in a mobile-first world? From sites to apps to videos, mobile has unlocked a universe of new spaces to reach consumers. Responsive ads for display adapt to the diverse content across the more than two million publisher sites and apps on the Google Display Network (GDN).”
“They also unlock new native inventory so you can engage consumers with ads that match the look and feel of the content they’re browsing. Simply provide headlines, a description, an image, and a URL — and Google will automatically design these beautiful responsive ads.”
Google will also extend the scope of GDN remarketing by providing access to cross-exchange inventory. In addition, marketers will be given the ability to set individual bid adjustments based on whether the device is a tablet, mobile, or desktop.
According to the firm, a third of all mobile searches are for local businesses, and the new tools will help marketers make the most of the opportunities this provides. New local search ads will be introduced across Google.com and Maps, and advertisers can take advantage of location extensions to showcase their businesses’ locations when people conduct related searches.
Google Maps will see some new ad formats to help users find different businesses, and pages for local businesses will also get an overhaul.
The Performance Summit is an annual event held by Google. This year’s summit took place this morning at 9am PT and was livestreamed around the world. Today was the first chance for advertisers to check out the new AdWords design, which was announced by Google back in March. The Google Performance Summit keynote will be available online, and a new AdWords Marketing Goals site will be launched to help users uncover how ad solutions can help them meet business objectives.
