Announced in February 2013, Enhanced Campaigns for AdWords is a next-generation ad system that is especially noteworthy for eliminating mobile bidding options. The articles below have more about the new system.

DoubleClick Search Tools To Migrate To Enhanced Campaigns Now Out Of Beta

May 22, 2013 at 4:49pm ET by Ginny Marvin

The custom toolset Google designed to help DoubleClick search users migrate to enhanced campaigns has come out of beta. The tools are designed to guide users in identifying similar campaigns that target different devices and merge them into one enhanced campaign in five steps: Identify campaigns for merging: Analyze your current AdWords campaigns and automatically generate a list of campaigns you should consider merging together into an enhanced campaign. Download and verify merge suggestions: Download the merge suggestions in the UI, and review them to ensure you’re comfort [...]

New AdWords Editor Update For Enhanced Campaigns

May 21, 2013 at 11:21am ET by Ginny Marvin

Google rolled out a new version of AdWords Editor today. The latest version features more ways to make bulk changes to enhanced campaigns. New capabilities include: Bid adjustments for placements, topics, and audiences Mobile bid adjustments at the ad group level Upgrade campaigns in bulk using CSV import or the Add/update multiple campaigns tool Enter ValueTrack {ifmobile}, {ifnotmobile} parameters In addition, keyword performance metrics in Display Network campaigns are available on the Keywords tab. Performance statistics by targeted location are available in the Locations t [...]

Enhanced Campaigns: “Flexible Bid Strategies” Launching Soon

May 20, 2013 at 4:48pm ET by Ginny Marvin

Google will be rolling out "flexible bid strategies" in enhanced campaigns in the next couple of weeks. Flexible bid strategies will allow advertisers to override automated bidding and apply manual bidding strategies within a single campaign or across multiple campaigns. The new Bid strategies tool will be located in Shared Library. You can create a flexible bid strategy and then apply it to specific keywords, ad groups, and campaigns. Performance metrics by bidding strategy will be available in Bidding strategies. There will be four types of flexible bid strategies available when th [...]

Google Testing Ads In New Google Maps, Pushes AdWords Location Extensions

May 20, 2013 at 12:23pm ET by Ginny Marvin

If you needed another reason to get your location extensions set up in AdWords, Google has announced its testing new ads in the new Google Maps. AdWords search ads set with location extensions can appear directly below the search box and on the map itself. Ads without location extensions can appear below the search box only and not on the map. The screenshot below shows a Rent-a-champ Cars ad below the search box and an "ad", or sponsored listing, on the map, indicated by a red icon with a white square in it. Google announced the new version of Google Maps at the company's annua [...]

Google: Nearly 2 Million AdWords Campaigns Are Now Enhanced, Early Results Are In

May 15, 2013 at 10:32am ET by Ginny Marvin

In an update on the early progress of the transition to enhanced campaigns last night, Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP, Ads and Commerce at Google -- and the lead on enhanced campaigns -- said that close to two million campaigns have been set to enhanced. That's up from 1.5 million Google quoted on the first quarter earnings call on April 18. Results From Early Adopters Based on positive case studies from clothing retailer American Apparel, financial services provider Woodbridge Structured Funding, and an unnamed luxury shopping brand among others, Ramaswamy says early adopters of enhanced campaig [...]

How To Conduct Ad Tests In Enhanced Campaigns

May 13, 2013 at 9:19am ET by Brad Geddes

Enhanced campaigns have brought about many changes to AdWords. One of the biggest changes yet to be discussed is the fact that your ad testing methods will have to change. One of the “features” of enhanced campaigns is that your campaign can now run on desktops and mobile devices with different CPCs that are controlled by bid modifiers. However, since your ads can be run on multiple devices at the same time, you need to test your ad metrics by device. This can easily be accomplished with device preference and Excel filters. First, let’s discuss why this change needs to occur, and t [...]

AdWords Ad Group Mobile Bid Adjustments Roll-Out Starts Today

May 8, 2013 at 3:46pm ET by Ginny Marvin

Google announced that ad group-level mobile bid adjustments will start rolling out today and continue over the next couple of weeks in the Web UI. The added feature went live in the AdWords API last week. Like the elusive Keyword Planner that is rolling out now, ad group mobile bid adjustments are only available in a small number of accounts today. So, be patient and remember it could take two weeks or so to be active in your account. Google made the announcement along with the introduction of the 'Set bid adjustment' button to make bulk edits to location and daypart bid adjustments. [...]

Enhanced Campaigns: New ‘Set Bid Adjustment’ Button Added For Bulk Edits

May 8, 2013 at 3:15pm ET by Ginny Marvin

To make multiple bid adjustments for locations and dayparts without having to click into each target individually, Google has added a new "Set bid adjustments" button to the Web UI. The button is available when you are in the "All online campaigns" view, as well; so, you can make bulk changes across multiple campaigns. [...]

AdWords Campaigns That Don’t Use Advanced Settings Will Be Migrated To Standard Type Campaigns

May 6, 2013 at 9:59pm ET by Ginny Marvin

Over the next few weeks, Google will be migrating AdWords campaigns that don't use any advanced features from "All Features" to "Standard" type campaigns. The change applies only to "Search Network Only" and "Search and Display Networks" campaigns. When Google updated the AdWords campaign setup back in June 2012 to include the "Standard" and "All Features" options, existing campaigns were automatically rolled over to "All Features". In Legacy campaigns, you can still see "not recommended" noted in red next to the Standard option. Now, ahead of the enhanced campaigns switch-over in Ju [...]

Enhanced Campaigns: Ad Group Mobile Bid Adjustments Now In AdWords API

May 2, 2013 at 8:47am ET by Ginny Marvin

The roll-out has begun. Earlier this month Google said it would be adding ad group-level mobile bid adjustments to enhanced campaigns. As of yesterday, ad group mobile bid adjustments are available through the AdWords API. The new feature is accessible from all current versions of the API with the new AdGroupBidModifierService. Google has updated the AdWords API guide to include technical aspects of the new release. The addition of ad group-level mobile bids will allow advertisers to have more granular control within their campaigns. Until now mobile bids could only be set and adjusted a [...]

7 Takeaways From The Local Search Association Annual Conference

May 1, 2013 at 8:30am ET by Neg Norton

Earlier this month, local search marketing leaders from the U.S., Canada and 12 other countries gathered in Las Vegas for the Local Search Association’s 2013 annual conference, "Search Starts Here." Over several days, attendees engaged in informative discussions about the numerous opportunities and challenges facing our industry, ranging from the growing importance of original digital content to the rise of mobile and social media. In this month’s column, I will highlight my key takeaways from the LSA conference, which are focused on both the strides I believe local marketers should [...]

The Enhanced Campaigns Waiting Game

Apr 29, 2013 at 9:15am ET by Matt Van Wagner

Like many of my fellow PPC colleagues, I feel uneasy about the impending move to Enhanced Campaigns and the lurking cutover deadline of July 22nd. Should we convert now and get it over with? Should we run a few tests with our smaller, simpler accounts? Should we abandon tightly-crafted, geo-segmented campaigns in favor of the new geo-bidding options within Enhanced Campaigns? Or, do we wait? Do we keep reading articles like this one, hoping to find guidance, when what we really want to find is some secret AdWords hack that lets us keep targeting tablets and bidding on mobile keywords [...]

New Upgrade Center For Enhanced Campaigns Lets Advertisers Do Bulk Upgrades & More

Apr 23, 2013 at 1:59pm ET by Amy Gesenhues

Google AdWords is rolling-out a new upgrade center today for advertisers using Enhanced Campaigns. Accessible from the left-hand nav bar on the Campaigns tab, the upgrade center lets advertisers managing several campaigns perform bulk upgrades to multiple campaigns simultaneously and merge selected campaigns in a few simple steps. The bulk upgrade feature allows advertisers to select multiple campaigns, choose a mobile bid adjustment, view traffic estimates and upgrade their Enhanced Campaigns with fewer clicks, making it easy to upgrade individual campaigns all at once. The upgrade cent [...]

Adwords Adds Social Annotations, Targeting For In-App Ads To Enhanced Campaigns

Apr 22, 2013 at 1:52pm ET by Ginny Marvin

Starting today Google is adding functionality for social annotations and in-app ad targeting to enhanced campaigns. Social annotations, really Google+ annotations, display the number of Google+ followers an advertiser has under the ad text. Here's an example from Home Depot on a search for "dining room chairs" Social extensions have been available for nearly a year and a half. The difference is in enhanced campaigns social annotations can show automatically and don't have to be set up at the campaign level. Advertisers' Google+ pages must be linked to their websites and display URL [...]

How To Determine Your Hourly Bid Multipliers In AdWords

Apr 19, 2013 at 9:59am ET by Benjamin Vigneron

Since I received some solid feedback on my last column detailing how to determine mobile & geo bid multipliers for enhanced campaigns, I thought I’d share some more actionable stuff this time around. While hourly bid multipliers aren't new, they remain a crucial tactic for optimizing your AdWords campaigns. They work by reducing your ad spend at poor-performing times of the week and increasing your exposure at the best times of the week. Here, I'm going to share the steps you can take (along with a helpful spreadsheet) to determine your hourly bid multipliers for better campaign opt [...]

4 Simple Lessons To Make CPA Bidding Work For You

Apr 15, 2013 at 9:30am ET by Brad Geddes

I’m a huge fan of Google’s CPA bidding system. Setting bids is necessary; but merely setting them only leads to short-term progress. Your bidding work is only useful until the data changes, and then you have to set bids again. The maxim, "your data are only good until the data changes," can be applied to ads, landing pages, placements and any data point within your PPC campaign. The issue that needs to be examined, here, is the frequency of data changes and how that affects your strategy. Typically, ads do not need to be changed every few days. An ad or a landing page can perform wel [...]

How To Prep Your B2B Search Program For Google Enhanced Campaigns

Apr 11, 2013 at 12:47pm ET by Brad Neelan

According to the great Greek philosopher Heraclitus, change is the only constant. As you have most likely heard by now, Google is making major adjustments to its AdWords platform that will have sweeping changes to the ways and means of how you execute your search campaigns. For B2B search, this is going to have a specific impact on your programs, and getting ready for the coming changes will require a bit of forethought into how you maximize the results of your campaigns. In a realm like B2B, there is always the dual challenge of a diffuse customer base with ever changing needs and a lim [...]

6 Requirements For A Sound Paid Search Bidding Strategy

Apr 11, 2013 at 10:15am ET by Jason Young

[caption id="attachment_154994" align="alignright" width="225"] Courtesy of Marin Software[/caption] Whether it’s to drive traffic, increase conversions, or maximize revenue, bid optimization is the cornerstone of any effective paid search program. Across industries, publishers, devices, and geographies, bidding strategies vary tremendously as search marketers leverage a wide variety of proprietary, publisher, and third-party bidding tools and solutions. However, the success of these tools and solutions is tied to their ability to not only address the needs of the advertisers, but also [...]

Report: Tablets Yield 15% Lower RPC Than PCs; (Another) Rebuttal To AdWords Tablet/PC Combo

Apr 10, 2013 at 10:09am ET by Ginny Marvin

The proliferation of tablet devices has begun to lower the value of the tablet segment overall for paid search marketers, even as competition heats up. That's according to the Q1 Digital Marketing Report by RKG, which finds that tablets generated 15% lower revenue per click than traditional computers. Revenue Per Click by Device Type vs Computer "Discrepancy is More Likely to Increase" Much has been made of Google's decision to combine tablets and PCs in enhanced campaigns. The RKG report is not alone in challenging Google's claim that usage behavior and ad performance among the devices [...]

The Date: Enhanced Campaigns Rollover Starts July 22

Apr 9, 2013 at 1:54pm ET by Ginny Marvin

Paid search managers: mark your calendars. Buried toward the bottom of today's announcement on ad group-level mobile bids becoming available in enhanced campaigns is this: We will begin automatically upgrading all AdWords campaigns to enhanced campaigns starting on July 22, 2013. The post, from group product manager, Bhanu Narasimhan, includes no other details about the transition timeline. At this point, PPC managers should expect their legacy campaigns to become enhanced campaigns on that date. [...]

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