Ah, yes. We’ve come to that segment in our Advertising Institute…
The time where you, young advertising disciple, ask yourself one very key question:
How do I get ahead of the curve when it comes to my ad campaigns?
I mean of course you’re a wizard when it comes to implementing native ads to your efforts, or tweaking display ad copy based on the metrics you received, heck – you’ve even tried dynamic remarketing and retargeting to re-engage viewers after they have left your site!
But it’s still, not, enough. To answer your question, you need to go on a quest!
…Not that kinda quest, though.
Now, to answer your question, it’s simple!
Getting ahead of the curve when it comes to advertising involves keeping your eye out for new innovations, and knowing your tools inside and out.
Take Google AdWords for example. Sure you segment ads by time and date in the hopes of increasing your quality score, and sure you’re all about using weathering API’s and data reports to step up your efforts, but have you looked into all of the features that AdWords truly has? How about the new ones?
Did you realize that AdWords added Ad Customizers, enabling you to adapt the text found in text ads based on user request?
How about that fateful day on July 07, 2015 when AdWords made it possible to estimate the conversion impact of different CPA with the new Target CPA simulator?
It turns out that the wise wizards at Google are always tinkering around with AdWords features and constantly adding new ones, and deleting others!
Long story short, we’ve got a few features of AdWords you should probably-maybe-definitely be using to boost your campaign efforts!
Callout Extensions
If you’re like us, you know how important a solid call to action is when it comes to increasing conversions and having an optimized landing page.
In terms of advertisements, what about having a strong CTA right below your meta-description in Google?
We thought the same “Eureka!” that you did, and so did AdWords; the Callout feature allows you to add another line of text as a CTA, which not only encourages viewer action but also makes your ad thicker on Google search pages, which helps your site to standout.
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If you’re looking to quickly and easily highlight the features of your business or service and support your ad’s overall message – look no further than callouts (not to be confused with sitelinks!).
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Website Call Conversions
If you’re up-to-date with our Advertising Institute, you probably know all about Website Call Conversions from our “Call Me, Maybe” post.
But if not – this is a great refresher on a feature that Google Ads more recently added that involves a forwarding number and call tracking to determine how many calls to your business were from Google Ads or external sources.
The result? By tracking the calls on your business from the tracking number, you can determine how great the ROI is on your current advertising initiatives, and adjust the ad copy accordingly to reflect keywords and phrases that draw in a specific demographic to increase engagement.
And AdWords being as nifty as it is, you’re able to track the call impressions, phone-through rates, and even cost per phone!
Dynamic Remarketing
If you’ve been up to date with our blog, you know that we’re Still D.R.E.
And you should be too! Not with Dr. Dre (who’s new album is notoriously great, by the way), but with Dynamic Remarketing, one of Google AdWords most powerful features.
You can use dynamic remarketing to re-capture viewers after they have left your page, based on their search history, interests and online-behaviour!
As an available feature in 2014, dynamic remarketing was a game changer for retail advertisers, since Google automatically generated these for you based on consumer behaviour once the ads were setup!
Plain text ads are one thing, but these nifty display ads help greatly with remarketing campaigns as an easy way to capture consumer attention, based on their past and predicted behaviour.
Search Terms Report
You should be using this. Everyday. All the time. Why?
This report illustrates ad performance based on how ads were searched within the Search Network, and that helps you to understand which keywords have the highest potential, and include them in your campaign for maximum conversions and engagement.
And think about it – even if there are keywords that aren’t relevant or performing as well, include them in your negative keyword list so that you know what to avoid for your ad copy, and the viewer gets what they searched for specifically.
For example if you are looking for a Christmas gift and you type in “Video Camera” (because face it, video is important…for everything.) and that is your search term. Now, if you’re the owner of a video camera business and have “video camera” as a search term in your campaign – you’ll be notified in your AdWords search results page.
For an in-depth guide on how to use Search Term Reports, check out Google’s breakdown:
