AdWords changes in 2015
by Černoga Davorin · Published · Updated
So, another year in digital marketing is behind us. Much has changed in the world of AdWords advertising - Some changes were good and some were not so good. We could say that there was a lot of changes but here I will write only about some of them.
Well, let's first start with good changes and innovations.
Good adwords changes in 2015
GSP - gmail sponsored promotions may be the best "new thingy" in the whole 2015 year. While these campaigns are actually sort of display campaigns I have to admit that they show very good results. In comparison to "classic" display campaigns they are showing up to several times better results.
This definitely needs to be always tested in every adwords account! At least brief test to see if it is good for you. And better hurry, because many still do not use this excellent option in AdWords 😉
Perhaps the best innovation 2015 years related to AdWords advertising campaigns are GSP! - click to tweet
Dynamic search ads - there were some changes in the DSA campaign during 2015. Not in light of new features but I suspect that there were some major overhaul of "system" considering DSA. Results in several of my clients have improved in great deal.
But this is not just a result from optimization of dynamic search ads campaigns (yes, DSA campaign should be optimized on regular basis). I suspect that this is result of Google activating better optimized algorithms.
This is evident through the many new opportunities that we can activate - the most notable is "targeting by categories". Categories that Google recognized on your website (based upon your structure of website).
Report editor - another new feature that appeared in the AdWords system. This allows us to use some new "looks" for our reports. There are many new possibilities for making reports based on the data that we have chosen. Perhaps the best part is that we can show results in a very simple and understandable graphic/image mode. Definitely a tool with which we can "play" 😉
Other good things that I would mention: if you use the Call extension now you need to have that number on your website (on any page indexed by Google), Flash ads are no longer displayed in the Chrome browser (even in Firefox), Video campaigns were "relocated" among all other campaigns in Adwords system (no more forgetting that you have an active video campaign), Ad customizers and so on...
Not good nor bad Adwords changes in 2015
vCPM - from 2015, the ads that are displayed on the display network and have CPM (cost per mille - price per thousand impressions) are now calculated in such a way that if the user has not seen the ad - it will not count as impressions (you will not be charged).
You could say that this is actually a good thing. Then why did I put in this category?
Well, do you really think that this could not be done before? Or we could say it like this - does this mean that in past Google has charged us an ad delivery although users could not see it (the ad was at the bottom of the page and user has not scrolled all the way down)? I admit that this is a good thing but it just left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Email lists (customer match targeting) - we now have the ability to target users based on email lists. These emails are from people who applied for newsletter, left its email during checkout process, and so on. This is not a bad thing at all!
But although many started to praise this possibility - none of them paid any attention to one very important information. And that is that we can target only emails that are actually Google accounts. Well, now you know why it is recommended that you have at least 10.000 emails in list.
Mobile adwords certified - Google has introduced another certification in 2015 for those who like to collect them all. Now you can be certified in mobile advertising too.
Creating a display campaign - the first time you go to create the new display campaign you are now getting immediate choice to create campaigns according to your business goals. This is good if you want to immediately restrict certain features but at the same time - it is good if you know what you want and need.
But believe me, you never know what will you need in future. So, always select all options.
Ad Preview tool - changes that have been made in the second half of 2015 year are not good. Simply put, to me personally it is more difficult to manage (and select) some options that have previously existed in the ad preview Tool. Just wondering who actually works in Google when it comes to changes related to UX and UI - just look what they did to Google Plus.
2015 was a year of a very large number of new features in Adwords advertising! - click to tweet
Other things that we are neither good nor bad: we got one more extensions - structured snippets (this is logical that Google added another extensions because they affect the position of your ad), there are no more destination URLs but instead there are final URLs, display campaigns now have so-called display summary tab, the option of hiding old adwords accounts in your own MCC (although there is danger that you will completely forget about it once you do it - my suggestion is to create a special MCC in which you put the old adwords accounts)...
Poor AdWords changes in 2015
Keyword tab - when we look at the targeted keywords within single ad group we now have a specific keyword tabs - targeted words, negative words and search terms (inquiries for which our ads showed). Although this is quite a good division I have noticed that there is a possibility for error. Before this change we had the opportunity to see the targeted words and at the same time - negative words in same window. Now you have to switch to between specific tabs.
If you click on "negative keywords" tab - then you do not see targeted keywords and vice versa. If you are not using the correct naming of individual ad groups that can be a bit of problem (what are you targeting & what keywords have you put in negative in each ad group). You need to constantly switch between the two tabs to see what are you targeting and what have you switched off.
AdWords application - again this could actually be a very good thing because now we have an app with which we can access our adwords accounts at any time. That's right, this is a good application but the problem is elsewhere. The problem is safety. Security of your cell phone and the security of your mobile phone Android system.
Security of Wi-Fi networks to which you are connecting to the Internet. Security of patches provided by the manufacturer of your mobile phone (not to mention how many security flaws were detected during 2015). In any case, if you have not already, turn on two-way factor authentication for your AdWords account access.
And that is it. These are just some of the changes that occurred in 2015. Not to forget, 2015 year was a year in which AdWords had his 15th birthday.