Google Adwords: The Most Important Changes of 2013
This year brought many news in the world of PPC and the truth is that even working full time with Adwords accounts it is difficult to keep 100% up to date.
So here is a summary of the changes that I consider the most important in 2013.
1) Advanced Campaigns
Without a doubt, the Advanced Campaigns win the award for the most important change of the year, since they literally affected all the accounts.
This change was very controversial at the time because it eliminated several segmentation options and opted for a more integrative approach in terms of devices. For example, you cannot schedule independently for Tablets and desktop devices.
Opinions on this change vary greatly, from those who welcome it with open arms and see better results than before to those who would rather go back in time.
Beyond this, Advanced Campaigns are here to stay and we must make the most of the useful options they offer.
2) New Ad Ranking Formula
After many years, Google decides to make an important modification to its Ad Rank formula, that is, the formula by which the position of the ads for a given auction is decided.
The new formula takes into special consideration the use of Ad Extensions, since their expected impact contributes points to the Ranking of our ads.
Today it is very important to take advantage of all the ad extensions that are relevant to our campaigns, in order to improve our average position and show users more complete ads.
3) Offline Conversion Tracking
One problem that advertisers who close their sales offline and only use Adwords to generate the corresponding leads have always encountered is being able to attribute the sales made to specific campaigns and keywords.
The quality of a Lead can vary a lot depending on the Network, Device and Keyword from which it comes, so it is important not only to measure the cost per conversion but also the cost per final sale.
I recommend the following article for more information on how Offline Conversion Tracking works: Import Offline Conversions into Adwords
4) Site Links with description
One of the most interesting changes carried out with the Ad Extensions and that goes hand in hand with the changes carried out in the formula of the Ad Ranking, is the possibility of including a description in our Site Links.
It is interesting to think about what 2014 will bring us, what do you think will be the surprises that await us in this new year?
