Get Fact Up #23: Google AdWords Updates

This week on Get Fact Up, find out all you need to know, for now, about the soon-to-be changing Google AdWords. Learn how Googles new redesign affects your marketing strategy. AdWords is evolving! Tune in to find out more!

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Get Fact Up #23 Transcript

G'day Australia. I'm Chris Hogan, Founder and CEO of MeMedia. It's time to get fact up.

This Monday, we'll be bringing you the latest and greatest news from Google. But before we get started, we just wanted to let you know that because MeMedia are Google partners on the fourth of May we will be hosting a Google live event, streaming from the Google headquarters in Sydney. We'd love to have you here at our auditorium in Burleigh Heads. It's a free event. Come along, learn, have a laugh, and maybe a few nibbles. You can check out the link to the event in our blog.

Now let's get into the news from Google. In the past month, Google has made some updates to the search engine results pages. You may have noticed that the right-hand side ads have all but disappeared. Never fear, we're still here. Google, themselves, have tested the removal of the ads from the right-hand side of the search engine results pages extensively. And they have found that the effect is minimal. But, "What's the truth?" you ask. Well, let's dive right in and have a look.

If your ads are performing well in your field or you aren't bidding high for competition keywords, you're probably not in a bad place right now without these side ads. If you're already ranking highly, you'll likely see a boost in click-through rate, and a lower cost per click, as more of your ads get that prime real estate at the top of the page results. If you're involved in e-commerce and use Google's shopping ads, this is also good news for you. The increased space will allow you to compete where previously you would not have been shown.

So we recommend, if you aren't using Google's shopping campaigns, now may be a good time to start considering them. This all sounds great, but if you had an advertising campaign with Google running, and you're appearing in position four or five, then it might be time to take another look at your AdWords campaign, and make sure that you are getting the position and click-through rate you're aiming for.

Google have also announced that as well as this front-end change to the advertising display, they're also improving the look of Google AdWords management. You may be wondering if there is any functionality changes going to occur to the AdWords management platform, and Google have announced that there won't be, which is great news for users. So what are they updating? Well to be honest, it hasn't had a facelift since 2008, so it's gonna look a little bit prettier. Does that look better? I look different, but I work just the same.

So let's have a closer look at the new interface design. Our views will be available at campaign, ad group, and ad levels. These show a convenient display of performance, which is much like a more readable version of the account level home screen in AdWords now. There's also a top ad groups snapshot, as well as graphical view of performance shown split across different devices. You'll also notice in the redesign that all the secondary navigation runs along the left side, parallel to the primary navigation. Options such as locations, site links, and devices, are shown there, instead of being hard to find under settings.

Google are set to have the redesign done by end of 2017. So between now and then, they'll be implementing some beta testing and we hope we get selected to have a go. So let's have a little look back at the search engine results pages, and what that means for all results, paid and organic. Paid is obviously getting a lot of focus now, with up to four positions present, and product listing ads visible at the very top of page. Organic rankings are being pushed down slightly, and they could feel the pinch, especially for high-commercial terms. So of course, you may have to further consider AdWords in your marketing budget.

We just wanted to keep it short this week, and remind you that we will have a Google Connect event happening here, on the fourth of May, right here in Burleigh Heads. Come along, it's free. We'd love you to join in. RSVPs are via the link in this blog.

Thanks for listening, Australia. Wake up. It's Monday.