Ok Google, what do the new bidding strategies mean?
The annual Google Marketing Live event took place on Tuesday 14 May, leaving us with a host of new products and features to get excited about.
A welcome announcement came from Google’s Director of Product Management in Google Ads, Anthony Chavez, who outlined the new smart bidding capabilities in his keynote address.
Maximise Conversion Value
With machine learning continuing to be a disruptive, hot topic in the digital world, it wasn’t a surprise that Google found a way to use computer technology bolstering the capabilities of machine learning for its advertising platform.
The new smart bidding strategy, Maximise Conversion Value, will allow advertisers to optimise campaigns for the most conversion value within a specified budget. Until now, bidding strategies around conversion have been more focused on efficiency.
Campaign-Level Conversion Settings
The campaign-level conversion setting will allow advertisers to set conversion goals at – you guessed it – the campaign level. Previously, advertisers were limited to set conversion goals at the account level which meant all campaigns within the account would have the same conversion goal.
Going forward, advertisers will now be able to map relevant conversion goals at the campaign level which is ideal for accounts who have clearly differentiated campaign goals or multiple conversion actions.
Seasonality Adjustments
It is no secret that advertisers have been unhappy with the current seasonality features offered by smart bidding. This is fuelled by a need to control accounts for ad hoc events such as one-time promotions.
As a result, Google is introducing seasonality adjustments, smart bidding will no longer be solely determined by historical data to predict future campaign performance (hurrah!). With this new feature, advertisers will be able to set an adjustment for specific periods of time when conversion rates are expected to spike. Advertisers are now empowered to maximise performance and generate better results.
Conversion Value Rules
Lastly, in the coming months, Chavez announced they will be rolling out conversion value rules. This new update will allow advertisers to differentiate conversion values based on specific characteristics of its customers. Smart bidding will adjust based on the rules you have set up in order to accurately and efficiently optimise the Ad for valuable conversions.
Location, device and audience are some examples of the characteristics you can apply values to, which will give advertisers more valuable insights into the conversions you receive.
Safe to say, the team here at WMG are delighted about these new bidding strategies and we can’t wait to start using these features for our client Google Ad campaigns.