Google Adwords PPC Ads: Extended Ads

 

Google's initial announcement and change to PPC ads in March 2016 removed the right rail of ads from search engine results and increased the amount of ads in the top position to 4. We saw an increase in cost as more people competed for the top 4 positions of search engine results.

Another announcement was made during the Google Performance Summit In June 2016. It was announced that PPC ads will increase in size.  Here is how the PPC ads will change later this year:

 

Figure 1: Extended Ads Explained

 

 

What should you do to prepare for this change?

In the next few month you should start writing extended ads to be ready for the switch over. You want to take full advantage of this change as extended ads means more ad real estate. More ad real estate will mean higher Click-Through Rates and ultimately lower Cost Per Click.

 

Does this affect all devices?

For now we anticipate that the extended ads will be for desktop only. Mobile ads already have a different ad type as advertisers are already able to customize mobile PPC ads to mobile devices.

 

Tablet Modifier TBD

It is also worth mentioning that Google will be allowing marketers to make bid changes to tablet devices. In the past advertisers had to lump in tablet bids with desktop bids. Now advertisers will have the freedom to pick a percentage of the primary desktop bid and increase or decrease bids on both Mobile and Tablet.

Figure 2: Mobile and Tablet Modifier

 

 

The mobile modifier is available to be set to -100%, which means ads are not shown to mobile devices, all the way up to +300%. +300% would raise a $1 bid $4.

 

Bing Ads to Follow Suit

It was announced last week that Bing Ads will support the new Google extended Ads. Here is what the Bing PPC interface will look like with extended ads:

 

Figure 3: Bing Interface with Extended Ads

 

 

Google To Remove Right Sidebar Ads

 

Google has officially started rolling out an update to its paid search layout. Google will begin phasing out the right hand gutter (sidebar) ads. Instead, Google will only show the top 4 ads above the fold and force the rest to the bottom of the results page.

 

In the following example, Google has chosen to have 4 ads at the top and 3 ads at the bottom. Now the top 7 ads are on page one, instead of the top 10 ads.

 

 

 

The update is limited to desktop search results pages, so your desktop traffic may be affected. Ads that appear beneath the third or fourth position may see a decline in click-through rate. The layout of mobile ads will be unaffected for the time being.

 

What Does This Mean for Your Adwords?

 

Cost will go up as more people fight for the top 4 positions. First Page bids will increase because you only have 7 positions on the first page. Expect to pay more money for the same positions in Google.

Location Search Back in Google Adwords Preview Tool

 

If you missed using the location targeting feature on the Google Adwords Ad Preview and Diagnosis, you are going to be happy that it has been re-integrated.

Here are the four settings you can change to get the search results you are looking for:

Location - Once again you can search by city, state or any local geographic area to tailor search results to that location. Want to see how search results look like in your home town or the city of your client? You can search on Google Adwords Ad Preview tool to get local search results.

Language - Search by language, whether you are looking for search results in English, Spanish or any other language. Easily tailor the Google Adwords Ad Preview tool by language.

Device - Check out search results by device. See exactly how your search results will look on a mobile device.

Domain (ie Google.com, Google.es, etc) - Google Adwords Preview Tool also allows you to search for results in other Google domains. Want to see how search results will look to Mexico or Canada, you can search Google.mx or Google.ca for results.