Rise and shine, search marketers, we've got ads to make and conversions to chase!
But first, let's lay this one to rest: last week, there was some buzz about a potential algorithm update. A Google spokesperson confirmed with us on Tuesday that the rumors of a core update and infrastructure changes are false. If you're thinking that the new Googlebot might explain your traffic fluctuations, that's probably not it either, as it's been in the wild for several months now and was being used for 10% of crawling as far back as November. Rest assured, we'll keep you posted if more develops.
Google Marketing Live is in full swing and a number of new ad formats and features have been announced. The unveiling of native Discovery ads is set to monetize the Discovery feed (initially known as Google Now, and then Google Feed) for the first time. These ads will also show up across various other Google feed environments, like YouTube and Gmail. Within Gmail, they appear much like existing Gmail ads; but on YouTube and the Discover feed, they display like native in-feed ads with large images. Google says the Discover feed now reaches 800 million users across the globe, so it might be a worthwhile extension of your mobile ad campaigns. It'll be available worldwide by year's end and advertisers will be charged on a CPC basis.
Gallery ads present you with another way to reach mobile users — at the very top spot of mobile search results, no less. They come in the form of a scrollable image gallery (four to eight images) and can be accompanied by 70-character captions. In testing, Google claims that this format got 25% more interaction than other search ad units, but if you decide to give it a try, let me know what your results are (reach out to me at gnguyen@thirddoormedia.com, preferably with a clever subject line). Gallery ads fees will be charged either on a CPC basis or after a user swipes through three images. They'll also be rolling out globally later this year.
Although more of a technique than an ad offering, deep linking was briefly touched upon during the Ads Innovation keynote at Marketing Live. It's something to keep an eye on because it takes users who click on ads from your Search, Shopping or Display campaigns straight to your app (if they have it installed). This should provide improved reporting as well as decrease the friction created when customers are brought to your mobile site, where they may not be logged in.
Google also announced a revamped Shopping experience that may help it grab more of a foothold against e-commerce incumbents like Amazon. Consumers can expect to see personalized shopping recommendations based on their search and shopping histories and will even be able to buy on merchant sites, in-store or directly on Google. For retailers to participate, they must use Shopping Actions; merchants that already do are automatically included in the new Google Shopping experience.
Does anybody else want a coffee table book full of John Mueller's advice tweets? Head down to your daily Search Shorts for that (the tweets, not the coffee table book), and don't forget to catch today's Pro Tip while you're at it.
George Nguyen,
Associate Editor
