Good morning search marketers, when's your next promotional event?
I'm back into my routine after a final summer vacation last week, so Google, Twitter and Instagram will see my regular search, scroll and clicking behaviors again, enabling them to figure out what ads would likely resonate best with me. But did my week away throw them off?
Machine learning algorithms train on historical data, which means they don't always react as well or as quickly to sudden changes — like a short-term sale or promotion — as we'd like them to. To help give its smart bidding systems a heads up and shorten the reaction time to ramp up and down during a promotion period, Google has rolled out seasonality adjustments for Search and Display campaigns (and should be rolling it out to Shopping campaigns later this year).
You set the date range of the promotion and the conversion rate change you expect during the time period based on your analysis. "Smart Bidding will consider that adjustment for the date range selected, while trying to hit your target CPA," Google explained in the announcement. Once the promotion ends, the system will go back to relying on the standard signals "without the need for a ramp down." Google already takes big seasonal changes — like the holiday season, back to school, etc. — into consideration, so this should be used for your own, short-lived promotional efforts. (It can also be used to signal lower-than-normal conversion rates if you're expecting a lull in conversion activity for a short period.) One thing to emphasize: it asks for the predicted conversion rate change, not for the percentage change in number of conversions.
Verifying your domain in Google Search Console could become less of a hassle with the latest option. Google announced auto-DNS verification in partnership with various domain name registrars. If you want to go this route, select the Domain option during the verification process to see if your registrar is participating. Bing recently added a similar option for Bing Webmaster Tools via Domain Connect. And as of last week, you can also import your GSC-verified sites into Bing Webmaster Tools.
Read on for a Pro Tip on organic product carousels, your daily Search Shorts and our picks from around the web.
Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief
