🔍 Google Ads conversion actions getting more granular

Feb 18, 2020

Good morning search marketers, do you need a change of perspective?

I am not saying you should go look for a new job, but there is something invaluable about having both in-house and agency experience. My own path of moving from agency to in-house and back to agency was incredibly eye-opening about the benefits and challenges inherent in both types of roles — and I'd like to think it helped me be a better partner on both sides. Natalie Barreda recently made the transition from agency PPC Director to leading T-Mobile's relatively new in-house PPC team. She shared insights on making the change, the types of roles that make up the new team and her top tip for in-house marketers working with agencies. (Reading her story might be all the perspective change you need.) Natalie will also be speaking about using automation for enterprise PPC at SMX West this week.

Google has quietly started to roll out more granular conversion action tracking for website leads and sales. They're designed to track and optimize for micro-conversions throughout the customer journey more easily — and can be grouped into the relatively new Conversion Action Sets for optimization. Thanks to Yatin Mulay of Zen Online Marketing for the tip!

Barry Schwartz sat down with former US Marine and current agency owner Chris Boggs to chat about paid search, technical SEO and more. Watch the entertaining interview here.

Ginny Marvin,
Editor-in-Chief

Pro Tip

Amazon's Sponsored Brands share rises for new-to-brand

"New-to-brand metrics are also available for the Amazon Sponsored Brands ad format, which appears at the top of Amazon search results as well as additional placements rolled out in late 2018. My employer's advertisers saw the share of total Sponsored Brands conversions attributed as new-to-brand grow from 58% in Q3 to 60% in Q4," explains Andy Taylor of Tinuiti.

"Even more interesting is how new-to-brand share moved during the core weeks of the winter holiday shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. During this roughly four-week period, daily new-to-brand conversion share averaged 64%, compared to the 60% figure observed for Q4 overall."

"It seems that customers are more willing to purchase from brands they haven't bought from previously and/or those which they haven't purchased from in at least a year during the holidays. This is an important consideration to keep in mind when allocating budget and placing bids throughout the crucial holiday shopping season."

Learn more »

Bridge the Gap between Marketing and CX (without buying more technology)

How do you create omnichannel experiences that align best with your audience? Join this live webinar from Kitewheel and hear journey orchestration and CX experts explain how to get your data systems talking to each other, so you can provide the type of seamless experiences that customers expect.

RSVP today »

Search Shorts

Google local update, maybe?

Google local algorithm update. There are some signals of a Google algorithm update on the local and maps side, but Google has not confirmed it. All we have are third-party tools and industry chatter right now.

Disavowed links timing. Google's John Mueller said for disavowed files: "It's processed immediately and taken into account as the URLs are recrawled."

Regex. "Regex – the cause of, and solution to, all the SEOs problems," another Google line from John Mueller of Google.

Search marketing training this week in San Jose

Join us this week at SMX West, February 19-20, for actionable SEO, SEM/PPC, and Digital Commerce Marketing tactics (three lanes, no limits!) and invaluable networking with a community of smart, friendly marketers.

Secure your pass now! »