Google is updating its policy limiting personalized advertising to include more restrictions on ads related to consumer financial products and services.
Google’s personalized ads policy prohibits targeting users based on sensitive categories like race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Over the years, Google has continued updating the policy to introduce new limitations. The latest update to restrict consumer finance ads is part of Google’s ongoing efforts to refine its ad targeting practices.
What’s Changing?
Google will update its personalized ads policy in February 2024 to prevent advertisers from targeting audiences for credit and banking ads based on sensitive factors like gender, age, parental status, marital status, or zip code.
Google’s current policy prohibiting “Credit in personalized ads” will be renamed “Consumer finance in personalized ads” under the changes.
Google’s new policy will state:
“In the United States and Canada, the following sensitive interest categories cannot be targeted to audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP code.
Offers relating to credit or products or services related to credit lending, banking products and services, or certain financial planning and management services.”
Google provided examples, including “credit cards and loans including home loans, car loans, appliance loans, short-term loans,” as well as “banking and checking accounts” and “debt management products.”
When Does The New Policy Take Effect?
The updated limitations on personalized advertising will take effect on February 28, 2024, with full enforcement expected within six weeks.
Google said advertisers in violation will receive a warning at least seven days before any account suspension.
According to Google, the policy change aims to protect users’ privacy better and prevent discrimination in financial services advertising.
However, the company will still allow generalized ads for credit and banking products that do not use sensitive personal data for targeting.
What Do Advertisers Need To Do?
Google will begin enforcing the updated restrictions in late February 2024 but advises advertisers to review their campaigns for compliance issues sooner.
Advertisers should carefully check their ad targeting settings, remove improper personalization based on sensitive categories, and adhere to the revised policy requirements.
Failure to follow the rules could lead to account suspension after an initial warning. Google will work with advertisers to ensure a smooth transition during the ramp-up period over the next six months.
Performance Max has taken Google’s center stage in the last few years.
Originally launched in 2021, this PPC campaign type has been met with both praise and criticism among advertisers.
But with AI and machine learning in full force Performance Max isn’t something to ignore anymore.
Keep reading to understand the ins and outs of what Performance Max is, how it works, and how to best leverage it for optimal results.
What Is Performance Max?
Performance Max (PMax) is a unique, automated campaign type in Google Ads.
It utilizes Google’s machine learning capabilities to drive more conversions across all of Google’s owned inventory. PMax ads can serve across:
Search.
Display.
YouTube.
Discover.
Gmail.
Maps.
Ads are automatically created from advertiser inputs, similar to how responsive search and display ads are created.
Like its name, PMax is driven by specified conversion goals at the campaign level.
How Does Performance Max Work?
Performance Max uses machine learning models to drive more conversions by optimizing bids and placements in real time. PMax uses Smart Bidding to achieve these goals.
Google’s AI technology looks across many factors when optimizing PMax campaigns, including:
Audiences.
Creatives.
Budget optimization.
Bidding strategy
Attribution
And more.
Simply put, in order for PMax to work, advertisers need to provide the best inputs for machine learning and AI technologies to work.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the key inputs to launch a Performance Max campaign.
Budget And Bidding
The first input is bidding-focused. You’ll choose what to focus on:
Next, you have the option to bid differently for new customer acquisition.
By default, the option is set to bid higher for new customers. This means the campaign will still reach all potential customers, but prioritize net new customers with a higher bid.
In order to use new customer acquisition, the following inputs are required:
The bidding strategy type needs to be “Maximize Conversion Value.”
An audience segment with at least 1,000 active members to help identify existing customers.
Screenshot from Google Ads, October 2023
Location, Language, And Ad Scheduling
Next, you’ll choose your location settings.
The most recent update of Google Ads Editor fully supports PMax campaigns, which will be helpful if you need to include a lot of individual locations.
You can also bulk import them in the online interface by clicking “advanced search”:
Screenshot from Google Ads, October 2023
After that, you’ll choose targeted languages, ad schedule (if applicable), and campaign run dates.
Automatically Created Assets
Within PMax campaign settings, there’s a section called “automatically created assets.”
By default, these are checked on for text assets and final URL, which is important to review.
If these remain selected, you’re allowing Google to create new text assets for ads that are based on your landing page, domain, and other ads.
It also means that Google has the right to change the final URL to send traffic to what it deems is the most appropriate landing page, even if you provided an input.
When in doubt, turn these settings off to retain as much control in the beginning.
Screenshot from Google Ads, October 2023
Asset Groups (Aka “Ads”)
This is where the bulk of the PMax setup happens.
The following assets are set at this level:
Final URL – This is where the user will be directed after clicking on an ad.
Images – Up to 20 images can be added. A combination of landscape, square, and portrait orientations is recommended.
Logos – At least one square logo is required. Optional landscape logos are recommended.
Videos – Up to five videos can be added. Note that if no videos are added, Google will create automated videos when possible.
Headlines – Up to 15 headlines can be added. Each headline has a 30-character limit.
Long headlines – Up to five long headlines can be added. Each has a 90-character limit.
Descriptions – A short description of 60 characters is required. Up to 4 additional descriptions with a 90-character limit.
Business name – This field is required, with a 25-character limit.
Sitelinks – At least two are required in order for sitelinks to show in ads. The recommended number is at least four.
Call to action – This can be automated, where Google tests different CTAs, or you can choose from different options.
Audience signal – Be sure to add relevant audience signals, such as customer lists or in-market segments, to help Google find new customers faster.
Screenshot from Google Ads, October 2023
It’s important to note that with audience signals, think of them more like audience “suggestions.”
By adding audience signals, your campaigns can be targeted to those signals, but not exclusively.
Google will use the audience signal inputs to identify similar customers who are more likely to purchase your product or service.
Additional, optional asset types can be set at this level, including:
Promotions.
Prices.
Calls.
Structured snippets.
Lead forms.
Callouts.
Display path.
What Is The Difference Between Performance Max, Search Ads, And Demand Gen Ads?
Performance Max is certainly a different breed of campaign type.
Per Google, PMax is meant to complement keyword-based Search campaigns to help drive more customers. They are not meant to be a replacement.
There are three key differences between the different campaign types:
Placements.
Intention.
Targeting options.
The biggest difference between PMax vs. Search ads or Demand Gen ads is placement options.
With Performance Max, ads are adapted and served across all of Google’s inventory of Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps.
Search campaigns are shown strictly on the Google search results page, as well as its Search Partners network if campaigns are opted in.
Demand Gen (formerly Discovery) campaigns are more visually focused, with ads appearing across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail placements.
Another big difference between the three campaign types is their intent:
Performance Max: targets users across various platforms regardless of intent.
Search: targets users with higher intent (actively searching for a product or service).
Demand Gen: targets users who are exploring content or show signs of interest.
Lastly, there are differentiators in how each campaign type can target users:
Performance Max: Uses machine learning and audience signals to optimize targeting.
Search: Primarily uses keyword targeting, with other levers available like demographics, interests, and first-party data.
Demand Gen: Primarily targets users based on interests and behaviors.
Each campaign type has its unique advantages and is mainly driven by different marketing objectives.
What Are The Benefits Of Performance Max?
While PMax is an automated campaign type, it certainly has its benefits to running a campaign.
Here are some of the key benefits of PMax campaigns:
Cross-platform reach – This is the only campaign type that allows you to reach users across the entire scope of Google inventory in one campaign. With that, it opens up additional audiences that you may not have reached in singular campaign types.
Automated bidding – Google manages the heavy lifting of optimizing bids for the right user at the right time with the right message. Not only that, Google optimizes budget across the different placements based on performance.
Simplified campaign management – PMax provides unified reporting across all platforms, reduces the amount of manual work (like bid adjustments), and they’re relatively easy to set up (if you know what to look for in settings).
Advanced creative capabilities – You’re able to leverage a large variety of ad formats because ads can be placed across all of Google’s inventory. Additionally, Google automatically tests different formats and combinations to reach peak effectiveness.
Adaptiveness – At the heart of PMax is its machine learning capabilities. That means the algorithms quickly adapt to sudden user behavior changes, market trends, or seasonality.
Who Should Use Performance Max?
Certain industries are likely to benefit more from PMax than others.
A good gauge to determine if PMax is right for your brand relies on the following:
How quickly sales or purchases are generated.
Budget flexibility.
Sufficient creative assets.
Typically, Performance Max works well for ecommerce brands, especially if product feeds are enabled within the campaign.
If you’re a brand that has a relatively short sales or purchase cycle, PMax can help drive incremental conversions.
However, if your business is primarily lead generation or has a long sales cycle, this may not be the campaign type for you.
Part of the beauty of PMax is that it relies on conversion history data, so if conversion volume is sparse, performance may be hindered.
The second indicator of whether Performance Max is for you relates to budget.
If budget is strict or constantly limited, campaigns may not reach their full potential because of limited learnings.
At a minimum, it’s recommended to spend at least $50-$100 per day for 30 days to determine results.
Lastly, if your brand has the ability to create and maintain a healthy volume of creative assets, PMax is worth testing.
Brands that have limited creative resources or strict brand guidelines may not benefit from leveraging this automated campaign type.
5 Best Practices For Performance Max
Success lies within the settings.
Because Performance Max is so automated, it still requires human input and observations to get the most bang for your buck.
Below are five best practices for implementing and optimizing PMax campaigns.
#1: Ensure Conversion Tracking Implementation Is Accurate
PMax relies on conversion data to fully optimize and target effectively.
That’s why accurate conversion tracking is so crucial to success.
Make sure that the appropriate conversion points are tracking accurately, as well as import any offline conversion data if applicable.
This is considered full-funnel conversion tracking, which allows Google to see the whole picture of how your customers convert.
#2: Select The Appropriate Goal And Targets For Bidding Strategy
It’s important to have some sort of idea of what a customer is worth to you.
If you have historical KPIs of target CPA or target ROAS, use those as a starting point when setting your bid strategy.
Setting the goals too high or too low can produce significant volatility in campaign performance.
For example, a typical branded search campaign likely has a much higher ROAS than a non-branded campaign.
Don’t set your conversion targets in accordance with what you see for brand terms. By doing so, targeting and reach may become limited, which means fewer conversions and poor performance.
#3: Remember To Check Automated Assets Settings
The automated settings discussed at the beginning are so important that it’s worth repeating again here.
Advertisers still need to maintain some level of control. This holds even more true for highly regulated industries.
If you have a specific landing page to send users to, turn off the URL expansion setting at the campaign level.
If you need to maintain complete control of ad copy and assets, make sure to uncheck the box that allows Google to create and implement assets on your behalf.
#4: Use High-intent Audience Signals To Start
Another “make or break” setting to keep in mind is audience signals.
Audience signals essentially give Google a guide on what types of customers to find and go after.
Start by adding high-intent audience signals to your PMax campaigns to kickstart performance.
High-intent audience signals could include:
1st party customer or purchase data.
Website visitors or engagers.
In-market audiences.
Custom or combination audiences.
Adding broad audience signals like affinity or lifestyle segments won’t be enough for Google to learn who your best customer is.
#5: Add Brand Terms As Negative Keywords To Avoid Cannibalization
When PMax first launched, many advertisers were shocked at how well their campaigns were performing.
Until they reviewed their Branded search campaigns.
As a reminder, PMax is an automated campaign type, which means you can’t target keywords. But you can exclude them.
As Performance Max continues to sophisticate, Google now allows negative keyword lists for these campaigns.
At the very minimum, create a list of targeted brand keywords and exclude them in PMax.
This allows your tried-and-true search campaign to run and optimize per usual, without PMax cannibalizing any existing efforts, and truly be used as a complement to search campaigns.
In Summary
Performance Max campaigns can be a powerful tool for many advertisers if set up and managed the right way.
As with all new campaign types, it’s worth testing to identify if it’s suitable for your brand.
By having a clear understanding of objectives, goals, audience targeting, and creative direction, Performance Max can be the boost your PPC program needs to drive more customers on a greater scale.
As the holiday shopping season approaches its zenith, advertisers are keenly preparing for the final rush of consumer spending. Microsoft Advertising provides insights and strategies to help businesses capitalize on the festive season in its Festive Season Marketing Playbook.
The focus is on understanding consumer behaviors and leveraging Microsoft’s advertising capabilities to maximize reach and revenue.
1. Revenue Peaks: A Matter of Timing
Despite some advertisers not yet seeing a peak in revenue, there is no cause for alarm.
Historically, significant revenue spikes are observed around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, consumers are anticipated to spend more during these critical days.
The National Retail Federation predicts a 3-4% increase in holiday spending in the US, potentially reaching up to $966.6 billion. Similarly, high spending is forecasted in the UK and Germany, emphasizing the global impact of this season.
2. Shift in Consumer Behavior: The Rise of Deal-Seeking
A notable trend this year is the increased emphasis on deal-seeking.
Over two-thirds of US shoppers are spending more time looking for coupons and deals, particularly around the ‘Cyber-5’ period.
This period, including Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sunday, and Cyber Monday, has become a crucial window for consumer spending.
Advertisers must adapt to this trend and align their strategies accordingly.
3. The Central Role of Search in Purchasing Decisions
Search remains a crucial component in guiding both online and in-store purchases. It’s a pivotal tool for discovering new retailers, conducting pre-purchase research, and comparing prices.
Gen X consumers, for example, heavily rely on search to find the best prices. Additionally, the EMEA region sees deal-seekers spending 33% more time searching than average shoppers.
This trend provides a significant opportunity for targeted advertising, primarily through platforms like Microsoft Advertising, which taps into billions of global monthly searches.
4. Post Cyber-5 Opportunities: Maintaining Momentum
Even after the Cyber-5 period, search volumes remain high, presenting a continued opportunity for advertisers.
Microsoft’s research indicates that many holiday clicks and conversions happen during Cyber-5, with lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). Therefore, maintaining active advertising campaigns during this period can yield substantial benefits.
5. Planning For Returns: An Overlooked Aspect
Another critical aspect for businesses to consider is the post-holiday return period. Search volumes for returns peak shortly after Christmas and continue into the new year. Preparing for this influx and adjusting marketing strategies can help mitigate potential losses and maintain customer satisfaction.
6. Strategic Holiday Planning Checklist
To maximize the holiday season, Microsoft suggested that advertisers should:
Launch campaigns early to capture early shoppers.
Use remarketing and dynamic search ads to target holiday-specific products and promotions.
Emphasize value messages and promotions to attract deal-seekers.
Leverage AI for personalized offerings and responsive ad formats.
Utilize store support for profitable online growth, including Local Inventory Ads and Mobile Device Modifiers.
Microsoft Advertising offers more tips and comprehensive resources in its Festive Holiday Season Marketing Playbook and on-demand webcasts to assist advertisers in navigating this crucial period.
Google recently rolled out ACA for Responsive Search Ads (RSA) in 8 different languages, marking a significant step forward in digital advertising technology.
This feature aims to streamline the ad creation process, save valuable time for marketers, and enhance the relevance and performance of ads.
What Are Automatically-Created Assets (ACA)?
Automatically-created assets are a feature that enables the automatic generation of headlines and descriptions for RSAs.
The main goal of ACA is to assist advertisers in creating more relevant ads, thereby providing incremental conversion opportunities. This feature primarily benefits marketers seeking efficiency in ad creation without compromising ad quality.
How Is ACA Content Sourced?
ACA pulls content from the advertiser’s resources, including landing pages, existing ads, and keywords.
This process ensures that the automatically generated assets are relevant and consistent with the brand’s existing messaging and SEO strategies. A crucial tip for advertisers is to keep their website content current to make the most out of this feature.
How Can I Manage ACA?
Advertisers can view ACAs in the “Asset source” column in the ad and campaign-level asset reporting, letting marketers understand how ACAs contribute to their overall ad performance.
Additionally, ACAs can be easily managed: marketers can review and remove assets as needed. Notably, any ACA with a “low” performance rating is automatically removed, ensuring only the most effective investments are circulated.
Should I Rely On ACA?
ACA is compatible with Draft and Experiments in Google Ads, allowing advertisers to test their effectiveness in controlled settings.
Advertisers need to understand that while ACA is a powerful tool, it should augment, not replace, their existing assets. Marketers are encouraged to continue providing a variety of assets (up to 15 headlines and four descriptions) to maintain a diverse and effective ad strategy.
Conclusion
The introduction of ACA by Google Ads represents a significant advancement in digital advertising.
This feature not only promises to save time for marketers but also to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of ads. As the digital advertising landscape evolves, features like ACA will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in shaping future ad strategies.
As digital advertising grows arguably more intrusive, DuckDuckGo offers marketers a privacy-focused alternative through its partnership with Microsoft.
In an exclusive interview with Search Engine Journal, Steve Fischer, Chief Business Officer at DuckDuckGo, explains how the company’s contextual advertising model respects user privacy while providing relevant ads and analytics to advertisers.
This article provides key insights into DuckDuckGo’s privacy-first approach, contrasting it with competitors like Google.
As third-party cookies are phased out due to increased privacy regulations, marketers are concerned about how to reach potential customers without collecting as much data.
DuckDuckGo offers an alternative. The company says its ads respect user privacy while enabling marketers to target relevant audiences.
With Google facing an antitrust lawsuit alleging anti-competitive practices, DuckDuckGo’s approach is gaining renewed relevance.
Google stands accused of stifling competition and reducing consumer choice to dominate the search and advertising market further.
As regulators scrutinize potential anti-competitive behavior, options like DuckDuckGo give the marketplace increased choice.
DuckDuckGo & Microsoft: A Partnership Built On Privacy
DuckDuckGo takes the stance that privacy is a fundamental human right. As a result, DuckDuckGo has constructed its business model to safeguard user privacy no matter what.
This differs from the practices of many other tech companies, which regularly gather and analyze user data for purposes like advertising.
Fischer tells Search Engine Journal that data collection is unnecessary:
“It’s a myth that search engines need to track you to make money. We make our money from private ads on our search engine. On most other search engines, ads are based on profiles compiled from your personal information, such as search, browsing, and purchase history.”
A private search ad is an online advertisement targeted based on the context of what you’re searching for, rather than targeting you based on personal data and web history.
For example, if you search for “mountain bikes,” you may see ads for mountain bike brands and gear that match the topic you were searching for. However, the advertisers don’t know your name, email, or browsing history.
This allows for relevant advertising without tracking individuals across multiple sites.
What Does DuckDuckGo Do Different?
Unlike its competitors, DuckDuckGo doesn’t monitor users’ searches or browsing history and prevents other companies from doing so.
Instead, it displays private advertisements on its search engine based on search results, not personal data, to generate revenue.
“[Some] search engines associate individuals’ ad-click behavior with a user profile, which can be used later to target ads on that search engine or around the Internet. [But] when you click on a Microsoft-provided ad that appears on DuckDuckGo, neither DuckDuckGo nor Microsoft Advertising associates your ad-click behavior with a user profile.”
This method aligns with research indicating that nearly half of surveyed publishing executives don’t believe behavioral advertising provides significant advantages.
Working with Microsoft has been fruitful, turning DuckDuckGo into an advertising platform with an expanding user base of over 30 million in the United States and around 100 million globally.
DuckDuckGo vs. Google
DuckDuckGo takes a unique approach to privacy and transparency. Fischer explains:
“Our focus on contextual advertising – only serving ads based on the keywords a user types into that one search, not on their past behavior – has fueled our profitable growth.
Conversely, Google’s business model relies heavily on collecting and analyzing user data. Google collects vast amounts of user data across its products and services, including search queries, browsing history, location data and more.”
Google’s data collection practices are documented in an advertising policy page stating that “Google will use your information to make your ads more useful for you.”
However, it’s worth noting that Google allows users to opt out of personalized ads, which prevents the company from gathering and leveraging your information to build a profile for ad-targeting purposes.
If you turn off ad personalization in your Google account settings, Google won’t collect or utilize your data to customize ads shown to you.
DuckDuckGo has help pages that clearly explain how ads are selected and displayed on its site and how its ad auction process works.
Complying With Privacy Regulations
Fischer also explained that since the search engine doesn’t gather any user data for advertising purposes, it easily complies with privacy laws like the GDPR and CCPA that restrict companies’ data collection and use.
Since DuckDuckGo doesn’t profile users or sell their information to advertisers, it avoids the regulatory compliance burdens faced by other tech companies whose business models rely on targeted advertising.
DuckDuckGo embraces “data minimalism,” gathering only essential user information, including usage and diagnostic data not tied to individual users, and avoiding storage of personal data. Data minimalism is gaining appeal as regulations tighten worldwide.
Measuring Ad Performance While Maintaining Privacy
Purchasing advertisements on DuckDuckGo through Microsoft Advertising gives marketers vital campaign analytics while protecting privacy.
Microsoft’s platform supplies all the critical data. However, ad click information isn’t linked to user profiles.
Fischer explains:
“Buying ads on DuckDuckGo through Microsoft Advertising means the measurement and reporting will be provided by Microsoft. Marketers can receive critical information they need from buying these ads to optimize and run effective search campaigns.
Conversions can also be measured via Microsoft’s advertising platform (once a customer clicks on an ad, the full IP address and user-agent string is used so the ad-click can be properly processed and charged to the advertiser). However, the ad-click isn’t associated with a user profile, nor does this data get stored or shared other than for accounting purposes.”
In other words: DuckDuckGo’s relationship with Microsoft has been mutually advantageous. Microsoft gains a way to display advertisements in a privacy-focused setting, while DuckDuckGo derives an income stream that doesn’t conflict with its business priorities.
Future Plans For Privacy Enhancement
DuckDuckGo intends to keep investing in new technologies to improve user privacy.
“DuckDuckGo remains an ad-based business, constantly working to deliver relevant but privacy-respecting advertising to our audience.”
One innovation the company is working on is a privately-designed ad conversion platform that can be externally verified. This would empower advertisers to evaluate ad effectiveness while protecting user privacy fully.
“Private conversion measurement is an industry-wide effort, with companies such as Apple and Mozilla also working on attribution technology, which respects user privacy, and we’ve started working on an architecture for private ad conversions that can be externally validated as non-profiling.”
In Summary
As attitudes and regulations evolve regarding privacy, DuckDuckGo’s contextual advertising model offers an alternative for digital marketers.
By partnering with Microsoft Advertising, DuckDuckGo provides relevant ads without collecting personal data.
As innovations like privately designed ad platforms emerge, privacy-focused options will likely continue expanding.
As pay-per-click (PPC) marketing evolves with new trends constantly emerging, it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts.
What worked for your PPC campaigns in the past may no longer cut it.
Not only do consumers continue to change, but the technology available to marketers is always advancing – not to mention search engines and social media platforms throwing curveballs into the mix.
Between widespread adoption of AI, inflation in cost-per-click (CPC) budgets, and new shifts in user engagement, we’ve seen a lot of changes in 2023 that will shape your PPC strategy moving forward.
So, if you’re looking to get ahead in the dynamic world of PPC, the key is adapting and knowing when to pivot.
Download our PPC Trends ebook to access expert insights on what’s coming, what you should pay attention to, and what to avoid.
This sixth edition features commentary from 13 of the top PPC marketing experts. Inside are the latest developments over the past year and how you can leverage these trends in 2024 and beyond.
Let’s dive into three of the core ideas outlined in the ebook:
AI in PPC: The potential these new tools offer, along with the limitations that can lead to pitfalls.
How to control your budgets and maximize value amidst CPC inflation.
The new user engagement channels shaping PPC, and what you should focus on.
AI In PPC: Potential & Limitations
AI had its moment in the spotlight this year, with several shiny new AI features making their debut on PPC platforms. Marketers also began adopting generative AI in earnest.
But now that the dust is settling, we’re realizing that it’s not all black and white.
While some experts champion the benefits of AI, like automated ad campaigns, others advise caution.
AI has its strengths, but it’s not a universal fix – and human thinking and creativity still drive online interactions.
One key point to note is that it’s not always about directly seeking cheaper CPC prices, but rather extracting maximum value from your CPCs as they are.
Here are three key insights on CPC inflation:
Cost-cutting, for its own sake, isn’t always the way.
Don’t obsess over what you can’t control; make the higher cost worth it.
Don’t mindlessly follow the metrics fed to you. Validate your data.
You must also be willing to experiment to discover positive and negative outcomes.
Plus, you’ll need buy-in from stakeholders to be flexible about key performance indicators (KPIs) – and be willing to engage in activity that’s more difficult to measure directly.
Here are three key insights on how you can lean into change, but in service of marketing strategies that have always been effective:
Meet people where they are isn’t a new concept, but it will require you to learn new platforms and new ways of engagement.
Stubborn adherence to one channel or one data source won’t work: You need new channels, new sources of data, and a model to draw insights from various sources.
Embrace the new in service of what you’ve always known about marketing.
Discover more of the trends that made waves in 2023 and are set to reshape the future of advertising.
Read expert insights from:
Akvile DeFazio, Founder, AKvertise.
Alex Macura, Founder/CEO, Your Digital Assembly.
Amalia Fowler, Principal Strategist, Good AF Consulting.
Google has launched new generative AI capabilities in its Performance Max advertising product.
Currently rolling out in beta to all U.S. advertisers, the features will allow you to create and scale new text and image assets for your campaigns using AI.
Performance Max, first introduced in 2021, is Google’s AI-powered solution spanning search, YouTube, display, and other Google inventory. The platform analyzes performance data to optimize ads and now leverages generative AI to assist asset creation.
How Will Generative AI Help?
Asset Generation
As described in a recent blog post by Group Product Manager Pallavi Naresh, the new features will help marketers quickly generate high-quality, personalized assets to reach customers across Google’s formats.
“Asset variety is a key ingredient for a successful Performance Max campaign. You’ve told us that creating and scaling assets can be one of the hardest parts of building and optimizing a cross-channel campaign,” Naresh wrote. “Now, you’ll be able to generate new text and image assets for your campaign in just a few clicks.”
After prompting, the AI will create unique images and text tailored to each business. Google states advertisers will always be able to review and edit any generated assets before publication.
More Creative Control
In addition to asset generation, the platform will provide AI-powered image editing capabilities to enhance new and existing creative. For example, Google’s announcement describes an agency testing different winter background scenes for a client’s product images.
Advertisers with existing assets can use the features to easily ideate variations, while those starting from scratch can leverage AI to build out initial concepts. All generated imagery will be visibly watermarked and tagged as AI-created.
Ensuring Responsible AI Use
Google says its generative AI features abide by internal AI principles, preventing policy-violating or insensitive creatives. As with current processes, human review and enforcement actions will continue to ensure policy compliance.
The capabilities mark Google’s latest integration of generative AI into its marketing products after demonstrations at its Marketing Live conference earlier this year. The features aim to streamline creativity and production for Performance Max campaigns of all sizes.
The generative AI beta is currently limited to the U.S. but is expected to roll out more widely before the end of 2023.
Just in: Microsoft Ads added new bid strategies to its Microsoft Audience Network ads.
While Microsoft has supported automated bidding strategies for its core campaign types, they’ve added two new types for all Microsoft Audience Network ads.
What New Bid Strategies Are Available?
As of today, advertisers can now use the following bid strategies for any campaign opted into the Audience Network:
Maximize Conversions. Aims to get you the most conversions possible within your budget, with the option of Maximum CPC (Cost per Click) and CPA (Cost per Acquisition) limits.
Target Cost per Acquisition (CPA). Aims to get you the most conversions possible at your target Cost per Acquisition (CPA).
Microsoft notes that campaigns with less than 30 conversions in a month may report volatility as the system starts to learn behaviors.
Additionally, the bid strategies are not compatible with 3rd-party platform bidding, which is something to keep in mind for advertisers.
These automated bid strategies are already leveraged within Search and Performance Max (in beta) campaigns.
Increasing support for more automated bid strategies in the Microsoft Audience Network campaigns speaks to Microsoft’s continued investment in conversion modeling and accuracy.
Utilizing conversion-based bid strategies to upper funnel campaigns like the Audience Network can help provide incremental lift in what have primarily been known as awareness-driving campaigns.
New UET Testing Functionality
In addition to the added bid strategies, Microsoft Ads announced its new UET testing functionality.
This is a new functionality to help test and troubleshoot the Microsoft UET tag setup and configuration.
When testing UET events setup, advertisers may see items such as:
Tag not found
No traffic received
Time out
Receiving traffic
Real-time tag testing can help identify potential issues right away, which is crucial, especially coming into a holiday purchasing season.
Start Testing Before The Holidays
Microsoft’s new bid strategies and UET tag testing are welcome additions coming into Q4.
If you’re using Microsoft Audience Network ads, try testing out a new conversion-based bid strategy to identify any areas of opportunity.
What are you most excited to try from Microsoft Ads this quarter?
There are two very big considerations when taking on a new PPC client:
Will you make money by helping this client, and will you enjoy working with them?
Both of these questions factor into SQLing (sales qualified lead-ing) a prospective client. Yet they should be asked of existing clients, too.
Scope creep (being asked to do things outside the previously agreed upon agreement) can sour healthy and profitable relationships.
We’re going to look at:
How to determine your SQL criteria.
SQLing new customers.
SQLing existing customers.
It’s important to note that while this is written from a PPC perspective, there are lessons all vendors can take from the process.
How To Determine Your SQL Criteria
Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way: there is no “absolute” right answer to this.
All that matters is that you use data to justify your choices, and you don’t compromise on what you need as a business to happily thrive.
I intentionally divide Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) into two because if you only look at the money part, you’ll often burn yourself out on too much work.
Conversely, if you only look at the happiness part, you might undercharge and be left holding the debt bag.
As A General Rule Of Thumb, SQLing A PPC Client Should Factor In Some (If Not All) Of These Criteria
How much is the client willing to spend, and is that budget in line with industry standard?
Is the client expecting me to create visual content, and am I equipped to deliver?
What kind of communication cadence does the client expect, and is that in line with what I currently offer?
Do I currently have another client in the same industry, and are they paying me more or less than this new one would?
Are there any skills this client expects me to have/act on that I don’t currently have/can’t easily outsource?
Will the client need/want to be involved in management, and are you ok with that?
Are they ready to begin now, or is this discovery phrase for them?
These questions speak to your ability to operationally support the client, which is a critical part of any SQL process. Additionally, budget and skill needs speak to the probability of success.
If you’re embarking on a customer journey with a client who’s asking for leads/sales while spending a fraction of the industry-standard budget, there is a low chance of success.
Conversely, if the client is willing to spend whatever you tell them to but will be making all kinds of changes to the account, that can also set you both up for a bad time.
You will need to create a scoring system for how much each question matters to you. Additionally, it’s important to set a minimum score that all clients need to meet.
While it’s true what the client pays you should be the main determining factor, long/healthy relationships are more than money.
SQLing New Customers
Depending on how you’re set up, SQLing may happen before or after the sales team talks to the client.
If it’s before, odds are there will be an investigation into the existing ad account to find opportunities.
This will also confirm ad spend meets the required minimums.
If you SQL after the initial sales discussion, it’s important to ensure discovery questions collect the needed SQL information without making the prospect uncomfortable.
For example, if you’re trying to find out about ad spend, these are a few ways to ask about it:
How do you determine your budgets?
Should we look to your historical spends for a fair sense of your PPC budgets, or are you planning to grow/downsize?
Questions should be as open-ended as possible and come from a place of trying to help.
SQLing Existing Customers
When you hear an agency fired their customer, it’s because they failed the SQL test. This might be because of decreases in budget or scope creep impacting margins.
Don’t overstep communication boundaries (time/format/frequency).
Show appreciation for your partnership.
Other little things that make you love working with them and winning for them.
If a previously good customer starts to slip, be proactive and talk to them about what has changed in their business. often times, it’s a solvable issue and can be resolved with firm but polite conversation.
Where it’s a little tougher is if a client’s ad spend is in previously accepted ad spends, but your company has evolved past that style of management.
Smaller budget accounts often require more work, and unless the customer is low involvement (i.e., has acceptable margins), you’ll likely want to gently connect them with a new vendor.
Final Takeaways
SQLing your PPC prospects and clients is a critical part of operational success.
Keeping the criteria in place, and sticking to it, will set you and your business up for scalable growth.
