Search engine advertising (SEA) is the most important online advertising tool, accounting for 65% of online ad spending. This makes it a stable factor in many marketing plans. At DMexco, I attended a master class by Google that revealed a key trend that is changing how best to use SEA: the shift from search answer targeting to context targeting and the role of machine learning.
Relevant ads for relevant keywords
Since the advent of Google, people have been using the search engine to find the answer to their questions. As an advertiser, you can take advantage of this by using a text ad to highlight your product or service by bidding on relevant keywords. Sounds simple, but in the increasingly complex digital world, that principle is changing.
Consumer increasingly demanding
The main reason is that in recent years, consumers have become increasingly demanding when it comes to the relevance of (paid) search results. They are also more impatient than ever and want relevant results immediately. The good news is that the chances of success are significant if you can meet their high expectations. This is evidenced by the fact that 91% of Google users plan a purchase after seeing relevant & useful search ads.
Google wants to respond to these consumer needs by always showing the most relevant results. In doing so, we see an important shift occurring under the influence of machine learning.
Every search is different
Traditionally, search engine marketing is about showing relevant ads to search queries. However, as consumers increasingly use different devices and perform their searches in different environments, this is no longer always sufficient. The main reason for this is that more than 50% of searches now take place on mobile. Contextual targeting then becomes more important than search response targeting.
Suppose you have both a physical and online gift store then you can probably imagine that someone searching for 'buy gift' on his laptop has a different intention than someone doing so in the Koopgoot in the middle of Rotterdam. In the first case, it is important that the USPs of the shop are clearly conveyed in the advertisement. In the second case, the location information of the physical store is much more relevant.
Showing the most relevant ad for each search is crucial to an effective campaign. Especially as consumers become more demanding.
By tailoring the ad to the context of the search query and taking into account factors such as location, device and time and users' corresponding needs, ads will be more effective.
But how do you do that?
First of all, Google itself lends a hand here by using machine learning to show the most relevant ad based on all those contextual factors. With machine leaerning, the system itself learns which elements make the ad most relevant at what time. But then, of course, Google needs the right input for text ads. Therefore, we always recommend creating 3 to 5 ad variations per keyword to increase the chances that the perfect match between search query and ad is among them.
An easy way to make ads more relevant is to add different extensions such as sitelinks, highlights with USPs of your business, call extensions with a phone number or location extensions. Google shows these if they think it makes your ad more relevant and with these you can increase CTR by up to 10%. Mainly because your ad literally gets bigger and thus stands out more.
Recently, it is also possible to add 3 instead of 2 headlines and 2 instead of 1 description, making ads larger and increasing the likelihood of a relevant ad.
New: Responsive search ads
Since countless intentions are possible with search queries, it is impractical to create all different search ads for these. The new responsive search ads can help with this.
With 3 headlines and 2 descriptions, these ads are the same size as the new text ads, but they are automatically built from 15 headlines and 4 descriptions you specify. Using machine learning, Google generates the most relevant ad for each search query from this input based on the various context factors for the best results.
Currently, this new functionality is being rolled out for English-speaking accounts; it is expected that it will also be possible to deploy responsive search ads in the Netherlands in early 2019.
Would you like help setting up the SEA strategy for your business? Our online specialists will be happy to help.