In the ever-changing world of Google it’s important to keep
up to date with new innovations and advancements. Google Partners events are
held to allow agencies and marketers to be educated on new products and initiatives,
take part in training sessions and discussions as well as network and meet
Google account strategists. As a Google Partner Agency the Manchester PPC team
were invited to attend the most recent Google Partners event.
The event was held at the Hilton Hotel. If you don’t know
the city this hotel is located in the most imposing and impressive building in
Manchester, which features a bar on the 23rd floor that has amazing
views across the city. We arrived and headed over to the desk where the people
in bright Google t-shirts were located. We were then given our lanyards and a Google
cupcake(!), and directed up to the bar. The first part of the day was a session
with our dedicated Space & Time Google account strategist where we
discussed particular accounts and new ideas. Everyone was also given the
opportunity to ask questions regarding new products and changes within Adwords on
a 1:1 basis.
It was then time for the first training session of the day.
This was a really useful session with open discussions and talks from Google trainers
and industry experts. Recent changes in Google Analytics were mentioned, the most noticeable being the change to
the terms visit and visitors. Visits will now be called "sessions" and visitors will
be called "users". It seems these changes
were made due to the fact some metrics used different names in app views and in
web views. Now, all the metrics and dimension names are the same whether you
are viewing web or app data. It is important to understand these changes when
pulling Analytics data into Adwords so you are sure exactly what data you are
analysing. The use of Analytics was also discussed in relation to identifying
the time of the day when the traffic to your website is most valuable,
returning a good ROI or cost-per-conversion. Using this information you can
then begin introducing bid adjustments in Adwords to focus on those times of
the day. This is a great optimisation tool for campaigns that suffer due to the
lack of budget. The question ‘which ad position is better?’ was raised. The
performance of ad positions can be reviewed in Analytics and then used to
optimise campaigns. The idea that all ads perform better in the top position is
just not true: 3rd, 4th or even 5th position could
potentially be a more cost-effective position to be in. This, of course, varies
between different clients and industries and as an agency we use Google
Experiments to test the various positions and identify the optimum ad position
for a particular client.
The conversation then moved onto conversions. While
the majority of the time conversions are viewed as the ultimate goal of an
Adwords campaign, the need to identify both macro and micro conversions is
growing increasingly important in a world of likes, pins, videos and followers.
Macro conversions are the obvious actions you would like the visitor to make
once on site, whether this is a purchase, sign up, booking of an appointment or
a phone call. But there are many actions that a visitor could make that can be
attributed as a micro conversion and should be set up as goals in Google
Analytics, for example the viewing of a certain page or PDF, becoming a new
Google + follower, watching a video etc. Although these actions
aren't necessarily a full macro conversion they are still of high importance
when analysing site engagement and the process that leads to a macro
conversion.
Following lunch we attended an introduction from the Google
Partners Product Marketing Manager, where she ran through the resources
available to Google Partners members. These include an online community where
you can connect with industry leaders and Google experts and stay up to date with
the latest agency news, which is becoming more and more vital in the fast pace
world of paid search.
A Google product update was next featuring talks on 2014
‘Big Bets’ including mobile advertising and Google Shopping & Export.
Google describes the current advertising landscape as a multi-screen world,
with the growth of smartphone and tablet traffic continuing. In the UK
smartphone penetration by the end of 2014 will be 75% but it is also just one
step of a user’s journey. According to a Google report 90% of people move
between devices to accomplish a goal with search being a critical connector as
they move between the devices. Therefore tactics like keyword parity should be
used to ensure advertisers can be found easily via search when customers move
to their next device. Optimising your PPC campaigns for mobile is now just as
important as on desktop with the use of call extensions, mobile specific ad
text and mobile bid optimisation. Also don’t forget, a well-designed, fully
functioning mobile site is critical! It is the continued focus of Google that
as an agency we ensure for our clients that ‘we are always there, always
relevant and always optimising’.
The presentation then moved on to Google’s next big focus of
the year so far, the Shopping Campaigns and businesses growing with Export.
Recent Google Blogs recognise that the internet is borderless. The UK market is
saturated and growth in ecommerce and retail is going to come from a global market;
68% of UK retail queries came internationally last year. Google have several
tools to help you carry out your research, find your audience and look at
online and offline shopping behaviours. They can help when acquiring customers
globally and speaking to your customers in their native language. This is all
aimed with helping businesses and agencies prepare, launch, grow and lead an
international strategy. Further, this is reflected in Googles upgrading of the
current Product Listing Ads into the Shopping Campaigns. The Product Listing
Ads once on the right hand side of the screen will now be at the top, above the
Search ads. There is more to follow but the support is there for an agency to
ensure a client is ready for the switch.
The day ended with networking opportunities and the chance
to ask further questions. These Google Partners events are exactly what they set
out to be: both educational and inspirational. I’m looking forward to the next
event already.
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