Adwords Enhanced Campaigns are being rolled out to Adwords accounts from February 2013 and all campaigns will automatically upgrade at around mid 2013.
What are Enhanced Campaigns?
Google has updated Adwords to reflect the growing use of multiple devices to access the web, such as computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Google says Adwords ‘lets you capture the power of context’, ‘context such as location, time of day and device matter and provide you more opportunities to reach people with more relevant messages’. So, advertisers can more easily reach customers with ads that are more suited to their search context.
From one campaign, bids can be adjusted across devices, for time of day and for location. For example, a pizza takeaway can target a radius of 10 miles around their store and can increase bids for prospective customers within 5 miles of the store.
There have been mixed reactions to Enhanced Campaigns from Marketers and here are some of the advantages and disadvantages:
- You cannot target mobile devices only any more
- You cannot target specific mobile networks or devices any more
- You cannot target tablets only, this is now grouped with desktop campaigns
- You can now serve ad extensions at the adgroup level rather than just at campaign level
- You can now schedule times to show Sitelinks
- You can now adjust bids (plus or minus percentage) for geography in one campaign
Who should upgrade now and who should wait?
Those who should wait include those running mobile only campaigns, those targeting tablets only or targeting tablets in a different way to desktops and those whose tablet campaigns have a major difference in cost per conversion to other devices.
Those who should consider upgrading early include those not focusing on mobile specific campaigns, those who would benefit from bidding differently for various geographies and those who have many campaigns only for the reason of using different Extensions such as Sitelinks.
Conclusion
Before upgrading it is recommended to have an upgrade plan in place, especially for larger or more complicated accounts, get to know the new Enhanced Campaign system by copying an existing campaign and testing it. Before upgrading ensure that you backup all campaigns and data, such as Sitelink data. One aspect to consider after upgrading is to ensure that the campaign settings such as ad scheduling is set correctly.
For advice on upgrading to Adwords Enhanced Campaigns, talk to a Google Ads consultant.
Sources
https://searchengineland.com/should-you-upgrade-to-adwords-enhanced-campaigns-148240
