SA360
Let’s talk about Google’s update to Match Types announced on the 4th of this month.
With this new update, BMM usage is being sunset, with Phrase match type being upgraded to behave similarly to BMMs, as they currently do.
Exact match keywords will become more predictable in terms of keyword to search query mapping.
Broad match keywords will drive fewer irrelevant impressions by incorporating incremental signals such as landing page, and other keywords in the ad group to determine if a query is irrelevant.
What would the timeline for changes be?
§ From mid February to April: BMM and phrase match types will start functioning similarly. Both will have the reach of BMM, but the control of phrase Match. During this three month period, only eight languages will be affected English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian
§ June to July: The process is repeated for all remaining languages
§ July onwards: Marketers will no longer be able to create new BMM keywords. Existing keywords will remain in the account but will function in the way described above, unlike how BMM functions now The only remaining match types available will be exact, phrase, and broad.
How should you prepare for these changes?
§ Take time to analyse your keywords by match type over the next few months. Monitor & adapt if you start to see gaps in query matching & performance.
§ Continue to use Negatives. None of these changes affect negative keywords. Negative keywords will continue to work as they currently do.
§ If you are thinking of uploading new keywords, consider Exact & Phrase match coverage. Continue to be wary of Broad match, particularly if you haven’t tested them with Smart bidding.
The next topic I’d like to revisit in a ‘Series’ format is Auction Time Bidding in SA360.
Over the course of this series, I’ll break down what ATB is, the pre-requisites for setting it up, how it integrates with Google Ads, Best Practices, where ATB can be applied, and more.
So what is Auction Time Bidding?
Auction-Time Bidding is a Google Ads Smart Bidding feature that analyses several contextual signals (such as device, browser type, location, time of day, remarketing list and more) in real time, in an auction by auction basis, to set each keyword bid to display your ad in the best position and maximise performance.
According to this source, 89.5k Google searches occur in a second. Which just means, ATB carries out an intense decision making process utilising every signal available to the keyword, in a fraction of a second, to make it eligible to enter the auction.
How does Google Ads and SA360 work together?
An SA360 bid strategy analyses the campaigns in its portfolio, every 6 hours, to set keyword bid or and set or recommend bid adjustments.
This bid is passed back to Google Ads, to combine with contextual signals to enter the auction in real time.
The SA360 bid strategy includes auction-time bid in its analysis to set each campaign’s ROI targets to achieve the bid strategy goal.
As ATB is available in Google Ads, in order to optimise to true Floodlight conversions performance, the bid strategy’s Floodlight Conversions are shared with Google Ads. This enables both bidding systems to use the same conversion data.
The shared Floodlight conversions are referred to as ‘Conversions Actions’ in Google Ads.
Next: Best Practice for ATB Pre-warm up of Advertiser
§ Week 0: Once Floodlight conversions have been pushed through to Google Ads, you are sort of kickstarting that exchange of data flow between Google Ads and SA360.
Create 1 ATB strategy with 1 paused Campaign (or a live Campaign with no keywords)
ATB will be activated to initiate the data flow process
§ Week 3-4: Check ‘Auction-Time Status’ in the ATB bid strategy.
Apply full campaign set that are to be managed by that ATB strategy, and correct targets where necessary.
For clarifications on any of the processes up to this stage, please reach out to a member of the team.
More on ATB in the next newsletter.
DV360
Enhance your TrueView for Action line items with Sitelinks. Sitelink extensions take people to specific pages on your site (for example a product, or store hours). When someone clicks or taps your links, they go directly to what they want to know or buy. Sitelink extensions give you the flexibility to change link text and URLs to keep them up to date for sales and special offers, without the need to create a new ad. There is a scheduling option also, giving you control to specify the dates, days of week, or times of day your sitelinks are eligible to show.
Sitelink extensions appear below eligible ads that play before, during, or after another video on YouTube. Note that you'll need at least two set up for them to appear. You can set them up within the Resources section of your Advertiser, in the same area as Location & Affiliate Extensions.
For more information on setting these up, click here.
Campaign Manager
Privacy is the word on everyone’s lips here at the Tech Partnerships team. With the updates regarding third party cookies looming large on the horizon, we’re ensuring all of our clients have done everything they can to prepare.
In regards to Campaign Manager, this particular futureproofing comes in the form of Floodlights, and more specifically, updating the rules and triggers around floodlights by onboarding and implementing Google’s new Consent Mode. This new feature (in beta) is an intricately designed set of scripts that allow your Google Tag Manager, Analytics & Google Ads to manage tag behaviour based on user’s consent. When your users affirm their consent by interacting with a consent banner or something similar, this sends a signal to your tags to continue firing as normal. On the flipside of that interaction, should the user not give consent, this would send a message to your tags to stop collecting data. You can even build this as region specific, depending on where your users are in the world. Taking this step will enable you to not only be on the front foot with the ongoing changes, but also gives you a chance to audit your Tag setup.
Another fantastic way to easily upgrade your digital marketing strategy considering these changes is to look at Data Driven Attribution. Attribution usually works by stitching together ad exposures, clicks (or sessions), and conversion events. On websites, this usually leverages a mix of third party and first party cookies. Third party cookies are particularly helpful for tracking ad exposures, while first party cookies can be leveraged for clicks, sessions and conversion events.
However, as we are all now fully aware, full cookie-based attribution is not a sustainable strategy, as browsers have either announced or already implemented features to block third party cookies. In response, Google has been working to add a conversion modelling layer to attribution in Campaign Manager and Display & Video 360, including DDA.
Conversion modelling uses machine learning techniques to quantify the impact of marketing efforts when conversion paths cannot be fully observed (ie: when cookies are not being stored in the browser). Machine learning can analyse observable signals in robust datasets and fill the gaps when cookies are not available. The result is an accurate, aggregated, privacy-safe view of the total marketing impact on conversions. For more information on steps to navigate evolving privacy requirements, please read Google’s Privacy Playbook.
Modelled conversions can now be selected when creating a Data Driven Attribution model in Campaign Manager. The only requirement is the establishment of a strong, observable dataset. This can be accomplished by opting-in to enhanced attribution and leveraging sitewide tagging solutions like the global site tag or Google Tag Manager.