Google recently announced the launch of Side Rail Ads – a new ad format by AdSense that “sticks” to the sides of webpages as users scroll.
According to the official announcement by the AdSense Team, for users who have enabled the Anchor Ads option, side rails will automatically start to appear on your site after December 13, 2022. Time will tell whether this format further benefits users or is just another superfluous update.
What Are Side Rail Ads?
Side rail ads are essentially sticky ads that appear on the sides of the pages as opposed to the bottom or top of the pages. Like sticky ads, side rail ads stick to the screen as a user scrolls.
However, unlike sticky ads, side rail ads only appear on widescreen devices like desktops. And even then, they only appear if there is a wide enough margin on the sides of the page.
How to Enable/Disable Side Rail Ads on AdSense
According to Google’s announcement, “If you already have anchor ads turned on, side rails will automatically start to appear on your site after December 13, 2022.”
If you prefer not to show side rails, you can turn off the option in your “Auto ads” settings.
Finding new customers for your business
Because side rail ads take up ample room on the page and stick to the page as users scroll, their viewability rates are very high.
When ad viewability is high, it means that users have a larger chance to be exposed to and interact with an advertisement. Advertisers spend more on ad units with higher viewability rates because this increased exposure increases the probability of success for their campaigns.
Google Ads has announced a new feature called Performance Max. Performance max is an AI-based advertising tool to display responsive ads. This addition unlocks new functionalities for Google Ads Optimization and client acquisition.
It helps find new customers, understands campaign performance, and easily upgrades Smart Shopping and Local campaigns.
It’s an exciting update that unlocks new functionalities for Google Ads Optimization and client acquisition. In this article, we will explore what’s new and what you need to know about Performance Max. We will also discuss how you can use the tool to find more customers where they are, increase conversions and value, and gain richer insights via automation and optimization tools.
So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Benefits of Performance Max Ads
Performance Max is a Google Ads tool that helps find new customers, understand campaign performance, and easily upgrade Smart Shopping and Local campaigns. The key benefits of using Performance Max are:
– You can find more customers where they are: Performance Max helps you reach more shoppers across Google properties with your ads. With Google’s real-time understanding of consumer intents and preferences, paired with your input using audience signals, Performance Max can unlock new customer segments you may have yet to expect.
– You can increase conversions and value: The tool provides insights that can help you improve your ad campaigns and drive better results.
– You can gain richer insights via automation and optimization tools: Performance Max makes it easier to get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns.
If you’re looking to get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns, Performance Max is a tool that you should definitely check out.
Find more customers where they are
Ad performance is a crucial metric when it comes to assessing results. Every advertiser needs to keep a close eye on how their ads are performing in terms of reach, goals, and conversions. Performance Max helps you reach more shoppers across Google properties with your ads. The tool shows you how your ads perform and provides insights on improving them.
Last year, GoogleintroducedPerformance Max campaigns as a new way to buy Google ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign. They complement the popular keyword-based Search campaigns to our clients grow performance across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.
After strong beta results,Performance Max campaigns now roll out to all advertisers around the world. They will also become the next generation ofSmart ShoppingandLocal campaigns, which will both upgrade to Performance Max next year. So stay tuned and reach out to ExpandX Marketing & Web if you have further particular questions.
Finding new customers for your business
Smart Shopping and Local campaigns are great ways to find new customers. Performance Max helps you easily upgrade these types of campaigns so that you can reach more shoppers with your ads. The tool also provides insights on optimizing your campaigns for better results.
Performance Max can help you drive conversions or conversion value for your goals with Google’s machine learning models, but there are some important things you need to do too. First, you need to provide it with high-quality text, images, and video.
This will significantly improve the campaign’s performance. Advertisers should also tell what types of conversions are most valuable to their businesses by applying conversion values and setting rules. Account-level brand safety settings let Google know where the ads should be displayed and which sites, areas, or places to avoid.
Increasing conversions and value
Conversions are the bread and butter of any Google Ads campaign. Performance Max helps you increase conversions by providing insights on how to improve your campaigns. The tool also enables you to drive more value from your campaigns by showing you how to optimize your ads for better results.
Performance Max campaigns are now also part of the Insights page to help you understand how automation is working and how you can improve your campaign. Using the Combinations report, you can also see how your top-performing assets are being combined to build creatives.
Gaining richer insights via automation and optimization tools.
Google Ads is constantly evolving and adding new features. Performance Max helps you stay on top of the latest changes by providing insights and automation tools. The tool also helps you optimize your campaigns for better results.
According to Google, With Performance Planner, you can forecast how your campaign might do in the future. This way, you can plan ahead for changes and make sure your campaigns are as successful as possible.
For example, by understanding how different factors like budget and ROAS or CPA targets impact your campaign’s success rate, you can optimize accordingly. Additionally, since Performance Planner also takes seasonal events into account (like holidays), you can explore potential opportunities in the weeks to come.
Get new features designed for retailers and marketers
Performance Max is a great tool for retail advertisers and marketers. The tool provides insights on how to improve your campaigns and drive better results. You can also use the tool to upgrade your Smart Shopping and Local campaigns easily. To set your Performance Max campaigns up for success, check out our new best practices guide and video. You can also contact our team at ExpandX Marketing & Web for more information.
The future of Google Ads.
Performance Max is just the latest addition to Google Ads. Google is constantly innovating and adding new features to the platform. Performance Max is a great tool that helps you get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns. We expect Google to continue adding new features and tools that will help advertisers reach their goals.
When it comes to the future of Ads, the data collection methods are most crucial. However, many countries, like the EU, have strict policies. In such cases, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will play a vital role in determining which Ads to show and where to show them in real-time. The future is in intelligent decisions making on the fly.
Conclusion
Performance Max is a great tool for businesses that are looking to grow their market share, increase their clients base and customers portfolio and also to spend wisely their marketing dollars with optimal digital marketing campaigns.
As we outlined in the article the tool helps you find new customers, understand campaign performance, and easily upgrade Smart Shopping and Local campaigns. If you’re looking to get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns, Performance Max is a tool that you should definitely contact us or a specialized expert to learn more about the opportunities Performance Max Google Ads Campaigns offer.
In the dynamic business environment we live in today, platforms such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others give us the great opportunity to advertise our business in an easy and quick way in order to get the most out of people who are most likely to have interest in what we offer.
Today, we will focus on Google advertising, where there are many ways to specifically target ads, regardless of the type of business you have and manage.
Here are the other 8 Steps (if you missed the first 7 Steps, you can catch up very quickly here) to launch yourGoogle Ads campaign in order to generate more sales and business growth.
Step 8: AD EXTENSIONS
Ad extensions are very important, and I would say mandatory for the success of your campaign, that will increase the frequency of your ad clicks. Here, of course, add business-friendly extensions to your business. Among them are address, phone number, site links, service descriptions/products, prices, and more.
Step 9: CAMPAIGN SCHEDULE
When creating your campaign, you have the option to pre-select and create ad schedule with the days and hours in which you want your ads to be active and displayed or select the start and end date (period) for your campaign to be active. This will not only optimize the budget but also the overall performance of the ad campaign.
On the other hand, the advice here is that if you are just starting with a new product or service ad, and you are in a test period where you are still studying your audience, it is advisable not to limit the campaign to a certain schedule by days and hours. It is best to be active for a longer period of time and for a broader audience while keeping track and analyzing the results throughout the entire period. Once you have statistics for a specific marketing campaign, then you can set a specific schedule with certain hours and days in which your ads are active.
Step 10: MARKETING STRATEGY
A marketing strategy or, in other words, this is the plan designed to achieve the core business and marketing goals and the tools for achieving them.
The main idea of the marketing strategy is to put ourselves in the shoes of the people we want to reach. Moreover, to analyze each stage of the buyer’s journey, so that we will engage him the most, so that he asks for more information and eventually lead us, as a business, to the ultimate goal we have set – sales, traffic, lead generation or other.
For a marketing campaign (1 month) or a complete strategy (6-12 months) to be successful, the most important thing is to start with a solid, clear and concrete foundation.
Here, it is important to determine the overall marketing goal of your campaign(s), build your Buyer Personas accounts and overall marketing funnel management. If all these elements are built, applied, managed, analyzed and developed properly, they will bring the desired results. Setting a timeframe for realizing and measuring results is also very important.
Step 11: BRAND IDENTITY
Brand identity is absolutely critical to a business. It’s the overall impact it makes on it and its customers. Branding is all about awareness, recognition, trust and it can change how people perceive your brand.
So when you create ads, always adhere to your brand identity to corporate colors, logos, fonts, and emotions you create. This will surely stand out in the minds and thoughts of your customers when they hear about your business.
Speaking from experience, the Ad copy and image are the first steps in succeeding when launching an online ad. These are the things that will set you aside from the millions of campaigns out there. So, the Ad copy is responsible for attracting just the right people for your business (as well as the right technical targeting). On the other hand, the Images you choose for your ads need to grab the attention of your potential customer and make them want to click on your ad.
Here, it is advisable to put a few different ad texts or images within one ad group and track and analyze which ones are the most engaging with the users and convert more successfully for your business goals.
Step 13: LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION
The landing page is the final destination to which you take the users from the ad, and on which the overall performance of your campaign depends on to a large extent.
This page may be on your website or it may be a separate landing page where the user can get more detailed information about a specific product or service. So when optimizing your landing pages, don’t forget to optimize your information, emotional images, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI), CTA (call-to-action) to help you get the most out of your reach.
Step 14: CAMPAIGN OPTIMIZATION
If you thought that setting up your campaign according to the steps described above is enough and that it would magically lead to the results you want, I have bad news – that’s not enough!
Once you create your Google Ads campaign, it is necessary to monitor it on a daily basis and analyze the results at least once a week. The elements to analyze, track and edit as needed are ad texts, images, ad extensions, campaign results statistics, Google Analytics results, and whether they are attractive enough to generate clicks on your ad. Last but not least, we put the optimization of the keywords according to which are the most relevant to your business and the products/services you offer.
Step 15: GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Google Analytics is a very good tool that can easily analyze your users’ behavior. It will help you track how your website traffic is generated, what is the number of pages viewed, the devices that are used by users, location, and more. Therefore, it is important to link your accounts to Google Ads and Analytics to track and optimize the performance of the campaigns you create based on this valuable information and data.
In conclusion, I would say that it is important to know the technical part of how to create and advertise your business through Google and all other digital marketing platforms and channels, but that is not enough to make your business successful and profitable. In our agency, we always recommend to our clients, regardless of what channels and tools they use in their digital strategy, always to follow the fundamental rules, steps, and strategies that are part of the marketing mix and marketing as a whole.
And of course, above all, strive to create and deliver messages, emotions, and feelings that will not only create a strong brand, added value for the client, but will also make the magic called digital marketing successful and profitable for your business!
Do you use Google Ads to increase your sales?
Share your experience and ideas in the comments below! 🙂
Darina
Senior Digital Marketing Specialist
ExpandX Marketing & Web
In the dynamic business environment we live in today, platforms such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others give us the great opportunity to advertise our business in an easy and quick way in order to get the most out of people who are most likely to have interest in what we offer.
Today, we will focus on advertising on Google, where there are many ways to specifically target ads, regardless of the type of business you have and manage.
Do you wonder how this is possible?
If you often ask yourself how to start with Google Ads or:
What marketing goal and strategy do I apply?
What audience do I target?
What visions and creative strategies do I apply?
How do I communicate the value of my business more effectively to potential customers?
How do I optimize my landing pages and website?
How do I create a working sales funnel?
What keywords and phrases can I use?
What bidding strategy and budget will be best for my marketing goal?
Well, you are in the right place!
Find out the first 7 Steps needed to launch your Google Ads campaign in order to generate sales and business growth.
Step 1: CHOOSE AND DEFINE THE MARKETING GOAL
Defining the marketing goal of your Google Ads campaign is the first step to creating a successful campaign.
Depending on the type of business you have, you can define 6 Google Marketing Ads Overlay goals for your business needs:
Sales
Website traffic
Leads
Product consideration
Brand consideration
Brand awareness & reach
And if none of these goals meet the business needs you have, you can create a campaign without linking it to a specific goal.
What is important when setting goals and analyzing them later is to clearly define your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), which can then measure and determine how successful your campaign has been?
Step 2: ACCOUNT STRUCTURE
A well-structured account will ensure that searches that trigger your ads are relevant to your target audience, resulting in better quality results and lower prices. Keep in mind that ads and ad groups in each campaign must be closely related to specific products/services and topics, so you can then create themed ads around them.
For example, if you have an online shop that offers different categories of products – clothes, shoes, handbags, you should know that if these categories are in separate ad groups but in a single campaign, they will share the same budget. In this way, the entire budget set for this campaign will be distributed across all ad groups based on user demand rather than evenly.
So, in order for your ad group results to be more accurate, the best approach is to create a separate campaign for each ad group (product category) and allocate your budget between them.
Step 3: CHOOSE THE RIGHT KEYWORDS FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN GOAL
The types of keywords match that trigger your ads can be in 3 major keyword types: Broad Match, Phrase Match и Exact Match.
Broad Match – This is a standard way to enter keywords or even be called: broad match, which means your ads can also show on searches that include incorrect spelling, synonyms, related searches, and more.
Phrase Match
Here, the keyword is entered with quotation marks and the ads can appear on searches that are a phrase and its close variants.
For example: In order to use the expression “Web site design”, you should enter the keyword as “web site design”. This way, the ad will appear similar to these options.
Exact Match – With this type of exact match search, your ad can show up for searches that are an exact phrase, sentence, or term.
For example: If you enter the word web site development, you have to put it like [web site development]. This will ensure that your ad will only appear to users looking for a website.
There is another type of keyword that you must use:
Negative Keyword that you should use to exclude inappropriate or irrelevant keywords for your business, thus focusing only on those keywords that are most important to your customers, and your business. The negative keyword can be of 3 types – with broad match, phrase match, or an exact match.
As negative keywords, it is advisable to use words generated by user queries based on how they search for information in the search engine and how relevant they are to your business. Of course, it’s always a good idea to use a Google Keyword Planner tool that will show you what to use for better results for your advertising campaigns.
The tip here is: If you start running ads on Google, it’s good to use broad match, in order not to miss the display of your ads. After some time and after analysis, you can change the keyword to phrase or an exact match.
Step 4: USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER
Before you start advertising, it is very important to analyze the keywords you will use. To do this, you can use both the Google search engine and the Google Keyword Planner tool specifically created by Google.
You can easily find the approximate cost-per-click, as well as the monthly search for the keywords you are thinking of using, as well as other keyword suggestions related to your products /services.
Step 5: SET A TARGET AUDIENCE
Google Ads settings and choice of a target audience are made at the campaign level. The criteria and options on which you can fine-tune the Target Group for your marketing goal and campaign can be:
Gender
Age
Geographic location
Language
Parental status
Income level
The other criteria are the choice of budget and bidding strategy, which we will discuss later.
STEP 6: BUDGET SELECTION
My advice here is when you start your Google Ads campaign, allocate your entire budget (i.e. monthly) to the daily sums you would like to spend on the basis of the research findings that have been made in relation to your market and target group.
Even if the campaign does not meet the expectations at the outset, it’s good to wait a week or two to collect enough data based on ad performance so far. This will allow you to make the campaign easier by observing and analyzing the traffic, thus not losing your entire budget in the first few days (in order to achieve an overnight success), which is not really possible without achieving the right ratio between CPC and geographical coverage.
STEP 7: SELECT A BIDDING STRATEGY
Google has two main types of bidding strategies from which you can choose:
Manual bid strategy
Automated bid strategies
Manual bid strategy
The option you have here is Manual CPC or Manual bidding. This is the easiest bidding strategy in Google Ads, with advertisers setting your bids manually at the keyword level. The downside here is that setting up this type of strategy takes more time and requires continuous tracking and changes to the keyword’s bid based on its performance.
The Google Ads Аutomated bidding options are numerous and vary according to the marketing goal you’ve set.
Let’s start with one of the most simple and easy-to-use strategies offered by the Google Ads Platform, namely Maximize Conversions. This is a fully automated bidding strategy, which means that there is no individual bidding for a keyword by advertisers.
Another suitable strategy, especially for generating traffic, is Maximize Clicks. With this strategy, Google will work to get as many clicks as possible while spending the daily budget.
Target CPA (Cost per Acquisition) or Target cost acquisition is a fully automated bidding strategy. Advertisers set a target CPA with Google, and Google sets the buckets in a way that generates as many conversions as possible for that CPA.
These are just some of the bidding strategies you should start with if you are new to advertising on Google Ads.
Among other strategies you can use are Target ROAS, Enhanced Cost per Click, and more.
Well, these were the first 7 tips on how to successfully advertise on Google.
Do not miss Part two of the article with the other 8 Steps for Successful Business Development in the Digital World…
Darina
Senior Digital Marketing Specialist
ExpandX Marketing & Web
Since 2015, we’ve used a wide array of evolving marketing techniques to develop quality brand campaigns for our clients. We’re enthusiastic about our work, and we want you to be enthusiastic about our work, too. That’s why we joined Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews program—so you can be confident in the quality of our digital marketing expertise.
Based in Washington, D.C., Clutch is an information platform that gathers research of service providers across numerous industries. Their site is designed to help prospective buyers choose their next business partner. Clutch conducts a multifaceted evaluation: they account for each company’s industry expertise, social media presence, and former client projects when compiling their lists of the best companies worldwide. We’re proud to announce that our company’s excellence shines brightly under Clutch’s analytical lens. We’ve ranked upon their list of top digital marketing and social media marketing agencies in Bulgaria in 2019.
The most impressive part of Clutch’s evaluation is former client reviews. Clutch’s analysts contacted our former clients and interviewed them to hear about the quality of our work. See what our former clients have said so far:
We, of course, want to thank our former clients for graciously providing reviews of our work and for being such supportive business partners over the years. To hear their positive feedback motivates us to continue doing what we love.
In addition, we’ve achieved a place on Clutch’s two sister websites: The Manifest and Visual Objects. On the Manifest, we’re featured on their list of the best advertising agencies in Bulgaria in 2019. The Manifest is a guide for business buyers that lists top companies using information from Clutch, providing another way for prospective clients to reach us. On Visual Objects, visual examples of our development work is displayed on their list of digital marketing firms worldwide. Visual Objects allows business buyers to view service providers’ work portfolios and visualize past projects.
With these three resources at your disposal, we hope you can be confident about relying on us for your digital marketing needs. Reach out to us to start your next successful project.
