April 11 update: Offer extensions are now available and can be shown in the UK.
With AdWords, you’ve been able to
run campaigns in
targeted geographic locations and attach your local business address to
your search ads using
location extensions. Now, new location-oriented features in
enhanced
campaigns are rolling out globally to help you achieve even better
results with AdWords – online and offline. Read on to learn how to:
- Improve campaign results using location bid adjustments, whether your customers buy online or offline.
- More easily reach customers
that are near your business locations.
- Drive more offline purchases and
measurable in-store traffic with search ads using offer extensions.
For a guided walkthrough, tips and Q&A on using these new
location-based features and offer extensions, please
register and join
us at this week’s Learn with Google webinar on enhanced campaigns this
Thursday, March 7, at 10am PST.
Geotarget broadly with selective bid adjustments for improved results
Whether your business is online-only, offline-only, or multi-channel, you
can improve your overall results by using a broad location target to cover
your entire potential market while refining your bids in select areas. With
legacy campaigns, you’d need to set up a new campaign for every location
you wanted to bid differently on. Now, with enhanced campaigns, it’s simple
to increase or lower your bids by a certain percent for any
location target in
your campaign.
In the AdWords interface, click Locations on the Settings tab, and then
click on the bid adjustment column to the right of a location target to
increase or decrease your bid. You can also make location bid adjustments
with the
latest version of AdWords Editor.
Setting a location bid adjustment (click to expand)
To optimize with
selective bid adjustments using the AdWords interface:
- Click on the “Location details” button and select “What triggered your ad.”
- Toggle the View button to slice your campaign performance data, including
conversion data, by different geographic levels (example
screen).
- Sort or filter to focus on the locations you want to optimize.
- Select one or more locations.
- Click the “Add targets and set bid
adjustment” button.
For more advanced optimization, you might pair your AdWords reporting with
your company’s data on customer value by geography to adjust bids for
different locations.
Example 1: A commercial maintenance company targets a 20 mile radius around
downtown Denver. The marketing director might know that it costs 20% less
to sell to and service customers who are within 10 miles of downtown. He
can improve his results by increasing his bids by 20% for customers within
10 miles of downtown Denver, since these leads are more profitable.
Example 2: An online-only financial services company has modeled its
average customer lifetime value by zip code. The company’s search
specialist has been asked to achieve an average 8:1 return on ad spend
(ROAS), which they define as average lifetime value divided by average cost
per lead. The specialist downloads data from AdWords with cost per lead by
zip code and pairs it with lifetime value for each matching zip code
(example
data). She looks for opportunities to improve her results by lowering
bids in zip codes where ROAS is below the target and increasing bids in zip
codes where ROAS is above the target. She makes her bid adjustment
decisions in the spreadsheet and implements them in her enhanced campaign, re-checking
the ROAS and volume impact for a few weeks and making changes as
necessary. With legacy campaigns, she would have to set up a new campaign for every zip code with different bids, increasing the level of campaign management complexity and effort required.
Experienced search marketers know that bids are an important contributor to
campaign results, along with ads, extensions, keywords, and landing pages,
so they’re sure to measure periodically and make adjustments. Remember,
targeting too narrowly can limit your reach, clicks and conversions, so consider using
selective location bid adjustments while targeting broadly. More tips on
optimizing your campaigns using
location are available in the AdWords Help Center.
Reach customers near your offline business locations more easily
If you operate an offline or multi-channel business, you can use the new
location
extensions targeting to reach potential customers or increase your bids
when they're near your locations with just a few clicks. It uses the
location
extensions you’ve already created and a radius that you specify to create targets around your businesses.
Setting a location extension target (click to expand)
You can then assign a bid adjustment to your location extension target to
increase your ad’s visibility when customers are near your business, and
potentially more likely to shop and buy from you (
step-by-step
directions).
Example 3: A national multi-channel retail business has been running
AdWords campaigns to sell directly online and to drive people to its 400
local stores. The account has already set up location extensions, but it
wants to improve its ad visibility even more when customers are searching
within a short distance from its stores. With just a few clicks, its search
agency adds a single “2.0 mile around each location extension” target and
sets a +25% bid adjustment.
Setting a bid adjustment for a location extension target (click to expand)
Drive measurable offline purchases and in-store traffic with offer
extensions
Showing a potential customer the right offer at the right time can be the
difference that brings them into a local business to buy from you. Offer
extensions help you drive offline purchases and in-store traffic with a
redeemable offer shown with your search ads across devices. You can use
them whether you’re a retailer, manufacturer, or other type of business
(currently shown to users in the U.S. only).
Desktop offer extension example
|
Mobile offer extension example
|
When customers click your offer, they'll see your offer details, business
logo, and nearby stores (see example below). They can print your offer or
save it to their Google Offers account for in-store redemption. At the
point of sale, customers redeem the offer using either a text code or a bar
code.
Offer details example on desktop (click to expand)
You pay for clicks on an offer just like a click on your ad headline – there are no fees for each redemption. We’ll also remind customers about
unused offers through email to improve the redemption rate. Offer
extensions are available at the campaign or ad group level. Check out more
details and tips
on offer extensions usage and reporting in the Help Center.
Please stay tuned for more details on the availability of offer extensions
in other countries and improvements with offer redemption reporting. We
welcome your feedback on these features and others in enhanced campaigns
using this
form.
Posted by Smita Hashim, Group Product Manager
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