Adwords’ new ad suggestion rolled out in Belgium

This tool recommends new variations of your existing ad copy. Can it be trusted? Will machine learning do a better job in writing ad copy?

The new ad suggestion tool of AdWords is now being launched worldwide and its goals is to boost the performance of campaigns. With machine learning and human review, new ads are being created based on existing headlines, descriptions, extensions and even landing pages. Google also uses additional signals as keywords and targeting to optimize the ad copy.

How does it work?

In the new AdWords interface, the ad suggestion will be shown in the opportunities tab for review during 14 days. There you can apply, dismiss or edit the ad suggestions. By default, auto-apply ad suggestions are activated on account level so if you don’t do anything, the ad suggestions will be implemented automatically. Once ad suggestions are applied, you can manage them like regular ads.

The supported languages are: English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Italian.

Our thoughts

We support new technologies like machine learning, but we suggest (get it?) to turn off the auto-apply feature and to review all the suggestions this tool is making. In terms of brand safety and copy management we recommend to even opt-out. The impact of this tool can be promising but automation in this area means less control over your brand’s voice, so we encourage keeping a close eye on the suggestion tool.

You should care about mobile page speed!

53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Are you optimizing on mobile ? It is time ! Read more.

Starting in July 2018, slow-loading content will be downranked by Google with their mobile-first indexing update. Google defines this as:

“Mobile-first indexing means that we’ll use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they’re looking for.”

Action is needed !

It takes, on average, 15.3 seconds to fully load a mobile page. And as technology enables faster experiences, people’s willingness to wait is declining. Knowing that 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load, it’s time to act!

What can you do ?

Be quick, personal and inspire on mobile

People are empowered by mobile every day. Mobile quickly delivers results when they’re impatient, provides inspiration at their fingertips when they’re curious, and gives them a personalized experience when they’re demanding one. We recommend to work with a search strategy that answers the need of the customers in these moments.

When we say be quick, be very quick

In retail, a one second delay in page load times can impact mobile conversions by up to 20%. If you want to know how your site is doing, you can visit this speed scorecard and compare yourself with your competitors. Do you think your site is fast enough ? Check out the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) by Google which loads pages instantly! Your website should do too.

2018 will be marked as the year of mobile on search and Google’s Mobile-first index update could impact your performance. Now’s the time to act.

Tip: get personal with Search

People are taking search more and more personally. Some years ago for example, you might have used the keyword ‘walking shoes’ to find a list of stores or information on walking shoes. But because expectations of search are growing, now, people are using the keyword: ‘walking shoes for everyday 20km walks’. Search terms are getting longer and more specific. Why is that and how can search play a role in this change ?

1. Faster response: People are aware that the internet has a huge amount of information and are using longer search terms to find answers to their specific question. They are also used to seeing specific product pages with enough information and want to get to those pages as fast as possible.
2. Personal Advisor: We see more and more people including qualifiers like ‘me’ or ‘I’ in their searches. Over the past two years, mobile searches with ‘for me’ have grown over 60%. We see the same trend with the searches “should I”.  This means that searches are getting more personal and users are expecting tailored information and advice.

Consumers want answers as well as ideas and inspiration. Search advertising can be a meaningful tool and build a relationship with the users via good content, relevant ads and a generic keyword structure.

But did you know you can also personalize ad copy ? It is called the ‘IF Function’ and can be used to create a unique ad copy for a unique users based on device or audience list. This makes the ad tailored to each search and more relevant to potential customers.