The Updates of the Year that can Change the Search Marketing in 2016
The search industry has witnessed numerous big announcements, by Google Adwords& Microsoft’s Bing Ads in the first half of this year. The experts are expecting the industry to shape accordingly in the latter half of the year.
Bing Network in new avatar
Now that it is Bing (and not Google!) powering search as well as search ads on AOL and its search partners (according to a 10-year deal), it is expected from the webmasters to pay more attention to it.
Right rail ads on Google, no more
To make appearance of text ads display on all the devices uniform, Google In February announced the elimination of right rail ads. The move also made way for the Expanded Text Ads which is meant to keep mobile users on mind.
Local & Maps: Some big changes in tow
Google went ahead with displaying ads in Local Finder in April. Moreover, Maps is not a part of Search Partner, making it easier for the advertisers to show ads in Maps without opting for ads display on partner networks. Maps would show only those ads that have location extension. In the same month came the news of implementation of purple ad labels in maps. May was the month that saw introduction of promoted Pins to the Maps.
Local Pack- A new place to display ads
With Adwords contributing to more than 1 billion store visits since 2014 covering 11 countries, Google now wants to collect store visit data from small retailers as well. All these data is sure to pave way to better ad positioning helping small businesses.
Expanded text ads- the biggest announcement
No wonder the advertisers are going to make life of their copywriters tough by asking them to rewrite all text ads in the coming months, thanks to Expanded Text Ads. Both Google and Bing are on it, so better be creative with the ETAs sooner than later.
Welcome Device bidding back
There are Bid modifiers as before, however, bids for desktop and tablet will be separate. For mobiles though, advertisers are free to set base bids. The reaction to this change is still to be studied in due course of time.
Feed Rules for managing product feeds
Now advertisers can include quick fixes when needed, add custom labels, etc. with the help of Feed Rules in Google Merchant Help Center while manually managing product feeds. Google is focusing on improving the user experience by showing only the most relevant product listing ads through GTIN requirement for Shopping feeds.
Some other welcome changes:
- Introduction of shopping ads as well as product listing ads in Image Search
- Facility to purchase online but pick up locally through a “store pickup” link option for Local Inventory Ads
- Making it easier for the locals to know if an item is available with a retailer by adding inventory search
LinkedIn is to become a Microsoft entity
The announcement came in mid-June and took everyone by surprise, later leaving them speculating on impact on advertisers as well as Bing. But Microsoft cleared that the two are different businesses and hence be decided accordingly.
Bing Ads Editor finally on Mac
In June, the much anticipated move came, starting with US in beta version, ready to be rolled out to other markets gradually.
More updates that need mention
- Google launched Adwords for iOS.
- Nowdata management platform (DMP), a landing page testing/personalization tool and a custom reporting tool are a part of premium Google Analytics 360 Suite.
- There was news by both Google and Bing on banning ads based on different criteria.
- Google Ad cards are being tested in various formats and more of them can be expected to be seen later this year and beyond.
So far, every update is waiting to be seen with their full impact. Everyone, from businesses to search marketers are speculating and banking on their experience for the results.
Sit tight for the time being!