Search marketing has become very sophisticated and consumers expect fast access to ads that match what they are looking for. Today, most searchers find what they are looking for in 2.8 seconds(1) so marketers need to improve their ads and their process of creating ads to meet consumer expectations and achieve business objectives.
At Skai we work closely with a variety of partners who have great insight and perspective on the best practices in the industry. We recently had the opportunity to interview an expert at Google – Andy Miller, Managing Director, Global Search Ads. He works with Google’s Product, Engineering, and Sales teams to develop search products that will improve advertiser ROI. We wanted to get his perspective on the importance of creating great search ads to deliver the most relevant ad to a searcher and achieve marketing success.
Stepping back to the basics of search marketing to set the stage, why is the quality of your ad important?
Andy: The AdWords auction is based on what is most relevant to our users. Ads offer the answer to what users are searching for. Each search on Google is unique when you consider that searcher’s context. We consider query, location, time and other factors to identify the most relevant message for each searcher and their context. Showing the right message to the right customer at the right moment is the whole point of a great ad.
How would you define “Creative Excellence”?
Andy: Creative Excellence is delivering great ads that match what someone is searching for. On a practical level, there is an optimization approach that drives improved performance for search campaigns and is made up of three components:
- More ads per ad group (at least 3)
- Optimized ad rotation
- At least 3 extensions per ad group
Advertisers with excellence in all three components may see a boost in their volume of clicks, impressions and conversions!
You mentioned that creative excellence includes 3 components. Why do those all work so well together? And when they are executed, how does that impact ad quality and ad rank?
Andy: A relevant message answers a searcher’s needs. Since all searches have some unique qualities, different messages will be relevant to different people. That’s why giving more options to the AdWords system is such a good thing.
If you only add more ads and don’t set your ad rotation to optimize, our system will simply rotate ads based on which ad’s turn it is to show. Poor performing ads will enter as many auctions as the best performing ads, which is a bad idea for a lot of reasons. This may cause your campaign to miss clicks and conversions.
Extensions make your ads more engaging and complement your ad copy message. Adding at least three extensions is how you can make sure you’re showcasing what makes your business unique and providing extra information to searchers. We have a set of extensions that are relevant to most businesses (Sitelinks, Callouts & Structured Snippets) as well as a handful that will be relevant for different use cases. For instance, if you have physical stores and the query is related to location, location extensions will help your performance. AdWords automatically selects the best combination of extensions for each auction, so there’s no downside to implementing everything that makes sense for you.
All of these components are assembled at the time of each auction to create a compelling ad unit with the most competitive Ad Rank possible.
As the customer journey changes, marketers are trying to keep up with the trend toward personalization and understand how to deliver relevant information and ads to customers based on where they are in the journey. What are some key actions that a marketer should take to make sure that they deliver a compelling message in the right moment? What are some tips to make sure they can do that effectively?
Andy: In AdWords, advertisers can use a few different products to make their ads more personalized. My top three are ad customizers, dynamic keyword insertion and Dynamic Search Ads. Each of these products adds another degree of relevancy to each creative but does not replace the importance of having different messages in your ad copy. Remember, whatever you do to customize your ads, it should always be in combination with optimized ad rotation. For more insights into how to deliver a compelling message to your users at the right moment, I recommend taking a look at our guide for how to Create Effective Text Ads.
Creative Excellence in Skai
Skai provides an easy user interface with bulk management across campaigns to help marketers achieve Creative Excellence in their search ads. Our capabilities allow you to implement your creative strategy to quickly boost performance at scale.
To learn more about how Skai can help you get the most out of your ad campaigns, contact your Customer Success Manager or Book a Meeting for more information.
(1) Source: https://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/