February PPC news

Another month of the new year is behind us. And we are here again with our regular PPC round-up. This month several things out of Facebook's workshop took us by surprise; they have a number of changes in store that will markedly alter advertising on the platform. Google surprised us too by announcing the end of a much-loved metric that many a PPC hand adores and will not give up for anything. And plenty more in our new post. Do read on. :)

The end of the average position metric announced

Google recently announced news that many will not welcome: the much-loved "average position" metric will gradually disappear from the Google Ads interface, a metric many used as an important input when optimising cost per click. But there is no need to worry — the replacement comes in the form of Impression (Absolute Top) % and Impression (Top) %. So either you are right at the top, or at the top. Plenty of people are crushed by the news. So what now? Nothing — we will have to get used to it, just as we gradually got used to the new interface. Nothing else for it.

priemerná pozícia končí

A new bidding strategy for TrueView for action

From February 2019 the maximise conversions strategy will be available globally to advertisers using TrueView for action. This smart bidding strategy uses Google's machine learning. Within your campaign budget you can win as many conversions as possible without having to fret over the settings. Through maximise conversions you simply and effectively win more actions on the site that matter to your business — booking a trip, scheduling a test drive or requesting further information.

Video arrives in responsive display ads

From this month you should have the option everywhere of adding video as well as images to responsive ads on the display network. An advertiser can add a maximum of 5 videos to an ad, and the system will rotate them and show them to users combined with the copy most likely to reach the goal you have set, whether a purchase, a registration or the like. And since 2019 is meant to be the year of video content, it is certainly worth testing.

responzívna display ads - video

Google Ads has improved its mobile algorithm

We can now see the loading speed of mobile pages following an update to the mobile algorithm. The tool can generate a landing page score without needing as many clicks as it previously required. The mobile speed score is rated on a 10-point scale, where 10 is fastest. Page speed and potential conversion rate are two of the factors used to determine the score.

mobile speed score - landing page

Google is testing ads in voice assistant search results

It appears Google is testing showing ads in Google Assistant results. In the picture below from Gennaro Coufano, who ran a search on an Android phone, an ad is shown. On Twitter he added that the organic results came below it once expanded.

ads in voice search - google ads

Google had previously announced that its Assistant is now on more than a billion devices (mostly smartphones). So this move was inevitable on their part.

It is not clear whether this is the number one ad on the page, but I assume it was. As a result the top ad position will probably gain an advantage in voice search. In my view, though, it is unlikely that Google will add more than one ad to these results.

Google Ads brings a new competitive metric to search

Podiel kliknutí v kampaniach vo Vyhľadávacej sieti

Click share is the estimated share of all achievable clicks that you received. It has begun rolling out to search network campaigns as well, and over the past month the metric was added to all accounts and campaigns. The lower your click share, the more opportunity you have to win further clicks. Say an ad wins you 20 clicks. If we estimate that by adding further extensions and raising bids or budgets you could have won 100, your click share is 20%.

A new face for FB manager

Facebook is testing a new Ads Manager interface. The new interface should be better thought through and more intuitive for advertisers, and several people who have had a look confirm that its options resemble the interfaces of other platforms such as Google and Reddit. At present it is available only in BETA to selected advertisers. So, looking forward to it? We are, and we only hope it will not cause even more problems and that everything will work as it should.

fb new interface

The end of ad set level budgets on FB

Facebook has announced the definitive end of budget allocation at ad set level. In time we will only be able to define a budget at campaign level. From September this year new — but above all existing — campaigns should be migrated automatically to this method of budget optimisation. So we will have less control over the budget at ad level. The only way we can keep any grip on it will be the option of setting minimum and maximum budget limits on an ad set. According to Facebook, the aim of the move is to give us advertisers better results at lower cost. But is that really so? A question worth pondering. Only practice will show.

FB budget optimalization

FB pages can join groups

Did you know you can connect your business page to groups? What exactly does that mean? From now on you can choose whether to post in a group as a person or on behalf of your company. Several people have said that this connection, and communicating on behalf of the company, won them greater interaction from other users in the group, who then began following the company and interacting with it more, writing messages — which is very good for the future and for closing a possible deal. The question, though, is whether companies will start abusing the group purely to harvest opportunities, so that the point of the group disappears entirely. You can read more HERE.

Something new when copying ads on FB

Facebook has added a very useful feature to Business Manager. When duplicating ads from the original campaign or ad set, there is now the option of carrying over the original comments and reactions, which until now were removed automatically. We rate this change as valuable, above all from the point of view of the audience, who take reviews and other people's reactions into account when deciding. We definitely recommend using it. You will find the option when copying an ad.

FB-comments-include

Author

Ivana Nosalova

PPC Specialist

I got into online marketing through an internship at Invelity, where the field really started to interest and excite me. So I was glad that after the internship I could stay on, keep learning and work on more projects. What I enjoy most is creating and setting up campaigns and ads on Facebook and Google, where I like to experiment with different targeting options, work with various audiences and then optimise the campaigns to achieve the best possible results.