Google Search Retargeting in 2012?

Many articles have already been written about the Google’s decision to direct signed-in users to encrypted search, which effectively hides a sizable portion of referring keyword data from marketers. Estimates of the amount of impacted queries range from 15% - 20%. This figure is likely to rise with the introduction of Google Plus and its integration into the SERP, which encourage users to log in.

Google’s official explanation for the move is that it was intended to protect user privacy, but as Danny Sullivan pointed out, this explanation doesn’t make sense given that the referring keyword data is still available to AdWords advertisers. However, there is another lens to view this change through; the competitive environment.

Google has a long track record of acquiring or disintermediating third parties who develop businesses based on its ecosystem. Businesses that rely upon Google to provide traffic and data tend to end up competing against a Google product. This may soon be the case with search retargeting.

Over the past few years, we’ve the rise of search retargeting services such as Magnetic and Chango and data exchanges such as Blue Kai. These services utilize behavioral data (including search data) to target display ads. Google generates and owns a good portion of that search data. See where I’m going with this?

For now, Google’s competing retargeting products are relatively unsophisticated. AdWords advertisers can retarget based on 1) pixeling visitors to their sites or 2) interest categories as defined by Google. Interest categories are fairly broad buckets (you can see what Google thinks you’re interested in by visiting www.google.com/ads/preferences). So how are users classified into interest categories? According to Google, it’s “…based on the types of websites you like to visit”. This is in contrast to ads on Google.com, which are “…related to websites you visit, recent searches and clicks, or information from your Gmail inbox”.

However, Google could enhance the value of its retargeting product by incorporating that rich search query data and allowing advertisers to target display ads based on both the sites users visit and their search history. In addition to providing more granular targeting, such a move might also allow advertisers to make use of the 15% - 20% of referring keyword data which is now held exclusively by Google. This is not necessarily bad for the existing players; Google's entry may increase the visibility of search retargeting as a marketing tool.

This is not implausible given that Yahoo! had just such a product prior to the Bing merger and the ongoing rumors of a Google data exchange (which would sell this targeting data for use outside of AdWords). It's a logical way for Google to monetize its data stream and to exhance the value of AdWords. So, my prediction for 2012 is that we’ll see a Google search retargeting product, a Google data exchange for buying rich targeting data, or both.

The Forgotten Beta: Third-Party Ad Serving on the Google Display Network

Buried in the archives of the AdWords help site is an interesting gem: the ability to serve third-party ads on the Google Display Network. What’s a third-party ad? Let me explain.

Virtually all display ads trafficked on the internet are stored on dedicated computers called ad servers, which are separate from the servers which host websites. Think of ad servers as giant warehouses for ads. When you post a display ad in the AdWords UI, that ad is stored on a Google ad server. For most other display ad networks, ads are stored on ad serving platforms like Dart for Advertisers, Atlas, and MediaPlex.

When a user visits a website, that site may contain a snippet of code called a ‘tag’ that retrieves a display ad from the ad server to show on the page. This also occurs on sites in the Google Display Network. On those sites, a Google tag retrieves the ad from Google’s ad servers. The concept of third-party ad serving is simple; instead of the Google tag pulling an ad from Google’s ad server, it pulls the ad from the advertiser’s ad server (the advertiser is the ‘third party’).

The key benefit of this is that advertisers can update their ads on their ad server and the ads will automatically be updated as they run on the Google Display Network. This can be a huge benefit for advertiser with constantly changing ads. For example, travel companies can update fares, ecommerce providers can change which product they showcase, and deal sites can show a daily deal – all without having to manually post hundreds of ads to the AdWords UI. In addition, this beta is an easy way for companies that do a lot of display advertising to extend their reach on the Google Display Network.

This may also be the future direction of display ads on the Google Display Network. With their acquisition of Teracent, it’s only a matter of time before we see dynamic display ads that automatically update based on the cookie of the individual viewer. Think of it as remarketing 2.0 – display ads with intelligence.

So what’s the downside? Per Google “Third-party ad serving is available by invitation only to a select number of participants”, so unless you have a good relationship with your search engine rep, you may be out of luck. Also, there are also a lot of requirements on the acceptable ad format (found here: http://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94230), though these are somewhat similar to the existing policies for the Google Display Network.

New Google Program - Google Engage for Agencies

Google has recently rolled out a new program for SEM professionals; Google Engage. The program offers training for marketing consultants and coupons for new AdWords advertisers. The training materials are more of an introduction to AdWords and less comprehensive than those available at their Agencyland site, but there are some valuable guides for selling AdWords to small and midsized businesses.

Back when Google was courting Groupon, there was speculation that one of Groupon's more attractive assets was their local sales force. With Engage, Google may be extending the reach of their sales organization by enlisting freelancers to actively promote AdWords. It will be interesting to see how the SEM and online marketing community 'engage' with this new program.

New feature for Google AdWords Phone Extensions - Call-only Format

There is a new feature for Phone Extensions which launched today – call only format. This allows you to choose whether your mobile ads drive to the mobile site, the call center, or both. Below is a matrix of how each option is selected.

Traffic Destination Phone Extensions Call-only Format
Mobile site No N/A
Call center Yes Yes
Both Yes No

New tab in Google - Auto Targets

Google just rolled out a new tab in AdWords - Auto Targets (aka Product Targets).

Auto targets allow you to target your ads to products in your Google Merchant Center feed. No keywords are necessary. Instead, you may use the product attributes from your feed to specify the subset of products you want to target (for example: serve ads for all Sony headphones in my Google Merchant Center feed).

Google's intention seems to be to allow SMBs a quick and easy way to get live on AdWords without have to do an extensive keyword build for their inventory.

The first step is to link your Google Merchant Center account to your Google AdWords account.



Once linked, build out the campaign and ad group structure that will house your ads. In general, this should reflect the way that products are listed on your website. Then select the attributes from the feed that you would like to use as the basis of targeting your ads.



This isn't exactly a simple process, but it should streamline campaign management for online retailers with large inventories.