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If you are involved in digital marketing, the term "Google Ads", Google's advertising platform, is probably part of your daily life. In this article, we will introduce you to some of the main changes - priorities for 2022, looking at what Google Ads will look like tomorrow.
You will already know that the popular platform is constantly updated to adapt to user needs and current trends to help you increase sales and the popularity of your business.
Understanding the platform's changes and upgrades will help you better use it to your advantage.
The new opportunities with automation
The rapid changes observed in consumer behavior worldwide after the Covid 19 pandemic seem to have influenced Google's strategy and plans.
The company's Vice President and General Manager observes that "more than 80% of Google's advertisers now use automatic bidding to save time and improve advertising performance."
This means a better conversion rate for you!
Following this direction in 2022, Google has chosen to focus on Performance Max campaigns and discovery campaigns, with discovery ads. The biggest benefits of these campaigns are that they can reach more users with a single campaign, across all Google channels, while at the same time you have access to a larger ad inventory.
In addition, in both cases, with proper planning you will ensure the increase of your conversions. That is, the conversions / revenue resulting from your advertising campaign, while at the same time you will have to manage an automated and less complicated digital environment.
The future of digital privacy & metrics
The issues of digital privacy and personal data protection could not be missing from the priorities of Google Ads.
In the wake of widespread concerns about privacy security, Google plans to phase out cookies from the Google Chrome browser starting in 2023.
Understandably, the above will significantly affect the way the measurements are approached.
With the removal of identifiers in Google Ads and Google Analytics, a new era in the measurement approach is beginning, which will combine data collected from the audience with their consent, directly through your own channels, and insights derived from technologies, secure for personal data on all devices.
Obtaining consumer data in the future may prove to be more challenging, but also more beneficial for your business, as it will lead you to better understand your audience and provide them with the right incentives to share their data.
The new behavior in keyword matching
Google, in 2022, is also bringing change to keyword matching, using the machine learning technology BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers).
More specifically, if Google cannot find more than one type of match for a keyword, it will evaluate their relevance.
In addition, it will prioritize exact match, which means you will need to spend a little more time studying your keywords and audience.
Another important change concerns the ranking of the advertisement (Ad Rank), since from now on, it will not be a decisive factor in cases of multiple relevant matches and keywords. Ads with a better match will now be selected, even if they are lower in Ad Rank. This way, you will be targeting the right audience for you.
Responsive search ads are replacing expanded ads
As early as June 30, 2022, one of Google's most anticipated changes took place, with the removal of Expanded Text Ads (ETAs).
From now on, in your Search campaigns, responsive ads will replace ETAs. The change above applies to new campaigns, so you don't need to worry about the ones you've already created.
One reason to love expanded ads is that they allow you to enter up to fifteen headline options and four description options. From the above, Google will choose the appropriate combination based on the person viewing the ad.
In conclusion, automation and personalization come to untie your hands.
Improved travel ads
This change is a bit more for those of you in the tourism industry. Google, in 2022, given the lifting of the restrictions brought about by Covid 19, is launching a new type of ads, the travel ads "Things to do". According to the vice president of the company, the latter will help you increase your bookings and income.
How do they work?
Whenever a user searches for a destination or attraction, the Google ads that appear include links to hotel and ticket reservations. In short, you will be able to develop your ad as you wish by including elements such as:
- Pricing (including seasonal pricing calendars).
- Pictures and maps.
- Reviews from previous travelers.
- Hotel and attraction tickets.
Closing
Whether you represent a digital agency or deal with digital marketing in general, we are sure that the changes brought by Google this year will excite you, just like us.
In conclusion, automation and personalization seem to be at the core of the changes. Sure, you'll have less control over the advertising process, but it'll save you more time and better, smarter results, with Google's technology doing the hard work for you.
We suggest you pay special attention to the new data and see it in practice, because they can be real game changers for your business!