By Alan Coleman on 25 Jun 2013
The Contentification of Google AdWords
Yes, yes, I know we have an article with a similar title already...but it was such an epic title, we decided to use it again!
We’ve spent all year proselytizing about Content Marketing and how it is an absolute must for any business that wants an online presence. Google is rewarding relevant, helpful content and coming down hard on spammy, unnatural links. More and more we are seeing a shift towards Google’s preference for good content being the driving force behind customer decisions and advertiser behaviour. Two weeks ago Google announced the launch of Image Extensions for AdWords. We Irish digital marketers have long been jealous of our foreign counterparts who can use Product Listing Ads (PLAs) to advertise their e-commerce businesses. PLAs aren’t available in Ireland (although we have used them to market into the US, among other places) but they allow e-commerce businesses to show an image of their product alongside the Google search results. From our experience user engagement with these ads is much greater than regular text ads. By allowing us to use images in AdWords ads Google is giving us an opportunity to reap massive rewards by showing the user relevant and engaging content which can help them along the decision making process. Whereas those who do it poorly could see a drop in CTR (due to irrelevant images being shown for specific search queries) and will almost definitely see a drop in conversion rate and therefore ROI. Google’s new Image Extensions allow you to place 3 images in your top-position ad. When done in a targeted manner and through good optimisation, it will give the user a better idea of just what you’re offering and if it’s what they’re looking for. It makes for much more eye-catching, visually engaging ads and we reckon top-position ads which make good use of these new Image Extensions are going to see a noticeable boost in CTR.
Differences Between Image Extensions and Product Listing Ads.
Although similar to Product Listing Ads, Image Extensions are unique in a number of ways:
- First and foremost, Image Extensions aren’t limited to e-commerce businesses. PLAs work really well for businesses who sell a list of products from a Merchant Centre account. However, until now there has been no way for businesses offering services or non e-commerce businesses to reap the same benefits. With Image Extensions you can choose 3 images to give the user a better idea of what you do and if you’re the right business for them. Be it a service you provide or a product you sell in your showroom, you can give the user a taste of just what it is you do.
- Product Listing Ads change depending on the user’s search query; the idea being that the user will be shown an image of the product they have searched for. Image Extensions, however, are chosen by the advertiser and posted as ad extensions just like Sitelink Extensions. Image Extensions can be chosen at the adgroup level so having well-optimised, tightly-themed adgroups is more essential than ever.
Image Extensions afford advertisers a great chance to stand out from the competition. We’re excited at the new opportunities to really engage with potential customers and will be testing the Beta from Google over the next few weeks. We can’t wait to get some hands-on experience and find out if Image Extensions are as powerful a marketing tool as we think they can be. We’ll be sure to keep you posted! UPDATE (1/7/2013): Check out our first Image Ad Extensions)
