Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns

Google recently announced AdWords Enhanced Campaigns, an initiative that restructures ad and device management settings within AdWords.  There are some benefits to the changes, but also some major drawbacks. 

 

Google has added some controls and options that have been a long time coming, but the primary change revolves around how AdWords Enhanced Campaigns handle settings for device targeting.  For the uninitiated, the simplification of device targeting should result in additional traffic from new sources, and makes it easier to manage, but for experienced AdWords marketers this traffic is already available with infinitely more control over where and when ads are displayed and how much those ads will cost.

AdWords Enhanced Campaigns will be a forced migration.  Campaigns can be opted in now, or Google will automatically transition campaigns late in Q2 2013.

Google is giving a little and taking a lot.  The changes to device settings are like trying to create a detailed sculpture with a jackhammer.  Precise management is critical for quality results.  By forcing advertisers into mobile and limiting their control over it, Google is going to increase competition as well as cost per click.

 

For more information about this change and action items related to it, request our full POV.

 

Facebook Lookalike Audience Targeting

Last week, Facebook introduced Lookalike Audiences, an ad targeting feature that lets brands reach new people who are likely to be interested in their products.

According to Facebook, “Lookalike audiences help you reach people who are similar to your current customers for fan acquisition, site registration, off-Facebook purchases, coupon claims and brand awareness.” 

There is no additional cost for using this targeting for your Facebook ads. Here’s how it works:

• If a brand has a customer database, they can upload the phone numbers, Facebook user IDs, or email addresses to the Facebook ad platform. 
• The platform will then match the encrypted data against Facebook's active users, and build a Custom Audience in your account with everyone that matches your list. 
• Brands can then display targeted ad messages to these users. 
• Once a Custom Audience is established based on your existing database, you can choose to create a Lookalike Audience that targets new people based on similar interests, demographic data or location. 
• Ideally, a Custom Audience should include at least 500 people. The larger the list, the better off you’ll be as this gives the system more information on which to base an accurate Lookalike Audience. 
• You can also overlay Facebook targeting to refine your audience and reach an even more precise group. 

What about data security? Facebook protects your customer data through a process known as hashing. As explained in the Facebook FAQ: “When an advertiser imports their hashed audience list into power editor, we compare it with our hashes to find all the matching user IDs. If an advertiser imports a hashed email address that we don't have, it won't match anything. Facebook won't know the original email address, so Facebook never receives your customer list.”

The early adopters who’ve applied their CRM data to Facebook social advertising report improved cost-per-acquisition. You can read more about these successes at Inside Facebook or contact our team to learn how we’re helping our clients get the most value from the enhanced targeting.

Facebook News Feed Redesign

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

News Feed Changes: On March 7, Facebook announced that it will be introducing several new update feeds:

• All Friends - a feed that only shows what friends are sharing.
• Photos - a feed dedicated to photos.
• Music - a feed with posts about the music people listen to.
• Following - a feed with the latest news.
• Most Recent – a feed that includes all updates in the order it happened.

Facebook will be keeping the current feed, News Feed, which includes all of the items above – news, photos, and music from both friends and company pages. There will also be feeds for Games and Groups.

Design Enhancements: The design of these feeds will have a new look; the redesign includes the following features:

• When two people become friends, a small icon of your friend will show up in your feed along with the new friend’s icon and header image.
• When people like a post, a short list of people who liked the post will be included with the total number of people who liked the post.
• The date for events will show up in feeds as well.

• Posts from company pages have also been redesigned. For example:

• Finally, the new design will look the same across the web, mobile, and tablet.

POTENTIAL IMPACT FOR BRANDS

Action Items:

1. Your brand can join the waitlist to get the new homepage. This will enable you to be one of the first companies to see the new feed and work out potential kinks early.
2. Social media posts should be optimized for the new format. This will include changes to increase engagement and drive social sharing, such as:

- More visual content and calls-to-action (“Share this!”).

- Shorter copy for image posts, as the copy is now placed over the image.

- Images to be cropped so that copy can appear in “white space”. Example of old vs. new version:

To learn more, visit Facebook.

All images are courtesy of Facebook.