I can already hear you grumbling: “I’ll do what I want, Google won’t teach me how to run my business!” and all sorts of things…And you’re right: Google doesn’t know your business…But they may actually know your prospects better than you!
Google have access to a goldmine of data, through their search engine and also through Google Analytics, DoubleClick, Google+, etc. Google is able to analyse online users’ behaviour from the first stimulus to the final conversion including experience sharing. Of course Google’s strategy is based on online usage trends (lately more social, more mobile and geo-localised usage) but they have such a sprawling online presence that they can actually have a proactive impact on these trends.
Google Plus Changed SEO Rules
An example? Google Search, Plus Your World. This update released last year favours personal results based on your Google+ information (Circles, interests, etc.) when logged in with your Google account. It has been promoted under the pretext of answering the social sharing need and improving search results relevancy (well, it remains to be proven).
But from a business point of view, it has significantly changed the way we do SEO. Organic rankings and visibility are now impacted by social networks and specifically by Google+. Therefore businesses can’t ignore this anymore: Google+, Google Places, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. should be part of their SEO and inbound marketing strategy.
Enhanced Campaigns to Urge Advertisers Going Mobile
Another illustration is the recent release of Enhanced Campaigns in Adwords. This new feature makes multi-device campaigns easier and allows advanced targeting options. However it removes the ability to specifically target computers, tablets or mobile devices. Instead all devices are targeted by default. You can still adjust your bids differently for mobile devices but not for the tablets (at least for now).
Many people would think that this feature allows Google to get more money from mobile sponsored ads (and they would probably be right), but Google is smarter than that. They don’t launch products or features with a short-term profitability vision. As they did for Google+, they designed the enhanced campaign feature as part of their integration strategy. Ultimately we can imagine Adwords will become a multi-device, multi-products online advertising platform. After YouTube and Google Shopping, Adwords makes mobile advertising more accessible to businesses. Eventually more businesses will advertise on mobile device because it’s where majority of internet users will be very soon.
Digital marketing agencies have been advocating mobile solutions for many years now and yet, many online advertisers still don’t have a mobile optimised website! This is despite an unprecedented growth rate of mobile internet usage, whatever the industry, whatever the region and despite a forecast of mobile internet taking over desktop internet by 2014…While Google is already prepared for this change, they urge online businesses to go mobile. The enhanced campaign upgrade is just another way of conducing advertisers to make the move now. So what are you waiting for? A mobile site and App should be on every digital marketer’s to-do list for 2013. Don’t miss this train if you want to retain your customers.
Back to enhanced campaigns, you may wonder whether you should upgrade or not.
Maybe not yet if you have a complicated mobile campaign or target tablet users only. Enhanced campaigns don’t allow you to target separately mobile and tablets devices or operators (hopefully this will come soon).
Current Campaign Settings:
Enhanced Campaign Settings:
However if you don’t specifically run mobile ads, you should probably upgrade now to benefit from the other positive changes, e.g. the ability to adjust your bids by locations. And if your site is not mobile optimised yet, adjust your mobile bids to -100%: you don’t want to waste your money sending traffic to a site that will provide a terrible user experience.
All campaigns will be moved to enhanced campaigns in June 2013. So the sooner you make the transition the better.
Conclusion
Google products are becoming increasingly integrated and although some of their new features may annoy some at first, they are here to provide users better online experience while helping businesses to more efficiently reach their prospects.
Big Brother is watching you, but that is for your own good! It may sounds authoritarian but Google is certainly in the best position to predict future online trends and as long as personal privacy is respected and multiple choices exist (no, you don’t have to use Google if you don’t want to), I can’t see any reason to be an anti-Google and ignore their advice. Still, it doesn’t mean you have to loose your free will!
So go ahead! Get actionable insights with Google Analytics, engage with your audience with Google+ and YouTube, build your mobile site with Dudamobile, etc. It’s highly recommended and oh, all these tools are FREE!
At FIRST, we’re here to help you creating the best digital strategy for your business.
Contact us today for a free non-obligation chat!