Google has rolled out three updates over the past few months that have flown under the radar: These changes will affect all advertisers to varying degrees, so it’s important to understand them and act accordingly.
New Interface
Google Ads every few years redesign The administration interface has been revamped to improve usability and integration of new features. The existing design will be phased out on August 30th. The most significant change is the introduction of a single central menu.
Previously, the left navigation was a long menu of options. It was easy to get lost. Despite the presence of submenus, users had to scroll to see all the options. Moreover, the top menu had a “Tools and Settings” option, which contained conversion settings and performance features. The categorization was confusing.
The new menu has five high-level categories, each with multiple options.
- campaign,
- the goal,
- tool,
- Claim,
- Administrator.
For example, “Campaigns” is the hub for your campaign settings, assets, keywords, etc.
The new menu, Campaigns, is your hub for campaign settings, assets, keywords, and more.
The new menu is cleaner and includes non-administrative items like Page Appearance and Notifications, and also includes a more prominent search bar for accessing all pages and campaigns in your account.
Partial match queries
Google emphasized Partial Match In recent years, machine learning and AI have become available to better target users. In my own testing, I have found that broad match is less efficient than phrase match and exact match, but it usually generates more revenue.
One concern with broad match keywords is that Brand Keywords Goals. For example, if Best Buy bids on a broad match version of their name, their branded ads could appear for searches for “flat screen television.”
Keep in mind that Google matches queries freely. Bidding on a brand name does not mean that the query is that term. “Brand inclusion” tells Google to only show your ad if your brand is included. So an ad for the “Best Buy” brand would only show if the query contained a variation of those two words. Brand inclusion is available to campaigns that only use broad match keywords.
“Brand inclusion” tells Google to only show your ad if it includes your brand. Click on image to enlarge.
Conversely, regardless of match type, Exclusion Available to all campaigns. For example, Best Buy can bid on “Flat Screen TVs” in a non-branded campaign and exclude their ads from queries containing “Samsung.” Best Buy can add “Samsung” as a negative keyword, but the brand exclusion will cover all variations.
Another query update is Negative KeywordsPreviously, negative keywords had to be exact – “dinosaur” only applied to the exact spelling of that word. But with this update, negative keywords can now also be applied to:
- “Dionsaurus”
- “Dinosar”
- “Denosaurus”.
Check your search queries report to see if the misspelling is driving conversions. If it is, consider adding the misspelled version as a negative keyword.
Change payment method
Google has changed the payment methods they accept. From now on, only direct bank payments are allowed. Advertisers will no longer be able to pay with credit or debit cards. We have received conflicting notification emails regarding the effective date (July 31st or August 31st). In any case, advertisers should update their payment method immediately to either monthly invoices or direct debit from their bank accounts.
By eliminating credit cards, Google will no longer have to pay processing fees, but the change will come as a blow to advertisers who will no longer receive credit card rewards, rewards and a much-needed cash flow buffer.
