The Evolution of Enhanced Campaigns
In February, Google launched Enhanced Campaigns, a major change to the way pay per click marketing is managed. The change, as we pointed out back in February, infuriated diligent advertisers like us, who were quick to point out that Enhanced Campaigns would not offer the crucial ability to make mobile bid adjustments at ad group level.
So they have been listening!
Yesterday, Google announced that this particular flaw in the new system will (thankfully) be ironed out in May:
“Ad group mobile bid adjustments: To provide more control and precision over bids in an enhanced campaign, advertisers will soon be able to set a mobile bid adjustment at the ad group level. This functionality will be available to all advertisers in mid-May.
“We think this may be useful if you’ve been operating large scale campaigns and found that your optimal bids for some keywords would require significantly different mobile bid adjustments within an enhanced campaign.”
Google: we’re not finished with you yet
While we’re mightily relieved that we won’t have to struggle with this particular problem, there are still some issues which worry us about Enhanced Campaigns. For example, the assumption that tablet users behave in the same way as desktop users is one we’d disagree with quite strongly.
As Ben K pointed out in our agency round-up on Enhanced Campaigns in February: “with Enhanced Campaigns, it will no longer be possible to target tablet solely, as they have now decided to include tablets in the desktop and laptop target settings.
“This is absurd, as users are 20% more likely to convert on tablet than on desktop or laptop. Therefore it would be ideal to target these devices separately to optimise for a better ROI.”
The evidence is mounting
Now Econsultancy has posted a detailed analysis of the problem: Is Google right to group desktop and tablet together in Enhanced Campaigns?
The article points out that the general opinion among advertisers is that Enhanced Campaigns is a move to force marketers to increase mobile, and not just a way to simplify Adwords. It also looks at seven reports which highlight the difference between tablets and desktops.
The conclusion, which matches ours, is that by lumping together desktops and tablets, Google is making it very difficult for marketers to optimise their campaigns based on the user behaviour they would expect from their individual consumer base.
We hope that Google will take note of all the evidence, and of our collective pleas, and make this the next thing they change with their ever-intriguing Enhanced Campaigns.
