PPC News Roundup: AdWords’ New Interactive Option With Call Bid Adjustments

Rachel Poole and Sarah Kemp detail the latest in paid search industry news, including AdWords’ recent call bid adjustment, Facebook’s ad ‘creep’ and the addition of vacation rentals to Hotel Search.

 AdWords’ New Interactive Option With Call Bid Adjustments

Google is releasing a brand new AdWords bid adjustment that is primarily focused on telephone calls, and will determine the frequency of which call data appears throughout mobile search ads.

Ginny Marvin wrote on 26^th July:

For example, if you’re a travel advertiser, you may see higher order values from calls because it can be easier to cross-sell rental cars, group tours and other vacation add-ons during a live conversation. Raise your call bid adjustments to show call extensions more frequently and drive more of these high-value call conversions.

This new feature is only available within campaigns in AdWords’ new interface, and is simply the most recent in Google’s plans to improve and tweak its AdWords user experience.

Facebook Ad Tests See Surges In Revenue

Facebook’s ‘ad load’ has seen adverts spread in vast majority across its sole platform, and has left it facing the challenge of making money without bombarding its users with too much advertising.

Now, the social media giant has found a solution.

Other favoured apps such as Instagram and Messenger now play host to Facebook ads, as part of a new and creative way to let businesses advertise their products and services. So far so good – last month Facebook reported a 71% increase in net income to $3.89 billion.

It is a work in progress, and the Facebook experts are working on this algorithm to improve user experiences.

On this story, Mark Zuckerberg commented that he is “confident we are going to get this right over the long term”.

Hotel Search Populated With Holiday Rentals

By adding holiday rentals to its well-known hotel search, Google is making its mark within the holiday rental space.

While this change won’t affect advertisers in the holiday rental market – who can redirect their spend to this location - it could have an adverse effect on holiday rental sites such as Flipkey, HomeAway and Airbnb.

Google is estimated to already have approximately 7,000 listings in popular destinations such as Paris, Madrid, Venice, Barcelona, Lisbon and Rome to name a few. While Airbnb has approximately 3 million listings across the globe including over 191 countries, 1,400 castles and 65,000 cities, Google’s listings encompass the quick-trip, easy weekend-away locations.

If users start leveraging Google’s newest feature for these listings, particularly as it adds more destinations to its selection, third party sites could suffer.

AdWords Automotive – A Positive For Individual Dealerships?

Google AdWords’ updated mobile ad format sees an image carousel, sitelinks and the URL/title, which has provided some interesting new opportunities for advertisers within the automotive vertical.

By replicating a showroom experience, Google lets advertisers gain more understanding of their buyer journeys to car purchases, including frequency of search terms and which brands are searched the most.

While multiple vehicle brands appear in search, it looks as though some are triggered when a competitor’s vehicle is searched.

RankHammer’s Steve Hammer tweeted:

It’s the graphics and boxed links that are wild. Two ads are the whole screen… This is a very aggressive competitor ad - searched for a Volvo - and Acura shows.

Although ‘aggressive’, this new rollout could enhance Google user experiences, giving them access to a wider range of information when conducting research. Nowadays, buyers may not remain loyal to a particular brand of car, and instead focus mainly on what the design has to offer.

Brandon Seymour of Beymour Consulting added:

“Yeah impressive. Just thought it was interesting that I didn’t see any competitors showing up for the other makes/models. But then lol”. He then attached a screen shot which showed his search for a Toyota Highlander, then accompanied by a competing Ford Explorer.

It seems as though competition is rife among car makers who have partnered with Google, who have done so to promote their images in search results. This new feature can prove to be positive for individual car dealerships, as it gives their customers time to learn more about the car they want, which will in turn make the purchase process quicker and smoother.

More Paid Search News and Advice

Check out our last PPC news roundup: AdWords To Support Remarketing To YouTube Viewers

Contact us today to see how our Paid Search experts can help to maximise your ROI and campaign results by implementing best practices, years of industry experience and a review of your current PPC strategies.