PPC News Roundup: Local Packs Get Ad Tag Placement Test

Rachel Poole and Sarah Kemp detail the latest in paid search industry news, including Google’s local packs ad placement test, a new look for AdWords ads and Bing Ads’ new way to alter campaign budgets.

Local Packs Get Ad Tag Placement Test

Google is conducting tests on its local packs on mobile. These tests focus on the location of the “Ads” tags, which tend to be inserted in the review stars line.

Jennifer Slegg of The SEM Post writes:

When a listing has no review stars, it drops the ads tag even further in the listing, inexplicably adding it to the address line instead, which is the third line in the listing.

 It would be unusual for an ad tag to appear so low down, which is why Google’s latest test aims to determine the impact it could have. For now, this is the default setting for when a local pack doesn’t have review stars.

A New Look For AdWords Ads

There’s an AdWords renovation happening, and it’s exclusive to mobile users. But what are the changes?

• Sitelinks Carousel – horizontal buttons and vertical links enlarged
• Callouts and Snippets – instead of separate lines underneath the ad, they’ll be integrated into the body copy

Google has anticipated that these changes will have positive impacts across the board – with new improvements, users “are two times as likely to interact with sitelinks”. Google also states, with regard to callout and snippet changes; “user studies have found this new format to be more informative and engaging”.

This much-anticipated makeover is set to happen later on this month, although there are no hard dates as of yet.

Facebook’s ‘Accidental Clicks’ Removal Spree

Good news for advertisers on the social media giant’s Audience Network – they’ll no longer have to pay for users who click their ads by accident.

Anthony Ha writes:

Facebook is sorting out unintentional clicks by discounting instances where a user bounces back after two seconds or less. After all, if you clicked on an ad and then immediately clicked back, you probably didn’t care about the ad.

According to Product Marketing Manager Brett Vogel, unintentional clicks don’t provide users or advertisers with a good experience as it affects engagement and business sustainability.

Bing Ads’ New Ways To Alter Campaign Budgets

Bing is adding ‘conversion estimates’ to its Opportunity page, in correlation to budget suggestions.

Here’s what the Bing team had to say on the matter:

Incorporating your conversion data into your campaign suggestions can make them more useful and relevant to your business goals. As such we have already released three new suggestions this year based on conversion data for remarketing, location, and time/day bid adjustments.

This change will make it much easier for advertisers to plan strategically and make profitable decisions during the campaign planning process.

More Paid Search News and Advice

Check out our last PPC news roundup: AdWords’ New Interactive Option With Bid Call Adjustments

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