You’ll Never Guess What Google Did: Google Livestream Recap

You’ll Never Guess What Google Did: Google Livestream Recap

Google did it again. Yesterday, Google announced their latest and greatest release in AdWords and Analytics 360 Suite for a mobile-first world.

If you were unable to sit in on Google’s Livestream announcement, here are the major PPC takeaways:


1. Longer Ad texts are coming! Get ready to revamp your ad copies in the next couple of months.       Although Google has not revealed a date for the expanded text ads, Google is already rolling out the beta. However, I have a hunch it will be publicly released this July.

With the Expanded Text Ads, the ad copies will include two 30 character headlines and one 80-character length description line.

Google’s product team predicts a 20% increase in CTR due to the shift to longer text ads. So get ready!

2. For get about bidding up or down on the devices campaign settings tab! Google is rolling out with device bidding, which will enable you to have bid modifiers for desktop, mobile, and tablet up to +900%. 

Keep your eyes peeled for this feature, as it will change the way you roll out a mobile-first strategy in the near future! Once Tandem Interactive’s PPC team gets their hands on these devices bid modifiers, our team will be following up with personal findings.Keep your eyes peeled for this feature, as it will change the way you roll out a mobile-first strategy in the near future! Once Tandem Interactive’s PPC team gets their hands on these devices bid modifiers, our team will be following up with personal findings.

3. The experience of AdWords is going to be revolutionized as a whole. Tandem Interactive got a live, sneak peek into the future AdWords layout and let’s just say…Google has yet to meet their match. 

Google is constantly keeping up with both the demands of online marketers and consumers. For those who are in the AdWords and Analytics interfaces daily, you will have more information accessible on user-friendly and visually appealing charts. I know that the entire PPC nerd squad at Tandem is just itching to get their hands on this new interface!

Not to mention, the teasing new rollout of Google Data Studio 360. If you are a PPC guru like the Tandem PPC team, you pull charts monthly, weekly, or even daily and can’t afford the manual labor or headaches from non-OCD formatted reports, you will just die for the new Data Studio 360. The Data Studio 360 enables you to create the most amazing dashboards that are easily shareable. You can pull from several compatible data sources and quickly collaborate with several members of your team. 

Yes, Google has been saying “mobile is the next big thing” for the past couple of years. And we get it Google, everyone has a phone that never leaves their side. Mobile phones are the first thing we reach for in the morning and mobile phones are the last thing you put down at night (unless you wear glasses then second to last). So, it is time for in-house PPC managers and PPC management agencies, to begin efforts to lead with a mobile-first strategy! Mobile is no longer “the next big thing”, mobile is here, mobile is now, and mobile is the most used device for all of the where, what, when, why, and how moments that people are searching for.

“There are trillions of searches on Google and over half of those searches happen on mobile” – Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President - Google

Pubcon Las Vegas 2015: Branding, Mobile, and Beyond

Tandem Interactive's Organic Search Manager/Editor Kimberly McSweeney at Pubcon Las Vegas 2015.

This year, I was fortunate enough to attend Pubcon Las Vegas with Joe in the beginning of October, and to say that I learned a wealth of knowledge during those short four days would be an understatement. For those who may not know much about Pubcon, it is the world’s leading online marketing conference and has been named a must-attend conference by Forbes, and I have to say – they hit the nail on the head.

If you missed Pubcon you arguably missed the largest sharing of SEO/SEM and PPC knowledge to ever take place under one roof. With daily speakers, such as the leaders of the search marketing industry, this was the place to be for those who do SEO and/or have a business or startup.

After day one at Pubcon, it was clear that the theme for the year was branding. Pretty much, if your company is not creating content that serves consumers and gets your name out in the world as a reputable company that is not just there to take your business, you are not doing enough to meet the needs of users. Users don’t only want answers to their questions, they want answers that exceed far beyond the question they asked. Although this may sound impossible, with amazingly engaging content – it isn’t. As Founder of Seer Interactive Wil Reynolds put it, if you are not creating the best piece of content ever written on a subject, you are not doing content right. Users want content that will serve them in a way that will make them better. They want to read your content and be able to take something from it that makes them better, smarter, and…well…serves their egos.

“People don’t buy products, they buy better versions of themselves.” – Wil Reynolds

Once you have the most amazing piece of content created – you need to socialize it. Coupled with creating the best optimized content, socializing content will help build your brand. If you write amazing content and no one can see it on multiple social media platforms, your brand is not going to be engraved in their brains. Users’ minds need to constantly see your ads, your helpful content that answers their questions, your videos, your photos, and logos on Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and whatever the new social media platform will be, in order for them to build awareness of your brand, as well as trust.

Of course, every business with a website wants to know about mobile. As the industry leaders put it at Pubcon, if you are just now thinking about mobile, you are behind. If you are thinking that mobile is going to be big, you are behind. Mobile is here. Mobile is now. If your site is not mobile-friendly you can bet that users are going to your competitor who is mobile compliant. Not only should your site be mobile- friendly already, but if your mobile load times are slow – you can bet users are moving on to a competitor. It may be sad for you and your business, but it is true. With every new generation, attention spans are decreasing and demands are increasing – you need to take the heat and turn it into fire for your company, or get out of the kitchen.

Pubcon Las Vegas 2015 featured the following keynote speakers and hyperlinked is Tandem’s live-blogged coverage for each:

Rand Fishkin: Founder of Moz:  SEO In A Two Algorithm World

Gary Illyes: Google: Generations XYZ

Wil Reynolds: Seer Interactive: The High Cost of Free Traffic

Daune Forrester: Bing: Data is the New Oil

John Brown & Richard Zippel: Google AdSense: Open Format Q&A

Guy Kawasaki: Canva: 10 Tips for Perfecting Your Marketing Campaign in the Age of Social Media

Other Pubcon Sessions Covered by Tandem:

Micro-Moments with Google’s Matt Rogers

Google’s Leo Sei Unmasks AdWords Automated Scripts

Jeffrey Eisenberg (chief Executive at BuyerLegends.com) and Alex Harris (creative director at AlexDesigns.com): High Conversion Landing Pages and the User Persona, The Most Popular Tools for Creating Landing Pages and Campaigns, 8 Measurement Terms for Buyer Legends

Frederick Vallaeys on Google Quality Score: What It Is and How to Improve It

Frederick Vallaeys: AdWords Scripts: Automation and Bid Management, Pubcon Tracks Conversions with Frederick Vallaeys

Michael Gray (Atlas Web Services president and owner of GrayWolfSEO.com): Top WordPress Plugins to Clean Up and Speed Up Your Site

Barry Adams (founder of Polemic Digital): Barry Adams: Crawl Waste & Optimization

Perfecting PPC Ads with Brad Geddes

Google is Strongly Encouraging Mobile-Friendly Sites

How many times have you been told that mobile is becoming increasingly important or the next big thing in search? Have you taken steps to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly? If not, the time has arrived for you to make sure that your website provides an optimal user experience. Google has even confirmed that they are experimenting with using mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal in November. If that does not make you take mobile seriously, only a penalty will.

Google also began sending mass notifications to webmasters who have less-than-mobile-friendly sites. These notifications came with a threat that under-optimized pages would “be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users” (yikes!).

First thing’s first: is your site mobile-friendly or not? Google has made it pretty easy to check with its Mobile-FriendlyTest tool. You can also use Webmaster Tools’ Mobile Usability feature to check for errors and other usability issues. If you find that your site has issues, make it a priority to fix them. Some common fixes are:

• Make sure that your site’s content is readable without zooming and scrolling
• Use inks and navigation that are easy to click on from a mobile device
• Avoid software that is not mobile friendly, like Flash, and avoid excessive JavaScript
• Ensure that your landing pages and contact forms are easy to fill out from a mobile device

Once your site is officially mobile-friendly, Google will slap a “mobile-friendly” label on your organic listing in the SERPs (score!).

Mobile traffic is skyrocketing, but plenty of webmasters are not even sure how much of their traffic is coming from mobile devices. Make sure to check out your site’s mobile traffic in Analytics. It can be found under Audience>Mobile>Overview. You may be shocked to see just how many users are funneling in through their phones.

MTV recently redesigned several of its web properties and reported a 92% boost in mobile visits and 297% increase in time spent for their MTV Shows page. Those are results that speak to the power of mobile!

Whether you are an e-commerce, B2B or B2C website, it is in your best interest to have a mobile-friendly site. Your mobile traffic—and quality of mobile traffic—will see increases, and oh, Google won’t blacklist you from mobile listings. So take the time and make your website is mobile-friendly today!