Google Ads Makes Updates to Automated Extensions

Here are the facts: Google announced that automated extensions will be able to show alongside the manually added extensions. Updates are coming to sitelink, callout, and structured snippet extensions. However, there’s always some fine print in Google’s glowy improvements.

How was your experience with Google extensions so far? Which extensions do you think are most effective?

At Quantikal, we like to use different extensions and analyze them in comparison to non-brand base search ads (ads that show without any extensions). With our top client, we can compare call, image, and callout extensions to our base click-through rate (CTR), which was 4.5%*. Our call extensions ads showed a 7.7% CTR, image extensions a 4.9%, and callout extensions 6.2%. In general, we see that extensions do create opportunities for a lift in CTR. Therefore, we believe that a proper setting for extensions needs to be in order, and that’s why we care about any feature that Google decides to put out in this area.

These Google changes are soon to be available in mid-March. Let’s take a closer look at the details, shall we?

Previously, if your ads had manual extensions created, your ad would only be eligible to show those. With this update, your ad would now be able to show your manual extensions and automated extensions simultaneously. This is another ongoing automation move from Google, trying to provide ads with more tools to allow advertisers to increase their ad’s CTR. Keep in mind that your account must be opted into automated extensions to show. You will be able to pause or remove any automated extension, allowing easier management of your campaigns. You can now identify which extensions were created manually and which ones were automatically created by Google.

With this new feature, ad eligibility will change. Extensions are eligible to show if Google’s machine learning algorithm predicts that your ads will improve performance. As always, Google assumes that advertisers prefer their machine algorithm above their team-created ad version. Are we sure that their algorithmically generated ads are failproof?

Google’s constant push towards automation means that advertisers will continue to give up control for easier implementation. To give you more intel, we want to share some of our experiences with Google automation tools gone awry.

At Quantikal, we had some mishaps recently with Responsive Display Ads (RDA). With this format, Google allows you to upload a series of headlines and descriptions so that the algorithm can automatically mix and match to optimal combinations. However, we found an example where the combined ad headlines were missing a critical piece of information. In this particular case, we were selling car tires through RDAs with an automobile accessories client of ours that has many important financial offerings. Things went amiss when we realized that the combined ads listed out these financial offerings without detailing that the product was a specific car accessory and not a car itself, so the ad was easily mistaken for a new car advertisement. 

Google’s faulty ad combination algorithm could never figure out if the ad created with this method makes actual sense. This automation feature does not allow advertisers to anchor specific titles that they want to make sure are included, so sometimes the main product descriptor is missing to create an effective ad. Today, still, machines can’t grasp semantics as well as humans, so clearly there are limitations to these types of automation.  

So, creators beware: although these changes allow for easier management and visibility regarding the automated extensions created and allow higher lift in performance, you must review extensions in their final stage, as it would be shown to the consumer to make sure it all makes sense.

Without fail and as we always do, we will review these features and analyze them as soon as they hit the market to keep you in the loop of Google’s changes. Stick around!

*Quantikal MCC Google Ads aggregated account data from different client 23/01/2022 to 21/02/2022

Google Launches Placement Reports for Performance Max campaigns

Google recently launched new placement reports for Performance Max campaigns, but nothing is ever quite as shiny as it seems. Have you tried it yet? Tell us what you think in the comments below!

Here’s the lowdown: Google Ads’ placement reports were made for advertisers to see where ads are placed for Performance Max campaigns along with the amount of impressions they get. The catch? Despite this alluring new feature, Performance Max campaigns have been poorly designed from the start.

For those not familiar with this campaign type, Performance Max campaigns allow advertisers to access their Google Ads inventory from a single campaign that’s designed to complement keyword-based search campaigns in order to find more converting customers. It can “drive better performance against your goals, unlock new audiences across all Google channels, steer automation with your campaign inputs and simplify campaign management,” according to the Google Ads Help platform. But according to us, this is just a clever new way to mask something mediocre by trying to sell it as “easy.”

Google has explained that now the Ads platform provides more in-depth information about where the Performance Max campaign ads are being displayed, but the data provided only shows where they are served and the amount of impressions. This leaves out a very important detail: click data. Why wouldn’t they show the most important part of the ad landscape?

Although this campaign type combines search, display, and shopping ads, the available metrics and control settings are very limited.  For example, metrics are not broken down by search term or keyword, so branded keywords cannot be separated from non-branded keywords—a critical oversight. Also, there isn’t any control offered for selective placements or excluding placements.

The only allowed base setting that’s now included in this campaign type is location and ad scheduling, which makes it incredibly visible that this type of campaign is inadequate in terms of control. Did Google really think that advertisers would be happy about this launch?

Google’s public launch statement says: “Placement reports for Performance Max campaigns are a new reporting resource for advertisers to easily see where on Google’s channels ads have served and associated impressions. We created these reports to give advertisers more transparency and assurance around where their ads are showing.”

That’s all well and good, except that we wouldn’t call it “transparent” if it only provides mainly two aspects of ad control. It looks like Google is targeting small account advertisers with this campaign type. Even for advertisers that want to minimize the complexity of their ad setup, the sacrifice of control is just too much of a downside to make the change worthwhile.

It’s understandable that Google wants to help smaller advertisers grow, but giving up so much agency on critical settings like keywords, negative keywords, and negative placements—just to name a few—simply doesn’t add up.

As this story unfolds, we intend to follow along with this blind-as-a-bat campaign type and its placement reports to see if it evolves or gets any advertiser adoption. We’ll make sure to share any updates or changes over time. Stay tuned!

Google Launches Free Deals Listings in Search Results

Google’s latest offering for e-commerce businesses is an option to list deals within search results. The tool is free for all merchants and takes advantage of the fact that today’s consumers are looking for ways to save money when they shop.

This launch may sound like a win for brands, but is it really? Google is almost universally beloved by consumers as a search platform, but as a merchant or advertiser, the story is a little bit different. Because Google’s focus is providing a positive search experience—and increasing its own revenue—it doesn’t always favor businesses on the other side of the equation.

With each new feature, it’s important to look beyond the initial praise to understand what the change really means for businesses. Here’s what we know about the free deals listing so far.

First, the deals will show up in the regular shopping tab, allowing consumers to monitor one single location for all relevant products. The difference is that the tab will now show product listings that are discounted, highlighting the savings with a green tag in the top left corner of the listing.

Google also announced that in October, it will use this same feature to highlight the best deals for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other significant shopping moments throughout the year.

Unfortunately, even with a discount loaded into your product listing, there’s no guarantee that Google will display your offer to consumers. Its algorithm will still take into account other factors like the product’s popularity, your site’s popularity, and how significant the discount is. This could mean that despite taking the time to update your listings, you won’t see any results from the change.

With all this in mind, here’s our take: Because the tool is completely free for merchants to use, there’s very little downside to running a few tests and monitoring how the deals tool performs for your products. If you already have shopping campaigns set up, setting up the deals feature for a few of your bestsellers should be a simple update. Just make sure to test a variety of products and discounts to understand what works best for your brand.

If you decide to go this route, now is a great time to get started. You may still be able to take advantage of early adopter benefits before the tool is widely used by your competitors. You’ll also have time to learn how to optimize your use of the tool before we hit holiday shopping booms. At that point, you’ll be in a prime position to capitalize on your (hopefully) increased return.

We’re really hoping this tool gains traction and Google delivers on its promise, but we haven’t forgotten how Google’s first organic search tool was affected (and organic results were diluted) when it expanded from three paid search results to four.

So, will this remain a free deal listing, or will it just be an experiment for a future paid extension? Only time will tell. Drop a comment bellow on your thoughts.

In the meantime, since it’s free to implement, try it out and see what you find. We’d love to hear from you if you have any interesting takeaways from your experiments. As always, we’ll continue to monitor the landscape and report back with any updates or changes over time.

Job Position | Junior Regional PPC Analyst (Part Time)

We are looking for a Junior PPC Marketing Analyst to join our team. 

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

We are Quantikal, a fast-growing performance marketing agency. We work with lead generation and e-commerce clients all over the world while based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are a Google Certified Partner agency with more than US$15 MM of ad spend under management per year.  

Qualifications

⬛ Able to work 30 hours a week during US EST business hours time zone.

⬛ A self-starter that requires minimal supervision and proactive in getting work completed without constant direction.

⬛ Resourceful and persistent in problem-solving.

⬛ Energetic, client-focused self-starter with a positive “can-do” attitude

⬛Great analytical and problem-solving skills

⬛ Methodical, detail-oriented and a high degree of intellectual curiosity (constant learner)

⬛ Ability to work under tight deadlines and thrive under pressure-filled situations

⬛ Creative problem solver with strong communication and interpersonal skills

⬛ University degree o close to graduating from Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, Economics or Marketing careers.

⬛ Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills. Must feel comfortable participating in conference calls with clients while presenting their work.  

Responsibilities 

➡️ Manage a portfolio of marketing campaigns from on-boarding to day-to-day maintenance.

➡️ Manage day-to-day Search Engine Marketing campaigns across different networks such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

➡️ Create, develop, maintain and optimize Google Ads and Facebook Ads campaigns towards client’s performance goals (CPA/ROAS/ROI).

➡️ Design and regularly maintain account reports for clients. 

➡️ Constantly innovate and test new platforms to help clients achieve their business goals.  

➡️ Execute tests, collect and analyze data, identify trends/insights to achieve maximum ROI in paid search campaigns.

➡️ Generate weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and/or quarterly performance reports for clients, and ability to recognize and troubleshoot data anomalies.

Desirable 

◾ Google Ads Certified/Facebook Ads Blueprint Certified 

◾ Database knowledge such as Google Data Studio, BigQuery, SQL 

◾ Python

Benefits

✅ Competitive salary 

✅ Flexible hours

✅ High growth potential

✅ Remote work

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

Job Position | Regional PPC Analyst

We are looking for a SSr PPC Marketing Analyst to join our team. 

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

We are Quantikal, a fast-growing performance marketing agency. We work with lead generation and e-commerce clients all over the world while based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are a Google Certified Partner agency with more than US$15 MM of ad spend under management per year.  

Qualifications

⬛ Able to work 40 hours a week during US EST business hours time zone.

⬛ A self-starter that requires minimal supervision and proactive in getting work completed without constant direction.

⬛ Resourceful and persistent in problem-solving.

⬛ Energetic, client-focused self-starter with a positive “can-do” attitude

⬛Great analytical and problem-solving skills

⬛ Methodical, detail-oriented and a high degree of intellectual curiosity (constant learner)

⬛ Ability to work under tight deadlines and thrive under pressure-filled situations

⬛ Creative problem solver with strong communication and interpersonal skills

⬛ University degree o close to graduating from Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, Economics or Marketing careers.

⬛ Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills. Must feel comfortable participating in conference calls with clients while presenting their work.  

Responsibilities 

➡️ Manage a portfolio of marketing campaigns from on-boarding to day-to-day maintenance.

➡️ Manage day-to-day Search Engine Marketing campaigns across different networks such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

➡️ Create, develop, maintain and optimize Google Ads and Facebook Ads campaigns towards client’s performance goals (CPA/ROAS/ROI).

➡️ Design and regularly maintain account reports for clients. 

➡️ Constantly innovate and test new platforms to help clients achieve their business goals.  

➡️ Execute tests, collect and analyze data, identify trends/insights to achieve maximum ROI in paid search campaigns.

➡️ Generate weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and/or quarterly performance reports for clients, and ability to recognize and troubleshoot data anomalies.

Desirable 

◾ Google Ads Certified/Facebook Ads Blueprint Certified 

◾ Database knowledge such as Google Data Studio, BigQuery, SQL 

◾ Python

Benefits

✅ Competitive salary 

✅ Flexible hours

✅ High growth potential

✅ Remote work

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

Google Marketing Livestream 2021

Google’s Marketing Livestream 2021 was packed full of information about new and upcoming tools for Google Ads and related products. Here are some of our key takeaways from the two-hour videos. 

Work from home has changed the way people’s shopping habits. Google saw an uptick in sales of top half clothing but saw a dip in work pants!  

Bidding Recommendations

Google also expanded tROAS bidding to Video Action campaigns and Discovery Ads.

Darshan Kantak (VP Product Mgmt, Search Ads) recommending Broad Match keywords + RSA + Smart Bidding. Seeing average of 20% more conversions at a similar cost. It seems Google is more so than ever pushing their Google Ads automation to help you bid effectively! (Have you felt this to be true? Comment below!)

New Tools

One of the more intriguing developments was the upcoming Demand Forecast tool that will help users more effectively plan for changes in search behavior. Will be great for new and growing Ad users who have not been through a full yearly cycle with their product or service. 

Ecommerce Growth

Bill Ready (President of Commerce) reported that in 4Q 2020, year over year growth was 3 times the rate of the same period in 2019! Obviously, the pandemic has changed the way people shop. It also contributed to a growth of over 3000% in curbside pickups! Just shows that businesses are adapting! We hope yours has adapted as well. 

Shopping Integrations

Google and Shopify are releasing more integrations! This is pushing Google and E-commerce even further than ever before. Google announced ShopPay as a payment option across Google platforms. Making it easier for customers to pay via Shopify/Google is huge. 

Google is making it easier for you to shop all in one place with a new “deals results” page for search and shopping. It’s what consumers want!

Video Ads + Product Feeds

Product feeds have shown great performance for e-commerce brands through shopping campaigns. Now Google wants to expand the exposure to other formats like Youtube, Discover, and Gmail. And it seems that pushing direct response and branding combination is working. Check out the quote below:

“In March, when we compared more than 900 Video action campaigns, we found advertisers that added product feeds drove 60% more conversions at a lower cost, compared to advertisers that didn’t add product feeds,” Google said in its announcement.

So, did you watch the event? What are your thoughts? Drop a comment down below!

#google #liveevent #googleads #digitalmarketing

Job Position | Senior Paid Media Team Leader

We are looking for a top PPC professional to join our team.

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

We are Quantikal, a fast-growing performance marketing agency. We work with lead generation and e-commerce clients all over the world while based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We oversee over US $15MM per year through or Google Ads MCC alone and growing.

We are looking for people with a hunger for success and looking for a fast-paced agency to grow and hone their marketing skills.

Important: Please apply only if you have an analytical background (see degrees below) and have a high English fluency. This means you can have a fluent video call conversation with a client. Failure to comply will be rejected immediately.

Responsibilities

⬛ Lead a team of 4 high-performing PPC analysts. Supervise and have responsibility for their work, train, and develop them.

⬛ Manage and organize weekly workflow for a team of analysts.

⬛ Account management: be able to participate in client calls, manage client’s expectations on tasks, PPC cost, potential business impact, recommendations, and overall account strategy.

⬛ Involved in agency recruitment.

⬛ Create, develop, maintain, and optimize Google Ads and Facebook Ads campaigns towards client’s performance goals (CPA/ROAS/ROI).

⬛ Work closely with design teams to develop high-performing ad creatives and landing pages.

⬛ Design and regularly maintain account reports for clients.

⬛ Constantly innovate and test new platforms to help clients achieve their business goals.

⬛ Integrate PPC platforms to other analytics tools (Callrail, Zapier, Google Data Studio, Google Bigquery, and other platforms).

Qualifications

➡️ Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering (preferred), business administration, economics, or other analytical degrees.

➡️ At least 3 years of Google Ads daily work experience.

➡️ Methodical and detail-oriented.

➡️ Energetic, client-focused self-starter with a positive “can-do” attitude.

➡️ Great analytical and problem-solving skills.

➡️ Expert juggler: ability to handle multiple “bowling pins in the air” at the same time without dropping any.

➡️ Ability to work under tight deadlines and thrive in pressure-filled situations.

➡️ Creative problem solver with strong communication and interpersonal skills.

➡️ Proficient in Microsoft Suite, especially Excel.

➡️ Self-starter with a high degree of intellectual curiosity (constant learner).

➡️ Advanced English level: both verbal and written form. Must feel comfortable participating in conference calls with clients while presenting their work.

Desirable

◾ Experience leading teams of analysts.

◾ Experience working with Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Ads).

◾ Database knowledge such as Google Data Studio, BigQuery, SQL

Benefits

✅ Competitive salary

✅ 3 Weeks Vacation

✅ Medical Coverage (OSDE)

✅ Flexible hours

✅ Hybrid work

✅ High growth potential

✅ English classes

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

Job Position | Senior Regional PPC Analyst

We are looking for a SSr PPC Marketing Analyst to join our team. 

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

We are Quantikal, a fast-growing performance marketing agency. We work with lead generation and e-commerce clients all over the world while based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are a Google Certified Partner agency with more than US$15 MM of ad spend under management per year.  

Qualifications

⬛ Mote than 3 years of experience in managing paid media campaigns.

⬛ Ad agency experience preferred

⬛ Able to work 40 hours a week during US EST business hours time zone.

⬛ A self-starter that requires minimal supervision and proactive in getting work completed without constant direction.

⬛ Resourceful and persistent in problem-solving.

⬛ Energetic, client-focused self-starter with a positive “can-do” attitude

⬛Great analytical and problem-solving skills

⬛ Methodical, detail-oriented and a high degree of intellectual curiosity (constant learner)

⬛ Ability to work under tight deadlines and thrive under pressure-filled situations

⬛ Creative problem solver with strong communication and interpersonal skills

⬛ University degree o close to graduating from Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, Economics or Marketing careers.

⬛ Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills. Must feel comfortable participating in conference calls with clients while presenting their work.  

Responsibilities 

➡️ Manage a portfolio of marketing campaigns from on-boarding to day-to-day maintenance.

➡️ Manage day-to-day Search Engine Marketing campaigns across different networks such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

➡️ Create, develop, maintain and optimize Google Ads and Facebook Ads campaigns towards client’s performance goals (CPA/ROAS/ROI).

➡️ Design and regularly maintain account reports for clients. 

➡️ Constantly innovate and test new platforms to help clients achieve their business goals.  

➡️ Execute tests, collect and analyze data, identify trends/insights to achieve maximum ROI in paid search campaigns.

➡️ Generate weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and/or quarterly performance reports for clients, and ability to recognize and troubleshoot data anomalies.

Desirable 

◾ Google Ads Certified/Facebook Ads Blueprint Certified 

◾ Database knowledge such as Google Data Studio, BigQuery, SQL 

◾ Python

Benefits

✅ Competitive salary 

✅ Flexible hours

✅ High growth potential

✅ Remote work

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

Job Position | Ssr Regional PPC Analyst

We are looking for a SSr PPC Marketing Analyst to join our team. 

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

We are Quantikal, a fast-growing performance marketing agency. We work with lead generation and e-commerce clients with focus in the US market while based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are a Google Certified Partner agency with more than US$15 MM of ad spend under management per year.  

Qualifications

⬛ 1 or more years of experience in managing Google Ads Search campaigns.

⬛ Ad agency experience preferred

⬛ Able to work 40 hours a week during US EST business hours time zone.

⬛ A self-starter that requires minimal supervision and proactive in getting work completed without constant direction.

⬛ Resourceful and persistent in problem-solving.

⬛ Energetic, client-focused self-starter with a positive “can-do” attitude

⬛Great analytical and problem-solving skills

⬛ Methodical, detail-oriented and a high degree of intellectual curiosity (constant learner)

⬛ Ability to work under tight deadlines and thrive under pressure-filled situations

⬛ Creative problem solver with strong communication and interpersonal skills

⬛ University degree o close to graduating from Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, Economics or Marketing careers.

⬛ Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills. Must feel comfortable participating in conference calls with clients while presenting their work.  

Responsibilities 

➡️ Manage a portfolio of marketing campaigns from on-boarding to day-to-day maintenance.

➡️ Manage day-to-day Search Engine Marketing campaigns across different networks such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

➡️ Create, develop, maintain and optimize Google Ads and Facebook Ads campaigns towards client’s performance goals (CPA/ROAS/ROI).

➡️ Design and regularly maintain account reports for clients. 

➡️ Constantly innovate and test new platforms to help clients achieve their business goals.  

➡️ Execute tests, collect and analyze data, identify trends/insights to achieve maximum ROI in paid search campaigns.

➡️ Generate weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and/or quarterly performance reports for clients, and ability to recognize and troubleshoot data anomalies.

Desirable 

◾ Google Ads Certified/Facebook Ads Blueprint Certified 

◾ Database knowledge such as Google Data Studio, BigQuery, SQL 

◾ Python

Benefits

✅ Competitive salary 

✅ Flexible hours

✅ High growth potential

✅ Remote work

To apply send resume to jobs@quantikal.com.

Keywords

Never Ever Use These Match Types Together

To the tune of Taylor Swift’s song.

It has been some time that I wanted to sit down and write this post. I cringe every time I see incorrect use match type in a client’s account.

As of today you can choose from four type of match types:

  • Exact
  • Broad Modified Match (BMM)
  • Generic broad
  • Phrase

Care to guess which ones are ok and which are not?

Explaining this concept to my clients, I always like to do a small exercise of the imagination. It goes somewhat like this: imagine a car. This car is similar to any other car but the difference is each time you press on the gas pedal, the windshield wipers begin working. Every time you hit on the breaks the right doors open. Each time you signal left or right, your car seat reclines. Now imagine trying to drive this imaginary car on your daily commute from home to work. Yes, it will drive you crazy!

Managing and trying to optimize an account with most of the keywords are generic broad or phrase match is like driving that car.

So now you know that Exact and BMM match types are ok, the other two, not so much.

So the begging questions is why?

There are two major concepts on selecting keyword match type, coverage and linear independence.

Coverage is the ability of having a small set of keywords that cover an important amount of user search queries of the interested category you compete in. Coverage is lowest with Exact match as the probability to match a certain user search query is lower than other types of matches. In the other extreme, the Generic Broad has the highest coverage. However, this high coverage comes at a price. A very steep price indeed as you will see below, the price is low independence.

Linear independence is the ability for one keyword of behaving independently of other keywords in the same account. We can think of it as low interdependence or low cannibalization of searches between each keyword. For those of you that remember some algebra, it is similar to the concept of avoiding the co-linearity of vectors. Now, keywords and semantic objects are not vectors. However, organizing an account as clean as possible is the first step to been able to optimize the account in the future through keyword bidding.

Why then do broad generic keywords have low independence? And why should it matter? There two main problems with broad generic keywords:

1) Not all the keywords needed to be present in the query to activate the match. What we call the partial match.

2) Google allows the use of synonyms on broad generic.

This generates many search queries that may not be aligned to your business offerings or there is a lost opportunity of handling a generic keyword as a mixed bag of intentions. Let’s take one example from the auto industry. One might say that the adjective “used” car and “pre-owned” car means the same and Google might interpret them as synonyms. However, I can tell you from experience that keywords +used +car and +pre +owned +car do not behave the same. For a used car classifieds site, generally, the “pre-owned” term usually has a higher conversion rate. Because of this conversion rate difference, it is important to have these terms separated using BMM structure instead of a generic match type. This will allow to bid separately for each term optimizing the account better.

So remember, every time you use a generic broad match a SEM fairy dies. Joking aside, I recommend using a mix of 5%/10% exact match keywords and 90%/95% BMM keywords.

Think about building a good structure and keyword base for account optimization through keyword bidding.

Happy bidding.