Google Ads Trends – We got out the crystal ball!
2018 was a year full of changes to Google's advertising system. First, the name that had been around since 2000 changed. In July, AdWords officially became Google Ads.
The long-announced change to the AdWords dashboard kept many marketers awake at night. Google, month after month, pushed back the deadline for disabling the old panel and replacing it with the new one, which had been available in beta since mid-2017. Finally, in August, the old view was completely disabled, and "conservative" AdWords users were forced to switch to the new, still imperfect, version.
2018 also saw Google's development of "smart" campaigns, powered by self-learning algorithms. New versions of these campaigns emerged, including smart shopping campaigns that combine traditional product ads on the search network with dynamic remarketing, where bids are managed based on the "Target ROAS" strategy.
The past year has also seen Google pushing new attribution models, with a focus on data-driven attribution. Google is constantly trying to force users to abandon last click in favor of other models.
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What's Ahead? – Google Ads Trends in 2019
Combining advertising products
Google's unification of advertising products will undoubtedly be a dominant trend in 2019. The first sign was the name change to Google Ads , followed by the creation of the Google Marketing Platform, which combines Google's already well-known marketing tools, including those formerly known as DoubleClick Bid Manager, DoubleClick Search – Display & Video 360, and Search Ads 360.
With the emergence of new advertising channels in the Google AdWords system , there was a need to organize them.
For example, not every YouTube ad was directly associated with AdWords, which is primarily associated with sponsored links in the Google Search Network. However, it was always the same advertising system.
Under the name Google Ads, it will be much easier to go beyond the search engine framework in terms of associations between users and potential advertisers.
Simplifying campaign management
Considering how the AdWords panel has changed and what new features are being added, Google Ads will undoubtedly continue to become more accessible to the average user. Some solutions criticized by agencies are designed with "laypeople" in mind.
New campaign types based on machine learning
Google will continue to develop its bid management algorithms in 2019. A new campaign type designed for small budgets is not yet available. 2019 will be a year of new strategies aimed at increasing the effectiveness of Google Ads campaigns without the need for manual bid management. AdWords Express may be improved in some way.
YouTube Support
2019 may bring many new solutions for video campaigns. Last year saw the emergence of an interesting new subtype of YouTube campaign focused on maximizing conversions, as well as video campaigns leveraging product feeds from online stores. 2019 will be a year of further development for this channel, moving away from its traditional association with branding activities and focusing on measurable goals and revenue generation.
Changing the classic approach to keywords
In the West, a growing number of mobile device users are using voice searches. Google has long signaled that this will be the future of search. In Poland, this trend is largely unnoticeable, but it will certainly change. In Google Ads, exact keyword matching will continue to expand to accommodate voice searches. It will become increasingly difficult to narrow the keyword pool to specific phrases without including additional keywords.
Personalization of search results
More and more factors influence the search engine's response to a given query. Google will strive to maximize the personalization of search results, likely reducing the number of results spat out. The role of organic results will continue to be diminished in favor of paid results.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- the evolution of the Google advertising system,
- changes in Google Ads, including the integration of advertising tools, the development of automation and machine learning, the increased importance of video campaigns and the personalization of search results.
