Unlocking the Power of Automated Assets

Written by: Brandon Noftsger

A significant shift occurred on February 1st, as automated ad extensions, or assets, took center stage, surpassing manually created counterparts when the system predicts superior performance. In this dynamic environment, understanding and harnessing the power of these automated assets is crucial. We will dive into the intricacies of this transformative update, guiding you through the navigation and best practices to ensure your search account is primed for success in the age of automation.

Do you know where the automated assets menu is in your search account?

The search marketing world is quickly evolving, as Google continues to work towards AI driven advertisement. The days of extended text ads are over and now we are engaging with AI in nearly every piece of the campaign creation process. In the past, these settings have been optional to support campaigns with the toggle of a switch, but as things progress, we are starting to see these features become enabled by default and prioritized over some of our manually created assets. We’ve seen some of this automation in the way Responsive Search Ads shift headlines based on performance signals, and have witnessed the early stages and testing of automated ad extensions (assets), but as of February 1st those ad extensions or assets will start riding in the front seat and will be prioritized over manually created ads if the system believes? the automatic asset will outperform.

You have probably seen automated assets show up in your asset reports, they often look different than your manually created assets and may have variations in terms of formatting, but they are generally relevant as they are dynamically built from your website. These automated assets are account level and enabled by default, and a bit hidden under several drop down menus in the existing UI. Don’t worry we’ve provided a map!

What is an automated asset?

As the name suggests, Automated Assets are auto populated search ad extensions, with the goal of improving performance with dynamically sourced images, logos, business names, and text assets from your crawled website.?

So why are we talking about this and how could this impact my account?

Previously, if you had manually uploaded an asset, the manually updated version would be prioritized. This created less concern if Automated Assets were being populated in the background. As of a fresh product update on Feb 1st, the automated assets will now have the ability to serve over your manually created assets, if the system believes they will outperform.

While this should improve campaign CTRs and create some new variation in your ad extensions, you may be forfeiting some control over brand messaging, the images that show with your ads, or even the sitelinks that are served. Because of this, you may want to take a peek at your settings and check the assets that have been created to make sure that automated assets aren’t sending someone to a random login page, sharing random images from detail pages, and that they fully fit the brand messaging you’d like to display on your search ads.

As mentioned before, finding those automated asset toggles can be a little challenging, so we’ve provided some instructions so you know where to look!?

From the main screen navigate to the Ads & Assets tab on the left, and click on Assets.

On the right of the screen, select the more button and then select Account-level automated assets.

Next, you’ll head to that same location to find advanced settings.

And you made it! You’ll find the list of dynamic and automatically created assets here.

Best Practices for Selecting Automated Assets

Here are some best practices to keep in mind while deciding which automated assets are right for your account:

• Look up examples and descriptions for each of the listed assets, so you can better understand what these extensions look like and what they do in the wild if you are not already familiar.
• Examine all of the existing automated assets within your accounts to confirm they meet your current messaging needs.
• Do a side-by-side performance comparison against your manually created assets to better understand how clicks are performing when those assets are served.

As AI continues to take the wheel in 2024, we continue to see the search world follow and there is a lot to keep in mind as we understand the impact of these new features, while trying to maintain brand messaging and best practices.

Ready to optimize for automation trends? Reach out to our Add3 team for a personalized account review.