Will Your Business be Rocked by The New Controversial Google Ads Update?

Get Ready to lose 28% of Your Budget’s Visibility

‘Don’t Be Evil’ used to be the mantra of Google, until they removed the clause from their code of conduct in 2018. Perhaps this was a sign of things to come, especially for their highest stream of revenue, paid Google search ads. One recent change that makes me think this was the removal of 28% search query click data from paid keywords (September 2020). Google’s reasoning for this change was to champion “user privacy”, but it’s not quite that simple. Let’s unpack this, the devil is in the detail.

What Changes Have Been Made to Google Ads?

Before Sept 2020 any search ad clicks for the keyword you were bidding on would reveal (in the Google Ads platform) the actual ‘search term’ that the user made. This level of detail helped advertisers understand in a much greater depth where their money was being spent. Such transparency was a win-win situation for specialists and for Google. Specialists would win by taking the time to understand the searches that keywords were triggering and use this information to further optimise their ad delivery. At the same time this was a win for Google as it meant for more relevant ads being shown to users based on their search query.

However, what Google has realised is that having such levels of transparency around data, meant that practitioners were very efficient with their spend. One could quickly hone spend toward highly relevant searches and only pay for such. By making this data less accessible, advertisers now have less visibility on search terms and therefore are forced to be less efficient with how budget is spent.

Why Your Business Should Be Deeply Concerned

Google’s move to hide data from paid search practitioners is a worry. In essence there is less transparency around the actual search terms (clicks) that an advertiser is paying for. Logically, this helps fill Google’s pockets, whilst in the same breath making the SEM practitioners' job much more difficult. To help ease the burden that’s been created I’ve compiled a list of actions to help navigate the new waters.

6 Actions to Compensate for Search Term Data Loss?

1. On Site Search Analysis – Whilst we have much less data regarding the search made on the Google Search Engine, you can easily track 100% of the search data made through your website’s on-site search box. This will rely on users entering the same (or similar) search queries in the website, which may not always be the case, but chances are that the same data will pop up here. Regularly analysing this data will provide significant insights for your paid ads.?

2. Use Larger Data Sets for Finding Negatives – When you are creating or evolving your paid Google Ads account, consider using larger keyword data sets for your keyword research. For example, look at keywords from much larger countries as this could reveal undetectable long tails searches in your local market.

3. Proactive Negative Keyword Research – Rather than just being reactionary to search term data, start building processes to hunt out terms to exclude. For example, take a term or phrase you have identified to be a negative keyword and search for other common behaviours, sentiments and intents that would accompany such terms.

4. Test Concentrated Doses of High Spend – In one sense this is playing right into Google’s hands, but ultimately if you want more data visibility you are going to have to spend more. More spend will equal more data, which will equal more negative terms and faster optimisation. Slow ongoing optimisation is going to lose out more often in the future.?

5. Exact Match Is Your Friend – This one goes without saying but is worth noting as it is truer than ever. Ensure your account has a process that continually ad exact match keywords to it on a regular basis. Focus you spend here. It’s your strong suit.

6. Don’t forget about Bing – Sure people consider it the ugly cousin. But this cousin is packing some serious bling bling. By that I mean data. With the lack of data and transparency being provided from Google, turning to Bing ads may be our next best source of search term data. Take these insights and apply them back to your Google Ads.??

Google is continually testing and changing their Google Ads platform every year. Some changes are carried out in secret and some are only seen by a select few (i.e. private betas). Whichever way you cut it, the angle that is played is that Google is always aiming to improve the Google search experience for its users. However, the removal of search query data under the guise of ‘privacy’ does little to benefit the consumer and does everything to fill the purse of Google.

In summary, increasing vigilance is required for understanding user search intent in the future. As marketers and SEM experts we need to keep finding new ways to understand search intent, no matter how difficult. Perhaps Google’s new mantra should be ‘Don’t Be Easy’.

Links: Professional Google AdWords Management Services Auckland?