The hubbub this week:

  1. More Quality Score reporting metrics in Adwords?
  2. In Store Visits Gets More Accurate
  3. Expanded-Expanded Text Ad Testing in Adwords

Scroll down to find all the bitesize hubbub you need!

1. More Quality Score reporting metrics in Adwords?

Search Engine Land

Google+

So it looks like there could be some changes to Quality Score reporting metrics in Adwords.

New Reporting Columns

According to sources at Search Engine Land, there was a short lived post from Google in Israel that shows extra reporting columns to make Quality Score reporting much more useful.

New Menu for Quality Score Metrics. Credit: Search Engine Land

What does this mean?

Currently, it’s quite difficult to analyse and report on the following without having to hover over the pop-ups at keyword level;

  • Landing Page Experience
  • Ad Relevance
  • Expected CTR

From the announcement (which has now been deleted) in Israel, it looks like we could be seeing these as additional columns in the Adwords UI. As well as this, it looks like we may also get access to the following;

  • Quality Score (Historic)
  • Ad Relevance (Historic)
  • Landing Page Experience (Historic)
  • Expected Click Through Rate (Historic)

This means that we will be able to get easier access to Quality Score metrics via the Adwords UI.

What can you do?

Keep checking Adwords to see if anything changes in the UI

When (or if) this update happens, look to utilise the data to make decisions about what to do next. For example;

  • Ad relevance low? Look to update your Ad Copy ensuring that the Keyword is in the Headline, Description Line and Ad Paths
  • Landing Page Experience low? Look to update your landing by either pointing the keyword into a different page or by utilising conversion rate optimisation tools to drive more relevant pages and better results.

Can’t wait? Use a Custom Script

Credit: PPC Hero

There are Custom Scripts available for you to use which will give you access to the above information in a Google Sheet.

PPC Hero has a great one that you can access here.

2. In Store Visits Gets More Accurate

Google Inside Adwords

Marketing Dive

Search Engine Land – a breakdown of the measurement technology behind In Store Visits

Google’s recent innovations for it’s In Store Visits measurements help to ensure that it’s now more accurate and more widely available than ever.

PPC hubbub - In Store Visits

Richer store visit data at the same high level of accuracy

As you know, Google have strict thresholds before they are able to register a store visit conversion. By using Machine Learning, Mapping Technology, Survey Data, and Opted In Location Information from users, Google uses this to help define how ad clicks impact shop visits.

Google continues to evolve it’s measurement technology and say that they have recently made some big strides to help increase the accuracy of a Store Visit conversion.

What does this mean?

Deep Learning in challenging scenarios

Google has upgraded it’s deep learning models to improve how it measures store visits. This means that it’s now able to better understand larger data sets to help challenge issues such as multi-story shopping malls or dense geographies where many business locations may be situated close to each other.

Updates to Geography, Google Earth and Street View

Google have increased efforts to map precise geography and geometry of more business locations. They have refreshed imagery on Google Earth and Street View to help better understand of when buildings begin and end. On the ground, they have also been working with local businesses to help understand boundaries for WiFi signal strengths inside buildings.

Higher quality survey data to verify store visits

Google add an extra layer of verification onto a store visit by asking selected users about their visit. They directly ask visitors which locations that they have visited to match against Google’s predictions. They will then use this data to help with their machine learning.

They have continued to increase the reliability and quality of these surveys using real life audits and checks from their own teams. According to Google, this helps strengthen their accuracy and allows them to report on more store visits that may have been previously missed.

What can you do?

Start using Shop Visit Conversions

If you have physical locations, start using Shop Visit Conversions. You can find the requirements here.

Cross reference data with your own numbers

Already using the data? Have a look through the numbers and see if things have changed. Do they line up more with what you’d expect?

3. Expanded-Expanded Text Ad Testing in Adwords

Search Engine Land

Valerio Celletti

There are reports that Google is looking to test even longer Expanded Text Ads.

What does this mean?

An optional Description Line 2 for Expanded Text Ads

Credit: ValerioCelletti.com

If 80 characters weren’t enough for you, Google could be looking to give some advertisers more room to test with. From the above screenshot in the Adwords UI, Google looks to give the option for an optional additional 80 characters; giving us a total of 160 characters to play with.

What can you do?

For now, not much.

This looks to be a small test. According to Search Engine Land, a Google spokesman said…

Google is constantly testing out new products and features to improve user and advertiser experience.

Not very helpful, but it at least admits that they are already looking to test with Expanded Text Ads.

Test, Test, Test

If you start to see this in your Adwords UI, look to test this ASAP. This has to give you a big advantage over your competitors, so why not exploit it?

We have given you some testing tips for Expanded Text Ads here.