It’s June and the AdWords enhanced campaign deadline is upon us. Some SEM account managers tend not to like change, and how can you blame us…in an age where Google largely owns the market for our search engine marketing efforts, we all get used to AdWords Editor and the campaign setup structure it encourages. Google however, isn’t a company known for complacency, and SEM account managers will always have to get used to a new feature, a new user experience or new product integration. This brings us to a key question regarding enhanced campaigns: Is Google pushing account managers toward the future, which will be defined by mobile traffic, or are they creating a system in which account managers will find it easy to ignore the mobile traffic segment?
Google’s Take
If you head over to Google’s enhanced campaign features and information page, they emphasize three key points: Reach, Context and Reporting. The argument they are making is that every Pay Per Click management company should be paying more attention to mobile traffic, and much as Facebook makes it nearly impossible not to share everything with everyone, Google is now telling PPC account managers they should be showing all their ads to every device unless they want to spend a fair amount of time to disable those settings. In return for doing so, Google informs us, there will be better statistics, greater flexibility and an easy-to-use reporting interface.
The Devil’s Advocate
Let’s presume for a moment that there may be some SEM account managers out there who enjoyed segmenting their mobile and desktop search campaigns at the campaign level and aren’t excited to have the two blended after years of data segmented by device at a high level. An argument can certainly be made that enhanced campaigns bury the differences between devices and browser types. Google might state that there is more (and better) information in the AdWords interface, and they would be correct. But there is also something to be said for the thought exercise of considering your mobile users and desktop users as two distinct groups. Some industries will find that more true than others, but as a bit of research, it shouldn’t be ignored.
The Bottom Line
Google has pushed this change through and they are unlikely to pull it back. In general, professional SEM companies should be planning for a future with many more mobile users, and even if they aren’t surprised by the higher average CPCs and lower conversion rates among mobile users in certain verticals, mobile traffic will only continue to grow and the pros will always need to find ways to segment, analyze and appropriately market to a mobile audience.
Eastern Star Marketing is a Colorado SEM management shop and would love to hear your thoughts on enhanced campaigns or anything else related to online marketing. Give us a shout in the comments section below.