7 AdWords Features We Would Like to See in 2015

Google AdWords is adding new features at a fast pace, making it easier than ever for advertisers to manage a campaign. With 2015 approaching, I thought it would be great to compile a list of features that would make our ad optimization procedure more effective!

1. Customize The Device Bid Modifier at The Keyword Level

We all know the importance of keywords in our accounts. Some keywords perform betters than others,  and we are able to customize their bids based on that. However, the behavior of mobile users is different from people navigating with a desktop device. As of today, we can apply a bid modifier for mobile devices at the campaign level.

This creates quite a few challenges:

1. Keywords might perform differently on mobile and desktop devices
2. We are not able to boost mobile traffic for given keywords only
3. We cannot stop mobile traffic just for a few keywords

We would basically need to create a very complex account structure to accommodate for a device optimization at the keyword level, which makes AdWords management not effective.

Source: Google.com

2. Include a Remarketing Bid Modifier for Shopping Campaign

This is a function that we can already use in search campaigns and it consists of being able to include a bid modifier when a search is performed by a user who has already visited our site.

As of today, we cannot do that in our shopping campaign and we are facing some issues:

1. Missing out on extra sales generated by users in the final steps of the sales funnel
2. We need to be higher for all impressions make sure to show up in front of people who have visited our site
3. We have no way to reduce bids for people who visited our site already (if that would need to be the case)

I have seen the audience tab appearing in some shopping campaigns lately so it could be that Google is beta testing this feature already!

3. Creating Ad Schedules at The Ad Group Level

Once you have an account set up and optimized for some time, you might be reluctant to split campaigns into sub-groups in case your ads might not perform as well. Most of the time, ad groups end up performing differently on a time and hour of the day basis and the only way to customize serving and bid modifiers is to create separate campaigns for each of the ad groups.

Allowing us to customize this setting at the ad group level holds several advantages:

1. Reduces set up time and increases the time you can work on strategizing your account
2. You can customize your serving settings in just minutes
3. No need to “start fresh”. You can keep leveraging on your ad group history to keep up with the current performance

4. Allow Advertisers to Use All Remarketing Lists For Search Remarketing

As you might have noticed, not all of your remarketing lists are available to be used on the search network for remarketing purposes. Wouldn’t it be great to segment your audience in analytics and then customize your bids on search for this segment of users?

There would be a ton of advantages:

1. No need to waste money on people who bounced off your site right away
2. Customize the message based on what people have performed on your site
3. Reduce the overall cost per conversion. You will be able to convert more users who initially did not complete a purchase

5. Customize The Bid For States and Regions Right Away

Google allows you to be very meticulous in setting up the geographic targeting of your campaigns. However, most of the time, people might select the United States (or any other country) as a targeting region since it is much simpler than typing all states one after the other.
If you target a country as a whole you will be able to set up a bid modifier only for the whole country. It would be great if AdWords would allow to target countries but then be able to see stats and modify bids by region directly in the campaign settings. The information is already in Google, why not make it easier to use?

6. Possibility to Pick a New Keyword Match Type in The Search Term Report

If you work on a search term report using the AdWords live interface, Google will add your new keywords as broad match. You need to manually go through each keywords and format the match type to match your needs.

Advertisers would certainly enjoy two additional features:

1. Select your match type column
2. Possibility to allocate the keyword to a given campaign and ad group

This would give you much more flexibility when it comes to managing a search term report! As of today, the best way to analyze a search term report is Excel, which will always be the best way to analyze it, but it lacks in customer friendliness for people who are new to AdWords and the AdWords Editor.

7. The YouTube Extension

Many businesses put a lot of effort in their YouTube channel and this should definitively be rewarded allowing an extension that links to one of their videos and/or the channel. For instance, the YouTube extension could take the place of one of the site links or it could simply be a mall icon in the ad that links to the YouTube page.

There would be several advantages:

1. Allow users to opt for a more interactive option than a landing page
2. Promote the use of videos as a mainstream marketing technique
3. Boost the credibility of a company at the eyes of a potential customer

In Conclusion:

Google is doing an amazing job at providing us with new features for AdWords and there are many opportunities out there to create even more features. What are the features I didn’t list in this article that you would like to have? Comment this article and let me know!

Featured Image: Morguefile. Modified for Search Engine Journal.