[go: up one dir, main page]
We've moved! Check out the new Google Ads blog.

We've moved!

Check out and subscribe to the new Google Ads blog.


On March 14, we shared information about our work to remove bad ads and bad sites from our ad networks. With a combination of people, policies and technology we took down more than 3.2 billion ads in 2017, up from 700 million in 2015. That’s more than 100 bad ads per second. Today, we want to share more details about how our policies and policy enforcement work to help protect our network.
How Google's ads policies and enforcement work









Policies

We continuously monitor ads and content for policy compliance.
  • If you’re an advertiser, our AdWords policies determine which ads are acceptable and what types of products or services can be promoted with Google ads. For example, we prohibit technologies that attempt to deceive users or abuse our network, like auto-redirecting ads, malware-laden sites, or “trick-to-click” ads. 
  • If you’re a publisher, our AdSense program policies outline the kinds of websites and content we allow to show Google ads. For example, our dangerous and derogatory content policy prohibits publishers from running Google ads on content that promotes discrimination against marginalized groups. 
We constantly review and update our policies to protect consumers, advertisers and publishers. In fact, in 2017, we added 28 new advertiser and 20 new publisher policies.




Technology & Talent

To enforce these policies, we use a combination of people and technology. Google’s technology is designed to detect when ads or content violate our policies and disable them quickly. We employ automated filters that continuously identify policy issues, clean, and defend our ad systems. And we consider user feedback when people report sites and ads that they believe may be in violation of our policies.

Technology helps us spot potential violations, but our talented reviewers and interdisciplinary team also work to enforce policies. When we review advertisers’ ads, we review everything from the ad creative to the landing page. For publishers, we evaluate elements including traffic patterns on the site and whether the content is appropriate to be monetized. Our teams are constantly reviewing because a publisher or an advertiser who is compliant with our policies today may not be tomorrow. 




Controls

 In addition to evaluating ads and sites for policy compliance, we provide advertisers controls they need to manage where and when their ads appear, and provide publishers the ability to control the type and format of ads appearing next to their content. For example, an advertiser of an extreme sporting event may use a Digital Content Label, the film-rating style control for maturity level, to place their ads alongside content suitable specific audiences. Advertisers can couple these controls with placement exclusions, which allow advertisers to specify publishers, apps, or videos to avoid in their campaigns.




Protecting our network

Maintaining the health of our ad network is key to supporting the ecosystem of creators, publishers and advertisers that rely on Google ads to build their businesses. That’s why our teams are committed to refining our policies and fine-tuning our systems and controls to make sure Google ads work for everyone.


Posted by Amy Osekowsky Davis, Global Product Lead, Google Display Network

In May, Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect. Google is committed to complying with the GDPR, and in preparation, we’ve been working with our customers and partners to inform them about changes we’re making to our policies across our various products.

Today we’re informing advertisers and publisher partners about changes to our ad policies. Google already requires publishers and advertisers using our advertising services to get consent from end users to use our services, as required under existing EU law. However, the GDPR will further refine these requirements.

To comply, we will be updating our EU consent policy when the GDPR takes effect and the revised policy will require that publishers take extra steps in obtaining consent from their users. Before May, we will launch a solution to support publishers that want to show non-personalized ads, and we are working with industry groups, including IAB Europe, to explore proposed consent solutions for publishers.

We’re aware that our customers and partners - European and international - have significant obligations under these new laws, as does Google. Publisher and advertiser partners can expect further updates as we approach the date when GDPR takes effect.

Posted by Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, President, EMEA Partnerships

We've long talked about mobile being the "future of retail." Now that this future has arrived, what's next? At this year’s Shoptalk in Las Vegas, I shared how today’s ever-curious, demanding and impatient shopper is moving and buying online, in stores, and even hands-free with their voice—creating opportunities for retailers to assist them in ways never before possible.

Google has already made big investments in retail, and today, we’re the #1 driver of traffic and transactions to retailers’ sites in the U.S. But we want to create more value for the retail ecosystem, by combining our technology and deep understanding of what customers want with retailers’ unique products to make shopping truly seamless. Check out our updates from Shoptalk that highlight how we’re partnering with retailers to help deliver these shopping experiences for customers everywhere.

 Help shoppers take action, wherever and however they choose to shop.

Shoppers findretailer products on Google in a multitude of ways—from Search’s sponsored Shopping Unit to YouTube to their Google Home device. But while they may be used to all these modes of discovery and buying, shoppers still prefer a frictionless, end-to-end shopping experience—and they gravitate toward retailers who provide it.

Our new Shopping Actions program offers shoppers an easy way to shop retailer products across Google surfaces with a universal cart, whether they’re on mobile, desktop or even through voice via the Google Assistant, on devices like Google Home. Shopping Actions appear within the sponsored Shopping Unit on the Google Search page. No organic rankings are impacted or changed.Shopping Actions
Check out our full post on Shopping Actions, or sign up here to learn more.


Bridging online and offline worlds with ARCore

What if shoppers could visualize their furniture from the comfort of their home? ARCore 1.0 gives retail developers the tools to build powerful augmented reality apps for Android phones as the virtual, digital and physical worlds come together. It now works on over 100 million devices, on more than a dozen different smartphone models around the world.

There are lots of great examples of AR powered shopping interactions today. Pottery Barn lets shoppers use AR to easily change the color and fabric on furniture to decide which looks best, and they can purchase directly in the app. You can find other retailers with shopping experiences built on ARCore, like IKEA, Jet.com, Lowe’s, eBay and more on the Google Play Store.ARCore
To learn more, check out our full blog post here.


From the station to the store—building habit on transit with Google Pay

When we launched Google Pay, we wanted to make paying fast and simple for as many people in as many places as possible. Transit was a big part of this vision, which is why we’re thrilled to partner with NXP to offer transit and prepaid tickets or passes on Google Pay. Las Vegas is the first city to support this feature, which is powered by NXP’s new MIFARE 2GO Cloud Service and contactless technology.

Now, people can purchase Las Vegas Monorail passes online, save them to Google Pay, and use their phones to ride. What makes this good for retailers? Habit. We’ve found the more people use their phones to ride transit, the more they’re willing to use their phones to pay in stores, according to internal Google research. Building a new habit in one area makes them more likely to apply it to another. And as we expand transit to more cities, we’re excited to see how this affects mobile payments at all the places people shop.
transit and prepaid tickets or passes on Google Pay


Partnering for the future with investments in Cloud

Underpinning this all, we’re continuing to grow Cloud with our partners in mind. We know the best shopping experiences rely on using data to provide these frictionless, personalized ways to shop, which is why we’ve made all the tools we use ourselves—unparalleled machine learning capabilities, analytics, raw computing power and scale—available to retail partners.

Retailers are at the heart of building easier, more seamless shopping experiences for shoppers. By combining Google technology with industry expertise, we’re helping ensure these experiences are focused on the only audience that matters—the customer. Google Cloud can offer retailers true partnership on an open platform that gives shoppers both choice and convenience.

Let’s make shopping magic.


Posted by Daniel Alegre, President, Google Retail and Shopping

1. Based on data from Google Analytics accounts that have authorized Google to share website data in an aggregated way. US only. January - December 2017.

Today’s consumers don’t just want answers; more and more, they’re craving relevant, meaningful, and immediate assistance in completing their day-to-day shopping tasks. We see this in our data: mobile searches for “where to buy” grew over 85% over the past 2 years.1 Moreover, 44% of those who use their voice-activated speaker at least weekly say they use the device to order products they need like groceries and household items at least once a week.2

It’s clear that people want helpful, personal, and frictionless interactions that allow them to shop wherever and however they want -- from making decisions on what to buy, to building baskets, to checking out more quickly than ever before. Put simply, they want an easier way to get their shopping tasks done.

Introducing Shopping Actions

That’s why we’re introducing our Shopping Actions program. It gives customers an easy way to shop your products on the Google Assistant and Search with a universal cart, whether they’re on mobile, desktop or even a Google Home device.

By participating in the Shopping Actions program, you’ll be able to:
  • Surface your products on new platforms like the Google Assistant with voice shopping. Leverage our deep investments in machine learning, AI and natural language processing to offer your customers a hands-free, voice-driven shopping experience. 
  • Help your customers shop effortlessly with you, across Google. A shareable list, universal shopping cart and instant checkout with saved payment credentials work across Google.com and the Google Assistant -- allowing your customers to seamlessly turn browsing into buying. For example, shopper Kai can do a search on Google for moisturizing hand soap, see a sponsored listing for up & up brand soap from Target, and add it to a Google Express cart. Later, in the kitchen, Kai can reorder foil through voice, add it to the same cart using Google Home, and purchase all items at once through a Google-hosted checkout flow.
  • Increase loyalty and engagement with your highest value customers. 1-click re-ordering, personalized recommendations, and basket-building turn one-time shoppers into repeat customers. If Kelly does a search for “peach blush,” for example, and she has opted to link her Google account with her Ultamate Rewards status, we’ll recognize this and surface relevant blush results as well as related items -- like makeup brushes -- from Ulta Beauty to help her build a basket with her preferred retailer. If we know she regularly purchases makeup remover on a monthly basis, we’ll surface the same brand of makeup remover to her, right when she has the highest intent to re-order.
In addition, Shopping Actions uses a pay-per-sale model, meaning you only pay when a sale actually takes place. Shopping Actions appear within the sponsored Shopping Unit on the Google Search page, and on Google.com/Shopping. No organic rankings are impacted or changed.
shopping actions
Early retail partners are realizing results

Across the board, our focus on surfacing highly relevant offers has not only delivered a positive experience to consumers, but has helped our retail partners as well. Early testing indicates that participating retailers on average see an increase in total conversions at a lower cost, compared to running Shopping ads alone.3 We have also seen an approximately 30% average increase in basket size for merchants participating in Shopping Actions.4

Furthermore, we partnered with MasterCard to do a pre/post study among a representative subset of five Shopping Actions merchants. We learned that after using Shopping Actions, a customer spent more with that group of merchants in the 4 month post period.5

Target and Google have a long-standing partnership, and a history of innovating together to make shopping easier and more inspiring. Target was one of the first retailers to test Google Express (now Shopping Actions), and last year expanded the offering nationwide. Over the last six months, Target has seen the size of guests’ Express baskets increase by nearly 20%, with strong adoption in new markets.

“Our guests love the ease and convenience of making their Target Run without lifting a finger by using voice interface. And since the orders are shipped from a nearby Target store, they’ll have their items delivered to their home in just two days,” said Mike McNamara, Target’s Chief Information and Digital Officer. “This is just the beginning for Target and Google. Through our partnership, we’ll continue to add new benefits to help guests save time and money. Shoppers will soon be able to link their Target.com and Google accounts, creating a more personalized and intuitive shopping experience. And later this year, Target guests will be able to use Target’s REDcard when shopping through Google, providing 5 percent off purchases and free shipping.”

 Ulta Beauty has seen improvements in loyalty and customer engagement on Google Express, with average order value (AOV) increasing 35% since 2016. “Ulta Beauty looks to offer a seamless shopping experience to our guests wherever they are – instore or online at ulta.com. As a long term strategic partner, Google helps us build bridges between the digital and physical experiences we offer with last mile fulfillment that leverages our stores and expands our inventory across the Google Assistant and Search,” said Mary Dillon, CEO of Ulta Beauty. “When our guests buy through Shopping Actions, they can enjoy the immediate gratification they experience in-store and are coming to expect online. They also spend more with us and enjoy other benefits of being an Ulta Beauty shopper, like earning loyalty points through our award-winning Ultamate Rewards program.”

Floral and gift retailer 1-800-Flowers.com sees Shopping Actions as a way to get back to its roots of delivering immediate, personalized customer service. “Our job is not to tell customers they have to call us or visit us in a certain way, but to actually be where the customers have chosen to be. If we can make it a one-stop shopping experience, we must,” said Amit Shah, CMO of 1-800-Flowers.com. “On Shopping Actions, you can buy something from Costco for yourself but at the same time deliver a gift from 1-800-Flowers.com to your niece who is graduating high school. From the customer's point of view, it provides a very seamless multi-channel and multi-mindset experience.”

Ready to get started?

To learn more about Shopping Actions, sign up through our interest form to be contacted with more information, or check out our Help Center.

We look forward to making the shopping journey more helpful, personal, and frictionless with you!

Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, Director of Product Management, Google Shopping


1. Google Data, US, Jan- Jun 2015 vs. Jan-Jun 2017.
2. Google/Peerless Insights, ‘Voice-Activated Speakers: People’s Lives Are Changing’, Aug. 2017, n=1,642, U.S. monthly active voice-activated speaker owners (Amazon Echo/Dot and Google Home), A18+.
3. Google internal data, Feb - March 2018.
4. Google internal data, Q1 2017 vs 2018 YTD.
5. Mastercard Pre / Post Analysis of Shopping Actions Performance, March 2018. Analysis conducted among MasterCard users of 5 high frequency Shopping Actions Merchants From 4/26/17 – 8/24/17 (Pre) compared to 9/30/17 – 1/28/18 (Post) among 660,171 Existing merchant customers (shopped in last 6 months) , 703,848 New merchant customers (did not shop in last 6 months) and the subset of Shopping Actions customers 10,963 (pre) 11,385 (post). Additional $38 spent at merchants among Google Express Users in 4 month post period.


Great games are magical. They allow players to escape to new worlds, turn into superheroes, and boost their puzzle-solving powers. Now, more than ever, developers like you can become gaming legends who run successful businesses too. To help you get there, we’re sharing several new innovations designed to grow your fan base and earn you more revenue from your apps.

Win people’s attention with new video ads on Google Play 

In a sea of mobile apps, it's critical to reach the right players at the right time and place. Universal App campaigns (UAC) use Google’s machine learning technology to find loyal fans across Google.com, Google Play, YouTube, and over 3 million sites and apps in the Google Display Network. To date, Google has delivered over 10 billion app installs for developers through ads.1 And we’re just getting started.

Over the next few months, we’ll roll out a beta for click-to-play video ads—a new way to reach players on Google Play with sight, sound and motion. These placements will help you showcase your game as they tap, swipe and scroll to find their next favorite app.

New video ads in Google Play
Find your next player with similar audiences 

With a world of games available on mobile, it can be hard to know who may fall in love with your game. Google helps by analyzing millions of signal combinations in real-time to help you reach the players you care about—like the ones who are likely to beat the first level or make an in-app purchase. In fact, that’s how we’re already helping drive 7 billion in-app events every quarter for our partners.2

But we have more to do. Today we're introducing similar audiences for UAC to help you find people who share similar interests with your best customers, right when they’re interested in games and apps like yours.

Imagine you’re a developer with a popular mobile game and you’re launching a new title. With similar audiences, you can share your business data with Google to find more players like those playing your current game. By connecting you with more qualified customers, similar audiences can help unlock new opportunities to grow your business. Similar audiences will be available in beta to select advertisers starting in May.


Make ad experiences more valuable with AdMob 

Video ads are more than just a canvas for showcasing your games. They can help turn your apps into a revenue-driving machine. Last year alone, we saw in-app video ad impressions grow 1.8x across our networks.3

But people will abandon even the best apps if the ad experience doesn’t fit the flow of the game or an ad doesn’t respect the player’s preferences. Rewarded ads create value for players by offering them incentives, like an extra life or a special power-up in the game when they need it most. And because players can choose when to watch, these ads don’t disrupt gameplay. That's why more than 45% of AdMob’s top 1000 gaming partners (by revenue) use rewarded ads to monetize their apps.4

Last year, we made it easy for you to deliver rewarded video ads lasting 6 to 60 seconds in portrait and landscape modes. Today, we’re introducing two new rewarded ad experiences that will become available to AdMob developers over the next few months: playable ads and multiple-option video ads. With these new formats, you can monetize your games while ensuring your players can interact with ads in a way that doesn’t interrupt their game play.
Rewarded ads with multiple-option videos
description here
Rewarded ads with playables
Earn more from your ad partners with Open Bidding on AdMob 

We know mediation is an important strategy to grow revenue from different ad networks. But you’ve also told us mediation can be difficult to manage. It’s time consuming to reconcile reports and chase payments from different partners. Implementing multiple ads SDKs increases development time and slows down your app. And, more than anything, mediation is based on historical CPMs, so it’s possible you’re leaving money on the table.

Our new beta, Open Bidding, takes monetization to the next level. Now, networks can bid to serve ads in your app simultaneously in a single unified auction. The result: increased competition that could lead to higher revenue. Also, there are fewer SDKs to implement, payments are simplified, and you’ll get meaningful insights from integrated reports in a single performance dashboard.

Open Bidding is already live with bids from Smaato, Index Exchange and OpenX. We’re looking forward to adding even more networks over the next few months, including AdColony and Vungle. That way you can earn more from your apps and get time back to make them even better.

To learn more about these innovations, please join us at the Game Developers Conference next week. My team and I look forward to sharing more details on the work we’re doing to make it easier for you to become the GOAT of mobile gaming.

Posted by Sissie Hsiao, VP of Product, Mobile App Advertising
1. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, March 2018.
2. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, March 2018.
3. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, Jan 2016 - Dec 2017.
4. Google Ads Data, iOS/Android, Global, Jan. 2018.

With the world’s information at people's fingertips, today’s consumers research everything before they buy—they read reviews, search for product details and watch videos to make the decision that’s right for them.

Whether it’s something major like a new car, or an everyday item like an umbrella, shoppers turn to Google for help deciding what to buy. Did you know that mobile searches on Google for 'best umbrella’ have grown over 140% in the past two years?1 By the same token, review videos on YouTube had more than 50,000 years (438 million hours) worth of watch time on mobile alone.2

This morning at Search Marketing Expo West, we’re announcing several innovations in the new AdWords experience to help you meet the increasing demands of consumers through search and video. 

Reach consumers who searched on Google...on YouTube 

Soon you’ll be able to reach people on YouTube who recently searched for your products or services on Google. For example, an airline could reach people on YouTube who recently searched Google.com for "flights to Hawaii." We call this custom intent audiences. Custom intent audiences can be an effective way to move undecided customers to action using the persuasive power of video. To get started, all you have to do is create a keyword list for your video campaign in the new AdWords experience.


                          A Google search query and a TrueView for action ad as seen on mobile devices.

Online investment company Betterment used custom intent audiences to reach YouTube viewers who recently searched for financial keywords on Google. The brand increased its return on ad spend 6X compared to previous YouTube campaigns, and saw a 245% increase in searches on Google.com, including their brand term: "Betterment".

Custom intent audiences are likely to drive the best results when paired with TrueView for action, our direct response video ad format expanding to global availability later this month. These video ads allow you to customize a call-to-action to drive the outcome that’s most important to your business, like leads or referrals. We automatically optimize these campaigns with Target CPA bidding for the most efficient results possible.

More AdWords innovations to save you time and drive better performance 

Innovations like custom intent audiences—along with all the other features we're developing—are only available in the new AdWords experience. In fact, the majority of advertisers are already using the new experience and benefitting from innovations that save time and deliver better performance. Today, we’re introducing notes and the new Recommendations page.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out notes to help you capture important events or details about your accounts right in your performance graphs so anyone in your business can see what caused a change in your performance. For example, you can leave a note to explain a recent spike in clicks for a particular promotion.
                                     An example of the notes feature in the new AdWords experience.

We've also rebuilt and renamed the Opportunities page to help you focus on the most actionable fixes for your account. On the new Recommendations page, you'll now see 16 new types of recommendations to help you drive better results for your business, including suggestions to set your optimal bidding strategy, add audiences, or create better ads. Coming soon, you’ll also see your account’s performance score. This will help you prioritize improvements so you can optimize efficiently for better performance.

                              The new Recommendations page.


After applying a recommendation for ECPC, global fashion retailer Mango saw a 59% increase in conversions. Seeing this success, Mango implemented Smart Bidding across all their accounts and drove an average increase in ROAS of 22%.



SMX West is buzzing with energy this year. We hope you'll join us in our Learn with Google Classroom to connect and hear more about how these new products can help you grow your business. 

Posted by Nicky Rettke, Group Product Manager for YouTube ads, and Anthony Chavez, Director, Product Management, AdWords
1. Google Data, U.S. Jan. - June 2015 vs. Jan. - June 2017
2. YouTube Data, US, Classification review videos were based on public data such as headlines, tags, etc., and may not account for every such video available on YouTube, July 2015 - June 2017

65% of consumers say they’d consider using messaging to connect with a business to complete tasks like getting information about a product or service, or to schedule an in-person appointment.1 That’s why we introduced click-to-message ads in late 2016 to give advertisers a new and easier way to engage with consumers. Message reporting will roll out over the next few weeks to help advertisers in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Brazil and Australia analyze and improve the performance of your click-to-message ads.
                                                        Example of a click-to-message ad

Message reporting offers new performance insights including:

Chat rate - how often users start a conversation with you (“Chats”) after seeing your message extension (“Message impressions”).

Example: A law firm discovers that consumers prefer messaging over calls when asking questions about real estate law. To improve the chat rate, it tailors its extension text to be more relevant by replacing the generic, “Text us to learn more” with “Text a real estate lawyer now.” It also enhances its message text to better reflect the user’s voice and how they’d really speak. It changes, “I’d like to know more, please text me back.” to “Hi, I’m looking for a real estate lawyer. Please reply back with more information.”


Chat start time - the timestamp for when a user sends you a message to initiate a conversation. Use this insight to help schedule your message extensions.

Example: A travel tour company sees that its chat volume peaks at noon when people are sending the most booking requests. This also coincides with when their “Time to first reply” takes the longest. As a result, they add an extra sales representative to assist customers more quickly.


Messages -  the total number of messages exchanged between you and a user within a single chat. Use this insight to evaluate which campaigns are driving the longest or most in-depth conversations compared to the average.

Example: A furniture retailer sees that in one campaign, chats tend to last for fifteen messages, which is more than double the average. It discovers that users are actually dropping off once a sales representative requests payment information. Using this insight, it decides to give users the option of transferring to a phone call or web form to complete the transaction.


“With message extensions, we can deliver a more personal, two-way conversation to customers on mobile when they’re going through the complex task of finding legal services. New message reporting gives us great insight into which keywords are producing engaged conversations. We can use this to optimize our extension and message text, and to make better bidding decisions. Most messaging threads result in a qualified lead for a law firm. Since our chat rate is more than 2x the conversion rate for the online lead form, routing people through messaging is ideal to help increase lead volume.” - Maisie Harris, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadRival 


“One of our key differentiating factors is allowing customers to work directly with a stylist, including via text messaging from our Google search ads. Our customers are busy professionals who need quick answers, and frequently don’t have the time to navigate a website. Using message extensions, we can offer fast assistance when they’re looking for a style recommendation or opinion on fit, and can easily share images and links. Now, message reporting will help us analyze which parts of our campaigns are driving the most in-depth, valuable conversations with stylists, and where we can improve performance.” - Michaella Kurdziel, Director of Experience Excellence & Learning at MM.LaFleur 

Visit the Help Center to learn the full range of insights available with message reporting and how you can use them to optimize your click-to-message performance. Also read our best practices for driving more valuable customer conversations with messaging.

 Posted by Hareesh Nagarajan, Product Manager, Mobile Search Ads
1. Google Consumer Surveys, US, Canada, UK, Australia, October 2016, Base: Respondents who own a smartphone and use it to access the Internet (n = 1,036 in US, n = 1,032 in UK, n = 489 in Canada, n = 485 in Australia).