Margie Barkley: 2022 Search ads 360 updates: What you need know

30-second summary:

Search Ads 360 has experienced one of its largest updates in 10 years. Alex Medawar, Senior Media Manager at Performics, shares the highlights around budget optimization and performance monitoring as well as inventory management.

Google has just announced a major update to Search Ads 360. SA360 has become even more powerful than it was when it was launched over 10 years ago. This makes it easier for commercial businesses to manage their search ads.

This past month, a select few Search Ads 360 users were granted preview access.

While the new platform experience will be available in the coming months, users can still access the old experience. This article will explain what’s new, and provide effective tips on how to maximize your inventory and budget in Search Ads 360.

1. Support for alternative channels is greater

Search Ads 360 Updates include greater support for other search engines like Yahoo! and Microsoft Ads. Japan.

For years, other advertising channels were neglected. The result was time-consuming and tedious workarounds to link data or make bulk changes.

Google has announced that the update will allow you to do more work from one place.

SA360 now supports additional features for Microsoft Advertisers

Response search adsCall extensionsLocal inventor adsAccess to a wide range of audience types

Yahoo! Yahoo! Japan advertisers can now use dynamic search ads and site extension scheduling.

2. Get access to new features

Search Ads 360 now supports the latest features in Google Ads, including:

Performance Max – A new campaign type that allows performance advertisers to access all their Google Ads inventory through a single campaign. Advertisers can run Google Discover Feed ads to create highly visual and inspiring personalized advertising experiencesDisplay and YouTube Advertising (previously, only on the platform).

Google also offers advanced enterprise innovation features to allow teams scale daily tasks like:

Campaign managementCreate automated guidelinesUse labels across multiple advertisers simultaneously

The addition of templates will bring together existing features such as inventory management and ad builder to create a unified, scalable experience.

The new Performance Center will offer enterprise planning capabilities, including CPA, spend, and conversion forecasts for media managers, who often spend hours creating forecasts.

3. Inventory management updated

The new inventory management system streamlines workflows and gives you more control over how your ad space is used.

SA360 can create ready-to-go paid searches using dynamic data from your inventory feed. This includes price, description and availability.

This tool is particularly useful in industries with changing prices and availability, such as:

AirlinesHotelsLive and Streaming EntertainmentRecruitmentRetailBusinesses with geo-specific offers

How it works

Make sure to provide high-quality data. Create a list with attributes for your feed, such as price, product name, landing page, and keyword. Tip: Start small! Use functions and attributes to create highly relevant ads. You can then optimize the output until you are satisfied with it.

You’ll have targeted campaigns that are ready to go in minutes.

Marketers will be able manage templates across clients accounts in Search Ads 360 to make updates at scale.

4. Budget Management

Every media manager will tell ya that managing budgets and pacing in campaign management is a critical component of effective campaign management. It can also be one of the most challenging, especially when it comes to scale.

Budget management will be enhanced and integrated into the new Search Ads 360 release.

Google will provide full access to these planning tools later in the year. This will allow you to explore a range of media budget flighting scenarios.

Features

These are just a few of the features that the budget management system currently offers:

Visual graphs showing target and estimated spend along with KPIs like CPA (cost per acquisition), or revenue. Automatic budget allocation and bid adjustments are made by your budget strategy. Seasonality is taken into account when forecasting. Historical data provides historical data to calculate cumulative spend and the likelihood of hitting target spend.

We can expect that Google will continue to add new features throughout the year. This will make it easier for enterprises to plan.

A new look

Search Ads 360 is a similar experience to Google Ads, with similar navigation and familiar user experiences.

You can view the same account overview dashboard in Google Ads after you launch the SA360 platform. This allows seamless navigation between them.

In the future

Google’s new Search Ads 360 update opens up the doors to the next generation enterprise innovations that optimize performance.

You will be able to do more work in one place, saving time and giving you a better view across all channels for data-driven decisions making.

Alex Medawar, Senior Media Manager at Performics, is the creator of AlexMedawar.com. Alex Medawar is a digital media veteran who specializes in B2B paid searches campaign management and strategy for global brands within the tech sector. Alex believes that small and large businesses can communicate with their customers and achieve results in the digital media landscape by using a data-driven approach.

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