Dive Brief:
- Google updated AdWords Display Planner to include click and impression forecasting data based on campaign bid and budget.
- It also announced a new program called Smart Goals that uses machine learning and Google Analytics to optimize AdWords campaigns to attract prospects likely to convert to customers.
- In other recent Google news, it launched a new app install ad format called “Trial Run Ads” that allows users to demo an app for 60 seconds before downloading it.
Dive Insight:
In a Google+ post, the AdWords team announced the update to AdWords Display Planner, writing the enhancements now help “forecast how many clicks and impressions are available in your bid and budget range — based on current auction data. This will help you plan campaigns better by providing a clearer picture of the performance you can expect. [...] We'll also forecast how much of your budget can be spent given your current selections.”
The Google Smart Goals program allows marketers to define AdWords conversions and then optimize campaigns based on that data.
In a separate blog post, Google software engineer Abishek Sethi and product manager Joan Arensman wrote, “To generate Smart Goals, we apply machine learning across thousands of websites that use Google Analytics and have opted in to share anonymized conversion data. From this information, we can distill dozens of key factors that correlate with likelihood to convert: things like session duration, pages per session, location, device and browser.”
The updates come at a time when marketers are revising and finalizing their budgets for the upcoming year, and more specifically, as more advertisers shift their investments toward digital campaigns.