Google’s Smart Goals & Customer Match – Latest News in PPC

Internet Marketing is constantly evolving and changing. There are always new trends, new tools, and new ways to enhance and improve your Digital Marketing Strategy.

The internet itself is changing every day, and the way that people use the internet is changing as well – the way people search, the way people browse, and even the way people shop.

Platforms like Google and Facebook are continuously coming up with new tools for internet marketers to use. These tools can help them to target their customers more effectively, and create a strategy that performs better overall.

So what’s the latest PPC news this week? Here are a couple new add-ons for your Google AdWords and Analytics to improve your next PPC Campaign.

Customer Match – Latest PPC News

Customer Match was first announced by Google in October 2015, and has been fully live in all AdWords accounts for about a month now.

Previous AdWords targeting methods included:
• Demographics: (age, gender, parental status, etc)
• Interests: (people that show interest in a specific thing, based on browsing/ search history)
• Topics: (The specific topic of a website someone is currently browsing.)
• Remarketing: (people that have previously visited your website.)
• Many others: (location, device, etc)

So what does Customer Match do?

Customer match allows you to target an exact individual based on an email address. For example, if you want to show an ad to Mr. John Smith who left his email at your open house event yesterday, you can do just that. Just add the email address, and you will then be able to show tailored ads on Google, Gmail and YouTube (not the rest of the GDN, just yet.)

This level of targeting can completely revolutionize your internet marketing strategy.

How does it work?
Since a lot of people browse the internet while logged in to Google, Customer Match allows you to specifically target those people. Of course, not all emails are linked to a Google account. From testing, we’ve found that Google manages to match roughly 50% of an email list that you upload. This is an extremely high match rate, which is about equal to Facebook, which has been perfecting a similar targeting option for a while, and far above Twitter, which hovers around a 10% match.

How is it used?
One of the ways to use Customer Match is by showing customized ads depending on where someone is in the buying cycle. Whether you want to bring back previous customers, show existing customers a new product, or even exclude customers from certain ads, this is all possible with Customer Match.

Let’s say you have a specific promotion for customers that have joined your loyalty program. You can use Customer Match to show ads for that promotion specifically to those customers.

Additionally, the tool can be used to find Similar Users, which would be those who have similar interests or habits to those on your email list. With a tool like this, you would essentially be able to multiply the reach of your email list by targeting new users with similar characteristics.

Smart Goals – Latest PPC News December 2015

Powered by Google Analytics, Smart Goals is a new way to optimize your AdWords for conversions. This is especially useful for those who have not yet set up Conversion Tracking in their Google Analytics or AdWords accounts.

How does it work?
Unlike Conversion Tracking, Smart Goals does not use data gathered from your own website. Instead, it uses anonymous Conversion Data gathered from numerous other websites to identify those that are “most likely to convert.” This data is based on KPIs such as Bounce Rate, Session Duration, and Pages per Session.

How is it used?
Smart Goals enables you to use CPA Biddding (cost per acquisition), although you have no previously measured conversions. This basically means that you can create a PPC Strategy that is optimized to target those who are most likely to provide a conversion.

Smart Goals was just launched by Google this December 2015, and will be fully available to all accounts within the next few weeks.

Stay tuned to our blog for the latest PPC news and other updates from the world of Digital Marketing.

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