By now we all know the quickest way to get the blood boiling in search marketers is to drop the E bomb…Enhanced Campaigns. Yes, Google’s “out-of-nowhere” update took the Search industry by storm and still has many of us scrambling to make sense of it all. But, as with most change, there are upsides to be seen and opportunity to be had, because, after all isn’t it better to look at the glass half full?
1. Consolidation Opportunities Free Up Time
With the trifecta of bid adjustments available (mobile, time, and geo) Enhanced Campaigns create a golden opportunity to simplify your accounts. Pre-Enhanced Campaigns, and for those not transitioned, it was/is common practice to have separate campaigns for your mobile, geographic, and day parted targeting. We all know, the more control the better, right?
We may be at an impasse where it is finally ok to accept less micromanagement of campaigns and allow ourselves to look at it from a macro level. Bid adjustments (and there is a way to go,) could provide that answer. Imagine having to look at potentially one campaign for all initiatives? This would allow many of us to focus on actionable items that drive home results – ad copy, SQR’s, etc.
Are bid adjustments a perfect science yet? No. But with time, and better adoption and understanding from marketers, it isn’t farfetched to imagine a world where only one campaign exists. Just remember to review the multiplicative properties of combining bid adjustments.
2. EC forces marketers to think about multi-device user experiences
Now that mobile and tablet marketing are here to stay and a clear focal point of the update in July, it provides the positive spin that marketers will now be forced to think user experience. A simple landing page won’t cut it anymore. Strategy such as responsive design will be explored and creating elastic creative will lead to better experience and ultimately better conversion.
Of course, there are caveats to this point. The update has left a lot of marketers in a bind from a timing perspective, not to mention budgetary concerns of a new creative direction. But, making us think about how a user interacts across multiple devices is a great start for improved creative.
3. Simplified Reporting
As previously mentioned, the use of combined bid adjustments towards the simplification of accounts creates the prospect of simplified reporting. Again, it puts many of us in an uncomfortable position of thinking less micro and more macro.
Having your data coming from one campaign source lends the ability to generate powerful pivot tables, and conversely a quicker way to analyze your data, which in turn….you guessed it, gives you more time to focus on tasks that generate results.
Of course every reason above has different values based on industry, and it’s no secret Enhanced Campaigns offer plenty of issues. But, it is an imminent change, and one all marketers need to be prepared for and begin looking for the silver lining.
