The time has come for all PPC advertisers to pay attention to Google’s +1. Last week I wrote an article about how +1 is starting to change how we manage AdWords for Search due to its potential affect on CTR and the indirect influence on Quality Score. Yesterday, Google announced that +1 is going to be included with ads on the Display Network starting in October!
Today, I noticed a new section under the AdWords campaign Advanced Settings (as did a few folks on Twitter) labeled “Social Settings.” Not only is Google rolling out +1 on Display Network ads, but they are *shockingly* giving us the ability to opt in and out of this feature:
In my opinion, it is crystal clear that Google fully intends to marry their social utilities in +1 with AdWords both on Search and Display. We are still in the early stages, but I anticipate these developments to be permanent. Google +1 is very quickly changing the face of PPC as we know it. What is yet to be seen is how will +1 influence factors such as Quality Score? When will Google begin including social engagement stats in AdWords? Soon is my guess.
Are you ready to start managing your PPC to social engagement metrics? Perhaps that is not the right statement because at the end of the day, we as PPC managers will still be responsible to manage to conversion (revenue, ROI, etc.) metrics. But how will social engagement play into that? How big of a factor will it become? Leave me a comment with your predictions!
