Recent Google Adwords updates.

At the recently held AdWords Performance Forum, Google announced their most recent changes and updates in AdWords. The new features are set to be rolled out over the next few months, but here’s a quick rundown on the top changes that Jerry Dischler (VP, product management, Adwords) mentioned and what they might mean for you and your business:

App happy:

According to Digital Trends 2013, over 80% of downloaded apps are only used once and then deleted. Google are now turning their attention to app re-engagement through both search and display to challenge this trend. It will entail a deeper linking to already installed apps when you use Google.com. For instance, when you search for a certain flight through Google, the results will offer to bring you to the result through your installed Aer Lingus/Ryanair app.

In addition they are planning to offer app installations within YouTube ads. This will not only enhance the YouTube format you are currently using, but of course will also add that extra layer to encourage downloads.

In the minefield that is PPC, we are all aware that conversions are key; Google are planning to make available conversion measurement over the life-cycle of an app including installation, re-engagement and in-app purchases. This is invaluable information to business owners – the potential here is huge and something that all app owners should investigate when it becomes available.

Bid Management:

Other recent updates include an integrated bid management system; historically Adwords users would have had to use a third party platform for this kind of bid strategy, but now you can get them directly through AdWords. Other third party platforms do offer more complex and varying bidding systems, but this is a really great start for AdWords. Although the bid strategies are not a very recent development, the ability to maximise conversions and their value are, and it will be very interesting to test the impact of this change when it becomes available.

Campaign Management & Reporting:

For those who would be more familiar with the inner workings of the Adwords system, you’ll be delighted to hear that Google are planning to streamline the ability to change extensions and settings in bulk which will free up precious time to focus on other areas. Coupled nicely with this will be the new advanced reporting feature – the promise of easier data collation is music to our team’s ears!

 

To keep up to date with Adwords changes, I’d recommend that you subscribe to the AdWords blog with your RSS reader and the Google Analytics blog too; the updates that are released on these come usually once every week or two and can keep you well informed of any upcoming changes that might be happening. But of course keep an eye on The Influentials each week for Adwords and Analytics updates too!

 

Ciara

Duracell 2 boys in a boat, Coca Cola Rainbow Nation and Dacia sponsor day are just some of the highlights from this week’s Ignition 5

Enjoy!

Aoife

Lessons from the Top to the Bottom Part 2

Last month two graduate employees in our sister agency Manning Gottlieb OMD in London were given the opportunity to interview Colin Gottlieb, Founder of Manning Gottlieb Media and CEO EMEA of Omnicom MEdia Group. Colin’s responses allowed us an insight into his 34 years in the industry as well as some advice. The Interview was documented on the Manning Gottlieb OMD Blog by Anneka Drew and was divided into 2 parts.

Part 2 of the interview can be read here.

– Rachel

 

 

#worldstoughestjob, Crisis Relief liking isn’t enough and a shop window colour critic are just some of the highlights from this week’s Ignition 5

Enjoy!

Aoife

Pay with exercise, Game of Thrones #bringdowntheking and Evian the amazing baby & me 2 are just some of the highlights from this week’s Ignition 5

Enjoy!

Aoife

Media Awards 2014: BOOM!

Last Thursday night OMD won Media Agency of the Year at the 2014 Media Awards. As one of our London colleagues so elegantly put it, BOOM! We’ve been sharing the boom ever since. The wave of positive and personalised messages of congratulation from our clients has been a properly emotional experience. Not that I needed convincing, but we care and it shows.

 

 

It’s a difficult time in agency land, in particular it can be challenging to be a ‘small’ country, in an ever so more ‘global’ world. Remaining in control of your own destiny will be a theme for Irish agencies and in turn individuals, as on one level, decision making becomes more centralised and, on another, technology is perceived to replace on the ground expertise. As it happens, our experience has been the opposite, where world class technology is only optimised through world class in market practitioners. Padraig Moran, a worthy recipient of the Media Pioneer award on Thursday night, highlighted how other industries appear to have regained ground on professional fee levels as Ireland exits recession, where advertising agencies have not.

Yet we still work in a most privileged of professions. We get to work as confidants and advisors to organisations of all types and sizes and in so doing experience the full range of business challenges. Communication in most instances is an integral part to building the future success of any company and it is exciting to be at the heart of those conversations. It was inspiring to listen to Nicky Doran, Marketing Controller at Bord Gais Energy and Geoff Scully, Managing Director at Shop Direct Ireland at last week’s ADFX Energiser hosted by IAPI. Both promoted the importance of having a culture within their respective businesses that is open to the power and importance of communication done well. They are not alone and the rest of the marketplace will follow.

At our agency meeting this morning, we shared some creative brilliance that Aoife and the team share each week, through our Ignition5 (available throughout this blog). We also spoke of our award being the springboard for the next stage of our OMD journey, as it was when we won Agency of the Year at the Digital Media Awards a few years back. We believe we make a difference, be it helping our clients to grow or educating stars of the future through our Work experience and UCD mentoring programmes. We inhabit a most competitive of worlds it’s nice to be recognised for these achievements. BOOM!

 

Tim

#Enditmovement see through truck, the digital newspaper holder and Capdell Sit Think Play are just some of highlights from this week’s Ignition 5

Enjoy!

Aoife

A Ghost from Media’s Past

As a child Time Magazine came into our house by subscription every week.  In the absence of a TV at home the defining images I have of all the major global events of the time – Reagan’s election, the Challenger Shuttle disaster, Tiananmen Square – all came from its pages.  Over the years Time Magazine became an integral part of our household routine.

Every few months my Mother would roll 10 or so copies of the magazine together, wrap some brown paper around them, and post them to my Uncle Tim in West Cork.  Yes, by the time he received the magazine Uncle Tim would have known well that the Berlin Wall had fallen or that Thatcher was re-elected but that was not the point. 

None of us read those copies of Time Magazine to get news.  

We read them for insight, knowledge and pleasure.             

Of course now the weekly news-magazine is an anachronism; a quaint throw back to a time before 24 hour rolling news channels, smartphones and Twitter. Indeed Time’s great rival in the weekly newsmagazine scene, Newsweek, ceased publishing a print edition in December 2012 after 79 continuous years. 

In the last decade as our media consumption habits have changed I have thought little about Time Magazine – 140 characters on Twitter was enough for me to know what was happening in the world.  Then 5 weeks ago something strange happened.  Like a ghost from the past Time Magazine started arriving weekly through my letterbox.  It took a while to figure out why this phenomenon was occurring.  The simple answer was on renewing his own subscription (for the 37^th year) my father was offered a free gift subscription, which he signed me up for.

For the first few weeks I simply discarded the issues as they arrived, it was simply more junk mail.  I didn’t need a paper DeLorean to transport my media consumption habits back 25 years.

Then, last week, with my eyes in pain from a day of staring at screens of all sizes I idly leafed through a copy of Time.  It was brilliant, a reunion with an old friend.  Unlike much of the bite sized news chunks that digital media serves us up this was not just news as information.  It was in-depth analysis, properly written, rigorously edited and researched.  I consumed it slowly.  Above all it gave me an insight into events that can be rare with digital channels where depth is often sacrificed for speed. 

I read a brilliantly illustrated piece about the iron workers who are building One World Trade Centre in Manhattan.  Best of all the last line of the article directed me towards a 12 minute film online which brought the whole story to life.  This film, which can be viewed at www.time.com/rise, was a great example of old media cleverly using digital channels to deepen their reader’s relationship with the brand.

On March 7^th this year Time’s old print foe Newsweek emerged from its digital only sabbatical and started publishing print editions again.  

– Garret