Grab a coffee, take a seat, maybe listen to some music and relax by reading ourblog. We want to share our passions and know how with you and the whole world!
In September 2018, Google made changes to the way your ads appear in placements.
Starting in September 2018, Google is simplifying targeting and exclusion controls for Google Display Network ads on mobile devices in order to make it easier to reach the growing base of mobile users. As a result of these changes, you may see a significant increase in mobile apps or mobile web traffic (depending on your current settings).
“significant increase in mobile apps” is the part for concern for ourselves. Google places ads in mobile apps and games and it’s switched on by default, even if you had previously excluded it. Mobile apps can be the source of poor quality traffic, resulting from kids playing on apps or accidental clicks. Personally, unless I’m convinced, I’d rather block our ads from showing here.
How To Exclude App Placements
For campaigns that targeted different kinds of mobile and tablet traffic, you can update your device targeting by following these steps:
Using the new AdWords interface, visit your campaign settings.
Click Additional settings.
Click Devices.
Click Set specific targeting for devices.
Select the device settings that apply to you:
Click Save
You may wish to check all of your other campaigns and accounts. We would also recommend closely monitoring the performance of your campaigns following these edits.
In Summary
Google have caught advertisers unaware with these changes as they have effectively overridden legacy exclusions meaning your ads are showing and costing more than previously but using the new settings means you can still exercise some control.
Google has been in the headlines after organisations including the British Government, Channel 4, The Guardian and the BBC started pulling their Google ads on YouTube. This is following a recent investigation by The Times which found adverts from major brands appearing alongside content from supporters of extremist groups. In addition to the unwanted associations, the YouTube adverts were estimated to be making the publishers around £6 per 1,000 views, leading to claims that top brands are “funding” extremist groups by unknowingly advertising on their videos.
This is following more than 1000 advertisers, including Kelloggs, BMW, Visa, T-Mobile, Nordstrom and Lufthansa pulling advertising out of Breitbart, the right wing news site.
Is My Business Affected By This?
If you are using Google AdWords, then the answer is very likely yes. By default, Google ads will not just show in Google search results, but in Google Partner sites including YouTube and millions of other sites who display Google ads in return for commission.
What Can Be Done?
Crescent Digital take the reputation of our clients & of ourselves extremely seriously and have placed a temporary block on our clients’ YouTube advertising, pending reassurances from Google. Additionally, we have temporarily placed a restriction on showing our clients ads on all video sharing platforms and sites showing right wing, left wing and religious topics.
How To Exclude AdWords Placements By Domain
Sites can be excluded from placements by domain name. Campaign Negative Placement lists can be created & maintained in the shared library for each account.
In the shared library, create the Campaign Negative Placement list, add keywords and apply to campaigns where placements are used.
These lists cannot be shared from a MCC agency account for several client accounts. For this reason, Campaign Negative Placement lists are likely to be difficult to maintain, particularly with managing several client accounts, hence why topic exclusions are also recommended.
How To Exclude Placements by Topic
In the AdWords campaign, select placements -> targeting:
Select Add Campaign Exclusions -> Topics
Search and Select Topics to Exclude:
Click close & save.
How To Exclude Video Sharing Placements
In the AdWords campaign, select placements -> targeting:
Select Site Category Options and exclude Video-Sharing Sites
Steve Baker, Founder, Certified Google Partner & Chartered Institute of Marketing Accredited Digital Marketing Specialist.
As a graduate software engineer, I started operating as a professional web designer in 2000, working on projects such as Brittany Ferries and Team Philips. I am also a Google Certified partner, accredited by the CIM and formally approved as a service provider for the UKTI for International Digital Marketing.I specialise in offering a complete service in order to generate more clients to help your business grow:
SEO (search engine optimisation) of websites.
PPC (pay per click) marketing campaigns such as Google AdWords
Social Media campaigns such as Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook
Email campaigns
CRM tools in order to provide the systems for your sales staff to convert more leads.
If your business would like to attract more clients and grow, please get in touch - I'd love to chat.
Google has been testing different search results pages and have this week rolled this out the changes which may make a significant impact.
What has changed:
4 paid AdWords ads at the top of the page (previously 1-3) – there is now more opportunity to show ad extensions in the 3 and 4th positions such as site-links and snippets
The Ads down the right hand side of the page have disappeared completely
Organic search results have been pushed down the results page further
The winners are the advertisers who have ads in positions 1-4. The losers are advertisers in positions 5+ as these will now be shown on the bottom of the page or even page 2. The other losers are organic SEO results as organic results now make up a minority (36.4%) of the search results.
We always recommend using several streams of traffic for your website rather than being over dependent on AdWords or organic Google results. For AdWords advertisers, according to recent data, position #3 has seen the biggest increase this week with a 15% increase in click-throughs and with our clients AdWords, we are positioning ads at position #3 and would suggest as a good tactic to follow if managing your own.
Costs haven’t inflated for positions 1-4 yet, however there’s likely to be a lot of jostling for position when advertisers realise what’s happened so we’d recommend keeping a close eye on positions of ads and traffic.
My thoughts are that contrary to some reports, its not time to panic as we’ve seen several changes before. We’re a little disappointed that this wasn’t communicated to Google Partners and that Google has become even more ‘pay to play’ with prominent results dominated by those with the largest budgets. However, if you’re starting to get fed-up with Google, there’s a lot of chatter about a search engine that doesn’t track you.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
More and more site owners have come to understand the importance of Google Analytics. However, the majority of people I come across are using it incorrectly and nearly all except the dedicated professionals, fail to understand its features and make it work to improve the marketing returns.
We’re big fans of GA (Google Analytics) at Crescent Digital because in particular, we can study the data to improve 2 fundamentals:
how to get more targeted visitors to the site
how to get more of those visitors to engage, purchase or inquire
In addition, if you’re using AdWords, I would class GA as essential.
The infographic below explains how you can use Google Analytics effectively to improve your marketing.
Crescent Digital Ltd. are officially recognised as a certified Google Partner.
This certification demonstrates proficiency in search advertising, including best practices for creating, managing and optimising AdWords search campaigns and means that we have access to the best resources available to get the most visibility for your website in Google and its partner sites.
What Does This Mean For Our Clients?
As partners, we are trained & work with Google & have access to Google assistance and account management. As a client, this means that you get to work with ourselves and Google in order attract visitors to your website and get them converting into paying clients. You’ll also be eligible to receive promotional credits.
Best Practices
High performance keeps our clients happy and improves our standing as a Google Partner. In order to attain & maintain Google certified Partner status, Crescent Digital have had to demonstrate high performance & best practices of our client accounts.
What Specialist Services Do We Offer?
Crescent Digital can train staff or operate as your outsourced digital marketing partner that operates as part of your main team in the following areas:
Thanks for the explaination. I did everything accordingly, and now waiting for the 24h to pass for it to show up in my Analytics. However, the small one-sentence confirmation is not appearing anymore, when someone fills in the contact form on our website. Could you please give some input on how to fix this?
Unfortunately not I’m afraid. It does vary with the type of activity and LinkedIn frequently change their policies, but at present, LinkedIn’s maximum is 30 days.
Regards
Steve
Hi there.thank you for your website
Is there any possibility to see all my updates in linkedin from the bigining?I had been linkedin member for about 3 years or so and .I had shared simething that I need it now and unfortunately I lose to have them any where else they were gone. I’d have been grateful if you can guide me
Many thanks
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
3rd Party Cookies
This website uses analytics data collected by Google, Bing, Facebook, Pinterest & others to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping these cookies enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
Verena
| #
Thanks for the explaination. I did everything accordingly, and now waiting for the 24h to pass for it to show up in my Analytics. However, the small one-sentence confirmation is not appearing anymore, when someone fills in the contact form on our website. Could you please give some input on how to fix this?
stevenba
| #
Unfortunately not I’m afraid. It does vary with the type of activity and LinkedIn frequently change their policies, but at present, LinkedIn’s maximum is 30 days.
Regards
Steve
N_jarolmasjed
| #
Hi there.thank you for your website
Is there any possibility to see all my updates in linkedin from the bigining?I had been linkedin member for about 3 years or so and .I had shared simething that I need it now and unfortunately I lose to have them any where else they were gone. I’d have been grateful if you can guide me
Many thanks