The enhanced ad campaigns released earlier in the year have been slowly picking up speed as some of the early adopters have announced the results they are getting. With the latest announcement from Google there are now over 2 Million unique campaigns using the enhanced features and most of them are very happy with the results.
Sridhar Ramaswamy, the SVP of Ads and Commerce at Google who is also the leader of the enhanced campaigns announced that since the end of the first quarter when they announced 1.5 campaigns the growth has continued to grow well. They also announced that the current list of features and benefits will remain stable at least through July 22nd. This is because many large companies which have not yet moved to the enhanced system were waiting until upcoming changes were put in place. By letting the system stand as it is for several months they are giving more companies the opportunity to jump onto this new system.
Early Adopters are Happy with Results
American Apparel, one of the earliest major adopters of the enhanced ad campaigns, and several other larger companies using the system have reported improved conversion rates as well as reduced cost per click. In addition they are spending less time on managing their ad campaigns. One of the major benefits companies are finding is that they are better able to track mobile conversions. Specifically, tracking the click-to-call rates on their ads has helped them find that many people are calling their businesses after seeing their ads. It is reported that the conversions have risen up to 150% for those using the enhanced system for tracking click-to-call rates.
While it was mostly the larger companies which were discussed directly by Google, the stats do show that companies and individuals of all sizes are making the move to the enhanced system. With everyone switching over at a steady rate it seems inevitable that the traditional AdWords system will eventually be phased out, and possibly sooner than most people expect.
The one downside to the enhanced system is that tracking for PCs and Tablets has now been combined into one area. Google says they have combined the two because very few companies separated them out in the older version of AdWords anyway, and it is not worth the extra complication involved to have them listed that way. For most people there is virtually no advantage to having them listed separately and it can make tracking more difficult.
If you’re an AdWords user, have you moved over to the enhanced system? If so, please share your thoughts with us here!
