Google rolls out major AdWords updates for mobile

Dive Brief:

Google rolled out new features to AdWords, including expanded text ads, new device bidding availability, and responsive native display ads, according to Marketing Land.
The new features were created to help marketers reach consumers on mobile devices.
Google started rolling out the features yesterday to marketers around the world.

Dive Insight:

Mobile has fundamentally changed the way consumers use technology to connect with businesses. Google has been active in addressing the needs of mobile users and marketers alike. Google now delivers more search queries to mobile devices than desktops, and has rolled out its Accelerated Mobile Pages project with the aim of helping publishers and businesses speed up website load times for mobile users — a problem for many sites.

Google first announced major changes to its iconic AdWords product back in May, focusing on adapting its ads to a mobile-first world. “The shift to mobile is no longer happening, or will happen — the shift to mobile has happened," Sridhar Ramaswamy, senior vice president of ads and commerce at Google, wrote in a blog post announcing the new features. "At the Google Performance Summit in May, we announced a completely new ad platform built from the ground up to help consumers and marketers succeed in this mobile-first world: expanded text ads and responsive ads bring to life the canvas you use to connect with consumers, while device bid adjustments provide more control and flexibility so you can optimize with greater precision.”

The latest features coming to AdWords are yet another indication of Google's focus on mobile users.

The expanded text ads are optimized for smartphone screens and will feature two headlines — each with 30 characters — and an 80-character description line. The format offers marketers 50% more ad text. “Our research shows longer ad headlines are more useful to mobile users because they provide additional information about your business before they click your ad,” Ramaswamy wrote.

The responsive ads for display allow those ads to fit a range of websites and apps across different content types and screen sizes, while the bid adjustment update means advertisers can set ad bids for specific devices such as mobile, computers and tablets. This should allow marketers to better take into consideration ad targeting elements, such as location, time of day and audience, while scheduling automated bids and optimizing for scale.