Every year, it feels like Christmas comes a bit earlier. This year is no exception as before we have our first bites of Thanksgiving turkey, we’re already planning our holiday marketing strategies. Google knows how important this time of the year is for e-commerce advertisers and this week, they quietly gifted advertisers with two new products to help them succeed in what is often their busiest time of the year.
Google Introduces SMS Text Message Remarketing
This year, Google has made massive strides in enabling advertisers to reach and target users across different devices – both on and off the SERP. In May, they announced a portfolio of new mobile ad formats. In September, Google announced Gmail sponsored ads to allow advertisers to reach users in their email inboxes. And in October, Google introduced Customer Match targeting to allow advertisers to create and target a custom user audience by uploading a list of email addresses.
In their most recent announcement on Tuesday afternoon, Google revealed a revolutionary new ad format that will allow searches to subscribe to receive updates and deals via SMS text message to their mobile phones.
After a user subscribes to the service, Google will send them catered text alerts as relevant Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Holiday shopping deals are announced by advertisers. Users will have the option to unsubscribe from future alerts at any time.
While advertisers will not directly receive a client’s phone number or manage this SMS messaging, this newly announced product is a perfect supplement to large retail advertisers who are already running SMS marketing to promote their holiday deals.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Structured Snippets
Google’s second early Christmas present started to appear in accounts this week in the form of custom Black Friday and Cyber Monday Structured Snippets, which allow advertisers to highlight any special Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals they are promoting right on the SERP:
Creating these holiday-specific ad extensions is easy and follows the same rules and process as creating a normal structured snippet. To create either a Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotion, simply select either “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” as the header of the ad extension. Then you’ll be able to list any specific deals, sales, or promotions you’re serving for each holiday. Unlike with other structured snippets, which require at least 3 values, you have the option to promote as few as 1 deal at a time.
We’ve already begun to see these Black Friday and Cyber Monday structured snippet headers appear in client accounts this week, so we expect them to continue to roll them out to all accounts shortly. Although advertisers can create them now, Google insists that they will not begin to show on the SERP until Friday, November 20. Black Friday promotions will show November 20 through Black Friday, November 27, and will be automatically sunset the next day. Cyber Monday promotions will show November 20 through Cyber Monday, November 30 and will be automatically sunset the next day. If an advertiser creates both holiday structured snippets, the Black Friday promotion will trump the Cyber Monday promotion and the Cyber Monday structured snippet will not show until after Black Friday ends.
Tis the season for AdWords! Regardless of whether you planned your holiday strategy in July or you’re just beginning it now, this new ad format and holiday structured snippets have the potential to be game changing this holiday season.
About the author:
Mark is a Data Scientist at WordStream with a background in SEM, SEO, and Statistical Modeling. Follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google +.
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