When Your Ads Are a Whole Mood

When Your Ads Are a Whole Mood

Want more clicks? Stop wasting ad spend on sad keywords.

Today's News

• Positive Keywords Hit Different

• Google is Dropping eCPC. Here’s Why.

• Adobe Brings Generative AI To Video Content

• Can Perplexity’s Ad Push Dethrone Google?

• Pinterest’s Latest Push for Your Ad Dollars

• Google’s New Local Service Ads Verification Deadli …

• Meta’s Ad Game? Still on Top

Positive Keywords Hit Different

Could good vibes be the secret to more clicks? Advertisers spent about $110 billion in the U.S. on paid search ads last year, but many are still unsure why some ads get clicks while others don't.

Traditional strategies tend to focus on using deal-related or brand-specific keywords to boost relevance, but are they missing something?

Emotions drive clicks

A new study in the Journal of Marketing has found that positive emotions affect the words used in search queries and can boost clicks on paid search ads. Researchers found that when consumers feel good, they tend to use more emotionally charged keywords in their queries. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of clicking on paid search ads.

Lessons for marketers

The study's researchers suggest:

• Using these keywords could reduce costs per click, as bid prices for these types of keywords are low, yet consumer ad clicks in response to these keywords are higher.

• Focus on targeting these keywords during high-emotion periods, like weekends and holidays when consumers are more likely to use positive keywords.

• Hedonic products—such as clothing, entertainment, and dining—are more likely to benefit from positive emotion keyword strategies.

Google is Dropping eCPC. Here’s Why.

Every other week, our Google ads correspondent Jyll Saskin Gales walks us through the latest platform changes. Jyll spent six years at Google in a senior ad role, and today runs the Inside Google Ads training program.¹

Earlier this week, we reported on Google's announcement that they are sunsetting the enhanced CPC bid strategy.

Starting next month, you will not be able to select enhanced CPC anymore when creating or editing a campaign. And by March, all existing campaigns using eCPC will automatically be moved to manual CPC bidding.

I spoke with her this morning about this change.

The Basics

Jyll, before we get started on the details, what is enhanced CPC bidding?

Enhanced CPC is a bid strategy that's kind of like your Goldilocks solution between manual bidding and automated bidding. So you want control over your campaigns, but then you also want some of Google's magical AI to help you. Enhanced CPC was your solution.

Practically what it does is you set your bids for your keywords or audiences or ad groups just like you would with manual bidding.

So say for the keyword marketing podcast, you set a $2 bid. That means you're willing to bid up to $2 to advertise when someone searches for that keyword. But with enhanced CPC turned on, what that means is you give Google permission to bid up a little bit if they think that user is very likely to convert, and then to bid down a little bit if they think that user is not likely to convert. So just bring in a bit of conversion data to adjust your bids.

And at the end of the day, although it gives Google permission to bid higher than your max CPC, enhanced CPC keeps your average CPC at or around your max CPC.

So for example, if you previously had set a $2 bid limit, Google could potentially bid $2.50 or another, it might not bid at all, or only bid $0.50. At the end of the day, your average CPC would still be about $2.

eCPC vs Target Bidding

Gotcha. How is this different than Target CPA or Target ROAS, which are also Google bid strategies that sound a little similar?

Definitely similar. Target CPA and Target ROAS are two smart bidding strategies. Smart bidding means using AI, but also means Google is taking into account a whole bunch of different signals at auction time.

With the manual bid strategy, you set the maximum amount you're willing to pay per click, and that's that.

But with smart bidding, you don't set a bid at all. Instead, you just tell Google your goal, like my target CPA I'm looking to get from this campaign is $40, or my target ROAS I'm looking to get from this campaign is 325%.

And then Google gets to choose your bids for each and every single auction with the goal to eventually get you that result. That's how you can end up sometimes paying $20 for a click or even $100 for a click sometimes. The smart bidding can seem really stupid.

But with enough data and time, these things learn and it's focused on driving a result rather than driving a specific cost per click.

Why are they killing eCPC?

Okay, so back to Enhanced CPC, which they're sunsetting. Why? Why are they getting rid of it now?

Enhanced CPC's day came long ago. Enhanced CPC was the first kind of automated, bringing automation in that we ever saw. It predates all the smart bidding we have now.

So back when we all manually bid all the time, Enhanced CPC was this revolutionary thing to bring some conversion data and automation into your bidding.

Now that Google, in my opinion, rightfully pushes smart bidding so hard, and that means maximize conversions, target CPA, maximize conversion value, or target ROAS, those are the four smart bidding strategies.

There's not really a need for this in-between solution anymore. Either you're going to manually bid or you're going to smart bid.

So this was “baby AI.”

(laughs) Baby AI, exactly. And now AI has gotten its wings and learned to fly and doesn't need those training wheels anymore.

How to prepare

If advertisers are using Enhanced CPC right now in their campaigns — perhaps this is one of those set it and forget it campaigns that they set up two years ago and just applied a daily budget to it and they're getting good results — how do those people prepare for this change?

If you're using eCPC and it's working well for you, I'd recommend that you test target CPA or target ROAS.

And the reason I'd recommend one of those bid strategies is if it's working well for you, that means you're currently hitting your CPA target or you're currently hitting your ROAS target.

I would not recommend that you move to a maximized strategy like maximize conversions or maximize conversion value because those work really differently. Those tell Google, here's my budget, spend it to get me results. Whereas when you use target CPA or target ROAS, you're saying, here's the efficiency I'm looking for. Currently spend my money if you can get me that efficiency.

And so it's much more similar to how something like eCPC would have worked. So you can use an experiment to divide your traffic and see how one of these bid strategies works better.

You can just go ahead and make the change right away or you can wait until, you know, March 2025 like most of us and then have a little freak out and then decide which bid strategy you want to use next.

And of course, if you do want to manual bid, at least for now, going backwards to purely manual bidding is still an option.

Which is what will happen as you mentioned in March of 2025 of next year.

Exactly. If you do nothing, then your campaigns that use enhanced CPC will just become manually bidding campaigns that no longer take conversion data into account.

Be sure to check out Jyll’s Inside Google Ads training program¹

Adobe Brings Generative AI To Video Content

Adobe's generative AI video content has entered the chat. The tech giant announced its new Firefly Video Model today with tools including:

• Text-to-video

• A new feature that can produce video clips from your brand's stock photos

New features

Adobe's text-to-video feature lets users create video clips from written descriptions and adjust the results using various 'camera controls' to simulate different camera angles, motions, and shooting distances.

The model also includes an image-to-video feature that can turn specific reference images into video clips. Adobe suggests this could be useful for creating B-roll footage or addressing gaps in production timelines.

Future integration

The Firefly Video Model is designed to be commercially safe and will be available in beta later this year. It will eventually be integrated into Creative Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Adobe Express applications.

The company also previewed the upcoming “Generative Extend” feature for Premiere Pro, which can extend the length of existing video footage, similar to Photoshop’s Generative Expand tool for image backgrounds. This feature is also expected to be released later this year.

Can Perplexity’s Ad Push Dethrone Google?

As Adobe makes way with generative AI in video content, Perplexity, a generative AI search engine, plans to launch ads in Q4. However, eMarketer reports that advertisers may be hesitant to invest without proof that their ad dollars will stretch further than they do on Google.

Advertiser concerns

Zac Woolfolk, associate director of paid search at ad agency VML, points out that advertisers are wary of trying the new platform due to privacy concerns. Advertisers need assurance that Perplexity will deliver relevant content, accurately display ads, and lead users to relevant landing pages.

To win over advertisers, the search engine needs to prove its success with early adopters who do take a chance on the ad platform. It will also need to build trust and address brand safety concerns, including recent plagiarism allegations.

If successful, it could tap into the vast U.S. search ad market, forecasted to hit $125 billion this year, with Google capturing about 50% of that share.

Google’s remains king

However, as AI-powered search platforms evolve, Google is anticipated to adapt to maintain its lead. According to eMarketer’s forecast, Google’s share of traditional search ad spend is expected to grow in the generative AI era.

Pinterest’s Latest Push for Your Ad Dollars

Pinterest is looking for a piece of your ad budget.

The platform recently launched the next phase of its promotional campaign designed to boost awareness among potential ad partners.

New era of promotional campaigns

The campaign, which was first launched in July, aims to show how the platform benefits users by connecting them with a wide range of interests. In this new phase, the focus is on:

• Party planning

• Recipes

• Shopping discovery

This expanded push is part of Pinterest's broader strategy to increase revenue, particularly in Western markets.

Google’s New Local Service Ads Verification Deadline

Google is now enforcing stricter verification checks for Local Service Ads. Earlier this year, the tech giant introduced a new process for its Local Service Ads program. Now, Google has started the rollout, first with law firm advertisers.

Verification deadline

Advertisers must complete this verification by November 15, 2024, to continue using Local Service Ads. The updated process aims to cut down on spam and help legitimate businesses gain more visibility.

Meta’s Ad Game? Still on Top

Meta's digital ad supremacy persists, topping digital ad revenue growth in every quarter for the past year.

Meta vs. the rest

eMarketer reported today that in this year's second quarter, Meta outpaced Pinterest and Snap for the fourth consecutive quarter, according to the company’s earnings. Pinterest and Snap, however, have narrowed the gap so far this year.

Loyal user base

Despite rising ad loads, Meta’s user base grew by 7% last quarter, with ad impressions and price per ad both jumping by 10%. eMarketer forecasts a 15% rise in Meta’s U.S. ad revenue for 2024, reaching nearly $65 billion.

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