Google Adwords Now Offering Social Extensions
The latest Google Adwords social extension seeks to improve the paid search experience by leveraging +1 data through the Google+ network. By displaying the +1 results for an ad, Google hopes to combine social influence with paid search results.
Early last month, Google announced a new Adwords extension named "social extensions", which appears to be another hybrid of two platforms; just as Adwords Express combined PPC and local search results, so too would social extensions represent a merger of PPC and social media.
Social extensions work by allowing users to share their +1's across their Adwords campaigns and Google+ Page. By allowing this information to be shared across both systems allows advertisers to leverage recommendations to increase their reach and influence customers.
Currently, all Adwords ads displayed on Google or the Display Network include a +1 button. If a user clicks the +1 button, one of two scenarios will play out:
- Not Signed In: If signed out of their Google account, a user will be able to see a raw number of people who have +1'd either the ad's landing page or the Google+ Business Page.
- Signed into Google: When signed in, users will be able to see who in their Circles have +1′d either the landing page or the Google+ Business Page.
Activating social extensions provides greater exposure for advertisers' ads and Google+ Page, and increases the likelihood that the annotation is shown. Since the social extensions annotations increases the relevancy of ads shown, they may also increase overall ad performance.
Social Extensions at a Glance: Although a relatively new launch, the social extensions feature is ready to be utilized by advertisers. Some points to note:
- Social extensions are currently available in all countries
- There is no associated cost when users +1 an ad – pricing is still based solely on cost-per-click (CPC)
- Social extensions will only appear on Google.com and the Google Display Network for desktops and mobile devices with full browsers
- Social extensions are compatible with all AdWords targeting options (i.e. day parting, language targeting, etc.)
- To understand how +1 Annotations are impacting overall ad performance, advertisers should segment their campaign data to include "+1 Annotations"
- Currently not compatible with AdWords Editor or the AdWords API.
For more information on social extensions, visit the AdWords Help Center topic at:https://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=188879
Contributed by Jonas Pauliukonis, Sr. eStrategist, Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc.
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