Welcome to another week of news! We are starting off with some extra good stuff - free ad credits!
COVID ad credits officially started rolling out in Google Ads accounts last week. We’ve seen credit amounts range from $300 to $1,000. Those credits expire at the end of 2020, so if you aren’t currently running ads make sure to check your account and use your free credit!
Our top article this week is the launch of Google’s new social-discovery platform, Keen. Using the power of Google search, Keen utilized search queries to help users discover and collaborate on topics. Search marketers better read up because this could be important for rankings!
Top News
Google Launches Keen, a new social discovery network. Keen is being called a Pinterest competitor, but it goes beyond just pinning links and images. Using the power of Google search, Keen is a new personalized search-discovery-social mashup. “Keens” are where the user organizes their topics, similar to a Pinterest board. The base of a Keen is Google search queries. As you add search queries to your Keen, you are given articles related to them in what is called the “Explore” area of the platform. You can save links that you like to your Keen in the “Gems” section. At any time a user can modify their search queries for their Keen to adjust the suggestions within their Explore section. Keen is very easy to set-up - it took me about 5 minutes to set-up my first Keen and follow a few boards. I documented my experience and you can read about it here!
Google Ads Clickbait: Starting in July, Google is updating their misrepresentation policy to introduce their Clickbait Ads policy. Ads that encourage users to click through in order to understand the full context of the ad will no longer be allowed, along with any ads that pressure users to take immediate action via fear, guilt, or other strong emotions.
Google Smart Campaign Updates: Google is making it easier for small businesses to get started on the platform, and rolling out a lot of updates specifically for Smart Campaigns.
1. You can now sign up for Smart campaigns and run ads directly from the Google Ads mobile app, without ever having to use a computer.
2. Google is giving away free promoted pins on Google Maps as in-store visits start to pick back up. They won’t be charging for any clicks, calls, or sales from Promoted pins via Smart Campaigns through September 2020.
3. While there isn’t a lot of control with Smart Campaigns, you can use “keyword themes” to better match related searches to your product.
4. See campaign performance and preview ads right from your search bar by searching “Google Ads” or “My Ads” on Google.
