Google has announced a series of improvements to its advertising solutions ahead of the holiday season.
Included in the announcement are features that will make it easier for advertisers to manage incoming messages generated by click-to-message ads.
Improvements to Click-to-Message Ads
In the coming weeks, Google is rolling out the following new features to click-to-message ads:
- Email forwarding: Sends text messages to an email inbox, so advertisers don’t need to provide a phone number to use message extensions. Responding to the email will automatically send a text reply back to the customer.
- Automatic reply: Sends a preset message back to the customer as soon as they message an advertiser. For example, advertisers can automatically reply with, “Thanks for your message. We’ll get back to you within the hour.”
Google is also expanding the ways that advertisers can measure the performance of their click-to-message ads.
Message reporting will now include message conversions. Advertisers will be able to define the number of user-initiated exchanged needed to qualify as a conversion.
For example, if it typically takes two or more exchanges before a customer books a service, then that can be set as the conversion threshold.
Other Advertising Improvements
Google announced additional enhancements to assist businesses with both an online and offline storefront.
To help businesses take action on Google’s store visit measurement data, those insights are being brought to data-driven attribution and Smart Bidding.
Data-driven attribution helps advertisers understand which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns have the greatest effect on business goals.
Advertisers can use this information to drive more conversions using Smart Bidding.
Also, in the coming weeks, Store Visits in Google Analytics will start rolling out to eligible advertisers.
This will allow businesses to connect store visits to other marketing efforts that bring customers to their website and then to their offline storefront.