To better prepare advertisers for the upcoming holiday season, Google has introduced two new AdWords features designed to maximize sales during this crucial retail period.
The most powerful of the new features is the ability to send marketing messages direct to customer’s phones. A new ad unit has been designed to allow searchers to opt-in to text message updates when searching on their phones.
After tapping on the “Subscribe” button within the ad unit, the customer will be opted in to receive text messages from Google.
When the advertiser makes relevant updates and announcements — such as a limited time sale, or exclusive discount — customers who have opted in will receive this information via text.
Customers will have the option to unsubscribe at any time, simply by replying with the word “STOP”, so be mindful of the frequency at which you’re sending alerts to customer’s phones.
In addition, Google will respect user privacy by not providing customer phone numbers directly to advertisers. Opting in to text message alerts does not give an advertiser the ability to contact anyone directly.
Holiday Structured Snippets
Along with these new ad units, Google has introduced a new feature to add to existing ad units — holiday structured snippets.
Holiday structured snippets allow advertisers to highlight any special offerings specifically for Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Making use of holiday structured snippets is just like adding any other kind of structured snippet to an ad. When creating an ad, look through the drop down menu and select either “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” as the header of an ad extension.
What sets these particular snippets apart from the ones that were already part of AdWords is the fact that you can promote one single offering using holiday structured snippets. Standard structured snippets require you to include at least three offers.
Black Friday structured snippets will not begin to appear in search results until November 20th, Google says. They will run through November 27th, and automatically shutter on November 27. Cyber Monday ads will run November 20 through November 30.
You can run both sets of structured snippets if you wish, but Black Friday snippets will take priority until the conclusion of the annual retail extravaganza.
[“source-searchenginejournal”]