Google streamlines advertising with mobile in mind

Big changes to Google’s advertising platform look like a vast improvement on its currently bloated, difficult-to-use system.

By simplifying its AdWords PPC management platform, Google has made it much easier to gain traction in the ever-expanding realm of mobile advertising – particularly for smaller businesses.

Google’s mobile advertising service is hideously complex. In order to get the most out of it, advertisers have to tailor separate campaigns not only for each city where their ad appears, but also for each device it can be viewed on.

When you think about all the different city / phone-model combinations there are, this means hundreds, if not thousands of subtly different campaigns, which only the biggest firms have the resources and expertise to negotiate.

Enhanced campaigns

But that’s all set to change with Enhanced Campaigns, which experts agree will make life a whole lot easier for advertisers with fewer resources. The new interface will now be a lot simpler to target an AdWords ad based on a user’s location and the time of day, and to co-ordinate campaigns designed for desktop and mobile devices.

It will allow for greater specification without having to write a whole new campaign for mobile and desktop, or for each mobile variation such as location or device type. Enhanced Campaigns will, in short, be pulling everything under one big umbrella.

The effect will be ‘seismic‘ according to Wired.com – and not just for advertisers, but for Google itself, which earns two thirds of its revenue from AdWords. “Google’s new AdWords tools could prove to be a monster, growing both its own earnings and those of participating businesses. Only time will tell. But there’s no disputing that the stakes are high.”

For the specifics, see this blog post by Larry Kim, co-founder of advertising management firm Wordstream.