Search Ads 360 (formerly Doubleclick Search) is an integral component of the Google Marketing Platform stack designed to enable agencies and direct advertisers to efficiently manage global search marketing campaigns across multiple engines and social media channels.
Search Ads 360 is often being compared to both Google Ads (AdWords) and the Google Marketing Platform based on its seemingly overlapping feature-set. Despite this common misconception, Search Ads 360 possesses powerful search campaign capabilities which collectively amplify search campaign capabilities when the platform links to either Google Ads or the Google Marketing Platform rather than each used separately.
Today we turn the spotlight on Search Ads 360 and offer five reasons why marketers should consider adding Search Ads 360 for managing their search engine marketing campaigns.
Campaign Management
Rather than managing search campaigns in Google Ads and Microsoft Ads separately, Search Ads 360 enables marketers to place the search engines (in addition to many others) into one platform to save time and allow budgets and bids to flow into an array of search networks.
Search Ads 360 allows for adding all social accounts to a single user interface to enable unified social performance and engagement metrics. The combination of search and social accounts on one platform assists marketers to benefit from cross-channel remarketing.
Budget Management
Search Ads 360 users can create budget groups interconnected to creating and modifying budgets depending on the performance of bid strategies and their goals. This feature is unique to Search Ads 360.
Optimization & Automation
Search Ads 360 enables campaign managers to use more flexible and granular bid strategies that can be set up across engines, several accounts, campaigns, ad groups, or even keywords.
Search Ads 360 also features a vast portfolio of automation features smarter bid strategies that enable optimization of bid adjustment:
- Devices
- Locations
- Remarketing Lists
Advertisers can create a customized bid strategy with multiple ERS, ROAS, and CPA targets. These strategies allow for saving time, reducing complexity, and making better decisions to increase ROI.
On Search Ads 360, there are a variety of formulas to create personalized ads tailored to specific business needs. Custom formulas in dynamic text ads allow for bulk editing of texts across different accounts, campaigns, and ad group. This feature eliminates wasted time spent on management, optimization, and large-scale reporting.
Targeting
Within the Search Ads 360 platform, marketers launch and manage search and social campaigns in a single interface. Campaign managers can build out remarketing lists (excluding duplicate conversion counting) built from all of the campaigns and use the lists to re-engage with customers on search, social, or display channels.
Reporting
Within Search Ads 360 marketers can utilize the paid & organic reporting section to view specific search terms that either caused ads to appear on Google or the organic search results that motivated users to click through. The reporting section is powerful in assisting to uncover how paid and organic search work together to reach your intended audiences searching online.
Search Ads 360 uses a unified set of pixels (Floodlights) to track conversions from both display and search advertising in real time. Through tracking cross-channel conversion funnels, Search Ads 360 prevents counting conversions more than once.
Compared to Search Ads 360, Google Ads tags are specific to the Google Search Network and its search partners such as Youtube Search, whereas the Floodlight Tags found in Search Ads 360 are designed to integrate seamlessly with all Google Marketing Platform properties. By using Search Ads 360 with the Google Marketing Platform marketers can create a multi-channel approach to attribution by aggregating search, programmatic (Display & Video 360), analytics (Google Analytics), in addition to all other media formats (Campaign Manager).
Conclusion
If you currently possess a large-scale account on Google Ads, you are delivering marketing campaigns across several search engines and social media channels or you are already using other products of Google Marketing Platform (Display & Video 360, Analytics 360, etc.), then Search Ads 360 will have a great value and will contribute to a positive ROI for your search campaigns.
Google’s premium search platform presents unmatched features for eliminating wasted time spent on launching, managing and optimizing search campaigns, as well as showcasing essential reporting functions for delivering cutting-edge analysis for uncovering conversions paths from the very first click through an offline visit to your company. Search Ads 360 allows marketers to design campaigns in bulk all the while keeping ads personalized and tailored to individual users on using specific search queries.
As a Certified Google Sales Partner, Total Media is ready to support you with our unmatched expertise, training, and consulting services for implementing Search Ads 360 into your marketing strategy.
If you would like more information about the platform, please feel free to contact us.