Google’s New Enhanced Campaigns Feature

With their new Enhanced Campaigns feature, Google has taken steps to integrate mobile and desktop ad campaigns.

Google recently announced a major upgrade to its touchstone AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) program, which aims to integrate mobile and desktop ad campaigns. The main feature of the update consists of giving AdWords clients the ability to modify their campaigns to target mobile and desktop traffic instead of the status quo of having separate campaigns. While this upgrade is great for legal professionals who are new to AdWords, those who are already running segmented campaigns are probably not too happy right now.

A single enhanced campaign for many devices

Google’s focus on providing personalized search results that conform to the device being used by the searcher are clearly addressed in the new enhanced campaigns. This means that if an attorney who specializes in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Dallas wants to solely target BlackBerry users only when they are in Highland Park, they can now do so. The new enhanced campaigns will pressure law firms and sole practitioners who are new to AdWords to consider targeting mobile prospects, which is clearly where the future of online advertising seems to be heading.

In the past, the recommended AdWords practice was to create separate campaigns for different devices. Those legal professionals who followed this strategy will now have to migrate to the new enhanced campaign, which some have described as a cumbersome process. To this end, Google has published a handy guide (PDF) to ease the process.

Context and geolocation targeting

The new enhanced campaigns lets AdWords clients offers many permutations for ad placement. Attorneys are now able to choose the time of day their ads are displayed and assign advanced functionality such as displaying a click-to-call option for prospects using smartphones during office hours or offering them content during the weekends. This context functionality calls for more intricate profiling of prospects and potential clients, which can be a time-consuming endeavor, but in the end, it makes AdWords campaigns a lot more effective.