Holiday season is just around the corner. At this time of year the most successful brands in the world are looking to reach new customers, more efficiently, across various platforms.
If Gmail Ads (aka Google Sponsored Promotions or GSPs) are in your arsenal this season and you’re a newbie, be sure to double check the following points before releasing the hounds.
Add the Ghost Gmail Placement
AdWords isn’t always as intuitive as one might think. Whether you’re targeting a keyword list or going after in-market audiences, you’ll need to add a specific placement to ensure your ads only target Gmail users – and not also large pockets of the greater display network.
- At the AdGroup level, add a placement named mail.google.com to restrict targeting to Gmail only
- Don’t forget to Save your changes
- Repeat for all AdGroups
Automate Your Way To Happiness
Sometimes promotions officially start at midnight. If you live in an awkward timezone, they might start at 3AM for you. Save yourself some valuable Q4 sleep and schedule your ads to go live when you need them to. Here’s how:
- Again at the AdGroup level, select the Automate dropdown
- Choose “Enable AdGroups When…”
- Navigate to the Frequency options and set your rules for dates and times of activation
- Under the Automate dropdown, there is the option to Choose “Pause AdGroups when…”
Look After Your Own in the Auctions
It’s easy to get carried away when setting up a keyword targeting for a conquesting strategy. One naturally wants to add as many competitor keywords as possible in an effort to garner maximum scale.
But before doing so, it’s important to not only consider the brand you are promoting but also it’s sister and parent companies – some of which may play in the same space in terms of core service offering. Including these brand keywords poses a possible conflict of interest and may end up eroding the overarching corporation’s marketing objectives.
Err on the side of caution and focus wholeheartedly on conquesting the true competition.