Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced that it was changing its Ad Words bidding platform to its new Enhanced Campaigns plan in February, and analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch say although the impact of the new platform is “far from certain,” they’re taking a “leap of faith that Google knows what it is doing with their ad platform.”
The new platform is set to launch by July 22, and it’s a bit simplified from the old platform. In Enhanced Campaigns, tablet bids are combined with PC ad bids and included as a percentage of the combination. Bidding can also be optimized for the device, time of day and location.
BAML analysts said although they still hear some complaints about the major changes because advertisers want to bid specifically on mobile ads, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has said that some of its advertisers have already transitioned and that their SEM analysts are spending less time on it while seeing better conversion rates.
However, the search giant stopped short of saying what impact it is seeing or expects to see on cost per clicks.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) also said it’s working on a reporting platform that can record various customer activities like app downloads, look-ups on other devices, in-store visits and other tracking details. The company said Adidas noted a higher return on investment than previously thought when they worked in the fact that 20 percent of store locator searches resulted in an in-store visit.
The company is also planning to enable clients to adjust their mobile bids according to AdWords group within the Enhanced Campaigns platform. This should enable advertisers to optimize their spend better—one of the key complaints the company noted about the new platform.
BAML analysts said they’re looking for a “solid” second half of 2013 for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) thanks to Enhanced Campaigns, cost per click growth for product listing ads and improvements in Motorola sales. They basically said they’re putting their faith in Google’s ability to turn a profit in advertising, so they’re maintaining their Buy rating on the stock.
At the moment of this writing, shares of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) were up 1.77 percent on the trading day’s opening price for the stock.
