Yesterday, Google gave search marketers a small peek into the future of AdWords, and the future looks great. Prayers of increased efficiency and genuinely insightful reporting tools will soon be answered over the coming months, as the latest features of the Adwords product will be rolled out.

Google’s AdMob network has been offering search ads for apps for years, but they’re about to kick it into high gear. 80% of all apps that are downloaded are used once and deleted. Soon, Google will begin offering re-engagement ads, allowing you to direct traffic from a user’s search query back to their installed app. For example: If a user searches for “hotels in San Francisco” on Google, they can go directly to the specific page in their HotelTonight App about SF Hotels, instead of being taken to that app’s main landing page. Other updates to the AdMob network include targeting users based on their app usage (e.g. apps used, frequency of use, in-app purchases) as well as better conversion tracking over the course of an app’s lifecycle.

As we move further into the era of the multi-screen world, it becomes increasingly important to track conversions across multiple devices. But what about offline sales? Google released the “estimated total conversions” metric and has begun to invest in measuring offline sales from online campaigns. Early access testers saw an impressive 102% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS). It is likely that we will keep hearing more and more about this product, as it will become central to measuring the success of online campaigns for many brick-and-mortar businesses.

Among the largest components of the latest update, Google announced that it will begin rolling out new enterprise-class tools to help run large search campaigns smarter and more efficiently. In addition to expanding bulk editing actions and automated bidding, they will be adding a desperately needed advanced reporting feature to AdWords.

“We’re providing you with new multidimensional data analysis and visualization tools so you can perform most, if not all of your data analysis, right here inside AdWords.”Google

Challenge accepted, Google. I, for one, look forward to the day when we no longer have to deal with AdWord’s unintuitive exported reports.

Last, but certainly not least, is Google’s AdWords Lab. Using live traffic, this Labs tool promises to allow you to experiment with bid changes, new keywords, campaign settings, day parting, ad formats, and more. This kind of feature sounds sounds like it will complement, if not replace, the Keyword Planner as a means of researching your ideal campaign components and settings. I look forward to any tool that promises to make campaign set up even easier.

More can be found on the upcoming Adwords updates here.

*Source: Digital Trends, 2013 (via Google)

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