2016 may have been a crazy year, but we can all agree that 1) Thanksgiving is awesome, and 2) paid search marketers have a lot to be thankful for. After all, who would have predicted last November that we would get Google tablet bid adjustments, Bing time period comparisons, and Facebook oCPM bidding this year? Here are eight features, tools, and updates that we’re giving thanks for, all served with a side of Thanksgiving puns.

It's that time of year where we are thankful for all the new tools that make our holidays easier. Image via Pexels.

It’s that time of year where we are thankful for all the new tools that make our holidays easier. Image via Pexels.

Tablet Bidding on Google

Just like the beloved deep fried turkey, tablet bidding is back, and it’s hotter than ever. This year, we are giving some serious thanks to Google for bringing this feature back to our accounts after a painful three-year hiatus. (Google must have read our 2016 holiday wish list.) Not only can we analyze performance separately for tablets, computers, and mobile devices, but now we can actually adjust bids on tablets to help our clients squash their goals this holiday season!

Jackie Wolfe
Account Manager & Google Beta Specialist

Facebook oCPM Bidding

I gobbled with excitement when Facebook rolled out the 7 day oCPM optimization window. oCPM, or optimized CPM, is our preferred way of bidding on Facebook because it shows our ads to people who are most likely to convert. For advertisers with a click-to-purchase window (which is pretty much everyone besides lead gen clients), the 7-day window means we can tell Facebook to consider people’s actions over the past 7 days when selecting who we show ads to. Previously, Facebook would only look at the past 24 hours. oCPM bidding helps Facebook’s algorithm make smarter decisions, and this has improved stability and performance. That’s what I call the pecan on top of the pie!

Eve Denton
Senior Manager, SEM & Paid Social

Bing Time Period Comparison

The new time period comparison feature in Bing Ads makes it a breeze to analyze performance changes over time. This allows us to make impactful changes with optimal efficiency by spotting account trends and making adjustments to reverse them. You could say that the time period comparison is helping us carve out more time for PPC optimizations!

Kendall Todd
Senior Account Manager & Bing Specialist

Demographic Bid Adjustments

Google’s full roll out of demographic bid adjustments for search campaigns fills me up with as much joy as Great Grandma Altmann’s homegrown turkey schnitzel. Demographic bid adjustments allow us to adjust our paid search investment based on performance among age and gender data groups. (I know, this makes my mouth water too.) Plus, being able to share with my clients insights and data on top-performing gender and age brackets is delicious.

Nick Altmann
Account Manager & Google Beta Specialist

AdWords Editor YouTube Support

I’m thankful that Google has further welcomed YouTube to the family table by rolling out AdWords Editor support for YouTube campaigns. AWE allows us to create new YouTube ad groups and campaigns, and adjust settings across all YouTube campaigns in less time than it takes you to say ‘pass the stuffing, please!’

Alyssa Codd
Senior Manager, Search & Video

Google Tag Manager

Conversion tracking issues have you in a fowl mood? As Metric Theory’s resident pixel wizards, we’re always stuffed with excitement to see a client using Google Tag Manager. It allows us to easily diagnose, troubleshoot, and help rectify pixel placement problems all in one location. Not only does it make troubleshooting easier for us, but it also allows our clients to house and edit the code in one place, instead of across multiple pages on their site. Talk about a tur(n)key solution!

Amanda Sherman & Danielle Mason
Metric Theory Tracking Specialists

Google Analytics Smart Lists for Remarketing

While we’re loading up our plates with turkey and stuffing this Thanksgiving, Google is loading up ‘Smart Lists’ with your visitors who are most likely to convert. So enjoy your food coma, and let Google Analytics do the work of building effective remarketing lists for you this holiday season. Advertisers across Metric Theory see 100%+ stronger conversion rates in remarketing campaigns with Smart Lists compared to typical site visitors. Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Barbara Munin & Ashleigh Shapiro
Metric Theory Google Analytics Specialists

Responsive Display Ads

Like eating a third plate of turkey, running the same set of display image ads for too long can leave your audience fatigued. Responsive Display Ads allow you to quickly swap image creative and ad copy messaging, all while automatically resizing to fit any placement size on the Google Display Network. Just like substituting a Turducken for the traditional turkey, adding Responsive Display ads will give your audience something exciting this year!

Eddie Wright
Senior Manager, Enterprise Accounts

New Growth Tools

With apologies to the Cleveland (not Plymouth) Indians, I’m thankful my Cubbies celebrated with a non-Thanksgiving Day parade for their first World Series Championship in 108 years. In addition to that victory (which is sweeter than sweet potatoes with marshmallows), I’m thankful that every other prediction in my 2016 digital marketing trends post came true. From Facebook video retargeting to Google shifting away from last-click attribution to Facebook Engagement Custom Audiences, advertisers have a bevy of new tools to drive growth and invest in the full digital marketing funnel.

Jeremy Brown
Chief Marketing Officer

We hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, Gobble!

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