Google is introducing new features that will be useful to address issues related to advertising compliance, ad placement, and campaign bidding. The three features I found most interesting were the Disclaimer Asset, the Web Gaming Exclusion Solution, and Journey Aware Bidding.
Pmax Disclaimer Asset Feature
Performance Max (Pmax) is an automated campaign in Google Ads that allows advertisers to target their audience using Google’s advertising network. But businesses operating in industries such as finance, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals have to show legal disclaimers along with their ads.
To resolve this issue, Google introduces Disclaimer Assets. Advertisers have the option to use a text asset that cannot exceed 90 characters. This feature is supported on Search and select Display placements. It does not support YouTube, Discover, Gmail, or Maps.
To ensure correct placement of the disclaimer, Google is going to block ad formats that do not allow the required disclaimers. Such a strategy may reduce the number of impressions or adversely impact the performance of the campaign when compared to standard Performance Max campaigns.
This looks like a great feature for businesses that need to adhere to legal norms in advertising. They will get the opportunity to take advantage of Performance Max and Smart Bidding.
Web Gaming Exclusion Solution
Google Display Ads can be shown on a lot of different sites and apps. But some placements may not be suitable for every advertisement. The ads that show within casual browser games sometimes get unintentional clicks from users.
Google’s upcoming Web Gaming Exclusion Solution would prevent Google Ads from appearing on web gaming third-party websites. As it is impossible to exclude hundreds, and even thousands, of sites individually by hand, Google will create an automatic allowlisting to block these placements.
This solution can be applied to certain Google Display Network campaigns, such as Performance Max and Demand Gen.
In my opinion, this will save advertisers the effort of managing placements by individual sites. This way, they won't waste money on unintentional clicks, and ads will not be shown in places not relevant to their brand.
Journey Aware Bidding (JAB)
Journey Aware Bidding concentrates on the actions that people undertake before becoming customers. Some businesses operate under a sales cycle that takes a relatively long time, during which one person can visit their website, make an inquiry, get involved in the discovery call, and become a customer after some period of time.
When a sale takes a long time, Google Ads may not have enough data to adjust bids. Journey Aware Bidding uses earlier customer actions to make better bidding decisions. It uses early-stage conversion actions as well as the connection between the former and the final sales.
For example, the lead generation company might get website inquiries today but close the deal several months later. Using such data, Journey Aware Bidding provides additional information to the bidding system.
It would be beneficial for businesses where clients need a few months before they buy something, in some cases even over 180 days. This feature is intended to work automatically with eligible Search campaigns using Target CPA (tCPA) and Maximize Conversions, which includes AI Max and Search in Performance Max. It is currently unavailable for Target ROAS (tROAS) and Maximize Conversion Value bidding strategies.
I believe this can be useful for businesses that are unable to measure their campaign performance through the sales generated right away. Earlier customer actions give advertisers more information while waiting for the final sale.
These three updates focus on different areas of Google Ads. Disclaimer Assets help businesses follow advertising rules, Web Gaming Exclusions prevent ads from appearing on gaming websites, and Journey Aware Bidding uses earlier customer actions to improve bidding decisions.