Sparked by Google’s elimination of the right rail (above), an Acquisio and LSA webinar last week discussed a variety of new initiatives coming from Google. Specifically, the webinar looked at how these initiatives from the last couple of months are impacting the AdWords platform.

LSA’s Greg Sterling kicked off the webinar discussing the impact digital media is having on offline purchases. He said that most commercial searches conducted online are fulfilled offline, citing a Deloitte stat that said about $2.2 trillion in retail spending was influenced by the Internet last year.

Acquisio’s David McIninch explored the changes more specifically, providing insight for local marketers on what changes matter most and how to succeed in the new Google AdWords environment. Here is some commentary from the webinar on a few of these changes:

• Google has expanded text ad character limits to 140 characters which will require a rewrite of a majority of ads for the new format.
• Elimination of the right rail is arguably one of the biggest changes to Google’s SERP ever.
• Google is providing additional ad real estate on desktop and mobile with local extensions.
• Call only ads can help increase conversions on AdWords and make use of the mobile opportunity.
• Google is allowing for device-specific bidding within AdWords.
• Now is the time to embrace mobile SEM because CPCs are lower and engagement is potentially higher.

To view the recording of the webinar, click here.

For access to all of LSA’s past webinars, visit https://bit.ly/LSAwebinars.