Google Expands Lead Extensions and Improves Customer Match, Offline Conversion Tracking
Google just announced several new Google Ads features that will improve your ability to capture leads across different Google properties.
The new features include:
- Expanding lead form extensions to YouTube, the Discovery ads, with plans for Display later this year
- Offline conversion tracking that no longer requires Google Click ID (GCLID)
- Improvements that will lead to better Customer Match rates, with the ability to create similar audiences based on Customer Match lists
- Zapier integrations for easier data sharing between third-party applications and Google Ads
Here’s a look at everything we know about Google’s lead generation themed update for August 2020.
“Google is doubling down on helping businesses find new ways to easily generate leads right from ads versus having to go to site, helping make lead acquisition a more seamless process. The ability to track offline conversions without a GCLID is also a nice improvement that should help business more easily close the loop on lead quality & offline sales while improving optimization capabilities within Google Ads itself.”
— Josh Brisco, Vice President of Growth Media at Tinuiti
Google Expands Lead Extensions to YouTube, Discovery ads, With Display Coming Later
Google first rolled out lead extensions for Search campaigns later last year, allowing businesses to easily capture lead information without the need for a user to fill out a form on a website. Even better, Google’s lead forms are pre-filled for signed-in users on Google properties.
Now, Google has doubled down by expanding lead extensions to additional properties: YouTube, the Discovery ads for mobile users, and later this year, Display.
According to Google’s blog:
“With new lead form extensions in Google Ads, you can now show a lead form directly in your ad, giving people an easy way to share information as they search, discover and watch relevant content. This seamless flow can help you find high-quality leads in a more efficient way. Right now, this works with ads on Search, YouTube, and Discovery and is available globally. Later this year, we’ll begin rolling these out across Display campaigns.”
This is great news for lead-gen bases businesses that can take advantage of additional inventory to capture leads across different channels and at different parts of the customer journey.
“As with any customer acquisition strategy, the success of these lead gen extensions depends upon optimizing cost per acquisition to the quality of the prospects. We welcome any new feature to increase lead volume, but recommend approaching it with caution to ensure lead quality,” says Adam Harms, Senior Paid Media Strategist at Tinuiti.
Google Improves Offline Conversion Tracking, Customer Match, and Third-party Data Transfering
Offline conversion tracking
Google has also said it is lowering the barrier to import offline data into Google Ads by no longer requiring a Google Click ID to track offline conversions.
“Capturing GCLID has remained a consistent issue for many advertisers over the years. This new capability to have offline conversion tracking without it, should open the door for many more advertisers to reap the advantages of closed-loop offline attribution,” says Brisco.
Customer Match
Google also said that new improvements to Customer Match will translate to faster customer match rates and the ability to build similar audiences from Customer Match lists. According to Google’s blog:
“Over the last few months, we’ve made Customer Match easier to use, and rolled out several other updates. You can now create similar audiences based on Customer Match lists. This helps you find more potential customers. Match rates have been improved and will now update in real time. This makes it easier for you to troubleshoot your list and connect with more of your customers.”
Third-party data transferring with Google Ads
Google announced that there are now new integrations with Zapier and third-party apps that will make importing and exporting data into Google Ads much easier.
That wraps up this week’s product updates from Google. We’ll keep you posted when Google releases its next iteration of releases from The Update. If you want to learn more, check out Google’s Update portal here.
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