The search engine giant Google introduced a streamlined version of its AdWords Express, the advertising program which is a simplified version AdWords aimed at small businesses and those that are unfamiliar with pay-per-click advertising. AdWords Express also cut down on the time commitment with running AdWords campaigns.
Small businesses and many other individuals had long expressed concerns that AdWords had gotten more and more sophisticated that it came too complex for non-marketers. Google addressed this issue by launching AdWords Express in 2011.
Google improved AdWords Express by implementing changes to make it more visible to small businesses. This is by giving Express advertisers more control over defining and reaching their target audience.
"When you select your business category, AdWords Express makes sure that customers searching for related topics see your ad. To improve the targeting of your ad, products and services that are mentioned on your website can now be used as keywords if they are related to your ad. We've also added more negative keywords on the backend to exclude unwanted searches, which improves the click-through rates of ads and means a lower cost for advertisers," said Xuefu Wang, Director of Engineering at Google, in a post on the the official AdWords blog.
Although the Express announcement gives advertisers additional control that they've not had before with their Express campaigns, there's still less control than the standard version of AdWords. This is seen as the trade-off advertisers get for a program that doesn't require a lot of time to set and manage. Less features also make sophisticated users use the traditional AdWords instead.
AdWords Express is previously known as Google Boost. AdWords that was first introduced in October 2000, is Google's primary source of revenue. Although many people have used it, AdWords can still be quite difficult to follow by some advertisers. And for that, Google introduced its less-sophisticated AdWords Express to address that issue.
Express is more like the do-it-yourself version of AdWords, designed for people that doesn't have a lot of time to invest in PPC, but sees the value of advertising on Google. The program manages the advertisers' online ads, without the need for daily management or tasks.
Dedicated App
According to Google, 74 percent of small business owners use mobile devices to help manage their businesses. To further enhance its reach, Google has released native iOS and Android apps for its Adwords Express ad platform.
"AdWords Express has added more control where it counts for defining your target audience," said Xuefu Wang. "Now advertisers can choose exactly where to promote their business [...]. When customers search from their phone, they can get driving directions, call your business, or visit your website in one tap."