The announcement is here, despite a crazy 2020, the holiday season will go on as planned. On Tuesday, Google announced new capabilities for Local campaigns and Shopping Promotions.
Local Campaign Updates
Local campaigns, Google’s automated campaign type for local businesses, can now optimize for store visits indicators such as clicks on directions or calls.
This can be seen as a proxy for store visits when Google doesn’t have enough actual store visits for a location. The algorithm will aim to optimize for users likely to take those actions on a store listing.
Multi-location retailers can now set up location extensions in Local campaigns from a list pulled from Google Maps.
Merchant Promotions Updates
Getting Merchant Promotions — set up in Google Merchant Center — approved in time for your sale can be a big pain. Google says this holiday there will be “near instant promotion approvals on eligible offers” in the U.S. In addition, advertisers in the U.S. will be able to make edits to live Promotions without causing long re-approvals.
Google Shopping will feature more sales filters for users that are based on Merchant Promotions. For example, it will support flash sales in the U.S. and users will be able to filter for those types of offers.
It’s great to see Google stepping up and preparing their ad platforms for an unprecedented uptick in E-Commerce shopping during this 2020 holiday season.
