Google Ads has announced its plans to switch to standard delivery of ads by 1st October.
What is Changing?
Earlier this month, Google announced that it plans to change the ad delivery mechanism for Google Ads campaigns. Starting 17th September, standard delivery will be the only option for new campaigns, and from 1st October, all existing search and shopping campaigns will be automatically switched to standard delivery.
Quick Recap into Ad Delivery Mechanisms
The ad delivery method determines how long the ad budgets last. The two options available earlier were:
- Standard Ad delivery – Here, Google optimizes the distribution of the ad cost to make the budget last for the entire day. Here, the ads are distributed evenly throughout the day.
- Accelerated Ad delivery – Here, the ad budget is not distributed and is likely to be exhausted before the end of the day. Works well when marketers want to show their ads on specific times of the day, say early in the morning.
The standard ad delivery option was the default choice earlier. From this month, it will be the only choice, and from 1st October, the accelerated ad delivery option will no longer be available.
Why is Google making this change?
Generally, advertisers on Google Ads don’t opt for the accelerated delivery option, especially when they have limited budgets. With standard delivery, advertisers were able to generate as many conversions as possible within a specific target CPC (Cost-per-conversion). This was a tactic used by advertisers, who wanted to get the most out of their budgets.
Google notes that the accelerated delivery option isn’t quite effective for campaigns that don’t have budget limitations. On the other end of the spectrum, accelerated delivery doesn’t work very well for campaigns that are budget limited as well. This is because using accelerated deliveries increases CPCs due to high competition early in the day, and causes the entire budget to be exhausted in earlier time zones.
On the other hand, standard delivery considers the ad performance throughout the day and works better at maximizing ad performance, by the daily budget. When advertisers choose standard ad delivery, their budget is evenly distributed throughout the day. According to Google, this helps in optimization of spends based on user searches.
What does Google recommend as an alternative?
Google recommends that advertisers maximize conversions and clicks by using different bidding strategies to boost ad performance. Additionally, Google also recommends using ad scheduling to manage the optimal time for showing ads and adjust bids in accordance with the period.
The Key Takeaway for Advertisers from this recent change
A large number of advertisers who are used to the accelerated ad delivery option will most likely miss this feature once it goes away. However, advertisers have to understand that similar changes are likely to occur more in the future, as Google optimizes the performance of its machine learning algorithms.
With this change, Google is signaling to advertisers that its algorithm is better equipped to optimize ad delivery based on the advertiser’s goals and other contextual signals, instead of showing the ads frequently and early in the day.
