Google AdWords Update

On June 11th Google announced significant changes to its self-managed advertising platform (Adwords) regarding real estate advertising. In short, by the end of 2020 they’re eliminating the ability for advertisers to target ads based on certain demographics and zip codes.

We anticipated this move in light of all the trouble Facebook has endured over the past few years with HUD. And it certainly makes sense for them to be pro-active within the current political and social environments.

Our take at Adsintelligence Marketing is that while Google is reducing the ability to target specific zip codes, we won’t see a significant impact. Our campaign structures are predicated on “local” or national campaigns and not zip codes. National campaigns shouldn’t be impacted at all and our “local” campaigns are typically predicated on a radius around a city or region. Because of this, there will be minimal impact to any clients moving forward in terms of reach or region.  

The biggest impact we will see is that some regional ad sets may get more competitive as those that were solely utilizing zip-code-based targeting will have to adjust their strategies.  

Google is coming out with additional guidance in the coming weeks that will show up as a notification in each individual ad account telling us if any of our ads or campaigns may be impacted.  Similar to how Facebook updated their geo-targeting capabilities a few years ago after their issues from HUD, it’s a bit of a “feel good” change that can be taken in stride once we get the notification as to how our accounts will be impacted. We’re in a wait-and-see mode and are optimistic that these changes to the platform will have little to no effect.

Don’t forget, when Facebook was forced to eliminate virtually all targeting within the real estate vertical we assumed that would be the beginning of the end. What actually happened was just the opposite. Because their algorithms and AI are so advanced, we actually experienced improvements in traffic and conversions.  

Sometimes, the spaghetti wall is more effective than the needle in the haystack.

More to come as Google reaches out with further guidance…