If you still need to make the jump to Enhanced Campaigns, then you’ve got a few surprises in store.  Specifically, there are some new wrinkles in the way that we now bid on Display campaigns.  You’re already keenly aware of the Bid Modifiers in place for Mobile Devices, Locations, and Ad Schedules – but did you know that it’s coming to your Display campaigns, too?

Here’s the deal:  depending on how you utilize your targeting layers in Display campaigns, you have some decisions to make.  For Campaigns that only make use of single targeting methods, very little will change (outside of that whole device segmentation thing).  Bids and automatic placements will go on as normal.

If you start layering your targeting methods, that’s where things get interesting.

That... is new.
That… is new.

You’re now given the choice to select which method of targeting you’ll use to set your bids.  The system defaults to using your Ad Group level bids to start.  To get more granular with your bidding, you’ll have to enable custom bids as shown in the screenshot above.  Here, we’ve selected keywords as our go-to method for Display bidding.  You’ll find this menu on the Ad Group level of whichever targeting method you’ve selected in the Display Network tab.

If you were to layer that with any of the other levels of targeting (i.e. Topics, Interest Categories, Remarketing, Gender, Age, and Placements), you’re no longer capable of bidding on those targeting methods as you once were.  Admittedly, this actually simplifies the bidding process in some ways – how did all of those other bids interact, anyway?

Now, using the same drop-down menu, you can enable bid modifiers for your other targeting layers as shown below:

All modifiers, all the way down.
All modifiers, all the way down.

Once you enable said bid adjustments, you can then select a bid modifier along the same -100% to 300% scale as the other Enhanced Campaign modifiers.

These do stack, in case you were wondering.
These do stack, in case you were wondering.

You also have the option of playing with these settings in the AdWords Editor now, too:

A bit easier than going through the interface, don't you think?
A bit easier than going through the interface, don’t you think?

So for those of you keeping track, that means you can have the following Bid Modifiers in play:

  • Device
  • Location
  • Ad Schedule
  • Keywords
  • Placements
  • Topics
  • Interests and Remarketing
  • Age
  • Gender

So if you have an incredibly specific clientele that you’re looking for, you have the option to hit them with nine separate 300% bid modifiers.  Roughly.  (Please don’t do that.)

The *other* thing you may be unaware of?  On Display, you do have some control of Device preference.  You still can’t exclude device categories wholesale, but you can select specific devices to target instead.

Here are the Device settings for an Enhanced Display campaign:

You'll note that there's no way to just target "Windows" or "OSX". Very sneaky.
You’ll note that there’s no way to just target “Windows” or “OSX”. Very sneaky.

There’s no way to keep your targeting restricted to just Desktop devices, much to the chagrin of a mutual friend of ours who hates his Tablet traffic with a burning passion.  I’m running a test at the moment to confirm that issue, but for now?  It looks like the Desktop/Tablet marriage is here to stay, even in Display.

So that’s that.  We’ll have more for you as we transition more of our campaigns over to Enhanced – including some more insights and analysis of Google’s ongoing “Enhanced Campaign” webinar/PR tour.

If you’ve got any tips, tricks, and traps to avoid as you migrate your own accounts over, share them in the comments!  And, as always, thanks for reading!