Encrypted Search for PPC A Lot of Hype, Little Impact May 2014
Lead contributors Suzie Rafla Head of Paid Search Havas Media suzie.rafla@havasmg.com 2014 Havas Media Group 2
Background On Wednesday 9th April Google announced security enhancements for paid search. This change will bring paid search in line with organic search by removing the users search query from the referrer string for clicks from SSL searches on Google.com. This means the users search query will no longer be passed to analytics packages and third party tools. What does this mean for paid search? As the search query will be omitted from the referrer string, we can expect to see not provided data for paid search increase in analytics reports over the next month. The percentage of not provided data will mirror organic and we can expect this to affect the majority of paid search traffic. In reality though, the majority of what we do in paid search and the data we have access to won t change. Encrypted search will have little to no impact on the majority of advertisers or people working in paid search. 1. Understanding Search Query Data It is important to understand not just the keywords that drove conversions in paid search, but also the user s search term, especially when using broader match types. This allows us to mine for new keywords and new negative keywords. With this change we will still be able to get search query data from the Google Search Terms report. As this report gives an aggregate view and does not link to an individual user, it is not a privacy concern. We will also still understand what search terms drove conversions with Google Conversion Tracking. Search query data will also remain available through the Google API, so bid management technologies and other technologies with an API connection will not be impacted. Some advertisers prefer to look at search query data through the referral in their own or third party tools, so they can align with their own conversion data. This is because Google Conversion Tracking data does not always correspond 2014 Havas Media Group 3
with a client s actual view of performance. This will no longer be possible moving forward and these advertisers will have to rely on the Google Search Terms report within AdWords or through the Google API. It is therefore important moving forward to ensure you have conversion tracking set up within AdWords to understand search query conversion data. The majority of paid search advertisers analyse search query data in this way anyway, so won t see a change. 2. Dynamic Optimisation through Search Query Insertion Some clients use search query referral data to dynamically change their landing pages and personalise the experience. This will no longer be possible moving forward. However, it is still possible to serve the keyword that triggered an ad on dynamic landing pages. This can be achieved through using ValueTrack or dynamic parameters in the URL. Our recommendation has always been to use this method rather than using the actual search query so that you can be confident the keyword displayed will make sense. Hence there will be very few advertisers who will be impacted. In the same way, if advertisers are currently passing search query referral data into CRM systems or any other technologies, they will now need to rely on keyword data instead. 3. Search Tools & Technologies Search Retargeting. This change is likely to affect some technologies or ad networks that offer search retargeting to personalise display ads to a specific user. As search query data will no longer be available outside AdWords, if this was one of the data sources that a network leveraged to serve the right ad to the right user, then this information will no longer be available. Bid Management Tools. These will not be affected. Tools such as Marin and Kenshoo get their keyword data through keyword IDs, not through the referral string. As they also have API access they are still able to access all search query data through the API (just not on an individual click basis). Search Monitoring Tools. Some competitor monitoring tools such as Similar Web or Hitwise may be affected. Most competitor monitoring tools have several sources of data that feed into their algorithms, so the impact should be minimal. The API will become more important now for some of these tools too such as call tracking providers. 2014 Havas Media Group 4
Why did Google make this change? Google made encrypted search the default for signed in users back in 2011. They made this change to increase user privacy. In a lot of ways, it was inevitable that this change would eventually come to paid search, as it was contradictory to only have search query data for paid and not organic search. This change is therefore a move to bring parity to search security. It will be interesting to see how Google reacts to security concerns in the future. This change comes at a time when Google is releasing more and more functionality for personalised search, revealing the device, location, proximity, demographic, user context and past user behaviour. Thus Google is giving away more and more user data to allow search to become more targeted, yet they consider this piece of information (the search term) as a greater threat to user privacy. Hence, there is some contradiction in Google s privacy approach. Part of their motivation for this change undoubtedly stems from the advantage of search query data only being available through AdWords or the API, and not through third parties scraping destination URLs. 2014 Havas Media Group 5
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