New Google Ads fees will be in place from 1 November 2020. These additional charges will apply to ads served in the following countries:

• Austria = 5% fee
• Turkey = 5% fee
• United Kingdom = 2% fee

Google Ads Fees Explained

In Turkey, the Regulatory Operating Costs are being added due to significant increases in the complexity and cost of complying with regulations within the country.

For Austria & United Kingdom these fees are part of a new Digital Service Tax (DST).

For more information, read this article from Google.

(Microsoft are yet to release any information about this, but we can assume that the DST will apply to other search engines as well as Google).

What does this mean for you?

No change is needed from your end. You will simply start to see this new Google Ads fee within your invoices / statements from 1 November onwards. This means that your final cost will be your account spend + 20% DST.

Next Steps

• Review Your Budget

When forecasting budgets you will need to ensure you are factoring in the additional fee on top of any advertising spend. Make sure to check any insertion orders that you have already set up.

• Review Your KPIs

To ensure that your KPIs don’t take a hit, it is a good idea to review your targets. For example, if your current CPA is £10 and your monthly budget is £200, you will expect to see 20 conversions per month. However, with the new fee in place assuming you are an advertiser in the UK your Actual Spend will be £240. Therefore, your Actual CPA will be £12 instead of your target of £10.

One way to maintain your current CPA target would be to optimise towards a smaller CPA so that the Actual CPA does not change. However this could lead to a decrease in demand / clicks.

For more blog posts & updates, click here.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic on the 11 March 2020. But it wasn’t until 23 March 2020, when Boris Johnson announced lockdown measures for the UK. What did this mean for businesses? Well, many businesses had to be ‘put on pause’ under the new restrictions to contain the outbreak. A few months on, we now find ourselves entering a new normal with ‘COVID-friendly’ workplaces, social distancing, travel corridors & more. But at what cost for businesses? In particular, what is the impact of coronavirus on small businesses? 

Measuring The Impact at a Larger Scale

One way that we can measure the impact of coronavirus is by looking at the search trends on Google. I have looked at the last 12 months of data to analyse trends pre-COVID. Extending that, lockdown and post-lockdown (as restrictions begin to ease).

Search demand dropped off from 8 March 2020 – 14 March 2020, around the same time that coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Travel has arguably taken one of the biggest hits. This was due to new measures restricting people from outward travel to certain countries. Many travel companies grounded their flights with EasyJet choosing to shut some of their bases in Stansted and other UK airports. As restrictions began to ease in the UK in late May, the search demand for many industries started to increase.

The next biggest change in demand happened over 4 July 2020. This marked the re-opening of many physical businesses, thus seeing a spike for services like barbers & pubs.

The Impact on Small Businesses

A similar trend can be seen across small businesses. However, the true impact of coronavirus depended on whether the business was a physical or online entity.

For physical businesses, such as shops, the search demand followed a similar trend to that faced at an industry level.

However, for online businesses such as Flower Delivery companies, they experienced a new peak greater than that of occasions such as Valentine’s Day. Standard peaks would also have been extended due to the increase in “at home” demand.

What Should I Do Now?

• Review your Google Ads account

It’s the perfect time to review your Google Ads account. Whether you were lucky enough to experience a spike in demand or not, it’s crucial to make sure your account is fully optimised. The more optimised your account is, the better your quality score and the lower your cost-per-click bids.

• Update ad copy with COVID-friendly messaging

The importance of safety is paramount and re-building people’s trust should be front of mind in order to be successful and stand out from your competitors. Using terms in your ads such as “book with confidence” or “free 30-day cancellation” is an effective way to do this.

• Start off small

If you are thinking about re-activating activity, it’s best to focus on key areas of your account first. This will help you to benchmark CPCs and will better help you to understand what targets are achievable within your budget.

• Regularly monitor performance

COVID has really shaken up the auction and therefore historic data will no longer be an accurate way to determine how your account will perform. Changes to restrictions could impact many businesses with things such as local lockdowns taking effect in certain cities across the UK. Make sure you are keeping up to date with any changes and checking for any shifts in conversion rates. If you’d like any assistance with the above, please feel free to reach out to me.

For more blog posts & updates, click here.