Almost a doomsday of sorts, July 22nd was supposed to be the endgame for advertisers perpetrating around without having upgraded their Legacy campaigns to Enhanced. Google has been warning advertisers since late February that an automatic upgrade would happen for all Adwords campaigns sometime in June. As suspected, the official date (July 22) was released at this year’s Ad-Tech in San Francisco. Google stated last Monday (Doomsday) that 6 million Legacy campaigns had already been upgraded to Enhanced, accounting for nearly 75% of all active campaigns.
The FLOP
So as the remaining 25% or 2 million active campaigns did not actually convert on Monday; what the heck did happen? …(cue crickets)….
Google’s VP of Ads & Commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy, admitted that the 2 million campaign upgrade did not happen. In fact, nothing did. He assured the Adwords Advertising World that the rollout would happen over the next several weeks. Much like the Carmageddon scare from 2 years back, Enhanced Campaigns was a complete dud.
So Now What?
Well advertisers, you’re not off the hook yet. Enhanced Campaigns is still eminent for everyone. If you’re not in the 75% already crossed over to EC, your days are numbered. Since 6 million campaigns (the vast majority) are already there, I wouldn’t look at this as a bluff but rather a welcomed extension to prepare what should have been ready a week ago.
Didn’t Know About Enhanced Campaigns?
For any Adwords advertiser who has been under a rock for the last 4 months, Enhanced Campaigns is the largest single “enhancement” to Google Adwords in over 5 years.
