{"id":112911,"date":"2014-04-11T17:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T22:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/adwords-provided-means\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:54:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:54:20","slug":"adwords-provided-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/creative\/adwords-provided-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Adwords \u2018Not Provided\u2019: Why and What it means for you"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through a series of terrifying-sounding headlines and people shouting that the [paid search] world is about to end, most of us have heard that Google will be removing keyword data for paid search as of now. But \u00a0if we stop for a second and think about the implications before going into blind-panic mode it becomes fairly obvious that whilst this will be somewhat irritating, the sky is not about to fall around our ears and we won\u2019t be losing the data on the effectiveness of paid campaigns.<\/p>\n

It makes no sense for Google to completely remove this data \u2013 no one would advertise without knowing the results \u2013 all they are doing is removing the data from Google Analytics (and other third party analytical software) that lets marketers know the exact search term that was used, addressing the calls of hypocrisy after the data was removed for all but those doing paid advertising last year.<\/p>\n

The Back Story<\/h2>\n

Now we\u2019ve stopped panicking, here\u2019s the back story:<\/p>\n

Back in 2011 Google announced<\/a> to the world that it was moving to a more secure search landscape, and that others \u2013 such as browser giant Mozilla \u2013 were following suit. What this meant in real terms was that where once there was once data from natural (organic) search to tell marketers which exact search terms had brought people to their website there would no longer be full search terms; instead it was replaced by \u2018(not provided)\u2019.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s drive behind this was to make a safer, more secure search experience \u2013 removing information which could potentially identify an individual (by searching for names, addresses, etc.). Originally it was only going to cover a small portion of those who were logged in, but in the last 18 months the percentage of organic traffic coming in as \u2018(not provided)\u2019 has steadily increased \u2013 soon to hit 100%. Whilst this was annoying it was not the end of the world. There is still data in search volumes (through Adwords), themes and popular keywords data in Webmaster Tools, and the keywords from paid advertising coming through. It also lead to many calls of hypocrisy, with people in the industry pointing out that the main data now available was being provided only to those who paid for it.<\/p>\n

In March Google\u2019s search chief, Amit Singhal, acknowledged that they could see the contradiction and would address it. A month later (i.e. the end of last week), there were rumours beginning to circulate and being (unofficially) confirmed by Google that a change was about to take place that would see the data for advertisers being removed too. Cue some panic and question about exactly what would happen.<\/p>\n

And Now…<\/h2>\n
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