There are many changes to AdWords which are helping advertisers increase their revenue, and other changes which are actually working against some businesses. The challenge is identifying which  features will be beneficial to your business and discerning how you can answer those questions for yourself. And with the new AdWords IF Functionality, it’s certainly worth questioning since the feature has already been proven successful, and continues to generate ample revenue for the advertisers who’ve chosen to use it. The question remains if it’s a good enough feature for your business, since changes to Exact Match (as we’ve mentioned in our previous post), and many others in the past year haven’t exactly catered to the needs of many businesses, yet remained profitable for Google themselves. So, you really have to wonder if AdWords IF Functionality is really the best feature for you, and how you can make this determination, since many of Google’s recent updates have not worked for every business which used them.

Let’s start with defining AdWords IF Functionality. Originally this feature started with Standard Text Ad—and was introduced once Standard Texts ended in late January. Since then, this new feature was introduced to customize ads based on device and retargeting list membership, which we anticipated would yield to a tremendous spike in paid-search revenue considering the enormous spike in mobile search queries alone this year. IF Functionality allows you to insert a specific message into your text that is triggered when the condition written into the syntax of the ad is triggered by a relevant search query. Learn more about how the AdWords IF Functionality Syntax here.  

Indeed, it’s a clever idea, considering the rise in mobile users this year, but really, aren’t there enough features that cater to mobile search ads, especially those that specifically customize ads based on the search terms of a relevant query? Look at the new changes to Dynamic Search Ads—now being more aligned with Extended Text Ads, the headlines and landing pages are modified depending on the query being made. Several other ad customizers can appeal specifically to mobile users, especially if you use mobile-specific targeting to evaluate the types of audiences searching for your goods and services on their mobile phones, and what they are likely to search in pursuit of your services. Then there are ad-extensions which can specifically cater to the target audiences you’ve identified to increase the chance even more that audiences will convert.

So how can you discern if this feature is something you want to pursue? Really, it’s about looking at your goals, and discerning if it’s worth the time and effort to really pursue a feature that can cause some confusion with the types of codes required for the ad to function properly, and which may be adequately addressed by other AdWords features. So, if you are in serious need of revenue and you’ve employed many other tactics, perhaps pursuing this avenue is worth the time and effort of using AdWords IF Functionality. If you are succeeding with other tools, but still want even more revenue—and you have the time to make the change—then this is an avenue which you should pursue.  But if you are intimidated by the process, you can either hold off until you get outside assistance or consider using a tool like our LXRGuide to provide you with quality insights into how you can optimize your account. Or you might not even feel the need to use the feature because many of your browsers are not even coming from mobile phones. Whatever the case, just remember the choice is yours. It just really boils down to your priorities, the time and resources available to you, and whether you believe using the tool will bring you the type of success you want, especially if your data is driving you in this direction.