During today’s AMP session at SMX West, David Besbris talked about Google’s implementation of AMP and how they have integrated it within the search results. But one of the questions asked was about whether Google AdWords could start using AMP for AdWords ads.
AdWords serving AMP landing pages… it is a pretty interesting thought. AdWords does consider landing page loading speed as important to the user experience. And AMP will load faster for nearly every webpage unless the page is loading straight html text without any added scripts, images or other items that tend to bog down loading speed. So from strictly a user perspective, AMP could be an amazing user experience for loading an ad landing page very quickly.
However, many advertisers would not be able to use many of the tools and tracking efforts on an AMP page that they tend to use, so from an advertiser perspective, they might not be so happy. But what if AdWords gave a boost to AMP pages in their Google AdWords ad rankings in mobile, or perhaps only allow AMP pages to display in the top spots.
Google could also give priority to ads being displayed through the content network, such as news sites running AdSense, when the ads are served on an AMP page, since it would continue with a seamless AMP experience if someone clicked on an AMP ad from an AMP page.
With how much Google has been pushing AMP content, I already had felt that Google AdWords could do something with AMP for mobile AdWords, as fast loading AMP landing pages would be amazing for searchers.
Besbris was asked specifically about whether we could see AMP used for Google AdWords. And surprisingly, he didn’t outright deny that it could happen.
“I don’t want to pre-announce any AMP product enhancements,” Besbris said in response to the AdWords question. “But we love AMP.”
So while it wasn’t a confirmation, it wasn’t a denial either, which I think was the response the audience was expecting. At the very least, the usual type of “I don’t know what is happening on the ad side of things” response that many Googlers on the search side say when asked an ads related question.
He also confirmed earlier in his discussion that Google plans to bring AMP to more search features in Google, beyond the current top stories.
I doubt very much AdWords would ever make it a requirement for advertisers to use AMP landing pages for mobile, but it could give a boost or preference to AMP landing pages. Of course, there is the whole ROI perspective as well – how well could AMP pages convert compared to non-AMP.
So AdWords advertisers might want to consider implementing some AMP pages for their blog or news stories and getting familiar with how it works, in case the AdWords team does plan to implement some sort of AMP component to the ads in the search results sometime in the future. And advertisers could use AMP pages as a landing page for an AdWords ad currently, provided it meets the AdWords technical/quality guidelines.
Jennifer Slegg
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