• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 6, 2015

Google's recent milestone of mobile searches surpassing desktop on google.com requires automation, measurement, and careful planning. Along with the data, Google Tuesday announced a series of tools and formats to support the shift. The AdWords features and Google Display Network tools were highlighted in a live stream, hosted by Jerry Dischler, Google VP of product management. The release covered ad formats, automation tools for search and display, and measurement and attribution for store visits and offline measurement.

The new ad offerings in three verticals -- automotive, hotels, and mortgages -- will either be rolled out today or will become available later this year.

Automation for bidding and creative execution and optimization continues to become a focus for Google. Dynamic Search Ads, a keywordless feature that triggers an ad based on the content of the Web site, will get an overhaul. Google rewrote the user interface to make it easier for more advertisers to use. It will now include more automation by recommending category targets based on the Web site’s content, suggested cost per clicks for those categories, and more visibility into the ads and landing pages.

DSA also gained automated bidding. AdWords bid strategies are setting billions of bids per day for tens of thousands of advertisers, enabling marketers to become more efficient. Google introduced a new reporting dashboard that increases the transparency and control marketers have to evaluate the performance of bid strategies. New simulation tools also show advertisers the tradeoff between volume and cost at different CPA targets.

Measurement tools also got a makeover, from AdWords Attribution to cross device conversions with automated bidding, and tools to help marketers experiment with Google ads.

The move to cross-channel and cross-device marketing and advertising requires measurement to determine the full impact of campaigns across devices, apps, calls, and stores. AdWords now allows marketers to select an attribution model for each of your conversion types. Later this year, Google will provide an option to gain more insights when cross-device conversions are integrated into automated bidding. This becomes part of a broader update allowing marketers to monitor cross-device conversions as part of the Conversions column.