Google did it again! A year after shocking the advertising world with the announcement of the new AdWords Experience and those unforgettable pictures of a very photogenic goldendoodle, the advertising giant’s Marketing Live event has brought us yet another wave of impressive new features. Beyond the trendy terms everyone’s already using (machine learning, frictionless), today’s keynote presentation focused on innovation across all Google advertising products with three main ideas: value, transparency, and trust (for both advertisers and potential customers).
An inside look (our amazing leader Laura Taylor was there) According to Google’s Senior VP of Ads, Sridhar Ramaswamy, marketers are now working in a world full of more curious, demanding, and impatient customers; our potential customers expect us to give them ads that offer personalized, super-relevant solutions, not just general ideas. Simply put, people aren’t dumb: they want answers immediately, and they want to save money. In more sophisticated words (thank you, Sridhar), “People don’t see the value in advertising if they don’t feel valued by advertising.” From broad explanations of recently released tools like TrueView for Action, to the announcement of brand new features like automated shopping feeds [insert fire emoji], Google has made significant improvements across its freshly rebranded solutions to help advertisers meet the needs of an increasingly knowledgeable, mobile-first, and privacy-aware audience. Pretty awesome, right? With that, here are the 11 most interesting features and changes revealed at Google Marketing Live. Hopefully we can get through this without too many cheesy NSYNC jokes. Update! >> Google Marketing Live 2022 Recap »
#1: “My Account” Makes Opting Out of Ad Personalization Easier
Sticking with the main themes of the event (value, trust, and transparency for those who didn’t read the intro), the first thing to get any kind of explanation is the user’s ability to choose not to have their ads personalized. Although it’s not a brand-new feature, the ability to prevent advertisers from tailoring your individual experience is an important step towards, ummm, avoiding the same problems that Facebook’s been struggling with for most of 2018. This, my friends, is a positive development.
Sure, this is a challenge for advertisers who depend on audience-focused targeting methods to reach new potential customers. However, providing ad personalization options makes Google appear as a more trustworthy company, which keeps users happy and coming back. This, my friends, is a positive development.
#2: AdWords Transforms into Google Ads
This isn’t really an announcement, but rather something that was bound to happen. Just a week ago, Google announced the change from AdWords to the sleek new all-encompassing brand Google Ads.
This new name better reflects Google’s entire set of advertising solutions. “Google Ads” is a broader term that can effectively include ads across search, display, map, video, in-app, and more without causing confusion.
#3: Google Marketing Enhances Programmatic Advertising Through Collaboration
Similarly, Analytics 360 and DoubleClick have combined forces within the new enterprise (and agency) solution called Google Marketing, which will be available soon. By merging these previously separate tools, Google can offer big-spending companies a complete set of tools that assist in planning, buying, measuring, and optimizing both media and customer experience. A truly comprehensive solution. The platform will include:
More than 100 integrations with exchanges and measurement solutions, all controlled from a single interface
Search Ads 360, which will let advertisers plan, purchase, and measure search ads
Display Ads 360, which will let advertisers manage bids and audiences from one central location But the most fascinating aspect of the Google Marketing platform is how it will facilitate collaboration between media buyers, creative teams, and their managers (or clients). Using an interface that looks a bit like the updated Facebook Creative Hub, this feature will allow brands and the people behind them to create more effective campaigns without the headache of endless email chains.
Oh, and one more thing… Google also created pivot tables! (They’re called “Instant Reports” and they’re designed to help people who manage video ad metrics get answers incredibly quickly).
#4: TrueView For Reach + TrueView For Action + Maximize Lift Bidding = Comprehensive Video Ads
Time for some numbers… Every day, people watch over a billion hours of video on YouTube, and 91% of smartphone users have purchased or considered purchasing something after watching a video ad. With statistics like that, and this…
It’s not surprising that Google is heavily promoting video this year through a bunch of exciting new YouTube features. At Marketing Live, Google highlighted two important TrueView features that have been available for a while but haven’t gotten much attention. The first, TrueView for reach, allows you to reach more potential customers with your video ad using CPM bidding, which can be incredibly cost-effective. The second, TrueView for action, helps you advertise on YouTube to people who have recently searched for your products or services on Google.
In terms of brand-new YouTube features, Google just announced a new Smart Bidding strategy called Maximize Lift, which will help advertisers reach potential customers who are more likely to search for their brand after watching a video. It “automatically changes bids during the auction to maximize how much your video ads affect brand perception throughout the customer journey.” Using all three features together lets you build a full-funnel approach to video-focused advertising that leads to, you guessed it, actual conversions. That’s right: no more vague impression-based KPIs!
#5: Lead Ads on YouTube?!
For me, this is the most exciting thing that was mentioned during the entire presentation, yet it strangely only got a brief mention. Advertisers have been very successful with Facebook lead ads for a while now, but Google hasn’t had a comparable option. Until now… Lead ads on YouTube will combine the incredible reach of the world’s largest video platform with powerful audience targeting and the ability to capture the contact information of valuable potential customers early in the buying process without requiring them to go allllll the way to your website before giving it to you. Stay tuned for more info; I’m willing to bet a month’s salary that we’ll publish a post when we have more details.
#6: Huge Responsive Search Ads Are Coming Soon to a Search Results Page Near You
What has 15 headlines, 4 descriptions, and probably won’t cause nearly as much excitement as Expanded Text Ads did in 2016? It’s Responsive Search Ads, of course!
According to our esteemed Senior Data Scientist, Mark Irvine, the headlines and descriptions you’ll need to provide to create a responsive text ad will give you the ability to create 43,680 different variations: good luck writing that much copy manually… Instead of writing components specifically designed to work together, RSA gives Google a collection of copy to use; the platform will then automatically test different combinations of headlines and descriptions and figure out which combinations work best. Over time, your Responsive Search Ads will show the most effective message to different users based on their search term, device, previous browsing activity, and other signals. Interested? You can apply for the recently expanded beta program through the Google Ads blog or just be patient for a few months, at which point Responsive Search Ads will be available (in English only) to everyone.
#7: Mobile Speed Score Gets Its Own Column
What good are responsive search ads if your mobile landing pages aren’t good enough? Not very, according to Google Ads Project Management Director Anthony Chavez: 50% of users will abandon a potential purchase if the landing page is slow to load. Just one day after revealing that the Speed Update had been officially released to all users, Google announced the release of a Mobile Landing Page Speed Score column on the Landing Pages page within Google Ads. The tool rates landing page speed on a ten-point scale–from “very slow” to “extremely fast”–and does so using a number of factors, including the connection between page speed and potential conversion rate. Wait, what about PageSpeed Insights and Test My Site? How is this different? Well, not only does the Mobile Landing Page Speed Score column exist within the Google Ads interface–so you no longer have to leave Google Ads to check page speed–not only is it automatically updated every day, but it’s also the first of Google’s speed tools to consider potential ad performance when assigning a score. Paid search advertisers will probably make this their go-to page speed tool.
#8: Cross-Device Reporting Arrives in Google Analytics
Cross-device reporting isn’t a new concept, and reports like the Device report and the Device Paths report have long allowed advertisers to attribute conversions to multiple devices. Now, for the first time, cross-device reporting is coming to Google Analytics.
The Cross Device reports are located within the Audience section of Google Analytics, and are divided into three sub-reports:
Device Overlap: Discover the types and number of devices used to access your content.
Device Paths: Uncover the last 5 device types used before a conversion.
Acquisition Device: Understand the relationship between acquisitions and conversions. Now you can compare segments, visualize data, and differentiate usage across desktop, mobile, and tablet at each step of your sales funnel–all from within Google Analytics.
#9: Smart Campaigns: A New Solution for Small Businesses
Google officially announced Smart Campaigns a couple of weeks ago; and it used Google Marketing Live to continue generating excitement for them. As Google Ads’ new “default ad experience,” Smart Campaigns are designed for small businesses with limited experience in paid search, and limited time.
Smart Campaigns give small businesses the tools they need to get started within just a few minutes, and achieve the results they care about–getting more phone calls, increasing actions on their websites, and attracting customers to their physical stores (at least that’s how Google is promoting them). Smart Campaigns are similar to (though not the same as) AdWords Express–although fast, small businesses with larger budgets may find themselves wanting more control over their ad spending. Still: if you’re really short on time and are just looking to get some ads running with a relatively small budget, Smart Campaigns might be worth trying out.
#10: Don’t Have a Website? No Problem!
Almost half of all small business owners in the United States don’t have a website (wow). Of those, even fewer have the time and knowledge to create websites and landing pages that are optimized for search ads. As a possible solution to that widespread issue, Google is now testing auto-optimized landing pages. This feature will be part of Smart Campaigns, and will provide business owners an attractive alternative to creating time-consuming, product-focused websites.
Auto-optimized landing pages use machine learning to extract information about your products and services directly from your ad, and match it to your on-page design. Google has also built conversion tracking and reporting directly into the experience; so ad creation, landing page creation, and conversion tracking and reporting are all now accessible from within the Smart Campaigns interface.
#11: Major Improvements Come to Google Shopping
Did you know that during any 48-hour period, 80% of Americans are shopping online? It’s true! To handle the massive amount of online shopping, Google has enhanced its shopping experience with Smart Shopping. That’s right. Machine learning has now found its way into shopping, too.
Initial tests have revealed a 20% increase in conversion value at a similar cost when using Smart Shopping. In addition to maximizing conversion value, Smart Shopping now gives advertisers the option to choose store visits and new customers as goals. Machine learning takes care of the rest–intelligently adjusting bids, optimizing your ad placements, and optimizing which products are shown–based on a wide variety of factors, such as seasonal demand and pricing. The soon-to-be-released “automated feeds” will also give advertisers the ability to create comprehensive product feeds with just a single click. Google Ads will import all your products from your website directly into its interface. The best part? Smart Shopping is now integrated with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify; so if you’re a Shopify user, you can manage and monitor ad performance right from your CMS.
That’s All Folks!
Wow, that was a lot! A year after completely transforming the paid search experience, Google seems to have outdone themselves. From Smart Shopping to Responsive Search Ads; from YouTube lead ads to Mobile Speed Score; Google has taken its already impressive set of marketing and advertising features and made them even better. It remains to be seen if/how machine learning will help lower CPAs, but at least they’re trying–only time will tell if the implementation is successful too! A huge thank you to Gordon Donnelly who co-wrote this post.