You can’t accuse Google of being conservative at this year’s Google Marketing Live event. The company announced a slew of updates to Google Ads that are sure to change the way you advertise your business over the next year.
Key highlights include improvements to Search and Performance Max. There are also new AI-powered tools to enhance ad personalization and optimization, improved reporting, and updates to YouTube ads that reinforce the company’s commitment to YouTube Shorts. To make the list of updates easier to understand, we’ve separated the updates based on their benefits to you.
The Power Pair
Let’s start with what Google calls their Power Pair: Search plus Performance Max. When you take the power of Google Search and combine it with Performance Max campaigns, you drive higher conversions. Together, they have shown a 27% increase in conversions.
Performance Max Updates
Performance Max campaigns take your initial elements, like graphics, messaging, and goals to create and deliver ads on every Google Ads pipeline, including those rolling out this year. All other updates listed below are linked to Performance Max campaigns and Google is counting on you to see the value of this Power Pair to get you the highest conversions possible.
Search Updates
Online search habits have changed over time. People are more comfortable communicating with not only their devices but the various AI applications they now encounter. According to Google, “AI-driven improvements to quality, relevance, and language understanding have improved broad match performance by 10% for advertisers using Smart Bidding.” This is over the last six months.
Shopping Ads in Visual Searches
Starting later this year, people using Google Lens and Circle to Search for visual searches will see ads for the products at the top of their search results page. This is a new opportunity for your products to appear in front of visually-inspired consumers.
Google Lens is an app both Android and iOS users can enjoy to point to something in front of them and get more information about it. Android users also have access to Google Circle to Search, which lets them look up any item on their screen.
Search Ads with AI Recommendations
Google is looking to become your customer’s ultimate guide to the right product rather than simply providing an endless list of options. After the initial search results, consumers will have the ability to provide more details about their need using multimodal inputs like pictures on their phone to receive more precise AI-powered recommendations.
While the customer will see this as a Google feature, it only works if you participate. Advertisers will have the ability to add product options and criteria, including the multimodal filters, to help Google’s AI narrow down the results.
Ads in AI Overview
You may have already noticed Google search results now often lead with an AI-generated answer. This is the AI Overview and starting soon, it will also feature a set of ads the AI finds accurate to support its answer. This is your opportunity to reach consumers as they go from learning about a product to purchasing.
Conversational Ads
One of the biggest changes in how consumers interact is their comfort and ability to use conversational tones and language. The very act of activating a Google Home device with the prompt, “Hey Google…” is an example of how the company has prepared us for this very shift.
Google Ads’ conversational experience tool takes your industry and company expertise and combines it with Google’s AI to generate better ads aligned with consumers’ requests. According to Google, advertisers using this tool are 63% more likely to publish search campaigns with “Good” or “Excellent” ad strength.
Enhanced Shopping Experience
Many of the updates Google announced centered on creating a better shopping experience for customers. Improve their experience and you’re bound to see improvements in your own conversion rates. These are the updates made with shopping habits in mind:
- Use Product Studio to transform static photos into eye-catching videos
- Highlight your brand’s unique story with the visual brand profile on Google Search
- Video Highlights invites shoppers to explore curated short brand videos, discover helpful customer quotes, and browse additional brand offerings
- Virtual try-on in Shopping ads to help shoppers see how your clothes fit on a variety of body types
- AI-generated 360 product images
- New ways to tailor promotions in Shopping ads, such as highlighting member-only exclusive offers or special pricing
- First order promotions for new customers directly in Shopping ads
- Automatically update Shopping ads with optimal prices based on sales from online shop to help maximize profits and drive more purchases
- Feature coupons when you add promotion assets to your Performance Max campaigns for shop goals
Optimize for Your Goals with AI
AI is not only being used to improve the deliverable. It’s also interacting with you as you research, create, and review campaigns in an effort to help you get the desired ROI.
Profit Optimization
A new profit optimization goal in Smart Bidding uses data from basket-level conversions and cost of goods sold in Merchant Center. Google AI then uses that data to prioritize ad placements that drive higher profits.
New Customer Acquisition Goal
Campaigns using the new customer acquisition goal rely on various Google Ads signals to distinguish between new and existing customers. You can use the new customer acquisition goal to then make promotions specifically to entice your new customers.
Analytics Insight Cards
AI will now create your Google Analytics insight cards. You’ll now have explanations and recommendations based on real-time trends and changes found in your data.
Measurement Diagnostics
Measurement Diagnostics is a new hub to validate and troubleshoot your measurement setup directly in Google Ads and Campaign Manager 360. You can now build your campaigns confidently knowing you have the right metrics in place to determine success.
Measure Against Similar Businesses
Understanding the competition is a vital part of your path to success. You will soon have the ability to compare your performance to similar businesses within your industry. You can then adjust your budget and time based on the insights provided.
Loyalty Promotions in Shopping Ads
Getting leads down to the bottom of your funnel, where they become loyal, returning customers, is the goal of every business. But many businesses struggle to provide reasons for customers to return.
Now you have the ability to create promotions focused on loyalty. Using Loyalty promotions in your shopping ads, you can show member-only exclusive offers to your insiders.
Beyond rewarding existing customers, these new features help you develop and grow your loyalty group. Video highlights, try-on features, and redeemable coupons, and more help you turn single purchases into repeat purchases that keep your business thriving.
Asset Generation
To deliver ads that convert, you must create ads that engage. The following updates focused on generating assets for your ads.
Key Partnerships
According to Forrester, up to 18% of the marketing budget often goes to technology. Think of the applications you use to create, edit, record, and publish content. When these apps don’t work together, it adds steps and time to an already arduous process.
That’s why Google has established partnerships with companies like Canva, Smartly and Pencil Pro. These platforms all now integrate with Google’s asset library, and the company promises more integrations are in the works.
Creative Preferences
The new creative preferences inside Demand Gen campaigns give you more control over where your assets are presented. This way, you can ensure the content you create is presented as you envision. You can anchor your video to play in-stream, in-feed, or on YouTube Shorts.
Generate More Like This
Once you find ads that convert, you want to reuse the elements that work without feeling like you’re running the same ad over and over. This feature relies on AI to generate similar ads to the one you choose for it to model.
Asset Level Reporting
I’m sure you’ve wondered in the past if your campaigns were successful because of a specific creative asset. Perhaps it was a graphic or a video that worked particularly well. Now, Performance Max campaigns will present asset-level metrics as a deeper level of insight.
Demand Gen Updates
Demand Gen campaigns are best suited for visually-appealing ads for YouTube, Shorts, Discover, and GMail. On average, advertisers who added Demand Gen to their search and/or Performance Max campaigns saw 14% more conversions.
Demand Gen campaigns are rolling out to Display & Video 360, and Search Ads 360. In addition, the threshold size of the list needed to create lookalike audiences for Demand Gen campaigns is dropping from 1,000 to only 100. This makes Demand Gen more accessible to smaller companies than ever before.
Interactive Ad Formats
Google is adding clickable stickers you can use on YouTube Shorts ads. You can also interact with Shorts ads much like you would with Shorts posts, including double tapping to like and swiping left to navigate to a landing page while remaining inside the YouTube app.
In addition, Google is introducing animated image ads. Using footwear as an example, when you provide some shots from different angles of your shoe, Google’s AI can create a 360-degree animation of your shoes for customers to view.
BrandConnect Partnership Ads
Influencer marketing is an integral part of many companies’ marketing plans. Partnership ads powered by the BrandConnect platform make it easier and seamless for many businesses. Now you can turn influencer-made videos into YouTube ads for your products.
This step now puts the strength of an influencer’s name in your control, making the relationship more balanced than it was in the past. It also creates a new marketing channel for your ads. If, for example, most of your ads focus on a professional AV market but you hire a music influencer to promote your products, you can now use that content for ads that target musicians while keeping your other ads focused on the pro market.
Google Ads Data Manager
Google is making the Ads Data Manager available to all businesses using Google Ads. With Data Manager, you can see where data is missing from your site and control the use of your data.
Meridian
Meridian is Google’s marketing mix modeling (MMM) tool. It’s rolling out globally this year to help you measure the impact of your marketing strategy and drive better outcomes. Use Meridian to make video measurement more actionable and lower funnel measurement more accurate.
Final Words on Google Ads Updates
The updates announced at Google Marketing Live highlight the company’s commitment to AI for enhanced ad performance, personalization, and optimization. By adopting these updates, you can stay ahead of the curve and continue to deliver campaigns that convert in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.
For assistance with your ad campaigns and other marketing needs, BranDimensional is here to help. We make it our priority to become an extension of your brand to represent competitive advantage in current and emerging markets by staying up on trends and technological developments. Contact us today to set up an initial free consultation with one of our experts.