Google’s Marketing Live 2019 keynote concluded earlier last month, and was a tide of huge announcements for advertisers, businesses and consumers. The Marketing Live keynote is an annual event where Google tells business owners and marketing experts what features and policies to expect in the coming year. The announcements this year are all going to have a major impact on the digital marketplace, how people experience both browsing and advertising online. If you missed it, you need not worry, we’ll talk about all of the major Google Ads announcements you need to know – read on below!
1. Upgraded Google Ads App
The Google Ads app is now much more functional and powerful. Google’s updates to the app will let users create more kinds of ads, including Responsive Search ads as well as Local Campaigns and Ads in Google Maps – all of it while on the move!
2. New Local Campaign Features
Local campaigns by Google previously allowed local businesses to run ads on Google Maps. These ads appeared when users searched for certain keywords within the Maps app. Now, promoted locations will show up automatically in suggestions without users searching for them. Promotions will also appear on Google Search, Maps, YouTube and even on competitor’s Business Profiles. Additionally businesses will also be able to showcase their products and services within the Google Maps apps, allowing users to window shop before even visiting your store!n another move, Google has also made local campaigns available for use by small businesses, resulting in increased marketing opportunities.
3. Discovery Ads
Google announced a new Discovery ads unit that will appear in the Google ‘Discover’ feed on mobile browsers. Designed to help users discover products that they weren’t even looking for, the new feature will be made available to advertisers later this year and will also include coverage in the YouTube home feed and Gmail promotions tab.
Source: Google
4. Gallery Ads
Another new feature introduced by Google is a Gallery ads unit that will display a gallery for users to swipe through at the top of the search results. This is great because now potential customers will be able to browse through your inventory without you having to advertise each product separately. Advertisers can add up to 8 different products, adding a lot more versatility to conventional ads.
5. Expanded Audiences
Advertisers will now be able to reach more audiences with the newly introduced audience expansion tool, enabling more conversions at no additional cost. The tool will help you find and reach more customers that behave similarly to one of your custom audiences. This is great because you will be able to reach out to more customers to whom your offers are relevant and useful.
6. One Google Shopping Cart
Google has introduced a unified shopping cart that you can use across all Google services and platforms. Users will be able to shop their favorite products directly through the platform without even visiting individual websites. Customers will be able to add all their items to a single cart, making it much easier and hassle-free to shop. They will still be able to visit your website through the interface if they want to.
Source: Google
7. New Shopping Ads
Retailers can now optimize their ads for store visits and showcase their local inventory with Google’s Smart Shopping campaigns. Introduced last year, these campaigns made use of machine learning to optimize ads for performance. Now, they will also help retailers in driving store visits.
8. In-app Linking
Advertisers can now use ads to bring customers directly to your business’s app instead of just your website. If a customer has your app already installed on their smartphone, the link will take them directly to the relevant content in the app.
Source: Google
9. YouTube Bumper Ads
The new YouTube “Bumper Machine” will automatically create a 6-second bumper ad from longer ad clips. While still under alpha-testing with beta expected later this year, Bumper Machine will use AI to look for key elements in the original ad to create the shorter version. The bumper machine is super useful because now you don’t have to spend more time and money specifically creating separate bumper ads – just sit back and let it do the hard work for you!
10. Automatic, Precise Bidding Controls
Google introduced three new bidding strategies for marketers that are more precise and flexible than Smart bidding. These new bidding strategies are automated and more customizable, enabling users to place even more precise bids than before.
1. Campaign-level conversion settings
- Previously advertisers could only set conversion goals at account level
- Advertisers can now set different conversion goals for each campaign
- This allows for a lot more flexibility and is great for running multiple campaigns with different goals
2. Seasonality adjustments
- Advertisers now have more seasonality control, beyond only smart bidding
- Seasonality adjustments will allow advertisers to adjust for one-time or ad-hoc promotions
- This is especially useful for upcoming sales, promotions and events so that conversion opportunities can be increased. Google Ads will automatically return your bids to normal once the allocated time period is over.
3. Maximize conversion value
- Previously bidding strategies were focused only on efficiency
- This new bidding strategy will allow advertisers to optimize for maximum value within a certain budget
These were the top 10 announcements that business owners should know. Now that you know what updates and features Google will be rolling out, it’s time to plan your marketing strategy ahead of time. Simply contact us and our team will be more than happy to assist!
