For the first time ever, the Google Marketing Live Event was brought to us by live-stream unveiling the latest innovations, best practices and an engaging Q&A session delivered by product experts
At last year’s event, Google announced new updates such as cross-device reporting in Google Analytics and once again Google raised the bar and updated us with various innovative new products and features due to roll out very soon. Get your cuppa ready and catch up on a few of our favourite announcements below that will help you connect with your customers and grow your business.
This year Google plan to combine the intent of search with a visual ad format. Gallery ads will allow advertisers to include a carousel format showcasing between 4 and 8 images alongside a 70-character tagline and up to 3 text headlines. We all know what they say … a picture is worth a thousand words and Google have over recent years experimented with Image Extensions and Visual Sitelinks to bring us pictures within text ads. Hopefully this time around, Gallery ads will tick all the boxes for us and bring us greater CTRs, improve quality score and enable us to convey our brands with visual and interactive ads.
No surprise … machine learning was at the heart of the keynote and why not when the Google algorithm is powered to process hundreds of billions of users buying signals in seconds versus the human mind manually optimising! Developments in Smart bidding were plentiful i.e. machine learning optimising bids to maximise on conversions. Our favourite includes Seasonality adjustments so if you have an upcoming promotion whereby you anticipate an increase in conversions, Google Ads will optimise your bids for that time period and return them to normal afterwards. This is going to be a blessing come Black Friday! Word of caution … machine learning as powerful as it is will only be effective if you have the right digital marketing expert involved in structuring, building and orchestrating your Google ads account. In other words, bringing together the large amounts of complex data that machines thrive in handling with the good human judgment of focusing in depth on a few things at a time.
The opportunities via YouTube for implementing innovative video advertising campaigns are endless but our clients still encounter challenges having the right video content at hand and in the desired formats. Google introduced the Bumper machine – a slick new tool that can turn any video shorter than 90 seconds into a collection of YouTube compatible bumper ads … the six second video ads that play before a video starts. This free tool is going to save us all a few pounds in creative budget.
In short Google continue to impress with continuous advancements and product updates that make digital advertising more and more effective. And no surprise there were also a few new features announced that are very similar to some of Facebooks tools including expanded audiences and gallery ads! However the social media giant will still no doubt struggle to compete with the high intent search data that Google has at hand that drives revenue and commercial growth!
Did you catch the livestream? If not, we’ve got you covered. You can watch sessions on-demand here.
