To help marketers continue to evolve their digital marketing strategy, Google has unveiled some exciting and innovative opportunities that were recently announced at Google Marketing Next.
As digital marketers, nothing is more important to us than data. It’s at the heart of what we do and we use it to drive decisions that we make on behalf of our clients. With these new updates, we’ll be able to more effectively target customers and measure performance which will help guide our go forward recommendations.
What is changing?
Audience targeting and measurement were the primary themes, but there are additional changes rolling out that also focus on in store and productivity.
Audience Targeting
Being able to target customers based on their interests allows marketers to reach the right audience at the right time during their customer journey. Google is connecting user data across its platforms and devices in real-time, helping us to make more informed decisions based on consumer behavior. This will help identify any gaps in your audience targeting strategy.
Search Signals for YouTube & Gmail
Brands can now reach their ideal customers on YouTube by using behavioral and intent signals offered only by Google. Search Signals will power existing audience targeting which will ultimately improve the ability to reach the most valuable audiences across YouTube.
Search Query Audiences for YouTube
Search Query Audiences on YouTube goes beyond the view and drives lower funnel actions such as website clicks and conversions. Users who were recently reached on Google Search will be reachable on YouTube. This will allow marketers to build custom audiences using keywords and amplify their search ads on YouTube.
Life Events
You can now find viewers on YouTube and Gmail when they’re in the midst of a life event (e.g., college graduation, moving, marriage) when they’re more likely to change shopping habits or lead to larger purchases.
Consumer Patterns
Consumer Patterns allows brands to reach people on YouTube and Gmail based on shopping habits, such as where they shop. Data signals will allow marketers to find new audiences and deliver to them in real time across devices.
In-Market Audiences for Search
In-Market Audiences for Search help to drive consideration among consumers with the intent to purchase a brand’s products or utilize their service offerings. This includes consumers who are considering purchasing through a brand’s competitor. With this type of targeting, marketers will be able to reach intended shoppers, not just those who are interested.
Unique Reach Reporting
Unique Reach reporting now available in AdWords, shows you how many users your campaigns have reached across different devices and formats. This functionality provides actionable insights to reach audiences most crucial to your business
Google Attribution & Attribution 360
Google Attribution & Google Attribution 360 integrate into AdWords, DoubleClick & Google Analytics allowing clients to optimize across the entire conversion path
Google Attribution is the free version of Attribution 360, which is available for Pepperjam’s managed clients. By utilizing machine learning Google Attribution can more accurately assign credit across each step of the customer journey, leading to more accurate performance measurement and more effective optimization decisions across campaigns.
Store Visits for YouTube
Store Visits for YouTube, similar to Store Visits for Search, allows advertisers to connect online influence to offline action. YouTube advertisers can now measure how their TrueView campaigns are driving users to their store locations
Store Sales Direct
Store Sales Direct allows advertisers who currently collect customer email data at the point of sale to import this information into AdWords along with purchase data. Google will match this to their base of signed-in users and will report on store sales that are aggregated and extrapolated to represent all clicks.
Store Sales Payment Network
Store Sales Payment Network is available for advertisers who don’t have a loyalty program, providing them with email information to measure store sales. This is done by leveraging Google’s partnerships and payment partners.
Productivity
New AdWords Interface
A faster, modern AdWords interface will be rolled out with new reporting tools, new features, and improved workflows. These updates will enable users to work more efficiently and gain more insight into performance to help better plan, build, and optimize campaigns.
DoubleClick Bid Manager Planner
DoubleClick Bid Manager will include a planning tool to create and forecast display media plans which will incorporate targeting strategies based on the client’s goals.
Optimize Integration with AdWords
Google Optimize will enable customers to optimize user experiences and business metrics on their web properties to help increase conversion rates and ROI.
Surveys 360 and Remarketing Audiences
Google Surveys 360 will integrate with AdWords and will allow advertisers to perform marketing research of users within a remarketing list. This will give advertisers a better understanding of what their customers are doing and thinking and will allow them to turn these insights into actionable recommendations to improve ROI.
Using AMP in AdWords
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) will allow advertisers to launch fast -loading mobile landing pages in a simple, scalable way. This will appear across platforms and apps which will help contribute to improved ad rank and pricing.
What does this mean for your Search program?
Pepperjam is excited about these changes as they will help to continue evolving the industry. Your search account leads will keep you informed of when these items roll out across Google. They will also discuss with you which updates will be most impactful and useful to your program.
