Miss Google Marketing Live 2024? We got you covered! This year’s event was packed with groundbreaking announcements and insights designed to propel your advertising strategies forward. As we explore the key takeaways from this event, you’ll discover how to leverage Google’s latest innovations to stay ahead of the competition. From harnessing the power of AI to optimizing your first-party data, these advancements will help you drive success in your marketing campaigns in 2024 & beyond.
Theme of the Event: What can AI do for me and how can I implement it…as fast as possible?
The event emphasized the transformative potential of AI in advertising, focusing on rapid implementation to build more appealing ad creatives, enhance data usage, and better ROI while still maintaining control over your campaigns. Plus, a very exciting update about an open-source MMM!
Other Key Highlights
- Over 30 new products featured.
- More than 200 product leaders participated.
- 20+ brands and agency case studies presented.
Google Ads: Search & Demand Gen
Evolving Search
Google is enhancing search to simplify purchase decisions, with 2 out of 3 consumers finding it increasingly challenging. Businesses need to be omnipresent to connect effectively with consumers.
Generative AI
Generative AI is transforming the ad cycle by creating new ad creatives, managing media, and measuring ads. Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM, Ads, noted, “AI is not a marketer. It doesn’t have your creativity and insights, but can help and will give you an advantage to transform your business.”
Google Search Enhancements
New search and shopping ad experiences are designed to match ads to user contexts and AI-generated information. For instance, a query like “How to get wrinkles out of my clothes?” will yield more relevant ad results.
Enhanced Ad Experience
Dynamic ad experiences now cater to specific needs, such as home renovations. The new Conversations Experience in Google Ads shows a 63% higher likelihood of publishing search campaigns.
New Search Ad Experiences
- Visual Search: Shopping ads will appear at the top of visual search results in Google Lens and Circle to Search.
- Interactive Ads: AI-powered Search ads now provide personalized recommendations through multimodal inputs like photos.
- AI Overviews: Ads will soon appear in AI Overviews, offering more opportunities for discovery and action.
Better Search Campaigns
The conversational experience in Google Ads helps create optimized Search campaigns with a single URL. Small businesses using this feature are 63% more likely to publish campaigns with ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ Ad Strength.
Demand Gen Campaigns
- Visual Storytelling: Demand Gen campaigns maximize presence on YouTube, Shorts, Discover, and Gmail, driving 14% more conversions.
- Animated Image Ads: Retailers can serve animated image ads on YouTube Shorts, generated from product feeds.
- Pin Video Assets: Control where video assets appear by pinning them to specific surfaces in Demand Gen campaigns.
- Lookalike Segments: Connect with new audiences similar to existing customers, with the minimum required list size now reduced from 1,000 to 100 users.
Performance Max
Strengthening PMax Performance
- Power Pair: Combining Search and PMax campaigns has shown a 27% increase in conversions at a similar cost. Sylvanus Bent, Group Product Manager, Ads, emphasized, “if you were to do one thing today, it would be to do this!”
- Profit Optimization: The new profit optimization goal in PMax and Standard Shopping Campaigns aims to maximize profit, resulting in a 15% increase in campaign profit. A new Loyalty Promotion label (e.g., Member-Only pricing) is also available.
- Improved Ad Strength: Enhancing PMax ad strength can lead to a 6% increase in conversions. New creative controls and customization options, including custom brand colors and ad reference images, are now available.
Better PMax Ads
- Customize Ads to Your Brand: Later this year, we’ll be able to tailor ads with your brand guidelines, including colors and fonts. The “Generate more like this” feature will create more versions to keep you on brand.
- AI Image Editing: Coming soon, we will be able to edit product images from your Google Merchant Center feed across campaign types. These AI-generated images will appear in recommendations for Performance Max, showing products in new contexts and scenes.
- Cross-Platform Partnerships: Partnerships with creative platforms (ex: Canva, Smartly, and Pencil Pro) will allow seamless ad creation and export of assets to Google Ads.
- Transparency in Performance: Performance Max placement reporting will now include YouTube videos, offering exclusions to control where your brand appears. Asset-level reporting will provide key conversion metrics for each creative asset.
- Experimentation and Incrementality: Test the impact of additional creative assets in Performance Max campaigns, available later this year. Conversion lift studies will help determine campaign incrementality, rolling out globally soon.
- Diagnostic Insights: A new diagnostics experience for Performance Max, Demand Gen, Search, Video, and Display campaigns will unify insights across various areas, flagging critical issues at the top of the page.
- Performance Max for New Advertisers: Performance Max is now set as the default campaign type for new advertisers.
YouTube
- YouTube Dominance: YouTube remains the #1 most-watched streaming platform. Demand Gen now reaches over 3 billion monthly users and will expand to Display & Video 360 and Search Ads 360. The lookalike segments audience threshold will lower from 1,000 to 100 users which will open the door for more users to experiment with this tool.
- YouTube Shorts: With 70 billion Shorts watched daily, new features like vertical video ads and clickable stickers enhance engagement. Soon, users can swipe left to a landing page within YouTube or double-tap to like an ad. Shorts viewers will also discover your long-form content elsewhere on YouTube.
- YouTube Shopping: The expanded YouTube Shopping affiliate program allows creators to tag products in their content, making it easy for viewers to shop while they watch. Shopify Plus and Advanced merchants in the U.S. can join later this year, syncing products to YouTube and accessing sales insights.
Retail and Commerce
Better Shopping Connections
- Instant Visuals: Use Google AI’s Product Studio to transform static photos into eye-catching videos and visuals that match your brand’s style.
- Brand Profiles: Showcase your unique brand story with visual profiles on Google Search, rolling out soon, including your images, videos, and promotions.
- Video Highlights: Boost shopper confidence with curated short videos in Shopping ads for select apparel and beauty categories.
- Virtual Try-On: Launching soon, let shoppers see how your clothes fit on diverse models to build purchase confidence.
- 360 Product Views: Google AI will create 3D spins of your products from a few images, enhancing Shopping ads with more detailed views and key product info from your website.
Deliver Stronger ROI and Customer Loyalty
- Profit Optimization: Use Smart Bidding to maximize profits by optimizing ad placements based on cart-level conversions and cost data from Merchant Center.
- Loyalty Promotions: Highlight member-only offers and special pricing in Shopping ads to drive sales from loyalty members.
- New Customer Pricing: Feature first-order promotions directly in Shopping ads for new customers.
- Dynamic Pricing: Automatically update Shopping ads with optimal prices based on online store sales, integrating with platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.
- Redeemable Coupons: Add promotion assets to Performance Max campaigns to feature coupons and drive more store visits and in-store sales.
Customer Insights
- Performance Insights: The Merchant Center Next will provide tailored, AI-generated insights and performance guidance as short snippets.
- Category-Based Insights: Category-level performance insights and demand trends with actionable recommendations, available later this year.
Apps
- Discover Inventory: Easily integrate Merchant Center feeds with App campaigns to showcase products in a carousel format on Discover inventory.
- Promotion Assets: Show promotions and sales in App campaign ads on Display and YouTube inventory to help ensure max visibility.
- Automatic Bid Updates: Apply bid changes automatically based on promotional events to drive more performance from App campaigns.
Ads Measurement
Enhanced Optimizations
- Cross-Channel Budgeting: Launching as a beta later this year, cross-channel budgeting in Google Analytics will help track campaign pacing, projected performance, and provide recommendations.
- Re-Engage Customers: Launching later this year, Google-engaged audiences will include people who visited your website from Google search results or ads. This will automatically be available in eligible accounts.
Insights
- Uncover Insights: Generative AI-powered Google Analytics insight cards will showcase trends and major changes, offering simpler explanations and recommendations
- Measurement Diagnostics: will launch soon, providing personalized recommendations and troubleshooting for your measurement setup.
- Performance Benchmarking: In Google Analytics 4, this new feature will help us benchmark your performance against similar businesses.
- Full Funnel and Channel Measurement: Google Analytics 4 will integrate with Campaign Manager 360 to provide insights across the funnel. Importing non-Google campaign data, such as from Pinterest and Snap, will also become much simplier.
A New Marketing Mix Model
Meridian, an open-source MMM, will roll out globally later this year, helping you measure the impact of your marketing strategy. Stay tuned for more details on Meridian in the coming weeks from our Chacka team.
Get Started
Google Marketing Live 2024 showcased a wealth of AI innovations aimed to reshape the advertising landscape. Stay tuned as Chacka continues to explore these announcements and provide you with the latest updates.
If you have any questions or need assistance implementing these new tools, feel free to contact us. Our team is here to help you navigate these changes and optimize your campaigns for success.
