“People don’t see value in advertising if they don’t feel valued by advertisers.” – Google Keynote

Like any business, Google’s not immune to changing things up. Some of the changes they’ve announced recently are in name only, while others combine platforms to streamline the advertising process. Google’s head of ads, Sridhar Ramaswamy, said that people are becoming ever more research-obsessed, mobile dominates, and people expect to snap their fingers and get what they want. So, how does this affect your advertising strategies?

Bye, Google AdWords

 Well, not really. AdWords is now simply called Google Ads, offering the same experience for search, YouTube videos, Google Maps, etc. Small businesses, especially, stand to benefit from the revamp with what Google is calling “Smart Campaigns,” which uses machine learning to optimize actions. What’s important here is that the focus is shifting away from keywords and is turning toward the audience and other factors.

Responsive search ads

Google unveiled Expanded Text Ads in 2016, allowing advertisers to use up to 160 characters to get their message across. With this update, the new ads format allows for as many as 15 headlines and four descriptions. In the search results, Responsive search ads can show as many as three headlines, instead of two, and up to two 90-character descriptions instead of one 80-character description. In testing, these new ads saw a 15% increase in clicks.

Local campaigns

As the saying goes, “Location, location, location.” In his opening remarks, Ramaswamy shared that the search engine has seen a 10x increase in the number of searches including the phrase “open near me tonight.” If you’ve ever wondered how Click Through Rates convert to actual sales in brick-and-mortar shops, Google now wants to help with the answer. They’re changing their geo-fences to track and drive store visits. Specifically, local campaigns report store visits using anonymized and aggregated data from signed-in Google users who have opted to turn location history on.

Other changes from Google Keynote

• A new Smart Bidding strategy, Maximize Lift, for YouTube campaigns to optimize delivery to users who are most likely to consider a brand after seeing a video ad.
• Google is teaming up with third-party e-commerce platforms. To start, Shopify users will be able to set up Smart Shopping campaigns from within Shopify.
• Cross-device Reporting and ReMarketing
• Hotel Ads integrated into the ads platform

 

 

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