We’re excited to be liveblogging the Google Marketing Next 2017 event as updates to AdWords, Analytics, and DoubleClick are announced. Follow along to read our live reactions to these announcements.
(TL;DR? Announcements Summary at the end)
— With the 5-min countdown, Google is highlighting a lot of Travel, Shopping, and Mobile stats. Foreshadowing the announcements to come, perhaps?
— Fancy animated countdown and we’re almost ready to get started!
Sridhar Ramaswamy emphasizing the time Google spends to understand their audience (us), our needs, and find solutions to our problems.
— Theme: Marketing Next. Focusing on what’s coming and what we can achieve together.
— Mobile: “87% of smartphone users turn to Search first in a moment of need.” It’s the means we use to answer questions, solve problems. While this isn’t new information (mobile has been emphasized for a while), the rise in voice search and its impact on the industry is a new emphasis.
— People are expecting more from technology, and technology is developing quickly to be able to deliver it (so much so that we are beginning to take it for granted).
— Impact on digital marketing? Opportunities to offer value, address pain points, etc. through Search are becoming limitless. The problem? Users don’t see Brand experiences as helpful. We need to use data to KNOW our users (i.e. how to communicate with them), not just how to find them.
— Machine learning provides the technology to make sense of the sea of data and user behavior available.
— Three new and important realities:
1. Businesses need to become smarter with data (deliver relevant and useful experiences)
— Google uses machine learning to determine which ad appears (based on what it knows about the individual searchers). THIS is why Google is pushing for more ads per ad group — so they are able to match the correct messaging to each individual.
2. Business must provide value in one step or one second
— New beta: AMP Pages from Search Ads (loads nearly instantly). Visit Adwords Blog for more info or sign up here.
3. Businesses must offer non-line assistance
— Store visits has been available for search, but now location extensions and store visits will be available for YouTube campaigns as well
— Advertisers need to consider the connection between online advertising and in-store purchases to optimize and increase return.
Bhanu Narasimhan: Better Audiences, New Audience Segments, and Broader Reach of Audiences across devices
— User privacy is and will always be first and foremost.
— Stay on the journey with your customers by connecting across platforms. RLSA for YouTube audiences is one way to create a better Search experience for your users.
–New audiences (Consumer Patterns and Live Events) are built on intent-focused indicators, including search, videos watched, cultural influences, and more.
— Consumer Patterns and Life Events will be available for G-mail ads later this year.
— In-Market Audiences coming to Search ads!!
Bill Kee: How to answer the question, “Is my marketing working?” The truth is, existing attribution models just don’t work, they aren’t capable of considering all the factors that need to be considered.
— “This year, we are solving the attribution problem.”
— Google Attribution will show insights across platforms and devices, using data and attribution features from Adwords, Analytics, and DoubleClick. And it’s FREE!
— One size fits all? Well, not exactly. But Google Attribution 360 will be available for the Enterprise (largest) advertisers.
— Attribution shows how each moment in the consumer journey contributes to the overall success by linking the data from each touchpoint into one view.
— Data-driven attribution is the best choice for most marketers because it’s based on your specific conversion data. For verticals with shorter consumer journeys, results would look more like the last-click model than industries with many more touchpoints in the purchase path.
— Case study: more conversions, without CPA increasing. In another view, this means maintaining CPA (or decreasing CPA) without losing conversion volume.
— Attribution in beta today, but will be rolling out to more users “soon” (unspecified time period).
— Unique reach reporting introduced for Adwords and DoubleClick (similar to Reach and Frequency metrics in Facebook). See how many PEOPLE you’ve reached, and how many times you’ve reached each one.
Karen Yao: You must work hard, but also work smart, to get better at things. Google is trying to help us work smarter by giving us better tools.
— New Adwords interface is goal-focused for campaign builds (suggesting relevant audiences) and shows performance for each audience as an aggregate. Expanding from Beta starting today, will be rolled out to all advertisers by December.
— Bounce rate 40% higher for mobile, compared to Desktop. Two new tools to help with mobile experience:
- Landing Page tab in new Adwords interface
- Adwords integration with Google Optimize
— Can run landing page tests through Adwords, no webmaster or coding needed! Tests can be set up and launched within a day. (This could be a game-changer for CRO)
Roshan Khan: Tools to improve media planning
— DBM now showing recommended target audiences with projected outcomes for each. Planning available in DBM as a beta right now, will roll out to more accounts in coming months.
— Surveys 360 – Adwords integration allows you to target just users who clicked your ad in a specific survey. This is designed to help you understand what about your ads/campaigns is working or not (rather than having to guess, or spend extensive time A/B testing copy). Integration available immediately in US and Canada.
Jennifer Liu: What is the Google Assistant? “It’s a conversation with Google”
— As a marketer, this means we get to be a part of the conversation that is taking place. Communication should be natural and personal.
— By engaging conversationally with your users, you can invite shoppers to visit you both online and in-store.
— Advertisers can send local inventory to Google, which it will incorporate into Google Assistant.
Announcements Summary
- AMP Pages from Search Ads
- Location Extensions and Store Visits for YouTube
- Consumer Patterns and Life Events audiences (available for Gmail later this year)
- In-Market Audiences for Search
- Google Attribution and Google Attribution 360 to link with Adwords, Analytics, and DoubleClick
- Unique Reach and Frequency reporting for Adwords and DoubleClick
- Universal rollout of new Adwords interface by December
- Landing Page tab in new Adwords interface
- Adwords integration with Google Optimize
- Planning in DoubleClick Bid Manager
- Adwords integration with Surveys 360
- Local Inventory featured on Google Assistant
