At the 2019 Google Marketing Live event held earlier in May, Google announced exciting new platform features designed to help marketers better reach their audiences. Part One of this three-part blog series focused on being more available to consumers wherever they are—now, we’ll dive into how to be more helpful to users throughout the customer journey.
BE USEFUL
Google Shopping: The Amazon way
There were a few updates to Shopping Ads, which continue to evolve to enhance the consumer shopping experience. And it feels like Google is taking all of its cues from Amazon.
Enhanced Shopping Ads
The platform has made the shopping experience more actionable and the path from browsing to purchasing easier. Featured enhancements include cross-selling opportunities and a more accessible checkout button, as well as a richer experience on the Product Description Pages (PDPs)—which have a similar look and feel to PDPs seen on other shopping platforms. There will also be personalized recommendations for users as they browse, as well as callouts to what is currently trending with other shoppers on the platform.
Engaging Earlier in the Journey
In an effort to highlight a brand to users in the beginning stages of their path to purchase, Google is rolling out the Showcase Ad format across more platforms (Images, YouTube, and Discover). Data pushing this expansion shows this collapsible ad format has helped double brand searches when a user engages with the ad, and increased conversion credit by 20 percent.
Co-Funded Shopping Ads
This new ad format will allow brands to fully or partially fund a retailer’s shopping ads through a connection between the Merchant Center (owned by the retailer) and the Manufacturer Center (owned by the brand). The end result is the retailer gets funding for their campaigns, and the brand gets reporting on conversions for their SKUs. This will make it easier to determine which retailers should have their coop budgets increased for doing their part in the consumer journey.
Local Campaigns
Helping to drive foot traffic: Local campaigns are getting an update with the addition of Promoted Locations and more availability of Promoted Pins. The focus is on targeting the user at the right time across any of the Google platforms (Search, Maps, Display Network, YouTube). Ads for local campaigns would run when a user has expressed intent and is in proximity of a relevant business location, and depending on the device they are using (most likely mobile).
Travel Booking
Trip planning unified: Google is making it easier to research an upcoming trip from start to finish. Users will be able to search, book, and organize their travel under their profile, saving everything within the Google ecosystem. Not only will they be able to find flights and hotels, but Google will be connecting travel guide content for the researched location to the saved itinerary.
WHAT’S NEXT
Ready to learn more? Read Google’s updates on how they are making it easier for brands to maintain the trust of users.