Google Marketing Live – Highlights Reel

We’re covering the main outcomes and news from Google Marketing Live!

Google Marketing Live’s Kickoff Keynote welcomed 5000+ people from over 60 countries to San Francisco, plus tens of thousands more viewing via livestream. Cardinal Path’s Co-CEO Corey Koberg and Chief Technology Officer, David Eckman are on hand to meet with clients, Google partners, and the product teams behind the latest innovations.

The opening keynote set the stage by outlining some of the meaningful evolutions taking place.

Of note:

Interaction with smart devices is becoming more natural – digital assistance, search, and more are making it easier to interact with phones, TVs, cars, and more. Voice-in, image out. Voice-in, augmented reality out. How should marketers prepare?
Stay close to the evolution of mobile. This includes basics like site speed and ease of use. With trillions of searches on Google, more than half of these are through a mobile device.
Mobile will be the #1 platform for consumer engagement for a long time to come. By understanding that, you’ll be ready for what comes next.

Top four areas that will be impacted:

Gathering Insights (ie. Smart Bidding) “give me the full story on path to purchase”
Managing Campaigns – “make it easier for me and my team, let me plan by customer, instead of channel”
Creative – “give me more ways to test and tell a story using the assets I have”
Measurement “give me better ways to measure while protecting user privacy” Heavily investing in Google Analytics and Ads Data Hub, built with privacy at their core.

Google’s message: Every innovation you’ll see today, is a result of your feedback. But even so, not everyone will be satisfied yet. Keep challenging us to do better.

News & Releases

Discovery Ads

Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP, Ads, introduced Discovery Ads, a new way to reach people across Google, during the moments they are most open to discovering your products and services. This new, native advertising solution will allow you to show native ads in the video feed on the homepage of YouTube, Social and Promotions tabs in Gmail, as well as the Discover Feed in the Google App on iOS and Android devices. The ads, which are billed on a CPC basis, can be set up in Google Ads. You just need to supply high-performing creative and Google’s Machine learning will do the rest.

New Showcase Shopping Ads Opportunities
Bringing compelling lifestyle creative and imagery into Shopping Ads, this highly visual ad format will be available everywhere people are looking for and open to new ideas.

Showcase Shopping Ads got its well-deserved revamp, emphasizing the use of images to help consumers during the conversion path. The Showcase Shopping Ad directs the user to a catalog of related products while standard shopping ads directs to a landing page. This strategy fits well for users that are in the research phase and are able to explore several products within a few clicks.

View Google’s website for details on Showcase Shopping Ads.

The highlight of this news is the expansion of the Showcase Shopping Ads to image search results, Google Discovery and YouTube. We are excited to see this expansion because it will enable marketers to deliver shopping experiences to a broader audience.

New Gallery Ads for Mobile

Gallery Ads are an exciting new ad unit that will soon appear in your mobile search feed, that allows advertisers to display 4+ swipe-able images so consumers can engage more deeply with brands. Gallery Ads are a great top of funnel tactic for advertisers who have a brand image and advertising collateral that is more visually engaging. These ads are very likely to play a role in the customer journey and should be seen as an excellent opportunity to allow marketers to drive assisted conversions further down the funnel.

Redesigned Google Shopping, & Improved Integration with Google Express

Google Shopping has received an update to be more competitive in the Ecommerce space. Relaunched in the U.S. for a more personalized consumer experience, Google Shopping now has a deeper integration with the Google Express delivery service. With Amazon accounting for about half of all Ecommerce spend in the U.S., Personalized Shopping is Google’s step towards being more competitive in this market.

According to Google, the new Google Shopping is a “new, immersive ways for shoppers to discover and compare millions of products from thousands of stores. When they’re ready to buy, they can choose to purchase online, in a nearby store, and now directly on Google. For retailers and brands, it brings together ads, local and transactions in one place to help them connect with consumers across their shopping journey.”

For advertisers that are already using Google Shopping Ads, this is another way for consumers to find your products.

App Deep Linking and Reporting for Google Ads

We were excited to hear about the new App Deep Linking feature in Google Ads. This helps to build connections to already-loyal customers who have your app installed on their phones. Advertisers are now able to direct these users to an in-app experience on their phones after they click on an ad from a Paid Search, Shopping, or Display campaigns, and reach these customers with a more personalized and expedited shopping and checkout experience.

Google will also deliver enhanced App Deep Linking reporting on these ad-to-app conversions for advertisers that are integrated with Google Analytics for Firebase.

Full coverage of Google Marketing Live, including links to the on-demand keynotes and other presentations, is available here.