Google Ads and updates from the Google Marketing Live

The pandemic has made us stay behind doors and choose online purchases and sales. This has made a drastic fall to many businesses so to help everyone survive the pandemic without further damage, Google keeps providing new features and tools to simplify life.

Google Marketing Live was streamed earlier this week and due to the pandemic, the live was conducted through an online session on YouTube in the Google Ads channel.

In this streaming, there were many new product updates and trends set to help businesses use their best practices to achieve their goals.

Here we will be looking into a small glimpse of what the Google Marketing Live 2021 was about.

Let us dig a little deeper to know what the new updates announced in the Google Marketing Live 2021

Drive better results using Performance Max campaigns

Google introduced the Performance Max campaigns to help advertisers make use of Google Ads inventory using a single campaign. Now Google has planned to expand the Performance Max campaigns to more advertisers. For advertisers whose primary goal is to generate more leads and take a step ahead in the online business, this Performance Max campaign will help them achieve their goals.

All you have to do is participate in the Beta testing by filling up a form. But make sure to check if your Ad account meets the Google eligibility criteria.

• The primary goal of the advertiser is to drive more online sales or generate more leads without using Google Merchant Centre product feeds. As it is not supportive of the Performance Max campaigns.

• No matter if you use Google Ads conversion tracking or Google Analytics conversion tracking; you are expected to have more than 50 bidding conversions in the last 30 days.

• It is recommended to have a Google account team make use of Performance Max campaigns.

If you hold all these eligibility criteria then you can join the beta for Performance Max campaigns.

Performance Max campaigns can be used to drive more performance-based conversion goals, and deliver more conversions to your campaigns and the advertisers will be able to optimize the performance of their Ad campaign in real-time.

For instance; “if you have a CPA (or ROAS target) and adding creative assets, audience signals, and optional data feeds. Performance Max then combines Google’s automation technologies across bidding, budget optimization, audiences, creatives, attribution, and more.”- Google Ads

The performance campaigns will only appear to campaigns that have “Sales, Leads, Local Store visit & performance” as their objectives.

Measure your performance on your Google Ads Insights page

The Insights page will help businesses identify the latest trends in the market and also will help you understand the level of your performance. On the insights page, you will be able to find current and emerging interests in products that are similar to yours.

Google Ads has also mentioned that they will be introducing an updated version of the insights page in the upcoming months. The updated insights page will hold three types of insights that include demand forecasts, consumer interest themes, and audience insights.

The insights page is created based on your Google Ads account performance and the trending products that are similar to your Ads. The insights page updates regularly on a daily basis, so you can use it to find updated performance levels and new insights.

Insights can be used

• To get more tailored data about your business.
• Get clarity on your performance.
• Get recommendations on actions to be taken on your Google Ads

Google also informs that the insights page will be available only at the account level, for accounts with Search or Shopping campaigns and it keeps updating daily so there is no option to make changes to the time period on the insight.

Engage your customers using the Image extension in Google Search Ads

Google has introduced an Image extension in Google Search Ads globally. This will help brands get more potential customers. The image extensions will help users gain more visual experience of the products or the services they choose.

Previously the image extension in Search Ads was only available in certain countries but now Google has introduced it globally.

Using the image extension there are 10% more chances for the user to click on the Ad and convert.

Google also recommends brands use unique images that are in both square and landscape orientation so that it will be easier to view according to the device of the user.

To make use of this feature Google expects certain eligibility criteria that include

• The age of your Google Ads account should be more than 90 days.
• The account should hold a good record of policy compliance.
• The accounts that use sensitive content such as sexual or harassment are not eligible.

Dynamic image extension can help in uploading the image. This will allow Google to choose between images from your landing page.

The dynamic image extension will automatically add the image to the Google Ad group in the Search campaign.

Create more personalized and relevant responsive Search Ads with the help of Ad customizers

The Ad customizers will blend in at a scale to the searches of a potential customer. This will also allow you to define custom attributes from the product name to price in real time.

“For responsive search ads, the setup for your ad customizers is different from text ads. Rather than using a single customizer feed with multiple pieces of ad content and targeting settings, you can create attributes or upload them in bulk for your account and set the pieces of ad content directly in your campaign, ad groups, and keywords. These customizers will use the targeting settings of the ad groups, campaigns, and keywords where they show.” – Google

To create Ad customizers for Responsive Search Ads

• Open the business data
• Construct the Ad customizers that define your Ad attributes
• Type in the attribute details that include assigned values at the levels accordingly.

Google allows users to choose individual attributes or use multiple attributes from a spreadsheet.

The Ad customizers for the Responsive Search Ads will give priority to keywords, ad groups, campaigns, Google Ads accounts, and default values.

Customer Match; A way to reach and re-engage with customers

Customer Match fetches your online and offline data to get hold of customers across Search, the Shopping tab, Gmail, YouTube, and Display.

Google has announced that the Customer Match will be available for nearly all its users. This will help advertisers to deliver more customized Ads with privacy and safety.

Customer Match can be used to target audiences from

• Search Network and shopping tab
• Gmail
• YouTube
• Google Display Network

Optimize your bids to Maximum value

Like you already know Target ROAS is completely based on the Target Return on Ad Spend. This target ROAS was not available for all users but now Google informed us that the Target ROAS will be available for all video action campaigns.

If you are familiar with video action campaigns here is a definition by Google to simplify the term.

“Video action campaigns are a simple and cost-effective way to drive more conversions across YouTube. Video action campaigns take the best features of True-View for action and scale them to more places on and off YouTube – all in a single automated campaign. In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits of Video action campaigns and how Video action campaigns work” – Google

A better attribution report

Attribute reports help the advertisers get hold of the path the users use to convert. This will also give you an insight into how different advertising efforts can be put together to achieve better conversions.

The attribution report will include Display Ads and YouTube Ads in the attribution model along with the Search and Shopping touch points. This will also include data-driven attribution. Google will be integrating the in-app conversions from all search, shopping, and display touch points.

Maintain more accurate and complete conversion measurements

Google suggests its advertisers set up enhanced conversion which will help them get more accurate data. This will also allow the advertisers to use it with privacy even when there are very few cookies available. Google is running beta for this and if you wish to join you can get hold with the help of the Google account team.

Use of Google Ads app for tailored information

Google suggests its users make use of the Google Ads app to get more personalized feeds. By using the Google Ads app the user will receive tailored information. In the upcoming days, Google has planned to include more tailored insights relevant to your business. This will also be arranged along with your campaign goals.

Hotel extension in Search Campaigns

Google is planning to introduce the Hotel extension in Google Search campaigns. This will help advertisers reach more customers. Google is also planning to introduce a vacation rental listing on the Hotel result page. These result pages will appear according to the input destination and will also enhance commissions per stay.

Bidding will help customers in finding a hotel with a better quality service.

More store visits using the new local ad format and bidding

Google has informed us that users will be able to optimize the video Ads campaigns to get more store visits. For store sales, Google suggests using Local campaigns. With the help of Local campaigns, the advertisers will be able to access new Ad formats on Google Maps. This will help customers get hold of your business when they search for products near me.

The Pickup Today option is up and live and the Pickup Later will be available in the upcoming. The pickup later feature is up on Beta and will be soon available.

Video action campaigns on YouTube and Google

Google has announced that users can connect the merchant center feed to line up the products and get converted using video Ad campaigns.

This feature will be available for Google Display Ads in the upcoming months. This will help advertisers to generate more online sales.

New OCI (online conversion import) helper tool

Google has brought in new tools to help advertisers generate more quality leads. For the brands to implement online conversion import Google has brought in a new tool named OCI helper to help the users. This tool will help your team set up imports easily and quickly.

“It automates project management and provides detailed guidance for each stakeholder across every step.” – Google Ads

TV in Reach Planner

TV in Reach Planner is the perfect place where YouTube and Google video partners can craft their brand awareness, maximize their level of reach, and also can improve the frequency of video campaigns. This tool is not yet available to all countries but in the upcoming days, it will be. When it is available the advertisers will be able to more reach by using many combinations that include skippable Ads, non-skippable Ads, 6-second bumper Ads all over YouTube, and Google video partners.

Feeds in-app campaigns on YouTube

For advertisers who are expecting in promotion of an app, Google has introduced Feeds in App campaigns. This will allow in-app content and products across YouTube that might be shown to interested users.

Coming to an end, these are the new updates and tools announced in the Google Marketing Live 2021.