Marketing Live is the annual conference where Google unveils new advertising features. This year eventhighlighted its AI efforts on May 21. From Performance Max to Search, a host of changes are coming to the e-commerce company.
Google has announced over 30 updates, and in this article we’ll cover the 10 that will have the most impact on merchants.
Merchant Advertisement Update
Overview of AI Advertising
Overview of AI They are Google’s response to your query and are displayed directly in search results. Google scrapes summaries from external sites and inserts qualified links to those sources. Google ads may appear above or below the summaries, and soon within them as well.
For example, the query “How do I clean my sofa?” will show an overview and then ads for cleaning services underneath.
The query, “How do I clean my sofa?” will show an overview of the AI with relevant ads underneath. Click on image to enlarge.
Shopping ads in visual search
Shopping ads now appear at the top of visual search results. Consumers don’t just search by text. They see a product, take a photo and use that image to search for purchasing options. Google Lens or Circle to Search gives you this functionality.
3D Images
A feature coming to Shopping Ads later this year is 360-degree view. Google can provide It takes a picture of the shoe and uses AI to give it a 3D spin, giving shoppers a more perfect look, a feature that will likely be rolled out to more categories.
Profit Optimization
Advertisers will soon be able to optimize their Performance Max and standard Shopping campaigns to increase profits. This feature doesn’t use new bid types, but instead uses cart-level conversions and Merchant Center account data to highlight high-profit products. Until now, advertisers have manually maximized profits by creating campaigns around specific products; this new feature makes it even easier.
Shopping ads by customer type
Many ecommerce stores have separate marketing programs for customers and prospects. Merchants can now include these promotions in Shopping ads and customize them for different types of users. Google doesn’t explain how, but we suspect it’s via Customer Match. Advertisers can upload their customers’ details and show ads to that group. Everyone else is a prospect.
Brand Standards
Advertisers can now upload their brand guidelines, including colors and fonts, when creating their Performance Max or Demand Gen campaigns, and our AI will create images that match those guidelines and create variations to test. This feature ensures that advertisers’ branding is consistent across sites and platforms.
Performance Max Asset Level Reporting
a A common complaint A drawback of Performance Max campaigns is the lack of conversion data by asset. Advertisers can see conversion performance at the ad level, but not individual assets. So Headline 1 might generate more sales than Headline 3, but advertisers won’t know that. Until now. Asset-level reporting would be invaluable.
YouTube Transparency at Performance Max
The Performance Max campaign includes: YouTube Video AdsAdvertisers can set YouTube exclusions at the account level, but they don’t have the ability to see performance for individual placements. This is changing. YouTube advertisers in Performance Max will soon be able to see conversion data by placement and adjust their budgets as needed.
Reducing the Similarity Threshold
Google Ads demand generation campaigns are similar to campaigns on social media platforms like Meta or LinkedIn. These campaigns aren’t likely to drive sales, but they will grow your top-of-funnel audience. Demand creation type teeth Similar peopleAdvertisers upload lists of customer email addresses and Google creates lookalike segments to target, similar to Meta’s program.
The challenge until now has been that you needed at least 1,000 contacts to create a segment in Google Ads, which isn’t always achievable for smaller advertisers. But as announced at Marketing Live, Google now only requires 100 contacts.
AI Basics
Google Ads Recommend optimization tactics They appear in the interface. Many of them don’t make sense, but they reflect Google’s priorities, such as increasing advertising revenue. In the example below, Google is recommending updating your responsive search ads and customer match lists to drive more traffic. However, while increased traffic leads to more revenue for Google, it’s not necessarily the primary goal for advertisers.
The “AI Basics” section of recommendations is new and shows advertisers how and where they should use Google’s AI. But be careful – consider each recommendation carefully.
New “AI Essentials” recommendations show advertisers how and where to use Google’s AI. Click on image to enlarge.
