There were several exciting announcements that came out at the Google Marketing Live 2019 event mid-May and we wanted to share some of the newest ad and platform innovations they discussed.
Gallery Ads
One of the more exciting announcements, for me, would have to be the arrival of gallery ads. Theses are large ads that will show in the top spot of Google search results for mobile and incorporate a carousel of images you can swipe through. Initially designed specifically as an automotive ad vertical, Google has been testing this new search ad format in beta since February and will be rolling it out to all advertisers sometime later this year.
“By combining search intent with a more interactive visual format, gallery ads make it easier for you to communicate what your brand has to offer…” – Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP of Google Ads & Commerce
What’s so exciting? As Facebook ads have proven in the past, images drive engagement! On average, Google found that ad groups that included a gallery ad have up to 25% more interactions (paid clicks or swipes) when their ads appear at the absolute top of the mobile Search results page.
Google Gallery Ads
You can be sure that Google will be experimenting with showing them on desktop and in other Google products, so perhaps we’ll see them appear elsewhere in the future.
Discovery Ads
If you’ve been using Google on your mobile phone or tablet, you’ve most likely already been enticed to use the Google feed that helps you stay up-to-date on your latest interests. From the latest news and movies to my favorite sports teams and hobbies, Discover has been known to pull me away from my original reason for heading to Google Search in the first place.
With Discovery Ads, soon advertisers will be able to serve immersive ads to people at the exact time when they’re most open to finding something new. Not only will the ads have the potential to show on Discover’s over 800 million global users, the ads will be served on YouTube’s mobile home feed and in Gmail’s social and promotional tabs.
Because Discovery ads live in feeds, and not on search, these ads are perfect for creating brand awareness. And, since you won’t be bidding on search specific keywords, your ad strategy will be similar to Display Ads with in-market, interest and custom audience targeting.
Discovery Ads
Although no specific date was given as to when this ad type will roll out to all advertisers, we’d expect this shiny new ad type to be available to all by the end of the year.
Local Campaigns
With a focus on increasing store visits and in-store purchases, Local Campaigns are a great ad feature for brick-and-mortar storefronts that just added some new and exciting features. Local ads has expanded its reach to show up on Search, Maps, the Display Network and YouTube.
Moving past keyword-based intent alone, advertisers will be able to leverage machine learning and automation. Once you’ve provided your store locations, ad copy and some eye catching images, Google Ads will optimize ad delivery across its property platforms to increase foot traffic to your stores. Not only that, these ads can now show up in unique places like map search suggestions as well as pins on the map while following directions.
Impressive data point offered by Google:
Dunkin’ increased its monthly visits from Google Ads by over 400% and is planning to run Local campaigns as an always-on strategy throughout 2019.
Local Campaigns
Google plans to expand local campaigns to drive other types of local actions like calls and directions to you business in the near future.
YouTube Bumper Ads’ New Bumper Machine
Available through Google Ads on a cost per 1000 impressions basis or CPM, YouTube Bumper Ads are a 6 second non-skipable video ad format that has been available to advertisers since April 2016 and is perfect for driving brand reach and frequency. Now they’ve made it super easy to create these ads! Google’s new bumper machine will turn any video under 90 seconds into 6-second bumper ads that can be used across the YouTube video network.
The bumper machine tool uses machine learning to identify elements within the video such as brand logo, human faces, motion or contrast to automatically produce the short ads. Although bumpers ads are super short on time, Google insists they’re long on impact. Through testing of over 300 bumper campaigns, Google found that 9 out of 10 drove a significant lift in ad recall.
Really Shop on Google Shopping
Google unveiled a totally redesigned Google Shopping experience. Shoppers have their own personalized homepage where they can not only filter based on features and brands, but they’ll be able to make purchases directly from the shopping interface. Not only that, Google is guaranteeing that all shoppers will be offered an easy return process and top-notch customer service.
Advertising vendors will have an add to cart option that will be found right where shoppers are viewing product reviews, images, price comparisons and videos. In the coming months, Google is planning to expand their showcase shopping ads to the image search results, discover search results, and YouTube. All very exciting for vendors to get their products in front of more people!
Google Marketing Live 2019 Wrap-up
Automation and machine learning are becoming the new powerhouse go-to for Google paid ad campaigns. And those ad campaigns are more seamlessly spanning more platforms such as search, video, display, news feeds, Gmail and more. Overall, an amazing amount of news and fun new features we can’t wait to play around and experiment with!