Every year Google Marketing Live unveils its newest products and research they’ve conducted on digital marketing. This year, Google’s focus was on how to improve automation so that advertisers can better manage and measure their campaigns. 

Below are the top 6 product updates that were revealed and what they mean to you and your digital marketing strategy: 

1. Discovery Ads

If you’ve ever been to Google’s search page on your mobile device then you’ve likely seen the Google discover page. It generates content that is not only timely but also aligns with your interests right below the Google search bar.  

Why this is important to you: Discovery ads will allow you to run your ad campaign on Google’s search page, Gmail, and YouTube. Google developed these ads because they’re a visually impactful ad format that is targeted based on audience data such as interests, in-market, and affinity, instead of search intent alone. This is a great opportunity for people outside of search campaigns to be exposed to your ads. 

2. Gallery Ads

Much like a Facebook carousel ad, Google’s new gallery format allows you to display multiple images, each accompanied by their own tagline in addition to the headline.  

Why this is important to you: Both B2C and B2B companies can benefit from using these ads because it showcases the value of your product or service and offers more visual real estate than the traditional Google Display ad. Plus, images hit home and resonate more with people than plain text ads.  

3. Bumper Machine 

A bumper ad is a 6 second un–skippable video ad you see before watching a YouTube video. With Google’s new bumper machine, you no longer need to compress your videos into 6 seconds yourself, the bumper machine does the job for you! 

Why this is important to you: This tool takes well-structured moments within the longer video and transforms those moments into multiple 6 second video ads. This tool ultimately saves you time and effort by delivering multiple ads out of a larger one. It even can be a source of creative inspiration by showing different variations of the content! 

4. Redesigned Shopping Experience

Not only can users search and shop for items on Google, but now they’re able to purchase the product online, in a nearby store, or directly from the retailer within Google itself. This is a new way for shoppers to discover and compare millions of products all in one place.  

Why this is important to you: Users will now have a personalized homepage on the shopping tab where they can filter to their liking. You can now be discovered in more places, highlight multiple products, and drive more in-store traffic with a buy online or in-store options when checking out directly in Google. 

5. Performance Planner Tool 

Located under Tools in Google Ads, the Performance Planner has officially rolled out! This tool uses massive amounts of data to help you improve campaign performance and better account for seasonality. 

Why this is important to you:  You can now better predict the outcome of your campaigns. And, when you partner with an agency like SilverTech, our team can help you forecast the budget needed to reach your specific goals!  

6. New Controls Over Smart Bidding 

If you’ve ever used automated bidding strategies like Target CPA or Enhanced CPC, you’re likely familiar with smart bidding. Now, Google is offering a greater level of control. With the ability to set goals at the campaign level, you can now more easily set campaign level goals depending on the service or product line.  

Why this is important to you: These improvements give marketers more flexibility to optimize for what matters most. You can now set a conversion action at the campaign level, create a set of conversion actions that can be shared across campaigns, and make adjustments for seasonality by adjusting bids during a sale.   

The digital marketing world is moving at lighting speed. In order to say competitive, it’s imperative to keep pace. If you want to learn more about how each one of these updates affect your digital marketing strategy, contact us today!