>> SYLVANUS: Hi, everybody! I’m Sylvanus Bent, a Product Manager at Google.
We know the past year has been tough; COVID-19 changed the way we do things in all aspects of life.
And we know marketers have had to do more than ever before, both at work and at home.
That’s why our main goal has been to build products that help make your life easier
and deliver you better performance.
Today, we’ll discuss how our automated products can help you reach the right customers,
show the best ad, and improve performance to deliver strong results.
Then, we’ll uncover the latest innovations in Google Ads tools that will connect you
to insights and new opportunities.
Consumers these days expect more meaningful experiences.
Like Jerry mentioned earlier today, your expertise combined with automation can deliver meaningful
experiences and drive better performance, especially in turbulent times.
Search advertising is all about delivering the right message to the right customer, at the right value.
We’ve looked across all accounts, and we found that the most impactful way to do this is by
using our automated products together.
It’s a formula that combines 3 solutions: responsive search ads, broad match, and Smart Bidding.
Now let’s break that down. Responsive search ads combine your creativity with machine learning to
help you deliver relevant, meaningful ads.
Broad match gives you the ability to reach searches about the latest trends.
And Smart Bidding optimizes your bids in real time to hit your performance goals.
Let’s take a look at Rothy’s, a company that transforms sustainable materials into modern
shoes and accessories.
They wanted to share their mission with more people through a meaningful marketing experience,
amidst COVID-19.
To achieve this, Rothy’s decided to test a fully automated search strategy.
As the foundation, Rothy’s used a Smart Bidding strategy to optimize for conversion value and to
save them time from adjusting the bids manually.
Reaching new customers in a cost-effective manner was a core focus, so they also used broad match.
It helped them identify new keywords with strong demand like “machine washable” and “sustainability.”
And responsive search ads helped them tailor their messaging to the right customer.
By using these solutions together, they were able to bring their customers along a personalized journey.
As a result, they grew return on ad spend by 105% and conversions by 8%.
Rothy’s also saved their team a lot of time, so now they can focus on more strategic initiatives.
With that time, Rothy’s developed tailored creative for other channels.
That new creative featured plastic water bottles bringing Rothy’s story to life,
especially with new customers.
This success story proves that automation can transform your business,
and so can our Google Ads tools.
Now I’ll pass it over to Pallavi.
She’s here to talk about how insights can help you understand what’s driving your automation strategy.
>> PALLAVI: Thanks, Sylvanus! I’m Pallavi Naresh, a Senior Product Manager for Insights.
As Sylvanus mentioned, the pandemic completely changed the way we do things, and we’re still
seeing these changes in consumer behavior across all industries.
For example, we’re continuing to see growth in searches for next-day delivery, electric vehicles,
getaways near me, and mobile banking apps.
To help you keep up with these changes, and to give you a deeper look into what’s
driving your automated strategies, you told us that you need more insights.
That’s exactly why we launched the Insights page earlier this year.
The Insights page provides you with emerging trends tailored to your business.
Since launch, we’ve seen Search trends bring huge value to businesses of all sizes.
And in the coming months, we’re rolling out the next version of the Insights page.
This version will give you even more insights, so you can have a deeper understanding of your
customers, ad performance, and overall market.
Let’s check out some of the insights right now, starting with search queries.
When we updated the search query report last year to protect user privacy, we heard from you that
understanding the intent behind search queries is important to you.
That’s why we’re rolling out consumer interest insights.
They aggregate the most important themes based on your customers’ search queries in a privacy-safe way.
For example, let’s say you’re an outdoor retailer and sell hiking boots.
You may see that your top themes are “waterproof” and “lightweight.”
We’re also giving you the Search volume for those themes, their growth, and your performance
against those themes.
Consumer interest insights help you spend less time going through the search terms report and
more time focusing on what your customers want.
On top of knowing what your customers want, audience insights help you understand who your
top customers are and what creatives perform best with them.
With the help of machine learning, we’ll show you who your core customers are.
If you’re an outdoor retailer, you might learn that your top audiences are 25-to-34-year-olds,
women, and runners.
These real-time insights can help inform decisions beyond marketing like content creation,
product development, and more.
However, if the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that insights should also be forward looking.
That’s why we’re using our historical search data and machine learning to bring you demand forecasts.
They predict search trends over the next 3 to 6 months so your business can better prepare.
Now that you’re equipped with the insight you need, you can now more easily than ever understand
your performance.
In the coming months, the Insights page will provide you with a more holistic view of how your
ads are performing, including changes in your competitive landscape with auction insights.
We hope that the Insights page will give you a deeper look into what’s driving your automated
strategies and prepare your business for what’s ahead.
Now, I’ll pass it off to Blake.
He’s here to discuss how you can turn these insights into action with recommendations.
>> BLAKE: Thanks, Pallavi. I’m Blake Reese, Product Director for Google Ads.
Recommendations can help you optimize your account for emerging trends and maximize your performance.
They’re surfaced in real time based on your account’s settings, performance history, trends in
the ads ecosystem, your campaign goals, and more.
We’ve heard from you that you want to better understand why you’re receiving all the
recommendations you do.
That’s why you can now see your campaign goal next to your optimization score.
Since recommendations are anchored around your business goals,
they’re determined by the Smart Bidding strategy that you pick.
They can be focused on conversions, conversion value, clicks, and/or impression share.
With this information, we’ll surface recommendations tailored to your goals, and the recommendations
with the highest score will have the greatest impact on your performance.
In case you don’t have time to manually review each recommendation, you can automatically apply
the recommendations of your choice.
These recommendations will be applied when new opportunities are surfaced so you never miss a beat.
For example, you can save time managing keywords by automatically applying them.
If you use Smart Bidding, keyword recommendations can help you find even more customers by
optimizing your bids at auction time.
With the time saved managing keywords, you can now focus on more strategic tasks that are aligned
with your long-term business goals, like conversion modeling or lifetime value reporting.
We’ll continue to roll out new recommendations over the coming months, like store visits in
automated bidding, to help you optimize for offline conversions.
Another way you can stay connected to your performance is through the Google Ads mobile app.
You can take quick action in the app, like reviewing recommendations on the go,
even across multiple accounts.
Look at Chewy, an online pet retailer.
As people stocked up on pet supplies amidst COVID-19, Chewy used the mobile app to keep close
tabs on performance from anywhere.
By using the app, they were able to make changes to their account proactively so they could meet
the needs of their customers, and their pets.
We’re enhancing the mobile app experience and bringing you mobile-specific features like custom
push notifications.
They help you keep tabs on your performance so you can have peace of mind,
something that is much-appreciated these days.
For example, let’s say you’re planning a campaign for an upcoming summer sale, and you want to stay
on top of how conversion volume changes week over week.
You can now create a custom push notification to alert you when weekly conversions increase
by more than 10%.
We’re also working on making your feeds even more personalized.
It shows you what you need to know, like insights tailored to your business, along with educational
content that can help you get the most out of your campaigns.
If you don’t have the app already, you can download it today in the App or Play Store.
If you do, let us know what you think and leave us a review.
Thanks for going under the hood with us today to hear about our latest innovations in automated
solutions and tools.
We hope our vision remains clear.
We’re here to make your lives easier by helping you drive better performance.
If you’re interested in getting a closer look into automation, check out the Automation breakout
session right after this.
Thanks again for watching, and enjoy the rest of the Google Marketing Livestream!