Google Marketing Live took place on May 14, 2019, and was chock-full of updates, learnings, and new opportunities on the horizon for advertisers and brands. With mobile phones allowing consumers to engage with advertisers more often and in more ways than ever before, Google focused a majority of the conversation on the ever-changing consumer journey and introduced a new set of products and features that help advertisers and brands reach the right consumers at the right moment. Additionally, Google expanded upon its heightened focus on the travel vertical that includes more opportunity for tourism brands. Below are five of the things we learned at Google Marketing Live 2019:
1. Google is Continuing to Focus Efforts on Travel
Google has made recent strides in its focus on travel, including redesigning its hotel search and adding vacation rentals, but at Google Marketing Live 2019, they announced their newest development in the travel vertical: Trips. Google’s Trips makes navigating the various stages of travel planning much easier for consumers by enabling them to explore sights and attractions as well as shop for flights, hotels, and packages, all on one website. This website, found at https://www.google.com/travel, combines a user’s existing travel plans with recommendations on potential trips and popular destinations, making it a comprehensive tool for discovering and storing trip information.
In addition to being an all-in-one travel planning tool for consumers, Trips is also a potentially powerful tool for advertisers and tourism companies looking to attract visitors. Advertisers will be able to retarget visitors who have expressed interest in a certain destination by utilizing “Trips by Destination” in-market audiences, and tourism companies can potentially receive more traffic on their travel content by having that content display in the “Explore” section of Trips.
2. Google Introduces Discovery Ads
In 2017, Google introduced the “feed experience” in the Google app, making it easier for users to discover, explore, and stay connected with what mattered to them. In 2018, Google renamed the feed experience “Discover” and introduced a few new features like evergreen content, which meant more videos and visual content for users to scroll through.
At Google Marketing Live 2019, Google announced that they will be rolling out Discovery ads, which are a new way for advertisers to reach consumers across Google properties in moments when they are most open to discovering your products and services.
Discovery ads are swipeable image carousel ads that showcase your brand or product and can reach hundreds of millions of consumers across the YouTube home feed, the Gmail Promotions and Social tabs, and the Discover feed. Google claims that when combining this rich, creative ad format with Google’s incredible reach and understanding of intent, you can “be confident you’re anticipating what your customers want and delivering the results you care about.”
3. Google is Launching Gallery Ads
Later in 2019, Google will be launching Gallery ads, a new search ad format that brings more of your content to the search results page. These ads appear at the very top of mobile search results and contain a swipeable carousel of images that users can click to expand. By combining a consumer’s search intent with a more interactive visual format, Gallery ads communicate what your brand has to offer more easily than a traditional search ad. Google has found that, on average, ad groups including one or more gallery ad have up to 25% more interactions at the top of mobile search results.
According to Google, there is no special campaign type to run Gallery ads, and they compete in the same auction against text ads. Additionally, there are two different ways that advertisers get charged with interactions on Gallery ads: either when a user clicks on the headline and goes to the advertiser’s website, or when a user clicks into the image gallery and then swipes through three or more images.
4. The New Google Shopping Experience
Google will be unveiling a redesigned Google Shopping experience with new ways for shoppers to discover and compare millions of products. When a consumer is ready to purchase, they can choose to purchase online, in a nearby store, or now directly on Google.
Shoppers will now have a personalized homepage on the Shopping tab where they can filter based on features and brands.
Google will also be expanding the Google Shopping experience by bringing the Showcase Shopping ad to places where consumers are looking for inspiration and ideas, like Google Images, the Discover feed, and YouTube.
5. App Deep Linking from Google Ads
With App Deep Linking, users will be taken directly from your search, display, or shopping ad to the relevant page in your mobile app, if they have your app already installed. This means that consumers will be able to complete their desired action in a way that’s optimized for the destination that drives the highest value for your brand. This delivers a better user experience for the consumer as well as improved insights for the advertiser. According to Google, early tests have shown that on average, deep linked ad experiences drove 2x higher conversion rates.
To learn more about these new offerings as well as additional announcements from Google Marketing Live 2019, reach out to the team of digital experts at Vladimir Jones.
Vladimir Jones is Colorado’s original independent, integrated advertising agency, with offices in Denver and Colorado Springs. We believe in brilliant brands and love making the world love them as much as we do.