CATALYST POINT OF VIEW JULY 2018

GOOGLE ANNOUNCES NEWPRODUCTS & FEATURESGoogle’s annual performance marketing summit, Google Marketing Live, took place this week in San Jose from July 9th – July 11th. At the confer-ence, Google announced a number of product updates to deliver on their promise of “advertising that works for everyone.” Google focused on the fundamentals of better results, simpler experiences, and stronger collaboration.

Here we’ll recap Google’s product updates and discuss what the changes mean for advertisers.

Google Stack RebrandGoogle kicked off by sum-marizing its previously an-nounced stack rebrand. The rebrand reflects Google’s commitment to better results, simpler experiences, andstrong collaborations. As part

of the change, Google Ad-Words will become Google Ads, DoubleClick and Google Analytics 360 Suite will be-come Google Marketing Plat-form and DoubleClick for Pub-lishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange will become Google Ad Manager. DoubleClick for Search will be referred to as Search Ads 360. By end of year, advertisers will be able to access these products using a single sign-on, making the navigation between sys-tems more seamless. Google has recognized that digital

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advertising can be complicat-ed, but has recommitted to creating simple solutions that help marketers manage their campaigns and drive better results.

BETTER RESULTS

TrueView for ReachTrueView has always been valuable for advertisers want-ing to reach their audiences with video while only paying per view. Available immedi-ately in YouTube, advertisers now have the ability to use TrueView to reach their audi-ence on a CPM basis, which is perfect for a reach objective and simplifies the process of primary in-stream impression buying. While this is available today in YouTube, we expect this to be available in Display/Video later this year.

TrueView for Action EnhancementsGoogle also announced True-View for actions, which allows marketers to take advantage of Smart Bidding for their TrueView campaigns. Smart Bidding is a subset of Goo-gle’s automated bid strate-gies, which make decisions on a per-impression basis of how to participate in an auction. We expect that this addition to TrueView will make Google’s offering more attractive to ad-vertisers and marketers with

performance KPIs, as it is optimized to drive conversion actions on a website. Goo-gle noted that this strategy is particularly effective when layered with custom intent audiences.

Maximize Lift (YouTube)Google’s brand lift studies measure impact following a YouTube campaign. While this data is powerful for future planning, it is very reactive. Maximize Lift for YouTube will now allow advertisers to leverage the channel with an objective of driving consider-ation. This was previously a beta, but is now fully available to all advertisers.

Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)Responsive Search Ads was awidely adopted beta for large advertisers, but it is now fully available within AdWords Editor, AdWords API, and UI. Advertisers can select as many as 15 headlines and four

descriptions and then allow Google’s machine learning ca-pabilities optimize to the best performing combinations, sim-plifying ad creation and test-ing. The ads can also display additional text, up to three 30 character headlines and two 90 character description lines. There is currently no breakout in reporting for detailed mes-sage performance analysis; only the top ten ad combina-tions are reported on. Interna-tional advertisers should note that RSAs are currently only available in English; however, they will be available in Span-ish, French, and German later this year.

Mobile Landing Page Speed ScoreAdvertisers now have ac-cess to a mobile page speed score of 1-10 for each of their landing pages. This will be in the Landing Pages section of Google Ads and will be based on a combination of factors, including load speed and

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estimated potential for con-version. Landing page speed has a direct correlation to conversion and bounce rates, making this addition helpful for optimizing conversion rates and diagnosing poor performing campaigns. As part of this announcement, Google also recommended following their AMP guidelines for accelerated mobile perfor-mance, which have previously been an SEO focus. It’s unusu-al for Google to cross organic and paid search streams, indi-cating that this must important to Google. Advertisers should prioritize landing page and site improvements according-ly.

Cross-Device Reporting & RemarketingHistorically it has been chal-lenging for advertisers to connect with the same au-dience across devices and throughout the buying jour-ney. Cross-device reporting is a new enhancement to Goo-gle Analytics that will allow marketers to have a more complete view of cross-device interactions and remarket to

them more intelligently. Through this new feature, Google will enable advertisers to measure the full value of their marketing across chan-nels. Note that like store visits, this data is inferred based on users who are logged into one Google account across multi-ple devices and who have not opted out of personalized ad-vertising, so the data is likely to be somewhat directional.

SIMPLER EXPERIENCES

Smart CampaignsSmart Campaigns is a new feature designed specifically for SMBs that lack an in-house resource or agency. Smart Campaigns is a turn-key solu-tion that simplifies the setup and execution of Google Ads campaigns, including the creation of landing pages with built-in conversion actions like phone calls or in-store visits. Smart Campaigns represent a good option for small busi-ness that are just getting started advertising on Goo-gle; however, small business owners that are new to search advertising are still advised

to educate themselves on the basics in order to review their automated campaigns, and to monitor ROI closely.

Shopping CampaignsIn May, Google announced a number of updates to their shopping inventory that will help them better compete with Amazon for advertising dollars. At Google Marketing Live, they announced that campaign performance goals will now include Customer Acquisition and Store Visits. Google also announced an integration with Shopify, which is an ecommerce platform that currently powers over 600,000 online stores. Ad-vertisers can sync feeds with Shopify and will be able to manage shopping campaigns directly within Shopify, rath-er than having to manually update feeds and manage campaigns by switching be-tween Google Ads, Google Merchant Center, and Shopify, making this integrated plat-form a good choice for retail-ers looking to maximize online revenue. While this integration will greatly simplify the

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adoption of Shopping Ads for many advertisers, existing advertisers may see increased competition as a result of new entrants in the marketplace.

Smart Shopping CampaignsIn May, Google announced a new shopping campaign that automatically optimizes. Until now, feed management has been a manual process. Later this year Google is launch-ing Automated Feeds. As part of this, Google will crawl a retailer’s website, gather relevant details, and build a feed based on website inven-tory. This solution will only be appropriate for advertisers who are confident that their website store data is updated in real-time. Machine learning will be used for the built-in optimization capabilities. Look for more features for smart shopping coming soon.

Local CampaignsLocal campaigns are designedto help local business achieve offline performance goals. With the latest changes, the previously lengthy process of linking local campaigns to a Google My Business accountwill be significantly simplified. The new and more efficient process will allow advertisers

get up and running quickly, optimizing for store visits. This campaign type is best used when the advertiser’s goal is increasing store visits.

Hotel Campaigns While these are not new, Google will be migrating these campaigns into the new Search Ads UI later in 2018, and adding many more features to allow for greater segmentation and flexibility in campaign management. Goo-gle will also be making these campaigns available for ad-vertisers with a MCC and will fully integrate it with existing Search Ads billing. Migrating to the new campaign struc-ture will allow advertisers to group hotels more easily, and leverage bidding controls and machine learning in order to strengthen ROI.

STRONGER COLLABORATION

Measured PartnersLarge advertisers interested inleveraging 3rd party solutions for campaign measurement will now have access to a list of preferred measurement partners. Google will be add-ing to the list over the course of the year, but at its onset it

will include a list of 23 part-ners to help advertisers mea-sure reach, viewability, safety, brand/sales lift, and attribu-tion.

Google Marketing Platform and Display & Video 360Google spent some time fea-turing Google Marketing Plat-form and Display & Video 360, as it incorporates new capa-bilities built into a whole new platform, with the ultimate goal of breaking down siloes between marketing/data and creative teams. Display & Video 360 includes Dou-bleClick Bid Manager, Cam-paigns Manager, Studio, and Audience center. Advertisers can use the new integration center to connect Analytics 360 with Display & Video 360, but it also supports tradition-al buying and inventory. It brings together creative asset deployment, and manage-ment and storage with robust instant reporting, including the ability to build custom reports right in the UI, including charts and graphs. Google Marketing Platform and Display & Video 360 will start rolling out in the next few weeks.