Recap from Google Marketing Next 2017

Today, Google hosted its annual Google Marketing Next to announce major enhancements to its marketing suite of products. This year, Google focused on AMP, and new improvements to Google AdWords, Attribution, Optimize, and Surveys 360.

Interesting stats from the keynote:

  • 87% of people go to search first before any other channel
  • 20% of searches are voice searches
  • 70% of buyers searched online right before making a purchase
  • Most businesses will see a 20% decrease in conversions for every extra second it takes a page to load

A focus of the presentation was being smarter with data and realizing that the customer journey isn’t just online or offline anymore but non-line as they all blend and become a part of the journey.

So, what’s next in Google’s realm?

AMP

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) has been around since late 2015 but now the search engine giant is bringing AMP to AdWords. Currently in beta, you can put your ads on the display network to load quickly on AMP pages and reach more searchers on their mobile devices.

Consumer data

The speakers stressed you need to “know your customers and what matters to them most.” It’s important to understand searchers’ intent, context, and their identity to serve relevant results and ads to them.

Google is focusing efforts on consumer patterns and live events with its in-market audiences. This allows advertisers to tailor ads based on the searcher and their interest in buying a product. You can also match ads based on major events in a searcher’s life like graduation or a wedding.

They also touched on better technology with matching store visits and transactions to see how consumers moved from search to store.

Is my marketing working?

It’s a question Google and marketers around the world get asked and with Google, most often we could only track last-click attribution and other touch points and ads weren’t getting the credit they deserved. Another product that’s in beta is Google Attribution, a new tool (at no additional cost) that will watch users across channels and devices to more accurately show how ads and other marketing touch points influenced their final purchase decision.

Optimize

Google Optimize essentially allows you to A/B test landing pages associated with your AdWords ads. You can test images and keywords to find the perfect landing page design (without a web developer) to improve your conversion rate.

Surveys 360

Wouldn’t it be great to ask some of your guests what about the ad made them click? Now you can find out with Surveys 360 and its connection to AdWords. Survey users to find out what in your ads are working and what elements need improvement. Surveys 360 is available for advertisers in the U.S.

Google Assistant

Finally, they touched on Google Home and Assistant and how voice search is impacting the search experience. Smart home devices are aiming to make answers sound natural and personal while pulling correct information. They discussed the ability to upload your local inventory to Google Assistant to reach new customers for the right query.

Overall, Google announced some pretty exciting changes and enhancements to its products and we’re excited to see them roll out over the next few months for better reporting capabilities and opportunities to improve our tactics and strategies. 

Published: May 23, 2017