- Good morning, San Francisco! As the city starts to wake up, my team and I are gearing up to welcome over a thousand marketers from around the world to Google Marketing Next, our annual event where we unveil the latest innovations for ads, analytics and DoubleClick.
A big theme you’ll hear about today is machine learning. This technology is critical to helping marketers analyze countless signals in real time and reach consumers with more useful ads at the right moments. Machine learning is also key to measuring the consumer journeys that now span multiple devices and channels across both the digital and physical worlds.
It's a growing and important trend for marketers today, and will continue to shape how you build for success in the future.
Below is a sneak preview of a few of the announcements I’ll be making. There are many more that I can’t wait to share with you. Be sure to tune in at 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET.
Hello Google Attribution, goodbye last-click
Today, we're announcing Google Attribution, a new product to answer the question that has challenged marketers for ages, “Is my marketing working?” For the first time, Google Attribution makes it possible for every marketer to measure the impact of their marketing across devices and across channels -- all in one place, and at no additional cost.
With today’s complex customer journey, your business might have a dozen interactions with a single person - across display, video, search, social, and on your site or app. And all these moments take place on multiple devices, making them even harder to measure.
Marketers have been trying to make attribution work for years, but existing solutions just don't cut it. Most attribution tools:
- Are hard to set up
- Lose track of the customer journey when people move between devices
- Aren’t integrated with ad tools, making it difficult to take action
As a result, many marketers are stuck using last-click attribution, which misses the impact of most marketing touchpoints. With Google Attribution, we’ll help you understand how all of your marketing efforts work together and deliver the insights you need to make them work better.
Here’s how it works:
Integrations with AdWords, Google Analytics and DoubleClick Search make it easy to bring together data from all your marketing channels. The end result is a complete view of your performance.
Google Attribution also makes it easy to switch to data-driven attribution. Data-driven attribution uses machine learning to determine how much credit to assign to each step in the consumer journey -- from the first time they engage with your brand for early research down to the final click before purchase. It analyzes your account's unique conversion patterns, comparing the paths of customers who convert to those who don’t, so you get results that accurately represent your business.Finally, you can take fast action to optimize your ads with Google Attribution because it integrates with ads tools like AdWords and DoubleClick Search. The results are immediately available for reporting, updating bids or moving budget between channels.
“Given today’s multi-device landscape, cross-channel measurement and attribution is indispensable for HelloFresh to have a 360º panorama of our customer journey and gives us the best data to make the best decisions.” - Karl Villanueva, Head of Paid Search & Display Google Attribution is now in beta and will roll out to more advertisers over the coming months.
Mobile-local innovations drive more consumers to stores
Mobile has blurred the line between the digital and physical worlds. While most purchases still happen in-store, people are increasingly turning to their smartphones to do research beforehand -- especially on Google.com and Google Maps.
To help consumers decide where to go, marketers are using innovations like Promoted Places and local inventory ads to showcase special offers and what’s in-stock at nearby stores. Now, you can also make it easy for them to find a store from your YouTube video ads using location extensions.
We introduced store visits measurement back in 2014 to help marketers gain more insight about consumer journeys that start online and end in a store. In under three years, advertisers globally have measured over 5 billion store visits using AdWords.
Only Google has the advanced machine learning and mapping technology to help you accurately measure store visits at scale and use these insights to deliver better local ad experiences. Our recent upgrade to deep learning models enables us to train on larger data sets and measure more store visits in challenging scenarios with greater confidence. This includes visits that happen in multi-story malls or dense cities like Tokyo, Japan and São Paulo, Brazil where many business locations are situated close together. Store visits measurement is already available for Search, Shopping and Display campaigns. And soon this technology will be available for YouTube TrueView campaigns to help you measure the impact of video ads on foot traffic to your stores.
Still, measuring store visits is just one part of the equation. You also need insights into how your online ads drive sales for your business. You need to know: are my online ads ringing my cash register? In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out store sales measurement at the device and campaign levels. This will allow you to measure in-store revenue in addition to the store visits delivered by your Search and Shopping ads.
If you collect email information at the point of sale for your loyalty program, you can import store transactions directly into AdWords yourself or through a third-party data partner. And even if your business doesn’t have a large loyalty program, you can still measure store sales by taking advantage of Google’s third-party partnerships, which capture approximately 70% of credit and debit card transactions in the United States. There is no time-consuming setup or costly integrations required on your end. You also don’t need to share any customer information. After you opt in, we can automatically report on your store sales in AdWords.
Both solutions match transactions back to Google ads in a secure and privacy-safe way, and only report on aggregated and anonymized store sales to protect your customer data.
Virgin Holidays discovered that when it factors in store sales, its search campaigns generate double the profit compared to looking at online KPIs alone. A customer purchasing in-store after clicking on a search ad is also three times more profitable than an online conversion. Says James Libor, Performance Marketing and Technology Manager, “Store sales measurement gives us a more accurate view of the impact our digital investment has on in-store results, especially through mobile. This has empowered us to invest more budget in Search to better support this critical part of the consumer journey.”
Machine learning delivers more powerful audience insights to search ads
People are often searching with the intent to buy. That’s why we’re bringing in-market audiences to Search to help you reach users who are ready to purchase the products and services you offer. For example, if you’re a car dealership, you can increase your reach among users who have already searched for “SUVs with best gas mileage” and “spacious SUVs”. In-market audiences uses the power of machine learning to better understand purchase intent. It analyzes trillions of search queries and activity across millions of websites to help figure out when people are close to buying and surface ads that will be more relevant and interesting to them.
This is an important moment for marketers. The convergence of mobile, data and machine learning will unlock new opportunities for marketers -- and I’m excited to be on this journey with all of you.
Please join us at 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET to see the entire keynote at Google Marketing Next, and all the other innovations we’re planning to announce for ads, analytics and DoubleClick.Posted by Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President of Ads & Commerce
I/O is a magical time at Google. Every year, thousands of developers gather in Google’s backyard to share new product ideas and learn about our latest innovations in computing.
We’re meeting at an exciting time for the developer community. It’s a time when consumers have more choices than ever before—like where to shop, what to watch, which games to play and how to communicate with friends and family. Your product needs to stand out. You need tools to help your business grow. And you need to make sure your users are happy.
We think we can help.
This afternoon, my team and I will share 3 new innovations for developers to make it easy for users to pay for your services, build profitable businesses and grow your user base. Check out our live stream here.
Enabling users to pay with Google
Starting today, our suite of payment solutions will be expanding. The Google Payment API enables merchants and developers to turbocharge checkout conversion by offering your users an easy way to pay with credit and debit cards saved to their Google Account. Users will have multiple Google payment options at their fingertips, like a credit or a debit card previously saved via Android Pay, a payment card used to transact on the Play Store or a form of payment stored via Chrome. And they’ll be able to use these saved payment options in third-party apps and mobile sites, as well as on Google Assistant when they are on-the-go.
Paying with Google for Panera Bread on Google Assistant
For users, this means faster checkout. Now they’ll never miss a deal because they’re stuck on a bus and don’t want to pull out their credit card in front of strangers. They'll no longer experience the pain of stumbling on a sale that ends at midnight when they’re tucked in bed with their credit card out of reach. Users can save time and headache by using credit and debit cards they’ve already saved to their Google Account whenever they see the option to pay with Google on supported apps or sites.For developers, this API is a significant innovation that can enable faster checkout, drive more conversions, increase sales and reduce abandoned carts—all with a simple integration. Learn more about our Google Payment API here.
Earn more from your apps with the brand new AdMob
People turn to their mobile devices throughout the day to shop, communicate and stay entertained. For developers, in-app purchases are one way to monetize. Ads are another way.
AdMob was built to support the app ecosystem. With over 1 million apps across iOS and Android, AdMob has paid over $3.5 billion in ads revenue to developers. But there’s more we can do to help you succeed.
Today, we’re introducing a completely redesigned AdMob. Rebuilt from the ground up, AdMob is now simpler to use and delivers richer insights about your users’ in-app experiences.
Simpler to use: We’ve applied Material Design to all aspects of the AdMob look and feel to deliver an easy-to-use and intuitive experience across the entire platform—on mobile and desktop. You’ll get more done in less time. Below you can see how easy it is to pick an app that you’re monitoring, check out its key metrics and then quickly take action to fine-tune its performance.
Redesigned AdMob experienceDeeper insights: We’ve also integrated Google Analytics for Firebase into the core of the redesigned AdMob so you have quick access to the metrics that matter most for your business. Once you link your AdMob and Firebase accounts, you’ll have access to detailed ad revenue data and user insights like time spent in the app and in-app purchases—all in one place.
Google Analytics for Firebase dashboard in AdMobKnow your user, find your user with Universal App Campaigns
Earning money from your app is one piece of the puzzle. You also need to think about how to grow your user base.
Google’s app ad innovations have delivered over 5 billion installs from ads and we are now helping developers drive over 3 billion in-app events per quarter—like users adding something to their cart or reaching level 3 of a game. Developers have gravitated toward Universal App Campaigns (UAC) as the “one stop shop” campaign type that scales your reach and maximizes app installs across Google’s largest properties: Google Play, Search, YouTube, Gmail and the Display Network. UAC uses Google’s machine learning technology to evaluate numerous signals in real time, refining each ad to help you reach your most engaged users. We're continuing to double down on UAC, with all new innovations being built into UAC to make app promotion even more effective.
Engage users in key moments of discovery with new UAC placements in Google Play
Android reaches more than 2 billion active devices every month, with Google Play available in 190+ countries around the world. It’s the place users come to discover new apps and games. Beyond searching for apps to try, users are increasingly browsing the Play store and finding recommendations for new apps.To help those users discover more of your apps, we are introducing new ad placements on the home and app listing pages in the Google Play Store. These new placements, available exclusively through UAC, help you reach users in "discovery mode" as they swipe, tap and scroll in search of their next favorite app.
New ad placements reach users browsing in Google PlayDiscover more of your best users with new bidding options in UAC
Some users are more valuable to your business than others, like the players who level-up in your game or the loyal travelers who book several flights a month. That’s why we’re expanding Smart Bidding strategies in UAC to help you acquire more of these high-value users. Using Smart Bidding, you can tailor bids for your unique business goals - target cost per acquisition (tCPA) or target return on ad spend (tROAS). UAC delivers the right users based on your objectives: installs, events and, coming soon, value. This update starts rolling out to iOS and Android developers and advertisers in the coming months.Introducing App Attribution Partners, a new measurement program
Many developers rely on third-party measurement providers to measure the impact of ads and gain valuable insights about how users engage with your app. To help you take action on these insights in a faster and more seamless way, we are introducing App Attribution Partners, a new program designed to integrate data from 7 global companies right into AdWords.Welcome to adjust, Adways, AppsFlyer, Apsalar, CyberZ, Kochava and TUNE... we’re thrilled to have them on board!
AdWords’ integration with these partners ensures that you have consistent, reliable and more granular data where you review app metrics. Now you can take action with confidence and stay on top of your business performance.
As consumers live more of their lives online, it’s increasingly important for developers to build user-centric experiences in everything that you do—from the apps you design, to the experiences you deliver, to the ways you help people transact. We know it’s not always easy, so Google is here to help. We look forward to continuing on this journey with you.Posted by Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce
Effective ads connect people with the content that’s most relevant to them, right when they’re looking for it. In AdWords, you can assess how relevant your keywords, ads, and landing pages are by evaluating Quality Score and its components: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Starting this week, we’re rolling out several improvements to Quality Score reporting that make it easier for you to get more visibility into these scores.
New status columns for Quality Score
We’ve heard from you that the three Quality Score components available today through the keyword status bubble are super helpful. However, you need a way to review them at scale and easily share them. To save you time and help you make more informed decisions, we’re adding three new optional status columns to the Keywords tab for “Exp. CTR,” “Ad Relevance” and “Landing Page Exper.” Simply add these columns to your keyword reports to get a comprehensive snapshot of your keywords’ current scores.
History lessons in keyword quality
To improve campaign performance, it’s important to understand how changes to your account, like ad optimization, impact Quality Score. Starting today, you can view historical Quality Score, and its components, for all of your keywords to understand how they’ve changed over time. This data will be available via four new columns: “Qual. Score (hist.),” “Landing page exper. (hist.),” “Ad relevance (hist.)” and “Exp. CTR (hist.).”
7 new columns for QS components are now available in keyword reporting
There are two important things to know about these columns:- They reflect the last known score for the date range you selected. Note that historical data won’t be available for dates earlier than January 22, 2016.
- If you apply the "Day" segment to your Keyword reports, these columns will show daily values that reflect what your scores were at the end of each day.
Updated Keyword report with historical Quality Score segmented by day
To help you understand what this looks like, let’s take a look at the example report above, which is segmented by day. Let’s say it’s Feb. 10 and you want to see what the Quality Score was for your keyword “Oranges” from Feb. 3 to Feb. 8.- First, notice the current Quality Score in the “Qual. Score” column, 3/10. This column will always show the current Quality Score, regardless of the date you’re reporting on.
- Next, you’ll see the new “Quality Scores (hist.)” column shows the last known Quality Score for the reporting period, 4/10, as well as the historical score for each day within that period.
- When there aren’t enough impressions or clicks to accurately determine a keyword’s Quality Score, like on Feb. 7 and Feb. 8, you’ll see a null Quality Score (“—”).
Learn more
These new Quality Score columns are also available at the manager account level. For Quality Score tips and best practices, read our guide to ad quality or visit the AdWords Help Center.
Posted by Jon Diorio, Group Product Manager, Search Ads
Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) help you reconnect with people who’ve been to your website before, but engaging both new and loyal customers is just as important to your business. Starting today, we’re rolling out similar audiences for Search and Shopping along with Customer Match for Shopping to help you use your own data to reach the right customer with the right message.
Find similar customers
Similar audiences helps you find people who share similar interests with your best customers, right when they’re searching for products and services like yours. This makes it easy for you to expand your reach by connecting you with more people who want what you have to offer.
Imagine you’re marketing a hotel in Hawaii using RLSA, and you want to connect with summer travelers. The people in your “Recent Converters” list might be searching for things like ‘flights to Maui,’ ‘scuba classes,’ and ‘flip-flop sandals.’ Powered by Google’s machine learning, similar audiences uses these search trends to help you find people who are looking for the same things as your existing customers, even if they’re not on your remarketing lists.
By connecting you with more qualified customers, similar audiences can help unlock new opportunities to grow your business. For example, you may discover generic terms work better with a similar audience applied to them. You can also use it as a bid modifier to be more competitive in a crowded auction, tailoring your bids to reach people who are more likely to buy.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, a leading global auto company, used similar audiences for Search to increase conversions by 22%.
“Similar audiences for search has helped us reach auto shoppers more efficiently while improving our ability to connect with them in critical moments throughout their purchase journeys. In less than two months, similar audiences for search delivered an 11% increase in clickthrough rate and 22% more conversions across our test campaigns.” - Amy McNeil, Head of Digital Marketing at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US
John Deere, a leader in farming machinery, used similar audiences for Search to drive a 300% increase in clickthrough rate.
“We’ve been really pleased with the outcome of similar audiences for search after witnessing a 300% increase in clickthrough rate and a 31% increase in conversion volume. It’s been a huge help in reaching brand new consumers throughout the research and purchase process.” - Jennifer Cox, Agriculture & Turf Segment Manager, Property Care at John Deere
And video game retailer GameStop used similar audiences for Shopping to find customers who were 30% more likely to buy.
“Similar Audiences helped us find new customers who are just as enthusiastic as the gamers who regularly visit our site. Since using Similar Audiences with our shopping ads, we’ve seen a 30% increase in conversion rate.” - Matthew Gordon, Multi-Channel Acquisition Manager at GameStop
You’ll now see Search list size estimates for your similar audiences, letting you know how many people they can reach. These audiences can be applied to both your Search and Shopping campaigns. Learn more about similar audiences.Customer Match available for Shopping campaigns
Start connecting with your most valuable customers as they shop on Google.com with Customer Match for Shopping campaigns, rolling out globally. By using your email lists, Customer Match makes it easy for you to focus Shopping campaigns on your high-value customers–like previous purchasers, newsletter subscribers, rewards members and in-store shoppers.
Let’s say that you manage marketing for an online apparel retailer, and you’re interested in connecting with your rewards members. To make it easy for you to reach these customers when they’re shopping, you can now use your “Rewards Members” customer email list to show them relevant Shopping ads featuring your latest spring styles.
ULTA Beauty, a premier beauty retailer, used Customer Match for Shopping to improve engagement with online shoppers.
“We were excited for the chance to re-engage with our loyalty members on the web by highlighting top sellers from the wide range of brands we carry. With Customer Match for Shopping, we could connect with our high-value email list subscribers, resulting in a higher clickthrough and conversion rate with these shoppers.” - Dominic Manna, Senior Manager of Digital Marketing at ULTA Beauty
Posted by Cedric Dupont, Group Product Manager, AdWords
