As buyer behavior continues to change throughout the pandemic, Google Ads is committed to providing a better experience for its users.
Google Ads has announced three priorities for 2022: automation, measurement, and privacy.
Now, these are not new priorities, but more of a change in the way they focus on each. Let’s take a closer look.
New opportunities from automation
Jerry Dischler, vice president and general manager of Google Ads, mentioned how the shift in consumer behavior presents both challenges and opportunities.
His conversations with brands focus on the need for readiness, speed and agility to drive growth. He later said:
“Over 80% of Google advertisers are now using automated bidding to free up time and improve ad performance.”
Under the automation pillar, Google emphasizes using Performance maximum and Find Campaign type.
Both campaign types focus on reaching users at scale from a single campaign. The benefits Google touts from these events include:
- Easier management (less activity)
- Multi-channel coverage
- larger ad inventory
- Incremental conversion
For single-channel campaign types such as search, display, and YouTube, Google recommends automation using Smart Bidding, responsive search ads, and broad-matched keywords.
The future of measurement
It’s no secret that measurement has always been a challenging topic for most advertisers. With the iOS 14 update, the removal of third-party cookies in the future, and more – new measurement methods are critical to success.
It’s hard to prove the value of marketing without meaningful results and data to support your marketing efforts.
Google is rolling out new privacy and measurement solutions, including:
- enhanced conversion
- Consent mode
- transformation modeling
- Data-Driven Attribution
Implemented solutions will rely on your first-party data and privacy-safe APIs.
These efforts put users first and respect their privacy, while also listening to advertisers’ needs to track campaign efforts.
Fulfilling expectations for digital privacy
It’s hard not to hear about some sort of privacy breach these days. Google understands the growing need for user privacy and control.
While you need to build and nurture relationships with your customers, they need to know that their data is safe and maintain a degree of anonymity.
Google updated their Privacy Manual Capture these needs from the perspective of advertisers and users. The three main highlights of the play include:
- Build direct relationships with customers
- Ensure measurements remain accurate and actionable
- Keep your ads relevant
When building direct relationships with customers, you can capture first-party data for more direct 1:1 communications, such as email marketing or in-app messaging.
What does this mean for advertisers?
While we’re all used to relying on paid media to drive eventual sales and show immediate ROI, the role of paid media may need to change. This of course depends on your overall strategy.
For example, the goal of some of your non-branding or awareness work should be toward capturing first-party data, not eventual sales.
If you can capture first-party data at the first touch, you can attribute the final sale to that original touchpoint. Remember to change the attribution model to reflect the change in strategy.
source: Google Ads and Business Blog
Featured Image: Lightspring/Shutterstock
