With SMX East underway right now in “the Big Apple”, search marketers are getting up to speed on the latest and greatest updates and insights in the industry, including those from Google. Running from Tuesday to Thursday this week, Google opened the show with exciting announcements live-streamed early on the 24th, as reported by Search Engine Land‘s Ginny Marvin.
She covered Google’s post framed around the gift giving season, “Unwrapping new innovations for the holidays and beyond.” Entirely focused on local search intent, these click-and-mortar updates help retailers attract more customers both online and in-store with good reason. The latest Google research shows that “people who click on a Google ad before visiting a store are over 25% more likely to buy something while they’re there and spend over 10% more, on average.” Just ahead of holidays like Black Friday, advertisers need to sink their teeth into the following 4 paid media updates with Google to get ahead of their competition and give searchers the best product experience online.
1. Showcase Shopping Ads and Showcase Shopping Expanded Ads
What:
- Visually-rich Google shopping ads and an expanded format
Why:
- Helps shoppers better explore your brand’s selection of products during the discovery phase
- Helps advertisers since “On average, users search for a merchant’s brand terms twice as often after they’ve expanded that brand’s Showcase Shopping ad,” reports Google
How:
- Now available to advertisers in 15 countries, showcase shopping ads have been in testing for a year
2. Local Inventory Ads with Google Assistant
What:
- Searchers will see local inventory ads during local-intent voice searches with Google
Why:
- To make it easier for last minute shoppers to find nearby retailers when using their voice search on Google home or their smartphone
How:
- Advertisers who upload their product inventory feed to merchant centre will have access to local inventory ads with Google Assistant. Advertisers who have already done this may already be appearing for these types of searches
3. Local Ads for Display
What:
- Catalogue-style display ads shown for local searches
Why:
- Helps display advertisers put a spotlight on product and store promotions
How:
- Advertisers who want to use local display ads can speak to their Google rep about joining the pilot. Until then Google has just left us with:
4. Enhanced In-Store Measurement for Display
What:
- Impression-based store visits measured using aggregate data from anonymous opted-in users who activate Location History
Why:
- Helps advertisers measure the impact of local ads (and other formats) in the GDN, offline
- Helps advertisers develop “a more comprehensive view of when seeing your display ad keeps your brand top-of-mind and drives users to take action later at a store, even when they don’t click through”
How:
- Google has simply stated that this will be available in the coming months for now…(scroll back up to soon owl)
Search Marketers Making the Most of Local
With so many updates helping local businesses get ahead, Google has also provided 3 additional reports to help advertisers and marketers make sense of all the new data coming in. The new Time Lag report will tell advertisers the difference in time from when an ad was clicked by a user and when they visited the store. The Demographic report already exists, but now advertisers will be able to see in-store visits as a column. Lastly the New vs. Returning customer report shows how customers keep coming back for more with repeat store-visits.
Google put a clear emphasis on local innovation in their products this year at SMX East. With additional features and reports to support paid media campaigns for local businesses, search marketers are embracing optimization close to home just in time for holiday shopping.
Image Credits
Feature Image: Unsplash/Patrick Tomasso
All screenshots by Chandal Nolasco da Silva. Taken October 2017 from Google.