Google Marketing Live 2018 packed a lot of punch with new product announcements and more detail around changes to their current services. Two common themes throughout the event were automation and integration. Products such as; automated feeds, smart shopping, smart campaigns with auto-optimized landing pages, and responsive search ads were strong pushes to automate everything. These should lower the barrier to entry for new advertisers while giving more firepower to veteran marketers in the space.
Google also announced many new products and shifts which should help integrate channels and capabilities.
Integration changes and new products including; Trueview for action, ecommerce platform integrations, cross device reporting and remarketing, and shifts in the DoubleClick platforms to the Google Marketing Platform will drive marketers to look at channels and tactics more holistically. Advertisers and marketers now have more capabilities to launch and run holistic and robust campaigns to build brand awareness and drive action through the products announced at Google Marketing Live 2018.
Google has announced that it is eliminating the DoubleClick brand and shifting these products to a more holistic Google Marketing Platform. DoubleClick Search is becoming Search Ads 360, and DoubleClick Campaign Manager is rolling into DoubleClick Bid Manager to become Display & Video 360. These changes are substantial because it will serve to better integrate media, measurement, creative process and execution as part of the Google Marketing Platform while rolling 3rd parties into the platform.
Digital marketing is always more powerful when advertisers and marketers break down the silos to capitalize on user intent and experience.
This perfectly aligns with Blue Moon Digitals approach to a user first experience to drive results for advertisers. Moving away from silos will empower advertisers to be more nimble and reactive with their dollars to drive success. For direct response advertisers, this means eliminating the race to the bottom of the funnel by channel. For brand marketers, this means holding those channels accountable to performance metrics and using data for targeting and measurement purposes.
Google Marketing Live 2018 has empowered marketers and advertisers to capitalize upon a better user experience and drive better results for business growth.
The automation announcements at Google Marketing Live 2018 gave marketers and advertisers more tools to achieve relevance and efficiency at scale. Advertisers should view advances in automation as a tool to empower their teams and agencies to achieve greater success. Tools such as Responsive Search Ads and Smart Shopping should be used to supplement current search and shopping efforts to drive efficiency and reach. With the implementation of these products, advertisers can then assess proper budget and allocation moving forward. Smart advertisers will view these advancements as opportunities to improve performance and to create time efficiencies. Time efficiencies can be utilized to create scale which cannot be achieved by human management alone, and also to alleviate execution time for a focus on strategy.
Automation is best utilized when paired with the human element to create a custom program that is best fit for each advertiser.
No two advertisers are the same, and the strategy created by your teams will best integrate these automations into your program. BMDi has seen great success in the past with automation such as Bid Strategies from DoubleClick, as a result of the human configuration. Advertisers should expect to see a similar implementation with new Google automation products.
Great advertising can be achieved through integration and automation. BMDi has always taken this approach to advertising and plans to continue pushing the envelope. As an agency which currently utilizes the Google suite of products, we are positioned to leverage these new advancements and will continue to innovate how we advertise in the future.
