I, along with Susan Bidel and Richard Joyce, got to attend Google Marketing Next 2017 this week. It was a great opportunity to see firsthand the new advances Google is making for this year, and to speak with Google product managers directly. While there were no announcements that were earth shattering, there were a few important announcements that I thought I’d share with those of you that were unable to attend:

 

  • AMP ads for search and display. Google launched Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) over a year ago to speed up mobile web pages to aid the customer experience. Now these pages can be used by search advertisers in AdWords to speed up the time it takes for their landing pages from paid search ads to download. And the same is being done for Google Display Network ads.
  • Store sales measurement. Google has already been using anonymized location data to estimate in store visits from digital ads. But now, Google will be applying machine learning to better account for brick and mortar visits. And marketers will now be able to integrate POS data into AdWords to understand in store conversions better.
  • In-market audiences for search ads. Search advertisers will be able to better target searchers who are further along in the customer life cycle to making a purchase for their products or services. In AdWords, marketers can choose audiences based on categories like event tickets, apparel, or beauty products to target customers that Google has deemed as in-market. Google uses intent signals like searching behavior and website visits to determine if a customer is in market for a product.

What did you think was the biggest announcement from GMN? I’d love to hear any thoughts or questions.