Google launches intuitive ad placements for Search, YouTube Shorts & more

Google is launching a slate of new advertising formats and placements for Google Search and YouTube to integrate evolved technology into the growing inclination of consumers towards browsing on Search, the growth in online shopping, and a surge of video watch time.

Purchase decisions are increasingly being impacted by Google Search and YouTube; the company mentions that one billion shopping journeys happen across Google every day. Categories like apparel have experienced growth as consumers explore information in more visual and browsable ways.

Later this year, advertisers will be eligible to show new, highly visual Shopping ads in search results to US customers. These will be labelled as ads and will be eligible to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page.

Merchants will be able to have 3D models of their products appear directly on Google Search, allowing shoppers to easily see them in their spaces through augmented reality. AR in Search would provide a fully immersive shopping experience.

In the coming months, businesses will also be able to promote loyalty benefits to potential customers in the US when they’re shopping across Google. Loyalty programs represent a relationship between businesses and their customers, and soon users will be able to integrate them with Google Ads.

A mobile phone screen showing the search query 'hair blow dryer brush', one of the results shows a tag that would say "Get free shipping and earn points", and showcase loyalty benefits across Google to consumers in the US. Using Performance Max campaigns, along with a product feed, businesses will be able to drive more online loyalty sign-ups across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.

Starting today, Video action campaigns and App campaigns will automatically scale to YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts now averages over 30 Bn daily views, four times as many as a year ago, and Google intends to help businesses reach people immersed in this short-form content.

Also Read: Advertisers can now manage frequency of ads on YouTube connected-TV

Later this year, businesses will also be able to connect product feed to campaigns and make video ads on YouTube Shorts more shoppable. Google has been experimenting with ads in YouTube Shorts since last year and is now gradually rolling that out to all advertisers around the world. This is a key step on the road to developing a long-term YouTube Shorts monetization solution for creators, and another avenue for advertisers. Product feeds on Video action campaigns will roll out to YouTube Shorts later this year.

Businesses also have the option to combine data and marketing expertise with Google’s machine learning and build automated products that meet campaign objectives and are simple to use.

Performance Max campaigns are a tool for helping businesses meet consumers where they are across Google channels. Advertisers that use Performance Max campaigns in their account see an average increase of 13% in total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.

Google has also announced six upcoming additions:

• More tools for experimentation, like A/B tests to see how Performance Max is driving incremental conversions
• Expanded campaign management support in Search Ads 360 and the Google Ads mobile app
• Support for store sales goals to optimize for in-store sales, in addition to store visits and local actions
• Maximize impact with burst campaigns for a set time period to help meet in-store goals during seasonal events
• New insights and explanations, including attribution, audience, and auction insights so you know what’s driving performance
• Optimization score and recommendations so you can see how to improve your campaign

Insights page uses machine learning to identify new pockets of consumer demand and provide personalized trend data. Only Google can surface these types of insights, based on the billions of searches seen every day and the millions of signals analyzed for every ad auction. Google is also introducing three new reports that will roll out over the coming months:

• Attribution insights show how your ads work together across Google surfaces — like Search, Display, and YouTube — to drive conversions.
• Budget insights find new opportunities for budget optimization and show how spend is pacing against your budget goals.
• Audience insights for first-party data show how customer segments, like those created with Customer Match, are driving campaign performance.

Google is also launching innovations like My Ad Center later this year to keep brands in control of their privacy and online experience. People will be able to pick the types of ads they want to see more or less of, and control how their data informs ads they see across YouTube, Search and Discover.