At Google Marketing Live 2024, the spotlight was firmly placed on artificial intelligence (AI), offering a glimpse into the future of digital marketing. This year's event showcased groundbreaking AI innovations designed to transform how businesses operate, but it also stressed the necessity of human expertise to make the most of this technology. As highlighted by Vidhya Srinivasan, Google's VP and General Manager of Ads, AI serves as a powerful tool to enhance and execute marketing strategies, bringing what was once out of reach within grasp.
“And yet, AI is not a marketer. AI does not have taste. It does not have ingenuity. It doesn’t have your creativity, your strategic insights, your expertise. But AI can help and will help. It brings what is out of reach within your reach. We believe this dream will be the new reality, and it’s what my team and I are building towards.” - Vidhya Srinivasan, Vice President/General Manager, Ads, Google
This year’s highlights paint a picture of what's on the horizon for the evolution of AI. Here are some key themes and announcements that caught our experts’ eyes:
AI Streamlines Workflows and Enhances Creativity
Generative AI/SGE (Smart Generative Engine): This innovative tool can create text, ad copy, and even entire ad campaigns based on your brand guidelines and creative strategies and inputs. Strong creative still relies on understanding your audiences and powerful creative concepts. We recommend using AI to generate creative variations and then leveraging your first-party data to personalize messaging for maximum impact.
Expert Takeaway: Generative AI Creatives on YouTube: This could lead to a boom in available inventory by making content creation more accessible to the average person. Generative AI creatives will also make purchasing Google Marketing Platform (GMP) licenses more practical for smaller brands and direct marketers. Being able to generate creative variations quickly will make running A/B tests and campaigns more viable for brands and agencies without large creative departments.
- Ted Yankello, Platform Specialist
Performance Max Gets an AI Boost: Performance Max campaigns are getting even more powerful with the addition of AI-generated ad components. Headlines, descriptions and images will now be automatically created based on your product feeds, saving you valuable time and resources.
Pro Tip: Performance Max: Successful targeting still depends on a solid understanding of your ideal customer. Be sure to build and use your first-party data to inform audience targeting within Performance Max for optimal results.
- Lauren Stone, Paid Search Consultant
Building Stronger Customer Relationships
The Rise of Video Ads: A new campaign type in Google Ads, Video View Campaigns, allows you to optimize specifically for video ad views. Reach your target audience across a vast network of YouTube channels and other Google video partners to ensure your message resonates.
Smarter B2B Marketing with Demand Gen Campaigns: Demand Gen Campaigns leverage machine learning to identify high-potential leads and nurture them with targeted ads throughout the sales funnel. This allows you to focus your efforts on the leads most likely to convert.
Expert Takeaway: Demand Gen for DV360. DV360 clients have been inquiring about Demand Gen ever since it appeared in Google Ads. Being able to utilize traditional lookalike audiences within DV360 and the ability to now create those audiences based on user lists as small as 100 users will be critical to smaller brands and direct marketers as well as all marketers looking to drive conversions at all stages of the user journey. This ability to reach new users built from such a small sample size will allow more niche targeting.
- Kevin O'Keefe, Media Activation Specialist
Interactive Ads Create Engagement: Google Ads is introducing conversational experiences, allowing you to create more interactive ad formats. Imagine customers directly asking questions and receiving answers within the ad itself! This can significantly boost engagement and lead generation.
AI Enhances Creative and Measurement Capabilities
Effortless Product Images: Product Studio utilizes AI to generate high-quality product images for your ad campaigns. Simply provide product information, and Product Studio will create images showcasing your products in various settings.
Refined Broad Match Control: Marketers gain more control over brand representation with "broad match brand control." This feature allows you to specify negative keywords, preventing your ads from showing irrelevant search terms.
Deeper Audience Insights: The revamped GA4 audience builder allows for more precise audience creation based on website behavior and demographics. Gain a clearer picture of who's interacting with your ads and tailor your campaigns accordingly.
Pro Tip: Performance Max Gets More Insightful. Businesses will now have a more comprehensive understanding of the search terms triggering their Performance Max campaigns. This allows for better optimization and targeting of your advertising efforts.
- Kaysen Jacobelli, Technical Specialist
What Next?
Google Marketing Live 2024 highlighted the transformative power of AI in digital advertising. AI already touches many Google products today, but you may be asking yourself, what can I be doing today to harness the power of AI? Here are some general tips to guide you on your way:
- Start with your first-party data: It’s the most important foundation for AI.
- AI needs your best creative inputs; identify and refine them.
- Get better acquainted with AI tools and features like Gemini, Google Ads AI Essentials and other popular GMP AI features.
- Lean into your agencies and partners to help scale your AI solutions.
- Break down your organizational silos to align yourself to unique customer journeys.
Excited about what’s to come? Us too! Contact us today to chat more about how we can help you take your digital marketing efforts to the next level.