Google Marketing Live 2024: Key Announcements Unveiled

At Google Marketing Live 2024, Google demonstrated how AI is revolutionizing media, creativity, and measurement to usher in a new era of advertising. Here’s a comprehensive roundup of all the product announcements made during the event:

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Performance Max

Google introduced new features in Performance Max to enhance control over ads, improve transparency, and provide advanced creative tools for scaling assets. Retailers using Performance Max are already seeing a 27% increase in conversions or value at similar CPA/ROAS, even when using broad match and Smart Bidding.

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Key Updates:

• AI-Powered Image Generation: New tools to create visually engaging ads tailored to specific industries using generative AI.
• Brand Guidelines: Later this year, advertisers can provide brand guidelines to Google AI to ensure ads adhere to brand standards across different formats.
• AI-Powered Image Editing: Advertisers can edit images, including product images, to fit various sizes and contexts, with recommendations for AI-generated images.
• Collaborative Tools: Partnerships with creative platforms like Canva, Smartly, and Pencil Pro to streamline asset creation and integration with Google Ads.

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Search

Google is leveraging generative AI to create immersive ad experiences in Search, improving the quality and relevance of ads. Recent AI-driven improvements have enhanced broad match performance by 10% for advertisers using Smart Bidding.

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Key Updates:

• Shopping Ads in Visual Search: Over the next few months, Shopping ads will appear at the top of visual search results in Google Lens and Circle to Search.
• Interactive Ad Experiences: New AI-powered recommendations in Search ads to provide personalized suggestions based on user inputs.
• Ads in AI Overviews: Testing the integration of Search and Shopping ads within AI Overviews in the U.S., clearly labeled as “Sponsored.”

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Demand Gen

Demand Gen campaigns help advertisers maximize their presence on YouTube, Shorts, Discover, and Gmail, driving visual storytelling and conversions. Advertisers using Demand Gen alongside other campaigns see 14% more conversions.

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Key Updates:

• Run Demand Gen from Google Marketing Platform: Integration with Display & Video 360 and Search Ads 360 for optimized performance.
• Animated Image Ads: Automatically generated animated ads for YouTube Shorts using Merchant Center product feeds.
• Lookalike Segments: Easier creation of lookalike segments by lowering the minimum list size requirement from 1,000 to 100 users.

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Retail and Commerce

Google AI is helping retailers create engaging shopping experiences, improve ROI, and enhance customer loyalty.

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Key Updates:

• Product Studio: Create videos and product visuals instantly with Google AI, transforming static photos into engaging content.
• Virtual Try-On: Launching virtual try-on in Shopping ads for apparel, helping shoppers see how clothes fit on various body types.
• 360° Product Views: AI-generated 3D spins of products in Shopping ads using a few images.
• Profit Optimization: New goal in Smart Bidding to maximize profits using data from cart-level conversions and cost of goods sold.

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YouTube

YouTube remains a powerful platform for advertisers to drive reach and build connections with engaged viewers.

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Key Updates:

• Interactive Stickers in Shorts Ads: Introducing stickers to make Shorts ads more interactive and enhance conversion potential.
• YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program: Expanding the program to Shopify Plus and Advanced merchants in the U.S., allowing seamless product tagging by YouTube creators.
• Promote Creator-Made Videos as Ads: New partnership ads powered by BrandConnect to integrate creator content into campaigns.

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Measurement and Audiences

Google is introducing new solutions to streamline data management, connect with qualified customers, and uncover actionable insights.

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Key Updates:

• Google Ads Data Manager: Simplifies the use of first-party data with integrations like Salesforce, BigQuery, and Google Cloud Storage.
• Google-Engaged Audiences: New data segment for re-engaging customers who interacted with your business.
• Generated Insights in Google Analytics: Generative AI-powered insights to surface trends and recommendations in plain language.

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Apps

Enhancements in App campaigns aim to drive better engagement and measure the impact more effectively.

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Key Updates:

• Web to App Connect: Improving conversion rates by driving in-app actions from Search, Performance Max, and Shopping campaigns.
• SKAdNetwork Enhancements: Better iOS measurement and performance with new reporting updates and a beta for integrating conversion value schema with Google Ads.

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AI Essentials in Optimization Score and Recommendations

A new ‘AI Essentials’ category in Google Ads highlights opportunities to improve optimization scores, with advertisers seeing an average 15% increase in conversions after a 10-point score improvement.