What Happened
On the first day of the 2016 NYC AdWeek, Google announced four noteworthy additions to its ad products:
• Cross-device retargeting: Google updated its Google Display Network and DoubleClick Bid Manager to help brands retarget Google users across devices based on their Google profiles.
• Mobile ads get more local: mobile ads on Google Display Network can now include a business address and pull directions and photos from Google Maps. Home Depot tested the feature and reported an eight-time improvement on its ROI compared to its regular mobile ads.
• Online-to-store attribution: Google updated the offline measurement tools in its Google Display Network to bring more data to the table. The search giant says its measurement tools will also employ a five-million-user panel to gauge whether the display ads drive retail purchases with 99% accuracy.
• TV and YouTube ads comparison: With an upgraded version of its Brand Lift measurement product, Google now lets marketers compare the frequency of Google searches that viewers carry out after seeing a YouTube ad versus a TV ad. Google claims that the measurement tool has “seen YouTube generate almost two times the searches per impression than [sic] TV generates.”
What Brands Should Do
All together, these four additions aim to make Google’s ad products more accountable and local. For brands looking to reach a mobile audience via search ads, these new updates should come as welcome news that can further improve their digital campaigns. Retailers in particular should learn to adopt these features to enable in-store attribution tracking and cross-device retargeting for more effective campaigns.
Source: AdWeek