Tag: google

Google Sharpens Its Ad Tools With New Analytics 360 Suite

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google has stepped up its ad measurement game with the launch of Analytics 360 Suite, a set of data and analytics products to help brand marketers better engage consumers during “micro-moments,” i.e. the brief moments when customers are actively searching for a solution and are most open to brand messages. The suite consists of six ad products, including a data management platform, a testing and optimization tool, and a visualization product for generating reports and building dashboards, all designed to provide actionable insights on how to reach customers in those small windows of engagement.

What Brands Need To Do
While this new enterprise-facing suite does not come with any ground-breaking features, it should be a helpful tool for brands to monitor purchase intent and sharpen their ad focus on a solidified ad platform. For brands looking to connect with today’s easily distracted consumers in “moments that matter,” this new suite should be worth a try.

 

Source: Marketing Land

 

Google Brings App Streaming To App Install Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
In November, Google started testing an app streaming feature, which surfaces in-app only content and allows mobile users to experience select apps for one minute right from search results. Now Google is bringing that demo experience to search ads with the debut of Search Trial Run Ads, which will run through AdWords and include a “Try Now” button. After tapping the button, users will have a chance to try out the advertised Android app for up to ten minutes before deciding whether to download the full version.

What Brands Need To Do
As consumer attention on mobile devices continues to be dominated by apps, app discovery has become a real issue for brands. With this new ad product, brands now have more time to demonstrate the features and benefits of their apps and convince users to download. Plus, the targeting capabilities powered by Google’s vast user data should also make this new ad product more appealing to brands and developers looking to acquire users for their apps.

 

Source: Marketing Land

 

Google Starts Highlighting AMP Pages In Mobile Search Results

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google officially started rolling out the Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) project to news publishers on Tuesday, aiming to bring a faster experience to the mobile web. Today, the search giant has started highlighting AMP-enabled pages in its mobile search results with a carousel feature. Now when users search for news on mobile devices, both iOS or Android, they will see a carousel atop the search results with stories on AMP-enabled sites. After clicking on a story in the carousel, users can also swipe left and right to read the other AMP pages featured in the carousel without returning to the search results page.

Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) demo

Popular CMS platform WordPress has created a plugin for self-hosted websites to support AMP, as well as adding automatic AMP support to all sites hosted on WordPress,com.

What Brands Need To Do
Compared to Facebook’s Instant Articles, Google promises publishers more control over the ads they put in AMP pages. Nevertheless, brand advertisers should be mindful with the ad networks they use to make sure their ads will be supported by AMP pages. Brands with WordPress sites should also consider installing the aforementioned plugin to provide consumers with a better user experience when accessing their content.

 

Source: TechCrunch

image courtesy of AMP Project Blog

Google Adds Beacon-Detecting Capability To Chrome App

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Last July, Google launched its own beacon initiative Eddystone to compete with Apple’s iBeacon, and now it is expanding the reach of its beacons by adding the capability of recognizing and interacting with nearby beacons to its Chrome browser apps. Starting with version 49, currently in beta, Chrome for Android will be able to read and interact with these Eddystone beacons.

What Brands Need To Do
With this addition, stores employing beacons will be able to reach a larger user base of devices that can detect and communicate with beacons, which has become an increasingly popular tool among retailers to provide product information and value offers to customers in store or retarget them online later. For more details on how brands can utilize beacons to improve shopping experience and reach more customers, check out the Boundless Retail section in our new Outlook 2016 here.

 

Source: 9to5 Google

Image courtesy of Google Developer Blog

Google Promises Publishers Control Over Ads In AMP

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google has shared some new information about its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, revealing some details on ads in AMP. Set to launch in Google search starting in early February, Google’s AMP looks to help speed up webpage loading and make consuming content on the mobile web more enjoyable. Compared to Facebook’s tight control over advertising in its similar page-accelerating initiative Instant Articles, Google seems to be taking a more relaxed approach, as it reassures that standard ad formats and measurement tools will function properly in AMP pages. Moreover, the search giant has also teamed up with twenty ad tech providers, including AOL, AdSense, and DoubelClick, promising publishers the freedom to use the ad servers of their choice and retain full control over ad placements.

What Brands Need To Do
Starting with support for only five ad networks, Google has been working to add more ad platforms to its AMP initiative since its announcement in October last year. These new details should come as welcome news for publishers as well as brands looking to advertise on these publishers’ mobile properties. Although it remains to be seen whether Google AMP will win over publishers and brands from Facebook’s Instant Articles with its ad-friendly approach, brand marketers need to be conscious of the choices they have when it comes to accelerated mobile pages.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Google Launches Real-Time Ads For Live Events

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Wednesday, Google introduced a new Real-Time Ads product to help brands engage audiences with timely, dynamic ads during live events. The new ad product is available for select brands across Google’s two major ad platforms, AdWords and Google Display Network. It aims to help brands capitalize on the ripple effects of live events, such as the upcoming Super Bowl and Oscars, and jump in on all of the consumer and brand conversations that arise.

What Brands Need To Do
Typically Twitter has been the go-to destination for brands to conduct real-time marketing during big events, and that seems unlikely to change any time soon. Twitter is still where most viewers go to share their thoughts. However, Google’s real-time ads should provide a wider reach than Twitter via its networks, enabling brands to reach live audiences with resonating, up-to-the-minute content. In fact, dynamic content can improve click-to-open rates up to 73%, according to a study by AVARI. For brands looking to try their hand at real-time marketing, this new ad product from Google should certainly be taken into consideration.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Best Of The Lab 2015: How To Create Branded Content That Works

Posted on by Lab Team

Welcome to the Lab’s year-end review, looking back at some of our best and most popular posts from 2015.

With the rise of ad-blockers, brand advertisers are increasingly turning away from online banners and looking into new ways to reach consumers. One great way to do so is through branded content. Throughout 2015, the Lab’s research team partnered up with Google and Yahoo to study the effectiveness of branded content on a global scale, to better understand consumer perceptions of branded video content, as well as how to use personalization to find the right audience for your brand content. Take a look at our findings:

IPG Lab + Google Release Deconstructing Branded Content: The Global Guide To What Works
IPG Lab + Google Present Blurred Lines: Creating Content That Works
IPG Lab + Yahoo: Giving Consumers The Personalization They Want

 

Google Announces More Ad Tech Partners For AMP Project

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
In early October, Google announced its answer to Facebook’s Instant Articles named Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to make webpages load faster on mobile devices. Since AMP was announced in October, it has gained support from publishers, platforms like Twitter, analytics providers, and initially, five major ad networks. Now, Google has added several new ad tech platforms to the AMP project, announcing that Outbrain, AOL, OpenX, DoubleClick, and AdSense are now working within the framework to improve the advertising experience. Google also said that AMP will be officially launched in early 2016.

What Agencies Need To Do
These new additions offer publishers greater flexibility to monetize their pages, especially compared to some of the limitations in rival systems like Facebook’s Instant Articles and Apple News. For ad agencies, this means more ad networks to choose from that may results in faster-loading mobile ads. AMP has been evolving quickly since Google’s initial announcement, and agencies should keep a close eye on its continued development.

Source: Marketing Land

 

Google Uses Foot Traffic Data To Inform Retailers During Holiday Season

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google is opening up its vault of user data to help retailers during the holiday shopping season. Pulling aggregated, anonymized data from Google Maps, the Mountain View-based company is for the first time revealing foot traffic insights for various retailers to help them better reach consumers when they’re most in the mood for shopping. Google will also provide a more detailed view of offline measurement by giving advertisers the ability to break out store visits at a keyword or ad-group level, thus helping them understand which keywords or ad groups drive the most store visits.

What Retailers Need To Do
With the help of Google’s data, retailers and advertisers can optimize their store hours and staffing to best serve the holiday shopper crowds based on the ebbs and flows of foot traffic. The ability to break down store visits and attribute them to a specific keyword search can also help retailers get a better understanding of which products are driving the store visits, and adjust their shelf placements accordingly. All retailers aiming to make a sales push during the holiday season would be smart to tap into Google’s data to become better informed of the trends in holiday shopping this year.

Source: AdWeek

Google Wants You To Try Out Apps Before Downloading

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
App-install ads — mobile ads that prompt users to download an app – take up a significant portion of mobile ad spending, with U.S. mobile app-install ad revenue expected to top $4.6 billion this year. And now, Google wants to improve app-install ads by giving users a better idea of the advertised apps before they commit. Last week, Google introduced a new mobile ad unit called “Trial Run Ads,” offering users a 60-second immersive demo of apps before they download, and will only cost advertisers when users click the install button.

What Brands Need To Do
This new ad unit feels like an natural extension of Google App Streaming that the company started testing on Android devices last month, which allows mobile users to search and view app content without having to download the app. Trial Run Ads adds new interactivity to app-install ads, which should help make those ads more engaging and appealing to mobile users. For brands that are looking to boost their app usage, offering a demo through Trial Run Ads can help remove some of the frictions in getting users to download apps, while easily showcasing the features and capabilities of their branded apps.

 

Source: TechCrunch