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Marketers can reach people in big moments with the new YouTube Cost-Per-Hour Masthead.
Category Archives: Inside AdWords
Marketers can reach people in big moments with the new YouTube Cost-Per-Hour Masthead.
4 ways Google’s Shopping Graph helps you find what you want
Get a behind-the-scenes look at how Google’s Shopping Graph works.
Source: Google Ads & Commerce
3 things to expect at the Google for Games Developer Summit
Save the date for the virtual Google for Games Developer Summit on March 14 at 9 a.m. PT.
Source: Google Ads & Commerce
3 ways for hotels to maximize their presence on Google
In a typical month, Google sends hundreds of millions of website visits and phone calls to hotels around the world.
As a hotelier, you have an opportunity to ensure that potential customers on Google see you in the best light which will, in turn, help grow your business and get you free direct bookings. Here are 3 steps to help you optimize your presence on Google through the holiday season, and beyond.
Free booking links provide a simple way for you to get more direct traffic across Google properties, without any charge from us. To participate, you’ll need to connect your rates with Google.
The best way to share your rates and keep them up-to-date is through a feed integration – either API or a third-party connectivity provider. If you don’t have a connectivity partner or prefer not to use one, we recently added the ability to share your rates via the new hotel rate editor on your Google Business Profile.
You can do the following to keep your hotel’s details current and ensure that customers view the most recent information about your hotel:
- Share what your hotel has to offer through uploading photos and videos, listing services, and calling out hotel highlights like “Pet Friendly,” “Free Wi-Fi,” and “Free Parking”. Additionally, you can now showcase eco-certifications or sustainability practices like waste reduction or water conservation.
- Respond to customer reviews which can help build customer trust.
- Share timely updates about your hotels with posts, including descriptions of special features, events or amenities that are uniquely offered at your hotel. Let’s say you added a new restaurant to your hotel: you can now include a photo or video, a description and an action button to drive reservations.
All these tools are part of our commitment to invest in features that help hotel partners tap into demand as the travel landscape continues to evolve. If you’re interested in driving free traffic to your website, learn how to get started or register for a Travel on Air webinar coming up on December 15. To stay up-to-date on our developments in this area, sign up for our travel partners newsletter.
Source: Google Ads & Commerce
3 ways for hotels to maximize their presence on Google
In a typical month, Google sends hundreds of millions of website visits and phone calls to hotels around the world.
As a hotelier, you have an opportunity to ensure that potential customers on Google see you in the best light which will, in turn, help grow your business and get you free direct bookings. Here are 3 steps to help you optimize your presence on Google through the holiday season, and beyond.
Free booking links provide a simple way for you to get more direct traffic across Google properties, without any charge from us. To participate, you’ll need to connect your rates with Google.
The best way to share your rates and keep them up-to-date is through a feed integration – either API or a third-party connectivity provider. If you don’t have a connectivity partner or prefer not to use one, we recently added the ability to share your rates via the new hotel rate editor on your Google Business Profile.
You can do the following to keep your hotel’s details current and ensure that customers view the most recent information about your hotel:
- Share what your hotel has to offer through uploading photos and videos, listing services, and calling out hotel highlights like “Pet Friendly,” “Free Wi-Fi,” and “Free Parking”. Additionally, you can now showcase eco-certifications or sustainability practices like waste reduction or water conservation.
- Respond to customer reviews which can help build customer trust.
- Share timely updates about your hotels with posts, including descriptions of special features, events or amenities that are uniquely offered at your hotel. Let’s say you added a new restaurant to your hotel: you can now include a photo or video, a description and an action button to drive reservations.
All these tools are part of our commitment to invest in features that help hotel partners tap into demand as the travel landscape continues to evolve. If you’re interested in driving free traffic to your website, learn how to get started or register for a Travel on Air webinar coming up on December 15. To stay up-to-date on our developments in this area, sign up for our travel partners newsletter.
Source: Google Ads & Commerce
A new way to control and optimize frequency on YouTube
Achieving the right video ad frequency for both viewers and advertisers has always been a juggling act.
That challenge has only increased as linear TV viewership in the US has dropped from 100 million households in 2014 to a forecast of just 44 million by 2025. As reach declines, the number of times the audience sees an ad on TV is increasing. Seeing the same ad repeatedly can be a frustrating experience for viewers and proves wasteful for advertisers. On average, TV advertisers’ return on investment (ROI) decreased by 41% when frequency exceeded 6+ weekly impressions — which represents 46% of TV impressions served, according to a MMM meta analysis commissioned with Nielsen
Almost half of the linear TV impressions in our study were considered waste but the same study from Nielsen shows that brands can increase their average weekly frequency from one to three on YouTube with a consistent ROI
At YouTube, we are helping advertisers deliver a better advertising experience for viewers without any compromise in ROI. Based on this commitment, earlier this year we announced our frequency management solution on Display and Video 360 that allows marketers to manage the number of times people see their ads across YouTube and third-party networks. We’re now taking that a step further to revolutionize reach and frequency-buying on YouTube.
To help marketers harness this impact, we’re announcing the launch of Target frequency globally for YouTube campaigns. This will help advertisers optimize towards more precise reach and frequency, while ensuring that we continue to provide a suitable advertising experience for viewers. Target frequency allows advertisers to select a frequency goal of up to four per week and our systems will optimize towards maximum unique reach at that desired frequency.
We recently partnered with Triscuit to see how the brand can drive incremental impact to its reach campaigns with a frequency target. Triscuit's goal was to ensure that the brand stays top-of-mind with the consumer. The brand set up a Video experiment to determine the incremental ad recall that a weekly frequency of two could deliver. The Target frequency campaign achieved a 93% higher absolute ad recall lift compared to the non-frequency optimized campaign, at a 40% cheaper cost per lifted user.
We're committed to improving the advertising experience for brands and viewers
Now advertisers can select the frequency target and our systems will optimize towards maximum unique reach at the frequency goal. With our built-in capping, campaigns deliver within a tight distribution range so viewers don’t see the ads too many times. In fact, over 95% of Target frequency campaigns on YouTube successfully achieved their frequency goals when set up following recommended best practices.
To start using a frequency optimized campaign, create a new video reach campaign with the Target frequency goal and select the desired weekly frequency.
Source: Google Ads & Commerce
3 ways to keep audiences engaged in a content-driven world
Consumers navigate a widening variety of digital content from text to image to video—and they choose to spend their time in the experiences that feel most natural and intuitive for them. Working with Ipsos, we've identified three ways to keep your audience engaged across platforms throughout the holiday season, plus new retail-ready formats and creative tools to help you drive growth into the new year.
1. Create more tailored experiences for deeper engagement
Over half of mobile consumers use Google and YouTube alongside other platforms when researching products or brands to try,
With product feeds for Discovery ads now available in beta, advertisers can show shoppers items based on their interests and intent. Specifically, individual retailers can now use lifestyle images and short text with their Google Merchant Center catalog to deliver more relevant ad experiences. For example, a consumer interested in fitness and fashion might see sneakers in a variety of colors and styles from a new brand in their content feed on YouTube or the Google app.
Puma switched to product feeds from standard Discovery ads to promote its catalog during key seasons, and saw a +46% increase in return-on-ad-spend while lowering costs by 19%. “Product feeds for Discovery ads offered more ways to expand our social-style assets across new platforms,” says Ashley Anderson, Senior Director of Digital Marketing at Puma. “Personalization and great performance made it easy to efficiently scale our spend.”
For tips to help you craft engaging Discovery ads with product feeds, see our creative best practices.
2. Take an asset-first approach for bigger creative impact
Keeping today's consumer engaged across platforms requires creative finesse at scale—and a multi-asset approach for campaigns like social and video to enable more visual and authentic storytelling. Nearly half of consumers say they are more likely to purchase a new product or brand they see in a video ad.
You can now scale your assets to Shorts, YouTube's new short-form video experience, to drive visual momentum with consumers watching everything from workout clips to recipe walkthroughs. You can make the most of this mobile canvas by bringing your best vertical video and image assets to the Shorts experience with Video action and now Discovery campaigns for images.
We've seen this asset-first creative approach across campaigns drive better results: more than 60% of advertisers who combine Video action campaigns with Discovery ads see incremental conversions at or below their original cost-per-action.
Source: Google/Ipsos, Consumer Feed Behavior Research, August 2022
3. Upgrade your storytelling with authentic and diverse representation
And last, but not least: building assets to scale doesn't have to mean relying on stock photos and generic visuals. 43% of consumers say that they are more likely to click on ads featuring people from a variety of backgrounds,
We're committed to helping you build more helpful and relevant ads that help consumers engage with your business. Check out our latest tools and resources below to learn how you can:
- Build compelling creative variations at scale with Ads Creative Studio.
- Adapt your existing assets for YouTube Shorts with our video creation and enhancement tools available in the Asset Library.
- Finally, get richer creative insights to help you optimize your assets for better performance with asset reporting and audience asset insights.
We hope these insights and creative tools help you drive growth now and in the new year with more effective, engaging ads.
Source: Google Ads & Commerce
New ways to find holiday deals on Google
The holiday season is upon us, and many are already getting into the (shopping) spirit. Deals are particularly top of mind this year: Among Americans planning to shop for the holidays, 43% are planning to look for deals and sales more than last year.
New labels for coupons and promotions
Coupon codes are a great way to save, but finding them — and making sure they work — can be challenging. To help shoppers save money and time, we’re bringing promotions front and center in product searches.
Our new promotion badge will show up in Search on items running a promotion (like “15% off with coupon code HOLIDAYS”). While in the past we’ve shown when items are on sale or the price has dropped, you can now see specific promotions and compare them to others right in Search.
We’re also adding a new coupon clipping feature, which allows you to easily copy promo codes when you’re ready to buy. These new features will roll out in the coming weeks.
Compare deals side by side
For the past year, more than half of U.S. shoppers have visited multiple websites before settling on what and where to buy.
If you search for a women’s puffer coat, for example, we’ll show you a side-by-side comparison of available puffer coat deals right in your results. This new view will roll out in the U.S. this month, just in time for the holidays.
Get price insights
While it’s easy to get enticed by holiday sales, it can be hard to tell whether something is a good value. So we’re bringing our price insights feature to Search to help shoppers understand the prices they see and make better buying decisions. Now, you’ll quickly see how one merchant’s price compares to others’ and whether it’s low, typical or high for that product.
And merchants, don’t forget you can always see how your deals are performing and review your business’ promotions wherever you manage your product listings on Google.
These new features will make it easier to find great prices and check everything off your list this season.
Source: Google Ads & Commerce
Your ads, your choice
Online advertising doesn’t need to be confusing or out of your control. Whether you’re watching tutorials on YouTube or looking up recipes on Search, you should have a say in the ads you see online.
That’s why today, My Ad Center will start rolling out to users around the world to help you control the kinds of ads you see across Google on Search, YouTube and Discover. You’ll also be able to block sensitive ads and learn more about the information used to personalize your ad experience.
Ads about the things you care about
My Ad Center was designed to give you more control over your ad experience on Google’s sites and apps. When you’re signed into Google, you can access My Ad Center directly from ads on Search, YouTube and Discover, and choose to see more of the brands and topics you like and less of the ones you don’t. You will never have to spend time searching for the right control or decoding how your information is used. Instead, you can manage your ad preferences without interrupting what you’re doing online.
Imagine you spent months researching your latest beach trip, and now that you're back, you don’t want to see vacation ads. With My Ad Center, you can just tap on the three-dot menu next to a vacation ad and choose to see less of those types of ads. You can also choose to see ads about things that you care about, like deals for sneakers or holiday gifts for your loved ones.
On YouTube, you can tap on the three-dot menu next to an ad to access My Ad Center and choose the topics and brands you want to see more or less of.
You can also turn off ads personalization completely. My Ad Center makes this control easy to find by putting it front-and-center in the product. If you choose not to see personalized ads, you’ll still see ads, but you may find them less relevant or useful. This will apply anywhere you’re signed in with your Google Account.
There also may be certain ad topics that you don’t want to engage with at all. With My Ad Center, you can choose to limit ads related to topics such as alcohol, dating, weight loss, gambling, pregnancy and parenting.
In My Ad Center, you can tap on “Customize Ads” to choose the topics and brands you want to see more or less of.
Ad controls that put your privacy first
We follow a set of core privacy principles that guide what information we do and don’t collect. We never sell your personal information to anyone, and we never use the content you store in apps like Gmail, Photos and Drive for ads purposes. And we never use sensitive information to personalize ads — like health, race, religion or sexual orientation. It’s simply off limits.
My Ad Center builds on those commitments by giving you the ability to control what information is used to personalize the ads you see. And if you’re not sure what you’re sharing, it’s easy to quickly see what information we use, and control it based on your preferences.
You can decide what types of your activity are used to make Google products work for you — independent of the ads you're shown. In the past, if your YouTube History was on, it automatically informed how your ads were personalized. Now, if you don’t want your YouTube History to be used for ads personalization, you can turn it off in My Ad Center, without impacting relevant recommendations in your feed.
You may also see ads meant for certain audiences based on your Google activity – categories such as education, relationship status or the industry you work in. Now you’ll be able to choose and adjust how categories inform your ads, or turn them off completely. This way, you can more easily choose the ad experience that’s right for you.
You can turn on or off YouTube History for ads personalization.
Ad controls beyond Google
Finally, there are times you may see ads from businesses which use Google tools to advertise on other sites and apps. The option to turn off personalized ads in My Ad Center applies to ads you see on and off Google, and will automatically apply on any device where you’re signed in to your Google account. If you’re not signed into Google, you can still control your preferences in Ad Settings.
It’s our responsibility to strengthen the ways we keep you in control of your ad experiences, while ensuring that every day, people are safer with Google. To learn more about our commitment to privacy, you can visit our Safety Center.
Source: Google Ads & Commerce
The YouTube Effect: New ways to reach engaged audiences
People are gravitating toward content they relate to, whether they’re watching in their living rooms or scrolling short-form video on their phones. And they’re finding it all on YouTube, where creators are constantly pushing creative boundaries to stay relevant with today’s viewers, shaping and reflecting culture as it happens. We’re committed to helping them continue to do this. In fact, last month, we shared major updates in how we support creators — including that we’ve paid creators, artists and media companies over $50 billion over the past three years.
For advertisers, investing in YouTube means reaching people in the moments and places where they’ve sought out and really connect with what they’re watching. The unique dynamic between creators and viewers creates a halo effect, or what we call the YouTube Effect, for brands.
This week at Advertising Week New York, we’re announcing new ways you can tap into the YouTube Effect across streaming, shopping and audio.
New ways to drive awareness in key moments
Linear TV watching continues to decline. And now, even streaming platforms are struggling to hold onto loyal viewers. According to Nielsen, YouTube recently became the co-leader in streaming watchtime.
People have always connected in front of the TV screen, but YouTube gives them the unique chance to bond over shared passions — like watching live-streamed concerts, fitness classes or even religious ceremonies together. They feel a similar connection to the ads they get, too. In a new study with Latitude, 59% of respondents agreed that ads on YouTube are more relevant than ads on linear TV or other streaming apps.
To help you reach these engaged viewers, we’re launching a new offering called Moment Blast. Designed for brands looking to raise awareness during key moments — like major sporting events, movie releases or product launches — Moment Blast gives advertisers prime positioning on YouTube Select content on connected TVs (CTV) and other devices, plus a Branded Title Card and optional Masthead placement.
Help informed buyers shop what they love
As e-commerce continues to rise, so has the informed buyer. New research from theSocial Commerce and Video Study in partnership with TalkShoppe shows that having trusted information and confidence in purchases is more important to shoppers than ever. Respondents ranked YouTube number one against other video services and social media platforms in finding honest and detailed information.
Today, we’re making it easier for people to shop what they love on YouTube. Advertisers can already use product feeds on YouTube, which turns ads into a virtual storefront. We've recently expanded product feeds to Shorts and found that, on average, Video action campaigns with product feeds saw an over 70% increase in conversions on Shorts over those without product feeds.
We’re now expanding product feeds to Discovery ads to help you scale your social media creative and reach even more engaged viewers. Soon, product feeds will also include local offers, allowing brands to show real-time availability for products in their Google Merchant Center so people can find the most convenient place to buy. Creators will also be able to transform their content into virtual storefronts; this quarter, more creators will have the ability to tag products in their videos and Shorts.
You’ll see these features, some of your favorite creators and more at the second annual YouTube Shopping holiday event, “From YouTube to You," kicking off on November 10. This year’s event will include livestreams, videos and Shorts featuring brands and retailers like Ulta Beauty and TULA Skincare.
Reach music lovers and podcast listeners
YouTube has long been a destination for music lovers to find official albums, music videos, live performances and more. And now, according to Edison, YouTube is the second most popular destination for listening to podcasts.
To help you reach these audiences, Audio ads are now globally available to buy in Google Ads and Display & Video 360. Audio ads are designed to reach people on audio surfaces and in listening-first states.
Podcast targeting is also now available globally. With Podcast targeting, brands and agencies can specifically reach podcast listeners.
From the big screen to the mobile screen, CTV to Shorts, immersive video to audio-first formats, YouTube is the only platform that can help advertisers reach viewers wherever they are.