Tag Archives: AdWords

Magic in the making: The 4 pillars of great creative

Consumers report that helpfulness is their top expectation of brands since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 78% saying a brand's advertising should show how they can be helpful in everyday life.1 This means businesses need to quickly engage audiences with meaningful messages, using immersive storytelling to bring their brand and products to life.

To help you build visually-rich ad experiences that easily drive consumers to action, we've brought together our top creative guidance across Google Ads solutions in a single guide. Learn to craft stronger calls-to-action, engaging ad copy and striking visual assets — plus, get the latest insights from our team of creative and data scientists at Creative Works. You can also explore tips by marketing objective in order to craft more impactful creative to meet your business goals.

An image of two phones featuring natural soap products.

Dr. Squatch using a clear call-to-action, engaging copy and rich product visuals with Google Ads.

The 4 pillars of compelling creative

Lead with a clear call-to-action:Personalized descriptions perform up to two times better for their campaign goal versus non-personalized descriptions.2 This means businesses need to help consumers immediately see what they have to offer by including words like "you" to draw attention, and adding their product or brand name in headlines and descriptions.

Connect more authentically with a wide variety of assets:Audiences take action faster if they can relate to your message — 64% of consumers said they took some sort of action after seeing an ad that they considered to be diverse or inclusive.3 And images that feature people perform over 30% better for their campaign goal versus images that don’t.4 Given the variety of consumers looking online for new products to try, brands should show a wide range of people using their products or services to resonate with audiences.

Build for smaller screens: Images with no overlaid text, or overlaid text under 20 characters, perform up to 1.2X better for their campaign goal versus images with longer overlaid text.5 With people spending more time on a broad range of small devices, businesses should consider how and where consumers are seeing their ads and provide visual assets that clearly communicate their call-to-action.

Give your creatives time to test: We've seen that waiting 2-3 weeks between changes to ad creative minimizes performance fluctuations, allowing the Google Ads system time to learn and adapt to your most effective assets. Review Ad strength and asset reporting to better understand which assets resonate best and help you make the call on which to remove or replace.

An image of two phones featuring beauty products.

Beauty brand COSMEDIX using a variety of image assets in multiple aspect ratios with Google Ads.

Get help with building better assets

Consumers expect businesses of all sizes to offer more helpful brand experiences. Stand out with more relevant, engaging offers with help from our new guide to building better creative. And for more support with developing new creative assets or campaign strategies, check out our approved creative production agencies to find the right partner to help you achieve your business goals.

1. Kantar, COVID-19 Barometer Global Report, Wave2, runs across 50 countries, n=9,815, fielded 27th-30th March 2020.

2. Google internal data based on an aggregate study of median performance of campaign goals for Responsive display ads (CTR), Discovery ads (CTR, CVR), Video action campaigns (VTR) and Video discovery ads (VTR) across 78K assets for Media & Entertainment, Retail, and Finance verticals. Global. January 2020 - June 2021.

3. Google/Ipsos, U.S., Inclusive Marketing Study, n of 2,987 U.S. consumers ages 13–54 who access the internet at least monthly, Aug. 2019.

4. Google internal data based on an aggregate study of median performance of campaign goals for Discovery ads (CTR, CVR), Video action campaigns (VTR), Video discovery ads (VTR), App campaigns for installs (IPM), and App campaigns for engagement (EPM) for Media & Entertainment, Retail, and Finance verticals. Global. January 2020 - June 2021.

5. Google internal data based on an aggregate study of median performance of campaign goals for Discovery ads (CTR, CVR), and Responsive display ads (CTR) across 78K assets for Media & Entertainment, Retail, and Finance verticals. Global. January 2020 - June 2021.

Magic in the making: The 4 pillars of great creative

Consumers report that helpfulness is their top expectation of brands since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 78% saying a brand's advertising should show how they can be helpful in everyday life.1 This means businesses need to quickly engage audiences with meaningful messages, using immersive storytelling to bring their brand and products to life.

To help you build visually-rich ad experiences that easily drive consumers to action, we've brought together our top creative guidance across Google Ads solutions in a single guide. Learn to craft stronger calls-to-action, engaging ad copy and striking visual assets — plus, get the latest insights from our team of creative and data scientists at Creative Works. You can also explore tips by marketing objective in order to craft more impactful creative to meet your business goals.

An image of two phones featuring natural soap products.

Dr. Squatch using a clear call-to-action, engaging copy and rich product visuals with Google Ads.

The 4 pillars of compelling creative

Lead with a clear call-to-action:Personalized descriptions perform up to two times better for their campaign goal versus non-personalized descriptions.2 This means businesses need to help consumers immediately see what they have to offer by including words like "you" to draw attention, and adding their product or brand name in headlines and descriptions.

Connect more authentically with a wide variety of assets:Audiences take action faster if they can relate to your message — 64% of consumers said they took some sort of action after seeing an ad that they considered to be diverse or inclusive.3 And images that feature people perform over 30% better for their campaign goal versus images that don’t.4 Given the variety of consumers looking online for new products to try, brands should show a wide range of people using their products or services to resonate with audiences.

Build for smaller screens: Images with no overlaid text, or overlaid text under 20 characters, perform up to 1.2X better for their campaign goal versus images with longer overlaid text.5 With people spending more time on a broad range of small devices, businesses should consider how and where consumers are seeing their ads and provide visual assets that clearly communicate their call-to-action.

Give your creatives time to test: We've seen that waiting 2-3 weeks between changes to ad creative minimizes performance fluctuations, allowing the Google Ads system time to learn and adapt to your most effective assets. Review Ad strength and asset reporting to better understand which assets resonate best and help you make the call on which to remove or replace.

An image of two phones featuring beauty products.

Beauty brand COSMEDIX using a variety of image assets in multiple aspect ratios with Google Ads.

Get help with building better assets

Consumers expect businesses of all sizes to offer more helpful brand experiences. Stand out with more relevant, engaging offers with help from our new guide to building better creative. And for more support with developing new creative assets or campaign strategies, check out our approved creative production agencies to find the right partner to help you achieve your business goals.

1. Kantar, COVID-19 Barometer Global Report, Wave2, runs across 50 countries, n=9,815, fielded 27th-30th March 2020.

2. Google internal data based on an aggregate study of median performance of campaign goals for Responsive display ads (CTR), Discovery ads (CTR, CVR), Video action campaigns (VTR) and Video discovery ads (VTR) across 78K assets for Media & Entertainment, Retail, and Finance verticals. Global. January 2020 - June 2021.

3. Google/Ipsos, U.S., Inclusive Marketing Study, n of 2,987 U.S. consumers ages 13–54 who access the internet at least monthly, Aug. 2019.

4. Google internal data based on an aggregate study of median performance of campaign goals for Discovery ads (CTR, CVR), Video action campaigns (VTR), Video discovery ads (VTR), App campaigns for installs (IPM), and App campaigns for engagement (EPM) for Media & Entertainment, Retail, and Finance verticals. Global. January 2020 - June 2021.

5. Google internal data based on an aggregate study of median performance of campaign goals for Discovery ads (CTR, CVR), and Responsive display ads (CTR) across 78K assets for Media & Entertainment, Retail, and Finance verticals. Global. January 2020 - June 2021.

Giving users more transparency into their Google ad experience

Today, people engage with a wider variety of ad formats on more Google products than ever before — from Video ads on YouTube to Shopping ads across Search, Display and more. And they increasingly want to know more about the ads they see. That’s why we’ve been innovating on features like “About this ad” to help users understand why an ad was shown, and to mute ads or advertisers they aren’t interested in.

Last spring, we also introduced an advertiser identity verification program that requires Google advertisers to verify information about their businesses, where they operate from and what they’re selling or promoting. This transparency helps users learn more about the company behind a specific ad. It also helps differentiate credible advertisers in the ecosystem, while limiting the ability of bad actors to misrepresent themselves. Since launching the program last year, we have started verifying advertisers in more than 90 countries — and we’re not stopping there.

Introducing advertiser pages 

To give users of our products even more transparency, we are enhancing ad disclosures with new advertiser pages. Users can access these disclosures in our new “About this ad” menu to see the ads a specific verified advertiser has run over the past 30 days. For example, imagine you’re seeing an ad for a coat you’re interested in, but you don’t recognize the brand. With advertiser pages, you can learn more about that advertiser before visiting their site or making a purchase.

Users can tap on an ad to learn more about the advertiser showing them the ad

In addition to learning about the ads and advertiser, users can more easily report an ad if they believe it violates one of our policies. When an ad is reported, a member of our team reviews it for compliance with our policies and will take it down if appropriate. Creating a safe experience is a top priority for us, and user feedback is an important part of how we do that.

Advertiser pages will launch in the coming months in the United States, and will roll out in phases to more countries in 2022. We will also continue to explore how to share additional data within advertiser pages over time.

Improving transparency for ads on Google

Enhanced ad disclosures build on our efforts to create a clear and intuitive experience for users who engage with ads on Google products. More than 30 million users interact with our ads transparency and control menus every day, and “About this ad” has received positive feedback on its streamlined experience. Users engage with our ads transparency and control tools on YouTube more than any other Google product. To help our users make informed decisions online — no matter where they engage — we will roll out the “About this ad” feature to YouTube and Search in the coming months. 

We're committed to creating a trustworthy Google ad experience, and enhanced ad disclosures represent the next step in that journey. We will continue to work towards helping our users have greater control and understanding over the ads they see.

Helping travelers discover new things to do

While travel restrictions continue to vary across the globe, people are still dreaming of places to visit and things to do. Searches for “activities near me” have grown over the past 12 months, with specific queries like “ziplining” growing by 280% and “aquariums” by 115% globally. In response to this increasing interest, and to support the travel industry’s recovery, we’re introducing new ways to discover attractions, tours and activities on Search. 

Now, when people search on Google for attractions like the Tokyo Tower or the Statue of Liberty, they’ll see not just general information about the point of interest, but also booking links for basic admission and other ticket options where available. In the months ahead, we’ll also begin showing information and booking links for experiences in a destination, like wine tasting in Paris or bike tours in California. 

Ticketing options will show what rates each partner prices their tickets at.

Select ‘Tickets’ to see ticketing options available from partner websites.

There are a variety of partners that we’re working with, including online travel agencies and technology providers, to make this information available on Search. If you operate any attractions, tours or activities and want to participate, learn more in the Help Center.

Our goal is to help people find and compare all the best travel options, which is why partners can promote their ticket booking links at zero cost — similar to the free hotel booking links introduced earlier this year.

While it’s still early days, we’ve found that free hotel booking links result in increased engagement for both small and large partners. Hotels working with the booking engine WebHotelier saw more than $4.7M in additional revenue from free booking links this summer. With more than 6,000 active hotels, WebHotelier shared that they were "pleasantly surprised to receive reservations right from Google at no additional cost." This is one of the ways Google can support your business during recovery. 

Introducing a new ad format for things to do

We’re also introducing a new ad format for things to do that will help advertisers drive additional revenue and bookings as recovery continues. With more details like pricing, images and reviews, these new ads on Search will help partners stand out and expand their reach even further. Read more about how to get started in our Help Center.

This shows ads as the first search result and helps our paid partners get to the top of the page.

Ads to promote discovery of things to do and drive bookings.

It’s more important than ever to get the right insights, education and best practices you need as the travel landscape continues to evolve. In July, our team launched Travel Insights with Google in the U.S. to share Google’s travel demand insights with the world. And tomorrow — Thursday, September 23 — we’ll host a webinar to share tips and tricks for using Travel Insights with Google to help you better understand evolving travel demand. 

Across our new product updates and ongoing feature enhancements, we look forward to partnering closely on the travel recovery effort and preparing for the road ahead. 

Display campaigns made easy

Helping you connect with customers is core to the Google Ads mission, and we're always working to make that as easy as possible through our products. That’s why, starting this month, we’re bringing the flexibility of standard Display campaigns and the automation of Smart Display campaigns into a single Display campaign. 

We introduced Smart Display campaigns four years ago to create a simple way to reach your audience across millions of sites and apps. Smart Display campaigns have helped make it easier to reach your goals — using automation to find new and existing customers, tailor your creative and set optimal bids.

Then we brought the best of this automation to standard Display campaigns, powering features like responsive display ads and automated bidding — even the option to pay only for the conversions your ads drive. We’ve seen these lead to better business outcomes for advertisers; but we’ve also heard that your priorities can change, and you want greater flexibility to test new features.

In this new Display campaign experience, you’ll have all of the reach and performance you’re used to, with the ability to choose the level of automation you prefer in bidding, creatives and audiences. A smooth setup process will allow you to choose between automation or control up front, and you’ll have the flexibility to change your automation choices at any time — without creating a new campaign. 

A video introducing Display ads and explaining how they can help your business reach customers online
10:25

Whether you choose an automatic or customized experience, Display ads are designed to help you meet your customers in the moments that matter. With that in mind, we've also introduced optimized targeting to Display campaigns to replicate the effortless experience of automatic audience targeting previously available only on Smart Display campaigns. This is an easier option for reaching new and relevant audiences — driving impressions, clicks or conversions to help you meet your goals.

A screenshot showing the new Display campaign setup process in Google Ads. It features a notification that says “Optimized targeting is set up for you”, and an optional button to “add targeting.”

Optimized targeting in the new Display campaign creator

Advanced advertisers can continue to add the manual audience-finding options from standard Display campaigns for more control, or use these audiences in combination with optimized targeting. Optimized targeting will treat audience settings as signals, looking more broadly to find customers that can improve your campaign performance and deliver a better ad experience.

Our top priority is helping you reach your customers with more relevant ads. And with one simplified Display campaign, we’re making it easier than ever.

Keep up to date with the latest Display campaign innovations in the Help Center.

Display campaigns made easy

Helping you connect with customers is core to the Google Ads mission, and we're always working to make that as easy as possible through our products. That’s why, starting this month, we’re bringing the flexibility of standard Display campaigns and the automation of Smart Display campaigns into a single Display campaign. 

We introduced Smart Display campaigns four years ago to create a simple way to reach your audience across millions of sites and apps. Smart Display campaigns have helped make it easier to reach your goals — using automation to find new and existing customers, tailor your creative and set optimal bids.

Then we brought the best of this automation to standard Display campaigns, powering features like responsive display ads and automated bidding — even the option to pay only for the conversions your ads drive. We’ve seen these lead to better business outcomes for advertisers; but we’ve also heard that your priorities can change, and you want greater flexibility to test new features.

In this new Display campaign experience, you’ll have all of the reach and performance you’re used to, with the ability to choose the level of automation you prefer in bidding, creatives and audiences. A smooth setup process will allow you to choose between automation or control up front, and you’ll have the flexibility to change your automation choices at any time — without creating a new campaign. 

A video introducing Display ads and explaining how they can help your business reach customers online
10:25

Whether you choose an automatic or customized experience, Display ads are designed to help you meet your customers in the moments that matter. With that in mind, we've also introduced optimized targeting to Display campaigns to replicate the effortless experience of automatic audience targeting previously available only on Smart Display campaigns. This is an easier option for reaching new and relevant audiences — driving impressions, clicks or conversions to help you meet your goals.

A screenshot showing the new Display campaign setup process in Google Ads. It features a notification that says “Optimized targeting is set up for you”, and an optional button to “add targeting.”

Optimized targeting in the new Display campaign creator

Advanced advertisers can continue to add the manual audience-finding options from standard Display campaigns for more control, or use these audiences in combination with optimized targeting. Optimized targeting will treat audience settings as signals, looking more broadly to find customers that can improve your campaign performance and deliver a better ad experience.

Our top priority is helping you reach your customers with more relevant ads. And with one simplified Display campaign, we’re making it easier than ever.

Keep up to date with the latest Display campaign innovations in the Help Center.

How retailers can stand out this holiday season

The holiday season is just around the corner and consumers are already ramping up their shopping. For example, U.S. searches for “holiday gift ideas” in August have already surpassed 2020 levels. As of June, 58% of U.S. holiday shoppers said they will shop online more this season than in previous years and 59% said they will shop earlier to avoid an item being out of stock.1

Consumers are leaning into the blended online and in-store shopping experience, with digital-first behaviors like curbside pickup and buy-online-pick-up-in-store likely to continue as we head into the holidays. As of mid-August, 70% of U.S. shoppers are buying the majority of the items they need in stores, compared to 61% in June.2 For more holiday insights to help you prepare for your busiest season, tune in later today for Think Retail on Air at 10 a.m. PDT. 

Get ready to meet customers wherever they like to shop! Here’s a checklist to help you maximize success during the most important shopping season of the year.

1. Highlight your differentiated fulfillment options

Quick shipping and easy returns are top-of-mind for shoppers this year; 78% of U.S. holiday shoppers say they will shop at stores that offer free shipping.3 Today, we are announcing new shipping and return annotations in Google Search and Shopping results – across free and paid listings. Shoppers can now see when their orders will arrive, with shipping annotations like "Free delivery by Fri, Dec 24,” “Get it by Dec 24” and “Free X-day” for products that ship for free in five business days or less. 

To give shoppers more confidence in their purchases, you can now indicate extended holiday return windows with return annotations like "Free 90 day returns" or "Free returns until Jan 31.”

Two phones are depicted showing shoes for sale on the Shopping tab. The phone on the left highlights a pair and reads “Free delivery by Fri, Dec 24” and the one on the right highlights a pair and reads “Free 90 day returns.”

Highlight your holiday shipping and return options to shoppers

2. Showcase your products in more places across Google

Every day, hundreds of millions of people come to Google to shop and explore products. Showcase your products in free listings across Google to help them find what they’re looking for. If you useShopify, WooCommerceor GoDaddy, you can now get started right from their platform. Seamlessly sync your products to show up on Google for free and boost your products to reach even more shoppers with Smart Shopping campaigns to utilize machine learning, or Shopping campaigns to maximize control. 

You can also turn your YouTube video into a virtual storefront to showcase your most popular items. Connect a product feed to either your Video action campaigns to drive customers to your site, or to your App campaigns to take them to your app. In the coming weeks, most advertisers will be able to link a product feed to Discovery ads to show more relevant products in moments where customers are exploring their interests in Google’s feeds. 

There are four phones all depicting screenshots of available shopping formats on Google. The first shows images of indoor plants for sale on the Shopping tab. The second shows beauty products, like lotion, available for sale under a YouTube ad advertising the same brand. The third shows the same beauty products for sale in an ad on the YouTube Home Feed. The final image shows homegoods, like lamps and storage baskets for sale within an App ad.

Showcase your products in free listings on the Shopping tab, or promote your products using Video action campaigns, Discovery ads and App campaigns

3. Connect with shoppers in the physical world

Shoppers don’t just turn to Google for things they want to buy on the web; they also use Google to find what they need nearby. For example, searches for "open now near me" have grown globally by more than 200% year over year.4 In the U.S., searches for “local gift shops near me” have increased 440% in just the past month as people switch between online and offline shopping — more than ever before. If your physical stores are open for in-store shopping, it's crucial to make sure your customers can easily find you online.

Start by building your digital storefront, so shoppers can find information about your nearby stores and the products you have available in them. Keep your Business Profile up to date to ensure customers see accurate business hours, in-store services and safety measures. Help customers feel more confident in their in-store shopping trips by listing your local products for free on Google, or promoting those available for in-store pickup or curbside pickup using local inventory ads. 

If you have store-specific goals, like in-store promotions or location reopenings, you can promote your stores to local shoppers using Local campaigns. Easily connect with holiday shoppers searching for businesses like yours on Google Maps, Search, YouTube and the Google Display Network and help them find what they need at your local store.

Many of your customers alternate between shopping online and in-store depending on their comfort level and community guidelines. Google offers a variety of ways to measure the impact that your online ads have on your physical store, including store visits and store sales measurement. You can then act on this data by adding it to your Smart Bidding to grow total sales, whether they happen online or offline.

There are two phones showing products for sale that are available in-store. The first shows the products tab on Dick’s Sporting Goods’ Business Profile page on Google. The second shows a Google Search results page advertising dog beds that are available for curbside pickup or pick up today in nearby stores.

Show products available in-store in your Business Profile for free (left) or those available for curbside pickup via local inventory ads (right)

4. Prepare for the rush using automated formats, planning tools & reports

It's more challenging this year to plan your holiday marketing campaigns, so we’ve introduced more tools and reports to help you focus on profitability. Starting with seeing the most popular brands and products, check out the best sellers report to help you decide which new brands and products to stock for the holidays. If you’re running sales or promotions to move inventory especially in the lead up to Black Friday or Cyber Monday, then you’ll soon be able to see real-time with deals reporting in Merchant Center.

As you set up your ad campaigns for success, tools like the Insights page and Performance Planner can help you identify trends and plan budgets so you’re not missing out on shopper demand. And if your business has an app, you can verify you’re sending shoppers to the right places in your app using two new tools: the deep link validator and impact calculator. 

Grab your virtual front row seat at Think Retail on Air

For more holiday shopping insights, join us for Think Retail on Air today at 10 a.m. PDT. After the live keynote, we’ll have hands-on sessions where we’ll dive deeper into specific product solutions and best practices. If we’ll miss you at 10 a.m. PDT today, you can catch it on demand anytime after the live show. 

We hope these solutions can help you prepare for a successful holiday season!

1. Google commissioned Ipsos COVID-19 tracker, US n-506 Online consumers 18+ that plan to shop for the holidays, June 17-20, 2021
2.  Ipsos COVID-19 Tracker, US ~n=1000 online consumers 18+ per market. Aug 12-15, 2021
3. Google commissioned Ipsos COVID-19 tracker, US n=515  online consumers 18+ who will shop for the holiday season. June 17-20, 2021
4. Google Data, Global English, Jun 1, 2021 - Jul 30, 2021 vs Jun 1, 2020 - Jul 30, 2020

Think Retail on Air is Tuesday, August 31 at 10 a.m. PDT

It’s time to get ready for the holiday season! This year, we expect shoppers to continue using the digital-first services they learned during the pandemic, like curbside pickup and grocery delivery, in combination with in-store shopping trips. We see this across Google, where searches for "now near me" have grown globally by more than 100% year over year and searches on Google Maps for “curbside pickup” have increased globally by 5,000% year over year.1

To help you capture the opportunity this holiday season, we’re hosting Think Retail on Air 2021 on Tuesday, August 31 at 10 a.m. PDT. During this virtual event, we’ll share the latest holiday shopping insights, category trends and Google solutions to help you prepare your business for the holidays. You’ll hear from product experts and industry leaders, including:

Image depicts 6 people along with their names, job title and company. The first is Matt Madrigal, VP/GM, Merchant Shopping at Google. The next person is Suchi Sastri, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group. The next person is Christina Willis, Director of Marketing at Best Buy. Then there is Jen Meacham, Shopping Sales Specialist at Google. Then, Karolline Maciel Mariano, Product Lead, Automation at Google. Finally, Chris Card, Head of Industry, Video at Google.

After the live keynote, you’ll be able to tune in to our hands-on sessions. Be sure to join the right track for you, based on your business’ needs and level of readiness:

  • If you're looking for a holistic overview, be sure to watch the “Google Academy holiday best practices” sessions for growing online sales and growing in-store sales. 

  • If you’re looking to dive deeper into specific product solutions, or just want to learn more, be sure to watch the “Advanced strategies for growth” sessions in the other tab. 

Register now to reserve your virtual front row seat!

1. Google Data, Global English, Jan 26, 2021 - Mar 26, 2021 vs Jan 26, 2020 - Mar 26, 2020

Think Retail on Air is Tuesday, August 31 at 10 a.m. PDT

It’s time to get ready for the holiday season! This year, we expect shoppers to continue using the digital-first services they learned during the pandemic, like curbside pickup and grocery delivery, in combination with in-store shopping trips. We see this across Google, where searches for "now near me" have grown globally by more than 100% year over year and searches on Google Maps for “curbside pickup” have increased globally by 5,000% year over year.1

To help you capture the opportunity this holiday season, we’re hosting Think Retail on Air 2021 on Tuesday, August 31 at 10 a.m. PDT. During this virtual event, we’ll share the latest holiday shopping insights, category trends and Google solutions to help you prepare your business for the holidays. You’ll hear from product experts and industry leaders, including:

Image depicts 6 people along with their names, job title and company. The first is Matt Madrigal, VP/GM, Merchant Shopping at Google. The next person is Suchi Sastri, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group. The next person is Christina Willis, Director of Marketing at Best Buy. Then there is Jen Meacham, Shopping Sales Specialist at Google. Then, Karolline Maciel Mariano, Product Lead, Automation at Google. Finally, Chris Card, Head of Industry, Video at Google.

After the live keynote, you’ll be able to tune in to our hands-on sessions. Be sure to join the right track for you, based on your business’ needs and level of readiness:

  • If you're looking for a holistic overview, be sure to watch the “Google Academy holiday best practices” sessions for growing online sales and growing in-store sales. 

  • If you’re looking to dive deeper into specific product solutions, or just want to learn more, be sure to watch the “Advanced strategies for growth” sessions in the other tab. 

Register now to reserve your virtual front row seat!

1. Google Data, Global English, Jan 26, 2021 - Mar 26, 2021 vs Jan 26, 2020 - Mar 26, 2020

Tools and partnerships to help travel recover and thrive

The travel industry is beginning to show promising signs of recovery as parts of the world reopen and vaccinations continue. We see from Google searches that people want to travel, provided they feel safe to do so: Global searches for “where to travel,” “can I travel” and “covid travel restrictions” are near all-time highs. Google is working hard to listen to customer feedback and ensure travel businesses and tourism officials have the information needed to continue recovery.

That’s why last December, we began testing Travel Insights with Google in the Asia Pacific region; it’s a set of tools providing powerful insights into real-time travel demand based on global Google Search data. Today we’re launching Travel Insights with Google in the United States, in partnership with Destinations International and Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI). Together, we’ll bring these tools to the travel industry in the U.S. and around the world with training materials customized specifically for destination organizations and hospitality marketing professionals.

Consumer insights to help
accelerate recovery

There are two free tools available within Travel Insights with Google that provide rich data and actionable insights. 

Destination Insights gives travel businesses, governments, and tourism boards a clear picture of top sources of demand per destination. This can help users understand where potential travelers may be coming from and adjust marketing campaigns accordingly. The second tool, Hotel Insights, helps hoteliers analyze search trends so they can understand where interest is coming from and attract new guests by creating a stronger digital presence.

Screenshot of the Travel Insights tool landing page, showing cards for Destination Insights, Hotel Insights, and Travel Analytics Center

Travel Insights tool landing page

Since we began piloting these tools last year, they’ve helped government tourism officials in places like Singapore and Indonesia answer critical questions as they make decisions about border reopenings. As part of our ongoing global expansion, we recently launched localized versions of Travel Insights with Google in countries across Asia and Europe, including Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Croatia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

“As we enter into the recovery phase after the pandemic, relevant and timely data will be essential for destination organizations around the world as they will be required to respond intelligently and proactively on behalf of their communities. We are thrilled to partner with Google for this type of information that will help make our members successful.”
—Don Welsh, President and CEO of Destinations International.

“Partnering with Google on this initiative reinforces that what industry professionals need are insights, not just information. HSMAI members that are inspiring marketing will benefit greatly by having access to the exclusive expertise that Google provides on what today’s traveler is searching for as the recovery picks up across travel and tourism.” 
—Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, President and CEO of HSMAI

More actionable features 

Based on feedback we’ve heard from our pilot partners, today we’re also introducing new, helpful features within the Destination Insights tool. 

Focusing Facts will allow users who visit Destination Insights to view a set of quick insights such as “Fastest growing destination globally,” “Country with the most inbound interest” and “Top city in demand.” Focusing Facts are based on the previous 84 days of data which provides a well-rounded vantage point. 

Screenshot of the Focusing Facts tool within Destination Insights, showing trending destinations

Focusing Facts tool within Destination Insights

The Demand Sizing Tool is a new section with distinct filters to compare inbound and outbound interest between one primary country and up to ten comparison countries.

Screenshot of the Demand Sizing tool within Destination Insights, showing inbound and outbound interest of countries.

Demand Sizing tool within Destination Insights

Responsibly reinvigorating the tourism sector will take ingenuity and effort across the industry. We want to support travel and tourism professionals with the tools and insights they need to connect with people searching for travel. As we make progress toward recovery, we’ll continue to seek to find new ways to support the global travel and tourism sector by sharing data and insights that can help the industry rebound.