Google Marketing Livestream 2021: What You Really Need to Know

They differ from TrueView for action campaigns because they use responsive ad groups rather than standard ad groups.
Short version: Machine learning will help to fill in the gaps in Google Analytics Behavior reports to enable more visibility into the customer journey.
This may have been one of the most confusing Google Marketing Live events. This is somewhat understandable as we are all entering into uncharted, cookieless territory. But the confusion around Customer Match was pretty disappointing.
In 2019, we learned about Discovery Ads, Gallery Ads, and Max Conversion Value.
Short version: Value-based bidding is now available for Video action and Discovery campaigns.

cross-device behavior already being difficult to track and cookie restrictions on browsers, it’s harder than ever to obtain accurate reports to measure and improve your ad campaigns. Google announced three features that will help advertisers to get the data they need in this privacy-first world.

1. Enhanced conversions

With this ad type, ads will appear for businesses that are on the route to a user’s destination. Google ensures us that these are safe for the driver, but I’d certainly want to check out Bob’s Burgers before adding that stop to my route.
Reminder! As of July 1, you cannot create new Gmail ads, but existing campaigns will still run!
Despite this new addition, Gordon Donnelly, WordStream’s, Senior SEO Manager, still feels concerned about the ability to track and remarket.
In terms of the positive takeaways from the 2021 Google Marketing LiveStream, we would say that Google helping to facilitate the following for marketers and advertisers:

Brett McHale, founder of Empiric Marketing, LLC, feels good about this new reporting feature.

Short version: Tags dynamically adjust to specific cookie preferences a user makes, so you don’t need a complicated tag setup.

2. Consent mode

Short version: Google Merchant Center advertisers with Shopify websites can now leverage Shop Pay on Google products to further increase sales.
More: Consent mode is another way to get more accurate conversion data in a private and secure way. With this feature, your global site tags or GTM tags will default to ‘denied’ for values like ‘ad_storage’ and ‘analytics_ storage’ unless granted by the user in a granular consent banner, like this one:

conversion modeling to fill in the gaps. Consent mode reduces the need for complicated tag setups and, according to Google, “recovers 70% of conversion journeys lost due to user consent choices.”

More: With tROAS, you can concentrate on metrics that are aligned with your goals, and calculate ROI even if you have multiple offerings with different price points. tROAS is currently available globally in beta for Discovery campaigns, and fully rolled out for Video action campaigns.

Have an advertising presence in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the UK.
Be implementing the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF v2.0) on your site.
Meet a daily ad click threshold of 100 clicks per day, per country and domain grouping.

3. Behavioral reporting in Google Analytics

In addition to making your ad more visually appealing, image extensions also have an impact on CTR and Quality Score.
Short version: The ad extension some may already be familiar with, in which images dynamically appear underneath a conjoined search ad on the SERP, is now out of beta and here to stay, so all accounts will now be able to use it!
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Previously, there was no way of viewing how assets were performing and what properties they were appearing on. To answer this call for more visibility, Google is planning to roll out reports on top performing creations, auction info, trending search categories; as well as the ability to preview your best ads on each channel.
Previously, there was no way of viewing how assets were performing and what properties they were appearing on. To answer this call for more visibility, Google is planning to roll out reports on top performing creations, auction info, trending search categories; as well as the ability to preview your best ads on each channel.
With this more holistic view, you can now see how all of your Google ad types are working together to drive conversions.
Also, any products displayed by a business that self-identifies as black-owned will have a sticker so that consumers who would like to support these businesses have the opportunity to do so.

14. Shopify sites can use Shop Pay across Google products

Google Marketing Live: a brief history
More: In the shopping feed, we’re used to the old-school product attributes like product ID, title, and description. These will show on the item’s shopping placement, but now when advertisers navigate into the Business Information section of their Merchant Center, they can opt in to self-identify as a black-owned business. They will then be included in any black-owned shopping promotions Google runs on its entities.
“It’s interesting Google is introducing tROAS as an option for these two campaign types because it feels as though it’s contradictory to the platform’s previous stance on the bid strategy for Search and Display campaigns. We know tROAS for Search and Display is now being considered a legacy strategy as Max Conversion Value with the option for tROAS is the new standard.

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Out of beta announcements

In 2020, we learned that even Google couldn’t withstand a pandemic.

15. Cross-network attribution reports

This is similar to how women-owned businesses have been able to self-identify as such on Google My Business. These additions to Google’s products are in line with the push for more inclusivity across the marketing landscape.
“Anything that can help make conversion tracking more accurate is always a plus for advertisers, particularly if they are trying to match the first-party data they are receiving on their end. Enhanced Conversions will be beneficial to advertisers who are capturing information like phone number, first/last name, email address, or home address.”
These ads will show businesses nearby that are similar to the one you have searched for, if that business is closed—whether temporarily or permanently due to the pandemic, or just according to their operating hours.
More: Google and Shopify have upgraded to a more enhanced partnership between one another so that Shopify users can more easily take advantage of Google entities when it comes time to display their products to consumers.

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16. Image extensions in text ads

Here’s what you need to know:
And we’ll leave off with a full list of the announcements we covered:
Expert input

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Uncool announcements

More: As you know, attribution reports have helped advertisers to see how their different advertising strategies work together to create conversions for Search campaigns—since there’s often much more to the story than the last click. But even though Display and YouTube ads can play a role in the path to purchase, they have always been limited to last-click attribution—until now.

17. Customer Match threshold [not really] lowered

There is the potential, in the near future, that the marketer’s ability to track and remarket via cookies will be greatly diminished as users are given greater control over their data at both the browser and website levels.
Expert input
To create local inventory ads, you need to set up a Merchant Center account, a Google My Business Locations account, and a Google Ads account.
Susie Marino, PPC consultant and WordStream Content Marketing Specialist, has mixed emotions about this feature.

instant match rates for customer lists to help you identify right away that you’ve uploaded your data correctly.

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Final 2021 Google Marketing LiveStream takeaways

More: Google announced on June 11 that TrueView for action campaigns will eventually be replaced with Video action campaigns. Video action campaigns, which came out in June of 2020, are an automated campaign type that gets served across multiple Google properties: YouTube’s home feed, watch page, watch next feed, and Google video partners.

Adaptability: The Insights page and soon-to-be demand forecast page will help advertisers adapt more easily to rapid shifts in consumer behavior, which were rampant during the pandemic but will inevitably continue as other world events unfold.
Inclusivity: This, of course, refers to the new black-owned and woman-owned attributes in shopping ads. On a similar note, the plethora of Google Shopping enhancements will help small businesses to stay competitive in the ecommerce world.
Accuracy: Enhanced conversions, behavioral modeling, and other machine learning-based features indicate Google’s efforts to help advertisers get the most out of their first-party data as well as the accurate reporting they need These features, combined with the addition of YouTube and Display to attribution reporting, are all aimed at giving advertisers better insights into their buyers’ journeys so they can optimize and grow.
Visibility: Performance Max campaigns, Video action campaigns, and the Shopify integration all allow advertisers the ability to easily appear across multiple Google properties with a single campaign. Google Maps ads will also help to surface physical businesses to consumers in a real-time manner.

Along with the integration of the “Shopping Graph” we mentioned above, this addition will allow shoppers to quickly make purchases directly from Google products. So, even if you’re already leveraging Shop Pay on your Shopify site, having another route of purchase via direct shopping placements across Google products will help to increase sales even further.