Google Marketing Live 2022 for the Americas

Hi there,

So Google Marketing Live (GML) happened earlier this week and I thought I would jot down the highlights while everything is still fresh. After 18 years in advertising, GML is one of those events I genuinely look forward to every year — it is basically the Super Bowl for anyone running Google Ads :D

For those unfamiliar, GML is Google's biggest annual advertising event where they announce new products and updates for advertisers, agencies, and partners. It follows Google I/O (which covers broader Google product improvements). Given that advertising still contributes about 80% of Google's revenue (roughly $54B out of $68B last quarter), you can imagine how much effort they put into this.

You can watch the keynote and sessions here. There were a lot of announcements, so I will focus on the ones I think matter most for folks like us who manage campaigns day-to-day.

Automation and machine learning

This theme has been consistent for years and, honestly, it is only accelerating. I have mixed feelings about it — on one hand, automation saves us a ton of time; on the other hand, it sometimes feels like Google is slowly taking the steering wheel away from practitioners (I might be wrong, but that is how it feels from my seat).

Starting with Google Search, which contributes about 75% of ad revenue:

Google continues to push the combination of Broad match (for keywords) + responsive search ads (for creative) + smart bidding (for bids). If you have been resisting broad match, I think it is getting harder to ignore at this point.

Beyond search, Performance Max got another spotlight. Advertisers can now leverage inventory across YouTube, Discovery, Display, Gmail, Maps, and Search. More importantly, you can now run A/B tests using Experiments to understand Performance Max's actual impact. This was something a lot of us had been asking for, so I am glad they listened.

Optiscore (those auto-generated optimization suggestions) will expand to cover all campaign types, including Performance Max.

The Insights page is also getting more useful. Audience insights will soon support first-party data like Customer Match, helping you understand which customer lists actually drive performance. From my experience managing campaigns across APAC and now the US, first-party data insights are where the real gold is.

Privacy-safe measurement

Later this year, Google will launch My Ad Center for consumers — a one-stop shop for people to control their ad experience.

Google's three core principles for privacy-safe measurement:

• Consented
• First party
• Modeled

On the tagging front, Google introduced a new solution that combines Google Ads and Google Analytics tagging. I have to admit, the current tagging setup has been a headache for most of my clients, so any simplification is welcome.

Enhanced conversion continues to be pushed as a long-term solution and will soon be available for leads. This is a big deal for B2B clients — something I have been watching closely given how much of our business touches B2B.

For app marketers (especially on iOS), Google's "on-device conversion measurement" from April was reiterated during the breakout session.

Conversion modeling will expand to compensate for signal loss. And the conversion lift study (including CLS for Search) will become self-serve later this year — which, if it works well, could be a game-changer for proving incrementality without needing a Google rep to set it up for you.

The importance of commerce

Commerce was a major focus again this year, though I think last year's GML gave it even more stage time. Here are the notable announcements:

• Loyalty program integration to Google Ads
• Swipeable shopping ads in search
• Shoppable video ads on YouTube Shorts
• AR in Search
• A faster checkout experience
• Reach new potential loyalty program customers with Performance Max

If you are running e-commerce campaigns, the YouTube Shorts integration is the one I would pay closest attention to. Short-form video is eating the internet right now and Google clearly does not want to cede that ground to TikTok.

Other announcements

• Connected TV ads: Google audiences for connected TV via Display and Video 360, working across Hulu, Peacock, YouTube, and others. "In a few months, you'll be able to power your CTV campaigns with the same affinity, in-market and demographic audiences you've been using for your digital ads for years." More info here.
• Video action campaigns and app campaigns will automatically scale to YouTube Shorts.
• Video ads will be included in Discovery.
• Consolidated asset library across multiple ad formats.

Overall, I think the theme this year is clear: more automation, more privacy-first solutions, and more commerce integrations. Whether that excites or worries you probably depends on how much you enjoy having granular control over your campaigns :P

What caught your eye from GML this year? Anything you are excited (or nervous) about?

Cheers,

Chandler