Benji Rothman, Content API for Shopping Team
Technology is powering more business growth around the world than ever before. And new consumer behaviors are redefining the role technology plays in everyday life. We see this in the surge of video watch time, the rise of browsing behavior on Search and the growth in online shopping. There is opportunity in all of this.
With the right tools, you can meet your customers where they are today while building resilience for tomorrow — and Google is here to be your partner. Your insights and feedback are helping shape every investment we’re making across Google Ads.
Throughout Google Marketing Live, you’ll see the many ways we’re working to help you unlock growth for your business and navigate today’s rapidly shifting advertising landscape. Join us at 9:00 a.m. PT (12:00 p.m. ET) to hear about Google’s latest product innovations across Ads and Commerce. Here’s a preview of some of those announcements.
Consumers are turning to Google Search and YouTube more than ever for help with purchase decisions. In fact, we see over one billion shopping journeys happen across Google every day.
When it comes to shopping on Google Search, we’ve made the experience more natural and intuitive. Categories like apparel have seen tremendous success as consumers explore information in more visual and browsable ways. Later this year, advertisers will be eligible to show new, highly visual Shopping ads to U.S. customers. These will be clearly labeled as ads and will be eligible to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page.
Reimagining Shopping ads in new, visually engaging search results (U.S.-only search results)
However, nothing can quite replace seeing a product in person or bringing it home to try out. Augmented reality (AR) on cameras gets us close, and shoppers are ready for it. More than 90% of Americans currently use, or would consider using, AR for shopping.
Augmented reality in Search provides a fully immersive shopping experience
In the coming months, you’ll also be able to promote your loyalty benefits to potential customers in the U.S. when they’re shopping across Google. Loyalty programs represent a meaningful relationship between you and your customers, and soon you’ll be able to easily integrate them with Google Ads.
Showcase your loyalty benefits across Google to consumers in the U.S.
Using Performance Max campaigns — along with a product feed — you’ll be able to drive more online loyalty sign-ups across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps.
Starting today, your Video action campaigns and App campaigns will automatically scale to YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts now averages over 30 billion daily views — four times as many as a year ago — and we want to help you reach people immersed in this short-form content.
Product feeds on Video action campaigns will roll out to YouTube Shorts later this year
The best way to unlock growth for your business is combining your data and marketing expertise with Google’s machine learning. This means building automated products that meet your objectives and are simple to use.
Performance Max campaigns are a powerful tool for helping you meet consumers where they are across Google channels. In fact, advertisers that use Performance Max campaigns in their account see an average increase of 13% total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.
1. More tools for experimentation, like A/B tests to see how Performance Max is driving incremental conversions.
2. Expanded campaign management support in Search Ads 360 and the Google Ads mobile app.
3. Support for store sales goals to optimize for in-store sales, in addition to store visits and local actions.
4. Maximize impact with burst campaigns for a set time period to help meet in-store goals during seasonal events.
5. New insights and explanations, including attribution, audience and auction insights so you know what’s driving performance.
6. Optimization score and recommendations so you can see how to improve your campaign.
Rothy’s, a sustainable brand known for its iconic shoes and accessories, turned to Performance Max to connect with customers across channels. As a result, they increased conversions by 60% and grew revenue by 59%.
Insights page uses machine learning to identify new pockets of consumer demand and provide personalized trend data. Only Google can surface these types of insights, based on the billions of searches we see every day and the millions of signals we analyze for every ad auction. Today, we’re introducing three new reports that will roll out over the coming months:
1. Attribution insights show how your ads work together across Google surfaces — like Search, Display and YouTube — to drive conversions.
2. Budget insights find new opportunities for budget optimization and show how your spend is pacing against your budget goals.
3. Audience insights for first-party data show how your customer segments, like those created with Customer Match, are driving campaign performance.
At Google we’re driven by a shared goal: to be the most helpful company in the world. But we know that our products can only be as helpful as they are safe. That's why we’re launching innovations like My Ad Center later this year to keep users in control of their privacy and online experience. People will be able to pick the types of ads they want to see more or less of, and control how their data informs ads they see across YouTube, Search and Discover.
Control your ads experience in My Ad Center
And these solutions can and should still work for advertisers. We can both advance privacy and continue supporting the ecosystem.
What an extraordinary time to be in this industry — my team and I are humbled to be on this journey with you. It’s a big moment for all of us, and I know that we can meet it by working together.
Join us today at Google Marketing Live at 9:00 a.m. PT (12:00 p.m. ET) to learn more about these and other ads innovations and commerce announcements. We hope to see you there!
As many people start returning to the office, we know there’s a lot to (re)figure out — like what to wear on the first day back, how long your commute will take and how to stay productive. So we’re sharing some tips for getting back into the office groove with a little help from Google products.
Google Assistant Routines can help you automate tasks so you have less to do and think about before you head to work. Just say "Hey Google, good morning" and your Assistant can share news, weather or traffic updates, tell you what’s on your calendar, and even get your smart coffee maker started on your morning brew. You can create a Routine based on a specific schedule or when the sun rises or sets every day.
Whether you usually hop on public transit, get behind the wheel or hit the pavement, your commute may have changed since the pandemic — or, like me, you might have just forgotten how long it takes. Check Google Maps to find the ideal time to commute and the greenest route for an eco-friendlier way to get to work.
Trying to get to the office by a certain time? Set the time you’re departing or want to arrive by to see how long it’ll take you to get to your destination (and to avoid getting stuck in traffic). The “Leave on Time” feature in Google Assistant Routines can also remind you when to leave, giving you the extra nudge to head out the door.
Once you get there, Google Maps can help you find the best (and most efficient) lunch options near your office.
Use Maps’ popular times and live busyness information to see when restaurants are most crowded and which spots are likely to seat you immediately. To save even more time, you can also scan popular dishes and photos on the restaurant’s Business Profile in advance.
If you’re getting takeout, no need to miss a meeting waiting around for your delivery in your office lobby or at the restaurant. Live takeout and delivery status information lets you see the expected wait time, delivery fee and status of your order right from the Maps app — so you can make the most of your workday.
Heading back to the office but not ready to dust off your work clothes? You’re not alone. In fact, “how to style sweatpants” and “work-appropriate leggings” have both been trending on Google.
Search on Google Shopping and filter by style, like joggers or leggings, to find your own office-ready sweats. Pair that with “comfortable shoes for work,” currently the most-searched shoe query, and you’ll find the perfect blend of your work-from-home and office styles.
Meanwhile, this season’s hottest work accessories are right at your fingertips. Nails are in the top-five fashion searches for back-to-the-office shopping. Check out the manicure options yourself on Google Shopping.
When the weather changes, so do our fashion preferences. Out with the sweaters and flannel, in with the swimsuits and florals — to celebrate the closet switch-up, we’re sharing some interesting fashion trends and queries from Google Shopping. For starters, people are looking to history for inspiration: The most-searched fashion trends over the past 30 days in the U.S. are “80s fashion,” followed by “90s fashion,” “y2k fashion,” “2000s fashion” and “70s fashion.”
If you’re not ready for your closet to go back in time, there are a few other springtime-related search trends that might fit a bit better (pun intended) — starting with florals. (We know, we know: groundbreaking.)
“Sunflower bathing suit” is a breakout search over the past 30 days in the U.S., as is “floral handbag,” which saw a +140% spike over the same period of time. Nail art search trends included the phrases “sunflower,” “daisy,” “summer” and “spring,” as well.
And while it’s not a floral per se, the color green — which is definitely garden adjacent — is also having a moment: “Green glitter nails” spiked more than 130% over the past 30 days in the U.S. “Green Prada shoes” saw nearly the same rise (+100%) within the last month, too. Green was also the most-searched nail polish color, and the second-most popular color in searches for handbags after black. Which obviously raises the question: Is green the new black!? Keep an eye on spring fashion to find out.
People shop across Google more than a billion times a day — and we have a pretty good sense of what they’re browsing for. For instance, our Search data shows that the early 2000’s are having a moment. We’re seeing increased search interest in “Y2k fashion” and products like bucket hats and ankle bracelets. Also popular? The iconic Clinique “Happy” perfume, Prada crochet bags and linen pants.
While we know what’s trending, we also wanted to understand how people find inspiration when they’re shopping for lifestyle products. So we surveyed 2,000 U.S. shoppers of apparel, beauty and home decor for our first Inspired Shopping Report. Read on to find out what we learned.
According to our findings, most fashion, beauty and home shoppers spend up to two weeks researching products before they buy them. Many, though, are shopping online just for fun — 65% say they often or sometimes shop or browse online when they’re not looking for anything in particular. To help make online shopping even easier and more entertaining, we recently added more browsable search results for fashion and apparel shopping queries. So when you search for chunky loafers, a lime green dress or a raffia bag on Google, you’ll scroll through a visual feed with various colors and styles — alongside other helpful information like local shops, style guides and videos.
Apparel queries on Search show a more visual display of products
We know shopping inspiration can strike at any moment. In fact, 60% of shoppers say they often or sometimes get inspired or prompted to buy something even when they aren’t actively shopping. That can come from spotting great street style: 39% of shoppers say they often or sometimes look for a specific outfit online after they see someone wearing it. Or it can come from browsing online: 48% of shoppers have taken a screenshot of a piece of clothing, accessory or home decor item they liked (and 70% of them say they’ve searched for or bought it afterwards). Google Lens can help you shop for looks as soon as you spot them. Just snap a photo or screenshot and you’ll find exact or similar results to shop from.
We know it can be hard to find what you’re looking for using words alone, even when you do have an image — like that multi-colored, metallic floral wallpaper you took a photo of that would go perfectly with your living room rug. Half of shoppers say they often or sometimes have failed to find a specific piece of clothing or furniture online after trying to describe it with just words. And 66% of shoppers wished they could find an item in a different color or print.
To help you track down those super specific pieces, we’re introducing an entirely new way to search — using text and images at the same time. With multisearch on Lens, you can better uncover the products you’re looking for even when you don’t have all the words to describe them. For example, you might be on the lookout for a scarf in the same pattern as one of your handbags. Just snap a photo of the patterned handbag on Lens and add the query “scarf” to complete your look. Or take a photo of your favorite heels and add the query “flats” to find a more comfortable version.
With multisearch on Lens, you can search with both images and text at the same time
It’s not always possible to make it to the store and try something on before you buy it — but it matters. Among online beauty shoppers, more than 60% have decided not to purchase a beauty or cosmetic item online because they didn’t know what color or shade to choose, and 41% have decided to return an item because it was the wrong shade. With AR Beauty experiences, you can virtually discover and “try on” thousands of products from brands like Maybelline New York, M.A.C. and Charlotte Tilbury — helping you make more informed decisions. And now, shoppers can try on cosmetics from a variety of brands carried at Ulta Beauty right in Google Search. Just search for a product, like the Morphe Matte Liquid Lipstick or Kylie Cosmetics High Gloss, and find the best shade for you.
Google’s AR Beauty experience features products from Ulta Beauty
No matter where you find your shopping inspiration, we hope these features and tools help you discover new products, compare different options and ultimately make the perfect purchase.
How many times have you tried to find the perfect piece of clothing, a tutorial to recreate nail art or even instructions on how to take care of a plant someone gifted you — but you didn’t have all the words to describe what you were looking for?
At Google, we’re always dreaming up new ways to help you uncover the information you’re looking for — no matter how tricky it might be to express what you need. That’s why today, we’re introducing an entirely new way to search: using text and images at the same time. With multisearch in Lens, you can go beyond the search box and ask questions about what you see.
Let’s take a look at how you can use multisearch to help with your visual needs, including style and home decor questions. To get started, simply open up the Google app on Android or iOS, tap the Lens camera icon and either search one of your screenshots or snap a photo of the world around you, like the stylish wallpaper pattern at your local coffee shop. Then, swipe up and tap the "+ Add to your search" button to add text.
Multisearch allows people to search with both images and text at the same time.
With multisearch, you can ask a question about an object in front of you or refine your search by color, brand or a visual attribute. Give it a go yourself by using Lens to:
All this is made possible by our latest advancements in artificial intelligence, which is making it easier to understand the world around you in more natural and intuitive ways. We’re also exploring ways in which this feature might be enhanced by MUM– our latest AI model in Search– to improve results for all the questions you could imagine asking.
This is available as a beta feature in English in the U.S., with the best results for shopping searches. Try out multisearch today in the Google app, the best way to search with your camera, voice and now text and images at the same time.
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Ian Ballantyne, Content API for Shopping Team
Online shoppers are more empowered than ever. They can find ratings, reviews, price comparisons and deals as quickly as inspiration strikes. And with all this information at their fingertips, they’re also open to buying from somewhere new. In fact, last year in the U.S., 67% of holiday shoppers agreed Google helped them find new products, services or brands. Standing out to shoppers in those moments of inspiration and decision is critical.
This week at Shoptalk, we’re sharing new data and insights tools to give brands and retailers the extra edge in knowing how shoppers are finding them, what shoppers want and what they’re browsing for. These tools can also help merchants price their products more competitively and — most importantly — boost sales.
Shoppers discover new brands online every day. But before they make a purchase, they want to know they’re spending money with a business they can trust. To reward merchants for good customer experiences and help them build their reputation with potential buyers, we’re introducing the Shopping Experience Scorecard program.
Merchants who provide excellent shipping and returns services, for example, may receive a badge indicating they’re a Trusted Store, which will appear alongside their free product listings on the Shopping tab. Merchants receive a Trusted Store badge based on their performance across metrics relative to other merchants, including but not limited to shipping speeds, shipping and return costs, and return windows.
Based on our early testing, merchants displaying a Trusted Store badge are more likely to receive clicks. We're also seeing stronger traffic to lesser-known merchants. Keep an eye out for the Shopping Experience Scorecard program, which will roll out across the U.S. in the coming months.
The Trusted Store badge indicates a merchant performs well in areas like shipping speeds and costs
From merchandising to branding, insights have influenced decision making and the ability to attract customers for decades. Today, we’re introducing new insights tools to help merchants keep reaching customers and growing their businesses.
It’s free for any merchant to list their products on Google. And now, we’re making it easier to measure the impact of their free listings with free listings conversion reporting. This new tool shows merchants the total traffic, impressions and conversion rate of their free listings, helping them make decisions about future ones.
For example, let’s say an online hat seller started using Google’s free listings a year ago. At the time, it wasn’t possible to see the business impact of those free listings in their Merchant Center account. Now, with conversion reporting, they can see all the conversions Google is sending them — at no additional cost.
Free listings conversion reporting helps a merchant see the total traffic, impressions and conversion rate of their free listings on Google
Product pricing in the market is dynamic, and staying competitive is critical. That’s why we’re introducing the price insights tool, which helps merchants see whether their products are priced competitively and the projected impact of price changes on their revenue. Using machine learning, the tool offers merchants a suggested price for each product they sell, along with predicted impressions, clicks, conversions and gross profit. This means a merchant can see how their pricing stacks up in comparison to the same product sold by other retailers, as well as potential revenue if they were to change the price.
Let’s come back to our online hat seller. The price insights tool would give them insights into how to price different hats. For instance, during warmer temperatures, the tool might recommend lowering the prices of winter hats and raising the prices of sun hats.
See whether your products are priced competitively in the market with the price insights tool
Local product insights are also coming soon to local retailers who manage a Business Profile in the U.S. and Canada. These insights will show local businesses their most-viewed products, including a snapshot of top products and total views of their products over time. This will help brick-and-mortar retailers without an e-commerce offering better understand how interest varies among their top products.
Now let’s pretend our online hat seller sells out of several brick-and-mortar locations. The local product insights report would show them which products from their Business Profile are most viewed. This may change their merchandising, assortment or even buying choices in the future.
Brick-and-mortar merchants who list their products on Google can easily see a snapshot of their top-viewed products
Merchants running Google Ads can also use these tools with the Insights page, which provides business-driving search trends and tailored performance insights.
These are just some of the ways we’re helping merchants of all sizes understand their performance in stores and online, and reach more shoppers on Google. To learn more, register for Retail on Air — an on-demand video series to understand how customer behavior is shifting and how to unlock more profitability in 2022.
As we announced in January, existing and future Smart Shopping campaigns (SSC) will automatically upgrade to Performance Max campaigns between July and September 2022.
As mentioned in the prior blog post, users will be able to self-upgrade in the UI starting April 2022. Developers will be able to self-upgrade in the API before the end of June. We expect the vast majority of accounts managed by the API will opt to wait to self-upgrade once the tool is available in the API in June. However, campaigns may be upgraded manually by advertisers in the UI starting in April. We recommend you implement Performance Max in your application now to ensure support for any new or upgraded Performance Max campaigns.
An upgraded SSC will be marked as REMOVED status (metrics will continue to be available in the legacy campaign for historical purposes). There will also be a mapping from the previous campaign ID to the new Performance Max campaign ID. Budgets, assets, and settings of the existing SSC are preserved.
The prior blog post had April / May 2022 as the estimated availability date for the API's new self-upgrade recommendation type. This will be available before the end of June. There will still be a six week period between availability of the new recommendation type in the API and the start of auto-upgrades.
Note that once a campaign has been upgraded, either by the UI or API, there is no means to revert the upgrade. Metrics will continue to be available in the legacy campaign for historical purposes.
If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the forum.
David Wihl, Google Ads API Team
Campaign.NetworkSetting.targetContentNetwork field will always return false for standard Shopping campaigns, which are defined as campaigns where the advertisingChannelType is set to SHOPPING, and the advertisingChannelSubType is unset. If you try to set Campaign.NetworkSetting.targetContentNetwork to true, it will be ignored.AdNetworkType1 and AdNetworkType2 of type: CONTENT, YOUTUBE_SEARCH, or YOUTUBE_WATCH for standard Shopping campaigns for date ranges after February 14, 2022. You can still download historic metrics for these fields and values.network_settings.target_content_network field will return false, and if you try to set this field to true, it will be ignored. In version v10 and beyond, if you try to set this field to true a CANNOT_TARGET_CONTENT_NETWORK error will be returned.segments.ad_network_type of type: CONTENT, YOUTUBE_SEARCH, or YOUTUBE_WATCH for date ranges after February 14, 2022. You can still download historic metrics for this field and values.AdsApp.report() method, reports will stop returning metrics for AdNetworkType1 and AdNetworkType2 of type: CONTENT, YOUTUBE_SEARCH, or YOUTUBE_WATCH for date ranges after Feb 14, 2022.AdsApp.search() method, the API will stop returning metrics for segments.ad_network_type of type: CONTENT, YOUTUBE_SEARCH, or YOUTUBE_WATCH for date ranges after Feb 14, 2022.
- Ben Karl, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team