Google Marketing Live 2024: How AI_Powered Features Will Impact In-Store & Online Sales Strategy

Every year, Google Marketing Live (GML) takes center stage, offering a glimpse into the future of advertising for in-store and online sales businesses. This year’s Google Marketing Live 2024 event was held in May, and the resounding declaration was all about AI’s dominance in advertising. This isn’t all that surprising; if you remember, GML 2023 also held a similar theme.

So, what’s new? Google announced a suite of features designed to streamline campaign management, optimize performance, and enhance the customer experience across all touchpoints. Sure, these new features will empower businesses, but some important questions remain. How will these new features impact user behavior, content generation strategies, and ultimately, how businesses craft brand experiences?

Project Astra: How the Conversational Search Assistant Will Change Your Business

Google’s first major announcement was Project Astra, an AI agent designed to have natural conversations and understand user intent on a deeper level. This has significant implications for in-store and online sales businesses, particularly those relying heavily on organic search traffic.

Search Queries Are Evolving

The keynote highlighted a fascinating statistic: 15% of Google searches are now brand-new, never-before-seen queries. This trend signifies a shift in user behavior. People are increasingly treating Google Search like a helpful assistant, engaging in conversations to find what they need.

Overall, search intent is becoming more nuanced. While some users are still looking for specific products or services, others are in the research or exploration phase, seeking information and inspiration. Understanding the user’s intent behind a search query is crucial for businesses to tailor their content and offerings accordingly. More importantly, businesses need to develop informative content that is engaging and speaks directly to the types of questions users might ask a conversational AI.

Rethinking SEO with AI Assistants

The full impact of Project Astra on SEO is yet to be fully understood, but some key trends are already emerging. For businesses currently relying on traditional keyword optimization and link building, Project Astra raises an important question: will these strategies still be effective in a future where users ask complex, conversational questions?

With this shift, a purely keyword-driven approach might become less effective. The big challenge for SEO professionals is whether current keyword research tools can adapt to identify the conversational queries users might ask Project Astra. Will entirely new tools be needed to optimize content for this new paradigm? These are pressing concerns that demand innovative solutions from the SEO community in the coming years.

Building a Content Strategy for Conversational Search

The key to success in this new search future lies in a robust content strategy. Businesses will need to shift their mindset, moving from a pure keyword-stuffing approach to understanding user intent and creating content that provides comprehensive and informative answers to their questions. This means a more topic-based approach, where your website becomes a hub of expertise showcasing your products and services. But the challenge remains: how to balance content that speaks naturally to both users and AI assistants?

Optimizing for Humans and AI

The rise of conversational search assistants like Project Astra means businesses need to think beyond simply attracting human users. To become a top recommendation for user queries, your content must also educate the AI itself. Focus on providing informative content that showcases your expertise and value proposition. This will allow Project Astra to understand your offerings and suggest your business to users with relevant needs.

Though Project Astra remains in development, its potential to reshape search is undeniable. By understanding the evolving user behavior towards conversational search and adapting your content strategy accordingly, you can position your business for success.

Google is Taking Generative AI Up a Notch

Google’s focus on Generative AI (Gen AI) at Marketing Live 2024 signals a significant shift in advertising, particularly for businesses reliant on in-store and online sales. This powerful technology promises to revolutionize the way customers search for products, the way content is generated, and how brands connect with potential buyers. Here are some of the most important features Google announced:

AI Overviews for Informed Purchase Decisions

One key innovation is AI Overviews, summaries of search queries created using AI. Google has been testing these overviews in the Search Lab for quite some time, and they are officially being rolled out to everyone in the US. These overviews cater to the evolving user behavior of asking complex questions and using visuals in search.

Take, for example, a customer walking into a sporting goods store wanting to improve their tennis game. Instead of simply browsing rackets, they might search “best tennis rackets for beginners with one-handed backhand.” By providing more comprehensive answers and fostering exploration within search results, AI Overviews offer a richer user experience. We talked about this earlier, but if user search behavior is changing, so might your SEO and content strategy.

Shopping Ads within AI Overviews

With this new feature opening up new opportunities for retail businesses, it is more important than ever that your products are discoverable by AI. So, ask yourself these questions:

• Is your product information accurate, up-to-date, and optimized with relevant keywords?
• Are high-quality images and videos readily available for your products?
• Is your website structured data properly marked up?
• Are you highlighting the unique selling points of your products?

AI Overviews & SEO: Boom or Bust?

The introduction of AI Overviews presents both opportunities and challenges for SEO. Sure, these concise summaries can enhance user experience, but could they also lead to a decrease in website traffic? Here are our two major concerns:

• Reduced Click-Through Rates (CTR): Will users stop clicking through to websites if they get most of the information they need from the AI Overviews? Could this hurt website traffic and SEO ranking?
• Domination by Big Brands: Large companies often have bigger budgets for SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Will AI Overviews prioritize these larger brands, making it harder for smaller businesses to gain visibility, even with excellent content and SEO practices?

AI-Enhanced Shopping Ads

Google’s vision for the future of shopping goes beyond simply identifying products. AI-enhanced Shopping Ads are designed to create a more immersive and interactive shopping experience. Let’s explore a few key features:

• Virtual Try-On for Apparel: Virtual try-on technology allows users to see how different styles of clothing look on a variety of body types directly within Shopping Ads.
• 3D Product Images: Google is introducing 3D product views, allowing customers to virtually rotate and examine products from all angles.
• In-Ad, Short-Form Product Videos: Shopping Ads can now incorporate short product videos, created by brands or influencers.

How User Search Behavior Benefits from AI-Enhanced Shopping Ads

The way customers search for products is changing. Gone are the days of solely relying on text-based queries. Today’s searchers crave a more interactive and visual experience, with Google Lens taking the lead. Over 12 billion searches are conducted through Lens every month, showcasing the increasing popularity of visual product discovery.

Thankfully, AI-enhanced Shopping Ads are perfectly suited for this evolving behavior, providing several benefits for user experience:

• Increased Confidence in Online Purchases: Features like virtual try-on technology significantly reduce the uncertainty associated with online shopping. Users can see how clothes will look on them or how furniture will fit in their homes, leading to more confident buying decisions.
• Richer Product Information: Static product descriptions are a thing of the past. 3D product views allow users to examine items from all angles, while short product videos provide a more dynamic understanding of a product’s features and functionality.
• Seamless Discovery and Exploration: AI-enhanced Shopping Ads integrate seamlessly with visual search. Imagine seeing a stylish jacket online and instantly finding similar options or being inspired by how an influencer styles a particular piece. This visual discovery process makes exploring and finding products an engaging experience.
• Frictionless Buying Journey: The days of navigating multiple websites to research and purchase a product are fading. Shopping Ads can now surface directly within search results, allowing users to learn about a product, compare options, and potentially initiate a purchase all within a single click.

Generative AI for Creative Control in Content Creation

Creating high-quality visuals and managing multiple ad variations can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Generative AI allows businesses to streamline content creation.

Businesses can leverage AI to create multiple ad variations, ensuring fresh content while maintaining brand consistency. This not only saves time and resources but also allows for A/B testing and campaign optimization for maximum impact. What are the newest features?

• Granular Control: Set your brand colors and fonts to ensure every generated asset seamlessly aligns with your brand identity.
• “Generate More Like This”: Want more variations of a high-performing ad? Simply use the “Generate More Like This” feature to explore new possibilities and optimize your campaigns for maximum impact.
• Customization Freedom: Don’t like the background in an image? Need to add a specific element? Gen AI gives you the flexibility to customize generated assets, ensuring they perfectly fit your needs.
• Go from Image to Video: Static images are great, but captivating videos can truly grab attention. The new Image to Video tool takes your existing product photos and turns them into short, engaging videos.

Impact on Users: Users are exposed to more engaging ad experiences as businesses use AI to tailor content and creatives.

Teaching AI About Your Brand

Here’s a thought experiment for you: we are using gen AI to create content to educate AI about our brands. It’s a bit of a mind-bender, but it highlights the power dynamic shift. By providing AI with an array of content variations that showcase your brand’s unique selling points and messaging, you’re essentially helping AI “understand” your brand better. This, in turn, can lead to more relevant ad placements and a more effective marketing strategy.

Data-Driven Decisions, AI-Powered Results

Google Marketing Live 2024 underscored how important the role of data and AI are in achieving marketing success. Businesses of all sizes, both online and in-store, can leverage these tools to unlock new growth and customer engagement opportunities. Here’s a breakdown of key takeaways and their impact:

First-Party Data for a Data-Driven Foundation

As user privacy regulations evolve, data collected directly from customers, with their consent, becomes more important than ever. This data forms the foundation for personalizing marketing efforts and powering the effectiveness of AI tools.

A new tool called Google Ads Data Manager was announced. It simplifies data management and activation for advertisers, as well as streamlines data sharing across teams, and ensures privacy-safe campaign execution. This allows businesses to leverage their data more effectively.

The Impact on User Behavior and Brand Experiences

Imagine ad experiences that feel eerily relevant because they are based on your past interactions with the brand. That’s the potential of a strong data foundation. Businesses can build stronger brand relationships by tailoring content and messaging to specific customer needs and preferences.

Optimizing Advertising Campaigns

Performance Max (PMax) campaigns and Shopping campaigns offer a powerful way to reach customers across Google’s various channels. Google Marketing Live 2024 introduced two exciting features to enhance retail advertising campaigns.

• Profit Optimization for PMax and Shopping: This feature leverages Merchant Center data to optimize PMax and Standard Shopping campaigns for maximum profit. Businesses can set goals for both revenue and profit, maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS).
• Enhanced PMax Campaign Transparency: Advertisers gain deeper insights into PMax campaigns with placement reporting, YouTube exclusions, and asset-level reporting. This allows for a better understanding of campaign performance and opportunities for optimization.

Our cyberlicious® experts are particularly excited about the transparency regarding Pmax assets as that has been one of our largest gripes since they rolled out.

The Impact on User Behavior and Brand Experiences

Businesses can achieve higher conversion rates and a better return on their marketing investments. With enhanced transparency, businesses can refine their PMax campaigns to deliver a more consistent brand message across channels, further improving the user experience. Plus, who doesn’t want to know how their assets are performing?

Challenges and Considerations for Businesses

While Google Marketing Live 2024 showcased exciting features powered by AI, there are also challenges and considerations for businesses to keep in mind:

• Adapting SEO Strategies: Shifting from keyword-centric to user-intent-focused SEO requires effort. Businesses might need to invest in tools that help identify conversational search queries and user needs.
• Content Creation for Conversational Search: Creating content that anticipates user questions and provides comprehensive answers can be time-consuming. Businesses might need to consider expanding their content teams or outsourcing content creation.
• Data Management and Insights: Optimizing AI-powered campaigns requires a strong foundation of data. Businesses with limited data or those struggling with data silos might face challenges utilizing features like Performance Max Profit Optimization.
• Keeping Up with the Pace of Change: The field of AI is constantly changing. Businesses need to be adaptable and embrace a culture of continuous learning to stay ahead.
• Maintaining Brand Control: While Generative AI offers creative freedom, businesses need to ensure the generated content aligns with their brand voice and messaging. Implementing clear brand guidelines and closely monitoring AI outputs is necessary.

The Future of In-Store & Online Sales

This snapshot of Google Marketing Live 2024 just scratches the surface of the innovative features announced. While we’ve focused on the impacts for in-store and online sales, the potential applications extend far and wide. If you’re curious to know more, we highly recommend watching the full GML keynote.

Whether you like it or not, the future of in-store and online sales is intertwined with AI. As far as the cyberlicious® team can tell, these features will redefine customer journeys, content creation, and brand experiences. What should you do?

Focus on user intent. Understanding why users search is paramount. Conversational search assistants like Project Astra demand a shift from keyword-centric content to informative, user-centric content that anticipates user questions.

Embrace visual commerce. AI-enhanced Shopping Ads usher in a new era of immersive shopping experiences. From virtual try-on to 3D product views, these features will blur the lines between online browsing and in-store exploration.

Navigate AI & Connect with Customers with the help of cyberlicious®

As marketing experts, we understand the complexities of navigating the ever-evolving marketing landscape. With Google’s AI-powered features on the horizon, here’s how cyberlicious® can help your in-store and online sales business:

• SEO for Conversational Search: We can help you adapt your SEO strategy to target the types of questions users might ask conversational AI assistants.
• Content Strategy for the AI Age: We can help you create informative content that educates users and positions your brand as an authority in your niche.
• AI-Powered Campaign Management: We can help you leverage AI tools like generative AI and PMax to optimize your campaigns for maximum reach and impact.

By partnering with us, you can gain a competitive edge in the age of AI-powered marketing. Cyberlicious® will help you unlock the full potential of Google’s latest features and ensure your brand stays ahead of the curve.