Google has introduced new retailer tools to create more immersive customer experiences and supercharge every stage of the advertising process.
At Google Marketing Live 2024, exciting new tools were rolled out to give retailers a significant boost. The lineup includes a new profile tailored for e-commerce brands, generative AI features designed to enhance product imagery, and innovative immersive ad formats. These additions are set to revolutionize how retailers present their products and engage with customers.
New visual brand profile for brand identity
An e-commerce brand profile is crucial for creating a cohesive and recognizable identity, enhancing visibility, and streamlining the shopping experience. It helps build customer trust, provides valuable analytics, and optimizes marketing strategies, ultimately driving sales and fostering brand loyalty in the digital marketplace.
According to Matt Madrigal, the Vice President and General Manager of Merchant Shopping at Google:“We unveiled a new visual brand profile right on Search that gives richer results for those common shopping queries. On the new brand profile, we will highlight information you’ve provided through Google Merchant Center- as well as Google’s Shopping Graph – to showcase your ethos and offering. Our visual brand profiles are inspired by the Business Profiles we offer local businesses on Search and Maps. Your profile will spotlight engaging product and brand imagery, videos and customer reviews.”
This new feature aims to enhance the shopping experience by providing a comprehensive and visually appealing representation of brands. It allows businesses to effectively showcase their unique identity and offerings, while shoppers benefit from richer, more engaging search results.
Additionally, ads will continue to appear on the page alongside the new profile, providing a seamless browsing experience that combines personalized information with relevant promotions. This strategic placement of ads and promotions aims to enhance the overall shopping experience, keeping customers informed and engaged.
New product studio features for better on-brand content
Last year, Google launched Product Studio, an AI-powered tool for merchants. Around 80% of users report increased efficiency, and 1 in 3 generated images are published or downloaded. New features enable merchants to generate brand-consistent product images by uploading an image and adding a prompt. This tool helps create campaign-ready content, saving time and costs. Product Studio can also generate videos from a single photo, animating still images for social media. Available in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. via Merchant Center Next and the Google & YouTube app on Shopify, it will expand to India and Japan soon.
For marketers in the retail industry, Product Studio streamlines the content creation process, allowing for rapid production of high-quality images and videos that align with brand aesthetics. This not only enhances marketing campaigns but also reduces the need for costly photo shoots and graphic design services. By enabling quick and easy content generation, Product Studio helps marketers maintain a dynamic and engaging online presence, which is crucial for attracting and retaining customers in a competitive market.
New editing features to optimize ad performance
Soon, advertisers can share their font and color guidelines, as well as provide helpful image reference points to generate new asset variations. We’re introducing new image editing capabilities so advertisers can add new objects, extend backgrounds, and crop to adapt to any format, size and orientation.
According to Vidhya Srinivasan, Vice President and General Manager of Advertising at Google: “We’ve been working on making it easier and faster to produce great creative assets for ads across marketing channels. Creative asset variety is crucial to strong ads, and achieving this has gotten easier for more advertisers with generative AI in Performance Max. We found that advertisers who improve their Performance Max Ad Strength to Excellent see 6% more conversions on average. Event Tickets Center was one of the earliest beta testers for asset generation in Performance Max, which has helped the team accelerate creative production by 5x with less time and effort.”
While performance metrics are crucial, Srinivasan added that maintaining brand consistency remains a priority, with forthcoming features allowing advertisers to incorporate specific brand guidelines directly into the asset generation process. This balance between innovation and brand integrity is essential for creating effective and cohesive advertising campaigns
New immersive ad visuals to enhance ad experiences
With attention spans decreasing and competition for consumer attention intensifying, visually compelling ads stand out amidst the noise, effectively grabbing users’ attention and conveying brand messages more effectively. By leveraging immersive visuals, advertisers can create memorable experiences that resonate with audiences, driving brand recall and influencing purchase decisions.
Google introduced new image editing tools for advertisers to add objects, extend backgrounds, and crop images to fit any format. Retailers can now highlight products from their Google Merchant Center feeds and use these editing features. Google AI will generate recommendations showing products in various contexts, allowing advertisers to choose and use these assets across their marketing channels. This provides advertisers with enhanced flexibility and creativity, enabling more engaging and tailored visual content.
Furthermore, generative AI can help show what products are like, which helps in building trust. Soon, Shopping ads will have cool visuals like Virtual Try-On and 3D ads. Also, a new feature will let you watch product videos, read summaries, and see similar items in an ad. These changes make online shopping more like shopping in person, which helps people trust brands more and might make them buy more, too.
New search and shopping ads for consumer empowerment
Google is expanding its ad offerings to enhance user experiences and simplify purchase decisions. By integrating ads into AI Overviews and Search, they aim to provide more relevant information to users. The new ad experience in Search is particularly intriguing as it leverages AI to personalize recommendations based on user inputs, such as photos and budget. This could revolutionize how consumers navigate complex buying processes, offering tailored solutions directly within the search results.
Conclusion
APAC marketers can leverage Google’s new retailer tools to create immersive customer experiences, optimize ad performance, and simplify the purchase journey. By embracing these innovations, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and drive growth in the dynamic digital marketplace.
