DMEXCO 2020 Keynote -- Accelerate your digital marketing | Google Ads

Key Takeaways

hello and thank you for joining us from germany europe and around the world my name is jason spiro and i'm talking to you from san francisco i lead global commercialization efforts for google's performance advertising products like search display and measurement and i'm thrilled to be a part of the new virtual dmx code it's been a year of historic change for the world and for our industry during the crisis many of us have found digital tools to be a real lifeline they've allowed us to continue working and learning while sheltering at home compared to earlier this year life looks different for my family i've been working from home in san francisco where i am today with my wife and two young children my wife andrea is a professor at the university of san francisco we both needed to adjust our work lives to take care of our family so now i start working earlier i start at 6 a.m and i've used a converted closet that i've converted into a standing desk as you can see in the picture in the afternoon i take over parenting so andrea can teach her students virtually our daughter's lives have changed as well my youngest celebrated her birthday virtually this year and my oldest recently graduated from primary school with teachers presenting diplomas in person at each student's home as you can see in the lower right picture so this is a snapshot of my new normal and i bet for many of you this is quite familiar that's because these changes are not unique to me they're happening around the world and digital has played a huge role in how we've all adjusted at google we like to say we've experienced 10 years of change crammed into just six months and it certainly has felt like it we realize that these changes have complicated everyone's basic approach to business including google's and we wanted to do our part to help one of the ways we've provided support is by offering credits to those most impacted in march we gave 340 million dollars to small and medium-sized advertisers globally more recently we made a pledge to help 10 million people and businesses in europe the middle east and africa find jobs digitize and grow over the next 18 months and that work is well underway we see this work as vital and we're proud to support small businesses and local communities in emea and around the world now we're focused on providing businesses with the insights they need to recover by drawing on google's own data we can help you understand dynamic changes going on in consumer behavior so you know what matters right now for example the recent shift to digital is an acceleration of trends a pull forward of trends that were already in motion before the pandemic and it's created new opportunities for businesses to reach people as they search watch digital video and get things done in new ways the shift to digital has also caused consumer expectations to change we're seeing these changes directly reflected in what people are searching for and we wanted to share some of those insights and when the crisis ends we expect these new behaviors to stick as one example we're seeing more people use digital tools like search and maps to carefully plan their visits to physical stores and businesses in addition to this example i want to share three new search insights that have stood out to me first consumers are driving businesses to innovate as one example we're seeing people research safer ways to shop in the netherlands search interest for contactless payment went up by 225 from last year second interest in real-time information has spiked as consumers try to keep up with rapid changes another example in germany we've seen search interest for the operating hours of local businesses increased by over 175 percent compared to last year and lastly the third insight i want to share is that consumers are reshaping demand as they adapt to staying at home and social distancing in the united kingdom for this example search interest in plants online increased 10 times since last year across these examples and many more we see an enormous opportunity globally we've observed a significant increase in advertisers return on investment compared to just eight months ago this change is driven in part by new consumer search behavior like the examples we just reviewed it's also driven by areas where marketers have not historically focused or invested some advertisers are taking advantage of these efficiencies to fuel their recovery and ultimately grow their business when i step back and look at the bigger picture the period we're now in reminds me of a previous role at google where i prepared advertisers and google's products for the shift to mobile much like today this was a time of dramatic change and opportunity i learned then that decisions made early in the cycle can have a huge impact months and years down the road our belief is that businesses who embrace digital transformation now will win the future they'll use digital to rethink key aspects of their businesses from sourcing products to managing payroll and engaging customers of the many opportunities we see google is particularly well suited to help you find new customers and build stronger relationships with existing customers so this is where we'll focus the rest of today's conversation i'll start by telling you a story about a small business that reflects where many of us are today it's the story about needing insights best practices and automation to dynamically respond to changes in the market so please meet janine oberstorff from mendon germany jean runs a pet nutrition store and dog school called haimahund like millions of retailers around the world janine's business was disrupted by the crisis prior to the pandemic most of janine's sales were in store and through her in-person training courses but when the crisis hit gene had to pivot to keep her business afloat her website once a small part of her business now became her primary storefront and google's tools helped her adjust quickly and easily before the crisis geneva used a free automated tool called grow my store to discover personalized insights and recommendations to help her improve her digital presence as a result she was able to make her website more customer friendly and grow online and in-store sales by more than 4x after the crisis started jean could no longer run in-person training and closed her physical store but thanks to the optimization she made with grow my store she had a customer friendly website to rely on to easily stay in touch with her customers and to let them know that her online store was still open she turned to another free tool called google my business as a result of all of this jeanine was able to boost her online sales by 30 during the crisis truly amazing as with janine google's here to help you transform and capture the opportunity in your market the mission of my team the global business org is helping companies of all sizes drive growth by meeting consumers where they are we realize that the best way for us to help right now started by prioritizing efforts that help marketers keep up with real-time changes in the market this has meant changing our product roadmap by pulling things forward we've been able to put digital transformation within reach for more advertisers from the very smallest to the largest and everyone in between we're investing in automation that will help you drive better results today i'm pleased to announce a number of new innovations with you since i've heard that germany is known as the country of retailers let's start by taking a look at our new retail focused innovations first off i'm happy to report that we're still on track to expand free product listings on the google shopping tab globally before the end of the year as parts of the world begin to open back up we saw an enormous opportunity to build products that would help drive recovery for local businesses who have been some of the most impacted by the crisis as we touched on earlier today's consumer wants real-time information and this is particularly true when they want to buy something right now from a nearby store or business for example during the crisis global searches containing in stock have grown by more than seven hundred percent seven hundred percent and searches containing available near me have grown by more than a hundred percent across regions and across categories based on these insights we launched curbside pickup for local inventory ads in may to help connect local shoppers with the products they need quickly and to promote safer fulfillment options now we're expanding this capability with the launch of pickup later for local inventory ads this gives you the option to promote products that may not be available in store but can be available for pickup within a few days and we heard you tell us that you wanted an easier way to communicate key details about your business to customers based on this feedback we're excited to introduce service attributes for local campaigns today you can feature dining service attributes like dine in and take out in your local campaigns in google search and soon you'll be able to feature retail service attributes like in-store shopping and curbside pickup in your local campaigns when we first launched store visits measurement five years ago we did to help advertisers like janine at hymanhunt to help her understand the impact of google ads on bringing people to her physical store but we heard you tell us that you wanted more from store visits measurement you wanted insights and more tools to help you meet all of your in-store goals so today we're introducing improvements to store sales measurement with smart bidding now you can automatically optimize to store sales just like you already use smart bidding to optimize online conversions or store visits today designed with privacy at the core these enhancements allow you to seamlessly take action on your campaigns and optimize for offline success for volkswagen the largest network of credit unions in germany bringing consumers in store was critical for driving business growth with the help of google store visits and smart bidding volkswanken was able to automatically optimize campaigns to bring more people into their local branches and they were able to measure performance using google's aggregated and anonymized reporting data taken together we think these new products will help you reach more customers and grow as we near the end of my talk i wanted to remind you that despite the challenges facing all of us today there's also a big opportunity and that google has invested in your success we want to help your business recover grow and succeed and will continue to support you by providing the insights and automated tools you need to dynamically respond to changes in the market for example we just rolled out a new resource in europe called the advertising solution center if you want to check it out head over to think with google as you consider how you'll change your business like jaime honda and volkswagen this is a great resource to discover more google insights that can help with your recovery i want to thank you for taking the time to join me today and hope you enjoy the rest of the conference you