Google is always adding new Google Ads features to help businesses optimize their digital marketing and boost sales. However, when you’re busy in your day-to-day business activities, you might not notice some of the updates that could ultimately make a difference to your bottom line.
So, here is a breakdown of some of the most significant and latest Google Ads features and how they can help you improve your business performance:
1) Free Listings on Google Shopping 
Ever since the European Commission fined Google for the unfair advantage of its comparison-shopping tool, Google has included a free option on its shopping channel. While Google Shopping is a feature that operates best on a pay-per-click basis, it never hurts to benefit as much as you can from zero-cost traffic by getting your business listed on Google Shopping for free.
To really bring in conversions, however, you will still have to optimize your Shopping Ads and product pages. You want identify the products that are getting you the greatest number of conversions and focus your strategy around them. Modify your product feed and pages to optimize your margins.
Once you’ve streamlined your feed, just go to your Google Merchant account and find the “Surfaces across Google” channel in the Growth Menu. Make sure it’s set to “ACTIVE” and you’re good to go!
2) Keep Tabs on Offline Conversions for Your Local Campaigns
Even though Zoom meetings and online business transactions have become the “new normal,” nothing beats the relationships we make in-person. So, as you’re planning and tracking your marketing, don’t forget about offline conversions!
If you have a brick-and-mortar business, Google Ads’ local campaigns feature makes use of WiFi and GPS to identify a user’s location and display them your relevant ads. You can set up omni-channel tracking and integrate both online and offline elements in order to keep tabs on online purchases, offline purchases, as well as the in-store visits that Google automatically tracks from location data captured by your customers’ mobile devices.
3) Performance-Based Targeting for YouTube Ads and the Display Network 
Because of the wealth of knowledge that Google already has on users, you can benefit from impressions on Display and YouTube ads.
These formats are no longer just to influence targets or create brand awareness. They can actually fetch you more leads and customers and give you a higher return on investment. Google has set up a win-win situation by designing the algorithm to only show relevant ads to users, increasing your likelihood of conversion and Google’s revenue per page.
You need to be smart about this though, because if your ad isn’t generating revenue for Google, your campaign might go absolutely nowhere.
4) New Gallery Ads Format Integrated with Search
Showcase Shopping Ads show up in the main results pages on Google Search. This new mobile-only advertising format should be more successful in capturing user attention because people are known to respond better to visuals as opposed to plain text.
These ads can be shown on the YouTube Home screen, the Google Discovery App, and even on Gmail. They’re more impactful than text and have higher retention value for users.
5) New Customer Acquisition 
The New Customer Acquisition option allows you to make changes to your Smart Shopping Campaign based on your estimates of the lifetime value of a customer. You can now indicate the incremental price you wish to pay for a new customer as opposed to an existing one. New customers can be tracked using two methods:
- By connecting Google Ads with your Google Analytics – this way the algorithm tracks all the sales on your website, no matter how they’re obtained.
- By setting differentiated tags for your old vs. new customers
With good customer relationship management, you’ll maintain the right balance between acquiring new customers and retaining old ones.
Now, if you’re ready to really level–up your digital marketing with Google Ads, our team here at JXT Group can put together a customized, advanced marketing strategy just for you. We’re a Google Premier Partner, which means we’re one of the recognized top experts in developing and deploying cutting-edge online marketing using Google Ads.
Curious how a high-level Google Ads marketing campaign would work for your business? Just reach out to our team via our online contact form or by calling 718-690-7302 to find out more!
