Google’s New Demand Gen Campaigns Use AI To Reach Shifting Audiences

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Google is launching an exciting new ad format called Demand Gen Campaigns which uses the latest AI tools to create highly targeted video and image ads for YouTube, as well as Google’s other platforms. 

The new ad product is designed to motivate advertisers to invest more outside of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram – Google Ads’ biggest competitors. 

What Are Demand Gen Campaigns?

Demand Gen Campaigns are video ads up to 15 seconds long, primarily intended to run as pre- or mid-roll YouTube placements. However, the company says the ads will show in other places as well, including as image carousels on mobile and bumper ads.. 

Most importantly, Demand Gen includes a suite of creative tools to help deliver messages and ads that are tailored for your audience. 

The ad product also generates “lookalike” audiences filled with potential new customers who match your existing customers. 

As with most Google Ad formats, advertisers can manage a wide range of ad delivery and budget options, allowing you to deliver more clicks, traffic, and conversions. 

Demand Gen Helps Target Shifting Audiences

stats about Demand Gen Campaignss

Google says that Demand Gen Campaigns are intended to help businesses reach consumers during a time when shopping habits are quickly changing.

The company cites recent surveys that show viewers typically split their time on social media between traditional platforms like Facebook and Instagram with others like YouTube. 

Additionally, more than 90% of people said they had watched content from a specific creator or artist across multiple platforms and formats in the past year. 

These ads are designed to help pull users onto YouTube, which Google believes offers a more genuine connection with creators. 

The ads are intended to do this by using visually engaging ads that are highly tailored for specific audiences across the entire Google ecosystem.

Demand Gen Campaigns Will Replace Discovery Ads

Demand Gen ad campaigns started rolling out to advertisers worldwide earlier this week, and will be replacing Google’s current ad option for its Discovery feed. Discovery campaigns will be phased out sometime in early 2024.

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Microsoft Advertising Releases a Free Holiday Guide For Brands

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The holidays are approaching and Microsoft Advertising wants to help your brand prepare before the shopping season arrives.

Microsoft Advertising has released a new free guide called “Your Festive Season Marketing Playbook” which includes all the information you could need to prepare the most efficient and impactful ad strategies for the latest holiday trends and shopping behaviors. 

Below, we will share some highlights to help steer your ad strategies in the coming months.

Start Planning Early

The guide encourages brands to start planning their campaigns and budgets early, to avoid falling behind. Data from past years suggests that shopping for the holiday season may start as early as September, with a notable increase in both traffic and purchases between September and October throughout much of the world. 

October Clicks Matter In November and December

Another sign that holiday shopping begins earlier than expected is the discovery that approximately two-thirds of purchases in November and half of December purchases can be traced back to clicks in October. 

Now is when brands are able to plant the seeds in shoppers’ heads that turn into holiday purchases. Using remarketing, in-market audiences, and automated bidding strategies, you can develop these initial clicks into later sales.

Deal Seeking is Up

According to the guide, American consumers are spending much more time hunting for deals than in the past. Around two-thirds of shoppers are now devoting significantly increased time to looking for coupons, promotions, or other types of deals. Compared to other regions, shoppers in this area spend approximately 33% more time using search to find deals compared to the average shopper around the world. 

Desktop Drives Holiday Sales

According to the data collected from the Microsoft Advertising Network, just 28% of holiday ad clicks are made by mobile devices, which only account for 22% of total retail conversions around the holiday shopping season. 

This suggests that desktop devices are contributing to the bulk of holiday shopping activity despite the major rise in mobile shopping over the past few years. 

For more about these shopping trends, ad strategies, and holiday marketing recommendations, download the Festive Season Marketing Playbook for yourself here.

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X is Joining The Google Ads Display Network

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X (previously known as Twitter) is partnering with Google Ads in an attempt to make up for the declining ad revenue seen by the company since its takeover by Elon Musk. 

In the near future, X will be included as part of the Google Display Network, making it possible for many of the ads run by Google Ads to appear on the social network.

Why Is X Partnering With Google?

Since the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk last year, the company has seen an estimated 59% drop in ad revenue from the US. While numbers are not available globally, most analysts agree that this has dramatically hurt the social network’s profits 

Much of this reduction in ad revenue was sparked by Musk’s decisions to reduce moderation on the platform and to unban controversial accounts. Since then, advertisers have seen their ads appearing alongside increasingly objectionable content including hate speech, slurs, and nazi imagery. As you might expect, this has led many advertisers to completely stop advertising on the platform.

Can You Opt Out?

For brands concerned about potentially having ads shown alongside hateful or controversial media, it is important to know that you can choose to not have your ads shown on X or any other website. As a Google spokesperson told Ad Age:

“This is an opportunity for our advertisers to reach a broader audience, but as always they can choose what sites and apps their ads run on. Any publisher who participates in this type of partnership must abide by our publisher policies.”

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Reddit Introduces An Official Keyword Research Tool To Improve Ad Targeting

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Years after it introduced the ability to buy and target ads across the platform, Reddit is officially launching its first keyword research tool.

The new AI-powered tool allows you to better target the people who will see your ads and improve their performance – meaning you pay for fewer irrelevant impressions or clicks. 

Wise advertisers can also use the tool to brainstorm new ways to connect with their audience which may have been previously elusive. 

How Does It Work?

The Keyword Suggestions tool is being rolled out as a feature available in the Reddit Ads Manager – the platform’s self-service tool for creating and managing ads.

The tool uses machine learning and natural language processing to compile lists of relevant keywords and to filter out irrelevant keywords based on the original context of the keyword. 

Once done, the tool compiles these keyword options and sorts the list based on the number of monthly Reddit views each keyword has received. 

How This Differs From Other Tools

Third-party keyword research tools for Reddit have been available for some time, though all third-party tools will inevitably have gaps in the data they have to work with. Meanwhile, Reddit can theoretically use raw data to provide the most accurate keyword recommendations for users.

The tool is rolling out now for advertisers to put it to the test and see how its keyword recommendations compare and whether they can effectively drive more ad engagement.

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New Instagram Test Asks “Are Four Ads At Once Better Than a Single Ad?”

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Instagram is testing a new ad format that combines four ads from competing businesses into a single ad unit. 

In other words, users will be seeing four ads from different sources on a single screen to encourage users to consider a wider number of businesses and to encourage brands to deliver the best ad messages to entice customers. 

The latest multi-ad format is a new take on Instagram’s Multi-Advertiser ads, which grouped related sponsored posts together and showsed them to people who have recently expressed interest in related products or services. 

If you want to see the new ad format for yourself before you consider trying it out, you’re most likely to see them between Instagram Reels, the company’s take on short, TikTok-esque videos. 

Why Multiple Ads At Once?

Obviously, many brands and advertisers have expressed skepticism and outright cynicism about this ad format, suggesting it is an attempt to boost ad impressions without delivering increased value to advertisers. 

Of particular concern is the idea that the first ad in any of these multi-ad sets is likely to receive the majority of clicks, while ads in other positions are costing brands the same amount without leading to clicks. The fact that the ads appear following another piece of content, when users are likely to be unengaged with the app is another concern. 

Despite this, Instagram is already promoting the new ad format test in an announcement in the platform’s Help Center. In the announcement, the company said:

“Multi-advertiser ads help people discover and compare products from multiple businesses. This ad unit, available for selected placements on Facebook and Instagram, gives advertisers the opportunity to be discovered by people who have recently shown and interest in related products or businesses.”

As a test, this ad format is rolling out gradually and may not be available to all advertisers. If you want to ensure your ads do not appear in this type of format, you can opt out in the Settings menu.

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New Google Analytics 4 Report Identifies Your Most Engaged and Profitable Audiences

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Google Analytics 4 is rolling out a new report that will help businesses identify their most engaged and profitable audiences. 

The new report was revealed in a Google Analytics support page detailing its features.

So long as you’ve had at least one user in a specified time period, the report will provide details that make it easier to define who your most effective audience is. With this information, brands can then make more informed decisions about their marketing to improve future performance. 

Specifically, the new Audiences report will include six important metrics:

  • Active users
  • Average session duration
  • New users
  • Sessions
  • Views per session
  • Total revenue

To view details about any audience in the report, click the name of the audience and a tab containing more in-depth information will open.‘

These details are available to all sites using Google Analytics, though they may need to be added by an administrator. 

To view the report, users can sign into their GA4 account, select the ‘Reports’ button on the left-hand menu, and click the tab ‘User’.From there, look for ‘User Attributes’ and click ‘Audiences’. 

For more, view the Google support page about the new Google Analytics 4 Audiences report here.

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Twitter Is Rebranding to “X”

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Elon Musk is continuing to remake Twitter as he wants it with the biggest change yet – an entirely new brand name – X. 

Instead of Twitter, users visiting the social network on desktop devices will now be redirected to X.com, the new home of the platform for the foreseeable future. Some mobile users have already seen the update on their phone, while many others will see the icon transform from a cheerful blue bird to a sleek X in the coming days. 

In the announcement, CEO Linda Yaccarino said the new name represents their move to becoming more than a social network app to an “everything app”. 

As she shared in an X (formerly called a Tweet):

“It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”

“X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us in all the ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”

Analysts have expressed concern about the move, with some speculating that the social network is losing billions in brand recognition. 

It is also unclear if the brand name change will bring back any advertisers who had stepped away from running ads on Twitter following a rise in hate speech and offensive content over the last year. 

Additionally, the use of redirects and completely changing the domain name raises questions about how long embedded Twitter content on other sites will continue to function or if they will soon break as the Twitter domain becomes part of the past. 

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Instagram Threads Introduces First Paid Promotion Tools

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Threads may be the hottest new social network, but its fast development and release means there is little in the way of actual marketing tools for brands. In fact, the platform doesn’t currently serve ads of any kind.

However, the company announced it is launching tools to let marketers develop their own paid promotion opportunities until more robust advertising options arrive. 

Threads’ Paid Promotion Tools

In essence, Threads’ is borrowing Instagram’s already existing paid promotion tools for influencer campaigns and collaborations. These tools let brands and influencers properly tag content that may include paid promotions or professional collaborations to maintain transparency with users. 

Specifically, Threads requires that:

Brands use the branded content tools when working with influencers on sponsored content

Only brands have access to paid partnership labels to posts

Brands clearly disclose paid partnership collaborations

100 Million Users But No Ad Tools?

So far, Threads and its parent company, Meta, have been quiet about the development of advertising tools or services for the platform. With the announcement that Threads has already gained over 100 million users since its recent launch, though, it seems highly likely that proper ad tools are on their way. 

The current lack of these tools highlights how quickly Threads was developed in the face of Twitter’s ongoing collapse. Despite the limited features and tools for brands, however, the platform appears to be an immediate hit with users who have long been vocally unhappy with Twitter’s direction and leadership.

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Google Gives Advertisers More Control Over Where Their Ads Appear With Brand Exclusions and Restrictions

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Google is giving advertisers more control over where their ads appear in Search with two new features that have only been available to a small number of advertisers previously.

The company announced it will be bringing brand exclusions for Performance Max campaigns and broad match brand restrictions for all advertisers on Search. 

In the announcement, the company said that both pilot tests were “successful” and that bringing these tools to more advertisers would improve campaign performance. They also promise that using brand exclusions and restrictions will help improve reach by guaranteeing your ads are not appearing along controversial, irrelevant, or problematic search content.

Notably, these are one of the many new features on the platform which are being assisted with AI.

Google gave Search Engine Land two statements, one for each new ad feature:

“[Advertisers can] expand the reach of your brand campaigns with new brand restrictions for broad match. Broad match gives you the most relevant reach and conversions within your performance goals.”

“In the past, it may have been difficult to use broad match in campaigns with specific brand needs. That’s why we’re rolling out brand restrictions. This new feature will help you get the additional reach of broad match, while ensuring it is only matching to relevant brand traffic that you’ve specified.”

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LinkedIn to Test Targeted Ads During Streaming Content

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Would you like to be able to run video ads on streaming services that specifically target LinkedIn users? The social network is testing a new ad product that allows advertisers to reach LinkedIn’s 930 million users as they watch TV or movies at home. 

In a statement to Reuters, the Vice President of Marketing Solutions for LinkedIn, Penry Price, said: “In-stream video ads can change the way brands and buyers reach and engage their audiences.”

The new ad format comes following reports that the company’s ad platform is already up in sales by 8% year-on-year and is looking to further grow its advertising profits.

The new format could also be a boon for advertisers looking to increase their ROI by reaching their audiences with ads while they are most receptive. 

LinkedIn’s ad growth has been a bit of a surprise because it comes at a time when other ad platforms are being hit by falling ad budgets and an overall uncertain economy. Meanwhile, the social network’s ad platform continues to drive revenue from ad sales and subscriptions for recruiters, professionals, and B2B salespeople. 

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