We attended the Think Retail on Air, a virtual event focused on preparing businesses for the holidays. Google discusses the latest holiday trends, strategies, and AI-powered tools that will help you maximize profitability at every touchpoint. The Key takeaway for us was how AI can benefit your business and enhance the shopping experience. 

Here, I’ll discuss how to multiply your advertising performance with Google AI tools & solutions and maximize your revenue.

The most important element in a successful campaign is to Know the shopper’s mindset and to have a consumer-first approach. In a study conducted by Google, the most important consumer behaviors include:

• Today’s shoppers are more intentional with their purchases, with 74% planning their shopping in advance of the holidays. 
•  Online shoppers who are active on social media use, on average, 10 touchpoints to inform and evaluate purchases inspired by an influencer 
• 87% of shoppers reported using Google property like search, maps, or YouTube as shopping resources. 

Meet consumers as the season progresses and their mindset shifts from Deliberate, Deal Seeking,
Determined, to Devoted. By leveraging AI, you’ll be able to stay ahead of the game. Google recommends using tools such as customer match, new customer, budget, and scenario planning, broad match, value-based bidding tools, and more.

Don’t Be shy from automated strategies, take the guesswork out of your marketing, technology, and AI are poised to help marketers respond to evolving consumer demand and remain agile to keep up with the pace of change.  Ai-powered solutions help unlock massive scale speed and insights to maximize sales. 

With Performance Max,   you are able to take the guesswork out on where to find your audience, so you can make the most of your budget and increase revenue.  Grab your audience with a good deal with the new functionality to customize promotions by geography through states and zip codes and display promotions to shoppers who have expressed interest in your product. 

AI can help you create shopping experiences that are more immersive and engaging. We know that offers with more than one image see a 76% average increase in impressions and over a third increase in clicks. Moreover, shoppers engaged 50% more with a 3D image than a static one. Google AI can now generate 3D images for you.  

More announced that there will be more Google AI retail features to come, like virtual try-ons and conversational search experiences with generative ai.

Connect with high-value shoppers throughout their journey with Google AI

Use AI-powered campaigns and tools to find new shopper demand and maximize ROI across Google—including Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Maps, and more.

𝤿 Maximize coverage across search queries, expand to other channels to drive incremental conversions, and capture the unpredictable demand by combining AI-powered Performance Max campaigns and Search campaigns (with broad match, Smart Bidding, and responsive search ads).

• If you’re running Standard Shopping campaigns, you can run an experiment or A/B test to measure the uplift in conversion value from switching to Performance Max. Advertisers that shifted from Standard Shopping campaigns to Performance Max drove a 25% increase in conversion value, on average, at a similar ROAS.9
• For your Performance Max campaigns, enable final URL expansion by first turning on automatically created assets to dynamically optimize your Search ads so they’re more relevant to a user’s search.
• Explore more in-depth Performance Max best practices for retailers.

𝤿 Turn inspiration into action by connecting your product feeds to your Video Action Campaigns and Discovery campaigns. On average, advertisers that add product feeds to their Video action campaigns achieve 74% more conversions at a lower CPA.

• If you have a physical store, stand out to holiday deal-seekers nearby by adding local offers to your product feed.

𝤿Drive performance during seasonal moments and promotions by refreshing your creative. Create new asset groups with updated assets or swap creatives in existing asset groups. Upload your assets at least two weeks in advance to allow enough time for ad approvals.

𝤿 If you have a physical location, drive holiday shoppers in-store for more opportunities to upsell into larger basket sizes.

• Use Smart bidding for store visits or sales to maximize online and in-store sales. Or reach more in-store shoppers and increase your total sales with Performance Max for store goals.

𝤿 Set up your campaigns so you can focus on customer lifetime value. For new customers to your business, use the new customer acquisition goal available for Performance Max and Search campaigns. Or drive customer re-engagement and loyalty promotions with promotion assets for App campaigns. 

• Explore more in-depth Apps and best practices for retailers

By leveraging Google’s AI-powered solutions and deep customer insights, retailers can increase revenue and maximize their campaigns. Also, by understanding the shopper mindsets that will drive purchasing behaviors, you can identify untapped opportunities and win your highest-value customers.

By discovering how you can harness the power of AI to enhance your creativity, drive growth, and connect with customers no matter how unpredictable their behaviors may be, you are able to craft high-performing strategies to drive better outcomes for the holiday season and beyond.