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22 October 2019 / Opinion

4 takeaways from Google's Agency Leaders Program

Alex Blaikley / Client Leadership Director

As a leading agency partner in the UK, Google invited a couple of our team along to the Google Agency Leaders Program in Paris and Dublin earlier this month, along with just a small handful of other agency partners.

With the help of INSEAD Business School, Google provided a comprehensive view of what consumer demand, digital trends and macro-economic events will shape digital marketing in the near future.

I’ve done a brief summary of what I took away as the 4 key themes from the event, which we’ll be exploring in more detail in our teams over the coming weeks.

1. Advertising needs to be helpful to customers

Google has evolved because it focuses on user relevance. Regardless of industry, platform or channel, your advertising needs to provide an answer to a customer need, it needs to be genuinely valuable and helpful to the customers you’re targeting.

2. Google’s audience understanding will benefit ‘full-funnel’ marketing and a higher level of personalisation

Using audience data across ‘joined-up’ platforms will enable an advertiser to provide that solution to a relevant user in an efficient and timely manner across text, shopping display or video formats.

3. Smart Bidding and machine learning in search will enable growth

By the end of 2020, Google anticipates that 75% of search campaigns will be using Smart Bidding.

On the right sized accounts, this will drive efficient growth and encourage a shift in focus to upper-funnel activity based on growth audiences for your business.

4. Adopting and evangelising a growth mindset for business is essential

There’s a lot to be said for structuring PPC accounts to maximise efficiency and enhance availability of your business in SERPS. However, this is not enough.

We adopt the growth mindset and encourage all stakeholders to play a part in growth. With negativity in the news cycle, it’s easy to fall into an efficiency-led narrative for your business. This need not be the case.

Finally, Google’s advice for all digital marketing practitioners; “Always have your top-level business goal in mind” in whatever marketing activity you undertake.

If you’d like more detail on any of these points, please feel free to get in touch.

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