Five exclusive tips to assist marketers in 2020 and beyond

As a Google Premier Partner agency Space & Time has exclusive access to insights from the world’s leading search engine. We were recently invited to attend two training sessions which covered a range of strategies that marketers can use during these uncertain times; strategies that can help drive creativity, efficiency and value and improve client relationships.

Here are the key takeaways:

Use YouTube video builder tool to reduce creative cost

YouTube has seen its popularity increase whilst we’ve all been spending more time inside and is now the second largest commercial broadcaster in the UK after ITV – with watch times climbing by a third during lockdown. Marketers can be put off due to not having the resources required to create high-quality video adverts, so Google has launched YouTube video builder. Within ten minutes a video ad can be created using static assets like text and images. With the addition of colours and music a video ad is then put together for use on the platform. This a product currently in beta testing which Space & Time has access to via our Premier Partner status.

Automation is a friend of creativity

Advertising creative isn’t often a priority when it comes to digital marketing. But, according to Nielsen, creative is responsible for 47% of sales increases attributed to advertising so it is increasingly important to stand out in a crowded market. 5.3 trillion display ads are being shown annually to US users as they browse websites. Automated display ad formats like Responsive Display Ads (RDA) are a great start and a means of saving creative time and building campaign reach and response, but it’s recommended to use video in these adaptive ad formats too. RDAs which use video content typically lead to 5% more conversions and 15% more impressions than those that don’t. When it comes to paid search, the use of Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) ensure highly relevant ads are shown for each individual search query. This means that you can access incremental inventory that might not have been reached previously due to a lack of relevancy.

Add value with data

Building trust with customers has never been more crucial for advertisers. If marketers are transparent and responsible with data and provide value to the consumer, users are more willing to share more information about themselves. Value to the consumer can come through discounts, apps to improve customer experience or blogs featuring premium video content. Marketers should be moving towards first party data solutions and prioritising user relationships, harnessing audience lists and using smart bidding and smart creative to put together a personalised experience when advertising on Google products. A personalised, omni-channel experience can result in a 5-15% increase in revenue for a business.

Connect with your customer personas

For that omni-channel experience, it’s important to have the right customers. In 2020 user relationships must be prioritised above everything else and it’s important to try to put business insights on customer journeys into a customer ‘persona’. To piece together these personas consumer attitudes, intent and why they use your products should be considered. Personas bring you closer to the customer and give greater context to search queries. If they are searching for a product, it’s important to think about what their motivation is to buy it. Off the back of that, new growth opportunities present themselves. Organisations that use customer behaviour insights outperform peers by 85% in sales growth and 25% in gross margin.

Apps need to be taken seriously

Apps are not just a marketing tool where the yardstick for success is the average number of monthly users. Average order size and order value can also be increased using apps. As a result, apps should not just be the concern of the marketing department, but also the CFO and Head of Sales. An app can address customer pain points and deliver real impact to a business’s bottom line. For retail apps, 18 months after their launch, app users buy 33% more frequently, buy 34% more items and spend 37% more than non-app customers. By 2021 the transaction value in apps is expected to be over 6.3 trillion dollars, so businesses should be doing all they can to increase their presence in this market.

If you are interested in finding out how Space & Time can help with your search marketing strategies, please get in touch with a member of our specialist team.