As 2023 approaches, marketers have to admit this about Google: They’ve been busy.
Between the Bard/SGE headlines and the auction game antitrust lawsuit admissions, Google has produced its usual share of releases.
Unfortunately for B2B, most of them are aimed at e-commerce/B2C or represent minor improvements that don’t make up for the ad controls Google has removed or the glaring lack of transparency behind auctions and pricing.
With that as a backdrop, I’ll review some of Google’s biggest releases in 2023 before adding a plea for some updates that I think could in reality help future B2B marketing performance.
New in 2023
Bard and SGE
They are not the same (as explained here).
At this point, Bard and SGE are of more immediate interest to SEOs, but wholesale user adoption (including conversations / chat) will almost certainly come with monetization options.
In 2023 it won’t be clear what that looks like, but we’re all paying attention to the paid side of the house.
AI functionality
Google has added more AI functionality to the platform, with much of it focused on Performance Max.
This is much more impactful for e-commerce as we don’t see a lot of quality lead generation in top performing campaigns.
The good thing is that Google doesn’t force B2B marketers to use Performance Max campaigns, which is important.
Dig Deeper: Peak performance for B2B: 4 best practices
Demand Gen campaigns
B2B marketers won’t cry for legacy discovery campaigns to go away, but I don’t see demand generation campaigns being a game changer.
While these campaign types offer unique placements like Gmail and Discover, the new similar segment functionality will need to be quite powerful (and absorb non-Gmail contact variables) to be a meaningful campaign type for B2B.
Google also launched additional measurement options like brand lift and search lift to help see the impact of these campaigns, which is a step forward.
Video creation
Here’s a good one: YouTube has added automated creation tools that make it easier for advertisers to use video in their campaigns. This lowers the barrier of video production for advertisers and ultimately gives them more media options to try.
Simplified attribution options
Google recently removed four attribution models: first touch, linear, time decay, and position-based.
I’m neutral on this because while I agree that they were philosophically outdated, there is a (slight) loss in that some CRM systems use first-touch attribution, which complicates some data structures.
But, as Google said, all of these models had fairly low adoption rates, so the repercussions are minimal.
Ads Transparency Center
It’s a fairly new product, but I think the Ad Transparency Center has potential to:
Support Google’s efforts to eliminate spam, which could have a significant impact on display placements. Give advertisers insight into competitor behavior.
Remember the Facebook Ad Library, a great resource for competitor research and information.
New search tools powered by AI
One of the tools Google included in this release, the conversational ad experience, could be interesting as it’s a fundamentally new way for brands to interact with users.
I like the idea of asset generation, but it would be better if you had visibility into the performance of assets (headlines, videos, etc.) instead of just giving them an overall score.
We used to get better data on the performance of specific pieces of ad combinations, and I’d love to see Google bring that back.
Google Analytics 4
I’ve buried this one because so much has already been written about it, though I have a few related requests for Google to address in the next section.
A GDN/X partnership
X (at least before Elon) had built a strong audience of tech influencers, but it wasn’t effective in helping advertisers reach the right people.
If this partnership turns out to combine an isolated X location with Google’s ability to upload audience lists to target people, it could be more interesting and probably more fruitful for awareness than for viewing.
X was, and could be again, a platform where people stop and pay attention to content, so if the ad looks native and has good targeting, it could work. The effectiveness will depend on how the partnership develops, so stay tuned.
Search YouTube to test your hyperlink keywords
I don’t think this is a huge development, but Google is giving people a way to conduct research in an easy/native way.
If you’re watching a video and something interests you, clicking on the hyperlinked keywords will take you where Google wants you to go if you stay on YouTube.
It keeps everything native and connected, resulting in perfect activity tracking for advertisers and giving users a great option for the burrow.
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What I would like to see in 2024
Aside from more transparency in auction bidding and CPM/CPC pricing (I know I’m not alone), I have four big items on my 2024 Google wish list.
Clarity on keyword match types
Google has made many updates to match types over the past few years, and many of these have caused marketers to move away from exact match.
All the changes mean that match types don’t mean what they meant a few years ago, but Google hasn’t provided us with clear, up-to-date definitions. This is frustrating. There are match types, and each one is doing something different, but what?
Improved B2B targeting
Anything Google (or Microsoft, for that matter) can do to provide more LinkedIn-like targeting (for example, letting search marketers direct their campaigns to decision makers would be very helpful).
There has been a small step in this direction with demographic targeting, but there is much room for improvement.
GA4 improvements
I’m not saying anything you won’t find in most advertising forums here. GA4, while pointing us in the right direction in terms of attribution, just wasn’t ready for release. As I write, it still has issues with poor UX.
I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to recreate the UA reports, and even when I have the mechanics down there are issues with event/conversion data being consistent from report to report.
Consistency and better UX should be imperative, not just from a B2B perspective.
Better ad copy reporting
While we’ve all adjusted to the launch of ETA in RSA last year, there’s still a limited amount of information advertisers can glean about which message works best to achieve the desired results.
Title/description level reporting beyond impressions would be a huge win for 2024, though I’m not holding my breath.
Best association of representatives
Google (like many other tech giants) had massive layoffs in early 2023, and there seem to be some downstream effects for marketers: reps are harder to engage and less consistent with the quality of the information they’re giving us. giving
They are also withholding data that they used to provide without issue, which, given the transparency issues with auctions and bids, seems sketchy to me, which is not something I want to hear about a key partner.
Unpacking Google’s busy year and what lies ahead
Any entity that becomes “too big to fail,” as Google has done in dominating search, will have more room to act in its own interest. But that also means they’re sowing some pretty fertile seeds of discontent.
Whether Bing can leverage its AI leadership into something that works for marketers, or whether Meta’s AI targeting continues to improve from a lead generation standpoint, or whether the antitrust lawsuit removes some of Google’s current advantages, Google may soon be forced to give more to B2B marketers.
Google has proven that it can be a great partner. He almost feels nostalgic thinking about those days. On behalf of my customers, I hope Google starts making stronger moves in this direction.
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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