The Media Lab team oversees media strategy, buying, and planning for Google Marketing. Led by Josh Spanier, VP of marketing, the team of experts in media, measurement, brand safety, and more, help make Google’s own campaigns successful. Each year, Media Lab compiles its top learnings for Google marketers. This year, we’re excited to share these findings with our readers in the hope that they are helpful for your 2024 planning.
1. Results are in: Google’s AI solutions work
We’ve tested every Google AI ads solution (Demand Gen, Performance Max, and more) and they all improve incremental performance outcomes. We’re already using conversational assistant in Google Ads to help write ad copy for Search.
2. People vs. machines is out. Humans + AI is in
Forget about the Hollywood plotlines. Work is shifting as scaled media and marketing become AI powered, data driven, and centrally executed. But the hand-stitching that only humans can do is what unlocks the culture, empathy, and nuance that drive scaled and local relevance.
3. Unlocking modern marketing: authentic culture
Authenticity is a core of modern marketing. When done right, authentic collaborations can even create culture. From our biggest partnerships to our own Made By Google Shorts videos, well-crafted, bespoke experiences can add to these moments to drive relevance and campaign success.
4. Unlocking modern marketing: incrementality scaled
Measuring incremental impact is complicated because of privacy, interdependencies, and platform changes. But it is doable, with a test, learn, and scale approach. Across 2023, we leveraged this trifecta of measurement extensively. Then we ran over 30 match-market tests, hundreds of Google conversion lift studies (CLS), and built multiple large media mix models (MMM).
5. No crystal ball for your AI marketing strategy? Look to the Cloud — and to your cross-functional partners
A coherent Cloud marketing strategy is critical to leveraging all that AI has to offer. Every marketing team, including our own, needs to learn new AI skills fast. We’re actively working to forge closer relationships with Cloud and to deepen our partnerships with key internal teams across AI, finance, legal, and more.
6. You get AI! You get AI! You get AI!
Every publisher, platform, stack, tool, and sales team claims to be AI-first. It can be a challenge to separate what’s real from what’s vaporware, but “AI paralysis” isn’t an option. Not sure where to start? Here are actions you can take today to put AI to work across your measurement, media, and creative.
7. There’s magic happening in the middle
Incrementality and video’s evolution from long form to short form and direct is driving us toward the mid-funnel. (Hello Google Demand Gen!) This melding of brand with more engaging direct response is driving better results. Brand lift and immediate sales, together? Eureka!
8. Sphere of influence
The Las Vegas Sphere has captured the imagination of marketers worldwide, lighting up innovation in out-of-home media and social amplification. To celebrate the England Lionesses, we ran 3D billboards in Tokyo and New York City, real-time billboards, and earned media across all. Watch this space for more creativity.
9. The end of third-party cookies isn’t coming. It’s here, and it’s time to act
Digital marketing is undergoing three epochal shifts. Regulation and privacy are well known, and AI is dominating. But the end of third-party cookies feels like an afterthought. The attention and resources devoted to this challenge feel off, industry wide. Put our privacy-focused deep dive, Foundations for durable ads performance, at the top of your to-do list.
10. All hail the B2B influencer
The classic B2B playbook features ads on niche sites, print ads, and exhortations to download reports or attend webinars. Today, B2B marketing is reimagined, starring celebrity CEOs, product evangelists, and myriad influencers. Social’s starring role in B2B is becoming clear.
11. Retail & shopping are going supernova
Social commerce in APAC and retail media networks everywhere are growing exponentially. Marketers need help developing retail shopping skills.
12. (Dis)connected TV
Connected TV (CTV) continues to grow like gangbusters, but execution across measurement, audience, quality, ad loads, and integration across publishers are all … fiddly. As CTV matures, advertisers may well choose to focus on a few core CTV partners, like YouTube, to make life easier.
