Nick Leeder is VP of EMEA Large Customer Sales, helping some of EMEA’s biggest brands grow their business using Google’s suite of Ad products. In this article, he discusses how they are using digital marketing transformation to reach, engage and convert more consumers – and how a new tool called ‘optimisation score’ can help your business do the same.
Does your digital marketing currently meet the needs of your consumers?
That might sound like an obvious, perhaps even a slightly peculiar, thing to ask. After all, if your digital marketing delivers results then it’s easy to assume the answer is yes. But for how long?
Consumers’ needs are changing almost as fast as the technology in their back pockets. According to our latest research1, 41% of millennials expect to be personally recognised, and more than half (51%) expect online experiences to reflect what they like, or might like. Most eye-opening of all, especially for marketers, is that almost a third of users will navigate away from content that doesn’t meet these expectations.
As technology gets better at understanding our individual preferences, and even answering us, there’s perhaps a natural tendency for consumers to demand the same from brands as they do of people. They expect brands to respond to them on a one-to-one, human, level.
That’s great, but it’s an expectation that can only be met by consistently delivering best-in-class, data-driven marketing, that meets consumers’ needs while respecting data privacy, at scale. And to do that, many brands need to transform their digital marketing.
The road to transformation
Digital marketing transformation often involves a complete overhaul in how a business approaches its marketing, how it connects the dots between data, and ultimately measures campaign performance. For this transformation to succeed, organisations need to commit to it from the top down.
That probably explains why, when it comes to digital marketing transformation, only 2% of brands are considered best-in-class. Yet the benefits are significant. These top brands typically see up to 20% more revenue and 30% more cost savings as a result.
While the advantages of transformation are clear, being able to actually apply these principles in a practical, boots-on-the-ground, way can be harder to digest.
So, what’s the best way for your business to get started?
Data-driven digital marketing transformation. Easier said than done?
We're partnering with many of our customers on their transformation journey. One way we have been helping Search advertisers quickly leverage the potential of data-driven marketing is through our new optimisation score tool.
Your customers now expect more personalised experiences from your brand, and we’ve applied the same best practice to our new tool. Accessible via the recommendations page in your Google Ads account, it’s tailored to each campaign – and uses statistical models and machine learning to tell you whether each campaign is taking full advantage of the latest digital marketing techniques.
It scores them between 0% (not at all) and 100% (you’re nailing it!). If there’s room for improvement, it’ll give you real-time customised recommendations along with the estimated impact they’ll deliver. You can then apply over half of the recommendations in a single click of a button.
“Optimisation score is there for the customers and agencies who want to get an edge in performance from Google Search and free up time. If you were waiting to leverage the potential of data-driven marketing in a way that gives you better insights and control, then wait no more -- welcome to optimisation score.”
- Nick Leeder, VP, Google Ads
A great example here is digital marketing agency, Wpromote, who used optimisation score to improve its bidding strategy. Based on a suggested recommendation to target CPA bidding in a remarketing campaign, Wpromote saw conversions increase by 20%, while CPA dropped 16%.
More than that, it changed the team’s approach to digital marketing, and saves them continually having to interrogate data for insights.
“Optimisation score saves us time from having to manually download raw data and massage it ourselves. It's nice to have the option of clicking a button to enable a recommendation.”
- Angelo Lillo, General Manager, Paid Search
Be one of the 2%
Earlier, we touched on the ‘elite’ 2% of brands already reaping the full benefits of digital marketing transformation. They realised early on that when it comes to consumers’ expectations, the only certainty is change.
So, even if your campaigns currently hit the mark, can you honestly claim they’re ready to adapt to whatever consumers will want from you in a week, month, or year?
Think of digital marketing transformation like going to the gym: the worst part is putting your trainers on and getting started. But once you begin, by using tools like optimisation score, the benefits can come quickly.
To find out more about optimisation score and how it can improve your digital marketing, speak to your contact at Google, or agency partner.
