Advertisers are not shy about sharing their thoughts on all the announcements from Google Marketing Live 2024.
There were mixed emotions around the many AI updates (Boris Beserik used AI to count the number of AI mentions – 101). Updates for maximum performance fell on the positive side; Neglecting B2B upsets others; and many more emotions fell between them.
Here’s a summary of some of the reactions to GML 2024 from nine experts:
AI and automation
Amalia Fowler, Founder, Good AF Consulting:
“I was confused by the statement that AI is not replacing the marketer, later followed by AI being able to do marketing strategy. The “control” narrative seemed like lip service, but several updates really speak to advertisers’ concerns.
“We’re in the era of automation and AI, and machine learning by definition requires volume to learn, which in the case of Google Ads requires budget. This tells me that advertisers with minimal budgets should wait to use Google Ads or put more money into Google Ads, and small businesses should carefully consider their marketing strategies from a holistic perspective.
“Many of the products mentioned require data from elsewhere – extracting text examples or using advertising messages. Garbage in, garbage out.
“The updates looked like slightly more advanced versions of last year’s GML.”
Jeremy Krantz, Director of Paid Search, Compound Growth Marketing:
“The live prototype of Ai seemed like a rushed response to ChatGPT 4o and everything else related to ai and pmax was highly anticipated.
“Overall, GML 2024 felt very underwhelming, especially when looking at it from a B2B lens. There were no surprises or anything unexpected that was announced.
“Hopefully B2B will come into focus at some point because right now we’re being completely ignored again.”
Sarah Stemen, Founder, Sarah Stemen LLC:
“Production of AI assets in Pmax can be incredibly powerful for rapid testing. I believe the real strength of this feature will be the combination of AI assets + asset level reporting
Advertisements in AI reviews were inevitable because reviews take up a significant amount of space and provide numerous commercial opportunities.
The delivery turned out to be unclear. Google doesn’t seem to know how to do this yet.
For turning images into videos, when Google creates a video in Pmax, isn’t that essentially what’s happening?
It looked to me like a variant of an existing process, but maybe that’s just my perspective. I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether this is really new or another spin.”
Nava Hopkins, Brand Evangelist, Optmyzr:
“There are several updates that apply to B2B/Lead gen: images to video ads, brand controls, Demand Gen lookalikes that only need 100 users, earning bidding and ads shown in AI reviews.”
Nicky Grant, Director of Partner Support, ClickTech Solution:
“I’m sure we all knew GML would be full of AI updates, and features like brand guidelines are a step in the right direction for advertisers riding the AI wave who still want to maintain some control over their presence.
“The new visual formats will be interesting as Google continues to diversify away from the world of text ads, specifically Brand Profiles, which offer a new way to summarize your brand to customers; it’s nice to see something that looks really different and not a variation of what we’re used to
“Performance Max earnings optimization goals sound particularly meaningful as advertisers seek to optimize against real-world bottom line metrics rather than ‘media metrics’; I want to know how much data these targets will require to work and whether smaller advertisers will be sidelined as a result.”
Lars Maat (founder of Maatwerk Online):
“This [Meridian] can be ‘something’. In my opinion, Meridian is not for all advertisers. MMM is something really “hard” and complex and I don’t think the majority of advertisers are ready for it. Agencies, okay. Big advertisers, fine. But small companies? Not like that
Regarding ads matched with content in the AI review – “something that is already known, right? That was coming for us the moment SGE started.”
Julie Friedman Bacchini (Neptune Moon founder):
This conversational AI grids. Only I?
Advertisers don’t need to “democratize content creation.” We need advertising solutions that allow us to reach people who want to buy what we sell.
So Gen AI still makes mistakes so don’t get mad when this happens to your account…
Google’s Gemini AI cannot generate images of people or products, so keep that in mind everyone. The examples do not reflect this.
So if human input is essential, how can generative AI predict performance before anything works?
Maximum Performance (PMax)
Fowler:
The list of 100 lookalike users is the most important to me here, followed by brand control in terms of PMax placements.
Scott Carruthers (head of PPC at Journey hereafter):
More information on maximum efficiency – asset level reporting etc. (isn’t that what we’ve all been waiting for?!)
Linking YouTube Creator Accounts to Ads Accounts – The opportunity to promote UGC is huge and Google is lacking in this area compared to other platforms. YT ads will surely gain more traction with better links / support from creators.
Grandmothers:
Asset-level reporting and YouTube exclusions are a welcome addition to PMax.
10% improvement for broad match? This bar was low (check all your request reports).
Jill Suskin-Gales (Google Ads Coach in Learn with Jyll):
While announcing the “Power Pair” of Search + PMax is a good sales narrative, PMax is very clearly the way forward in this multimodal environment.
B2B and lead generation
Kranz:
Overall, GML 2024 felt very underwhelming, especially when looking at it from a B2B lens. There were no surprises or anything unexpected that was announced.
Hopefully B2B will come into focus at some point because right now we are being completely ignored again
Gales:
Tons of shopping and trading messages. As Harrison Jack Hepp has already hilariously posted, no bones about it for lead generation purposes and/or B2B advertisers
Stamen:
Virtually trying on 3D product images is interesting because, although we already have similar solutions, any improvement in the buyer’s experience is a net positive in my opinion.
They are interested in virtual try-on and 3D images of products, improving the buyer’s experience.
For turning images into videos, when Google creates a video in Pmax, isn’t that essentially what’s happening?
It looked to me like a variant of an existing process, but maybe that’s just my perspective. I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether this is indeed new or another spin.
Gales:
How do you compete with TikTok Shop, Amazon, Pinterest and others? Google Lens Search & Circle to Search.
Grant:
While the development of shopping formats sounds innovative, it remains to be seen how many advertisers outside of the big brands find AI-driven shopping formats a help in reducing production costs or a hindrance with nuances and implications that are yet to be seen. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing how different brands decide to use “stickers” in their YouTube Shorts!
Grandmothers:
Shopping ads will start pulling review text into your ads???? Is there any control over this?
Some things from last year also behave like new? Specifically the images and video.
Overall, comments reflected a mix of cautious optimism about specific updates and significant skepticism about the broader significance and innovation of GML 2024, particularly for B2B and smaller advertisers.
Why do we care? Advertisers are happy with some of the new updates, but are getting tired of the frequent AI-driven changes. Smaller brands, in particular, are looking for better updates and a clearer understanding of how these changes will affect their performance. This need has not yet been addressed.
