Today in Digital Marketing - Google Ads: A Look Back and Ahead, with Jyll Saskin Gales

Starting point is 00:00:00 What a year it has been in digital marketing, and we're not even through the holiday season yet. Twitter got bought, Meta laid off thousands, but Google is still plugging along, shockingly free of scandals. Since this week, we are doing a special series of deep dive interviews. I thought we had to have our own Google Ads whisperer, Jill Saskengales, on to help us diarize the year it's been. Jill is a regular on our show. She spent six years at Google Ads, helping brands drive more performance out of their Google Ad campaigns. Today, she is an in-demand speaker and her online training program inside Google Ads is one of the best out there, always kept updated and led by someone who knows the

Starting point is 00:00:40 inside scoop. You can learn more about that at our affiliate link, which is b.link slash GA training. Jill, hello, and welcome back. Thanks for having me, Todd. Not at all. I should say we recorded this episode exactly one week ago today. So please excuse us if something crazy has happened in the last week, like Elon buys Google or something. We have no idea what has happened in the last week. All right, Jill, let's get started. So all the ad platforms, you know, especially in the last three, six months or so, are seeing reduced growth. I mean, every industry is. Google, though, seems to be more, I don't know, resilient to downturns in media buying. Why do you think that is? There are two reasons I can think of. The first of all is search.

Starting point is 00:01:26 And while Google is not the only search engine, it is the main search engine, at least in the Western part of the world. And there's really nothing else out there like it. You know, with the other ad platforms, TikTok or Meta or Pinterest, you are proactively reaching out to people who you think may want to buy your products based on their online behavior. But with search, it's genuinely magic. People type into that little white box exactly what they're looking for, and you can show them an ad. So that positions Google really, really well. And then I think related to that, Google has so much signed-in

Starting point is 00:02:01 user data, which makes this audience solutions more resilient than someone like Facebook, because maybe you have Gmail, or an Android phone, or maybe you're logged into YouTube, or maps, like I think Google has what is it seven or eight products with a billion users. So because of that, Google just has such a broad, rich amount of data on which to build its audiences, which, in my observation, makes its audience solutions more resilient than someone like Facebook, who doesn't have as wide a purview into your online footprint. And while end users may not like that as marketers, that's, of course, extremely powerful.

Starting point is 00:02:39 And that is, of course, that sweet, sweet first party data, because you're doing all of those things on Google's own properties, as opposed to, you know, like a Google Pixel on another site that's tracking it that way. Exactly. And so the one part of Google that I think really sucks is Google Display Network advertising, because that's where Google doesn't really know as much about people. They're browsing millions of websites or using tons of apps. Google AdSense is there.

Starting point is 00:03:04 That's how Google is able to see those people. But Google doesn't have that powerful signed in user data. And I think that's why we see such crappy performance on the display network and perhaps why Google is forcing us all onto the display network by including it as a placement in Performance Max. You know, I think there's something that's going to be even bigger for them in terms of first party data collection. And it's something that Meta got in trouble for for them in terms of first-party data collection. And it's something that Meta got in trouble for. And that is that today, or as you're listening to this, a week ago, Google announced its VPN product will be bundled into the Google One. So what that means is now Google will know where you are going on the web, what that data is, what's happening on those sorts of things. Meta, when it was called Facebook,

Starting point is 00:03:47 bought a similar system called Onavo and kind of bundled it inside the Facebook app and they got in trouble for it from regulatory things. So it's certainly, you know, everyone is trying to claw as much of this back, thanks to Apple. Speaking of Apple, you know, Jill, Apple is working on search products as well. We know this.

Starting point is 00:04:04 They've hired people out of Google. Do you think they will ever be competitive with Google? Yes, absolutely. You know, I remember 10 years ago when Apple Maps was absolutely terrible, and it was like the big joke that everyone with an iPhone had to download Google Maps. And I don't think that's the case anymore. You know, they didn't have the data that Google had, but they caught up. And so I have been predicting for more than a year now, Apple will launch their own search engine. Apple pays Google millions,

Starting point is 00:04:33 if not billions of dollars a year. And that will really change Google's business as well if Google is no longer the default search engine on Apple devices. So I believe that change is coming and it's going to have a huge impact on Apple devices. So I believe that change is coming. And it's going to have a huge impact on Apple's business and Google's as well. But who knows when that will happen? 15 billion, apparently, I just ironically googled it to get that number. Google pays 15.

Starting point is 00:04:57 Maybe one day you'll Siri it, you'll Apple it. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, 15 billion to remain the default search engine in Safari. So yeah, I'm sure that they don't want that to continue. So it's been a year, almost a full year, tumultuous year for sure. What stood out to you, though, as the big change in terms of Google Ads and the whole world, the whole ecosystem around Google Ads? What were some of the big movers for you? Well, the buzzword, of course, is automation. But more specifically than that, I would say Performance Max as a campaign type that launched to the masses, I believe it was January of this year when it started showing up in everyone's accounts. And so for those who aren't

Starting point is 00:05:40 familiar, Performance Max is the newest campaign type in Google. And when you run a Performance Max campaign, Google will show your ads across search, display, discovery, YouTube, shopping, if applicable, and local, if applicable. So the one campaign to rule them all. So that has been a huge change, of course, really relies on automation. I'd say another big change we saw this year, that's a continuation of what's been happening the last few years is the way keywords work and match types work. Broad match modifier went away. That was a very popular keyword match type. And you know, exact match isn't so exact anymore. Phrase match isn't so phrasey anymore. Things are moving more broad. I understand why Google needs to do that to grow their business. They want to

Starting point is 00:06:25 monetize as many searches as possible. Of course, as an advertiser, it can be very frustrating when you think that the keyword Google ads course and exact match will only match the searches for Google ads course. And somehow you're matching to searches for Facebook ads course. And again, that's automation. So performance max keywords, two big changes. And then I guess the third big change across the whole industry that we're really starting to see inside the Google ecosystem is vertical video, short form video. With ad placements coming to YouTube shorts, with video placements coming into discovery, with vertical video placements coming into display, just that vertical format is really

Starting point is 00:07:02 starting to permeate all different aspects of the Google Ads ecosystem. And you were fairly happy with Performance Max. It seemed to get better and better. I mean, at the very beginning, I hated it because it removed a lot of control from marketers. You know, you couldn't target as well. In fact, I think when it started, you couldn't put targets in at all, could you? You still can't pick your exact targeting. You get to create an audience signal. But I think Google just lets you do that to make you feel better. At the end of the

Starting point is 00:07:29 day, Performance Max wants to drive conversions. And you, mere mortal, do not know as well as Google what will drive conversions, according to Google. So it just wants to drive conversions. Feel free to give it an audience signal. You should. But at the end of the day, it will show ads to people who it thinks will convert. However, you have set up conversion tracking. Good with conversions, bad with lead gen. Yeah, lead gen is really difficult because while there is a conversion, the conversion is filling out a form and anyone can fill out a form. So that's why I still think for e-commerce, Performance Max is great.

Starting point is 00:08:02 For lead gen, not quite there yet. I want to get to the vertical video world in a moment because, of course, TikTok has been on the lips of everyone this year. But can we talk about a little slightly more boring topic first, but I think is going to be really important in the next year or two. And that is this sort of cookiepocalypse. Google, bless its heart, has tried a number of times to get a replacement out for it from the third-party cookies that it keeps saying it's going to remove from chrome and then like every week it's like well we're gonna push it back another month or push it back into six months i think at least they're honest they are at least they're honest and i think it's pushed back kid you not to 2024

Starting point is 00:08:36 now isn't it's like mid 2024 i think that's right their latest yeah so they've tried a bunch of stuff they tried flock they've tried topics would you Do you know where they are in terms of finding a replacement? Or are they still just trying their best to figure it out? Trying their best to figure it out. They do have a website, privacysandbox.com, where anyone can go and see what's been tried, how the tests are going, updated timelines. They're very transparent because, as is the googly way, they're trying to create a framework for the whole industry, not just something that works for Google.

Starting point is 00:09:08 And they're trying and they test these new frameworks and performance is just dismal. So they keep pushing back the deadline and, uh, and keep on trying. Yeah. If anyone can figure it out, Google can, I do have faith in that, but they haven't figured it out yet. And they're open about the fact that they haven't figured it out yet. Yeah. All right. So TikTok, or as YouTube calls it, YouTube Shorts, there are Reels, Snapchat's got one, I think it's either Spotlight or Showcase. I think it's Spotlight. I can't, I can never remember. Anyway, everyone's got their own sort of TikTok clone. All of the platforms are slowly figuring out how to monetize it, though. You know, these are short videos, at least right now they are. So it's hard to jam a 20 second mid roll into a 20 second video. Do you think, though,

Starting point is 00:09:50 that this year ahead is going to be as big a deal in terms of ad placements around, in their case, YouTube shorts, as we all think? I think so, because it's the biggest growth opportunity video in general, we know that YouTube ads have been a huge growth opportunity, a volatile opportunity because a few years ago, there were brand safety issues. A whole bunch of big CPG companies pulled their ads, then they came back. But one of the biggest growth opportunities in terms of inventory, like places that Google can monetize, is YouTube Shorts. They've released some crazy stats about just the watch time on YouTube Shorts, the number of Shorts uploaded every day. It's in the billions.

Starting point is 00:10:30 And, you know, Google makes money on advertising, whether it's a search ad, a discovery ad, a YouTube ad, et cetera. So I think we can definitely expect to see a lot more growth in that area. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage,

Starting point is 00:10:51 theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. I want you to get your fortune telling ball out for a second. When we do this episode a year from now, and I ask you, what was the big change this year? What do you think you'll say? I don't think there will be as many changes in 2023 as there were in 2022. And I say that because 2022 has already brought some very big fundamental changes, which we've mentioned. And 2022 started with the economy in a really good place, with the ad industry in a really good place. And now going into 2023, that's not the case at all. And so I

Starting point is 00:11:38 would expect if Google did have huge changes planned for 2023, that they would push those plans back, change those. And I expect them to really double down and focus on their core businesses and ads. It's search, it's YouTube, and doubling down on bets they've already made, like YouTube Shorts. So I don't expect any crazy big changes in 2023. We will see more automation. You know, automated creative is a space that Google's been playing in. Perhaps we'll see more of that. Perhaps we'll see even less control over keywords. I expect more features and control features to be added to Performance Max.

Starting point is 00:12:16 But control features, what do you mean by that? Oh, control features, meaning being able to control more aspects of it. Right now, performance max is so automated but for example a few months ago google added the ability to change your performance max location settings to just location like only target people in this location rather than having to target people interested in a location like it's a little radio button but it completely changes the way the campaign works so every or two, the ads liaison has been announcing kind of these little tweaks to Performance Max

Starting point is 00:12:48 that allow for more control. I think we will see a bit more of those because Performance Max is such a focus. But outside of that, automation, automation, incremental changes, I don't see any big, crazy things happening. But we'll have to talk about it next year and see what actually happens.

Starting point is 00:13:03 Yeah, I think I can speak on behalf of the entire media buying industry when I say, please, let's not have any major change. You know, this has just been crazy. I mean, Meta's platform is down half of the time. Twitter is just its own clusterfuck. I don't mind if Google wants to just kind of be, you know, slow and steady. I feel like I feel like we all need that. And there have been actually two major executive departures at Google recently. One is Bill Reddy, who kind of ran all of the commerce operations, all the ad products around shopping and e-com. He left to go to Pinterest. And then kind of the head of North American sales, Alan Tegerson, just left to go be the head of DocuSign, I believe.

Starting point is 00:13:50 So we have seen some executive changeover, which also, of course, makes it harder for the organization to make big changes for its employees and for advertisers. Yeah, that executive that went over to Pinterest has already started making some changes and making Pinterest more searchy. So I guess not surprising to see. Which is funny because he made search more Pinterest-y. Yeah, indeed. Can we talk about your business for a second? I, you know, you and I first met on TikTok where I saw you doing a bunch of Google ads,

Starting point is 00:14:16 I guess, training or videos there. I've always been fascinated to watch how people use social media to build their own brand. You've got a book coming up. Can we just talk a bit about how that all started for you in case people are also trying to emulate that? Yes, it started completely by accident and out of necessity. When I left Google, I actually left Google to join a startup as CMO. And I only worked there for two weeks, which is all I'm legally allowed to say about that. So I found myself without a job and was like, what the heck am I gonna do?

Starting point is 00:14:47 And I knew that I knew Google ads really, really well, but I didn't know how to monetize that and turn that into a job. So I started posting TikTok videos out of boredom and was fortunate to go viral pretty quickly. And so fast forward a few months, I built a business on it, but I guess the advice I'll give

Starting point is 00:15:05 to others is it's really valuable to use social media platforms to demonstrate your expertise because by doing so by me creating these TikTok videos with Google ads tips or Google analytics tips people get to know me and then they come to me to hire me so I've never had to go out there and say like hey I'm Jill and here's what I do come hire me I So I've never had to go out there and say like, Hey, I'm Jill. And here's what I do come hire me. I just demonstrate my expertise and my approachability on a daily basis across now, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. And then people just come to me, I get new leads in my inbox every single day. I'm a big proponent of give it all away for free. People are like, why are you sharing all that information? I'm like, because that's how I build the credibility.

Starting point is 00:15:45 I give it all away for free. I share everything I know. And then I get people contacting me every single day, wanting coaching, Google Ads account audits, training, corporate workshops, et cetera. So it's been great. And I love the irony that I'm a paid ads expert who's doing my business organically. Organically. And I mean, I don't think it'll come as a surprise to most people that, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:06 sort of the give it away model works really well. I'm just shocked at how effective TikTok in particular has been. And maybe it's just, we all have short attention spans. I don't know, but it seems to work really well. What is your TikTok address? I'm at the underscore Google underscore pro, the Google pro.

Starting point is 00:16:23 And I will say, I'm not the only person who's done this. There's actually a great community of women entrepreneurs and marketing. We've actually gotten together virtually before, like at least a dozen of us who have all just started posting on TikTok for fun. And then people start DMing us, hey, can I hire you? And now we have these thriving businesses. Thanks to people who work in SEO, branding, website design, Shopify experts, Facebook ads. So it really is a great channel. And then I use the tool repurpose.io. So that every time I post a TikTok, it gets automatically posted to Instagram reels, Pinterest idea pins,

Starting point is 00:16:57 Facebook reels, and YouTube shorts, which is great. That is a cool tool. I used to use it as well. Yeah, definitely. I think it'll leave. I think it does the same with live streams as well. So you can stream on one, on one platform and it'll go out on Twitch and YouTube and you know, all of those sorts of things. It's great. Tell us about the book you've got coming out. Yes. I started writing a book this summer called Inside Google Ads, Everything You Need to Know About Audience Targeting. And initially it was because through my coaching sessions and through creating my course inside Google ads, I discovered that audience targeting was this aspect of Google ads that's often overlooked. People think of Google ads as search. They don't think of it

Starting point is 00:17:33 as an audience platform, which it really is in a very powerful way because as we mentioned earlier, of all the information Google knows about its users. So I started writing this book. I finished like half of it and then got distracted as happens in life. But I've come back to it recently. I want to try to finish it by the end of the year because there've been so many changes announced in audience targeting. So like now I have a chapter all about privacy changes and cookies and what's happening when I wasn't going to have that initially. You know, I had a chapter about similar segments. Of course, those are now being deprecated. So we'll call this edition one, but I'm planning to launch by the end of the year. And if you would like to sign up to find out when we launch, you can go to insidegoogleads.com. I will not spam you a million

Starting point is 00:18:12 times. I will just email you to let you know when the book launches. And let's talk about the program that you offer as well, which is also called Inside Google Ads. It's always updated. You're keeping it as a series of videos, but sort of regular refreshes. You do some live training as well. Tell us a bit about that program. Yeah, so that program started because people kept asking me to create a Google Ads course. And initially I said, Google has their free skill shop. We don't need it. But I thought people keep asking me, there must be something missing in the market. And so when I first launched the course, it was just 20 lessons, each 15 minutes or less of me screen sharing inside the Google Ads platform showing you how to do things. And then every month, I add four or five new lessons. And I keep the discussion

Starting point is 00:18:54 section open. So someone will ask a question on a lesson. And I think that would be a great follow up lesson. So now there's more than 60 lessons, I keep adding four to five new lessons every month, based on what people are asking for. And then I also host a one hour monthly meet where sometimes it's just me talking about something. Sometimes I have a guest expert. For example, last month, I had a Google Merchant Center product specialist

Starting point is 00:19:16 from Google be my guest expert. And during that one hour monthly meeting, we do kind of a 15 minute presentation and then 45 minutes open question time for all the members. So I really enjoy running the course. We passed 100 members in September 2022. And it's a really great way to kind of engage with the community in a way that's more approachable and affordable than my one on one coaching. I really feel that that the value there is in that over the shoulder kind of thing that's always updated.

Starting point is 00:19:42 I mean, there's lots of YouTube videos, but they're always out of date. There's no incentive to update them. Whereas, you know, we're able to see sort of through your eyes, not just the process of, you know, which buttons to click and why, but kind of more of the psychological approach behind it, which I think is important when it sort of media buying. Jill Saskengales,

Starting point is 00:20:01 you can learn more about her program inside Google Ads at our affiliate link, which is b.link slash g-a-training. Jill, thank you so much for this. Thanks for having me, Todd. On the show tomorrow, some new research shows us how to use humor to reply to negative comments on social media and how to do it without screwing up. I will be joined by the scientists behind the study. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Google Ads: A Look Back and Ahead, with Jyll Saskin Gales

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