Google recently rolled out its latest array of online advertising developments. Like elsewhere in its product range, machine learning featured heavily, with Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) introducing features such as responsive search ads and local campaigns.

The Internet giant also waved goodbye to the DoubleClick brand – a particularly poignant one given the brand has been around since 1996 and was a cornerstone in digital advertising. In its place comes the Google Marketing Platform, which will be a combination of DoubleClick and Google Analytics 360, allowing you to plan, buy and manage all activity in one place.

But what does all this mean for B2B marketers?

Responsive search ads

Launching in the next few months, this update sees machine learning applied to AB creative testing, with the possibility of your campaigns automatically optimizing to align the best keyword and headline combinations which deliver the best performance.

This focus on machine learning and a more unified and efficient platform means that less of your time is spent creating and managing campaigns, making working in a small team much easier.

Cross-device reporting and remarketing

While desktop still leads as the device of choice with a lot our audience, mobile is still a significant proportion of traffic, with a typical user journey from your ad to a conversion spanning multiple devices. Now, a mobile click through on your Twitter post on mobile which is followed up later on desktop can be tracked end-to-end, allowing you to attribute conversions to the right source.

Landing page score

Users have been shown to have little patience for waiting, so if your landing page isn’t as quick as they’d like, your conversion rate can plummet. The new landing page speed score rates your landing page for load time, so you know if it’s causing your campaign issues.

Maximizing YouTube for brand perception

The usual YouTube advertising algorithm allows marketers to optimize their bidding strategy for views and impressions. Making use of machine learning, however, is introducing a new strategy: optimizing your campaign to reach an audience that is most likely to be receptive to your brand.

Given that within a B2B audience, not everyone has equal purchasing power, this is likely to be useful for targeting the individuals who can make decisions. The new features such as TrueView for reach, TrueView for action and Maximize life bidding will reach the right target audience.

In the keynote, the mantra “All ads should be valuable, transparent and trustworthy” was repeated. This is particularly true in the B2B space – our audience is looking for trust, quality, and a clear-cut message, and with these tools we can now convey this to them more effectively.

To find out more about how Google Ads can help you find and speak to your audience, reach out to the Cognito digital team today.

Julia Hinterkoerner is an intern in Cognito’s New York office