Google is adding website names and introducing new features and design elements to its search engine to make it easier to identify websites and businesses at a glance.

They will bring more context to the search results page, helping the user to make sense of the information they see. 

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With this update, the company wants to make Google Search a more intuitive and visual space, providing more information about the websites the user sees so they can feel confident about the pages they visit.

Website names will show on mobile results

To do this, they will be adding website names to search results on mobile devices, so they can be more easily identified. 

They are also updating the size and shape of the favicon (the logo or icon of a website) that appears in search, to make it easier to see and identify. Both of these changes will be expanded with the intention of increasing clarity and transparency for advertisers. 

Along with names and favicons, the company has also announced changes to the ad ID label. So the label will now appear on its own line in the top left corner of Search ads. When ads are displayed in mobile search results they will be marked with the word "Sponsored" in bold, black text. 

This new label and its prominent position continue to meet the high standards they have set for being distinguished from search results and build on its existing efforts to clarify information about paid content.

These modifications will begin to be incorporated among users gradually on mobile devices. Following this, they will begin testing a similar experience on computers, in order to more easily find what they are looking for, regardless of where it is done.

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Google Chrome aims at becoming smarter and more efficient in its results, by using advanced Machine Learning. With the main objective of making its Chrome browser more useful - and providing users with secure and adapted browsing - Google is incorporating new features that the company claims, will make the search engine much more intelligent. 

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Google Chrome Machine Learning 

To this end, Google will continue to make progress in the implementation of machine learning. Some of the new features that have been announced in this regard are:

Reducing annoying ads

Through Chrome's Safe Browsing feature, Google has reported that it is now able to identify 2.5 times more sites that are potentially malicious. This is thanks to a machine learning model that protects users more. 

Adaptive button 

On the other hand, after a year of testing, Google Chrome's adaptive button has finally been made official. It is a button that will use machine learning to adjust the navigation toolbar in real time. This will allow users to be shown the action that is most useful at each moment of their search.

Whether the user wants to do a voice search, open a new tab or share a link, Chrome will be able to learn which option each user uses most at each moment of the day, adapting to their habits and then offering customized adjustments. 

The button will be available to users soon. However, in a short time, each user will be capable of activating it manually using Chrome's experimental functions.

Less interrupted browsing

Finally, Google has also announced that in the next version of Chrome, notification permission requests will be much less annoying, to make browsing more convenient for users. 

Through machine learning, Chrome will be able to predict when it might be interesting for a person to be prompted by an app to receive notifications. This takes into account how the user has previously acted in response to such requests.

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Google has launched a new feature and tool called Performance Max, and it is aimed at supporting online entrepreneurs. This new tool is actually a new Google ads campaign type, on its own. And is designed to improve your advertising strategy through the power of automation and machine learning. 

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The format of “Performance Max (PMax)” campaigns was introduced at Google Marketing Live in 2021 with a primary objective to increase lead generation, and drive online sales, and in-store visits without using the Google Merchant Center product feed.

Google's Performance Max: Next level automation 

According to a Google case study, PMax campaigns grew qualified leads for MotorK, an automotive sales, and marketing technology company, by 24%. In addition, Click-Through Rate (CTR) was improved by +30% compared to existing search and display campaigns.

The way Performance Max works is using heavy automation and IA mix. The machine learning component of this equation is aimed at helping entrepreneurs who have neither the time nor the money to hire or develop in-house, an entire online marketing division. 

In that sense, Pmax helps advertisers who have zero to non-experience using paid online marketing campaigns, to reach their specific conversion goals. 

The campaign types in which PMax offers support have a broad reach across Google’s Network, reaching customers on:

• Display
• Search
• Maps
• Discover Feed
• YouTube
• Gmail
• Shopping Ad Inventory

How does Performance Max work? 

The core of how Performance Max works is based on the idea of machine learning used to serve audiences a relevant ad with an optimal bid to maximize campaign performance.

An advertiser selects a marketing objective and then chooses the conversion goals that support the objective. 

To ensure that your campaigns are optimized to drive the best ROI through automation, assign more than one goal and different values to conversion to a single campaign. 

With a focus on goals, PMax campaigns use automated bidding and targeting technology to help you invest your budget more efficiently to spend where the highest-ROI opportunities are.

More information, as well as a tutorial, can be found directly from Google here!

Will you trust automation and IA criteria to run the marketing campaigns for your e-commerce? Let us know in the comments! 

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According to Damian Ryan, a partner at UK accountancy firm Moore Stephens, which conducted the survey, "marketers are seeking to build in-house strength and are set to spend more on digital marketing to remain competitive. Our research finds that this budget is coming from media spend and will have a resounding impact on the value of media-centric agencies.” The Moore Stephens survey, conducted with advertising and media consultancy WARC, covered 800 companies in North America, the Asia-Pacific, and Europe.

It found that brands in Britain and North America spent 23 percent of their budgets on digital marketing, up from 16 percent a year ago. And 63 percent of American technology budgets were spent in-house, compared with 44 percent last year. Tough European data protection rules that took effect in May, as well as concerns over the data practices of search giant Google and social network Facebook - the two biggest online advertising platforms - have led several players in the ad industry to merge or retrench. The emergence of platform companies that offer a one-stop shop for marketers is another trend to watch, Ryan said to Reuters, highlighting Adobe Systems’ acquisition in May of e-commerce company Magento for $1.7 billion.

Ryan concludes that “Fundamentally, brands don’t like to trust agencies with data. The clear trend shows that brands are seeking to take control over marketing technology. Against that, we can see that, at the upper end where brands are spending more, they are still working with agencies.”

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Date:                Wed 3 May 2017

Time:                2pm – 3pm GMT

 Speakers:         Lionbridge Subject Matter Experts

Aoife McIlraith, Director of Global Search and Marketing

Brendan Walsh, EMEA SEO and SEM Manager

In this webinar, you will:

1. Understand why geo-targeting is important to your customers, conversion rates and your online success
2. Learn how to prevent undue competition with your own websites, maximise indexed pages, and eliminate duplicate content errors
3. Discover real world examples of the ‘dos & don’ts’ involved with international SEO

Register here

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