Google is following suit with other online platforms, focusing on small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and attempting to make it easier to reach target audiences with its updated advertisement service.
Google Canada recently announced at a media briefing that Google Ads (formally Google AdWords) is now offering Canadian customers Smart Campaigns, geared towards making it easier for SMBs to create advertising strategies on the its platform.
Smart Campaigns, which was already announced in June and has been available in the U.S., uses machine learning and ad mapping technology to help businesses create online ad campaigns focused on specific, niche audiences.
The idea is to help smaller companies reach their target audiences and compete with larger brands in the online advertising market, said Karen Godwin, director of Google marketing solutions, in a media briefing at Google Canada’s Toronto offices.
Upon signing up for the service users will be prompted through a series of tools such as Image Picker which will use machine learning to analyze a business’s website and other online listings to suggest ad images that tailored for their product or service and audience.
According to Godwin, this process can set up an advertising campaign in minutes, and is three times better for getting ads in front of a target audience than conventional online campaigns.
Eric Morris, director of retail for Google, who has been with the company since 2002, said in the briefing that small businesses have always been Google’s focus.
He stated that SMBs are able to compete with larger companies in the world of Google’s digital advertising because how much a company is willing to pay for an ad is weighed equally with the relevance of that business to what users are searching for.
In some cases, businesses can win a bid and pay less for an ad because its relevance strongly outranked a company willing to pay a higher price.
Michael Irvine, head of digital marketing at Logojoy, said at the briefing that this process has helped his company outrank larger ones on Google search ads.
Since Logojoy, was created in July of 2017, the company has served more than 1.4 million users, and Irvine attributes part of its success to Google ads, stating that more than 3 million people have clicked on Logojoy’s ads and landed on its website.
The re-branded Google Ads with Smart Campaigns, Google Marketing Platform and Google Ads Manager services will be rolling out to Canadian users within the next few months.