TPE #11: new Search trends that will impact your Google Ads results

Read time: 6 minutes

Google announced important updates to Search this week. These updates apply to Google Search as a whole, but no one is talking about the huge impact they will have on Google Ads. 

Google has been getting a lot of negative feedback on recent changes, but we think the upcoming updates are actually very positive - especially for Google’s end user.

We’ll dive into the biggest changes, how they will impact your Google Ads campaigns and what you need to prepare to fully leverage the updates for the best results. 

Let’s get you up to date in the next 6 minutes!

Search is changing: these are the biggest upcoming trends that will have the biggest impact on your Google Ads performance 

Google announced a lot of new things, but we identified the 4 most important trends that will have the biggest impact on your Google Ads performance:

1. More ways to search
2. Richer search results & more on-page exploration
3. Better Shopping experience
4. Better (auto) translated content

Let’s dig deeper into these trends, how they will impact your Google Ads results and what you need to prepare to fully leverage them for the best performance.

1. More ways to search

The news: Google will expand Multisearch to 70+ new languages. Initially, this was only available for English searches in the US. With Multisearch, users can search using (a combination of) text, voice and images.This is a very cool update, making it very easy to search for specific items. 

See someone with cool sneakers? Just take a picture, add ‘size 44’ and hit search. You will now get highly relevant search results based on that picture and text. 

How it will impact Google Ads performance: This increases the importance of a highly optimized product feed. Add as many relevant (additional) images to your feed as possible. Include different angles of your products as well as lifestyle images.

2. Richer search results & more on-page exploration

The news: Google’s search results will get more rich previews of information. Essentially, this means the search engine results page will become even more visual. In addition, Google is adding ‘explore and discover’ options in the search results to help users find what they’re looking for (faster). This includes better autocompleted search results. 

How it will impact Google Ads performance: As the SERP becomes more visual and filled with rich information previews, users may spend more time on Google without clicking anything, finding what they need without clicking on links or ads. This could lower your total amount of ad clicks and/or CTR.

This increases the importance of using image extensions to make your ads pop out (because users are scanning the page even faster and reading less of your ad copy).

Oh, and the autocompleted search results are an excellent way to get new keyword ideas!

3. Better Shopping experience

The news: Google is investing heavily in improving the shopping experience by making it highly personalized and immersive. There are 9 big changes that will launch soon. Instead of listing them all, we’ve distilled them into 3 main categories:

3.1 More visual ways to shop

When users search with the word ‘shop’, they will unlock a visual feed of products and research tools to find what they’re looking for. Users will be able to ‘shop the look’, see what’s trending and shop in 3D. This is something we’re extremely excited for.

A quick preview of what this would look like:

Source: 9 new features and tools for easier shopping on Google

3.2 Better discoverability

Google is making it easier for users to discover new products based on real customer reviews and buying guides with details like sizes, materials, weight etc. 

 They’re also adding new filter options that apply to shopping ads and images:

Source: 9 new features and tools for easier shopping on Google

3.3 More personalized recommendations

Previous shopping behavior will be used for personalized recommendations in the future. This plays heavily into the automation we know from our Google Ads campaigns. These recommendations can also be shown outside of search, on the Google Discover network.

How it will impact Google Ads performance: If you’re running Shopping/Performance Max campaigns, these updates are huge. Do this to prepare:

Enrich your feed with as much information as possible.

Use all available attributes. More really is better in this case (the more data you provide, the easier it will be for Google to show your products at the right time and place). Invest in your feed quality to make it easier for your customers to discover your products, not your competitors’.

Add images of your products from every angle so Google can make a 3D model.

According to Google, 3D models increase ad engagement by 50% compared to static images, so this is massive.

4. Better (auto) translated content

The news: Lastly, Google is improving translations and auto translated content. Anyone notice a huge improvement in Google Translate quality recently? We sure have. 

How it will impact Google Ads performance: Google is getting better at translating content, and is already matching translated search queries to your keywords. Keep an eye on your search term reports, we think the share of matched translated queries is going to increase drastically in the near future!

So that’s it. A quick recap below. 

These upcoming trends and changes to Search will have a big impact on your Google Ads results:

1. More ways to search
2. Richer search results & more on-page exploration
3. Better Shopping experience
4. Better (auto) translated content

And do this to prepare, so you can leverage these changes for the best performance:

1. Invest in feed optimization: enrich your shopping feed with as much data as possible
2. Use new autocompleted search results for keyword ideas
3. Use image extensions to make text ads stand out
4. Check SQRs for translated query matches

Thanks for reading. See you again next week!

Bob & Miles