Google Partners Connect: Retail

GOOGLE PARTNERS CONNECT: RETAIL

Watch the complete livestream here: 

An opening sequence and nice case study introduced the livestream presentation by Google, who shared the experience of John's Crazy Socks, a family business ran by John & Mark Cronin. They are a father and son team fulfilling John's dream of selling fun and crazy designed socks. Their biggest challenge was reaching customers during the non-selling season and Google AdWords was the way they were able to not just avoid laying employees off but thriving.

After the video, there were some opening comments by the chairman for the event, Cedric Lewis, who is an Associate Account Strategist with Google in Mountain View, CA. 

First on the list of presenters was Joanna Aston - Senior Account Executive. She compared the beginning of Google around 1997 where 5% had access to Internet to now (2018) with over 50%. Smartphones have now been around for 11 years and it has changed everything. By 2020 there will be 1,000,000 devices coming online every hour. 

In 2017 $2.3 trillion generated by eCommerce. 1 in 4 came from mobile. 

Google's motto is: "Focus on the user and all else will follow", this determines how they develop their products. 

Online search behaviors that are common today

1) We've become more curious

• There is an 85% increase in searches including "where to buy" or "where to shop"

2) We've become more demanding

• 58% of US shoppers expect to received promotions/deals specific to their past purchases

3) We've become more impatient

• Amazon Prime Now guarantees 1-hour shipping for example. Over the past two years, mobile searches for same-day shipping have increased by 120%. 

The chairman went on to mention the Google Partners in the room where the presentations were taking place. He defined Google Partners for those watching in by explaining the certifications and exams they would take and obtain. In addition, Google Partners manage a number of accounts successfully for their clients and meet Google's high standards for advertising online, helping businesses thrive. 

Next, a video of Sean McCormick was presented showing his company, Manitoba Mukluks. Mukluks are fur boots. Obviously, his challenge was branding and he needed to capture people searching not for mukluks but for those looking for fur boots, comfortable slippers and footware, and other synonyms to help him sell his products. Google AdWords was the key for growing his business. While 2,000 pairs were sold in his 1st year, that jumped to 200,000 pairs in 2nd year with the aid of Google AdWords. 

The next presenter was Carly Fitterman, Agency Account Strategist. 

Three pillars for successful online advertising: 

1) Be there

Need to meet our consumers in their moment of need. Google will help us. 

2) Be valuable

Quality score affected by title and structure of ads on search. We also need to make sure we are using audiences correctly. 

3) Be quick

Use audiences to reach the right people through: 

• Remarketing Lists
• Customer Match
• Similar Audiences (most like our high valued customers)

Leverage all the different features of Google AdWords - and we as Google Partners can help with this! We can help: 

• Automate campaigns
• Use Location Targeting
• Enable Time-of-Day Bid Adjustments

Keep in mind that more than half of all visitors will abandon your mobile website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Also new to this is the Speed Impact Calculator and the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), faster than standard mobile pages. 

Holidays should be in your sights as a business owner, so there is a need to start preparing for your marketing strategy. Plan to win this season! Do so by getting the help you need from a Google Partner. 

The presentation was followed by a live Q&A session.

We appreciate those that came to the event and look forward to hosting next month's presentation! If you would like us to start a marketing campaign for your business, please contact us today!