• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 27, 2021

Google announced the expansion of several features and products at its Marketing Livestream event on Thursday.

Customer Match allows advertisers to use their first-party data to remarket to customers on Google Search, Shopping, Gmail and YouTube, and will become available to nearly all advertisers. It uses information that customers willingly share with advertisers.

After meeting certain requirements, advertisers of all sizes can start reaching people with personalized ads. Previously, there was a $50,000 lifetime spend requirement to be eligible, but the removal of this condition will help small and medium-sized businesses that have fewer resources.  

The Google Ads Insights page that began rolling out in beta in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia last year, shows advertisers trending searches, auction insights and interest predictions based on their account.

Now Google Ads Insights will get a Demand Forecast feature that predicts relevant changes to search behavior. It monitors the upcoming 90 days.

Performance Max, which Google unveiled plans for in 2020, an automated campaign type that runs across all Google ad inventory, is rolling out in open beta. It’s a way for advertisers to buy Google ads for one campaign across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps. This new campaign aims to complement Search.

Advertisers provide the copy and image or video assets and Google’s machine-learning technology serves the ads across channels and bid using Smart Bidding based on the advertiser’s goal.

While Performance Max campaigns leverage automation, so does Target Return on Ad Spend (tROAS), tROAS, an automated bidding strategy that aims to increase conversions or revenue at the target return on ad spend (ROAS) they set. In fact, more than 80% of Google advertisers are using automated bidding to drive results for their business, according to the company.

In rROAS, bids are automatically optimized at auction-time, allowing advertisers to tailor bids for each auction. This feature is available for Video Action Campaigns advertisers globally, and in open beta for Discovery Ads advertisers globally.

Google also announced support for product feeds for Discovery Ads as an open beta. The update enables advertisers to leverage their existing product images and videos to increase the opportunity for consumers to find their products and drive purchases.