Joshua Weum, of Google AdWords, explained what we’ve all already suspected: we are all basically toddlers.
“Our attention spans have waned considerably,” Josh said, “but we still have high expectations.”
We hate friction. We want those red shoes we were looking for – not a bunch of red shirts and red accessories and other nonsense. We want to find the right restaurant or right phone number. If sellers don’t have what we need online, we’ll turn somewhere else.
That’s why society is moving more toward micro-moments – the times we turn to our phones for just a moment to learn something, buy something, or find something. “People are almost not brand loyal at all,” Josh said. “They’re acting on a stimulus.” Marketing hasn’t kept up with society’s movement into micro-moments. Josh said we have to do three things:
- Be there.
- Be useful.
- Be accountable.
Search Trends and Advertising
So what does this mean with traffic trends today? This year Google hit the 2 trillion mark on search. There are 40,000 searches every second. Mobile traffic is more than half of search traffic.
The holidays are coming, people. You have to be digitally ready. Online purchasing will continue to grow. It’s about more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Shoppers are looking mid-November through the end of December. “Brand loyalty is out the window,” Josh said. “This is your opportunity as a business.”
Searchers are using terms like best, near me, and open now. Use ads to get in front of these eyeballs. Advertisers get more ad copy, an additional headline and increased description lines. Josh said the benefits are more control, a clear landing page and good click-through rates.
Josh shared several keys to success. Here are a few:
- Start with priority ad groups.
- Refresh creatives.
- Continue to use all extension.
- Focus on the user.
You, Too, Can Do Video Ads
But reaching shoppers goes beyond the SERPs. “YouTube is the No. 2 search engine in the world,” Josh said. There are three types of ads:
- Skippable. (You don’t pay.)
- Clickable.
- Forced. (Also called Bumper Ads, these are those 6-second ads viewers can’t skip. Josh said the driving force behind this is mobile. “People don’t want to watch a 20-, 30-second video all the time,” he said.)
“About 41 percent of people take action on a video ad,” Josh said. “… People are making a search for something they want to buy.” But one of the barriers to advertising on video, though, is production cost. YouTube Director launched in May, and it shows you how to create a video for your business. It uses templates, and you only need a phone. “It’s for people who do not know how to use video production equipment,” Josh said. “If you have a cell phone, that’s all you need.”
How Brands Can Really Connect
Josh wrapped up his strategy like this:
- Be there. We aren’t as brand committed as in the past. If you’re present – whether it’s paid or organic – you have a shot.
- Be useful. About 3 in 4 people say getting good, useful information from a company is the most important factor in purchasing. People also like when information is tailored to their location.
- Be quick. About 40 percent of us will give up on a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Google offers several free tools to check your speed.
- Connect the dots. Basically, we’re all over the place, Josh said. We sometimes string one transaction across multiple screens. And nearly 90 percent of us do research before we go into a brick-and-mortar store.
Connect with Josh
