"They Talked a Lot and Said Nothing."

[00:00:00] It is Tuesday, May 21st.

[00:00:03] Today heavy on buzzwords, light on detail.

[00:00:07] Google's big annual event for marketers had a number of industry insiders asking,

[00:00:11] Where's the beef?

[00:00:13] We have full coverage in today's special episode including a full hour-long panel discussion

[00:00:17] with me and three former Google ad executives.

[00:00:21] I'm Tod Maffin, that's ahead, today in digital marketing.

[00:00:28] Today should have been one of Google's best days of the year.

[00:00:31] Every year Google's marketing live event showcases what they're working on in the year ahead

[00:00:35] for advertisers, new ad products, changes to existing tools and so on.

[00:00:41] This year, this morning, Google had live audiences watching the event all over the

[00:00:46] world.

[00:00:47] And almost as if we wouldn't believe it, they brought cameras to prove it.

[00:00:50] Hello to our friends in Dublin, New York, L.A.

[00:00:59] And when a company does a live event like that and hypes it for months ahead, you expect

[00:01:06] they'll be, I don't know, something big?

[00:01:10] To be honest, the last couple of years of Google marketing lives have been pretty

[00:01:13] disappointing unless you're a fan of buzzwords.

[00:01:16] But since they are one of the world's biggest ad platforms, it is our duty to cover

[00:01:20] what's new and we will do that for you today.

[00:01:22] Now earlier today, our Google ads correspondent, Jill Saskengales and I co-hosted our

[00:01:27] own pre-announcement event along with two former Google ad executives.

[00:01:32] We talked about what the last year on the Google marketing platform has been like,

[00:01:35] what the year ahead will likely have in store.

[00:01:37] That entire conversation is at the end of today's episode.

[00:01:41] We also have the full video of the event and Google's recap of the announcements

[00:01:45] in our newsletter today.

[00:01:46] Tap the link in the show notes if you want to sign up.

[00:01:48] All right.

[00:01:49] On with the announcements first.

[00:01:51] And we knew this was coming.

[00:01:53] Ads will soon be inside those AI summary blocks at the top of Google search results.

[00:01:59] Their example was a search for how do I get wrinkles out of clothes?

[00:02:03] At the top of the results was, of course, the AI generated summary.

[00:02:07] Then a new sponsored section with a shopping carousel showing wrinkle spray

[00:02:12] available for sale by advertisers.

[00:02:15] Google claims it'll only show the ads when they're relevant, though,

[00:02:19] Of course, with these things, relevancy is in the eye of the beholder.

[00:02:23] And with much of today's hype fest, the particulars were lacking.

[00:02:27] Quoting Martek, quote, there aren't any details on exactly when Google will

[00:02:31] start testing ads in AI overviews, but it kind of defeats the purpose

[00:02:36] of using AI to get a quick summary of what you're looking for.

[00:02:39] If anything, it looks like it'll just clutter that experience even more, unquote.

[00:02:44] One interesting addition was that they're working on a way for

[00:02:47] to take in information beyond the search query to personalize the ad

[00:02:51] in a way we haven't seen before.

[00:02:53] The example they used was someone searching for extra storage space.

[00:02:57] Then when the user tapped on a sponsored listing of a storage company,

[00:03:01] Google asks that user to upload some photos of their belongings.

[00:03:05] It would then recommend a specific storage product from that advertiser.

[00:03:11] Yet to be determined how comfortable users will be sharing even more

[00:03:15] information in order to get a perhaps more relevant ad.

[00:03:19] Google says they'll start testing this with a small group of advertisers

[00:03:22] in the US over the coming weeks.

[00:03:24] Google also announced new brand profiles are coming.

[00:03:28] They'll be a sort of home page made on the fly from information

[00:03:32] in your Google Merchant Center profile.

[00:03:35] These are similar to the Google Business profiles also found in search results.

[00:03:39] It's not really clear to me why there are now two different types

[00:03:42] of profiles for businesses and a bunch of changes to AI generated images

[00:03:47] in ad campaigns.

[00:03:49] For one, they're making the image generation tools understand industries

[00:03:53] but didn't really provide a lot of detail on why that would help

[00:03:56] other than to say that this will generate quote high quality

[00:03:59] performant assets unquote.

[00:04:02] See what I mean by the buzzwords.

[00:04:03] Regardless, this industry aware generation is still some months away.

[00:04:07] One thing that was a nice touch, you'll soon be able to provide the AI

[00:04:10] with your brand's official colors and font to force the images it makes for you

[00:04:15] to be more brand compliant.

[00:04:17] If of course, it honors your selections.

[00:04:20] In the coming weeks, you'll be able to edit images

[00:04:22] including product images from your Google Merchant Center feed

[00:04:25] across performance Macs and other campaign types.

[00:04:28] They're also adding tools to add and remove objects, extend backgrounds

[00:04:32] adjust images to fit any orientation and aspect ratio.

[00:04:36] The example they showed looks really similar to Photoshop's AI

[00:04:39] where you lasso an area and then give it a text prompt

[00:04:42] like add some flowers here.

[00:04:45] Some new bells and whistles are coming for shopping ads

[00:04:47] 3D rotation ads and virtual try ons.

[00:04:50] Google also says advertisers will be able to include product videos

[00:04:53] summaries and similar product recommendations within the ad itself.

[00:04:58] This is something we saw from time to time in organic results

[00:05:01] but it's now coming to ads.

[00:05:03] There are a few nice touches for the data nerds.

[00:05:06] Google will start soon surfacing YouTube videos in placement reports.

[00:05:11] So you know where your PMAX ads are showing on that platform

[00:05:14] and offer exclusions in case you want to block certain channels.

[00:05:17] This is something they actually announced a while back

[00:05:19] as was asset level reporting

[00:05:21] apparently still coming to performance Macs in the coming months.

[00:05:24] So you'll be able to review metrics for each creative asset.

[00:05:27] It might not be flashy, but it's actually kind of a pretty big deal

[00:05:31] for marketers who like to get into the weeds of their campaign reports.

[00:05:34] And they say they are introducing a new diagnostics experience

[00:05:37] for PMAX, DemandGen and search video and display campaigns.

[00:05:42] The company says, quote,

[00:05:43] this will unify insights across areas like bidding assets

[00:05:46] conversion setup and billing into a single view

[00:05:50] with the option to drill in for more details.

[00:05:52] Diagnostic insights are also expanding to your campaign level overview.

[00:05:57] Critical issues will be immediately flagged at the top of the page

[00:06:00] so you can easily check whether your campaign is working as intended, unquote.

[00:06:05] There were a bunch of little announcements as well regarding DemandGen,

[00:06:08] animated image ads, lower minimums for lookalikes and a bunch more.

[00:06:12] And maybe I'm jaded, but I was expecting a little more,

[00:06:16] at least one big meaty thing to get excited about.

[00:06:20] Our Google Ads correspondent Jill Saskin-Gales

[00:06:22] has been with me all this time.

[00:06:23] Jill, you spent six years at Google Ads.

[00:06:26] I was a little underwhelmed by today's announcements.

[00:06:28] How did you feel?

[00:06:30] I felt very underwhelmed.

[00:06:32] There was nothing innovative here and barely anything new.

[00:06:36] A lot of the announcements was stuff they announced last year

[00:06:39] and just haven't launched yet.

[00:06:40] Yeah, it kind of feels like this was an announcement of like,

[00:06:42] here's the next 10% on everything we already have.

[00:06:45] Exactly. It was tons of little features,

[00:06:49] but nothing that made me or anyone I was talking to go like,

[00:06:52] wow, that's cool.

[00:06:55] Like, I did not have that wow, that's cool reaction once, sadly.

[00:06:58] Yeah, we were talking just before we started recording

[00:07:00] that there were clearly moments where their teleprompter said

[00:07:03] pause for applause and then there was just this

[00:07:05] awkward silence while that happened.

[00:07:08] And I feel like in the past,

[00:07:09] Google has been able to get away with this kind of

[00:07:11] incremental low buzz kind of announcements from year to year

[00:07:17] because they've been the dominant player.

[00:07:18] But open AI is becoming a thing.

[00:07:21] Perplexity is stealing views from the AI summaries.

[00:07:26] Bing is becoming more of an issue.

[00:07:28] How serious is this, if we can call it a misstep by Google,

[00:07:32] in the overall kind of history of internet marketing,

[00:07:35] do you think?

[00:07:36] Is this opening up a significant enough gap

[00:07:39] for these other competitors to come in

[00:07:40] in a way that maybe they didn't have that gap before?

[00:07:43] Google has many competitors in the many markets

[00:07:45] in which they operate.

[00:07:46] That's the party line I remember.

[00:07:48] But from an ad perspective, you know,

[00:07:50] I see the competitors more as Meta, TikTok, Amazon.

[00:07:56] And I didn't see that much here to really respond to that.

[00:08:00] You know, one thing that I did pick up on a lot

[00:08:02] that really does feel responding to ad competitors

[00:08:05] was a lot of this kind of visual search

[00:08:07] and visual results.

[00:08:10] For example, they shared some monstrous stat

[00:08:12] about how many people are using Google Lens to search.

[00:08:14] That's where you can take a picture of something

[00:08:16] like a suitcase and then find the exact product.

[00:08:19] Or you can take a screenshot from social media,

[00:08:22] nudge nudge, wink wink, circle something

[00:08:24] and find that product.

[00:08:25] So that felt really interesting

[00:08:27] and we can see how a product like Performance Max

[00:08:30] is necessary for that to work.

[00:08:31] If you're using an image to search,

[00:08:33] you don't have keywords.

[00:08:34] So that part was interesting to me

[00:08:37] as a subtle response to competition.

[00:08:39] But yeah, still didn't blow me away

[00:08:42] in its demonstration.

[00:08:44] Your Inside Google Ads training,

[00:08:46] you'll be having a special event tomorrow

[00:08:48] for your members exclusively to recap that.

[00:08:51] People can join there at our affiliate link

[00:08:53] which is b.link slash ga training

[00:08:55] and you and I are gonna be doing a special

[00:08:58] for the premium members of the podcast here

[00:09:00] tomorrow at two o'clock Eastern.

[00:09:03] I'm very much looking forward to getting into the weeds

[00:09:05] and speaking maybe a little bit more candidly

[00:09:08] about some of the non announcements.

[00:09:10] Yes, yes, off the record.

[00:09:12] Thanks Jill.

[00:09:13] Thanks.

[00:09:14] If you wanna join that,

[00:09:15] there is still time to become a premium member.

[00:09:16] Just go to today in digital.com slash premium

[00:09:19] or tap the link at the top of the show notes.

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[00:11:12] There was other news, of course,

[00:11:13] we will have all of that in tomorrow's episode.

[00:11:15] Now, as promised, the panel discussion

[00:11:18] that we held this morning,

[00:11:20] it was myself, Jill and two former Google ad executives.

[00:11:24] Remember, this was recorded one hour

[00:11:25] before Google Marketing Live,

[00:11:27] but lots of information in here

[00:11:29] about what they think the past year has been like

[00:11:31] and where they see the Google space in the year ahead.

[00:11:34] That replay is about to start now.

[00:11:36] Thank you for listening.

[00:11:37] I'll see you tomorrow.

[00:11:38] Jill, let me start with you.

[00:11:38] I'm gonna ask each of you to just kind of do a quick

[00:11:41] 30 second introduction where you are,

[00:11:43] what your background is, how you know Google Marketing,

[00:11:45] all that kind of stuff.

[00:11:46] Jill, let's start with you.

[00:11:47] Absolutely, I'm calling in from Toronto today.

[00:11:51] I used to work at Google for six years

[00:11:53] and the large customer sales organization

[00:11:55] and for the last three years,

[00:11:56] I've been a Google Ads coach, consultant and teacher.

[00:11:59] I run my Inside Google Ads training program,

[00:12:02] the Inside Google Ads podcast

[00:12:04] and I'm happy to be the Google Ads correspondent

[00:12:06] for the Today in Digital Marketing podcast.

[00:12:09] Hi, my name is Solange.

[00:12:11] I am dialing in from Dublin, which is where I live.

[00:12:15] I worked at Google until February this year,

[00:12:18] so I'm fresh out.

[00:12:19] I started in the agency division

[00:12:21] and then went into our multi-channel division

[00:12:24] where we manage and marry the offline

[00:12:27] and online platforms to each other.

[00:12:31] In short, that's what I did.

[00:12:33] And Matthew.

[00:12:34] Yeah, I'm also here in Toronto.

[00:12:37] I was part of the large client,

[00:12:40] large customer sales team as well

[00:12:42] in the automotive vertical.

[00:12:44] So I worked for many years

[00:12:46] with many of the large automotive brands

[00:12:48] and then also spent a lot of time solving problems,

[00:12:51] answering questions for dealers and auto groups.

[00:12:55] Excellent, that's your background in the past.

[00:12:58] Before we leave this in just under an hour,

[00:13:00] I'll ask you to chat a bit about what you're doing now.

[00:13:03] But let's just sort of get a heads up view

[00:13:06] of what's gonna happen in an hour from now

[00:13:08] on a stage somewhere in, I don't know,

[00:13:09] California maybe, Seattle, something like that.

[00:13:13] Or Google.

[00:13:14] Mountain View, come on.

[00:13:15] There we go, okay.

[00:13:16] Downtown Mountain View.

[00:13:18] I'm so much of an Apple fan boy.

[00:13:19] I'm like, why isn't it in the Steve Jobs theater?

[00:13:21] I don't understand.

[00:13:23] Jill, can you just kind of,

[00:13:24] before we dig into what we expect to see,

[00:13:26] what it means for marketers in the year ahead

[00:13:29] and even talk a bit about what hits and misses

[00:13:31] happened in the year prior,

[00:13:33] can you just give us kind of an overview?

[00:13:34] What is this that we're about to see in an hour?

[00:13:37] What is Google Marketing Live?

[00:13:39] Google Marketing Live is Google's annual event

[00:13:42] where they announce what's to come in Google Ads

[00:13:45] and Google's other ad platforms over the next year.

[00:13:48] So it happens every year in May,

[00:13:49] it's a week after I.O.,

[00:13:51] and whereas I.O. had announcements

[00:13:53] about what's happening to like Google Search generally

[00:13:55] and devices and things like that,

[00:13:57] Google Marketing Live is very focused on ad products.

[00:14:00] So we can expect, well hopefully some big announcements

[00:14:04] of some big changes that are coming

[00:14:06] and then that's what we'll see roll out

[00:14:07] over 2024 and 2025.

[00:14:10] Gotcha.

[00:14:11] So Lundja, I want to have you start us off here

[00:14:14] by taking us back in the last year.

[00:14:17] They do these Google Marketing Live events.

[00:14:19] We sort of get a look at what's to come.

[00:14:22] Some of these things work out really well.

[00:14:23] Some of these things do not.

[00:14:24] From your perspective,

[00:14:25] both as what you're doing right now,

[00:14:27] which we'll get into, and also as a former Googler,

[00:14:29] what do you think, like what single change

[00:14:32] to the Google Marketing platform in the last year

[00:14:36] do you think made the biggest difference

[00:14:38] to marketers' day-to-day lives?

[00:14:40] Yeah, I mean aside from the new interface,

[00:14:43] which I think was a shock to everybody

[00:14:44] when that rolled out.

[00:14:46] I know it certainly was a bit of a pain for myself.

[00:14:48] I think honestly the move

[00:14:50] and the push towards consolidation,

[00:14:53] we saw that with Performance Max

[00:14:54] and we're now seeing that also with DemandGen.

[00:14:58] There are things that I love about both,

[00:15:00] but I think the biggest challenge has been navigating

[00:15:04] sort of that black box that comes with that, right?

[00:15:06] We're not used to not having access

[00:15:09] to all of those points of data,

[00:15:11] to all of that measurement.

[00:15:12] And so in the day-to-day,

[00:15:14] really having to change the way that we think

[00:15:17] about what makes something successful,

[00:15:19] what makes the campaign successful,

[00:15:21] what metrics should I be looking at

[00:15:22] knowing that we have less and less access

[00:15:25] to those metrics that we actually are used to

[00:15:27] and that we've built our businesses on.

[00:15:29] So in the day-to-day,

[00:15:31] the cool thing about it is DemandGen especially

[00:15:34] has made full funnel video more accessible.

[00:15:36] So it's cool that we see smaller companies

[00:15:38] being able to utilize that more.

[00:15:40] And the flip side to that is learning

[00:15:44] how do I navigate that black box of data?

[00:15:47] How do I drive my business

[00:15:49] in this push of consolidation?

[00:15:52] Matthew?

[00:15:52] I think the biggest change,

[00:15:54] so I have two in the last year

[00:15:55] and neither of them are sexy.

[00:15:57] Like neither, and in fact,

[00:15:59] we've either forgotten about them

[00:16:02] or we've purposefully removed them from our memory.

[00:16:05] Like we've like pushed them out

[00:16:06] because they were so painful.

[00:16:08] But when I think about even myself at Google

[00:16:11] and the things that I used to get questions about

[00:16:16] if I were to, if I had access,

[00:16:17] if I could take Gemini and then read my old Google emails

[00:16:20] and then summarize them and then have it spew back

[00:16:23] the what was significant,

[00:16:26] it would say two things.

[00:16:27] And one was advertiser verification.

[00:16:31] It was just painful,

[00:16:32] just a painful little exercise.

[00:16:34] And you know, didn't get a lot of fanfare kind of,

[00:16:37] and Jill in your update,

[00:16:38] you sort of commented on the company name,

[00:16:40] company logo, but that was sort of like a weird,

[00:16:43] tangential benefits of advertiser verification.

[00:16:48] And the other was GA4.

[00:16:49] Like it wasn't actually in the ad platform.

[00:16:51] It was all of the changes in GA4

[00:16:53] and now how do I actually make sure

[00:16:55] that I'm collecting any kind of event conversion data?

[00:16:59] How do I put that back into Google ads?

[00:17:01] And I think there's still a lot of,

[00:17:05] you know, the accurate word is ignorance.

[00:17:06] Like there's still a lot of people

[00:17:07] who don't understand what actually changed there

[00:17:12] from, you know, the universal analytics to GA4.

[00:17:15] And it was so pervasive.

[00:17:17] Everyone had to do both of those things

[00:17:20] and we've just removed them from our brain

[00:17:22] like they didn't actually happen at all.

[00:17:24] Like we've forced, forced amnesia

[00:17:27] on the two most painful parts of the last year.

[00:17:31] So Lange mentioned the black box

[00:17:33] sort of concept to marketing,

[00:17:34] which is happening not only with Google,

[00:17:36] but also meta,

[00:17:37] the more sort of into machine learning we get,

[00:17:39] it seems the less control that we marketers have.

[00:17:42] Performance Max is sort of the poster child

[00:17:44] of this really, you know.

[00:17:46] But, you know, I felt in the last year

[00:17:48] that they were starting to give us

[00:17:49] a little bit of control back.

[00:17:51] You know, like here and there,

[00:17:52] the stuff that had been put into this very black box

[00:17:55] was beginning to, you know,

[00:17:56] we were there like, well, maybe we,

[00:17:57] maybe we'll let you touch this up a little bit more

[00:17:59] or maybe, you know, and so on.

[00:18:01] Jill, which trend do you think

[00:18:03] we are going to see in the year ahead?

[00:18:05] More toward the old school,

[00:18:07] can't believe what I'm saying,

[00:18:08] old school Performance Max,

[00:18:10] you know, where it's basically just give us a budget,

[00:18:12] give us your website and press go.

[00:18:16] Or do you think the trend line in the next year

[00:18:18] is gonna be a return to some of these

[00:18:20] micro managing controls

[00:18:22] that we market that some marketers appreciate?

[00:18:25] There's no return.

[00:18:26] I mean, that is what I think what the biggest,

[00:18:29] surprisingly biggest change was over the last year

[00:18:32] was the ability to get more insights

[00:18:34] out of Performance Max,

[00:18:35] to add search themes,

[00:18:36] to be able to do brand exclusions

[00:18:38] because all those analysis reports,

[00:18:40] seeing search partner and display placements,

[00:18:42] like a lot of control did come.

[00:18:44] But none of that was announced

[00:18:46] and most of that was not announced in GML.

[00:18:48] I don't think that was on the roadmap.

[00:18:50] It sort of came from outside pressures.

[00:18:52] And so I think my fellow ex Googlers will agree

[00:18:54] that we are not moving towards more control,

[00:18:57] more transparency.

[00:18:58] We are moving towards less,

[00:19:01] less choice, less visibility,

[00:19:04] less opportunities to have Google Ads

[00:19:07] do the exact thing you want it to do.

[00:19:10] So really, this is not gonna sound revolutionary at all,

[00:19:13] like more Performance Max,

[00:19:15] I think we'll see more campaign type deprecations

[00:19:17] or feature deprecations to roll up into Performance Max.

[00:19:21] And of course, get your bingo cards out for AI

[00:19:24] because AI is going to be mentioned

[00:19:25] every 10 seconds of this GML.

[00:19:27] Will they beat the IO count?

[00:19:29] Do you think they'll count?

[00:19:30] Like do you think they'll also at the end?

[00:19:32] I'll count them.

[00:19:33] We'll ask them that afterwards.

[00:19:37] I think I agree.

[00:19:38] I think the product thought exercise

[00:19:44] seems to be what is the level of control

[00:19:49] we can grant back without giving control back?

[00:19:53] Right, it's like how do we appease

[00:19:55] some of the ongoing feedback that we've received

[00:19:58] that it's a black box,

[00:19:59] that I need visibility, that I...

[00:20:01] So how do you provide enough of that

[00:20:04] so that people feel like they're being listened to

[00:20:06] without actually providing the level of control

[00:20:10] and specificity they might have had

[00:20:11] in search and display previously?

[00:20:13] There's just a huge amount of value though on the other side.

[00:20:15] Like the flip side argument is that

[00:20:18] when the machine has more data, right?

[00:20:20] Like when the tool has more data

[00:20:23] to pull in from all of those sources, it works better.

[00:20:25] And that's true in the Google ecosystem,

[00:20:28] that's true in the meta ecosystem.

[00:20:30] So I think it's what else can Performance Max eat

[00:20:35] is probably a good way to think about it.

[00:20:37] Like what else could it swallow whole and provide back?

[00:20:43] And there's sort of an ongoing joke,

[00:20:47] I think internally around like

[00:20:48] when is there gonna be a Performance Max for brand?

[00:20:50] Right, so is outside of what is being done

[00:20:53] in YouTube products specifically already on its own

[00:20:58] or what's being done in demand gen,

[00:21:00] like could you envision

[00:21:02] and this probably won't get announced today

[00:21:04] cause it's probably too big a thing

[00:21:06] to swallow all at once.

[00:21:08] But could you build a campaign type

[00:21:09] where you literally just have,

[00:21:11] you throw out all of your assets

[00:21:13] that you're already doing in those other two campaign types

[00:21:16] and you focus it on multiple goals, right?

[00:21:19] Which is something Google has not always been good at.

[00:21:22] Kind of multi goal within a single campaign

[00:21:25] has been a challenge,

[00:21:27] but you can almost envision the slider

[00:21:29] of like my brand goal for this campaign

[00:21:32] is a quarter of what I wanna focus on,

[00:21:34] but my lower funnel demand capture is 75%.

[00:21:38] So give me 25 awareness and whatever it is.

[00:21:43] You could see a world where they could build that product,

[00:21:45] I don't think they've built that product yet,

[00:21:47] but and you could just let it do its own thing.

[00:21:50] And so for your small and medium advertisers,

[00:21:52] that's a really wonderful idea

[00:21:54] for your large brand advertisers,

[00:21:55] that's a living hell,

[00:21:56] like that's a nightmare product.

[00:21:58] That's interesting.

[00:21:59] So I don't know why I hadn't even thought

[00:22:02] of like a multi goal, multi objective campaign.

[00:22:05] So, I mean, I guess we could get to a world

[00:22:08] where you simply say this is the overall campaign

[00:22:12] and then it moves individuals through the funnel itself.

[00:22:16] It knows that they've been exposed to top funnel,

[00:22:19] it knows that they've responded to mid funnel,

[00:22:21] now is the time to,

[00:22:23] does that exist anywhere else in the marketing world?

[00:22:25] Have I missed that?

[00:22:27] No, I don't think like funnels

[00:22:30] don't actually work like that in real life.

[00:22:32] Funnels don't exist,

[00:22:33] Jill, there is no funnel.

[00:22:35] The truth is there is no funnel.

[00:22:37] Is that what you're saying?

[00:22:37] There's no spoon, no,

[00:22:38] just cause like it's not that the journey is like

[00:22:40] view this ad, view this ad, convert.

[00:22:42] I remember that slide from like 2018

[00:22:44] and all of our decks where it's like,

[00:22:47] the user journey actually goes like this

[00:22:49] and all over the place.

[00:22:50] And so there's something like ad sequencing,

[00:22:52] for example with YouTube,

[00:22:53] but I don't think that user decisions

[00:22:57] and user journeys really work that way.

[00:22:59] So I think it's a compelling idea, Grotty,

[00:23:01] but I don't know how many advertisers

[00:23:03] would use something like that, right?

[00:23:04] Like most of them want conversions in ROAS

[00:23:06] and conversions in ROAS

[00:23:09] and are not even impressed with Performance Max's ability

[00:23:12] to do that at more modest budget.

[00:23:14] I just wanna say for the record

[00:23:16] that this whole concept of there's no such thing

[00:23:18] as watch an ad, watch an ad, then convert.

[00:23:20] Jill has clearly never seen my purchase history

[00:23:22] for Fortnite cosmetics

[00:23:24] because that is absolutely a funnel that works.

[00:23:29] Just show me a fallout skin coming to Fortnite

[00:23:32] and I just need one ad and then I'll convert.

[00:23:34] One thing that worked for me for that was,

[00:23:36] do you remember that like little dancing cactus toy

[00:23:39] that was like all over TikTok?

[00:23:41] Yes, yes.

[00:23:41] Oh yeah.

[00:23:43] So I bought it, newsflash,

[00:23:45] it never arrived, I had to file a charge back,

[00:23:47] but that thing the moment I saw it, bye.

[00:23:49] It's like the only time that's happened.

[00:23:51] That and Momofuku chili crunch on the Instagram,

[00:23:55] which was a good purchase.

[00:23:56] TikTok made you buy it?

[00:23:58] TikTok made me buy it.

[00:23:59] The Momofuku is an interesting one.

[00:24:01] I had just actually talked about that

[00:24:02] in my class this past week

[00:24:05] because I think that they did an exceptional job

[00:24:08] of mirroring that, but I do wonder,

[00:24:11] again, I don't think that Google has built this,

[00:24:13] but it seems we're now in a world

[00:24:15] where it would be entirely possible.

[00:24:18] And again, the thing about Google,

[00:24:21] Google ad products is they don't all work

[00:24:23] for all customers, right?

[00:24:24] So like there's a reason why Procter and Gamble

[00:24:27] doesn't buy local service ads, right?

[00:24:30] There's probably an ad format for everyone,

[00:24:33] but if they could find a way to demonstrate the AF,

[00:24:37] you just also, like if you had a bit more awareness

[00:24:40] of your business, of your brand,

[00:24:42] depending on how you think about it,

[00:24:44] you would get more conversions.

[00:24:45] So if they had a great way to articulate that,

[00:24:47] kind of the way they do in some of the planner tools,

[00:24:52] keyword planner, then maybe there would be a way

[00:24:54] that they could articulate it.

[00:24:56] You're right, Joe, not everyone would buy it.

[00:24:58] Like people would be like, no,

[00:24:58] I just want my lower funnel conversions and screw off.

[00:25:02] If you are watching us live on Tuesday, May 21st,

[00:25:05] you're watching the pre-show essentially,

[00:25:06] someone in the YouTube chat has asked,

[00:25:08] how are you all watching the event

[00:25:10] while also commenting on it?

[00:25:11] Are you actually all just AI replacements of yourselves?

[00:25:15] Believe me, I would have decided

[00:25:16] it was better looking AI replacements

[00:25:18] than what you find here in the flash.

[00:25:20] No, so that show of Google is coming

[00:25:22] in 45 minutes from now.

[00:25:24] So we are sort of there in advance.

[00:25:26] But if you are watching us live,

[00:25:28] either on YouTube or on LinkedIn

[00:25:31] or wherever you're seeing this right now live,

[00:25:33] go to the comment section.

[00:25:34] We are able to see your comments

[00:25:35] and we will respond, of course, ask questions.

[00:25:37] This is a great opportunity.

[00:25:38] You've got three ex Googlers here

[00:25:41] with just a ton of knowledge.

[00:25:42] All right, so the big question,

[00:25:44] and Solange I'm gonna start with you

[00:25:45] and then I think we'll kind of go around the table.

[00:25:49] This is, as Jill said at the start,

[00:25:51] this is probably Google marketing's biggest event.

[00:25:54] It's the one that sets the stage for not just the

[00:25:57] products, but also I think it's fair to say

[00:25:59] kind of the vibe going forward in the year.

[00:26:02] What do you expect to see announced here?

[00:26:07] Oh, I think that's such a good question

[00:26:08] and it's always hard to pin down.

[00:26:10] But one thing that I expect to see slash hope to see

[00:26:14] are better tools to leverage our first party data.

[00:26:18] Because I think, Grouty, you mentioned

[00:26:22] this trend of, okay, maybe one day

[00:26:24] we'll see a campaign where I give you my goals,

[00:26:26] I give you my budget, I give you my website and my assets.

[00:26:28] But I think in order for that to perform well,

[00:26:31] and even now in order for Performance Max

[00:26:33] to be able to eat the right things,

[00:26:35] we need to make sure that we're actually

[00:26:36] leveraging our first party data.

[00:26:38] So especially looking at small to medium advertisers,

[00:26:41] are we giving them the resources to help them

[00:26:44] understand what that even means?

[00:26:46] What the value even is there?

[00:26:48] And how can you leverage that for your campaigns?

[00:26:52] Especially if you're a multi-channel advertiser.

[00:26:56] If you're trying to connect the online to the offline,

[00:27:00] your first party data is so freaking instrumental.

[00:27:03] I can't underline that enough.

[00:27:05] And so I hope that we're gonna see some new tools

[00:27:08] to leverage that.

[00:27:10] And a second one that I hope to see

[00:27:13] is hopefully more advanced audience targeting with AI.

[00:27:18] Because we're leaning on AI more and more,

[00:27:20] are we gonna see some new tools and solutions,

[00:27:23] whereas AI is actually gonna show us

[00:27:26] how we should target those audiences?

[00:27:28] Are there any extra signals that we could get from AI

[00:27:31] that we don't currently can get from our own business

[00:27:33] so that it can help us get to the right place

[00:27:35] at the right time?

[00:27:37] And anything AI will probably show up.

[00:27:40] I'm sure there's an internal Google tally

[00:27:42] going on somewhere where we're kind of taking off

[00:27:45] the amount of times that we're hearing about AI.

[00:27:47] But I do think that we're gonna see more

[00:27:49] about AI integrating with audience targeting.

[00:27:53] So Longia, can I ask you about the first one,

[00:27:55] the first party data?

[00:27:56] Because last year at GML, Google announced that,

[00:27:59] oh, some big thing is coming to help with that.

[00:28:01] And then it was data manager,

[00:28:02] which is not some big thing to help with that.

[00:28:05] And you just left Google a few months ago

[00:28:07] and worked with some of those

[00:28:08] small and medium sized advertisers.

[00:28:09] So I'd love to hear your perspective

[00:28:11] on like the advertiser side.

[00:28:14] Like how is that message,

[00:28:16] we just say first party data, first party data.

[00:28:19] In your experience, the business owners you worked with,

[00:28:21] do they understand that?

[00:28:23] Do you think Google is effectively explaining that?

[00:28:26] I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

[00:28:28] I think Google could do a better job at that

[00:28:30] because if I were to summarize my emails with AI

[00:28:34] would be what does this consent mode thing mean?

[00:28:37] What's this thing about cookies?

[00:28:39] What do you mean data?

[00:28:40] What's going on?

[00:28:41] And I think because of the messy communication sometimes,

[00:28:45] a lot of the terms are getting conflated.

[00:28:47] So people are taking consent mode as consent,

[00:28:50] which is two separate things.

[00:28:52] And especially for my small to medium advertisers

[00:28:54] out in Europe,

[00:28:55] please know that those are two different things

[00:28:57] because GDPR will nail you.

[00:29:02] So in terms of your question,

[00:29:04] I think that it's really important to understand

[00:29:08] why we have those different things in place

[00:29:10] and what they actually offer for your business

[00:29:12] and understanding that first party data

[00:29:14] is literally anything that your customers

[00:29:16] will give you directly.

[00:29:18] Okay, now what you can do with that information

[00:29:20] will depend on what country you're in,

[00:29:23] what continent you're in.

[00:29:24] Again, GDPR does not play around

[00:29:27] so please don't try to play it.

[00:29:29] But I think that's really important

[00:29:31] and I hope that as we go forward,

[00:29:34] Google is gonna do a better job

[00:29:35] at explaining the differences there

[00:29:37] because now what we've seen is,

[00:29:39] especially in Q1 this year,

[00:29:41] all of a sudden it was all hands on deck for consent mode,

[00:29:44] but Google's not your legal advisor.

[00:29:46] So we couldn't actually tell you,

[00:29:48] are you doing the right things?

[00:29:51] Are you following the law?

[00:29:52] All we could tell you is,

[00:29:53] you need to do this thing.

[00:29:54] And then there were very limited resources,

[00:29:57] especially for accounts

[00:29:58] that don't have account managers, right?

[00:30:01] To start implementing these things.

[00:30:02] So I hope to see that become a little bit more accessible

[00:30:07] for our small to medium sized advertisers.

[00:30:10] It was exactly the same when GDPR rolled out.

[00:30:12] My role was on the international growth team

[00:30:15] and so I worked with Canadian businesses

[00:30:16] to help them expand internationally

[00:30:18] and so I was the de facto GDPR girl in the office

[00:30:21] who had to learn about that.

[00:30:22] And same thing, all these big Canadian companies

[00:30:26] who operate internationally were asking,

[00:30:27] what do I need to know?

[00:30:28] What do I need to know?

[00:30:29] And we would just say, we're not your lawyers.

[00:30:31] Here's some basic information of what it means

[00:30:33] and that's it.

[00:30:34] And it was frustrating for us,

[00:30:35] but also frustrating for clients,

[00:30:37] these regulations and things that impact everything we do.

[00:30:41] We do have a comment which we'll get to just shortly.

[00:30:44] I just don't wanna leave Matthew hanging

[00:30:45] cause I did ask what each of you expected

[00:30:48] to see announced in this year ahead

[00:30:50] or in this announcement

[00:30:51] that we're seeing about 40 minutes from now.

[00:30:54] Matthew, what are you expecting?

[00:30:55] Well, Joe, first I'll say,

[00:30:56] I don't think anyone called you GDPR girl.

[00:30:58] I don't think that was actually the name.

[00:31:00] I don't think that was actually a thing,

[00:31:01] but I said you internalized it that way.

[00:31:05] I, right?

[00:31:08] That's why I left.

[00:31:09] I'm outta here.

[00:31:12] When you think about GML,

[00:31:13] they've got a bunch of boxes to check

[00:31:15] cause they do have to appease that kind of

[00:31:19] what's going on with brand advertisers

[00:31:20] and what's going on with your kind of

[00:31:23] full funnel advertisers,

[00:31:24] what's going on with small and medium businesses

[00:31:27] that are more conversion focused.

[00:31:29] And so I think we can expect to see announcements

[00:31:32] that address all of those types of businesses

[00:31:34] and their concerns.

[00:31:37] If I were gonna think about it like that

[00:31:39] and break some things down,

[00:31:40] I'm surprised the Netflix announcement

[00:31:42] actually came out last week

[00:31:43] that they were able to now using

[00:31:47] DV360 access that ad inventory.

[00:31:50] I would have expected that to be,

[00:31:51] they're gonna reiterate it.

[00:31:52] It's gonna get repeated today.

[00:31:54] It's too big of news to not announce a few times.

[00:31:57] But I think that that's a huge win

[00:32:00] for Google, Google platform

[00:32:02] and for those brand advertisers.

[00:32:06] Inevitably there's gonna be something

[00:32:08] that is more product vertical specific.

[00:32:10] And so with all the stuff

[00:32:11] that they were talking about last week with Gemini,

[00:32:14] I would expect some new travel ad news.

[00:32:18] If we're now in a place where we're like,

[00:32:20] now Gemini is recommending how you should be traveling,

[00:32:24] there's probably gotta be some backup ad format for that.

[00:32:27] And then further to that,

[00:32:28] there has to be some disclosure announcements around

[00:32:33] how do I advertise in the generative search experience?

[00:32:35] Like what do ads look like in that context

[00:32:39] because they haven't really articulated that yet.

[00:32:42] So those are the first things that come to mind

[00:32:46] and I could probably occupy the remainder of our time

[00:32:49] talking about other things that I might expect to see.

[00:32:53] Things I would like to see

[00:32:55] that will probably not get any headline or spaces.

[00:32:59] I made the quip about local service ads.

[00:33:01] I think that they've been rolled out very well

[00:33:04] in the US, they've not gone anywhere else

[00:33:06] in the world very well,

[00:33:07] or they've not the available options

[00:33:10] in Canada are very limited.

[00:33:11] And so I would think that it would be cool

[00:33:13] if that got expanded, probably not.

[00:33:17] Google has done a bad job at lead gen

[00:33:19] like we always talk about it,

[00:33:21] but there isn't a product,

[00:33:23] like there isn't a lead gen product

[00:33:25] and there probably could be, should be.

[00:33:28] That would be fun.

[00:33:29] I mean, I think people,

[00:33:30] there's a whole bunch of businesses that would eat that up.

[00:33:33] What do you mean?

[00:33:34] Performance max for lead gen.

[00:33:35] Yeah, I mean,

[00:33:38] I like that we all laughed.

[00:33:39] I like that we all laughed, right?

[00:33:41] Well, when you think of all the experiments

[00:33:42] that they've run with like lead gen and search,

[00:33:44] that just never really worked, right?

[00:33:46] Cause no one wants to click on a thing

[00:33:48] and open up a form

[00:33:49] and put that into the Google experience.

[00:33:51] But that doesn't mean there isn't a version

[00:33:53] of something that might work better.

[00:33:56] And last, blah, blah, blah video.

[00:33:58] Like I think the push internally for them

[00:34:01] is so centered around those brand dollars

[00:34:04] and so centered around like,

[00:34:06] what else can we be doing with video?

[00:34:07] They've got to have some new,

[00:34:10] hand waving around AI and video

[00:34:12] that we just haven't conceived up yet

[00:34:14] that no one's talking about yet.

[00:34:16] Over on YouTube, we have a comment that says,

[00:34:18] or a question from Blue Ion that says,

[00:34:20] what should marketers know about the privacy sandbox?

[00:34:23] We've been through so many different iterations of this,

[00:34:25] it seems ever since Google announced

[00:34:27] that they're gonna be stripping third party cookies

[00:34:30] from Chrome, which is something that is now scheduled

[00:34:32] for the year 2174.

[00:34:35] We've had flock, we've had popics,

[00:34:37] we've had privacy sandbox.

[00:34:38] It's not clear to me whether they're all the same.

[00:34:40] Who wants to take a crack at this?

[00:34:43] Is privacy sandbox the thing that we ended up with?

[00:34:45] Is that sticking?

[00:34:46] Does that exist?

[00:34:47] What does it do?

[00:34:48] What does any of this mean?

[00:34:50] I was actually gonna comment about that too.

[00:34:51] I think the thing to know is there's nothing to know.

[00:34:54] I think it's a much ado about nothing right now

[00:34:57] that Google will,

[00:35:00] and yes, they've tried to frame it

[00:35:04] as if we're not doing this alone.

[00:35:06] They're pretty much doing it alone.

[00:35:08] It's like they're consulting with some other people.

[00:35:10] I'm sure, if I worked at Google,

[00:35:12] I would have gotten trouble for saying that right there.

[00:35:14] But they're-

[00:35:16] You're out now, you're free.

[00:35:17] I know, I'm free, I'm free.

[00:35:18] The, I think the bulk of the work that is being done

[00:35:22] in privacy sandbox is being done by Google

[00:35:25] and they're trying to consult with other people.

[00:35:26] Other people kind of don't care.

[00:35:29] What would be interesting and like there are some weird

[00:35:31] and Jill, I'm sure you're,

[00:35:32] I would love to be,

[00:35:34] I would love more of your,

[00:35:35] what you're finding in Google support articles

[00:35:38] because there's probably so much to find

[00:35:40] that no one knows about.

[00:35:42] But the, what is the,

[00:35:46] there's a weird API.

[00:35:48] I had it on the tip of my brain, I forgot it.

[00:35:51] Is it-

[00:35:52] Topics?

[00:35:53] Not topics, it's like,

[00:35:56] I would have to Google it.

[00:35:58] There's like a weird API based version

[00:36:01] of remarketing that they've built.

[00:36:02] It's the most complicated product

[00:36:04] I've seen in a long time.

[00:36:05] That's saying something.

[00:36:06] Yeah and so there has to be a better answer.

[00:36:10] So like coming out of the experiments

[00:36:12] that have run in the privacy sandbox,

[00:36:15] it wouldn't surprise me if they've got

[00:36:16] a couple of nuggets around things

[00:36:18] like we have some new products coming

[00:36:19] that address the need for things like,

[00:36:23] either onboarding first party data

[00:36:25] or a replacement for remarketing tactics

[00:36:29] that is born out of privacy sandbox

[00:36:32] but now it has a name and its name is blah

[00:36:35] because they still don't have an answer for those things.

[00:36:38] But otherwise I think the average marketer news

[00:36:41] on privacy sandboxes, there is no news.

[00:36:43] There's nothing to talk about.

[00:36:45] All right, fair enough.

[00:36:46] Let me ask each of you this.

[00:36:48] Other than, and we joke about AI of course

[00:36:50] because it's the word that all of these platforms,

[00:36:53] except interestingly enough, Apple will not say the word AI.

[00:36:57] They'll use some other phrase.

[00:36:58] They also have banned headset or VR goggles.

[00:37:02] They're very particular about their language.

[00:37:04] I'm gonna not only be counting,

[00:37:06] I also have this button here

[00:37:07] that every time they mention AI,

[00:37:10] I'm gonna be pushing it here in Vancouver,

[00:37:12] on Vancouver Island as the official count.

[00:37:14] Let me ask each of you.

[00:37:16] So other than AI, and for this question

[00:37:19] I'm gonna ban you from using AI as your answer.

[00:37:22] Other than AI, what do you think will have

[00:37:25] the biggest impact on marketers in the year ahead?

[00:37:29] You're not allowed to answer AI in any form,

[00:37:31] not audience development, not creative,

[00:37:32] not copywriting, nothing.

[00:37:34] Other than AI, what is gonna have the biggest impact

[00:37:37] in the year ahead?

[00:37:38] Solange, let's start with you.

[00:37:39] Yeah, it's gonna be really hard

[00:37:41] not to use those letters.

[00:37:43] But I think that something that I read more and more about

[00:37:47] is this concept of zero party data,

[00:37:50] which I think is interesting

[00:37:52] as compared to first party data.

[00:37:53] And it's getting our customers

[00:37:56] to willingly share data with us.

[00:37:58] So I think coming also back

[00:38:00] to kind of that lead generation conversation,

[00:38:03] it's gonna be really interesting

[00:38:04] to see how we're gonna use the ad landscape

[00:38:08] to try and see can I actually get

[00:38:10] zero party data from my customers,

[00:38:13] getting the control back of retargeting those customers

[00:38:16] through other channels.

[00:38:17] So I think something that we're gonna see,

[00:38:19] and we see this also, I think,

[00:38:21] between Google Ads and Pinterest,

[00:38:23] there's been a deal that was closed,

[00:38:25] I think earlier this year.

[00:38:26] So almost Google Ads becoming your broker

[00:38:29] when it comes to zero party data,

[00:38:31] maybe even first party data

[00:38:33] and designing your campaigns to get that data

[00:38:37] so that you then can reuse it.

[00:38:38] I also think that we're gonna see a stronger focus

[00:38:41] on the customer experience

[00:38:43] because there's been some research done.

[00:38:44] I think it said 60% of consumers

[00:38:47] that feel like any point of the customer journey

[00:38:49] has filled them will actually abandon ship

[00:38:52] and go for a new brand.

[00:38:53] And this could have been a brand

[00:38:54] that they've been loyal to for years,

[00:38:56] it doesn't matter.

[00:38:57] So customers expect us to know them,

[00:39:00] but they don't want to freely give us as much

[00:39:02] because they're aware now of the currency

[00:39:05] that is privacy.

[00:39:06] So I think we're gonna have a lot of conversations this year

[00:39:10] about how do we get our customers to give us data,

[00:39:13] how do we use that,

[00:39:15] and how can we use advertising

[00:39:18] as a part of that holistic customer journey

[00:39:20] to make sure that they're having a good experience

[00:39:22] across the board.

[00:39:25] Jill, your thoughts?

[00:39:28] Yeah, I won't use those letters.

[00:39:30] I think the biggest thing

[00:39:31] that'll impact advertisers this year

[00:39:33] probably isn't something being announced at GML,

[00:39:35] just like kind of the biggest things

[00:39:36] that I think actually impacted your day in,

[00:39:39] day out Google ads users

[00:39:40] are not the big flashy things that are announced,

[00:39:41] tackle which don't come to fruition.

[00:39:43] One that I've been grappling with a lot

[00:39:46] in my coaching practice

[00:39:48] is the way keywords have completely changed.

[00:39:50] And I know we've all been talking

[00:39:51] about the demise of keywords for years,

[00:39:53] Mina Khemani has this tweet,

[00:39:55] he just surfaces every single time

[00:39:57] someone says keywords are dying.

[00:39:58] They are, they've definitely changed.

[00:40:01] Exact match is not exact anymore,

[00:40:02] phrase match is not phrase anymore,

[00:40:04] broad match is supposedly getting better with smart bidding,

[00:40:07] but for smaller budgets that's just not accessible.

[00:40:09] So I think this removal of more control

[00:40:14] as we spoke about earlier is only going to continue.

[00:40:17] Audiences become trickier

[00:40:18] with third party cookie deprecation.

[00:40:21] And yeah, I think that's what's really gonna impact us

[00:40:24] most and the way to mitigate that

[00:40:26] I think as a business owner,

[00:40:27] if you have less focus on intent

[00:40:30] and less focus on audiences

[00:40:31] and less control over exactly who's going to see your ad,

[00:40:34] then the thing you need to focus on is the ad itself.

[00:40:37] And I think as Google Ads practitioners,

[00:40:38] that's the part we all suck at

[00:40:40] is creating compelling ads,

[00:40:42] writing really effective text,

[00:40:44] creating really compelling images,

[00:40:46] putting together strong video

[00:40:47] that drives people to feel something

[00:40:49] like that's just not normally

[00:40:50] in the Google Ads practitioner skill set.

[00:40:53] But I think it's gonna become more important than ever

[00:40:56] this year as our targeting capabilities become worse.

[00:41:00] So that's something I personally trying

[00:41:02] to really focus on in my own skill set

[00:41:04] and a place where there are tools out there

[00:41:07] that can assist us with that.

[00:41:10] Matthew, other than AI,

[00:41:11] what do you think is gonna be the biggest thing

[00:41:13] that they announced on stage

[00:41:14] in terms of the day-to-day impact on marketers?

[00:41:18] I mean, I'm gonna angle and agree with Jill in fact

[00:41:22] that I don't think Google can have that conversation

[00:41:25] without mentioning AI.

[00:41:26] I think that it's actually impossible for them to do it.

[00:41:30] Yeah, I think they can't.

[00:41:32] I think they can't that it's like,

[00:41:35] and then we will use AI.

[00:41:39] So probably at JML that isn't possible.

[00:41:44] Here in the real world, outside of the Googleplex,

[00:41:49] I think the trend or what we will hear more of

[00:41:54] throughout the course of this year

[00:41:55] is algorithm resistant advertising

[00:41:59] or algorithm agnostic advertising.

[00:42:02] So mechanisms that tried, trusted and true

[00:42:05] that have been with us since the dawn of the internet

[00:42:08] that we've all forgotten about

[00:42:10] such as just contextual marketing

[00:42:12] or just like maybe we should put these car ads

[00:42:15] beside the places where there are cars

[00:42:17] or email marketing, CRM marketing,

[00:42:20] the number of advertisers who have either given up,

[00:42:22] failed or do CRM marketing badly.

[00:42:26] I think it presents a huge opportunity

[00:42:28] for people to just get back into that

[00:42:30] in a more meaningful way.

[00:42:31] And so while, and even things like newsletters,

[00:42:36] like things like newsletter, I run a newsletter

[00:42:38] and so it's one of the topics that is very,

[00:42:41] a current that runs through

[00:42:43] a lot of the newsletter community

[00:42:45] is that you can create a business,

[00:42:48] you can do advertising marketing digitally

[00:42:51] and you don't need SEO.

[00:42:55] You don't need all of these other things

[00:42:57] that have become the mainstays and staples

[00:43:00] of what we kind of understand

[00:43:01] as the core of digital marketing,

[00:43:04] that there's other ways around it.

[00:43:06] So I think that there will be more of a trend

[00:43:09] to focus on those algorithm agnostic things

[00:43:12] that are not at the mercy of X slash Twitter

[00:43:17] or whatever is going on on Instagram

[00:43:20] or however Performance Max wants to prioritize our ads.

[00:43:25] If you're watching us on Tuesday, May 21st right now,

[00:43:28] you are watching us live.

[00:43:29] You can head over to either the feed,

[00:43:31] the comment section in YouTube or LinkedIn,

[00:43:33] wherever you're watching us.

[00:43:34] We do have a comment section.

[00:43:35] We are monitoring it.

[00:43:36] We will answer your questions as well.

[00:43:38] Sarah from LinkedIn just said,

[00:43:39] my husband wonders if Google will be more like TV ads

[00:43:42] where the creative matters more and more.

[00:43:46] I actually think this has been the case

[00:43:48] for at least a year now where,

[00:43:51] we're getting to the point where the only levers

[00:43:53] we as marketers have to pull is creative.

[00:43:56] The audience targeting is being somewhat removed.

[00:43:59] I guess budget is still within our control

[00:44:02] for the time being.

[00:44:04] It's sort of interesting.

[00:44:05] Let me ask you folks this,

[00:44:07] I want a one word answer

[00:44:09] and I want the absolute truth.

[00:44:13] No lying at all here.

[00:44:15] Here's the question.

[00:44:17] When you need to search for something on the internet,

[00:44:20] do you use Google?

[00:44:22] Is that your first one?

[00:44:26] What is the default?

[00:44:27] Is Google the default search on your browser?

[00:44:30] I got a nod from Solange.

[00:44:31] I got a nod from Jill.

[00:44:33] Matthew, that was an awfully delayed nod.

[00:44:36] Yes.

[00:44:37] So it hinges a lot on what the question is for me.

[00:44:42] What's the default in your browser though?

[00:44:44] The default is Google, 100%.

[00:44:46] Default is Google.

[00:44:47] But I would say depending on what I'm looking for

[00:44:52] for an answer and even my friends at Google

[00:44:56] know that this is true.

[00:44:57] I'm a huge fan of perplexity.

[00:44:59] So I'm like a huge proponent of perplexity

[00:45:02] that if I'm looking for an answer

[00:45:05] because I still, a lot of my day-to-day work

[00:45:08] is assembling insights, providing insights

[00:45:11] to folk in the automotive community

[00:45:13] or to my students in my classes.

[00:45:15] If I'm looking for an answer to something,

[00:45:17] I will use both

[00:45:19] and I will increasingly find that perplexity

[00:45:21] is giving me a better AI-generated answer

[00:45:25] than what I might find

[00:45:26] if I was fishing through 10 blue links.

[00:45:28] I mean, one of the, I guess,

[00:45:30] benefits to AI being used as an answer engine

[00:45:34] for lack of a better term like perplexity does

[00:45:36] like ArcMobile now does

[00:45:38] like a lot of them are starting to get into

[00:45:40] is that it is moving more toward

[00:45:42] that zero click strategy

[00:45:43] that Google really kind of started

[00:45:44] with its knowledge panels where you type in

[00:45:46] how old is Justin Trudeau

[00:45:48] and it will just give you the answer.

[00:45:49] The practice of SEO used to be something

[00:45:53] that companies spent enormous amounts

[00:45:56] of energy on and money on

[00:45:58] to try to be in those top 10 links,

[00:46:00] ideally in the top screen full of links.

[00:46:03] I mean, does it matter anymore

[00:46:05] if AI is just, if Gemini in Google's case

[00:46:08] is just going to give us answers?

[00:46:10] I mean, I found it interesting

[00:46:12] that a couple of days ago at Google I.O.

[00:46:14] I believe they announced that they'll be coming out

[00:46:16] with this revolutionary new search engine product

[00:46:18] called Google web search.

[00:46:20] And it's literally just, it's just the web results

[00:46:24] from like that you expected back 15 years ago

[00:46:27] when it wasn't cluttered and I prefer it.

[00:46:29] No YouTube videos, no knowledge panels

[00:46:31] no shopping carousels, it's just the web results.

[00:46:34] You know, we talk a lot about advertising

[00:46:35] and P max but SEO is still a critical component

[00:46:39] right of getting people to your website.

[00:46:43] Is this practice is SEO doomed?

[00:46:46] Like is any, are any of us gonna get any organic traffic

[00:46:50] anymore from Google?

[00:46:53] I don't think it's doomed.

[00:46:56] Who wants to go first?

[00:46:57] Who wants to go first?

[00:46:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think doomed is a heavy word

[00:47:02] but I do think it's changing.

[00:47:04] I don't think it's going back

[00:47:06] to what we traditionally know SEO to be.

[00:47:08] I think technical SEOs such as, you know

[00:47:11] is your website mobile friendly?

[00:47:12] Are you using the right terms on your website?

[00:47:15] I think that's always going to become relevant.

[00:47:17] I think what's going to change

[00:47:18] and these are some of the conversations

[00:47:20] that I'm seeing around, you know

[00:47:22] AI summation tools that are coming up

[00:47:26] even when searching in Google ads.

[00:47:28] I think they're rolling it out in the US right now

[00:47:30] where you search for something

[00:47:31] and you see an AI summary

[00:47:34] before you actually see the results.

[00:47:37] So I think where SEO is going to change

[00:47:39] is the question now becomes

[00:47:40] how do I get my content injected into that summary?

[00:47:44] And I think it's up to the big platforms

[00:47:48] like Google, like meta, like TikTok

[00:47:49] to make sure that we have some sort of sourcing there.

[00:47:52] We're accrediting the platforms

[00:47:54] and the websites that this content is coming from.

[00:47:57] And I think in that change

[00:47:59] it's going to be really interesting to see

[00:48:01] what some of those best practices are going to look like.

[00:48:04] If you look at your content right now

[00:48:06] what would that look like

[00:48:07] if a piece of that was put into an AI summary

[00:48:10] of someone searching for that question, right?

[00:48:12] So search almost becoming more like a conversation

[00:48:15] and not just searching for the word

[00:48:17] and typing in a sentence

[00:48:18] expecting an elaborate answer to come back.

[00:48:21] So I think in that sense SEO is going to change

[00:48:24] from what we've traditionally known it to be.

[00:48:27] My issue is that like you can't trust AI.

[00:48:31] Like I know that I'm, you know

[00:48:33] I'm not trying to fight a battle here

[00:48:34] but I'm just like, I don't use AI

[00:48:36] to try to retrieve information

[00:48:38] because it just makes crap up.

[00:48:40] And like I've used Paid, ChatGPT,

[00:48:43] I use Gemini, Advanced.

[00:48:45] It messes up very simple things

[00:48:47] like example to prepare for today.

[00:48:49] I gave it the transcript of our tailgate we did last year

[00:48:53] and it called me Jill Scott.

[00:48:56] Why?

[00:48:57] I don't know, but it just couldn't.

[00:48:58] I was like, what did Jill Scott said?

[00:49:00] Like, and that wasn't even me asking it facts

[00:49:03] it gets facts wrong all the time.

[00:49:05] And so why would I ask AI to tell me something?

[00:49:08] And then I have to go double check by Googling, right?

[00:49:11] That it's actually accurate.

[00:49:13] Like I just don't,

[00:49:14] I can't see myself doing that

[00:49:15] but I know that makes me sound permagyny.

[00:49:18] Get off my lawn.

[00:49:22] Yeah, I mean, that's one of the things I love

[00:49:25] about perplexity is that it gives you the sources, right?

[00:49:27] So you can still have that experience

[00:49:29] of going to the actual page

[00:49:31] where the content was derived from.

[00:49:35] The thing about SEO and it's kind of the

[00:49:38] are we talking SEO or are we talking local search?

[00:49:40] And I know there's some concentric circles around that.

[00:49:43] So many businesses, in terms of

[00:49:46] because they don't have it tagged properly

[00:49:48] and they can't see the difference.

[00:49:49] A third of their organic search comes

[00:49:51] from their Google business profile.

[00:49:53] Like it's, and that's not going away.

[00:49:55] Like so there sort of,

[00:49:59] and when you think about like, is it going to change?

[00:50:01] Well, if you actually, again

[00:50:03] if you were on Jill's journey

[00:50:04] through Google support articles

[00:50:05] you would probably learn it already has changed

[00:50:08] that the latest update, they were very clear.

[00:50:13] They're like, just build great content.

[00:50:16] Don't try and game the system.

[00:50:18] Like don't try and SEO your pages.

[00:50:20] Just build great content and we'll do the rest.

[00:50:23] And that's not a new thing.

[00:50:25] Like that's been a few years.

[00:50:29] The thing that will be a little different

[00:50:31] or the thing that I think continues

[00:50:33] to problematize the entire conversation is

[00:50:37] because the unspoken conclusion

[00:50:41] of that thought of is SEO dead is the,

[00:50:43] do I need a website?

[00:50:44] Right? Like it's, and the challenge there is

[00:50:48] the answer is yes, because you don't have anywhere else.

[00:50:51] So unless you also have an app

[00:50:52] to collect first party data.

[00:50:54] And if you don't have first party data

[00:50:55] you can't advertise in a cookieless world.

[00:50:58] So there's a real, yeah, cart problem there

[00:51:03] that I don't think everyone has fully

[00:51:07] wrapped their heads around at Google, at Microsoft.

[00:51:10] And they need, I hope, I'm hopeful

[00:51:14] that Google is somewhat mindful of that.

[00:51:16] That there's like we, you know, to run the search

[00:51:19] we need the content to build the AI to blah, blah, blah.

[00:51:22] Like there's otherwise you're just using AI

[00:51:25] to build content for AI

[00:51:27] and that's probably not gonna end well.

[00:51:28] Like that probably doesn't end well.

[00:51:31] And Sarah has a point here on LinkedIn.

[00:51:34] No, just Sarah's been commenting here on LinkedIn

[00:51:37] that, you know, the things that help you

[00:51:39] from an SEO perspective, at least SEOs know today

[00:51:42] also help you from a PPC perspective.

[00:51:44] Like we're all, it's Googlers.

[00:51:45] We can attest to the fact that like the ads engine

[00:51:48] the organic engine are separate

[00:51:49] and paying for one doesn't impact the other

[00:51:51] but just the thing they have in common is your website.

[00:51:54] And so I think that's something else

[00:51:55] that's become more and more and more and more

[00:51:57] over important over time and will continue to do so

[00:52:01] is in order for whether it's automated search results

[00:52:04] or automated ads to work well

[00:52:06] Google has to understand your website

[00:52:09] to understand who would be a good customer for it.

[00:52:12] And so I think that's something that's not going away

[00:52:15] and actually is just becoming more important.

[00:52:16] Right, you're gonna need that final landing page URL

[00:52:19] to be able to create the campaign to run the ad.

[00:52:21] And so then at least in, you know, Google's

[00:52:26] if Google was a person and had opinions

[00:52:28] it isn't a person that doesn't have opinions

[00:52:30] which is a thing that I used to remind clients

[00:52:31] of all the time, like Google doesn't have opinions.

[00:52:35] But the websites are core to their ecosystem

[00:52:40] to their ethos, like we, there needs to be an open web.

[00:52:44] This does need to exist whether it's done through a

[00:52:47] search generative experience or otherwise, so.

[00:52:51] You know, you do mention Matthew that in the past

[00:52:54] and this has been, they've been saying this

[00:52:55] for literally probably more than a decade now

[00:52:59] this whole concept inside the SEO community of Google

[00:53:02] saying don't try to game it

[00:53:04] we'll just create the best content you can

[00:53:06] which is theoretically accurate.

[00:53:09] I think it's, I've always thought it was disingenuous

[00:53:12] because there simply are things you can do

[00:53:16] to gain beyond.

[00:53:17] Yes, beyond the idea of just make great content

[00:53:20] because you can make great content and that's fantastic

[00:53:22] but you can also make great content

[00:53:24] and attach a schema to it and put in proper headers

[00:53:28] and put some internal links on your website.

[00:53:30] You wouldn't think to do that in the whole concept

[00:53:33] of just create great comments.

[00:53:35] So, you know, is it not true that some of this advice

[00:53:38] that Google gives out is a little disingenuous?

[00:53:41] Well, I think, you know, Todd, you're not wrong

[00:53:43] but I also think that that latest, you know

[00:53:45] and it was only updated a couple of years ago

[00:53:47] their latest, you know, in the developer section

[00:53:49] the SEO guidelines also say all of those things

[00:53:52] like that in addition to creating great content

[00:53:55] you must have schema text and you must do

[00:53:57] there are other things that they highlight

[00:53:59] or have come out more recently through some

[00:54:03] the SEO community that they're saying are out now

[00:54:05] less important which I think are really fundamental shifts

[00:54:10] in SEO that people were not aware of

[00:54:12] and that was the whole like, actually

[00:54:14] maybe we don't care about backlinks.

[00:54:16] Like maybe links aren't as important as they used to be

[00:54:19] and that's a pretty profound change.

[00:54:22] One of the things that I will say surprised me

[00:54:25] recently was in the exercise of creating my own podcast

[00:54:30] was the like, Google swallowed that whole.

[00:54:32] Like that the, you know, by syndicating

[00:54:36] and being on those sites, suddenly like the, you know

[00:54:41] my name, the name of my podcast was just like

[00:54:44] this is number one, number two, number three

[00:54:46] number four spot for certain queries related to me

[00:54:50] as a person and so, you know, it's kind of the

[00:54:55] a larger question around the

[00:54:56] what did they actually mean when they said

[00:54:59] great content?

[00:55:00] Did they mean build a great website

[00:55:02] or did they mean create multiple types

[00:55:04] of other types of great content?

[00:55:05] Like get that video version of it up on YouTube

[00:55:08] and elsewhere, did create audio content.

[00:55:11] Like it's kind of a weird exercise

[00:55:13] and that's where I say it's a strange splitting hairs

[00:55:16] exercise between what is SEO and what is just

[00:55:20] what is local and then what is, you know

[00:55:23] what does Google just figure out on their own

[00:55:25] which they're probably using AI for Todd.

[00:55:27] Jill briefly.

[00:55:29] Yeah, it also brings me back to this point

[00:55:31] that I think people don't realize

[00:55:33] when you haven't worked at Google.

[00:55:34] I mean, Matt said earlier like Google is not a person

[00:55:37] but like when a Google executive talks

[00:55:40] to search engine land or search engine or something

[00:55:43] like those people don't use the products.

[00:55:45] They've been giving the product up and up

[00:55:47] and up and up and up and up and up and up

[00:55:49] and so like recently there was this whole

[00:55:51] ad strength debacle and Jenny Marvin

[00:55:54] the ads liaison wrote an amazing article

[00:55:57] for search engine journal clearing it all up.

[00:55:59] But like that was not on her roadmap.

[00:56:00] She ended up having to clear up this mess

[00:56:02] and this is I have no insider information.

[00:56:04] This was just me observing with my ex Google rise

[00:56:06] but like some executive made some comment

[00:56:09] that of course ad strength impacts, you know

[00:56:12] your ads abilities to show

[00:56:14] and it sent the whole industry into a tizzy

[00:56:16] but oh my gosh, our ads aren't gonna show

[00:56:17] we thought it's not an input and blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:56:20] And then like they had to try to

[00:56:22] Jenny who's lovely to like correct this misconception

[00:56:25] so I think that's something else

[00:56:26] you will keep in mind when Google says something

[00:56:29] like who is saying something, you know

[00:56:32] who was really saying it

[00:56:33] very in your title that does not mean

[00:56:36] they know what they're talking about.

[00:56:38] Like they've never opened the interface before.

[00:56:40] We are about 10 minutes away from ending

[00:56:42] and so I wanna just recap a couple of quick

[00:56:46] answers from you both before I let you go

[00:56:47] and then we'll talk a bit about what you're doing now

[00:56:49] how people can follow you

[00:56:50] and Jill and I have another session tomorrow

[00:56:53] which we'll talk about as well

[00:56:55] but let me ask you this Solange

[00:56:56] maybe you can address this one first

[00:56:58] in our round robin here.

[00:57:00] You know, costs are continuing to be sort of

[00:57:03] fairly unstable in terms of CPMs

[00:57:06] in terms of CPAs, CPCs and so on.

[00:57:09] The volatility is still there quite a bit.

[00:57:12] Can you give me your kind of

[00:57:13] your prediction for the year ahead?

[00:57:15] CPMs, CPAs, are we gonna be up more

[00:57:19] this time next year, lower more and by how much?

[00:57:23] Oh, you're giving me the scary question.

[00:57:28] This one was not in your briefing package.

[00:57:30] No, but you know what?

[00:57:32] It's a tough one to answer.

[00:57:33] My honest answer would be I don't know.

[00:57:37] What I think is going to happen is that

[00:57:41] based also on the conversations that we're seeing

[00:57:43] playing out in the legal arena there,

[00:57:49] it looks like prices have been steadily increasing

[00:57:52] might continue to increase

[00:57:55] but I want to underline that by saying

[00:57:57] let's look at the return on that investment, right?

[00:58:00] Cause if your prices go up

[00:58:01] but your return is also going up

[00:58:03] then hopefully it's not cutting into you too much.

[00:58:06] And this is a conversation.

[00:58:08] It's a tough conversation that I was having

[00:58:10] three months ago with some of my advertisers, right?

[00:58:13] And it's we have to zoom out from looking at it

[00:58:16] like a cost and we have to get really practical

[00:58:18] about looking at it as an investment.

[00:58:20] How do I get as much back from that?

[00:58:23] And I know that's kind of like the googly answer to give.

[00:58:27] I don't know will prices go up

[00:58:29] but I do think that we have resources and tools

[00:58:32] to make sure that if it does,

[00:58:33] our investment will hopefully

[00:58:35] or our return on that investment will also go up.

[00:58:38] That felt like it came straight out of sales mastery.

[00:58:40] Like you should get- Oh my gosh.

[00:58:42] I'm still unlearning.

[00:58:47] Get back to us in a year Solange.

[00:58:48] Oh, I'm just sweating.

[00:58:50] Matthew, Joe, what do you think in terms of costs?

[00:58:53] You know, it's so the short answer is up.

[00:58:57] I think the short answer is that always it has to go up.

[00:59:00] Right?

[00:59:01] They're a business they want to make money.

[00:59:03] By rate of inflation or is this going to be like 50%?

[00:59:07] Probably more than rate of inflation.

[00:59:09] Probably not 50%, right?

[00:59:11] The people would be up in arms if that happened.

[00:59:13] But the other reality

[00:59:17] and we've all probably all seen this

[00:59:19] is that, you know,

[00:59:23] I used to use this phrase a lot

[00:59:25] that the difference between like kind of doing well

[00:59:27] and doing poorly in Google ads

[00:59:30] was really just understanding

[00:59:31] that it's probably more about execution

[00:59:33] and not about secret sauce.

[00:59:35] That it's probably just like trying to do the right

[00:59:37] things and doing them well

[00:59:39] and focusing on improving creative

[00:59:41] and doing just like following the instructions

[00:59:44] probably lends itself to better performance.

[00:59:47] And so, you know, the tricky thing is that

[00:59:52] for as much as it might universally be up

[00:59:54] some number of percentage points,

[00:59:58] the reality is like there you can have a cupcake shop

[01:00:02] in like Dartmouth who's just crushing it

[01:00:05] with CPAs that they've never seen before.

[01:00:07] And then you can have a car dealership in Edmonton

[01:00:10] that's having the most expensive clicks

[01:00:12] they've ever experienced

[01:00:13] and all of their CPAs are too expensive.

[01:00:14] Like, so the kind of concentric circles

[01:00:18] on concentric circles, on concentric circles of geography

[01:00:22] and the impact of, you know,

[01:00:26] those local costs based on competition

[01:00:29] and then layer in the what ad products are they using

[01:00:32] and then did they include their first party data or not

[01:00:36] create so much variability.

[01:00:37] It's hard to actually, you know, know.

[01:00:40] And that's why like in any room,

[01:00:44] like in any room of advertisers and marketers

[01:00:46] and folk from agencies,

[01:00:47] like there'll be one group would say

[01:00:48] everything is so expensive.

[01:00:49] And another is like, I've never seen better performance

[01:00:52] like in exactly the same room at the exact same time

[01:00:55] and often for the same category

[01:00:57] or vertical of advertisers.

[01:00:59] So, you know, the guidance there

[01:01:02] is just like do the right things.

[01:01:04] Just do the right things, do the things.

[01:01:06] Jill, the costs?

[01:01:08] Yeah, at CPCs I always predict, you know,

[01:01:10] increasing 10 to 20% a year.

[01:01:12] When I worked at Google and I was building forecasts,

[01:01:14] that's what I would use.

[01:01:15] I think that's still accurate

[01:01:16] but CPA is dependent on the advertiser

[01:01:19] to the points that both my former colleagues made earlier.

[01:01:23] And so whether your CPA goes up or not,

[01:01:25] yes, is a function of CPC

[01:01:27] but of course it's also a function

[01:01:29] of your conversion rate.

[01:01:30] And that's along with creative,

[01:01:32] which I said earlier is a place

[01:01:33] not enough practitioners focused,

[01:01:35] you know, the conversion rate of your website,

[01:01:37] of your landing page, that's up to you.

[01:01:39] That's not up to Google.

[01:01:41] So you can absolutely,

[01:01:42] I've worked with businesses where they, you know,

[01:01:44] will set up two different accounts

[01:01:45] to try to double serve, right?

[01:01:47] On the same queries and completely different CPCs

[01:01:50] for the exact same keywords

[01:01:52] into accounts advertising in the same place

[01:01:54] on the same thing.

[01:01:55] By the way, double serving is not allowed.

[01:01:56] Don't do that.

[01:01:58] But it can happen.

[01:01:59] It comes down to your ads, your landing page.

[01:02:01] That's what's gonna impact

[01:02:02] and your offer itself, right?

[01:02:04] You can have the most optimized landing page

[01:02:06] in the world, but if your offer sucks,

[01:02:07] no one's gonna buy it.

[01:02:08] So, yeah, control what you can control.

[01:02:11] I'm glad you mentioned offer because, you know,

[01:02:13] it's something we actually haven't talked about yet so far

[01:02:15] and we don't really have the time to,

[01:02:16] but, you know, we talk about creative,

[01:02:18] but the offer is everything really,

[01:02:20] you know, when it comes down to the conversion

[01:02:21] at the bottom part of the funnel,

[01:02:22] you're absolutely right there.

[01:02:24] All right, so we are nine minutes away now

[01:02:26] from Google Marketing Live here on the live show.

[01:02:29] I wanted to wrap up by having each of you

[01:02:31] just tell us what you're doing now,

[01:02:33] now that you are freed from the shackles of Google,

[01:02:37] how can people follow you and how can people reach you?

[01:02:41] I will go first.

[01:02:42] I'm doing this essentially.

[01:02:44] I host the marketing newsletter and podcasts.

[01:02:46] It comes out every day,

[01:02:47] both the newsletter and the podcast.

[01:02:48] You can find it at todayindigital.com

[01:02:51] and I also have an agency called Engage Q.

[01:02:55] Solange.

[01:02:56] Yeah, I run an agency called Housed by Solange,

[01:02:59] which is also my handle for everything social.

[01:03:02] Housed by Solange on Instagram, LinkedIn,

[01:03:04] Pinterest, wherever you are,

[01:03:05] I'll probably be there too.

[01:03:07] We build marketing plans that save you time

[01:03:10] and make you money.

[01:03:10] It's as simple as that.

[01:03:11] And that's what I spend all day doing.

[01:03:14] And you're hired, I'll hire you.

[01:03:18] I'll go next, I interrupted.

[01:03:19] But yeah, so I'm Matthew Groudy, Groudon.

[01:03:23] You can find me in all of your regular socials,

[01:03:25] even the ones you don't spend time in like blue sky.

[01:03:30] So I'm all over the place.

[01:03:31] I'm fairly easy to find.

[01:03:31] Google has been generous to me organically that way.

[01:03:34] I run a newsletter, a newsletter that's called groudy.wtf,

[01:03:38] which is all about WTF is going on in automotive right now.

[01:03:43] So I send that out weekly for my folk in automotive.

[01:03:48] I am teaching at a Georgian college.

[01:03:51] So I'm usually doing a class semester there

[01:03:54] all digital marketing related.

[01:03:57] I also have a podcast called the Change Optimist Podcast

[01:04:01] where I try to bring new ideas to people,

[01:04:05] interesting folk talking about interesting things.

[01:04:08] And now I'm doing some consulting.

[01:04:09] So I'm doing some consulting.

[01:04:11] Some of that is at the dealer and auto group level.

[01:04:14] Some of that is at the agency level.

[01:04:16] Some of that is at the OEM level.

[01:04:18] And so that's what keeps me busy

[01:04:22] out of trouble most of the time.

[01:04:24] And I'm a Google ads coach and teacher.

[01:04:26] So I coach business owners and marketers one-on-one

[01:04:28] to help them improve their skills

[01:04:30] and make more money from Google ads.

[01:04:32] And then I run two Google ads courses,

[01:04:34] my signature Inside Google Ads membership program,

[01:04:37] and then Google ads for beginners

[01:04:38] if you're just getting started.

[01:04:40] And you can find me the underscore Google underscore pro

[01:04:44] on all the major social media places.

[01:04:47] All right, we have just a couple of minutes left.

[01:04:49] Last chance here.

[01:04:51] What's gonna be the big thing

[01:04:53] that we're all gonna be talking about one hour from now?

[01:04:56] Briefly, 10 seconds only Solange.

[01:04:59] AI, of course.

[01:05:01] Matthew.

[01:05:04] I think it'll be a lot like last year

[01:05:06] where we're probably gonna be like,

[01:05:08] they talked a lot and said nothing.

[01:05:13] I agree with that.

[01:05:14] But if I'm being optimistic, I'm gonna say video.

[01:05:16] Lots of video news is what I'm expecting.

[01:05:18] Thank you all very much.

[01:05:19] I think we found our subtitle for this show,

[01:05:21] which was they talked a lot and said nothing.

[01:05:26] All right, don't forget our special

[01:05:28] premium members only show is tomorrow at two o'clock Eastern.

[01:05:31] You can be there, ask questions of Jill, hang out with us,

[01:05:34] just become a premium member.

[01:05:36] You can do that by going to the show notes

[01:05:38] and clicking on go premium

[01:05:40] or just going to todayindigital.com slash premium.

[01:05:44] I'm Todd Mappin.

[01:05:44] Thanks for listening.

[01:05:45] See you tomorrow.

[01:05:51] The sizzle of McDonald's sausage.

[01:05:54] It's enough to make you crave your favorite breakfasts.

[01:05:58] Enough to head over to McDonald's.

[01:06:00] Enough to make you really wish this commercial

[01:06:04] were scratch and sniff.

[01:06:05] And if you're a sausage person,

[01:06:07] now get two satisfyingly savory sausage McGriddles,

[01:06:10] sausage biscuits or sausage burritos for just 3.33

[01:06:13] or mix and match.

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