MARKETING
How to Create Google Performance Max Ads That Convert
Google’s Performance Max campaigns came out of beta more than three years ago, and have grown to be a wildly popular campaign type among new and experienced marketers alike. In this article, we’ll unpack what Google Performance Max campaigns are, how they differ from other campaign types, benefits and best practices, reporting functionality, ad optimization tips, and Tinuiti’s PMax approach.
What is Google Performance Max?
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/performance-max/
Google Performance Max campaigns are goal-based, automated campaigns that enable advertisers to promote across all Google networks from the same campaign. Google announced Performance Max campaigns in October 2020 as “a new way to buy Google ads across all our inventory.”
This means that your ads can reach potential customers from a single campaign type across the following channels:
Performance Max—or PMax, for short—is designed as a complement to your existing keyword-based Search, Shopping and fully-automated campaigns, building on learnings from the latter “to deliver a comprehensive solution that works for all advertisers across a wider range of marketing objectives.”
Over time, Google Smart Shopping, Local campaigns, and Vehicle Ads were upgraded to Performance Max campaigns, granting retailers and local marketers access to ad inventory, formats, and automation insights that weren’t previously available for those campaign types.
Other recent PMax updates and advances include:
- Generative AI-powered features to help produce and enhance creative assets and build asset groups efficiently and effectively (gradual rollout)
- The new Search Themes signal allows advertisers to better guide Google AI’s targeting capabilities by providing the system with relevant topics and categories. As shared by Google Ads: “Performance Max currently looks at your assets, feeds, and landing pages to predict which placements, including search queries, will perform well for your campaign. Now with the search themes beta, you can fill in gaps by adding information about your business that you expect to perform well.”
- Campaign-level brand exclusions “prevent your ads from serving on specific brands on Search and Shopping inventory in Performance Max.”
- Important early 2023 update announcements included the addition of account-level negative keywords, asset group reporting, page feeds, experiments to measure incrementality, budget pacing insights, and the direct integration of video creation tools—previously available exclusively within the asset library—into PMax campaign setup and editing workflows.
Highlights of Performance Max
If we think of Performance Max campaigns from a culinary perspective, the advertiser provides all the ingredients (assets) and the recipe (structure), and Google automation does the cooking (ad creation) and serving (delivering the ad to the potential customer).
With an overarching goal of efficient campaign performance, Google considers all available creative assets when crafting the ad, ultimately showing what it believes will be the most likely combination to convert on whichever of their channels that particular ad will be served.
Reach customers across the full Google Ads network efficiently
Performance Max campaigns are designed to cast a wide net, reaching potential customers across the full Google Ads network through a single campaign. If you wanted to reach that same potential audience using traditional campaigns, you would need five campaigns (minimum): a Search campaign, Shopping campaign, Video campaign, Display campaign, and Discover campaign.
Find customers that are ready to convert with AI-driven optimization
We all know the customer journey is rarely linear; shoppers move between many different channels, and rely on various resources, when deciding what to purchase. Performance Max campaigns are designed to reach shoppers that are most likely to convert, on whichever channel they’re seeing your ad across Google platforms.
Thanks to Google’s real-time analysis of user intent, behavior, and context, PMax can help you reach new audiences with the right ad at the right time.
Additionally, you can convert your first-party audience signals into actionable knowledge, optimizing ad delivery and predicting when a given user is most likely to make a purchase.
A different look to insights
As Performance Max does not require the same level of manual optimization, Google had to rethink what and how they provide data. While you won’t get the reporting you’re used to, over time you will start to see information including auction and audience insights, performance drivers, consumer interests, and search trends.
“The Insights piece is a shift from what we have been accustomed to, but Google has slowly begun to provide us with more reports to help us better understand this campaign type. Performance Max aims to look at things holistically—client gives you X budget, and here is X ROI across the funnel. Trusting in Performance Max to do its thing with the signals you give it, and shifting the way we analyze performance, is the biggest hurdle with the campaign type.”
— Courtney O’Donnell, Sr. Director of Shoppable Media at Tinuiti
Best Practices when Setting Up a Performance Max Campaign
Advertisers have compared Performance Max Campaigns to several other campaign types, including Smart campaigns, Social campaigns, and responsive Display campaigns. And while there are elements that bear similarity in varying ways to all of the above, it’s important to consider the functionality and benefits of this campaign type specifically.
Give Performance Max campaigns freedom to function as intended
We’re of the belief that if you are going to test Performance Max you should lean in, and not try to make this campaign something it was never meant to be. There are tutorials online for finagling a Performance Max campaign to be a Search campaign or a Shopping campaign, and time can be better spent focusing on how to best leverage a campaign that was designed by its very nature to bring all of that together.
Implement audience signals to set automated targeting up for speedy success
Think of audience signals as customer personas that Performance Max uses as your ideal shopper, functioning similarly to lookalike audiences on social platforms. This won’t be the only customer type that your campaign reaches, rather it will be the foundational core upon which other audiences are built—your seed audience.
The audience signals you provide Google are used to determine ‘the right direction’; Google then follows those paths to find additional users it feels your campaign is also suitable for. Audience signals work best when used in combination with your own data and custom segments.
Because you can create multiple audience signals, we recommend experimenting with different signals to see how each performs. Consider including the following:
- Remarketing
- Customer Match
- Search Themes
- Interests
- Foundational Demographics
How does Google automation handle each of these signals? Are some of these signals proving more helpful than others?
Decide if you’ll use Final URL expansion
If you want to give Google even more control with Performance Max campaigns, similar to dynamic search ad campaigns, you can allow them to choose the landing page URLs for each of your ads. LP exclusions are available if there are specific pages you never want used; these can include exclusions based on URL parameters (ex. blocking a full sub-folder) or individual landing pages.
To choose or not to choose your final URL expansion—that is the question! And the decision is 100% yours to make. That said, by default Performance Max campaigns are set to allow Google to define the final URL.
If you want to take back some control, you can toggle OFF the URL expansion. This will send your search ad traffic to the final URLs you submit within your asset groups.
Decide whether the New Customer Acquisition goal is right for you
The new customer acquisition goal, also available for Search campaigns, presents an exciting opportunity for advertisers looking to target new-to-brand audiences. Using this goal, advertisers can choose from the following bidding options:
- New Customer Value mode: Campaigns are optimized to bid higher for new customers (not available for store goals)
- New Customer Only mode: Campaigns are optimized to only bid for new customers
Define Asset Groups
Keep all your creative organized by breaking out thematically-similar or same-audience assets into their own asset groups, using multiple asset groups for each campaign. Asset groups help you to give Google the best array of options to choose from, while ensuring you don’t get a ‘mixed bag’ of creative for a given ad.
Think of building out your asset group as packing a lunch, except the lunch is for Google. In each asset group you’ll want to pack a nice selection of images, videos, headlines, logos, and other textual elements. The higher-quality assets you feed Google, the better your ads will look.
If you are a promotional brand, you should consider creating evergreen asset groups and promotional asset groups in order to easily shift creative between promotional and non-promotional periods.
Don’t turn off your Search campaigns
Performance Max is designed to complement your existing Search campaigns, not replace them. There is some campaign overlap on non-exact match keywords you’ll have to consider to safeguard against self-cannibalization. We recommend that for any keyword for which you’ll want to have complete control and in-depth reporting, you ensure it is an exact match keyword in Search. Also, monitor Search performance after launching to see if broad match keywords dropped off for a specific category once PMax was launched.
The chart below shows the impact of Performance Max on your Search campaigns in the auction.
Consider brand safety
The lack of control over what ads will show where, and with which creative, is what makes many brands nervous about Performance Max campaigns. That said, despite it being true that there is less control overall, you can run a placement report, sort destinations by impression volume (unfortunately you cannot see spend by placement), and then exclude any sites you don’t want to show ads on. Exclusions are set at the account level.
Tinuiti’s PMax Approach: The Five Pillars to Success
Thanks to Performance Max’s unparalleled audience targeting that leverages the most sophisticated machine learning, our teams consider Performance Max the perfect complement to your current Search strategy. We develop Performance Max campaigns in tandem with existing Paid Search efforts to minimize potential cannibalization or duplicated targeting.
Our approach to a thoughtfully executed PMax and Search strategy is built on what we’ve dubbed Five Pillars to Success.
1. The Tinuiti Intent Matrix (TIM)
Our teams developed the Tinuiti Intent Matrix (TIM) as a solution that combines traditional SEM (search engine marketing) efforts with modern AI and machine learning techniques. Our campaigns are structured around user intent, allowing us to hyper-target users in a way that traditional approaches—like SKAGs and keyword sculpting—don’t allow for.
Learn more about TIM in our 2024 Google Ads Guide.
2. Adopt an Audience-first Approach
Our audience-centric approach prioritizes the needs and preferences of our target audience, ensuring maximum campaign messaging and creative resonance by…
- Establishing goals and metrics (ex. new customer growth, increased revenue, improved brand awareness, etc.)
- Determining which audiences and segments we want to target. To give ‘better handling’ to your campaigns, we recommend layering in audiences across three pillars: first-party audiences; search themes and demographics; in-market and affinity audiences. Our teams also collaborate with our Lifecycle Marketing experts, leveraging their insights for more informed audience ideation, segmentation, and list automation
- Developing customized creative assets for each of our asset groups. These assets include ad copy, images, video and more
The first reaction when coming up with a strategy is a one-campaign-to-one-asset-group ratio; this ensures that the conversions you are seeing at the campaign level are 1:1 with the asset level. For example, if you create a ‘womens’ winter jackets’ campaign, you will know exactly how that segment performs versus grouping it into a larger womens’ jackets campaign.
However, there is a delicate balance—being too segmented will make data limited, while making it more difficult for Google to optimize. Conversely, being too high-level will give you limited insight into how sub-categories are performing. The need to find the appropriate strategic balance to realize the greatest outcome is one of the reasons why you should work closely with internal and external stakeholders to decide what to run through PMax, and what other considerations need to be made.
3. Optimize Your Creative
High-quality, relevant, compelling creative assets are essential to Performance Max success. Our teams work with clients to test a variety of creative elements to determine which best resonates with target audiences. By continually refining headlines, images and more, we ensure our clients are leveraging PMax to its fullest potential.
If your team needs help with creative asset productions, Tinuiti offers a video creation service catered specifically to Performance Max campaigns. We can use your existing assets to produce a high-performing creative unit, or shoot the video from scratch.
4. Control Your Product Feed Levers
Through Tinuiti’s partner Feedonomics and our internal MobiusX platform, our Shoppable Media team can easily run campaigns with millions of SKUs. We will manage your product feed and continuously improve the data within it. For Performance Max’s feed-based channels to perform at their best, feed optimizations are crucial, so Tinuiti works with client teams to ensure the product feed has as much relevant data as possible.
Once the initial setup and optimizations are complete, Tinuiti devises a scheduled cadence for further testing and optimizations. We work with your team to test feed attributes (like titles, descriptions, and images) and plan feed-related tests to drive increased visibility and revenue.
5. Tinuiti’s Enhanced Performance Max Reporting
As a performance marketing firm, data-driven decisions are at the core of all that we do. But the out-of-the-box reporting PMax campaigns offer doesn’t paint a full enough picture. To help add color to PMax’s black boxes, we developed proprietary Performance Max reporting that compares the percentage of spend and revenue derived from each channel. Our customized reports also document any performance changes following campaign bid changes or altered creative.
Expert Tips to Optimize Google Performance Max Ad Campaigns
Now that we’ve established best practices, let’s explore some optimization tips from the experts…
Consider Performance Max for sub-brands, best sellers, or tentpole events
Kelsey Fortner, Director of Paid Search at Tinuiti, shares one way her team leveraged Performance Max campaigns for a client:
“One of our clients launched a sub-brand for which they wanted to get some exposure and traffic to the site. Because we weren’t using any of those URLs in our Standard campaigns, running them through Performance Max was a perfect fit, with no self-cannibalization risk. We gave it a unique product feed so it only featured things we weren’t already talking about or bidding on. The campaign itself was an easy-lift that didn’t require a robust campaign build-out that reaching all those channels through Standard campaigns would require. This makes Performance Max ideal for a variety of scenarios, including tentpole initiatives, or advertising areas of the business you might not have before.”
Take a hybrid approach
You don’t have to only run on Performance Max. Nick Jones, Growth Media Strategist at Tinuiti, explains:
“Just as I did on Smart Shopping, I always have a branded and non-branded Standard Shopping campaign running in the background. You can maintain your branded coverage pretty heavily through a Standard campaign, and also use an upper-funnel non-branded campaign to harvest search term data and trend. I wouldn’t rely on those campaigns for high conversions; it’s more so for coverage. This gives us a chance to say, for example: “ We’ve noticed mens’ sweaters trending the last 14 days, so we’re going to push harder on PMax.” Also considering the degree of branded traffic PMax leans into in order to hit revenue/return targets, we can have a true measurement of growth and success by using a hybrid approach.”
Performance Max Takeaways, Considerations and Recommendations
“There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to Performance Max, and I recommend working closely with your advertiser on the best strategy based on your goals. Google regularly enhances Performance Max campaigns, so I’m excited to see what new features will continue to roll out. It’s ever-evolving that way, and the Performance Max campaigns we’re building today may look very different from those we’ll be running in just a few short months.”
— Courtney O’Donnell, Sr. Director of Shoppable Media at Tinuiti
“Performance Max campaigns have proven valuable for the majority of clients I’ve tested them with. I would estimate that 90% are successful. When it is working, great! The issue comes in when a Performance Max campaign isn’t performing. Not only do you have less granular insights than you would with a standard campaign, but you also have fewer levers to pull. As more data, tests, and verticals have come through, I’ve had to poke more holes in the numbers, and it’s harder to know what to do next when it isn’t working. So we start testing from a structural perspective, asking ourselves questions to inform testing, then testing to figure out what sticks. A few tests that have worked for me are excluding “junk” placements such as mobile apps. Feed Only PMax campaigns have been great for shopping heavy strategies, removing all creatives, headlines, and descriptions, creating a shopping SERP forward campaign.”
— Nick Jones, Growth Media Strategist at Tinuiti
In addition to the benefits PMax offers today, it will continue to evolve as AI advances, future-proofing your marketing strategy. Simply put, Google isn’t going to let one of their key products fall behind. The time and energy you put into learning and optimizing Performance Max campaigns will continue to be time well-spent for the foreseeable future.
Want to learn more about how to best leverage Performance Max campaigns to reach your goals? Drop us a line and we’ll be in touch!
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published by Shannon Mullery in September 2022 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
MARKETING
Navigating the Video Marketing Maze: Short-Form vs. Long-Form
Are you torn between using long-form or short-form videos for your small business marketing campaign? Well, you are not alone. Despite 89% of consumers wanting to see more brand videos, there is no one-size-fits-all answer about the ideal video length.
However, this should not deter you from creating an effective video strategy. In 2023, people watched an average of 17 videos per day, highlighting the influence of video content in today’s digital landscape.
Both short-form and long-form videos offer unique advantages and come with their set of challenges. Join me as I uncover the benefits and limitations of each video format to help you make informed marketing decisions.
What are Short-Form Videos?
Short videos typically range from 30 seconds to less than 10 minutes long. They are popular on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.
Short-form videos deliver brief yet engaging messages that quickly capture the viewer’s attention. Here are some popular types of short-form video content.
- TikTok Challenges
- Instagram Reels
- Snapchat Stories
- YouTube Shorts
- Twitter Video Ads
Benefits of Short-Form Videos
A previously cited report shows that 39% of marketers find short-form videos, ranging from 30-60 seconds long, more successful. The same study reports that 44% of customers prefer watching a short video to learn about a brand’s offerings.
So, it is evident that short-form videos have their benefits. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.
Attention-Grabbing
Short-form videos capture attention quickly, making them ideal for the fast-scrolling nature of social media platforms. Your audience is more likely to watch them in their entirety compared to longer content.
Cost-Effective Production
Creating short-form videos requires less time and resources compared to longer videos. As a small business owner with a limited budget, using short-form videos can be cost-effective.
Increased Engagement
Short-form videos engage viewers due to their crisp and concise nature. This results in more likes, comments, and shares that boost your content’s visibility and increase brand awareness.
Integrating short-form videos into your influencer marketing campaigns can further amplify your reach to new and diverse audiences.
Highly Shareable
Short videos are highly shareable. This makes it more likely for your viewers to share them, increasing their virality.
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There are multiple benefits of adding video to your website including increased engagement, improved SEO, and enhanced user experience.
Limitations of Short-Form Videos
While short-form videos offer many advantages in content marketing, they also present some challenges.
Limited Message Depth
Due to their brief duration, short-form videos may struggle to convey complex or detailed messages. Longer videos might be more suitable if you need to communicate intricate information.
Competition for Attention
Standing out on platforms flooded with short-form video content can be challenging. You must create content that stands out to avoid becoming lost in the sea of other videos.
Shorter Lifespan
Short videos may lose their relevance with time. They can quickly get buried in users’ feeds, leading to a shorter visibility and engagement period than longer, evergreen content.
This means you must consistently create short-form videos to maintain audience interest over time.
Limited SEO Impact
Short-form videos may be more challenging to optimize for search engines than longer, more keyword-rich content. This can affect the discoverability of your content outside the social media scene.
What are Long-Form Videos?
Long-form videos are typically longer, ranging from a few minutes to several hours. They extend beyond a few minutes to several hours, providing ample time for in-depth topic exploration and detailed content.
These videos are particularly suitable for educational content, product demonstrations, and narrative-driven storytelling. Long-form videos are common on platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. Common types of long-form video content include:
- YouTube Series
- Webinars
- Educational Tutorials and Courses:
- Behind-the-Scenes Content
- Interviews and Conversations
Advantages of Long-Form Videos
Long-form video content is the fastest-growing segment, with videos above 30 minutes experiencing tremendous growth over the years. Let’s explore some of the benefits behind this growth.
Establishes Expertise and Credibility
Long-form videos allow you to provide in-depth information about various subjects, establishing your brand as an authority. Potential customers will likely trust and rely on your insights when you consistently deliver valuable content.
Builds Strong Audience Connections
The more your audience watches your videos, the more they become familiar with your content and brand. This consistent engagement promotes trust and loyalty, helping you create deeper connections with your audience.
Provide SEO Optimization Opportunities
Long-form videos keep your audience engaged for a longer duration than short ones. This signals search engines that your content provides value, resulting in higher rankings and increased visibility.
Besides, these videos provide opportunities to optimize for relevant keywords. This Attrock guide offers more insights into the value of SEO for your small business.
They Are Sustainable
Unlike short videos, well-produced and valuable long-form videos have an extended shelf life. They can continue to attract views and engagement over an extended period, contributing to a sustainable content strategy.
Instagram reels are also a part of short videos and you can get benefits from this platform by integrating it with your website. You can learn how to embed Instagram Reels on websites and get extra benefits from your Reels.
Drawbacks of Long-Form Videos
Despite their benefits, long-form videos also have certain limitations, including:
Attention Span Challenges
Between distractions, juggling tasks, and information overload, user attention span quickly diminishes. Viewers may lose interest and disengage from your long video before its conclusion.
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Complex Production Process
Creating high-quality long-form videos requires more resources, including time, equipment, and skilled personnel. This can be disadvantageous, especially for small businesses with limited budgets.
Platform Limitations
Some social media platforms and video hosting sites may limit video length, making it challenging to distribute long-form video content. You may then be forced to repurpose your content to suit various platforms.
Short-Form or Long-Form Videos: Which Are Better?
Now that you know the benefits and limitations of each format, which one should you choose? Short-form or long-form videos?
Well, it all boils down to considering several factors, such as:
Content Objectives
What do you want to achieve from your video marketing campaign? Short-form videos are highly effective for quick brand exposure and generating buzz. Long-form videos, on the other hand, contribute to a more in-depth understanding of the brand.
Target Audience Preferences
Audiences with short attention spans likely prefer short-form videos, while long-form videos appeal to those seeking a more immersive experience.
Similarly, short-form videos may appeal more to younger audiences, while older demographics may prefer the depth of long-form content.
Platform Dynamics
Various platforms support different content formats. Short-form videos are well-suited for platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. On the other hand, platforms like YouTube and Vimeo are better for hosting longer videos.
Industry Type
Short-form videos would be ideal if your industry thrives on trends, entertainment, and quick messages. However, long-form videos are effective for industries requiring in-depth explanations or educational content.
Bottom Line
Ultimately, choosing short-form or long-form videos depends on your business’s specific needs and goals. Since both formats have advantages and limitations, making a choice may prove difficult.
However, it doesn’t have to be an uphill task. The key lies in recognizing when to incorporate each video format into your marketing strategy. Understanding your audience and its needs allows you to combine both formats strategically, maximizing the benefits of each.
Continuously analyze performance metrics and adapt your video marketing strategy accordingly to ensure optimal engagement and conversion rates.
MARKETING
The Current State of Google’s Search Generative Experience [What It Means for SEO in 2024]
SEO enthusiasts, known for naming algorithm updates after animals and embracing melodrama, find themselves in a landscape where the “adapt or die” mantra prevails. So when Google announced the launch of its Search Generative Experience (SGE) in May of 2023 at Google/IO, you can imagine the reaction was immense.
Although SGE has the potential to be a truly transformative force in the landscape, we’re still waiting for SGE to move out of the Google Labs Sandbox and integrate into standard search results.
Curious about our current take on SGE and its potential impact on SEO in the future? Read on for more.
Decoding Google’s Defensive Move
In response to potential threats from competitors like ChatGPT, Bing, TikTok, Reddit, and Amazon, Google introduced SGE as a defensive maneuver. However, its initial beta release raised questions about its readiness and global deployment.
ChatGPT provided an existential threat that had the potential to eat into Google’s market share. When Bing started incorporating it into its search results, it was one of the most significant wins for Bing in a decade. In combination with threats from TikTok, Reddit, and Amazon, we see a more fractured search landscape less dominated by Google. Upon its launch, the expectation was that Google would push its SGE solution globally, impact most queries, and massively shake up organic search results and strategies to improve organic visibility.
Now, industry leaders are starting to question if Google is better off leaving SGE in the testing ground in Google labs. According to Google’s recent update, it appears that SGE will remain an opt-in experience in Google Labs (for at least the short term). If SGE was released, there could be a fundamental reset in understanding SEO. Everything from organic traffic to optimization tactics to tracking tools would need adjustments for the new experience. Therefore, the prospect of SGE staying in Google Labs is comforting if not entirely reliable.
The ever-present option is that Google can change its mind at any point and push SGE out broadly as part of its standard search experience. For this reason, we see value in learning from our observations with SGE and continuing to stay on top of the experience.
SGE User Experience and Operational Challenges
If you’ve signed up for search labs and have been experimenting with SGE for a while, you know firsthand there are various issues that Google should address before rolling it out broadly to the public.
At a high level, these issues fall into two broad categories including user experience issues and operational issues.
Below are some significant issues we’ve come across, with Google making notable progress in addressing certain ones, while others still require improvement:
- Load time – Too many AI-generated answers take longer to load than a user is willing to wait. Google recommends less than a 3-second load time to meet expectations. They’ll need to figure out how to consistently return results quickly if they want to see a higher adoption rate.
- Layout – The SGE layout is massive. We believe any major rollout will be more streamlined to make it a less intrusive experience for users and allow more visibility for ads, and if we’re lucky, organic results. Unfortunately, there is still a decent chance that organic results will move below the fold, especially on mobile devices. Recently, Google has incorporated more results where users are prompted to generate the AI result if they’d like to see it. The hope is Google makes this the default in the event of a broad rollout where users can generate an AI result if they want one instead of assuming that’s what a user would like to see.
- Redundancy – The AI result duplicates features from the map pack and quick answer results.
- Attribution – Due to user feedback, Google includes sources on several of their AI-powered overviews where you can see relevant web pages if there is an arrow next to the result. Currently, the best way to appear as one of these relevant pages is to be one of the top-ranked results, which is convenient from an optimization standpoint. Changes to how attribution and sourcing are handled could heavily impact organic strategies.
On the operational side, Google also faces significant hurdles to making SGE a viable product for its traditional search product. The biggest obstacle appears to be making the cost associated with the technology worth the business outcomes it provides. If this was a necessary investment to maintain market share, Google might be willing to eat the cost, but if their current position is relatively stable, Google doesn’t have much of an incentive to take on the additional cost burden of heavily leveraging generative AI while also presumably taking a hit to their ad revenue. Especially since slow user adoption doesn’t indicate this is something users are demanding at the moment.
While the current experience of SGE is including ads above the generative results now, the earliest iterations didn’t heavily feature sponsored ads. While they are now included, the current SGE layout would still significantly disrupt the ad experience we’re used to. During the Google I/O announcement, they made a statement to reassure advertisers they would be mindful of maintaining a distinct ad experience in search.
“In this new generative experience, Search ads will continue to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page. And we’ll continue to uphold our commitment to ads transparency and making sure ads are distinguishable from organic search results” – Elizabeth Reid, VP, Search at Google
Google is trying to thread a delicate needle here of staying on the cutting edge with their search features, while trying not to upset their advertisers and needlessly hinder their own revenue stream. Roger Montti details more of the operational issues in a recent article digging into the surprising reasons SGE is stuck in Google Labs.
He lists three big problems that need to be solved before SGE will be integrated into the foreground of search:
- Large Language Models being inadequate as an information retrieval system
- The inefficiency and cost of transformer architecture
- Hallucinating (providing inaccurate answers)
Until SGE provides more user value and checks more boxes on the business sense side, the traditional search experience is here to stay. Unfortunately, we don’t know when or if Google will ever feel confident they’ve addressed all of these concerns, so we’ll need to stay prepared for change.
Experts Chime in on Search Generative Experience
Our team has been actively engaging with SGE, here’s a closer look at their thoughts and opinions on the experience so far:
“With SGE still in its early stages, I’ve noticed consistent changes in how the generative results are produced and weaved naturally into the SERPs. Because of this, I feel it is imperative to stay on top of these on-going changes to ensure we can continue to educate our clients on what to expect when SGE is officially incorporated into our everyday lives. Although an official launch date is currently unknown, I believe proactively testing various prompt types and recording our learnings is important to prepare our clients for this next evolution of Google search.”
– Jon Pagano, SEO Sr. Specialist at Tinuiti
“It’s been exciting to watch SGE grow through different variations over the last year, but like other AI solutions its potential still outweighs its functionality and usefulness. What’s interesting to see is that SGE doesn’t just cite its sources of information, but also provides an enhanced preview of each webpage referenced. This presents a unique organic opportunity where previously untouchable top 10 rankings are far more accessible to the average website. Time will tell what the top ranking factors for SGE are, but verifiable content with strong E-E-A-T signals will be imperative.”
–Kate Fischer, SEO Specialist at Tinuiti
“Traditionally, AI tools were very good at analytical tasks. With the rise of ChatGPT, users can have long-form, multi-question conversations not yet available in search results. When, not if, released, Google’s Generative Experience will transform how we view AI and search. Because there are so many unknowns, some of the most impactful ways we prepare our clients are to discover and develop SEO strategies that AI tools can’t directly disrupt, like mid to low funnel content.”
– Brandon Miller, SEO Specialist at Tinuiti
“SGE is going to make a huge impact on the ecommerce industry by changing the way users interact with the search results. Improved shopping experience will allow users to compare products, price match, and read reviews in order to make it quicker and easier for a user to find the best deals and purchase. Although this leads to more competitive results, it also improves organic visibility and expands our product reach. It is more important than ever to ensure all elements of a page are uniquely and specifically optimized for search. With the SGE updates expected to continue to impact search results, the best way to stay ahead is by focusing on strong user focused content and detailed product page optimizations.”
– Kellie Daley, SEO Sr. Specialist at Tinuiti
Navigating the Clash of Trends
One of the most interesting aspects of the generative AI trend in search is that it appears to be in direct opposition to other recent trends.
One of the ways Google has historically evaluated the efficacy of its search ranking systems is through the manual review of quality raters. In their quality rater guidelines, raters were instructed to review for things like expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (EAT) in results to determine if Google results are providing users the information they deserve.
In 2022, Google updated their search guidelines to include another ‘e’ in the form of experience (EEAT). In their words, Google wanted to better assess if the content a user was consuming was created by someone with, “a degree of experience, such as with actual use of a product, having actually visited a place or communicating what a person has experienced. There are some situations where really what you value most is content produced by someone who has firsthand, life experience on the topic at hand.”
Generative AI results, while cutting-edge technology and wildly impressive in some cases, stand in direct opposition to the principles of E-E-A-T. That’s not to say that there’s no room for both in search, but Google will have to determine what it thinks users value more between these competing trends. The slow adoption of SGE could be an indication that a preference for human experience, expertise, authority, and trust is winning round one in this fight.
Along these lines, Google is also diversifying its search results to cater to the format in which users get their information. This takes the form of their Perspectives Filter. Also announced at Google I/O 2023, the perspectives filter incorporates more video, image, and discussion board posts from places like TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Quora. Once again, this trend shows the emphasis and value searchers place on experience and perspective. Users value individual experience over the impersonal conveyance of information. AI will never have these two things, even if it can provide a convincing imitation.
The current iteration of SGE seems to go too far in dismissing these trends in favor of generative AI. It’s an interesting challenge Google faces. If they don’t determine the prevailing trend correctly, veering too far in one direction can push more market share to ChatGPT or platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
Final Thoughts
The range of outcomes remains broad and fascinating for SGE. We can see this developing in different ways, and prognostication offers little value, but it’s invaluable to know the potential outcomes and prepare for as many of them as possible.
It’s critical that you or your search agency be interacting and experimenting with SGE because:
- The format and results will most likely continue to see significant changes
- This space moves quickly and it’s easy to fall behind
- Google may fix all of the issues with SGE and decide to push it live, changing the landscape of search overnight
- SGE experiments could inform other AI elements incorporated into the search experience
Ultimately, optimizing for the specific SGE experience we see now is less important because we know it will inevitably continue changing. We see more value in recognizing the trends and problems Google is trying to solve with this technology. With how quickly this space moves, any specifics mentioned in this article could be outdated in a week. That’s why focusing on intention and process is important at this stage of the game.
By understanding the future needs and wants SGE is attempting to address, we can help you future-proof your search strategies as much as possible. To some extent we’re always at the whims of the algorithm, but by maintaining a user-centric approach, you can make your customers happy, regardless of how they find you.
MARKETING
How to create editorial guidelines that are useful + template
Before diving in to all things editorial guidelines, a quick introduction. I head up the content team here at Optimizely. I’m responsible for developing our content strategy and ensuring this aligns to our key business goals.
Here I’ll take you through the process we used to create new editorial guidelines; things that worked well and tackle some of the challenges that come with any good multi – stakeholder project, share some examples and leave you with a template you can use to set your own content standards.
What are editorial guidelines?
Editorial guidelines are a set of standards for any/all content contributors, etc. etc. This most often includes guidance on brand, tone of voice, grammar and style, your core content principles and the types of content you want to produce.
Editorial guidelines are a core component of any good content strategy and can help marketers achieve the following in their content creation process:
- Consistency: All content produced, regardless of who is creating it, maintains a consistent tone of voice and style, helping strengthen brand image and making it easier for your audience to recognize your company’s content
- Quality Control: Serves as a ‘North Star’ for content quality, drawing a line in the sand to communicate the standard of content we want to produce
- Boosts SEO efforts: Ensures content creation aligns with SEO efforts, improving company visibility and increasing traffic
- Efficiency: With clear guidelines in place, content creators – external and internal – can work more efficiently as they have a clear understanding of what is expected of them
Examples of editorial guidelines
There are some great examples of editorial guidelines out there to help you get started.
Here are a few I used:
1. Editorial Values and Standards, the BBC
Ah, the Beeb. This really helped me channel my inner journalist and learn from the folks that built the foundation for free quality journalism.
How to create editorial guidelines, Pepperland Marketing
After taking a more big picture view I recognized needed more focused guidance on the step by step of creating editorial guidelines.
I really liked the content the good folks at Pepperland Marketing have created, including a free template – thanks guys! – and in part what inspired me to create our own free template as a way of sharing learnings and helping others quickstart the process of creating their own guidelines.
3. Writing guidelines for the role of AI in your newsroom?… Nieman Lab
As well as provide guidance on content quality and the content creation process, I wanted to tackle the thorny topic of AI in our editorial guidelines. Specifically, to give content creators a steer on ‘fair’ use of AI when creating content, to ensure creators get to benefit from the amazing power of these tools, but also that content is not created 100% by AI and help them understand why we feel that contravenes our core content principles of content quality.
So, to learn more I devoured this fascinating article, sourcing guidance from major media outlets around the world. I know things change very quickly when it comes to AI, but I highly encourage reading this and taking inspiration from how these media outlets are tackling this topic.
Learn more: The Marketer’s Guide to AI-generated content
Why did we decide to create editorial guidelines?
1. Aligning content creators to a clear vision and process
Optimizely as a business has undergone a huge transformation over the last 3 years, going through rapid acquisition and all the joys and frustrations that can bring. As a content team, we quickly recognized the need to create a set of clear and engaging guidelines that helps content creators understand how and where they can contribute, and gave a clear process to follow when submitting a content idea for consideration.
2. Reinvigorated approach to brand and content
As a brand Optimizely is also going through a brand evolution – moving from a more formal, considered tone of voice to one that’s much more approachable, down to earth and not afraid to use humor, different in content and execution.
See, our latest CMS campaign creative:
It’s pretty out there in terms of creative and messaging. It’s an ad campaign that’s designed to capture attention yes, but also – to demonstrate our abilities as a marketing team to create this type of campaign that is normally reserved for other more quote unquote creative industries.
We wanted to give guidance to fellow content creators outside the team on how they can also create content that embraces this evolved tone of voice, while at the same time ensuring content adheres to our brand guidelines.
3. Streamline content creation process
Like many global enterprises we have many different content creators, working across different time zones and locations. Documenting a set of guidelines and making them easily available helps content creators quickly understand our content goals, the types of content we want to create and why. It would free up content team time spent with individual contributors reviewing and editing submissions, and would ensure creation and optimization aligns to broader content & business goals.
It was also clear that we needed to document a process for submitting content ideas, so we made sure to include this in the guidelines themselves to make it easy and accessible for all contributors.
4. 2023 retrospective priority
As a content team we regularly review our content strategy and processes to ensure we’re operating as efficiently as possible.
In our last retrospective. I asked my team ‘what was the one thing I could do as a manager to help them be more impactful in their role?’
Editorial guidelines was the number 1 item on their list.
So off we went…
What we did
- Defined a discrete scope of work for the first version of the editorial guidelines, focusing on the Blog and Resources section of the website. This is where the content team spends most of its time and so has most involvement in the content creation process. Also where the most challenging bottlenecks have been in the past
- Research. Reviewed what was out there, got my hands on a few free templates and assembled a framework to create a first version for inputs and feedback
- Asked content community – I put a few questions out to my network on LinkedIn on the topic of content guidelines and content strategy, seeking to get input and guidance from smart marketers.
- Invited feedback: Over the course of a few weekswe invited collaborators to comment in a shared doc as a way of taking iterative feedback, getting ideas for the next scope of work, and also – bringing people on the journey of creating the guidelines. Look at all those reviewers! Doing this within our Content Marketing Platform (CMP) ensured that all that feedback was captured in one place, and that we could manage the process clearly, step by step:
Look at all those collaborators! Thanks guys! And all of those beautiful ticks, so satisfying. So glad I could crop out the total outstanding tasks for this screen grab too (Source – Optimizely CMP)
- Updated content workflow: Now we have clear, documented guidance in place, we’ve included this as a step – the first step – in the workflow used for blog post creation:
Source: Optimizely CMP
Results
It’s early days but we’re already seeing more engagement with the content creation process, especially amongst the teams involved in building the guidelines (which was part of the rationale in the first place :))
Source: My Teams chat
It’s inspired teams to think differently about the types of content we want to produce going forwards – for the blog and beyond.
I’d also say it’s boosted team morale and collaboration, helping different teams work together on shared goals to produce better quality work.
What’s next?
We’re busy planning wider communication of the editorial guidelines beyond marketing. We’ve kept the original draft and regularly share this with existing and potential collaborators for ongoing commentary, ideas and feedback.
Creating guidelines has also sparked discussion about the types of briefs and templates we want and need to create in CMP to support creating different assets. Finding the right balance between creative approach and using templates to scale content production is key.
We’ll review these guidelines on a quarterly basis and evolve as needed, adding new formats and channels as we go.
Key takeaways
- Editorial guidelines are a useful way to guide content creators as part of your overall content strategy
- Taking the time to do research upfront can help accelerate seemingly complex projects. Don’t be afraid to ask your community for inputs and advice as you create
- Keep the scope small at first rather than trying to align everything all at once. Test and learn as you go
- Work with stakeholders to build guidelines from the ground up to ensure you create a framework that is useful, relevant and used
And lastly, here’s that free template we created to help you build or evolve your own editorial guidelines!
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