More Big Changes From Google: A Complete Advertising Product Rebrand Is Happening This Month

Google is rebranding & reorganizing its lineup of advertising solutions to better align with its current capabilities and its vision of the future for its products, as well as the future of digital advertising. The most notable of these changes are also the most immediately apparent: the retirement of the AdWords and DoubleClick brands. Major changes to the search giant’s entire digital advertising platform may come as a surprise, but really shouldn’t, in what has proven to be a banner year for search changes.

Throughout 2018, Google has announced groundbreaking changes that have all but set the search world back on its heels. The introductions of mobile-first indexing, to reflect the changing internet and search consumption device landscape, and the subsequent speed update, which will make page speed a ranking factor across all devices, have put Google’s search platform in a prime position to be as ready for the future of search as possible. If you want to learn more about this, read my previous blog post that discusses these updates. While equally notable and impactful, Google’s latest change affects paid search and not SEO. However, these changes appear to be much more forward-thinking and visionary than the search index changes announced earlier this year.

Why is this rebrand happening?

With this rebrand, Google is simplifying its product portfolio. As Google has acquired its advertising solutions and developed them over the past two decades, they have become numerous and complex. This has made it unnecessarily difficult for advertisers to find the right Google advertising solution for them.
Google intends to make product selection more user-friendly by branding its solutions under three names to make starting with a product (the right product) and achieving better results, easier.

Great, so what are the new brands?

As previously mentioned, Google’s advertising solutions will be consolidated into three brands. Google AdWords will now be Google Ads, DoubleClick and Google Analytics 360 Suite will be merged and renamed Google Marketing Platform, and DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange are combined and called
Google Ad Manager.

It’s important to mention that the overall functions and capabilities of the products aren’t changing much. According to Google SVP of Ads Sridhar Ramaswamy, the changes are “indicative of where we have been directing products over the last few years”. Ramaswamy also said, “Consumer expectations from mobile are on the rise, and opportunity for advertisers is on the rise as well.”

OK, so what will each new brand do differently?

The new Google Ads name is intended to reflect the platform’s current (and future) capabilities. It currently supports many ad formats such as text, shopping, display, video, app install, and more across its main properties: Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps, as well as across a wide network of partner sites & apps. The AdWords name reflects the brand’s beginnings at the turn of the millennium, advertising on desktop Search in one format: text. Google aims to further simplify its new Ads platform by offering Smart Campaigns: a campaign type featuring automated ad creative, targeting and delivery that is powered by machine learning, created for small businesses without the time or resources to manage their own complex digital advertising.

Google Marketing Platform is constructed to be a one-stop shop for enterprise customers, helping them to plan, buy, measure, and optimize digital media buys in one place, instead of utilizing & integrating DoubleClick & Analytics 360 as they have done in the past. This method did not go unnoticed by Google, who also saw that advertisers with the two platforms combined realized better results in their campaigns. Display & Video 360 is a new solution offered under the Google Marketing Platform brand, which consolidates DoubleClick Bid Manager, DoubleClick Campaign Manager, DoubleClick Studio & Google Audience Center 360. Google’s DoubleClick Search platform will now bear the name Search Ads 360. What’s more, all of Google Marketing Platform’s new tools can be easily learned & combined in a new Integration Center.

The third of Google’s three new brands, Google Ad Manager, consolidates DoubleClick for Publishers & DoubleClick Ad Exchange, which has been an effort of three years for the company. Ever since Google acquired DoubleClick 10 years ago, they have utilized & expanded upon it as the ad-serving solution it was. In 2010, DoubleClick Ad Exchange was rolled out as a real-time advertising marketplace. Google Ad Manager positions itself as the solution for a time where all buying will be programmatic, with new programmatic solutions built directly into the product. As part of the new brand, buyers who were previously called “AdX buyers” will now be “Authorized Buyers”. Google Ad Manager is the platform that will help brands & advertisers capitalize on all the places with high engagement outside of search, such as live streams, Smart TVs, Apple News, and more.

What should I do now?

Know that these new brands will be rolling out in the middle of this month, but will be rolled out gradually over the course of the next few months. Expect your advertising to be simplified, no matter what type of business you are. You will be able to better follow & reach a consumer anywhere, on any channel, at any moment. If you have more questions, wish to learn more, or want to make sure your digital advertising is optimized for the new brands, contact one of our PPC specialists today.