Good morning, Search Marketer, it's a pleasure to write for you again, but more on that at the end of the intro.
Even as more shoppers turn to e-commerce, "available near me" searches have grown globally by more than 100% since last year, according to Google's Reena Nadkarni, who also shared that 67% of shoppers plan to confirm online that an item is in stock before heading out to buy it, and 80% of shoppers will consolidate their shopping to make fewer trips than in years past.
To reach these local shoppers, SMBs can showcase their inventory through Local Inventory Ads and Local Campaigns, as well as organically via the Popular Products carousel. For businesses working with tighter marketing budgets, completing their Google My Business profile (don't forget the images!), adding relevant business attributes, taking advantage of Google Posts and adding product inventory information will be crucial to informing potential customers.
On the ads side, Google is launching programmatic ad buying for Web Stories in an open beta. Prior to this, Story Ads could only be sold directly by publishers via Google Ad Manager. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though: unfortunately, publishers can't control where the ad slot appears in their Stories.
And, new user controls for alcohol and gambling ads are coming to YouTube in the U.S., with a roll out to Google Ads and other countries next year. For marketers in these sectors, the business impact is likely to be minimal and performance may even improve by decreasing exposure to users who expressly opt out. Google says users who enable the feature will see fewer alcohol and/or gambling ads, not necessarily zero ads.
Lastly, I'd like to acknowledge the contributions of Ginny Marvin and Greg Sterling, who have served this industry and set the standard for journalism in the search sector for years. Last week, Ginny and Greg left our publication, and we wish them the best of luck on all their future endeavors. As a reader, I have been amazed by their coverage and insights on our industry — a sentiment that I'm certain is shared by many. Thank you so much for all your contributions!
George Nguyen,
Editor
