Major changes are coming to Google that could change the way businesses do their digital marketing.

Vende Social hosted a seminar at its Dallas office Thursday morning that gave local business owners a behind-the-scenes look at what Google is planning for the future.

One new feature that could debut next year would track when a customer enters a store, tying that back to previous advertising exposure and interactions, said Neerav Maniklal, business development manager at Google.

“That’s the first time we’ve ever been able to do that and actually know that they’re coming into your store after engaging with you on one of our products,” he said.

GOOGLE CAN PROVIDE CONFIRMATION YOU ENTERED A STORE

Maniklal joined the seminar through a video conference from his office in the San Francisco Bay area.

For brick and mortar stores that rely on foot traffic, this provides direct confirmation that a customer saw the ad and responded to it.

Another big change that’s coming soon would demote websites that have pop-up advertisements, Paul Slack, CEO and founder of Vende Social, explained. That could be incentive for websites to stop using annoying ads so they can get preferential treatment on Google.

Slack founded Vende Social as a boutique digital marketing firm after working at a larger company. Vende has partnered with Google, which gives the company insight into how best to reach people on the search engine.

Digital advertising is about a lot more than display ads on a website, Slack said. Vende takes a holistic approach with everything from re-marketing ads, the ads that follow a user to another website, to very narrowly targeted ads.

One example was done locally for the real estate market. Though it’s red hot right now, there aren’t enough homes available on the market. Slack’s solution was to market to older empty nesters about the benefits of downsizing their home. They offered free home estimates to encourage people who no longer have children living at home to sell.

“Nobody goes into Google searching for ‘Downsize my home. We were able to reach them through our digital tactics.”
Paul Slack

Leads for that real estate firm skyrocketed.

“Nobody goes into Google searching for ‘Downsize my home,’” Slack said. “We were able to reach them through our digital tactics.”

One of the hottest topics in digital marketing is ad blockers, which many people use to prevent seeing any advertising.

Maniklal said people use ad blocker because they got tired of irrelevant advertising. This shows the importance of targeted advertising. If 10 people visit a website, they will all see different ads based on their profile and habits.

“If we do that right, there’s no need for an ad blocker because the idea of an ad, I think, will shift into a useful piece of information,” Maniklal said. “Short term, absolutely we’re worried about ad blocker. It’s cutting off a major portion of our business.”

He’s hopeful that Google and ad blockers can reach a mutual agreement in the future. He added that digital marketing shouldn’t be a nuisance but should benefit businesses, especially small, local businesses.

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