With the increased discussion of using data and technology to automate paid search advertising, what is the role for humans in this new world?
Ryan Fitzgibbon's presentation from the "Friends of Search" 2017 event in Amsterdam.
4. Google Confidential & Proprietary
People Data
Technology
What We Hear About
Moving towards
Audience in a
Keyword-based World
Unlocking the potential
of RLSAs using Google
Analytics
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People Data
Technology
What We Hear About
Moving from ‘Mobile-
First’
to “AI-First’
Automation
Of
Search
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People Data
Technology
Use the power
of automation and
machine learning
to drive performance
at scale
1
What We Hear About
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Automation & Machine Learning
100s Billions
Signal Combinations
5 Minutes
Models Updated
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People Data
Technology
What We Hear Less About
Day-to-Day Tasks
Human Insight
Business Decisions
Real-world Context
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A
Download Data
Generate Excel Reports
SQR Keyword Mining
Review Top Keywords & Change Bids
Update Ad Copy
Adding Negatives
Amending Campaign Budget Caps
The Role Of A Search Practitioner
B
Identify Potential Audience Targets
Run Statistical Ad Copy Tests
Explore Attribution Models Across
Media Channels
Analyze Online-to-Offline Influences
Surface Data From CRM Systems
Analyze Consumer Purchase
Behaviour
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People Data
Technology
Adopt a unified Ad
Tech platform to
simplify workflows,
drive efficiencies and
focus on value-add
activities
2
People & Technology
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People & Technology
Control
Options as to what
aspects to automate
and any constraints
Flexibility
Work to a custom
combination of goals
and signals
Transparency
Full visibility to what
changes have been
made and why
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People DataOwn your data,
break the silos and
enable the sharing of
insights across
platforms and teams
3
People & Data
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People & Data - Input
Provide information
about wider media
activity and
promotional periods
Context Business Data
Provide information
around margins and
competitiveness
metrics
Feeds
Provide a
comprehensive feed
containing information
about your inventory
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People & Data - Output
Ability to surface
granular information
about users, locations
and audiences
Insight Opportunities
Surface the priorities
for audience list
creation and keyword
expansion
Testing
Free the time to
explore new betas,
new formats and new
channels
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People Data
Technology
#Harmony Between Man & Machine
Efficiency
Effectiveness
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People Data
Technology
3 Key Questions
Is data powering
your technology to
be more efficient and
effective?
3
How well do your
teams use the
technology you
have?
1
How does data
empower your
colleagues to make
the right decisions?
2
17. Google Confidential & Proprietary
3 Takeaways
1
DO NOT BE SCARED OF TECHNOLOGY & AUTOMATION!
YOU ARE IN CONTROL - TRY IT
2
START COLLECTING & STRUCTURING WHAT BUSINESS DATA
YOU HAVE THAT COULD BENEFIT SEARCH PERFORMANCE
3
EXPLORE THE DATA AVAILABLE TO SURFACE OPPORTUNITY IN
AUDIENCES AND ATTRIBUTION
For example, simply consider just a couple of the changes that have happened within AdWords within the last 10 years.
At the start, search was very simplistic. Despite AdWords having existed for 6 years by the time I entered the profession 10 years ago, the technology and options were very straightforward (pick some keywords, write some ads, place a bid). Very little happened in those days.
Then over the next 5 years or so, more options were added - things like sitelinks, call extensions enriched the ad itself - while PLAs and DSA campaigns helped expand the reach.
The real complexity has really only been hitting in the last 4 years or so.
Device adjustments with Enhanced Campaigns, x-device considerations, shopping product groups, DFSA, audience lists (RLSA, SImilar Audiences, Customer Match), ad customizers, etc.
For many, the opportunities that these additions provide is exciting. However, for many, these “new fangled” opportunities end up not being explored, ignored or just not used correctly.
For the brief time that I have to talk to you today, there are 3 broad topics that I am keen to cover.
Data, Technology and YOU (the people).
However, all these things need to work together in harmony to drive performance in search and ensure that the human aspect if fully utilized.
So if we consider these aspects individually.
The first is “Data” - Rarely do I hear the term “big data” thrown around that much any more - thankfully!!!
However, it takes many forms - RLSA Audience, Google Analytics (soft metrics, website engagement), performance metrics.
But increasingly this is expanding into areas like customer match, similar audiences, demographics, etc
The complexity is only ever building.
Which then brings us into the realm of technology.
The area that promises so much. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning - easy terms to throw around to sound impressive. How smart is the technology?
“Algorithm” or “Statistical Analysis” - easy terms to use, but the range in their capabilities varies wildly.
What is the value that the ML brings?
Then there is the automation that comes along with that. Automatically build campaign structures, automatically change bids, automatically update ad copy.
However, the key realisation is that the data on it’s own is useless, as is the technology. They need each other to be impactful.
THis brings us to the 1st overlap that is between data and technology. This is the BIG topics that people love to talk about.
Machine Learning and Automation is geared towards being able to take HUGE data sets and determine the right combination of signals to accurately determine the right outcome!
For example: in DoubleClick Search, we end up feeding in potentially 100s of billions of signal combinations and allowing the systems to determine the combinations that matter and help predict conversions rates accurately.
Plus these models get updated every 5 minutes to ensure that whenever bids need changing, it is using the freshest data possible to make it’s decisions.
This is something that humans could not possibly look to replicate and only the best technology can look to achieve.
But this is all only possible when useful data can be fed into the machine learning systems.
Which brings us to the most important part of the system….YOU!
So often I hear the same thing….if we automate everything, then what is the role that I play.
Particularly in the media agency world there is a fear.
Whilst the agency themselves understand the value and impact that this data-technology combination can have, there is concern that their customers/clients will only hear “automation” and think….”what am I paying you to do then?”
The client believes that the search team should be performing specific day-to-day tasks and adding human insight when making manual decisions.
However, I personally believe that there is human insight that can be provided and that is involving two things:
Business Decisions - budgets, target ROI - these things can vary and often not in a strictly logical fashion. Automated systems do not know when the business is keen to drive extra volume even if it means taking a short-term hit on the ROI
Real-World Context - when are you running a promotion? And against what products/services specifically? What type of promotion is it? Are you running a national TV/radio promotional campaign? Or OOH campaign?
Ask yourself, what are the value-adding tasks that you perform on a day-to-day basis?
I’ve got 2 lists.
A is the time-consuming, low-impact tasks that many search practitioners would take up their days with in a fully manual world.
B is the forward thinking, high-value tasks. They are still time consuming but on a per-hour basis provide much more value for money.
I’d rather free the time up to do the tasks in B and move through the list in A and automate as much as I can.
This leads to our 2nd overlap - which is between people and technology.
Search practitioners should be using the technology to automate the large scale, repetitive tasks that normally take a long time to do.
Things like:
Running search query reports
Generating daily/weekly/monthly performance reports
Amending bids
Updating ad copy to reflect current prices
However, that is not to suggest that an automated system should not be overseen.
A good technology firmly puts the human in the driving seat.
Control - Give the user the ability to define what the system should and should not automate and within what boundaries it should operate. This can easily allay fears over the system taking fully over.
Transparency - Where possible the technology should be transparent as to what changes are being made and why.
Flexibility - 1 size does not fit all. Any good tech should look to achieve whatever the business is looking to achieve. Have 20 different customer interaction goals, all with different values to the business? No problem. Value specific customers more than others based on LTV - factor that in!
The 3rd overlap is the one with the greatest freedom and potential.
People & Data.
In this area things are a 2-way street.
Not only should people be the source of data, but the data should be helping inform the people.
This means considering the online, the offline and everything in between. Especially between media channels and devices.
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Three takeaways for you all to go back to work tomorrow and get going on
Automate – You have heard it a lot today and you should absolutely do it. Do not view it as taking away your role, diminishing the value you provide you company or clients. View this as the opportunity to scale your impact on account performance and move towards the higher visibility (and interesting) tasks.
Start gathering your data. You would be surprised the treasure trove of data that is out there and it is easy to underestimate the value of that data for the best automation systems out there.
Start pulling data out of the systems and play! Often the availability to dive into data can surface up insights and trends that you may have never thought about and can take advantage of – either in search itself or in the other channels.
