How leading retailers and brands are using Google Ads to win and retain customers
Holiday shopping looks different this year. Consumers are able to be more deliberate with their purchases, turning the holiday season from a two-week sprint into a three-month marathon from October through the New Year. At the same time, the pace of AI change has never been faster. The retail landscape continues to shift, altering how consumers search, discover and ultimately shop. In this atmosphere it’s important for retailers to leverage AI-powered tools to connect with shoppers where they are and stand out from the competition.
Brands are already turning to Google Ads to connect with customers in new ways, and today we’re sharing how a few of our innovative retail customers are adapting to new trends by embracing the latest tools to connect with their customers.
Be there in every moment of discovery
AI continues to transform how consumers search and discover products. That’s why when Rare Beauty needed a smart strategy to reach a savvy Gen Z audience, they leaned into AI-powered ad solutions to ensure the brand showed up in as many places as possible. By incorporating YouTube in their Search strategy, they saw significantly higher search volume from both new and existing customers, ultimately driving 7X return on ad spend.
L'Oréal, a global leader in beauty, also saw incremental performance by using AI Max to find new search opportunities and boost ad relevance in their Search Ads campaigns — with a 2X higher conversion rate at a 31% lower cost-per-conversion. Specifically, they were able to unlock more conversions from net-new search queries like “what is the best cream for facial dark spots?” by turning on search term matching in AI Max.
Fuel your performance with smarter tools
Once a customer discovers a product, it’s up to the brand to make it stand out and convert browsers into buyers. Google Ads offers advertisers the tools they need.
To drive traffic to its stores and call center while still maintaining strong online sales for the launch of its Damier Fine Jewelry collection, Louis Vuitton implemented an omnichannel bidding strategy for Google Ads. This approach led to a 41% higher omnichannel ROAS (return on ad spend) than traditional e-commerce bidding, both in the United States and France. Furthermore, e-commerce ROAS increased by 7%, proving that it is possible to expand the omnichannel target without sacrificing digital effectiveness.
Sleep wellness company Hatch used Gemini to instantly create three target personas, forming the bedrock of “The Everything Machine” campaign when launching its Restore 2. This AI-driven strategy, coupled with ImageFX producing 27 visuals from minimal sets, was a game changer, driving an 80% uplift in click-through rate, a 31% improvement in cost per purchase, and 50% fewer design and production hours.
ba&sh, an online and offline retailer of high-end women's ready-to-wear clothing, wanted to switch to an omnichannel strategy to maximize both offline and online sales. To enhance campaign efficiency and attract new customers, ba&sh's strategy was to assign a value to store visits and make them a primary campaign goal, which helped increase both online and offline revenue, improving their ROAS by 8.5%.
Convert customers into brand loyalists
Acquiring new customers is just the first step. To build a thriving business, retailers need to inspire those new customers to return again and again. Our new loyalty offerings are one way we're helping retailers engage with customers throughout their shopping journey.
For example, Sephora US used personalized annotations to show signed-in shoppers specific discounts based on their loyalty tier, resulting in a 20% increase in click-through rate for personalized ads shown to loyal customers.
Consumers are approaching this holiday season more open to inspiration and discovery and over a longer period of time than ever before. Google’s new AI-powered tools are giving retailers the tools they need to show up in all the right moments, make every interaction count and turn customers into brand loyalists.
