New AI tools to help merchants market brands and products
We’ve all had those magic shopping moments - finally discovering just the right product we were looking for – it’s beautiful, and we love the brand. But sometimes finding that product and brand connection feels harder than it should be.
Today at Google Marketing Live, I shared some of our most exciting new tech for retailers that help you cultivate more of those magic moments. At a time when shoppers are flooded with options, we’re introducing new ways to deepen the connections between shoppers and merchants through rich and compelling content.
Showing brand info at a glance
More than 40 percent of shopping queries on Search mention a brand or retailer. 1 This suggests that a key step in a shopper’s path to purchase involves learning more about your brand. Today, we unveiled a new visual brand profile right on Search that gives richer results for those common shopping queries. On the new brand profile we will highlight information you’ve provided through Google Merchant Center - as well as Google’s Shopping Graph - to showcase your ethos and offering.
Our visual brand profiles are inspired by the Business Profiles we offer local businesses on Search and Maps. Your profile will spotlight engaging product and brand imagery, videos and customer reviews. Plus, we’ll show your current deals, promotions and shipping policies front and center – in one convenient place for shoppers. Ads will continue to appear on the page along with this new profile. We'll roll this out in phases in the coming months.
Helping you create better, on-brand content
Last year, we introduced Product Studio, a merchant’s one-stop-shop for AI-powered content creation. Eighty percent of merchants who use Product Studio tell us that they have been more efficient - or expect to be more efficient - from using it. 2 We’ve also seen that one in three product images generated with Product Studio are published or downloaded. 3 This clearly shows its efficacy given it generates four images with each prompt.
New Product Studio features continue to put the power of Google AI in the hands of merchants. For generated images to be useful, they need to be cohesive with your existing campaigns and content. Now, you’ll be able to generate new product images that match your unique brand style. Just upload an image that represents your aesthetic, add a prompt describing the scene and within moments Product Studio will generate campaign-ready content. It’s all in your brand style, cutting down on costs and saving you time. Now a rugged-chic e-commerce brand like Taylor Stitch can upload a standard product image of a new suede weekender bag alongside an inspo image of the California coast from a recent photo shoot. Product Studio will generate a brand new, realistic image of the bag with a backdrop in the style of the shoot.
Product Studio will also give you the ability to generate videos from just one photo. So, with just the click of a button, you can animate components of still product images to create short videos or playful product GIFs for social media. Product Studio is now available in Australia, Canada, U.K. and U.S. in Merchant Center Next and the Google & YouTube app on Shopify and coming to India and Japan in the next few weeks.
Bringing Shopping ads to life with generative AI
Today we’re introducing three new ad formats powered by Google’s generative AI to help your ads work harder for you.
Initially launching for retailers as a closed beta later this year, you can connect your brand’s short-form product videos - or videos from creators - to your ads. Now, with just a click, shoppers on Search can engage with these short videos showing how your clothes look on others, view helpful styling suggestions, and easily explore related or complementary products from your brand. We’ll also show AI summaries below the video highlights so shoppers can see key details about a product before they make a decision to buy.
Since we brought our pioneering Virtual Try-On technology to Search last year, we’ve seen people click out to retailer sites more when viewing products with Virtual Try-On enabled, and brands have seen that their Virtual Try-On imagery get 60% more high-quality views than other images. 4 To help you harness the power of VTO, we're launching Virtual Try-On in apparel ads for men’s and women’s tops. This lets shoppers see how your products look on a variety of body types and build the confidence to buy.
We’ve also used 3D technology to automatically create 3D spins from a set of images, making asset creation easier for merchants who sell shoes. We’re excited to bring this innovation to ads. Now, consumers will have an engaging way to explore your shoes, like this pair from adidas, right from a Shopping ad. All a merchant needs to do is provide a handful of high-quality images of their shoes at different angles and we’ll use our advanced AI techniques to create a 360-degree view of their footwear.
We’re excited to help retailers go beyond simply listing their products to creating experiences that can help establish genuine, lasting connections with shoppers. Be sure to check out the other ads innovations powered by AI that we shared at Google Marketing Live 2024.
