Google AI for small business growth

Throughout my 20-year career at Google, I’ve helped businesses of all sizes grow through digital advertising. I’ve witnessed how much our world has changed and how significantly technology has evolved. Even so, one thing remains constant: Whenever I meet small- and medium-size business (SMBs) owners across the globe, they continue to ask, “How can I find and keep the right customers and help my business grow with measurable results?”

It’s essential that we can answer this question for SMBs. They are, after all, the beating heart of the global economy. In fact, micro-, small-, and medium-size enterprises make up 90% of businesses, 60 to 70% of employment, and 50% of the gross domestic product worldwide. This means that when SMBs thrive, they can start a positive ripple effect that benefits all of us. Specifically, their success creates more jobs in our communities, diversifies our choices in goods and services, and helps us invest in new innovations.

Businesses of any size can stay competitive with the most sophisticated advertisers, leveling the playing field.

Digital marketing has given millions of businesses around the world access to global markets, and Google believes the best way to support SMBs is by continuing to invest in digital advertising solutions to help our customers grow. During Google Marketing Live, we ushered in the next era of AI-powered ads by showing how we’re putting AI front and center in a marketer’s toolkit. Through these AI-driven solutions, we’re helping businesses of any size stay competitive with the most sophisticated advertisers, leveling the playing field and helping customers of all sizes to drive business growth in three key ways.

1. Google Analytics 4 delivers trust, confidence, and deeper customer insights

Ask any marketer, and they’ll most likely say measurement is critical to optimizing their ads against business goals and proving campaign value. But they also might say that collecting the right data inputs can be an overwhelming task. This is especially true when it comes to gathering first-party data, analyzing it, and applying it to their advertising.

That’s where Google Analytics 4 comes in. It’s a tool that gives marketers actionable insights, which they can quickly apply to their campaigns. Because it’s built with Google AI at its core, it can address any measurement gaps, surface rich customer insights, and help marketers predict future consumer behavior. All of this empowers marketers to create strategies that will grow customer lifetime value and profitability for their businesses. To take advantage of this latest generation of measurement solutions, marketers just need to upgrade before the July 1 deadline.

With better measurement, we are able to scale our customer base with a focus on quality, while protecting user privacy.

Wheel the World, an online travel agency that offers travel experiences for people with disabilities and older adults based on their accessibility needs, paired AI-powered ad solutions with Google Analytics 4 as part of their lead generation strategy. The company needed to reach customers with specific needs, and Google Analytics 4 — which integrated directly with their first-party customer relationship management data in HubSpot — helped it see how its search terms were performing among its audience and how customers were engaging with its website. This allowed Wheel the World to reach the right leads and maximize its bookings. Andrés Villagrán Merani, the company’s head of marketing, says, “With better measurement, we are able to scale our customer base with a focus on quality, while protecting user privacy.”

The team from Wheel the World, an accessible travel agency, shares how Google AI helped improve its lead generation strategy and increase bookings by 65%.

2. Google Ads can help businesses bring their brand to life in new, creative ways

You’d be hard-pressed to find a marketer who isn’t short on time and resources. But with the new, conversational experience in Google Ads, business owners and marketers have a collaborative, creative partner that helps them build ad campaigns quickly and drive better performance, all made possible by Google AI. Marketers can simply start a conversation with Google Ads in the same way they would with a colleague and ask the tool to come up with effective keywords, headlines, descriptions, images, and other creative assets. Access to this technology means businesses have a faster, easier way to bring their marketing campaigns to life across multiple channels and formats.

Marketers can start a conversation with Google Ads in the same way they would with a colleague.

3. Performance Max takes the guesswork out of finding the most valuable customers

Delivering the right message to the right customer at the right moment is every business’ goal. However, as the path to purchase becomes increasingly complex, getting it right can begin to feel like a moving target. And SMBs simply don’t have the luxury of engaging in trial and error to see what works. Their campaigns need to produce results quickly and be easily adapted to better meet marketing objectives.

To remedy this, marketers can combine their Search campaigns with Performance Max campaigns, which find valuable customers and multiply conversions across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory. Performance Max also uses the power of Google AI to do the hard work of discovering untapped and incremental conversion opportunities, and helps ensure optimal return on investment by using marketers’ critical inputs like business goals, campaign requirements, and creative assets. This frees marketers to focus on higher level marketing strategies, such as building a first-party data approach or analyzing insights to refine profitability targets.

Ru9’s Performance Max campaign resulted in a 10X return for every dollar spent.

Ru9, a woman-owned online mattress retailer founded by Trang Dang in Ho Chi Minh City, used Performance Max to reach the goal of scaling its business across Vietnam. Ru9’s Performance Max campaign resulted in a 10X return for every dollar spent, and the company has grown from a team of just two people to 48 employees. Dang is not only fulfilling her dream of offering the best and most affordable foam mattresses in Vietnam but also inspiring the next generation of women entrepreneurs in the country.

Leaders from Ru9, the first company in Vietnam to manufacture and sell foam mattresses, share how Google AI helped the woman-owned and -led brand open stores across the country and grow its team.

Marketers who tap into the power of Google AI can help businesses large and small reimagine their digital marketing efforts, from measurement and creative assets to connecting with customers, and drive next-level growth. If you’re interested in understanding how Google AI solutions can improve your business strategy, review our AI Essentials checklist below and share it with your team.