The Google Marketing toolkit for digital marketers

Google tools and features that every digital marketer should know.

The digital marketing landscape is progressing so rapidly; as marketers, it can be hard to keep up.

Take a read of this toolkit to make sure you know what’s possible when it comes to making use of the latest tech developments Google has to offer.

We’ve grouped the key tools and features into the following four areas that they can assist you with:

1. Capture & Value
2. Automation
3. Single View of the Customer
4. Data-Driven Personalisation

Any questions on what you see below? Tweet us @TrainingwithJF or leave a comment at the bottom of this page.

Tools to help you capture, track and give value to actions on your online assets

Google Analytics - Google's website analytics tool

• Free of charge
• Up to 10 million hits per month
• 20 custom dimensions and metrics
• Considers cross-device behaviour
• Integrated with Google Ads, AdSense, Tag Manager, Data Studio and more

Get to know more about Google Analytics on our one-day courses.

Analytics 360 - Google's enterprise website analytics tool

• Paid product with defined service level agreements
• Over 500 million hits per month
• 200 custom dimensions and metrics
• Integrated with Google Ads, Tag Manager, Data Studio, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360, Campaign Manager, Google BigQuery

Google Tag Manager - A tool for marketers to add code to websites

• Free of charge
• OSupports Google and non-Google tags
• Up to three concurrent tagging projects
• Supports tag sequencing
• Granular access controls
• Compatible with Firebase

Find out more about our Google Tag Manager courses.

Tag Manager 360 - Enterprise tag manager

• Paid product with defined service
• Level agreement
• Unlimited number of concurrent tagging projects
• Includes implementation support

Firebase - Google’s app analytics tool

• Free of charge
• Supports up to 500 distinct events
• Allows creation of custom audiences based on device data, custom events or user properties
• Integrated with Google BigQuery and Tag Manager

We're running Google Firebase courses regularly - come and join us!

Tools and features to help you deliver relevance at scale through automation

Google Ads Smart Bidding

• Optimises for maximum number of conversions, position on search results page
• Cost-per-Action, Return on Ad Spend
• True real-time bidding
• Considers unique signals
• Requires conversion data from Google Ads or imported from Analytics

Need to know more about Smart Bidding? Attend one of our Google Ads Advanced sessions

Search Ads 360 Smart Bidding

• Maximum number of conversions, position on search results page
• Target outranking share, Cost-per-Action, Return on Ad Spend, Effective Revenue Share
• Bids updated four times per day
• Works across multiple search engines
• Requires conversion data from Floodlight

Dynamic Search Ads

• Matches Google search queries to landing pages
• Captures incremental traffic currently not covered by your keywords
• Ad text is based on a pre-defined template plus a dynamically generated headline
• Supports exclusion of non-relevant parts of your website
• Works with Google Ads Smart Bidding

Smart Display Campaigns- show ads in almost all formats across the Google Display Network

• Automated targeting and bidding based on your CPA goal, campaign budget and raw creative assets
• Uses unique Google signals such as cross-device behaviour, user interests, contextual data and more
• On average 20% more conversions at the same CPA

IF Functions

• Create customised ads using boolean expressions
• Two condition types available: device type and audience list
• If condition is not met, default text will be used
• No data feed required
• Supports mobile-specific ads

Ad Customizers

• Create customised ads using a data feed
• Can be based on campaign, ad group, keyword, time, device type and user location supports countdowns
• Data feed managed through Google Ads account

Dynamic Ads

• Create tailored ads for retargeting campaigns
• Customise your ad template based on one of many ready-made layouts in Google Web Designer
• You can change the logo, background image, colours, fonts and more
• Ad changes dynamically based on data in your product or services feed

Google Ads Scripts

• Automate workflows in your Google Ads account or create custom reports
• Based on JavaScript
• Works across multiple accounts
• Can consider external data such as TV campaign schedules

Data Studio

• Free of charge
• Build custom reports and dashboards by combining data from multiple sources
• Reports update automatically
• Supports collaboration

Learn how to create dashboards in Data Studio on our Data Studio training course.

Google Sheet Macros

• Automate tasks using macros
• Potentials tasks include campaign creation and bulk edits to ad texts or keywords
• Available in all major spreadsheet applications including Google Sheets

Tools to help you get a single view of the customer.

BigQuery- Big data analysis

• Enterprise serverless data warehouse
• Built-in machine learning
• True real-time bidding
• No infrastructure to manage
• Allows you to focus on analysing data to find meaningful insights

Sign yourself up for one of our BigQuery training sessions.

Google Ads Store Visits- offline data

• Connects visits of physical stores to clicks on search ads and to views of TrueView ads requires active location extensions
• Considers high confidence and privacy thresholds
• Typically works for clients with large stores and 30+ locations

Google Ads Store Sales Direct- offline data

• Allows matching of clicks on search ads with offline purchases
• Requires upload of hashed customer information to Google Ads
• Considers high confidence and privacy thresholds
• Typically works for clients with 6,000 transactions that are linked to Gmail addresses per month

Analytics Data Import-offline data

• Connect data from loyalty programs, point-of-sales systems, call centre logs to events on your website and in your app
• Build your own statistical models and gather deep insights
• Create custom audiences based on offline behaviour

Tools and features to help you create a personal experience through audience segmentation

Smart Lists in Analytics

• Automatically generated remarketing list with most engaged users
• Considers cross-device behaviour
• Rules-based and data-driven models
• Results can be used automatically for Google Ads Smart Bidding

Audience Lists in Analytics

• Create audience segments based on predefined or custom criteria
• Criteria can include visits to specific pages of your website, time on site, e-commerce signals and many more
• Can be used for remarketing in Google Ads for search and display campaigns

Remarketing for Search

• Users who search on Google and have been to your website before
• Can be used to tailor bids, creatives and landing pages
• Rules-based and data-driven models
• Remarketing lists will be used as a signal in Google Ads Smart Bidding

Remarketing for Display

• Users who might see your display ad and have been to your website before
• Can be used to tailor bids, creatives and landing pages
• Remarketing lists will be used as a signal in Google Ads Smart Bidding
• Works across devices

Remarketing for Video

• Users who might see your video ad and have previously viewed or interacted with one of your YouTube videos or have visited and/or subscribed to your channel
• Can be used to tailor bids or creatives
• Works across devices

Affinity and custom affinity segments

• Users who have demonstrated a qualified passion in a topic
• Based on types of pages a user visits or videos they view and visit or viewing frequency
• More than 100 pre-built affinity segments or custom-built by you
• Constantly updated to reflect changes in user behaviour

In-Market Segments

• Users who are actively looking to buy certain products or services in the near future based on website visits and signals that indicate purchase intent
• More than 100 in-market segments available
• Can be used for display and TrueView campaigns
• Updated in real-time

Similar Audiences

• Users that show similar behaviour like those on an existing remarketing list or a customer match list
• Based on browsing behaviour, contextual signals and many more
• Updated in real-time
• Can be used for search and display campaigns

Customer Match

• Users that are your existing customers
• Identified by uploading hashed customer data (i.e. email address or phone number) to Google
• Can be used for targeting or excluding your customers from a campaign
• If used for targeting you can tailor bids, creatives and landing pages