Google’s High Stakes Ad and Retail Reinvention

Google, hot off its I/O developer conference, saved some of its most sweeping revelations for the Google Marketing Live conference in San Francisco this week. The sprawling array of changes, which ramp up the company’s advertising and retail operations, all converge on one goal: using Google’s considerable tech to create new ways of reaching consumers. In March, it unveiled “Shoppable Ads” at Shoptalk in Las Vegas, and at last week’s I/O conference, executives showed off how augmented reality search results can give shoe shoppers a realistic view of, say, New Balance sneakers. Now the company is upping the ante by giving ads more real estate, including premium spaces like the landing page of Google’s mobile search engine and the main feed in its smartphone app. Search results will also come with a gallery of as many as eight image-based ads. The changes play into the theme of “discovery,” with Google determined to hammer home one particular message: When it comes to helping people find what they’re looking for, no one else can compare — even when consumers don’t realize they’re searching for something. The key, according to Brad Bender, Google’s head of display and video advertising, is timing. The magic happens when advertisers appeal to

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