In late May, Google shared its 2017 AdWords “product roadmap” at the Google Marketing Next event in California. While the information contained in the roadmap won’t fundamentally change the search engine marketing agencies’ day-to-day operations, it underlines several important trends moving forward, most notably artificial intelligence (AI). Here are a few select announcements from the event.

In-Market Audiences

This function is already available to Display Network and YouTube advertisers, and will be available to search engine marketing agencies at some point by the end of 2017. It allows advertisers to target consumers who are ready to make a purchase, based on a variety of intent signals.

“If you’re a car dealership, you can increase your reach among users who have already searched for “SUVs with best gas mileage” and “spacious SUVs,”” reads a Google blog announcing the AdWords product roadmap.

Search engine advertisers should be excited about this update, as Google has said that conversion rates are on average 10 per cent better for in-market audiences.

Life Event Targeting

This is another enhanced targeting option: life event targeting relies on Google’s AI to identify customers who are going through targetable life events, such as university graduation, marriage, or home-buying. At the Marketing Next presentation, Google “showed how people in different cultures might search for different things related to a wedding,” reports Search Engine Land’s Frederick Vallaeys. “Google’s machine learning can pick up on these differences and know that it corresponds with the marriage life stage.”

Automatically Display the Best Ad

Google hopes to reduce the time search engine marketing agencies spend A/B testing their ads by using AI to automatically display the best ad to the right audience. At Marketing Next, presenters showed how three different users can search the same generic subject and all be shown different ads based on that user’s preferences. This development may change the way search marketers do their work by encouraging them to produce a higher volume of ad variations, and then letting AI decide who each should be displayed to.

As a Premier Google Partner All-Star Agency with access to valuable insights on Google’s preferred practices, GrowthEngine Media is equipped to take advantage the newest search marketing technologies to achieve the best possible results for our clients.