In this series, brought to you by FiveStones and our Google Marketing Platform consultants, we explore digital marketing and the GMP from different perspectives of our industry, to provide actionable insights to help you navigate these uncertain times.


12 Google Tools to Help Work Remotely and Continue Business Growth

With the growing level of uncertainty in the world, being adaptable and responsive to the evolving needs and trends of the market is the key to survival which can also include you and your team working from home. But what business tools can best support organisations remote working needs and allow for continued business growth during periods of uncertainty? Here, we explore some Google-based tools to help you and your team work remotely while you continue to drive business growth.


Tool #1: Google Hangouts Meet - video conferencing

Google Hangouts Meet is Google’s online video conferencing software for enterprises. Hangouts Meet provides a few additional features like real-time captions and support for up to 250 participants and 100,000 live stream viewers and the ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive for free. As of the beginning of May 2020, this functionality is now available to everyone for free, meaning that when customers or members of your team are working from home, there is a visual, cost effective way to collaborate and stay connected.

Use Google Hangouts Meet now for free >

Tool #2: Google Hangouts Chat - instant messaging

Google Hangouts Chat is an instant messaging platform which allows ongoing conversations between teams within your company. By using an instant messaging platform, you can improve communication by complimenting other forms of communication when working from home such as video conferencing or email. For G-suite customers, Google Hangouts Chat is currently free (until 30 September 2020).

Start free trial of Google Hangouts Chat >

Tools #3 & #4: Google Alerts & Google Trends - stay up-to-date with the market

As a content change and notification service, Google Alerts allows you to set up automated emails which notify you when a particular term appears in the news across the web. Similar to the Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends shows the relative popularity of a search query and can be a good source of information to manage your SEM campaigns. Both these tools also provide the opportunity to stay up-to-date with the latest news, trends and searches in the market so that you can make informed business decisions in a timely way.

Go to Google Alerts >Go to Google Trends >

Once you’re aware of changes in the market or business landscape, it is important to be able to adjust your strategy and implementation in a SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely) way.


Tool #5 Google Optimize 360 - test, experiment & personalise different content on your site

Taking a scientific approach to how you drive prospects down the funnel from your site’s content is crucial in building a Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) strategy. Optimize 360 provides a platform for you to experiment, test and personalise your site’s content through experiment objectives, A/B & multivariate testing and more to ensure maximum impact in converting your target audience.

For those that want to get started with the free version, Google has removed it’s limitation of 10 personalisations until July 31, 2020 due to COVID-19.

Sign up for free or login to Optimize now >Learn our 10 best practices for website optimisation >

 Tools #6, #7 & #8: Campaign Manager (CM), Display & Video 360 (DV360) and Studio - manage your campaigns and creative

With research from CMO showing that the majority (63 per cent) of advertisers have increased mission-based marketing (up 42 per cent), and cause-related marketing (up 41 per cent) during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to make sure that during uncertain times you are consistently monitoring your messaging.

Campaign Manager, DV360 and Studio within the Google Marketing Platform provide a variety of capabilities that allow you to adjust your advertising during uncertain times. By monitoring and updating your Data-Driven Creative and dynamic feeds, you can quickly and efficiently reflect your messaging to mission or cause-based, at scale and optimize your campaigns ongoing. Importantly, the reporting features available across Campaign Manager, DV360 and Studio allow you to generate insights from your campaigns and Floodlight activities to continue making informed decisions based on data.

Learn how to execute your Display & Video 360 (DV360) campaigns in uncertain times >

Tool #9: Search Ads 360 (SA360) - manage your paid search

As with your programmatic and paid media strategy through DV360, during uncertain times it’s just as important to actively monitor and adjust your paid search strategy, adjust bids to ensure you are getting maximum reach and conversions in an environment where these activities can be more important.

In particular, watch the PPC and CPC rates. During specific economic events or uncertain times, many organisations are more conservative with their paid digital advertising budgets, reducing spend and many smaller companies putting digital budgets on hold.

This means that CPC rates could be cheaper than normal, with the potential to get more ‘bang for your buck’ in addition to more potential opportunities to reach your audience online, especially if people’s online behaviours increase like the current pandemic.

Further to this, paid search can be used for crisis communications as part of mission or cause-based messaging, where it makes sense.

According to a recent article from the ABC, up-skilling in uncertain times can be one of the most effective ways to ensure your team and organisation remain relevant and are able to provide solutions to your customers. With a Gartner report backing this up, saying that 70% of employees don’t have mastery of the skills needed to do their jobs, this means learning platforms can provide growth opportunities for your team with easy to access content online.


Tool #10: Google Digital Garage - free online google training

The Google Digital Garage is a free online marketing training platform to develop digital skills to grow business and career skills.


As the original Google Marketing Platform Sales Partner in Asia Pacific, FiveStones have over 10 years experience as leaders in the AdTech space, providing expert advice and consulting services across programmatic, search, creative and analytics within the Google Marketing Platform. We also have a number of resources available to support organisations continued business growth and working remotely initiatives.

Tool #11: FiveStones Blog - programmatic, search, creative, analytics and digital industry news and information

The FiveStones blog provides industry leading expertise, advice and analysis on the Google Marketing Platform across programmatic, search, creative and analytics. If you want to stay up-to-date with the latest product updates to ensure you are maximising your spend and licenses across the Google Marketing Platform. You can also sign up for our monthly updates. For FiveStones customers, we also provide resources directly from Google.


Tool #12: FiveStones Managed & Consulting Services - maximise your campaigns

During uncertain times, ensuring you maximise the impact of your programmatic, search, creative and analytics strategies and implementation becomes even more important. FiveStones offers managed services across Digital Marketing Maturity, Creative Services, Audits, SEM & Trafficking Managed Media Services, advanced solutions and more from a project, platform or full GMP stack perspective.

Our expertise will ensure you are leveraging data-driven insights to drive your media, search and analytics strategies to connect with prospects and customers in a more efficient, personalised and cost effective way.

Contact FiveStones now >

For support or consultation on your Google Marketing Platform strategy or implementation, please get in touch with the FiveStones team today.

Stay tuned for additional insights from our Data-Driven Marketing in Uncertain Times series including step-by-step guides, deep-dives, practitioner tips and useful information. Feel free to contact the FiveStones team anytime to chat about the Google Marketing Platform and our services.

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