Key Ads Insights from Google Think Retail 2024 for a Successful Holiday Season

At the end of August, Google hosted its Think Retail on Air 2024, a conference for retail marketing executives to help businesses prepare for the upcoming holiday season. 

Jyotika Prasad, Google’s Director of Retail Ads, highlighted the importance of adapting to changing consumer behaviors. “The holiday season has evolved. It’s no longer just about Black Friday or Cyber Monday,” Prasad said. 

In response to this trend, the Google team provided retailers with ads insights to win the upcoming holiday season and rolled out a range of new features across its platforms. The event focused on understanding consumer mindset and leveraging Google artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help businesses boost sales during the 2024 holiday season. Keep reading to learn more about holiday season macro insights, 4D’s mindsets, and its AI solutions introduced by Google during the Think Retail 2024 session. 

Key Takeaways:

• With a condensed shopping season and economic factors affecting consumer confidence, making every holiday connection count will be especially critical during the 2024 holiday season. 
• To meet the moment and make the most of the season, understanding consumer behavior and mindset shifts will be critical. 
• Google introduced its 4D’s model: Deliberate, Deal-Seeking, Determined, and Devoted. 
• For each mindset, Google introduced the latest AI products and features to help you win this holiday season.

Table of Contents:

1. 2024 Holiday Macro Industry Insights
2. 4D’s Holiday Mindsets
3. The Mindset 1: Deliberate
4. The Mindset 2: Deal-seeking
5. The Mindset 3: Determined
6. The Mindset 4: Devoted
7. AI-powered Tools from Google
8. Contact VIDEN to Make the Holiday Season Work For You

Holiday Macro Industry Insights

The upcoming election, combined with fewer shopping days after Thanksgiving (beginning on November 29, 2024, this year’s shopping season will be about five days shorter than in previous years), could result in a more condensed shopping period. 

According to Google, 34% of U.S. consumers had already started holiday shopping by July, highlighting a trend toward earlier purchases. This shift, along with the condensed shopping season, emphasizes the importance of wins in all phases of the holiday, ensuring focus not just on the peak days but all the days in between. 

Economic uncertainty and consumer confidence are also crucial factors. Consumers feel the strain of tight budgets, with 61% stating they can’t afford to make poor choices. Also, 63% of U.S. consumers agree that making the right purchase decisions requires more effort than it used to, and 60% abandoned a purchase altogether because there were too many options and/or too much information. 

Confidence is a key to overcoming this challenge. Consumers who are highly confident at the point of purchase are 10x more likely to be satisfied post-purchase and 6x more likely to say they would buy again than those with low confidence. Understanding consumer behavior and mindset shifts is essential to meet the moment and make the most of the season. 

4D’s Holiday Mindsets

Understanding consumer behavior and mindset shifts is crucial to making the most of the 2024 holiday season. To help achieve it Google introduced a new framework to better understand holiday shoppers. The 4D’s model consists of Deliberate, Deal-Seeking, Determined, and Devoted phases. Let’s delve into these four mindsets and the solutions presented by Google in the Retail on Air 2024 session. 

The Mindset 1: Deliberate

This phase, typically occurring in October and November, is about early research behavior. 

According to Google… 

• In-mid October consumers already had 27% of their holiday shopping complete. 
• 60% of consumers said if they were confident that they found the right item, they’d be willing to purchase it right now.

What does it mean for retailers? Turn browsers into buyers! Invest in marketing early—capture shopper interest and inspire those searching for the perfect gift. Don’t forget to clearly communicate key product and category information. 

The Mindset 2: Deal-seeking

Aligning with the Cyber 5 (the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday) period and its surrounding days, this mindset delivers big revenue days for e-commerce businesses. Based on Google… 

• Since June 2023, the trend of product research-related searches (such as ‘review’ and ‘comparison’, etc.) align with deal-related searches (like ‘deal’ and ‘offer’, etc.), as their search volumes trend in tandem.
• Value for money (37% of respondents) and high quality (36% of respondents) are the most important reasons for brand choice, regardless of how close a consumer feels to the brand. 

What does it mean for retailers? Offer value… not just discounts! Balance promotional offers with profit margins during this holiday time.  

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The Mindset 3: Determined

December is anticipated to be a key month for the holiday season. Google said that in 2023, the average US holiday shopper still had over half of its shopping to finish after Cyber Week. In 2024, there will be five fewer days after Cyber Week, and the November election might cause delays in purchasing. 

• The average shopper still has around half of their shopping to complete at the beginning of December. 
• According to Mastercard US Spending Pulse, eight shopping days in December surpassed Cyber Monday spend in 2023.
• More than two-thirds of US holiday shoppers know what gifts they are buying heading into December.  

What does it mean for retailers? Be top-of-mind early and be present during the peak. 

The Mindset 4: Devoted

The final phase, Devoted, signifies an increasing group of loyal shoppers who return to their preferred brands after the holiday season. 

Additionally, Google stated that… 

• More than 40% of shopping searches on Google mention a brand or retailer name. 
• 75% of respondents say they want brands to demonstrate they understand their needs.
• 61% want that to be self evident understanding to come through in branded communications to them. 
• 73% of consumers want brands to suggest products that complement items they have previously purchased. 
• 69% of consumers want brands to showcase products or services based on their browsing history. 

What does it mean for retailers? Focus on retention strategies to encourage loyal customers to return and to prevent newly acquired shoppers from switching to competitors in 2025. Use what you know about your loyal customers to make their shopping experiences more relevant. 

AI-Powered Tools from Google

To support these strategies, Google introduced several AI-powered tools and features during the event. Below, we will explore them more precisely. 

Product Studio. To enhance content creation for retailers, Google is expanding its Product Studio capabilities. Beginning in September, merchants can generate videos directly from their product images within their Merchant Center account or through the Google & YouTube app on Shopify. This AI-powered tool customizes videos to align with brand aesthetics, edits images, and even writes scripts that highlight key product features. 

YouTube Product Feeds on Demand Gen. If you’re looking to deliver visually appealing, multi-format ads on Google’s most impactful platforms—such as YouTube, Discover, and Gmail—Demand Gen campaigns are an excellent choice. These campaigns help advertisers reach and convert consumers with engaging, relevant, and visually compelling creatives that capture attention and prompt action at the perfect moment. By incorporating product feeds, Demand Gen campaigns transform into a virtual storefront, driving both consideration and purchase.

Merchant Center Next. This solution was presented as a tool for retailers to better understand their customers and competitive landscape. Retailers using Google Merchant Center can now access new insights and reports powered by AI. These features offer concise summaries and personalized recommendations on product assortment and performance. By using natural language prompts, retailers can generate customized reports and explore popular search terms and topics related to their product inventory.

Offsite Retail Media in Search Ads 360. Google has enhanced its Offsite Retail Media capabilities in Search Ads 360, allowing brand suppliers to utilize retailers’ first-party data to reach a wider audience and direct more shoppers back to the retailer’s site for purchases. Major retailers like Albertsons and Best Buy have joined Lowe’s in the beta program for this feature. Google advises retailers to combine AI-driven Search campaigns (using broad match) with Performance Max campaigns to maximize sales across all Google channels, achieving the best return on investment. This strategy is known as the “Ads Power Pair.”

Automatic Product Sync for Local Inventory Ads. For retailers with physical stores, Google has launched an automated onboarding process for local inventory ads. This feature synchronizes in-store availability from a retailer’s website with their Merchant Center account, making it easier to display local product availability in shopping ads.

Loyalty Promotions. The company is introducing loyalty promotions to help retailers attract and retain highly valuable customers. This feature enables member pricing annotations and customized bidding strategies to highlight exclusive discounts and encourage customer loyalty. Follow the link for more Google AI solutions for the holiday season, and download the Think Retail 2024 Handbook. 

Read our article to explore the 15 holiday marketing strategies from VIDEN’s expert, and download the Meta Holiday Checklist.  

Contact VIDEN to Make the Holiday Season Work For You

Contact us to elevate your holiday marketing efforts. Book a consultation with our digital advertising experts today!