Scorpion is out this week with the latest addition to its expanding suite of marketing tools for SMBs. It now offers Demand Gen ads from Google. This extends SMB reach from consumers who are explicitly “in-market” for their products to those who aren’t yet. Altogether, it covers a larger portion of the funnel.
The word “yet” in the previous segment is the crux of this opportunity. Google’s Demand Gen ads are meant to reach consumers when they’re at earlier consideration stages. Covering YouTube, Gmail, and Google’s Discover feed, it plants seeds of awareness for a given SMB in consumers’ minds.
The way Scorpion explains it, by the time consumers search for local service providers, they often have one already in mind. By getting on their radars further upstream, SMBs can plant themselves on that shortlist of known quantities. This boosts the chances of being chosen when the right moment comes.
“There’s a lot of research and consideration between ‘I have a problem’ and ‘I picked a provider,’ Scorpion SVP of Advertising Ashlie Kim told Localogy Insider. “And most businesses go quiet during that whole stretch. Search only shows up at the end. Demand Gen keeps businesses visible for the part of the journey that decides who wins the customer.”
Scrolling, Watching & Reading
To put further validation behind the need for demand generation and SMB awareness in earlier stages of Google’s funnel, Scorpion says that most consumers come across new businesses while scrolling, watching, and reading online. To that end, it points to a few key pieces of evidence.
- 68 percent of Demand Gen conversions come from people who never saw a Search ad in the 30 days prior.
- Advertisers who add Demand Gen to Search or Performance Max saw an average 14 percent lift in conversions
- YouTube Shorts reaches audiences other platforms miss: 45 percent of its US users aren’t on TikTok and 65 percent aren’t on Reels
Google meanwhile sees its Demand Generation ads as a way to reach users at the key moment that lies somewhere between a passive interest signaling and the moment they turn that interest into action. Instead of waiting for the latter – in the form of an active search – it wants to preempt user action.
As you can imagine, this is all AI-powered. Going beyond classic display ad spray-and-pray approaches, it leans into Google’s popular content channels (think: YouTube Shorts) to qualify audience interest using Google AI. It then formulates and executes connections for awareness-boosting ad placements.
Mix & Match
Back to Scorpion, it will take all these advantages and bring them into its platform to mix and match the right formula for a given SMB. And given Scorpion’s hands-on agency approach, it’s in a unique spot to help SMBs maximize potency by building, running, and optimizing campaigns on their behalf.
Meanwhile, SMBs like law firms and home-services – Scorpion’s sweet spot – are a good fit for all the above. That’s because Google’s Demand Gen mechanisms are particularly conducive to multimedia that demonstrates real work. We’re talking everything from customer success videos to before & after pics.
This means that Scorpion’s existing libraries of SMB video and display assets can be leveraged. These are the visual assets that can populate many of the “scrolling, watching and reading” channels noted above. One particularly impactful channel among these options will be YouTube, including Shorts.
In the end, Demand Gen extends Google – and Scorpion with it – from a classic lower-funnel play to an upper-funnel vehicle. Marketers don’t often think of Google in this way, but doing so can ensure a more cohesive full-funnel strategy. It’s all about being a known quantity, then being there to capitalize on it.
Hear more from Scorpion’s Jamie Adams at StreetFightLive, Sept 29th. Register now.
Header image credit: Sandie Clarke on Unsplash
