Some Google tools are so popular that it’s hard to find people who have not heard of them. We are talking here about, for example, Google Analytics, Keyword Planner or Search Console, which are most often used in SEO. However, the list of useful applications that facilitate work, not only in broadly understood marketing, is much longer. Learn about other Google tools that you might not even be aware of.
Google Data Studio – an aesthetic way of presenting data
The Google Data Studio tool appeared in 2016 and quickly gained a lot of positive feedback, especially among analysts. It is free and, moreover, easy to use due to the transparent panel that appears after logging in. An additional convenience here is a short introduction in the form of a tutorial. With the help of Google Data Studio, you can collect all important data in one place, presenting it in an aesthetic and accessible way.
The tool provides access to ready-made report templates that can be modified in terms of background, font, colors of individual elements or dashboard dimensions. After a style is defined, all subsequent data sets will be automatically adjusted to it. If needed, you can use options such as inserting images from Google Drive or a computer, and even using text boxes, shapes, graphics, and other objects.
Google Data Studio allows you to create reports based on various databases. They can come from, among others with:
– Google Sheets,
– Google Ads,
– Google Analytics,
– YouTube statistics,
– Google Search Console,
– Facebook Ads,
– Ahrefs.
A significant advantage of the tool is that more than one person may be involved in creating a report. In addition, adjusting the appearance of reports to the company’s needs is not a problem.
Google Lens – innovative image search
Even though the Google Lens tool appeared in 2017, it is still gaining in popularity and is being discovered by an increasing number of users. It is an advanced application that allows you to recognize objects in photos and obtain various information about them. On some phones, the Google Lens is available immediately, for others, it is enough to download it from the App Store or the Play Store. The technology of scanning and interpreting images is constantly being improved, which enables it to be used in many situations.
The tool allows, among others to quickly translate the text (however, it is still not possible to paraphrase the text), to check the appearance of dishes from the restaurant menu or to identify specific plant species. All you need to do is point the phone with the application turned on at the selected object to obtain the necessary information. The Google lens is useful both in everyday life and at work, in many industries. It has long been said that visual search is the future of e-commerce. After scanning a specific item, you can quickly get a list of similar products ready for purchase. Perhaps in the future, image scanning will completely or almost completely replace text search. That is why it is worth optimizing marketing activities in this respect already, remembering, among others, about detailed metadata or the appropriate size of graphic elements on the website.
Performance Planner – easier optimization of campaign costs
Tools from Google such as Performance Planner will be useful primarily to people who create advertising spending plans. Thanks to them, they gain many new opportunities, including:
– viewing the results by adjusting the campaign settings,
– access to forecasts for conducted campaigns,
– budget management.
Performance Planner is usually updated every 24 hours and can handle up to billions of queries. This guarantees access to accurate forecasts. The tool takes into account important aspects such as landing page, seasonality and competition. It significantly facilitates the preparation of advertising spending plans, but not only. The Performance Planner is also useful for assessing how your changes to your campaign will affect its overall performance and key metrics. Thanks to it, you can receive suggestions on how to optimize the selected strategy without the need to increase the budget. The tool is available through Shopping, Local, Search, Display, and App campaigns.
The Performance Planner tells advertisers what bids and budget to set to maximize the data they choose for their campaigns. By using it, you can save a lot of time that would have to be spent on analyzing expenses yourself. The tool gives you access to several practical functions, and one of the most important is the summary chart. It is dynamic and at the same time transparent, reading information from it is not a problem. The comparative table of before and after data, in which key items are broken down into existing and planned, is also rated well. Performance Planner allows you to check many scenarios before choosing the most appropriate one.
Google Tools for Internet Businesses
Many small and medium-sized enterprises are already active both offline and online. Google decided to make it easier for such companies to develop and introduced two new, free tools: Grow My Store and Local Search Navigator. Their premiere in our country took place in September 2021.
Grow My Store was launched in several countries in 2019. It is a very useful tool with which sellers can improve the quality of their online customer service. It tests the website, taking into account over 20 indicators, measures, inter alia, mobile friendliness and loading speed, in addition, it checks the HTTPS protocol. Any retailer can take advantage of Grow My Store, whether online or offline only. It gives you access to information and tips on how to improve your website’s visibility in the search engine and increase traffic. All this is based on suggestions tailored to the needs of customers. The insights were gathered during research conducted by Google in collaboration with Ipsos MORI and Kantar TNS. Tips deal with aspects that play a significant role in shopping, including personalization and page performance.
The second tool, the Local Search Navigator, also helps companies reach a wider audience and increase profits. It tells you what to do to stand out on the Internet. The Navigator provides entrepreneurs with personalized tips based on a thorough analysis of their business profile on Google. It also suggests what data should be improved and what new information to enter. One of the greatest advantages of the tool is its intuitive operation. It is enough to enter the name of the company and after a few minutes you will see if it is visible enough on the web. The Local Search Navigator allows you to refine your Google My Business profile to attract potential customers to your offer. By using it, you can also make sure that you have entered all the necessary information to facilitate communication, making an appointment or performing another activity.
Less known tools from Google that are useful not only in marketing
One of the tools that undoubtedly deserves attention is Google PageSpeed Insights. It allows you to check how fast the website loads on computers and smartphones. The categorization of user experiences is presented in three categories, namely: Good, Needs Improvement, and Poor. This data is based on Chrome User Experience Report information. The tool also makes suggestions on how you can improve your site to reduce its load time. They are useful because page loading speed is currently one of the most important factors influencing the Google ranking.
It is also worth paying attention to the Public Data Explorer. It is used to view and visualize large data sets that may relate to many different areas, e.g. fuel prices, demographic indicators. The tool allows you to navigate between different views, share results, and compare individual information. Although Explorer was introduced in 2010, many people are still unaware of its existence.
There are also a few other tools that are not popular, but can be useful not only at work, but also in everyday life. This, for example:
– Google Keep – an application for taking notes, also works on phones. You can add photos, letters, and drawings to your notes, and copy them to Google Docs and share with others. The tool allows you to mark your notes with different colors and labels to keep everything in order.
– Arts & Culture – online service and smartphone application from the Google Cultural Institute. The tool allows you to search and admire the greatest works of art from dozens of countries without leaving your home. It is also a source of valuable knowledge. Arts & Culture has a lot of interesting features, such as spherical films, virtual tours of museums or turning your own photos into works of art.
– Google Flights – online flight booking tool. At the same time, it is a server that allows you to search for connections via external providers. To find your flight ticket, simply specify the type of flight ticket (e.g. one-way) and fill in other important information, including the place of departure and destination. In Google Flights, it is possible to use an interactive calendar as well as a price chart, which allows you to easily find the best offer for you.
Google is not only a search engine, although it is the basis of this company. Currently, many people cannot imagine everyday functioning without the tools they offer, because they often prove to be helpful not only at work, but also outside of it. Since many are available for free, you won’t have to pay extra for using them.
