Challenge:

Google, a leader in Internet and ad tech products and services, needed to grow engagement and online advertising spend among millions of small businesses–starting with the 2.8M small business owners who had created an AdWords account.

Given that small businesses spend less than 3% of their marketing budgets on online advertising, and AdWords is a complex product that businesses large and small struggle to master, increasing spend among  the nearly 3M small business AdWords account holders was be no small feat.

Strategy:

Make it simple and accessible. We developed a series of videos and worksheets to complement an email campaign and small business events that Google hosted in select cities.

The videos provided answers to the most frequently asked questions (based on interviews with Google’s customer care teams). We selected video as the medium because our research indicated that the medium made learning seem complex things “seem” simpler to our target audiences–since they were already searching or working online and because they often had their hands full in their businesses (literally and figuratively).

The style and tone of the videos–from the script to the voice over and the images–projected simplicity and approachability. We used straight-forward, descriptive titles, familiar metaphors and analogies (…”using this feature is like…”), and graphics and images that mirrored the Google brand’s bright, no-fuss, elegance.

To account for a variation in learning styles and to provide an opportunity to practice, we paired the videos with downloadable worksheets. The worksheets featured space for note-taking and provided supplemental information that small business owners could take with them.

Finally, we designed a website to serve as an “online classroom” and toolkit for small business owners. The site featured all of the videos and worksheets and provided a framework to help users navigate the content in a way that helped them solve specific challenges and achieve desired goals.

google_awoc_video_guide_what is Adwords_storyboard1_v0-0-1

 

Links to Learn With Google/AdWords Online Classrooms Around the World:

My Role In The Solution:

I led a team of talented UX and visual designers, developers, program and project managers. To this team and project I contributed…

• Developed the creative strategy and provided creative direction for all of the content
• Developed the content strategy for the video, worksheets, and website
• Partnered with the client teams to conduct customer/user research
• Analyzed data to identify actionable insights
• Partnered with UX and visual designers and back and fronted developers to deliver the website
• Wrote all scripts and worksheet and website copy
• Directed videos
• Named the hub Learn With Google
• Partnered with vendor and client to modify and adapt scripts for use in 15 videos for use in 19 countries and 12 languages

Results:

The website launched as part of a larger promotion. The video content was leveraged as part of email and web campaigns, used on Google’s YouTube and other owned channels, and were used a reference materials to which customer service teams referred customers/users seeking help.