Google Ads advertisers want solutions that are quick and easy without having to disrupt their workflow. I led the UX for the new Google Ads Support Platform and was responsible for designing a support experience that caters to the needs of our advertisers, who are always looking for quick and easy solutions that don't require them to navigate away from their current page.
By making relevant information easily accessible and providing personalized in-product assistance through a Quick Help panel and guided experiences, we were able to empower our users to better understand and utilize the product's features during their workflow, all while addressing one of our organization's key focus on ease-of-use and product education. This project introduced a new and effective approach to helping our users, tailored to their profile, product page and existing issues, serving millions of users.
By making relevant information easily accessible and providing personalized in-product assistance through a Quick Help panel and guided experiences, we were able to empower our users to better understand and utilize the product's features during their workflow, all while addressing one of our organization's key focus on ease-of-use and product education. This project introduced a new and effective approach to helping our users, tailored to their profile, product page and existing issues, serving millions of users.
goal
Surface highly personalized, bite-sized help, delivered at the right moment for Google Ads users
Our support centers handle thousands of calls each month as users seek solutions for their advertising needs. To address this, we have developed two user-centric help surfaces: the web help center and the in-product Quick Help panel. Both are managed by the customer engagement team and are designed to assist users in finding the information they need quickly and efficiently, but research shows most users will google for help if they can’t find what they’re looking for.
The Quick Help panel is a unique feature that delivers highly relevant information to users based on their current workflow and state, allowing them to optimize their use of the product and ultimately increase engagement and ROI. The ASP offers a variety of ways for users to engage with their audience, providing them with the tools they need to find resolution and learn more about the product's features.
CHALLENGES
The research revealed that many users often turn to external sources for assistance, rather than using the in-product help feature, which can be outdated or inadequate. This can result in customers creating support tickets, leading to increased cost for resolving their issues.
With that in mind, the product vision was to deliver ultra-personalized, bite-sized help, shown at the right moment, and in context to the user's flow:
1. Personalization and ranking via a variety of signals
2. Powerful interactions with the main product
3. Bite-sized content < 150 words
Simplified user journey for previous Google Ads help search
PROCESS
Surfacing relevant help content at the right time is a key differentiator from other in-product help resources. In a small, but mighty team, we delivered a scalable user education solution that works across Google Ads.
I was the lead in designing the user experience for displaying help content through a right-hand panel, ensuring seamless integration between content and the user interface, and overseeing the development process from ideation to launch.
What if someone I knew and trusted told me what was going to happen right after I created an ad for the first time? This was my simplified way of thinking on how our users might want to be helped in the product. This hypothesis led to a proactive feature helping users as they use the product.
The Quick Help panel proactively prompts the most common questions (based on Help Center help tickets) based on actions the user takes.
The Quick Help panel proactively prompts the most common questions (based on Help Center help tickets) based on actions the user takes.
This type of proactive help is only surfaced for very specific scenarios to avoid spamming the user with irrelevant help.
Scaling the platform
Starting as a small team of four, our iterative design approach and experimentation led to significant impact. Our solution, ASP, showed remarkable results, including a whopping 400% reduction in customer resolution rates. This success attracted the attention of Google's Customer Engagement and gTech (Technical Services) teams, who have since pivoted their annual strategy to support and invest in ASP as the go-to educational platform for Google Ads and beyond.
I was responsible in advocating for this new platform and onboarding Google Ads cross-channel partners and Customer Experience team, making it one of the largest initiatives to improve customer engagement with a Google product in recent years.
Outcome
The Quick Help panel is currently in beta. Details on the feature are not publicly available yet and will be shared once the feature is fully launched.
If you're a Googler, you can find out more here.