📰 PPC News (Week 33)

Our primary objective is to make sure you know about the latest developments in the advertising industry. By doing so, we hope to help you stay ahead of the competition and achieve your advertising goals effortlessly! 🔊

PPC News

Aug, 14th to Aug, 20th

"Think Retail on Air" Event: Attend the "Think Retail on Air" virtual event on August, 29th to gear up your business for the festive season. (register)

Measurement

Google Analytics 4

Behavioral modeling in path and funnel reports: GA4 now incorporates behavioral modeling data into path and funnel explorations, including the user purchase journey report and custom funnel reports. This update addresses data gaps from visitors or app users who decline Analytics cookies. (source)

Google Sheets connector for Google Analytics 4: The GA4 Reports Builder for Google Analytics lets users generate reports for GA4 properties via Google Sheets. Yet, it comes with the inherent constraints of Data API access and retentions. It also lacks filtering and sorting capabilities. (download here - Simo Ahava , Charles Farina & Himanshu Sharma )

User Data export: the User Data export feature has been introduced to GA4 properties, marking a first for BigQuery. ( Charles Farina )

It now reveals the Audience a user belongs to and showcases predictive metrics such as churn, revenue, and propensity.

User data export will have information about individual users such as times of first and last activity, audience memberships (start and expiration), user properties, device information, geo, lifetime value, and generated metrics like likelihood to purchase in the next 7 days. ( Luka Cempre )

You can also learn more about behavioral modeling below, and here's a guide on how to implement it: [see link]

(thanks for that, Borja Gutiérrez Fernández & Johan van de Werken )

Page URL limit to 1,000 characters: Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has made a noteworthy adjustment by reinstating the page URL limit to 1,000 characters for the page_location field. This modification is evident both in BigQuery and the GA4 reports. ( Simo Ahava )

Paid Search

Google Ads

Demand Gen: Building on Discovery ads, Demand Gen aims to help advertisers target consumers on platforms like YouTube, Shorts, Discover, and Gmail.

New capabilities include combining video and image ads in a single campaign, harnessing Lookalike segments to find potential customers, goal-oriented performance optimization, and enhanced ad previews.

Google's beta for these features is now available, and all Discovery ads will be transitioned to Demand Gen starting in October, with a complete switch by early 2024. (source - Join the beta here)

If you're looking to compare the Discovery and Demand Gen features, consider this insightful comparison shared by Greg Finn .

Custom date range in Pmax: Performance Max now provides custom date range options with comparison selections for search term reports. Previously, users were limited to viewing data from the past 7 or 28 days, but with this update, search terms have a dedicated data range selector. ( Joey Bidner )

Resources: A fresh update to the Performance Max script is now live, courtesy of Martin Röttgerding . You can now fetch a search term category report.

Whilst some combinations of assets and metrics can't be retrieved, and cost metrics are absent, it can help you monitor the conversion rate or value per click between categories. (see script - picture from Rudy Casadio )

Merchant Center

3D model link: a new attribute called 3D model link [virtual_model_link] allows merchants to display 3D images of their products in Google Search and Shopping. This feature is currently for shoes and home goods in the US. Merchants can create these 3D images independently or with partners like CGTrader, Epigraph, Ocavu, and VNTANA. Before the 3D model shows in search results, Google reviews it, which can take up to two weeks. (source)

Microsoft Ads

🚨 Complete AIV within 30 days: In June, Microsoft announced mandatory global Advertiser Identity Verification (AIV) by August 1st. We've adjusted this to allow more flexibility: New advertisers and those targeting the European Economic Area (EEA) must complete AIV within 30 days, while high-risk or policy-violating accounts must verify before ad resumption. (source)

Amazon Ads

Sponsored Products ads to external platforms: Amazon is expanding its Sponsored Products ads to external platforms like Pinterest, BuzzFeed, and others. Advertisers won't need to modify campaigns; Amazon will manage ad placements based on existing campaign parameters. (source)

Showcase your product collection with video to Stores campaigns: Sponsored Brands launched video creatives, allowing advertisers to showcase multiple products leading to a Brand Store. Clicking a product directs to its details, while other areas lead to the entire Brand Store. Advertisers can customize which products to display, with a minimum of one required. (source)

"Top-of-search impression share (IS)" metric: for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products campaigns, this metric, available for the past 90 days, specifically measures the impression share for the top of the search results on the first page for Sponsored Products. ( Yogesh Kumar )

"Highly Rated Brands": A new section on its Search Engine Results Page (SERP) highlights brands related to your searches. This feature directs shoppers to the Brand store, promoting brand awareness. This addition underscores Amazon's emphasis on reviews and ratings. Moreover, Amazon has been testing a new rating display where a 1-star indicates the percentage of 5-star reviews. ( Himanshu Verma )

Paid Social

Meta Ads

Multi-advertiser ads: Facebook and Instagram have introduced multi-advertiser ads, allowing users to discover and compare products from different brands in a carousel format. For instance, after engaging with a wedding dress ad, a user might see adjacent carousel ads for related products like wedding cakes. (source)

TikTok Ads

Events API: Shopify has enhanced its TikTok integration with the introduction of the Events API, improving ad delivery and measurement for e-commerce merchants. The TikTok Pixel tracks visitor actions, and with the Events API, it offers a more direct and secure data-sharing method. This results in a 19% increase in event capture and a 15% improvement in cost per action. Merchants can easily customize data-sharing levels between Shopify and TikTok. (source)

X Ads (previously Twitter Ads)

RIP promoted accounts ad format: X (formerly Twitter) is discontinuing the promoted accounts ad format. Promoted accounts previously appeared as text-based ads, generating significant revenue for X. This change aligns with X's shift towards multimedia ad products, and advertisers are now encouraged to explore other campaign types on the platform. (source)

Organic Social

YouTube

Samples tab: YouTube Music introduces the "Samples tab," a curated feed of short video segments for effortless music discovery from its vast library. Users can interact with each sample to dive deeper into songs, benefiting both listeners and artists. (source)

Marketing Industry

GDPR, Users Protection & Privacy Laws

Bidding on Trademarks terms in India: The Delhi High Court ruled that Google must remove ads that violate trademarks under India's laws. This decision came after a company, DRS, complained that their trademarked name was leading to competitor ads on Google. The court views Google as an active player in this, not just a neutral platform. This ruling could change how Google will operate its ad system in India and how advertisers can bid on competitors' keywords in the future. (source)

Tracking children across the internet: In a recent Adalytics report, concerns were raised about YouTube's advertising practices, which may have enabled companies to track children across the internet.

If brands are found to be in violation of COPPA, they may have to pay a significant financial penalty just as YouTube did in 2019 when it spent a record $170 million to settle similar charges.

Google has responded and clarified that:

1. Privacy Protections on Kid Content: On content meant for kids, Google doesn't personalize ads and restricts the use of third-party trackers.
2. Use of Cookies: Google clarified that cookies, which are used in compliance with COPPA, do not allow personalization of ads for kids. They also stressed that the cookies are encrypted, preventing misuse by third parties.
3. Content Restrictions: There are strict policies on the type of ads that can run next to children's content, and Google compares their practices to guidelines employed by industries like television.
4. Control for Advertisers: Advertisers have the option to opt-out of advertising on kid-targeted content.
5. Options for Parents: YouTube offers several platforms like YouTube Kids and Supervised Accounts to ensure a safer online environment for young users. (source - source - source)

Transparency Center hub: Google also introduced a new Transparency Center hub - a dedicated platform for insights into our product policies. (source)

Some of the key features are:

• An overview of our policy formulation.
• Guidelines are categorized by products or services.
• Tools for reporting and appeals.
• Comprehensive transparency reports.
• Google’s core principles on privacy and AI.

Advertising News

Starting January 16, 2024, Google mandates publishers in the EEA and UK using its advertising services to utilize a Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) integrated with the IAB Europe's TCF. It was clarified that this applies to those using AdSense, Ad Manager, AdMob, and specific AdSense services. (source)

X (formerly Twitter) faced criticism for placing major brand ads on a verified pro-Hitler account. Despite the account's violations, X monetized it with notable ads. Following media exposure from Media Matters and CNN, X suspended the account. Contrarily, Yaccarino recently claimed on CNBC that the platform has become safer. (source)

Amazon plans to charge sellers an additional fee for self-shipping, impacting members of its Seller Fulfilled Prime program from October 1st. This move coincides with rumors of a potential Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit against the company. (source)

Did we miss anything else?

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