📰 PPC News (Week 35)

Our primary objective is to ensure 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, 28th to Sep, 3rd

Measurement

Google Analytics 4

Despite Google's initial deadline to phase out Universal Analytics by July 1, 2023, many marketers can still access their accounts. Google has clarified that the complete shutdown will occur in stages, with all access to Universal Analytics ending by July 1, 2024, making it risky for marketers to rely on the older platform for long-term analytics needs. [source]

“Your Universal Analytics property [UA property number] has now stopped processing new data. All remaining Universal Analytics standard properties will soon stop processing new data. If you haven’t yet, we encourage you to complete your transition to Google Analytics 4.”

Important: Aligning with the discontinuation of Universal Analytics data processing, If you have systems relying on these APIs, it's crucial to update them to avoid errors, especially if you still use the Universal Analytics Related APIs. ( David Vallejo )

New Google tag: Finally, Google Tag Manager is introducing a new Google tag to replace the existing GA4 Configuration tag. This update offers enhanced integration with other Google products, allows for reusable settings variables at both the configuration and event levels, and simplifies tag management using a single Tag ID. [source]

Note: Existing GA4 configuration tags will be automatically upgraded, requiring no action from users. The changes aim to streamline data sending to multiple Google product destinations and make managing event and configuration parameters easier.

Additionally, 3 new settings variables are rolling out soon to help you configure event parameters and tag settings in bulk: Event Settings variable, Configuration Settings variable- & User Properties variable. ( Simo Ahava )

AdSense Links: Google Analytics 4 allows users to view and delete links between their AdSense accounts and Analytics properties. To manage these links, go to the Admin page and look for the AdSense Links section. [source]

BigQuery

BigQuery Studio is a new feature in preview that aims to enhance data discovery, analysis, and inference within Google's BigQuery platform. It offers a range of functionalities including a robust SQL editor with code completion and query validation, Colab Enterprise Python notebooks for one-click Python development, asset management, and version history for code assets. ( Simo Ahava )

It also incorporates advanced features like assistive code development via Duet AI, Dataplex features for data profiling, and the ability to connect saved query results to other tools like Looker and Google Sheets. [source]

Ads Data Hub in BigQuery: Google announced that Ads Data Hub will soon be integrated directly into BigQuery, allowing users to run queries on Google campaign data within the BigQuery console. This update aims to simplify the analysis of YouTube performance, enable KPI forecasting through BigQuery ML, and facilitate easier sharing of results to business intelligence tools. [source]( Ken Williams )

Paid Search

Google Ads

Limited Ads Serving: A new policy called Limited Ads Serving is being introduced to improve the clarity of ads and reduce the risk of scams. The policy will initially limit the reach of new or less familiar advertisers, especially when they target specific brands, to help build user trust and prevent misleading ads. [source]

"Made for you" Pmax Audience Signals: Aiming to streamline targeting by leveraging customer data on interests, habits, and past interactions, Google made this new feature aligned with its best practices. ( Thomas Eccel )

"One-click target ROAS for Standard Shopping": Google Ads is phasing out Shopping campaigns that use Enhanced CPC, starting in early October 2023. As an alternative, Google encourages advertisers to try the new one-click Target ROAS experiments available in campaign settings.

This feature allows you to test Target ROAS against your existing Shopping Campaigns that use manual CPC or eCPC bidding, providing a more unbiased way to measure performance by splitting the budget between the original campaign and the experiment. (Thomas Eccel)

Merchant Centre

Personalized advertising: Sexual interests: Google has introduced a new policy warning in the Google Merchant Center called "Personalized advertising: Sexual interests," which has been flagging products inaccurately. For example, a food and beverage seller had their "Popcornopolic gourmet popcorn" flagged under "sexual interest," highlighting the system's tendency for false positives. [source] ( Emmanuel Flossie )

New Languages Supported in GoogleFeedGen: The Google FeedGen feature, which helps optimise product feeds for better visibility in search results, is now available in multiple languages including German, French, Spanish, and Dutch, along with improvements in model tuning. [source] ( Alex van de Pol )

Property Promotion Ads

Property Promotion Ads Expansion: 2 years ago, Google launched Property Promotion Ads. It has now extended it to the base map in Google Maps, allowing advertisers to display pins at all positions within the map. These pins appear on the desktop version of Google Maps and are activated when a user focuses on an area they don't usually visit. Clicking on the pin or the top half of its hovercard takes the user to the place sheet for more information, while clicking on the bottom half of the hovercard leads to an outbound deep link. ( Rudolph Dekker )

YouTube Ads

YouTube video asset analytics: This new feature allows you to dive deeper into how your content is performing. You can access insights on audience retention, segmented by creative, gender, and device among other metrics. To find these insights, go to your video campaign, click on "videos," and then open the analytics tab. The feature also offers recommendations and best practice tips, including YouTube's ABCD creative framework, to help you optimise your content. ( Maximilian vom Eyser )

Amazon Ads

"Recommended based on shopping trends": Amazon is making its Sponsored Ads more personalized, using categories like "recommended based on shopping trends" and "based on your browsing history." For advertisers, this could offer new ways to target specific audience groups, potentially increasing ROI. For shoppers, personalized ads could improve their browsing experience by aligning more closely with their interests. ( Himanshu Verma )

Marketplaces where your product is listed: Amazon has rolled out a feature that shows the number of marketplaces where your product is listed directly in the product catalogue. This update lets you adjust product prices and view Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory information for other marketplaces without diving deep into individual listings. ( Yogesh Kumar )

When you have time, look at this comprehensive update from Jeffrey Cohen . The highlights include the Amazon Ads #unboxed2023 event, a webinar series focusing on Q4 strategies, and several tech updates like the deprecation of legacy bulksheets and new features for Sponsored Brands. [read August newsletter]

Programmatic

Display & Video 360

Display & Video 360 API v2: The August 2023 update to Display & Video 360 API v2 introduces several new features, including a field for more precise content categorisation in YouTube & Partners line items, two new bidding strategy types for the same, and support for two additional exchanges. [source]

Paid Social

Meta Ads

Multiple attribution settings: Available in Meta Ads Manager and Ads Reporting, this feature is particularly useful for campaigns with multiple ad sets with different attribution settings for the same optimised event, aggregating results across settings like 1-day view, 1-day click, and 7-day click. ( Bram Van der Hallen )

X Ads (formerly Twitter Ads)

X Ads is offering $250 in ad credits to small and medium-sized businesses that will spend $1,000 on their ads next month. This move comes amid claims from X's CEO that the company is "close to breaking even" and is regaining advertiser trust. However, the ad credit offer and mixed signals from the market suggest that X's recovery may not be as robust as claimed. [source]

Reddit

Keyword Suggestions: Reddit has introduced a new Keyword Suggestions feature to enhance its existing Contextual Keyword Targeting solution. Using machine learning and natural language processing, Keyword Suggestions recommends relevant and brand-safe keywords to advertisers to improve targeting and campaign efficiency. [source]

Organic Social

WhatsApp

WhatsApp app for Mac: WhatsApp now allows users to make group video calls with up to eight participants and audio calls with up to 32. The redesigned app also offers features like joining ongoing calls, drag-and-drop file sharing, and end-to-end encryption, aiming to make the desktop experience more efficient and secure. [source]

TikTok

🪦 TikTok Storefront: TikTok is discontinuing its Storefront feature, which allowed merchants to integrate their third-party shopping processes into the TikTok app. Effective September 12, 2023, the company urges retailers to switch to its native shopping tool, TikTok Shop. [source]

Note: The move is part of TikTok's broader strategy to dominate in-stream shopping, a market where its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, has seen significant success. However, it remains to be seen if Western users will adopt in-app shopping with the same enthusiasm as users in Asian markets.

Marketing Industry

GDPR, Users Protection & Privacy Laws

Apple Ads Library: Apple has launched an Ads Library that allows users to view Apple-delivered ads for specific countries and regions. This new tool could provide valuable insights into competitor strategies or simply satisfy curiosity about the advertising landscape. [source] ( Harriet Sewell )

Meta has updated its Ad Library. As part of the 'European Union transparency' initiative, users can now see specifics such as targeted locations, ages, genders, and reach metrics, and then open the 'European Union transparency report for a particular ad. [see example]

X, formerly Twitter, has updated its privacy policy to include collecting users' biometric data and employment and education history. The biometric data collection is aimed at premium users for added verification and security, while the employment and education data will be used for job recommendations and targeted advertising. These changes come amid a lawsuit alleging that X wrongfully collected biometric data of Illinois residents without consent. The new policy is set to take effect on September 29. [source]

X, formerly Twitter, has reversed its political advertising ban, which could impact the 2024 elections and potentially boost its ad revenue. While the company will enforce rules against misleading content and plans to create a "global advertising transparency centre," the decision marks a significant shift from its previous stance that "political message reach should be earned, not bought." [source]

Advertising News

According to Yelp Data, the U.S. economy is experiencing a surge in new business openings in 2023, surpassing last year's record numbers. Notably, sectors like hotels and travel and home services are leading the growth, and minority-owned businesses, including Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ-owned, are growing above the national average. [source]

Global advertising spending is projected to surpass $1 trillion in 2024, with an 8.2% increase expected next year, according to a report by WARC. Five tech giants—Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Alibaba, and ByteDance—are expected to capture 51.9% of this spending, fueled by diverse advertising options and robust growth in sectors like social media, retail media, and specific industries such as financial services and tech. The U.S. will account for about a third of global ad spend, but the most significant growth is expected in South Asia and the Middle East. [source]

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