Google

Nov 7, 2024 ∞

It seems Google is testing adding if there was a change to that score because of "competitive pressure" and might even list the competitor that is causing such pressure.


Might we be getting more helpful info from Google to help with ads management?

More context, more better.

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Nov 6, 2024 ∞

Now you can ignore everything I put in the big election spending post from yesterday.

We will pause ads relating to US elections from serving in the US after the last polls close on election day, November 5th, 2024. This will include US Election Ads as well as ads that refer to US elections, their processes or outcomes.

The restriction period for ads about social issues, elections or politics is being extended until later this week.

Pressure released.

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Nov 5, 2024 ∞

Election Campaign Spending Crowds Out Your Messaging

I’ve been harping about election campaign spending and its impact on marketing expectations this year for a bit now. So here’s an Election Day post running through it all again. Go vote!

2024 is projected to be a record-breaking year, surpassing $12 billion in political ad spend.

Seventy percent of that windfall will be spent after Labor Day

The Harris campaign has instead focused its digital spending on larger platforms like Google and Meta, where it has spent over $280mn this year. The vast amount of political spending on those platforms — already more than $1.5bn

For context, in the second half of October, political parties spent well over $2.5 million per day on YouTube. For Meta, it’s closer to $1 million per day.


Why won’t I shut up about this?

Because this level of spend puts intense pressure on the ad auctions and inventories of the utilized platforms. These are mostly net-new dollars flowing in at a rapid clip. For most brands this means higher ad costs and lower return reducing the efficiency of their spend.

Emarketer curated some reporting that includes:

• brands reporting ad costs increasing 2-3x in the final weeks of the election
• surging TV ad costs, especially in swing states

Of course, the impact on marketing budgets is just the beginning.

This messaging overload overwhelms consumers, raises anxiety levels, and increases ad fatigue (who else is sick of all the election messaging you get bombarded with?). Which can all lead to a “pre-election slump” in consumer spending. Of course, this theoretical slump is not universal—I bet alcohol sales and the like are doing just fine.

But the bigger the price tag, the bigger the impact.

In times of uncertainty, people sit on their cash. They purchase discount or off-brand. They hold off on large luxury purchases made in celebration or confidence.

Election Day itself is no exception, more the final culmination of the building gravitational pull. A black hole that will collapse into itself tomorrow (right? please?!).

the election is fraying the nerves of the electorate, with nearly 70% of US adults calling it a significant source of stress




According to a recent Ipsos poll of roughly 1,000 US adults, 47% said election stress is causing them to spend less and save more




Meanwhile, the scale of an Election Day productivity slowdown could be staggering. An analysis by Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates that productivity losses could reach $3.5 billion per hour

Your marketing and messaging is like a fire, it needs a steady source of fuel to keep burning—to act as a beacon to the people it's for. The election is a vacuum, it sucks all the oxygen (and attention) out, making it all but impossible for that fire to keep burning without any changes.

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Nov 2, 2024 ∞

Perplexity (AI) is adding to its competition with Google (and most major tech platforms), trying to carve itself a slice of that sweet e-commerce pie.

The Pro Shop feature promises free shipping on items bought through Perplexity, enabling customers to complete transactions without leaving the platform. While browsing for products, users will notice a “Buy with Pro” option for eligible items. After selecting it, they will need to enter their billing and shipping details to finalize their purchase.




Perplexity will estimate taxes and purchase the product on behalf of the users on Pro Shop, and users can track purchase status on the platform.

If successful, I imagine this feature will evolve over time and become less manual/personal shopper style on the Perplexity side.

Or maybe it leans into that AI-as-assistant approach to create a new angle on a competitive feature set.

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Nov 1, 2024 ∞

Trick-or-Treating With Ad Platform Announcements from October

From Google:

Performance Max and Standard Shopping ads will now compete head-to-head in the auction instead of PMax getting preference. A sign that Standard Shopping is here to stay?

Testing: expandable search ads and in-ad search refinements.

The former is like a Google Shopping layout but for search ads when expanded. The latter is your classic search filter like what you see on ecomm sites.

A “For You” feed for Shopping.

Google will use your recent searches and YouTube history to figure out which products you like.

AI Day Updates:

• Ads in AI overviews
• Conversational interface for Search ad creation
• “Better” AI image generation for ads
• New Customer High Value, Win-Back, and High Value Win-Back Mode
• “Search Bidding Exploration”: I’m guessing AI audience expansion for Search, next gen Dynamic Search Ads without needing a new campaign type?
• New stuff for Shorts & video ads
• Shopping discounts for new & loyal customers
• New Shopping ad format: Video Highlights
• New Shopping bidding type: optimize for gross profit

Easier video ad testing.

More Demand Gen control!

Demand Gen campaigns now offer creative-level controls for video assets, empowering you to choose which video appears in each format.

More Performance Max insights!

Select Google Ads accounts can now access a new “segment” option for Performance (PMax) Asset Group performance, offering a long-awaited layer of granularity to campaign insights.

The segmentation feature enables advertisers to break down Pmax Asset Group performance by:

• Time
• Click Type (consistently set to cross-network clicks)
• Conversions
• Device
• Network (showing cross-network by default)
• Top vs. Others

Use specific pages to guide PMax asset creation. (Assuming this means generative AI.)

From Snapchat:

Sponsored Snaps enable businesses to engage their customers through visual messaging, by delivering a full-screen vertical video Snap directly to Snapchatters. Snapchatters opt-in to opening the Snap and can reply by sending a message directly to the advertiser or using the call-to-action to open a predetermined link.

Pay to show up in the main inbox next to their friends.

Promoted Places highlight sponsored places of interest on the Snap Map, helping our community discover places that they want to visit. The Snap Map is used for exploration and browsing to learn more about what your friends are up to, what is happening nearby, and which places are “Top Picks” based on the Snapchat community’s visitation trends.

Sounds like this is paying to be a Top Pick.

From Meta:

Exactly what no one wanted:

Meta silently implemented “automatic adjustments” across several advertising accounts, giving its system authority to make significant changes to ad campaigns without explicit advertiser approval.

From Amazon:

Prime Video is turning the dial up in 2025:

• More ads: current load is in the range of 2-3.5 minutes of ads per hour, which could increase. Mid-stream ads could also be added.
• Shoppable ads: including carousel, pause, and trivia formats (absolutely not surprise on this one).

UnBoxed a bunch of new stuff:

• Overhauled DSP experience, now with AI! (And the obligatory campaign type named Performance+)
• Frequency cap controls
• Amazon Ads 🤝 first-party data
• More generative AI: audio this time
• More full-funnel and audience tools through managed services and partnerships

From Pinterest:

The Performance+ Suite, which, yes, is a portmanteau of Google’s and Meta’s names for their AI-first ecommerce solutions.

Pinterest Performance+ campaigns can help any advertiser drive lower-funnel performance by optimizing targeting, managing budgets or deciding how much to bid.

I’ve been testing this with some success lately. The key is to be running upper-funnel campaigns in tandem. (A theme for a standalone post sometime soon.)

Tapping into the value zeitgeist:

• Personalized promotions “based on what they’ve searched and pinned”
• Deals ads modules “making ads more visible for consumers across the Home Feed”

From TikTok:

All the new toys…

• Smart+: Performance Advantage+ Max in TikTok for most objectives
• GMV Max: Performance Advantage+ Max in TikTok for shopping, focused on gross merchandise value
• Out of Phone: a clever play on out-of-home that places TikTok ads in in-store retail settings
• Conversion Lift Studies.
• PETs: no, not those ones. Privacy-Enhancing Technologies via third-party integrations.

From Microsoft:

Impression-based remarketing! (I’ve long wanted a more granular version of this on Meta.)

impression-based remarketing allows you to target users based on ad exposure. This means that you can reach people who saw your ad, and did not make it to your site.

As the AI search experience improves, so will the accompanying ads.

ads will be triggered considering the whole conversation within a single session and not just the last prompt. Before an ad block is shown, Copilot will share with the user how the following ad section connects to their conversation. For now, we are calling this feature ad voice

AI will also come to the ads manager to act as a…copilot for advertisers.

Plus some targeting and analytics updates.

From LinkedIn:

Boost a post directly from your page for lead generation (using lead gen forms).

I don’t know how well this avenue performs compared to building in the Ads Manager, but an easy way to test the concept for companies.

All in on video.

• More Live Events promo features
• Wire program expansion: videos in “trusted publisher” content
• Additional video options in automated campaigns

63% of B2B buyers say short-form social video content informs buying decisions.

From Reddit:

AI-powered keyword targeting features. Contextual advertising for a community-first platform.

From DoorDash:

Ads Manager for Enterprise Restaurants includes advanced targeting capabilities, marketing insights, new promos and collaborative marketing functionality aimed at regional marketing teams and franchisees.

The platform has made new high-visibility placements on the storefront and category pages widely available, helping CPG brands highlight seasonal moments, introduce new products and amplify promotions.

The ad platform now also offers advertisers offsite media, helping them reach consumers across search engines, programmatic displays and social media platforms with campaigns powered by DoorDash’s first-party data.

Any (large / public / venture funded) platform that has users and collects data on them will likely become an ad platform at some point.

From PayPal:

An ad network.

See the last line of the DoorDash section.

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