- 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
- Time
- Click Type (consistently set to cross-network clicks)
- Conversions
- Device
- Network (showing cross-network by default)
- Top vs. Others
- 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).
- 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
- Personalized promotions “based on what they’ve searched and pinned”
- Deals ads modules “making ads more visible for consumers across the Home Feed”
- 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.
- More Live Events promo features
- Wire program expansion: videos in “trusted publisher” content
- Additional video options in automated campaigns
- 36% stronger unaided brand recall vs. standard video ads
- 95% of viewers prefer adding products to cart over immediate purchase
- Higher CPMs: 10-15% above industry standards
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.
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.
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:
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:
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:
From TikTok:
All the new toys…
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.
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.
Google Is A Monopolist? Part 2
Google and the Justice Department are set for a rematch of sorts on Monday when they return to court to argue about Google’s alleged monopolistic behavior over how ads are bought and sold on the internet.
A new study reveals the promise and limitations of interactive TV advertising. The key findings:
The real question is: will people want to shop from their TV?
In a sense we already do this when we buy a movie, but that feels different than buying a shirt, etc.
Google and Amazon (and Paramount (via Walmart)?) get an immediate advantagege since they can drive you to an app where you are logged in and already shop.
Sounds like clickbait: an idea so wild it just might work!
The idea is that the US would require Google to make its search index publicly available for anyone to use.Wouldn't this be taking something that belongs to Google, though?Not really. The search index is a collection of keywords and other data from websites created by other people and other companies — not Google.
This would be interesting, and API access could be a revenue stream. But it feels unlikely.
As TikTok and Instagram unseat Google in the realm of local search, I see a realm of possibilities for [things like] Meta Maps and SnapMap.
👀
image via The Verge
Google wanted advertisers to turn everything over to the algorithms with Performance Max, advertisers pushed back and asked for a peek inside the black box. Big G blinked.
Based on your feedback, we’re starting to roll out conversion metrics to Performance Max asset reporting for all advertisers globally to help you understand what’s working well and further optimize your creative.YouTube video placement reporting for Performance Max is now rolling out as well, helping you ensure that your ads appear in brand-suitable places.
Oh yeah, and more AI.
A federal judge ruled that Google violated US antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly in the search and advertising markets.
The advertising portion seems specific to “general search text advertising,” so YouTube shouldn’t be at risk.
We’ll see where this goes, but my guess is Big G won’t be buying default status anymore.
The prospect of losing tens of billions in guaranteed revenue from Google — which presently come at little to no cost to Apple — disincentivizes Apple from launching its own search engine when it otherwise has built the capacity to do so
Google has pulled the plug on pulling the plug on third-party cookies in Chrome.
It seems they couldn’t find a privacy-preserving replacement that would also preserve ad revenue.
Per Google:
we are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing
Basically, Chrome will do what iOS started doing in 2021 with the advent of App Tracking Transparency in 14.5.
Cookies have crumbled, but the crumbs are sticking around.
Similar to Google:
Microsoft Ads is rolling out a new feature called “brand lists” for Performance Max (PMax) campaigns.
Brand lists allow advertisers to exclude their ads from appearing alongside specific brands, potentially improving ad relevance and return on ad spend (ROAS).
Can pick up to 20 but sounds like you’re limited to a pre-defined list or requesting additions.
🚨 🪦
Google to kill off URL shortener once and for all
Links shortened with goo.gl will stop working in 2025
You have just over a year to migrate if you’re currently using Google URL Shortener.
via The Register
From MarTech: Steve Ganem, Product Director of Google Analytics, on what’s ahead for GA4
More offline data and more AI
continue to innovate and invest in making it the most effective, holistic and durable analytics solution
Next addition to the Google graveyard: infinite scroll
Google said this change is to serve the search results faster on more searches, instead of automatically loading results that users haven’t explicitly requested. Loading more results automatically didn’t lead to significantly higher satisfaction with Search
More on the Google ranking factors leak & why it shouldn’t distract you from focusing on users.
People have long divorced SEO from user experience, I think the two need to work more closely together. Because ultimately you need someone to come to your page and stay there. That is a signal that Google is using.
-Mike King
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is search engine optimization (SEO).