Google

    🎉🎉🎉

    If you’ve enabled Google Signals for your property, simply disable “Include Google Signals in Reporting Identity” on the Admin’s Data Collection page.

    Turning this option off helps to minimize data thresholding if your property uses Belnded or Observed reporting identity.

    via MarTech

    Apple has all the pieces for it’s own search engine. It just needs the appetite to give up $8B in guaranteed money from Google each year.

    AI might be the catalyst. Models are built on data, and big companies aren’t going to want to share. (Plus, any antitrust action may make Big G less likely to shell out.)

    Think about a Spotlight search experience built on full, cross-app/web indices and connections to various inputs types with a chat-like interface. All built on Apple’s privacy reputation. (And Apple’s adtech stack, of course.)

    Google is on trial.

    AI will reinvent search behavior.

    Social is closing off, going private, and decentralizing (yeah, confusing).

    Cookies will be naught but crumbs.

    Apple is still trying to build an ad empire.

    The digital ad duopoly has already been disrupted. Looking like that was just the start.

    Here’s a fun attack vector

    In practice, this means that bad actors are identifying websites that have an internal search function and are seen as trustworthy by Google — such as government, educational, and media websites — and putting in searches for things like “buy cocaine,” along with Telegram handles or a website address.

    A change to Google’s indexing means your site search may be used as a webpage generator by bad actors. 🙃

    Remember, drugs are sold in gas stations and fentanyl is in everything

    Facebook can be sued over allegations that its advertising algorithm is discriminatory

    This has already happened in verticals like housing and credit. The number of “special categories” might grow after this. How will this impact the Advantage push?

    “Facebook does not merely proliferate and disseminate content as a publisher … it creates, shapes, or develops content” with the tools.

    Big Tech is already on trial (Amazon, Google). AI is putting algorithms front-and-center. Section 230 has been targeted before.

    This Meta ruling will just be the first of many, which means digital ad targeting is about to be overhauled. Is this the future?

    The era of subsidizing subscriber numbers in a free money, growth-before-everything-else market is over. Streaming TV is is now cable and it will be ad-supported (but you can pay your way out of ads).

    Amazon aims to show ‘meaningfully fewer ads’ than traditional TV or rival streaming platforms. An ad-free option will be available for an additional $2.99 per month.

    TV has been fully unbundled. Which means it’s time to start bundling again.

    I put Amazon, Apple, Google, and Roku at the front of the pack of potential bundlers due to saturation and having existing streaming hardware platforms.

    Remember that Apple announcement about removing link tracking in Safari (private browsing plus iMessage and Mail)?

    It’s here!

    It impacts:

    • HubSpot
    • Drip
    • Google Ads
    • Google Display Ads
    • Instagram Ads
    • MailChimp
    • Adobe Marketo
    • Microsoft Ads
    • Twitter
    • Yandex
    • & more!

    UTMs survive.

    Huh

    some TikTok users are now seeing a new prompt appear within their search results in the app, which includes a CTA to expand their search on Google.

    I’m not sure if this is a “keep your enemies closer” play or a weird “we’re both under regulatory scrutiny so let’s team up” play.

    I guess TikTok can use it to disclaim Chinese info control claims.

    And Google can gain traction with the youths?

    Google: where the algorithm’s made up and the prices don’t matter

    The search engine “frequently” changes the auctions it uses to sell search ads, increasing the cost of ads and reserve pricing by as much as 5% for the average advertiser.

    For some queries, the tech giant may have even raised prices by as much as 10%, according to Google Ad executive, Jerry Dischler at the federal antitrust trial.

    Nothing like disclosing your monopolistic behavior while on trial for being a monopoly.

    Incentives matter.

    Quick refresher on some brand settings in Google Ads.

    If you want to use broad match keywords but also want them to be brand relevant, try brand restrictions:

    For Search, brand restrictions limit traffic to serve only on search queries related to specified brands.

    If you don’t want to use Performance Max for branded queries but more strictly for prospecting, try brand exclusions:

    For Performance Max, brand exclusions provide added control so your campaigns won’t serve for branded queries you want to avoid on Search and Shopping inventory.

    Google will now use AI to tell you how to optimize your video ads based on their “data-backed creative best practices”.

    Basically, it’ll tell you if you didn’t check a box on the list.

    That list includes:

    • Show your brand off the bat and continue to show it often
    • Have the right video length
    • Use a voice-over
    • Include all 3 aspect ratios

    More ABCD compliant attributes coming soon.

    Interesting…

    Some search results on TikTok now include a snippet and link to Wikipedia.

    More heartburn for Google. Or maybe not, since they are going to trial for being a search monopoly.

    I still wonder how much of the Google disclosure around how many people use TikTok to search was about setting the stage to argue they aren’t a gatekeeper on the internet.

    But another reminder that search is no longer a defendable platform, it’s a feature.

    I recently mentioned some of Google’s post-cookie plans are a bit controversial. Like this one:

    Chrome’s “Enhanced Ad Privacy.” That’s the technology that, unless switched off, allows websites to target the user with adverts tuned to their online activities and interests based on their browser histories.

    Part of the reason is the apparent dark patterns in the consent system.

    If you have to trick users/customers, you’ve probably lost the plot.

    Hitting thresholding issues in GA4?

    You can try turning off Google Signals, or changing your reporting identity to device based.

    A heads up, Google Support’s official rec is to only switch when you are pulling a report and hitting a threshold. When done, switch it back to another option.

    Exclusive: ChatGPT traffic slips again for third month in a row

    Exclusive: this is irrelevant

    AI like ChatGPT is a feature or tool, not a consumer app.

    The goal isn’t for ChatGPT to become the next Google Search, it’s to become the next Amazon Web Services.

    The post-cookie Chrome is just about ready, which means the officially death of third-party cookies is imminent.

    Of course, many of Google’s planned replacements are still a bit controversial, so this should be fun for marketers.

    According to Google, the Cyber 5 shopping period is now Cyber 12.

    A line graph showing the Cyber 12 period starting 2 days before Thanksgiving, continuing through Black Friday, and ending 5 days after Cyber Monday. With the note “Average consumer spend / day was 20% higher on shoulder days than rest of Q4 overall.”

    Google Discovery Campaigns are becoming Demand Gen (Discovery + YouTube Shorts) starting in October:

    Starting October through November 2023, your Discovery campaigns will be automatically upgraded to Demand Gen campaigns. Your Discovery campaign settings, budget, and historical performance statistics will automatically transfer to Demand Gen with identical or comparable functionality. You’ll receive a notification in your Google Ads account when your campaigns have been upgraded.

    What you should also do if you’re a brand doing influencers, is run Google Ads. Because people will look at an influencers post, they won’t buy, and they will Google you. And you better be the top search result there so they click the Google ad and purchase.

    -Yash Chavan

    I would say this applies to all forms of paid social efforts. Advertising is an ecosystem, not a silo.

    Google Search app could soon introduce a new Notes feature

    SEO angle: less room for your page on the results page

    Social angle: Google still wants a social network, what if search is it?

    AI angle: what a handy way to get more training data for LLMs

    Google angle: clear sign that search is no longer a platform or a moat but a tool or feature that exists within something larger

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