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.
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.
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
A nice guide from Search Engine Land for the GA4 crowd.
Setting up event parameters in GA4: Everything you need to know / Learn how to set up event parameters in Google Analytics 4 for a deeper understanding of user actions and effective data interpretation.
More ads in more places: TikTok Search edition
Introducing the TikTok Search Ads Toggle
The Search Ads Toggle leverages advertisers' existing In-Feed Ad creative to serve ads alongside organic search results from relevant user queries.
With the Search Ads Toggle, brands can extend the reach of their campaigns to high-intent users who are seeking information relevant to their business, driving incremental engagement and revenue potential.
Remember, Google claims a good chunk of the youths turn to TikTok Search before Google for some query types.
Google and Meta are still the go-to duo for marketing spend.
Surprises to me in this chart: LinkedIn, Netflix, and Hulu.
The first is higher than I expected, #3 is a prime spot in this lineup. The other 2 show the growth of streaming ad platforms.
Prepare for increased auction pressure as needed.
Google Discovery campaigns will be replaced by Demand Gen (basically Discovery Max, now with YouTube Shorts placements (and more)) campaigns this fall.
But if you don’t want to wait, you can sign up for the beta now.
More on Demand Gen from Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin:
Demand Gen campaigns combine image + video ads in one place and can be used to drive conversions, site visits and actions like sign-up and add-to-cart across YouTube, Discover and Gmail
Just noticed this in Meta Ads Manager today, Meta Shops stats will now be sent to third-party analytics and attribution tools if you have one setup.
The Google graveyard grows.
Starting in early October 2023, any Shopping campaigns using Enhanced CC will behave as if they are using Manual CPC bidding.
Bidding strategies have evolved a lot since the launch of eCPC, so this isn’t surprising. I’m more surprised the announcement wasn’t about the end of standard Shopping Campaigns.
More GA4 updates:
New, pre-built report: audiences. It includes 6 default metrics and any audience you’ve created with at least 1 user in the timeframe you’ve set.
Starting next month last-click and data-driven will be the only attribution models available for optimization and reporting.
Slowly getting more regex in GA4 🎉
One of the (if not THE) biggest adjustments Google Analytics users need to make in the GA4 transition is realizing the prior version was fully realized by the time it sunset. The new version is being built as we use it.
(The Explore tab is still better.)
The race for a generative AI-powered smart assistant is on.
Axios: Google Assistant to get an AI makeover
Axios: Amazon wants Alexa to bring AI into the home
It was bad timing for Microsoft that Cortana was sunset before the OpenAI partnership. But maybe The Windows Co wants to focus on enterprise and workplace solutions (where voice can be inconvenient).
This is another space where Apple could dominate had Siri not been left to languish. Siri + generative AI + market saturation + Airpods = conversational computing platform
For platforms, it’s all about attribution and proving ROI (/ROAS) in a world of increasing privacy.
For Google (/YouTube), enter Engaged-view conversions:
Engaged-view conversions are counted when a user watches at least 10 seconds of a skippable in-stream ad (or watches the entire skippable in-stream ad, if it’s shorter than 10 seconds) and then converts within the Engaged-view conversion window.
Google: About Engaged-view conversions
#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt
Or maybe it didn’t
Search Engine Land: Study: TikTok loses popularity as ecommerce search engine / Amazon’s popularity has grown as the starting point for product searches, including those in younger generations.
Finally!
Google appeared to have gotten rid of the notoriously buggy feature that was GBP call tracking.
Had this issue with a client, glad to see it hit the graveyard.
users reported that the “feature” would send direct calls to the wrong merchant.
self-upgrade tools are also rolling out now to easily upgrade Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns and Google Display campaigns to Performance Max.
Feels like two more plots were just reserved in the Google graveyard.
Google: Boost your Search and Display results in Performance Max campaigns - Google Ads Help
Notice a Perspectives filter at the top of Google lately?
“Tap the filter, and you’ll exclusively see long- and short-form videos, images and written posts that people have shared on discussion boards, Q&A sites and social media platforms.”
Could Google Seatch reach surpass on-platform reach for brand social content with this?
Google: Learn from others’ experiences with more perspectives on Search