Media Monday

GA4 Key Updates

By: Bobby Kelly, Ad Tech - Google Analytics Specialist

Here are the key updates for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and GA360 from September and October 2024, which include enhancements to data processing, real-time tracking features, and troubleshooting tools, aimed at improving data accuracy and user experience.

October 14, 2024 - Unsampled Quota Enhancements: GA360 users can now process more complex queries with unsampled data, thanks to increased daily and per-query token limits (20,000 and 5,000 respectively). This change provides more accurate insights for deeper data analysis.

October 11, 2024 - Tag Diagnostics: New diagnostics alert users when Google tags stop sending data or are placed too low on the page. This helps maintain accurate data collection and ensure tags load properly, preventing signal loss.

October 9, 2024 - Realtime Pages Report: This feature shows which pages users are currently viewing on your website or app, allowing for real-time content performance tracking and quick identification of popular pages.

October 3, 2024 - Increased Data Export Limits: The export limits for unsampled explorations have been significantly increased, with up to 10 million cells for TSV/CSV formats and up to 100,000 rows for reports, improving data flexibility.

October 1, 2024 - Misconfigured Deep Links: GA4 now identifies and recommends fixes for app deep links that are misconfigured, ensuring that users are properly directed to mobile apps when they have them installed, improving user experience.

September 25: Improved user-provided data session attribution to reduce over-attribution to Direct.

September 24: Enhanced GA4 data import capabilities, allowing multiple data sources without overwriting existing data.

September 3: Report enhancements with the ability to visualize up to five rows of data in detail reports using plot rows. New features include anomaly detection and event marking.

Meta’s Automation Autocracy

By: Henry Henley, Media Director - UK

Meta has quietly rolled out a controversial feature called “automatic adjustments” across numerous advertising accounts, allowing its systems to make significant changes to ad campaigns without obtaining explicit consent from advertisers.

What’s the Scoop? This new system can perform several actions, including:

• Pausing or activating campaigns at will
• Adjusting budgets, either increasing or decreasing them
• Consolidating ad accounts
• Making changes without notifying advertisers
• Modifying audience segmentation

Why This Matters This feature gives Meta considerable control over how ad campaigns are managed, enabling it to pause campaigns, alter budgets, and merge audiences without any prior approval from advertisers. While automation has the potential to enhance performance, it raises critical concerns about strategic oversight and the risk of unintended consequences. Advertisers have reported experiencing unplanned changes that have adversely affected their ad spending and audience targeting.

How to Opt Out If you're looking to regain control, here’s how to turn off this feature:

1. Navigate to “All Tools”
2. Select “Automated Rules”
3. Click on “See Automatic Adjustments”
4. Access the “Manage Automatic Adjustments” page
5. Toggle the feature OFF

The Bottom Line This shift toward automation represents a significant transfer of power from advertisers to Meta’s automated systems, sparking worries about oversight and strategic autonomy in campaign management.

Spotify x The Trade Desk

By: Elissa Hickey, Media Planner

Spotify is currently working with The Trade Desk to launch its own ad exchange. In its pilot stages, the Spotify Ad Exchange (also known as SAX) is currently focusing on connecting TTD clients with the Spotify Video Inventory. Initial testing for video is currently underway in North America, with the expectation that audio ads will follow shortly. This partnership will utilize TTD’s OpenPath Technology and will join the Universal ID 2.0 (UID 2.0) cookieless targeting.

In having their own exchange, Spotify is hoping to accrue more revenue from small to medium-sized businesses, while also helping larger clients who currently use the platform to spend their dollars more efficiently. Interested in reading more? Check out these articles from DigiDay and CampaignLive .