??PPC News (Week 16)

Our primary objective is to keep you up-to-date with the latest developments in the advertising industry. By doing so, we hope to help you stay ahead of the competition and achieve your advertising goals effortlessly! ??

PPC News

April, 17th to April, 23rd

Measurement

Google Analytics 4

Enhancements to the Home page: Google Analytics has introduced new enhancements to its Home page for users of Google Analytics 4 properties. These include a welcome tutorial for new users, a banner for Editors and Administrators who advertise with Google Ads, and improvements to the Suggested for you section. Users can also dismiss irrelevant cards in the Suggested for you and Insights & Recommendations sections by clicking the thumbs-down button.

Upgraded attribution for web conversions imported into Google Ads: Google Ads has upgraded its attribution for web conversions imported from Google Analytics 4 properties. Previously, web conversions were imported on a cross-channel last-click basis. With this upgrade, fractional cross-channel conversion credit will now be imported, leading to more accurate measurement and optimization. (source)

Google Tag Manager

Visitor Region: a new variable type in server-side GTM called Vusutor Region. Peter ?utarík shared how it can be useful for many different use cases, for example firing tags only for visitors in specific countries, or changing the consent logic based on the visitor location etc.

Search Console

Google Search now shows an expanded display of shipping and return information on Google Search text results for merchant sites. (source)

If your products don't have shipping and return information or the shipping and return information was added incorrectly, you'll receive warnings in the Merchant Listings report and via email notifications.

Merchant Center

Click Potential: Thomas Eccel shared how Merchant Center has a new column "Click Potential" including High, Medium and Low potential estimates.

Paid Search

Google Ads

In Performance, Max, a new setting has been added for new campaigns only that automatically creates assets and leads customers to every page of your website. To ensure its effectiveness, check the assets report and review by source. ( Ivelina Ansarova & Adriaan Dekker )

SA360

SA360 new version: Google is encouraging its advertisers to upgrade to the new version of Search Ads 360 ahead of the planned shutdown of the previous version in 2024. The updated version offers improved enterprise innovations, budget planning, and enhanced reporting tools. The upgrade also features improved search engine support, unique enterprise solutions, and access to new campaign types (see an example below).

Users can schedule their upgrade using the in-product notification provided by Google, and support for some features in the previous version may be gradually reduced throughout 2023. Google encourages users to schedule their upgrade well ahead of the shutdown in 2024.

Microsoft Ads

Multi-platform Smart Campaigns will no longer support Twitter as of tomorrow (April 25, 2023). Microsoft Advertising users will lose access to their Twitter accounts via the Digital Marketing Center’s social media management tool. The ability to schedule, create, or manage tweets or tweet drafts will be removed, and users will not be able to view their past tweets and engagement on the Microsoft Advertising platform. (source)

Microsoft Advertising is expanding its reach in the Latin America region through a new agreement with IMS by Aleph, a global enabler of digital advertising, to offer local support for businesses in the region. This exclusive agreement, effective from 1 May 2023, covers all of Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding Brazil. (source)

Microsoft Advertising and Roku Advertising have collaborated to connect consumer data from Roku TV streaming ads to Microsoft Audience Ads, paid, and organic search on Bing to unlock insights and maximize ad performance. The collaboration is industry-first and can distil down behavioural insights for marketers to build actionable and successful ad campaigns. In their whitepaper, Microsoft and Roku focus on maximizing cross-channel performance and offer the top three key insights and customized consumer data unique to Technology, Travel, and Retail verticals. (source)

Amazon Ads

The advanced tools centre homepage has been redesigned to provide easier access to resources and technical documentation. Users can access video tutorials, courses, user guides, and events, and compare different advanced tools offerings from a single page.

Check out the?new homepage, and if you have any feedback, Dave Katz and its team are happy to hear it in?GitHub.

Sponsored Products Search term data: Shimmas Younus shared how you can now view SP customer search terms in the bulk file as well.

Since Sept 22, Amazon released the Email-marketing function to Brands. It allows you to send "custom" emails directly via Amazon and was made more broadly available last week ( Alexander Swade )

You can find it here: Seller Central > Brand > Customer Engagement

Organic Social

Twitter

Twitter is now requiring advertisers to have a verified account to continue running ads on the platform. Starting April 21, verified checkmarks or subscriptions to either Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations will be required to run ads. (source)

Instagram

Instagram now allows users to add up to five links to their profile bios, a highly requested feature. This feature could potentially draw creators back to the platform and compete with third-party tools like Linktree and Beacons. ( Bram Van der Hallen )

TikTok

TikTok CEO, Shouzi Chew, recently spoke about entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, and social media in his first public interview since testifying in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Chew attempted to present TikTok as a safe and popular platform used by almost half the US population, but lawmakers were sceptical of TikTok’s safety, influence, and ties to China.

There is mounting pressure from the federal and state governments to ban TikTok, although several civil liberties groups have opposed such actions, calling it a threat to freedom of expression online. Despite the uncertainty, Chew hopes to present TikTok as a more transparent and secure social media platform.

Marketing Industry

GDPR & Cookieless world

As Chrome's third-party cookie deprecation approaches, Google Ads and Display & Video 360 are experimenting with interest-based audience solutions that use privacy-preserving signals. These signals include contextual information from the Topics API from the Privacy Sandbox & 1P identifiers such as Publisher Provided IDs.

The experiment showed that interest-based audience solutions with privacy-preserving signals performed well compared to third-party cookies. Spending on IBA decreased by 2-7%, while conversions per dollar decreased by 1-3%. Click-through rates remained consistent. (source)

Google has renamed the FLEDGE API to "Protected Audience API" as it moves beyond the experimental phase. The change reflects the technology's purpose to enhance user privacy while improving ad relevance and safeguarding audience data. Despite the new name, the underlying APIs and commands will remain the same to minimize disruption. (source)

Nine more states have joined the U.S. Department of Justice in a lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company violated antitrust regulations in its digital advertising business. (source)

Advertising News

Google Research has updated Bard to include programming and software development capabilities. Bard can now help with code generation, debugging, and explanation in over 20 programming languages, including Python, Java, and C++. It can also assist with writing functions for Google Sheets. (source)

Amazon has initiated layoffs within its advertising division as part of CEO Andy Jassy's cost-control measures. Amazon's global workforce grew to over 1.6 million by the end of 2021. As a result of the recent layoffs, Amazon will reallocate resources, including shifting team members, slowing down or stopping certain programs, and recognizing the need for different skill sets to address priorities. Affected employees were notified via email, with the layoffs scheduled to commence on June 20. (source)

Apple launched its Apple Card savings account with a 4.15% annual percentage yield. It requires no minimum deposit or balance, Apple said, and users can set up an account from the Wallet app on their iPhones. (source)

Thoughts of the week

Marketers often believe that they can grow their brand by increasing the loyalty of current buyers, but previous research shows that leading brands don't necessarily have a much higher purchase or repurchase rate than competing brands (source).

In this way, attracting new buyers may be key to long-term success. Do you agree with this strategy? How do you prioritize your marketing efforts to attract new buyers and grow your brand? Share your thoughts.

Here are some insights from Greg Rizzardi (Post) and Dr. Augustine Fou (Article)

Did we miss anything else?

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