??PPC News (Week 18)

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

May, 1st to May, 7th

Measurement

Google Analytics 4

Custom funnel reports are now available on Google Analytics. (source )

It allows you to:

• Create personalized funnels to evaluate user behaviour.
• Analyze user drop-off rates between each step of a task.
• A new User purchase journey report is available.
• Shows user drop-off rates in the purchase funnel, from session start to completion.

Paid Search

Google Ads

Since May 1, 2023, Google Ads no longer support similar audience segments, and there will be changes that will affect the way similar segments are used in Google Ads.

On August 1, 2023, similar segments will be fully removed from all ad groups and campaigns, and different campaign types will offer different solutions to help leverage first-party data, reach the right audience, and improve campaign performance. This change is aimed at upgrading similar audiences to more powerful, automated solutions, such as optimized targeting, audience expansion, and Smart Bidding, to help optimize marketing objectives. (source )

Here's how to prepare:

Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) campaign-level text assets are now available in Google Ads. (source )

• You can add up to 3 headlines and 2 descriptions assets to the campaign level, applied to all enabled RSAs.
• Assets can be scheduled and pinned to ensure they show. Schedule assets will show during a specific time period or share frequently updated headlines and descriptions across RSAs.

These additional 3 headlines and 2 descriptions can be added on top of the RSA limit, giving more options to show the most relevant combinations.

Microsoft Ads

Microsoft Ads now connects Roku TV streaming ads, Microsoft Audience Ads, and paid/organic search on Bing for cross-channel marketing.

Asset Library now supports video assets, allowing for easier video upload and management for campaigns.

Smart Campaigns accounts with Multi-platform can enable code-free conversion goals, while the change history report will include campaign-level conversions. (Nitish Dhir )

English language is now enabled for creating a product feed in 52 new markets, and the transition of Audience Ads to Enhanced CPC will be postponed. (source )

Amazon Ads

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) introduces AMC Audiences (beta).

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) now allows advertisers to build custom audiences using SQL queries and activate them in Amazon DSP campaigns. Advertisers can utilize all eligible signals in their AMC instance, including sponsored ads, Amazon DSP ads, and their own signals, to create relevant and timely custom audiences. You can for example address and frequency cap people exposed to Fire TV ads with Display programmatic, or target with the DSP people who searched for your brand products. (source / Hugo Loriot )

Amazon's Inspire feed is now available to all US app users, featuring Amazon Posts, a social commerce feature. This move could lead to increased adoption of Amazon Posts by sellers. (Alexander Swade )

Amazon is moving its Posts feature into the ad console to make it easier for sellers to find and use. Posts, which create a social media-like feed, allow users to create and schedule posts with lifestyle images and captions connected to up to 10 products. They can also appear organically on product detail pages and in the "discover feature" of the US Amazon app. (Andreea Simon )

Amazon Ads has updated its demand-side platform (DSP) with machine learning capabilities ahead of?IAB ?NewFronts, a marketing event that takes place in New York City, to help advertisers target audiences using the few remaining signals that will be left when third-party cookies are no longer used. Amazon is allowing advertisers to plug their first-party data into its data clean room to identify required audiences. (source / Jeffrey Cohen )

AdMob / Ad Manager

Google has launched new testing features on Ad Inspector for AdMob and Ad Manager publishers. Ad Inspector can now load requests for any ad unit without needing to navigate through the app to test each ad unit. Requests made from within Ad Inspector will be labelled with “Requested from ad inspector” and the new testing features will allow publishers to rigorously test each individual ad network integration in their app. (source )

Paid Social

Meta Ads

Instagram is renaming its branded content ads as partnership ads and expanding the ad format to include more types of organic content. This allows advertisers to amplify content from a creator or partner's handle and continue to create new partnership ads in Ads Manager without an existing post. (source )

TikTok Ads

TikTok has expanded its contextual advertising solution, Pulse, with Pulse Premiere, offering advertisers control to place ads directly after content from premium publishing partners, in over a dozen categories, including lifestyle, sports, entertainment, education and more. (source )

TikTok's latest offering enables publishers to monetize their content on the platform directly through a revenue-sharing model. Among those creators interviewed by Insider , the revenue per every 1,000 video views on Pulse, or RPM, was in the range of just $6 to $8. (source )

Snapchat Ads

Snap is introducing ads to its popular features, Spotlight and My AI. With over 350 million monthly users, Snap plans to roll out ads globally to its TikTok clone, Spotlight, and plans to surface sponsored links directly in chats with users on My AI. (source )

Quora Ads

Previously, Quora Ads hero images required an aspect ratio of 16:9. It now accepts a wider range of aspect ratios—anywhere from 4:5 (mobile), 5:4 (desktop), up to 16:9. As long as your image falls within this range, It will automatically pad it to fit a variety of placements on the platform. (source )

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is testing an AI feature that will generate cover letter-like messages for job hunters to send to hiring managers. The feature is available for premium subscribers and draws on profile information, job descriptions, hiring managers’ profiles, and company data to create personalized messages. LinkedIn recommends users double-check the generated text before sending it. (Matt Navarra / source )

Organic Social

Facebook

Facebook has introduced new personalisation controls and discovery tools for its Reels feature. Users can now customise the videos they want to see more or less of, with a new "Show More" or "Show Less" button added to the video player's three-dot menu. Meanwhile, Facebook has added Reels to its main navigation and Facebook Watch and introduced contextual labels to clarify why users are seeing particular reels — for instance, because a friend liked it. (source )

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is introducing three new updates to its polls feature, including single-vote polls, the ability to search for polls in chats, and notifications when people vote on polls.

WhatsApp is also enabling users to forward media with captions and to add captions to documents when sharing them.

The features are being rolled out globally and will be available to users in the coming weeks. (source )

Marketing Industry

GDPR & Cookiesless World

France's competition watchdog has ordered Meta to suspend the criteria it uses to grant ad verification partnerships, alleging that the firm has abused its dominant position in France's social media advertising and online ads markets. The regulator also requires Meta to develop new rules for maintaining viewability and brand safety partnerships and to ensure access procedures are transparent and objective. The measures follow a complaint by French ad verification platform Adloox, which claimed Meta had denied it access to some of its ecosystem, leaving it unable to provide services. (source )

New York Democrat House Representative Yvette Clarke has introduced the REAL Political Ads Act, which would require political ads that use generative AI to disclose this fact through audio or text. The amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act would take effect January 1st, 2024 regardless of whether or not rules are in place to enforce this. The proposed law aims to prevent the use of AI-generated attack ads in political campaigns, which Clarke characterizes as urgent ahead of the 2024 election. (source )

This follows the recent use of AI imagery by the Republican Party to paint a picture of Biden's dystopian America in a new political attack ad on YouTube.

And here's the reply to this attack ad, also AI-generated.

Advertising news

Facebook pages impersonating businesses have been used to spread malware in a series of scams that have recently been identified. Among the compromised accounts were several verified Facebook pages, including those impersonating the social media company itself, which shared suspicious links with tens of thousands of followers. In some instances, the hacks were not detected by Facebook’s automated ads system. (source )

Citymapper, the popular transit and travel planning app, has made its previously paid premium features free to all users and introduced a new half-price subscription plan to remove advertising. The move follows Via's acquisition of the company and enables Via to monetise the app directly while encouraging greater usage by making all features free. (source )

NBCUniversal has unveiled four new ad formats, including AI-powered shoppable ads, which brands can use to reach Peacock Premium subscribers. One new format, Must ShopTV, allows viewers to purchase items that appear in Peacock content.

To make this possible, the company has partnered with KERV Interactive, whose algorithm can identify shoppable products. Viewers can engage with a QR code prompt via their mobile device to buy an item they see in a show. (source )

Thoughts of the week

Who will be the most attractive AR platform for younger audiences?

Meta has announced that it is expanding the availability of augmented reality (AR) advertising in Reels ads and Facebook Stories and that brands will now be able to use third-party measurement partners for their Reels Ads.

The company aims to better position itself to compete with Snap for marketers' ad dollars, particularly to reach younger audiences, who are more likely to engage with AR experiences. Facebook has also rolled out additional features to make Reels ads more interactive, such as a larger "call to action" button and a pause option for video ads. (source )

At the same time, Snapchat announced updates to its AR Enterprise Services (ARES) initiative, which focuses on providing AR tools and expertise to businesses that want to leverage Snapchat’s technology in their own websites and apps. Snap has now launched AR Mirrors, which brings AR features to physical spaces and events, and allows customers to experience AR in the real world. The company has also developed its Shopping Suite, which includes features such as AR Try-On and 3D product viewing and is being used by companies such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and Men's Wearhouse. (source )

Both Snapchat and Facebook (Meta) are investing heavily in AR to attract younger audiences. Snapchat has a head start in the AR space, with its popular Lenses and strong presence among younger users.

However, Facebook has a much larger user base and is positioning itself as a one-stop shop for all things AR, including tools for businesses to incorporate AR into their own websites and apps. It remains to be seen which platform will be more attractive to younger audiences in the long run.

Did we miss anything else?

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Yoann FERRAND