?? PPC News (Week 31)

Our primary objective is to make sure you know about 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

July 31st to Aug, 6th

Measurement

Google Analytics 4

App Campaign Performance: Google Analytics 4 has rolled out a range of new features designed to improve app campaign performance.

(1) Robust audience tools: This includes a new "unnotified users suggested audience" to engage existing app users who haven't received push notifications. You can also re-use app and web audiences efficiently and create Google Analytics 4 audiences directly within Google Ads.

(2) Additional performance uplift: You can now enable the use of additional consented, signed-in data for automatic optimization of App campaign performance.

(2) Comprehensive web-to-app conversion measurement: GA4 introduces a privacy-safe URL parameter called gbraid, which allows better iOS app conversion measurement for web campaigns that deep link users into an app.

(3) Better iOS campaign measurement and performance: New features include integrations with SKAdNetwork, on-device conversion measurement using consented, first-party email data (now expanded to support phone numbers), and geo-based conversion lift measurement (currently in beta).

(source )

Match Types in Reports: GA4 Reports now support Match Types, including 'begins with', 'exactly matches', and regex, offering more customization options for Report Filters. This allows users to further refine and tailor their analytics data to meet specific requirements. (source )

Audience Report: GA4 has introduced a new Audiences report that helps users identify their most engaged and profitable audiences. This report includes all audiences with at least one user within the specified time period. You can find the Audiences report under the User Attributes topic on the left in Reports. (source )

Campaign Manager integration: This feature was previously only available in the paid version (360). With this integration, GA4 users can track performance and improve analytics capabilities using Floodlight links ( Charles Farina ).

DataStudio

DataStudio has introduced three new chart types to enhance data visualization capabilities: the Boxplot chart, Candlestick chart, and Waterfall chart. (source )

Boxplot chart: This chart allows users to visualize the distribution and spread of values in a dataset, making it easier to understand the overall range and variability of the data.

Candlestick chart: The Candlestick chart enables users to visualize ranges in their data, including opening and closing values, as well as the highest and lowest values within each range. This is particularly useful for tracking price movements in financial data or other time-series data.

Waterfall chart: With the Waterfall chart, users can effectively visualize how a sequence of positive and negative values contributes to a total value. This chart type is helpful for understanding the cumulative effect of individual data points on the overall total.

Improved thumbnail images: Thumbnails display a fixed-size image of 320 px X 240 px, and if possible, present a view of the entire report page. Previously, thumbnails only showed a portion of the page.

Paid Search

Google Ads

Similar Segments are Dead: Advertisers using Similar Segments will have automatically opted into optimized targeting and audience expansion. There is now a settings page in the audiences tab where we can tell Google to turn off the campaigns instead of expanding the targeting. (Dario Zannoni )

Long live Lookalike Segments: You can now make these audiences using Demand Gen Campaigns by pairing tailored creatives with brand-new lookalike segments based on your audience lists. (source )

Brand Lists: When you add brand restrictions to an existing Search campaign, it can automatically turn on broad match for your keywords. This information is mentioned in the FAQ of Google's Support Page and can be found under 'Add brand restrictions to an existing Search campaign.' ( Matinique Roelse )

Additionally, Sergey Gordeev points out that Brand Restriction won't work unless you switch the campaign settings to broad match explicitly. Simply enabling the feature without changing the match type manually won't trigger the restriction.

Google has released a Responsive Search Ads (RSA) guide to help marketers enhance their campaign performance. The guide provides advice on writing ads for maximum conversions, utilizing Google AI for ad copy generation, and evaluating campaign effectiveness. (see PDF )

Merchant Center

Automated Content: On August 28, 2023, the “Product Ratings policies ” will be updated. The Merchant Center doesn’t allow reviews that are primarily generated by an automated program or artificial intelligence application. If you have identified such content, it should be marked as spam in your feed using the?<is_spam>?attribute. (source )

Microsoft Ads

Code-free Conversion Tracking: Microsoft now allows code-free conversion tracking with Universal Event Tracking (UET) using Microsoft Clarity. By enabling Clarity within UET tag setup, you can track conversions by event or URL without the need for code or scripts. After providing the URL for the website, you can track interactions directly by selecting custom events or revenue tiles. (source )

Amazon Ads

Amazon is ending the FBA Small and Light program on August 29, 2023. It will be replaced by Low-Price FBA rates for items under $10, offering reduced fulfillment fees with the same delivery speeds as standard FBA. All other standard Selling on Amazon fees and FBA fees still apply. ( Akshay Tarpara )

Bid adjustments for Search Placements: A new update now enables bid adjustments for rest-of-search placements in Sponsored Products campaigns.

Advertisers can now apply bid adjustments for rest-of-search placements, just like they can for top-of-search (first page) and product page placements. The new control allows bid adjustments of up to 900% for rest-of-search placements, providing advertisers with more control and balance in campaign performance across the different placements. ( Shimmas Younus - Alexander Swade )

AI Listing Generation: this new feature is directly available in Seller Central (early access) and allows you to generate content for title, description and bullet points from a short input. ( Steven Pope )

Brand Analytics Menu: The Brand Analytics menu has been reorganized for better clarity and efficiency. ( Himanshu Verma )

The options are now grouped under two main categories:

Search Analytics:

• Search Catalogue Performance
• Search Query Performance
• Top Search Terms

Consumer Behaviour Analytics:

• Repeat Purchase Behaviour
• Demographics
• Market Basket Analysis

Paid Social

Meta Ads

RIP Facebook Shops: On August 10, your shop may be removed depending on your region and checkout settings. If your shop is no longer supported, you won't be able to tag products in posts, create new custom audiences, or make new lookalike audiences. However, you can still use product tags on Instagram ads.

To keep your shop, 'Checkout with Facebook or Instagram' must be enabled in the US. Shops without this option will no longer be supported, except for businesses in the listed international markets. ( Bram Van der Hallen )

Audience tracking in third-party tools: To track audiences in third-party tracking tools, you can now add an audience type to your website's URLs. You can add other parameters when you create or edit an ad. ( Bar?? Sapmaz )

Hidden Manual Placements: When creating new campaigns in Ads Manager, Meta now hides the Manual Placement option by default. ( Bram Van der Hallen )

X Ads (prev. Twitter Ads)

Less noticeable "Ad Markers": X is updating its ad formats to make them appear more like regular posts, with smaller "Ad" markers and in-image URL indicators. (source )

YouTube Ads

Upload video creatives directly: you now have the ability to add video creatives directly in Google Ads without uploading them to a YouTube channel first can streamline the ad creation process and offers advertisers more flexibility.

( Dario Zannoni )

View rate insights: You can discover the view rate insights categorized by platform. As an example, in-feed and shorts content exhibit significantly lower engagement rates. ( Benjamin Vandenberghe )

LinkedIn Ads

"draft with AI": LinkedIn has launched the "draft with AI" beta feature, powered by GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). This new feature aims to assist users in writing enhanced content on the LinkedIn platform. ( Jack Rowbotham )

Organic Social

YouTube

YouTube is now introducing six new ways to enhance creativity:

1. Collab tool: Creators can use this new creation tool to record a Short in a side-by-side format with other YouTube or Shorts videos. They can choose from various layout options and easily remix eligible Shorts or YouTube videos. The Collab tool will initially roll out to all creators on iOS, with Android support coming soon.
2. New effects and stickers: YouTube has been adding dozens of effects and stickers to inspire creators, including a new Q&A sticker that allows creators to ask questions and get responses directly in the comments section.

(source )

Marketing Industry

GDPR, Users Protection & Privacy Laws

Meta plans to seek user consent in the European Union (EU) before allowing businesses to target advertising based on users' views on its services like Facebook and Instagram. This change is in response to an order from Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner, Meta's lead EU regulator, to reassess the legal basis for ad targeting.

The shift will involve changing the data processing basis from "Legitimate Interests" to "Consent" for behavioral advertising in the EU, EEA (European Economic Area), and Switzerland. While this change won't immediately impact services, Meta will continue to allow personalized advertising campaigns once the consent-based model is implemented. (source )

EEA & UK IAB TCF?requirement: Starting January 16th, 2024, Google Ads will require all publisher partners using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob to use a Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) that integrates with the IAB Europe's Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) for serving ads to users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK. Advertisers and agencies don't need to take any immediate action, but it means that ads will no longer bid on non-compliant inventory. (source )

PrivacyGo: TikTok is planning to introduce a new offering called PrivacyGo, which will align its ad targeting processes with emerging data privacy shifts. PrivacyGo will enable advertisers to match their CRM data with TikTok's audience insights in a privacy-protective manner. (source )

Advertising News

Marketing Industry

Apple has reported its financial results for the third quarter of 2023. The company achieved quarterly revenue of $81.8 billion, a 1% decrease year over year, and earnings per diluted share of $1.26, a 5% increase year over year. (source )

Walmart is expanding its digital advertising offerings in stores by introducing targeted ads on screens in self-checkout lanes. Brands can purchase ad space and choose specific regions or stores to promote their campaigns. (source )

AI advancements

Bing Chat Enterprise: Microsoft is expanding its AI-powered Bing services with Bing Chat Enterprise, offering AI-powered chat for work with commercial data protection. Bing Chat Enterprise is available in preview and will be included at no additional cost in select Microsoft 365 plans. Additionally, Microsoft 365 Copilot will be priced at $30 per user per month for certain Microsoft 365 customers when broadly available. Microsoft is also rolling out Visual Search in Chat, allowing users to search with images. (source )

AudioCraft is a cutting-edge AI tool developed by Meta that enables users to generate high-quality audio and music from simple text prompts. The tool consists of three models: MusicGen, which generates music from text prompts, AudioGen, which creates audio and sound effects from text prompts, and an improved version of EnCodec, which enhances the music generation process with higher quality and fewer artifacts. (source )

CM3leon: Trained using only one-fifth of the compute of previous transformer-based methods, CM3leon is the first single foundational model capable of image-to-text generation, enhancing various tasks like image captioning, visual question answering, text-based editing, and conditional image generation. (source )

Video content in SGE: As planned, Google is testing videos in Search Generative Experience. With this new feature, when you click play on a video, video content opens in a larger window and offers related topics and a link to YouTube. ( Glenn Gabe )

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