Ramping up to Q4 with new platform features from Apple and Google

Tis the season for FB to tighten their approval algorithms and take down pages/ad accounts for seemingly no reason. It always tends to happen right before big election seasons as they tighten things to?attempt?to combat all the election misinformation. It's extremely frustrating, but if it happened to you recently, just know that you're not alone!

Also, today marks 100 days to Christmas?. If you haven't already, now is the time to start planning all of your holiday promotions!

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Apple

New Products + iOS 16 Release:

• We won't break down every single thing Apple announced last week since that could be a whole newsletter itself, but?here's a handy link?to learn more about their new products.
• iOS 16 has officially been released, so you can now download it on all compatible devices. There are lots of new features to play around with including lock screen widgets, multiple lock screens, new focus settings, iMessage edit capability, and more. Of course?people are finding really clever ways to utilize the new background removal feature for photos.

Privacy + Ads:

• In other news, water is wet, and?Apple's privacy changes helped boost their own ads service. Many of us figured there had to be some personal gain involved with these changes (that also deeply hurt their big competitors). Now there's data to prove it!
• Apple has added a few new ad placements within their app store.?While this seems small, combined with the news above and a flurry of new hiring they are doing, it's clear that they are trying to move more into the digital advertising space. We'll see if they are able to launch more ads features soon to capitalize on the Q4 holiday rush.

Google

Analytics:

• Recommendations are coming to Analytics! There are so many settings in there and things are still evolving in GA4, so we're excited for this update. It will alert you to features to be aware of. For example, if you haven't yet connected your Google Ads account, it will likely surface a recommendation to do so. Should be a good catch all for settings you might have missed. Just don't set them to auto-apply. Even though it wouldn't have as big of an impact as auto-applied recommendations in ads, it's always best to review changes before they are implemented so you are aware of the changes being made.
• Have you been noticing less and less query data showing in Analytics recently??This is why.

Ads:

• Extensions are being rebranded as Assets. With Asset Groups becoming a key feature in Performance Max campaigns, the new Asset title makes sense within the eco-system. It won't change anything about the extensions themselves, it's truly just a rebrand.
• New Campaign and Ad Group "Setup" columns are coming. The goal behind them is to help you quickly identify any setup issues within campaigns and ad groups. We're a fan of anything that can potentially simplify optimization processes!
• Ad destination policies will be changing in October. Your landing page must be functional, useful, and easy to navigate (goodbye annoying pop-ups that are difficult to close out of on mobile...). The updates align with the new Better Ads Standards from the Coalition for Better Ads. Get ahead of any disapprovals by reviewing?all of the new standards?and checking to make sure?your site is in good standing?(many sites are still "unverified", so continue to check this link until your report is populated).

Merchant Center:

• Finally,?GMC will allow you to easily target multiple countries with your feed?without having to pick a primary country and then having to had additional countries to target. Now it will be one streamlined feed! Don't worry, if you already have it set with primary/additional the labeling will be automatically updated for you and should not interrupt your existing feed set-up.

YouTube:

• After we shared about all the other platforms' updates for election season in our last newsletter,?YouTube/Google have released their plans as well.
• Search: improved election coverage
• YouTube: increased focus on pushing content from more?authoritative?channels, information panels beneath videos, and?an educational media literacy campaign with tips about misinformation tactics
• Content policies: YouTube will?prohibit inaccurate videos on how to vote, videos inciting violence and any other content that it determines interferes with the democratic process
• New analytics features within YouTube are being tested. These include Watch Interest, Watch Activity and Personalized Insights to help creators identify areas of interest for their audiences.

Other Hives

• Meta released some insights into?4 ranking signals for video on Facebook.
• Instagram is testing some new Repost features, including a Repost tab on profiles. This will be rolled out to a select number of accounts for beta testing. There hasn't been any official announcement from Meta just yet, but it has been spotted in the wild.
• Sephora has agreed to a $1.2 Million settlement?with the state of California for violating their Privacy Act (CCPA). Essentially, the state of California considers using a Facebook or Google pixel on your website for personalized advertising as "selling personal information." While those of us within the digital world understand that we are not in fact selling any data in these cases, it certainly sets a new precedent. But this is the world we now live in and must comply with so we don't face mega lawsuits. We expect to see other states starting to hop on this train soon as well.