Updates to Google Consent Mode, gamers a booming audience for ads, TikTok fights sell-off, Google dethroned as Gen Z search engine and other ??topics

Welcome to the April issue of Summarized, a marketing newsletter by Whatagraph, where we share our latest articles, case studies, top news from the digital marketing world, and platform updates?each month.

Google 's Consent Mode has been updated to v2

Let's see what the requirements are and why it's best not to be left behind!

For those unaware, GCM v2 is the updated Google system of managing user consent for the use of their personalized data via cookies. It's pertinent to services such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Google Tag Manager. The goal of the system is to increase the privacy and security of online users, where tracking those users for analytics and advertisement purposes will only occur with their full and knowing consent. The adjustment is a result of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the legislation intended to limit the market domination of large "gatekeeper" tech corporations such as Google, Meta (FB/Instagram), Microsoft, Amazon, and TikTok.

So, what's new in the latest release? In GCM v2, you can introduce the Consent Mode in Basic and Advanced variants. The Basic one is the mandatory one; with it, no tracking can be done without explicit user consent, and all Google tags (Ads, Analytics, Tag Manager) are blocked by default. The Advanced variant is optional and more advantageous to the seller and marketer. The tags load before the user gives or withholds their consent in the cookies banner. Once consent is given, data is collected normally without anonymizing or supplementing it with AI analysis. Should the user not consent to tracking, data can still be collected very limitedly. Conversions, views, and events will be collected as anonymized data, and the tags will not be allowed to show personalized ads to the user (e.g. as part of remarketing). The missing data points will be supplemented by behavioral modeling and artificial intelligence.

What can happen if you fail to adapt GCM v2? Google will be unable to collect and model your customer data. Traffic analytics and reporting will become useless, and remarketing will be virtually impossible as the customer lists will no longer be updated. You will miss all the chances to optimize your campaigns, and your ad budget will not be effectively utilized since Google will estimate view and click pricing based on incomplete data. In short, without Google Consent Mode v2, your Google ads will be ineffective and unprofitable. The only ones who will gain from this delay in implementation will be your competitors who introduced the changes earlier.

Are you ready with GCM v2 compliance yet? Were your brands or campaigns affected by this change?

Gaming has a large advertising audience and is still growing

According to the latest report from the IAB , advertising in games has become the top growth area for marketers. Games continue to grow in popularity and advertising in them has surged in recent years. This is why 86% of marketers indicate that games are of growing importance to their company, and the space is crucial to their strategies.

In 2024, 40% of marketers are set to boost spending on gaming advertising, tying the growth of spending with digital video, and surpassed only by social media at 47%. Only 10% plan to decrease this spending, while 50% plan to stay the course. In-game advertising can take many forms, such as branded worlds, rewards, intrinsic in-game activations, advergames, and sponsored content, among others.

Just the U.S. audience in gaming advertising has surpassed 213 million unique users, while the current 2024 ad spend of $8.53 billion is expected to grow to $11.49 by 2027. Games outperform on click-through rates, with 67% of advertisers rating them as good or excellent on this front. It is also highly measurable, according to the report. 85% of marketers indicated they are confident in measuring ad performance in games, while 68% utilize the same metrics as on other platforms, indicating these two advertising realms are easily comparable with each other. Ad engagement, click-through metrics, conversion, sales, and brand lift are all popular metrics, each of them used by over 40% of marketers.

According to the IAB report, gaming advertising is no longer perceived as a mere gimmick, as 35% of marketers have a dedicated games-specific budget, and only 9% use research and experimental budgets to pay for games advertising. It is also funded from general media budgets (33%) and device-specific budgets (23%). A staggering 78% of marketers continuously use gaming advertising throughout the year, instead of one-off activations.

Are your brands already present in the gaming space? What's your dedicated gaming ad budget in 2024?

Tik-Tok is digging its heels in to avoid being sold off

The recent sell-off bill proposed in the U.S. would force the TikTok owner, ByteDance, to sell the app to a U.S. company in order to address potential national security concerns.

The latest effort in TikTok's defense from said bill is a new ad campaign, highlighting the benefits TikTok provides to U.S. users. It will be aired on TV in the U.S. states of Nevada, Montana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The concept of the campaign is to pressure the Senators of those states who are facing tough battles for reelection to oppose the bill. The estimated cost of the ad campaign is $2.1 million.

The premise of the ad, however, is misleading at best. TikTok would not be banned as a result of the bill, only forced into U.S. ownership in order to alleviate concerns of foreign adversaries wielding mass influence on the American public. As tensions increase in U.S. / China relations on several fronts, the primary concern is the usage of TikTok as a propaganda tool against U.S. voters. This concern is based on previous Chinese influence operations , as well as TikTok's own direct links to the Chinese Communist Party. The developers of TikTok, Bytedance, work closely with the Chinese government on content control and regulations. While TikTok operates only outside of China, the history of Chinese influence in other nations does suggest that TikTok could become a means of such propaganda. For example, in 2022, Google disrupted over 50,000 instances of a Chinese influence program called "Dragonbridge" across media such as YouTube, Blogger, and AdSense. In Q3 2023, Meta detected many instances of Chinese influence operations, removing almost 5,000 Facebook profiles .

Chinese officials have also already previously attempted to influence trends on TikTok , in order to present a more favorable view of CCP policies. Independent investigations have also discovered that hundreds of current Bytedance and TikTok employees have previously worked for Chinese, government-controlled, state media.

All of those indicators, in the current climate of geopolitical clashes between the U.S. Government and China over the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the control over the South China Sea and Taiwan, are real sources of concern, leading to the push for the app's sell-off to a U.S. entity. The CCP, in turn, has signaled that it will not allow a forced sell-off of the app either way , which indeed may result in a full ban under such utter lack of compliance. This is, however, not the proposal's general intent, and TikTok's continued misleading statements seem to have rankled some of the senators.

It will take some time until the bill proceeds to the next stage. In the meantime, we can expect TikTok to continue pushback, in order to maintain its ownership structure.

What is your brand's plan in the unlikely case TikTok does get banned from the U.S. market? Do you expect the EU market to follow with a similar resolution?

Google dethroned as search engine among Gen-Z

“A seismic shift is reshaping how consumers find local businesses. The old guard of search engines is being challenged as younger shoppers turn to Instagram and TikTok for search and discovery. For businesses, a robust presence on these platforms isn’t just beneficial – it’s critical to winning market share with younger consumers.”

- Damian Rollison, director of market insights at SOCi

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Even though search remained the company's core segment in Q4 2023 , up 12.7% to $48 billion, the latest findings from SOCi, Inc. echo other reports, as well as leaked internal research from Google themselves, that Gen-Z are increasingly looking towards social media for search.

When Gen-Z (categorized by SOCi as those aged 18-24) are looking for local businesses to shop in person, social media such as Instagram (67%) and TikTok (62%) are ahead of Google (61%). While Google Search and Google Maps still dominate the top two spots for local search among older generations, social media gain more traction even there. Facebook takes the third sport among all generations, followed by Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Facebook specifically holds sway as a local search platform among two-thirds of consumers aged 35-44 and 60% of those 25-34, while Instagram appeals to 50% and 54% of those groups, respectively.

Among older demographics, however, Google still remains the top local search destination. It has the loyalty of 79% of the 55-64 age group, 76% of the 35-44 bracket, and 74% of those aged 45-54. Similarly, Google Maps is the go-to for 60% of consumers aged 55-64 and 57% of the 45-54 demographic.

Other disruptors, like ChatGPT, are also a threat to Google in the search domain. Google's own Gemini AI solution seems to be the direct response to this threat. Both ChatGPT and Gemini AI have faced their own issues with misinformation that other AI tools have previously already experienced. Google announced that it is going to improve the quality of its search results with new algorithmic enhancements and improved spam policies. This move is expected to weed out low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by up to 40%.

How will your local brands and stores be discovered by your customers? Will your strategies rely mostly on Google's dominant power, or are you expanding their presence to social media, directly seeking the attention of the younger generations?

What's new at Whatagraph?

March went by fast and with a couple of important updates. Learn more below.

Improved source connections process

We improved the source connection experience when it's done from within a report.

Now, you don't need to switch from the report-building environment to the Source Management and back for any new sources you'd like to add.

Even with sources like Ahrefs that require inputting additional information to establish the connection, it's all done seamlessly now.

Previously, source names would be fetched as they are in the API. And those were the names you would see in your widgets.

Rename sources at report level

This update allows you to rename sources for clarity instead of having pre-defined names for multiple websites, social media groups, or paid ad sources.

For example:

• Rename multiple ad accounts connected to the report and clarify what they represent.
• Update the source name if a source-level filter is applied.
• Change internal naming to something more straightforward for your end reader.

Please note: Changing a source name will only affect the specific report.

On top of that, we are working on some significant improvements in the Data Transfer space. It's coming your way in April, so stay tuned!

As usual, if you have any questions or requests or wish to track the updates live, visit our Changelog .

That's all for this month! If you enjoyed this issue, please follow us on LinkedIn and stay subscribed to the Summarized to receive more updates in the future.

The Whatagraph Team