BREAKING NEWS
Smart campaigns are goneVishal Nihalani just texted me that smart campaigns are gone and that they will transition in Pmax campaigns!
Bug Demand Gen
Leslie Drechsler discovered this bug where Google Ads mislabels Demand Gen campaigns as Display Network!
Google has a monopoly?
A U.S. federal judge ruled that Google has violated antitrust laws, declaring it a monopoly in the search industry.
This decision could significantly alter how users access information online. The court found that Google maintained its monopoly by spending billions on exclusive contracts with companies like Apple, hindering competitors such as Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo.
Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling stated that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by engaging in anticompetitive behavior.
While the court did not find a monopoly in search ads, the case is considered one of the largest antitrust cases since the Microsoft case in the early 2000s.
The ruling may lead to penalties for Google, potentially including a “choice screen” for users to select their preferred search engine and a monetary fine.
Google plans to appeal the decision, asserting that its popularity stems from being the best search engine.
The case against Google marks a significant victory in a series of antitrust lawsuits against Big Tech companies.
The decision might also impact future antitrust cases against other tech giants like Apple and Amazon, signaling the government’s stance against exclusive contracts used by monopolistic firms.
Additionally, the ruling could affect Google’s dominance in artificial intelligence, as control over search data provides a significant advantage in AI development.
The ruling emphasizes the broader implications for business contracts and the economy, possibly influencing other tech antitrust cases and highlighting the risks of exclusive agreements.
Critics argue that this decision benefits Microsoft more than consumers, as it might lead to Bing becoming the default search engine in some cases. The outcome could change the landscape of internet use and competition in the tech industry.
Recommended
Thomas Eccel discovered that Google is now pushing the networks with a new recommended name behind the search partners network and the display network!
Slideshow shopping
Looks like Google is again testing with slideshows in shopping! Found by Felix Mayo.
Python 3.8
In October 2024, Python 3.8 will reach end-of-life and will no longer be supported by the Python Software Foundation.
Once Python 3.8 officially reaches end-of-life status, it will also no longer be supported by the Google Ads client library for Python.
– Python 3.7 users will lose access to the API when v15 is sunset on September 25, 2024
– Python 3.8 users will lose access to the API when v18 is sunset in Q3 or Q4 2025.Any library users currently relying on Python 3.7 or 3.8 should upgrade their systems to Python 3.9 or higher as soon as possible.
Half-screen video ads
Anthony Higman discovered a new YouTube format featuring half-screen video ads.
Pantheon
Christoph Scherf posted that Google has launched open-source solutions that enhances server-side GTM.
This tool enables businesses to gather, transform, and share first-party data.
This empowers improved reporting, bidding, audience management, and data pipelines. For more information go to this website.
New box test
Vijay Chauhan 📈 & Barry Schwartz discovered that Google is testing with featured options box in Ads!
LSA profile photos
Starting today Google will begin selecting photos from your LSA profile to show in your ads.
New sitelink design
Anthony Higman discovered this new sitelink design!
Forced payment change
Thomas Eccel discovered this new account switch tool for accounts that need to change to monthly credit card invoicing!
Google announced the release of v17_1 of the Google Ads API
Key Updates:
– ShareablePreviewService.GenerateShareablePreviews() generates the URLs for shareable ad previews for enabled and paused asset groups. The URLs are available for a limited amount of time and the expiration date is returned in the response.
– AdGroupAdService.RemoveAutomaticallyCreatedAssets() allows you to remove specified automatically created assets linked to Responsive Search Ads.
– Support for returning ASSET_GROUP as a new Change Status resource type.New report for retrieving offline conversion diagnostics, offline_conversion_upload_conversion_action_summary. This supports returning information about the overall health of your conversion upload and adjustment processes at the conversion action level.
– Added metrics to the offline diagnostics reports to convey the number of uploaded conversions that are still being processed. See Monitor offline data diagnostics for updated information.
– Added segments.sk_ad_network_version which represents the version of the SKAdNetwork API, such as 3.0, 4.0.
– Support for segmenting per_store_view based on segments.date.
– Support for retrieving information related to standard bidding strategies for video campaigns (Fixed CPM (cost per thousand impression) and Target CPV (cost per view)) using reports.
– Added segments.ad_format_type to segment some compatible reports (such as ad_group and campaign based on the video ad format type.
LSA Bug
Tom Waddington discovered this bug in LSA!
New formatting options for the bin calculated field type in Looker Studio:
New formatting options for the Bin calculated field type let you customize the appearance of ad hoc numeric tiers. These options include:
Interval “[x,y)” — This format displays the range including x, and up to but not including y.
Integer “x to y” — This format must be used with discrete integer values (such as age).
Relational “>= x and < y” — This format is best used with continuous numbers (such as dollars).
GMC Bug
Marko Rajkovic discovered that the classic merchant center has an error when you go to the price competitiveness report!
New Google Ads recommendation!
Hana Kobzová posted that Casey Gill found this new recommendation!
Promotion SDF
Google has announced the promotion of the Structured Data Files (SDF) QA format to general availability!
Google Bug Fixed
Hana Kobzová discovered that the Google Ads Outage is now fixed.
The issue has been going on since August 1st, Google Ads was experiencing a data breach showing competitor data and you could now see product results.
Value-based bidding
Google released a few new videos on value-based bidding!Check them here.