Google Ads News
Key events
Emmanuel Flossie discovered that conversion settings have been changed to key event setup!
Mid-roll
Starting May 12, 2025, YouTube is updating its mid-roll ad placement system to improve ad quality and reduce interruptions.
Ads will now be placed at natural break points, like pauses and transitions, to minimize disruption and decrease viewer drop-off.
Currently, creators can manually insert mid-roll ads or allow YouTube’s system to place them automatically.
With the update, YouTube’s detection process will enhance automatic placements while also introducing a hybrid approach, allowing both manual and automatic placements simultaneously.
If YouTube detects a better placement than a creator’s manual selection, it may override it. YouTube claims this change will increase mid-roll revenue, as experiments have shown a 5% average revenue boost for channels using both auto and manual mid-rolls.
Additionally, a new feature will alert creators if their manually placed ads are considered interruptive, giving them a chance to adjust.
As part of this update, older videos uploaded before February 24, 2025, with manual mid-rolls will also receive automatic ad placements at natural break points.
Creators in the YouTube Partner Program can opt out of these additional placements via YouTube Studio.
However, videos with poorly placed mid-rolls may see a drop in revenue after the update.
These changes aim to optimize monetization while improving the overall viewing experience.
I noticed this update because of Georgi Zayakov, thanks for sharing!
Google Bug
Monday, Google confirmed the zero impression bug.
Google said, “We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Ads.
We will provide more information shortly.
The affected users are able to access Google Ads, but are seeing error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behavior.”The bug happened for users on March 1 and could be related to the switch from Ecpc to cpc.
Because of this bug, some Google Ads users get 0 impressions…
Note that the bug was fixed in a few hours and started on Sunday.
Key drivers
Arpan Banerjee discovered that Google is showing him some reasoning with “Key Drivers” in the GA4 beta!
Simplified cost import
Cristina Ortuño Rebé discovered that Google Ads has simplified cost imports with the updated Data Import.
Only source, media, and date are now required. Campaign_name and campaign_id are optional but recommended for more detailed reporting.
Without them, data will be aggregated.
Mystery Shopper Rating
Barry Schwartz discovered a new rating program!
Since mid-2024, a website’s store rating dropped to 3.5 despite previously having high ratings from Google Customer Reviews.
The drop seemed unexplained, and after months of back-and-forth with Google Support, it was finally revealed that a “Mystery Shopper Rating” was affecting the overall score.
However, Google provided no documentation, no transparency on the rating criteria, and no clear steps to improve or appeal the score.
Triple Ad serving on website
Crazy, Anthony Higman discovered this triple ad serving. For the full video check this link.
New Google Ads Help Center design
Google Ads has changed the design of help pages and they are testing summaries above the page!
New Alert GA4?
Arpan Banerjee just texted me that he got the GA4 not set under various sources with notification.
Location setting change….
I just got a message from Akash Soni that Google changed the location settings in active campaigns.
Before, you had a map where you could see the areas you were targeting.
Now Google just gives you a field where you can fill in the areas.
From a bulk perspective, copy-pasting very useful.
But we used to already have that option?So why would you remove the map
BIG NEWS – New AI-powered shopping upgrades
Google just announced new visual shopping upgrades:
Vision match → Describe an outfit. AI finds it.
Virtual makeup try-on → Test celebrity-inspired looks in AR.
Expanded clothing try-on → See pants & skirts on real body types.
The future of shopping is more personalization, interactivity & sales
New Request reviews in bulk
Emmanuel Flossie discovered that you can now dispute & request a review in bulk. This is only available for some issues.
Merchant Center Bug
Emmanuel Flossie discovered that some Advertisers are experiencing problems with the shipping cost in Merchant Center. The fix? Add shipping rates in the data feed!
YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program
Arpan Banerjee texted me that the YouTube shopping affiliate program started rolling out in Merchant Center Next with dedicated pages for Creators List, Commissions etc.
Shopping Insights
Arpan Banerjee just sent me that Google is launching shopping insights, When your website offers a competitive price, Chrome will show customers a shopping insights notification in their browser bar.
New shopping Ads test
Arpan Banerjee just sent me these new shopping ads. Are they part of PMax? I have never seen these before!
Energy efficiency class attributes Change
From April 8th, the energy efficiency class attributes for goods sold in EU countries will be replaced by the more general certification attribute to ensure compliance with EU labeling requirements.
This applies to both rescaled and non-rescaled labels. However, the energy efficiency class attributes will still be available for products sold in Norway, Switzerland, and the UK, where displaying the energy efficiency class is required, but registration in the EU EPREL database is not necessary.
Pmax bug
Thomas Eccel discovered that Pmax had a bug with the Table!
LSA Update
Anthony Higman got a mail telling him that his Google Business Profile is now associated with Local Service Ads.
Last October Google began requiring LSA accounts to have Google Business Profile listings.
Resume Shopping
Arpan Banerjee discovered that Google is showing a resume shopping option!
NEW Experiment Power score
Looks like Google has released a new feature because I have never heard about this.
This feature called Campaign Guidance helps you improve your Google Ads experiments by providing an Experiment Power score indicating the likelihood of statistically significant results long with actionable recommendations.
Available for Search and Performance Max campaigns, this feature helps optimize experiments and make informed decisions.
Benefits:
More effective experiments: Avoid inconclusive results and long experiment durations.
Faster insights: Make data-driven optimizations to improve performance.
Personalized recommendations: Adjust budgets, durations, or campaign selections for better results.
Simplified setup: Clear explanations and steps for running successful experiments.
Experiment Power Categories:
– Low (0-49%)
– Medium (50-79%)
– High (80-99%)
For more information, check this page.
New Partner Connections
Looker Studio launched some new updates for its partner connections!
New docs
Looks like Google has released new docs on Pmax for marketplaces. For more information check this page.