Google Ads news
New Demand Gen feature
Carolin Carvalho da Silva & Thomas Eccel found out that Google Ads has rolled out a big update for Demand Generation campaigns, introducing the ability to select the preferred format for ads.
This beta feature, called “Set ad format preferences,” allows advertisers to choose where their video ads will appear.
Update suspended accounts
In June 2024, Google will limit the functionality of suspended accounts. Advertisers will be informed in-product that their suspended account will have limited functionality.
They will be able to access their suspended accounts but will be limited to the following actions:
– Billing options: Make a payment, download tax documents, add a payment method
– Account settings: Cancel account and claim refunds
– Appeals and verification: Appeal a suspension, complete advertiser verification
– Security Settings: Update security settings within the Google Ads account
– Navigate to any page on their Google Ads account
What’s App extension documentation
Arpan Banerjee found the What’s App extension in April. And now Hana Kobzová found out that Google has released an article about it!
Message assets in Google Ads let you set up an ad asset or button within your responsive search ads.
Once set up, clicks from users are directed to WhatsApp, enabling customers to initiate a conversation with your business.
These assets are applicable for use in Search and Performance Max campaigns in Brazil or India.For more information read this article.
Wrestling with GA4 BigQuery exports?
Say hello to GA4 Dataform! Christoph Scherf just posted about Google’s latest open source solution that revolutionizes your analytics game by transforming GA4 raw data into sleek, modular BigQuery tables.
Key Features:
– Last-click attribution models for sessions & events
– Custom attribution model development support
For more information check this Github link.
Safari 18 can block Display Ads
Apple is testing a feature called “Web Eraser” in Safari 18, allowing users to remove specific portions of web pages, including banner ads, images, text, or entire page sections.
The erasure is persistent across browsing sessions, and Safari notifies users when visiting modified pages, giving them the option to revert changes.
This feature seems inspired by third-party apps like 1Blocker.
For more information read this article.
Market observer
Smarter Ecommerce (smec) has released the market observer again. Below you see some charts that they have uploaded! For more information go to this page.
Google Ads Benchmarks 2024 New Trends & Insights for Key Industries
WordStream by LocaliQ has released their Google Ads Benchmarks 2024: New Trends & Insights for Key Industries.
Some key trends:
– Click-through rate improved for most industries
– Cost per click increased for 86% of industries
– Conversion rate decreased for 12 out of 23 industries
– Cost per lead increased for 19 out of 23 industries
For more information go to this page.
SGE Rollout
Google is rolling out SGE to everybody in the US. This change can have impact on your Ads!
Assign users and groups to report collections for Analytics 360
Arpan Banerjee just sent me that as an administrator of an Analytics 360 property, you can now assign users or groups to report collections, enabling you to customize your report collections to different user bases.
New recommendations
Natasha Kaurra found out that Google is now showing headlines, descriptions and images below the Pmax asset recommendation.
Update Google Analytics API
Google Analytics Data API has been updated with a new feature called Comparisons.
This feature allows users to evaluate subsets of their data side by side.
The update includes changes to the core reporting methods of Data API v1beta to support the comparisons field.
Users can specify basic comparisons using dimensionFilter expressions or use saved comparisons by providing the comparison’s resource name.
The getMetadata method now lists all saved comparisons available for a property. Saved comparisons can currently only be created using the Google Analytics UI.
Comparison filter Looker Studio
Josh Silverbauer found out that the new GA4 comparison filter now also is available in Looker Studio.
New AI overview
Explanation Beta Interesting Brent Neale found this click and conversion explanation beta at the top of his account overview.
Ads that send multiple messages to companies?
Arpan Banerjee just gave me a heads-up about the findings from Matt Casady & Barry Schwartz.
They found and posted that you can send messages to different advertisers…
Netflix will launch its own advertising platform
Netflix made a big announcement during its Upfronts presentation, revealing plans to launch its own advertising technology platform just a year and a half after entering the ads business.
This move puts it in direct competition with industry giants like Google, Amazon, and Comcast, initially Netflix partnered with Microsoft for its ad tech, but now it’s bringing the technology in-house, indicating a significant shift in its advertising strategy.
This change will give Netflix more control over creating targeted and personalized ad experiences for its massive user base of 270 million subscribers.
Netflix aims to move away from generic advertisements and experiment with “episodic” campaigns that tell a story rather than repeating the same ads. Additionally, Netflix is expanding its buying capabilities by partnering with platforms like The Trade Desk, Google’s Display & Video 360, and Magnite.
The company also shared the success of its ad-supported tier, noting that it has 40 million monthly active users globally, with 5 million users joining within six months of its launch.
YouTube Front
During YouTube Newfront Google released the new Video Reach Campaigns Non-Skippable & branded QR codes.
This campaign type is the newest AI-powered video campaign type optimized for the living room.
New account administrator requests
Google Ads is rolling out a new feature that allows the account administrator to request its users to switch from a regular personal email address to a business email address.
Google’s new AI image generation tool
Google’s new AI image generation tool will not make brand names & logos!
Two new Looker Studio updates
New event logging attributes are now available for the Looker Studio log event data source.
These attributes let Looker Studio administrators audit and monitor how Looker Studio users in their organization interact with schedules and alerts.
Besides that Looker data sources now display LookML filters.
Filters that are defined in LookML models with the conditionally_filter and always_filter LookML parameters are now displayed in Looker Studio charts with a Looker data source.
New YouTube report
Davis found out that it looks like Google added a new YouTube search term report where you can also exclude keywords and topics.
New YouTube Subtype
Shailesh Kabra found this campaign subtype in Ads called: subscriptions and engagement.
I have seen it before but it could be marked as new in your account.
AI Overviews
Thomas Eccel wrote an awesome post about Google which has introduced AI Overviews in the US as part of the Search Generative Experience (SGE). This new feature targets more complex queries, providing users with more value by showing fewer ads and more information.
Despite the reduction in ads, some Google Ads will still appear in AI Overviews. Examples include Shopping Ads directly beneath the AI results and large Google Maps Ads, managed by Pmax using location data. Local businesses might need to adjust their campaigns to remain visible in local searches.
The exact percentage of queries generating AI Overviews hasn’t been disclosed, but it’s estimated to be around 5-10%. Advertisers should start preparing for these changes.