Google Ads News
Valentine SERP
Tiago Goncalves just showed me this Valentine SERP! He also saw a valentine call to action that went to a dedicated shopping page.
Hurdle deprecation third-party cookies
Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies is facing a hurdle as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has raised concerns regarding competition issues related to Google’s Privacy Sandbox program.
The CMA has expressed concerns about Google benefiting from user data while limiting competitors’ access, potentially advantaging its ad tech services, and hindering the identification of fraudulent activity by publishers and advertisers.
A delay in deprecation could give brands additional time to explore alternatives. However, Google still has time to address the concerns before the planned deprecation in the second half of 2024.
The CMA is working with Google to resolve these issues and will provide an update in its next quarterly report in April 2024.
The CMA aims to ensure fair competition and is particularly focused on addressing concerns related to the design of Privacy Sandbox tools and preventing self-preference of Google’s advertising services.
For more information visit SearchEngineland.
Pmax Audit dashboard
During the latest video of Google Marketing Platform Google launched:
– Pmaximizer
– Pmax Audit Dashboard
The Pmaximizer should give you a clear overview:
– Performance
– Asset performance and scoring
– Improving feed data and identifying high and low-performance products
The installation should take 20 minutes to 1 hour.
For the installation you need:
– Google Ads Dev Token
– Google Cloud project
– Technical team member
The Pmax Audit Dashboard:
– find performance gaps
– Assets clarification
– actionable next step
Difference between audit dashboard and Pmaximizer:
– No Ads dev token needed
– But more limited insights
– customization is limited
– No developer needed
The Audit form is only for premium CSS users in EEA + UK + CH who spend at least 300k quarterly.
Worldwide you just need to ask your account team.For more information visit YouTube.
Genius
Christoph Scherf wrote that Google has released an opensource solution to create captivating product descriptions with Gemini Pro. It’s now available on GitHub and it is called Description Genius.
Google is sunsetting Commissions (per Stay) and Commissions (per Conversions) bid strategies!
As the travel industry rebounds and faces technological shifts, Google is adapting to support businesses in this changing landscape.
With upcoming changes such as the phase-out of third-party cookies, Google is transitioning to more durable strategies for business growth.
To address these changes, Google is sunsetting Commissions (per Stay) and Commissions (per Conversions) bid strategies for Hotel Ads by October 2024 due to their reliance on third-party cookies.
Google is now introducing target Return on Ads Spend (tROAS) for Hotel campaigns and expanding Performance Max for travel goals solutions.
Transition timeline:
– February 2024: Commissions (per Stay) no longer accepts new allowlist requests.
– April 30, 2024: Commissions (per Stay) and Commissions (per Conversions) bid strategies will be unavailable within Google Ads.
– October 31, 2024: Campaigns using Commission-based bid strategies will cease, with historical reporting data remaining accessible.
Google recommends transitioning to tROAS or Performance Max for travel goals before October 2024 for continued campaign functionality.
Getting started with the Java Client Library
Google has announced a new video series just published on YouTube channel, titled “Getting started with the Java Client Library”.
The seven episodes guide you through all the steps required to create a Google Ads campaign with the Java client library from scratch. For more information go to YouTube.
New optimization score & recommendation
New optimization score + recommendations in campaign set-up Thomas Eccel found out that Google is now showing the optimization score and recommendations when you create a new campaign!
Announcing iOS Google Mobile Ads SDK Version 11.0.0
Google has announced that version 11.0.0 of the Google Mobile Ads SDK is now available.
Google recommends upgrading as soon as possible to get the latest features and performance improvements.For more information go to this link.
New Ad test
Dario Zannoni found out that Google is now testing with two horizontal ads!
Deprecating Commissions Bidding Strategy
On April 30, 2024, the creation of hotel campaigns with COMMISSION bidding strategy will sunset.For more information visit Google’s webpage.
Select all or clear all
Natasha Kaurra sent me a message today about the new recommended columns. Now I already posted about that one.
But Artur MacLellan also sent me a message with have you already seen the new select all or clear all function.
Now I have not posted about that update! So Google has also implemented this new function into the columns section!
LSA Error
Google investigating a Local Service Ads tactic destroying leads for businesses.
This Google loophole enables competitors to manipulate the system, making your ads invisible without your knowledge.
For more information visit SearchEngineLand.
Linked section > data manager
Looks like Google is going to move linked accounts and tagging to data manager!
Shopping Ads below maps
Sébastien Guillé send me this picture! Is it new that Google is showing shopping ads below maps!
Sign-in page changing
Natasha Kaurra just send me this message! Looks like Google is improving the sign-in page soon.
New Gmail Ad label
Arpan Banerjee sent me this message where Google is now showing the sponsored label for Gmail instead of the ad label.
New Attribute Bulk_Price
Emmanuel Flossie found out that Google has introduced a new attribute for shopping called bulk_price.
This attribute allows you to offer tiered pricing based on the number of order quantities.
Google pushing more recommendations through mail
Sorry for the Dutch language but Geert Groot found out that Google is persuading us again to use more recommendations. They are doing this with this new format.
New privacy mail
Thomas Eccel & Esther Sauri found out that Google has sent a new privacy feature that gives users more choices over the ads you see.
Google already sent this e-mail a year ago but now they are sending it again or they are launching it in different regions.
Mike Rhodes Script v50
Mike Rhodes 💡 has released The Insights Script v50.
The improvements:
– Fixed some bugs
– added support for campaign name filtering
– improved speed of reports
– improved fetching settings from sheet
– simplified date ranges
If you want to buy the script go to his website.
Search term categories
Search term categories your Ad appears for Arpan Banerjee just sent me this picture.
With the insights beta for search term categories your ad appears for. Not new but looks like more accounts are now getting acces to this feature. Very handy feature.
Crawling 14 days to 21 days
Google is now going to crawl your website for dynamic search ads less frequently. Before it was 14 days now it is 21 days.
Testing Branded Search Local Service Ads
Anthony Higman found out that Google is in the final stage of testing Branded Search Local Service Ads!
The opt-out will be available for everyone and more information will follow soon!
New way to push full Pmax
Thomas Eccel found this new asset group pop-up that pushes users to make a full Pmax Campaign!
The Region-Based consent update
The Region based content section update was an inadvertent update that will be rolled back to wait for a proper release.(source Simo Ahava)
YouTube expands Ad control
YouTube is expanding Ad control withContent Takeovers, this allows brands to advertise on:
– Entire creator channels
– Custom lineups
– Playlists
– Specific videos(source).
Negative audience segments
Negative audience segments can now only by added in the interface for YouTube. Found by Tiago Goncalves.
Google Analytics news
New data retention feature
Kyle Rushton McGregor spotted the new user data retention feature in GA4!
Link subproperties
Google has added the ability to link your subproperties and roll-up properties with Search Ads 360 and Display & Video 360.
GA4 update
Google has added user-scoped, session-scopped and event-scoped variations of 8 new platform-agnostic traffic source dimension!
These new dimensions can be applied for paid and organic traffic.And across Google media and third-party media.
These new dimensions are populated based on the UTM parameter values passed in click URLsFor the apps these new UTM values are now passed in the campaign_details event for mobile apps:
-FirebaseAnalytics.Param.CAMPAIGN_ID
-FirebaseAnalytics.Param.SOURCE_PLATFORM
For more information go the the GA4 page.
Parameter limit
Google has increased the event parameter limit for event parameter values collected through the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK for Mobile apps from 100 tot 500 characters.
Policy update
Political Content Policy update
In March 2024, Google will update its political content policy to include a Mexico Election Ads policy.
Policy update sensitive events
Menachem Ani Ⓜ️ just sent me this message that the policy update for sensitive events also impacts Google Free listings!
Update North Carolina
Google has updated their Gambling and games policy for North Carolina!