Google

Perplexity has joining Team Anthropic in the AI Trust Wars ads front:

> AI search startup Perplexity is distancing itself from ads amid fears users won’t trust chatbots with an agenda to upsell.

This is a departure from the Google playbook Perplexity seemed to be following. Though te door has already been left open for revisiting ads.

Apple built its rep on privacy. AI platforms are now trying to build their reps on trust.

LinkedIn is joining the modern dynamic ad movement:

> Advertisers can upload up to four images or videos at once and draft up to five headlines and descriptions that will automatically be mixed and matched to generate up to 64 unique ad versions in minutes.

This is like Google’s responsive ads or Meta’s dynamic offering (if that still exists).

LinkedIn will only deliver an ad once every 48 hours to a user, presumably this approach avoids that entirely.

> Reddit Isn’t a Traffic Source Anymore. It’s a Search Engine.

This is the change happening with all platforms. Everything is a search and discovery engine now.

Specific to Reddit:

> Reddit is no longer just a ranking factor inside Google. It’s becoming the destination where buying decisions are researched and finalized, and because Reddit content is now one of the most-cited sources in AI answers.

Don’t ask where your Google traffic is going.
Ask where your traffic is coming from now.
And where it should be coming from.

Google pushed hard into AI-in-search, but has (reportedly) scaled that back a bit. This is after the zero click revolution, of course.

Now it seems like maybe Big G is figuring out there is a middle ground where humans like to be. Clicking and exploring, but not having to do all the filtering work themselves (especially in a post-SEO hellscape).

> Google recently rolled out “read more” links in Google search results, which appear at the end of the snippet’s description. When you click on the read more link, you are anchored down to a specific portion of the web page that you clicked on.

Perplexity finally found its social network…kind of.

The Google-but-AI search engine inked a deal with Snapchat to be it’s in-app AI answer engine. For the low, low price of $400 million.

> Starting in early 2026, Perplexity will appear in the popular Chat interface for Snapchatters around the world. Through this integration, Perplexity’s AI-powered answer engine will let Snapchatters ask questions and get clear, conversational answers drawn from verifiable sources, all within Snapchat.

Jyll is my go to for Google Ads insight, so this caught my attention:

> Too many assets means your ad will take too long to learn and optimize - or never learn at all. 8-10 headlines and 3 descriptions is plenty for most advertisers

Google wants all the robot food, but maybe all is too much.

It makes sense… 🤔

Google ruling LLM 101:

> chatbots now routinely incorporate into their responses fresh information from the internet or other sources through a process known as grounding

> before, an LLM’s response was time-limited by the end date of its training data…through grounding an LLM can now access content beyond its training data, such as web pages in a search index, to provide more recent and more accurate information

> pre-training creates a base (or foundation) model, which is then post-trained (or fine-tuned) on collections of data so that the base model can perform specialized tasks

Forgot one in my earlier post

Big G has tweaked how search ads appear now:

• All ads will appear under one larger “Sponsored Results” header (like the “People Also Ask” section)
• “At the bottom of the section you’ll see a button to hide sponsored results”

via The Verge

Google is continuing its transformation to Meta Ads:

• View-Through Conversion Optimization: “You can now improve upper-funnel results by letting Google Ads optimize for conversions driven by ad views, not just clicks.”
• Story Image Ads in PMax: “Performance Max campaigns now support vertical 9:16 image ads”

The agents are coming: Open Source Google Ads API MCP Server
> The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the open standard that allows Large Language Models (LLMs), like Google Gemini, to connect with and act upon external data sources and applications. By releasing an MCP Server specifically for the Google Ads API, we are making it possible for any MCP-compatible AI application to understand and analyze advertising campaigns through natural language.

YouTube’s new Brand Pulse Report seems like it could be really useful.

> evaluate your brand presence across YouTube by detecting brand mentions via visuals (brand logos, product shots, etc.) and language (audio, video titles, etc.). So, if a creator uses or mentions your product in passing, we recognize it and capture it.
> > incorporating metrics that demonstrate how your paid ads on YouTube can lead to more views on organic videos — a previously underreported value for paid media — and how users seeing both your paid and organic videos together leads to searches for your brand.

OpenAI wants to monetize ChatGPT via ads (which isn’t a surprise, just think of the Google Search budgets waiting to be reallocated).

The company recently hired for a “Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer” (listing is no longer up) that :

> would be responsible for “developing campaign management tools, integrating with major ad platforms, building real-time attribution and reporting pipelines, and enabling experimentation frameworks to optimize our objectives.”

There is currently an open role called Growth - AI Workflows, Martech, Creative Systems that will:

ChatGPT adds Instant Checkout (which sounds a lot like Perplexity’s Pro Shop).

Buy from Etsy sellers (Shopify coming soon) without leaving your chat thread. This continues the trend of every platform trying to become a shopping platform (see: Google Shopping, Meta Shops, TikTok Shop, etc.)

> Merchants pay a small fee on completed purchases, but the service is free for users, doesn’t affect their prices, and doesn’t influence ChatGPT’s product results.

Google and Meta Ads are saturated and automated.

There is no in-platform secret sauce and the days of scaling your sales to the moon on one or the other are in the rear view.

They’re still the best at what they do, but you need something else if you want outsized results.

What’s your new frontier?

Apple wants to release its own AI powered search integrated with Siri, calling it an “answer engine”. Potentially powered by a Google model.

> Apple is rebuilding Siri around three core components: a planner, the search systems for the web and devices, and a summarizer. The planner interprets voice or text input and decides how to respond; the search system scans the web or user data; and the summarizer pulls it all together into an answer.

Meta’s various apps are the closest we have the US to everything apps. The feature sets are deep enough that people can use them in different ways.

> in multiple interviews with 15- to 26-year-olds, Gen Z people, they said that they used Instagram to keep in touch with friends, scope out crushes, build businesses, and pour over cooking videos. But out of all of its features, they seemed least interested in the polished public photo feed that had once been Instagram’s marquee offering.

The modern consumer journey according to DemandCurve:

> 1. They see your ad while doom-scrolling Instagram. They click.
> 2. Something distracts them away from their phone.
> 3. They remember later in the evening (or 3 weeks later) thanks to a Trigger Event.
> 4. They Google your company name.
> 5. They visit your homepage, not the conversion-focused landing page you intended them to hit.

Between screenshots and post save buttons, everything is a bookmarking app now.

Kieran Flanagan posted on LinkedIn:

> SEO isn’t dying. It’s evolving into TV ads. > > Everyone sees your Ad, and no one clicks it. AI assistants turn search into a billboard.

To which I added:

Getting a click or a sale isn’t the purpose of each individual ad or touchpoint. It’s about the aggregate impact.

Each exposure is a seed planted in the mind of the audience member. A field of flowers makes a bigger impact than a solitary bloom.

Yesterday I asked if Amazon leaving Google Shopping is “temporary or a sign that the channel wasn’t worth the money?”

> Google’s dominance in product discovery is under pressure as consumer behavioral shifts and genAI tools reshape how people search, shop, and buy.

The Year of the Splinter is now on year 3 and the era of the mega platform is over.

Google could become this cycle’s Microsoft.

via EMARKETER

This is interesting

> In a recent update, Google has started indexing and sourcing Instagram content.

Now posts and reels function like blog posts from an SEO perspective.

For professional accounts this could mean approaching it more like Pinterest than TikTok.

via Sounds Profitable

attached screenshot from IG announcing the update found online

Add this to the interesting pile:

> Google Shopping ad clicks surge 18% in Q2 as Amazon, Temu pull back

The big low price players dropped spend (thanks tariffs) opening up room in the auction competition for other retailers. And shoppers seemed to like it.

🍵 Reading the tea leaves, people aren’t searching Google Shopping to find products on cost competing aggregator platforms. They either don’t want to buy on Amazon or already searched there and the came to Google.

Remember when a big deal was made about Gen Z using Instagram and TikTok to search for places to eat? Well…

> Gen Z consumers are starting their purchase journeys more often on Google…

But this isn’t a Google Search comeback story:

> properties, including YouTube and Gemini

> While Gen Z shoppers have moved away from Google Search as their primary method of discovery, those losses have been more than offset by YouTube’s growing importance as a channel for product discovery and research

> Early indications suggest that legacy SEO tactics —such as aggressive link building, keyword stuffing, or micro-optimization—will likely diminish in effectiveness. In their place, Google is prioritizing content that demonstrates topical authority, real-world expertise, and clear value to the end user
> > -Ashwini Karandikar

Amazon wants to be the Google Ads of CTV (potentially) moving to auction-based buying.

Lower costs, no delivery guarantees, and (I’d imagine) a workflow many digital-first buyers are more familiar with.

Now for the jargon:

> non-guaranteed delivery across run-of-service (ROS) inventory, targeting any Amazon DSP audience, but with a dynamic pricing model.
> > That pricing flexibility allows real-time bid optimization within a defined range—marketers set a floor and a ceiling, and Amazon’s system works within those bounds to find available impressions.

I misheard “monetization upheaval” (in regards to publishers in the age of AI) as the “monetization of people”

Which, isn’t that really the root here?

The shift to social, the rise of influencers, Substacking the newsroom.

The person is the atomic unit of relationships. Mastheads are molecules.

(hint: it rhymes with “hey why”)

• AI chat-based search for all
• An AI-powered shopping experience with virtual try on
• Gemini in Chrome
• Multi-modal search via camera
• XR glasses

The two main questions for marketers:

• How will this change user behavior?
• How will big G monetize AI search?

We might get some hints during Marketing Live today.

How will marketers react to uncertainty (thanks tariffs!)?

According to EMARKETERS Zach Goldner:

> I think what marketers are going to do is what they always do during turbulent times.
> > Clamp down more on experimental spending
> > Reallocate more toward safer bets, like search > > Lean more into the triopoly: Google, Meta, and Amazon

A Chinese pullback should lead to lower CPMs but be brave

Zig to the above zag

Some Google updates you might have missed earlier this year:

Exclude age groups from shopping placements in Performance Max campaigns

an AI sales assistant in shopping related search results (in testing)

Demand Gen campaigns are adding display network to the placement portfolio at the ad group level (so much for quality).

Video Action Campaigns are being migrated to Demand Gen, but you
> will be able to use Demand Gen to create a YouTube only performance campaign

Could Google’s best anti-trust defense be to play up its coming irrelevance?

> Apple SVP of Services Eddy Cue said last week that AI will one day replace search engines like Google.
> > Cue said he expects Safari to eventually swap out Google for AI services from up-and-comers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity.

Which of course brings to mind the Twain-ism, “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

In the long run, Google’s 10 Blue Links™ approach is likely dead, a former monopoly. But how long is that long run?

Eventually all large platforms become commerce platforms

> When ChatGPT users search for products, the chatbot will now offer a few recommendations, present images and reviews for those items, and include direct links to web pages where users can buy the products.
> > The ChatGPT search update is part of OpenAI’s effort to compete with rival Google by creating a better, more personalized experience to find products and information on the internet.

Perplexity wants to be Google, but based in AI vs. traditional search.

From TechCrunch:

> “That’s kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you,” [CEO Aravind] Srinivas said. “Because some of the prompts that people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It’s not like that’s personal.”

This aligns with the company’s vision and is not a recent pivot, but you can tell they smell blood in the water with Google’s regulatory woes.

Here’s how the DOJ & friends want Google to break up its search monopoly:

• No more paying for default status (this was the obvious ask)
• Get rid of Chrome
• Open source the data—queries, coverage, performance, etc

If it’s still a monopoly in 5 years, Android could be on the chopping block.

The advertising remedies are kind of weird…

> - Provide more information to advertisers in search query reports
> - Let advertisers opt out of broad and automated keyword matching.

The behavior change Manton outlines here is one I find myself mirroring

> I’m now asking AI for simple queries that Google would be equally good for. Using AI essentially automates the workflow of getting 10 links from Google, clicking on 3-4 of them, then skimming the web pages to get your answer.

Getting links in the response plays a part for me.

I imagine this will become more common.

Which is more bad news for Google.

The hits keep on coming for Google

> Google created an illegal monopoly in the online advertising industry, a Federal judge ruled

According to the ruling, Big G pulled some anticompetitive shenanigans with ad servers and exchanges, and hurt publishers and users by doing so.

> The Department of Justice argued that through acquisitions and anticompetitive conduct, Google seized control of the full advertising technology stack: the tools advertisers and publishers buy and sell ads and the exchange that connects them.

The China tariffs are changing the ecommerce landscape in the US as the major players grapple with increased costs.

> Temu and Shein have already cut average daily spending on social media platforms by 31% and 19% in the past 30 days

Temu backed out of Google Shopping entirely.

Auction pressure is going to be a lot different for advertisers.

Recent related tariff posts: analysis trap | ad spend impact

via The Daily Upside

It’s not the magnitude, it’s the trend.

> For the first time since 2015, Google’s global share of the search market fell below the 90% threshold
> > The search giant’s global market share has dropped below 90% in six of the previous seven months

The splintering continues.

via ADWEEK

Google will start using “Landing Page Screenshots for Video Ads for Demand Gen Campaigns” “to improve your YouTube ad performance,” according to emails they’ve been sending to account holders.

I understand all those words, but don’t quite know what this will look like. Couldn’t find any examples.

Google Merchant Center now uses your marketing email content “in places across Google such as Search, Shopping, and Maps.”

From the docs:

> What information does Google extract?
> Google crawls through the marketing content to gather relevant data, including, but not limited to:
>
> - Links to primary social media channels
> - Highlighted social media content
> - Upcoming or current sales and promotions
> - Brand images and videos
> - Brand voice and values

According to Semafor:

> [YouTube] is currently developing a feature that would allow host-read ads to be dynamically inserted and swapped out within individual YouTube videos

Should make it more appealing for podcasters.

But what’s the long term plan? How does Google monetize these ads? Does YouTube want to become a legit podcast hosting platform? Will it build a host read marketplace?

And how does this impact current efforts to place podcast ads via Ads Manager?

Zig to your competitors’ zag and have much success.

It’s science!

> contrarian investment funds far outperform their herd-fund rivals in several performance measurements, and that their managers have found ways to gather information that other managers haven’t figured out.

The study was specific to investment funds, but the thinking holds.

Do the same thing as everyone else and get worse results..

Herd behavior benefits the first movers.

YouTube is making changes to avoid the most annoying ad placement occurrence on the platform, a midroll ad cutting off a sentence.

> Starting May 12, 2025, We’re improving the quality of mid-roll ads on YouTube. That means we’ll show more mid-roll ads at natural break points, like pauses and transitions, and fewer ads where they may feel interruptive or cause viewers to abandon the video, like in the middle of a sentence or action sequence.

Some interesting findings from a study comparing Google Search to chatbot traffic (caveat: chatbot volume is much smaller)

> AI chatbot referrals stay more than a minute longer than Google traffic.

And visit more pages

> The data indicates that homepages are more important in the “AI future” and that AI chatbots qualify users better before sending them out.

and

> AI seems to go counter to the age-old study of “every second a page loads faster, it converts more people.” > > Instead, it pre-qualifies users before they visit a site, which leads to those users being happy to spend more time.

I love a good hierarchy / process workflow for uncovering the core cause of ad performance swings, so this tweet on Google Ads is for me.

> We divide Google Ads metrics into 4 levels: > > Level 1: CPA, ROAS, Conversions
> Level 2: CTR, CR, Clicks, Impressions, CPC
> Level 3: Impression share, Quality score, Ad relevance, Landing page experience
> Level 4: Keyword, ad copy, device, audience segment, geographic.

One of Google’s ad leads (title is ridiculous) sat down for an interview with MediaPost with some nuggets worth sharing.

2025 product focus will be on Performance Max, Demand Gen, and Search.

Also, AI!

His prediction:

> we’re going to continue seeing seismic shifts in consumer search behavior. The lines between actively seeking information and passively discovering it will blur, driven by AI’s increasing ability to understand intent and deliver immersive experiences. > > This means moving beyond simple keywords and embracing a multimodal search landscape where visuals, context, and even our surroundings play a crucial role in how we find what we need

As part of an experiment, I pasted a recent LinkedIn post of mine into Gemini and asked it to:

> rewrite this to be a highly engaging LinkedIn post

The reply:

> Sorry, I’m not able to rewrite content for marketing purposes.

Which is an interesting stand for Google to take. What is it allowed to do?

As an AI, I can't perform actions that could be considered marketing or advertising. This includes:

Read more →

From Platformer’s 2025 predictions:

> Everyone copies Meta Ray-Bans. The other tech giants come around to the idea that glasses, not headsets, are what will turn mixed-reality applications into a mainstream success. By the end of the year, consumers will have multiple good Meta Ray-Ban alternatives to choose from.

Agreed.

From The rise and fall of rationality in language 📝

> All in all, our results suggest that over the past decades, there has been a marked shift in public interest from the collective to the individual, and from rationality toward emotion.

While this is based on “millions of books covering the period from 1850 to 2019 represented in Google nGram data” and the reversal starts in 1980s, I bet the 2007 acceleration owes a big thanks to the iPhone and social media.

I don’t understand this one

> Google is testing a feature that allows the same advertiser to appear twice on a single search results page, which seemingly breaks Google’s own existing ad policies.

I can’t imagine advertisers would want to pay twice to show in the same search. But maybe there will be a bidding option for “all ad slots” or something. Pay for saturation and blocking out competitors.

Travel booking, real estate, and law are industries that come to mind where brands would pony up for this.

Google has added Brand Guidelines to Performance Max campaigns.

A fancy name for moving business name and logo asset entry to the campaign level instead of needing to do it in each asset group.

> This update strengthens control over how your brand is represented in Performance Max campaigns. By centralizing BUSINESS_NAME, LOGO, and LANDSCAPE_LOGO at the campaign level, the new brand guidelines streamline asset management and ensure consistency across automated formats.

Is modern Apple an innovation company or an iteration company?

From Bloomberg:

> In typical Apple style, the company would be entering a space that’s well established but still ripe for reinvention. A Face ID-enabled doorbell and lock system would probably give Amazon Ring and Google Nest some genuine competition.

First Microsoft Ads, now Google Ads: audiences based on interactions with your results and ads on Google and YouTube.

Meet: Google-engaged audiences

> Google-engaged audiences help you to reach users who have previously interacted with your website on Google Search, YouTube, or other Google sites. It automatically generates lists of users who have visited your site from Google properties through clicks on either ads or search results.

Based on my tests, it doesn’t appear you can break out audience based on whether they clicked a paid vs. organic result.

I just concluded a prez to the Blue Ion crew by saying that smart/AR glasses are the next consumer computing wave.

This piece from The Verge makes me feel better about that prediction.

> and the third is the idea that no one device is the future of XR. Headsets, for example, may just be “episodic” devices you use for entertainment. Glasses could supplement phones and smartwatches for discreet notifications and looking up information. > > “The way I see it, these devices don’t replace one another. You’ll use these devices throughout your day,

Everyone’s coming for Meta 😎

Solos challenges Meta’s Ray-Bans with $299 ChatGPT smart glasses

> That allows the AirGo Vision to do things like translate text into different languages, provide directions to nearby locations or landmarks, and give the wearer more information about what they’re looking at.

> A swappable frame system means that you can wear the glasses with or without the camera

To paraphrase Ian Fleming: Once is chance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is a trend.

A good economic rebuttal to some of the requested punishments in the Google anti-trust case.

Defaults matter, but switching also isn’t hard.

Also, it’s a bit late, isn’t it?

> the antitrust case is happening when Google is losing advertising share and is under pressure from a new search technology, Artificial Intelligence. AI search from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Llama, and xAI is very well funded and making rapid progress.

Google may not be killing off cookies, but it is ramping up first-party data features for marketers.

> You can now use customer match to supplement Analytics audiences exported to your linked Google advertising products > > If your data includes user-provided data, any audience exported to Google advertising products will match your consented, hashed customer data with Google data.

Money follows data.

Interesting to see Google continue to shift features into the third-party realm. This time, it’s ad creation tools for YouTube and Display.

> Google will sunset Ads Creative Studio by the end of March 2025, shifting its focus to new growth areas and enhancing partnerships with creative agencies to deliver tailored campaigns at scale. > > For YouTube-specific customizations, advertisers are encouraged to engage third-party partners.

Reddit traffic is exploding thanks to its recent licensing deal with Google.

And some of those visitors are turning into users, adding 31 million daily actives in the last year.

> “Reddit also says that its Weekly Active Unique user count (WAUq) averaged 365.4 million in the third quarter, an increase of 53% year-over-year. The amount of daily to weekly usage here is unusual for social apps, which usually see about 2.3x usage between daily and monthly actives. Reddit seemingly sees a lot more than this, which could point to the less consistent way in which visitors use the app.”

The headline:
> OpenAI is thinking about making its own browser

Not a surprise. They’re also rumored to be working on a phone and more integrations with hardware makers.

“The New Google” is a pretty obvious avenue for them to pursue.

This is why regulator’s reasoning for forcing Big G to sell Chrome feels off.

Google is getting chipped away at from many angles as options proliferate. But a better option is the only thing that will knock the company synonymous with search out of its number 1 spot.

Regulators have submitted their Google punishment wishlist to the judge, and it rivals many a kid’s Christmas list.

The Justice Department wants:

• Chrome sold off
• no playing favorites on Android (& maybe sold)
• can’t buy default status
• no favoring Google services in other Google services
• license search index data to others
• ad cost transparency
• blah blah AI training access blah

No. 3 is the most obvious one on the list. The others range from 🤷 to 😮

Google Analytics 4 adds benchmarking data

> reference metrics that help you compare your business performance against the performance of other businesses in your industry.

> in percentiles (median, 25th, and 75th) based on peer groups of businesses for a wide range of industry categories. The businesses that form the peer groups are determined by an industry category assigned to each property. This industry category is determined by a combination of factors including the broad industry category provided in setup and signals from things like a property’s URLs and App attributes.

Google’s getting ready for shopping szn

Google Lens

> Google Lens can quickly show you product insights tailored to the store you’re in. Just snap a photo to find product information, similar products in-stock, whether a store’s price is competitive and shopper reviews.

Shop Via Maps

> search for products in Maps and find nearby stores selling them

As the moat around Google’s Knowledge Graph erodes in a post-AI world, the “Shopping Graph” may be the next fulcrum for revenue growth.

Google giving us more control?

With brand guidelines, you can control how your brand is represented in your Performance Max campaign automated assets or formats.

Your Performance Max campaigns use Google AI to infer key brand elements using your final URL. You’ll be able to review the brand information Google infers, then can fine-tune your brand guidelines based on your brand and campaign goals.

Guidelines help control generated videos and responsive display and include font, color, name, and logo(s).

I’ve been harping about election campaign spending and its impact on marketing expectations this year for a bit now. So here’s an Election Day post running through it all again. Go vote!

2024 is projected to be a record-breaking year, surpassing $12 billion in political ad spend.

Seventy percent of that windfall will be spent after Labor Day

The Harris campaign has instead focused its digital spending on larger platforms like Google and Meta, where it has spent over $280mn this year. The vast amount of political spending on those platforms — already more than $1.5bn

For context, in the second half of October, political parties spent well over $2.5 million per day on YouTube. For Meta, it’s closer to $1 million per day.

Why won’t I shut up about this?

Perplexity (AI) is adding to its competition with Google (and most major tech platforms), trying to carve itself a slice of that sweet e-commerce pie.

The Pro Shop feature promises free shipping on items bought through Perplexity, enabling customers to complete transactions without leaving the platform. While browsing for products, users will notice a “Buy with Pro” option for eligible items. After selecting it, they will need to enter their billing and shipping details to finalize their purchase.

Perplexity will estimate taxes and purchase the product on behalf of the users on Pro Shop, and users can track purchase status on the platform.

If successful, I imagine this feature will evolve over time and become less manual/personal shopper style on the Perplexity side.

From Google:

Performance Max and Standard Shopping ads will now compete head-to-head in the auction instead of PMax getting preference. A sign that Standard Shopping is here to stay?

Testing: expandable search ads and in-ad search refinements.

The former is like a Google Shopping layout but for search ads when expanded. The latter is your classic search filter like what you see on ecomm sites.

A “For You” feed for Shopping.

> Google will use your recent searches and YouTube history to figure out which products you like.

Some of your ads feel more expensive lately?

This might be why:

> The Harris campaign has instead focused its digital spending on larger platforms like Google and Meta, where it has spent over $280mn this year. The vast amount of political spending on those platforms — already more than $1.5bn

I’m not sure how they’re defining “this year” since the Harris campaign technically started in July when Biden suspended his campaign.

Meta is developing an AI search engine, to be embedded in its Meta AI chatbot. The company has reportedly been indexing the web for at least eight months. 

Meta AI currently uses Google and Bing’s search engines when it fetches users answers about current events, financial markets, and sports.

This highlights a few things:

said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on a call discussing the results with investors. “Over the long term, advertisers will basically just be able to tell us a business objective and a budget, and we’re going to go do the rest for them. We’re going to get there incrementally over time, but I think this is going to be a very big deal.” 

Digital marketers have been speculating this as a potential future, now Zuck has said it out loud. Based on Google’s PMax experience, advertisers won’t like it.

A new study reveals the promise and limitations of interactive TV advertising. The key findings:

• 36% stronger unaided brand recall vs. standard video ads
• 95% of viewers prefer adding products to cart over immediate purchase
• Higher CPMs: 10-15% above industry standards

The real question is: will people want to shop from their TV?

In a sense we already do this when we buy a movie, but that feels different than buying a shirt, etc.

Google wanted advertisers to turn everything over to the algorithms with Performance Max, advertisers pushed back and asked for a peek inside the black box. Big G blinked.

Based on your feedback, we’re starting to roll out conversion metrics to Performance Max asset reporting for all advertisers globally to help you understand what’s working well and further optimize your creative.

YouTube video placement reporting for Performance Max is now rolling out as well, helping you ensure that your ads appear in brand-suitable places.

Oh yeah, and more AI.

> A federal judge ruled that Google violated US antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly in the search and advertising markets.

The advertising portion seems specific to “general search text advertising,” so YouTube shouldn’t be at risk.

We’ll see where this goes, but my guess is Big G won’t be buying default status anymore.

> The prospect of losing tens of billions in guaranteed revenue from Google — which presently come at little to no cost to Apple — disincentivizes Apple from launching its own search engine when it otherwise has built the capacity to do so

From Apple:

> Apple Maps on the web is available in public beta, allowing users around the world to access Maps directly from their browser

I think the importance of maps as an os layer will only grow in importance. Primarily for AR and mobility, but also as an ad platform.

As TikTok and Instagram unseat Google in the realm of local search, I see a realm of possibilities for Meta Maps and SnapMap.

Google has pulled the plug on pulling the plug on third-party cookies in Chrome.

It seems they couldn’t find a privacy-preserving replacement that would also preserve ad revenue.

Per Google:

> we are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing

Basically, Chrome will do what iOS started doing in 2021 with the advent of App Tracking Transparency in 14.5.

Research from Ariyh shows that native ads may have great click rates, but that traffic doesn’t stick around on your site.

(Like Google Ads max clicks and Meta link clicks optimizations.)

> You can improve native ad effectiveness by keeping the landing page the native ad links to in a similar style as the native ad: valuable, interesting, and a soft sell.

Your ad makes a promise. Your landing page delivers on it.

Similar to Google:

> Microsoft Ads is rolling out a new feature called “brand lists” for Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. > > Brand lists allow advertisers to exclude their ads from appearing alongside specific brands, potentially improving ad relevance and return on ad spend (ROAS).

Can pick up to 20 but sounds like you’re limited to a pre-defined list or requesting additions.

via Search Engine Land

Next addition to the Google graveyard: infinite scroll

> Google said this change is to serve the search results faster on more searches, instead of automatically loading results that users haven’t explicitly requested. Loading more results automatically didn’t lead to significantly higher satisfaction with Search

via Search Engine Land

More on the Google ranking factors leak & why it shouldn’t distract you from focusing on users.

> People have long divorced SEO from user experience, I think the two need to work more closely together. Because ultimately you need someone to come to your page and stay there. That is a signal that Google is using. > > -Mike King

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is search engine optimization (SEO).

via Today in Digital Marketing

Google’s search ranking factors leaked & the SEO world has been doing its best Shark Week impression trying to digest the info and tease out the secrets contained within.

It’s over 14k attributes.

I haven’t dug in yet, but I agree with this approach:

> Ultimately, you want to build content that people like. That people want to click on. That people want to consume. That people want to share. That people just want to go back to. > > -Barry Schwartz

What do you get when you mix Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+?

Pinterest Performance+

Similar to the others: streamlined creation flows, fewer levers to pull, (platform-touted) increased performance.

> Early testing saw over 10% improvement in cost per acquisition for conversion and catalog sales campaigns.
> Consideration campaigns saw a more than 10% improvement in cost per click.

via Adweek

Blake Droesch on the type of brand that won’t be disrupted by AI And other technologies (~25:21):

> The authentic brand is the one that is going to stand out. That was true yesterday, it’s true today, and it will be true in the years to come.

& Bill Fisher (~25:40):

> Every brand’s going to have a core audience. And you need to speak to that audience in a relatable way. That’s what your brand personality is—or should be.

> Google is emailing advertisers to notify them it will soon begin automatically pausing low-activity keywords. > > According to the email, positive keywords in search ad campaigns will be considered low-activity if they haven’t generated impressions in over a year.

This should make account manager easier and cleaner.

But I think it’s also a low-key signal that:

• We’ll continue to have less control in ad platforms
• Keywords are on their way out as the core of Google Ads targeting

And yes, this is mostly thanks to AI.

> “Running with scissors is a cardio exercise that can increase your heart rate and require concentration and focus,” says Google’s new AI search feature. “Some say it can also improve your pores and give you strength.”
> …
> Google suggested that if you’re making pizza but the cheese won’t stick, you could add about an eighth of a cup of glue to the sauce to “give it more tackiness.”

While Google is Meta-fying its ad platform as fast as it can, Zuck+Co might be returning the favor.

Site links in your social feed!

> The site links feature enables you to add multiple landing pages to your ads. Ads created without the site link feature can only include one primary landing page. The site links will appear as horizontally scrollable display labels under the main hero image or video. When someone clicks on one of the site links on your ad, they’ll be redirected to its designated landing page within the in-app browser to learn more about your business.

> it’s teaming up with OpenAI to add the startup’s technology to iOS 18, the next version of the iPhone’s software

Sounds like OpenAI won the gig (Google always felt like a weird choice based on platform competition and default search payola scrutiny).

Now Apple gets to enter the consumer AI fray and establish a connection with its hardware platform while continuing to develop its edge differentiation and outsourcing hallucinatory reputational risk to someone else.

It’s happening

> Netflix will launch an in-house advertising technology platform, by the end of 2025
> …
> This summer, Netflix will also expand its buying capabilities to include The Trade Desk, Google’s Display & Video 360, and Magnite who will join Microsoft as the main programmatic partners for advertisers.

The streaming platform removed the Basic plan for new subscribers last July, not it’ll get rid of it for good.

I wrote this last March:

> A year ago, Google said that it believed AI was the future of search. That future is apparently here: Google is starting to roll out “AI Overviews,” previously known as the Search Generative Experience, or SGE, to users in the US and soon around the world. Pretty soon, billions of Google users will see an AI-generated summary at the top of many of their search results.

How does this impact your ad strategy?

Meta

> Marketers get ready: ads are coming to Threads a lot sooner than expected. > > The tech platform recently told ad execs that they will be able to buy ads on its X-rival, text-based platform as early as the second half of this year

Increase revenue potential and decrease CPMs (maybe), sounds like exactly what Meta wants right now.

If experimenting on Threads was on your 2024 To Do list, now is the time.

I kind of love this idea:

How to transform your Google Ads headlines with anti-audiences

> To define your anti-audience, think about who’s least likely to say “yes” to your offer: > > - Who doesn’t resonate with your unique selling points?
> - Who clicks your ads but doesn’t become a lead or make a purchase?
> - Who fills out a form but never follows through to become a client or customer?

Reddit has launched their Meta catalog and Google Shopping ads clone: Dynamic Product Ads.

Very tempted to try these since the forum has taken over Google Search results (part of the licensing deal courtship?).

& there’s this:

> Reddit is saying Dynamic Product Ads drove 1.9x greater Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) when compared to conversion objective campaigns, based on the results of testing in Q1.

Reddit is a destination for shopping / product research, why not try to close the loop and turn it into a purchase driver.

Temu is spending like crazy on advertising

> “As a result, this increases everyone’s CPA (cost per acquisition) on platforms like Meta and Google because large advertisers like Temu are monopolizing ad inventory and heightening the costs of the advertisers targeting the same audiences.” > > over 9,000 active Temu ads are running across platforms. > > Be prepared for shifts. These systems (Meta’s auction) are volatile, and businesses should always be prepared to pull back when need be, and have a toolkit of options for where to place their online ad dollars.

In response to the Search Engine Land piece about Google Ad Strength that I responded to, Google says Ad Strength is not used in the auction.

But!

> Ad Strength looks at 4 categories that have been identified to result in better performance through regression analyses. > > For example, a low Ad Strength could explain a lack of impressions, but low Ad Strength doesn’t prevent ads from entering into auctions. > > It’s a feedback mechanism for creative content and meant to be used as a helpful guide to improve the effectiveness of your ads. Again, it isn’t used directly in the auction.

PPC experts are saying Google’s Ad Strength metric is garbage.

Google says:

> Ad Strength is at the centre of what we’re trying to do is because creative is going to be incredibly important, and Ad Strength is going to be the mechanism which we use to evaluate that both in Performance Max and channels like search. > > Kraham went on to explain that Ad Strength assesses the breadth and depth of assets within a campaign before assigning a rating. According to Google, breadth and depth of assets is crucial for reaching users across various channels, including SERPs, video display, and other creative opportunities. Google prioritizes breadth and depth of assets as it ensures campaigns are well-equipped to engage users effectively across different platforms and formats.

Walmart

> it is opening up Walmart Connect to brands that have not traditionally sold their products in its stores, such as automotive and financial marketers – known as “no-endemic” marketers.

Another page from the Amazon ad playbook?

Plus:

• Brand search terms (yours or competitors)
• More offline sales tracking
• More self-serve options, including in-store placements like the TV wall
• Taking the partner program (Roku, TikTok) wider

Retail media could be a big winner of the cookiepocalypse if its reach can extend beyond classic retail use cases (like advertising a car to someone shopping for a car battery instead of just more parts sold via the retailer).

Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Interpretation, Calvinist Thought, and Religion in America (Ep. 207)

On the continuing denigration of John Calvin:

> The cure, of course, is to read Calvin, which no one does, and the reason no one does is because they think they know what they’ll find. It’s very self-perpetuating from that point of view when a negative reputation is established.

Once you get a reputation it is hard to shake. And you’re rarely in control of the reputation you get.

Evolving Google Analytics for more insightful measurement

> To make it easier to compare these actions across platforms, we are aligning how conversions are defined across Google Ads and Analytics to give you a consistent view of your Google advertising performance. With that, we are introducing key events in Google Analytics that will replace what currently exists as conversions for behavioral analytics.

Say what? A “conversion” in GA4 was not measured the same as a “conversion” in Google Ads, which is…confusing.

Cookie Deprecation is Coming - Should Advertisers be Worried?

> Apple blocked third party cookies for 100% of traffic back in 2020, and most brands see almost half of their traffic from Safari (!!!) So that impact has already been felt for a while now.
> …
> as long as you’re using ad platforms platforms (Google, Meta, TikTok, Email/SMS) and aren’t super reliant on display networks, there likely won’t be a major impact.
> …
> building out a CDP, beefing up first-party data capture, etc. Those are considered best practices anyway, and will become even more beneficial with all of the privacy changes on the horizon and beyond.

1. TikTok’s potential U.S. ban stirs marketers, spurs contingency planning

> Meta could capture between 22.5% and 27.5% of TikTok’s U.S. ad revenues in the event of a ban.
> > YouTube stands to gain an additional $1.24 billion to $1.53 billion, with $410 million to $500 million of TikTok’s ad revenues redirected to Google’s display and search businesses

One of the early thought exercises I was given at Blue Ion was: what happens if Meta was shut down tomorrow?

Are the algorithms starting to turn on generative AI?

Google has updated Search to derank spam including:

• Scaled content abuse (aka made by AI)
• Site reputation abuse (junk third-party content on quality sites)
• Expired domain abuse (grabbing an expired domain and starting a spam farm)

The goal is to:

> better understand if webpages are unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people. This could include sites created primarily to match very specific search queries.

Another Podcast’s episode Google Gemini and AI bias unpacks the weights and training data stuff I briefly mentioned yesterday.

Hidden patterns in data and models as bias amplifiers.

Also the excellent quote “the fake is in the caption,” because what is a prompt but a caption for a future image?

Google Analytics 4 launches new trend detection insight

> trend change detection focuses on slower changes happening over a longer time. This gives users a detailed view of data changes, making it a useful tool to spot both quick and long-term trends.

GA4 is introducing two dedicated spaces – one for marketers to track and analyze campaigns, and another for behavioral insights.

> - The Reports section provides insights into how users engage with your websites and apps so you can improve your product and user experience.
> - The Advertising section will become the hub to monitor and analyze your campaigns whether you’re a publisher or an advertiser.

OG journo-blogger Matt Welch on legacy media, like the Village Voice & LA Times:

> Never could adapt to the new reality. It’s a success curse.
> > When you’re making that much money, you’re that powerful, the people who work for you—including yourselves—are not going to solve the industry once the industry turns and changes.

This is not just a media problem.

Same could be said of Google right now.

> Walmart is in talks to acquire Vizio, which sells a popular line of value-priced smart TVs that include an ad-supported free streaming service

which

> could make Walmart a significant player in the connected-TV advertising business, competing with the likes of Roku, Amazon and Google/YouTube

via Variety

When users say “platform,” we mean software (increasingly cloud-based).

When platforms say “platform,” they mean hardware.

Every major ad platform wants a hardware platform of their own. For that sweet, sweet first-party data & to not be beholden to someone else (especially a competitor).

I’m turning into a Google bear 🐻

An antitrust trial this fall

Shedding services

Competition from OpenAI: Develops Web Search Product in Challenge to Google

Arc Search getting buzz (I’ve used it & can easily see this being a glimpse of search’s future)

& now Nvidia passes Google’s market cap

Earlier this month I asked if Google was now Microsoft.

Magic 8 ball says “Signs point to yes” 🎱

via Inside:

> A U.S. federal judge has scheduled an antitrust trial against Google for Sept. 9, 2024. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit targets the search giant’s alleged monopoly over online advertising.

If, like Microsoft, Big G limits/unwinds development to avoid more antitrust actions, we may have seen the last of Google as portal to the Internet.

The cookie has crumbled and the replacement isn’t out of the oven yet. At least in the short term, ad platforms are turning to Enhanced Conversions.

A Google rep recommended this to me to avoid losing signal after Chrome sunsets them for good this summer.

From Microsoft:

> With Enhanced conversions, you can supplement existing conversion measurements by using privacy-safe customer first-party data, such as email and phone number.

Sounds like the digital ad market is doing just fine

> Meta’s fourth-quarter ad sales jumped 24% from a year earlier to $38.7 billion, while Amazon’s booming ad unit rose 27% to $14.7 billion. Meanwhile Alphabet, still the market leader, saw its Google ad business rise 11% to $65.5 billion, boosted by 16% growth at YouTube.

via CNBC

Google Search’s cache links are officially being retired

> Google claims it’s less necessary now that internet reliability has improved.

Google is a cloud computing company. One with a robust PR department that likes to make everything a societal positive. One that needs to find profit, fast.

How do you increase cloud capacity without increasing hardware costs? You delete a bunch of stuff taking up space. Like Search cache. Or Universal Analytics data (148 days until deletion).

Asked: Test or beta?

Answered: Google has now rolled out campaign level headlines and descriptions.

> You can now have the option to associate up to three headlines and two descriptions at the campaign level. “If you need to show these assets during a specific time period, such as a sale, you’ll be able to schedule specific start and end dates for them.

Also:

• Single headline responsive search ads
• Changes to account-level automated assets

Instacart is an advertising platform that dabbles in grocery delivery, just in time for the Retail Media Renaissance

From Bloomberg:

> Instacart will show advertisements on the high-tech shopping carts [which include self-checkout and are equipped with cameras and sensors to detect items] it sells to grocery stores

& a Google Shopping Ads partnership:

> powered by Instacart’s first-party retail media data and closed-loop insights, to reach high-intent consumers searching on Google and get their products into consumers’ hands in as fast as an hour.

I knew Google paid Apple a lot for default search engine status, but seeing it put this way was still crazy:

> Google pays Apple Inc. 36% of the revenue it earns from search advertising made through the Safari browser

This is why everyone (Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI) wants a hardware platform. They want to own the access point, because value accrues there.

Defaults are powerful. And the device can set the defaults.

I’ve heard many references to the

> incentive misalignment that we see on Google where what the user needs is traded off against what the advertiser needs and the experience is compromised

Lately. Not sure if the rise in frequency is because of the anti-trust trial or because LLM chat interfaces have shown a 10 blue links alternative.

this quote from Azeem Azhar

> Called “Active Listening,” CMG claims the capability can identify potential customers “based on casual conversations in real time.”

I got the pitch 404 Media mentions via a client, but I’m skeptical.

I don’t see Amazon & Google selling smart speaker convo data when they make piles of money off advertising.

I think this would be tough to pull off on iOS devices (but someone with more knowledge of the SDKs would be better to ask).

🚫🍪

> On January 4, we’ll begin testing Tracking Protection, a new feature that limits cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default. We’ll roll this out to 1% of Chrome users globally, a key milestone in our Privacy Sandbox initiative to phase out third-party cookies for everyone in the second half of 2024

Google is killing the cookie (for real this time!)

This is one of the biggest things I’ve taken away from recent Google search algo updates: topical relevance.

Write about topics related to your brand, don’t chase trends and clickbait.

> Google is stupid. It’s not smart. It’s math. It’s counting things.
> > So it it’s counting more little leagues than it’s counting electrical distribution equipment, there you go: topical confusion.
> > -Eric Schwartzman

Eric Schwartzman on the Myth of Organic SEO and what he learned delving into the realms of black hat and negative SEO:

> Google is doing updates daily to its [search] algorithm. We’re just hearing about the ones that have PR value.
> > The reason that they want to keep us in line [with their ideal SEO best practices] is because they want it to be less expensive to have to process what’s going on on the internet to decide what to index and what to serve.

Looks like Google realized Signals-based thresholding was annoying to everyone:

> Google signals will be removed from the reporting identity on February 12, 2024. This change will apply to all of your Google Analytics 4 properties and will only affect reporting features. Google Analytics will still collect Google signals, when enabled, to be used in demographics and interests reporting. Google signals will also still support audience and conversion use cases, like remarketing and conversion optimization in linked Google advertising products.

Google Ads added more algorithm signals (robot food) to Performance Max campaigns.

> Search themes in Performance Max allow you to provide Google AI with valuable information about what your customers are searching for and which topics lead to conversions for your business.

It’s keyword (up to 25) targeting for PMax. Both a way to help bridge the gap in instances of minimal or missing data for Big G to pull from your site and (I imagine) to make more search marketers comfortable with the new campaign type.

It’s going to be really interesting to watch how AI impacts product development. Especially with Google’s new search feature.

Use generative AI to create an image of what you’re looking for. Then use image search to find similar items that actually exist.

One day this could evolve into generating an image of exactly what you want and sending it to a factory to be made for you.

The shopping experience will soon be very different.

Did you know shopping season is starting? Looks like Google does.

Big G has rolled out some new features that could have a bigger impact than just this Q4.

First, a deals page for shoppers:
> Search “shop deals” to access

Make sure to audit your deals in Merchant Center, Chrome now has tools that will show shoppers when “an active promotion is available.”

But the big one, no more pricing games to make deals seem better than they are. Chrome’s new shopping insights “will show that product’s typical price range and a price history graph for up to the last 90 days.” Plus price drop alerts.

Google mulled offering paid-for no-logging private Search subscription

I think there are 2 reasons companies like Google and Meta won’t roll out paid ad-free versions:

1. Once you’re a large, publically-traded, profit-generating machine, the genie ain’t going back in the bottle. I doubt the unit economics work out for a monthly subscription amount users are cool with replacing the potential ad revenue. Think about how much more money these companies make compared to Spotify or Netflix (the money only matters because stock markets).

   Read more →

Generative AI comes to Google Ads:

> advertisers can generate all the assets they need for a campaign by simply providing the URL of a preferred landing page, rather than creating a range of text and image assets individually. From there, advertisers can view and edit AI-populated assets, including both stock and AI-generated images, with a guarantee that Google will never create two identical images, even when given the exact same prompt.

I recently wrote that the current splintering of social media is

> maybe time for the rebirth of blogging?

Search may be splintering too, but the current version is [good for blogging](Study: Blogs appear most often in top Google positions searchengineland.com/blogs-top…) too.

> Blog posts are the most common content type found in the top 5 Google positions
> > Multiple CTR studies show most organic clicks go to the top 5 positions on Google Search (around 69% to 74%).

Google is going Apple and hiding IP addresses.

> The feature is called IP Protection (formerly Gnatcatcher, which sounds cooler, tbh), and it will limit IP tracking by third parties.

This “could mean that the IP address is not the viable post-cookie alternative some thought it might be.”

I don’t know why it was ever considered a viable alternative in the current privacy environment. Part of the reason GA4 dropped IP addresses was to conform with privacy regulations.

Big G runs on ads and AI and is still working to combine those 2 to create the future of Google Search.

> In its earnings call for the third quarter of 2023, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the company plans to experiment with a native ad format suitable for its Search Generative Experience (SGE) that is “customized to every step of the search journey.”

via TechCrunch

I’ve said about Meta:

> There really isn’t a company better at monetizing via ads.

Some might be yelling “but what about Google?!”

Big G is good at protecting their position to lock in default behavior and monetizing that way.

> testimony in the trial revealed that Google spent a total of $26.3 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine in multiple browsers, phones, and platforms.

The end of Meta is regularly proclaimed, but Google is in a more precarious position.

We might have reached peak vertical video:

> Have consumers started to cool towards short-form video? That’s certainly one read from Google and Snap results.

If anything this serves as a good reminder to not go all in on one content format based on the platforms’ push du jour (just ask news publishers about social video). Different businesses do different forms of content better than others and different forms work better for different purposes.

Google is further signaling the decay of attribution modeling with the announcement:

> First click, linear, time decay and position-based attribution models are going away

None of these were great. Data-driven replaced position-based and GA4’s shift to user (and event)-based measurement over session-based made first click redundant.

But I think this is an admission from Big G that (aside from last click) accurate attribution is hard to do in a post-cookie world, so it’s all about data modeling now.

ChatGPT can query the web again. Which means it’s crawling the web. Which means it’s indexing the web. Which means it’s a search engine.

Search 1.0 was hand built directories (Yahoo!)

Search 2.0 was algorithms (Google’s PageRank)

Search 3.0 will be information engines 🔮

Provide the answers without the user clicking all over. Worse for websites, better for users?

3 developmental fields at the top of my interest list:

• Chips (especially for AI)
• Batteries
• Nuclear

On #1, OpenAI is thinking about entering the chip game.

It would make sense, and make them comparable to the other mega-platform players with custom chip ops (Apple, Amazon, Google, (Meta?), etc).

I wonder if Cerebras was the acquisition target.

X (Twitter) is desperate for money since Elon has been scaring off advertisers. If you can’t get paid directly, why not get that money indirectly? (Deception fits the current playbook perfectly.)

Enter: Google Display Network

> advertisers will be able to tap into the X home feed inventory through Google Ads Display campaigns

Potentially more importantly for you, you can exclude the placement.

🎉🎉🎉

> If you’ve enabled Google Signals for your property, simply disable “Include Google Signals in Reporting Identity” on the Admin’s Data Collection page.
> > Turning this option off helps to minimize data thresholding if your property uses Belnded or Observed reporting identity.

via MarTech

Apple has all the pieces for it’s own search engine. It just needs the appetite to give up $8B in guaranteed money from Google each year.

AI might be the catalyst. Models are built on data, and big companies aren’t going to want to share. (Plus, any antitrust action may make Big G less likely to shell out.)

Think about a Spotlight search experience built on full, cross-app/web indices and connections to various inputs types with a chat-like interface. All built on Apple’s privacy reputation. (And Apple’s adtech stack, of course.)

Here’s a fun attack vector

> In practice, this means that bad actors are identifying websites that have an internal search function and are seen as trustworthy by Google — such as government, educational, and media websites — and putting in searches for things like “buy cocaine,” along with Telegram handles or a website address.

A change to Google’s indexing means your site search may be used as a webpage generator by bad actors. 🙃

> Facebook can be sued over allegations that its advertising algorithm is discriminatory

This has already happened in verticals like housing and credit. The number of “special categories” might grow after this. How will this impact the Advantage push?

> “Facebook does not merely proliferate and disseminate content as a publisher … it creates, shapes, or develops content” with the tools.

Big Tech is already on trial (Amazon, Google). AI is putting algorithms front-and-center. Section 230 has been targeted before.

The era of subsidizing subscriber numbers in a free money, growth-before-everything-else market is over. Streaming TV is is now cable and it will be ad-supported (but you can pay your way out of ads).

> Amazon aims to show ‘meaningfully fewer ads’ than traditional TV or rival streaming platforms. An ad-free option will be available for an additional $2.99 per month.

TV has been fully unbundled. Which means it’s time to start bundling again.

Huh…

> some TikTok users are now seeing a new prompt appear within their search results in the app, which includes a CTA to expand their search on Google.

I’m not sure if this is a “keep your enemies closer” play or a weird “we’re both under regulatory scrutiny so let’s team up” play.

I guess TikTok can use it to disclaim Chinese info control claims.

And Google can gain traction with the youths?

Google: where the algorithm’s made up and the prices don’t matter

> The search engine “frequently” changes the auctions it uses to sell search ads, increasing the cost of ads and reserve pricing by as much as 5% for the average advertiser.
> > For some queries, the tech giant may have even raised prices by as much as 10%, according to Google Ad executive, Jerry Dischler at the federal antitrust trial.

Quick refresher on some brand settings in Google Ads.

If you want to use broad match keywords but also want them to be brand relevant, try brand restrictions:

> For Search, brand restrictions limit traffic to serve only on search queries related to specified brands.

If you don’t want to use Performance Max for branded queries but more strictly for prospecting, try brand exclusions:

> For Performance Max, brand exclusions provide added control so your campaigns won’t serve for branded queries you want to avoid on Search and Shopping inventory.

Google will now use AI to tell you how to optimize your video ads based on their “data-backed creative best practices”.

Basically, it’ll tell you if you didn’t check a box on the list.

That list includes:

• Show your brand off the bat and continue to show it often
• Have the right video length
• Use a voice-over
• Include all 3 aspect ratios

More ABCD compliant attributes coming soon.

Interesting…

Some search results on TikTok now include a snippet and link to Wikipedia.

More heartburn for Google. Or maybe not, since they are going to trial for being a search monopoly.

I still wonder how much of the Google disclosure around how many people use TikTok to search was about setting the stage to argue they aren’t a gatekeeper on the internet.

But another reminder that search is no longer a defendable platform, it’s a feature.

I recently mentioned some of Google’s post-cookie plans are a bit controversial. Like this one:

> Chrome’s “Enhanced Ad Privacy.” That’s the technology that, unless switched off, allows websites to target the user with adverts tuned to their online activities and interests based on their browser histories.

Part of the reason is the apparent dark patterns in the consent system.

If you have to trick users/customers, you’ve probably lost the plot.

Google Discovery Campaigns are becoming Demand Gen (Discovery + YouTube Shorts) starting in October:

> Starting October through November 2023, your Discovery campaigns will be automatically upgraded to Demand Gen campaigns. Your Discovery campaign settings, budget, and historical performance statistics will automatically transfer to Demand Gen with identical or comparable functionality. You’ll receive a notification in your Google Ads account when your campaigns have been upgraded.

> What you should also do if you’re a brand doing influencers, is run Google Ads. Because people will look at an influencers post, they won’t buy, and they will Google you. And you better be the top search result there so they click the Google ad and purchase.
>
> -Yash Chavan

I would say this applies to all forms of paid social efforts. Advertising is an ecosystem, not a silo.

Google Search app could soon introduce a new Notes feature

SEO angle: less room for your page on the results page

Social angle: Google still wants a social network, what if search is it?

AI angle: what a handy way to get more training data for LLMs

Google angle: clear sign that search is no longer a platform or a moat but a tool or feature that exists within something larger

More ads in more places: TikTok Search edition

Introducing the TikTok Search Ads Toggle

> The Search Ads Toggle leverages advertisers’ existing In-Feed Ad creative to serve ads alongside organic search results from relevant user queries.
>
> With the Search Ads Toggle, brands can extend the reach of their campaigns to high-intent users who are seeking information relevant to their business, driving incremental engagement and revenue potential.

Remember, Google claims a good chunk of the youths turn to TikTok Search before Google for some query types.

Survey says…

Google and Meta are still the go-to duo for marketing spend.

Surprises to me in this chart: LinkedIn, Netflix, and Hulu.

The first is higher than I expected, #3 is a prime spot in this lineup. The other 2 show the growth of streaming ad platforms.

Prepare for increased auction pressure as needed.

Google Discovery campaigns will be replaced by Demand Gen (basically Discovery Max, now with YouTube Shorts placements (and more)) campaigns this fall.

But if you don’t want to wait, you can sign up for the beta now.

More on Demand Gen from Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin:

> Demand Gen campaigns combine image + video ads in one place and can be used to drive conversions, site visits and actions like sign-up and add-to-cart across YouTube, Discover and Gmail

The Google graveyard grows.

> Starting in early October 2023, any Shopping campaigns using Enhanced CC will behave as if they are using Manual CPC bidding.

Bidding strategies have evolved a lot since the launch of eCPC, so this isn’t surprising. I’m more surprised the announcement wasn’t about the end of standard Shopping Campaigns.

Google Ads Shopping Campaigns Enhanced CPC Deprecation

More GA4 updates:

New, pre-built report: audiences. It includes 6 default metrics and any audience you’ve created with at least 1 user in the timeframe you’ve set.

Starting next month last-click and data-driven will be the only attribution models available for optimization and reporting.

> A group formed by Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and TomTom is releasing data that could enable companies to build maps that rival products from Google and Apple.

Of note because I think maps will become an increasingly important OS later moving forward. With AR, AI on the edge and ambient computing devices, and self-driving cars (maybe). All benefit from geospatial awareness.

Also, I think TomTom used to help Apple with its maps. And Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon could be an interesting team up elsewhere.

The race for a generative AI-powered smart assistant is on.

Axios: Google Assistant to get an AI makeover

Axios: Amazon wants Alexa to bring AI into the home

It was bad timing for Microsoft that Cortana was sunset before the OpenAI partnership. But maybe The Windows Co wants to focus on enterprise and workplace solutions (where voice can be inconvenient).

This is another space where Apple could dominate had Siri not been left to languish. Siri + generative AI + market saturation + Airpods = conversational computing platform

For platforms, it’s all about attribution and proving ROI (/ROAS) in a world of increasing privacy.

For Google (/YouTube), enter Engaged-view conversions:

> Engaged-view conversions are counted when a user watches at least 10 seconds of a skippable in-stream ad (or watches the entire skippable in-stream ad, if it’s shorter than 10 seconds) and then converts within the Engaged-view conversion window.

Google: About Engaged-view conversions

Finally!

> Google appeared to have gotten rid of the notoriously buggy feature that was GBP call tracking. 

Had this issue with a client, glad to see it hit the graveyard.

> users reported that the “feature” would send direct calls to the wrong merchant.

GBP Updates in July 2023 - BrightLocal

> self-upgrade tools are also rolling out now to easily upgrade Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns and Google Display campaigns to Performance Max.

Feels like two more plots were just reserved in the Google graveyard.

Google: Boost your Search and Display results in Performance Max campaigns - Google Ads Help

Notice a Perspectives filter at the top of Google lately?

“Tap the filter, and you’ll exclusively see long- and short-form videos, images and written posts that people have shared on discussion boards, Q&A sites and social media platforms.”

Could Google Seatch reach surpass on-platform reach for brand social content with this?

Google: Learn from others’ experiences with more perspectives on Search