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Unleash the untapped power of email address intelligence by Cynthia Ramsaran

Written on September 20, 2023 at 6:34 pm, by admin

Email is an integral part of our personal and professional lives. We use it to create and log into online accounts, subscribe to new content, communicate across digital platforms and verify our identity. It’s the key to our digital footprint.

But did you know that the intelligence surrounding the simple email address has the potential to fuel more effective data science, improve marketing, increase sales, elevate the customer experience and reinvent analytics initiatives?

Join experts in a live webinar as they dive deep into how you can harness the vast amount of potential surrounding emails to unlock valuable insights, enable personalized marketing campaigns and enhance overall business performance.

Learn more by registering and attending “Unleash the Untapped Power of Email Address Intelligence,” presented by AtData.

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Google rolls out automatically created assets to all advertisers

Written on September 20, 2023 at 6:34 pm, by admin

Google has rolled out automatically created assets (ACA) for general availability.

The search engine has also expanded the feature to seven new languages:

• Dutch
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Portuguese
• Spanish

Previously, ACAs were only available for advertisers running campaigns in English in open beta.

What are automatically created assets? Automatically created assets is a campaign-level setting that enhances the relevance of your Search ads by generating custom headlines and descriptions based on your ad’s context.

Why we care. ACAs can boost ad relevance by matching ads and landing pages better, however, it means ceding control to Google’s AI. This might not be suitable for highly regulated industries or brands with strict compliance standards, as you won’t have full control over the ad’s message.

Getting started. To begin using automatically created assets, you have two options:

• You can opt in from your campaigns’ settings, where you’ll find the relevant setting to enable this feature.
• Alternatively, keep an eye out for the “Enable automatically created assets” recommendation on the Recommendations page, and simply follow the prompts provided there to get started.

What has Google said? A Google spokesperson said in a statement:

• “Once enabled, ACAs can improve the Ad Strength of your responsive search ads and show new assets alongside assets you’ve already provided.”
• “If there are any automatically created assets you’d prefer to stop using, you can remove them from your ads.”
• “In the coming months, for advertisers with English assets in the US and UK, automatically created assets will start using generative AI to help advertisers create even more assets and make them better tailored to people’s search queries.”

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Campaign level. Generative AI for ACAs will be implemented at a campaign-level opt-in setting only. It is not available at account level. The advantage here is as you can control which campaigns are powered by AI when testing.

Deep dive. Read Google’s responsive search ad guide for best practices on creating responsive search ads.

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YouTube’s crackdown on ad blockers intensifies

Written on September 20, 2023 at 6:34 pm, by admin

YouTube appears to be ramping up its efforts to crackdown on ad blocks

The platform has reportedly been sending users with ad blockers enabled more aggressive prompts, warning them to either “Allow YouTube ads” or subscribe to YouTube Premium. The notification appears in place of videos or as a pop-up when playing videos on fullscreen.

If the viewer fails to comply, the platform threatens to block video playback after three plays.

Why we care. This is promising news for advertisers in terms of extending your ad’s reach. However, it’s important to consider that pushing ads onto people who have no interest may not yield great results, as they’re less likely to convert into customers.

What does the prompt say? The prompt reads:

• “Ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service.”
• “It looks like you may be using an ad locker. Video playback is blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled.:
• “Ads allow YouTube tp be used by billions worldwide at no charge.:
• “You can go ad-free with YouTube Premium, and creators still get paid from your subscriptions.:

Here’s a screenshot:

Why now? YouTube has said that it is taking more measures against ad blockers to ensure that its content creators are compensated for their work. “YouTube’s ad-supported model supports a diverse ecosystem of creators, and provides billions of people globally access to content for free with ads,” the company said in a statement.

How much is YouTube Premium? YouTube Premium costs $13.99 a month in the US. The price was increased by 17% from $11.99 in June.

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What has YouTube said? Oluwa Falodun, a spokesperson for Google, previously told The Verge in a statement:

• “We want to inform viewers thatad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, and make it easier for them to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience.” 
• “Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers.”
• “We take disabling playback very seriously, and will only disable playback if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube.”
• “In cases when viewers feel they have been falsely flagged as using an ad blocker, they can share this feedback by clicking on the link in the prompt.”

Deep dive. Check out the full discussion on Reddit or read YouTube’s ad policy on the YouTube Advertising hub for more information.

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Meta Verified is rolled out to brands on Instagram and Facebook

Written on September 20, 2023 at 6:34 pm, by admin

Meta Verified is being rolled out to businesses on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. 

Mark Zuckerberg announced that testing will begin in select counties on Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks, with WhatsApp trials planned at a later date.

What is Meta Verified? Meta Verified is a monthly subscription package designed to help creators and brands establish their presence on Instagram and Facebook more easily. This bundle includes exclusive benefits and perks – but it’s only available to eligible profiles.

Why we care. Meta Verified is a way for brands to provide more authenticity and credibility, which can ultimately lead to increased trustworthiness among followers, and confidence when it comes to making purchases.

How much does Meta Verified cost? Monthly subscriptions begin at $21.99 per month for a single Facebook page or Instagram account, or $34.99 per month for both.

What does a Meta Verified subscription include? Businesses will get a toolkit for their subscribed Facebook page, Instagram business account or WhatsApp phone number that includes:

• A verified badge confirming your business is validated and authentic
• Proactive impersonation monitoring for added brand protection
• Access to support and help troubleshooting account issues²
• New ways to be discovered:
  • On Instagram and Facebook, subscribers will be featured as a Meta Verified business, including appearing at or near the top of search results and as a recommended verified business to follow in feed.³ 
  • WhatsApp business subscribers will receive additional premium features including the ability to create a custom WhatsApp page that is easily discoverable via a web search, and multi-device with chat assignment support so multiple employees can respond to customers.

Who is eligible? To be eligible for Meta Verified, you need:

• To be at least 18 years old.
• A public or private profile that’s associated with your full name, aligns with naming standards and has a profile picture that includes your face.
• To meet minimum activity requirements, such as prior posting history.
• A valid photo ID that matches your profile name and profile picture.
• Two-factor authentication enabled on your profile.
• To follow Meta’s Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.

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What has Meta said? A Meta spokesperson said in a statement:

• “We’re starting with subscription features that help small businesses achieve what they want most on the platform: to establish their brand and be discovered by new customers.”
• “As we learn from initial testing, we’ll continue to evolve our business offerings to add more value for businesses of all sizes, such as more tools for people to easily discover and engage with verified businesses on our apps.”

Deep dive. Read Meta’s Verified Business announcement in full for more information.

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Microsoft Audience Ads announces new AI bid strategies and market expansion

Written on September 18, 2023 at 12:29 pm, by admin

Microsoft is launching two new automated bid strategies to help “advertisers reach their target audience with minimal effort”:

• Maximize conversion: Advertisers can use this feature to maximize conversions as much as possible, given the budget.
• Target CPA: Advertisers can use this feature to maximize conversions as much as possible, given the CPA target and the budget.

The two new offerings are currently in pilot with general roll out planned for October 2023.

In addition, the tech giant has expanded into 58 new markets, meaning its ads are now served in 187 countries across the globe.

Why we care. Automated bidding can save advertisers time and effort, thanks to AI doing the heavy lifting. It takes care of improving your campaign’s performance without you needing to get hands-on. With these particular new bid strategies, you also maintain control as you still have the freedom to set your budget and choose how you want to measure success.

What are Audience Ads? Audience Ads are Microsoft’s native, display ads. These products enable you to target your ideal audience based on Microsoft’s understanding of people’s interests and consumer intent signals. The ads are then served in placements across the web like Microsoft’s MSN, Start, Outlook, and more.

What has Microsoft said? Microsoft Senior Product Marketing Manager Mallory Harwood told Search Engine Land:

• “We are continuing to invest in more bid strategies for Microsoft Audience Ads to enable advertisers to meet their goals wherever they are across the globe.”
• “Market expansion has been a huge priority for us across our search and marketing offering. We recently expanded our Audience Ads to 58 new markets, which brings us to 187 countries as of mid August – which is huge and very exciting.”
• “A couple of years ago, we were only at seven markets – so as you can see, we have been doing a lot of investing very quickly!”

Deep dive. Read Microsoft’s Automated Bidding guidelines for more information.

The post Microsoft Audience Ads announces new AI bid strategies and market expansion appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Google Ads explains ‘limited by bid strategy’ status amid manual bidding concerns

Written on September 18, 2023 at 12:29 pm, by admin

Google Ads has clarified its new “limited by bid strategy” indicator.

Digital marketing expert Anthony Higman first noticed the pop-up on an enhanced manual CPC campaign.

He shared a screenshot of the notification on X (formerly known as Twitter) and claimed there no further explanation had been provided:

After the screenshot raised concerns in the PPC community, Google explained that the indicator simply highlights when a campaign can achieve better conversion value while maintaining a similar ROAS or conversions at the target CPA with a value-based bidding strategy.

The platform reassured that despite the notification, no action is actually required by advertisers – it currently just serves as a potential recommendation.

Why we care. Advertisers are concerned that this could be a signal that Google Ads is taking another step towards manual CPC deprecation, which may prove problematic for industries that aren’t suited to enhanced conversion data or conversion values.

However, as pointed out by digital marketing expert Greg Finn, this feature could be beneficial for Smart Campaigns. He explained on X:

• “It would however be very useful for diagnosis purposes if it did help with Smart Campaigns that are actually limited by to aggressive of a target. That would be very nice in fact!”

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What has Google said? Google Ads Product Liaison officer Ginny Marvin said:

• “This is a relatively new indicator that may appear when the system determines the campaign can get more conv value at a similar ROAS or convs at the target CPA with a value-based bidding strategy. You can review the recommendation, but no action is required.”
• “Separately, last month, we notified advertisers using eCPC for Shopping campaigns that those campaigns will begin behaving as if they’re using Manual CPC bidding starting in early October.”
• “There are also status indicators that may show when a bid strategy is limited by inventory, bid status or budget constraint.”

Deep dive. Read Google’s Bid Strategy Status guidelines for more information.

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Google Ads apologizes after automatic data migration causes confusion

Written on September 18, 2023 at 12:29 pm, by admin

Google Ads has apologized for causing confusion with a recent account update.

Advertisers were caught off guard when the platform started automatically migrating configurations from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

While these changes had been planned following the sunset of UA and notifications were issued, some were taken by surprise as the turndown of UA has taken considerably longer than many expected.

Why we care. Advertisers have been experiencing issues with their accounts following the automatic updates, which may impact their ability to create reports and monitor campaign performance. Those encountering problems have been advised to contact Support or the Google Ads Product Liaison officer on X (formerly known as Twitter).

What is happening? Google is automatically migrating configurations – such as “goals”, “audiences”, etc – from your UA property that have not been marked as complete to your GA4 property. This also includes conversion swapping and audience pairing in linked Google Ads accounts for opted-in properties.

Who is impacted? The update will impact anyone who has not opted out of automatically created GA4 properties.

What if you didn’t opt out in time? If you didn’t opt out in time and don’t want your automatically configured GA4 property, then simply follow these steps:

1. Click on ‘Admin’ in your account.
2. Select your Universal Analytics property.
3. In the “Property” column, click GA4 Setup Assistant.
4. Click on “Disconnect” next to your “Connected property”.
5. Go to your GA4 property and delete it.

You can check for any changes made to your GA4 property by going to the “Change History” section. Automatic migration changes will be marked as “System (Migration)” in the “Changed by” column.

Next steps. GA4 properties made automatically only have basic features. To make the most of your new property, you might need to add extra features that suit your business and measurement requirements.

You can also check and adjust key metrics in your UA property to match those in your new GA4 property as closely as possible.

If you’re an advertiser, you can compare data from UA and Google GA4 in Google Ads in a similar way.

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What has Google said? Google Ads Product Liason Ginny Marvin said:

• “Some advertisers have noticed our system making changes to GA4 conv actions in their Google Ads accounts. This is the conversion swapping piece of the Setup Assistant migration process with the turndown of Universal Analytics.”
• “Ahead of the migration, advertisers that had UA properties linked with their Google Ads accounts were notified of this & the option to opt out of the Setup Assistant configuring certain corresponding conversions and/or audiences in GA4 & applying them in Ads accounts.”
• “With the turndown process taking some time, we understand that some advertisers may be caught off guard with these changes being made now and apologize for the confusion. The updates are aimed at mapping UA conv to GA4 conv settings for bidding & avoid duplicate measurement.”

Deep dive. Read Google’s ‘Automatically Created Google Analytics 4 Properties‘ update in full for more information.

The post Google Ads apologizes after automatic data migration causes confusion appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Website redesign SEO checklist: Retaining and improving SEO

Written on September 18, 2023 at 12:29 pm, by admin

A new website should be an opportunity to improve SEO, conversion rates and digital marketing as a whole. Unfortunately, it can also be an SEO disaster if not carefully managed. 

This article outlines the main areas you must consider when redesigning a website to ensure you retain (and improve) your SEO.

If retaining and improving your SEO is a priority for your new website, then your first job is to understand how to integrate SEO into your new site from day one. 

As a primer, “SEO and website design: How to build search engine-friendly sites” will provide you with the background knowledge to build SEO into the fabric of your website redesign. 

A cautionary tale

Maintaining traffic during a redesign can be tricky.

Google’s John Mueller was asked if there is a way to prevent traffic loss during a redesign, and he had a strong, simple answer – no. 

During my career, I have seen many new, expensive, mission-critical websites that have wholly decimated important and profitable organic traffic. 

However, one project has always stuck with me among the many horror stories.

The website was for a small multiple sclerosis (MS) charity. The charity promoted a natural approach to helping with MS and, as such, was not well-funded. 

The site had gradually built organic traffic over several years but desperately needed a visual overhaul.

After a protracted website redesign involving two companies over 12 months, the new site finally launched. Everyone was super excited about taking things to the next level. 

And then this happened:

Organic traffic dropped by over 90%. 

This was not simple turbulence – the traffic stayed low. 

Excitement turned into panic. 

After a month of waiting for things to improve and receiving no support from either of the web design agencies involved, we got the call and took it on as a pro bono project.

To try and resolve these issues after the fact is difficult. 

It is hard enough if you consider your organic traffic from the outset – but to try and reverse engineer the problems is far more difficult. 

Where SEO has not been considered, any number of problems may make recovering traffic problematic. 

Fortunately, with much pain, wailing and gnashing of teeth, we recovered around 90% of the traffic. But it was painful for all involved. 

Two years later, we helped architect a new site and weave SEO into the website planning, enabling the charity to supersede historic organic traffic. 

With this site, we were careful to establish clear SEO goals and track SEO KPIs, so we understood what worked and used that to inform the website planning. 

The SEO website redesign takeaway is simple – failing to plan is planning to fail. 

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SEO and website redesign: The basics 

Maintaining (and ideally improving) your rankings and organic traffic during a redesign has three key components:

• An understanding of what works currently with your SEO.
• Knowledge of common issues that crop up with a redesign.
• A detailed plan of what will change on the new site.

My advice would always be to aim high. Don’t just try to retain traffic. Look to improve it. Research to understand both your SEO strengths and weaknesses. 

Let us look at each of these areas in more detail. 

What works currently

If you are running SEO campaigns, you should (hopefully) have a good idea of what is working currently: keywords and topics that rank, pages that bring in organic traffic and any other organic visibility. 

By clearly documenting what works, you can ensure this is factored into the design and planning for the new website – you can’t rank for something that is no longer there! 

Common issues

There are many reasons for a site redesign, and this can be as much to do with branding and technology as it can be with traffic and lead generation. 

Things that typically can change or be problematic for SEO during a redesign include:

• Content can be removed. (It won’t rank if it is not there!)
• Content can be changed.
• Content may move within the site’s hierarchy.
• URLs may change.
• Page-level optimization may change.
• New content can be added.
• New sections can be added to the site.
• New technology or features may be used.
• New technical issues can be introduced.
• Internal link structure could change.
• The domain name may change.
• The subdomain may change.
• The protocol may change.

Any of the above can cause issues with your SEO. And if there are multiple issues, such as content changing and being moved to a new URL, then it gets harder to diagnose the root cause of problems.

Multiple issues can multiply your SEO problems. Changing your website’s domain, hosting, CMS and architecture in one go? This will multiply the likelihood of SEO problems. 

Have this conversation with the team so you can balance the desire for change with the need to retain and improve organic traffic. Remember, you don’t need to do everything at once in most cases, so minimize the variables. 

Ensure that during all website planning discussions, an SEO stakeholder is involved and armed with information on what works and must be factored into the new site. 

Get SEO in at the planning stage – don’t try to fix things when development has started. 

What will change with the redesign?

Armed with a knowledge of what works and what can go wrong, you can review the goals for the new site. 

Two key SEO goals should be:

• To preserve the existing rankings and traffic.
• To improve the rankings and traffic.

Ideally, you will have a complete sitemap for the new site that you can use to compare against the existing site and create mappings for URL moves.

Website redesign SEO checklist 

Fortunately, with some preplanning, avoiding SEO disasters and maintaining SEO during a website redesign is pretty straightforward. 

Following the stages in this website redesign SEO checklist will ensure you preserve your precious SEO rankings and traffic. 

Keep the old site live

Keep the old site live on a private web address if you can. Make sure a crawler can’t access the site. 

Some HTTP authentication is best, but having the old site to refer to when you hit a snag can be a godsend. 

Some or part of the site will often be on the web archive, but having the real thing is way better.

Save crawl data

Save a crawl of the old site, even if you have the site on a temp URL. Screaming Frog is great for this, and again, you can load up the old site crawl if you need to do any analysis.

Don’t fix what is not broken

Keep things the same where you can – particularly URLs. If you can keep the URL structure and page names the same, there is way less that can go wrong. 

If you have to make changes, so be it. But make sure they are warranted for the greater good, not just done for the heck of it. 

Remember, you don’t need to keep things that are not working. 

Set up 301 redirects

Redirecting old URLs to new ones should be the first job on your list. If possible, keep content on the duplicate URLs when redesigning a site. 

For instance, a WordPress or Shopify redesign can keep the same URL structure. This is desirable. If not, you will want a spreadsheet of all URLs on the old and new sites to implement and test your 301 redirects. 

When the new site is live, you will want to crawl the old list of URLs (another time that saved crawl comes in handy) to ensure everything 301 redirects correctly.

Maintain your content

Where you have content that performs well, you’ll want to minimize changes (or improve it). 

There will be plenty of opportunities to tweak your content in its new home after it is indexed and ranked, but for now, aim to minimize the variables of change.

Optimize for on-page elements

Crawling your old site will allow you to easily export all key on-page elements: page titles, meta descriptions, headers, etc. 

Where the site is well optimized, keep these elements the same. 

Update your backlinks

Document your backlinks and where URL changes are made. Attempt to update these links – research in Google Search Console and the typical link index tools. 

Once you have a list, contact the website managers to update these where possible. You should have a 301 in place, so don’t lose any sleep over this, but updated backlinks can help get the new site indexed and ranking quickly.

Be mindful of internal links

Be mindful of any changes to the internal link structure. Again, your historic crawl data can be helpful here. 

If you have pages that had thousands of internal links previously but are now barely linked, then this can impact the rankings for that page.

Update your XML sitemap

Update your XML sitemap and submit it to Google and Bing.

We want our 301s, page structure, navigation and XML sitemap to align and indicate the new site structure to help search engines understand the changes quickly.

Monitor rankings

You can expect some fluctuations, but you should be back at a baseline within a month or so of launch (ideally sooner). 

If you have issues, investigate them now to identify and resolve them. Sometimes, with more significant sites, it can take longer for deeper pages to be recrawled, so be mindful of this.

Monitor organic traffic

For larger sites, you can never rank-track every possible keyword that drives traffic, so also monitor traffic to key pages to ensure you see improvements. 

You can compare a simple before and after using Google Search Console that will clearly document any drops so you can take action. 

Do a technical site audit

Ideally, use a technical site audit tool to provide proactive information on any technical issues.

Use Google Search Console

Google Search Console keeps improving and will give you diagnostic information directly from Google. Here you can track:

• Indexing.
• Sitemaps.
• Page experience.
• Mobile usability.
• Products.
• Enhancements.
• Links.

If you have problems, the information here can help you track and remediate them. 

Retain and improve your SEO during a redesign

The crucial factor here is planning. 

New websites fail in many ways, but always due to a lack of diligent planning. 

SEO failures in website redesigns are, in our experience, nearly always down to a lack of planning and a clear and well-articulated SEO plan for the new site. 

Ensure that SEO is factored into the website redesign process, and you can launch your new site confidently. 

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Google search antitrust trial updates: Everything you need to know (so far)

Written on September 16, 2023 at 6:24 am, by admin

Google is on trial for allegedly using underhand tactics to ensure it stays the world’s leading search engine.

The U.S. Justice Department claims Google, which owns a 90% market share in search, paid massive sums to companies like Apple to make it the default search engine on products like the iPhone.

These multibillion-dollar deals gave Google an unfair advantage, the DOJ alleges, making it nearly impossible for rival companies to compete.

The trial will last 10 weeks and include testimonies from key figures like Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

The outcome of the landmark case could bring significant changes to Google and the future of the Internet. But it’s equally likely the trial will result in no changes and Google will be free to continue operating however it wants.

We’ll keep updating this article with the latest developments from this landmark trial.

As the trial is set to cover many Google search-related issues, we have organized the updates by topic to make the timeline easier to follow.

Google credits its 90% market share to being a superior platform (Sept. 12)

• John Schmidtlein, lead lawyer for Google, claims the company dominates the search market due to being a superior product.
• Google argues that users can easily switch to rival search engines even if it’s the default.
• Antonio Rangel, a California Institute of Technology economist, testified that Google’s defaults discourage users from switching, saying switching to a different search engine is not easy.
• He cited an example where switching to Bing from Google on an Android 12 phone required 10 steps, describing it as “considerable choice friction”, reports Business Insider.

Google ‘hid and destroyed evidence’ (Sept. 12)

• Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dintzer accused Google of “hiding and destroying documents because they knew they were violating the antitrust laws”, reports Bloomberg.
• In his opening statement on day one, Dintzer presented evidence to show that Google was knowingly breaking laws.
• He pointed to an October 2021 chat message from CEO Pichai, which read: “Need the link for my leaders circle tomorrow…can we change the setting of this group to history off… thanks.”
• When history is off, conversations are auto-deleted after 24 hours.
• Google declined to comment.

Apple allegedly didn’t want a default search engine (Sept. 12)

• The DOJ revealed that Apple intended to provide users with a choice screen to select between Google and Yahoo as their search engine.
• However, Google rejected this proposal with the statement “No default placement, no revenue share,” as stated in an email.
• Kenneth Dintzer, the lead attorney for the DOJ, characterized Google’s response as a monopolistic action.

Google pays $10 billion a year to maintain default status (Sept. 12)

• Justice Department attorney Dintzer accused Google of recognizing the important of default status and said this was the reason why the company spent more than $10 billion a year to brands like Apple.
• Dintzer added that ” this wheel has been turning for more than 12 years and it always turns to Google’s advantage.”
• He claimed Google staff had previously described losing the company’s search default status on mobile as a “code red situation”.
• Google’s counterargument said that despite commanding 90% of the search market share, it faces competition from companies like Amazong, Microsoft’s Bing and Yelp.
• Google attorney John Schmidtlein, added: “There are lots of way users access the web other than default search engines, and people use them all the time.”

Google calls its competition ‘inferior’ (Sept. 12)

• Google’s lawyer, Schmidtlein, argued in court that the government is pursuing a regressive lawsuit.
• He said the claims was “all in the hopes that forcing people to use inferior products in the short run will somehow be good for competition in the long run.”

Google’s search engine default status on phones was a ‘priority’ (Sept. 13)

•  Chris Barton, who worked for Google from 2004 to 2011, said negotiating deals to make Google the default search engine on mobile devices was a top priority during his time at the company.
• He claimed that in return for default status, phone service providers and manufacturers were guaranteed a portion of ad click revenue.
• This strategy, central to the government’s antitrust case, aimed to establish Google as the primary search engine across various devices, reports News Bytes.

Google faced competition to become default search engine on mobile (Sept. 13)

• Former Googler, Barton, emphasized that Google faced competition from other search engines in becoming the default choice for phone companies during his testimony,.
• In a 2011 email exchange, Google executives observed that AT&T had selected Yahoo as its default search engine, while Verizon had opted for Microsoft’s Bing.
• Barton testified that he encountered a challenge because mobile carriers were fixated on revenue share percentages.
• He aimed to convince potential partners that Google’s high-quality searches would lead to more clicks and greater advertising revenue, even with a lower percentage share.

Googlers were told to be mindful of their language (Sept. 13)

• Google staff were allegedly told back as far as 2023 to avoid using certain terms to avoid being perceived as “monopolists”.
• A memo written by Google Chief Economist Hal Varian read: “We have to be sensitive about antitrust considerations…We should be careful about what we say in both public and private.”
• Staff were told to avoid terms like “market share” and “bundle”.

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Verdict. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta isn’t expected to issue a ruling until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will decide what steps should be taken to rein in the Mountain View, California-based company.

Why we care: If the US Government wins this case, it could mean Google is no longer automatically installed as the default search engine on everyday products, which could threaten its position as the world’s search leader. This means rival companies like Yahoo could realistically stand a chance of taking Google’s crown for the first time, which could bring significant changes to the search landscape as we know it.

What’s at stake. The U.S. and state allies are not asking for money; they want a court order to stop Google from its alleged unfair practices. This order could greatly affect Google’s business. For example:

• The court could potentially split up the company as a solution.
• On a broader scale, the Justice Department might argue that it aims to prevent Google from using its alleged search monopoly to secure exclusive deals in new markets, like AI.

This lawsuit is considered one of the most significant challenges to the tech industry’s dominance since the DOJ sued Microsoft in 1998 for its control of the personal computer market. In that case, the trial court ruled that Microsoft had unlawfully attempted to hinder the rival browser Netscape Navigator. Microsoft ultimately reached a settlement that didn’t break up the company.

If Google’s lead attorney Schmidtelein looks familiar, that may be because he represented Microsoft against the DOJ in the 1998 trial.

Deep dive. Read the US Justice Department’s official statement for more information on why it is suing Google.

The post Google search antitrust trial updates: Everything you need to know (so far) appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Google launches new AI tool to improve YouTube ad optimization

Written on September 16, 2023 at 6:24 am, by admin

Google Ads has launched a new feature to assist advertisers in optimizing their YouTube campaigns

Known as Creative Guidance, this innovative tool is now available through Recommendations and has been integrated into Video Analytics within Google Ads.

Creative Guidance leverages AI to evaluate your content and offer best-practice feedback. For example, if critical information is missing from your video ad, Creative Guidance will notify you, ensuring that your campaigns are as effective as possible.

Why we care. Creative Guidance offers rapid feedback and actionable steps for enhancing video ad performance, ensuring ideal setup and quick optimization to maximize your video ad’s performance.

Creative attributes. Creative guidance can detect if your video ad is missing the following key creative attributes:

• Brand logo: Shows a prominent brand logo in the first 5 seconds.
• Video duration: Follows the recommended video length based on your marketing objective.
• Voice-over: Uses a high-quality, human voice-over.
• Aspect ratio: Ad group includes all 3 video orientations, at least (1) horizontal 16:9, (1) vertical 9:16, and (1) square 1:1.

Depending on what’s missing in your video ads, you’ll get suggestions for high-impact improvements as well as links to handy tools that could boost the performance of your campaign.

Google has confirmed that it will be introducing more attributes in the not-too-distant future.

How it works. To access Creative guidance in Google Ads, follow these instructions:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Assets drop down in the section menu.
3. Click “Videos”.
4. Click the “Analytics” tab next to “Videos”.
5. Select your video ad in the drop down menu.
6. In the “Ideas to try” section below the retention curves, you’ll find the creative attributes you’re missing with recommendations on how to take action.

The steps listed above are part of a new Google Ads user experience that is set to launch for all advertisers in 2024.

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What has Google said? A spokesperson for Google Ads said in a statement:

• “We’ll let you know if your video is missing a best practice. If we have a recommendation or tool to implement a suggestion such as adding a voiceover, we’ll direct you to it.”
• “Voiceover has a big impact on YouTube. Thanks to the power of AI, quality voiceovers in 15 languages are accessible directly in Google Ads (both in the asset library and built into the video creation tool) and coming soon to Ads Creative Studio.
• “Similarly, if your campaign would benefit from videos in different durations, we’ll guide you to Trim video. Or, if you’re missing a horizontal, square or vertical video, you can easily create one using a variety of high-quality templates.”
• “These features empower marketers to take charge of their creative. AI can help turbocharge performance by tuning creative elements across all the different viewing experiences and content that YouTube viewers love.”

Deep dive: Read Google’s Creative guidance in Google Ads update in full for more information.

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