Archive for the ‘seo news’ Category
Friday, March 1st, 2024
Google advised advertisers to take urgent action by investing in AI as it addressed potential third-party cookie deprecation delays.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned the tech giant last month that it could not proceed with the removal of third-party cookies unless it resolved some privacy concerns first.
However, it appears Google is confident these issues will be ironed out ahead of time as Dan Taylor, the company’s vice president of Global Advertising Strategies, confirmed it is still on track for a cookieless Chrome in the second half of 2024 as planned. With that in mind, he told advertisers that it’s “time to move” and look for long-term cookie alternatives during an interview with Campaign.
Marketers aren’t ready. Taylor claimed that just 30% of markets feel prepared for third-party cookie deprecation. He also noted that both advertisers and publishers have been reluctant to invest in cookie alternatives.
Moving forward. Advising how advertisers should navigate a cookieless world, Taylor suggested overcoming signal loss by prioritising the following:
- AI investment.
- Refined targeting.
- Measurement and ad delivery strategies.
Taylor also suggested providing more information and control to consumers. For instance, letting them know when their data is being used and explaining the value it brings. He added:
- “Reminding consumers in the moment when use of their data is actually delivering value to them is far more powerful because they can decide whether or not that data is useful to provide at that moment or whether it’s an experience they find creepy or don’t want. It’s not viable for us to just recreate the same technologies under a new guise.”
Investing in AI. Taylor reiterated the importance of using AI to reach your target audience in a cookieless environment. He concluded:
- “Digital marketing was built on the promise of precision and when that precision goes away, your predictive capabilities need to go up. Fortunately, we think AI is at a point where it’s going to take the industry into the next decade of innovation.”
- “For businesses, you can either ignore these enforced changes until it’s no longer tenable, or you can start investing in AI and become a more adaptable, versatile organisation.”
Why we care. Marketers still heavily reliant on targeted advertising through third-party cookies should act promptly to explore alternative methods for reaching high-value consumers. Failing to prepare could have catastrophic consequences for campaign performance.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read our SEO and the future world without cookies investigation for more information.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, March 1st, 2024
Google has rolled out its Ads Editor version 2.6, with eight new features and updates for advertisers to utilize to improve the efficiency of their campaigns.
Below is a breakdown of what’s new.
New Features:
- Google Display ads to Performance Max migration. Editor now supports the migration of Display campaigns to Performance Max campaigns.
- PMax migration with experiments. Editor now lets you create and manage experiments in Performance Max, so you can compare PMax campaign performance against other campaign types. There is also added support for Display to Performance Max migration. In addition, you’ll be able to create experiments for the purposes of comparing campaign performance.
- Suggested fields for “Add Responsive Display ad” recommendation. The “Add Responsive Display ad” recommendation in the Editor now provides recommended fields, making it easier for you to create responsive display ads. This recommendation automatically generates a new ad with pre-populated text and images, streamlining the ad creation process.
- Reserve CPM bidding strategy. Editor now supports Reserve cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM), a bidding strategy similar to Target CPM. Most campaigns, excluding Video Sequence campaigns, that already support Target CPM can be upgraded to Reserve CPM with a one-time option. It’s important to note that the transition from Reserve CPM to Target CPM is not allowed in Google Ads Editor version 2.6.
- Multi-asset responsive video ads. Editor now allows multi-asset ads for video campaigns, enabling you to include up to 5 videos, headlines, long headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action for each responsive video ad.
- Paused by system. Editor now lets you filter different “Paused by system” reasons, giving you the ability to review and potentially enable paused ad groups in bulk when necessary.
- Inline audiences. You can now use inline audiences in Editor directly on ad groups and asset groups. Instead of attaching a shared named audience from the library, you can now utilize demographic and audience signals directly on the ad or asset group.
- Third-party measurement settings. You can now easily manage and customize third-party measurement settings for your campaigns, including Video, Demand Generation, and Performance Max, at the campaign level.
Why we care. The new features have been designed to streamline ad creation, facilitate easier campaign performance reviews, and offer additional asset upload options for more effective responsive video ads.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read Google’s announcement in full for more information.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, March 1st, 2024
TikTok is providing a roundup of the latest trends gaining traction in the app with a new Trends Digest series.
The monthly updates offer content ideas and practical tips on integrating these trends into your videos to boost reach and engagement.
Why we care. TikTok’s Trends Digest series offers an easy and cost-effective way to find out what’s trending, however, the advice obviously will not be tailored to your brand or channel, and so some information may not be relevant.
Defining trends. TikTok explained that its new Trends Digest series focuses on grasping the main ideas behind trends to create more relevant content, rather than trying to follow every daily trend. A spokesperson explained in a statement:
- “When it comes to defining trends on TikTok, there’s a difference between what’s trending now and being on-trend: we refer to these as ‘Trend Moments’ versus ‘Trend Signals’.”
- “Numerous small Trend Moments make up a larger Trend Signal. Focusing on Trend Moments can be a challenge as keeping up with trending content requires a high level of reactivity.”
- “On the other hand, Trend Signals represent a more accessible entry point for brands to stay on-trend by building a solid foundation and understanding of trending content.”
Key elements. TikTok added that trends comprise four key elements:
- A trend message.
- Associated hashtags.
- A sonic identity.
- A visual narrative.
In Trend Moments, these elements are more specific, making it trickier for brands to engage swiftly. On the other hand, Trend Signals has broader elements, providing more flexibility for brands to participate, which is why, the platform says, it is concentrating its efforts on helping creators to better understand Trends Signals.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read TikTok’s announcement in full for more information.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, March 1st, 2024
Google Ads will automatically start pausing ad groups with low activity.
From March 11, ads groups created at least 13 months ago and have not had impressions in the past 13 months will be paused to improve budget efficiency for advertisers.
The rollout is expected to take just over seven weeks, with completion for all production Google Ads accounts by April 30.
Unpausing ad groups. If this change affects your ads, you can turn them back on if needed. However, Google advises reviewing your ad groups first and only unpausing ones you expect to get impressions in the coming weeks. If unpaused ad groups don’t get any impressions in the following three months, Google will automatically pause them again.
Editing. Google confirmed that you will still be able to update your ad groups and make changes while they are in a paused state in case you want to unpause them.
Why we care. Navah Hopkins, Evangelist at Optmyzr, explained this move would improve budget efficiency and campaign quality for advertisers. She said on LinkedIn:
- “I am over the moon with this update! For years I have been begging brands to pause what’s not working so budget efficiency can win the day. This is absolutely a net positive.”
- “Google sets budgets at the campaign level. If you have too many ad groups (looking at you accounts with 10+), odds are your budget won’t be able to support all of them.”
- “Ad groups with no impressions drag down the overall quality of the campaign. If you have too many keywords and ad groups doing nothing, that averages in bad data. Zero impressions is not the same as low search volume and it is confirmed low search volume keywords are not going to hurt you. However if you have an otherwise “worthy” keyword/ad group that’s just not getting any action, it’s going to average in bad data.”
- “Pausing is not the same as removing. You can always get it back. Also, that the timeline is 13 months confirms this is looking at established accounts and factoring in seasonality.”
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read Google’s announcement in full for more information.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, February 29th, 2024
Google confirmed that it deliberately withholds channel-specific KPIs for Performance Max campaigns because it could be “misleading.”
Some advertisers suspect Google is not being fully transparent about PMax campaign performance data because doing so would impact its ability to push automation.
What Google is saying. When an advertisers asked why Google doesn’t offer channel-level reporting for PMax campaigns in the Google Ads Help Center, a spokesperson replied:
- “It intentionally doesn’t show channel-specific KPIs because looking at aggregate ROAS or CPA for a single channel within Performance Max can actually be misleading and doesn’t accurately represent the value of a given channel.”
- “One channel may seem better than another with stronger ROI on average. However, this doesn’t account for the marginal cost of the next conversion on that channel. The ‘best’ channel in one auction isn’t the best option in another auction.”
- “Performance Max makes a real-time decision about where to place your ad based on which inventory it predicts will deliver the most cost-efficient, high-ROI conversion at that moment.”
Reaction. Julie F Bacchini, President of Neptune Moon LLC, shared a screenshot of the exchange on X and commented:
- “New PMax questions answered from Think with Google… From the first answer… Paraphrased – we won’t show you the stats for channels within PMax because you might get the wrong idea about their performance if you actually see it.”
- “Trust us to always do what’s best.”
Why we care. Advertisers want more transparency in how their campaigns are performing because even though AI can be highly effective, it’s not perfect. And since Google’s products are designed to benefit Google rather than advertisers, many would feel more comfortable having insights to ensure that decisions about their campaign performance prioritize their brands rather than Google.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read the full Google Ads Help Center Q&A for more information.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, February 29th, 2024
Google has added new search developer documentation for structured data carousels (beta). The new documentation can be found here and is under the “early adopters program.” This structured data is for a new carousel rich result that’s in beta, “which is a list-like rich result that people can scroll horizontally to see more entities from a given site (also known as a host carousel),” Google wrote.
Where it works. This new carousel beta is generally for hotels, restaurants, vacation rents, products, and events. Each tile in the carousel may have information from your site about the price, rating, and images for entities on the page.
What it looks like. Here is an illustration of what this looks like within Google Search:
Guidelines. The generic Google guidelines apply here but in addition, with this specific carousel, Google added these additional guidelines:
- Use of generic types is allowed. However, to use recommended properties, you must use the respective types. For example, to use
amenityFeature, use the LodgingBusiness type.
- Use of additional or extra fields is allowed, but may not appear in the rich result.
You can learn more about the technical implementations and guidelines, including code examples and troubleshooting help over here.
Why we care. If you have a local business or product or event website that can make use of this beta carousel, you might want to give it a try. Rich results often can help get your website more visibility in search and a higher click through rate to your website.
But you need to implement the structured data and track the results to see if it is worthwhile.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, February 29th, 2024
Google Chrome is rolling out updates to make changes and improvements to the search suggestions it shows in the search box within its browser. Google will show what others are search for with the “people also search for” section. Google will also show image thumbnails for some search suggestions in Chrome.
I believe many of these features have been live in the main Google.com search interface for many years.
Chrome search suggestions
The search box will show you what others are searching for when you are signed into your Google account. Google said, “you’ll see suggestions in the Google Search box related to your previous searches based on similar things others are looking for.”
Here is a screenshot Google provided but we’ve seen Google doing this in the main search results page for some time now.
More images for search suggestions
Google will also show more image thumbnails near the search suggestions. Google said, “Android and iOS, Chrome will now show helpful images for broader shopping categories and products based on a simpler search, like “bohemian table.”
We’ve also seen this from Google back in 2019.
Why we care
Your website may get more exposure in the Google Search results if searchers see suggestions that your website would rank for. These search features within Chrome may impact your traffic from Google Search in a positive or negative way.
So keep an eye out for these changes and see if it has any impact on your site’s search traffic.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, February 29th, 2024
Google confirmed it is testing a new PPC ad format. However, key details such as the official name, functionality, influence on auction dynamics, and effect on metrics are yet to be released.
The lack of information surrounding the new ad format has drawn criticism from advertisers.
First spotted: The new ad format was first flagged by Anthony Higman, CEO of online advertising agency Adsquire, who shared a preview on X:
He posted: “These aren’t LSAs, they’re PPC ads. What are we calling this new ad format? And why was no one informed about It?”
Lack of transparency. Commenting on the new ad format and lack of information provided from Google, Higman told Search Engine Land:
- “What bothers me about most things that Google has rolled out recently is the lack of transparency.”
- “I get that it’s 2024 and things are moving faster than ever, but when they roll out a new ad format, of which we have seen about ten in past few weeks, it would be really helpful if they explained how these new ads work and what changes they imply via auction dynamics.”
- “But it seems to me like they just roll these new ads out, then try and figure out how to explain what these changes mean for advertisers.”
- “As a PPC veteran, what rubs me the wrong way is that this feels more and more like we are being forced into adopting everything that Google wants via AI, machine learning and just “trusting” the machine – which again still lacks a lot of transparency in my opinion.”
‘Beyond crazy’. Melissa Mackey, paid search director at Compound Growth Marketing, also criticized the lack of information around the new ad format. She wrote on X:
- “It’s beyond crazy what’s happening in the LSA world right now. Thankfully, we don’t have any clients who use them, but for those who do, this is a new nightmare on the daily.”
- “We haven’t seen these for any of our clients but agree it’s a cr*p ad format plus there’s no info on how this affects metrics etc.”
Why we care. The new ad format lacks clear information on costs and metrics, making it difficult to monitor and optimize campaign performance.
What Google is saying. A Google spokesperson confirmed to Search Engine Land that the new ad format is still in the experimental stage, and there is no certainty about its full launch yet.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read our PPC marketing guide for more information on how PPC ads work.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024
Google Analytics 4 introduced a default Google Ads report, now available within your account’s performance reporting section.
To access this report, you need to link your GA4 profile with your Google Ads account
Why we care. The inclusion of this Google Ads report, formerly found in GA4’s predecessor Universal Analytics, simplifies data access within GA4. It helps you figure out what’s working well and what needs improvement, making it easier to optimize your campaign more effectively.
First spotted: The report was first spotted by Senior Performance Marketing Manager and Google Ads expert, Thomas Eccel, who shared a preview on X:
To locate this report, go to the Advertising section, navigate to “Performance”, and click on “Google Ads”.
What Google is saying. Google confirmed the new report to Search Engine Land, explaining it’s part of its Advertising workspace update. A spokesperson recently confirmed:
- “If you currently run ads campaigns or monetize your properties with ads, make sure your ads accounts are linked to continue getting these actionable insights. If no account is linked, you will see a page that prompts you to link to an ads or publisher account.”
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read our GA4 Advertising workspace update report for more information.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024
Google is facing a $2.27 billion lawsuit by 32 media groups claiming that the company’s digital advertising practices have led to financial losses.
The publishers, including Axel Springer and Schibsted, are based in various countries across Europe, such as Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Sweden.
What the lawsuit is saying. A statement issued by the media groups’ lawyers Geradin Partners and Stek said per Reuters:
- “The media companies involved have incurred losses due to a less competitive market, which is a direct result of Google’s misconduct.”
- “Without Google’s abuse of its dominant position, the media companies would have received significantly higher revenues from advertising and paid lower fees for ad tech services. Crucially, these funds could have been reinvested into strengthening the European media landscape.”
What Google is saying. Google denies the allegations and has described them as “speculative and opportunistic.” Oliver Bethell, Legal Director, Google, told Search Engine Land in a statement:
- “Google works constructively with publishers across Europe – our advertising tools, and those of our many adtech competitors, help millions of websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers.”
- “These services adapt and evolve in partnership with those same publishers. This lawsuit is speculative and opportunistic. We’ll oppose it vigorously and on the facts.”
Timing. This lawsuit follows the French competition authority imposing a $238 million fine on Google for its ad tech business in 2021, as well as the charges brought by the European Commission last year, both of which are referenced in the media groups’ claim.
Dutch court. The group chose to file the lawsuit in a Dutch court because the country is well-known for handling antitrust damages claims in Europe. This decision helps avoid dealing with multiple claims across different European countries.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read our antitrust trial updates article for information on Google’s legal battles in the U.S., where the tech giant is being sued by the U.S. Justice Department.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
