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No, ChatGPT isn’t stealing Google’s search market share

Thursday, November 9th, 2023

Reporting on Google’s market share these days is like reporting on the sky (did you know it’s blue?).

Yet today, Seeking Alpha published an article with a clickable headline of ChatGPT eats away at Google search’s dominance.

This article (which is paywalled, so I’m not linking to it) is based on a Bank of America report (why is Bank of America talking about search market share?), which is based on data from StatCounter and Similar Web, which I learned of via an X post by Greg Sterling.

By the numbers. Google’s worldwide search market share, according to StatCounter:

• October 2023: 91.53%
• October 2022: 92.34%

This is Google’s lowest global search market share in the past 12 months. But is this ChatGPT eating into Google’s search market share? Extremely unlikely.

The problem? Statcounter doesn’t track ChatGPT because – hello? – it isn’t a search engine. It’s an LLM-based generative AI chatbot.

• Statcounter also doesn’t track TikTok Search – because all the search activity happens inside an app. But TikTok is a platform Google has acknowledged as a threat to Search (also, Gen Z women prefer TikTok to Google).

Relatively stable. Google Search has been “relatively stable” over the past 12 months, according to the report. Well, yes. But we can actually go further back than that on StatCounter.

Google has been “relatively stable” since August 2015. That’s the month Google surpassed 91% search market share worldwide for the first time.

In the past seven years, Googe’s search market share has bounced around from 91.1% (December 2015) to 93.37% (February 2023). For most of these eight years, ChatGPT didn’t exist, including from April to August 2018 when Google’s search market share dipped below 91%.

What about Bing? Microsoft Bing is still down year-on-year, 3.13% (October 2023) vs. 3.59% (October 2022), according to Statcounter. Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has warned us that AI will make Google more dominant.

Dig deeper. The new Bing has failed to take any market share from Google after six months.

Other numbers. Some month-over-month comparisons from Similar Web:

• Google traffic declined to 2.8 billion (down 0.4%).
• Bard traffic increased to 8.7 million (up 2%).
• Bing traffic increased to 42.7 million (up 8%)
• ChatGPT traffic increased to 55 million (up 4%). An important reminder here – ChatGPT’s traffic is only 2% of Google’s web traffic.

Why we care. Generative AI is – and will continue to – reshape search as we know it. But false narratives aren’t helpful for anybody. Google is still as dominant as it has been since 2015. The impact of Google, ChatGPT and generative AI on search is a story for search marketers to watch. But for now, there’s nothing to see here.

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

Meta unveils five new lead generation ad tools for Facebook and Instagram

Thursday, November 9th, 2023

Meta is adding new tools on Facebook and Instagram to help businesses get better leads.

The tech giant is rolling out five lead generation ad tools, AI features, and CRM partnerships, designed to improve campaign performance and save marketers time and money.

Why we care. Quality leads can save businesses time and resources as they have a greater chance of turning interest into actual sales. Given the higher likelihood of conversion, leveraging tools to optimize lead generation is crucial for marketers as this approach not only ensures more efficient campaigns but also maximizes the return on investment.

Click to WhatsApp Lead Gen: The lead objective is being extended to Facebook and Instagram ads that click to start a WhatsApp chat to help marketers nurture more quality leads with messaging. Select advertisers will have the option to add a Q&A flow in Ads Manager moving forward

Instant form ad format. This feature lets users explore and connect with multiple businesses at once. For example, after signing up for a bridal hair trial, users can easily share their contact information with other relevant businesses, like a nail salon. It offers added convenience for users and more opportunities for small businesses to be discovered by interested customers.

Calling leads on Facebook. Meta is testing this new feature that allows businesses to call people through Facebook to provide assurance and display their business information, including logo and name.

Advantage+ for Lead Gen: Meta is testing full campaign automation for lead generation campaigns, using Meta Advantage. Advertisers can apply AI to multiple campaign aspects simultaneously to “unlock greater performance while saving time and money.”

Hubspot. To support businesses in generating high-quality leads efficiently, Meta is introducing HubSpot as a new CRM integration partner, offering a straightforward click-through setup. Additionally, Meta is streamlining CRM integration with Zapier.

What Meta is saying. A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement:

• “Integrating a CRM with the Conversions API, and using the conversion leads performance goalto optimize for lead quality, can boost campaign performance and help a business reach leads more likely to convert.”
• “In a recent study, ads that used this campaign setup saw an average 16% reduction in cost per quality lead and 21% increase in rate of converting a lead to a quality lead, compared to ads using the leads performance goal.”

Deep dive. Read our 9-step guide on how to use Meta Ads for lead genertion for more information.

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Google updates policy to tackle abuse of its ad network

Thursday, November 9th, 2023

Google Merchant Center is splitting its Shopping Ads and Free Listings Malicious or Unwanted Software Policy into three separate policies:

• Malicious software.
• Compromised sites.
• Unwanted software.

The updated policies will be enforced from October, with full enforcement set to be ramped up over four weeks.

Until then, Google has confirmed that it will continue to enforce its existing malware policy.

Malicious software: The new policy specifically forbids intentionally spreading harmful or unauthorized access-causing software (‘malware’). This rule applies to your ads, listings, and any software your site or app hosts or links to, even if not promoted through the Google Network. Violating this policy is now considered a serious offence.

Compromised sites: A compromised site refers to a site or destination whose code has been hacked to benefit a third party without the owner’s knowledge, often harming users. Ads and listings cannot use compromised destinations. If you violate this, there will be a warning issued at least seven days before any account suspension.

Unwanted software: Ads, listings, and destinations that break Google’s unwanted software policy are not permitted. You will receive a warning at least seven days before any account suspension for violating this policy.

Action required. Take a look at the updated policy to check if any of your ads or listings fall under it. If they do, Google recommends removing them from your feed.

What Google is saying. A Google spokesperson said in a statement:

• “All of our policies are made to protect a high quality user experience.”
• “We have enforcement systems and processes to prevent content that falls below these standards from being shown to users.”
• “We take any attempts to trick or circumvent our review processes very seriously, so play fair.”

Deep dive. Read Google’s policy update in full for more information.

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Why your PPC strategy needs a full-funnel approach

Wednesday, November 8th, 2023

To scale your PPC efforts and reach a broader audience effectively, you need a strategy encompassing every stage of the customer journey, from brand discovery to taking action.

This is where the concept of a full-funnel PPC approach comes into play.

This article will explain the importance of full-funnel PPC marketing and provide a solution for effective reporting with Looker Studio.

Discover how this strategy can impact your business and streamline your marketing efforts for long-term growth. 

What is a full-funnel PPC strategy?

A full-funnel PPC strategy involves looking at all stages in your sales cycle and targeting users via PPC before they know your brand name or may know what solution or product they are looking for.

It helps you target prospects at multiple touchpoints from the Awareness stage all the way to the bottom of the funnel or Action stage.

Potential new customers at the Awareness stage will learn about your brand while seeking answers to their questions.

In many cases, paid search advertisers tend to get too focused on bottom-funnel lead acquisition, whether for lead generation or ecommerce. 

However, understanding the importance of a full-funnel strategy can significantly benefit your business. 

Dig deeper: How to use always-on marketing in paid search

The importance of a full-funnel strategy in PPC

Investing in a full-funnel strategy is well worth the effort. Let’s consider Portent’s own data from a full-funnel approach implemented for a B2B solution targeting mid-sized companies. 

These campaigns, which embraced a full-funnel strategy, outperformed the previous campaigns that solely targeted bottom-funnel calls to action in acquiring new users and generating leads.

This data underscores the advantages of a full-funnel approach in reaching a broader audience and driving results.

PPC campaigns by funnel stages

Now that we see the impact, what campaigns fall under each stage?

Generally, for top-of-funnel awareness campaigns, the best campaign types are:

• Demand Gen.
• Video.
• Display.

For middle-of-funnel campaigns, we often classify:

• Non-branded Search campaigns.
• Display and Video and Demand Gen campaigns.
• Remarketing.

For bottom-of-funnel or action campaigns, we would consider:

• High-intent keyword Search campaigns.
• Brand Search campaigns.
• Performance Max.
• Remarketing campaigns.

Difficulties reporting with Google Ads data

One of the biggest challenges when convincing your boss or client to invest in a full-funnel strategy is providing the data to track performance once the campaigns are live.

For Awareness or top-of-funnel campaigns, you want to evaluate their performance on: 

• Impressions.
• View-through rate.

For the Interest or Desire stage, you want to look at engaged sessions or other engagement metrics such as:

• Engagement rate.
• Time spent on page.
• Clicks on certain page elements.

Finally, for the Action section of the account, you will want to track your primary conversions, such as:

• Form fills.
• Purchases.

The question is, how does all of this get reported and visualized? 

The top and middle funnel KPIs are only available in Analytics, whereas the KPIs of the funnel’s Action section are metrics you would track in Google Ads.

The answer is to use Looker Studio to create full-funnel reports.

Full-funnel PPC reporting with Looker Studio

When using Looker Studio, you must guide the visitor through your full-funnel strategy with visuals illustrating what your funnel looks like.

By breaking down the stages in each slide, you can direct the reader to focus on the appropriate metrics for that stage rather than solely concentrating on the bottom-of-funnel action conversions, such as purchases or form fills.

For example, in your report, you can start at the top of the funnel, including metrics relevant to that stage.

It’s advisable to include cost data for various campaign types (e.g., Display, Video, Demand Gen) month over month (MOM). This approach allows for a more focused and clear presentation of data.

Another idea to improve this slide for a client is to include a table with the breakdown of top-of-funnel campaigns. We also recommend providing images or videos on the slide so the user understands which ads are Awareness.

The benefit of this strategy is breaking out the stages in each slide allows you to direct the reader to focus on the appropriate metrics for that stage and not focus solely on the bottom-of-funnel action conversions such as purchases or form fills.

I recommend having a separate slide for each funnel stage rather than combining all full-funnel metrics into a single slide.

The combination of data can be overwhelming and may confuse the visitor about which metrics are the most important.

By presenting each stage individually, you can provide a clear and concise view of the performance at each funnel level.

Dig deeper: 5 things your Google Looker Studio PPC Dashboard must have

Full-funnel reporting simplified

Once you have created your full-funnel report using Looker Studio, you can analyze the impact of your investment in top-of-funnel campaigns on your overall primary conversion actions. This analysis can be done quarterly or over longer time frames. 

While it’s important to note that the benefits of top-of-funnel campaigns may take longer to materialize compared to bottom-of-funnel strategies, educating your boss or client on the importance of a full-funnel approach can lead to larger year-over-year growth.

A full-funnel strategy is a valuable approach for targeting prospects at various stages of the customer journey. To effectively report on the performance of such campaigns, Looker Studio can be a powerful tool, providing the necessary data visualization and reporting capabilities.

By breaking down the metrics and guiding the reader through each stage of the funnel, you can ensure that your reporting is clear, focused, and insightful.

Over time, the data collected from top-of-funnel campaigns can provide valuable insights into their impact on your overall business goals.

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GA4 path exploration report: 3 ways to uncover website roadblocks

Wednesday, November 8th, 2023

Navigating the unexpected deadends and misleading turns of a poorly organized website is never fun. Your website must provide visitors with what they expect to find, whether that’s content, products, or whatever means to whatever end. 

And yet, I continue to see websites that seem to be designed to keep users ensnared in an annoying virtual corn maze, complete with dead ends and false trails. One way to make sure your users don’t want to come back to your website is to frustrate them. (Unless that’s the point of your site.) 

The fixes are usually fairly simple to employ once you can identify the sticking points. To do so, you must know how to interpret Google Analytics 4 (GA4) data for informed insights.

This article explores how you can use GA4’s path exploration report to help remove website roadblocks for your users. 

1. How are new visitors from a specific channel navigating my website paths in a specific browser?

If you’re directing too many people down the same, wrong paths, you will have some unhappy and claustrophobic visitors.

Let’s walk through the steps in GA4 to see how visitors navigate your site and how you can see the ways different segments of people navigate (or fail to navigate) your twists and turns. 

• Sign in to Google Analytics.
• On the left, click Explore.
• At the top of the screen, select the Path exploration template. 
• To try to help you see what’s possible, Analytics will automatically fill the template with a sample implementation. Click Start Over in the upper right to clear the sample.
• Drag and drop the Event button from Node Type to the Starting Point.
  • One benefit of GA4 is the default Events tracked for you without any effort from you required (you can see the full list here).

• At this point, a menu will pop up for you to select what Event you want to dive into. Since we’re focused on first-timers, we will select the default Event, first_visit. 

• The report will automatically populate step 1 with the same node type; in this case, the Event. But we’re interested in seeing where first-timers go on our site, so click the drop-down under Step +1 that says Event Name, and select Page title and screen name. 

• Now, we can see what pages on our site first-time visitors land on. I’m willing to bet your homepage is pretty high up there, so click that page title to open up Step +2 (a.k.a., what page first-time users to your homepage navigate to). 

• Measure your feelings. No, really. Are you surprised by what you see? Did you expect first-time visitors to your homepage to make it to a specific product or pricing page that isn’t even in the top five listed in “Step +2?”
• To see specifically Organic Search users subset, we will apply a Segment. Go to the Segments menu under Variables and click the plus (+) icon.

GA4 has a ton of pre-built segments for you to peruse at your leisure, but we will select Templates and then Acquisition.

• From there, those without RegEx experience can collectively release the breath you’ve been holding because now we can select the First user default channel and add a filter that contains a drop-down of default channels. Then click the big blue Save and Apply button in the top right corner.

To see our segment broken down by Browser (or analyzed by any other attribute), follow the last three steps, only this time select the Dimensions variable.

• Check the Browser option from the pre-defined Platform / Device Dimensions GA4 provides, click Import, and then drag and drop that Dimension into Breakdown.

• From there, we can hover over the metrics at the bottom to see how this user path compares by different browsers.

2. What are my non-converting visitors expecting other than what they’re getting? 

Is there anything your visitors want that they’re not getting? 

Let’s walk through the steps in GA4 to see what users are searching for and how you can prioritize new additions or make existing things easier to find. 

• Sign in to Google Analytics.
• On the left, click Explore.
• Choose a blank exploration.
• We’ll need to add “Search term” data to our exploration, so click the + next to Dimensions
• You can explore the Dimensions here, or you can simply type search term into the search bar at the top, click the check box, and add that data by clicking the big blue Import button in the top right corner. 

• Now that we know what we want to analyze, we need to specify the specific numbers we’re interested in. Click the plus (+) icon next to Metrics. To see how many users searched for a given term, choose “Active users.” To see how many times those users searched for it, select “Event count.” Then, click Import.
• To populate your report, drag the Dimension Search Term into the row and the Metrics into the values.

• Your free-form exploration now has data in it. Specifically, Search term data from your on-site search, including how many users searched for it and how many times they searched for it. It’s time to search your feelings again. Is the data what you would expect to see?
• To break out our data by non-converters, add a Segment by clicking the plus (+) icon.
• No need to create a custom segment for this. Google already has prebuilt audience suggestions for us. Go ahead and select the Non-Purchasers audience under the General menu.

• You can see on the next page how that audience was defined, but there’s no need for you to change anything unless you want to. Click the Save and Apply button in the top right, then do the same step for the Purchasers audience.

• Sit with your data for a moment.
  • Row 2 is the most searched term for your site. Is it an easy page to navigate to? Based on the data, I would guess “no.”
    • Or are you seeing an urgent opportunity to optimize website experiences, like in row 4, where the Purchasers column is 0?

This data tells you that no one searching for the row 4 term is purchasing from your site.

Is that what you expected? Or do you have some content you need to spin up or a Purchasing department to notify? 

3. What is the top exited page, and where are those users coming from? 

Ideally, everyone who enters should also exit your website, but are they leaving in the right direction?

Let’s walk through the steps in GA4 to see the last pages people visit and what channel those users came from. 

• Sign in to Google Analytics.
• On the left, click Explore.
• Choose a Blank exploration.
• We need to select the thing we want to analyze. In this case, we want to know the Page title, and we also want to know the Channel these users used to get there. Click the + next to Dimension, 
• Select Page path and screen class (under Page/screen), and First user default channel group (under Traffic source), and click the big blue Import button in the top right corner.

• Now, we need to define the numbers we want to look at. Click the + next to Metrics.
• Using the search bar or by expanding the menus, select Exits, Views, and Bounce Rate, and click the Import button.

• Drag Page path and screen class into the rows area, and First user default channel group to the columns.

• Then, drag your metrics into the values area. To help us focus on the right things, we will also change the cell type to Heat Map.

• Now, go ahead and close out Variables and Settings to minimize those menus and see the full report. 

• Examine the heat map and scroll over and down to find the darkest cells that indicate the highest numbers.
  • Are you seeing differences by traffic source, like row 25? 
  • What channels need more attention to improve or optimize event metrics like bounce rate? And why those channels? 
  • Is the meta description on the Organic Search result setting a different expectation than the one Direct users have when they visit that page?

Enhancing website engagement with GA4 

The path exploration report in GA4 can be a game-changer for uncovering and addressing website roadblocks. Leveraging this tool lets you gain insights and take action to enhance the user experience.

Incorporating these insights into your digital marketing strategy can lead to a more user-friendly website, improved engagement, and enhanced overall performance.

Dig deeper: How to use GA4 to optimize your digital marketing strategy

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Why this advertiser doesn’t trust Amazon Ads

Wednesday, November 8th, 2023

Amazon Ads should not be trusted – that’s according to digital marketing expert, Bryan Porter.

The Co-Founder and Chief eCommerce Officer at Simple Modern claims his company has spent $14 million on Amazon ads over the years and describes the investment as a “waste”.

Explaining his comments, he says:

• “Amazon ads take credit for sales that would’ve happened organically. Like 40%. Dramatically inflating performance.”
• “Ads convert on relevant keywords. Good products organically rank on relevant keywords. Almost all ads are capturing some organic sales.”
• “More Amazon ads shenanigans? They show your ads on your other product listings. You pay for customers to click between your listings while Amazon ads takes credit for the sale.”

Why we care. When Amazon ads cannibalize organic sales, it means less revenue for the same advertising cost. Efficient ad spend is essential for maximizing profitability and ensuring that the marketing budget is used effectively.

Testing. Sharing his experience on LinkedIn, Porter claims that his company decided to conduct some Amazon ad experiments last year by shutting off campaigns for three months. As expected, revenue did drop – but interestingly this figure was “not even close” to the loss in ad sales reported by Amazon.

New direction. Porter says that his ad testing has transformed his company’s ad strategy and so has decided to share some of his top tips:

• Grouping ad keywords. Porter explains that you can’t gauge a campaign’s true performance when all keywords are mixed together. Some keywords make a big impact (over 90%), while others have a smaller effect (less than 20%). To get a clearer picture, he recommends organizing keywords into three categories:
  • Competitors.
  • Generic.
  • Branded.
• Targeting a 3 ROAS. Porter suggests “running branded campaigns at a 20 ROAS because 80% of sales are capturing organic demand.”
• View Ads as Investments.If investing in inventory or product development brings better returns, allocate your ad budget accordingly.
• Embrace competition. Relying too much on Amazon ads is a weakness, according to Porter. If you find yourself overspending, focus on improving your product or listing for better organic rankings. Building a strong brand is the ultimate advantage.

What Amazon is saying. Search Engine Land has reached out to Amazon for comment.

Deep dive. Read our Search Engine Land report on Amazon’s latest earnings to find out how much revenue ads generated for the company in the third quarter of 2023.

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Amazon’s AI image generator: What advertisers need to know

Wednesday, November 8th, 2023

Amazon is looking to become a player in the generative AI game and also sell more products from ads. 

The online retailer’s new Amazon AI image generator lets you upload product photos and add AI-generated backgrounds to produce lifestyle imagery and give your ads a boost. 

Lifestyle imagery, no technical expertise needed

Though it didn’t really start dominating headlines until this year, AI has been around for a long time, albeit in subtler ways – and Amazon has been a key player. Its Sponsored Products ads, Alexa devices, and Prime Video features rely on AI and machine learning.

The Amazon AI Image Generator was created in direct response to feedback from advertisers, who cited a lack of experience designing creative and engaging ads as a roadblock to success.

Many lack access to the resources and expertise necessary to create copy, imagery and videos that would attract consumers.  

Now, advertisers can simply log into Amazon’s Ad Console, select a product image, and click Generate. 

Within seconds, the tool uses generative AI to produce a series of lifestyle and brand-themed images based on product details. 

Source: Amazon

Images can be refined by entering text prompts, and multiple versions can be produced and tested to optimize performance. With just a few clicks, you can create compelling ads at no extra cost. 

Lifestyle imagery is successful because it shows your product in use where it is intended. If you’re in the market for a tennis racket, you’ll be drawn to the ad that shows a couple swatting balls back and forth on a court, smiling and having fun, rather than a close-up shot of a racket against a plain white backdrop, right? 

The Amazon AI image generator lets you do this with any product you sell.

Let’s say you private label a brand of air fryers. Instead of relying on a standalone photo of your product against a bland background, you can now create a lifestyle-based image of your air fryer sitting on a kitchen counter next to a cookbook and a few recipe ingredients. 

This fosters an emotional response in customers, who can now picture your air fryer at home on their own kitchen counter. They may not have the culinary skills of a Gordon Ramsey, but seeing is believing – and believing is buying.

Lifestyle ads can generate click-through rates (CTRs) up to 40% higher than ads using standard product images, according to Amazon.

That should make all of us Amazon marketers believers.

The benefits of Amazon’s AI image generator

Amazon’s AI image generator boasts innovative technology that is a true game-changer for advertisers. 

Using it simplifies the ad creation process, minimizes the time and resources needed to create captivating imagery, and has the potential to significantly improve ad performance. 

Notable features and benefits include:

• Accessibility and user-friendliness. The tool is designed to be simple and intuitive, making advanced ad creation capabilities accessible to advertisers regardless of their size or in-house creative resources.
• Increased efficiency and productivity. Automatically generating ad imagery allows advertisers to quickly produce various images for A/B testing, saving time and effort.
• Enhanced ad performance. AI-generated images provide a lifestyle context that can tell a more compelling story than a standard product image, potentially increasing CTRs and overall campaign effectiveness.
• Creative democratization. The technology levels the playing field between small businesses and large corporations, allowing all advertisers to compete with high-quality, context-rich imagery.
• Continuous improvement and innovation. Amazon’s commitment to refining the tool based on user feedback and integrating it with other AI initiatives reflects a broader trend of continuous improvement and innovation within the digital advertising space.
• Cost reduction. Reducing the need for expensive photo shoots and design resources helps brands allocate their advertising budgets more effectively.
• Trendsetting in digital advertising. Amazon’s move signals a shift toward AI-augmented creative processes in the advertising industry, setting a new standard for competitors and the market as a whole.

AI-powered advertising is a game-changer

For advertisers, the end game is about getting the most for your money. 

Amazon’s new AI image generation tool can help you boost CTRs in several ways. Using the image generator allows you to:

• Create more eye-catching and engaging images. AI-generated images are more visually appealing and engaging than traditional product photos. AI can generate images that are more realistic, creative, and relevant to your target audience.
• Showcase your products in a more lifestyle-oriented context. AI-generated images can showcase your products in a more lifestyle-oriented context. This helps potential customers better understand how your products can be used and how they can fit into their lives.
• Test different creative variations quickly and easily. The AI image generation tool allows you to quickly and easily test different creative variations of your ads. This can help you identify the images most likely to resonate with your target audience and drive clicks.

For all of AI’s benefits, a little manual intervention will help you unlock the full potential of the image-generating tool. 

Use high-quality product photos as the starting point for your AI-generated images. Though it may seem like it at times, AI isn’t magic. It can’t conjure your own product images out of thin air. The Amazon AI image generator uses your product photos to generate new images, so it’s important to start with high-quality photos.

When creating your images, be sure to provide clear and concise instructions. This will help ensure the images generated will be more relevant to your target audience and your ad campaign’s goals.

Take advantage of the tool’s ability to provide multiple versions of your ad by testing them to see which ones drive the most clicks and conversions. AI-powered advertising is most effective when you use the data provided to optimize your campaigns for a better ROI. 

AI may still be in its infancy, but it has quickly established itself as a powerful tool that can help drive sales while leveling the playing field. 

By leveraging AI, Amazon is democratizing the ability for businesses of all sizes to create high-quality, engaging ads that resonate with consumers and stand out in a crowded digital landscape.

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Amazon’s ‘secret ad pricing scheme’ revealed in previously redacted documents

Tuesday, November 7th, 2023

The US Federal Trade Commission has published previously redacted information detailing why it’s suing Amazon.

New documents detail a secret algorithm codenamed “Project Nessie”, which allegedly leveraged deceptive practices to boost consumer prices by more than $1 billion – including deliberately making Amazon search worse. Chairman Jeff Bezos reportedly approved this strategy.

Why we care. If Amazon is found guilty of charging brands high fees for showing irrelevant ads that hurt the user experience, advertisers may want to consider moving their ad spend to other platforms for a healthier return on investment and more effective ad placement.

Degrading search results. The Commission claims that Amazon’s service quality declined as it shifted from prioritizing relevant, organic search results on its online storefront (as originally directed by its founder and then-CEO Jeff Bezos), to now featuring pay-to-play advertisements. The organization says Amazon bosses knew this created “harm to users” by making it “almost impossible for high quality,
helpful organic content to win over barely relevant sponsored content.”

Junk Ads. The commission alleges that sellers are now required to pay for advertising to reach Amazon’s large online shopper base, resulting in less relevant search results and higher-priced products for shoppers. These Junk Ads are allegedly referred to as “defects” by Bezos and his staff – despite sellers paying substantial fees for them.

The impact of Junk Ads. An Amazon executive shared examples highlighting how displaying junk ads instead of organic search results negatively impacted the shopping experience during internal discussions, according to the Commission. Some results were clearly unrelated to what the customer was looking for, like an LA Lakers t-shirt ad appearing in a search for “Seahawks t-shirt.” Others were just strange, such as “Buck urine” showing up as the first Sponsored Products slot for “water bottles.”

Rejecting guard rails to protect customers. Amazon allegedly consistently rejected the idea of implementing “guardrails” on ads to protect the customer experience. Senior executives at Amazon emphasized that advertising should not be limited by additional rules, even if there were flaws in this approach.

Bezos ‘prioritizing cash over service’. Bezos reportedly directed his executives to accept more “defect” ads as he wanted to prioritize advertising revenue over improved customer services, according to the Commission. Prioritizing maximum advertising profit had effectively become the guiding principle, despite its shortcomings, according to one senior executive.

Raising prices for consumers. The Commission claims that Amazon’s pay-to-play ecosystem increases the cost for sellers – an expense which is then infiltrated down to consumers. An Amazon executive reportedly said:

• “[T]his extra cost is likely to be passed down to the customer and result in higher prices for customers.”

‘Penalties’ for competitive Sellers. Additionally, Amazon’s alleged anti-discounting behavior penalizes sellers who offer lower prices on other online platforms with lower fees. As a result, many sellers establish their prices on Amazon, even with higher fees, as the minimum price across the internet.

Consumers pay the price. By inundating its search results with paid ads, Amazon guides shoppers towards pricier products. A 2018 study acknowledged that increased advertising makes it harder for customers to find lower-cost products, and as advertising grows, it significantly affects the overall site’s average sales price (ASP).

Alleged anti-competitive conduct. Amazon reportedly employs an algorithm created by former executive Jeff Wilke to prevent other online stores from lowering prices, aiming to deter price competition and maintain higher prices in the market. This approach involves mimicking competitors’ pricing changes to avoid losing market share. It results in less price competition and potentially higher prices for consumers. According to the commission:

• “This conduct is meant to deter rivals from attempting to compete on price altogether – competition that could bring lower prices to tens of millions of American households.”

Stopping competition. Amazon introduced Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) in 2015 to expand Prime-eligible products for shoppers, boost sales, and support its growth. SFP allowed sellers to offer Prime-eligible products without using Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon services. While sellers liked SFP, Amazon closed its enrolment in 2019 because they reportedly saw it was fostering competition and undermining their market dominance.

Ad revenue. Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, announced last week that the company’s ad revenue had “grown robustly” – up 26% to surpass $12 billion.

What Amazon is saying. Search Engine Land has contacted Amazon for comment. Tim Doyle, Amazon spokesman, told us:

• “The FTC claims that an old Amazon pricing algorithm called Nessie is an unfair method of competition that led to raised prices for consumers. This grossly mischaracterizes this tool.”
• “Nessie was used to try to stop our price matching from resulting in unusual outcomes where prices became so low that they were unsustainable. The project ran for a few years on a subset of products, but didn’t work as intended, so we scrapped it several years ago.”

What the Federal Trade Commission is saying: A spokesperson for the department said in its complaint:

• “In a competitive world, Amazon’s decision to raise prices and degrade services would create an opening for rivals and potential rivals to attract business, gain momentum, and grow. But Amazon has engaged in an unlawful monopolistic strategy to close off that possibility.”
• “This case is about the illegal course of exclusionary conduct Amazon deploys to block competition, stunt rivals’ growth, and cement its dominance. The elements of this strategy are mutually reinforcing.”
• “Amazon’s course of conduct has unlawfully entrenched its monopoly position in both relevant markets. According to an industry source, Amazon now captures more sales than the next fifteen largest U.S. online retail firms combined. Yet Amazon has violated the law not by being big, but by how it uses its scale and scope to stifle competition.”

Deep dive. Read the Federal Trade Commission’s revised redacted complaint in full for more information.

The post Amazon’s ‘secret ad pricing scheme’ revealed in previously redacted documents appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

How Danny Sullivan shares SEO issues with Google’s Search team

Tuesday, November 7th, 2023

Ever wonder how Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, compiles feedback on issues related to Search and then shares those details with the wider Google Search team?

Sullivan regularly does this work but has only shared examples with the public a few times. He shared some of the latest feedback he’s received Nov. 3.

What Sullivan shared. In a recent post on various social platforms, Sullivan wrote:

• “Someone asked me this week for examples of how I bring the feedback people have outside Google back into Google. Good question. I’ve done this in the past. Here’s a fresh one. After the discussions I’ve had over the past two weeks at an in-person event and online, I compiled a write-up that runs about nine printed pages long, covering themes, thoughts, concerns and suggestions that were shared with the search team. A sampling from that.”

The notes. Here are interesting excerpts from the notes, although he posted screenshots of them as shown above:

Everyone is doing things for us. all If you tell someone to make people-first content, it’s not uncommon they fall back into thinking how they show us – Google – that it’s people first. “So you’re saying I should have an author bio to rank better?” No! They should have bios because their own readers would expect that!

Our guidance even encourages people to compare themselves to other pages in our results – something we probably need to amend to say something like I covered in this post. Do a search, look at the sites that come up. Those are what our systems find helpful. That said, the systems aren’t perfect. So if you see a site that seems to be doing things against our guidelines, it might not be successful in the future.

Over and over, people noted large publishers that seem like they can write about anything and get rewarded.

Related is the idea that “parasite SEO” site win, sites that lease themselves out to third-parties and then content ranks on these sites that would never succeed on a different. This is different from big sites winning for original (but not necessarily people-first) content, but the two get conflated.

there’s a desire (such as here and here) for some type of tool or examples to help people better understand what we mean by helpful content or something that identifies if a page or site has been impacted by the helpful content update. I also floated the idea of taking our self-assessment questions and turning them into an interactive tool (this is a very rough idea of how that might work) Possibly, we could begin sharing some actual examples (such as here) or generic/stylized examples like this:

Past examples. It’s been more than four years since Sullivan publicly shared examples of him sharing feedback from SEOs, creators and users with the Google Search team. Here are two of those posts:

Why we care. On some level it is nice to know that we do have people inside Google that do take our feedback seriously and share them with the wider Google Search team. I know it is not just Sullivan who does this but also other teams at Google, such as John Mueller’s Search Relations team.

We also know that it takes Google time to compile, review and process the feedback and then sometimes even more time to decide if they should take action on that feedback. Finally, programming that feedback into the various search algorithms and search interfaces can take even longer.

So don’t expect any of this feedback to result in changes in Google Search in the next week or two. These changes take time.

The post How Danny Sullivan shares SEO issues with Google’s Search team appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

SMX is online next week… don’t miss out!

Tuesday, November 7th, 2023

As we speed toward the end of the year, search marketers are taking stock of their strategies and plans for 2024. How will generative AI fit into your workflow? Are you prepared for the impact of Google’s Search Generative Experience? What outdated SEO practices will you say goodbye to… and which new lead gen tactics will you adopt

Make sense of it all – and gear up for a successful New Year – at SMX, online November 14-15, for free!

Your free All Access pass unlocks three exclusive generative AI keynotes, plus nearly 70 actionable sessions, live Q&As (Overtime!), engaging demos, interactive Coffee Talk meetups, and AMA-style sessions with select winners of the 2023 Search Engine Land Awards. See the complete agenda!

After two days of training, you’ll be ready to…

• Understand what SGE is and how it will change Google’s landscape
• Future-proof your brand’s website against Google algorithm changes
• Harness the power of Performance Max campaigns for lead generation
• Efficiently publish content that ranks fast with the help of SEO pillar topics
• Craft compelling offers using AI to enhance relevance and appeal
• Unlock the potential of AI-driven creative to supercharge your digital ad campaigns

… and much more. Don’t miss your final chance in 2023 to attend the world’s leading search marketing conference. You and your career deserve this. Grab your free pass now!

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