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20% of CMOs to invest less in paid search, SEO this year

Written on May 23, 2023 at 6:35 am, by admin

Paid search advertising and SEO are among the channels most likely to have reduced investment in 2023, according to Gartner’s latest CMO Spend and Strategy survey. But it’s not all bad news for search marketing.

Search advertising. Although 26% of CMOs planned to reduce their investment in paid search, 40% of CMOs said they plan to increase investment in this channel.

• ICYMI: Paid search spend is forecast to hit $110 billion in the U.S. this year.

SEO. While SEO was identified by 20% of the survey respondents as a channel to reduce investment this year, 46% of CMOs planned to increase their SEO budget.

Social advertising and beyond. Surprisingly, 53% of CMOs planned to invest more in social advertising, compared to 14% who are decreasing investment. Two other categories that can expect more budget in 2023: digital video advertising and influencer marketing.

Here’s the full chart from Gartner:

Source: Gartner 2023 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey

Why we care. Organic and paid search are two proven marketing channels that can drive visibility, brand awareness, leads, revenue, profit and more for brands. If you aren’t investing in search, you’re potentially taking money off your table.

Dig deeper. SEO vs. PPC: Differences, pros, cons & an integrated approach

Budget woes. Marketing budgets are flat – and 71% of CMOs believe they lack the budget successfully to execute this year’s strategies. So it will be important for CMOs to make smart decisions about where they spend their budget.

About the survey. 410 CMOs and marketing leaders were surveyed in March and April 2023. Respondents were based in North America and Europe, representing various industries and company sizes, with most reporting annual revenue exceeding $1 billion.

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Google Site names now support subdomains on mobile devices

Written on May 23, 2023 at 6:35 am, by admin

Google now supports Site names for subdomains on mobile devices, the search company just announced. Google wrote, “Site names are now supported for subdomains on mobile devices.”

Google updated its help documentation to specify subdomains on mobile.

Site names. Site names is the title and name of the site Google shows in the search results listings. “When Google lists a page in search results, it shows the name of the site the page comes from,” Google explained.

What it looks like. Here is where the site name shows in the search result snippet:

Site names timeline. Here is the timeline Google posted of the evolution of site names since it launched in October:

• October 2022: Site names for the domain level were introduced for mobile search results for English, French, German and Japanese.
• April 2023 (I have this as March): Site names were added for desktop for the same set of languages.
• May 2023: Site names are now supported on the subdomain level for the same set of languages and on mobile search results only.

Need support. Having issues with your site name? Google posted a support thread in the Google support forums over here, including more FAQs.

We recently saw some issues with site names, some of which Google resolved.

Controlling site names. Google back in October explained that Google Search uses a number of ways to identify the site name for the search result. But if you want, you can use structured data on your home page to communicate to Google what the site name should be for your site. Google has specific documentation on this new Site name structured data available over here.

Upgrading the favicon. Google also recommended revisiting the documentation for favicons for the latest best practices. Google is now also suggesting you provide an icon that’s at least 48 pixels and follows the existing favicon guidelines.

Ads. This is also rolled out to the Google search ads on desktop, so the size of the site name, favicons, and also the ad label will be more prominent in mobile search. In fact, Google rolled out the “Sponsored” label in mobile search last October and today on desktop, officially replacing the “Ads” label from January 2020.

Why we care. Now the site names will potentially show a different name for subdomains on mobile devices. So make sure to test to see how Google shows your site name for your subdomains on mobile, for multiple queries.

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Nearly 30% of Instacart’s revenue is from advertising

Written on May 19, 2023 at 9:24 pm, by admin

Instacart made $740 million in ad revenue in 2022, a 30% increase over 2021.

Surging ad business. The Information reported:

“The grocery-delivery firm’s ad revenue totaled about $740 million last year, up 30% from 2021, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s a striking increase, given that the digital ad market was largely stagnant last year. Nearly 30% of Instacart’s 2022 revenue came from selling advertising rather than actually delivering groceries.”

Ads accounted for about 20% of Instacart’s $1.5 annual revenue in 2021 – about $300 million – according to a June 2021 Insider report.

For comparison. Advertising accounted for about 10% of Amazon’s revenue in 2022, according to The Information. Meanwhile, Amazon made $37.7 billion in revenue through advertising last year.

Why we care. Instacart remains a viable alternative for brands to promote products directly to consumers. And the company has updated its platform to attract more advertisers.

The bigger picture. In 2022, Google and Meta’s advertising market share dropped below 50%. This trend is expected to continue in 2023, in part, due to the rise of emerging ad platforms like Instacart.

The rise of retail media networks. Retail media search spend is forecast to be near $30 billion this year – and RMN digital ad revenue is expected to hit $45 billion. Dig deeper in U.S. paid search spend forecast to hit $110 billion in 2023.

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YouTube to offer unskippable 30-second ads on connected TV

Written on May 19, 2023 at 9:24 pm, by admin

Non-skippable ads are coming to YouTube Select on connected TV. This means that viewers will see one 30-second ad instead of two consecutive 15-second ads.

Why we care. YouTube was the most popular U.S. video streaming platform in April and watch time increased, according to Nielsen. It remains to be seen whether a non-skippable 30-second format provides a good advertising ROI.

What YouTube said. YouTube explained in a blog post:

“We know that running longer-form creative on the big screen aligns with your objectives, and allows for richer storytelling. YouTube Select is now landing over 70% of impressions on the TV screen, so we’re making it easier for you to use existing assets in front of the most-streamed content.”

YouTube Select is the top 5% of the most-viewed and most-engaging content.

U.S. first. YouTube’s new ad type will initially be available only in the U.S., with plans to expand availability internationally later this year.

Pause Ads. YouTube also announced it will be testing “Pause experiences” on CTV. This experimental feature will allow viewers to pause videos, to potentially help drive awareness or an action – perhaps via a QR code.

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OpenAI launches ChatGPT iOS app

Written on May 19, 2023 at 9:24 pm, by admin

ChatGPT is now available as an iOS app. The app is free and offers all the features you’ll find on the web version.

Why we care. ChatGPT has become an essential and popular tool for several SEOs, search marketers and content creators. Now you can use it whenever and wherever you want, all while maintaining your history. Plus, the app interface seems a bit more user-friendly than using ChatGPT on a mobile browser.

Plus. You’ll need to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus to get access to its GPT-4 model, as well as the other Plus features.

Voice input. The app also uses OpenAI’s speech-recognition system, called Whisper, to enable voice input. Early reports indicated this feature to be a bit buggy.

U.S. only for now. The app will roll out to U.S. users first, then expand to more countries in the coming weeks.

ChatGPT on Android “soon.” OpenAI said an app is coming soon for Android users.

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New Google AI tools will let advertisers generate media assets

Written on May 18, 2023 at 6:23 pm, by admin

Advertisers and YouTube creators may benefit from new AI solutions Google is reportedly working on.

Google Ads. Generative AI tools, powered by PaLM 2, will help advertisers create media assets, CNBC reported, based on internal Google documents. Unfortunately, that’s as much detail as we know for now.

We’ve previously reported that generative AI is coming to Google Ads. However, that seemed more about “remixing” existing assets into ads, whereas this report is more about Google actually generating those assets.

YouTube. According to CNBC:

Google has also been testing PaLM 2 for YouTube youth content for things like titles, and descriptions. For creators, the company has been using the technology to experiment with the idea of providing five video ideas based on topics that appear relevant.

Why we care. Amazon and Meta are also testing generative AI for advertisers or will be soon. Google’s integration of generative AI will be worth testing to see if it helps improve performance – especially with conversion rates down and CPLs up.

Will we learn more this Tuesday? This year’s Google Marketing Live takes place May 23. We expect it to be heavy on AI announcements. Could these – or other AI solutions – be officially announced next week? We’ll be watching and reporting on all the news from the event.

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U.S. paid search spend forecast to hit $110 billion in 2023

Written on May 18, 2023 at 6:23 pm, by admin

Paid search spend is expected to reach $110 billion this year, according to a new eMarketer forecast.

Search and retail media. Paid search represents 41.8% of total digital spending. If it reaches $110 billion, its growth will remain slightly higher (at 8.2%) than overall U.S. digital ad spend, which is expected to increase by 7.8%.

Within search, retail media networks (RMNs) are a rising star, with 18.7% growth in retail media search. This segment is projected to be near $30 billion in spending in 2023.

RMN digital ad revenue (not just in search) is on course to rise from $31 billion in 2021 to $45 billion this year. If spending continues at its current rate it should surpass $106 billion in 2027.

Image source: eMarketer

Why we care. We expect 2023 to be a challenging year in search. There have been many changes related to generative AI and chat in search (both on Google and Microsoft Bing), and we’re hoping to get more clarity soon about what these changes will mean in terms of engagement and ad performance. Until then, it’s good to see overall paid search spend growth rising – especially in retail.

More on U.S. search ad revenue. It hit a record $84.4 billion in 2022, according to IAB.

U.S. digital ad spend. While it’s dropping below 10% for the first time in 14 years, digital ad spending is projected to rebound to 11.2% growth in 2024, the forecast said. Yearly increases are predicted to hover around 10% through 2027.

Digital ad spend saw a dramatic rebound in 2021 following the initial wave of the COVID pandemic — when it saw growth of 37.6%. In 2022, the numbers fell dramatically, with 10.6% growth.

Image source: eMarketer

Digital slice of the pie. Overall media spending is expected to increase 3.8% this year as traditional media investments continue to migrate to digital.

Digital media should make up 74.6% of total U.S. media spend, which is expected to reach nearly $264 billion in 2023. The digital slice of total media spending is projected to grow about 2% annually in the coming years.

Display and CTV. Connected TV (CTV) advertising keeps charging ahead.

For some perspective, over half (55%) of digital spending is in display ads whose revenue is expected to grow 7.9% this year. CTV’s projected growth for 2023, however, is 21.2% – nearly triple digital’s growth.

CTV ad spend is on pace to hit $25 billion this year and account for 9.5% of total digital ad revenue, according to eMarketer.

Social display, on the other hand, is projected to only see a growth increase of 3.4% in 2023. Social network display advertising is about a quarter of total digital spending.

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Google Chrome will soon add 6 relevance and measurement APIs

Written on May 18, 2023 at 6:23 pm, by admin

The Privacy Sandbox initiative, a project led by Chrome, is introducing new key relevance and measurement APIs to Chrome Stable. This move is scheduled for the third quarter of 2023, with the spotlight focused on Chrome Stable 115 as the specific launch pad.

Unveiling the specifics. The APIs set to go live are:

• Topics: Generate signals for interest-based advertising without third-party cookies or other user identifiers that track individuals across sites.
• Protected Audience: Select ads to serve remarketing and custom audience use cases, designed to mitigate third-party tracking across sites. (This API was previously named FLEDGE. As we head towards launch, we’ve updated the name to better reflect the functionality.)
• Attribution Reporting: Correlate ad clicks or ad views with conversions. Ad techs can generate event-level or summary reports.
• Private Aggregation: Generate aggregate data reports using data from Protected Audience and cross-site data from Shared Storage.
• Shared Storage: Allow unlimited, cross-site storage write access with privacy-preserving read access.
• Fenced Frames: Securely embed content onto a page without sharing cross-site data.

The APIs will gradually roll out to all users. The Chrome team to closely monitor for issues to ensure a seamless integration.

Why we care. The six new relevance and measurement APIs will deliver tools to generate interest-based advertising signals and correlate ad clicks or views with conversions, all without the use of third-party cookies. This approach not only offers more privacy-focused methods for ad targeting and measurement but also prepares advertisers for a future where third-party cookies may no longer be viable.

Updated user controls. A major improvement with this launch is the addition of advanced Ad privacy controls. These controls offer users more granular management of the new APIs, providing an extra layer of privacy and giving users control over their browsing experience.

Here’s what the new user controls may look like:

Test version of an updated Chrome Ad privacy interface.

Open application dates. To handle the expected developer interest, an enrollment process has been created. Starting in June, developers can apply for API access, which will be granted in August. This ensures a controlled and organized introduction of the APIs to the wider developer community.

General Availability (GA), as it’s referred to in the project timeline, implies that these APIs will become available by default in Chrome. However, immediate availability in all Chrome browsers is not guaranteed. The gradual rollout strategy will allow users to directly control the activation of these APIs.

Providing feedback. Feedback can be shared here. The Chrome team also has created this feedback form.

Read the announcement. Preparing to ship the Privacy Sandbox relevance and measurement APIs. 

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Google Analytics 4 audience builder gets a refresh

Written on May 18, 2023 at 6:23 pm, by admin

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has made significant enhancements to the audience builder. New dimensions and metrics, enhanced alternatives for manipulating event value and event count, and a novel option to match dates have been added.

Here’s what’s new.

New Dimensions and Metrics in the Audience Builder. The GA4 audience builder now supports the creation of audiences via new dimensions and metrics. The following dimensions and metrics are freshly introduced in the audience builder:

Item-Scoped Dimensions

• Item ID
• Item affiliation
• Item brand
• Item category
• Item category 2
• Item category 3
• Item category 4
• Item list name
• Item name
• Item promotion ID
• Item variant

Item-Scoped Ecommerce Metrics

• Item revenue
• Items added to cart
• Items checked out
• Items purchased
• Items viewed in list

Event-Scoped Ecommerce Metrics

• Item-list click events

Session-Based Metrics

• Low engagement sessions

Low engagement sessions help identify users showing low engagement with a website or app. For instance, it allows the creation of an audience segment of users having more than three low-engagement sessions within the past five days.

Once you’ve identified such users, you can then target them with ads to prompt them to return (e.g., retailers highlighting upcoming sales or events).

Independent Use of Event Value. Event value can now be used independently without associating it with a specific event.

In earlier versions, the event value parameter was only used to modify specific events, such as locating users who completed “event X” where the event value exceeded 50. 

An example of this would be creating an audience of users who have any event with a value above 50.

Expanded Operators for Event Count. The update also expands the operators that can be used when creating audiences using the event count metric. While earlier only greater than (>), less than (<), and equals to (=) were available, and only when selecting “the most recent time period,” the update introduces a complete set of operators.

These include:

• Greater than or equal to (>=)
• Less than or equal to (<=)
• Not equal to (!=)

These operators are available when choosing “at any point in time” and “most recent time period.”

Matching Between Dates. A new “between match types” option has been introduced for dates.

This feature could be used to, for example, build an audience of users who visited a website during Black Friday and target them with ads in the run-up to Black Friday the following year. The selected range, such as November 24 to November 26, would include all three days.

Why we care. These new dimensions and metrics, more robust manipulation of event value and event count, and being able to match dates can all lead to more targeted and effective advertising. Being able to identify users with low engagement sessions, or matching event value across various events, can help you create more nuanced and relevant audience segments.

What’s new in GA4. These updates were announced via the Google Analytics Help page, which you can find here. 

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Meta starts refunding advertisers for overspending glitch

Written on May 17, 2023 at 3:22 pm, by admin

Meta is starting to issue refunds to advertisers impacted by a glitch last month that resulted in overspending and higher than usual CPAs.

Why we care. Meta needs to make this right for all of its advertisers of all sizes. It’s good that the refunds are starting, but it’s been over a month and this still is not resolved.

May 12. Some advertisers got their refunds starting on May 12. However, many smaller advertisers are complaining that the process has been much slower for them, Bloomberg reported:

“Some advertisers did receive refunds from Meta beginning on May 12, although the amounts have been doled out inconsistently and it’s not clear why some businesses received more money back than others. In the past, advertisers that spent a lot on Facebook or had personal connections at the company had better luck getting refunded, according to several agency representatives.”

The glitch. On April 23, Meta spent advertisers’ the daily budgets in a matter of hours. CPAs also tripled. You can read more about it in our story: A catastrophic Meta bug caused overspending, higher-than-average CPAs.

The damage. As one example, the $13,000 budget for one ecommerce advertiser was spent in three hours – with no results, Bloomberg reported. Another business said it “had its worst return on Sunday advertising spending on record, ultimately posting 85% lower sales than the previous Sunday and 76% lower than two weeks prior.”

Making things worse. “Refunds for ad glitches are typically cents on the dollar, and Meta doesn’t tell advertisers how it calculates the payout,” as Bloomberg noted.

What Meta said. In a statement, Meta said:

• “We identified and resolved a technical issue in our automated systems that caused ad delivery issues like faster campaign spending and more variable costs. We fixed this as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused.”

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