Digital Industry Updates

Improved Imported User Data & GA4 Audience Matches

Google has released a GA4 update that improves how imported user data is fed into GA4 audiences. When data is now imported and connected to GA4 data using either the client Id or user Id, the data is immediately available for use in GA4 audiences when the specific audience criteria are met. You’ll no longer have to wait for the user to become active on the website or app again as no further activity will be needed to trigger the audience criteria.

Google Demand Gen Gets Generative Imagery Tools – April 2024

Google have announced that the new AI-powered Generative Imagery tools will soon be available to advertisers running Demand Gen campaigns.

While this is a sensical (and completely expected) update from Google, having previously brought Generative tools to Performance Max, a particularly interesting note in this update was the addition of a “Generate More Like This” feature, wherein advertisers can generate imagery similar to their best-performing assets.

(source: blog.google)

While Generative AI is currently in its infancy for Google Ads, we’re keen to see what this new feature will produce, and of course, how the assets will perform.

Google Tests ‘People Also Consider’ On Google Ads – April 2024

Google have been known to “secretly” A/B test UX and UI updates to SERPs in the past, but this new announcement from Google hints that it could be a permanent change, rather than a cloak-and-dagger test… In a nutshell, products in e-commerce and Shopping network campaigns will soon be eligible to show their competitor’s products too.

Just as e-commerce websites will suggest “You May Also Like” products to users, Google will begin testing “People Also Consider” product placements embedded within a Shopping ad placement.

This new update from Google could be controversial, as its unclear how much additional visibility could be gained on competitor products, and poses a risk that advertisers could be paying to drive purchases to competitor websites, instead of their own.

Meta: New Advantage+ Creative Add Catalogue Items Feature

Meta is constantly looking for new features to add to their Advantage+ technology. The newest addition applies to their Advantage+ creative where marketers now have the option to add catalogue items to their images and videos when creating an ad. 

This essentially looks like a different style of instant experience. The format of your ad will either look like a collection or a carousel depending on how this will be served to the end user. 

Image Source: SearchEngineLand.com

For the collection format, the creative asset chosen will be the main image and then underneath will be all of the product cards in your chosen catalogue set. Remember the images for the product cards are scraped from your website so if you don’t like the primary image then you’ll need to update these.

Now you don’t have to opt into this feature. When you’re creating your ad, the Avantage+ Creative window will pop up and from there you will be able to select the option to turn off all optimisations. You don’t have to keep them all off either – you can test the different features to see how they affect your performance and then make the judgement on which features to keep for your ads.

Instagram Updates Hashtag Search To Simplify Discovery

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, recently announced a big update changing the way hashtags can be used for discovery. In his own words, the update is as follows:

“We’re simplifying the hashtag and search experiences on Instagram to make it easier to see everything in one place. Now, when you tap on a hashtag, you’ll see the search results for that hashtag. You will still be able to follow/unfollow or report specific hashtags.

Hope this makes it easier to find accounts and posts that are relevant to your search.”

Image Source: @mosseri on Instagram

The update has already been rolled out and users can connect to broader search results related to a hashtag. Now, when users tap the hashtag, instead of seeing the “Top Posts” feed they’ll have the option to see the full search results for the hashtag–like they would see in Explore.

But what does this mean for marketers? Ensure you’re using the most appropriate keywords and hashtags in both your posts and profile to maximise visibility in the Accounts display. Though profiles in hashtag searches might not always include the hashtags in every post, a lot of the time they’ve included the word in the caption, description or profile name.

By introducing this option, Instagram is hoping to improve discovery and not focus on just highlighting top content. It’s not a huge change, but it’s definitely a logical one.

GA4 “Key Event” Update Initially Perplexes Advertisers – March 2024

Google announced a push for “greater consistency” with Google Ads, with an impending GA4 update that replaces ‘conversions’ with ‘key events’.

Most advertisers and GA4 users are used to using the same terminology as Google Ads (“conversion”), making the insistence from Kamal Janardhan, Google’s Senior Director of Product Management, that this is an “improved, more unified experience” a bit confusing.

How this will impact advertisers predominantly using GA4 goal tracking remains to be seen, but in the meantime, this could be a key step in differentiating Analytics and Ad platforms more definitively for the industry: Google Ads is a platform for performance and optimisation (conversion), whereas Analytics is arguably for reporting and measuring user behaviour (key events).

A minor difference, but an important one to keep in mind.

Google Adds Social Media Posts to Business Listings

It has been announced that after adding social media profile icon links to Google My Business listings, Google will be introducing a new social media posts section within business listings in Search!

Google Business profiles will now have a subsection for social media updates that will be automatically populated with the latest social posts once the accounts are linked up. You can link up your Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn and TikTok accounts.

Image Source: Search Engine Journal

Although most accounts will need to connect up the social profiles with the GMB, Google has said that they may automatically link social accounts in some cases.

This is a really interesting update as it adds more importance to the need for up-to-date social media accounts. If a business has poor social media, it’ll look bad pulling through in the SERP. If a business doesn’t link up its social media or any channels, it’ll look poor vs. competitors who do.

Let’s keep an eye on how the integration of social media and search progresses as this update rolls out!

Top of Funnel Meta Campaigns Now Forced to use Audience Expansion – March 2024

Meta has started rolling out a new update that means that link clicks and landing page views campaigns will now automatically include audience expansion, with the advertiser being unable to turn this off.

Audience expansion is where your campaign will occasionally go beyond your specified detailed targeting (interests, age, gender etc.) if it believes it will drive better performance in doing so. This can be a fantastic tool when driving purchases, but falls down when looking at top of funnel campaigns.

If your ad is going after those most likely to click, outside of your set audience parameters, there could potentially be a lot of poor quality traffic coming through your ads. It might drive low cost clicks but they might be less likely to take an action after a click, may not fit your audience profile (think B2B businesses with specific industries) etc. The algorithm will go after the lowest cost action. 

This is quite a big change and will need to be factored into discussions around paid social as a tool for driving high quality website traffic.

Microsoft Ads Introduces Insights Navigator – March 2024

Microsoft announced the launch of Insights Navigator, a new tool designed to streamline access to data and performance insights.

This AI-powered tool provides users with quick access to category and query insights, offering valuable information on user search patterns across the Microsoft ad network as well as behavioural trends.

Additionally, automatic data reports can be delivered directly to your inbox within minutes, allowing you to stay updated on relevant trends that may impact your account’s performance (positively or negatively).

With Insights Navigator, you can make swift, data-driven strategy adjustments that align with current consumer behaviour and trends, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Replaces First Input Delay (FID) as a Core Web Vital

On 12th March 2024, Google officially replaced First Input Delay (FID) with Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as a Core Web Vital metric and will be used moving forward to assess the Page Experience on your website.

The key difference between FID and INP is that INP measures interactions beyond the user’s first input. This gives us a much more accurate representation of User Experience, as we’re now able to measure how quickly a user can navigate from page to page.

This won’t be a groundbreaking update that will shake up rankings significantly – but if you’re not scoring “Good” across your Core Web Vital metrics, we’d recommend that you consider it as part of your strategy.

March 2024 Core Update and New Spam Policies

On 5th March 2024, Google began rolling out their March 2024 Core Update along with new policies regarding spam.

Unlike other Core updates, this came with a lot of detail from Google on what the update will be targeting.

Overall, the update is designed to improve the quality of Search by showing less content that feels like it was made to attract clicks, rather than demonstrating a sincere interest in your users’ needs.

The Spam Policy updates aim to better handle the practises that can negatively impact the quality of Google’s search results.

A full write-up from Google Search Central’s blog can be found below.

Microsoft Ads Launches Performance Max Globally – March 2024

Microsoft has been gradually launching their answer to Google’s “Performance Max” (named, funnily enough “Microsoft Ads Performance Max”), and now Microsoft have announced that this premier campaign type is now available to users globally as of today.

Similarly to Google’s own offering, Microsoft Ads Performance Max aims to target users across Bing’s own “messy middle”, and give advertisers a simple workflow for getting e-commerce campaigns off the ground.

This has been a long time coming from Microsoft, following Google’s path after a couple of years, but brings a whole new way to approach microsoft ads and reaching new traffic.

Consent Mode v2 & Enhanced Conversions Presents both a Risk & Opportunity – March 2024

This month, advertisers across the UK & Europe will begin navigating the minefield that the mandatory Consent Mode v2 update presents.

In a bid to strengthen compliance with data privacy laws, Consent Mode v2 requires advertisers to be more strict on their cookie policies, giving users a heightened ability to disregard cookies.

This poses a massive risk to all advertisers regardless of their preferred ad network, but Google Ads especially relies on cookie data in order to bid and optimise profitably.

The good news is that this will motivate users to migrate fully to gtag tracking – a long-standing best practice for goal tracking, and a method that Google continuously recommends for accuracy and optimisation. The other opportunity for advertisers is utilising Enhanced Conversions – an advanced user-tracking datalayer that improves Google Ads attribution and reveals “true” insight into how important assisted conversions are.

This update will undoubtedly cause a headache for advertisers as they implement and troubleshoot Consent Mode v2, but a strong focus on gtag and Enhanced Conversions will help mitigate the impacts on tracked revenue.

Gemini AI Model Integration into Performance Max – February 2024

In November, Google introduced generated AI asset functionality into Performance Max, and it looks like even more complex asset generation tools are rolling out soon – globally!

Gemini (previously known as “Bard”), will be integrated into text assets, to give advertisers more capability to properly build out their headlines and descriptions.

Google are also upgrading its image asset generation models to Imagen2, allowing advertisers to scale their creatives even further. Image editing via Imagen2 is currently only being rolled out within the US, but is expected to roll out globally within the next few months.

Pinterest to Collaborate with Google – February 2024

Last year Pinterest chose Amazon as their first third-party ad partner. This year, looking to continue driving the platform’s revenue, they’ve just announced that Google Ads will become their second third-party ad collaboration. 

What does this mean? PPC marketers will be able to serve ads on Pinterest through Google’s Ads Manager, however what this will look like is unclear. We know that if a pinner clicks on one of these ads they will be directed straight to the advertiser’s website to complete the desired action.

It seems that brands won’t have to worry about directly competing against themselves through their PPC and paid social advertising as the partnership with Google looks to help Pinterest monetise in markets they are currently not able to do so. This isn’t rolled out to everyone and from the people that have been able to use this feature they have seen positive results.

LinkedIn Scraps Lookalike Audiences – January 2024

LinkedIn will discontinue lookalike audiences on February 29, marking a shift in its advertising approach. This decision aims to streamline offerings and prioritise more impactful advertising solutions. While the reasons for this move remain undisclosed, it suggests a focus on refining ad products and enhancing user experiences.

Advertisers must adapt strategies accordingly, exploring alternative targeting options like interest-based or account targeting. Leveraging first-party data becomes crucial. LinkedIn’s decision reflects the evolving nature of digital advertising, requiring advertisers to stay agile and responsive to platform changes.

Consent Mode V2 – The New Requirements for Personalised Ads Across Europe – January 2024

Google will be enforcing new requirements for Google Ads throughout Europe in March, and advertisers will be required to adopt consent mode V2 to continue to show personalised or remarketing ads.

This fast rollout and deadline is due to the large legislative push regarding user consent & privacy across search engine networks.

Advertisers will need to urgently prioritise their consent & google tag manager scope, otherwise risk losing critical advertising capabilities including accurate tracking, reporting – and vitally – leveraging the strength of automated bidding, which relies on plentiful and accurate user data.

Google Readies Itself To Phase Out Third-Party Cookies Across Chrome – December 2023

Google has begun its plans to restrict third-party cookies by default, rolling out on January 1st to 1% of Chrome users globally.

This is the start to retire third-party cookies entirely in the latter half of 2024 as part of their Privacy Sandbox initiative to safeguard online privacy and limit cross-site data tracking.

Advertisers will need to ensure they have up-to-date solutions in order to continue to accurately track and not miss out on any points throughout the customer journey.

YouTube Shorts Are Now Available in Video Reach Campaigns – December 2023

As consumers engage more with YouTube Shorts on their mobiles and begin watching more online content via their TV’s – YouTube has become a prime landscape for brands to connect with their target audience.

Video Reach campaigns now offers reaching users by scaling video creative to in-feed and YouTube shorts in Google Ads.

This new development will allow advertisers to uplift their brand awareness across high-engagement networks.

Google Introduces Gemini: Its Largest & Most Capable AI Model Yet – December 2023

Abandoning the “Bard” moniker, Google announced its ‘largest and most capable’ AI model – known as “Gemini”.

On the face of it, Gemini’s main purpose is to significantly enhance the way developers and enterprise customers build and scale with AI. But reading behind the lines, this is the next step in the “AI arms race”, as Google looks to retain its status as the defacto “everything” engine – a status it has enjoyed since beating out other search engines such as Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves and Dogpile (anyone else feel old?)

This model will be used within Google Products globally, including Google Ads, Search, Shopping & More throughout the coming months. While it is currently only being tested in the US, we expect this to be a fully functional part of the Google Search experience by the end of 2024. Advertisers will soon be able to use Gemini to create AI generated ad copy and sitelinks to improve the quality of their ads.