Digital Industry Updates

Automated first-party mode for Google Tags launches in closed-beta on Cloudflare

In a push to promote website owners to upgrade to first-party tracking setups, which Google recommends as the most durable tagging configuration as it can help improve measurement signals, a closed beta has been launched, allowing automated setup for the solution within Cloudflare.

As testing continues, we can expect this feature to launch fully in the coming months. The automated solution will remove many roadblocks website owners run into when setting up first-party tagging. We expect this in the future to become the new standard for websites that don’t necessarily need a full server-side tracking setup.

December 2024 Core Update

On 12th December, Google announced an early Christmas present for us all – the roll out of yet another core algorithm update, just one week after the last update was completed.

Google is implying this update is impacting a different system than the previous November 2024 Core Update, as they ‘have different systems that are considered core to our ranking process; this month’s core update involves an improvement to a different core system than last month.’.

This is the same reasoning they gave in 2023 for releasing the October and November Core Updates so close together.

We have no further information on the new update at this point, but Google said it should take around two weeks to complete. We’ll provide further details once the update is complete.

Expert opinion

Ben Carter, SEO Account Manager at Embryo

"The December 2024 Google Core Update has now been rolled out. Starting on the 12th December 2024 it lasted around 5 days finishing on the 18th December. This update was a typical core update where Google updated its core ranking system to make search results more relevant and helpful to the user rewarding original and high-quality material that provides value to the users. Websites with unoriginal or low-quality content may have experienced declines. Coming quickly after the November Core Update it may have come as a surprise that there was a second core update so soon however Google stated If you’re wondering why there’s a core update this month after one last month, we have different core systems we’re always improving. We noticed the update touched down pretty quickly after just a couple of days of being launched we saw third-party tracking tools see big spikes indicating the volatility within the SERP following this update."

Meta place restrictions on customer lists in the US

Meta is placing tighter restrictions on customer lists relating to housing, employment, financial products and services.

According to Meta, ‘Starting January 2025, there will be restrictions on customer list custom audiences for housing, employment, and financial products and services (including credit) campaigns for advertisers based in the US or reaching audiences in the US. These changes are designed to help you follow Meta Advertising Standards.’

‘Ad accounts within the same business portfolio that share customer list custom audiences should make sure that all people with permissions to manage ad campaigns have the same business email domain. If the domains don’t match, then those shared customer lists will be unavailable for ads about housing, employment, and financial products and services.’

From January 2025, any new campaigns not following the new restrictions may not be able to be published.

From March 2025, any existing campaigns not following the new restrictions may be paused.

Expert opinion

Jenny Byrne, paid social manager at Embryo

"With Meta's ever evolving changes to not only the ad platform but more specifically it's targeting, we have to be more savvy as advertisers in ensuring we can still serve ads to the most efficient and most relevant audiences. The change in US targeting coming in 2025, only further enhances the relevancy of audiences by adding layers of security and restrictions of which we must adhere to, protecting both the user as the receiver of the ad and the advertiser themselves too. Advertisers will now need to ensure their internal processes for using custom audience data is streamlined, but also adjust their approach to targeting audiences within the limitations by leaning on elements of advertising like broad audiences and specific creative, lookalikes and other targeting approaches."

Meta adds a new ‘in-app ad impressions’ conversion event

‘You can now optimize App campaigns to maximize the value of in-app ad impressions.’ 

You can select ‘in-app ad impressions’ as the conversion event when you use ‘Maximise value of conversions’ as the app promotion goal.

According to Meta, ‘This metric counts impressions on ads from a third-party platform that are visible within your mobile app and are attributed to your Meta ads based on information received from your Facebook SDK.’

The metric related to this will be ‘Cost per 1000 in-app ad impressions’- this is calculated similar to regular impressions by taking the total amount spent on an ad campaign, divided by in-app ad impressions, multiplied by 1000%. 

This update will allow marketers a more granular view of in-app activity.

Meta introduces ‘quick view’ reporting

Meta have introduced ‘quick view’ reporting, giving marketers an easier way to share a snapshot of their reports with colleagues and clients. 

According to Swipe Insight, ‘You can now share Quick Views in Meta Ads Reporting. When creating a Quick View, you can edit its settings and share it with others who have access to your ad account, allowing them to save and manage the view as well.’

The Quick View config panel enables you to edit and share the following:

• View Name
• View Description
• Columns for ads reporting
• Sorting
• Attribution settings
• Breakdowns
• Selected Filters

‘To share a view, use the new create/edit/share buttons located at the top right of Ads Manager. By clicking to share, you can copy a link to send to clients or colleagues, who can then save a copy of the view on their end.’

This will allow for more collaboration on accounts, giving everyone an easy way to clearly and quickly look at data.

Commentary: Content Updates Going into 2025

Our resident content expert, Shona Worsman, recently created an internal content manifesto for the business, and here are a few highlights.

Content Marketing/Digital PR-Style Pieces

We have seen a prioritisation of user-focused content that also is very suitable for outreach. Content that has stats-based features, innovative angles, and content that is designed particularly well is where we are seeing improvement of efficacy. Content that can be simultaneously used for a web page or blog post, and also for digital PR outreach is going to be important in 2025 and beyond.

Content Repurposing

While many talk about it, very few actually repurpose content to any great degree. 2025 may just be a big year for ‘create once, use thrice’, especially in short-form video terms. Social media teams working closely with internal or external SEO/content teams becomes increasingly important as time passes.

E-E-A-T

This is more important than ever. Less and less content that is merely a ‘flat page of words’ is ranking well. It is therefore of great importance that content teams, and those responsible for the design of pages of a website work closely together. Time-poor marketing managers that say to internal or external teams, “just upload the text and we will sort it later” will find things getting tougher and tougher. Google is very good these days at assessing effort. And effort can be shown in terms of not only what and how content is written, but also how it is displayed.

Thoughtful e-commerce Informational Content

Again, ‘effort per page’ (a term that we at Embryo have coined ourselves) is increasingly important for e-commerce websites. Who wants to look at an ‘SQL query’ that merely lists all of the products of a particular category on a page? Users want interwoven content around products and categories. And Google rewards this accordingly. This became significant in August 2023, and every increasingly so since.

(Some) Forums are back, baby!

Reddit’s influence in the SERPS continues to skyrocket. Why shouldn’t it? Many millions of hours of content resides on the site, and if Google can filter it correctly, it becomes incredibly valuable to searchers during the ‘messy middle’. Many businesses (not just trilby-wearing keyboard warriors) are spending more and more time cultivating accounts. Another option for repurposing of content.

Visual Long-form Content

Long-form content continues to reign – despite many an SEO saying otherwise – but long-form content that contains (original) imagery, embedded YouTube videos, infographics, and more will always rank better. Google wants to see ‘crafted and curated’ content that looks like a lot of effort has gone into it.

Summary

Like many things with Google – a lot has changed, but really it still is the same way to do things – it’s just that Google has got better at determining what is great content that has taken great effort to achieve.

Arrival of Gemini 2.0

Gemini 2.0, mainly the Gemini 2.0 Flash model, is key to the recent Search updates. It is more aimed at

CEO Sundar Pichai notes:

“We’re bringing the advanced reasoning capabilities of Gemini 2.0 to AI Overviews to tackle more complex topics and multi-step questions, including advanced math equations, multimodal queries and coding….In addition to supporting multimodal inputs like images, video and audio, 2.0 Flash now supports multimodal output like natively generated images mixed with text and steerable text-to-speech (TTS) multilingual audio.”

Watch the summary from Google below:

Introducing Gemini 2.0 | Our most capable AI model yet

Meta introduces new AI tool ‘Andromeda’

Meta is stepping up its AI offerings by introducing a new tool called ‘Andromeda’.

Meta is already heavily pushing AI, with features such as Advantage+ campaigns, Advantage budgets etc…but the new feature will level this up and allow for more personalisation of targeting.

The new tool is ‘a machine learning system for ad recommendations, aimed to improve the value of ads for both advertisers and users. This means that it should be able to deliver ‘more personalized’ ads to viewers and to maximize the return on ad spend for advertisers.’

According to Meta, “Andromeda significantly enhances Meta’s ads system by enabling the integration of AI that optimizes and improves personalization capabilities at the retrieval stage and improves return on ad spend. Its deployment across Instagram and Facebook applications has achieved +6% recall improvement to the retrieval system, delivering +8% ads quality improvement on selected segments.”

This new update aims to drive efficiency of ads and increase ROAS for brands.

HubSpot x Frame AI

The 6th of December saw Hubspot announce its acquisition of Frame AI, a conversation intelligence platform.

The use of Frame AI technology will allow unstructured data from calls, emails and meetings to be analysed and give insights into customer behaviour and intent.

HubSpot CEO, Yamini Rangan stated that the deal wasn’t officially closed, but the technology would soon be integrated into Breeze, HubSpot’s native AI platform.

Australia approved social media ban on under-16s

Australia has recently passed ‘the worlds strictest law’ relating to social media- banning under-16s from accessing social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. 

Platforms that don’t require an account to join, such as YouTube, are likely to be spared. However, accounts that require personal details such as DOB etc… will be included. 

The new law does not include exemptions for existing users or users with parental consent, meaning anyone under the age of 16 will have their account deleted. 

A concern is that users will find a way around the rules, such as through a VPN which will disguise their location. However, individual users who break the rules will not face penalties. It will be the platform’s responsibility to enforce this law, and if they do not comply they could be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars. 

We could see this law impact decisions made in other countries, with places such as Norway considering similar laws. 

The law isn’t expected to come into effect for at least another 12 months. 

Keira Penney, social media manager at Great Influence tells us her thoughts:

Expert opinion

Keira Penney, social media manager at Great Influence

"I think this seems to be a positive thing. With laws and policies like this, they seem to be great on the surface but it’s usually a lot harder to police and monitor things like this. While this ban is a step in the right direction, it feels like a temporary solution. Teenagers are naturally rebellious, and without proper education or alternative outlets, many will inevitably find ways around restrictions if they are not offered an alternative or educated on why this ban has come into place. I remember when I was in school and I had to wait until I was 13 to join Facebook which felt like forever! I personally think the real responsibility lies with the platforms themselves. Before introducing bans like this, we need stricter policies that hold platforms accountable for the content they allow shared. Without that, these policies risk being ineffective and pushing the problem further underground rather than solving it."

Meta: Traffic campaigns can now direct users to your Facebook Page

An exciting update for Meta means that advertisers can send traffic directly to their Facebook Page. This was only previously available for Instagram profiles and is only available for Traffic campaigns.

If you’re an advertiser looking to increase traffic to your Facebook Page, this new update allows you to run ads that optimise towards maximising the number of Facebook Page visits. You will also have the option to send traffic to your Instagram profile or Facebook Page – or both!

This update will be useful for marketers looking to drive more traffic to their Facebook Page and could potentially result in an increased number of followers. It’s also a great way to build a pool of users you may want to retarget at a later date. 

Here’s how to select the option:

1. Create a Traffic campaign
2. At the ad set level, select Instagram or Facebook as the ‘Conversion location’
3. Select your chosen Instagram and/or Facebook page
4. At the ad level, you can create a single image, video or carousel ad
5. The CTA button will be automatically selected as ‘Visit Page’ and will appear next to the headline of your ad

Meta: Instagram Reels now optimised for video view campaigns

Meta has expanded its video advertising options, enabling Instagram Reel placements to be optimised for video views. Marketers can now select the ‘Maximise 2-second continuous video plays’ performance goal and select Instagram Reels as a placement option. This was previously limited to Instagram Stories and Facebook Reels when optimising for video views.

Here’s a breakdown of what advertisers can now utilise:

• Instagram Reels placement
• 2-second continuous video play optimisation
• Integrated performance tracking
• Cross-platform video campaign management

This update proves Meta is looking to enhance its video advertising options while providing more precise optimisation options for advertisers. With this update, the option to ‘Maximise ThruPlays views’ as a performance goal for Instagram Reels would be the perfect follow-up.

SISTRIX revised API documentation

A new key feature release from SISRIX is that API queries can now be tested directly within the documentation. Testing out new functions is now even easier and can be done with real or dummy data. They have also released three new API functions for keyword metrics, competitive analysis and international analysis across countries.

Moz introduces NEW ‘Moz Local’

Moz has updated its existing local SEO tool will provide users with a brand new app experience. The update simplifies local SEO management by integrating location data, reputation and social media management all in one place.

Here are some new feature highlights:

1. Centralised review management and editable response templates

2. In-depth sentiment analysis and platform-specific rating tracking

3. Profile suggestions powered by AI and real-time data insights

4. Local rank tracking, including local pack rankings and performance trend graphs

5. Interactive GeoRank maps

6. Simplified social media management through template libraries and content calendars

7. Facebook Ads integration for boosting social posts

Gemini November updates

November saw the launch of many new features on Gemini. Here are the features in brief below:

• Launching Gemini to Google Workspace for Education teenage students
• Add files when creating Gems
• Gemini app on iPhone
• Expanding the Gemini app as a core service with enterprise-grade data protection to more business and education customers
• Priority access with Gemini Advanced: Ask Gemini to remember the things that you care about, and get help that’s unique to you.

Open AI November 2024 updates

Two new changes across Open AI for November 2024.

Nov 4th- (New feature) The release of predicted outputs. Available for the GPT-4o and GPT-40-mini models. This allows you to speed up API responses from Chat Completions when many of the output tokens are known ahead of time. For limitations see the predicted output guide.

Nov 20th- (New update) The newest model in the GPT-4o series was released.

Google’s AI sales assistant seen in the wild

During Brodie Clark’s excellent monitoring of SERP changes, he has seen that Google is testing an AI Sales Assistant on branded organic sitelinks. You can then ask questions that then shows you appropriate pages on the site.

The feature seemingly uses a combination of AI, but importantly, on-page content to deliver its results.

Ahrefs updates, November 2024

The latest updates from Ahrefs for Nov 2024 have been released. This includes being able to export custom reports into PDFs, filters for viewing paid positions in organic keyword reports, and new features in the APIv3’s Keywords Explorer Overview endpoint.

New in Nov ‘24: PDF custom reports, Patches, Ask AI in Content helper and more

Google launches customer match in beta for GA4

Google has launched Customer Match, a first-party data solution for GA4. This solution enables advertisers to enhance their remarketing campaigns with first-party data instead of relying on cookies alone. Available only with smart campaigns on YouTube, it’ll soon be available for in-feed and search at a later date.

Google told to sell Chrome by US DoJ

The BBC writes that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has demanded Google sell Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser.

It continues, “It is one of a series of remedies proposed by the DOJ in a court filing late on Wednesday aimed at stopping the tech giant from maintaining its monopoly in online search.”

Expert Opinion

James Welch, Chief Innovation Officer, Embryo

"If Google is indeed forced to sell Chrome by the US DoJ it could lead to a loss of search engine dominance as Chrome ran by other companies could use other search engines such as Bing or DuckDuckGo…which would obviously be a mistake for the consumer, as those search engines are still way behind in terms of quality results. I’d imagine that Google/Alphabet then may be ‘for the taking’ once Chrome was out of their control, and other products and services may go the same route. Both of these would of course affect revenues, of which 80% are from ads still in 2024. And while competition is good in any market, I’d argue that because of the difference in quality between Google search and others, this would be a rare case when competition wouldn’t benefit the consumer - not for a long time if at all."

Google Analytics improves cost data import functionality

Google has reduced the friction users experience when importing cost data without all the required dimensions. GA4 now handles imported costs differently and can now report on cost, impressions, and clicks, on any combination of the required dimensions. This update will give users a more comprehensive overview of advertising performance and better data-driven decision-making.

Google Ads Editor 2.8

Google Ads Editor has updated the app this November, which is exciting in the PPC world. Google continues to combine AI with transforming its advertising tools. The new features help to optimise campaigns;

• Enhanced video control: A tool to create Demand Gen campaigns based on existing video action campaigns – increases reach by including video partners.
• Create images from text descriptions: Advertisers can now generate images directly within Google Ads Editor using text prompts.
• Account level negatives: Instead of having to apply negatives to each campaign, this will be a time saver.
• Google Sheets support: Simplifying reporting and data sharing with Google Sheets exporting support.
• Resizable error pane: Easier navigation and troubleshooting during campaign setup and optimisation.

Only Google Ads Editor 2.8 and above is now supported, meaning advertisers have no choice but to transition.

Frequency controls added to Awareness campaigns on Meta

Meta has introduced an update that provides marketers with a new way to manage frequency when running brand awareness campaigns.

When using the Awareness objective with a performance goal of ‘Reach’ or ‘ThruPlay’, you may see a new section for Frequency Controls. There will be an option here for Target Frequency.

The ‘Reach and Frequency’ or ‘Reservation’ buying types have been here for more than a year, but it’s now available on Awareness campaigns when using the ‘Auction’ buying type.

Before this update, there was only the option for a Frequency Cap–which has been available since 2016–and was used to set a maximum number of times you want to reach people. It will still be available in the Awareness campaign.

Target Frequency–the new update–allows you to set an average number of times you will reach people, meaning you can still go over that number for some users.

Expert Opinion

Harriet Tuite- Head of Paid Social, Embryo

"We've never had frequency controls for awareness or engagement campaigns, so it's an interesting development for Meta to release. This could be useful for engagement or reach campaigns where you specifically want to reach a wider audience and not just those that are highly engaged, however with the restriction that your campaign has to be using lifetime budgets it limits the options quite a lot. Most campaigns run on daily budgets - so I'll be interested to see how many advertisers actually start using this new feature!'"

If you still can’t see this update, it will be rolling out to you soon.

Meta to offer ‘less personalised’ ads option for free in the EU

Meta has announced that it is making changes to its ad-free platform options in the EU due to further demand from regulators that their current offering doesn’t go far enough to comply with GDPR and the DMA. 

Meta announced their ad-free subscription offerings last year in order to combat the complaints, however, they have this week announced that they will be halving the cost of this subscription upon request.

Perhaps the biggest update for advertisers within the EU is the new introduction of a ‘less personalised’ options for users. Over the coming weeks, EU Meta users will be asked whether they would like to opt out of their current personalised ad experience and move to a ‘less personalised’ option that uses less personal data. 

Meta is still emphasising that they will be promoting the personalised option heavily, as ad revenue is the backbone of their business and without functioning ad targeting this all goes out the window.

We are yet to see how many users adopt this new feature, however, it’ll be interesting to see if we see increased costs and lower engagement as advertisers, with ads potentially now reaching people who are not in the target market. 

Advertisers – let’s wait and see!

Google Shopping gets smarter

In the aim to make online shopping easier and more personalised, rollout has begun for a Google Shopping interface refresh. AI is at the forefront of this transformation, Google aims to ensure the user experience is sped up and simplified. The change involves Google pairing 45 billion product listings in Google’s Shopping Graph with Gemini models.

When searching for ecom-specific products, as well as the usual Google Shopping results, below the shopping carousel and above the product listings will be an AI summary of the top recommended considerations for your search.

The example Google has provided to display the update is the search for a “men’s winter jacket for Seattle”. It is likely that beyond wanting a winter jacket, based on the location, the user will want one which is dry and warm. The new update presents an AI brief of the most important things that should be considered when purchasing a new winter jacket for living in Seattle. Beyond this, Google will ensure products shown are climate-appropriate. Coats from brands which align with the user’s criteria, for example, North Face are a known leader in outdoor clothing therefore Google would include them in the shopping results. As well as an AI overview and specific shopping results, the Google Shopping page will also include relevant article links to assist the user in their purchase consideration process.

Dynamic filters are also added to the results page, allowing users to go granular into their preferences, for example, a winter jacket nearby which has a hood. Other filters on the Google Shopping page result for “men’s winter jacket for Seattle” include fastener type, colour, and performance style. The search result page also includes the virtual try-on feature, which was launched back in June, aiming to provide users with the confidence to shop for clothes online.

The update also accounts for the time frame in which purchase decisions are made. Research is likely to take place over a few days, therefore Google Shopping retains all the selections you’ve made making it really easy to jump back into the purchase journey.

Not everyone wants such a personalised feed and may want to have broader results based on preference. Google has made it simple to turn off personalisation by simply going to the Google Shopping menu and editing ‘shopping preferences’.

As well as the usual price comparison, price insights and price tracking features which already exist within Google Shopping, the new update provides a specific page which holds all the deal information within it. Making it simple for users to analyse all the price information they need to make an informed purchasing decision.

Google’s aim appears to be improving user experience through placing focus on personalisation and ease of shopping is clear in this update. As advertisers, there is little required in relation to the interface transformation. To see benefits it could be suggested that ensuring product feeds are optimised so Google can best match your listing to the user’s search.

This new update is only being rolled out in the U.S. at the moment, but we look forward to exploring it once it comes over to the UK.

November 2024 Core Update

On November 11th, Google announced that their latest algorithm update rollout had commenced. This has come as no surprise as there’s been a lot of chatter in the industry, throughout October as SERPs have been extremely volatile.

We expect this rollout to take up to 2 weeks and we will provide further insight once confirmed this has been completed.

Ben Goodey, Founder of Spicy Margarita SEO Growth Agency told us:

Expert Opinion

Ben Goodey, Founder of Spicy Margarita

"The November 2024 Google Core Update has stirred up the SEO world yet again, marking the fifth major update this year—a volatile year for SEOs. Early signals suggest no major changes for Reddit, which had significant gains earlier in the year, but some sites, like Forbes Advisor, saw dramatic traffic drops (which we all think points to manual penalties for 'parasite SEO'). Other sites, such as Jake-Jorgovan.com and Intelligent.com, also took major hits, it's early to tell but my immediate hunch is that Google has targeted unclear or missing labeling of sponsored content—a reminder that failing to use rel='sponsored' for advertised/paid links is a risk. For most sites, minor ranking drops in this time isn’t cause for huge alarm. If you only drop a couple of rankings, don't worry. Pay attention to the pages that saw major positions drops as those are likely actually hit and have things Google's algorithm has flagged"

More info on the update can be found here.

Meta ads new feature: Flexible media

Meta is rolling out a new feature called Flexible Media, and it’s not to be confused with Flexible ads.

When uploading an asset at the ad level in a manual Sales campaign (specifically, a single image or video), you may see a discreet button in the ‘Ad creative’ section. Be warned–it will automatically apply this unless you toggle it off!

It reads…

Here’s how it works in simple terms: Meta takes your existing creative in each placement and depending on where it thinks it will perform best, will automatically decide when to share across other placements.

But in our experience so far, it honestly looks bad, putting story-sized placements in the Instagram feed placement and cutting off text. Not good!

This update is different from Flexible ads, where marketers can upload up to 10 images for an ad, giving Meta permission to choose which image to use based on the user. Flexible Media on the other hand distributes the asset across various ad placements. 

Google enhances conversion linker functionality

The conversion linker is a tag used within Google Tag Manager that helps improve tracking reliability across different browsers. A new update to the tag will allow it to store ad click data within the local browser storage and the first-party cookie it has used historically.

The dual storage functionality will help improve tracking reliability for Google Ad Campaigns.

Hootsuite updates the ‘Inbox 2.0’

Hootsuite’s Inbox 2.0 is now able to support even more messaging channels (e.g. WeChat and Telegram). This should help Hootsuite users connect with their audience more efficiently. Hootsuite also improved automation in Inbox 2.0 by providing new UX and automation templates. Users can now trigger automations for new conversations, message types and particular channels. These updates should streamline workflow and make automation processes quicker for users.

Meta is now including the ‘1-day engaged view’ as default

Meta has introduced a new default attribution setting for conversion campaigns, ‘1-day engaged-view’. Meta’s standard attribution setting is 7-day click, 1-day view. But it may now apply 7-day click, 1-day engaged view (new), 1-day view. 

The engaged-view attribution is designed to improve campaign performance by focusing on users who are likely to convert after engaging with your video for at least 10 seconds or higher (or 97% of the ad if it’s shorter). 

It’s important to be aware that it may influence ad delivery and the conversion results of your campaigns as your ads will be focused on reaching more people who engage with videos than necessarily convert.

If you don’t want to include this new setting, make sure you double-check the attribution settings before launching your meta campaigns. You can find this at the ad set level in the ‘conversions’ section.

Linkedin ads have added a new ‘Companies’ overview

LinkedIn Ads has added a feature showing advertisers all the companies they have reached through organic and paid advertising. It also allows you to break down companies by campaign and advertisers can even create custom company lists for targeting. 

The option to ‘view companies’ produces a list of all companies you have reached as well as providing insight into each one. The insights range from industry headquarters, company size, and engagement level to paid and organic impressions, engagement, and paid clicks and leads. 

You can also create custom lists to target these companies, referred to as a ‘static’ list, or you can create a ‘dynamic’ list that continuously updates adding companies matching your applied criteria. You can also export these lists.

This could be a game-changer for B2B marketers looking to understand who is engaging with their content to form parts of a wider marketing strategy.

Meta launches opportunity scores

Meta has launched a new feature within Ads Manager that shows just how closely you’re working with the platform to keep campaigns, ad sets and ads optimised. 

Meta often makes recommendations in ads manager from budget suggestions to pushing advantage+ and Opportunity Score measures the extent of which an advertiser is applying these recommendations. Ranging from 0 to 100, a higher score is achieved when the advertiser is closest aligning with these suggested best practices. 

Is this another platform gimmick or is it a game-changer for those running ads?

Changes to ad auction dynamics

As of October, Google is introducing changes to the way Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns operate.

Historically, when running both Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns for the same products (generally) the Performance Max would take priority in the bidding to win a position in the auction. Putting Standard Shopping campaigns at a disadvantage.

However, this update will place all auction position authority on ad rank. Where you have the same product, Performance Max will only take priority if its bid delivers a higher ad rank than the Standard Shopping campaign.

This risks an increase in CPCs for Shopping Ads as it is likely to lead to higher auction entry costs. As more ads aim for visibility, there will be more competition for positioning.

Strategies of advertisers are going to have to ensure budgets and targets are accordingly adjusted, especially as we approach a period of high-performance opportunities. Specifically with Performance Max, advertisers should ensure campaigns encompass strong asset groups, high-quality creatives and video and also URL expansion.

Google claims this update will have a “neutral or positive impact on performance at the account level” so we are looking forward to watching this play out.

Callum Leonard, Head of PPC at Embryo gives his expertise:

Expert opinion on the changes in ad auction dynamics

Callum Leonard - Head of PPC, Embryo

"This update from Google presents a required change to bring in the availability of collaborative PPC strategies including both performance max and manual shopping. Beforehand, manual shopping will simply not be spent and all of the advertising budget would run via the PMAX, however this will allow for an equal auction priority ranking. For low SKU inventory websites this presents the availability to utilise manual shopping for carousel market share, and test various audience signals and search themes through PMAX, pushing the campaign to other audiences within your vertical, whilst still maintaining your core market share. Overall I believe this is a great update from Google that only benefits the advertisers without any downside."

Google tests expandable product ads carousel

In an aim to make ads more interactive and relevant to users, Google is experimenting with expandable product ads. When in an expanded view, the user can see a carousel of the relevant search ads however they can easily collapse this view to hide the ads.

Unfortunately for advertisers, sometimes the new update initially hides the carousel, which then requires users to expand the search result to view the ads. The clear risk of this is the lack of visibility for ads which are being hidden, however there is a chance for increased ad engagement as users have more control over which ads they are seeing.

It will be key to ensure ads are being optimised whilst remaining relevant to the user to encourage this engagement. Users are being given more control over their ad exposure which is great for user experience but advertisers are likely to have to ensure their ads are those that users want to interact with.

With ease of use and accessibility being a key aspect of digital advertising, the success of this experiment raises the question; will it enhance user experience, or could it complicate engagement?

Ahrefs updates October 2024

Some interesting updates from Ahrefs this month that include new widgets for paid search, a new regex filter (for the more nerdy of us), and additional columns in various reports that elaborate on intent.

Instagram introduces profile cards

Instagram has launched a new update which will allow people to connect via ‘profile cards’. The cards will include a QR code and a profile summary on a flippable card. The card is customisable and users can pick their own song to be played and background photo to be shown when someone flips their card. 

These cards can be used for normal accounts for people to connect with friends and family, but the update is particularly significant for creator accounts as the update allows you to share business links and connect with brands. This is also significant for marketers as it should make sourcing creators easier. This new feature to help advertisers connect with creators is similar to TikTok Creator Marketplace.

Users will need the most updated version of the app, and can click ‘share profile’ to access the new feature. 

GA4 launches benchmarking

GA4 has rolled out extensive benchmarking features that will allow users to compare their results against industry standards, compare results against peer groups based on their business, and maintain privacy by only using aggregated data sets. To enable benchmarking in your account and access the reports, you need to go to Admin > Account Settings > Enable Modeling Contributions & Business Insights.

Meta: changes to special ad categories

A change is coming to special ad categories on Meta. According to Meta, in Autumn 2024, a new special ad category “Financial products and services” will be introduced, replacing the previous credit ads category.

Advertising promoting financial products and services will be able to select this option during campaign creation like other special ad categories. When selecting this, they will have access to a limited set of audience selection tools and will not be able to refine by age or gender. Lookalike audiences will not be permitted and many detailed targeting options will be unavailable.

Examples of financial products and services ads included in this category are:

• Insurance
• Bank accounts
• Investment services
• Payment services

GA4 updates unsampled data request limits for GA360 customers

GA360 users now have a significantly higher token limit when requesting unsampled data from the GA4 platform. Historically, this was as low as 500 tokens per day but has now increased to 20,000 tokens and a per-request limit of 5000 tokens. This will help GA360 users analyse much larger data sets and the amount of exportable data that isn’t limited by sampling.

Pinterest Releases the Performance+ Suite

A huge new feature for Pinterest was unveiled in October. Performance+ is Pinterest’s answer to Meta’s Advantage+ options. Pinterest has announced the roll-out of new AI and automation campaign features to make campaigns smarter, more efficient and more powerful. 

The update was released as the Performance+ Suite, covering a lineup of AI and automation lower-funnel ad products. Since October, every Pinterest advertiser (worldwide) now has the option to use Pinterest Performance+ campaigns for Consideration, Conversions or Catalog Sales objectives.

Here’s a breakdown of what each feature entails:

Performance+ campaigns

Pinterest Performace+ campaigns are useful for advertisers looking to drive lower-funner performance. This new feature allows optimisation on targeting, managing budgets or deciding how much to bid in campaigns. With AI and automation features, Performance+ campaigns can decrease creation time significantly with 50% less input required when building ads. 

Performance+ creative

For advertisers looking to spruce up their creative and introduce more engaging ads at scale, Pinterest has introduced Performace+ creative. Catalogue items with blank or flat colour backgrounds can be transformed into lifestyle imagery with Pinterest’s generative AI.

These product pins can now use Pinterest-generated backgrounds, which add a photo to the background of the image. This is useful for marketers looking to enrich their content, but we’ve seen that some can look bizarre and you will be unable to see the final result ahead of publishing.

Performance+ bidding

Pinterest’s new bidding automation for ROAS is now also available. Previously, Pinterest’s bidding was optimised for clicks or conversion volume, but the option to optimise for the highest value has been introduced with Performance+ bidding. This feature will be useful for advertisers with a range of products with different price points and can help target users who are likely to purchase larger orders.

TikTok Launch Auto-Generated CTA Buttons

TikTok has launched the option to insert auto-generated call-to-action buttons for ads. During the ad set-up stage, users now have the option to choose from TikTok’s more options that relate to the content they are sharing.

This new feature gives marketers more flexibility, tailoring their CTAs to their content. For Christmas-themed content, we were given the option to use:

• Festive Savings Await!
• Unwrap Christmas Magic!
• Deck Your Halls Now!

These more unique CTAs may help content perform better with the added customisation and may be good for certain marketers to incorporate into their seasonal campaigns. However, with any auto-generation feature, the options may be irrelevant or clunky. Luckily, this feature is optional, allowing marketers to choose.

The Launch Of Google AI Overview Ads

Announced at Google Marketing Live back in May 2024, the new AI Overview ad format has begun rolling out across mobile devices in the US.

Where now upon searching a question on Google an AI curated answer sits at the top of the results page, in the US ads which relate to the search are now included in these search overviews.

An example given by Google to reporters at a demonstration was searching “how do I get a grass stain out of jeans?”. Subsequently the AI Overview result gave the user instructions on how to remove the stain followed by ads for Tide & OxiClean laundry products, displayed like a shopping ad carousel.

This update has the opportunity to improve performance as seemingly intent is behind the search. Although, Google has informed that there won’t be any separate reporting tools for ads appearing in the AI Overview.

As an advertiser, there is no action required. Existing AI-powered Search ads, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns will automatically auction for a position, and there is no option to back out.

The implementation of Google AI Overview Ads has the potential for ads to be placed at the top of the page, providing the best visibility. However, ads not shown in the search overview may be pushed lower down the page, reducing visibility and potentially limiting return on investment.

The challenge of this update lies in ensuring that ads appear in the most valuable space for optimal results.

Meta tests option to turn off comments on ads

Meta has announced they’re testing the option to turn off comments on their ads. This new filter will give marketers more control over ads, as they will be able to turn off comments on all Facebook and Instagram feed ads via the ad set.

With the option to set comments as Public or No one, this provides marketers with more control over their advertising efforts. If a brand uses particularly sensitive content or is experiencing a high amount of spam via their comments, it’s good that Meta is introducing an optional feature.

However, there may be some downsides to it. With users more interested in authentic content than ever, advertisers opting to turn off their comments may cause more harm than good. While some industries may celebrate this new feature, consumers may be a tad cautious of brands who choose to turn off their comments. Both negative and positive comments can be very useful to brands. Negative comments highlight areas for improvement and positive comments are fantastic social proof. 

GA4 increases data export limits

GA4 has launched new increased limits on how much data you can export from GA4 in reports and explorations. The new limits are 10,000,000 cells for unsampled explorations in CSV or TSV formats, and 100,000 rows for reports downloaded as CSV format or imported into Google Sheets.

The new limits are active now and will help users of GA4 more flexibility with what they can do with the data collected in GA4.

TikTok Challenges Google Ads With Search Ads

TikTok is challenging Google Ads by introducing its search ads campaign in the US. The new update will allow advertisers to ‘target users on its search results page.’ and ‘tailor their ads to align with specific search behaviours.’ 

Ads will now display on the top of the search page when users search for specific content. 

According to Search Engine Land, ‘TikTok’s testing shows that combining Search Ads with In-Feed Ads boosts conversions by 20%, with users who don’t engage with an ad initially more likely to interact after seeing a related search ad.’ 

Search Engine Land also says the new campaign is particularly significant for brands targeting younger demographics: ‘TikTok has a growing role as a search engine for younger users – 57% of users use the app’s search function, according to internal TikTok data. This new feature lets you capture attention at critical moments of intent. TikTok’s move could threaten Google’s dominance, as younger users are increasingly using social media for search instead of traditional engines.’

New platform announcements following Meta Connect 2024 conference

At Meta’s annual conference, they announced lots of new features, mainly surrounding AI.

A lot was announced including new hardware: Meta Quest 3S and Ray-Ban Meta glasses, as well as updates to Metaverse avatars. However, the primary focus was on AI developments and how Meta plans to integrate them.

Here’s a breakdown of some key AI features announced at Meta Connect 2024:

• Meta is testing an AI translation tool to break down language barriers by dubbing and lip-syncing Reels’ audio into other languages. It will mimic the speaker’s voice in another language, syncing their lips to match.
• Meta plans to expand its chatbot feature across Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. You can speak to Meta and it will reply; even featuring recognisable celebrity voices like John Cena and Judi Dench.
• Meta is expanding AI solutions to help businesses improve customer service and commerce. These business AIs can answer questions, discuss products, and even finalise purchases – attempting to offer seamless customer engagement.

TikTok introduces the option to re-edit videos that have been posted

TikTok has rolled out yet another update that improves the content editing experience in-app and enhances content management. Users now have the option to Delete & Re-edit if any changes are needed to content. Here’s a breakdown of the new update’s features:

• In-platform editing: Video edits within the TikTok app will now be saved.
• Delete and repost: Users can remove a post and re-upload an edited version in the app.

TikTok is really pushing users to edit natively on the platform, and the benefits of these new features include improved content optimisation, time-saving perks and better algorithmic performance.

TikTok gives users more control to customise their FYP

TikTok is allowing users to customise their feeds by selecting topics they want to see more and less of. Previously, we could click the Not Interested button on any videos that came up to somewhat customise our feed; but it wasn’t particularly accurate and would often still recommend similar content despite user feedback.

TikTok has now released a new feature called Manage Topics to provide users with the content they actually want to see. In Content Preferences, you can manage your chosen topics via a list of sliders. These sliders can be adjusted to suit users’ interests in various niches. Something to note is that after these preferences have been altered, it will take some time for these changes to be reflected in the feed.

This is a huge update for user preferences to make the app a more enjoyable experience. It also highlights the importance for brands and creators to create consistent content that aligns with what audiences want to see.

GA4 launches data import improvements

Google has added the ability to create and manage multiple data sources for each import type within GA4. This will allow users to handle more complex data scenarios that meet their needs. One of the key features of data imports is that it leaves your existing data as it is now, and any new data is added or updated, meaning a much lower risk of accidental data overwrites.

Expert opinion

Sam Thomas- Analytics consultant at Embryo

"With lower risks to original data when importing from external services, GA4 is opening up the ability for more users to explore ways to connect their data and drill deeper into how their marketing efforts are impacting as a return for their business. It's no longer enough to have a single source of truth for marketing returns, so combining GA4 data with other analytics tools and CRM data allows a fuller picture for businesses to make smarter decisions based on data."

4 New Performance Max Updates

Designed to leverage machine learning and automation in Google ads, Performance Max Campaigns are coming up to their third anniversary and Google have just announced some new updates with the aim to boost creative optimisation and campaign performance.

• Creative Reporting. Soon advertisers will be able to enhance creative asset performance through specific conversion metrics. Ad copy and assets quality are key in maximising Performance Max effectiveness, therefore gaining these insights will be crucial in improving campaign performance & testing.

• Streamlined Performance Insights. Where insights, recommendations and explanations were previously scattered across various sections this update creates one dashboard to view them all. Seemingly increasing efficiency in finding the information by centralising everything in one place.

• Target Pacing Insights. With the potential to be a great time saving update, this new insight provides advertisers the ability to track where campaigns are pacing at meeting target ROAS & CPA. Allowing advertisers to see where accounts are underperforming, helping optimise performance with greater efficiency.

• Impression Share Reporting. Providing visibility into how your competitors’ ads are showing will be invaluable in search & shopping campaigns performance through this update.

With some updates already live and others rolling out by the end of the month, these new Performance Max tools are extremely valuable to advertisers in improving ad potential through optimisation opportunities.

TikTok introduces the option to re-edit videos that have been posted

TikTok has rolled out yet another update that improves the content editing experience in-app and enhances content management. Users now have the option to Delete & Re-edit if any changes are needed to content. Here’s a breakdown of the new update’s features:

• In-platform editing: Video edits within the TikTok app will now be saved.
• Delete and repost: Users can remove a post and re-upload an edited version in the app.

TikTok is really pushing users to edit natively in the platform, and the benefits to these new features include improved content optimisation, time-saving perks and better algorithmic performance.

TikTok gives users more control to customise their FYP

TikTok is allowing users to customise their feed by selecting topics they want to see more and less of. Previously, we could click the Not Interested button on any videos that came up to somewhat customise our feed; but it wasn’t particularly accurate and would often still recommend similar content despite user feedback.

TikTok has now released a new feature called Manage Topics to provide users with the content they actually want to see. In Content Preferences, you can manage your chosen topics via a list of sliders. These sliders can be adjusted to suit users’ interests to various niches. Something to note is that after these preferences have been altered, it will take some time for these changes to be reflected in the feed.

This is a huge update for user preferences to make the app a more enjoyable experience. It also highlights the importance for brands and creators to be creating consistent content that aligns with what audiences want to see.

Cross-posting is now available across Meta platforms to Threads

In August 2023, Meta announced users will be able to cross-post across both Instagram and Facebook to Threads – the option to do this can be found within your Facebook and IG composer settings. This change aims to help creators amplify updates across all three apps at once.

Meta had been testing this feature over the past few months but now it’s available for all users when turned on in settings. A few things to keep in mind, though:

• Reels cannot be cross-posted.
• Facebook videos can’t be cross-posted – only text and link posts.
• When crossposting from Instagram, the caption becomes text for the Threads post and hashtags are converted into plain text.

The upsides to this update:

• Saves time.
• Followers across multiple platforms will see your latest updates.

The downsides of this update:

• User behaviour is different across platforms, so certain posts may not be ideal for every app. This is why marketers should create unique posts for each channel that align with their brand personality.

GA4 add plot rows option to line charts

GA4 has launched an update that allows users to plot specific rows of data in the line charts found in reports. Previously it only displayed the top 5 rows or a single row by default. Now users can change the charts to display the exact data they require.

Meta introduces new promo code update for Lead Forms

Meta has introduced a new option for lead generation forms that allows advertisers to include Promo Codes as an additional action. These reward or help people after they complete your lead form and is a great opportunity to nurture that lead further.

Previously, the only options for this feature were:

• Go to website
• View file
• Call business

This new option rewards people with a promo code that they can redeem on your website. It’s a really interesting new feature that can turn your leads into conversions, giving them that extra push.

Here’s how to set this option up:

1. Provide the URL link where the offer can be redeemed
2. Add the promo code e.g. ‘DISCOUNT50’
3. You can even edit the call to action to say what you’d like it to e.g. ‘get our discount now’

Once the lead form has been completed by the user, they will see a CTA button prompting them to copy the code and paste it online at checkout. They can easily click a button on the ad to drive them to your website for a seamless conversion journey.

Google Ads Removes the Audience Insights Tab

The Google Ads Insights tab which provides automation of audience recommendations has been removed. Where previously Google would assist advertisers with targeting, this update requires users to manually identify and select audience segments. This will likely impact the general day-to-day for many advertisers, as it will necessitate a bit more effort into finding value within a Google Ads account.

Although Google hasn’t given any insight into why the update has happened, we can make two assumptions.

They may be announcing a new version of the feature in the coming weeks or months. Historically, removals have been made of popular features and then relaunched in future updates.

Alternatively an explanation could be a common business decision driver; to increase profits. Increasing manual effort in audience insights will require advertisers to use other tools and data sources to accurately identify audiences. This then also means that advertisers can’t rely on automation and may need to expand their knowledge and understanding to ensure accurate decisions are made. Therefore providing Google with more money making opportunities as advertisers learn how to target accurately. In the meantime, users are likely to make less accurate decisions in targeting thus meaning more users are targeted and larger budgets are required subsequently leading Google to profit.

To protect yourself from this update ensure to dedicate some time to familiarising yourself with who you want to identify in your audience segments and how to select these manually.

This is an interesting update in the world of machine learning where generally developments are making a shift towards automation and the use of big data. Is this a step backwards or is Google helping advertisers in their targeting effectiveness?

Meta introduces some big campaign optimization updates

Meta announced they were introducing some new features on the platform to help improve advertiser performance and make sure users are increasing the value of every conversion.

These updates are part of Meta’s efforts to improve AI-enabled automation solutions, allowing any business to grow while ensuring every business’ objectives can be customised to achieve success.

To start, Meta will be rolling out a few initial ways for businesses to customise their campaigns by outlining what they value in their advertising efforts.

Defining the conversions businesses value most

Meta will launch a new feature called Conversion Value Rules which will help advertisers express which audiences or conversions they value.

This is what Meta has said on this…

“An advertiser may determine that certain customer segments have 30% higher lifetime value and are willing to pay more to reach these customers. Previously, they would have to segment these customers into a separate campaign, but with this new feature, they can define a higher bid for just these customers without having to create a separate campaign, enabling greater automation and performance.”

Supporting new attribution models

Secondly, Meta plans to introduce an opt-in attribution setting that reports and optimised for incremental conversions. To put it plainly, incremental conversions are ones that Meta does not believe the user would have made without seeing your ad – the purchase would not have been made if they didn’t see your ad.

This new setting is designed to shift ad delivery to focus on driving more incremental conversions, and when Meta tested earlier this year they said advertisers saw an average improvement of more than 20% in incremental conversions.

More powerful analytics integrations

If you know anything about Embryo, you’ll know we’re huge fans of the Messy Middle – the idea that the customer journey to purchase is anything but linear, it’s a lot messier! Meta has acknowledged this in their latest update, saying that it’s common for users to click or interact with several ads from a business across a variety of platforms and publishers before they’ve even considered adding to basket.

It’s common for most businesses to use external analytics tools to evaluate cross-publisher performance. But Meta wants to help advertisers understand what is working and where they see the most value in their advertising efforts. 

Meta will be introducing the ability for advertisers to connect their analytics tools directly to their ad system through a simple API setup. They will start with Google Analytics and Northbeam, but there are plans to expand this to Triple Whale and Adobe soon too.

By sharing analytics tools and incorporating an integrated approach to campaign information, Meta hopes to give advertisers a better understanding of what conversions an advertiser may value across their marketing mix. And over time, Meta’s AI models will be able to use this data to help fine-tune campaign optimisation.

Ongoing Issue With Rankings in Google Search

On 15th August 2024, Google announced that they were experiencing ongoing issues with their rankings in Google Search, which is currently affecting a large number of websites.

The root cause was determined quickly and we were informed that an update will be released within 12 hours to address the issue.

It’s rare form for Google to be so forthcoming with issues in their Search Results, and we’re keen to hear the outcome and what caused the issue in the first place.

August 2024 Core Update

On the 15th of August 2024, Google finally released the latest core update, which was expected by many in the SEO community after numerous reports of high volatility in the SERPs across multiple industries.

This update is expected to take around a month to fully roll out.

But what makes this update different? This core update will be taking into account all the feedback that Google has received since the September 2023 helpful content update which has had a negative impact on performance for those smaller websites across Google’s index.

This latest algorithm update has been specifically designed to improve the quality of the SERP, ensuring more relevant content is shown to people which has actually been designed and curated to be helpful for the user rather than based on content that has just been created to perform well in the rankings.

James Taylor,  independent SEO consultant and the founder of Complete White Label tells us his thoughts:

Expert Opinion

James Taylor, Founder at Complete White Label

"Looking back, I think we've seen a lot of reputable publishers being unfairly hit by the August core update, or at least, sites like Reddit and Quora being viewed favourably above independent publishers. Does that mean that Google got things wrong? It's a tough question to answer because, in many ways, blogging had to evolve away from content made for SEO purposes alone, and it's a big part of what has resulted in the explosion of UGC results we see today in the SERP's. This approach also unfortunately meant that many publishers who did everything 'by the book' were still handed a significant visibility reduction, with many still not seeing recovery as we near the end of 2024 at the time of writing. Really I think the updates show that, even as SEO's, we can't create content in a vacuum. We have to consider strategies for broader brand building and the role of SEO within that, rather than an all-in approach to SEO alone. For example, having social media strategies in place, utilising video to support blog content and provide traffic opportunities via YouTube, TikTok and Instagram Reels. And, even current approaches to link building in terms of where they sit within what a 'real' brand would do (such as the role of digital PR and expert commentary rather than relying on private blog networks or link farms as a means of link acquisition)."

You can now post up to 20 images and videos in an Instagram carousel

A new update on Instagram allows users to upload up to 20 images and videos as a carousel on the platform. Previously the max here was 10, so this a huge jump and will allow for a lot more creativity and storytelling within the platform. Although this is growth for Instagram, it is still quite far behind TikTok’s whopping 35 image carousel limit, which has seen massive success. 

GA4 launches cross-channel budgeting tools for ads spend in closed alpha

Whilst not available to everybody yet, the newly launched budgeting tool is designed to help analyse historical media spend and conversions to help optimise budgets for ad spend. The new budget section can be found under advertising and has insights on budget allocation, spend projections, and ongoing performance tracking across channels. It can help you create manual integrations also so no third-party platform will be left aside.

Currently only available in a closed alpha test, we’re keen to see where Google takes this in the future as it’s a valuable addition to the GA4 platform.

SISTRIX Updates, August 2024

The excellent SISTRIX platform (if you’re in SEO and you don’t use it, please have a look at it) have updated their platform with a few new things. They have now added in a visualisation of a website that shows where clicks happen on a site – effectively seeing how the site is used by visitors. They also now allow for you to compare up to 7 keywords to see how they contrast.

Google announces improvements to key event attribution

Google has announced a change for GA4 which will improve the reliability of channel attribution for key events. The change means that you should more reliably see key events assigned to the correct channels instead of being assigned to the direct channel.

Apple introduce new AI-generated ‘Genmojis’

We’ve all been there: you’re looking for the perfect emoji for the conversation but it doesn’t exist. It’s a problem we’ve all encountered and Apple’s latest feature is solving this problem by introducing ‘Genmojis’.

This new feature allows IPhone users to create new emojis by simply describing the emoji they’re looking for. Apple’s AI system does the rest. If you’ve ever searched and searched for an emoji that doesn’t exist, then this is for you. Granted, it’s a fairly low-key problem, but definitely increases accessibility.

We’re not sure at this point whether this will be only available on messaging platforms, or will be something marketers can include in their social posts, but it’s definitely an update lots are excited for.

The update for these new Genmojis rolls out after iOS 18 launches later this year. As this feature will only be available for IPhone users, using Genmojis on social posts may not show up for Android users. Nevertheless, we’re excited to see how this feature pans out and the types of Genmojis users are creating.

TikTok adds custom thumbnail option for clips

You can now upload your own custom image to be the cover photo for your TikToks. You can also still select a still from your video as the thumbnail. The aim is for people to use more attention grabbing thumbnails to increase engagement rates, similar to YouTube. Big Youtubers like Mr Beast have claimed to spend ‘up to $10K on thumbnails’ to increase viewership. Its not yet known how much impact this will have on TikTok compared to Youtube, as most TikTok videos are viewed in feed, but it could be helpful when people are searching profiles to identify which video they’re clicking on. 

Google drops plans to kill third-party cookies

Google announced its plan to kill third-party cookies from its Chrome browser four years ago. After multiple delays, most of which were caused by regulatory concerns over Google’s replacement, the privacy sandbox, Google has announced it won’t be killing third-party cookies after all.

Instead, Google has said it will offer users a choice on whether they want to accept third-party cookies, and then apply that choice at a browser level and apply it to all websites the user visits. Whether this will keep regulators happy is yet to be seen.

If we consider that 96% of users on iOS deny app tracking when given the choice, it could be said that Google might as well be killing third-party cookies just like Firefox, Safari and Brave browsers already have done.

Instagram Expands Notes to Reels and Feed Posts

Instagram has expanded the notes feature meaning you can now leave notes on reels and feed posts. You can add a post-it style message on a post or reel by clicking the share button (as you would to send a post to a friend) and clicking ‘add note’. The note is then visible to your mutual followers for 3 days. Instagram is attempting to retain a younger audience, particularly teenagers, as they are favouring TikTok and Snapchat. According to Instagram teenagers use notes ‘at 10 times the rate of non teens’. Instagrams aim with the new feature is for users to be able to ‘react to posts in real time’, ‘share hot takes’ and ‘hype up their friends’. 

Google launches ‘first-party mode’ in beta

Google has this week launched its ‘first-party mode’ for tracking tags in beta. First-party mode is designed to remove the reliance on loading resources from Google itself for any Google tags, including Google Tag Manager.

First-party mode means deploying the tags from your own infrastructure hosted on your website domain. In the current widely used setup, Google tags are requested from a Google domain. Now the tags will be requested from your domain, processed on the domain, and then the data forwarded to Google.

It’s designed to help recover lost data because of ad-blockers and other browser restrictions. You’ll need an understanding of your current infrastructure and preferably a CDN like Cloudflare to roll out first-party mode. It’s worth noting of course that you’ll still require consent from your users to track their activity.

Google shuts down Universal Analytics for good

Starting 1st July, Google will be shutting down Universal Analytics for good. Whilst the old UA properties haven’t been processing data for nearly a year, the properties were accessible to those who wanted to look at data in previous years. From today Google will be deleting Univeral Analytics properties and the data will no longer be available either through the web platform or through the API.

Pinterest introduces a new way to share boards

With over 518 million monthly active users, Pinterest is the go-to place for inspiration. The platform is now making it easier for users to share their inspiration with others.

Whatever their aesthetic, the new board-sharing feature allows users to easily share their Pinterest boards to other social platforms. This new feature streamlines the process of sharing Pinned content and gives users the ability to share a link to explore their entire Pinterest board.

The Director of Consumer Product Marketing at Pinterest, Rachel Hardy, said the following…

“Gen Z makes up over 40% of our global monthly users on Pinterest and are our most engaged generation, with a significant increase in the number of boards created by Gen Z Pinners compared to last year. We are enhancing the board features based on user feedback and, this year, board sharing is one of our critical investments as users value the ability to share their creative processes on different platforms and find inspiration from others.”

For users like Gen Z, Pinterest isn’t just a platform, it’s a space where they can express themselves without external pressures.

For the launch of board sharing, Pinterest has partnered with Avril Lavine and Tierra Whack to showcase their never-before-seen private boards. This new feature is an opportunity for users to foster genuine engagement among communities and provide a window into the inspiration behind creative projects.

How to share your Pinterest boards (sourced from Pinterest Newsroom):

1. Go to your public board you want to share
2. Tap the share icon in the top right
3. A video will auto-generate
4. Click on the “Add to Story” button or “Download” the video to share anywhere
5. Optional: Tap the “Edit” icon to edit Pins or select a different template.
6. Copy board link.
7. Click on the “Share Story” button. Instagram will automatically open.
8. On Instagram, tap on the “Stickers” icon
9. Choose “Link,” paste the board’s URL, and click “Done.”
10. Share to your Stories!

Google launches Tag Diagnostics in GA4 & Tag Manager

Google has added a new tool to GA4 and Google Tag Manager called Tag Diagnostics. It’s designed to help you diagnose potential issues with tracking related to the Google Tags or Tag Manager containers you have on your website.

The Tag Diagnostic tool categorises the overall health of your tags as:

• Excellent
• Good
• Needs Attention
• Poor

and some of the issues it can highlight with tags include:

• Additional domains not included in tag configuration
• Config tags not firing before event tags
• The conversion linker tag is missing from the container
• Pages with missing tags
• Consent mode issues (missing or misconfigured consent) for traffic/events coming from EEA & UK visitors

Meta introduces AI chatbots

Meta has introduced 3 updates to chatbots/messaging tools:

1. Meta has introduced chatbots on Messenger that can chat with customers and provide support. It is built with a large language model (LLama 3). The change aims to save businesses money on service costs.

Meta says ‘We’re training AI on the most popular questions businesses receive on Messenger, built with Meta Llama 3, to understand and respond to customer messages about products in engaging and natural ways.’

A case study on the business ‘White Coat Manila’ showed this feature saved at least 20% of customer support costs.

Customers will still have the option to speak to a human and businesses can manually enter the conversation at any time.

2. Paid marketing messages are now on Messenger as well as WhatsApp for select advertisers. Advertisers with access to the feature can send paid marketing messages to opted-in customers.

3. Introduction of Threads API. According to Meta the supported features include:

• The ability to authenticate, publish posts, and fetch their own content via the API.
• Management capabilities so businesses and creators can retrieve and engage with replies to their posts, set reply controls and hide or unhide specific replies.
• Media and account-level insights, such as the number of views, likes and replies

Meta says their continuous investments and updates to AI features have helped increase average ROAS for advertisers by 12% since 2022.

Google Ads Rolls Out a Useful AI Update for Brand Keyword Matching

Keyword Match Types and the logic that goes into matching them to Search Terms has been evolving and changing for years. The saying goes “Exact Match is no longer Exact”, with Google continuously trending toward less precise targeting, instead leaning on machine learning to widen the scope of keyword targeting to include longtail and new search terms that can’t be predicted.

The latest announcement from Google includes 4 key changes that will have PPC advertisers changing the way they work with their brand and the unique search terms in that sphere.

1. Mispelled search terms are becoming easier to manage! If you’ve ever struggled to add negatives of all the potential mispells of a brand term, this AI-driven update means advertisers need only add the core brand term. AI will ensure that mispells are included.
2. Brand Exclusions across ALL keywords and DSA campaigns are rolling out, expanding the Performance Max feature to core campaign types.
3. Additional suggestions for Brand keywords and search terms, which turns a Broad Match keyword into a wider brand “sphere” targeting-signal, allowing for “Brand Generic” keywords to filter through more often.
4. Previously un-trackable “Other” search terms will now start showing, giving advertisers more direct control over targeting and exclusions – this last one allows PPCers to “rein in” the expanded targeting that the expansion caters to.

All of this trends towards more consolidation in Google Ads campaign structure, encouraging less fragmentation between Brand and Non-Brand campaigns, joining them up to act as a “Messy Middle Search Campaign”.

Google Drops Continuous Scroll in Search Results

In October 2021, Google launched “Continuous Scroll” on mobile search. This introduced a SERP that revealed more listings as the user “scrolled” down the page. In December 2022, Continuous Scroll was rolled out on Desktop search results.

As of 25th June 2024, Google removed this feature for Desktop, bringing back the pagination system that was in place before, which includes a “Next” button at the bottom of the page.

Mobile SERPs will have the Continuous Scroll function removed in the coming months.

So, what does this mean? Click-through rates from the SERP will likely be more contained to page 1 results, as users now have to take an extra “step” to visit page 2. Also, SEOs can now say “we got that keyword on to page 1!” again, instead of “we got that keyword in to positions 1-10!”

It’s the small wins.

Facebook introduces Broadcast Channels on Facebook and Messenger

Broadcast channels are a way for accounts to share updates or messages with their followers. This is usually popular for big accounts like brands and influencers and allows updates to be conveyed in an intimate chat format.

This has already been rolled out across Instagram and allows users to connect with their most loyal followers in an authentic space. Followers can react to messages but are unable to reply, making these channels the perfect place for regular updates.

Recently, Facebook announced they were making Broadcast Channels available for eligible Facebook Pages. The eligibility would depend on the follower count of these Pages, needing at least 10,000 followers. Facebook has announced that they are looking to make this feature available for professional mode creators who also have more than 10,000 followers.

As this update is already live on Instagram, it’s no real surprise that Facebook is beginning to roll out this feature for Messenger. It will enable users to automatically share updates from their Instagram channel to their Facebook channel, saving them time and effort.

Instagram adds live streams for close friends

An update that came as no surprise, is Instagram introducing the option to live stream to close friends on the app. Instagram is doubling down on more intimate group chats with broadcast channels and now live streams for close friends.

This new update allows users to stream to their close friends list. Users will be able to invite up to 3 others on their close friends list to co-host or join their streams. Essentially, this new feature gives users a video option to stream to smaller groups, further adding to user connection on the app. This update went live in June and was rolled out globally.

Previously, live broadcasts meant anyone could tune in and watch if an account was public and all followers could watch for private accounts. Now, users have the ability to decide who joins the stream–essentially it’s more similar to a Facetime call than a public live stream.

This update could be great for influencers who want to livestream to specific followers or for students to host study sessions with their friends.

Instagram has recently emphasised the importance of more private modes on the platform, introducing features such as grid posts being visible to only close friends and muting interactions from everyone but close friends. Updates like this give users the option to choose stricter safety settings as well as the ability to curate their own Instagram experience.

June 2024 Spam Update

On 20th June 2024, after originally teasing that it would happen in May 2024, Google announced that they are rolling out the June 2024 Spam Update.

This is the “Core” element of the Spam update that had been previously announced in March 2024.

The update is focused on rewarding websites with good quality backlink profiles, and actively penalising websites that use spammy practices.

GA4 updates advertising section to include audience data

Google has launched an updated Advertising section within GA4 that adds additional data about the number of users that are eligible for remarketing and ad personalisation. You can find this data under Advertising > Tools > Advertising Segments. The advertising segments audience data is synonymous with audience segments found within the Google Ads Audience Manager.

Meta introduces ads for Instagram broadcast channels

Meta has introduced a new update that allows users to run ads to grow their Instagram Broadcast Channels.

If you’re unsure what Broadcast Channels are, they were released in September 2023 and are a way for creators and brands to share messages like announcements, content and any other information with others on Instagram. These channels are found in the direct messages tab on Instagram and are available to anyone. As Instagram put it…

“Anyone that joins your channel will be able to react and reply to messages you send or vote in polls you create in the channel, but they will not be able to send messages. Since your broadcast channels are public, they are discoverable by anyone on Instagram.”

To invite members to your broadcast channel, it’s simple. When you send the first message all of your followers will receive a notification inviting them to the channel. The other ways to invite people include:

• Sharing an invite link to your channel
• Adding the channel to your stories
• Sharing a message from the channel to a story
• Sharing a QR code for the channel

With that in mind, Meta recently launched an update that allows users to run ads to grow their Broadcast Channels. This option will allow marketers to increase awareness and membership while adding to their community.

Here’s how to set up an ad for Instagram Broadcast Channels:

1. Create an ‘Engagement’ objective campaign. Ensure your Instagram account is linked to Meta; you should see a message that reads, ‘Invite people to your Broadcast Channel’.
2. At the ad set level select ‘Broadcast Channel’ as the conversion location. Please note that any ads created in this ad set will invite users to join your channel.
3. At the ad level, select your Broadcast Channel as the ad’s destination.
4. Optimise the ad, as usual, filling out primary text and headlines, etc.

Meta introduces new creative enhancements

It’s no shock to see that Meta is adding even more creative enhancements to its Advantage+ creative section. When using this feature, Meta automatically optimises your images and videos to versions that it believes your audience is more likely to interact with. Depending on the format or placements of your ad, different enhancements may be available.

Advantage+ creative is a feature Meta wants users to utilise, and more often than not rewards you for trying things out–even if some of the options (looking at you “Music”) are a bit hit-and-miss.

Meta’s latest addition to creative enhancements is “Adjust text length”. The description of this is as follows…

“We will only show the first line of your primary text when it might improve performance.”

To make an impression on social media, marketers only have seconds, which is why the first line of copy is always the most important. This feature could be useful in improving the overall performance of certain ads. Our tip? Be sure to provide enough information and context in the first line of your primary text when this feature is enabled to make the most of it.

GA4 adds custom event data imports

GA4 now supports custom event data imports. This will allow users to combine event-scoped custom dimensions and standard fields to join and analyse imported events with your existing GA4 data. Once imported and combined, you can create custom reports to provide a more comprehensive view of both datasets.

GA4 updates attribution models to improve accuracy of paid search campaign measurement

GA4 is rolling out some changes to its attribution models over the next couple of weeks. This update aims to improve how conversions are credited to paid search campaigns, ensuring greater accuracy when measuring the results of your ads.

Some conversions in the current attribution models are mistakenly attributed to organic search, particularly for single-page applications. This occurs when the ‘gclid’ parameter, doesn’t carry over between page views as a user moves throughout your website.

The update will ensure that campaign data is captured accurately during the first event on each new page. If a user leaves your website and returns through a different channel, the attribution will be adjusted to give credit to the correct channels.

The update could lead to an increase in conversions attributed to paid search campaigns, and therefore a decrease in organic conversions. It’s something to keep an eye on over the coming weeks. Google advises that this could potentially impact your spending on Google Ads campaigns. Before the update takes effect, review your budget caps and make any necessary adjustments.

Meta: Dynamic ads are being replaced with Flexible ads

Dynamic Creative is no longer available and has been replaced by the ‘Flexible’ ad format.

Firstly, what did this feature entail? Dynamic Creative allowed you to submit multiple images or videos, primary text, headlines, descriptions, and call-to-action buttons for a single ad. Meta then had the power to mix and match these elements to generate better results.

Now Meta has announced they’re scrapping Dynamic Creative after 7 years and replacing the format with Flexible ads. When using the Flexible ad format, Meta will choose your ad format, based on where it appears and who sees it, to allow for improved performance.

This format was implemented as a creative option at the ad level in November last year. When this was introduced there was a “See What’s New” alert that read…

“Optimize your ad whenever it’s delivered with flexible formats. Use flexible formats to reduce creative fatigue and show your ad in the specific format we predict will perform best for each person.”

Similarly to Dynamic Creative, you can provide the following creative elements when using this format:

• Up to 10 images and/or videos
• Up to 5 variations of ‘Primary text’
• Up to 5 variations of ‘Headlines’
• Up to 5 variations of ‘Descriptions’

When this update was released last year, a lot of marketers wondered why was this necessary as it was pretty similar to Dynamic Creative. Now it looks like Meta was planning to phase Dynamic Creative out and replace it with the new Flexible format. As they could never be used together anyway, this update is one that we saw coming.

Presently, wherever you are using Dynamic Creative, Meta will enable this new feature so you won’t need to make any huge adjustments and your ad performance won’t be massively affected.

Meta: schedule individual ads with a manual sales campaign

A big update for Meta: marketers can now schedule individual ads!

Before this update, ads could only be scheduled at the ad set level on manual sales campaigns, which proved quite annoying if you wanted an ad to appear during certain times or days without creating one manually.

This quality-of-life update can be helpful for those who have a time-sensitive offer or promotion but don’t fancy creating a whole new ad set. It sounds perfect for those who have seasonal-specific discounts that happen over certain days as the individual ad can be scheduled for its original price to be replaced by the discount once the promotion begins. The specific ad can be set live to reflect the sale when it goes live and can be scheduled to end when the promotion is over.

This feature had previously been available for Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, but it’s being made available for manual sales campaigns, meaning more control over targeting.

Here’s how to schedule an individual ad at the ad level:

1. Create a manual sales campaign and choose ‘Website’ as the conversion location.
2. At the ad level, you may see a “Show More Options” under Multi-Advertiser Ads. If you don’t, the update hasn’t been rolled out to you yet. If you do, click it.
3. This will reveal a scheduling option and will give you the option to set a specific start and end date for the ad.

Meta: new tab suggestions for detailed targeting

Meta has introduced an update to its targeting options, allowing users to see and add detailed targeting suggestions based on “Relevance” or “Size”.

When you click on the suggestions button under detailed targeting two tabs now appear with recommendations based on the relevance of the size of different audiences. It’s currently available for both ‘original audience’ settings and ‘Advantage+ audience’ inputs.

Here’s an overview of what each tab suggests:

• Relevance: Suggestions relevant to the targeting options already selected. This is better for targeting niche audiences and getting inspiration for potential audiences.
• Size: Suggestions based on the audience size. Choosing audiences in this tab would be useful for broader campaigns.

Before this update, if you wanted to check for relevance or audience sizes it was a manual process. Now, this update makes life easier to see what Meta suggests and develop a more informed strategy.

Instagram introduces silent posting

A recent feature Instagram has implemented allows users to share content without “spamming feeds”.  Users will have the option to ‘Post quietly to profile’ which will let them publish content that will still be visible on their profile but it won’t be shared in the feed with their followers.

This feature could be particularly helpful for:

• Building an aesthetically pleasing grid without bombarding the feed.
• Sharing content without engagement worries.
• When users wish to post multiple times in a short period of time e.g. wedding and holiday pictures.

While it may not be useful for everyone, especially creators and brands focused on reach and engagement, it may appeal to those who want to share content they enjoy without the pressure.

It’s great to see Instagram introducing new updates useful for the users instead of new features that only relate to bigger accounts.

GA4 adds feature to send reports via email instantly

Administrators in GA4 properties can now use the ‘Send Email’ feature when clicking share report. This allows users to share report data with other people instantly via email. Reports sent via email will feature the date range selected as well as any filters or comparisons added when the report is sent.

Meta introduces site links in Facebook ads

Meta recently rolled out site links for Facebook ads which enables advertisers to display additional business and product information on their ads. The premise is fairly similar to Google ads with the addition of multiple landing pages featured.

Site links appear below the main asset whether that is an image or video. When users click the site link, they will be redirected to the appropriate landing page.

How to implement site links in your Facebook ads

• Go to Ads Manager.
• Click +Create.
• Choose your objective:
  • You can use either Traffic, Engagement, Leads, or Sales.
  • Site links aren’t supported on the app promotion objective.
• (If you have selected the sales objective:)
  • Toggle off use a catalogue at the campaign level. This won’t be necessary on other campaigns.
• Fill out campaign details:
  • At the campaign level, fill out the campaign details sections as needed.
  • Click next.
• Set the conversion location:
  • Select Website as your conversion location.
• Ad set level:
  • Fill in the sections on the ad set level e.g. budget, audience controls, and placements sections.
• Ad level:
  • After adding your creative, open the Advantage+ creative enhancements section where there will be an option to add site links card. Make sure you turn this feature on.
  • You can also preview how your ad will look here if any changes are required.
• Add ad sources:
  • Enter a website URL in the ad sources section. Meta will automatically add site links to your ad.

Please note that Meta will try to find useful site links automatically, but if it can’t, you can add them manually. Keep in mind that you will need to add at least 3 site links to display them on your ad.

TikTok launches new “TikTok Studio” management platform for creators

TikTok recently launched a new platform designed specifically for creators called TikTok Studio. This space will be utilised by creators to manage all aspects of their TikTok presence, from uploading and editing videos to performance analytics. TikTok Studio is an updated version of the Creative Centre which allows users to manage their accounts via desktop.

Get to know about this new platform in TikTok’s own words…

“As part of our ongoing commitment to empowering creators with innovative tools to support their TikTok journey, we’re excited to introduce TikTok Studio, a new comprehensive creation and management platform equipped with tools creators can use to create, edit, upload, manage, and analyze their TikTok account and content performance.

Whether you’re a seasoned creator, a newbie debuting your first video, or a small business balancing content creation while managing a business, TikTok Studio provides free, easy-to-use creation tools and centralized operational capabilities designed to efficiently streamline content workflow. Using their TikTok account to log in or sign up, creators can upload, film, edit, and post to TikTok directly from TikTok Studio and use tools like auto caption, photo editor, and autocut to polish their content with professional finesse.

TikTok also emphasised the new reporting features associated with this new platform, which will certainly be invaluable for many.

“TikTok Studio offers a wide range of invaluable reporting and analytics features to help creators navigate their TikTok journey. It provides insights into the performance of their account and content, as well as audience behaviour and monetization. This enables creators to analyze their performance, track improvements, and make more informed decisions. By using this information, creators can take a more strategic approach to their growth on TikTok.”

These tools aren’t “brand new”, but as they’re in a personalised dashboard, things should become a lot easier to manage for creators. It’s key to note that TikTok Studio is currently only available as a web app, but TikTok has said they are testing a standalone app experience as well.

GA4 Adds Much Awaited Export To Google Sheets Function

Google has finally launched its ‘export to Google Sheets’ function in GA4 when exporting data from reports. Historically you had to download the file as a CSV and then upload it into Sheets. It’s a small but mighty update for those who use Google Sheets as a part of their daily workflow. To export your data into a Google Sheet, click Share This Report > Download File > Export To Google Sheets. 

360 Customers Gain Control Over Report Sharing with New Access Controls

Analytics 360 Customers using GA4 can now leverage enhanced control over which report collections are available for individual users. This will allow admins to show users only the reports they need to access rather than everything. For example, your product team could have access to your product reports, but your marketing team can still see a more holistic view of all of the key reports.

It’s unknown whether this change will come to all users in the future, but if you need to be able to restrict access based on specific users, Analytics 360 now makes this possible.

Google’s New “Web” Filter

On Tuesday 14th May 2024, Google announced a new “Web” filter that shows only text-based links in the Search Results.

This filter appears at the top of the results page, alongside other filters as part of the “More” option that already exists.

We think this will bring some interesting insights on how people prefer to interact with the SERP. Will there be a demographic shift? Will certain industries opt for the “Simple” results over the “Rich” results? Only time will tell.

AI Summaries Rolling Out Across The US

Google has revealed at its I/O developer conference on Tuesday 14th May a significant shift in the way the search engine will look and feel, centred around AI integration.

The update includes the introduction of “AI Overviews”, formerly known as Search Generative Experience (SGE). This new feature, which is powered by Google’s own AI tool, Gemini, will generate summaries at the top of the search results based on understanding queries and content found from various relevant topics across Google’s index.

The rollout will initially be for the US only, with the possibility of being rolled out to billions more users in other countries by the end of the year.

AI overviews are expected to generate a higher click through rate than the standard organic search listings that we have grown familiar with over the years, but interestingly, Google will not yet present the breakdown of data for clicks and impressions in Google Search Console for AI overview links.

Google Adds “Conversion Annotations” to Shopping Placements

In a world of GA4s, Consent Modes and Enhanced Conversions, we’re always grateful to see a simple, sensical update from Google, and happy days – a new one has just rolled out.

“Conversion Annotations” allow advertisers to give Social Proofing labels to products based on the specific product popularity.

For example, in PLAs you’ll start seeing things like

• “best selling”
• “1k shopped here recently”
• “100+ shopped in the past month”

The good news is this is a simple setup (IF you already have conversion tracking setup in your Google Merchant Center settings) – check out Google’s instructions in our link below.

This update is bound to increase CTR and Conversion Rate for advertisers. We’re keen on seeing what it’ll do for our own clients.

GA4 Launches Saved Comparisons

Similar to the segments we had in Universal Analytics, GA4 now has a feature that allows you to add saved comparisons to your GA4 property. This will allow all users with access to the GA4 property to compare the same segments of data without having to manually set them up each time.

Google has included some built-in segments to get you started including All Users, Direct Traffic, Organic Traffic, Paid Traffic, Referral and Affiliates Traffic, Mobile Traffic, Web Traffic and more.

It will allow users to get to the data they need more efficiently across any of the library reports within GA4.

Google Adds ANOTHER 5 New AI Features To Performance Max – April 2024

Following on from the Generative AI image generation and expansion on “auto assets”, Google has announced new AI features (some of which are only accessible via select beta-testing) to Performance Max campaigns. These updates are:

1. Customer value mode: In beta, meant to help advertisers who use conversion goals to reach high-value customers – this is similar to leveraging conversion value on lead gen campaigns to use ROAS-based bidding
2. Customer retention goal: This one is also in beta, designed to win back lost customers – how effective this will be remains to be seen, but it does sound quite exciting doesn’t it?
3. Detailed demographics: Audience insights are now available for pmax for age and gender data – at last!
4. Budget pacing insights: see real-time tracking, current and projected spend and forecast conversion performance – somewhat similar to Performance Planner, but with more active insight
5. Account-level IP address exclusions: Pmax can now exclude specific IP addresses – this is very “use case” but could be useful depending on your specific circumstance rather than an account-level exclusion, this can now be limited to specific Pmax campaigns.

If you want to trial these Beta tests for yourself, speak with your Google account team.

Pinterest Launches Automated Campaigns

Automated campaigns automate the ad campaign creation process by combining an advertiser’s goals with Pinterest best practice recommendations to help you deliver results with less manual work.

As we all know, when a new feature becomes available on a social media platform it’s not long until the others recreate this and make it their own. For Meta Advantage Plus campaigns, creative and any automation has had the biggest push over the last year or two and Pinterest now have their own version of this called… Automated Campaigns.

Meta Introduces New Opportunity Score in Ads Manager

Meta has introduced a new Opportunity Score in Ads Manager. But what exactly does that mean?

In Meta’s own words: “In the Account Overview tab in Meta Ads Manager, you may see a campaign strength score between 0 and 100% that relates to the potential performance of your campaign. The higher the number, the more you are following best practices.”

This update reflects the effectiveness of all active ads within an ad account, rather than focusing on individual campaigns, ad sets, or ads. This score is based entirely on how many delivery recommendations you utilise. While it doesn’t directly impact your ad performance, a high score hints at strategies that could boost your results, and Meta is encouraging users to ensure their opportunity score is as high as possible.

How are campaign strength scores calculated?

• The campaign strength score is calculated from a blend of factors, including your campaign and ad settings, current campaign performance, and an assessment of performance potential for each recommendation that is aligned with your campaign.

Most of the time, when Meta encourages you to do something, whether it be Advantage+ related or Opportunity Scores, we recommend testing it. Usually, you’ll see a slight boost in results as a reward, and it could be a good roadmap for improvement, showing you where to focus your efforts.

Meta: Existing Customer Budget Cap No Longer Available

Meta is removing the option to set an existing customer budget cap in Advantage+ Shopping campaigns. Not only that, they are updating how advertisers control audience-related budgets by encouraging us to use two ad sets to achieve the same goal, which is also something new.

The existing customer budget cap feature allowed advertisers to set a maximum budget percentage to spend on existing customers. Now Meta is removing the option for setting a budget cap percentage, and instead, is encouraging us to control audience-related budgets by using different ad sets which hasn’t been possible before.

Here are a few options available for us to still allocate the budget effectively…

Option 1: Create a new campaign that doesn’t spend the budget on current customers.

In the Audience controls at the Ad Set level, choose More, then Exclude these custom audiences to remove existing customers.

Option 2: Create a new campaign that splits the budget between new and existing customers.

Make two ad sets in the campaign to set a limit for spending on existing customers.

Option 3: Using Custom audiences effectively.

Utilise Custom audiences to target individuals you recognise as your current customers. Use the same creative in both ad sets and duplicate them. In the second ad set, navigate to Audience controls, then choose More. Exclude these custom audiences to remove individuals you classify as existing customers from your targeting.

Meta Adds New Targeting Options for Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

If you run Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, there’s been a big update, allowing you to target users who have shown an interest in your product or service but are yet to make a purchase.

Under the Engaged Customers Audience Segment in reporting, it reads:

“You can now define your engaged customers using custom audiences. This allows you to receive reporting breakdowns for this audience.”

Custom audiences are people aware of your business or have interacted with your product/service but haven’t made a purchase yet, so this is a great way to retarget engaged customers and encourage them to convert.

In terms of reporting, this update will give you access to a new segment to view in Ads Manager when using the Breakdown Menu. Select Demographics and Audience Segments to show three separate rows for New Customers, Existing Customers, and Engaged Customers.

Some examples of Custom Audiences to add to these segments include…

Existing Customers:

• People who purchased or signed up for your services.
• Custom Audiences would include people who purchased on your website shop.

Engaged Customers:

• Website visitors or Facebook/Instagram shop product views.

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.

The March 2024 Core Update Concludes – 45 Days Later…

On March 5th 2024, Google announced that it was rolling out the March 2024 Core Update, which had a focus on poor quality content and websites that abuse content scaling. Google said this would likely take 4-6 weeks to conclude rolling out.

50 days passed by and the SEO community believed this update was still rolling out and set to be one of the longest roll-outs in history (the longest being the Page Experience update in June 2021 which took 79 days!)

However, on April 26th 2024, Google confirmed that the update had concluding rolling out on April 19th – 7 days prior to this announcement.

It’s unclear why Google had decided to delay the announcement, but we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing it’s over… For now!

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.

Google Merchant Center Next To Support Supplemental Feeds & Rules – December 2023

Advertisers using Google Merchant Center Next (GMCN) can look to breathe a sigh of relief as Google announces GMCN will be supporting supplemental feeds & rules early next year.

The simplified version of Google Merchant Center (GMC) unveiled in May lacked many tools its predecessor had available, leading advertisers to revert back to ‘classic mode’ in order to restore functionality that is integral to optimising Google ad shopping performance.

Important to note: Once reverted back to classic, access to GMCN is unavailable until the classic GMC is retired next year.

Meta unveils five new lead generation ad tools for Facebook and Instagram – November 2023

Meta’s unveiling of five new lead-generation ad tools provides advertisers with powerful tools to drive business growth and foster meaningful connections with their target audience.

WhatsApp Lead Gen: Meta is expanding the lead opportunity to users via WhatsApp chats with businesses. This feature assists marketers in nurturing high-quality leads through messaging. Going forward, certain advertisers will have the opportunity to incorporate a Q&A flow directly within Ads Manager.

Instant form ad format. Allows users to explore and engage with multiple businesses simultaneously. For instance, upon registering for a bridal hair trial, users can effortlessly share their contact details with other businesses, such as a nail salon. This feature enhances convenience for users while expanding opportunities for small businesses to attract interested customers.

Calling leads on Facebook. Meta is currently experimenting with a new functionality on Facebook that enables businesses to directly contact leads, offering reassurance and showcasing their business details. Additionally, Meta is in the testing phase of Advantage+ for Lead Generation, a feature that enables full automation of lead generation campaigns through Meta Advantage. This empowers advertisers to employ AI across various campaigns which will help to improve performance. 

Hubspot. To assist businesses in efficiently generating high-quality leads, Meta is introducing HubSpot as a new CRM integration partner, providing a simple click-through setup which will help to streamline the process further.

Google Reviews Update – November 2023

Starting on the 8th November 2023, and finishing on the 7th December 2023, this will be the last time that Google confirms an update to the reviews algorithm.

What is now likely to be a realtime system, due to the ever-increasing deluge of fake reviews across sites thanks to services such as ChatGPT, all publishers of sites with reviews should keep their eyes open for increased levels of seemingly natural reviews.

It is going to be tough for publishers to know if Google’s review algorithm is rewarding or punishing them. The only way to be entirely safe is to give enough internal resource time to ensuring that any added reviews are as genuine as possible.

There is almost certainly going to be many sites that have been using fake reviews with ranking headaches over the next few weeks.

November 2023 Core Update

The November Core Update started to roll out on the 2nd November and concluded on the 28th, only a few weeks after the October Core Update.

During this period and like in many other updates, many sites saw volatility in their keyword rankings. But in the early stages of the roll-out, many other SEOs noticed the impact quickly, which implies that there were significant changes being made at the time.

Like with many Google Core Updates, there aren’t clear actions to take for recovery, but as always it’s important to monitor which areas of your website were impacted to review whether any further action is required.

Interestingly, Google released another update during this period, with the Google 2023 reviews update beginning to roll out on the 8th November – meaning two updates overlapped with each other.

Search Themes on Performance Max – October 2023

Performance Max has seen another new update – this time its on audience targeting. ‘Search Themes’ is the new way to target users based on keyword “themes”, which appears to be a consolidated method of targeting both “user searched for” and “purchase intention” terms used in Pmax Audience Signals.

Google have stated that Audience Signals will eventually be phased out, with “Search Themes” being the sole method of targeting users via search terms. This is in line with Google Ads’ gradual shift towards broader and more automated-targeting, challenging marketers to consider that being TOO exact is detrimental to success (as we’ve seen with increased Broad Match performance).

How Google plans on integrating this new targeting method with other Audience Signal factors, like customer data or in-market audience targeting, remains to be seen…

TikTok Launches New Paid Placement: Search Ads Toggle – October 2023

TikTok is an entertainment platform first and it’s become clear that TikTok users come to the platform to search, research, find out information on new trending products and watch reviews from their favourite creators. 

TikTok has seen this behaviour change and launched Search Ads Toggle which allows advertisers to deliver ads within the TikTok search results making it a completely immersive experience.

This is a major benefit to advertisers as we can now target high-intent audiences with creative tailored to their search results. What’s great is that if you decide not to serve ads through that placement you can opt out and it won’t push your ads back into learning.

Meta Launches Subscription Service For Instagram And Facebook – October 23

For consumers in Europe, Meta launched a monthly subscription service where users can pay to use Facebook and Instagram without ads being served to them, becoming an ad-free platform. 

What does this mean for advertisers? Your audience pool becomes smaller. You have fewer people to target, and now the platform becomes more competitive which could mean you see your costs increase across the board. However, this is all dependent on consumers buying into this subscription, if demand for this service is low then there will be little impact on your current performance.

For users, this means that their data will not be processed or collected by Meta as there is no need for tailored advertising.

Demand Generation Campaigns Rolled Out – October 2023

Following the removal of “Similar Audiences” in 2023, Google has launched its new flagship campaign type – Demand Generation (Demand Gen).

Vitally, this new product re-introduced “Similar Audiences” as “Lookalikes”, utilising the campaign’s Awareness & Consideration focus to find new customers based on customer/client data (such as email addresses and phone numbers).

While having more of an upper-funnel focus than Performance Max (targeting users across Display, Android Feed, Gmail and YouTube placements), Google has stated that Demand Gen will be a performance driver, and using Data Driven attribution, give revenue & conversion credit as appropriate.

October 2023 Core Update

This Core Update marked Google’s 3rd broad core algorithm update of 2023, rolling out just 1 day after the Spam Update.

This update began rolling out on October 5th 2023 and concluded 2 weeks later. Due to the overlapping of this update with the Link Spam Update, it was difficult to identify its individual impact.

In usual form, Google declined to provide any specifics about the update and encourages users to follow best practices.

October 2023 Spam Update

On October 4th 2023, Google announced that they were rolling out a Spam Update to their algorithm, which concluded its rollout after 2 weeks.

This update improved spam detection, largely in non-English-speaking markets, which resulted in many spammy websites losing Organic visibility.

However, this update preceded the October 2023 Core Update which began rolling out the following day, so measuring the impact was challenging.

Microsoft Ads & AI-Generative Content – September 2023

Just one day after Google’s own announcement, Microsoft Ads now also aims to “transform search and advertising” with new AI tools.

Having previously beaten Google to the “AI battlefront”, Microsoft is continuing to find ways to advance AI-integration with PPC. One such feature known as “Compare and Decide” ads, which allow product shoppers to compare different product offerings from advertisers, leveraging product feed data attributes to inform this decision making.

Feed quality & optimisation has always been key to ecommerce success in PPC, but with this useful feature directly showing product attributes vs others, its clear that the more detailed attributes will win out.

Google Rolls Out Automatically Created Assets Across Ads – September 2023

As Google begins to automate more of their advertising processes, “Automatically Created Assets” (or “ACA” for short) have now been rolled out for general availability and in 7 new languages.

These are campaign-level settings that generate custom headlines and descriptions based on your ad’s context and landing pages to further enhance the ad relevance of your search ads.

Advertisers will need to look out for ‘enable automatically created assets’ within their recommendations or opt in via their campaign settings to trial ACA’s for themselves.

While this may not be suitable for all industries and audiences, especially those with strict compliance policies, It may be an interesting way to bring new content to your ads, and improve your ad strength.

This is the latest step in giving advertisers more tools to get more varied ad copy added to their campaigns – a practice that many do not typically adopt.

September 2023 Helpful Content Update

This update officially marked the third “Helpful Content” update that Google has ever rolled out, however it was the first of 2023.

The Helpful Content Update rolled out over 13 days and rewarded websites that Google deemed to have “Helpful Content” for their users.

This update impacted rankings more significantly than the previous two, which is theorised to be due to the rise in AI content.

Enhanced Conversions: The First Steps into the First-Party Data Focus for Google – September 2023

In the ever-ongoing digital privacy discussion, Google has prepared for new legislation & greater accuracy in targeting, by announcing Enhanced Conversions, a key method of moving toward “first party” data in audience targeting.

This will be a high priority for PPC advertisers in particular, as the rollout potentially raises the bar for competitive bidding in the marketplace – advertisers with Enhanced Conversions will be able to bid more effectively than those without.

LinkedIn launches Conversion API – September 2023

LinkedIn’s Conversion API allows you to measure and optimise ad campaigns with greater precision and accuracy. This innovative tool enables advertisers to integrate their LinkedIn ad campaigns with their internal systems, providing real-time data on user actions and conversions. 

This allows you to gain deeper insights beyond just clicks and impressions such as specific actions taken by users e.g. form submissions, purchases, and downloads. This directly attributes them to their LinkedIn campaigns. This will allow marketers to make data-driven decisions which will help to improve efficiency which will help to increase this channel’s performance. 

In summary, Conversions API allows you to: 

• Send marketing data directly from your server to LinkedIn to measure the performance of your LinkedIn campaigns. 
• Improve full-funnel measurement by connecting online and offline conversions to LinkedIn
• Power your campaign with multiple types of data to drive more conversions.
• Allows you to drive a low Cost Per Action that doesn’t rely on cookie-based tracking.  
• Increase data control by deciding how you share data with LinkedIn.

When you implement Conversions API, keep in mind:  

• Data is held for a maximum of 180 days and is then erased.
• Email addresses are hashed using SHA256.  
• LinkedIn’s Data Processing Agreement covers Conversions API.  

For more information on Conversions API, check out LinkedIn’s website. 

August 2023 Core Update

The August 2023 Core Update began rolling out on August 22nd 2023, with the roll-out concluding 16 days later.

Prior to this update (starting in July) there were significant ranking fluctuations across Google’s SERP, meaning that measuring the impact and interpreting its purpose was a significant challenge.

As with all Core Updates, Google didn’t release any information on what this update was targeting.

Discovery Campaigns Upgraded To The New AI-Powered Demand Gen Campaigns – August 2023

When Google Discovery launched, it was a sign that Google were moving more and more into “Messy Middle” multichannel campaigns. Discovery replaced the individual Gmail campaign and consolidated it into a cross-network group, similar to Performance Max and Smart Shopping. Google has continued it’s move into integrated AI-powered campaigns with the reveal of Demand Gen.

Today Discovery ended it’s short lifespan, and just as Smart Shopping became Performance Max, Discovery is evolving into Demand Gen.

Upgraded from Discovery campaigns, Demand Gen is a creative-based campaign consolidating Discovery’s networks, as well as Display & YouTube (including Shorts) to create and drive demand within the middle funnel.

(image source: Google)

This campaign type will also be the only way to use ‘lookalike segments’ which were removed from account audience segments previously. Similar to Smart Shopping, all discovery campaigns automatically upgraded between January to March 2024 – so advertisers may want to trial this out prior to the mandatory switch.

How-to and FAQ Changes

On August 8th 2023, Google announced that rich results in their SERP that were based on “How To” and “FAQ” structured data would be reduced… in some cases.

This alarmed SEOs as it was believed these would only appear for high-authority Medical Advice websites, but so far we’ve seen mixed results, with very few reductions on Desktop SERPs.

We’d recommend importing your keywords into a tracking software so that you can monitor the presence of rich results.

Google Analytics 4 Officially Replaces Universal Analytics

The forced migration away from the long-serving Universal Analytics (UA) to Google’s newest analytical platform Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a historic transitional moment in digital marketing. Advertisers now have no choice if they were previously using UA but to use GA4 if they to track the performance of their websites as UA officially stops processing website visitors as of today. It is now imperative for any advertisers to migrate from UA to GA4 in order to stop any potential data loss.

Store Sales Reporting & Bidding in Performance Max

Did you know that Omnichannel shoppers make 2.9X more purchases and spend 2.3X more than single-channel shoppers? As such, it has become increasingly more important to effectively measure impact across online and in-store purchases.

Google has stepped in to answer this call with store sale reporting and bidding now available within Performance Max campaigns.

This new level of reporting will allow advertisers to see the impact and value of their ads by using your sales data in a privacy-safe way. By unlocking this reporting tool, you will be able to: – use smart bidding to optimise towards shop sale conversions. – have a holistic measurement for ROAS across both online and offline sales – align your reporting across shop and online sales so advertisers can learn about ad-to-shop conversion rate by campaign. If you have a brick-and-mortar store and are looking to see more easily the impact of your paid search campaigns, then uploading your store sales data is the right way to go

Automatically Created Assets Are Coming To Performance Max

Google has started testing its automatically created assets feature on Performance Max campaigns

Performance Max is continuing to be Google’s favourite test-bed, with Google now testing “automatically created assets”. By using advanced AI generative process, this feature takes advertiser’s already-uploaded text & image assets to create something new.

If you’re familiar with Google’s Responsive Display Ads, or Discovery Ads, you’ll understand how this works: Google will “mix and match” text and visual assets together, in order to create visual ads (similar to Display ads) to increase visibility of your ads across networks outside of Search & Shopping. As usual with Performance Max, advertisers can choose to let “the machine” handle decision making here, although how closely these “auto-assets” will adhere to brand guidelines remains to be seen…

Search Generative Experience

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is finally here!

Well, kind of. On May 25th 2023 Google announced SGE, which added “AI” results to the top of some searches, which is powered by Google Gemini (formerly Bard).

The initial rollout was to users who had opted in and were signed into their Google accounts.

Google I/O Post-Game Update: The Latest Advancements In AI For Google Ads

This year’s Google I/O showcased how the latest advancements in AI can help “boost creativity”, and generally raise the bar for productivity. Google also reaffirmed their objective in building and deploying AI responsibly (we’ll let you decide what to make of that last bit).

Some new products and variants within the Google AI landscape were promoted, such as the new search generative experience (SGE) that will make search engines more of a conversational piece while connecting users to the information, services and products they desire, via “Bard” – this will expand and enhance new and existing apps such as Google Workplace, Maps, Lens and more .

April 2023 Reviews Update

On April 12th 2023, Google rolled out their April 2023 Reviews Update.

This update expanded the “scope” of previous Reviews update to not only account for Product Reviews, but also Businesses, Services, Destinations and Media being used.

This roll-out concluded after just under two weeks.

First-Click, Time Decay and Position-based Attribution Models Are Being Removed

First-Click, Time Decay and Position-Based attribution models will no longer be available within Google Ads, in favour of the Data-Driven attribution model by September 2023.

As per their strong focus on Performance Max, Google has increasingly catered to the variety and number of touch-points prior to a conversion (shorthandly referred to as “The Messy Middle”). Data-driven attribution has been found to improve performance when used in combination with Smart Bidding, however for years, Data-Driven was only available to accounts that had thousands of conversions a month, making it inaccessible for many.

Now that Data-Driven attribution’s requirements are lower, more advertisers can leverage Smart Bidding and enter “The Messy Middle” for themselves.

These days only 3% of web conversion actions use First-Click, Time Decay or Position-Based attribution, and with Data-Driven now being the gold standard, it is no surprise Google has decided to move away from these outdated models completely.

Advertisers not using Data-Driven or Last Click will be automatically switched by the end of September 2023.

March 2023 Core Update

On March 15th 2023, Google confirmed that a Core Update was officially being rolled out. This update took 13 days to finish rolling out.

This update was marked as being especially impactful on rankings, causing significant levels of ranking volatility on the first day of the roll-out and then again on the sixth day of the roll-out.

As with other Core Updates, Google released no specific information or guidance on what this was targeting, encouraging users to follow SEO best practices.

February 2023 Product Reviews Update

On February 21st 2023, Google began rolling out the February 2023 Product Reviews Update.

This update allowed Google’s algorithm to better understand and interpret the weight of Product Reviews for websites, across English-language queries and 10 additional languages.

The February 2023 Product Reviews Update rolled out over the space of two weeks, with ranking volatility peaking on February 28th.

Google Says “Farewell” to Optimize & Optimize 360

Google is saying goodbye and sunsetting Google Optimize and Optimize 360, with both no longer being available after September 30, 2023.

In a rare consolidation, Google is pushing for advertisers to treat GA4 as the main platform for third-party A/B testing integrations, stating that integrating GA4 will “improve user experience”. While accurate tracking will likely remain a pain point for advertisers in 2023, it is more vital than ever that advertisers will need to be familiarising themselves with GA4 and its tools available, as it is clear Google will undoubtedley be focusing on adding more to GA4 further in the future.

E-E-A-T QRG Update

On December 15th 2022, Google announced an extra “E” in their E-A-T acronym, which stands for “Experience”.

This update stressed the importance of first-hand Experience with the subject matter you’re writing about.

It’s unclear how this impacted rankings, but this marked a significant change to Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG).

December 2022 Link Spam Update

On December 14th 2022, Google announced a Link Spam Update.

Documentation that Google released alongside this update specifically mentioned the “SpamBrain” AI system that would allow Google to better interpret the quality and value of inbound links.

Official details of this update were limited and it took over almost a full month to complete the roll-out.

It’s worth noting that this update also overlapped with the Helpful Content Update that rolled out earlier in the month.

December 2022 Helpful Content Update

On December 5th 2022, Google announced the December Helpful Content Update (HCU) which took over a month to finish rolling out. This overlapped with the Link Spam Update that began rolling out 9 days later.

This caused substantial volatility in the Search Results, with high-levels of ranking changes being detected for 5 straight days during the roll-out.

Due to the overlap, separating and analysing the impact of this update was challenging, but ultimately the guidance is to be user-focused in your content approach.

Continuous Scroll on Desktop

After more than a year after Google implemented Continuous Scroll for their Search Results on Mobile devices, on December 5th 2022 Google announced the desktop launch.

This had a limited impact on rankings, but greater consideration must now be taken into how click-through rates are dispersed beyond “Page 1”, which effectively became obsolete.

‘Similar Audiences’ Targeting in Google Ads Will Be Replaced with a Not-So-Similar Feature

Starting in May 2023, Google will be transitioning away from Similar Audiences, with these fully removed from all ad groups and campaign by August 2023.

Similar Audiences have been a long-term mainstay of Google targeting, making the update a frustrating one for many advertisers who rely on these audiences to find “lookalikes” of their ideal users.

The feature is to be rolled up and consolidated into the already available Optimised Targeting (display, video and discovery campaigns) and Audience Expansion, however once removed, there will be no way to target ONLY Similar Audiences, unless the feature is replaced before Aug 23. Advertisers using Similar Audiences should look to test optimised targeting and begin to move away from similar audiences, so the transition will be less impactful in August.

October 2022 Spam Update

On October 19th 2022, Google announced a significant update to their spam detection systems that would be able to recognise spammy content more efficiently and reward non-spammy content with higher rankings.

This update concluded only 48 hours after the roll-out was announced, but the final day of the roll-out was by far the most volatile for the Organic Search Results.

Add Your Business Name & Logo On Search Ads – October 2022

Google is rolling out a new beta to add business names and logos for mobile search ads over the coming weeks. This will allow users to more easily identify businesses and their websites at a glance. Google will be able to find your logo and name on your landing page and automatically create these assets within your account, or if you prefer, you’ll be able to manually implement your business name and logo. This will make your search ads visually more engaging and increase trust within your business and service.

(source: Google)

Advertiser verification will need to be completed in order to use this new feature, to protect brand identity, and all logos and names will be reviewed to ensure they comply with Google Ad policies. If your logo and business name are unable to show, Google will show your business domain and a blue globe logo instead. While this is only a beta for mobile ads for now, it is likely to be appearing on desktop search ads early next year, creating more trust and visually engaging ads for your brand!

September 2022 Product Reviews Update

On September 20th 2022, Google released their fifth Product Reviews update. This roll-out only lasted 6 days, concluding on September 26th.

This update was targeted at rewarding genuine, high-quality product reviews and penalising websites that used questionable practices in acquiring product reviews.

The Product Reviews Update overlapped with the September Core Update, meaning it was challenging to measure its individual impact on SERPs. However, we know that the most volatile period of this update was September 21st (one day after the roll-out).

September 2022 Core Update

On September 12th 2022, Google announced the roll-out of its second “Core Update” of 2022 with the September 2022 Core Update.

This update followed shortly after the Helpful Content Update, which only concluded its roll-out shortly before this Core update, making it challenging to measure its individual impact on SERPs.

As with all Core updates, Google released no information on what this update was targeting. However, we do know that the most volatile period of this update was the very first day, but ultimately was less significant than historic Core updates.

The 4 New Shopping Campaign Features – August 2022

Just in time for the festive season, Google has just announced four new features for advertisers to implement in their Google Ads campaigns and merchant feeds:

1. Conversion value rules for store sales and store visits: This feature allows advertisers to optimise campaigns for in-person store visits, by using smart bidding & Google’s suite of “brick and mortar” goals, combined with business data.
2. Product-specific insights: Product insights are now available at account level, helping provide a more comprehensive view on how well products are (or aren’t) performing.
3. Deals Content API: Advertisers can now upload sales and promotions through a content API linked with Google Merchant Center making it easier to upload at scale and removing a “nitty gritty” manual task for advertisers.
4. Shipping & Returns Annotations: Advertisers will soon be able to add expected delivery dates and return policies e.g. free returns to their shopping ads, via Google Merchant Center.

Considering the timing, advertisers who are quick to prioritise these may have a very merry Christmas…

Helpful Content Update

On August 25th 2022, Google rolled out its first Helpful Content Update.

This update was aimed at rewarding websites who were “people-first” in their approach Content (i.e. sufficiently answering user queries, providing informative resources etc).

On the other hand, this update devalued websites that wrote content solely for SEO purposes.

The Helpful Content Update rolled out over the course of 2 weeks, ending on September 9th.

Its Official – Your Smart Shopping & Local Campaigns Will be Forcibly Updated to Performance Max – August 2022

Originally launching in 2021, Googles newest flagship campaign – Performance Max – is now THE choice for e-commerce targeting, superseding Smart Shopping and Local campaign types.

While Google has “soft launched” Performance Max, allowing the “messy middle” campaign type to run alongside Smart Shopping & Local campaigns, this latest development will force advertisers to upgrade their current Smart & Local campaigns to Performance Max, with both previous campaign types no longer being an option for new campaign drafts. Like many dramatic changes, the move has had some pushback from advertisers, however Google have provided the means for a smooth transition.

(source: google ads)

By upgrading Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to the “Pmax” type via the in-campaign function now available (see our handy screenshot), the campaign will “transform” to Performance Max – but vitally – it will NOT lose all previous data, giving advertisers the means to maintain consistent and historical reporting. Campaign settings such as conversion goals and bid settings will automatically transfer over as well.

Early adopters who are quick to learn how “Pmax” works will no doubt get a head-start in scaling their e-commerce during 2023, however anyone not jumping on the “Pmax” train soon won’t have a choice, as any remaining non-upgraded campaigns will be automatically upgraded to Performance Max throughout 2023.

While automatic updates aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, we’d recommend that its best to migrate now and start testing how your products perform with this new campaign type, and make adjustments you need to prior to the festive season coming soon.

July 2022 Product Reviews Update

On July 27th 2022, Google began rolling outs its fourth Product Reviews Update (PRU) which concluded after a week on August 2nd 2022.

This was another refinement in how Google’s Search Algorithm interprets Product Reviews, rewarding legitimate reviews and devaluing perceived fake or low-quality reviews.

There was no information from Google regarding how this update was different from the previous 3 PRUs.

May 2022 Core Update

On May 25th 2022, Google announced the roll-out of a core update, named The May 2022 Core Update.

The roll-out of this update lasted approximately 2 weeks, completing on June 9th.

The most volatility in the SERPs was felt on May 25th (first day of the roll-out), before settling down until it concluded.

As with most Core updates, Google released no information regarding what this update was specifically targeting and encourages users to follow SEO best practices.

March 2022 Product Reviews Update

On March 23rd 2022, Google confirmed that a significant Product Reviews Update was rolling out.

This update took a substantial amount of time to conclude rolling out, starting on March 23rd and ending 19 days later.

The update was a refinement of previous Product Reviews Update that allows Google to better understand and identify high-quality product reviews.

Page Experience Update (Desktop)

On February 22nd 2022, Google announced that the Page Experience update that had been previously rolled out on Mobile devices was now being rolled out on Desktop devices, meaning that Core Web Vital assessments from Google will broaden.

The roll-out of this update lasted from February 22nd to March 3rd, with the highest levels of SERP volatility being experienced on February 23rd and March 3rd.

Product Reviews Update

On December 1st 2021, Google announced another Product Reviews Update that aimed to reward high-quality product reviews.

This update was a refresh of a similar update that was rolled out in April 2021.

The update rolled out over the course of 3 weeks, with only a handful of days causing significant volatility in the Organic SERPs.

November 2021 Core Update

On November 17th 2021, Google announced that another Core Algorithm Update was rolling out across its SERPs. They named this the November 2021 Core Update.

This update concluded its roll-out at the end of November after experiencing extreme volatility in the SERPs on the first day of the roll-out.

As this update overlapped with Black Friday, it caused issues and controversy in the SEO community as many websites missed out on a strong commercial opportunity.

November 2021 Spam Update

On November 3rd 2021, Google announced another broad spam update to its search algorithm.

This update rolled out over the course of 8 days, with the highest levels of SERP volatility being experienced the day before it was announced (November 2nd).

Unlike the update that was rolled out earlier in the year (July), Google did not refer to this as a “link” spam update and provided no further detail about the websites that specific SEO tactics that were being targeted.

Page Title Rewrites

Starting on the 16th of August 2021, the SEO community began noticing a significant increase in Google re-writing Page Titles in their SERP.

Google confirmed this change at a later date, but wouldn’t state when they started their rewrites.

Many complaints were put to Google regarding the quality of these re-writes and, as a result, Google scaled back the re-writes in the following month.

July 2021 Link Spam Update

On July 28th 2021, Google announced a link spam update that rolled out over the course of 2-4 weeks.

This was a broad algorithm update across multiple languages, with the aim of better understanding the value of inbound links and rewarding/devaluing websites in the SERP accordingly.

The most significant volatility spike was experienced on the first day of the update and settled down thereafter.

July 2021 Core Update

On July 1st 2021, Google released a follow-up to the June Core Update, which concluded its roll-out on July 12th.

The most significant volatility in the SERPs was felt on July 1st (first day of the roll-out) and like most other Core updates, Google gave no guidance or indication on what they were targeting and advised SEOs to follow best practices.

Page Experience Update

This update was announced far in advance, giving webmasters and SEOs ample time to get their websites’ Core Web Vitals’ metrics in to good shape.

The official roll-out began on June 25th 2021 and continued its roll-out through August 2021.

The Page Experience update impacted both Organic results, as well as News results.

Spam Updates

On June 23rd 2021 and June 28th 2021, Google rolled out updates to its spam-detection algorithm.

It was unclear whether the two updates were connected and what was specifically impacted.

Some websites showed significant impacts in visibility, but there was largely no clear impact on rankings at a wider scale.

June 2021 Core Update

On June 2nd 2021, Google simultaneously announced the reportedly connected June and July 2021 Core Updates.

The June 2021 Core Update rolled out from June 2nd and lasted 10 days, concluding on June 12th.

The most significant ranking volatility was experienced on June 3rd, just one day after the initial roll-out.

As with other Core Updates, Google neglected providing any guidance or details on what was being targeted, other than to follow SEO best practices.

Product Reviews Update

On April 8th 2021, Google announced an update that intended to reward in-depth reviews over thin reviews and Affiliates that were deemed spammy. At launch, this only impacted English-language websites.

This update focused on the quality of reviews, but the factors that went into this change are unknown and complex.

December 2020 Core Update

On December 3rd 2020, Google announced a Core Update. Unlike other Core updates, this impacted SERPs quite quickly, with the bulk of volatility being experienced on December 3rd (first day of the update).

The impact of this update has been compared to the May 2020 Core Update and August 2018’s “Medic” or E-A-T update, which were both significant.

May 2020 Core Update

On May 4th 2020, Google announced its second Core Algorithm Update of 2020.

This update caused significantly high levels of volatility in the Organic Search Results, largely between May 4th-6th (the first 3 days of the update).

The update is largely recognised as the 2nd most significant Core Update that Google has released, 2nd only to 2018’s “Medic” update.

Featured Snippet De-duping

On January 22nd 2020, Google announced that websites that appear in Featured Snippets would no longer appear in the “traditional” Organic Search Results simultaneously.

This plays into Google’s philosophy of a Featured Snippet effectively being a “promoted” organic result, meaning it would be unfair to appear twice.

The update had a significant update on how we track rankings, with many keywords appearing to “nose dive” in the tracking software, despite appearing as a Featured Snippet.

January 2020 Core Update

On January 13th 2020, Google announced that they were rolling out the January 2020 Core Update.

This update caused significant volatility across most Organic Search Results, with most of the impact being felt over a 3-day period.

As with other Core updates, Google released minimal guidance around this update and encourages SEOs to follow best practices.

BERT Update

On October 22nd 2019, Google announced an upgrade to their algorithm and underlying hardware to support the new natural language-processing (NLP) afforded by BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers).

This allowed Google to better interpret natural language searches and understand context, meaning the Organic Search Results became significantly more relevant for users, especially those using specific long-tail search queries.

BERT rolled out internationally from December 9th 2019.

September 2019 Core Update

On September 24th 2019, Google rolled out the September 2019 Core Update.

Overall, this update caused significantly high levels of ranking volatility in the Organic Search Results, but compared to previous Core updates it wasn’t the most impactful.

As with most Core updates, Google didn’t provide any details around the updates or what it was targeting, but encourages SEOs to continue following best practices.

June 2019 Core Update

On June 3rd 2019, Google pre-announced a Core update to its algorithm with limited details as to what it would be targeting and who would be impacted.

The general pattern seen was that websites who were targeted in previous Core updates would also be targeted by this one.

After this update, some major UK publishers reported significant Organic visibility losses.

March 2019 Core Update

On March 12th 2019, Google confirmed that a Core Update was rolling out. This was the 3rd update of its kind using the “Core” naming convention.

This update caused significant volatility in the Organic Search Results, but no specific details were released by Google regarding who it targeted.

Medic / E-A-T

The Google August Core 2018 Update, also nicknamed the Medic update, was expected to be like any other major update, however it was clear it seemed to mainly impact Health and Medical sites, as well as YMYL (Your Money Your Life) industries.

The reason for this is that Google wanted websites to improve the identification of Authority and Expertise in order to instil Trust with users. This is measured through Google’s core ranking factors to ensure websites publish quality and expert content with the users’ needs at the forefront.

It’s also important to add that Google has never confirmed whether the update had a specific focus.

RankBrain

The RankBrain update was rolled out in the Spring of 2015 and brought a major change to the way that search engines rank search results. But interestingly, the announcement wasn’t actually announced until October of that year.

Since the RankBrain update was rolled out, there has been other major updates however the impact from this update was deemed “revolutionary” by many.

But what is it? RankBrain is a machine learning-based search engine algorithm which helps search engines better understand the intent of a user based on the keywords they search for.

Hummingbird

The Google Hummingbird update was rolled out in 2013 and was a significant overhaul of Google’s search algorithm.

The main aim of the update was to better understand the context and intent behind search queries. This included focusing more on semantic search, conversational and natural language types queries. This update have allowed users to find more accurate results in the SERP that help to meet their intent.

Penguin

The Google Penguin update, rolled out in April 2012, is probably one of the more well-known updates that Google has released in recent history.

This update had a clear focus on targeting websites that were following “Black-Hat” SEO techniques which means actively using manipulative techniques to try and improve their positions in the SERPs. One of the biggest tactics behind this was the practice of building spammy backlinks that were often irrelevant and of low quality.

The update meant that websites following such techniques experienced a significant drop in performance and some instances of penalisation, as they weren’t complying to Google’s guidelines.