Fried Bids, Digital News | 13-23 Oct 2024

This is my personal selection of the most interesting stories published from 12th-23rd October 2024. Enjoy!

Google Updates PMAX with AI Video Enhancements

Google has introduced AI-powered updates to its Performance Max campaigns, enhancing features aimed at asset testing, video optimization, and campaign management. These updates, rolling out in early November, enable retailers to assess the impact of additional assets like images and videos alongside product feeds. A new integration of the Imagen 3 AI model will generate more effective ad visuals, while automated video tools will optimize content for various platforms and formats. Changes to campaign hierarchy will prioritize ads based on Ad Rank rather than defaulting to Performance Max. These updates are timed for the holiday shopping season, providing advertisers with improved capabilities to enhance campaign performance.

Meta's 'Automated Adjustments' Concern Advertisers

Meta has introduced "automatic adjustments" to ad accounts, allowing its system to make significant changes to campaigns without explicit advertiser consent. This feature enables automatic pausing or activation of campaigns, budget adjustments, and audience consolidations, all without prior notification to advertisers. While intended to optimize performance, this shift raises concerns about advertisers losing control over their campaigns, leading to unintended negative impacts on ad spending and audience segmentation. Many advertisers have reported confusion and disruptions, prompting the need for users to check their accounts and consider disabling the feature if they prefer to maintain strategic oversight of their campaigns.

AdRank to Prioritize PMAX or Standard Shopping

Google has updated the interaction between Performance Max (PMax) and Standard Shopping campaigns within the same ad account, ensuring that PMax will no longer automatically take priority. This change, implemented in October 2024, means that the campaign with the highest Ad Rank will serve in auction scenarios where both types target the same products. The adjustment aligns PMax with other campaign types, promoting flexibility and reducing complexity in campaign management. Advertisers are encouraged to review and potentially adjust their budgets and targets to better control spending across these campaign types. The update aims to have a neutral or positive impact on overall performance, allowing for improved strategic management.

Google Emphasizes Content Over Core Web Vitals

Google's Search Advocate, John Mueller, has clarified that while Core Web Vitals are part of the ranking systems, they do not significantly impact search rankings compared to content quality. In a recent discussion, he emphasized that improving website performance is primarily beneficial for user experience rather than directly boosting rankings. Mueller pointed out that a poor user experience could deter repeat visitors, ultimately affecting traffic. He also highlighted the advantage smaller websites have in implementing SEO changes quickly, unlike larger organizations that may face bureaucratic hurdles. This guidance comes amid ongoing debates about the role of site performance in search visibility.

SearchGPT Generates 4x More Referral Traffic

SearchGPT, currently in limited beta, has rapidly surpassed established generative engines like Perplexity and Claude by generating four times more referral traffic for brands, according to BrightEdge's latest AI search trends. With a month-over-month growth rate of 150%, SearchGPT's performance contrasts sharply with Perplexity and Claude, which only grew by 22% in the same timeframe. Launched in July 2024, SearchGPT is anticipated to integrate its best features into ChatGPT by the end of the year. This shift underscores the rising importance of generative engine optimization (GEO) for brands, as AI-driven search engines are becoming increasingly popular, altering traditional traffic dynamics.

Are AIOverviews Pushing Youtube on SERP?

YouTube has seen a significant increase in the use of citations within Google’s AI-generated overviews, growing by 310% since August 2024. This surge indicates that Google is enhancing the visibility of YouTube content, likely due to its ownership of the platform. The rise in citations reflects the importance of video content in AI outputs, especially as Google's Gemini multimodal model allows for audio content to be included in responses. However, the overlap of organic search rankings and AI citations for shopping queries has decreased, suggesting a shift in focus for e-commerce content. Overall, this trend highlights the growing role of video in search and the need for brands to adapt their SEO strategies accordingly.

TikTok Tracks Offline Sales with InMarket

TikTok has launched an improved in-store sales tracking solution by partnering with location data company InMarket to help businesses measure the effectiveness of their ads on in-store visits. This new measurement tool utilizes various data touchpoints to track store visits resulting from TikTok ads, allowing advertisers to analyze the incremental impact of their campaigns. By comparing visitation rates between users exposed to ads and a control group, brands can gain insights into how online promotions drive offline sales. Since its implementation, 121 out of 126 measured campaigns have shown significant increases in retail and dining visits, demonstrating TikTok's potential to connect online engagement with in-store traffic effectively.

Amazon Supercharges DSP Capabilities

Amazon Ads has introduced a range of new advertising capabilities at its UnBoxed conference, aimed at enhancing the experience for advertisers using its demand-side platform (DSP). Key features include a self-service generative AI creative studio that enables advertisers to create ad content from a single product image, as well as an audio generator for 30-second ads. The revamped DSP offers a simplified campaign setup process, reducing time by 75%, and provides insights through machine learning to optimize media investments. Additionally, Amazon is launching an ads data manager for integrating first-party data and plans to enhance campaign management tools in 2025, reflecting its commitment to improving advertiser performance amidst slowing ad revenue growth.

Google Rebuilds Its Shopping Experience

Google has launched a complete overhaul of its Shopping platform in the United States, integrating advanced AI technology to enhance the online retail experience. This new system utilizes Google’s extensive Shopping Graph, which features 45 billion product listings, alongside AI-generated briefs to assist consumers in their purchasing decisions. The revamped shopping interface includes personalized feeds, dynamic filters, and augmented reality options for virtual try-ons, making product exploration more intuitive. Additionally, a dedicated "Deals" page tailors offers based on individual shopping behaviors. This transformation aims to streamline the consumer journey while providing marketers with new opportunities for personalized engagement and price transparency, marking a significant shift in online shopping dynamics.

IAB Seeks to Standardize CTV Ads

IAB Tech Lab has launched an initiative called Ad Format Idol to standardize ad formats for connected TV (CTV) advertising, addressing the complexities and fragmentation in the current ecosystem. With a growing number of ad formats—such as interactive and shoppable ads—advertisers face challenges in adapting their creative across various platforms like Hulu and Netflix. The initiative aims to create a "build once, serve everywhere" model, simplifying deployment and enhancing campaign effectiveness. As 80% of consumers now use ad-supported CTV models, the initiative seeks to improve targeting, measurement, and overall performance. Stakeholders are invited to submit CTV ad formats for consideration by January 2025, promoting a collaborative approach to industry-wide standardization.

In-Game Ads Expand Beyond Unity

Gadsme has launched a new SDK to support non-Unity game engines, expanding the in-game ad market and allowing more publishers to integrate digital billboards and video ads into their games. This initiative addresses the technical challenges faced by developers using custom engines, which are common in AAA games. By providing no-code, drag-and-drop functionality, Gadsme enables developers to seamlessly incorporate ads that match their game environments, enhancing user experience. As in-game ad platforms increasingly support various engines, including Unreal and Godot, the opportunities for monetization and ad integration broaden, allowing developers to experiment with ad formats and optimize revenue across multiple platforms.

Perplexity Sued by Publishers for Scraping Content

Major US publishers Dow Jones & Co and NYP Holdings have filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI for allegedly scraping their content without authorization. The lawsuit, initiated by News Corporation, claims copyright infringement and false designation of origin, accusing Perplexity of using their journalists' work to train its AI models without compensation. News Corp's CEO, Robert Thomson, emphasized the importance of respecting intellectual property, noting that the company has previously entered agreements with other AI firms for compensation. The lawsuit seeks $150,000 for each proven infringement, which could have severe financial implications for Perplexity, especially as the complaint highlights issues with accuracy and attribution in the AI's outputs.

Meta Creates Self-Training AI Model

Meta has developed a new generative AI model known as the "Self-Taught Evaluator," which can autonomously improve its performance by training itself. This model breaks down complex tasks into smaller logical steps, enhancing its accuracy in areas such as science, coding, and mathematics. By utilizing synthetic training data, the model iteratively generates outputs and refines its evaluations without human input, paving the way for reduced reliance on manual oversight in AI development. This initiative is part of Meta's broader strategy to open-source its AI advancements, allowing external developers to test and innovate with these technologies. However, this self-training capability raises concerns about potential unpredictable outcomes and the ethical implications of AI systems evolving independently.

X Opens User Data to 3rd-Party AI Training

X, formerly known as Twitter, has updated its Terms of Service to permit third parties to use user data for training artificial intelligence models. Effective November 15, 2024, the revisions allow collaborators to access user posts, although users can opt out of this data sharing. This move aims to create new revenue streams for X, following a decline in advertising revenue after Elon Musk's controversial leadership decisions. The policy change also includes a "Liquidated Damages" clause targeting those who scrape content, imposing significant fees for accessing large volumes of posts. Additionally, disputes are now directed to a federal court in Texas, reflecting the platform's recent relocation and business strategy adjustments.

Adblockers Face Challenges in Mozilla & Google

uBlock Origin and its simpler counterpart, uBlock Origin Lite, are experiencing significant challenges due to recent changes by browser vendors Mozilla and Google, which may signal tough times ahead for ad blockers. uBlock Origin is a popular ad blocker designed to block unwanted advertisements and improve browsing experiences. However, following an automated review, uBlock Origin Lite has been removed from Mozilla's extension site, although users can still access it via GitHub. Meanwhile, Google’s upcoming Manifest V3 will phase out support for uBlock Origin’s current version in Chrome and its derivatives, forcing users to switch to uBlock Origin Lite. This shift raises concerns about the future effectiveness of ad blockers as browser policies evolve, potentially ending the ad-free browsing experience many users rely on.