This month for Google Marketing Platform Sydney, we spoke about marketing to baby boomers with Bronwyn White, helping us to connect with this multi-trillion dollar global economy. As always, we also covered the latest Google news in search. Here are the Google Search & Tool Updates for April 2020.
Google Search News & Tool Updates – April
Google Ads Updates
$340 Million in Google Ads credits for SMBs
The credits will be available for eligible active advertisers in the coming months.
- Eligible advertisers will see notifications about available ad credits in their Google Ads accounts (active since 1 January 2019)
- These credits can be used throughout 2020
- Google is also expanding ad grants for COVID-19 public service announcements
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Google Ban Face Mask Ads
The face mask ban came during a rise in false claims around coronavirus prevention and price gouging.
- Applies to all face mask advertising
- It falls under the “sensitive events” section of Google’s guidelines
- This is the latest action Google has taken to block misleading ads around coronavirus
Deadline For Parallel Tracking For Video Pushed To June
Everyone now has more time to transition to parallel tracking for Video campaigns due to coronavirus.
- Parallel Tracking helps load your landing page more quickly, helping to reduce lost visits
- Parallel is already mandatory for search, shopping and display campaigns
- If you’re ready to switch to parallel tracking, you can still opt-in now
Open Testing Ads, New Asset Reporting and More Ad Campaigns
Ads and analytics features aimed at mobile gaming marketers will roll out over the coming months.
- Open testing ads to help attract users to test apps
- Add campaign asset reporting with new columns – asset source and orientation
- Gaming-specific analytics reporting
- AdMob mediation testing
Analyse More Accounts in Google Ads Report Editor
Now able to run reports for up to 200 accounts in a Manager account
- The number of accounts you can work with in Report Editor was increased from 10 to 200
New Reports Introduced, Old Reports Combined or Removed
Google Ads is rolling out a new set of attribution reports which are said to be simpler and more intuitive.
- Available attribution reports now include:
- Overview
- Top paths
- Path metrics
- Assisted conversions
- Model comparison
New Policies For Government Ads
Google Ads has new policies, going into effect in May, on advertising government documents and official services.
- Government documents and official services now fall under the ‘other restricted businesses’ policy
- Google will no longer show ads of the government itself or those working on behalf
- If a document or service can be obtained directly from the government or a delegated provider, then it can’t be promoted
Google Tools Updates
Google My Business Updates
Google Marketing Platform is temporarily limiting its features
- Google is reducing the amount of work that requires personal attention from the team
- Google search and Maps are showing whether a business is temporarily closed in response to the coronavirus crisis
- No new reviews or Q&As
Stricter Enforcement of Google My Business Image Guidelines
- All images or videos are now reviewed before being published
YouTube Has Updates for Creators
- Live Stream Breakdowns in YouTube Analytics
- The new “publish format” tab allows users to break down data by ‘Live’, ‘Premiere’, ‘Upload’
- Expansion of Smart Replies
- Removing Channel Bulletins by May 18
- Youtube Memberships
- Suggested Topics on iOS and desktop
YouTube is Automating More Video Reviews
YouTube will temporarily implement more automated reviews, which could cause unwarranted removals.
- An automatic review process was implemented by YouTube to weed out policy-violating content due to reduced in-office staffing
- Some brands and creators may have videos removed even if they don’t violate content policies
New Types of Event Schema
- New optional properties have been added with one of them being an ‘eventStatus’ property
- This allows site owners to indicate whether an event has been cancelled, postponed or rescheduled
- This enables Google to show searchers the current state of an event, rather than dropping it from search results
Google Search News
Featured Snippet Variant Now Appears In Main Column
- The right sidebar featured snippet variant of Google search results has been migrated to the main results column
- Your URL now appears once on the first results page instead of twice
- Other organic listings appear further down the page
‘People Also Ask’ Shows for 40% of Queries Instead of 52%
- Could mean it is not worth optimising for the ‘people also ask’ features moving forward
- Might be a temporary change
Tightened FAQ Markup Guidelines
- You can no longer markup the same question and answer with FAQ schema if that question and answer is on multiple pages on your site
- Remove the markup from all but one of those FAQ pages for that question, otherwise, you are in violation of Google’s new guidelines
Join Us for the Next Google Marketing Platform Meetup
Join us for our next Google Marketing Platform meetup to get the latest Google search and tool updates. See you there!
