It’s been a huge week of announcements at Google This Week with Google announcing their own version of App Tracking Transparency, plus exciting news for Google Analytics 4 users with data-driven attribution now available. Google Ads released API 8.0 and Google’s WooCommerce integration is now live.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- Google Announced its Own Version of App Tracking Transparency
- No More Google My Business Short Names
- Manage Display & Video 360 Budgets in Prisma
- New Insights on Frequency Management of Programmatic Guaranteed Deals
- Customise the System Floodlight Model in Campaign Manager 360
- Changes to Google’s Ad Technology
- Google May Automatically Add Location Extensions to Your Ads
- Google Ads API 8.0 Released
- WooCommerce Integration is Now Live
- New Workspaces in Google Analytics 4
- Data-Driven Attribution in Google Analytics 4
- Google Adds Ranking Protections for Harassment Cases
- Related Video Extensions Available Globally
- Optimization Score Now Available for Video Action Campaigns
Google Announced its Own Version of App Tracking Transparency
Google has announced its own version of app tracking transparency in an email sent to Android app developers last week. Google said it will enable users to opt out of sharing their Advertiser ID. This announcement comes just six weeks after Apple rolled out their app tracking transparency in the iOS 14.5 update.
“When a user opts out of interest-based advertising or ads personalization, the advertising identifier will not be available. You will receive a string of zeros in place of the identifier.”
The Advertising ID is also used for analytics and fraud prevention, not just marketing. Google will provide an alternative to support those use cases in July.
No More Google My Business Short Names
Google has updated the Google help document for short names use in Google My Business. The document says “you can no longer create or edit short names. Short names and URLs that already exist will still work.”
Short names are in the format of g.page/[shortname] and were originally created for the purpose of giving small businesses an easy way to communicate to customers how to look up their business and leave a review.
Manage Display & Video 360 Budgets in Prisma
Customers using Display & Video 360 will now be able to programmatically manage budgets and reconcile invoices through MediaOcean’s Prisma, including:
- Map Display & Video 360 partners and advertisers to corresponding hierarchies in Prisma
- Create Display & Video 360 campaigns and campaign level budgets using Prisma
- Link programmatically created campaign level budgets to insertion orders in Display & Video 360
- Automatically receive and reconcile Display & Video 360 invoices in Prisma
New Insights on Frequency Management of Programmatic Guaranteed Deals
In Display & Video 360 you’ll soon see a new widget on the settings page of your Programmatic Guaranteed deals and a new report template. They will show you Programmatic Guaranteed bid requests passed due to frequency and Programmatic Guaranteed added Unique Reach: Impressions due to frequency.
You can use these metrics to review how many bid requests were passed due to the campaign level frequency cap and how much additional reach was achieved.
Customise the System Floodlight Model in Campaign Manager 360
Floodlight attribution models in Campaign Manager 360 will soon include an option for the system Floodlight model as a baseline for newly-created models. This model tries to attribute conversions to the last click. You’ll be able to customise this model to include viewable impressions only, modelled conversions, etc. by selecting it in the Attribution Model menu.
Changes to Google’s Ad Technology
Google has announced some changes to its ad technology including increased flexibility and access to data. Google says it is committed to creating a solution that ensures all buyers that a publisher works with, including those who participate in Header Bidding, will receive equal access to data related outcomes from the Ad Manager auction.
“In particular, we will be providing information around the ‘minimum bid to win’ from previous auctions.”
Google has also announced that they will increase the flexibility of Google Ad Manager to allow partners to set custom pricing rules for ads that are in sensitive categories and implement product changes that improve interoperability between Ad Manager and third-party ad servers.
Google May Automatically Add Location Extensions to Your Ads
Google Ads has added information in their support document around automated location extensions saying they may automatically start adding location extensions to your Google Ads if you haven’t added locations to your account.
“If you have not added locations to your account, Google Ads may automatically match your business to known locations (based on various account properties such as landing pages) and add the information to your account, in order to create these extensions.”
We recommend adding location information to your account manually to ensure accuracy.
Google Ads API 8.0 Released
Google has released its Google Ads API version 8.0, an upgrade from version 7.0 which was released just six weeks ago. Google has added a ton of new features to the API including cross account bidding strategies, more capabilities for CallAdInfo ad type, ClickConversion now supports cart_data, added support for Smart campaigns and more.
WooCommerce Integration is Now Live
We recently announced a new integration between Google and WooCommerce. Now that integration is live and ready for WooCommerce merchants to use globally. You can now upload your products to Google, create free listings and ad campaigns and review performance metrics, without leaving your WooCommerce dashboard.
New Workspaces in Google Analytics 4
In a new modular left navigation, Google has added a new Advertising Workspace to address everyday advertiser needs and get deeper insights into campaign performance. You’ll also find an entirely new set of customisation options for reporting.
In the Reports Workspace, admins can now curate the Analytics interface and reports to suit their specific needs. You can make simple edits to existing reports or even create entirely new custom reports. You can also customise the left navigation to group reports into collections and create custom overviews.
Data-Driven Attribution in Google Analytics 4
Data-driven attribution, previously only available in Google Analytics 360 is coming to Google Analytics 4.
“We know how valuable it is to have attribution reporting for your campaigns directly within Analytics, so we’re bringing new cross-platform attribution capabilities into the Advertising Workspace.”
This means you’ll be able to use Google’s machine learning to understand the contribution of each touchpoint in your marketing funnel. Google is also introducing two new attribution reports: the Conversion Paths report and Model Comparison report.
Google Adds Ranking Protections for Harassment Cases
Google is improving their protections for people dealing with “extraordinary cases of repeated harassment” online. Once someone has requested a removal from one site with predatory practices Google will automatically apply ranking protections to help prevent content from other similar low-quality sites appearing in search results for people’s names. Google is also looking to expand the protections further.
Related Video Extensions Available Globally
Related video extensions are now available globally to all advertisers using Google Ads. With related video extensions, you can show a list of 2-5 related videos below your video ad on the YouTube mobile app.
“Related video extensions extend your message beyond your primary video ad, keeping viewers engaged with your creatives (including other videos on your YouTube channel).”
Optimization Score Now Available for Video Action Campaigns
Optimization score is coming to Video action campaigns in Google Ads. Optimization score shows personalised recommendations for your campaigns to help performance across Search, Display, Shopping and now Video. Google is also adding recommendations for Video action campaigns to help you follow best practices.
Thank You for Reading
Have you noticed any changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
