There have been a lot of updates to Campaign Manager 360 and Display & Video 360 at Google This Week. There’s also new conversion modelling in Google Analytics 4 and expanded support for Microsoft Advertising in Search Ads 360. Google will begin blocking ad targeting to kids and teens, plus Google Ads attribution models now support YouTube and Display.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- New Conversion Modelling in Google Analytics 4
- Expanded Support for Microsoft Advertising in Search Ads 360
- Creative Start/End Date in Account Timezone for Campaign Manager 360
- Leading Spaces for Rich Media Events Removed in Campaign Manager 360
- App/URL Excluded Dimension Removed from Display & Video 360
- New Entity Limits in Campain Manager 360
- Google Ads Attribution Models Now Support YouTube and Display
- Google to Block Ad Targeting to Kids and Teens
- Improvements to Automated Bidding Solutions in Display & Video 360
- Cross-domain Measurements for Server-side Clients
- Google Showing Affordable Carousel in Mobile Search
- New Requirements for Google Podcast Recommendations
New Conversion Modelling in Google Analytics 4
New conversion modelling in Google Analytics 4 will help fill the gaps brought about by regulatory and browser changes (including GDPR, ITP, the phasing out of Chrome’s third-party cookie support, ATT, etc.) where observed data is unavailable.
All Google Analytics 4 properties will start populating modeled conversions in core reports, including Event, Conversions, and Attribution reports, as well as in Explorations, where certain event-scoped dimensions are selected.
Expanded Support for Microsoft Advertising in Search Ads 360
Search Ads 360 has expanded support for Microsoft Advertising local inventory ads. Now, you can include local inventory in a Microsoft Shopping campaign as of the 5th August 2021.
Creative Start/End Date in Account Timezone for Campaign Manager 360
Starting at the beginning of September, Google will provide a more unified user experience in Campaign Manager 360 with Trafficking with dimensions and filters using the account timezone instead of UTC.
Reports generated after this change will show different creative start/end dates. Creative filters have to be updated to the account timezone in order to function correctly.
Leading Spaces for Rich Media Events Removed in Campaign Manager 360
Leading spaces for Rich Media events will be removed from Campaign Manager 360 in the week of September 6, 2021. If you automatically ingest Rich Media Events, you may need to adjust scripts to account for the removal of leading space.
App/URL Excluded Dimension Removed from Display & Video 360
Around the beginning of September Google will be removing the “App/URL Excluded” dimensions from report builder in Display & Video 360. Existing reports that use this dimension will be automatically modified to remove the dimension, and your reports will continue to run as normal. There is no need for you to make any changes.
New Entity Limits in Campain Manager 360
New entity limits are coming to Campaign Manager 360 the week of October 25, 2021. There will be a maximum of 200,000 Placements per Advertiser (only Active and Inactive placements count towards the limit). There will be a maximum of 600 Ads per Placements (excluding tracking ads), 600 Creatives per Ad (excluding tracking creatives) and a maximum of 20 assets per creative.
Google Ads Attribution Models Now Support YouTube and Display
Google has upgraded all Google Ads non-last click models, including data-driven attribution, to support YouTube and Display ads. As well as clicks, the data-driven attribution model will also measure engaged views from YouTube. So you get a more complete view of your Google media, YouTube and Display ads have been added to attribution reports, alongside Search and Shopping ads.
Google to Block Ad Targeting to Kids and Teens
Google is expanding their safeguards around ads and children. Over the coming months, Google will roll out changes that will block ad targeting based on the age, gender, or interests of people under the age of 18. The updates will be rolling out globally.
“Our goal is to ensure we’re providing additional protections and delivering age-appropriate experiences for ads on Google.”
Improvements to Automated Bidding Solutions in Display & Video 360
Google is rolling out improvements to automated bidding solutions in Display & Video 360. First, you’ll see a new interface where you can set Custom Bidding multipliers without writing any code.
Soon, you’ll find added support for pay for viewable impressions to outcome based buying. Google is also introducing a new report so you get more insights into how automated bidding places bids to hit your goals.
Cross-domain Measurements for Server-side Clients
Cross-domain measurement will now work in Google Tag Manager when the Server-managed IDs setting is enabled in server-side clients. You will need to enable cross-domain measurement in your client-side container.
Note that the source and destination sites must both use server-side Tag Manager, and the server containers have to be in the same account.
Google Showing Affordable Carousel in Mobile Search
Google is now showing an ‘Affordable picks’ carousel in the mobile search results to showcase lower cost products. The carousel seems to match your keyword phrase with “cheap” added on the end.
New Requirements for Google Podcast Recommendations
Google has created new requirements for podcasts to show up in recommendations on the Google Podcasts platform. Podcasts without the required information will still appear in Google and Google Podcasts search results, they just won’t be eligible to be featured as a recommendation. The new requirements begin on September 21.
To be shown as a recommendation, podcast RSS feeds need to include:
- A valid, crawlable image
- A show description
- A valid owner email address
- A link to a homepage for the show
- The podcast author’s name
Thank You for Reading
Have you noticed any changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
