A lot of interesting things happened at Google This Week with Google ads’ nine new policies to three-strike ads system, new Performance Max Campaigns elements, YouTube’s ‘Pre-Publish Checks’ on mobile, deprecation of URL parameter tool, and more.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- Google Gives Europe a ‘Reject All’ Button for Tracking Cookies
- Google Analytics Changes to Tagging Settings
- Google Search Launching Signed Exchanges for Desktop Users
- Google Adds Nine Policies to Three-Strike Ads System
- Google’s New Elements to its Performance Max Campaigns
- Google Search Console URL Parameter Tool is Officially Offline
- Google Business Profile Adds Products Performance Metrics
- YouTube’s ‘Pre-Publish Checks’ Tool Now Available on Mobile App
- Google Ads API v10.1 is Now Available
- Google AdWords API is Officially Offline
- Google Search Allows Removal Of Personally Identifiable Information
- 2022 Google Merchant Center Product Data Specification Updates
Google Gives Europe a ‘Reject All’ Button for Tracking Cookies
Google is implementing a new option to reject cookies in Europe after being fined €150 million earlier this year for violating EU data laws with its existing banners. These new options will begin in France before expanding to the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland.
According to Google’s blog post: “This update meant we needed to re-engineer the way cookies work on Google sites, and to make deep, coordinated changes to critical Google infrastructure. Moreover, we knew that these changes would impact not only Search and YouTube, but also the sites and content creators who use them to help grow their businesses and make a living”.
Google Analytics Changes to Tagging Settings
Google Analytics announced a few changes to its tagging settings in the Property Change history. Users will no longer be able to view changes to their tagging settings in Property Change History. Google says that this change is temporary, and the information will be available to users on the Web stream details page in an upcoming launch.
Google adds that users with the Editor role are now able to mark and unmark an event as a conversion directly on the event report, without having to navigate to the configure area.
Google Search Launching Signed Exchanges for Desktop Users
Google will launch Signed Exchanges (SXG) in Google Search for desktop users. This change impacts sites that utilise dynamic serving with the Vary user-agent header. SXG was initially supported for mobile results, but will now work for desktop search results.
This announcement was posted in the Google Groups by Devin Mullins of Google. Devin Mullins wrote:
“Google Search is planning to launch SXG support for desktop users in the coming weeks.
Sites using responsive web design or separate mobile/desktop URLs don’t need to take action.
Sites using dynamic serving (varying by User-Agent header) will need to annotate their pages as mobile- or desktop-only, as documented here. For example:
Otherwise, desktop users may see the mobile version of the page.
We’re reaching out individually to SXG sites who we’ve found to use dynamic serving, but I wanted a broad announcement in case there are any that we miss.“
Google Adds Nine Policies to Three-Strike Ads System
Google Ads has added nine new policies to its three-strikes system for advertisers that do not follow the rules. The nine new policies that will fall within this strike-based system include:
- Compensated sexual acts
- Mail-order brides
- Clickbait
- Misleading ad design
- Bail bond services
- Call Directories, forwarding services
- Credit repair services
- Binary options
- Personal loans
Google will begin implementing the strike-based system on June 21, 2022, with a gradual ramp up over a period of 3 months.
Google’s New Elements to its Performance Max Campaigns
Google has announced some new updates for its Performance Max campaigns, including new insights and manual checking options, a new customer acquisition goal, and improvements for existing Smart Shopping and Local campaigns.
Google is adding two new elements with ‘Asset Insights’ which will provide data on how your text, image and video assets are resonating with specific customer segments. Next is ‘Consumer Interest Insights’, which will uncover the top search query themes that are relevant to your campaigns.
Google is also adding a new customer acquisition goal in Performance Max, designed to optimise for leads and sales.
Google Search Console URL Parameter Tool is Officially Offline
Google has officially turned off support for the URL parameter tool within Google Search Console. If you try to access a specific Search Console profile using the URL parameter tool, Google will tell you “this report is no longer available here”. It links to the announcement that the tool was being decommissioned today.
The URL parameter tool was launched in 2009 as a parameter handling tool, a way to communicate to Google to ignore specific URLs or combinations of URL parameters. Two years later, in 2011, Google upgraded the tool to handle many more parameter scenarios.
From Google Analytics’ AI-powered predictions, advanced analysis tools and cross-platform data unification, here are five reasons why a switch to Google Analytics 4 is the way to go.
Google Business Profile Adds Products Performance Metrics
Google has added a section to the Google Business Profile Performance Metrics for products. It shows how products performed in Google Maps and local searches. The sections show how many people viewed your products and what your top products are.
This has also been added to the Google help document with “Products: Number of views on products over a selected period“.
YouTube’s ‘Pre-Publish Checks’ Tool Now Available on Mobile App
YouTube is now bringing its pre-publish checks tool to the mobile app, making it easier for those uploading their content via mobile to ensure that it’s fully eligible for monetisation before they post.
YouTube’s pre-publish Checks tool analyses the content for a range of potential violations, including copyright concerns and ad suitability. The pre-publish checks will be rolling out to mobile users over the next couple of weeks.
Google Ads API v10.1 is Now Available
Google has released version 10.1 of the Google Ads API that brings support for discover campaigns, campaign groups, local service campaigns, and more. To use some v10.1 features, you will need to upgrade your client libraries and client code.
The updated client libraries and code examples will be published next week. This version has no breaking changes.
Google AdWords API is Officially Offline
Google has officially shut down the old Google AdWords API. Google warned us over a year ago, and now the day has come when the legacy Google AdWords API will sunset and be fully replaced by the Google Ads API.
Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, posted on Twitter a final reminder saying “the AdWords API sunsets this Wednesday, April 27. Developers will see AdWords API requests fail at a rate of ~25% until May 31 (& can resubmit failed requests)“.
Google Search Allows Removal Of Personally Identifiable Information
Google is rolling out new ways to remove personally identifiable information from search results, such as phone numbers and physical addresses. This update expands on an existing policy that allows people to request the removal of sensitive identifiable information, like bank accounts and credit card numbers.
To remove personal information from Google, you have to fill out a request form. In the form, you’re asked to provide details about the type of information published and answer a series of questions about why you want it removed.
2022 Google Merchant Center Product Data Specification Updates
Google has added changes to the Google Merchant Center product data specification with the goal of creating a better experience for users who are searching for products online. New attribute to pause ads, provide shipping country sub-attribute and updated guidance for unique product identifiers are the updates that went into place this week.
The last time Google updated the Merchant Center product data specification was in April 2021.
Thank You for Reading
Have you noticed the announcement to URL Parameter Tool deprecation or any other changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
