In this weeks digital news, Google Ads now lets marketers test reallocating budgets from Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) or Display campaigns to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally found Google guilty of anti-competitive practices in open-display ad technology.
Google have launched a new “What are people saying” carousel in US search results which primarily shows content from social media platforms. Google Search rankings have been found to correlate with mentions in ChatGPT’s AI generated answers, according to a new study.
Meta is abandoning independent fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram. Replacing them with X-style “community notes” where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users. B2B marketing is no party game, but the hit TV show Traitors can teach us a thing or two about brand trust.
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Google Ads Performance Max gets budget reallocation experiments
Google Ads now lets marketers test reallocating budgets from Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) or Display campaigns to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. Using the new experiment tool, advertisers can run controlled tests to compare performance and optimise budget allocation.
Key Steps:
- Access Experiments in Google Ads.
- Create a test between DSA/Display and PMax campaigns.
- Split traffic and configure the PMax treatment group.
- Launch and evaluate results.
This update leverages Google’s AI-driven PMax campaigns to enhance efficiency, enabling smarter ad spend and improved performance.
Read more here.
CMA objects to Google’s ad tech practices in bid to help UK advertisers and publishers
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally found Google guilty of anti-competitive practices in open-display ad technology. Potentially harming thousands of UK publishers and advertisers. According to the CMA, Google leverages its dominance to prioritise its own services, disadvantaging competitors and reducing market competition.
Google’s ad tech services dominate the process of buying and selling digital ad space, with its tools, such as Google Ads, DV360, and AdX, playing key intermediary roles. The CMA claims Google strengthens its position by granting AdX preferential access to its ad-buying tools. Manipulating bids to favour AdX, and giving it first refusal in auctions, limiting competition.
These practices have allegedly been ongoing since 2015. The CMA is considering actions to stop these behaviours and ensure future compliance. This investigation aligns with similar probes by the US Department of Justice and the European Commission, which are also scrutinising Google’s ad tech activities.
Read more here.
Google launch new “What People Are Saying” carousel in US.
Google have launched a new “What are people saying” carousel in US search results which primarily shows content from social media platforms. These new carousels are appearing for searches for products, people’s names and informational topics. This shows the importance of content freshness for appearing on modern SERPs and Google’s move towards showing more varied content.
Read more here.
Google search rankings correlate with ChatGPT mentions
Google Search rankings have been found to correlate with mentions in ChatGPT’s AI generated answers, according to a new study. Whilst optimising for LLMs is not exactly the same as classic organic search optimisation, ultimately the two “answer” engines want to provide users with helpful content to answer their question. So it makes sense that your content would be more likely to appear in both than one or the other. The study found that brands ranking on page 1 of Google Search showed a strong correlation (~0.65) with LLM mentions. Whereas backlinks didn’t have as much of an impact as expected.
Read more here.
Facebook and Instagram get rid of fact-checkers
Meta is abandoning independent fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram. Replacing them with X-style “community notes” where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users. In a video posted alongside a blog post, external by the company on Tuesday, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said third-party moderators were “too politically biased” and it was “time to get back to our roots around free expression”.
Read more here.
What The Traitors can teach us about brand trust
As the next season of The Traitors approaches, it’s a perfect moment to reflect on the drama of last season. If you’re late to the party, contestants arrive at a castle and discover whether they’ll be playing as ‘Faithfuls’ or ‘Traitors’. The role of the Faithfuls is to identify the Traitors among the group and banish them before the end of the game. The Traitors’ aim to stay undetected and avoid banishment.
B2B marketing is no party game, but the hit TV show can teach us a thing or two about brand trust. In The Traitors, zero-sum thinking is forced upon the contestants, where one’s gain is another’s loss. A culture of mistrust sets in throughout the series and more contestants are gradually ‘murdered’ or banished because they are labelled as Traitors. The business world can also be a zero-sum game. But is the answer to go on the offensive like the Traitors?
Read more here.
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