Google Plans To Turn YouTube Into A E-commerce Giant
Google enters the e-commerce space and plans to turn YouTube into the shopping next shopping destination. Google might soon transform its video streaming platform Youtube into a new strong contender for e-commerce like Amazon and Alibaba. On recent call earnings, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the ‘unboxing’ videos could be turned into a massive shopping opportunity.
What’s The Plan
A Bloomberg report suggests that the world’s largest video platform has asked creators to use Youtube software to tag and track product features in their clips. The data will then be linked to analytics and shopping tools from parent Google. This means that whenever a user is watching a video and likes a certain product, they can easily buy it with a single click. Currently, the feature is testing with a limited number of video channels. The channel creators will have control over what products are displayed to avoid any unnecessary product placement in their content. As per Bloomberg reports. It is still unclear how Google will generate revenues from the sales but it has started offering subscriptions for the creators and takes a cut of 30% from those payments.
Integration With Shopify
Youtube is also testing the integration with Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify. The prospect of collaboration with the e-commerce giant could have a huge impact on the e-commerce world. It has serious potential to transform the e-commerce industry and experience by integrating the advertising process directly with sales. The time spent between a consumer seeing something that they like and buying it could be possibly reduced to the shortest duration.
The Covid E-commerce Revolution
According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the e-commerce retail market, excluding China, may grow to $2.8 trillion by 2025. Google has really not seen success in the e-commerce space much like Facebook and underdog Pinterest. The tech giant has instead focused on selling ads and sending users to other stores than selling themselves. This pandemic witnessed a boom in e-commerce with people staying at home and buying online. Facebook and Instagram have leveraged its social media platform as hotbeds for online shopping. The sales have soared in the past few months for Amazon and Facebook whereas Google watched from the sidelines. Google has not utilized Youtube optimally and this is a brilliant move to topple Amazon and Alibaba’s dominance. This also gives content creators an opportunity for more earnings. A win-win situation for both!
Read more: Google Agrees To Pay News Publishers $1 Billion For Their Content
Upgraded Google Ad Location Reporting By Google And The Need To Generate Custom Reports
Over the past few months, Google has been releasing “simplified” location reports in its Google Ads user interface. Every time someone uses words like streamlined and simplified in the description of its products or updates, it certainly raises questions of being misleading or hiding something important. It raises questions about its functionality, accessibility, and utilization of the data.
However, before we start discussing Google’s new reporting, let us understand the cruciality of reporting in general.
Google provides an option for location settings in its campaigns in a dropdown menu. Here the advertisers can target the audience according to their business needs. Often, people spend a large sum of money on locations that do not provide any conversions. It happens when one tends to target a whole country. For example, if you are planning to target the audience in the United States, by choosing the country, there are chances that the people who are not a resident of the country will also see your advertisement. These people can be located in a different country and might have shown interest in visiting the US or used the country name as a qualifier for searching for something over the internet. Therefore, generating location reports become crucial.
Google has specifically asserted its viewpoint on this topic. They explained to their advertiser audience, how people who are just visiting your selected location see your ads. It has both; negative and positive effects on one’s spending and strategy.
Changes Made In Location Reporting
Google has enhanced its location reporting and fortified it into a single entity. As per the new Google update, an advertiser can now filter the data of performance using location by either matched location or targeting.
- Matched Location: This will show the location report according to the user’s location of interest or actual physical location.
- Targeted Location: This shows the location, that you are targeting.
However, it is not just an easy-peasy task. The new updates come with some complications. Let us assume that someone situated in Los Angeles searches for “Hotels in Prague” in this case Prague, which will be shown as a matched location. If it was targeted, in the campaign. But the question that arises is how an advertiser will see the location of the user in Los Angeles. It is no longer available in the reporting generated now! It will require you to generate a custom report using the Report Editor.
Details Of Matched Locations
It is a bit tricky to locate. However, by clicking on the box at the top of the individual location or location list, you will get the option to make a precise selection and get options for postal codes, DMA regions, neighborhoods, and other relevances.
As it is a Matched Location section, it will show you both; users who have shown interest in the location and users in your targeted location.
Type of Location: This option is not limited, to a segment data option in the Google Ads UI. It allows users to view data on two bases:
- Location of interest
- Physical location
However, now you have to go to the report editor to get the aggregate data for both options.
Distance reports: This is to analyze and generate reports based on the distance between the business location and the location that triggered the advertisement.
Getting User Reporting For Their Location Using Google Ads
User location data is still available in Google Ads. However, you have to set a custom report in the Report Editor.
User location is divided into five parts:
- Country/Territory
- Region
- Metro area
- City
- Most specific location target(city area, zip code, etc.).
You can utilize these options to filter your searches. It will help you to precisely determine the locations to spend money and helps you save unwanted expenditures with no results.
No location filter: There are still multiple improvements to be made in the tool. The limitation is that you can not filter these reports by location. You have to export the spreadsheet and do it manually.
Conclusion
There are several handy options available in the new advancement of the tool. You can use the “Narrow by” options to go deep into the matched location.
Adscholars advised their readers to generate the location report and study them thoroughly. It will help you to analyze the actual fruitful expenditure, differentiating the money that you might be wasting on the locations which are not giving you the desired returns.
Google Agrees To Pay News Publishers $1 Billion For Their Content
Highlights:
- Google plans to pay $1billion to news publishers over the next three years in licensing fees.
- CEO Sundar Pichai announced on Thursday, Google’s biggest financial commitment to date will pay to partnered publications to create and curate high-quality content for a new product called Google News Showcase.
Background
Google has been a longtime frenemy with the world of news. Regulators around the world have been intimidating Google with policies that would compel them to pay publishers. News publishers like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and German media giant Axel Springer have been making noise for almost a decade that Google should pay for their content but the tech giant refused. To reclaim its credibility in the news publishing world, Google is launching Google News Showcase. CEO of the tech giant, Sundar Pichai said in its blog post that Google will pay $1 billion to news publishers in licensing fees.
Why it matters
In 2018, Google pledged $300 million effort to help news publishers. This announcement develops that effort further and its new product “Google News Showcase” would collectively pay selected publishers for high-quality content for new story panels that will appear on Google News. The initiative is live on Android devices and will eventually appear on Google News on iOS.
Details
The Google News Showcase will be first launched in Brazil and Germany. As quoted in Axios, Brad Bender, Google’s VP of product management for news said,
Our approach with Google News Showcase is a very different approach for Google from a product standpoint … It’s a new way for us to connect users to stories that matter. It’s a new way for us to work with publishers, but to also make money from their content beyond Search and News. And of course, it’s a new way for Google to support the future of quality journalism.
- Google News Showcase features the editorial curation of award-winning newsrooms to give readers more insight into important stories and helps publishers drive high-value traffic.
- The highlighting feature in the Showcase is ‘panels’ (as shown in the image) which allow publishers to package stories with more context that appear within Google’s news products.
- Publishers can include features like timelines, bullets, and related articles in the story panel. Eventually, they will be able to embed other components like video, audio, and daily briefings.
- Pichai said, “This approach is distinct from our other news products because it leans on the editorial choices individual publishers make about which stories to show readers and how to present them.”
- Similar to Apple News, Google will help to hedge their bets by offering free access to paywalled articles on certain participating websites. This might help publishers to convert visitors to subscribers.
- Bender said the funding wouldn’t be able to cover all news organizations so selecting the publishers on a market-to-market basis, with a focus on newspapers or sources with established audiences and significant local or regional news outlets.
Go Deeper
The panels designed for Google News Showcase promote publishers’ brands within Google’s products which will allow readers to get more perspective from the publisher.
- Publishers have often accused Google of stealing revenue as well as minimizing brand value. However, in the new product, the panels are directly linked to the publishers’ site which in return can monetize the traffic.
- Taking lessons from the rivals, Google will allow users to personalize feeds within Google News Showcase which means users can follow specific publishers.
The Bigger Picture
Google and Facebook specifically have made millions in advertising in the last few years. The news publishers weren’t able to compete and therefore started looking for alternative sources of revenue.
- Regulators across the world have been trying to bring policies and reforms that would require Google and Facebook to pay publishers for their content.
- Google launching Showcase in Germany is notable and surprising given that publishers in the country are involved in a years-long legal battle with Google over copyright issues. In the end, Google won the case.
- Google has been facing a lot of anti-trust scrutiny in Europe and therefore the tech giant needs to rehabilitate the image.
- According to a Financial Times report, Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council said that her members were “quite cynical ” and said,
By launching a product, Google can dictate terms and conditions, undermine legislation designed to create conditions for a fair negotiation, while claiming they are helping to fund news production.
What’s next
Google initially launched in Brazil and Germany but will gradually expand to other markets in Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, the U.K., and Australia. Google says it has signed deals with more than 200 publishers. The first publications to launch will be Der Spiegel, Stern, Die Zeit, Folha de S.Paulo, Band, Infobae, El Litoral, GZH, WAZ, and SooToday. Pichai said that India, Belgium, and the Netherlands will be next on the list for expansion.
AdForm Set To Solve The Cookie Problem With Its Proven First-Party ID Solution
Adform announced this week that advertisers can now use the first-party ID on their platform in the absence of third-party cookies. The demise of third-party cookies has been a cause of concern for all advertisers and publishers on some browsers and are looking to future-proof their offerings and tech stacks. And Adform’s success in switching to first-party data is a major breakthrough for the industry. Now, agencies can share first-party data and IDs with Adform to personalize advertising, target specific audiences, and report results – all without the use of any third-party cookies.
A joint collaboration between Adform, the European publishing group Sanoma, marketing agency Dagmar, and global group IPG MediaBrands is leading the way forward for the digital advertising industry and leveling the playing field with the walled gardens. The collaboration not only prepared for the future cookie change but also improve the functionality of advertising buying for Safari and Firefox browsers. The change in first-party data allows programmatic targeting and helps to direct advertising money into publishers’ properties who are eager to secure their ad revenue.
Adform states that without the need for hundreds of third-party cookies, compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA will be easier. First-party data and IDs is beneficial to brands as they live longer than third-party cookies. With first-party IDs from publishers and advertisers, impressions and data are completely traceable increasing transparency that helps to deal with issues like discrepancies, accountability, hidden fees, arbitrage, and ad fraud and reducing the risk of data leakage.
Adform has a complete digital infrastructure and is uniquely placed to switch to first-party data with its integrated advertising platform(IAS). Jakob Bak, CTO, Adform said,
“We have proved that it is possible to switch from third-party cookies to first-party IDs and, as such, have provided a leap into the future of digital marketing. The industry is on an inevitable road to life without third-party cookies and ongoing success for the open ecosystem will depend on collaboration. So far, publisher announcements around first-party data have represented positive yet individual approaches, now it’s clear that working together presents a more powerful way to ensure profitability for independent publishers. In fact, the evidence of how impactful shared first-party IDs can be has already led to many agencies and sales houses to express interest in moving spend away from media giants.”
Jaakko Kuivalainen, Director, Digital Advertising Business, at Sanoma also commented,
“Finland is an established hotbed for innovation, but there is a huge opportunity for wider global progression. This venture is a great example of what can be achieved when publishers and technology companies come together. Working as one, we can be consistently at the forefront of industry development; and effectively preparing for the coming demise of third-party cookies with first-party centric digital advertising.”
Read more: Top 10 Emerging Indian Ad Tech Startups You Should Know About
Explaining ACCC vs Google: Clash Over Paying Media Companies For News
Tech giants are facing tremendous pressure to pay publishers for their news content from across the world and Google is preparing for the fight in Australia. Recently, the competition regulator in Australia issued a draft bill- New Media Bargaining Code that wants to force the duopoly Facebook and Google to pay media companies for news.
The question arises, should Australia implement the new rules that will pave the way for other global regulators to follow the suit as the European regulators ramp up the pressure on the digital giants.
Here are all the latest updates you need to know over the row between Google and media companies and can have a huge impact on the regulatory agencies and governments right around the world.
Google’s Tussle With Publishers in Australia
The long-running tension between Facebook and Google with the media companies have been for years over how the former display content, with publishers demanding to be paid by the tech giants for the privilege.
Last month, Australian regulators the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released a draft code –News Media Bargaining Code. The code allowed news publishers in the country to negotiate compensation collectively or individually with the two tech companies for sharing or displaying their services. The draft code is aimed to address “bargaining power imbalances” between Australian news businesses and Google and Facebook.
The ACCC proposes a compulsory arbitration process and if the news businesses and digital platforms cannot strike a deal during the three-month negotiation and mediation process then the parties can select an arbitrator or there can be an assigned arbitrator by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Non-compliance with the code would result in fines up to $10m per breach, three times the benefit obtained or 10% of a digital platform’s annual revenue in Australia, whichever is greater.
The code involves minimum standards that would require digital platforms to give news businesses 28 days’ notice of algorithm change that will affect the referral traffic or the placement of the news. It also requires the tech companies to provide news media businesses clear information about the data they collect through users’ interactions with the news content.
Why Did The Australian Government Introduce The Draft?
Google and Facebook have had a huge impact on Australia’s news industry as there is more than a 20% fall in the number of newspaper and online journalists since 2014 and the duopoly capturing a large share of digital advertising revenues. Earlier the plan was for a voluntary code. However, the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a decline in advertising and revenues of news businesses as well as delayed the negotiations on payment. This led to the development of a mandatory code by the Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg to ensure a fair level playing field for news media companies.
Google’s Response to the New Draft code
The cacophony over Australia’s proposed News Media Bargaining Code law, which is currently in drafts is gaining momentum with Google publishing an open letter to the users about it. Google users visiting the homepage were presented with an ominous pop-up message that warns, “The way Aussies use Google is at risk” and “their search experience will be hurt by the new regulation.”
This open letter from Google Australia managing director Mel Silva is a bold lobbying move that presents Google’s arguments against the new rules in front of million Australian users. Google argues that the proposed regulation would ‘put their free services at risk’ with data being handed over to big news businesses.
It also argued that the law ‘forces’ to give an “unfair advantage” to news publishers alone in Google Search and YouTube because they would be given information that would help them “artificially inflate their ranking over everyone else”. The Guardian reports that eligible media companies must meet the criteria of having revenues exceeding $150,000 a year and must have a certain presence in the Australian market. This points out that most larger media houses will have access to the information. Google also said that the law is putting user data at risk.
ACCC Hits Back With A Quick Response
The consumer watchdog was swift in its response, labeling the post as ‘misinformation.’ In the statement released, it said that Google would not be required to charge Australians for its free services unless it chooses to do so. Similarly, Google doesn’t need to share any additional user data unless it wants to.
Google Makes a Comeback
Google issued a strong rebuttal in its response to ACCC claims. It retaliated saying,
“We strongly disagree and are concerned that our view of the Code has been represented this way during a consultation phase.”
In response to the ACCC claims that Google would not be required to charge for free services, Google explained with an example that the code requires them to provide advance notice over changes in algorithms and said,
“Even assuming Google could comply with this provision, it would seriously damage our products and user experience. It would impact our ability to continue to show users the most relevant useful results on Google Search and YouTube.”
The search giant also disagreed with ACCC claims that Google would not require to share data and said that the codes require that.
“[It] requires Google to tell news media businesses what user data we collect, what data we supply to them, and ‘how the registered news business corporation can gain access to’ that data which we don’t supply to them.”
“This goes beyond the current level of data sharing between Google and news publishers.”
What Did Facebook Say?
Facebook had far less to say for now – William Easton, MD for Australia & New Zealand said in a line,
“We are reviewing the Government’s proposal to understand the impact it will have on the industry, our services and our investment in the news ecosystem in Australia.”
However, Facebook had earlier expressed disappointment over making voluntary ACCC code to mandatory and described the news as “highly substitutable” content.
Will This Make Way For U.S Publishers?
In the U.S, The News Media Alliance, a trade association that represents 2000 publishers is promoting a bill named Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, a law that would allow news companies to negotiate with online platforms regarding the terms on which content is distributed. However, at present competition law does not allow this.
Regulatory Changes Elsewhere in Europe
Spain and Germany had previously passed similar laws on the usage of news snippets but couldn’t manage to extract payments from Google or Facebook. In 2014, Spain made payments to publishers mandatory, Google chose to shut down its news service. Google threatens a similar response to French new laws as well.
In April this year, France’s competition authority ordered Google to negotiate with publishers over payment for using their news content – such as images, videos, or article extract. However, Google refused to compensate for displaying the content and setting up a legal fight against new EU copyright laws.
Last year, the EU introduced new copyright rules that require tech companies to license the content from rightsholders.
Does This Mean Google and Facebook Don’t Pay Publishers?
The answer is Yes and No. They pay to some publishers. In June, Google said it would pay certain media outlets it will feature in their news service (not released yet) in Germany, Australia, and Brazil. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. However, after the competition watchdog proposed the new code, Google informed local publishers that plans of licensing products – Publisher Curated News -are put on hold until further notice.
Another BIG Question, What’s Next?
As Google prepares for the ACCC fight, it would be interesting to watch the tide turning in which direction and how this landmark move will change regulations across the world.
The consultation on the draft proposals concludes on 28th August with final legislation is expected to be introduced shortly after the conclusion of consultations.
Here’s More: Morgan Stanley Forecasts Australian Ad Spend To Fall By 9% In 5 Years
Innovation In Google During The Tough Times Of COVID
While most of the brands are struggling to survive during the tough times of pandemic, Google has set its goals right for the whole year. It is innovating itself without any trouble. Every month Google targets to enhance itself, according to the growing demand of the society. Google makes sure, that it fulfills the need of its users by providing them with exactly what they desire.
Recently, Google introduced two new features for its search portals. One of the features is designed, and dedicated to the Black community. The feature will help in the upliftment of the community in society and will aim to end the injustice against them.
Due to the rise of anger in the community against the centuries-long injustice experienced by the community, several brands came forward to show their support towards the community. Google was amongst them.
#BlackLivesMatter!
To fulfill his promise, the CEO at Google, Sundar Pichai recently added a feature to the map and Google search listing.
This feature is launched to empower the Black community. The feature will highlight businesses owned by the Black community helping them grow. However, only those members can avail of the benefit whose business has verified profiles in the US. Also, the business must be owned by a member of the black community.
Those businesses highlighted under this feature will be marked by an image(as shown below). The symbol will signify that the business is owned by a member of the Black community.
It is said that the step was taken to provide a financial boost to the community. It is a foreseen step to finally end the orthodox discrimination towards the community. Google is also partnering with U.S. Black Chambers, inc. To provide better features like Analytics helping the businesses groom and blossom.
In a statement regarding this following statement was issued by Google:
“As part of our $300 million commitment to support under-represented entrepreneurs, we’re integrating the attribute into the digital skills training programs we offer Black business owners through Grow with Google Digital Coaches. And through Google for Startups Accelerator for Black Founders, we’re starting our work with the first cohort of 12 startups.”
Google is keen to develop the feature even more and is seeking ideas internally. According to the management, they have already received more than 500 creative ideas to get this model to develop more brilliantly.
The company is also working on better and much strict “Policies against hate and harassment”
“About this ad”- More power to the user!
With a more transparent approach towards their users, Google has launched a new feature popularly known as “About this ad”.
To implement this feature Google will be launching new tools. It will help the users gain information about the advertisement they are receiving. It will help enhance security and will increase user privacy on the digital platform.
According to Google spokesperson, the vision is designed for a “thriving internet where people around the world can continue to access ad-supported content, while also feeling confident that their data is protected”.
“But in order to get there, we must increase transparency into how digital advertising works, offer users additional controls, and ensure that people’s choices about the use of their data are respected not worked around or ignored.”
Read More: Google Ends All Gossips: Revealed Fee Structure For Advertisement Tools
For a long time now, tech giants like Google are have faced a lot of criticism. Most of those were linked to their explicit behavior when it comes to money and user privacy. After being criticized and called upon several times by different government authorities for blind approach in the business during the usage of advertisers’ money, Google has finally decided to be more transparent with its business policies and proposals.
Therefore, Google shared a list of pricing for its tools used by advertisers for the advertisement. It was a huge step by Google, since before this release, advertisers were kept in the dark about the spent of their share of the money, and the profit earned by Google.
The tools for which Google revealed the prices include, DV360, Google Ads, ad manager, and its publisher tech.
The revealed prices are as follows:
These prices were revealed by Google in a series of articles and blog posts.
The prices are in the ratio of percentage for a $1 amount spent by an advertiser on an advertisement, divided between the publisher and Google.
- Google tech: Publishers – 69%, Google – 31%
- DV360: Publisher – 87%, Google – 13%
- Ad Manager: Publisher – 82%, Google – 18%
- Google Ads: Publisher – 86%, Google – 14%
- Ad sense by Google: 68% share taken by Google of the total spent by the advertiser.
Google has never been so transparent in regards to its prices, the sources say that this new transparent face of Google is due to the ongoing legal hearing conducted by the state attorney general and the Department of Justice.
Read More: Google Updated Its Demand-Side Platform With DV360!
Innovation has always been the motto of the company. To make sure that the advertisers at Google are equipped with the best tools available in the market, it recently launched its new self-service toolkit known as Display & Video 360.
The tool is launched to change the landscape of the advertisement. Display &Video 360 is a gift to its advertisers by Google.
Earlier, advertisers used the tools to make a hypothetical projection while running an online marketing campaign. The most crucial question that bothered the advertisers was the amount of audience that they will reach with the campaign. To make sure it’s no more a hit and try show for the advertisers, Google launched DV360.
With the DV360, the advertisers can now create a new campaign and check its reach to the audience as the tool provides a duplicate view of the campaign. The duplicate view will help the advertisers view the exact or say a more accurate number of audiences that they will reach with the campaign. Hence, no more blind bets!
The tool has better forecasting capabilities, giving the advertisers a glimpse of the future for their campaign. It is also a better solution for the media planners as it provides them with a large proportion of benefits as better access to the tool as they always have a larger role to play.
The most crucial answer answered with the tool is, “how many unique people can I expect to reach with my overall campaign across any open auction display and video inventory as well as YouTube?”
According to Anudeep Pedditi, Programmatic Manager, OMD NZ:
“Once we commit to a reach objective, neither underachieving nor overachieving is an option. Display & Video 360 gives media planners the accuracy they need to effectively plan across all our programmatic campaigns.”
The Tools main aim is to provide the following features to its advertisers:
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Focus
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Options For Buying
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Optimization And Reporting
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Security
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Conclusion
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Read More: How Google’s Page Experience Will Change the Face of SEO in 2021
Google will launch a new algorithm for its page experience and design. The new model will be based on user experience.
The new algorithm will surely affect SEO and web traffic. Therefore, to make sure that the advertisers are not affected by the changes, Google has announced that they will apply the changes in 2021. They have promised to inform upfront, at least six months beforehand.
An early reminder will help advertisers to prepare themselves for the changes.
However, Google made it clear that the new algorithm will be even stricter in ranking the web pages. If the user experience of a web-page is poor, Google will not rank the page on to the top list.
Google has also published a detailed document dedicated to the page experience criteria.
The new algorithm will consist of some core vital features. This feature includes the following:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the loading performance of your webpage.
- First Input Delay(FID): Measures the user interaction with the page.
- Cumulative layout Shift: Checks the stability factors of your webpage.
The Accelerated Mobile version (AMP) will also play a major role in the ranking of your page, as will be a metrics for the page experience.
Also, good content will always play a lead role in the page ranking.
As per a statement:
“While all of the components of page experience are important, we will prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar.
A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.”
Hence, entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses should be well prepared for the new changes.
Read More: Every 2020 Google SERP Feature Explained: A Visual Guide
Have you ever imagine the amount of traffic Google experience in a minute, month, or year?
Well, here are some fun facts, every second there is an approximate of 63,000 search queries entered on Google search.
Also, near to 2 trillion searches are conducted every year!
Isn’t it amazing? However, you might ask, why does it matter?
Let us understand!
Google holds an approximate 72% market share of search engines. To make sure that your webpage is listed on the top of the list of Google search results you must have an understanding of Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
What is SERP? And, what all it provides to the advertisers on Google?
The Search Engine Result Page of Google has gone through a lot of changes according to the user view. It has become much more dynamic, relevant, personalized, and helpful.
Now the search engine of Google is equipped with several enhancements that use structured data. The search page consists of visual enhancement, better index, and optimization for the website. You must be aware of all these changes if you are planning for a better organic ranking for your website.
Here is the new enhancement for the search page of Google:
- Direct answer Box
- Rich Snippet
- Rich cards
- Knowledge Graphs
- Knowledge Panels
- Local Pack
- People also ask
- Image Pack
- Site Links
- Newsbox
You must be equipped with the knowledge of these for better results in organic ranking.
Read More: Rejoice Small Retailers: Selling Products is Now Free On Google Shopping
MSME’s got adversely affected due to the widespread of COVID-19. Several small and medium scale businesses have lost their source of income due to the sudden breakthrough of this epidemic.
Therefore to make sure that these businesses sustain the effects of the crisis, Google is allowing small retailers to list their products for free on Google Shopping.
Explaining this decision, Bill Ready, President of Commerce at Google cites the fact that it is difficult for struggling businesses to pay for Google shopping listings at this time.
“And as consumers increasingly shop online, they’re searching not just for essentials but also things like toys, apparel, and home goods.
While this presents an opportunity for struggling businesses to reconnect with consumers, many cannot afford to do so at scale.”
Earlier, Google charged its customers as Pay per click (PPC). It can also be seen as a tactic by Google to compete with Amazon in the market of e-commerce.
Read More: Privacy Sandbox By Google Shows Backdoor To The Third-Party Cookies.
Two years ago, Google announced that it will discontinue the usage of third-party cookies in its browser, which is Google Chrome. Since the announcement, several speculations surfaced, to understand its effects on internet traffic and advertisement. However, Google seems determined about the elimination, and this year Google announced “Privacy Sandbox” a step towards the replacement of third-party cookies.
It is developed to provide a secure browsing experience to its user.
According to a spoke person from Google, “This is an early-stage concept, and we don’t have more details to share right now, We plan to publish updates and progress in GitHub as part of the process.”
The concept uses a new algorithm designed by performing “Bit Request Signal Experiment”.
Privacy Sandbox was launched in August. The idea was to innovate ad recurrence and behavioral advertising. It aimed to help them work on the web without using third-party cookies. A mega event was organized, 163 giant tech organizations like Apple, Facebook, Axel Springer, The Washington Post, Criteo, The Trade Desk, and even Google participated. All are requested to share their views via. World Wide Web Consortium or GitHub to help the project succeed.
However, according to the Google developers, it is still in its initial stage and there is a lot of work that is needed to be done in this field.
Read More: Google pledges $800 million to coronavirus relief, including Ad credits
Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained:
“As the coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen around the world, it’s taking a devastating toll on lives and communities. To help address some of these challenges, today we’re announcing a new $800+ million commitment to support small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), health organizations and governments, and health workers on the frontline of this global pandemic.”
The commitment includes:
- WHO and other health organizations will get $250 million for advertisement.
- MSME’s and NGO’s will get $200 million.
- An additional $15 million in cash will be granted by Google.org to non-profits to bridge the gap between SMB’s.
- Those small businesses that are already active for a year with Google advertisement will get the help of a total of $340 million in Google ad. They will receive the credit in their accounts and can spend it by the end of 2020.
- The academic and research institutions in the field of COVID research will get $20 million.
- Financial support will be provided to the organizations to increase the production capacity for life-saving equipment.
However, not everything went great for Google during this tough time of COVID:
Read More: Google Cuts Marketing Budgets by 50%, Freezes Hiring.
Key Points
- Budget cuts and hiring freezes across marketing and across Google.
- For the second half of 2020, Google is cutting its marketing budget to 50%.
- The cut is due to the reduced expenditure on advertisement by the brands during the time of the crisis.
- The development comes in less than a week from where Google is scheduled to discuss Q1 2020 results on 28th April.
According to a statement released by email:
“There are budget cuts and hiring freezes happening across marketing and across Google…We, along with the rest of marketing, have been asked to cut our budget by about half for H2.”
A company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CNBC,
“As we outlined last week, we are re-evaluating the pace of our investment plans for the remainder of 2020 and will focus on a select number of important marketing efforts….We continue to have a robust marketing budget, particularly in digital, in many business areas.”
…we continue to invest, but will be recalibrating the focus and pace of our investments in areas like data centers and machines, and non-business essential marketing and travel.”
Read More: Google Withhold Programmatic Data, Advertisers Pulls Back Ad Spend
As quoted by Digiday, the Head of Display at the U.S based retailer said,
“Google’s ad exchange didn’t make the list primarily because they’re not willing to give us any transparency or data around not only their take rates on our media sped but also anything we could already pull from our demand-side platform.”
“We’re seeing Google’s ad exchange become slightly less of the total pie,” said Jay Friedman, president at programmatic agency Goodway Group to DigiDay.
”I don’t have a percentage but it’s less but not significant.”, he further added.
The advertisers registered their doubts and raised concerns regarding the non-transparent behavior of Google. However, this must have been resolved after the release of the price list for its advertising tools by Google.
Google Is All Prepared To Compete with Amazon In E-commerce Market.
Google is all set to reveal its new initiative to fight the dominant Amazon in the e-commerce business.
After a series of serious attempts made by Google, to end the monopoly of Amazon in prior consecutive years, that is in 2013, 2014, 2017, and 2019. 2020 seems to be severely crucial as more customers are turning towards the online market every day, due to the COVID virus spread across the world.
Google announcement was a clear indication in the direction of its plans to spread its roots in the online market. Google has declared to charge lesser sales commission from the sellers on its platform and will also let third-party sellers like Shopify to use its platform.
Currently, the commission rates of Google’s online sales platform range from 5 percent to 15 percent depending on the category of the product.
Google might dominate the field of knowledge and information when trying to search for information. But, when it comes to searching and buying goods online, Amazon is the first choice of consumers. Due to consumers’ first choice as e-commerce, Amazon is spreading its wings in the advertisement market, which is a clear threat to Google’s core source of earning.
Google has taken several hits during these years while competing with Amazon. In a seven-year-long battle with Amazon, Google introduced several products to compete with Amazon. However, none of them succeeded. One such attempt at Google was Google Shopping Express! The service launched in 2013, offered one-day delivery for groceries. The users can take an annual membership for $95 and can avail of faster service. However, Google ended up shutting down the project.
After its failed attempts with Google Shopping Express, Google decided to convert it into Google online Mall. The Google online Mall included retailers like Best Buy and Target. In 2017, Google partnered with Walmart. This deal was supposed to bring many fortunes to the Google online market, but unfortunately, the partnership ended too soon.
However, never giving up Google, added a buy button to its search engine. The online-button allowed the users to directly purchase the search engine, with the help of their credit and debit cards.
For an effective competition strategy with Amazon, Google brought in Bill Ready. Bill Ready was a former executive at PayPal.
The announcement in April came as a piece of happy news for the retailers. Now, retailers can list their products for free on Google online market listing. However, early the sellers had to buy the ads to get their products listed with Google. By this step, Google is expecting to attract huge audiences!
Mr. Ready, in an interview, described the position of E-commerce across the world. According to him, there is a wide range of audiences who are shopping online for their needs. Although, there is just a handful of platforms entertaining all of them.
“We want to make sure selling online is easy and inexpensive,” said Mr Ready. Follow
According to Google spokesperson, the changes will be visible to the people in the USA. Those who are already listing products on Amazon can use the same listing on Google, that is, without making any changes to the format.
The aim of Google is to take over Amazon, or at least, for the time being, be the biggest competitor. However is a 20 minutes long conference, Mr. Reddy shy out to take the name of their competitor, even for once.
Even when asked the question to name the largest rain forest in South America, Mr. Ready decided to dodge the question.
Although, he stated:
“Consumers benefit from a diverse and thriving ecosystem of sellers.” Adding that, “There is no one player that can serve all the needs of consumers.”
Everything the Q2 2020 Financial Results of Tech Giants Have to Say
Big Tech giants have revealed their quarter financial performance in these turbulent times. Here are the Q 2 financial performance, insights, and earnings details:
Alphabet
Google’s parent company Alphabet beat the expectations for its Q 2 earnings despite a dip in the advertising. However, it marked its first year-over-year revenue decline in its history as the pandemic slowed the economic activity and advertisers pulled back their spending. Though there is a slowdown in the advertising growth, Google pointed to newer long-term opportunities in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, YouTube, and shopping. For the rest of the year, in anticipation of slowdown, the company has cut marketing spend by half and also freezes hiring.
Google is also facing antitrust investigations of its search and Android business and is expected to result in a legal action that could cover issues from search to digital advertising space in the coming months.
By the numbers:
- $2.6 billion declines in year-on-year advertising revenue.
- Google’s total quarterly revenue $29.9 billion of $38.3 billion is from advertising.
- YouTube ad revenue increased 6% to $3.8 billion.
- Google Cloud sales grew 43% to $3 billion.
- Total Net income reported $6.96 billion compared to $9.95 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Response:
Though there is a slowdown in the advertising growth, Google pointed to newer long-term opportunities in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, YouTube, and shopping.
For the rest of the year, in anticipation of slowdown, the company has cut marketing spend by half and also freezes hiring. Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google said,
“We continue to navigate through a difficult global economic environment.”
Consumers are returning to more commercial search queries and advertisers are gradually increasing their search spending towards the end of the quarter. However, Ruth Porat cautioned,
“We believe it is premature to gauge the durability of recent trends, given the obvious uncertainty of the global macro environment.”
Google is also facing antitrust investigations of its search and Android business and is expected to result in a legal action that could cover issues from search to digital advertising space in the coming months.
Amazon
The e-commerce giant delivered some eye-popping numbers during Q2 beating earnings expectations and reported a double-digit revenue year over year. With the flurry of online orders amid the coronavirus pandemic, sales soared by 40%. The online grocery sales tripled Y-o-Y and the grocery delivery capacity by more than 160%. The demand for online shopping sky-rocketed and to fulfill the demand, it hired 175,000 more people in the period.
By The Numbers:
- Revenue reported is $88.91 billion vs. $81.56 billion expected, the strongest and unexpected annual growth in years.
- Amazon spent $4 billion on coronavirus related measures as promised in Q1 and expects to spend another $2 billion during Q3 towards COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud computing service grew 29% compared to 33% in Q1.
- Amazon’s Other’ category that primarily consists of the advertising business ( a small slice of Amazon’s total revenues) was up 41% Y-o-Y and subscription services that include revenues from Prime membership also up 29%.
Response:
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement,
“This was another highly unusual quarter, and I couldn’t be more proud of and grateful to our employees around the globe.”
As reported by CNBC, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said consumer demand in the pandemic shifted from consumables and groceries to categories “not so profitable” and normal mix of products. He said,“Amazon could ship a lot more.”
Amazon will conduct a Prime Day shopping event in the fourth quarter.
Despite the Congress probe, pandemic, and an anti-hate boycott from advertisers, Facebook beats all market expectations, revenue grew by 11%. This speaks volumes about the strength of the company’s appeal to marketers despite serious challenges. The top 100 advertisers’ that boycotted Facebook over its hate speech and misinformation policies constituted less than 20% of Facebook’s ad revenue. However, the boycott by large advertisers couldn’t rally small businesses who are reliant on Facebook.
By The Numbers:
- 3.14 billion monthly users across all apps(Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Whatsapp), compared to 2.99 billion in the previous quarter.
- 1.79 billion Daily Active Users on Facebook, up 12% year on year
- 2.7 billion Monthly Active Users on Facebook, up 12% year on year.
- Revenue: $18.7 billion, up 11% year on year.
- It has more than 9 million active advertisers.
Response:
The company said in a statement,
“We are seeing signs of normalization in user growth and engagement as shelter-in-place measures have eased around the world, particularly in developed markets where Facebook’s penetration is higher.”
Mark Zuckerberg said on a call with investors,
“Some also seem to wrongly assume that our business is dependent on a few large advertisers. The biggest part of our business is serving small businesses.”
Two new initiatives were announced for small businesses- Facebook Shops and in-messenger commerce.
“This really is primarily focused on small businesses, individual entrepreneurs. Small businesses are the biggest part of our business, not large businesses.”
The company forecasts its revenue growth rate for Q3 of about 10%. while taking into account ongoing headwinds including macroeconomic uncertainty, ad boycott (formally began in July, after Q2 ended), regulations around ad targetting, and measurement.
Pinterest revenue grew 4% on user growth and advertisement. Users who started using Pinterest during Covid-19 continued to have engagement even after lockdown restrictions eased out at a few places. It reached a milestone of crossing more than 400 million monthly users, witnessing a strong growth from users under 25 who grew twice as fast as users over 25. The total advertising growth accelerated year over year in Q2 and small and medium-sized advertisers emerged as a key driver that made up nearly half of its revenue. New features like Shop Tab and the ability to shop from boards are worked upon to make content search easy for the Pinners.
ByThe Numbers:
- Total daily video views (organic+ paid) grew over 150% year over year.
- Catalog from business increased in Q2 by more than 350% from Q1.
- Revenue from conversion optimization or oCPM, shopping ads, and auto bids continues to grow faster than overall revenue, and attributed conversions grew 2.7x year over year. 80% of CPC revenue is going through the auto bid.
- Users visiting shopping only surfaces grew more than 50% in the first half of 2020 and product only searches grew 8x.
Response:
As per CNBC, the company said,
“People needed Pinterest in Q2. They needed a service that helped them adjust to radically changed circumstances — one that inspired them to cook at home, build vegetable gardens, plan activities for their kids and set up remote offices and home gyms, to name just a few typical COVID-19-related use cases we saw during the quarter.”
Advertisers have increased budgets on Pinterest because of its strong commercial intent where advertisers get their traction without displaying ads with any controversial content.
Omnicom Group
Omnicom revenues decline 23% due to a decline in spending by the clients. In order to offset the decline in revenue 6,100 jobs were cut across its network, froze hiring, eliminated salary increases, implemented voluntary pay cuts across its agencies, and participated in government subsidy programs in 35 markets. It also shed 1 million square feet of real estate space as it terminated leases across markets in order to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. It is expected that these actions will result in the repositioning costs for the quarter of $278 million that will generate approximately $500 million in annualized savings.
Advertising revenue decline as the revenue of the programmatic business decreased where it offered principle-based buying options for clients.
By The Numbers:
- Reported revenue was $2.8 billion, down $854 million organically, or 23% from Q2 2019.
- Advertising business declined 26.6% and Third-party service costs which fluctuate directly with changes in revenue declined by approximately $400 million.
- Revenues declined in all disciplines except healthcare which grew 3.2% organically.
- CRM execution and support include events and field marketing businesses, which declined 27.6%.
- CRM consumer experience declined 25.6%, and PR declined 14%,
Response:
CEO John Wren said on the earnings call,
“The quarter posed extraordinary challenges. he effect of COVID and related lockdowns were unprecedented.”
The main reason for declines in Omnicon’s services was because the client from travel, retail, auto, and other affected verticals paused or cut spending whereas technology and telecom fared better.
After a tough and bad Q2, the company looks forward to the second half. The recovery may not be immediate but the impact will vary regionally and by vertical. Wren said,
“We think the worst is behind us, with Q2 being the worst point for year-over-year revenue declines.”
The company added a few new clients like Air France’s global agency of record account and Clorox’s media business in the United States.
Apple
Apple reports a slow down in revenue growth as the demand and supply was impacted due to the pandemic. However, it had reported a better quarter than Wall Street expected, showing growth across all product lines including iPhones and reflected growth across all geographic segments.
By The Numbers:
- Revenues rose 11% to $59.7 billion against the estimated revenue of $52.6 billion.
- Apple reported iPhone revenue of $26.42 bn, a growth of 1.66%.
- The biggest growth was in iPad revenue at $6.58bn up from $4.48 bn.
- Apple reported service revenue of $13.1 bn against $11.5 bn the same period in the last year.
Response:
Apple CEO Tim Cook during a call said,
“Amid the most challenging global environment in which we’ve ever operated our business we’re proud to say that Apple grew during the quarter.”
The company’s subscription service and Apple Tv+ also performed well as most people watched content under lockdown. Apple did not issue guidance for the third quarter.
Read more on Q1 results: Where Do These Global Companies Stand At The End Of Q1: Performance, Insights, And Statistics
Advertisers Lose An Approximate Of $130 Million In Fraud Dubbed As Hydra
In a revelation by Protected Media, a security firm based in Israel, advertisers lost an approximate of $130 million in an advertisement fraud. They have named the accused as Hydra, and there is an ongoing search operation target to find the accused.
However, Google and other advertisement tech firms are looking for the accused, but yet no one knows who is behind this million-dollar fraud.
Hydra!
The given name is perfect for a criminal community. Hollywood movies often have such names for their villains.
Although, it is indeed a villain in the real world which is responsible for fraudulent activities and stealing of $130 million; valuable hard-earned money of the advertisers.
The problem is, it still exists and has not been identified.
Rachel Nyswander Thomas, COO of TAG said, “Hydra is an accurate name because the impressions are being sold through many networks and being diluted — there are many heads to slay.”
The statement certainly raises concerns.
It is said to be creating fake app traffic. The traffic goes undetected by humans, ultimately costing them money for nothing.
Even though it was detected nearly a year ago by Asaf Greiner, CEO at Protected media, it is hard to catch the people behind the fraud scheme. These are clear signs that the fraud scheme is no ordinary fraud that advertisers or tech firms have faced in the past.
Reportedly, it portrays itself as mobile phones to create small amounts of traffic and then diverting the ad-traffic into the areas where enormous money is getting invested.
There is an ongoing search operation in progress; “Operation Abolish Hydra.”
However looking at the scenarios, it will take some outstanding measures to get to the root of such clever fraud techniques.
There is an ongoing fight against fraud, piracy, malware, and the absenteeism of transparency in the world of digital marketing.
To fight such malpractices, and eliminate the risk of fraud by these malpractices, American Affiliation of Promoting Companies (4A’s) and Affiliation for Nationwide Advertisers (ANA) and IAB created TAG. The leadership council of this community contains names like ad platforms, companies, and advertisers at the side of, Facebook, Google, NBCUniversal, GroupM, and Dr. Pepper Snapple Community.
Even when Google checked things with its Advert Traffic Quality team, it confirmed the fraud is costing people their money. Although, according to Google, it has only lost the least volume of marketing from the scam operation.
In the meantime, TAG launched the operation, “Operation Abolish Hydra.”
The operation allowed digital ad sellers to report any fraudulent activity to TAG. Therefore, ultimately helping in the detection and control of this fraud.
Rachel Nyswander Thomas, COO of TAG said, “What is more modern is the diploma to which or no longer it is specializing in in-app inventory and that or no longer it is hiding in more modern ways.”
In a statement Asaf Greiner, CEO at Protected media acknowledged:
“Promoting platforms are ashamed of being victimized and they’re threatened by it.”
Also, “They’ll compile true into an express where an advertiser asks them to pay them abet. Most CMOs need to specialize in their subsequent job. It would no longer find excellent on anybody’s resume.”
A Google spokesperson stated the following while addressing the issue:
“We commend Accurate Media for sharing facts on the Hydra ad fraud blueprint and participating with the broader exchange, which is distinguished to minimizing effect.”
He also acknowledged that “The largest takeaway from this case is the need for all mobile app developers to put into effect app-adverts.txt records data to mitigate app spoofing risks.”
A spokesperson from TAG said:
“It will lift time to construct a culture of possibility-sharing.”
Further stating that “We stamp original to this as an exchange. However other people are initiating to possess an extensive consciousness that or it is no longer almost about taking half in whack-a-mole yourself.”
Google Ends All Gossips: Revealed Fee Structure For Advertisement Tools
Since a long time now! People were keen to know the prices of advertisement with Google, especially after it declared its DSP, DV360. The speculations were high, as there are always some hidden charges, including taxes.
However, Google ended this ongoing gossip! By releasing a series of blogs and articles, it painted a clear picture by releasing its fee structure for its different portals.
These portals included Display and video 360, Google ads, Ad Manager and its publisher tech. It is the first incidence where Google came out openly with its prices.
According to an aggregate data of 2019, if the advertiser spent $1 on the media with Google tech, the Publisher received a 69% share from that dollar. Whereas, the rest 31% is the profit gained by Google.
Reportedly, DV360( DSP) takes only 13% of $1 spent by an advertiser on media. On the other hand, Ad Manager charges an approximate of 18% of the dollar spent by the advertiser.
However, with Google Ads, the campaigns include the display, it charges 14% of every dollar spent by an advertiser. The ad networks charge their advertisers on the bases of cost-per-outcome. However, they pay the publishers on a CPM basis. Therefore, the cost varies on average.
Google disclosed the direct and programmatic amount, which they charge from publishers.
In an analysis of top 100 news publishers, who are using Google, discovered that they directly or indirectly(through partners) sold three-quarter of their inventory to the company. In that setup, Google charges an approx 1% fee based on the ad requests volume.
For the advertisements, in the remaining quarter filled programmatically, Googles charge, for handling the impression was 16%. it also clarified, for any impression filled directly by publishers, Google only charges 5% of the total revenue.
Although, there are a couple of warnings: While publishers use different DSPs to sell advertisement through multiple ad exchanges, they might be paying variable amounts for these advertisements. Through open biding, Google charges 5-10 per cent fee. However, advertisements sold by Ad Manager is charged with a 20% fee.
Also, it’s not yet clear how Ad-sense works in all this share proportion. According to previously shared data, Google takes with Ad Sense is around 68%. However, it wanted to clarify to the publishers that it doesn’t double charge them with its additional charges for Ad Manager.
Why All of Sudden Google is so Transparent?
Well, Google wants to prove that it doesn’t fraud its users. Since a long time now, it has been suffering from allegations.
Also, there is suppose to be an antitrust case which is anticipated by the tech giant this year. During this time frame, several parts of its business will be under a minute check. The state attorney general and the Department of Justice is supposed to be meeting on Friday, to discuss the case. This information was provided by The Wall Street Journal. Hence, as Google is earning a large chunk of its revenue from Ads, it could be one of the things that the departments will investigate.
Last year, an antitrust paper released faulted tech giant on its in-efficiency of sharing end-to-end fees. In a statement, it stated, “No one (other than Google) has visibility into what happens between AdWords and AdX.”
Even the programmatic ecosystem was demanding a transparent approach from Google. Sellers and buyers started to realize that their contract with the company, doesn’t give a clear justification of fee, which Google charged them.
The transparency started flooding the market nearly three years ago. Some independent ad technology companies including Rubicon Project and AppNexus shared data on their take away share of the money. They did so to get rid of the pressure from the industry to reveal the hidden fees. After that, the Trade Desk decided to go public. Hence, they reveal their fees every year.
ISBA is frequently auditing the supply chains. All this, to uncover the hidden charges. Marketers and other tech buyers are demanding from Blockchain to provide them with log-level data. These are the clear indications that publishers and advertisers are looking for transparency. The tech giant is trying to address the issue by providing transparency to its advertisers.