It’s been a busy couple of months for the Paid media space, and in turn, digital marketers. From Google policy updates to advert automation and new advertising partnerships between search engines and social media platforms, there’s a lot of changes to digest.

But, don’t worry. We’re here to break down the key changes, how they work and what the impacts are for businesses.

If you’re keen to learn more about the changes, keep reading.

Automatically Created Assets

Google has recently released a new feature for responsive search ads called automatically created assets.

But, what are automatically created assets and how do they work? Let’s dive in.

What are automatically created assets?

Automatically created assets are an opt-in, campaign level feature on Google Ads. When a user enables the setting, Google will generate additional assets (headlines and descriptions) to be used in conjunction with the assets the user has inputted for their responsive search ads.

The additional assets are based on the unique content existing in your ads, so the existing ads, landing pages and keywords that you use will all be taken into consideration when Google generates the additional assets.

How can SEO experts support automatically created assets?

It’s important to make sure that the content within your existing ads and landing pages is tight so Google can then generate assets for your campaign that align with your business.

Getting your SEO experts involved can help with this. They can ensure that your landing pages include relevant keywords and descriptive content. Ultimately, there should be no disparity between what your landing page is presenting and what your ads are presenting.

False affiliation with public figures and brands

Do you have an affiliation with or receive endorsements from a public figure or brand? Well, this update may apply to you.

The latest policy from Google Ads says they will suspend and completely ban accounts that are found “enticing users to part with money or information by impersonating or falsely implying affiliation with or endorsement by a public figure, brand, or organisation”.

There are currently no guidelines on how this will impact businesses that do have an affiliation with brands or public figures, but you may find that ads mentioning affiliations or endorsements are flagged automatically and you will have to provide evidence to prove your relationship.

Providing evidence for paid adverts is not a new concept. The likes of Meta require proof of qualification or certification for discussing topics such as the environment. This ensures the advertiser is who they say they are and not spreading misinformation.

As for Google Ads, this is all speculation as the policy only came into effect in March 2024. But, this is what we theorise about the process being going forward.

The Google and Pinterest ad partnership

Pinterest isn’t new to an ad partnership. They have already collaborated with Amazon to bring more brands and relevant products to its platform. Now, they’ve partnered with Google to bring ads from the search engine to the Pinterest platform, allowing users and brands to expand their reach and increase their visibility.

These sorts of partnerships are not out of the ordinary. Microsoft and Netflix began working together in 2022 on an advertising and sales partnership, and many more collaborations are appearing across the board.

Will you need to opt-in to Pinterest when creating your ad on Google?

In theory, you should be able to select Pinterest when you create your ad on Google.

Essentially, businesses and users integrate their ads on Pinterest via their Google Ads Manager account, removing the step of logging into the platform and setting up the advert themselves.

Why should businesses consider advertising on Pinterest?

For brands and businesses that have never advertised on Pinterest before, it can be daunting to experiment with a new platform. However, we recommend testing the waters and figuring out what works best for your business.

The platform works well for e-commerce brands and has the potential to lead to a stronger return on investment (ROI).

There are a lot of benefits to using Pinterest for advertising. The platform is useful for spotting emerging trends in your industry and finding out what content is popular based on searches. The platform also has powerful targeting features that businesses can benefit from.

Need support with your paid strategy?

The last couple of months has seen a lot of updates within the Paid media space. As a business, it can be hard to navigate all of the changes and determine what your next steps are.

That’s where our Paid team can help. Get in touch with our friendly team today to learn more about our PPC and social media advertising services and how we can support your business with your Paid strategy.

Don’t forget to keep up-to-date with the latest digital marketing news by visiting our blog.

The start of 2024 was relatively quiet with no core algorithm updates jumping out of the woodwork, but that doesn’t mean Google hasn’t been busy. On the contrary, Google has been making small changes here and there to enhance its tools and products across the board. Or, in one case, completely remove the tool (farewell, cache links).

Not up-to-speed with the latest changes? Keep reading to learn all about the updates to the Core Web Vitals tool, the cache link retiring, and Google’s rebranding of the Bard.

The Core Web Vitals tool update

It’s been known for some time now that Google is going to replace one of its Core Web Vitals metrics with a new one and, finally, we’ve been given the launch date.

If you’re not sure what the new Core Web Vital metric is or why it’s being implemented, keep reading.

What are Core Web Vitals?

According to Google, Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics that measure the user experience of a webpage, including loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. The Core Web Vitals metrics currently are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) which measures loading performance
• First Input Delay (FID) which measures interactivity
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) which measures visual stability

However, from the 12th of March 2024, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) will replace FID as part of an update to the Core Web Vitals.

Why is Interaction to Next Paint replacing First Input Delay?

Google has been experimenting with INP since May 2022 as a replacement for FID. According to the team, it became clear that FID didn’t have the full capabilities necessary to capture aspects of interactivity on the web. The new metric should be much more reliable and a better measure for optimising your website.

INP has now been promoted to a stable status and is ready to become a Core Web Vital metric in March. This means that FID will be removed permanently from the metric system. You won’t need to change the way you optimise your website going forward – the metric will just be more accurate when assessing your webpage on responsiveness.

Cache link is retired

This might be an update that you’re not too happy about… Don’t worry – we get it!

If you’re not familiar with the cache link feature, it allows users to view a cached version of a webpage directly from Google Search. However, the feature was retired as of February 2024.

What was the purpose of the cache link?

Historically, the cache link was brought in by Google to help preload content that might have been slightly slower to load, during a time when the web, in general, was slower to load.

Fast forward a decade (or more), and web page loading speeds are much quicker than before. Users don’t generally have the same problems with a page not loading, therefore, Google has essentially said it’s no longer a requirement to have.

From an SEO perspective, this may be slightly frustrating as the cache link works well for debugging web pages. That being said, there are a couple of good replacements to be aware of, including Google Search Console and Wayback Machine.

What does the change mean for web developers and website owners?

The change won’t impact web developers and website owners day-to-day, but it certainly reinforces the importance of having a fast-loading website.

The main impact will fall on users as they will no longer be able to access cached versions of web pages, and will need to find alternative options for accessing archived content.

Google’s Bard rebrands to ‘Gemini’

We were never much of a fan of the name “Bard” anyway… But, on a more serious note, this rebranding reinforces the point that Google is continuing to invest in AI technologies and their own AI ecosystem, Gemini.

Google has even gone as far as launching a Gemini mobile app to provide easy access to AI on Android and iOS phones.

Why has Google rebranded Bard?

According to Google, the rebranding of Bard to Gemini reflects the more advanced capabilities of the AI tool. Gemini uses a new Ultra 1.0 model called ‘Gemini Advanced’ which uses Google’s most advanced AI model to handle complex tasks.

Is it a rival to ChatGPT? It would appear so. Gemini Advanced is a paid version which rivals the paid version of ChatGPT, so it’s clear that Google is stepping up its game to be a major player in the AI universe.

How could this impact the SEO landscape?

Will we see search engines disappear and become chatbots? Possibly, but there’s a long way to go before that potentially happens. What we can be fairly certain about is that search engines will develop and transform over the next few months and years, integrating more AI features as they become available.

The key things for SEO professionals to focus on are entities and question-based content. We know that chatbot features are naturally more question-and-answer based but, even before looking at AI features, entity SEO is seeing great results so this should be a primary focus for marketers and business owners.

Need support with your SEO strategy?

That’s it for Google’s recent updates. Nothing too huge or impactful, but hopefully our synopsis gives you a good awareness of what’s happening in the world of Google right now. No doubt, we’ll have a core algorithm update to deep dive into in our next blog.

Need support with your SEO strategy? Our experienced team of SEO professionals are always on hand to guide you through entity SEO, site optimisation and SEO best practices.

Get in touch with our Giants today and, in the meantime, keep up to date with our blog to hear more about the latest SEO updates.