As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly.

June 09, 2023

In This Issue:

🔓 Google: Industry-wide blocks for trademarks in Google Ads will no longer be applicable from July 24

🆕 Google’s Ads API (version 14) comes with five notable enhancements.

💰 Google's recently unveiled transparency tool is causing a stir within the advertising industry as debates on ad-tech fees continue.

🐦 Meta is developing an alternative to Twitter, with details emerging from an internal briefing.

🔮 Meta previews generative AI tools that are set to be incorporated into WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.

🎭 TikTok adds easier connections between creators and brands.

Google Ads New Trademark Policy™: Harder for Brands to Flag

Google Ads is making a big change in how it processes trademark complaints, updating its policy to remove industry-wide blocks for trademarked terms.

Starting on July 24, Google will only let you report violations of your trademark against specific advertisers and ads, rather than applying restrictions to all advertisers in the trademark owner’s industry.

💡 Why the Change? 

The current policy restricts all ads in an entire industry from using trademarked material when complaints are filed. Google says this has resulted in over-flagging and industry-wide blocks, causing challenges for advertisers.

With its updated policy, the company hopes to reduce these issues and speed up resolution times. 

Trademark restrictions imposed before July 24, 2023, as per the current policy, will remain in effect. However, Google plans to gradually phase out these limitations for most advertisers over the next 12-18 months.

Image: Google / Canva

Google Ads API Catches Up to Desktop

From trademark policies to API updates. Google released version 14 of its Ads API this week, which includes new features to support the transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

Search Engine Land breaks down what's new in the June 2023 update — and remember, the API is used by third-party tools to do what Google's native platform does.

Account-level negative keywords will let advertisers retrieve, create and update account-level negative keywords. This means that users can exclude specific keywords from targeting not just a single ad group or campaign, but a whole account.

Offline conversion clients summaries: This is a brand new field in customer resources that offers information about the offline conversion process, such as how many conversions were uploaded successfully and how many failed when the offload jump was executed.

New conversion action types: These new features will help advertisers to identify conversions imported from Google Analytics and determine if a conversion is from a GA4 or Universal Analytics property. This is particularly important as GA4 is replacing Universal Analytics on July 1, and so these changes need to be reflected in Google Ads API v14.

The update also includes several new recommendation types, as well as improved keyword planning capabilities. 

Image: Canva 

Google Expands Access to Ad-Tech Fee Tracking Tool

In other news from Google, the company expanded access to a tool yesterday designed to help publishers and buyers track ad-tech fees.

The tool, called Confirming Gross Revenue, lets publishers see the total revenue generated from a specific buyer. By comparing this data with the media cost on the buyer's end, both parties should be more confident that there are no hidden ad-tech fees. 

Confirming Gross Revenue was initially launched to select firms last year, but it will now be made available to all publishers using Google’s SSP Ad Manager 360 and all advertisers using Google’s DSP Display & Video 360.

🔎 Industry Standards and Scrutiny

Adweek reports that Google plans for the tool to be adopted by other ad-tech firms and is working with the industry trade group, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, to set standards. 

Google has faced criticism regarding the fairness of ad auctions. In a 2020 lawsuit filed by a group of attorneys general against the company, it was alleged that Google manipulated auctions, resulting in systematic overcharging of buyers and underpayment of publishers. Publishers have also expressed frustration with the tech giant’s refusal to provide access to log-level data, which could help uncover irregularities in auctions.

Google clarified that the Confirming Gross Revenue tool does not offer log-level data but instead provides aggregated gross revenue figures, citing user privacy concerns for that decision.

Image: Google 

Meta’s Anti-Twitter is Coming Soon

Meta previewed the company's new app that will rival Twitter during an internal meeting yesterday obtained by The Verge. 

The platform, currently called 'P92' (or 'Barcelona' in other leaked versions), is a text-based feed app that lets users share text updates as well as add photos and videos to their messages. 

According to the report, the app may actually be called ‘Threads’ upon its release. Which is weird, because Instagram had a spin-off app once called Threads, which they later killed.

The main feed layout looks like a DM thread, with replies expanding below the original message and profile icons indicating the users who replied. 

The app features four tabs: 

  • Main feed

  • Explore

  • Favorites

  • User profile

  • And a central composer window for creating posts

Most interestingly, Meta noted that it will integrate with the decentralized protocol ActivityPub, which could let users transfer their information, including audience info, to other apps that support the same. Mastodon also supports ActivityPub integration.

Image: Meta via The Verge 

Generative AI for Meta Consumers

Meta has been dribbling AI into its ads manager for some time now, but we haven't seen a tonne of information about how they plan to use it on the consumer-facing side. 

Now, we have more detail on that, with the company previewing some of the generative AI it plans to  launch in the coming months, including: 

  • AI-generated stickers

  • chatbots for Messenger and WhatsApp 

  • Photo editing tools for Instagram Stories 

Meta's AI chatbots, called AI agents, will let consumers interact with bots with unique personas and skills. These AI agents will be released on Messenger and WhatsApp, with plans to expand them across the tech giant's apps and potentially integrate them into smart glasses. The vision is that consumers would wear these smart glasses to interact with the agents via voice. 

Meta also said it's experimenting with AI that will let users engage with a text prompt to modify their photos in Instagram Stories.

They also showed how they were using generative AI for internal purposes, including an experimental interface called "agents playground" for employees to engage with AI agents and provide feedback. 

Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that its initial consumer-facing tools are set to launch later this year.

Image: Canva

TikTok Expands ‘Open Applications’ 

More brands on TikTok will now be able to invite creators to pitch campaigns. 

The company has expanded its 'Open Applications' feature, which lets businesses post details of their upcoming campaigns on the platform, giving interested influencers the opportunity to respond within the app.

Through Open Applications, creators can submit a short pitch, examples of their relevant TikTok content, contact information, and proposed fees for the brand campaign. 

After creators make their pitches, brands, and marketers can review submissions directly within the app. Users can also filter applicants based on:

  • Audience demographics

  • Follower count

  • Location

  • And more

Brands also have the option to invite specific creators to apply if they have someone in mind for the campaign.

The company has been testing the option since February, but this represents a wider expansion, with all brands gaining access via TikTok’s Creator Marketplace.

Images: TikTok

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