Patrick Kulp says, “Google has apologized repeatedly to outraged British brands and government groups that found their ads surfacing on hateful YouTube videos.better. The company announced a host of changes to its advertising systems on Tuesday meant to give brands more control over where their ads appear. The move comes after the Times of London set off a firestorm with reports that major advertisers were being featured alongside terrorist sympathizers, Nazis and other extremists on YouTube. Several big brands have pulled their ads from the platform in response over the past few days, and... [...]

Antony Maina says, “According to the latest report from research firm eMarketer, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are continuing to consolidate their hold on digital advertising. The firm says that total digital spending will increase by 16 percent this year to $83 billion. Google’s U.S. revenue from digital ads is expected to increase about 15 percent while Facebook’s is expected to jump 32 percent. The Benefits of Google and Facebook Advertising “Google’s dominance in search, especially mobile search, is largely coming from the growing tendency of consumers to turn... [...]

Patrick Kulp says, “Ads sold through Google have turned up in some pretty horrific corners of the web lately, and many big advertisers are outraged. The search giant responded to the growing uproar among its client brands on Friday with an unusual public apology and a promise to “do a better job.” “We’ve heard from our advertisers and agencies loud and clear that we can provide simpler, more robust ways to stop their ads from showing against controversial content,” Google U.K. managing director Ronan Harris wrote in a blog post. Google is the biggest advertising... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google appears to be running a limited test for local inventory ads (LIA) on mobile that looks like a shopping ad-ification of the Local Pack. Spotted on mobile by Mike Blumenthal on a search for “engagement rings Buffalo,” the result shows a map with a couple of LIAs below it where local pack results would typically show. I have been able to replicate the result in the Google mobile app. Here the ads are for two different rings at two different Kohl’s locations in the area, signified by the respective shopping icons on the map above the ads. Clicking on either... [...]

Andy Beohar says, “Expanded Text Ads (ETAs), announced in July of 2016, are considered by most industry observers to be the biggest change to Google Adwords in 16 years. Google’s new ETAs provide for an increase of 50 percent more ad space. Plus, ETAs pack in a few other exciting features as well. Numerous strategies and best practices have been developed over the years for the standard text ad format, but unfortunately, most of these don’t translate to expanded text ads. And, businesses are now having to scramble to update their ads before Google stops supporting the old format in January. The... [...]

Andy Taylor says, “At the recent SMX East conference in New York City, Google’s Jerry Dischler announced a number of paid search updates that should roll out in the near to immediate future. Among them, two in particular stand to expand the footprint of Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA). Here are the changes you need to know about, starting with the most impactful. RLSA membership duration expanded to 540 days Since beta testing all the way back in 2012, RLSA has been restricted to include only those users who visited an advertiser’s website within the past 180 days. This meant... [...]

Wesley Parker says, “New expanded text ads came out as part of Google’s latest changes in summer 2016 and will replace the old text format by January 31, 2017. The new ad format has given advertisers another 35 characters to display their offer in the headline and has increased the description from two lines of 35 characters to one line of 80 characters, giving advertisers more space to display their features, benefits and calls to action. But what does all of this mean for advertisers? 1. An increase in clickthrough rate From early tests WordStream has noticed that the clickthrough... [...]

Dave McIninch says, “Today, Google ends support for Converted Clicks in Google AdWords. Advertisers still using this metric in reports or for Target CPA bidding need to take a few steps to successfully migrate to the Conversions metrics instead. This article outlines how this change may affect you and what you need to do. What This Change Means Converted Clicks is a metric that came about in 2001 with the introduction of conversion tracking, and has lost much of its relevance since AdWords made updates to the Conversions column in 2015, at which point AdWords encouraged anyone still using... [...]

Dave McIninch says, “Today, Google ends support for Converted Clicks in Google AdWords. Advertisers still using this metric in reports or for Target CPA bidding need to take a few steps to successfully migrate to the Conversions metrics instead. This article outlines how this change may affect you and what you need to do. What This Change Means Converted Clicks is a metric that came about in 2001 with the introduction of conversion tracking, and has lost much of its relevance since AdWords made updates to the Conversions column in 2015, at which point AdWords encouraged anyone still using... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google introduced a new format for YouTube TrueView video ads on Wednesday: TrueView for action. Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP of ads and commerce at Google, made the announcement at the DMEXCO conference in Germany on Wednesday. The new ad format follows other goal-driven TrueView formats — TrueView for app promotion and TrueView for shopping — designed to move video advertising on YouTube beyond general branding. Ramaswamy said Google will test TrueView for action ads throughout the year. A Google spokesperson says the reporting and user experience are being fine-tuned,... [...]