Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Search Console (GSC) properties can now be linked, Google announced Wednesday via the Google Search Central Twitter account.

Note: This announcement pertains to GA4. In Universal Analytics, this capability has been available for years.

Why we care

Associating your GA4 and GSC properties expands your ability to analyze search traffic and enables you to directly compare search data with site analytics, which can help you get a better view of the user’s journey and identify correlations.

Universal Analytics and GA4 have existed alongside one another since the latter was launched in October 2020. Google has not announced when it will stop supporting Universal Analytics, but when it does, marketers will be forced on to GA4. Rolling out this association now — well ahead of the eventual deprecation of Universal Analytics (which SEOs overwhelmingly prefer at this point) — will also give us more time to explore GA4’s capabilities, which may help facilitate the transition.

More Google Analytics 4 resources

• How to get started in Google Analytics 4
• What digital marketers should know about Google Analytics 4
• How to set up Google Analytics 4 using Google Tag Manager

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Google is now officially allowing hotels to use Google Posts, but only in a limited manner. Hotels can use Google Posts to give customers notifications about the hotel, but not for offers or promotional purposes.

New policies. Google has updated the business profile post policy document to add a section for “hotel posts.” The new policy says:

• Hotel businesses can create local posts to provide relevant, timely info to customers. Examples of helpful posts include COVID-19 protocols, updates to amenities or renovations, and events that take place on the property.
• Hotels can’t create “offer” posts, or any post that suggests the existence of or that links out to deals, promotions, special offers, or discounts. This ensures that customers don’t get confused about where to navigate on the hotel placesheet to find organic and ad prices from partners.

Not for promotional purposes. Clearly, Google does not want hotels to use Google Posts for promotional purposes or to highlight offers, deals, discounts or other promotional reasons. Google said they don’t want hotels to use it for promotional purposes because they don’t want to confuse searchers and consumers. Confuse how? Well, Google often shows the price for the hotel and if there are deals or promotions that cause confusion around the price, that can be upsetting.

Hotel updates. So you can use this to communicate rules or changes in the hotel, like around COVID-19, renovations, events at the hotel or more.

Why we care. Hotels have been itching to use Google Posts since it came out but Google has not allowed hotels to use the feature. That has not changed but keep in mind, you can only use Google Posts for informational purposes and not to offer deals and promotions.

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The latest earnings announcements from Alphabet and Facebook have made it abundantly clear that the consumer privacy movement is creating a competitive advantage for Google. It’s important that businesses understand this reality as Big Tech firms enact tougher privacy controls.

Since January 2020, both Apple and Google have made some big moves in the name of protecting consumer privacy. These changes are affecting businesses everywhere:

• In January 2020, Google said that the company would phase out third-party cookies on Chrome, the world’s most popular browser. As a result, advertisers would lose the ability to serve up highly targeted ads based on tracking consumer activity on Chrome. Google later postponed its timetable for doing this after regulators stepped in and insisted on having oversight with the process.
• In 2021, Apple enacted the Application Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy control as part of an update to its operating system for Apple devices. ATT requires apps to get the user’s permission before tracking their data across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising, or sharing their data with data brokers. As much as 96% of users in the United States are opting out of having their behavior tracked.

These changes are doing something else, too: they’re making Google stronger.

The impact of Google’s privacy controls

Phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome helps Google in two important ways and makes its ecosystem stronger. The demise of third-party cookies is quite convenient for Google sites such as Google Maps and YouTube. That’s because they use first-party cookies to track user behavior. Therefore, those sites become more appealing to advertisers that wish to continue serving up targeted ads working with Google. As Alphabet reported, YouTube’s advertising revenue for the third-quarter 2021 was $7.2 billion, up from $5.04 billion a year ago.

Meanwhile, Google is building its own open-source program that is intended to help businesses serve up targeted ads without using third-party data. This program is known as FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts). FLoC will make it possible for businesses to group people based on their common browsing behavior instead of using third-party cookies. According to a Google blog post, “Our tests of FLoC to reach in-market and affinity Google Audiences show that advertisers can expect to see at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising. The specific result depends on the strength of the clustering algorithm that FLoC uses and the type of audience being reached.”

I cannot overstate how important it is for Google to grow its ad revenues, which were $53 billion for the third quarter. Google is clearly succeeding. But a number of players, notably Amazon Advertising and Facebook, present a threat. Google will do everything in its power to fend off its competition and grow its cash cow.

But, why bother to do all this? Because Google is reading the room: Consumer privacy has been a hot-button issue in recent years. Legislators all over the world have been pressuring Big Tech to protect consumer privacy more carefully. And, you have to give Google credit for how adroitly the company is acting here. The company is making its own sites more attractive while giving advertisers the means to continue working with Google Advertising using its own open-source program.

The impact of Apple’s privacy controls

Apple’s ATT is already having an impact in some interesting ways. First off, as users opt-out of having their privacy tracked, social media sites such as Facebook, which track user behavior to serve up targeted ads, are taking a $10 billion revenue hit (and counting). This also affects Google’s ad rival Facebook — thus helping Google. In addition, some advertisers are taking their business to the Google Android operating system, creating another boon for Google. As The Wall Street Journal noted, “ . . . many brands have shifted their ad spending to Google because its flagship search-ad business relies on customer intent—users’ search terms immediately reveal what they are interested in—rather than data collected from app and web tracking.”

What businesses should do

It’s important that businesses continue to watch and react. Even though Google’s war on third-party cookies was slowed down by regulators, the writing is on the wall: advertisers need to be prepared to tap into their first-party data to create more relevant content. This means, among other things, monitoring the tools that Google is developing to help advertisers do that.

Advertisers should also keep a close eye on how retailers such as Amazon and Walmart are successfully mining their own first-party data to offer targeted ad products. Google is not the only game in town. Retailer-based advertising gives businesses the means to reach people who are shopping with an intent to buy. After all, Amazon is the most popular platform for product search. But, more importantly, it’s time for businesses to lean on their own data to build relationships.

The post Why consumer privacy is Google’s ace in the hole appeared first on Search Engine Land.

The European Union’s General Court has rejected an appeal by Google and upheld a $2.8 billion fine against the company, originally levied in 2017 for favoring its own content in shopping search results. Separately, the UK Supreme Court ruled in Google’s favor in a 2017 class action-style lawsuit in which the company was accused of illegally collecting data on iPhone users.

The EU’s General Court upholds $2.8B fine. In 2017, the European Commission levied the largest antitrust penalty in its history up to that point — 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) — against Google for allegedly favoring its own comparison shopping service. Google appealed the fine but, on Wednesday, the EU’s General Court upheld the European Commission’s 2017 decision, stating, “The General Court concludes its analysis by finding that the amount of the pecuniary penalty imposed on Google must be confirmed.”

“The General Court finds that, by favoring its own comparison shopping service on its general results pages through more favorable display and positioning, while relegating the results from competing comparison services in those pages by means of ranking algorithms, Google departed from competition on the merits,” the court said in a press release.

Google can file another appeal with the European Union’s highest court, the EU Court of Justice, but the company has yet to state what course of action it intends to pursue.

UK Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit over alleged tracking of iPhone users. Although Google lost its appeal in the EU, the UK Supreme Court ruled in its favor in a class action-style lawsuit which also dates back to 2017. The lawsuit claimed that Google bypassed the privacy settings of 4.4 million iPhone users in the UK between 2011 and 2012. The claimant, Richard Lloyd, former director of consumer rights group Which?, alleged that Google cookies gathered user data on race, health, sexuality, ethnicity and finance, regardless of users’ “do not track” privacy settings in the Safari browser. The damages could have cost Google up to three billion pounds.

“The claimant seeks damages … for each individual member of the represented class without attempting to show that any wrongful use was made by Google of personal data relating to that individual or that the individual suffered any material damage or distress as a result of a breach,” the UK Supreme Court said in its judgement.

Why we care. In the EU, the General Court’s ruling may strengthen the European Commission’s drive to regulate big tech, which doesn’t bode well for other platforms — like Amazon, Apple and Facebook — that are also currently under investigation. This also adds momentum to the proposed Digital Markets Act, which threatens to end self-preferencing in app search results. In addition, the tighter regulations may ultimately work in favor of Google’s competitors in the shopping vertical.

Google would have suffered another substantial blow if the UK Supreme Court ruled against it, since the decision could have paved the way for more class action-style lawsuits. In the UK, such lawsuits currently require people to opt-in, which can draw out the process. This also carries implications for other platforms, such as TikTok, which is being sued over the use of children’s data.

The post Google goes 1-1 in Europe: EU upholds $2.8B fine; UK dismisses lawsuit over alleged iPhone tracking appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Another quarter’s earnings report shows that Google is among the winners when it comes to the shifting pandemic landscape. It makes sense that their investment in e-commerce and multi-channel advertising options continues to pay dividends as many people are still hesitant to participate in in-person shopping, dining, and more. That, plus many have just come to prefer the convenience of pick-up, delivery, and online ordering options.

41% year-over-year growth. Revenues for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, went up a whopping 41% YoY according to the report, with ad revenues driving $51.3 out of the $65.1 billion. Google attributed the continued increases to its big push for commerce in Q3 (and before) in the earnings call. Along with the investment in commerce, Google is offering even more options for advertisers who are seeing a return to in-person shopping, especially as the holiday season nears.

YouTube is the breakout star. “YouTube advertising revenues reached $7.2bn, an increase of 43% from the previous quarter thanks to both direct response and brand advertising,” reported John Glenday for The Drum. This is the result of YouTube’s CTV (connected TV) advertising increases and its competitive product Shorts, which competes with the likes of TikTok and Snap. This increase is a big deal since Apple’s App Tracking Transparency had the potential to affect YouTube similarly to other video social media apps.

Google revenues not affected by legal troubles. Recent lawsuits and controversy with documents being unsealed in those cases don’t seem to be harming the company’s revenues or usage of their products. These controversies include the allegations that the company throttled non-AMP pages, which it “claimed would ‘dramatically improve’ mobile web performance when it launched in 2015, was in fact a scheme to coerce publishers into using the format in order to limit advertising dollars not spent on its own ad exchanges.” Plus, there is a history of alleged collusion with Facebook to “kill header bidding” and essentially rig the ad market in the tech giants’ favor.

Why we care. “Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler explained on the call that while shoppers are returning to physical stores, the company’s also seeing ‘strong growth in local shopping queries’ at the same time,” said Sean Hollister for The Verge. Advertisers can expect to see the continued shift in local and omnichannel search marketing strategies, so if you’re not preparing yet, it’s something to consider for your 2022 strategy.

On the power dynamics side, Search Engine Land has written multiple times before about the juggernaut that Google has become. Many search marketers are aware of (and not surprised by) the moves the company has allegedly made, and many believe we just have to operate in this environment since we lack the control to change it. However, we can still exercise our power to do good in the industry via constant feedback and

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Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, it’s funny how the darlings of tech have become, to some extent, monsters.

Perception of Google, Facebook and Amazon has shifted greatly since their earlier days, when they had to compete based on the value they were able to provide. But, that was when they were disrupting entrenched business models; now, they call the shots.

Alleged collusion (Facebook and Google), poor data governance (Facebook) and egregious conflicts of interest (Amazon) are among the more recent headlines about these platforms. Consequently, marketers have become cynical or numb to this cycle, adopting an attitude that I can only describe as “Google’s gonna Google” (likewise for Facebook and Amazon).

We’ve grown to tolerate and even expect this type of behavior because, well, it happens a lot and the businesses we work for rely on the volume of users that are on those platforms. However, an apathy towards these issues means that they’re likely to persist: If they can get away with it, they will take more of your levers away, they will rip off your products, they will find ways to make you dependent on them — because we were too busy with our work to see the larger picture or because we didn’t care enough to speak out.

I’m not proposing a rebellion. I’m just suggesting that ensuring your stakeholders are aware of how industry news may be impacting them can help to shake off some inertia, for their own good. Perhaps they’ll finally start taking first-party data more seriously, or they’ll shift focus from marketplaces and invest more in their own sites. And, it sounds far less glorious, but submitting feedback means that product managers at these platforms have a trail of evidence that they can bring to decision-makers — Google’s rectification of its botched title change rollout is just one example of how valuable feedback was for the search engine. Don’t be afraid to be the change you want to see in the industry.

George Nguyen,
Editor

Google Search Console Search Analytics API gains Discover, News and Regex

Google Search Console Search Analytics API users are gaining data and features that were previously only supported in the web interface. After numerous requests from search marketers, Google announced yesterday that the API now supports showing data for Google Discover, Google News and also supports Regex commands.

Why we care. Many of you use APIs to help automate and streamline your day-to-day SEO practices and reporting. Having access to these additional data points and adding in Regex controls should make these reporting tasks easier and more automated. This should save you time for other SEO-related tasks, tasks you might have a harder time automating.

Read more here.

Google allegedly creates ad monopoly with Facebook to favor its own exchange according to new, unredacted details from Project Jedi

This past Friday a New York judge unsealed previously redacted documents in the lawsuit against Google led by the State of Texas. One of the main allegations of the antitrust lawsuit is that Google and Facebook colluded to rig ad prices and “kill header bidding” (the attempt by competitors to make the ad market less Google-centric).

“The lawsuit claims that when Facebook began to gain traction as a rival advertiser, Google made an agreement with Facebook to reduce competition in exchange for giving the social media company an advantage in Google-run ad auctions. The project was called ‘Jedi Blue,’” we wrote in April of this year.

The newly unredacted information shows just how deep the alleged agreement went between Facebook and the search engine giant. 

Jedi Blue and Facebook/Google ad exchanges. Code-named “Jedi Blue,” the arrangement between Facebook and Google meant that Google would “​​charge Facebook lower fees and give Facebook information, speed and other advantages in header bidding auctions in exchange for Facebook’s support of Open Bidding, Google’s header bidding alternative,” wrote Allison Schiff for AdExchanger.

Why we care. There is potential that publishers and advertisers have been overpaying and missing out on placements due to Google’s alleged collusion with Facebook to essentially rig the ad market. Also with Google promoting FLoC, FLEDGE, and the rest of their sandbox as a privacy solution for the open web, these revelations call into question their motives (especially if the company is sharing sensitive data with other firms that have agreed to terms with them for ads).

Read more here.

Google throttled non-AMP page speeds, created format to hamper header bidding, antitrust complaint claims

“The speed benefits Google marketed were also at least partly a result of Google’s throttling,” a freshly unredacted complaint from 16 plaintiff states alleges, “Google throttles the load time of non-AMP ads by giving them artificial one-second delays in order to give Google AMP a ‘nice comparative boost.’”

The point of slowing down non-AMP ads would be to discourage advertisers from using header bidding —  “In Google’s own words, header bidding was an ‘existential threat’,” the complaint reads. This is because header bidding brings multiple demand sources together, which may undermine the dominance of Google’s ad business and cut into the company’s revenue.

Why we care. Eligibility for the Top Stories carousels was a big reason for publishers to get on board with AMP, perhaps at the cost of limiting their ad revenue opportunities. If the allegations are true, then what Google was doing is essentially equivalent to making publishers spend more in its ad ecosystem while lying about why it’s better than header bidding — all the while, dangling traffic and visibility (from the Top Stories carousel) to tip the scales in its favor.

But, without seeing all the internal documents, it is difficult to tell whether some of these claims represent flawed interpretations. However, Google’s lack of transparency has always worked against it in terms of public trust.

Read more here.

We’re always learning how to manage our businesses, but are we also learning how to manage ourselves?

How many leads does Google My Business drive? More than the organic section of Google (although that’s still a good source of leads and shouldn’t be ignored), according to Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky Inc. In her writeup, Hawkins emphasizes leads, not rankings, and compares GMB with organic, noting that both show year-over-year growth for her clients. There’s also a solid reminder in there about GMB not being able to track all phone calls.

The 411 on internal links. Does anyone even call (or remember) 411 anymore? Anyway, Lyndon NA, better known as @darth_na on Twitter, has created a thread covering the types of internal links, optimizing considerations and more.

Sorry, I got distracted. “Leaders can influence how their teams use always-on 24/7 tools like Slack to avoid the drawbacks of always-on 24/7 working,” said Marketoonist creator Tom Fishburne, “We have to learn to navigate the tradeoffs of faster communication and productivity — and set boundaries.”

What We’re Reading: ‘All social media companies want teens to use their services. We are no different.’ — Facebook

“Most young adults perceive Facebook as a place for people in their 40s and 50s,” according to a presentation by a group of Facebook data scientists to Chris Cox, the company’s chief product officer. “Young adults perceive content as boring, misleading, and negative. They often have to get past irrelevant content to get to what matters.”

Marketers have felt it for some time but now it’s all out in the open: The platform’s decline in younger users poses an existential threat (there seems to be a lot of those going around — see our story about Google and header bidding above). Teenage users of the Facebook app in the U.S. have declined 13% YoY since 2019 and are forecasted to decrease another 45% over the next two years. Additionally, adults between the ages of 20 and 30 are also expected to decrease by 4% over the same period. “Making matters worse, the younger a user was, the less on average they regularly engaged with the app,” Alex Heath wrote for The Verge.

Instagram is still popular with teens, but Facebook’s own data shows that it’s losing engagement in important markets, including the U.S., Australia and Japan. Development of “Instagram Kids,” the company’s product planned for children and a somewhat desperate attempt to regain market share amongst youths, has been halted after lawmakers denounced the initiative.

Facebook is now 17 years old, giving it a longer run than any other social media network. Unfortunately for the platform, the decline in daily users is likely to be accompanied by a decline in ad revenue as marketers look elsewhere to reach younger audiences.“Our products are still widely used by teens, but we face tough competition from the likes of Snapchat and TikTok,” Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborne told The Verge, “All social media companies want teens to use their services. We are no different.”

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