Microsoft Audience Ads are now available to all customers in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Venezuela, the company announced Tuesday. Prior to this update, this native ad product was only available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand and the UK.

Why we care

Microsoft Audience Ads appear on the Microsoft Audience Network, which includes sites like MSN, Outlook.com, Microsoft Edge and other Microsoft Advertising partners. Now that the Microsoft Audience Network can reach more audiences around the world, it’s more useful to more advertisers.

Recent news about the Microsoft Audience Network

• The Microsoft Audience Network now prohibits gambling, lawsuit, health supplement and end-of-life ads
• Video and vertical-based product ads pilots arrive on Microsoft Audience Network
• Facebook Import is now available in Microsoft Advertising

The post The Microsoft Audience Network expands to 18 new markets appeared first on Search Engine Land.

An upcoming Windows 11 update will block third-party apps from enabling users to select which browser and search engine Start menu searches open in, according to The Verge. Start menu searches open in the Edge browser, with results from Bing, regardless of the user’s designated default browser and search engine.

Why we care. Bypassing user-assigned defaults to open search results in Edge and Bing forces more users into Microsoft-owned channels. This presents more opportunities for Microsoft to show ads to those users, even if Edge and Bing aren’t their default choices. This may slightly, and somewhat artificially, add more value to some of Microsoft’s ad products, while strong-arming users into trying its browser and search engine (albeit in a limited sense), which might increase adoption over the long run.

EdgeDeflector was released in 2017, but only recently has Microsoft taken action against it and similar apps that enable users to designate which browser its Start menu search results open in. “The [500 thousand] EdgeDeflector users were probably never more than a nuisance to Microsoft,” Daniel Aleksandersen, the developer of EdgeDeflector, said in a blog post, “However, last month both the Brave and Firefox web browsers either copied EdgeDeflector’s functionality or signaled it was on the roadmap … That news probably did make Microsoft sit up and pay attention.” At the time of publishing, Firef had roughly 218 million monthly active desktop users.

Edge-only Start menu search results. Regardless of the user’s default browser choice, Microsoft launches Edge and Bing when showing results for searches conducted from the Windows 10 and Windows 11 Start menu. In Windows 11, searches from the Widgets panel also only open in Edge and Bing.

EdgeDeflector and similar third-party apps offered a way to overcome this limitation, enabling users to open Start menu search results in the browser of their choice. However, Microsoft has confirmed that an update, which is scheduled to roll out in the coming weeks, will put an end to these workarounds. “Windows also offers certain end-to-end customer experiences in both Windows 10 and Windows 11, the search experience from the taskbar is one such example of an end-to-end experience that is not designed to be redirected,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge, “When we become aware of improper redirection, we issue a fix.”

Firefox was planning its own workaround. “We have worked on code that launches Firefox when the microsoft-edge protocol is used for those users that have already chosen Firefox as their default browser,” a Mozilla spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge, “Following the recent change to Windows 11, this planned implementation will no longer be possible.”

Switching default browsers is also more difficult than it used to be. Windows 11 introduced a new workflow for switching default browsers: Users can still select “Always use this app” in the prompt that appears when they first launch a browser, but if they don’t do that, they will have to take additional steps and assign a default browser for each file or link type (HTM, HTML, PDF, HTTP, HTTPs, etc). This process takes longer than it did on Windows 10, where users could switch default applications for web browsing, email, photos, videos and so on without digging into file formats or link types.

Additionally, Mozilla has added an option to set Firefox as the default browser with a single click. This option is only available in the version of Firefox downloadable from the web — it’s missing from the version of Firefox in the Microsoft Store, where Microsoft has restricted that feature to its own Edge browser.

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Google has updated its Merchant Center policy now allows you to list your medical test kits both at-home results or lab results and over-the-counter test kits in both free and paid Google Shopping.

What is new. Google’s new policy states “medical test kits with at-home results or lab results are now allowed on Shopping ads and free listings. This includes over-the-counter test kits. Every medical test kit must adhere to country-specific regulations.”

What is not new. Google said what is not changing with this policy is that merchants are still responsible for ensuring their products are in compliance with applicable laws and policies. Google said “for example, test kits sold in the U.S. must be FDA-approved or emergency use authorized. Medical test kits will also continue to be classified as Medical Devices.”

More details. You can learn more details about this policy change in the Google support area around healthcare and medicines in Google Merchant Center.

Why we care. If you sell these types of goods and services, you can now have them listed in Google Shopping through Google Merchant Center. You can also use Google Ads to promote them in Google Shopping.

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Google has confirmed a bug with its Google Shopping Ads product where the cost per click (CPC) prices spiked from 50% to over 200% over the weekend. The issue happened last night, Friday, November 12th between 9pm EST (6pm PST) through this morning, Saturday, November 13th at 12am EST (3am PST).

Confirmation. Google confirmed the issue after 1pm EST today, November 13th on Twitter saying “The Google Ads system encountered an unexpected issue between 6pm PST on Friday Nov 12 – 3am PST Saturday, Nov 13 that affected Shopping Ads. We identified and fixed the issue. Everything is working as expected now.”

What’s next. It appears that if you were impacted, a Google Ads representative will be in touch with more details. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison from Google wrote on Twitter “impacted advertisers will be notified with more details.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt for you to check your Google Ads reporting and see if you were impacted and then to proactively reach out to Google for help and refunds.

How bad was it. Well, look at this chart from one Google Ads advertser:

Why we care. If you have any Google shopping campaigns in Google Ads, you will want to check to ensure your ads were not impacted. If they were, make sure to reach out to Google for some sort of remedy so that you are not over-billed and your ad campaigns do not suffer in other ways.

The post Google Ads shopping ads bug results in huge CPC increased; issue now resolved appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Microsoft Audience Network’s policies have been updated and no longer allow for advertising lawsuits, end-of-life products and services, health supplements and vitamins and gambling, the company announced Friday.

Here is the list of categories that are no longer allowed on the Microsoft Audience Network as well as on native advertising served on Microsoft-owned and operated properties, like MSN and Outlook:

• Lawsuit advertising and invitations to participate in a lawsuit.
• End-of-life products and services, including but not limited to cremation services, funeral flowers, urns, coffins and obituaries.
• Health supplements and vitamins (however enforcement for supplement and vitamin ads that are currently running on the network will not begin until January).
• Gambling (which is already prohibited on the Microsoft Audience Network but will now also be prohibited on native advertising served on Microsoft-owned and operated properties).

Why we care

Most of these categories are already prohibited on other platforms, so marketers working for brands in these verticals may not be surprised. Nevertheless, those brands are now missing out on another way to reach potential customers, which makes their organic strategy even more important.

Additionally, many platforms have regulated these ad categories in the interest of user safety, which might also improve the user experience on those platforms. It’s only natural that Microsoft would seek to match its ad safety standards and user experience with those of its competitors.

The post The Microsoft Audience Network now prohibits gambling, lawsuit, health supplement and end-of-life ads appeared first on Search Engine Land.

The latest edition of Google Ads Editor has been announced and includes many new features and views:

What’s new?

• Overview page: A new view has been created in Google Ads Editor, “Overview”, which is similar to the Overview page in the online Google Ads Editor interface.
• Auto-apply view for Recommendation: Auto-apply, a new view under Recommendations, allows you to enable or disable automatic application of certain recommendation types.
• Support for asset-based call extensions: Google Ads Editor now fully supports asset-based call extensions, also known as “Call extensions (upgraded)”.
• Support for asset-based price extensions: Google Ads Editor now fully supports asset-based price extensions, also known as “Price extensions (upgraded)”.
• Target CPA recommendations for Display, VAC, Discovery: For some accounts, Google may provide Target CPA bid recommendations for new Display, Video Action (also known as “Video – Drive conversions”), and Discovery campaigns.

The announcement, which can be found here, includes many more new options for advertisers.

Why we care. Make sure to go through the list and determine which new features will best serve your accounts and clients when you use Google Ads Editor. These features should make it easier for you to manage campaigns and advertising strategies for all your accounts when you’re not online.

The post New features out for Google Ads Editor version 1.8 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Those who are new to cryptocurrency may not totally understand how every aspect of virtual currency works. Many will go to Google and other search engines to search for things like “What is cryptocurrency?” “How to buy Bitcoin” and “What is a crypto exchange?” Knowing that not everyone is keen on how it works, scammers have taken advantage of crypto newbies through a phishing scam where those involved lost over $500,000, according to research by Check Point Research.

What happened? “Attacker buys Google Ads in response to searches for popular crypto wallets (that’s the software used to store cryptocurrency, NFTs, and the like),” said James Vincent for The Verge.

From there, crypto-novices who search for related queries are served a Google Ad results which actually takes them to a phishing site instead of a legitimate URL. “Researchers from CPR spotted multiple phishing websites that looked like the original website because the scammers copied its design. For the domain “phantom.app”, the Phantom wallet’s official site, we encountered phishing variants like phanton.app or phantonn.app, or even different extensions like “.pw” and more,” wrote CPR researchers Dikla Barda, Roman Zaikin and Oded Vanunu.

After that, the searcher will be instructed to enter their credentials (which the scammers then steal and transfer funds to their own wallets) or they receive a recovery password that logs them into the scammer’s wallet — so any added funds will go into that wallet instead of their own.

Google’s cryptocurrency ad policies. In June, Google Ads updated its cryptocurrency ad policies to be more strenuous and require certification, Search Engine Land reported. “Google has recently gone back and forth with policies around ads for crypto exchanges and wallets. In early 2018, Google originally banned crypto advertising, but rolled back that ban later in the same year.” The June 2021 policy update included the following measures and required compliance by August 2021:

Financial advertisers will need to check the following boxes to be able to advertise on Google Ads:

• Be duly registered with
  • (a) FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money transmitter; or 
  • (b) a federal or state-chartered bank entity. 
• Comply with relevant legal requirements, including any local legal requirements, whether at a state or federal level.
• Ensure their ads and landing pages comply with all Google Ads policies

“Advertisers must also be certified with Google,” says the current Google documentation regarding crypto exchanges.

We’ve reached out to Google for comment, but had not received one by publish time. We will add the comment upon receiving it.

Why we care. Not only is this a huge loss for those who may not be crypto experts, but it dilutes the legitimacy and work of those ad specialists who went through the hoops to follow Google Ads’ cryptocurrency policies. The phishing ads also potentially instill distrust in searchers for ads results.

The post Phishing scams in Google Ads led searchers to fake crypto wallets appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Numerous advertisers have reported “Destination mismatch” ad disapprovals in Google Ads that may be the result of a glitch. “I had five clients impacted; most ads are no longer disapproved (though one account still has some). Of the other four, three have ads Eligible (Limited) for Destination Mismatch,” said Director of Search Strategy at JumpFly, Nikki Kuhlman, who first brought this to our attention.

The Google Ads team is aware of the issue and is currently investigating it, said Ginny Marvin, Google’s ads product liaison.

Several PPC professionals are experiencing the same disapproval. After Kuhlman shared the issue, other PPC practitioners commented that they’re also noticing the same disapproval. “Confirming. We just got 1,000’s of disapproval’s for that,” Andrew Kachel commented. And, as Shaun Maharaj has pointed out, the empty fields in the notice (shown below) may indicate that something isn’t working properly on Google’s end.

Seeing the same. New rejections coming in every couple of hours. Seems like a bug because the fields are blank pic.twitter.com/AcsC78lGBf

— Shaun Maharaj (@shaunmaharaj) November 4, 2021

One professional, Christian Rios, said that he’s now seeing destination mismatch disapprovals for ads that “haven’t been touched in ages.”

One glitch after another? There seems to be another Google Ads issue going around: Since mid-October, some advertisers have reported that they’re receiving an error saying their ads aren’t showing due to a location targeting issue. One advertiser has allegedly been told by a Google representative that the error is now fixed, however many are still reporting the issue. It is unclear whether these issues are connected.

PPC professionals are testing solutions. “Have a look at account settings > tracking and see if you have anything in the tracking template field,” Mark Bissoni suggested, “Could be this. Remove it and appeal.”

If you’re also experiencing destination mismatch disapprovals, but at a much smaller scale than what other PPC professionals are describing, it’s possible that your disapproval isn’t due to a bug. If you suspect that’s the case, you can turn to Google’s Advertising Policies Help page for guidance on how to troubleshoot destination mismatches.

Why we care. “​​I had a client messaging me on Facebook last night because she was freaking out,” Kuhlman told Search Engine Land, “She was also the biggest impacted — she had about 500 ads disapproved.” If you’re suddenly experiencing widespread destination mismatch disapprovals, it may be due to an issue on Google’s end. Informing your clients that others are experiencing the same issue and that Google is aware and investigating it may ease their concerns. It’s also important to make note of the disapprovals for reporting purposes.

We are quickly approaching the height of the holiday shopping season. Hopefully, Google is able to get things working properly, or explain the issue so that advertisers can resolve it themselves, before it begins to impact any Cyber Week promotions that brands may be planning.

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