Happy Friday, Digital Darlings,
How was your Prime Day? Did you score some delicious deals? I know I did.
While you’re recovering from your digital shopping spree (and hopefully not experiencing too much buyer’s remorse) allow me to pull you back down to reality with this week’s digital marketing digest. And hopefully next week I’ll have some post-Prime Day tea to share. I’ll kick it off with an app store update.
Apple’s new App Store layout has better ad visibility
The search suggestions and top charts have been replaced by suggested apps and ads now appear at the top of that suggested apps list, right below the search bar. Since ads now appear at the top of the page, Apple Search Ads (ASA) advertisers can expect to see better click-through rates for their App Install ads. So, my dear ASA advertisers, keep an eye out for a lift in performance over the next few weeks! And speaking of things to keep an eye out for…
Watch out for the Google Maps pin scam
Let this be a warning to any of my readers who have brick-and-mortar locations – apparently competitors can move your Google Maps pin to the wrong location using the ‘suggest an edit’ feature. When the pin is moved to a different location, Google Maps thinks the store closed or changed, and this can tank your Google Business Profile rankings. What’s worse, Google doesn’t notify businesses when their pin is moved, so you may not even notice it happened. And you cannot simply go in and reposition your pin to the correct location, because that often results in Google Business Profile suspension. It’s so weird to me that making simple changes to your own Google Business Profile can trigger suspension, but Google allows any random user not associated with your account to make changes to your business’s listed location for you… WTF.
If this happens to you, the best path forward is to log into Google using an email address that’s not associated with your Google Business Profile and change your business’s location back to the right spot. In other Google news…
This hidden tool reveals discrepancies between GA4 and Google Ads
There’s a concealed report in GA4 called ‘Key Event Differences’. You can access it by adding “/advertising/key-event-differences” to the end of your GA4 property URL. Ooooh, I love secrets!!
The report breaks down the percentage difference between Google Ads reported conversions and GA4 reported conversions for each of your key events. I’m intrigued by the fact that it’s hidden – perhaps Google is testing it out and will add it to GA4 as an official report soon? Or, even better, they’ll fix the issues that cause data discrepancies between the two platforms in the first place… For now, you can see a step-by-step guide to accessing the report here. Now, an update for my dear SEOs…
Buckle up SEOs, another core update is coming
Google Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said to expect another core update in the next few weeks. We don’t know exactly when, but SEOs can start bracing for volatility. As far as the goal of this core update… we don’t know that either. But Sullivan did say "I do hope we can improve in some of these cases where creators with their hearts in the right places, and who are doing the real content effort behind that, are rewarded as we should be doing." So fingers crossed the update makes things better for niche sites, not worse. In other search news…
OpenAI is building a search product
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was ‘Readying a Search Product to Rival Google, Perplexity.’ They said “the feature would allow users to ask ChatGPT a question and receive answers that use details from the web with citations to sources such as Wikipedia entries and blog posts.” But not much has been heard about it since. That is, until late last week when the CEO of The Atlantic shared in an interview that he’s letting OpenAI train their search product on The Atlantic’s data. Could this be the Google rival we’ve all been waiting for? Only time will tell. Now for some Amazon updates…
Amazon launched their AI shopping assistant, Rufus
Just in time for Prime Day! I must say, launching a new feature days before your biggest sale of the year is… confident. But I’m all for AI-assisted shopping as long as it helps me buy better products and get better deals. Rufus’s LLM is trained on Amazon’s product catalog and can answer questions about products, offer comparisons and alternatives, share fashion trends and more. Sounds cute! Try him out if you’re still doing some post-Prime Day shopping. Now, some good news for Amazon non-endemic advertisers…
Amazon is testing lead gen ads for non-endemic advertisers
The new lead gen ads, currently in beta, enable advertisers to retarget shoppers who have shown interest in their brand while they shop on Amazon, browse IMDB, and stream on Twitch. In the ads, customers can sign up to receive more information about the brand or product without being directed to another site, so users already considering your brand can get more info without disrupting their shopping or browsing experience. This ad format sounds great for businesses with long consideration and information-gathering sales cycles like travel agencies. It could even be good for B2B. B2B ads on Amazon?! I thought I’d never see the day, but I’m excited to test it out.
That’s it for this week, darlings. Until next week, stay cute, stay strategic, and enjoy your Prime Day spoils as packages begin to trickle in over the weekend. We’ll talk next Friday. Same time, same place?
You know you love me.
.avif){kind=avatar}
