What You Missed Last Month in Google

How in the world did we get here?

It's hard to believe it's already July -- but alas, here we are, watching summer (in Boston, anyway) progress. 

We've been keeping busy, and so has Google, it seems. June was as busy a month as ever for the search giant, and we've put together a rundown of the major highlights you may have missed last month.

What You Missed Last Month in Google

1. Rebranded Ads

Toward the end of June, Google announced a major rebrand to its ad product. What used to be AdWords is now a suite of three separate brands: Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Ad Manager.

The last of the three, Google Ad Manager, is being positioned as an all-in-one platform to monitor and maximize ad revenue. 

But most similar to the AdWords product with which most users are familiar is Google Ads, which "represents the full range of advertising capabilities we offer today," according to the official statement penned by SVP of Ads & Commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy.

At the moment, details remain a bit vague, though a separate post was published about the specific ways Google Ads will support small businesses.

Source: Google

Users will begin to see the new, rebranded product on July 24, along with a new URL (adwords.google.com will shift to to ads.google.com).

More information will be revealed, Ramaswamy wrote, at the company's Google Marketing Live event on July 10th, where we also anticipate hearing more about the Google Marketing Platform. We'll be covering the event, so stay tuned for more updates on this front. Read full statement >>

2. Speaking of Ads: More Transparency and Personalization

Last month, we wrote about Google's new labeling requirements for political ads, which was announced in a May 4 blog post about its "election integrity" initiative. Similar to new policies and practices rolled out by Facebook last month, the company says it will require enhanced identity verification from any party wishing to buy and publish election-related ads on Google in the U.S.

Now, Google says it's adding even more transparency to ads, along with better user controls over ad settings.

The new Ad Settings, writes Product Manager Philippe de Lurand Pierre-Paul, will shed greater light on why a given user might be seeing certain ads, including "factors that can determine how your ads are tailored to you [like] estimations of your interests based on your activity while you’re signed in." 

I had a look around the new Ad Settings, and what struck me the most was Google's highly exhaustive list of interests that it uses to tailor the ads I see -- some of which are completely inapplicable -- and required zooming out to 33% to view in entirety.

Turning off ad personalization is also an option, but turning off ads completely is not. Even if you decline personalization, ads will still appear -- but they won't be personalized.

But even without personalization, it seems -- Google is still watching.

"The ads you see can still be based on general factors, like the subject of what you’re looking at or the time of day," writes Pierre-Paul, "or any other factor that is still turned on." Read the full statement >>

3. "Google Podcasts" Has Arrived

Podcast enthusiasts, rejoice: Google has released a new Android app just for you. Its name, fittingly, is Google Podcasts.

Source: Google

Integrated with Google Assistant, the key selling point of the new Podcasts app -- for users -- is the element of discoverability and personalization. (Google isn't the first to use behavioral and listening patterns to recommend podcasts -- Stitcher, which is integrated with Google Assistant and Home Rival Amazon Echo, has been doing something similar for a while.)

But the advantages of the app aren't limited to users, as publishers and content creators have something to gain by optimizing for Podcast search results. We've written before about ways to integrate audio into marketing, and now, Google has introduced another way to do that. Not only will podcasts appear in in-app search results, but they'll also start appearing on the general search engine results page (SERP). 

Source: Google

"We’re focused on helping podcast creators reach a broader audience," writes Google's Product Manager of Google Podcasts, Zack Reneau-Wedeen. Read the full statement >>

Until Next Month

As always, we're watching all things Google. We'll continue to pick out top news items, algorithm updates, and trends that can aid your marketing.

And until August arrives -- have a great July.

Featured image credit: Google

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