August 2023: What's new in the world of digital
Posted on 6th September 2023 at 16:04
Read Time: Approx. 5 Minutes 35 Seconds
Author: Lewis Stretton & Liv Rutter
Welcome to August's edition of the Digital Revolution, where we provide you the latest updates from the world of digital.
TikTok’s New Search Ads Toggle is here
What is it?: TikTok’s Search Ads Toggle is a new feature on TikTok’s Ad Manager, allowing brands to serve their ads right next to organic search results from relevant user queries. When the Search Ads Toggle is engaged, ads are created from the advertisers existing ad content and served alongside the search results.
Why is it important?: The new Search Ads Toggle is important as it extends the reach of campaigns to high-intent users, who are looking for information related to your brand, products or service, driving engagement and revenue potential. 58% of TikTok users discover new brands and products on the platform, which is 1.5X more than other platform users, so it is key to make sure you get your ads right! TikTok’s internal research showed that 70% of ad groups with Search Ads Toggle “on” sees a more efficient performance. As a result of this, there is more efficient conversion coming from search ads.
What action should you take?: Head over to TikTok’s Ad Manager. In the set up process, you will find the new toggle button within the ‘Placements’ section. Your toggle will be activated by default. Advertisers are able to activate Search Ads Toggle during initial campaign creation or mid-flight, but this will not restart your campaigns learning phase. When your Search Ads Toggle has been activated, it will ensure your ads are eligible to be displayed in related search queries in the app.
Google Will Provide More Targeted Ad Data to Comply With New EU Rules
What is it?: Google is going to provide access to additional data and bring out a new transparency centre in an attempt to comply with the European Union’s online content rules – Digital Service Act (DSA). They are going to expand their Ads Transparency Centre to provide additional information;
Google are going to improve access to data for marketers so they can provide more insight into how Google Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Play and Shopping operate
They’re introducing a new transparency centre to provide more information on their policies on a product-by-product basis. This tool will also allow people to easily access:
Google reporting
Google appeal tools
Transparency reports
Policy development process information
Google is set to expand the scope of its transparency reports, including info on how it handles content moderation across services like Google Search, Google Play, Google Maps and Shopping
Google will now analyse risks to its platforms (illegal content and dissemination) and then file reports of its findings to regulators in the EU and independent auditors, before going on to publish a public summary
Why is it important?: This is important because it improves insight into targeted ad performance, which allows advertisers to optimise their campaigns efficiently leading to increased ROI. This also provides reassurance that campaigns are being served next to appropriate, brand safe environments, boosting trust and even ad spend.
What action should you take?: Go take a look at Googles new transparency centre and read about all the policy changes made to it and see if you need to make any changes to your advertisement approach. Lastly, read the updated transparency report and see if any of the platforms you use are at high risk of illegal content and dissemination.
Second Google Core Update Of 2023
What is it?: This month Google announced its latest version of its core updates, over 5 months since its previous core update on the 15th March, that took just under 2 weeks to complete. Google state that it’s currently being rolled out and it may take up to 2 weeks to complete. We know when Google release a Core Update that this can affect your site ranking for the better or for the worse.
Why is it important?: Knowing from previous rollouts, it is important to understand this can affect your business for the better or for the worse. Whilst it may have not impacted you previously. We would recommend you gain insight from your relevant SEO team/agency.
What action should you take?: We would always advise that you look day by day of when the core update hits you. We would also recommend you look at your SEO ranking platform to gather as much information on the effect of the rollout. Whether this has affected you positively or negatively.
If you do believe you have been hit negatively by the update, referencing the Google Core Update Advice would be our first step. Alternatively get in touch with our team.
Open AI launching latest version of CHATGPT specifically for large businesses
What is it?: On the 28th of August the owners of ChatGPT, Open AI, announced the release of the new latest version of ChatGPT to target large businesses, offering a more secure and quicker access to all Open AI’s innovations.
Why is it important?: With AI being a talking point in most businesses, Open AI hopes businesses take on AI and encourages employees to use ChatGPT to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their work. They have announced it will now allow you to analyse date, create charts with data and solve problems. It is allowing you to upload files on ChatGPT to allow it to take actions based on uploaded files. The implication of this will save additional time, however it is not clear how accurate the analyses will be.
What action should you take?: There is no specific action you should take; however, we do think that you should wait for more updates regarding the latest version of ChatGPT. With ChatGPT traffic dropping MoM, we could see other AI competitors taking over and potentially doing the same thing or better.
Bonus Update: Should You Label AI-Generated Content?
Did you know 85.1% of marketers now use AI to generate content? AI is no longer in the future, it’s here now! But should you be labelling your content as AI generated or not?
AI labelling is disclosing that a piece of content is AI generated. This can be as simple as a description on a social post or a blog for your website, but should you be disclosing that your content is created by AI?
Well, policymakers such as the European Union are advocating for AI labelling as it allows transparency between the publisher and the reader, but Google has a different opinion. Google values quality content and user experience over the origin of the content so therefore does not require publishers to label their content and instead leaves it up to the publisher to decide if it’s beneficial for their readers. However, Google strongly recommends that all AI generated content needs a human editor to review it first.
Our final thoughts ...
The summer holidays have been and gone, however in what is usually a quiet time of the year in digital, there was no let up from some of the major ad platforms and tech providers.
Out of all of the updates, our pick of the bunch this month is the AI labelling bonus update. Whilst the content in this edition doesn't need labelling as it has been created solely by the team at CFD, we believe transparency is important. We however feel that the actual take up of this will be limited, with content creators and brands concerned about the negative impact this could have with consumers.
If any of our August updates have interested you, feel free to get in touch to understand how we can help you.
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