Last month's top news from our industry

Wondering what happened in the digital industry in July?

Google's Bard is now available in Belgium, it is now possible to create product collections in Performance Max, TikTok opened up its Commercial Content Library for more transparancy, Microsoft's Performance Max is now open in beta, and much more!

In this edition, we are also taking a deepdive into the captivating world of digital-out-of-home advertising and sharing our tips for moving from GA4 to Piwik Pro.

Let's dive in!

CLICKTRUST Brainfood

From around the web

Artificial intelligence

Bard’s latest update: more features, languages and countries
- Google The Keyword
"As of now, you can collaborate with Bard in over 40 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi and Spanish. You can also now access Bard in more places, including Brazil and across Europe. As part of our bold and responsible approach to AI, we’ve proactively engaged with experts, policymakers and privacy regulators on this expansion."

Generative AI in search: What search marketers should prepare for
- Search Engine Land
"Generative AI is poised to change the nature of the search engine results page (SERP). Thus, strategies for managing digital marketing campaigns must also evolve. Here are a few potential changes that search marketers should prepare for. "

Data, analytics & privacy

GA4 Legal In Europe Following New Data Privacy Framework
- Search Engine Journal
"In a significant development, Google Analytics 4 is deemed legal in Europe following the recent adoption of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework by the European Commission."

Google Boosts Ecommerce Analysis In GA4 With 30 New Metrics
- Search Engine Journal
"In a significant development, Google Analytics 4 is deemed legal in Europe following the recent adoption of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework by the European Commission."

Google-related updates

Google Performance Max now lets you create product collections
- Search Engine Land
"A new Google Performance Max feature lets you combine products and create collections – for ads or free product listings. Collections allow you to associate products with your creative assets – images, videos and text."

Google Display Ads and Dynamic Search Ads upgrades rolled out in PMax
- Google
"For advertisers who are interested and eligible, self-upgrade tools are rolling out now to easily upgrade Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns and Google Display campaigns to Performance Max."

Reach Gen Z music lovers across formats & devices with the new Gen Z Music lineup
- Google
"Now, we’re helping advertisers align their brand with the music Gen Z audiences (18-24) love on YouTube with the new Gen Z Music lineup. This solution uses frequently refreshed data across audio, long-form, and YouTube Shorts to identify the songs currently trending with Gen Z viewers and listeners (18-24)."

Google Merchant Center adds customer support feature
- Search Engine Land
"Google has launched a new customer support feature on Merchant Center. The new tool enables retailers to input their customer support information and returns policy. Merchant Center is then able to share these details with shoppers without them ever having to leave the program."

PPC

Microsoft’s Performance Max is now in open beta
- Search Engine Land
"Microsoft’s Performance Max offers new features which aim to simplify marketers’ workloads and give them back time to focus on the creative and help them to reach untapped audiences. Being able to work directly with Microsoft on Performance Max campaigns will also give advertisers more transparency and detail into that asset level of reporting."

8 Microsoft Advertising Updates Including Predictive Targeting And Generative AI For RSAs
- Search Engine Journal
"Microsoft Advertising made several announcements in the past month about advertising capabilities for July 2023. These updates span from unveiling Predictive Targeting, an AI-based tool for increasing ad conversions, to expanding Property Promotion Ads to include vacation rentals."

SEO

Google To Work On Complementary Robots.txt Protocols For AI & More
- Search Engine Roundtable
"Google announced that it is looking to develop a complementary protocol to the 30-year-old robots.txt protocol. This is because of all the new generative AI technologies Google and other companies are releasing."

Google confirms related search operator is going away
- Search Engine Land
"Google is removing support for the related search operator, a special search command where Google can tell you what other websites are related to another site."

How relying on LLMs can lead to SEO disaster
- Search Engine Land
"The interface and the presentation of large language models (LLMs) are that of a conversational robot partner – part AI companion, part search engine, part calculator – a chatbot to end all chatbots. 

But this isn’t really the case. In this article, I will run over a few case studies, some experimental and some in the wild. We will go over how they were presented, what problems come up, and what, if anything, can be done about the weaknesses these tools have. "

Social media

Expanding TikTok's Research API and Commercial Content Library
- TikTok
"We're opening up our Commercial Content Library to bring transparency to paid advertising and other content that's commercial in nature on TikTok. The Commercial Content Library is a searchable database with information about paid ads and ad metadata, such as the advertising creative, dates the ad ran, main parameters used for targeting (e.g. age, gender), number of people who were served the ad, and more."

Instagram Tests Automatically Added Product Tags in Brand Story Posts
- Social Media Today
"Instagram’s working on another in-stream commerce option, with automatic detection of products from a brand’s connected catalog now being highlighted within their Stories posts."

When Will Threads be Available to EU Users? Meta Faces New Assessment Process
- Social Media Today
"So, when will EU users get access to Meta’s new Threads app? t could take a while, as Meta grapples with the expanding requirements of the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), which is designed to protect user privacy, and provide control over data usage, while also mitigating monopoly-type behavior by the tech giants."