le and Facebook Announced 15 Major Announcements This Year.
You’re probably well aware, if you’ve worked in digital advertising long enough, that the channels are always changing their products. To get the most out of your accounts, it’s important to keep up with these changes.
Google Ads has seen more than thirty updates and announcements in 2023 (on top Google Marketing live). Meta has also made multiple changes to Facebook and Instagram Ads this year. It can be difficult to keep up with the latest Google and Facebook advertising updates. It can also take time to weed through the updates and find those that are most relevant for your business. These bits of information can add up and leave you feeling something like:
If you’re feeling a bit under the water this year, let me help. Here are the most important announcements that Google and Meta have made so far in this year.
The most important Google Ads announcements and updates of the year
We’ll start our list off with eight Google Ads updates that you need to know.
1. Google Ads Transparency Center launched
Google launched the Transparency Center in January of this year. It was created to make it easier for users to understand the ads that they see throughout the Google ecosystem. Over the past five years, privacy and transparency has been a major change. This tool is similar to TikTok ads library and Facebook ads library. It allows users to view more ads by the same advertiser/brand, as well as the person who published the ad.
This is a good way for advertisers to see what their competitors are doing. Or to get new creative ideas from big brands.
Want to know more about the competition in your field outside of Ads Transparency Center’s Ads Transparency Center. Download our latest Google Ads Industry Benchmarks Report.
2. Google Ads deprecating most attribution models
Google has made a big push in 2020 and 2021 to encourage advertisers to adopt data driven attribution. My Google reps pushed it as a key component. Hard. All of the other attribution models were described as being less than optimal.
Google announced a few days later that they are retiring all of the models except for last click and data driven. The reasoning behind this is that few advertisers use the other models. It makes sense.
In summary, by September 2023 any conversion actions still using linear, position-based or time-decay attribution will be automatically migrated to the Data-Driven Model.
3. Brand restrictions for Search and Performance Max
Many companies consider brand advertising to be an essential component. Every company wants to ensure that their ads appear for their specific business and not another’s with a similar name. To assist with brand control, Google has announced brand restrictions for Search as well as brand list for Performance Max.
This tool, Performance Max, is designed to allow you to avoid bidding for brand terms, if that’s what you prefer, and instead focus your campaign on reaching new customers.
Brand lists in Search help keep ads focused on one brand instead of query options which are similar or closely related. These new features are a must-have if you use Search to advertise your brand keywords, or Performance Max.
4. Assets automatically created
Google is continuing to offer more automation options to advertisers. This Google Ads Announcement seems to channel their ad-writing for Dynamic Ads and Recommendations Tab, but they created a feature that allows Google create headlines for Responsive Ads.
This setting allows you to activate it at the campaign-level. You can try these suggestions if you find them in other parts of your Google account.
5. Only bid for new customers
Google has released a new goal for campaign acquisition to assist advertisers in focusing on driving new business. This feature uses smart bidding strategies, as well as your own data on customers to find new users. You can either avoid known users by bidding more aggressively or simply bid more for new customers. This is a great tool to use if you want to concentrate on new business.
Does your current Google Ads bidding strategy waste money? Use our free Google Ads Grader to find out.
6. Discover campaigns are a part of Demand Gen
Discovery campaigns are no longer available in Google Ads. It is rare that a campaign type disappears completely, but this is exactly what happened. It’s early, and I haven’t had any clients for Demand Gen yet. But it appears that these ads are going to be more effective than Discovery.
The new Discovery campaigns will offer more creative formats and a wider reach to new audiences. Advertisers can request to join the beta of Demand Gen campaigns in August and September 2023. In October, all existing Discovery Ads will be automatically migrated.
7. Performance Max updates
Google Ads’ new Performance Max (PMax), campaigns continue to be highly invested. It’s good news for advertisers that almost all the recent updates to PMax have increased advertiser control. Google’s latest updates include options for video creation, experiments to test PMax viability and page feeds. You may have used Performance Max or held off because you lacked control. It’s time to take advantage of the new updates.
8. Google’s antitrust case has impacted ad pricing.
Google announced reluctantly that it “frequently” increases the cost of certain search ad query without notifying advertisers. Ad costs for average advertisers were increased by up to 10%. This announcement was made during the Google trial where the tech giant has been accused of unfair tactics in order to monopolize search engine markets. WordStream’s Google Ads Benchmarks show that the cost per click has increased year-over-year almost everywhere. Many account managers also have seen an increase in costs, leading them to question if it is this. Search Engine Land has more information.
This may be discouraging, but use it as motivation to improve your Google Ads strategy. Consider other options to maintain your ads’ competitiveness despite rising costs instead of adding budget.
for example, focuses on ad-copytesting in order to improve relevancy and engagement with searchers. This will also drive better conversion and engagement performance. You should notice an increase in revenue and ad score with these changes. While Google’s ultimate goal is to generate revenue, the platform must also deliver quality results to users.
This year’s biggest Facebook (Meta-) updates, news, and announcements
The top seven Meta-advertising updates that every business should be aware about as we move into the final part of 2023, and then into 2024.
1. Meta Certified Company Program
Case studies, testimonials from clients, etc. are all ways that organizations try to demonstrate their expertise. Meta has now taken a page from Google’s (from many years ago) book and launched the Certified Company Program where organizations can demonstrate their knowledge of Meta and be recognized.
These certifications can be obtained by meeting a certain threshold of people passing the Meta Blueprint course. This is a good option if you want to demonstrate your expertise, or evaluate the expertise of individual team members.
2. Facebook announces “performance 5”
This announcement, unlike many other updates on this page, is more informative in a directional sense than functional. This is not announcing a new program or tool, or that something will be discontinued. This post instead outlines five strategies Facebook would like advertisers to adopt.
The platform calls these “actionable best practice” and while they are specifically mentioned as a way to grow during the holiday season I find that it’s informative to learn what the platform prefers you to do. Their guidance and offerings may lead you to those strategies in the future.
Are you getting the best performance from your Facebook account? Use our free Facebook Advertising Grader to find out.
3. Lead generation form updates
Lead generation forms are a standard in many accounts and have been for a long time. They have always been powerful tools, but they became even more effective in early 2023. Lead Gen Forms offer conditional logic for questions. This means that the questions will change depending on what someone answers to an earlier question.
This solution is a great way to improve the quality of leads and to avoid sending low-quality leads to sales, which can cause frustration and lost time.
4. Reels Updates, expansions and updates
Reels has seen a few updates from Facebook this year. Reels allows advertisers to reach their targeted audience on via Instagram. Meta is a great ecosystem that has many touch points. Reels now offers AR ads, which gives users more ways to connect with Meta. These two ads continue to demonstrate Meta’s commitment to Reels, and should indicate to advertisers that it is a valuable placement.
5. The AI Sandbox
Facebook’s creatives can have a major impact on the success of your campaign. You need to create ads that will attract customers’ attention. You can now use Meta’s AI for creating ads based solely on text inputs with the launch.
It’s important to understand where Facebook is going with ad creation and augmentation because this will be a larger portion of the platform in the future.
6. Customized Campaigns are now rolling out
Facebook’s ad platform can be very complex, and advertisers may not know how to use it. Facebook ads is rolling out tailored campaigns to help these users. allows new campaigns to be placed into the most popular settings for bidding strategy, placements and other settings.
These are some of the best partially automated campaign solutions that we have seen on the self-serve advertising platforms.
7. Brand appropriateness and content control
You’re probably well aware of the fact that some content on Facebook and Instagram can be shady. From a brand’s perspective, while it might be okay for you to ignore the content, it can be detrimental to appear next to such unsavory material.
Meta will introduce content suitability controls in 2023 to better control the types of content that brands can display ads next to. You should check out these options if you are worried about the perception of your brand based on posts that appear directly before or following your ads.
What the Google and Facebook news really means for your business
Keep in mind the general trends of these changes. It’s important to look at patterns and trends in order to understand where platforms are heading. Automation has been the main driver of platforms for many years, and it continues to be so this year. Another is privacy. Google and Facebook both make changes to create a transparent Internet for consumers and advertisers alike.
Pay attention to overall tradewinds. This will help you avoid being caught off guard if the platforms change in a way that affects your business.
Here are the most important announcements made by Google Ads in this year.
- Google Ads Transparency Center launched
- Google Ads deprecating most attribution models
- Brand restrictions for Search and Performance Max
- Assets automatically created
- Only new customers can bid
- Discovery campaigns are rolling out to Demand Gen
- Performance Max updates
- Google’s antitrust case has led to new developments in ad pricing
Here are the most important announcements made by Meta Ads in this year.
- Meta Certified Company Program
- Facebook announces “performance 5”
- Lead generation form updates
- Reels Updates, expansions and updates
- The AI Sandbox
- Customized Campaigns are now rolling out
- Brand appropriateness and content control
The post 15 of the Biggest Announcements from Google and Facebook This Year first appeared on WordStream.