Don't Look A GIF Horse In The Mouth

📰 The News You Missed

Google Shopping: Auto-tagging finally available for free listings

Auto-tagging for free listings is now available in your Merchant Center account.

With auto-tagging, after someone clicks your free product listing and free local product listing, auto-tagging adds a bit of additional information — a parameter called “result id” — to the URLs people click through.

When used together with a third-party web analytics tool (like Google Analytics), this will allow you to see how effectively your free listings and free local listings lead to valuable customer activity, such as purchases. | via // support.google.com

Finally.

Implementing this new feature is a one-click process, but the value is significant. Make sure to update your account ASAP.

Google Ads To Create & Show More Ad Extensions

Google Ads automated extensions will be eligible in the middle of March to show alongside their manually-created counterparts, Google said. "For example, if your ad only has two manually-created sitelinks that are eligible to show, Google Ads can now show two dynamic sitelinks as well, showing your ad with four sitelinks in total," the company explained.

Previously, dynamic sitelinks, dynamic callouts, and dynamic structured snippets were not eligible to show with your ad if you provided manually-created sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets. That is no longer the case. | via // seroundtable.com

The Biggest Brand Interceptions From Super Bowl 56

In the old days, you watched a Super Bowl ad and unless the brand offered a Twitter sweepstakes or specific call to action, the journey stopped there. But thanks to digital commerce, the journey from ad to action is quicker and more direct. In seconds of seeing a Super Bowl ad, consumers can search on Amazon or Walmart.com, learn more about the brand and product, and have it on their doorsteps by the next day.

In theory, this makes the return-on-investment of Super Bowl advertising stronger than it’s ever been before. But what happens when competitors “intercept” your Super Bowl brand traffic and use it to call attention to their own brands and products on retailer websites, instead of yours?

Many savvy brands did just that during this year’s Super Bowl. Instead of paying millions of dollars for 30 or 60 seconds of national air time, they spent a fraction of that on banner ads and sponsored search results to conquest the brand names of Super Bowl advertisers. | via // profitero.com

US-China competitiveness bill sparks battle over e-commerce | TheHill

The measure — which was included in Democrats’ House-passed China competitiveness bill but not in the Senate’s bipartisan package — would open up online marketplaces to lawsuits over the sale of counterfeit goods if they don’t comply with new regulations requiring them to identify and remove knockoff products from their site.

Major brands and their trade groups pushed House lawmakers to pass the bill, arguing it is an effective way to stop the steady rise of counterfeit goods online amid the pandemic that undermine U.S. companies and pose safety risks to consumers. | via // thehill.com

This is essentially Section 230, but for online marketplaces.

Georgia court upholds Google win in Edible Arrangements keyword ad fight

Georgia's highest state court on Tuesday affirmed a win for Google LLC over its sales of keyword advertisements tied to the phrase "Edible Arrangements," rejecting a lawsuit from Edible IP LLC.

Edible did not show that Google's ad sales using the name amounted to theft of its property, the Georgia Supreme Court said. Edible IP owns the trademarks and other intellectual property for online retailer Edible Arrangements, which specializes in delivering fresh fruit in the style of bouquets and other food gifts.

Google's keyword ads appear on its search result pages when users search for specific words. Edible sued Google in 2018, and said its sale of the keyword "Edible Arrangements" to competitors violates its property rights under Georgia law. | via // reuters.com

Quick Hits 🥊

• Twitter introduced GoodBots

• Google plans to adopt new privacy restrictions similar to Apple's iOS 14.5 updates, further curtailing tracking across apps. via // wsj.com
• You better add videos to Google's new Performance Max campaigns...or they will do it for you.

The videos are better than I expected, but that isn't saying much.

Just For Fun 🤪

What a $6.5 million Super Bowl ad can buy in digital media

650 million impressions on a Facebook advertisement

843 million impressions on a TikTok ad

915,000 clicks on an Instacart search ad

4.2 million Google search clicks

1.7 million clicks on Amazon sponsored display videos

30 days of TikTok branded hashtag challenges | via // digiday.com

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