Advertisers pull back from TikTok, boost Meta amid ban uncertainty

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TikTok search

Already facing a sale or ban order, TikTok faced additional pressure in Q1 as major brands scaled back advertising spending and shifted budgets to Meta, according to new data.

By the numbers:

  • TikTok’s U.S. cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPMs) dropped sharply, posting double-digit declines since January.
  • 8 of TikTok’s top 10 advertiser categories cut spending in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024.
  • User activity dipped in January during a temporary service blackout, further rattling confidence.

The big picture. Despite the turbulence, TikTok is expected to rake in $14.8 billion in U.S. ad revenue this year, according to eMarketer. That puts it behind Facebook’s $36.9 billion but ahead of YouTube’s $9.9 billion.

Behind the shift. Advertisers aren’t abandoning TikTok entirely, but many are hedging. They’re shifting parts of their budgets to platforms with less uncertain futures.

  • “No one’s acting like TikTok is gone – but no one’s pretending it’s business as usual, either,” said Raul Rios, head of strategy at independent creative agency Saylor.
  • “Brands that swiftly resumed advertising on TikTok post-ban are staying the course, but many remain hesitant, keeping media spend lower despite months of attractive incentives,” said Toni Box, EVP of brand experience at Assembly.

Meta’s moment. While TikTok wobbles, Meta is cashing in. Facebook and Instagram have leaned hard into short-form video:

  • Facebook and Instagram’s short-form video CPMs are rising fast as advertisers reallocate spend.
  • “It’s undeniable that Facebook and Instagram have made CPM growth a key initiative,” said Jason Krebs, GM of media at Varos.

Why we care. This shifting ad spend carries immediate financial risks and strategic disruption. TikTok’s lower CPMs may seem like a short-term bargain for brands. However, if the platform faces a full ban after mid-June, those investments could evaporate. For brands that have optimized for TikTok’s unique algorithm and culture, moving to other platforms could mean starting over – new content formats, new metrics, new audiences.

What’s next. All eyes will be on Washington and ongoing acquisition talks. If a deal saves TikTok, advertisers may return. If not, Meta’s gains could become the new normal.

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Google AI Mode lets you ask questions with images

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Google has added multimodal capabilities to its new AI Mode feature, letting you ask your questions with the assistance of uploading an image. Plus, Google announced it is rolling out AI Mode to millions of more Labs users in the U.S.

AI mode with images. Google AI Mode now lets you upload an image via upload or your camera to ask AI Mode questions with images. Google calls this multimodal capabilities, which is launched years ago in other areas of Search.

“With AI Mode’s new multimodal understanding, you can snap a photo or upload an image, ask a question about it and get a rich, comprehensive response with links to dive deeper,” Robby Stein, VP of Product, Google Search wrote. He added:

“AI Mode builds on our years of work on visual search and takes it a step further. With Gemini’s multimodal capabilities, AI Mode can understand the entire scene in an image, including the context of how objects relate to one another and their unique materials, colors, shapes and arrangements. Drawing on our deep visual search expertise, Lens precisely identifies each object in the image. Using our query fan-out technique, AI Mode then issues multiple queries about the image as a whole and the objects within the image, accessing more breadth and depth of information than a traditional search on Google. The result is a response that’s incredibly nuanced and contextually relevant, so you take the next step.”

What it looks like. Here is what it looks like in action:

Millions more gain access to AI Mode. Google said, “we’ve now started to make AI Mode available to millions more Labs users in the U.S.” I mean, I am not sure if this is new. We saw Google expand access to those who do not have Google One AI Premium subscriptions a couple of weeks ago. And then last week, Google invited a third batch of users to AI Mode.

So maybe Google is opening up a fourth batch of invites today?

Why we care. Google’s new AI Mode does feel like the future of search, in many ways. So it is important that you all try it out as soon as you can, and watch it as it adapts.

Soon you may all be looking for ways to get traffic from AI Mode as opposed to just Google Search and AI Overviews.

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Dealing with Google Ads frustrations: Poor support, suspensions, rising costs

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Dealing with Google Ads frustrations: Poor support, suspensions and rising costs

Google Ads has 718 reviews on TrustPilot with a 1.1-star rating.

That’s a shockingly low score for a platform that has helped countless businesses grow and created entire careers in digital marketing.

Let me preface this by saying that this isn’t meant to be an angry rant. 

Google Ads has provided incredible opportunities, but the overwhelming number of negative reviews clearly shows that advertisers face serious frustrations daily.

Poor support, unexplained account suspensions, rising costs, and a lack of transparency have left many users feeling helpless. 

These aren’t just isolated issues – they’re widespread problems that need attention.

So, what exactly is going wrong? And more importantly, how can it be fixed?

Here’s a breakdown of the most common complaints about Google Ads – and what could be done to improve the platform.

Poor customer support

Users frequently report that customer support is unresponsive, slow, or provides generic, unhelpful responses.

Many of us have experienced the customer service loop of Google Ads: 

  • Contact support.
  • They submit a ticket.
  • Ask you to allow 3-5 days for a resolution. 

After eight days, you contact support again, and the process repeats with no resolution. 

Several weeks or months later, the issue may be resolved – or not.

It’s unclear what the internal protocol is for Google Ads support; it doesn’t seem to follow the standards of most major companies. 

There appears to be a lack of account notes and follow-up. 

Users report contacting support for the same issue, opening a ticket, but receiving no further response. 

Another ticket is then opened, and the cycle continues. 

If a customer support representative remembers, they may send an email with the reference number. 

When contacting support a second time, little to no information can be provided using the reference number. 

Support often says, “There is no update on your ticket; please allow 3-5 more days.”

This is a nightmare for business owners, freelancers, and ad agencies trying to manage their Google Ads accounts and resolve issues quickly.

If Google Ads consistently sent feedback surveys, it could significantly improve customer support. 

However, many users are no longer receiving the surveys – either after a phone call or because the link is not sent after a live chat.

If you do receive a survey via email or see one pop up in your account, be sure to fill it out thoroughly. 

We can’t expect to improve customer service without providing constant feedback.

Account suspensions

Account suspensions without clear explanation and slow response times are common complaints with Google Ads.

While Google Ads needs to suspend accounts that blatantly violate their policies, they should be handled more quickly for accidental violations that can be resolved with a simple ad rewrite.

Many new accounts are suspended quickly but approved slowly, often taking weeks or months, if ever – despite the issues being corrected to comply with Google Ads’ policies. 

When accounts are suspended, the explanation is often vague.

Customer support representatives typically just read what’s on the screen, offering no further explanation, resolution, or assistance.

A frequent reason for account suspensions or ad disapprovals is a “Policy Violation,” but the specific policy is rarely cited. 

Even after the user resolves the issue, the account or ad may still be delayed in approval, sometimes taking weeks or months. 

For advertisers in sensitive categories (i.e., mental health services, supplements, housing, employment, recruiting, technical support services, or financial services), quick suspensions and slow resolutions can be devastating. 

These businesses often have everything in place to comply with Google Ads’ policies but may have made a minor mistake during ad setup.

Another common suspension reason is “Circumventing Systems Policy,” but once again, the explanation is unclear, causing frustration over the lack of transparency in enforcement. 

This often happens with businesses that hire multiple agencies or freelancers over time, leading them to be unaware of how many Google Ads accounts were set up under their name. 

Even worse, Google Ads support typically fails to explain this situation clearly, making it difficult for businesses to track who created all the accounts that got suspended. 

If these agencies or freelancers are responsible, are they now banned from running ads on Google across any account? 

This policy and review process urgently needs rethinking.

Agency owner and PPC expert Menachem Ani shared:

  • “Reps can no longer help with some of the things they were able to help with in the past. For example, we have a client whose account was suspended – but our reps can’t do anything to help us.” 
  • “While I believe that Google’s intentions are good, the reality is that many accounts get suspended incorrectly with no recourse.”

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Lack of results

Many reviews complain about a lack of results with Google Ads. 

This often stems from a lack of understanding of how to use the platform effectively. 

Basic strategies – such as choosing the best keywords, writing effective ads, controlling bidding and budgets, building relevant landing pages, and adding negative keywords – could have helped prevent these negative reviews.

Google Ads can improve by following the lead of other software companies and offering in-depth tutorials to help users get the most out of the platform.

Collaborating with industry experts outside Google to create tutorials would also help users make informed decisions about their ad spend.

Currently, Google’s advice often contradicts guidance from industry-leading publications.

Instead of conflicting guidance, open collaboration could align best practices, ensuring users who invest time in learning Google Ads can actually apply their knowledge effectively.

The running joke is that learning how to run Google Ads from Google is like learning how to play Blackjack from the casino – they don’t have your best interests in mind. 

PPC industry leader Brad Geddes specifically calls out “Recommendations I always ignore,” which, ironically, are the same recommendations that Google Reps and account notifications often advise users not to ignore. 

A collaboration between industry experts and Google Ads could be mutually beneficial, helping both the platform and its users. 

If new users take Google’s tutorials and certifications only to lose substantial amounts of money on Google Ads, they may not continue investing in the platform.

It’s unclear why the worst advice on running Google Ads comes directly from Google Ads and its reps.

Rising costs

Advertisers have also voiced concerns about the rising costs of Google Ads, which have become even more problematic in recent years. 

Search Engine Land’s Danny Goodwin reported on Google Ads’ price manipulation:

  • “The U.S. Department of Justice hammered Google over search ad price manipulation and more in its closing statement on search advertising.” 

Many business owners, freelancers, ad agencies, and industry experts are worried about these rising costs and the lack of transparency.

Boris Beceric, Google Ads consultant and coach, remarked:

  • “Google is a monopoly that’s raising prices without telling advertisers about it.” 

Google Ads’ newest update for double service ads now allows the same business’s ad to appear twice on the same page. 

Will this cause further issues for advertisers concerned about rising costs, or will it help boost results?

PPC expert Navah Hopkins also noted:

  • “Google is officially making it fair game to have more than one spot on the SERP. I have thoughts on this, but I want to see how performance actually shakes out in Q2.” 

We will have to wait and see if this helps with rising costs or hurts them. 

Issues with Google reps and Teleperformance

Many Google Ads users also express frustration with Teleperformance, Google’s outsourced customer support team. 

Complaints often include poor advertising results due to Google Reps’ advice, overly aggressive outreach, and generic or scripted responses.

Advertisers also report trust issues with Google reps, particularly after one made unauthorized changes to a business’s Google Ads account. 

Andy Youngs, co-founder of The PPC People, highlighted this, discovering a recent instance where a Google rep altered an account without approval.

TrustPilot reviews, Reddit, and nearly every social media channel are filled with complaints about Google reps.

However, Google Ads has not made significant changes to the program. 

Matt Janaway, CEO of Marketing Labs, stated:

  • “We get calls daily from reps that have been assigned to our client accounts. It’s very convoluted, and when we don’t engage – because we can’t possibly engage them all – they try to go directly to our clients instead!” 
  • “This happens regularly. And the scare tactics they use are quite ludicrous.”

The simple solution for Google Ads would be to train their reps to provide useful advice and assign them to a smaller number of accounts. 

An even simpler solution might be to remove the program entirely, given the overwhelming amount of negative feedback.

So, what can we do?

Direct feedback is the best way to push for change.

While posting frustrations online might feel satisfying, it’s unlikely Google Ads will see or act on them. 

Instead, be sure to complete the surveys Google sends via email or within your account, offering detailed and constructive feedback.

If you want to voice concerns publicly, you can share them on platforms like TrustPilot (Google Ads TrustPilot page), Reddit, industry forums, or social media – but always keep it professional and solution-focused.

For direct communication, use Google’s official feedback and support forms:

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Google credits Gemini for better detection of fake business reviews and maps spam

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Google is crediting its AI advancement, such as Gemini, to help detect and remove fake reviews and listings within Google Maps. “AI has been a pivotal tool in helping us stop scammers in their tracks, and we’re now using it to scale our protections even more,” Google wrote.

The metrics. Google shared these metrics for its battle over Google Maps spam:

  • Google blocked or removed more than 240 million policy-violating from 2024. Google added that “the vast majority of which were removed before they were seen.”
  • Google blocked or removed more than 70 million policy-violating edits to places on Google Maps.
  • Google removed or blocked more than 12 million fake Business Profiles.
  • Google placed posting restrictions on more than 900,000 accounts that repeatedly violated our policies.

When you compare the metrics to last year’s report, Google removed about 40% more policy-violating reviews.

Disabling reviews. Google also spoke about its newish feature to disable the ability to post reviews on some business profiles. The notice says “Posting reviews is turned off for this place” and was actually launched in December 2023, from what I can tell. But Google seems to be mentioning it now.

Google said it “rolled out alerts in the U.S., U.K. and India to let you know if we’ve recently removed suspicious five-star reviews in certain circumstances. These warnings — which will expand globally starting next month — help you understand quickly if a place may be engaging in unfair review practices.”

Here is what it looks like:

Crediting Gemini. Google said:

“AI has been a pivotal tool in helping us stop scammers in their tracks, and we’re now using it to scale our protections even more. Last year, we removed over 10,000 listings managed by a group of bad actors who impersonated real locksmiths to take over unclaimed Business Profiles and overcharge unsuspecting customers. Beyond removing the fraudulent content, we filed a lawsuit against the bad actors and are actively applying what we learned to enhance our detection systems.”

“This new model has already helped us block thousands of suspicious Business Profile edits this year,” Google added.

Why we care. If you are in the local SEO space, none of this is probably new to you. You’ve all seen the swarm of complaints about business edits placing a business in a suspension, reviews not being able to be added to a business profile, listings confusion and so much more.

Much of this is likely associated with Google’s new methods to detect and fight spam on Google Maps. Some of these changes may be a bit overzealous but Google has a tough job with fighting spam on Google Maps.

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Integrating SEO into omnichannel marketing for seamless engagement

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Integrating SEO into omnichannel marketing for seamless engagement

With customers now discovering content across traditional search engines, LLMs, social media, and beyond, the need for an integrated, omnichannel strategy is more important than ever.

Relying on isolated channel strategies no longer works. 

Customers engage with brands across multiple touchpoints before making decisions, and they expect seamless, personalized experiences. 

An effective omnichannel approach aligns all marketing efforts – ensuring consistency, maximizing visibility, and driving meaningful interactions.

As omnichannel marketing continues to evolve, integrating SEO across all channels is essential for sustained growth.

This article explores why a unified strategy is critical and how SEO can work across channels to enhance the customer journey and drive results.

Why an omnichannel approach to SEO is critical in 2025

Here are seven trends that make an omnichannel approach vital to business success and growth.

Why an omnichannel approach to SEO is critical in 2025

1. The shift away from third-party cookies

The decline of third-party cookies has made it harder for brands to track users across the buyer journey. 

An omnichannel approach to data collection and centralization helps mitigate these challenges and lays the foundation for an effective strategy.

2. Growth of LLMs and AI-powered search

The growth of alternate avenues for audiences to find information adds to the complexity of the buyer’s journey. 

This presents additional attribution challenges. 

3. Zero-click searches and decreasing top-funnel traffic

Due to the rise in zero-click searches, traffic to websites from top-of-the-funnel information-seeking terms is declining. 

4. Importance of SEO

Despite the growth in zero-click searches, SEO remains the primary source of traffic for most businesses and the channel with the highest long-term ROI. 

AI Overviews and AI-generated results mainly pull information from the top organic results.  

5. Search is multi-modal

This means written content is not the only content you need to optimize. 

To effectively saturate SERPs, you must optimize all your digital assets, including images, videos, and PDFs. 

6. Personalized experiences

Personalization is key to customer engagement. Up to 71% of consumers expect it, while 76% find generic content frustrating, per a McKinsey study. 

Businesses that prioritize personalized marketing can see up to a 40% increase in revenue. 

An omnichannel approach ensures marketers focus on customer intent rather than marketing channels.  

7. Unified customer experience with agent economy

The growth of artificial intelligence has resulted in the emergence of an agent economy, where AI agents are beginning to revolutionize marketing and digital experiences. 

They can easily connect dots across multiple channels to deliver a unified customer experience.

Tackling the visibility dilemma in customer journeys

With all the changes in the industry, consumer behavior, and technological advancements, we need to answer important questions that marketers are confused about. 

  • How can you learn about audience intent even when they do not visit the site after a search?
  • How do you gather data on your audience’s behavior after they leave your site if they do not convert during their first visit?
  • How can you develop effective SEO, paid, zero-click, and content strategies with limited visibility into the customer journey and insights into customer intent and personas?
  • How can you provide personalized experiences without third-party data, limited traffic, and visibility into your customers’ journeys?

This is where an omnichannel approach can help businesses enhance visibility, drive meaningful interactions, and create a seamless path to conversion.

Building blocks of an omnichannel strategy

A true omnichannel strategy is no longer limited to traditional marketing channels like SEO, paid, email, social media, etc. 

Today, it is about delivering a unified experience at every stage in the customer journey at every touchpoint. 

It includes effectively using channel-agnostic strategies and tactics, such as personalization, AI agents, conversion optimization, A-B testing, and co-optimization. 

Here are five building blocks for creating an omnichannel strategy that truly engages your audiences consistently across touchpoints in an AI-powered world.

omnichannel-strategy-building-blocks

Reliable data

Ensure you have the necessary infrastructure to gather and segment customer data accurately. 

AI can then be layered to:

  • Build audience cohorts.
  • Predict user journeys.
  • Deliver real-time personalized experiences. 

Dig deeper: How to boost your marketing revenue with personalization, connectivity and data

Artificial intelligence

Having an organizational AI strategy is key to ensuring the effective use of AI, not just for content generation but also for improving:

  • Efficiency.
  • Process automation.
  • Customer data segmentation.
  • Forecasting.
  • Real-time personalization at scale.
  • And more.

Dig deeper: 4 pillars of an effective enterprise AI strategy

Digital assets

Having a digital asset manager that lets you centralize, optimize, and distribute all your digital assets across marketing channels is key to ensuring consistency and reducing duplication. 

Dig deeper: Visual optimization must-haves for AI-powered search

Infrastructure

Search-friendly infrastructure and content management system are crucial for effectively crawling and indexing your content, and delivering an engaging, personalized experience to your visitors. 

Dig deeper: How to select a CMS that powers SEO, personalization and growth

Structured data and entity optimization

All search engines, including LLMs, detect entities within your content to understand what your content is all about.

Structured data – or schema markup – helps search engines detect entities and all your digital assets. 

This helps maximize your content visibility and SERP saturation. 

Dig deeper: Future-proof your SERP presence: 6 areas to focus on

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9 steps to integrating SEO into an omnichannel customer journey

9 steps to integrating SEO into an omnichannel customer journey

You can start developing your omnichannel strategy while closing any gaps you have identified in the building blocks.

Step 1: Audience and intent mapping

Start with your audience and intent. Identifying target audience personas and their intent is the first step in audience mapping. It is important to review:

  • Content performance: Evaluate performance of page types or templates to understand gaps in content strategy (e.g., category pages vs. product details pages vs. location pages vs. blog content).
  • Search engagement insights: Search console data can help identify high-intent terms with low click-through rates. This information can inform zero-click and CTR optimization strategies. 
  • Channel overlaps: Identifying how visitors overlap across channels is key to crafting an integrated and unified experience. For example, paid and organic channels must work together to saturate the full funnel and maximize ROI from both channels.  
  • Conversion optimization: Content with high engagement can provide insights into visitor intent. This can help define A-B tests, UI/UX enhancements, and personalization strategies.

Step 2: Define clear strategic goals

The next step is to have clear and smart goals that you want your omnichannel strategy to achieve:

  • Set specific, measurable business objectives (revenue growth, customer retention, growing market share, etc.)
  • Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for channel-specific and overall performance. For example, if the goal is to improve visibility, the primary KPIs should be around impressions, clicks and rich results visibility. Traffic or conversions can be secondary KPIs but should not be the primary success criteria.
  • Create baseline metrics to measure improvement against current performance.
  • Develop a measurement framework that accounts for cross-channel attribution challenges.

Step 3: Map the customer journey across all touchpoints

Traditional funnel is changing rapidly. 

Brands should be ready to respond to customers across all touchpoints fast and with quality.  

customer journey across all touchpoints

Develop a comprehensive understanding of how customers interact with your brand:

  • Create detailed personas representing your target audience segments.
  • Identify patterns in cross-channel journeys using path analysis in analytics and create common use cases.  
  • Aggregate and centralize data across customer touchpoints (website analytics, CRM, sales data, app usage, etc.)
  • Segment customers based on behavioral patterns rather than just demographics.
  • Quantify the value/attribution as a combination of different journey paths and touchpoints.
  • Measure channel preference and effectiveness across different customer segments.

Step 4: Omnichannel audit

Based on your goals and journey maps, evaluate your current channel gaps and capabilities:

  • SEO audit: Analyze search visibility metrics, technical health scores, and overall SEO performance.  
  • Content audit: Measure content performance data, topical and entity coverage, competitive gaps, engagement rates, conversion impact, and cross-channel content effectiveness.
  • Local presence assessment: Evaluate local search visibility metrics and location-specific engagement.
  • Experience audit: Analyze drop-off points and measure cross-channel friction.
  • Data and technology assessment: Evaluate data collection and measurement framework to optimize your data infrastructure.
  • Full-funnel audit: Learn from your visitors. Past visitor data can provide meaningful insights into audience segments, what visitors engage with, and where they drop off in the conversion funnel. This can help identify opportunities for co-optimization, A-B tests and delivering personalized experiences across channels.

Step 5: Develop your integrated channel strategy

Here, focus on aligning your channels to ensure they work together seamlessly and support your overall business goals.

  • Prioritize channels according to attribution data and customer value metrics.
  • Leverage machine learning and predictive analytics to forecast the impact of each channel.
  • Use predictive analytics to determine the optimal channel mix.
  • Set channel-specific targets that ladder up to overall business objectives.
  • Create frameworks for continuously testing and validating channel effectiveness.
  • Define how channels will complement and support each other across the customer journey. 

Step 6: Content orchestration strategy

While a content strategy focuses on what content is needed, a content orchestration strategy also encompasses distribution frameworks that enhance audience interaction with your content.

Friction analysis

Analyze how your audience engages with your content to identify friction points. This process helps you identify, rectify, and optimize:

  • Inconsistencies.
  • Intent misalignments.
  • Delivery mechanisms (text, images, video, etc.).

Content intelligence

Assess the performance of your existing content across various channels and identify competitive gaps and opportunities based on audience personas and business goals. 

Here are a few steps to evaluate content gaps and refine your strategy:

  • Identify underperforming content for optimization.
  • Spot gaps in content that need to be addressed across channels and stages of the customer journey.
  • Recognize cross-linking opportunities to create content hubs.
  • Prioritize new content to close competitive gaps and achieve business goals.

Cross-channel content strategy

After identifying friction points and content gaps, develop a tailored content strategy for each channel, prioritizing based on business goals:

  • Broader informational content to enhance awareness during the discovery stage of the customer journey (e.g., social media, blog content).
  • Comparison content for the consideration stage (e.g., product pages).
  • Landing pages focused on specific buying-intent terms during the conversion stage.

Content optimization

Optimizing content extends beyond targeting the right keywords. Your content optimization strategy should include:

  • Closing topical gaps in content that create friction.
  • Developing an entity optimization strategy to maximize content discoverability.
  • Implementing a click-through rate (CTR) strategy to enhance traffic from discovered content.
  • Optimizing visual content.
  • Establishing an engagement and conversion optimization strategy that includes personalization, calls to action optimization, A/B testing, messaging strategies, UI/UX optimization, and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Dig deeper: The complete guide to optimizing content for SEO (with checklist)

Step 7: Infrastructure and technical SEO

To give your content the best chance of being crawled, indexed, understood, and featured in search results for the right terms, focus on the following:

  • Fix technical SEO issues related to crawling, indexing, and user experience.
  • Ensure mobile optimization across all digital properties.
  • Deploy nested schema markup to enhance search visibility.
  • Improve page speed for all web properties and optimize Core Web Vitals.
  • Test cross-device compatibility.
  • Implement proper canonicalization for multi-regional brands.
  • Prioritize web accessibility by following ADA and WCAG guidelines to enhance user experience and search visibility.

Step 8: Engagement and conversion optimization

Utilize unified customer data to enhance user engagement and drive conversions:

  • Deliver personalized content at scale for each audience segment in real time. Personalization strategies can be based on various factors such as marketing channel or campaign, visitor location, search intent, and past behavior. 
  • Identify and deploy AI agents that assist audiences in quickly finding information, engaging in meaningful interactions, and making real-time decisions.
  • Develop remarketing strategies informed by visitor behavior.
  • Implement A/B testing across channels, ensuring consistent test and control groups.
  • Measure performance across channels and optimize based on business goals and success KPIs. 

Step 9: Continuously test, measure, learn, and optimize

Refine your strategy through ongoing testing and data-driven adjustments to improve performance across all channels.

  • Monitor performance metrics across all channels. Establish BI dashboards that connect and integrate data across channels.  
  • Implement attribution models that effectively account for complex customer journeys.
  • Regularly test new channel integrations and enhancements to the customer journey.
  • Gather feedback from customers regarding their cross-channel experiences.
  • Refine your strategy based on evolving search engine algorithms and changing customer behavior.

SEO’s role in delivering a unified, cross-channel experience

Integrating SEO into the omnichannel customer journey isn’t simply for improving search presence. 

Ultimately, it’s about creating discoverable, unified, and personalized experiences that guide customers naturally toward conversion. 

By implementing this nine-step framework, you can:

  • Break down departmental silos.
  • Align cross-functional teams around customer needs.
  • Build truly seamless engagement models that drive sustainable growth.

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Google partners with Roblox on video ads

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Roblox unveiled a new immersive video advertising format on its platform and announced a strategic partnership with Google to expand its advertising business reach.

Google will roll out these ads across AdMob and Ad Manager, creating significant new revenue opportunities for publishers while giving advertisers contextually relevant ways to reach engaged audiences.

Big picture. The gaming giant is introducing rewarded video ads up to 30 seconds long that offer in-game benefits, marking a significant evolution of its business model beyond traditional gaming revenue.

These ad formats are designed to blend seamlessly into virtual environments – appearing as billboards in digital cities or on screens during virtual sporting events – creating less disruptive advertising experiences that maintain user engagement.

By the numbers:

  • 85.3 million: Daily active users on Roblox.
  • Majority: Users aged 13+.
  • 30 seconds: Maximum length of new video ad format.

Between the lines. This move addresses a key challenge in gaming advertising: maintaining user engagement without disrupting gameplay experiences. As Google executive Scott Sheffer noted, “traditional ad formats haven’t always been the right choice” in gaming environments.

The Roblox partnership also represents a strategic pivot for Google’s advertising business toward emerging virtual spaces where younger audiences spend significant time, positioning them ahead of industry shifts toward more immersive digital experiences.

What Google is saying. Google announced it’s extending Immersive Ads capabilities to more publishers following successful testing, with Roblox becoming a cornerstone partner for the technology.

Why we care. This partnership opens access to 85.3 million daily active users, predominantly Gen Z—a notoriously difficult audience to reach effectively. The rewarded video format offers a non-disruptive way to engage with these highly attentive users, creating authentic brand interactions rather than intrusive interruptions.

Additionally, integration with Google’s ad platform dramatically simplifies campaign management, allowing advertisers to incorporate Roblox into their broader digital strategies without learning new systems.

What’s next. Brands will soon be able to purchase ads directly or through Google Ad Manager, with additional formats like billboards due in the coming months. Partnerships with measurement firms Cint, DoubleVerify, and Nielsen will help track campaign performance

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Indexing and SEO: 9 steps to get your content indexed by Google and Bing

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Indexing and SEO- 9 steps to get your content indexed by Google and Bing

Sick of seeing the error “Discovered – currently not indexed” in Google Search Console (GSC)?

So am I.

Too much SEO effort is focused on ranking.

But many sites would benefit from looking one level up – to indexing.

Why?

Because your content can’t compete until it’s indexed.

Whether the selection system is ranking or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), your content won’t matter unless it’s indexed.

The same goes for where it appears – traditional SERPs, AI-generated SERPs, Discover, Shopping, News, Gemini, ChatGPT, or whatever AI agents come next.

Without indexing, there’s no visibility, no clicks, and no impact.

And indexing issues are, unfortunately, very common. 

Based on my experience working with hundreds of enterprise-level sites, an average of 9% of valuable deep content pages (products, articles, listings, etc.) fail to get indexed by Google and Bing.

Percentage of page types not indexed by Google and Bing

So, how do you ensure your deep content gets indexed? 

Follow these nine proven steps to accelerate the process and maximize your site’s visibility.

Step 1: Audit your content for indexing issues

A sitemap for each deep content page type

In Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, submit a separate sitemap for each page type:

  • One for products.
  • One for articles.
  • One for videos.
  • And so on.

After submitting a sitemap, it may take a few days to appear in the Pages interface. 

Use this interface to filter and analyze how much of your content has been excluded from indexing and, more importantly, the specific reasons why.

GSC - Why pages aren't indexed

All indexing issues fall into three main categories:

  • Poor SEO directives
  • Low content quality
    • If submitted pages are showing soft 404 or content quality issues, first ensure all SEO-relevant content is rendered server-side. 
    • Once confirmed, focus on improving the content’s value – enhance the depth, relevance, and uniqueness of the page.
  • Processing issues

While the first two categories can often be resolved relatively quickly, processing issues demand more time and attention. 

By using sitemap indexing data as benchmarks, you can track your progress in improving your site’s indexing performance.

Dig deeper: The 4 stages of search all SEOs need to know

Step 2: Submit a news sitemap for faster article indexing

News sitemap for articles

For article indexing in Google, be sure to submit a News sitemap. 

This specialized sitemap includes specific tags designed to speed up the indexing of articles published within the last 48 hours. 

Importantly, your content doesn’t need to be traditionally “newsy” to benefit from this submission method.

Step 3: Use Google Merchant Center feeds to improve product indexing

While this applies only to Google and specific categories, submitting your products to Google Merchant Center can significantly improve indexing. 

Ensure your entire active product catalog is added and kept up to date.

Dig deeper: How to optimize your ecommerce site for better indexing

Step 4: Submit an RSS feed to speed up crawling

Submit an RSS feed

Create an RSS feed that includes content published in the last 48 hours. 

Submit this feed in the Sitemaps section of both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

This works effectively because RSS feeds, by their nature, are crawled more frequently than traditional XML sitemaps. 

Plus, indexers still respond to WebSub pings for RSS feeds – a protocol no longer supported for XML sitemaps. 

To maximize benefits, ensure your development team integrates WebSub.

Step 5: Leverage indexing APIs for faster discovery

Integrate both IndexNow (unlimited) and the Google Indexing API (limited to 200 API calls per day unless you can secure a quota increase).

Officially, the Google Indexing API is only for pages with job posting or broadcast event markup.

(Note: The keyword “officially.” I’ll leave it to you to decide if you wish to test it.)

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Step 6: Strengthen internal linking to boost indexing signals

The primary way most indexers discover content is through links. 

URLs with stronger link signals are prioritized higher in the crawl queue and carry more indexing power.

While external links are valuable, internal linking is the real game-changer for indexing large sites with thousands of deep content pages.

Your related content blocks, pagination, breadcrumbs, and especially the links displayed on your homepage are prime optimization points for Googlebot and Bingbot.

When it comes to the homepage, you can’t link every deep content page – but you don’t need to. 

Focus on those that are not yet indexed. Here’s how:

  • When a new URL is published, check it against the log files.
  • As soon as you see Googlebot crawl the URL for the first time, ping the Google Search Console Inspection API.
  • If the response is “URL is unknown to Google,” “Crawled, not indexed,” or “Discovered, not indexed,” add the URL to a dedicated feed that populates a section on your homepage.
  • Re-check the URL periodically. Once indexed, remove it from the homepage feed to maintain relevance and focus on other non-indexed content.
Diagram - internal linking and indexin

This effectively creates a real-time RSS feed of non-indexed content linked from the homepage, leveraging its authority to accelerate indexing.

Step 7: Block non-SEO relevant URLs from crawlers

Block non-SEO relevant URLs from crawlers

Audit your log files regularly and block high-crawl, no-value URL paths using a robots.txt disallow.

Pages such as faceted navigation, search result pages, tracking parameters, and other irrelevant content can:

  • Distract crawlers.
  • Create duplicate content.
  • Split ranking signals.
  • Ultimately downgrade the indexer’s view of your site quality.

However, a robots.txt disallow alone is not enough. 

If these pages have internal links, traffic, or other ranking signals, indexers may still index them.

To prevent this:

  • In addition to disallowing the route in robots.txt, apply rel=”nofollow” to all possible links pointing to these pages.
  • Ensure this is done not only on-site but also in transactional emails and other communication channels to prevent indexers from ever discovering the URL.

Dig deeper: Crawl budget: What you need to know in 2025

Step 8: Use 304 responses to help crawlers prioritize new content

For most sites, the bulk of crawling is invested in refreshing already indexed content.

Use 304 responses to help crawlers prioritize new content

When a site returns a 200 response code, indexers redownload the content and compare it against their existing cache. 

While this is valuable when content has changed, it’s not necessary for most pages.

For content that hasn’t been updated, return a 304 HTTP response code (“Not Modified”). 

This tells crawlers the page hasn’t changed, allowing indexers to allocate resources to content discovery instead.

Step 9: Manually request indexing for hard-to-index pages

Manually request indexing for hard-to-index pages

For stubborn URLs that remain non-indexed, manually submit them in Google Search Console. 

However, keep in mind that there is a limit of 10 submissions per day, so use them wisely.

From my testing, manual submissions in Bing Webmaster Tools offer no significant advantage over submissions via the IndexNow API. 

Therefore, it’s more efficient to use the API.

Maximize your site’s visibility in Google and Bing

If your content isn’t indexed, it’s invisible. Don’t let valuable pages sit in limbo.

Prioritize the steps relevant to your content type, take a proactive approach to indexing, and unlock the full potential of your content.

Dig deeper: Why 100% indexing isn’t possible, and why that’s OK

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Data providers: Google March 2025 core update had similar volatility to the previous update

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The Google March 2025 core update finished rolling out over a 14-day period, starting on March 13, 2025, and completed about 14 days later on March 27, 2025. This March core update took about a week longer than Google’s December 2024 core update, which started December 12, 2024 and completed about 6 days later on December 18, 2024.

Please understand that if a core update impacts a site, it can result in a huge change for that site’s search visibility. So, I do not want to diminish any core updates, including the March core update; those could have been really big for you or the sites you manage.

Data providers on the Google March 2025 core update

Semrush. Semrush (our parent company) was the first to send us data that seemed to show that the Google March 2025 core update had similar volatility than the previous core update, the December 2024 core update. Keep in mind that the December 2024 core update was more volatile than the November 2024 core update, based on the data.

If you glance at the Semrush Senor, you can see the overall volatility the tool reported over that time period:

Mordy Oberstein, who sent me the data from Semrush, told me the two were of “similar in size” when comparing the volatility. He sent me this chart showing the volatility of the past two core updates, broken down by vertical. It shows the peak volatility numbers were pretty similar between the two updates:

If you look at overall ranking volatility change comparison, you can see that the Health sector saw a much bigger change, for some reason:

But when you compare this to the baseline rank volatility, both the December and March core updates were within very similar ranges, Mordy Obertstein told us. “There’s a mere .1 difference between the two,” Obertstein added. Obertstein said he has a theory, which he will share at his session at SMX Advanced, on why he thinks that this update hit different verticals differently.

When you dive into the top ten results, you can see a notable change in what ranking changes there were between these two past core updates:

Similarweb. Similarweb’s SERP Seismometer showed the spikes in volatility cooled down with the March update. You can see it get a bit more volatile on March 13th, 14th and 15th but then start to cool again as the core update rolled out.

Darrel Mordechai from SimilarWeb told us the March 2025 core update was not the most volatile core update they’ve seen and compared to the December core update, it showed “similar levels of volatility.”

Here is a chart showing the core update volatility by average position change for the past core updates, as documented by Similarweb:

Here is when you zoom in comparing the March 2025 and December 2024 core updates, they are super close:

The current update showed slightly lower fluctuations in the top three positions but increased volatility across the top five. Here is where you can see that in this chart:

When you compare it by vertical or niche, you can see the volatility the March 2025 core update caused across the health, finance, retail, travel and finance industries. You can see the finance industry showed the highest levels of fluctuation, particularly in the top five results. In contrast, the travel industry experienced notably low volatility in the top three positions.

seoClarity. The folks at seoClarity also sent me some winners and losers reports, showing the biggest winners and losers from February to March 2025:

Other tools. There are a lot of Google search ranking volatility tools. Here is what they looked like after the core update finished rolling out and over the course of the update:

Mozcast:

Mozcast

Algoroo:

Algoroo

Advanced Web Rankings:

Advancedwebranking

Accuranker:

Accuranker

Cognitive SEO:

Cognitiveseo

Wincher:

Wincher

Mangools (looks broken?):

Mangools

Sistrix:

Sistrix

Data For SEO:

Dataforseo

SERPstat:

Serpstat

Industry. The initial rollout seemed to kick in within a few days after the update was announced. Some sites saw big swings both up and down, in terms, of ranking improvements or decline. But this update did not seem as widespread as some previous core updates, where it had a wider impact on a more diverse site of sites. That is not to say this update was not big for those who were impacted by it – it 100% was very big for those sites.

During the update, some of the tracking tools were tripped up by some Google Search result page changes. That may make it hard for some to track the impact of this update. But you can use Google Search Console to see your impact for your site and see position changes for your most popular keywords.

Then, we saw some additional volatility spike at the tail end of this update.

What to do if you are hit. Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past. Google has not really given much new advice here.

  • There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
  • Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update.
  • Google said you can see a bit of a recovery between core updates but the biggest change would be after another core update.

In short, write helpful content for people and not to rank in search engines.

  • “There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page,” Google said previously.

More on Google updates

You can read more of our coverage in Search Engine Land’s Google Algorithm Updates history.

Why we care. While the data above shows how sites in general are doing with the last core update, it does not represent how your individual site did with the update. If your site was hit by this past update, it can be devastating. If you were hit by previous updates and so no improvement with this update, then again, devastating once again. But some sites saw big improvements.

Feel free to compare this to our December core update report.

We hope you saw improvements with this March 2025 coe update.

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Your guide to Google Ads Smart Bidding

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Your guide to Google Ads Smart Bidding

Are you controlling your paid search campaigns, or are they controlling you? 

If you can’t confidently articulate your smart bidding strategies, you lose conversions and credibility. 

True mastery isn’t just about setting up a campaign and picking a bid strategy; it’s about owning and communicating the process effectively. 

This guide is your roadmap to clarity and control, breaking down 2025’s Smart Bidding into actionable insights.

We’ll cover key concepts, common mistakes, and actionable tips for picking the right strategy. 

Smart Bidding in Google Ads: AI-powered bid optimization

Smart Bidding is Google Ads’ advanced form of automated bidding.

It leverages machine learning and real-time auction signals to optimize bids for conversions or conversion value. 

It dynamically adjusts bids to achieve specific goals, such as maximizing conversions at a target cost or achieving a desired return on ad spend.

Key Smart Bidding strategies include: 

Target CPA (cost per action)

  • Optimizes bids to achieve conversions at a target cost per action. 
  • Ideal for campaigns where you have a specific cost you’re willing to pay for each conversion (e.g., lead, sale).
  • Example: “We aim to acquire leads at a CPA of $50.”

Dig deeper: Everything you need to know about Target CPA bidding

Target ROAS (return on ad spend)

  • Focuses on achieving your desired revenue for every dollar spent. 
  • Best for ecommerce or campaigns with clear revenue goals.
  • Example: “We want to achieve a ROAS of 400%, meaning $4 in revenue for every $1 spent.”

Maximize Conversions

  • Automatically sets bids to achieve the most conversions within your budget.
  • Useful when you want to drive as many conversions as possible, regardless of cost.
  • Example: “Our goal is to maximize the number of sign-ups within our daily budget.”

Dig deeper: Mastering Maximize conversions bidding in Google Ads

Maximize Conversion Value

  • Prioritizes higher-value conversions for greater overall return. 
  • Effective when different conversions have varying values to your business.
  • Tends to favor selling more expensive products or services, as they contribute more to the total conversion value.
  • Example: “We value a ‘request for quote’ more than a ‘newsletter sign-up,’ so we want to maximize the total value of conversions.”

Dig deeper: Maximize Conversion Value: Google Ads bidding explained

Maximize Clicks

  • Automatically sets your bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget.
  • Useful for top-of-funnel campaigns where the goal is to drive traffic to a site.
  • Example: “This campaign is designed to drive as much traffic to our new blog post as possible.”

Enhanced CPC (ECPC)

  • A semi-automated bidding strategy that adjusts your manual bids to try and get more conversions.
  • Google Ads adjusts your manual bid up or down based on the likelihood of a conversion.
  • Example: “We are using manual bidding but want to use Google’s signals to increase conversions where possible.”

Viewable CPM (YouTube)

  • Focuses on maximizing viewable impressions of your display or skippable in-stream video ads.
  • Ideal for brand awareness campaigns where the goal is to get your message seen by as many people as possible.
  • Example: “We want to ensure our brand message is visibly displayed to our target audience on YouTube.”

Cost Per View (YouTube)

  • Optimizes bids to get the most video views or interactions within your budget.
  • Best for campaigns focused on driving engagement with your video content.
  • Example: “We are running a video campaign on YouTube and want to maximize the number of views we receive.”

It’s crucial to understand that while setting a Target CPA or ROAS provides strategic direction, achieving those exact targets isn’t guaranteed.

I’ve had situations where a media planner pushed for an immediate switch to a specific CPA goal. 

They wanted the target set at four times and wouldn’t budge or try to understand why the campaign was set at two times.

A common misconception is that simply setting a desired metric will automatically yield the desired results. 

In practice, achieving optimal performance often requires a nuanced approach.

This may involve:

  • Gradual bid adjustments.
  • A willingness to accept temporary fluctuations in ROAS for broader account health.
  • A comprehensive evaluation of multiple factors, including budget, historical campaign performance, and keyword strategy.

It’s essential to understand that Smart Bidding strategies, while powerful, require strategic oversight and a holistic understanding of account dynamics. 

Success should be measured within the context of overarching account objectives, not solely focusing on individual campaign metrics.

Understanding manual, automated and smart bidding in Google Ads

Understanding manual, automated and smart bidding in Google Ads

Manual bidding allows you to control bid adjustments completely, making it ideal for certain industries, such as legal or home services, where fluctuating competition requires ongoing oversight. However, it requires more time and effort.

It’s like driving a car where you control every gear shift and pedal movement.

Automated bidding simplifies bid management by using algorithms to adjust bids. 

While automated bidding can save time, its generic approach doesn’t account for nuanced conversion goals.

Think of this as engaging cruise control. You tell the car (Google Ads) your general desired speed (goal), and it adjusts the engine (bids) to maintain that pace.

Smart Bidding, however, takes automated bidding further by using real-time signals and advanced machine learning to predict the likelihood of conversions and their value, tailoring bids to individual auctions. 

It’s especially effective for campaigns with clear conversion goals and sufficient historical data.

This is like having a self-driving car with an incredibly sophisticated navigation system.

It’s important to know that while all Smart Bidding is automated, not all automated bidding qualifies as Smart Bidding.

Automated bidding covers a wider range of strategies, some of which are more basic and don’t rely on real-time signals or advanced machine learning.

In essence:

  • Manual: You control every bid.
  • Automated: Google’s algorithms handle bid adjustments based on your chosen strategy.
  • Smart: Google’s machine learning optimizes bids in real-time for conversions and conversion value.

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Smart Bidding: Advantages and risks

There are significant advantages to using Smart Bidding.

  • Improved efficiency: Saves time by automating bid adjustments. 
  • Auction-time optimization: Factors in user intent, device, location, and other data points to optimize bids for each auction. 
  • Goal alignment: Customizes bids to match your campaign objectives, whether it’s maximizing volume or focusing on high-value actions.  

While Smart Bidding offers significant advantages, missteps in implementation can lead to underwhelming results. 

Here’s how to avoid common pitfalls and optimize your campaign performance.

Data dependency

Smart Bidding algorithms rely on robust historical data to make accurate predictions. 

Campaigns with fewer than 30 conversions in the last 30 days may struggle to optimize effectively.

Start with manual bidding or Maximize Clicks to build a data foundation before switching to Smart Bidding. Boris Beceric, a Google Ads consultant and coach, said:

  • “I guess most try Smart Bidding too early – without enough conversion volume. What usually helps: consolidate campaigns so you get more data flowing through a single campaign. Portfolio bidding – kinda the same, but consolidation takes place at the bid strategy level.
  • “Micro conversions – try to add in the micro conversion that had the most volume and is closest to the ‘real’ conversion. Bonus: Reverse engineer CVR and conv value from micro to macro conversion and adjust tCPA accordingly.”

Goal misalignment

Using the wrong bidding strategy can hinder performance. 

For example, applying Target ROAS to a new campaign with limited data can set unrealistic expectations and reduce reach.

Align bidding strategies with your goals.

When prioritizing profitability, use Maximize Conversions for volume and Target ROAS or Target CPA. Harrison Hepp, owner of Industrious Marketing, said:

  • “I had a client who was hybrid ecommerce and lead gen (they sold products, but high-priced deals were lead gen), and they insisted on tracking purchases and leads in every campaign. We constantly battled major fluctuations in the campaigns as they’d swing back and forth between getting purchases or leads and trying to optimize to both.
  • “It also made bid strategy selection really hard, as conversion value bidding would deprioritize leads (no value was tracked), but CPA bidding wasn’t efficient for purchases because of differences in product prices. It really showed how aligning your goals and bid strategy is critical for steady performance. It also underlined how the right bidding strategy can prioritize success in campaigns.”

Monitoring is non-negotiable

Despite its automation, Smart Bidding is not a “set it and forget it” tool. 

Failing to monitor campaigns can lead to wasted ad spend and missed optimization opportunities.

Regularly review performance metrics, adjust campaign parameters, and stay proactive in managing Smart Bidding strategies.

  • “Custom columns/Segment views: We want to measure efficiency, so things like conv value/conv, search impression share, etc.” said Ameet Khabra, owner of Hop Skip Media.

Even with the most advanced AI behind Smart Bidding, performance optimization requires vigilance. 

Regularly review the following metrics to ensure your strategy is working as intended:

  • CPA: Is your Target CPA being met?
  • ROAS: Are the conversions driving sufficient revenue?
  • Conversion rates: Are conversions coming from the right audience segments? Or are you paying for competitors to download your white papers and marking that down as a lead?
  • Search term reports: Are irrelevant keywords consuming a significant portion of your budget? Unprofitable keywords can be why a campaign is not meeting goals.
  • Conversion tracking accuracy: If conversion tracking is improperly implemented, Smart Bidding will optimize based on inaccurate data, reducing effectiveness.

Double-check your conversion tracking setup. Assign accurate values to conversions to reflect their true business impact. Khabra said:

  • “My favorite saying lately is ‘garbage in, garbage out,’ and that is definitely a large component of conversion tracking. Ensuring that we’ve identified the correct conversions that move the needle is half the battle. Implementing the tracking and double-checking that it is correct – collecting conversions – is the second half.”

Budgetary awareness

Strategies like Maximize Conversions and Maximize Clicks will attempt to spend your entire daily budget. 

If your budget is set too high, this can lead to overspending.

Start with smaller daily budgets and gradually increase them while monitoring performance.

Realistic targets

Setting overly aggressive Target CPA or Target ROAS goals can limit your campaign’s reach, as the algorithm will avoid auctions it deems unprofitable.

Begin with realistic targets slightly higher or lower than your current average. Allow time for the algorithm to learn before refining the target.

Best practices for Smart Bidding in Google Ads

To ensure optimal performance, follow these best practices for implementing Smart Bidding in your Google Ads campaigns.

1. Feed accurate data 

Ensure your conversion tracking is set up correctly. 

Assign meaningful values to conversions – whether it’s a purchase, lead form submission, or newsletter signup. 

2. Leverage seasonality adjustments 

Use seasonality adjustments in Google Ads to guide Smart Bidding algorithms for short-term changes (e.g., holiday sales or promotions). 

This prevents excessive or insufficient bids during periods of fluctuating demand. 

Google Ads seasonality adjustments

3. Start with conservative budgets 

Begin with smaller budgets and avoid aggressive bid caps that may limit auction participation. Allow the algorithm to learn and adapt gradually. 

4. Prioritize business value over conversion volume 

Align your bidding tactics with broader business goals. Instead of focusing solely on conversion volume, consider how each conversion contributes to revenue or lifetime customer value. 

5. Test and adapt 

Use Google Ads experiments to test different strategies. 

For example, compare Target CPA with Target ROAS to identify which delivers better results for your campaigns. 

Google Ads Experiments let you directly compare bid strategies in real-world scenarios.

Duplicate your campaign, allocate a split percentage to a new strategy (like comparing Target CPA vs. Target ROAS), and see concrete results with statistical significance.

Final thoughts

Smart Bidding isn’t just about knowing which technical settings to adjust. 

It’s about understanding how to make Google’s automated tools align with your business goals.

The digital landscape evolves quickly, so it’s essential to stay adaptable, continuously monitor performance, and make adjustments as needed. 

Nail the strategy, stay proactive, and you’ll set yourself up for long-term success.

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Microsoft Advertising will start enforcing Consent Mode in May

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Microsoft Advertising will require advertisers to provide explicit user consent signals starting May 5.

First communicated to advertisers a few weeks ago, this change ensures compliance with global privacy regulations while maintaining the ability to gather insights that optimize ad performance.

Why we care. As data privacy concerns grow, businesses face increasing pressure to protect personal information. Microsoft’s enforcement of Consent Mode offers a way to balance privacy with performance, reinforcing trust while meeting regulatory requirements.

What is Consent Mode? Consent Mode is a feature from Microsoft Advertising that respects user privacy preferences while allowing advertisers to track conversions and optimize campaigns. It adjusts cookie access based on user consent, using the ad_storage parameter to either allow or block cookies. This applies to:

  • Universal Event Tracking (UET) on the Microsoft Advertising Platform.
  • Universal Pixel, Segment, and Conversion pixels within Microsoft Invest, Curate, or Monetize.

Consent signals can also be shared through the IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) or directly via a Consent Management Platform (CMP).

How to implement Consent Mode. Businesses can send user consent signals using one of these three options:

  • Direct integration. Implement Consent Mode with UET, Universal Pixel, Segment, or Conversion pixels.
  • IAB framework. Pass consent signals directly in a TCF 2.0 string or through a CMP.
  • Third-party tools. Integrate Microsoft’s Consent Mode through tools like Google Tag Manager.

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