GrowRoom Digital Marketing Updates
Our summary of key changes across all major search engines and social media platforms.
Google’s November 2024 Core Update
What Changed:
In Google's words, the November 2024 Core Update "is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search."
Impact on SEO:
Early indications that this might have affected affiliate sites harder than others, which would somewhat align with the quote from Google. It's too early to read too much into this yet though. High quality content, links and user experience should continue be the foundation of your strategy.
Google Ads Phased Out Enhanced CPC
What Changed:
Google Ads announced the phase-out of Enhanced CPC (eCPC) for new Search and Display campaigns starting in October 2024, with a full transition to Manual CPC by March 2025. eCPC previously offered a hybrid approach, allowing advertisers to experiment with automation while maintaining some control, which made it accessible for beginners.
Impact on PPC:
These changes will potentially make it more difficult for beginners who use eCPCs. If you're not already doing so, you'll need to adopt advanced automated strategies like Maximise Conversions or Maximise Conversion Value, potentially with target CPA or ROAS adjustments.
This shift underscores Google’s commitment to machine learning and automation in ad bidding, pushing advertisers to adapt to increasingly automated strategies.
Google’s August 2024 Core Update
What Changed:
The August 2024 Core Update refined Google's ability to assess site authority, focusing more on content depth and expertise, particularly in niche fields. It also improved the algorithm's understanding of user intent, making search results more relevant.
Google's statement said "This latest update takes into account the feedback we've heard from some creators and others over the past few months. As always, we aim to connect people with a range of high quality sites, including small or independent sites that are creating useful, original content, when relevant to users' searches. This update also aims to better capture improvements that sites may have made, so we can continue to show the best of the web."
Google also updated its guidance on Core Updates following this release, and there was an indexation bug that lasted around 4 days following the rollout start date.
Impact on SEO:
Many SEOs believed this update was a reversal of the changes that hit many sites during the Helpful Content Update, although a lot of those sites saw a small ranking improvement followed by further drops.
As is always the advice from Google following Core Updates, ensure your content is useful, comprehensive, and answers user queries directly.
TikTok’s Updated Ad Policies on Transparency and User Privacy
What Changed:
TikTok introduced stricter advertising guidelines regarding transparency and user data privacy. Advertisers are now required to be more transparent about how they use consumer data, and ads with misleading claims or unclear data use policies may face penalties or removal.
Impact on PPC:
Brands must ensure that their TikTok ad campaigns comply with these new transparency requirements, including clear CTAs and data collection practices. This may require adjusting targeting options and messaging to remain compliant while ensuring ad relevance.
Google Ads Keyword Matching Update
What Changed:
In May 2024, Google further refined its keyword matching, making phrase and broad match keywords more contextually aware. The system now considers the meaning behind a query, rather than just matching keywords, making intentbased ads more effective.
Impact on PPC:
Advertisers may notice shifts in how their ads are triggered. This makes it important to regularly review and adjust keyword strategies to ensure ads are shown to the right audience. PPC campaigns can now capture more relevant traffic by focusing on user intent rather than exact keywords.
Facebook and Instagram Ad Policy Update on AI-Generated Content
What Changed:
Meta introduced new guidelines regulating the use of AI-generated content in ads. Advertisers are required to disclose when AI is used to create ad content, particularly for synthetic voices or images.
Impact on Paid Social:
Advertisers must ensure compliance with these new rules if they use AI to generate
any aspect of their ads. Failing to disclose the use of AI can lead to ad disapproval.
Brands should update their ad copy and imagery disclosures to meet these
requirements.
Google’s March 2024 Broad Core Update
What Changed:
The March 2024 Google Core Update, completed on April 19 but officially announced on April 26, caused significant ranking fluctuations throughout the web. This core update continued Google's trend of refining search algorithms to improve content quality and relevance, particularly targeting manipulative SEO practices including low-value content creation for link manipulation, artificial ranking boosts through outbound links, and the repurposing of expired domains with unrelated content to exploit search visibility.
Impact on SEO:
The March 2024 Core Update heavily impacted SEO, emphasising quality content and targeting practices like low-value content for link manipulation, artificial ranking boosts through outbound links, and reusing expired domains with unrelated content. These changes require SEO professionals to focus on authentic, high-quality strategies to align with Google's enhanced focus on content integrity and user relevance.
LinkedIn Ads Algorithm Update
What Changed:
LinkedIn updated its ad delivery system to favour ads with higher engagement metrics, including comments, shares, and reactions. The algorithm prioritises content that sparks conversation and drives engagement over content with low interaction.
Impact on PPC:
For LinkedIn advertisers, this means a greater focus on creating engaging, interactive content rather than static ads. Ads that invite comments or shares are more likely to perform well, so incorporating engagement-driven CTAs will be crucial in 2024.
Bing’s AI-Powered SERP Features
What Changed:
Bing continued to expand its integration of AI in search results, focusing on offering rich answers directly in the SERP. This includes detailed answers generated by AI models, summarising multiple sources and providing users with direct answers.
Impact on SEO:
SEO professionals should focus on creating content that can be surfaced as AI generated snippets. For PPC campaigns, it's essential to ensure that paid content is integrated seamlessly with these SERP changes. Advertisers may need to target new AI-driven features such as “Smart Answers to capture search visibility.
Google Ads Privacy Sandbox Rollout
What Changed:
Google accelerated the rollout of its Privacy Sandbox initiative, aimed at phasing out third-party cookies and introducing new privacy-preserving technologies. Topics API and FLEDGE, which allow for interest-based advertising and remarketing without third-party cookies, were expanded to more advertisers.
Impact on PPC:
With third-party cookies being phased out, advertisers will need to rely more on first-party data and Privacy Sandbox tools like FLEDGE for remarketing. The shift to interest-based advertising using Topics API means PPC strategies should focus on creating robust first-party data collection mechanisms and contextual ad targeting.
Google’s December 2023 Link Spam Update
What Changed:
Google rolled out a link spam update, focusing on detecting and nullifying spammy backlinks. Sites using manipulative link-building practices saw significant ranking drops. Google s SpamBrain AI became more efficient in identifying both purchased and manipulative links.
Impact on SEO & PPC:
SEO professionals need to ensure that all backlinks are high-quality, organic, and relevant. This makes authoritative link-building more important, while paid ads should be paired with organic efforts to help sites that were built with questionable SEO tactics, and therefore previously reliant on high volume, low-quality backlinks.
Google’s November 2023 Core Algorithm Update
What Changed:
This update fine-tuned Google s ranking algorithm to better understand intent and content relevance, especially focusing on product and service-oriented queries. Sites with detailed, in-depth content saw improved rankings, while overly thin pages were penalised.
Impact on SEO & PPC:
This reinforces the importance of well-researched, high-quality content for SEO. For PPC, ad landing pages need to be equally content-rich to align with user expectations and improve conversion rates.
TikTok’s Updated Ad Targeting Options
What Changed:
TikTok introduced more refined audience targeting options, focusing on user engagement patterns rather than just demographics. This allows advertisers to target users based on how they interact with content over time, including video watch habits, likes, and shares.
Impact on PPC:
TikTok advertisers can now create more dynamic and highly-targeted campaigns. Brands need to utilise video content that engages audiences and keeps them interacting to fully leverage TikTok s new engagement-focused targeting features.
Google’s September 2023 Core Algorithm Update
What Changed:
The September 2023 update focused on content relevance and quality, particularly on content that answers users queries effectively. Pages with keyword stuffing or thin content saw drops in rankings, while sites that offered comprehensive, userfriendly information benefitted.
Impact on SEO & PPC:
SEO strategies should prioritise depth and quality of content. For PPC, ensure that landing pages directly address user intent and provide a smooth, relevant experience to maintain strong ad performance and conversion rates.
Meta’s New Ad Transparency Guidelines
What Changed:
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) introduced new transparency measures, requiring advertisers to disclose more information about their campaigns, especially regarding political or issue-based ads. New ad labels and disclosures became mandatory for certain types of ads.
Impact on PPC:
Advertisers need to ensure full compliance with these transparency guidelines. For businesses running issue-based campaigns, being transparent about messaging and content is essential to avoid ad disapprovals or penalties.
Google Ads "Enhanced Conversions for Leads" Update
What Changed:
Google Ads rolled out an enhanced conversions feature specifically designed for lead generation. It allows advertisers to track and optimise lead-based conversions more effectively by matching first-party data to better track lead submissions.
Impact on PPC:
For businesses focused on lead generation, this feature provides better insights into which ads drive the most valuable leads. PPC managers should ensure their campaigns are set up to capture and leverage this enhanced conversion data for more accurate tracking and optimisation.
LinkedIn’s Video Ads Feature Update
What Changed:
LinkedIn enhanced its video ad capabilities, allowing advertisers to run longer video ads and introducing new analytics to measure engagement metrics such as completion rates and video rewatches.
Impact on PPC:
For B2B and professional services advertisers, this means greater flexibility in video content and better tracking of engagement. Video ads can now be more informative and detailed, which is particularly useful for targeting decision-makers or promoting thought leadership content.
Google’s May 2023 "Search Generative Experience" (SGE) Launch
What Changed:
Google introduced the AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE), integrating AI directly into search results. This allows Google to generate comprehensive answers from multiple sources, reducing the need for users to click on multiple results.
Impact on SEO & PPC:
While SGE may decrease organic click-through rates for certain queries, advertisers need to focus on creating content that is authoritative and likely to appear within these AI-generated responses. PPC strategies should also shift toward ensuring ads are well-integrated into the evolving SERP layout.
Google’s March 2023 Broad Core Update
What Changed:
Google s March 2023 update focused on improving user experience signals such as Core Web Vitals (site speed, interactivity, and visual stability), and further prioritised mobile-friendly content.
Impact on SEO & PPC:
For SEO, it s crucial to ensure sites are fast, mobile-optimised, and provide a great user experience. PPC landing pages that don t meet these criteria may see reduced performance due to lower Quality Scores, leading to higher costs per click (CPC) and lower ad rankings.
Google Ads Performance Max Campaign Updates
What Changed:
Google introduced new features to its Performance Max campaigns, allowing advertisers to access more insights, control, and customisation. These updates include asset-level performance reporting and custom audience segments.
Impact on PPC:
Performance Max campaigns can now be more effectively tailored to specific goals, and advertisers have more granular insights into which assets and segments perform best. This is particularly useful for fine-tuning ads and audiences across Google s vast network.
Google’s February 2023 Product Reviews Update
What Changed:
Google rolled out an update aimed at improving the quality of product review content. This update prioritised product reviews that provide in-depth, firsthand, expert-level analysis, and demoted superficial or affiliate-heavy reviews.
Impact on SEO & PPC:
SEO strategies should now focus on creating authentic, detailed product reviews. For PPC, landing pages used for product-driven ads should include comprehensive, expert-level content to align with Google s expectations for valuable information.
Microsoft Ads’ Audience Network Expansion
What Changed:
Microsoft expanded its Audience Network, allowing advertisers to reach more users through native ads across Microsoft properties (including MSN, Outlook, and Edge) and third-party partners. Microsoft also introduced new audience targeting features.
Impact on PPC:
Advertisers using Microsoft Ads should explore the expanded audience targeting options and take advantage of native ad placements to diversify their PPC strategy beyond Google. This expansion offers opportunities to capture new, engaged audiences.
Microsoft Ads’ Audience Network Expansion
What Changed:
Microsoft expanded its Audience Network, allowing advertisers to reach more users through native ads across Microsoft properties (including MSN, Outlook, and Edge) and third-party partners. Microsoft also introduced new audience targeting features.
Impact on PPC:
Advertisers using Microsoft Ads should explore the expanded audience targeting options and take advantage of native ad placements to diversify their PPC strategy beyond Google. This expansion offers opportunities to capture new, engaged audiences.