Digital Digest
Marketing Intelligence Weekly
Weekly updates on the digital marketing news you need to know, including data reform, AI, cookie deprecation and platform updates.
AI in digital
Platforms
OpenAI announces GPT-4o mini
- OpenAI has announced GPT-4o mini, a more affordable option than previous frontier models.
- It is priced at 15 cents per million input tokens and 60 cents per million output tokens.
- “GPT-4o mini enables a broad range of tasks with its low cost and latency, such as applications that chain or parallelize multiple model calls (e.g., calling multiple APIs), pass a large volume of context to the model (e.g., full code base or conversation history), or interact with customers through fast, real-time text responses (e.g., customer support chatbots).”
- Read more.
Data privacy
Platforms
Italy investigates Google’s ad profiling methods
- Italy’s competition watchdog, AGCM, is investigating Google’s ad profiling practices around user consent.
- The AGCM is investigating whether Google’s user consent methods are clear and transparent following the DMA which mandates tech giants must seek explicit user permissions.
- The investigation highlights the growing scrutiny of tech companies' data practices in the EU, and the outcome could set a precedent for how other platforms handle user consent. Download our guide to cookies and data privacy so you don’t get caught out.
- Read more.
Data privacy
Platforms
Ad tracking pre-enabled in Firefox
- The 'saviour' of ad free browsing Firefox, now has ad tracking pre enabled with the latest update (Release 128) with the option to opt out.
- The "Privacy-preserving attribution" (PPA) feature, which is automatically enabled, permits Firefox to gather data for advertisers.
- Users wishing to disable this feature must do so manually.
- Read more.
AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Gen AI use expected to grow >7% by 2026
- While generative AI use is slowing down from its 900% growth rate in the US from 2022 to 2023, its growth still remains strong.
- According to EMARKETER, generative AI users are expected to increase from 29.3% in 2024 to 34% and then 36.7% in 2025 and 2026 respectively.
- Unfortunately we cannot share the link to this research, however please get in touch if you'd like more information.
Marketing by numbers
Australian digital ad wastage up $50M
- Australia’s digital ad wastage is up $50 million from last year and up $25 million in just 3 months alone.
- According to Next&Co’s quarterly Digital Media Wastage report, advertisers wasted $123.1 million in digital advertising dollars in the second quarter of 2024.
- This “represents the millions of advertising dollars that failed to further digital advertising objectives across a range of verticals, including real estate, retail, insurance, finance and FMCG”.
- Read more.
Data privacy
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
Microsoft could pay 4% of global revenues for a GDPR violation
- Ad subsidiary of Microsoft, Xandr, was subject to a complaint over its privacy and accuracy standards.
- The complaint alleges that Xandr violated the GDPR by collecting more data than needed on consumers, hosting inaccurate personal data, and failing to adhere to the law’s “right of access” rules that require companies to provide personal info to consumers when requested.
- If Xandr is found to have violated the GDPR, Microsoft could be fined as much as 4% of its global revenues.
- Read more.
AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
Google AI Overviews show for just 7% of queries
- AI Overviews real estate shrinks - 13% smaller, on average.
- This trend of less visibility for AI-generated answers started in mid-April, when the number of Google Search results without AI jumped to 65%, up from 25%.
- For education queries, AI Overviews dropped from 26% to 13%.
- For entertainment queries, AI Overviews fell from 14% to nearly 0%.
- For ecommerce queries, AI Overviews decreased from 26% to 9%.
- We are seeing less duplication in AI than classic search results. Google is less frequently citing the same sources in AI Overviews that appear in Classic Search.
- UGC loses visibility in AI Overviews. Reddit and Quora lost a staggering number of AI Overviews citations – 85.71% and 99.69%.
- Read more.
Platforms
Additional eCommerce features in Search Console
- Google is providing more e-commerce functionalities in Search Console.
- You can now configure shipping and return policies in SC.
- There have been a number of e-commerce-specific updates in the last 12 months, highlighting the need to audit/review/optimise e-commerce platforms outside of standard SEO approaches.
- Read more.
Platforms
GA4 hidden report shows Ads discrepancies
- A hidden report in GA4 shows discrepancies between GA4 and Google Ads data.
- It is unknown whether Google will officially release this report or whether it’s now a hidden report for testing.
- To view the report append “/advertising/key-event-differences” to your GA4 property URL.
- Read more.
Platforms
Broad Match now default in Google Ads
- Be careful setting up new Search campaigns in Google Ads, as broad match is now the default.
- Previously, the default setting in Google Ads was having broad match switched off.
- Advertisers will need to be vigilant when setting up new campaigns to avoid unitended broad targeting.
- Read more.
Cookies
Data privacy
Marketing by numbers
81% of marketers still rely on third-party cookies
- According to Hubspot’s State of Marketing 2024 report (with data from 1,400 marketers across the globe), 84% of marketers said data privacy changes affected their strategy in 2023.
- This year, they expect the key changes that will affect them the most are: Google Chrome’s third-party cookie phase out, Apple iOS privacy protection features, and GDPR.
- 81% of marketers said their marketing activities rely on third-party cookies, and around 1 in 5 said they aren’t ready to lose access to them.
- Additionaly, 76% of marketers said losing access to third-party cookies will make marketing more difficult.
- Read more.
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
Google sending less traffic to the open web
- According to research by Sparktoro, Google is sending less traffic to the open web (i.e., organic results, not a paid ad or Google-owned property).
- For every 1,000 US searches, 360 go to the open web, while for every 1,000 EU searches, 374 clicks go to the open web.
- Clicks to the open web for both EU and US searches have declined 2% since 2022.
- Read more.
