Good morning search marketers, are you a dark mode fan?
The Google Ads app now has it. But the bigger update, announced yesterday, is that optimization scores are now prominently featured in the app. As you'll recall, this comes on the heels of rumors that optimization scores will be a key piece of agency qualifications for Google Partner status, which has raised concerns about agency autonomy.
Whether you're managing accounts at an agency or in-house, Google's increasing emphasis on optimization scores highlights the benefits, limitations, and concerns about the role of automation in media platforms. Using big data and machine learning to surface areas of opportunity is often useful, but there are still significant limitations on the ability of these systems to be nuanced, and when the recommendations come from the media platform themselves advertisers must take a critical look at whether they're a good fit. I expect we'll be having a lot more conversations about optimization scores this year.
You may want to stop chasing those 5-star reviews or trying to get rid of low ratings. Another study has shown that more than 70% of consumers don't trust 5-star ratings. While consumers increasingly rely on reviews, they're also increasingly wary of their authenticity or credibility.
With all of the changes happening around privacy regulation, marketers should stay up-to-date, but leave the lawyering to the lawyers, says Sayf Sharif, the VP of analytics at Seer Interactive. Read why below.
George Nguyen,
Associate Editor
