Sudha Reddy

☠️ Will AI Overviews kill the web and specifically, smaller independent publishers? Plenty of insights in Sundaar’s interview with The Verge, covering AI in search and the potential impact on web publishers. I won’t spoil the content of the video (please watch it) but the interview definitely solidified some of the observations that we share with publishers on a daily basis: 1️⃣ AI Overviews and more broadly, AI in search is the most powerful change we’ve seen in 20 years, it’s likely to have an impact on evergreen content but it is very unlikely to replace the value offered by high quality, independent publishers. If anything, I think AI Overviews will limit the overflow of crappy AI content that we see on the web today and will revitalize the interest in Google search, so I tend to see it as good news. 2️⃣ Publishers are way more worried by Google Core Updates than AI Overviews and the reason for that is quite simple. It is becoming harder for Google to spot helpful content in an ocean of unhelpful content (e.g. AI generated content, all sorts of site reputation abuses, popunders …yes, again) and that leads to more frequent mistakes. We should continue to expect mistakes as the web becomes more crowded and we should also expect market specificities to be lost in translation at times. ☝🏼Search isn’t perfect (even less so Discover), it never was and will never be. The silver lining for publishers (which is what makes me sleep well at night) is that Google, with all its contradictions, has always been and still is the strongest advocate of an open and free web where content creators can thrive. Google knows very well that ecosystems can only prosper when all parties involved benefit from it and it is hard to imagine a future for search without publishers. Let’s focus on bringing great content onto the web, the rest will follow! 💪🏼

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Most founders and marketers think that just because they’ve hit “enable” on their native Shopify CAPI integration, they’re on top of their data game. Hate to break it to you, but you’re not. Yeah it’s easy, free, and convenient But that does not signal that it’s a quality method of tracking AT ALL. If you’re serious about growing your brand - you’ll never want to settle for “good and free” And I can even tell you from firsthand experience with growing Obvi - we’ve been down the road of trying the “good and free” method for things like hiring agencies, checkout optimization, subscription services… It almost never ends well. The same goes 1000% for your tracking. On average (with standard & free client-side tracking) businesses lose around 30% of their overall revenue due to bad tracking 30%. So if you’re bringing in $3 million in revenue - that’s $900,000 in the wind. Now do you understand why having good tracking and better data is so important?? And what’s even better is that there are SEVERAL resources for you to implement better quality server-side tracking into your business You can do the research and figure it out all on your own (which we tried to do) OR You can sign up for a service that already has everything ready to go And all you need to do is plug it into your ads, shopfiy, email, etc. Personally - I recommend option number 2. I’m not saying option number 1 isn’t possible, but you’re likely going to spend a lot of time and money on it. And yes I’m a #proudpartner - but like I’ve said before, I don’t promote anything I don’t use personally to grow our businesses… And I can’t stress enough that Elevar is the right path to go with this kind of thing. They know what they’re doing, have access to a ridiculous amount of resources to do it right, And they’ve helped us make a lot of money. As always, you don’t have to take my advice - I’m just shouting into the void half the time. But if you’re serious about fixing your tracking and getting your hands on GOOD data, I’ll recommend Elevar every time.

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7 Comments

Controversial take: PMax sucks and shouldn’t be used the way 90% of DTC brands are currently using it. To be fair, I don’t necessarily blame brands for the heavy use of PMax with all of the misinformation that these Google reps push on everyone nowadays. My team was just on a call with one of them a couple of weeks ago and you wouldn’t believe the looks we got when we told them that we were more focused on campaign types that give us greater control such as Search and Standard Shopping. But why do most Google reps push PMax so much? Well in short, most Google reps are not actual Google ads media buyers. They are sales professionals who “learned” Google ads from a training manual provided by Google. This obviously doesn’t apply to everyone, I have met one or two reps who are knowledgeable and helpful but most are not. Okay so why does PMax suck? Lack of Control: PMax gives you very limited control over your campaigns. Automated targeting, bidding, and asset placements often take decision-making power away from you, making it difficult to optimize specific areas of the campaign like audience targeting or keyword focus​. Limited Reporting: Another big issue with PMax is the lack of detailed insights. Google makes it really hard to see where your ad spend is most effective or which assets are underperforming​. Cannibalization of Branded Keywords: PMax often targets branded search terms, even if you have other campaigns already focusing on those terms. This can lead to cannibalization, where PMax takes credit for conversions that should have been attributed to your brand or search campaigns. No Control Over Negative Keywords: Unlike search campaigns where you can easily add negative keywords, PMax doesn’t allow for straightforward exclusion of irrelevant or low-performing terms. You need to go through a Google Ads rep to add negatives, which is tedious. Opaque AI Decisions: The AI-driven nature of PMax can sometimes make questionable choices, such as targeting irrelevant search terms and placements without a clear understanding of the business's actual needs. This leads to wasted ad spend on unrelated clicks​. Lack of Testing Ability: The all-encompassing nature of PMax means it’s harder to test individual elements like creatives or audiences. In contrast, other campaign types, like standard Search or Shopping, allow for more granular A/B testing​ and experimentation. Steep Learning Curve for ROI: While Google reps constantly market PMax as a solution for higher conversion rates, the reality is that brands often experience wasted ad spend and poor ROI before the campaign's AI "learns" how to optimize properly. Not to mention, most of that “higher conversion rates” come from branded search terms from what we’ve seen which does not tend to actually drive incremental revenue. There is a process for transitioning away from being over-reliant on PMax campaigns and it takes a little bit of time but you’ll be better off in the long run.

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Google remains the top search engine, despite the rise of AI tools. A recent study by Sonata Insights indicates that Google had 290 times more search users than Perplexity, an AI tool, during the time of the study. 🔝 The average number of Google searches per desktop user grew by 10.4% in May 2024 compared to May 2023. 📈 For more insights, swipe 👉 ! #Google #SearchEngine #AITools #TechnologyTrends #SonataInsights #DigitalMarketing #SEO #TechNews #AIvsGoogle #MarketResearch #UserGrowth #SearchTrends #Innovation #TechStatistics #DataInsights

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Just read a game-changing article by Sylvain Peyronnet on the power of LLMs and knowledge graphs. These technologies are set to revolutionize SEO with advanced content generation and seamless tool integration. If you’re into SEO or tech innovations, don’t miss this. Sylvain breaks down how LLMs and GraphRAG can automate and supercharge your SEO strategy. Check out the full article here: https://lnkd.in/es4Dgb8x

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