SEO

Is Google Making Another Push Into Ecommerce?

Published

2 years ago

May 30, 2022

A report from Bloomberg suggests Google getting ready to take another run at retail giant Amazon with a renewed determination to conquer ecommerce.

Ecommerce is a “division [Google] has tried and failed to figure out many times before,” the report reads.

If Google is getting serious about ecommerce again, why would it work out any different this time?

For one, there’s a new VP in charge since the last time Google made a strong push into ecommerce.

Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior Vice President at Google who oversees Search, Maps, and Ads, gave everyone a glimpse of his vision at this year’s Google I/O conference.

Raghavan’s influence over Google’s retail strategy dates back to his promotion in 2020, which is around the time Google got rid of the fees it used to charge for online purchases.

Bloomberg describes Raghavan’s vision as “anti-Amazon.” Retailers have to pay Amazon to use its website as a storefront, whereas Google has recently started letting businesses run shopping ads for free.

Free shopping listings sounds like an effective way for companies to get in front of customers, but are customers conditioned to using Google as a place to purchase products?

In this article we’ll look at whether Google can realistically compete with Amazon in the retail space. Then we’ll discuss what this means for businesses and what they can do to prepare for an ecommerce push from Google.

Google’s New Ecommerce Strategy Showing Promise

There’s early signs that Google’s new approach to ecommerce is working.

Google recently revealed in an earnings report that ecommerce advertising contributed to a 43% increase search revenue in 2021.

Advertisers are ready to embrace the direction Google is headed in, but what about customers?

Google reported last year that over a billion people shop on its properties every day.

Research from Morgan Stanley, published in fall 2021, finds consumers were using Google and YouTube to research products and price shop more often than they used Amazon, EBay, or Walmart.

Even Amazon’s most dedicated shoppers, Prime subscribers, are searching for products in Google more often.

In April, Morgan Stanley reported 59% of survey respondents who are Amazon Prime members said they started researching products on Google. That number is up from 50% last fall.

However, industry insiders tell Bloomberg that Google’s retailer-friendly approach to ecommerce isn’t attracting a significant number of new shoppers.

Google has succeeded at getting advertiser and retailer buy-in, now it needs to figure out how to turn searchers into buyers.

Preparing For Google’s Ecommerce Push

There are two things retailers can do now to position themselves for success as Google brings its ecommerce vision to life.

The first is to upload your product feed to Google Merchant Center. You can learn all about how to do that in this beginner’s guide to shopping ads.

There’s no upfront cost to using Google Merchant Center, you only pay if you decide to run premium shopping ads.

That brings us to the next recommendation, which is taking advantage of free product listings in Google.

With a product feed uploaded to Google through Merchant Center, you’ll be eligible to display free shopping listings.

The main difference between paid and free shopping listings is one gets priority over the other. As far as appearance and functionality goes, they’re identical offerings.

In addition to getting listed in the Shopping tab, there’s a chance your free listings will get displayed in search results.

Lastly, you can stay prepared by paying close attention to the latest Google updates. I suspect we’ll see innovative efforts from Google throughout the year to attract more shoppers.

Source: Bloomberg

Featured Image: CasamiroPT/Shutterstock

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Google Declares It The “Gemini Era” As Revenue Grows 15%

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Max

Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, announced its first quarter 2024 financial results today.

While Google reported double-digit growth in key revenue areas, the focus was on its AI developments, dubbed the “Gemini era” by CEO Sundar Pichai.

The Numbers: 15% Revenue Growth, Operating Margins Expand

Alphabet reported Q1 revenues of $80.5 billion, a 15% increase year-over-year, exceeding Wall Street’s projections.

Net income was $23.7 billion, with diluted earnings per share of $1.89. Operating margins expanded to 32%, up from 25% in the prior year.

Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s President and CFO, stated:

“Our strong financial results reflect revenue strength across the company and ongoing efforts to durably reengineer our cost base.”

Google’s core advertising units, such as Search and YouTube, drove growth. Google advertising revenues hit $61.7 billion for the quarter.

The Cloud division also maintained momentum, with revenues of $9.6 billion, up 28% year-over-year.

Pichai highlighted that YouTube and Cloud are expected to exit 2024 at a combined $100 billion annual revenue run rate.

Generative AI Integration in Search

Google experimented with AI-powered features in Search Labs before recently introducing AI overviews into the main search results page.

Regarding the gradual rollout, Pichai states:

“We are being measured in how we do this, focusing on areas where gen AI can improve the Search experience, while also prioritizing traffic to websites and merchants.”

Pichai reports that Google’s generative AI features have answered over a billion queries already:

“We’ve already served billions of queries with our generative AI features. It’s enabling people to access new information, to ask questions in new ways, and to ask more complex questions.”

Google reports increased Search usage and user satisfaction among those interacting with the new AI overview results.

The company also highlighted its “Circle to Search” feature on Android, which allows users to circle objects on their screen or in videos to get instant AI-powered answers via Google Lens.

Reorganizing For The “Gemini Era”

As part of the AI roadmap, Alphabet is consolidating all teams building AI models under the Google DeepMind umbrella.

Pichai revealed that, through hardware and software improvements, the company has reduced machine costs associated with its generative AI search results by 80% over the past year.

He states:

“Our data centers are some of the most high-performing, secure, reliable and efficient in the world. We’ve developed new AI models and algorithms that are more than one hundred times more efficient than they were 18 months ago.

How Will Google Make Money With AI?

Alphabet sees opportunities to monetize AI through its advertising products, Cloud offerings, and subscription services.

Google is integrating Gemini into ad products like Performance Max. The company’s Cloud division is bringing “the best of Google AI” to enterprise customers worldwide.

Google One, the company’s subscription service, surpassed 100 million paid subscribers in Q1 and introduced a new premium plan featuring advanced generative AI capabilities powered by Gemini models.

Future Outlook

Pichai outlined six key advantages positioning Alphabet to lead the “next wave of AI innovation”:

Research leadership in AI breakthroughs like the multimodal Gemini model
Robust AI infrastructure and custom TPU chips
Integrating generative AI into Search to enhance the user experience
A global product footprint reaching billions
Streamlined teams and improved execution velocity
Multiple revenue streams to monetize AI through advertising and cloud

With upcoming events like Google I/O and Google Marketing Live, the company is expected to share further updates on its AI initiatives and product roadmap.

Featured Image: Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock

SEO

brightonSEO Live Blog

Published

21 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Hello everyone. It’s April again, so I’m back in Brighton for another two days of ~~sun~~, sea, and SEO!

Being the introvert I am, my idea of fun isn’t hanging around our booth all day explaining we’ve run out of t-shirts (seriously, you need to be fast if you want swag!). So I decided to do something useful and live-blog the event instead.

Follow below for talk takeaways and (very) mildly humorous commentary.

SEO

Google Further Postpones Third-Party Cookie Deprecation In Chrome

Published

1 day ago

April 25, 2024

Max

Close-up of a document with a grid and a red stamp that reads "delayed" over the word "status" due to Chrome's deprecation of third-party cookies.

Google has again delayed its plan to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome web browser. The latest postponement comes after ongoing challenges in reconciling feedback from industry stakeholders and regulators.

The announcement was made in Google and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) joint quarterly report on the Privacy Sandbox initiative, scheduled for release on April 26.

Chrome’s Third-Party Cookie Phaseout Pushed To 2025

Google states it “will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4” this year as planned.

Instead, the tech giant aims to begin deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome “starting early next year,” assuming an agreement can be reached with the CMA and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The statement reads:

“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence, including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”

Continued Engagement With Regulators

Google reiterated its commitment to “engaging closely with the CMA and ICO” throughout the process and hopes to conclude discussions this year.

This marks the third delay to Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies, initially aiming for a Q3 2023 phaseout before pushing it back to late 2024.

The postponements reflect the challenges in transitioning away from cross-site user tracking while balancing privacy and advertiser interests.

Transition Period & Impact

In January, Chrome began restricting third-party cookie access for 1% of users globally. This percentage was expected to gradually increase until 100% of users were covered by Q3 2024.

However, the latest delay gives websites and services more time to migrate away from third-party cookie dependencies through Google’s limited “deprecation trials” program.

The trials offer temporary cookie access extensions until December 27, 2024, for non-advertising use cases that can demonstrate direct user impact and functional breakage.

While easing the transition, the trials have strict eligibility rules. Advertising-related services are ineligible, and origins matching known ad-related domains are rejected.

Google states the program aims to address functional issues rather than relieve general data collection inconveniences.

Publisher & Advertiser Implications

The repeated delays highlight the potential disruption for digital publishers and advertisers relying on third-party cookie tracking.

Industry groups have raised concerns that restricting cross-site tracking could push websites toward more opaque privacy-invasive practices.

However, privacy advocates view the phaseout as crucial in preventing covert user profiling across the web.

With the latest postponement, all parties have more time to prepare for the eventual loss of third-party cookies and adopt Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox APIs as replacements.

Featured Image: Novikov Aleksey/Shutterstock