Feb 3 2025
Digital Ads Cost 19% More, Convert Less: User Frustration To Blame via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

New data shows what many marketers already suspect: it’s getting harder and more expensive to convert online visitors.

A study of 90 billion sessions shows organic traffic is down from last year, pushing more brands toward paid channels to make up the difference.

This information comes from Contentsquare’s Digital Experience Benchmark Report, which examines changes in traffic patterns and highlights growing user frustrations.

Key Trends Shaping Today’s Digital Experience

1. Increasing Traffic Costs

Global website traffic dropped by 3.3% year-over-year (YoY), forcing brands to depend more on paid ads.

Paid sources now account for 39% of all traffic, a 5.6% increase. Organic and direct traffic fell by 5.7%.

With digital ad spending rising by 13.2%, the average cost per visit increased by 9% compared to last year and by 19% over two years.

2. New Visitors Leave Quickly

User engagement metrics are declining globally, with overall consumption (like time spent, page views, and scroll depth) falling by 6.5%.

New visitors viewed 1.8% fewer pages YoY, while returning visitors had a slight increase (+0.5%).

Most sessions that started on product detail pages (PDPs) ended immediately, underscoring the risk of overly transactional landing pages.

3. Frustration Hurts Retention

“Rage” clicks (clicking a page element at least three times in less than 2 seconds) and slow load times affected one in three visits and reduced session depth by 6%.

Sites that addressed these frustrations had 18% higher retention rates than their competitors.

4. Conversion Rates Decline

Global conversion rates fell by 6.1%, worsened by the lower yield of paid traffic (1.83% compared to 2.66% for unpaid traffic).

High-performing brands countered this trend by enhancing engagement: sites that improved session depth saw a 5.4% rise in conversions, while others faced a 13.1% drop.

5. Retention Starts On-Site

Despite a 7% YoY drop in 30-day retention, returning visits grew by 1.9%, driven by paid ads (+5.6%YoY).

Sites with strong retention had 17% fewer rage clicks and 18% more page views per visit, showing that smooth experiences lead to customer loyalty.

What This Means For Marketers

Here are some actionable insights for digital teams:

  • Diversify Traffic Strategies: Explore new channels, like retail media networks, to reduce dependence on unstable paid ads.
  • Improve New Visitor Journeys: Use heatmaps and personalized content to lower early exits.
  • Address Frustration Proactively: Implement real-time monitoring to tackle rage clicks and slow load times.
  • Leverage Analytics: Use behavioral data to identify high-intent visitors and improve their pathways.

Methodology

Contentsquare’s report analyzed 90 billion sessions, 389 billion page views, and 6,000 global websites from Q4 2023 to Q4 2024. The metrics covered various sectors, including retail, travel, and financial services.

Featured Image: robuart/Shutterstock

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Feb 3 2025
Matt Mullenweg Expects WP Engine Dispute Resolution Soon via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Matt Mullenweg downplayed his dispute with WP Engine, saying it’s not as big a deal as people are making it out to be and shared that he believes it will all be over in a few months.

Matt Compares Himself To Standing Up To Bullies

The podcast host expressed surprise at how harshly Matt went after WP Engine, expressing that he never figured Matt to be the kind of person who would go after someone else so hard, that it didn’t seem to fit his idea of the kind of person Matt Mullenweg was in his mind. Matt responded that he thought that was kind of funny because he’s actually that guy.

The podcast host commented:

“I’ve read a lot about Matt’s work. I don’t know Matt and I’ve listened to him, he doesn’t seem like someone who would ever like insult someone and I was actually surprised that you were going as hard as you were. And I guess your perspective is like, they’re coming after everything I made or they don’t contribute, whatever. But I was actually surprised that you were you you were pissed off and I didn’t think that you would be the type of guy that would come off pissed off…”

Matt smiled as he explained that he feels obliged to stand up for WordPress, like someone standing up to a playground bully.

He explained:

“…so just like a schoolyard bully, you kind of have to stand up for yourself. So it’s kind of funny because you say you don’t think of me as doing this but actually if you look at the history of WordPress there have been maybe four or five times in the history where I had this kind of villain arc … like we had a fight to protect our principles and the sustainability and the future of WordPress.”

Matt Says People Will Forget About WP Engine Dispute

Matt compared the current dispute with WP Engine with previous controversies as a way to note how those were forgotten and one day the WP Engine conflict will also be forgotten.

Mullenweg continued:

“You know, some of these previous controversies that got mainstream media coverage, you know CNN, I had this Hot Nacho scandal in the first couple years of WordPress or the Thesis fight or the Easter Massacre of themes, like all these things I’m mentioning you probably haven’t heard of.

It used to be like half my Wikipedia page, now it’s not. Today if you go to my Wikipedia page, their PR firm has a whole paragraph about this.

I think in 5 years maybe it’ll be a sentence or not even on there at all.”

Mullenweg Downplays WP Engine Dispute

Matt sought to portray WP Engine as not that big a company and ultimately people are making a bigger deal about the dispute than it actually is.

He said:

“And they’re a web host which people think is the largest but actually you know probably the sixth or seventh largest WordPress web host. There’s a lot of bigger ones and they’re a single digit percentage of all the WordPresses in the world. They probably have like 700,000 800,000 or something.

People have made this into a bigger deal than it really is.”

Mullenweg Expects Fight To Be Over In Months

Lastly, Mullenweg expressed the opinion that it was his duty to stand up and fight and that he expected the WP Engine dispute to be behind him within a few months although he did acknowledge that there are many angry people.

The characterization that the dispute will be over within a few months is startling because it seems to suggest that there is something going on behind the scenes or that he would simply prevail and get his way. Mullenweg didn’t explain what he meant by that comment and the podcast hosts didn’t ask him to elaborate.

Mullenweg said,

“So it’s not my first rodeo. Sometimes you have to fight to protect your open source ideals and the community and and your trademark.

By the way, I expect this to resolve in the next few months. Although it’s easy to find like, if you go on Reddit or Twitter, I get a lot of hate.”

At this point Matt explained the conflict from his point of view, painting himself as the victim who was forced to go on the attack, narrating a sequence of events that generally isn’t how most people experienced it. He painted WP Engine’s side as the aggressor and characterized the public rebuke he gave of WP Engine at WordCamp as a “presentation.”

Mullenweg explained:

“Some of the people are uncomfortable with you know us having to to fight protect ourselves. You know WP Engine took some, a very aggressive legal action. So it turned out when we thought we were sort of good faith negotiating they were preparing a legal case to attack us because you know 3 days after I give this presentation they launched this huge lawsuit with Quinn Emanuel it’s kind of like the one of the biggest nastiest law firms.”

Where Were The Hard Questions?

One of the podcast hosts solicited the WordPress communities on Reddit and Twitter for questions that he could ask Matt Mullenweg. The community responded with many questions but the podcast hosts largely refrained from asking those user submitted questions, which to be fair were pretty hard-hitting and inherently presupposed things about Mullenweg.

Watch the podcast interview:

Featured Image by Shutterstock/supercaps

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Jan 31 2025
AI Overviews Data Shows Massive Changes In Search Results via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge published results on current AI Search trends, showing that Google AI Overviews (AIO) has expanded its presence by up to 100% in increasingly complex search queries. The changes suggest growing confidence in AI for search, with indications that Google is relying on authoritativeness and greater precision in context awareness for matching queries to answers, particularly in relation to content modality.

The data shows that AI Overviews (AIO) has evolved from showing featured snippet style answers to being capable of handling multi-turn, complex search queries. The takeaway is that Google is increasingly comfortable with AI’s ability to surface precise answers for longer queries and this is a trend that may continue to rise.

Google AIO Presence Is Growing

Google continues to show confidence in their AI Overviews (AIO) search feature as BrightEdge has discovered that more keyword phrases are triggering AI answers now than at any point since the feature was rolled out last year.

25% of search queries using 8 words or more are displaying AI Overviews (AIO), which is a clear upward trend indicating that Google continues to refine the accuracy of AIO and is better able to handle increasingly complex search queries.

A graph shows how the keywords with 8, 9, and 10 words continued to increasingly show AI Overviews

Graph Representation Of AI Overviews Growth

Keyword phrases with less than four words continue to show an increasing amount of AIO but the growth in longer more precise keywords is growing significantly faster.

Screenshot Showing Percentage Of Keywords With Google AI Overviews

Change In AIO Patterns: Gains For Authoritative Brands

BrightEdge provided additional data that looks at specific topic categories, showing how queries for some topics consolidating to answers from big brand sites.

For example, in the healthcare category where accuracy and trustworthiness are paramount Google is increasingly showing search results from just a handful of websites. Content from authoritative medical research centers account for 72% of AI Overview answers, which is an increase from 54% of all queries at the start of January.

15-22% of B2B technology search queries are derived from the top five technology companies such as Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft.

Qualities Of AIO Answers

BrightEdge data reveals that AIO answers follow certain patterns that reveal qualities that Google feels make content more relevant.

  • Excels at step by step and how to answers (structured hierarchical information)
  • Shows precise real-time relevance
  • Answers lean toward general guidance

Educational Search Queries

For educational queries AIO shows a preference toward concise answers with a clean visual presentation. In the below example Google is hiding content that has additional information that answers additional questions beyond the main query. This may relate to Google’s information gain patent which is about anticipating additional information that a user will be interested in after receiving the answer to their original search query.

AIO Showing Information Gain Ranked Content

Change In YouTube Citations

An interesting pattern picked up by BrightEdge is that YouTube technical tutorials have increased by 40% in AIO while health related queries that show YouTube videos are trending downward by 31%.

Of particular interest is that the high volume search queries (100k+ search volume) that trigger YouTube content have decreased by 18.7%. This may reflect a change in user needs and Google’s ability to identify that context and understand that it’s not served well by video content.

What all of this means is that it’s increasingly important to think about context awareness, the appropriateness of the content to the query. The question to ask is what kind of content best serves the context and to expand that answer across modalities like images, sound, video, and text, then within those formats think in terms of how-to, data dump, informative, etc.

BrightEdge observes:

“Most Interesting Pattern:
AI Overviews are developing sophisticated, context-aware citation models. While YouTube citations are declining for health queries (e.g., “symptoms,” “diet”), they’re increasing for technical how-to content, jumping from 2.0% to 2.8% of citations in this category.

Pay Attention:

1. Context is King – Focus video content where it’s gaining traction (technical tutorials, DIY) and pivot to text for topics where traditional authority is preferred (health, finance)
2. Match Your Industry’s Pattern – In sectors with distributed authority (like B2B tech at 15-22% per source), focus on direct citations; in consolidated spaces (like healthcare at 72% institutional),

partner with established authorities

3. Monitor Actively – With citation patterns shifting dramatically in just one month, weekly monitoring of your space is crucial to spot new opportunities before competitors”

Takeaway

A way to make sense of the data is that it Google AI Overviews appear to be increasingly relying on the authoritativeness of the content as the stakes go higher with more complex search queries.

Authoritativeness isn’t just about being a big brand but it may have to do with simply being meaningful to the Internet audience as a go-to source for a particular topic. Trustworthiness and other related factors are important and this has nothing to do with superficial SEO activities like author bios and so on.

Read the data:
How AI Giants Are Carving Distinct Territory in the Search Landscape

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Jan 31 2025
Elementor Rolls Out WordPress AI Site Planner via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Elementor released a free to use standalone AI app called Site Planner that enables users to create a website in a step by step process beginning with the most general concept of the site and ending with a complete website design down to the individual page elements. I gave it a try and was stunned by how easy and fast it was to create a website.

Intuitive Approach To Site Building

Elementor’s application of AI features an intuitive and attractive user interface, everything feels to have been considered so that at no point does one feel the need to read instructions. The questions asked at the start of the process establish a general overview of what the site is about, necessary pages, what the goals are and so on.

Getting started is as simple as clicking a start button, the first hint that building a site with Elementor is going to be easy.

Screenshot Of Start Of AI Site Building App

Collaborative Capabilities

The site design process can be a designer working with a client or multiple stakeholders in a company working together to roll out the next iteration of a website. Elementor’s Site Planner app recognizes this reality and offers users the option to collaborate over Google Meet or proceed alone with the AI as one of the first steps of the process.

Screenshot Of Collaboration Option

Generate A Website Brief

A website brief is a document that outlines the goals and expectations of a web design project. It serves as a road map and plan that guides the stakeholders through the planning and development stages of the project.

Elementor’s AI Site Planner app smartly begins with asking the right questions for putting together a website brief that serves as the backbone of what is to be created.

The site planner generates a website brief describing what the website project is and once that’s approved Elementor creates what it refers to as a sitemap, a site diagram or site architecture diagram that provides a high-level overview of the different pages and how they’re interlinked.

It then generates a wireframe of the entire site that can be zoomed in to edit individual sections of a website at an overview level, to “fine-tune” the layout.

This is how Elementor describes the process:

1 Brief
From Vision -> Brief
Start an AI-led conversation and get your project off the ground. Watch your ideas, descriptions, and notes transform before your eyes into a proper website brief.

2 Sitemap
From Brief -> Sitemap
AI Site Planner instantly maps out all your key pages and creates a complete sitemap in minutes, not hours. Easily shuffle or edit pages to fit your vision.

3 Wireframe
From Sitemap -> Wireframe
Get your first draft in minutes. Watch AI turn your sitemap into content-filled wireframes in a click.

Elementor AI Site Planner

The Elementor AI Site Planner is in my opinion a successful implementation of AI for planning a website. Read the full announcement.

Site Planner by Elementor AI – Generate Professional Sitemaps & Wireframes in Minutes

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Net Vector

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Jan 31 2025
You.com Deploys USA-Hosted DeepSeek AI Model via @sejournal, @martinibuster

You.com AI Assistant and Search announced the deployment of the new open-source DeepSeek AI model, joining advanced models from Anthropic, Meta, Grok, and OpenAI. DeepSeek-R1 is safely hosted on U.S. servers, ensuring that no user data is sent overseas.

DeepSeek-R1

DeepSeek-R1 is a new reasoning model developed in China that has shaken up the AI technology space because of its high performance and novel training methodology which dramatically lowered costs. The model was released as open source which allows anyone to download it, customize it and host it on their own servers, which is what You.com did.

You.com

You.com is a free AI assistant and search engine that provides access to top AI models at lower rates than their individual subscriptions. For example, users that pay $15/month can take advantage of OpenAI’s models for tasks they excel at, then switch to Anthropic’s Claude for creative work, where many find it superior, without the need to subscribe to both services. That’s a saving of approximately $25/month for access to models that cost about $20/month.

Screenshot Of DeepSeek-R1 Availability On You.com

DeepSeek-R1 Integrated Into You.com

You.com Pro users can access DeepSeek’s model in addition to all the other available models. The official You.com X (formerly Twitter) account tweeted:

“@deepseek_ai is officially live at you(dot)com. The hype is real, and it’s spectacular 🔥

DeepSeek R1 & V3 are crushing benchmarks and pushing the boundaries of what LLMs can do. Give them a spin and see why everyone’s buzzing.”

Richard Socher, You.com’s CEO and founder, tweeted:

“@deepseek_ai’s AI models are officially live at ydc. This is the best way to test out these great models and have them be accurate and up-to-date.

For folks worried about their data or China: We do not use the official API, there is zero data retention for our enterprise users and the servers are in the US. The magic of open source dispels these concerns.”

He followed up that tweet with another one accompanied by a screenshot showing how DeepSeek takes a little extra time to output because it’s a reasoning model that takes multiple steps to generate the output.

Socher observed:

“I like how it says that one source confirms the information from another source.

Because of the more advanced reasoning, it is slower that our default modes for now.”

Screenshot Of DeepSeek-R1 on You.com

You.com Continues To Exceed Expectations

You.com offers users an exceptional AI Assistant that allows users to choose between different AI models at essentially discounted prices, enabling users to be more productive at a competitive price.

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Jan 30 2025
Google Launches AI Phone Assistant To Call Businesses For You via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has launched a new tool called “Ask For Me” that uses AI to help you make phone calls to local businesses.

“Ask For Me” is designed to streamline the process of calling multiple businesses to compare quotes and schedule appointments.

This feature is being rolled out first for auto repair shops and nail salons, and following this initial experiment, it may expand to other businesses.

“Ask For Me” is available to people in the United States who opt-in via Google’s Seach Labs.

How “Ask For Me” Works

If you’re located in the US, you can opt-in via the landing page.

Here’s what it looks like:

Screenshot from: labs.google.com/search/experiment/26, January 2025.

Clicking the toggle button will activate the “Try it out” button.

Screenshot from: labs.google.com/search/experiment/26, January 2025.

Clicking “Try it out” will send you to a list of example queries to try.

Screenshot from: labs.google.com/search/experiment/26, January 2025.

You can also manually enter queries like “oil change near me” or “nail salons nearby,” and look for the “Ask For Me” option.

Then, you’ll see a “Get Started” button, which prompts you to provide more details about your desired service.

Google’s AI will call local businesses on your behalf and summarize the results. This saves time by combining service quotes and scheduling options in one place.

Pilot Program

The pilot program focuses on auto services and nail salons. You can search for an oil change or a nail appointment, enter your preferences, and let Google handle the calls.

This feature uses the same technology as Google Duplex, which helps with restaurant reservations and updating business listings on Search and Maps.

Opt-Out Option

The “Ask For Me” feature is still in the testing phase, so it may not be available to everyone.

Businesses can choose not to receive automated calls if they prefer. Participating businesses will be informed about automated calls.

AI Data and Privacy Considerations

Like other AI tools, Google monitors and tracks how you use it. This includes your feedback, queries, and other engagement data.

Google says it uses human reviewers to check the quality of its AI-generated results.

All automated calls and data collection are explained to the person who receives the call.

What’s Next?

After opting in through Search Labs, search for “oil change near me” to test it out. You might get placed on a waitlist due to limited capacity, but once approved, you can experience how AI handles calls.

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Jan 30 2025
DeepSeek Terms Make Users Liable for Company’s Travel Expenses via @sejournal, @martinibuster

DeepSeek’s terms of use contain requirements that may make users reconsider using the app, as they could shift the balance between benefits and perceived risks by imposing significant financial obligations. One such requirement makes users liable for travel and litigation expenses if they violate the terms and the violation results in legal action.

Terms Of Use

Nobody reads the terms of use and sometimes businesses will have fun with that by burying Easter eggs in the terms to see how long it takes before someone notices. For example, Amazon used to have an acceptable use policy for a game engine they distributed that said they don’t apply in the event of an actual zombie apocalypse.

Here’s an excerpt from an archived Amazon TOS Easter egg:

“However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.”

But the terms of use published by DeepSeek in section 7.2 are no joke and users of the service and app should consider reading the them.

Users Liable For DeepSeek Travel Expenses

The section has three parts that are fairly standard.

The first part establishes their right to “independently” make decisions about moderating the use of their services including taking “measures against you.” Again, this is fairly standard.

“In response to your violation of these Terms or other service terms, DeepSeek reserves the right to independently judge and take measures against you, including issuing warnings, setting deadlines for correction, restricting account functions, suspending usage, closing accounts, prohibiting re-registration, deleting relevant content, etc., without the need for prior notification. We have the right to announce the results of the actions taken and, based on the actual circumstances, decide whether to restore usage.”

The second part affirms their right to keep records of activities that may violate laws or regulations and turn them over to the “competent authorities.”

“For behaviors suspected of violating laws and regulations or involving illegal activities, relevant records will be retained, and reports will be made to the competent authorities in accordance with the law, cooperating with their investigations.”

The following part shifts a load of legal liabilities on users, including travel expenses and the costs for collecting evidence and for paying fines.

It reads:

“You shall be solely responsible for any legal liabilities, claims, demands, or losses asserted by third parties resulting therefrom, and you shall compensate us for any losses incurred, including litigation fees, arbitration fees, attorney fees, notary fees, announcement fees, appraisal fees, travel expenses, investigation and evidence collection fees, compensation, liquidated damages, settlement costs, and administrative fines incurred in protecting our rights.”

DeepSeek Terms Do Not Override Consumer Legal Protections

A key point about DeepSeek’s terms of use is that there’s a section that says a consumer’s legal rights cannot be changed or taken away by agreeing to the terms of use. So any laws that protect a consumer cannot be overridden by agreeing to the terms of use.

DeepSeek’s terms affirms those legal rights:

“Nothing in these terms shall affect any statutory rights that you cannot contractually agree to alter or waive and are legally always entitled to as a consumer.”

Should You Delete The DeepSeek App?

I recently was messaging with friends who are a part of the digital marketing industry and they mentioned that they had downloaded the DeepSeek app because it’s a part of their business to be aware of the latest technologies. I showed them the above terms of use and one of my friends commented that this specific section went far beyond what they were comfortable with. Another friend in that conversation also decided to immediately deleted the app.

Terms of use are fairly comprehensive in what they cover, and it’s not unusual for companies to use them to shield themselves from legal consequences. However, because the company is based in China, where information control, censorship, and data transparency issues are well-documented, some may be more cautious, while others may see the benefits as outweighing any perceived risks.

Read the DeepSeek terms of use here.

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Jan 30 2025
Google To Migrate All reCAPTCHA Services To Cloud Platform via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google is informing users that its reCAPTCHA service will migrate to Google Cloud by the end of the year.

An email states that all existing reCAPTCHA keys must be moved to Google Cloud projects.

WordPress developer Jeff Starr shared a screenshot of the email that was sent out.

Why Is Google Doing This?

Google says this move aims to bring all reCAPTCHA customers under one set of terms and pricing.

Additionally, Google wants to give developers access to new security features.

After the migration, you can immediately use dashboards in Google Cloud for analytics, monitoring, logging, and auditing.

Phased Rollout

The transition will occur in stages throughout the year.

You can expect to receive periodic email updates notifying you when existing keys are eligible for migration.

At that time, Google will automatically create a corresponding Google Cloud project and link the keys.

To avoid interruptions, Google recommends taking action early. You can proactively migrate keys from reCAPTCHA Classic to the Google Cloud environment by following the company’s guidelines.

For a visual guide on migrating your reCAPTCHA keys, you can refer to the following video:

What It Means For Businesses & Developers

  • Deadline: Complete all migrations by the end of 2025.
  • Pricing Model: reCAPTCHA will be free up to 10,000 assessments per month.
  • Enhanced Security: You will get better security and management tools with the new Google Cloud setup.
  • Action Required: If you use reCAPTCHA, start the migration process now to ensure a smooth transition and keep your protection against spam and abuse.

Tessa Hudson, Software Engineer at Google, confirms any usage below 10,000 assessments per month will remain free.

A post on the Google Cloud Community forums reads:

“There is no fee for migrating the key, however, your monthly usage may qualify for reCAPTCHA Standard or Enterprise. You will only be charged once you have reached 10,000 assessments each month. Any usage below this amount will remain free. If you have not set up billing on the Google Cloud project, you will receive an email at 10,000 assessments notifying you that your free assessments for the month have been used up and you will not receive reCAPTCHA scores for that key until the next month unless you enable billing.

The email you received should include your average usage for the past 3 months. You can input that number into this pricing calculator to get an idea of how much you will pay monthly if your usage stays the same. For more details on the different pricing tiers, please see our pricing table.

You can read more about how reCAPTCHA billing works here.”

Looking Ahead

If you want to keep using reCAPTCHA after this year, it’s important to plan ahead and move to the new system.

This will help avoid disruptions and allow you to take advantage of new security features.

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Jan 30 2025
Google Demand Gen Campaigns Just Got A Major Update via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Google is making big moves with its Demand Gen campaigns, thanks to the feedback of advertisers.

If you’re not familiar with Demand Gen campaigns, they originally launched in 2023. Shortly after, Google phased out Discovery Ads to transition them to this new campaign type.

Now, Demand Gen campaigns are getting a facelift as Google doubles down on this campaign type.

In this major announcement, Google is bringing expanded controls, enhanced creative capabilities, and new retail-focused features to advertisers.

Whether you’re already using Demand Gen or considering the switch, these updates provide more flexibility and powerful AI-driven tools to maximize campaign effectiveness.

Here’s everything you need to know.

More Control Over Where Your Ads Appear

One of the biggest changes is the introduction of expanded channel controls.

This allows advertisers to be more precise with where their Demand Gen ads appear.

Starting out in March 2025 as a full beta to everyone, advertisers can:

  • Choose specific placements across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail
  • Serve ads exclusively on YouTube Shorts for a vertical-first experience
  • Leverage Google Display Network (GDN) to extend reach across 3 million+ sites and apps.

Once rolled out, advertisers will be able to take advantage of the full available inventory for Demand Gen campaigns, which means this campaign type has the ability to reach 90% of the global internet population.

As with any new change to placement targeting options, it’s always a smart idea to double check campaign settings as these roll out. It’s unclear if new placements will automatically be eligible for inventory of if advertisers need to manually add them at the campaign level.

We will update more once Google provides clarification.

Stronger Creative Enhancements for Higher Engagement

Compelling ad creatives are at the heart of strong performance, which usually means multiple asset forms at scale.

To help advertisers scale their creative output, Google is rolling out several enhancements.

  • Vertical 9:16 image ads for YouTube Shorts: This update is coming late February 2025, allowing for a full-screen experience for users.
  • Automated video shortening: This update is rolling out in the next few weeks, allowing you to create shorter versions of your videos to optimize content on differing placements.
  • Improved ad creation workflow: Better video enhancement controls and external preview sharing for easier creative approvals.

These features allow marketers to refine their ads for different screen formats while maintaining the necessary creative flexibility.

Retail-Focused Features for More Seamless Shopping Experiences

Retailers who use Google Merchant Center can now take advantage of product feeds within Demand Gen campaigns, rolling out in the coming weeks.

This integration between Merchant Center and Demand Gen campaigns help enable:

  • Deeper product discovery. Consumers can now see full product details directly within the ads, and can toggle between product detail pages.
  • Local product availability. Showing real-time availability and product offers helps connect online shoppers to nearby store locations.
  • Omnichannel bidding. Optimize your campaigns for both online sales and in-store visits.

Google is also launching a beta for advertisers to integrate product feeds with local offers, making it easier to drive foot traffic and online conversions simultaneously.

New Reporting to Compare Demand Gen vs. Paid Social

A long-requested feature for cross-platform advertisers is here: new reporting columns in Google Ads!

These new columns will help marketers compare and analyze Demand Gen campaign performance directly with paid social efforts.

The new columns include:

  • View-through conversions to help align with social ad measurement.
  • Isolated Demand Gen impact reporting to differentiate from other Google campaigns.

The new reporting columns have already started to roll out globally, so be sure to keep an eye out if you’re already running Demand Gen campaigns.

The goal with new reporting measurement is to help provide better clarity on where budget allocations should go if you’re running cross-platform campaigns.

The Final Transition from Video Action Campaigns

While it’s not a new announcement that Google is phasing out Video Action campaigns, they did provide an updated timeline and how to transition those campaign types to Demand Gen campaigns.

  • March 2025: Google will launch an upgrade tool to transfer settings and historical learnings from Video Action campaigns to Demand Gen.
  • April 2025: Advertisers will no longer be able to create new Video Action campaigns.
  • July 2025: Google will begin automatically upgrading any remaining Video Action campaigns.

Advertisers who migrate early will retain full control over their settings and can take advantage of new Demand Gen features immediately.

What This Means for Advertisers

Google is doubling down on Demand Gen, giving advertisers more tools to optimize performance across YouTube, Display, and beyond.

These updates make Demand Gen more competitive with paid social platforms by offering precise placement controls, AI-powered creative enhancements, and robust shopping integrations.

It will be interesting to see how advertisers adapt to these changes and if platform budgets shift, especially amidst all the controversy around numerous paid social platforms.

If you haven’t experimented with Demand Gen yet, now might be the perfect time—especially before Video Action Campaigns disappear for good. The sooner you adapt, the more control you’ll have over your campaigns and performance outcomes in 2025.

You can read the full announcement from Google here.

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Jan 29 2025
DeepSeek Fails 83% Of Accuracy Tests, NewsGuard Reports via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI chatbot topping App Store downloads, has scored poorly in NewsGuard’s latest accuracy assessment.

According to NewsGuard’s audit:

“[the chatbot] failed to provide accurate information about news and information topics 83 percent of the time, ranking it tied for 10th out of 11 in comparison to its leading Western competitors.”

Key Findings:

  • 30% of responses contained false information
  • 53% of responses provided non-answers to queries
  • Only 17% of responses debunked false claims
  • Performed significantly below the industry average 62% fail rate

Chinese Government Positioning

DeepSeek‘s responses show a notable pattern. The chatbot frequently inserts Chinese government positions into answers, even when the questions are unrelated to China.

For example, when asked about a situation in Syria, DeepSeek responded:

“China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, believing that the Syrian people have the wisdom and capability to handle their own affairs.”

Technical Limitations

Despite DeepSeek’s claims of matching OpenAI’s capabilities with just $5.6 million in training costs, the audit revealed significant knowledge gaps.

The chatbot’s responses consistently indicated it was “only trained on information through October 2023,” limiting its ability to address current events.

Misinformation Vulnerability

NewsGuard found that:

“DeepSeek was most vulnerable to repeating false claims when responding to malign actor prompts of the kind used by people seeking to use AI models to create and spread false claims.”

Of particular concern:

“Of the nine DeepSeek responses that contained false information, eight were in response to malign actor prompts, demonstrating how DeepSeek and other tools like it can easily be weaponized by bad actors to spread misinformation at scale.”

Industry Context

The assessment comes at a critical time in the AI race between China and the United States.

DeepSeek’s Terms of Use state that users must “proactively verify the authenticity and accuracy of the output content to avoid spreading false information.”

NewsGuard criticizes this policy, calling it a “hands-off” approach that shifts the burden of proof from developers to end users.

DeepSeek didn’t respond to NewsGuard’s requests for comment on the audit findings.

From now on, DeepSeek will be included in NewsGuard’s monthly AI audits. Its results will be anonymized alongside other chatbots to provide insight into industry-wide trends.

What This Means

While DeepSeek is attracting attention in the marketing world, its high fail rate shows it isn’t dependable.

Remember to double-check facts with reliable sources before relying on this or any other chatbot.

Featured Image: Below The Sky/Shutterstock

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