Organic Search Traffic Down 2.5% YoY (U.S.)

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“SEO is dead” is the new “email is dead.” Still wrong. Still loud. Still getting engagement.

New large-scale data (40,000+ US sites, Similarweb + GSC validation) tells a much less dramatic story than X threads would have you believe:

  • Organic search traffic is down just 2.5% YoY
  • Not 25%. Not 60%. Not an extinction event
  • Google says organic clicks are stable YoY — data backs it up

If AI overview was supposed to nuke search, it’s… taking its time.

Where the pain actually is 👇

SEO didn’t collapse. It redistributed.

  • The very largest sites grew ~+1.6%
  • The biggest declines hit mid-tier publishers (Top 100–10,000)
  • Translation: scale + brand + authority still matter. A lot.

About AI Overviews (a.k.a. the new villain)

Yes, they hurt CTR but No, they’re not everywhere.

  • Appear in ~30% of SERPs
  • Mostly informational queries
  • CTR impact when present: -35%
  • Commercial & transactional queries? Largely untouched

AI Overviews are an impact, not a collapse.

And no — Google Ads didn’t “steal” organic traffic

  • Ads gained ~+2pp of click share
  • Organic still drives ~90% of clicks
  • Roughly 10x more organic clicks than paid

If Google wanted to fully cannibalize organic, they’re doing a remarkably inefficient job.

The real takeaway (and this is the boring truth):

SEO is still massive. But it’s no longer lazy.

More SERP features.
More AI answers.
More zero-click informational queries.
Similar user demand.

Curious to hear from other digital marketing professionals:
Are you actually seeing meaningful SEO traffic declines?
Or is it more where the traffic comes from — and which queries still matter?

Based on recent data published by Search Engine Land (Graphite + Similarweb).

source: https://searchengineland.com/

What the latest Search updates mean for advertisers

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At their latest event, Google showcases recent Search updates that could help marketers unlock its full potential.

Google is stepping out of the traditional search box by combining new inputs and developments in computer science. From text searches to phone camera pictures and voice-overs, Google has been optimizing its search engine toward a more natural way of exploring information. 

Earlier this year, Google introduced multisearch. By searching images and text simultaneously, multisearch will be available in over 70 new languages in a few months’ time. 

Also, Google intends to make searching a more visual experience. Google Maps will include more immersive capabilities with 3D images using advanced computer vision. This visual approach is beneficial when it comes to shopping, where people are looking for the most accurate display of products. 

With the recent launch of landscape images available on the mobile results page, advertisers can now be more in control of how images appear, making it easier for them to get noticed and drive in more results. 

Google also mentions the addition of Business Messages, where customers will be able to message brands through Search ads. With a 30-day response window, advertisers could create relationships with customers, before and after sales. 

If you want to read more about what Google has to say about the latest Search On event, you can keep on reading here.

Google seems to be moving in a more direct and easy way of searching, leaving the infamous search box behind. This new mindset could especially help Shopping ads, but any advertisers that prefer a more visual approach will be intrigued by these potential innovations. We recommend all marketers try these out as soon as they roll out. 

As always, we will let you know when Google announces these launches officially and we’ll keep an eye out for any new features coming your way. Stay tuned!

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.

What does Google have to say about shifting privacy settings?

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Now that third-party data is saying goodbye, learn about Google’s new privacy approach

As many of you know, third-party cookies have been the typical source for digital marketing over the past years. However, user privacy and new regulations are making advertisers reevaluate their ways. Now, Google is actively testing new ways to engage with audiences.

Google announced a few key steps that they are taking to replace third-party data’s common identifiers:

  1. Build a strong first-party data organization
  2. Invest in durable tagging solutions that meet measurement needs
  3. Start your shift as soon as possible 

First-party data is now your best ally. However, not all Google products use first-party data for advertising, so for those that do, it is crucial to honour user privacy while making the most out of the data provided.

Also, accurate insights in measurements are a top priority for Google’s team. This can help reach more people in the cookieless future and give a better view of conversion activity and a good tagging method based on customer preference. 

Even for a huge company like Google, building a strong foundation for first-party data takes time, so it is better to start your efforts ASAP. Google’s automated processes ensure that user peivacy is taken into account while making the most out of this new shift. 

What will you do about this new privacy shift? Are you optimistic about the cookieless future? Let us know in the comments below.

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.

New features for Discovery Ads

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Better ad experience, creative support, new insights, and more. Keep on reading to find out!

Google is launching new features for Discovery ads to help keep audiences engaged with your ads. The new features include better ad experiences, improved creative support, new insights, and enhanced campaign management.  

Let’s be honest: the feature that caught our eye is the new audience insights and management. Now, advertisers can create and reuse audiences across all your campaigns using a new audience builder, Google Ads Editor, and API for managing large campaigns. 

Also, the insights page can give you more data about those segments that have the biggest interaction with your ad. Using asset reporting and optimized targeting, advertisers can view performance and compare between assets to decide which ones are worth turning off, editing, or changing. 

What does Google mean by “improved creative support”? When creating the ad, advertisers will be able to see quick recommendations on ratios, headlines, and text overlays for images. This will also include feedback on your ad strength and an optimization score with further guidance. Feedback rating will go from “poor” to “excellent” so that you can figure out what is in need of improvement. 

With all this being said, Google says that they will be focusing on the Gmail user experience. They aim to build a browseable Social and Promotions tab that will include more details, with images and prices. How? Google will use its machine learning algorithm to target audiences at the proper time.

Lucky for you, we include the link to the official announcement here, in case you want to read the full official statement. 

Our Take

Although these are not jaw-dropping features, it is always a good addition if it means more tools and creative opportunities to help advertisers properly showcase their brand. It is nice to see them put in the work to perfect their ad platforms and user experience, especially if it makes it simpler for users to browse. However, we recommend you test these features before applying and have a defined audience or segment in mind so that these assets can work their best. 

As expected, we will review these specific features and let you know if anything new is coming your way. Stay tuned!

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.

Google automatically updates Smart Shopping to Performance Max

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Google is eliminating Smart Shopping campaigns for good. If you want to know how and when, keep on reading.

Google is now automatically updating Smart Shopping campaigns into Performance Max. Although this is something Google has been anticipating for a while, updates will be fully out in September. 

What does this mean? Google will self-update from your previous Smart Shopping campaign to Performance Max, which will include your previous learnings, budgets, and campaign settings. 

If you don’t want Google to update your campaign without your knowledge, it is best if you do it yourself with the “one-click” tool ASAP, before Google decides to take matters into its own hands and update everything automatically. 

What do you think about Google’s automatic update setting? Did it take you by surprise? Let us know in the comments below.

If you want to read Google’s official statement, click here for further information. 

Our Take

It is no surprise that Google is terminating Smart Shopping campaigns and transforming them into Performance Max. It has been clear all along that automation was the next step, so this automatic upgrade was expected. However, you can be caught off guard when you open your Google Ads account after the update is complete, especially if you never used the “one-click” button and Google simply decided to do this on its own. 

Some advertisers were worried that, with this automatic update, the campaign’s history and previous performance number wouldn’t carry on. Yet, you can view the campaign’s data history by selecting “View Smart Shopping campaign data”. We can vouch for that.

We suggest you take control of your own updates and use the “one-click” button to avoid any morning surprises. It is best to update these campaigns yourself by the end of the month so that you adjust easily to new Performance Max settings at your own pace. 

As always, we will be assessing these new Performance Max settings and we’ll let you know if any issues are worth reporting. Stay tuned!

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.

Google Launches Ad Creative Studio

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Read all about Google’s feature for new ways of creating ads

Ad Creative Studio is now available! Google announces this new launch that allows advertisers to customize videos and display ads. 

Last year, Google rolled out its beta version, aiming to change ads for multiple audiences, user demographics, languages or contexts.

Now, Google allows you to export images from the asset library to the Google Ads library, so when putting creatives together, advertisers will easily find the images they want to use. To make these changes, you have to select the ones you want to make effective and provide different versions of that particular element.

What about Campaign Manager 360? Google now allows advertisers to connect their Ad Creative Studio account to Campaign Manager. As this feature rolls out, marketers can upload, manage and report creatives with these two platforms intertwined. 

Do you think this will be beneficial for creative teams? Will it be quicker than having to build new ad sets with different audiences? Let us know in the comments below.

According to Google, brands that have already tried ACS out, like General Motors, claim to have reduced costs by 30% and reported an increase of 56% in Google searches for a specific car model. 

Google says that ACS is “built to provide full support for creative teams and to enhance collaboration, create effectiveness and scale.”

If you want to know more Google’s announcement, don’t worry, we got you covered: read the official statement here.

So, if you have multiple audiences or want to run quick and dynamic changes without creating additional campaigns, this would be an interesting feature for you to try out. As it is fairly new, we can’t say for sure if this works better than having to create new ad sets, but it is a catchy update for visual creators.  

As always, we will be on top of this new feature and we’ll let you know if it is as effective as Google claims it will be. Stay tuned!

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.

Google Ads will now run Diagnostic Insights

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If you want to know more about this new diagnostics tool, keep on reading.

Google is launching a new format on the Insights and Overview page called Diagnostic Insights. This data will identify issues in your campaigns when running diagnostic checks.

Diagnostic Insights will show issues in Performance Max campaigns, only when it is not receiving conversions or traffic. So, if users click on your ad and view it, no problems will be reported. Even though this is currently a beta version, Google is trying to roll out these insights to randomly chosen accounts, but with limited access. 

What will Google show on the diagnostics report? These are the insights:

  • Ad strength
  • Campaign budget
  • Campaign status
  • Account status
  • Billing status
  • Bidding strategy
  • Conversion tracking

Do you think this data insight is enough? What else would you add? Let us know in the comments below.

After Google runs its diagnostic check, you will be provided with a list of recommendations on how to fix the issues in your campaigns so they can perform at their best.

There is no official launch date for this Insights update, but we can expect that it will be coming out soon. 

Our Take

We are always thankful for more data and more insights available for the advertiser. So, in a way, Google is giving us more information about what is going on after we place the ad, including the negative issues. We have yet to see if the list of recommendations will be useful or if Google’s advice is just to “keep on spending”. Our eyes are wide open…

As expected, we will be paying close attention to this new update and its launch date, so we can let you know if it can actually help your campaigns. Stay tuned!

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.

Google’s Universal Analytics is discontinued for 2023

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Here’s all you need to know about Google Analytics 4 and why it’s relevant to your business

Universal Analytics, known as Google Analytics 3, is saying goodbye for 2023. We want to inform you in advance so you can adjust to Google Analytics 4 as quickly as possible.

The name “Universal Analytics”, aka GA3, will cease to exist. Now, advertisers will use Google Analytics 4 as their new data platform.

Advertisers will have to export data from UA to GA4 through Data Studio, installing GA4 on their website to access year-to-date information before UA is gone for good. 

Did you install GA4 already? Do you think this will be a hassle for most advertisers? Let us know in the comments below.

What is different about GA4?

UA is a session-based model, as opposed to GA4 which uses an event-based version that welcomes more data for your analytics platform.

The event parameters are now bigger, from four per event in UA to 25 per event in GA4. Also, GA4 can have 500 named events for those you set up, so the limit does not exist for default events.

In GA4, you will notice that the bounce rate is gone and replaced with “Engaged Sessions”, which logs data if the user stays on your website for more than 10 seconds, if your website has more than 2 page views, or if the user triggers a conversion. 

However, not all sections in GA4 have the ability to change the time period. For example, while running a custom report, you won’t be able to change the time frame in that specific report. To be able to do this, advertisers will have to go back to the main Report menu and change the time logged there to see the changes reflected in your specific report.

Also, GA4 does not allow advertisers to click on reports and see the Ad Group. The platform will only show you all Ad Groups, with no way of seeing just a specific campaign. 

Google now includes a tool to move your conversions from UA to GA4 if you have goals set up in UA. What happens if you don’t? You will have to tackle Google Tag Manager to push your conversion data.

Our Take

We notice that there are some limitations in GA4, specially if you have a hard time getting used to change. In order to modernize its platform, Google focused on updating the display to a less easy-to-use version. This doesn’t necessarily mean that GA4 is more complex, but we do see that settings are more hidden or harder to find. 

We suggest advertisers practice and learn about GA4’s settings before UA is terminated so that you are ready to dive in without tackling the learning process simultaneously.

As expected, we will evaluate GA4’s performance and let you know if any changes are adjusted. Stay tuned!

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.

Google removes Expanded Text ads

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Users will no longer be able to create expanded text ads. Keep on reading to find out more.

By the end of June 2022, Google will end Expanded Text ads and no further creation or editing is permitted. After June, users will only have access to modifying Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) in Search campaigns.

Why? Google wants to simplify the creation process of Search ads and drive performance with automation tools. RSAs use machine learning to determine which ads are relevant to each user so that they can be placed up front, so this is “better” for reaching people in need of your product.

Expanded Text ads already created will continue running, with the ability to pause and relaunch, but no new ones will be created. 

Are you currently using Expanded Text ads? How will you adjust to this new change? Let us know in the comments below.

Google recommends advertisers repurpose well-performing text ads into RSAs and improve their ad strength. Using RSAs, you can pin headlines in positions where you ensure they always show, use variations to test different ads and review cross-campaign reporting based on performance.

Also, Google recommends the use of Smart Bidding for broad keywords in RSAs, which can allow marketers to optimize bids.

Our Take

We know that RSAs have been around for a while, -since May 2018 to be exact-. The fact that Expanded Text ads help advertisers have clarity and control over the order in which titles are shown is a valuable feature, and here is where RSAs have their setbacks. 

When pinning titles in RSAs, Google “punishes” advertisers by lowering the ad strength. Crazy, right? What Google doesn’t want you to do is transform RSAs into something similar to Expanded Text ads, so they strip advertisers’ liberty to order their own ads. Google‘s machine learning wants to have total control of your ad display, without any external intervention. 

It’s been clear for a while now that Expanded Text ads were being butchered and RSAs were winning over Google’s heart. Adding RSAs was not the problem since more options and more ways in which advertisers can place their ads are always welcome. Though it would have been great to see them coexist, Google’s flexibility was not ready to bend. 

So, now that Expanded Text ads are saying their goodbyes: why do advertisers have to lose the ability to build more specific ads by ordering titles as they please?

It would have been better to test ads with actual metrics, such as CTR or expected CTR beforehand. Instead, marketers are bound to trust Google’s machine learning abilities because the alternative is to be punished, and that doesn’t sound right to us. 

Here’s the thing: if Google added RSAs so that advertisers could have new options, shouldn’t there actually be an option (without any limitations)?

As always, Quantikal will test possible alternatives and keep you in the loop of any new changes. Stay tuned!

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.

Google’s automated discounts as a shopping feature

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Want to know more about this new pricing tool? Keep on reading.

Google Ads automated discounts is a new pricing tool using real-time data and artificial intelligence to attract customers into sales.

What does this mean? The optimized price is displayed in your ads. When users click on it, they are redirected to your page showing the actual price available (this resembles to plane tickets, for example). 

How do automated discounts work?

Google’s AI is in charge of adjusting the price of ads after analyzing large amounts of data. Once you set the minimum and maximum price range allowed, Google’s system considers price elasticity, trends, and market prices to determine optimized discounts.

Would you implement it in your business? Let us know in the comments below. 

How to set it up

  1. Implement conversion tracking: this can show you what happens when a user interacts with your ad
  2. Set minimum and maximum sell price
  3. Determine the cost: you can either set it yourself for items you want the automatic discount to work with or you can let Google’s AI determine it for you
  4. Integrate pricing controls on your website

Our Take

Google’s automated discounts are a great conceptual feature that we could experiment with. However, it may be tricky to trust Google’s AI with something as sensitive as the price of your products because it directly affects your profit. 

Price sensitivity, elasticity, and revenue management are pricing concepts that have been optimized for decades in different industries, such as airline tickets. It is great to have a tool to test possibilities of increasing revenue or profitability, but it’s not clear yet if you can choose a limited amount of products to test this with on shopping campaigns. 

Do we have some type of control of limited exposure to avoid potential catastrophic scenarios? 

As expected, we will continue analyzing this new feature and we’ll let you know if Google announces any changes. Stay tuned!

About Quantikal

Quantikal is a data-driven performance marketing agency based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We help clients scale their business through profitable digital ad spending by constantly obsessing over clients’ key metrics. Quantikal’s experience working in diverse online companies in marketing roles including media buying allows us to provide solutions in the ever-demanding increase of marketing performance, doing more with less thus becoming a strategic partner.