A lot of interesting things happened at Google this week with the roll-out of Google’s July 2022 product reviews update, Google Merchant Center’s policy updates, new cookie settings in Google Analytics 4, and more.

ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.

• • GA4 New Filters Report Updates
  • Google Search Displays Return Period In Search Results Snippets
  • Google Hotel Listings New ‘Featured In’ Section
  • Google Ads Automatic Attribution Models Switch
  • July 2022 Product Reviews Update
  • Google Merchant Center Policy Update
  • GA4 Data for Performance Max & Smart Shopping
  • Google’s Updated Search Quality Raters Guidelines
  • Another Year for Google’s Third-Party Cookies
  • Updated Cookie Settings in Google Analytics 4
  • Import YouTube Videos into Shorts

GA4 New Filters Report Updates

Google has added two new report features in GA4, with a new ‘apply filters to detail reports’ and ‘create filtered custom reports’. Anyone with access to a property can now apply filters to a detailed report to see a subset of the report data.

Anyone with the editor (and above) permissions to a property can now create filtered custom reports, enabling you to create a more guided reporting experience.

Google Search Displays Return Period In Search Results Snippets

Google is now displaying the number of days you can return a specific product to a merchant directly in the search results snippet. It can be found right under the main snippet for some search results that say “30-day returns” or “15-day returns” and so on.

Data might be coming from the shopping experience scorecard data feed or some other data from a Google Merchant Center feed.

Google Hotel Listings New ‘Featured In’ Section

Google has added a new section to its Google Hotel listing results called “Featured In”.

The new section shows articles that mention the hotel, so users can read third-party reviews of the hotel.

Google Ads Automatic Attribution Models Switch

Google Ads has emailed advertisers that their ad accounts would be switched to data-driven attribution. The email tells advertisers which accounts are qualified for the switch. Advertisers have until August 24 to cancel the auto-switch.

Data-driven attribution takes multiple signals into account, including ad format and time between the ad, interaction, and conversion.

July 2022 Product Reviews Update

Google has begun the rollout of the “July 2022 product reviews update”, which aims to promote review content that is above and beyond much of the standard information you see on the web.

Google said that the July 2022 product reviews update will take several weeks to roll out and is likely to impact the ranking of English-language product reviews across “many” sites.

Google Merchant Center Policy Update

Google has updated its Merchant Center policy with the change of enforcement for the “Login required” and “Restricted purchase” account issues. Now, free listings account with this issue status are still active, but their products have limited visibility on Google.

Previously, Merchant Center accounts with the “Login required” and “Restricted purchase” issue were automatically disapproved. This policy change applies to free listings only.

GA4 Data for Performance Max & Smart Shopping

Google has updated its reports for GA4 properties with a segment of data counting traffic from Performance Max and Smart Shopping campaigns. Data from both campaign types are now listed under a new channel group called “cross-network”.

Advertisers who use GA4 properties to monitor landing pages can now see exactly how much traffic is attributed to Performance Max and Smart Shopping Campaigns.

Google’s Updated Search Quality Raters Guidelines

Google has updated its search quality raters guidelines with a refreshed language in the new overview section, a refined YMYL section, with more on low-quality content, YMYL, E-A-T, and more.

The previous version was a 171-pages, while the revised document is 167-pages.

Another Year for Google’s Third-Party Cookies

Google has announced that the company is delaying the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome by another year, with plans to start phasing them out in 2024.

This is the second extension of Chrome’s support for third-party cookies, which Google originally planned to discontinue this year. Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez mentioned, “we now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024”.

Updated Cookie Settings in Google Analytics 4

Google has announced that users can now change cookie expiration and cookie update settings using the Google Analytics 4 interface.

The new method of managing Analytics cookies is an alternative to editing global site tag code or using Google Tag Manager.

Import YouTube Videos into Shorts

YouTube has rolled out a new creator tool that turns existing YouTube videos into Shorts in a matter of moments. The update allows creators to easily select a segment of any video they’ve uploaded, and then publish that clip as YouTube Shorts content.

The new Shorts creation feature is now available on YouTube’s mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.

Thank You for Reading

Have you noticed any news about the July 2022 product reviews update or any other changes from Google this week?

Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.

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• How to Setup Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – A Complete Guide

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