Run Of The Mail
There’s good news and bad news for the Daily Mail.
The bad news is that when Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) are triggered for a query that includes a Daily Mail link on the first Google Search page, the publisher now sees an 80% to 90% lower clickthrough rate compared to when an AIO isn’t present, Digiday reports.
That number is up from 56% back in May, according to Carly Steven, the Daily Mail’s director of SEO and editorial ecommerce.
Here’s the good news: Breaking news searches rarely generate AIOs. This caveat, combined with the fact that most of the Daily Mail’s search traffic is deliberate, means there’s only been a “very, very low single-digit” percentage drop in overall traffic due to AIOs, Steven said at last month’s Digiday Publishing Summit Europe.
From Google’s perspective, though, a clickthrough rate decline for certain publishers isn’t a problem in terms of revenue. Google can monetize the conversions that involve an AIO or a sponsored link within the AIO.
As for the Daily Mail’s numbers, that drop in clickthroughs suggests that AIOs are becoming more effective – at keeping users on Google’s own results.
Live For The App-Pause
Streaming media companies are all in on pause ads, Variety writes.
Pause ad formats have been around for years. (Hulu first rolled its out in late 2018!) But, as AdExchanger knows from recent conversations with Kargo and Magnite, the format is becoming more available on a programmatic basis, making it easier to buy across multiple platforms.
Moreover, many media companies want to prioritize shoppable and interactive elements, like QR codes and opt-in full-screen experiences.
The hope is that these performance-based capabilities might counteract the obvious drawbacks of a pause format – namely, that only a small portion of viewers are going to see it in the first place. Also that it might end up distracting those viewers from the content they were trying to watch.
One of the most interesting details in Variety’s reporting is that Warner Bros. Discovery is still trying to figure out how to run its pause ads against mature content, because its quarter-screen format might look a bit awkward next to scenes of violence or nudity.
At the risk of suggesting something that was literally a “30 Rock” joke back in 2010, maybe WBD could compromise by putting the ads over the nudity? (And besides, who pauses in the middle of a nude scene, anyway?)
Block Busters
There was a bit of a snafu late last week, as widespread reports of YouTube outages made it seem as if the video-sharing platform had experienced a technical problem.
Turns out it was a technical fix – at least from Google’s POV.
YouTube began an earnest campaign of aggression against ad blockers beginning in 2023, reports 9to5Google. To date, YouTube has disabled its platform for some ad blocker users, although that’s a cat-and-mouse game the ad blockers usually win by updating and adapting their services. YouTube has also throttled videos, so even if ad blocker users do slip by, they see buffered videos.
Now, though, as Opera browser users discovered last week, YouTube is now taking its campaign even further by blocking browser operators and ad blockers.
Microsoft Edge offers another curious example. According to Android Authority, a recent update includes a new feature for streaming YouTube music in the background. Combined with Edge’s built-in ad blocker, that effectively enables ad-free listening, something YouTube presumably isn’t thrilled about.
That and the fact that it’s literally framed as a workaround to buying the YouTube Premium subscription.
That’s likely the same kind of workaround YouTube was targeting when it cut off Opera users last week.
But Wait! There’s More!
As brands and influencers embrace AI and deepen their marketing arrangements, IP law is not keeping up. [Digiday]
Life360 acquires Nativo for $120 million to further its ad tech ambitions. [Adweek]
A video game marketing company used astroturfing and fake Reddit accounts as part of a recent campaign. [Kotaku]
YouTube will offer an opt-in $20 credit to TV customers next month as an apology for its ongoing dispute with Disney. [Business Insider]
Not content with legal actions against US-based news outlets, President Trump is now threatening to sue the BBC, too. [WSJ]
