Paid Media News & Opinion #123

New report analyses CPC increases compared to CPI inflation

Source

> What’s happening

A study has been done into Google Ads CPCs and the rate that they have risen over the last few years. The study has taken data from Google and WordStream, and also applied a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) metric to measure how quickly CPC’s are rising above or below inflation, by vertical.

Marketing Managers can use this to benchmark their performance, although just bare in mind that this data is fairly US-centric, so there may be some differences if you’re advertising outside of the US.

> Why we care

This is a useful benchmark for your industry, both for current performance but also to see how competitive your market is. Those sectors rising faster than inflation are almost certainly those with the highest levels of competition - pushing CPC’s up in the auction - so it’s useful to have that information to contextualise your current performance.

Have a read through the source article linked above to see how your own brand performance stacks up.

TikTok expands advertiser controls and shares new Brand Safety guide

Source

> What’s happening

TikTok Ads have introduced new brand safety controls: video exclusion lists and profile feed exclusion lists, allowing advertisers to specify video IDs and profile feeds to not allow ads to appear next to/within.

Lists can be managed independently or via 3rd party partner, such as IAS or DoubleVerify, to create and refine lists.

TikTok have also shared a robust playbook guide for Brand Safety and shared their ‘Safety Suite’, illustrated the pre-campaign, in-flight, and post-campaign advertising toos for ensuring brand safety and content suitability.

Their Global Head of Business Marketing said, “The TikTok Safety Suite goes beyond industry standards to provide advertisers with proactive, flexible solutions that put control in their hands”.

You can download their new Brand Safety & Suitability Playbook here.

> Why we care

While we see limited use cases for video and profile exclusion lists – which could be quite cumbersome without a 3rd party solution and be better addressed with hashtag exclusions – this adds to an already-impressive suite of brand safety controls.

Category Exclusions and Vertical Sensitivity was recently added for campaign types such as Video Views, which goes beyond what many other platforms offer. Their post-campaign data is also transparent and a step above platforms like Meta.

For existing advertisers on TikTok, we recommend you review all the brand safety tools available. And if you’re yet to advertise there due to brand safety concerns, perhaps these updates will persuade you. TikTok is a huge opportunity for virtually any brand and not to be missed.

Google introduces ‘Popular Products’ tab to Merchant Center

Source

> What’s happening

Google has launched a new Popular Products tab within Merchant Center Analytics, designed to help merchants better understand current shopping trends and make smarter inventory and advertising decisions.

The feature provides a set of personalized cards showing the most popular products and brands on Google, how your inventory aligns with those trends, and the availability status of your listed items.

These insights are updated weekly (with some delays of up to four days) and are accessible under the Analytics > Products section in your Merchant Center account.

This feature is currently available in over 40 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Australia, India, and most of Europe.

The key features include:

• Top products & brands: See which products and brands are trending across Google Shopping and whether you carry them.

• Stock status: Identify which popular products are currently out of stock in your inventory.

• Product & brand suggestions: Get recommendations for new products or brands to consider stocking based on what’s gaining traction on Google.

• Deep dive filters: Explore popularity rank, price range, stock availability, country, category, and time period filters for more granular insights.

• Holiday & seasonal planning: Use historical trend data to prepare ad campaigns and stock decisions ahead of key retail periods.

• Downloadable reports: Export insights via .csv for easy integration into your reporting or inventory systems.

> Why we care

The introduction of the Popular Products tab gives valuable insights into how retailers can optimize their campaigns and inventory decisions using real-time, Google-driven insights.

By knowing which products and brands are currently in high demand, advertisers can prioritize budget allocation toward top-performing items, boost ad visibility for trending products they already carry, and reduce wasted spend on low-interest inventory.

This allows for smarter bidding strategies, especially during high-stakes seasons like Black Friday or holiday shopping periods. Because the tab shows personalized insights based on what you sell and where, you’re not just seeing generic popularity trends, you’re seeing what’s relevant to your business.

The Popular Products tab gives valuable consumer demand signals and actionable insight. For merchants and advertisers, this means new ways to drive ROI, by stocking the right products, refining campaign targeting, and staying ahead of market shifts in an increasingly competitive retail environment.

What else we've been talking about:

• Most Google Ads campaign types hidden behind “See more” link

• Temu pulls its US Google Shopping ads – app rank plummets

• Google: 39 million advertisers suspended; 5.5 billion ads removed in 2024

• Apple rebrands Search Ads as Apple Ads

• Google Search to redirect its country level TLDs to Google.com

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