It so happened that the news for the week was mainly about Google.

Google Corporation published its annual report on advertising for 2023, presenting a lot of interesting data and trends influencing the advertising industry. Advertisers faced challenges such as an increase in fraud cases and scams, to which Google responded by tightening rules and taking steps to protect users from dishonest practices, blocking or removing misleading ads. For future development, Google plans to increase control over advertising, providing more opportunities for users, publishers, and advertisers, as evidenced by the launch of the Ads Transparency Center and constant policy improvements.

Competitiveness and data privacy become central themes in discussions about Google's Privacy Sandbox, actively involving the UK regulator CMA. The company urges the AdTech industry to more actively share its concerns and proposals regarding these changes. In turn, the CMA states the need to understand the impact of the Privacy Sandbox on competitiveness and promises to take the industry's opinion into account when making decisions. Special attention is paid to how the changes may affect Google's market position and the potential risks of creating additional advantages for the company. At the same time, the CMA emphasizes the need for a balanced approach that ensures data privacy while maintaining a competitive environment.

Google introduced new tools for personalizing online shopping, promising to change the world of e-commerce. Among the key innovations are style recommendations, brand preferences, and even the ability to create images based on descriptions using artificial intelligence. These features, combined under the Google Shopping Graph, promise to revolutionize how users search for and buy products online. Users can easily evaluate styles, choose favorite brands, and even visualize their desires through image generation. Virtual fitting, which allows users to see how clothing fits on different models, complements Google's arsenal for improving online shopping. These innovations promise to transform the familiar experience of online shopping, providing more individualized and convenient options for consumers.

Google has made changes to the definition of ads shown at the top of Search. According to a Google spokesperson, this is simply a "definition change" and will not affect the calculation of performance metrics. TopAds are ads that appear above organic search results and sometimes below them for certain queries. This may mean that Google continues to experiment with placing ads between organic search results, which could lead to increased clicks for advertisers in Google search areas traditionally reserved for organic content.

Advertisers are reluctant to pay extra for publisher audience data and contextual targeting. Advertisers believe that spending a large portion of their budget on data and targeting rather than on actual advertising is unreasonable. However, some publishers believe that such free "bonuses" can attract advertisers.

In the world of retail and marketing, there are two concepts that have gained popularity in recent years - Retail Media and Trade Marketing. Although both are aimed at sales stimulation strategies and product promotion, they differ in approaches and goals. Retail Media focuses on advertising and promoting products in retail environments such as e-commerce sites, mobile apps, and offline stores, providing precise target audiences, integrating advertising into the purchasing process, and providing tools for measuring results. Trade Marketing, on the other hand, focuses on collaboration between manufacturers and retailers to stimulate sales at points of sale, with an emphasis on relationships between them, promotion of specific brands and products, and influencing purchasing decisions at points of sale. Both strategies play an important role in the modern market and should be effectively integrated into a company's marketing planning.

Google Offerwall introduces a new way of monetizing content with improved user engagement. Users are provided with options to access premium content, such as watching ads, completing surveys, or making small payments (available only in the USA). Key benefits include clear exchange between user and publisher, increased revenue, user choice in accessing content, easy integration without the need for additional development, and Offerwall design customization for the publisher's website. Google Offerwall can help publishers monetize content effectively, improving the user experience.

The deprecation of third-party cookies, once the cornerstone of digital marketing, poses serious challenges for the advertising industry. Concerns about user privacy have prompted Yandex Ads Ecomm+ to rethink its strategy. Yandex Ads actively adapts to these changes by integrating with Google's Privacy Sandbox initiative and becoming members of the W3C Privacy Community Group. The approach also includes the use of tools such as Advanced Matching and transitioning to a pay-per-result model.

Amazon is now required to disclose details of the ads it displays in the European Union. The retail giant lost a legal battle in the European Court of Justice. It is expected that Amazon will provide valuable insights into how the retailer displays and profits from advertising campaigns, enabling them to optimize their advertising campaigns more effectively for better results on the platform.