Daily Search Forum Recap: August 7, 2024

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google ads is migrating smart campaigns to performance max campaigns. Google Business Profiles performance report no longer is showing the call data. Google Ads is testing an ad call extension with the business name in it. Google Ads has this new “featured options” ad treatment. And did you know Apple maintains its own search index of billions of websites?

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Ads To Transition Smart Campaigns To Performance Max

Google Ads will transition the functionality of Smart Campaign into Performance Max campaigns in the coming months. Google said “Performance Max provides all the same benefits of Smart campaigns and more,” in an email sent to one advertiser.

Document: Apple Maintains A Search Index Of Billions Of Websites

As part of the DOJ ruling that Google is a monopoly, the document noted that Apple has its own search index and the index size is of billions of websites. The specific number was redacted but it said, “Apple maintains an index of about X billion websites.”

Google Business Profiles Call Data Gone From Performance Report

Google Business Profiles performance report is no longer showing the “call” tab that shows you statistics and data on searchers who called you from Google Search and Google Maps. I suspect this might be related to the Google Business Profile call history going away, as we reported earlier.

Google Ads Test: Call Extensions With Advertiser Name

Google is testing yet another call extension ad format, this one shows the advertiser’s name below the clickable phone number. This gives a lot more visibility to the phone number and the CTA for the call extension.

Google Ads Featured Options Search Interface

Google Ads may be testing a new search ad format named “featured options.” This shows ad listings in this thing card layouts that should be related to events.

ChatGPT License Plate On Porsche

Here is a photo of a Porsche with a ChatGPT license plate in the state of California. This was posted by Satyajeet Salgar who works at Google on X.