Google’s EU antitrust woes multiply: Sweden’s PriceRunner sues Google for skewing search results toward its own shopping service. The move could prompt more legal action from European shopping services.

Google’s paid search ads have gotten pricier in the US, with costs per click (CPCs) rising across retail product categories in Q3 2021.

According to Tinuiti, RLSAs were responsible for a declining share of Google search ad clicks between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020. The search agency’s Q3 2020 “Google Ads Benchmark Report” noted that the decrease in cookie data could lead to further decreases in the future.

eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom discuss Google's checkered Q2 earnings. They then talk about how Google plans to take on Amazon's online shopping dominance, the antitrust investigation into Google, and what would happen if Google tracked people after they asked it not to.

One of the unique qualities of retail media advertising is the ability to use closed-loop attribution, tying ad engagements to sales. This is possible because the same company is running the ad and selling the product advertised. Brands often look to Amazon and Walmart.com because those sites facilitate closed-loop attribution—and with the ongoing disruptions to digital identity, this tool will likely provide even greater advantages to those who use it.

Traditionally, travel advertisers including online travel agencies are among the biggest search ad spenders on Google. That business tanked last year, but ecommerce-related search advertising outperformed thanks to the supercharged digital retail environment.

Google and Facebook made up 67.8% of the UK digital ad market last year, which we expect will drop slightly to 65.9% this year.