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The Big Story: Google Wrestles With An Analytics Overhaul, While The Ad Tech Market Preps For A Downturn

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Google has tried – and so far mostly failed – to get its customers on board with major new migrations for its online advertising platform.

There was the Ads Data Hub switchover, kind of, and the move away from third-party cookies … which was supposed to happen already. We’re still waiting.

This time, though, Google means it. And this time the migration is away from the tried-and-true (well, true-ish) Google Analytics that most marketers are very familiar with, to GA4, an updated and more sophisticated version of the platform – that also doesn’t include IP addresses and isn’t built on online advertising IDs.

That deadline to migrate is July 2023. In this week’s episode, we’ll talk about why this major overhaul of Google Analytics is happening and why businesses across the board need to be on top of the change.

But the GA4 migration headache is nothing compared to depressing news elsewhere about layoffs in the tech sector and tough belt-tightening decisions as the market hunkers down and prepares for an economic downturn.

The latest example is AppLovin and Adjust, the mobile measurement company acquired last year by AppLovin, which laid off 12% of their combined workforce this week.

AppLovin already had plans to make “operational changes” – corporate jargon similar to “efficiencies,” which means layoffs ­– per Allison Schiff, who broke the news. But hiring freezes, layoffs and forced resignations have been the name of the game in recent months for many tech and media companies.

“It’s sad news and I hate to hear it,” Schiff says. “As much as we have to report on it, it doesn’t bring me any joy.”

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