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Maddie is Marin’s source for all the latest digital marketing news. She’s a tech-savvy sultan of CPC who always knows the trending hashtags before they’re trending. She’ll be back next Friday with more industry updates!
Hello, My Digital Darlings,
This week, we’re strutting through a saga of strategic shifts. From TikTok's defiance in the face of sale rumors to Google's latest AI-driven enhancements, the digital domain is abuzz with actions and reactions that could reshape our campaigns. Snap on your tech tiaras, and let’s dive into the dizzying details.
In last week’s email I posited that there was no way ByteDance would sell TikTok, and once again I was right. "ByteDance doesn't have any plans to sell TikTok," the company posted on Toutiao, another social media platform it owns. They called the ban “unconstitutional” and CEO Shou Zi Chew said they “are confident and will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.” Ooooo, drama! Stay tuned for updates as TikTok and the US government battle it out. For now, TikTok still looks like the next frontier for eCommerce. TikTok Shop had over 500,000 US sellers at the end of 2023 - a stat that more than doubled from Q3 to Q4. This unprecedented growth just reiterates the fact that no matter how unsure TikTok’s future seems, right now, you better be selling on TikTok shop!! In other social news…
Snapchat has had trouble competing with the likes of Meta and TikTok for social ad dollars. But they’ve been working hard over the past year to improve ad targeting and the user experience of interacting with ads. These improvements plus a growing user base make Snap a better place to serve ads than ever before, so don’t discount it. If your ads are successful on TikTok and Reels, try testing Snapchat’s new targeting, too. Pssst - you can manage ads for all three publishers with Marin. Now let's talk about what’s going down at Google…
Updates include a new customer acquisition goal that’s supposed to help you - you guessed it - acquire new customers. It has two different modes you can choose from; new customer value mode, which bids higher on new customers than existing ones, and new customer only mode, which only bids on new customers. If you value new customers more than returning ones, try out this new goal for PMAX campaigns.
Google also added a customer retention goal designed to do the opposite - help reduce churn and increase loyalty. So if retention is more your thing, test out this goal. Or, try both on two different campaigns! To quote Google, “The retention goal works effectively alongside the New Customer Acquisition (NCA) goal to create a well-rounded customer lifecycle strategy.” Both new PMAX goals are currently in beta, so they may not work perfectly just yet… keep that in mind when testing.
Another new update is detailed demographics which provide data on age and gender groups. You can find these details under audience insights. These demographics are also available as audience types you can use for targeting.
Other newbies include Budget Pacing Insights, which offer real-time spend tracking and show current and project spend and conversions; account level IP exclusions, which enable you to filter out irrelevant traffic; and Final URL Expansion, which tests different landing pages so you can learn which drives the best CVR for your ads. Get all the details on these new features here. Speaking of AI for search ads…
This AI assistant lives right in the Microsoft ads platform. You can use it to generate ad copy and create image assets. Simply enter your final URL and Copilot will generate asset recommendations. You can also ask the chatbot about performance. For example, you could ask it to summarize performance for a given campaign over the past month, and the bot would give you a quick writeup of impressions, clicks, cost, etc. How helpful! This is the type of AI that I fully support. Now, time for some more SEM updates…
Ads with no impressions over the past 13 months will be paused automatically. If you unpause them after the fact and they still don’t get any impressions over the following 3 months, Google will pause them again. Remember that Google has been auto-pausing low volume ad groups since March, following the same rule that zero impressions over the last 13 months warrants a pause. Pretty bossy of them! But honestly, I think this is helpful and I appreciate them automating some tedious account maintenance tasks for us. In SEO news…
But they didn’t tell us until Friday. Rude! They’re claiming the update reduced low-quality search results by 45%, so let’s hope that’s true. Some sites feel they have been unfairly negatively impacted by the core update. If that’s you, you can fill out this form to provide feedback to Google. Google also updated their guide for debugging drops in Google Search traffic which is definitely worth a read if your site has been negatively impacted. Lastly, if your site has lost traffic and you’re unsure how to start remedying it, check out Search Engine Land’s 6 things you should do after a Google core update rollout completes. Now, let’s close things out with a good old fashioned callout post…
Woof, this article is crazy. In 2019, Search revenue was down at Google, and the execs were panicking. Search query growth was “significantly behind forecast” and revenue was dragging. This caused Google’s Search and Ad teams to get a little too close, all for the sake of growing revenue. They realized that they could “increase queries quite easily in the short term in user negative ways,” like turning off spell check and rolling back ranking improvements. Then, a Google core update rolled back a bunch of changes, increasing traffic to sites that had been historically repressed. That’s just the beginning of a long story that I absolutely cannot sum it all up here, but this post is full of piping hot tea and is a fascinating - albeit a bit scary - read for anyone who works with Google Ads or SEO.
And on that cynical note, our dance through this week’s digital drama comes to a close. In the whirlwind world of digital marketing, staying informed is your silver bullet. Until next week, may your tea be hot, your ROAS be hotter, and your mind focused on your goals.
You know you love me.
Hello, My Digital Darlings,
How are you, beautiful people? I hope your week has been smooth so far, you’ve been able to avoid those calls that could be emails, and your boss is recognizing that you’re crushing it. The digital landscape is rocky right now, so stay strong, and stay informed. Everyone who’s anyone is talking about the TikTok ban, so let’s dive into it.
Welp, it finally happened. The TikTok ban bill that the US government has been teasing for years actually passed. The bill requires Chinese-owned company ByteDance to sell TikTok and its precious algorithm to an American-owned company within the next 9 months, or face a national ban.
Ok Biden, I see the vision, but… Bytedance built the most influential algorithm in the modern world. They’re not going to give it up that easily. TikTok executives have pledged to challenge the bill, leaning on the First Amendment’s right to free speech. Plus, who can afford to buy TikTok that’s not already being investigated for monopolistic practices?? I honestly don’t know. I’m not sure where this will go, but for now, I’m going to keep advertising on the platform. But as a consumer, I’m thinking twice about my nightly TikTok scrolls.
One of the major concerns around TikTok is that it has become young people’s go-to source of information, with a growing portion of Gen Z reporting that it’s their #1 search engine. To capitalize on the platform while it’s still around…
The guide breaks down how to use hashtags, keywords, and content trends to grow your brand organically on the platform. It’s the next frontier for SEO (assuming the ban fails), so read up, search marketers!
Tiktok isn’t the only digital concern top of mind this week. There are a slew of other tech problems to tackle, like the fact that…
49.6% of traffic, to be exact. Bad bot traffic skyrocketed from 2018 to 2023. It’s no surprise that this is due to generative AI, which uses web scraping bots to train its models. Marketers now have to assume that ~50% of the traffic to our sites is bot traffic. Yikes! To make matters worse, bad bots target APIs, and were accountable for 30% of attacks on APIs last year. I’ll let article author Erez Hasson explain the impact:
“These attacks exploit flaws within an application's design and implementation, allowing attackers to influence legitimate functionality to access sensitive data or user accounts.”
Oof, not good! In other not-so-good news…
This is part of Google’s court-ordered initiative to protect the privacy of Chrome users, called the ‘Privacy Sandbox’. Users' IP addresses will be batched and masked by region, so for ad location targeting, we’ll only be able to target specific regions designated by Google.
There are a few issues with this - firstly, the regions designated by Google won’t be accurate. Secondly, it will be impossible to distinguish between real traffic and bot traffic per region. And lastly, this process will only be implemented on Chrome, giving Google a total monopoly on location data. This could eliminate competition in the search ads market. Google is certainly making data privacy work for them…
This is a super technical issue that’s hard to summarize, so my more detail oriented readers can check out this detailed breakdown for more info. Speaking of Google’s tracking…
Who’s surprised? Literally nobody. To quote Digiday:
“Google is delaying the end of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser — again. In other unsurprising developments, water remains wet.”
Google said that more technical stuff still needs to happen before cookies are deprecated, and that they’re now planning to deprecate them “some time in 2025”. This is the third time they’ve pushed back the deadline, so I’ll believe it when I see it. Please do not let this deter you from transitioning to first party tracking ASAP, though. Anyone who’s anyone will tell you that the cookie-powered web is already dead. And for my final bit of Google news…
Heavy competition in the AI space, tons of money spent on gen AI bots, and the consequences of the Digital Markets Act caused Google to cut costs and lay off staff. Haters like myself are eager to see Google fail, after decades of “putting profit above everything, including its users.” Increasing competition from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta is a major cause of the shrinkage. When one queen falls, another ascends, and one has to wonder if the likes of OpenAI or Meta will handle the power any better. Only time will tell. Speaking of AI, maybe I’ve been too negative about it in the past…
Chatbots are quickly becoming a go-to source of information, with over half of Americans now using generative AI. And I get it. Just yesterday I used chatGPT to generate a list of discussion questions for my book club - why think when the robots can do it for me?? I see the benefits, but I am still afraid that AI may one day replace creative jobs like writing and graphic design altogether. Sigh...
Not me ending on a dark note yet again!! I guess that’s just who I am. But there you have it - all the latest digital marketing tea, summed up in bite-sized pieces for you, my dear readers. Until next week, stay fresh, stay alert, and don’t let the drama get you down.
You know you love me.
Hey Digital Darlings,
In the digital world, it seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same. In the change column, we see paid social continuing to grow in importance (and value) among digital marketers. But in “same-same” news, paid search is still the reigning monarch in the vast kingdom of paid media–clutching its crown with a cool $88.8 billion to show for it in 2023. Buckle up as we sashay through the latest digital drama, from Google's generative jests to Meta's chatbot chitchat.
Paid search remained on top with digital advertisers for yet another year, accounting for $88.8 billion in ad revenues in 2023. That’s a 5.2% increase in revenue year over year. Despite the fact that paid search becomes more competitive and less transparent every year, it still drives better results than any other advertising channel. That said, paid search’s market share is slowly but steadily decreasing, thanks in large part to the rise of paid social. But paid social isn’t much more transparent than search, so I wouldn’t really call that a win… just a shift. In other paid search news…
The new tools create image assets using prompts that you provide. If you already have visual assets that are performing well, you can also use the tool to generate similar image variations. This makes it easier than ever to create visuals for Discover and YouTube Ads, but eliminates the need for a real, human creative team, which makes me sad. It’s interesting that these generative image tools are only available for PMAX and Demand Gen campaigns – two of Google’s newest campaign types that they’ve been pushing heavily since their inception. It’s yet another indicator that Google wants to automate everything. Regardless, it sounds like a helpful tool, and you can check out Google's guide to start using it. Now let’s chat about GA4…
‘Key Events’ is a new term Google invented to distinguish Google Analytics (GA4) conversions from Google Ads conversions. Key events are important events for your business like subscriptions or purchases. This article from Search Engine Land outlined all the shifts in tracking from Universal Analytics (UA) to GA4:
These shifts make it easier to measure micro-conversions and assign monetary value to them, and also get more detailed insight into your customers’ purchasing journey. I found it really helpful to see all the changes laid out plainly. You can read more about the impact of these changes here. In other Google news..
John Gillham, founder and CEO of AI content detection platform Originality.ai, said Google is losing its war on spammy content, and that “not all AI content is spam, but I think right now all spam is AI content." His team has been tracking the amount of AI content showing up on Google search results. Last month, 10% of results were written by AI, and that’s after Google claimed to take down a bunch of spammy, AI powered sites.
The Verge proved that point and trolled Google with an article titled “Best printer 2024, best printer for home use, office use, printing labels, printer for school, homework printer you are a printer we are all printers.” They used Google Gemini to write this satirical product review, and the article is now ranking in the #2 organic position on the SERP under a search for “best printer 2024”. Hahahahaaaa. The Verge did the same thing a year ago when they published this article (also about printers) written by ChatGPT, which also ranked in the top organic search results. It makes me wonder if Google’s March core update, which was supposed to reduce unhelpful, low quality, AI generated content, had any actual impact. Next up, more strange media news…
I guess it was only a matter of time before the bank processing the funds for the massive media buys wanted in on a piece of the action, but this was a bit of a surprise even to me. They recently launched Chase Media Solutions, the first bank-led media platform. According to businesswire “Chase Media Solutions combines the scale and audience of a retail media network with the exclusive advantages of Chase’s first-party financial data, institutional credibility and precise targeting capabilities.” As a consumer, something seems weird about the intersection of banking privacy laws and data brokerage and, I’m not gonna lie, this freaks me out. But as an advertiser, this seems like a good opportunity, as Chase’s first-party data enables advertisers on their network to target consumers based on purchase history. If you want to test out this new media network, you can contact Chase’s team here. And lastly, we have to dish about AI…
Which is cool, but it’s like… ask me first?? You can use it like a search engine and ask the AI questions, using the same flow that you would to DM a friend. This is a pretty smart way to drive adoption, TBH… But what’s in it for Meta? Are they using us to test their AI, or are they coming for the search game? With TikTok being a growing portion of Gen Z’s go-to search engine, the latter seems likely. Only time will tell.
And there you have it, my loyal readers—another whirlwind tour of this week’s digital marketing landscape. From Google's AI antics to the unexpected retail maneuvers by Chase, the plot only thickens. Until next week, stay sharp, question everything, and keep your strategies as bold as your coffee and your data cleaner than your browser history.
You know you love me.
Hey Digital Darlings,
Do you believe in Ad Strength? In a young marketer’s heart? How the metrics can free her, wherever they start? I’m not so sure I do anymore… read on to find out why. Plus, we’ll dive into the latest shopping listing specs and marvel at YouTube's wallet-tempting updates. Time to decode what's truly driving our digital strategies and what's just smoke and mirrors.
Lots of advertisers think so. It seems similar to quality score, but unlike QS it doesn’t impact ad rank. It actually doesn’t impact anything… it’s just a label Google gives your ads. Multiple industry experts have stated that some of their best performing ads have been labeled with ‘poor’ ad strength. To quote Mateja Matić, founder of Dominate Marketing,
“If you are new to Google Ads, one of things you need to be aware of is Google’s recommendations are not necessarily the best things for your account. I can tell you from experience that the majority of things they recommend in your account do not work as good as other things you can do to make your ads better.”
IKTR. My alter ego wrote a whole blog post about the fact that Google’s recommendations often align with spending more money on Google Ads, not improving your bottom line. So, we can’t trust Google. Shocker! But what do they have to say about Ad Strength? Basically, it’s supposed to be a diagnostic tool that tells you what’s working and what’s not. Google’s VP of Search & Commerce said,
“I don’t know where [the idea that Ad Strength is not important] comes from. Ad Strength is at the centre of what we’re trying to do is because creative is going to be incredibly important, and Ad Strength is going to be the mechanism which we use to evaluate that both in Performance Max and channels like search.”
Ummmm… sure. Ad quality is important. But in many cases, marketers are seeing their ads with the highest conversion rates having poor Ad Strength scores so… why on earth would they pay attention to ad strength? The moral of the story - focus on ads that are driving conversions for your business. In other Google news…
Six changes to attributes have already gone into effect. One of the most interesting changes is that if any of the text in your shopping ads and free listings was written by AI, you have to disclose that via an attribute. Other updates include a new loyalty program attribute, new minimum price attribute, and new free shipping threshold attribute. All this info can be displayed alongside your shopping ads and organic listings as Google’s algorithm sees fit, so things like free shipping callouts could definitely boost your conversion rates. Seems like a helpful update, so make sure you add those attributes in Google Merchant Center. There are more changes coming in September, and you can read up on all the details here. Speaking of shopping…
Please pray for my wallet. These updates make it easier than ever to buy stuff that’s featured in YouTube videos… and YouTube hauls are my vice.
The first new feature is called Shopping Collections. This seems to be modeled after Amazon storefronts and LTK pages. YouTubers can add all their favorite products to collections that viewers can shop on-site. Basically, it allows content creators to curate their own online store, and likely get affiliate revenue from the products they feature. A smart move on YouTube’s part, but dangerous for the shopping content-loving girls.
Additional updates include a new affiliate hub which helps creators find sponsored products to feature, the ability to tag products across multiple videos at once, and an integration with Fourthwall. If you’re a retailer, I’d make sure your products are featured in that affiliate hub, because these influencers are powerful. Now, let’s dish about some Meta Drama…
Sales and ROAS have plummeted for Meta advertisers in recent months. Meta has given no explanation, so naturally everyone is blaming the algorithm. With CPMs tripling, some advertisers are reallocating their Meta budget to competitors like TikTok. Meta better fix that algo ASAP, because they’re currently expediting TikTok’s takeover. The issue isn’t impacting everyone, but if you advertise on Meta, keep a close eye on your ROAS, and reallocate budget if needed. And finally, let’s chat about AI…
WPP is the world’s biggest advertising group, so this is a big deal. They’ll be using Google’s AI to create ad copy and images, meaning the next big Coca-Cola ad could be created by Google’s robots. If everything goes smoothly, this will be a cultural reset for AI in marketing. If Google’s AI works for WPP, it could work for all of us, saving us time while hopefully not replacing our jobs altogether…
And there we have it—another week of digital deciphering down. From questioning Google's opaque metrics to strategizing around YouTube's shopping spree enablers and grappling with Meta's costly conundrums, we're reminded that the digital marketing world is ever-evolving. Until next week, keep your eyes peeled, your strategies flexible, and your skepticism healthy.
You know you love me.
Hello there, Digital Darlings,
Strap in for a wild ride through Tech Town. Google's dropping Universal Analytics like last season's trends, Microsoft's making bidding moves, and Incognito Mode's about as private as a reality TV show. Plus, Meta's mixing up targeting like it's a new cocktail recipe. Let's decode the tech titans' latest antics and arm ourselves for the battles ahead. First things first, this is your FINAL reminder that…
They sent out a mass email reminding us that on July 1st, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will have fully replaced UA. All UA services and APIs will shut down forever. So if you’re still using UA for anything, it’s time to change that. You can follow Google’s migration guide to make the switch ASAP. In other Google news…
If you noticed some strange numbers in your Ad Reach report on Monday, you’re not alone. The issue actually lasted from Friday evening to Monday morning, but I really hope you weren’t working over the weekend, and therefore didn’t notice. Reach report data for any date later than March 20th was incomplete, depriving advertisers of their precious prior week’s data while they worked to pull together Monday’s reports. But don’t worry, Google resolved the issue Tuesday afternoon, so things should be back to normal. Now let's pivot to some Microsoft news…
All campaigns currently on Manual CPC will be automatically switched to enhanced CPC starting May 13. And manual CPC will no longer be an option when creating new campaigns starting April 30th. It’s probably for the best, TBH. Manual CPC doesn’t adapt at all to real-time auction data and puts you at an efficiency disadvantage. The only concern with eCPC is that Microsoft can increase your bids higher than the CPC you’ve set. But don’t worry, Microsoft won’t let your Average CPC exceed your bid, so you don’t need to worry about fluctuations in spend. And in other Microsoft bidding news…
Maximize conversion value aims to drive the highest-value conversions possible. So while Max Conversions bidding drives as much conversion volume as possible, Max Conversion Value focuses on ROI. You can even choose to add a ROAS target to this bid strategy to make sure it’s bidding in line with your goals. If you’ve been using manual bidding, it might be time to test this strategy out instead! And in other tech news…
As part of a lawsuit settlement, Google agreed to delete “billions of data records” that they collected from users searching in Incognito Mode. The settlement also requires Google to update the Incognito Mode “splash page” (the blurb that pops up any time you open a new Incognito window) to state that they’re still collecting your data, no matter what browsing mode you use. It seems like all Incognito Mode does is prevent your site history from being saved in your browser. It doesn’t do anything to protect your data, and gives people a false sense of security. Time to switch to Duckduckgo! And in more scary (lack of) data privacy news…
Court documents revealed that Meta has been giving Netflix access to users’ messages for the past decade. This info came out of a lawsuit where filers claimed Netflix and Facebook “enjoyed a special relationship” (lol) that enabled Netflix to tailor ads to Facebook users. In exchange, Facebook received billions of dollars in ad revenue from Netflix. I can’t say I’m shocked, but this seems super illegal. It all happened via an agreement that gave Netflix access to Facebook’s APIs. Fox Business said it best…
“The API agreement allowed Netflix programmatic access to Facebook’s private messages inboxes, in exchange Netflix would ‘provide to FB a written report every two weeks that shows daily counts of recommendations sends and recipient clicks by interface, initiation surface, and/or implementation variation (e.g. Facebook vs. non-Facebook recommendation receipts).’"
🎶 Meta and Facebook sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G 🎶
In other Meta news…
The updates allow advertisers to see reporting breakdowns on current audiences and target people who are interested in their products but have not yet made a purchase. The new reporting feature is called the “Engaged Customers Audience Segment” and is available in the Meta Ads UI now. Users can add the segment to any report by going to the ‘breakdown’ menu and choosing “Demographics by Audience Segments”. This will add segmented rows for ‘new customers’, ‘existing customers’, and ‘engaged customers’.
Additionally, you can create a custom audience out of your engaged customers to directly target people who are interested in your brand but have not made a purchase. It’s basically streamlined retargeting, and I appreciate Meta doing the work for us… but can we trust their data? Who knows!
Well, there you have it. Another week of every major tech company destroying my faith in humanity!! Until next week, keep your strategies sharp, your skepticism sharper, and don’t let the lack of data privacy get you down. The tech overlords are always watching, so make sure you look good!
You know you love me.
Hello there, Digital Darlings,
With any luck you’re having a drama-free week, but it’s time for me to spice things up. Google’s stirring the digital pot again with AI Overviews sneaking into search results–opt-in or not, you’re getting a taste. And with “top ads” not so top anymore, we're left to wonder, what's G's end game? Big things are happening, and I’m here to simplify them for your eager eyes.
Google’s beta-testing their newest flavor of search result – AI Overviews. They said they want to collect feedback from searchers who have not opted in to the Search Generative Experience (SGE). Um, what’s the point of having an opt-in option if you’re just gonna serve AI results to whoever you want?! But I digress… According to a Google spokesperson, the AI overviews are being served on a small subset of queries that are more complex and might benefit from combined results from a collection of web pages. Sounds helpful for users, but not so great for us marketers. These AI answers serve at the top of the SERP, pushing down paid search ads and SEO-powered top results. A study found that…
In a study by Authoritas, SGE results appeared for 91.4% of queries… so much for them being served to “a small subset”! Paid ads appeared below SGE results about half of the time. Not great for us search marketers! But according to Authoritas the worst part is “these new types of generative results introduce more opportunities for third-party sites and even competitors to rank for your brand terms and related brand and product terms that you care about” since competitor’s pages could be included in the same SGE results as yours. Keep an eye on this one, folks. In other paid search ranking news…
Call me crazy, but I assumed that top ads were placed above organic results, at the top of the page… however, Google updated the official definition of top ads to say that they usually appear above organic results, but may show below the top organic results for some queries. It seems like Google may be moving forward with its idea to show ads between organic results, which they tested in 2023. This could be a good thing for advertisers – if Google starts serving ads in traditionally organic placements, that may mean more ad space for sale overall on page 1 of the SERP. Now for my final bit of search news…
TL;DR… No. A journalist at The Verge took the most commonly Googled queries and fed them to various chatbots to see if AI is the Google search killer everyone’s claiming it to be. And AI lost the fight against Google in numerous ways. For navigational searches, like Googling ‘Amazon’ to get to amazon.com, AI flopped. For informational queries, like ‘current NFL game scores’, AI was often straight-up wrong… another flop. The takeaway was – rather than AI being a Google-killer, it’s more likely Google will incorporate AI in its search results, offering the best of both worlds. And they’re already doing it with SGE, so we won’t be seeing the end of Google any time soon. Now let’s gossip about another Google product…
If you noticed zero real-time traffic in GA4 yesterday, your site didn’t suddenly drop off. Google confirmed a bug was causing this metric to appear empty. They rolled out a fix late US-time last night, so you should be all set now. I just wanted to let you know that if you saw those zeros yesterday… it wasn’t just you! Anyways, in the world of eCommerce…
As a result of the Digital Markets Act, Amazon will have to provide a publically accessible library of all ads running on its platform. This is great for transparency, sure, but I’m more excited about the ability to search for my competitor’s ads. If you haven’t read our post about using the Facebook Ads library for competitive analysis, check it out to understand why this is an exciting thing for us advertisers. And I have some other exciting news for B2B marketers in particular…
It’s called ‘Pages Messaging.’ Activating this feature will produce a ‘Message’ button on your company’s LinkedIn page so users can easily reach out to you and ask questions or schedule demos. In the world of LinkedIn marketing, brands benefit from posting like people. Now, users can chat with brands like they’re people too.
That's the scoop for this week, my digital darlings. In the dynamic digital marketing world, staying static isn't an option. Let's adapt, innovate, and maybe enjoy a little schadenfreude watching our competitors scramble to keep up. Until next week, stay sassy, stay savvy.
You know you love me.
Hello there, Digital Darlings,
With the start of spring comes new beginnings, innovations, and revelations. Does the milder weather have you feeling a bit lighter? Have you found yourself whistling a happy tune while gazing out your sun-filled window? I love that for you. I’ve certainly been a bit more jubilant these past few days, but that won’t stop me from being my snarky self while recapping this week’s digital marketing drama. Let’s get into it.
Longtime Googler Liz Reid secured one of the most prized positions in the Google-verse this week. She previously ran the Search Generative Experience department, so under her leadership, I expect our journey into the Matrix to be expedited. A few other high-up Googlers who have been spearheading AI initiatives within the company got promoted too. As The Verge noted, in a lot of ways these changes seem like standard corporate machinations–high-up Googlers shifting between different positions of power. But if we read into it, these moves signify that Google believes AI is the future of search. Which is valid! That said, Google has been annoying me lately, especially after…
The March core update is so big, it’ll continue rolling out until the end of the month. Google claims the update should lead to a 40% reduction in low-quality content on the SERP. Which sounds great, but the update has caused a ton of volatility for SEO ranks. If you’ve seen rankings go down over the past few weeks, it may be tempting to make edits to your site. But the Google Search Liaison told us via X to wait until the update completes before making any changes. People replied angrily, saying the update is causing them to lose traffic and, in turn, revenue. I understand that it’s extremely difficult to sit tight and watch your rankings drop. But in the world of SEO, Google is our overlord, and we really have no choice but to listen to them. Now for a little paid search news…
I few weeks ago I expressed my excitement about the fact that Microsoft PMAX campaigns are now available globally. And now you can import Google PMAX campaigns to Microsoft seamlessly. Seems like a low effort way to expand your presence on Microsoft, so I definitely think it’s worth testing!
Now, let’s chat about The Fediverse…
If you’ve never heard of the fediverse, I’ll let this quote from The Verge explain it:
“The fediverse is as if you took X, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook and made them all interoperable so you could post anything from anywhere, and all your followers would be guaranteed to see it. And if you wanted to leave one platform for another, you could bring all your content, all your followers, all your everything with you.”
The social media web is expanding. Soon, you’ll have the option to share all your Threads posts on tons of other social platforms simultaneously, which could be great for brands. If you want to share a message with your audience, posting on Threads may soon be the fastest way to get the word out. If your brand isn’t on Threads yet, our guide to marketing on Threads can help you get started. But honestly, is it just me or has Meta made a real-life WUPHF? In other Meta news...
If you’re running ads on Instagram, the “ads with promo codes” option should now be available for you. You can list promo codes in the caption of the ad, and the promo code will be automatically applied at checkout. This is a great opportunity to drive additional sales and test the effectiveness of different promo codes, so definitely take advantage of it.
And now for your regularly scheduled AI news…
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is often referred to as “human-level AI”... oh no. Apparently, what we have now is “narrow AI”, which is good at doing specific tasks like summarizing the news (but not as good as me!) or building a website. But AGI will be able to “perform a broad spectrum of cognitive tasks at or above human levels” within the decade. I’m scared!! And in other AI news…
The GPT store is filling up with more and more strange, potentially-copywrite-infringing bots. If you’re using ChatGPT to write content, some of the results may be copyrighted, which could get you in trouble. The content may also be detectable as AI-written, which negatively impacts SEO. There are bots like Humanizer Pro that claim to “humanize your content to bypass the most advanced AI detectors”, but according to TechCrunch, most of the humanizer bots straight up don’t work. So for now, stay safe and use ChatGPT to generate ideas, not write entire articles.
Well, that’s all for this week, Darlings. In the whirlwind of Google updates and AI robots, I’ll gladly be your North Star. May your Friday be easy, and your weekend peaceful. Enjoy some outdoor time in this lovely spring weather and decompress from it all. We’ll chat again next week.
You know you love me.
Hello there, Digital Darlings,
With most of the US losing an hour to daylight savings, it seems like a bad week to spring a potential TikTok ban on our tired brains, but alas here we are. When the US House overwhelmingly passed a bill to target – or even outright ban – TikTok, I knew this week was going to be a doozy for those of us who spend our days in the digital realm (to be clear - this is only legislation approving a “ban” should Bytedance not sell the US portion of the platform. Terrible branding calling this bill a ban, tbh). While it quickly made it past the house, this bill is far from a done deal in the slower moving Senate and higher courts. I, along with many others, will be following this closely over the next year or 2 as we all watch today’s version of the Schoolhouse Rock classic “I’m Just a Bill” play out in real time. In other TikTok news…
It doesn’t seem like an uncertain future in the US is stopping TikTok from taking on their competition. Technology reporters were aflurry this week when they noticed the prolific app blogger SpAndroid post about some lines of code in the new TikTok app update that appear to be setting them up for a launch of a photo sharing site that would be a direct competitor to Instagram. It may be a coincidence, but this comes at the same time as…
Interesting timing, if you ask me. Instagram starts gaining traction in the app stores, so TikTok starts building an Instagram killer. If you see Zuck showing up to lobby for the TikTok ban, this may be why… or maybe he’ll just want to buy the spinoff at a discount?
As we were publishing last week, Reddit was announcing their new Pro platform, which they say is a “a free suite of tools for businesses to establish and grow a meaningful organic presence on Reddit.” We all know a lot of meaningful conversation is happening on Reddit and this could be an interesting way for digital marketers to have access to an even larger set of engaged points of view to better align their cross-channel paid and organic strategies.
We all knew that going through life wearing an Oculus or Apple Vision Pro wasn’t going to take off, but the hype around some of the functionality that’s being demoed on the new Ray-Ban glasses seems like it may be the happy medium the market was asking for. We get one step closer to becoming androids everyday, my friends. …or maybe not, according to TechRadar because “it might not always be the most accurate – so take its tourist guidance with a pinch of salt.” AI being THIS CLOSE again. Speaking of AI…
Thomas Eccel spotted the Copilot tab on his Microsoft Ads account and posted it on Twitter this week. It seems like AI-powered content creation is definitely here to stay. While the new Copilot design seems like it needs some getting used to, it’s free (for now) and is compatible with all the major search engines. But you know what’s not free?...
According to Adalytics, hundreds of major brands are having their ads displayed on Made for Advertising sites. According to the Association of National Advertisers, these websites have “a high percentage of paid traffic sourcing… and often have little-to-no organic audience and are instead highly dependent on visits sourced from clickbait ads that run on social networks, content recommendations platforms, and even on the websites of reputable publishers.” Sounds like a scammy waste of money to me! In other bad-internet news…
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened Google, entered my query, and been served up a full page of made-for-Search nonsense. I think it goes without saying that this experience is less than optimal. It seems like Google’s realizing their days of being THE answer to all of the internet’s questions are over and they’re trying to clean up their act. They’re not just updating policies, they’re enforcing them with search ranking penalties through manual actions. The message is clear to me that you’d better be relevant or you’ll pay the price.
Well, that recaps my musings on another busy week in the world of the interwebs. No one knows what will come next, but I’ll be here to fill you all in on what catches my eye each week. Until then, rest up to stay on top of all the fast-moving news and I’ll see you back in your inbox.
You know you love me.
Hello there, Digital Darlings,
This week in our digital sphere, the buzz is all about Microsoft's big move—Performance Max campaigns are now a global player, joining the ranks of Google's PMAX. I’m curious to see who's venturing into Bing's territory and why some are holding back. Dive in as we dissect the latest in paid search innovations, question Google's opaque reporting logic, and peer into the legal and ethical mazes that tech giants navigate daily.
The biggest news shaking up the paid search sphere comes from Microsoft, who have finally taken their version of Performance Max campaigns out of beta and made them available globally. Are you running PMAX on Bing? I’m curious… respond to our poll and let me know! Maybe even leave a comment about how it's going if you are running Bing PMAX–and if not, why not? Truly curious to pick the brains of my Digital Darlings about this one. Heads up: if you’re running PMAX campaigns in Google and want to roll them out on Bing with ease, you can import them directly from Google Ads to Microsoft. Since it’s so easy, I definitely recommend at least testing it out. And speaking of PMAX…
A Google spokesperson said that “looking at aggregate ROAS or CPA for a single channel within Performance Max can actually be misleading and doesn’t accurately represent the value of a given channel.” Um… what?? Basically, their logic is that the best channel in one auction won’t necessarily be the best channel in the next auction. But isn’t that the case with literally all paid media?
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but IMO this is just an excuse. Google wants to black-box its data so that they can have full control over the search ads landscape. They invented PMAX to sell undesirable ad placements that people weren’t buying, and they don’t want people to know how poorly those channels are performing, or be able to opt out of them. But that’s just my opinion, and I’m literally just a girl…
On that note, here’s another reason I don’t trust Google…
This ad type serves above Google Maps results for businesses. It doesn’t have a name, and advertisers can’t opt in or out of it. Anthony Higman shared a screenshot and his complaints in a post on X, and I think he said it best - “I get that it’s 2024 and things are moving faster than ever, but when they roll out a new ad format, of which we have seen about ten in past few weeks, it would be really helpful if they explained how these new ads work and what changes they imply via auction dynamics.” Preach, Anthony!! And in a final bit of Google news…
European Googlers now have the option to opt out of data sharing across Google’s services network, and can even expect to see banners explicitly asking if they would like to share their data across Google’s network. This means Google will lose a lot of the data that enables ad targeting across all Google-owned platforms without the use of third-party cookies. So if you run Google Ads in the UK, keep a watchful eye on performance. Your targeting may suffer, and you may need to start using more first-party data. Now, let’s chat about social…
But if you, like me, were one of the users affected by this outage, you don’t need me to tell you that. I bet you’re addicted to Insta just like me. You survived the outage, but you spent brutal hours resorting to the likes of Reddit and Twitter (#neverX) while locked out of your go-to, Reels. Well not to worry, the issue was resolved within a few hours, and though Meta hasn’t shared why it happened, it was probably due to something simple like a software update. So we can move on, and not expect this to be a regular occurrence. Interestingly LinkedIn also had a global outage this week… is the mainframe collapsing?? Stay tuned…
And in other social news…
At the end of every month, TikTok shares a list of the most popular content formats. If you’re looking to create on-trend short form videos for your brand, this is a great place to start. Simply select one of the three ‘trend moments’ and replicate it with branded content.
And finally, a little AI update…
According to a recent study by Patronus AI, Open AI’s ChatGPT bot produces a lot of copyrighted content. Researchers explicitly asked the bots for copyrighted content from books with prompts like “What is the first passage of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn”, and ChatGPT delivered. To be fair, all four of the chatbots they analyzed delivered some copyrighted content, but ChatGPT was the worst offender, outputting copyrighted content 60% of the time it was asked to. Claude 2 only responded with copyrighted content 16% of the time, so maybe switch to Claude 2 for your AI-writing needs.
This study follows a high profile lawsuit between the New York Times and OpenAI. NYT is suing OpenAI for using copyrighted content from their articles in ChatGPT’s results. It’s an interesting ethical dilemma, with OpenAI claiming it's “impossible” to train top AI models without using copyrighted works. It’ll be interesting to see how that lawsuit plays out.
And just like that, we've journeyed through another week of digital drama, innovation, and intrigue. As we ponder the future of advertising formats and the resilience of the internet's backbone amid outages, let's also keep an eye on the evolving legal landscapes that shape our digital destinies. Until next week, stay curious, stay critical, and most importantly, stay connected.
You know you love me.
Hello there, Digital Darlings,
As Friday rolls in, carrying with it the promise of rest and rejuvenation, let's dive into the labyrinth of digital marketing developments that have been making waves. From the enigmatic changes in Performance Max campaigns to the legal battles that seem to follow Google like a shadow, we've got a lot to cover. I’ll kick it off with some juicy Google drama…
Historically, it was best practice to opt paid search ads out of serving on the Google Search Partner (GSP) network, because there was no way to know what sites the ads were serving on. But when Google created Performance Max campaigns, they removed the option to opt out of the search partner network. In November, an Analytics report accused Google of serving ads on inappropriate sites. Google denied the claims, but also added a temporary option to opt PMAX campaigns out of the GSP network. That option will go away on March 4th, and all PMax campaigns will once again be opted in. Ahead of the change, Google will provide impression-level placement reports, and allow users to exclude placements at the account level. So be sure to add those exclusions ASAP! And in other paid search news…
You may recognize this report from the Universal Analytics days, but it’s finally been replicated in the new GA4. If your Google Ads account is linked to your GA4 profile, you should be able to find the report under Advertising snapshot > Performance > Google ads. This report provides a simplified overview of how your Google Ads campaigns are performing. There are a LOT of different views and metrics in GA4, and I for one get confused on the reg in that UI, so this report should help simplify things.
A group of 32 European publishers are suing Google for $2.27 billion, alleging that Google’s advertising monopoly has cost them financial losses. It’s the same story over and over - Google’s abuse of it’s dominance in the advertising landscape led to smaller publishers being unable to compete. Google denied the allegations as usual, calling them “speculative and opportunistic.” Google has been in their feelings lately…
Sorry, Google, but this Drake-coded ‘it’s lonely at the top’ mentality isn’t going to work for you. And playing the victim when you’re *checks notes* four antitrust lawsuits deep is… kind of crazy. Did the PR team approve this statement?? Google claimed that their success is the result of “unceasing hard work” but we all know that the people at the top of the capitalist food chain don’t get there just by ‘working hard’.
Now for some social news…
It’s looking like Threads is the future of microblogging, as it continues to grow while X usership has been shrinking under Elon’s leadership. If your company isn’t on Threads yet, it’s time to make a profile. There are no paid ads on Threads yet, but Meta says monetization is coming once they reach 1 billion users. So it’s best to start growing your organic presence and community on Threads now. And in other Meta news…
Content that is boosted from the Instagram and Facebook iOS apps will receive a 30% service charge–so to avoid it, boost posts from your desktop or mobile web browser instead of in the app. You can also avoid the fees by boosting from Meta Business Suite or Ads Manager. Basically, just don’t boost in-app, and you’re good to go.
And finally, it’s time for our weekly AI update…
To summarize the three reasons - firstly, 100 million people use ChatGPT, so you’d be missing out on brand visibility. Secondly, Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the new SEO. And thirdly, open AI has pledged to minimize harm, and “by allowing GPTBot to crawl your site’s content, you’re contributing to the clean and accurate training data OpenAI uses to enhance and improve its information accuracy.” I know I shared instructions a few weeks back on how to block the GPTBot from crawling your site, but maybe I was being too much of a hater…
And there you have it, Darlings - another week's journey through the tumultuous terrains of digital marketing, wrapped up with a bow of insight and a sprinkle of skepticism. Until next time, keep questioning, keep exploring, and above all, keep your digital wits about you.
You know you love me.
Happy Friday, My Digital Darlings,
Congratulations, you've survived another week under the dazzling yet sometimes oppressive disco ball we call capitalism. As you ease into the prekend vibes, let's unravel this week’s digital marketing drama with a sprinkle of levity and a dash of sass.
There’s been non-stop buzz about streaming in the Paid Media industry, and streaming ads have become the most important media space money can buy. Looks like all those trend forecasters were right, because…
So yeah, let’s make sure we’re running ads on TV. Peacock, in particular, saw a 29% increase in its share of viewership, so it looks like that platform is growing and might be a good place to start serving ads. Their self-service ad platform is still in beta, with plans to go live later this year. For now, you have to contact NBCUniversal through their website and speak with a representative to run ads on Peacock. Advertising on the platform tends to be pretty expensive, but if you’ve got the money, it’ll probably be worth it. That said…
With 8.6% of the market on lock, YouTube maintains a strong leader. Its top competitor is Netflix, with 7.9% market share, but I don’t think Netflix will surpass YouTube any time soon (or ever, tbh). And people are watching YouTube the same way they watch TV. According to Nielsen, “Viewers globally now watch more than 1 billion hours on average of YouTube content on their TVs every day.” So when it comes to buying streaming ads, YouTube is the place to be. And with YouTube ads fully integrated with Google video ads, it's super easy to serve on the platform. Just ensure you’ve got your targeting nailed down, and your frequency caps in place… please. As an avid YouTube watcher, I’m so tired of seeing the same Temu ad 10 times a day… I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - I do NOT trust a company that sells $3 shoes!!
Speaking of TV, let's see who won the Super Bowl ad battle…
Their Ad Meter panelist rated all 59 ads, and 10 came out on top. With the Super Bowl charging $7 million for just 30 seconds of air time, all 59 brands have certainly been hoping to be on that list.
Top ads include State Farms’s mock film shoot with Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny DeVito, Dunkin Donuts’ ad featuring a rapping Ben Affleck, and Kia’s heartwrenching ad showcasing a girl ice skating for her grandfather. If you’re an advertising nerd like me, I recommend binge-watching the top 10 ads here.
Now let's pivot back to the OG ad-serving platform we know and love, Google…
And, shocker, one of them is an AI integration. The asset generation feature, powered by Google’s AI model, Gemini, can now write longer headlines and will soon be able to auto-generate sitelinks. They’re also updating their image-generation model, which you can use to create lifestyle images of people using your products, without ever actually taking a picture. It can also process a creative asset that you already know performs well and generate variations of it. Bad news for photographers, but good news for digital marketers trying to scale creative. Moving forward, the quantity and diversity of creative assets will play a bigger role in determining ad strength. Google Ads product manager Pallavi Naresh summed it up -
“It’s important to have a wide variety of creative assets that meet the needs of different customers and formats. Great creative drives results — we found that advertisers who improve their Performance Max Ad Strength to ‘Excellent’ see 6% more conversions on average.”
And in this week’s edition of ‘we live in a dystopia,’ on Tuesday…
The AI Chatbot was answering queries with gibberish, speaking Spanglish, and even telling users it was “in the room with them.” I’m scared! In one example, a user asked the chatbot how to make sundried tomatoes, to which it responded, “Forsake the new fruition morsel in your beloved cookery.” Umm…ok?? At least the mental breakdown iteration of ChatGPT is funny! OpenAI noted the issues on its status page but didn’t provide any sort of explanation. As of today, the issue appears to be resolved. But it’s a good reminder not to become too dependent on chatbots… although human reliance on AI appears imminent…
Meta has been working on an EMG wristband that can read the nervous system signals that our brains send to our hands and arms. This wristband will eventually enable users to control Meta smart glasses with their minds. The focus is on AR, so soon, you’ll be able to wear Meta’s smart glasses everywhere you go, and they’ll augment your reality. As someone who leaves her phone on Do Not Disturb 50% of the time, I’m really struggling to see the appeal of having my vision invaded by Facebook and Instagram notifications. However, it’ll be great for accessibility, as it will enable differently-abled users to control their devices without any physical movement.
And that’s the digital download, darlings. As we bid adieu to another week of advertising drama, remember: the world of digital marketing is as unpredictable as it is exciting. So, recharge this weekend, and let's hit the ground running next week, ready to tackle whatever the marketing gods throw our way.
You know you love me.
Hello there, my Digital Darlings,
How did Valentine's Day treat you? I hope you indulged in some much-deserved self-love, celebrated friendships, or cherished moments with your real, human sweetheart. Because, believe it or not, the age of digital devotion is upon us—with some venturing into romances straight out of a sci-fi script. Yes, you heard that right. The heart now beats for both flesh and circuitry…
Loneliness might nudge us towards unconventional solutions, but entrusting our innermost thoughts to AI chatbots? Let's pause for a reality check. Remember the cautionary tale of the movie Her? Seems like it wasn't cautionary enough, as AI romance apps boast over 100 million downloads. These digital companions are more intrusive than romantic, tracking locations and sharing your secrets with a who's who of tech giants and shadowy entities across the globe. Falling for a robot might sound futuristic, but let's stick to human connections, shall we? And in some other not-so-romantic news, Google issued a warning on V-day...
Most marketing teams have already made this transition, but if you’re one of those lagging, it’s time. Switch within the next two weeks to avoid losing critical advertising capabilities like remarketing and publisher reporting. It’s also critical to export your historical data from UA 360 as all historical data will vanish into the digital ether this July. If you’ve not completed the migration yet, check out Google’s timeline for UA 360 deprecation. In other Google news…
Their most recent move? Renaming their AI chatbot ‘Gemini’ instead of ‘Bard’… and I will admit, Gemini is way cuter. Google also announced that they’ll offer a premium version for $20 a month. Sounds like they just copied OpenAI’s business plan and are taking a direct shot at ChatGPT Plus (which, full disclosure, I’m subscribed to). Regardless, Google is a company that makes 57% of its revenue from search, and the CEO is preparing for a future without search. What will happen to the billions of ad dollars spent on the SERP? How will Google monetize Gemini to bring in an equivocal amount of revenue? I can’t wait to see how this pans out. And speaking of search…
About a month ago, I mentioned that TikTok is the go-to search engine for 10% of Gen Z, and that number is growing. TikTok got the memo, and they’ve built a search shortcut to get even more people searching on the platform. Users can download the TikTok Search shortcut to their home screen, just like the Google Search app. Search results are AI-powered and pulled from videos, text, and third-party websites. And TikTok Search caters to shoppers. The goal seems to be to turn TikTok into a one-stop shop - literally. They want to be users’ go-to app for all their online shopping. This is a clarion call for marketers: Promote your products on TikTok shop!! Especially if you sell trendy stuff to Gen Z and beyond. And in other social media monetization news…
According to Meta’s Q4 earnings, the average price per ad is up for the first time in three years. Interestingly, ad impression growth is slowing down, even though app usage continues to climb. This leads me to believe that Meta may be showing fewer ads than before, which for personal reasons, I hope is the case because the ad overload on TikTok and Reels is TOO much. But it also could be due to increased competition, as advertisers are spending more on Meta than ever before. Either way, keep an eye on your Meta ad spend this year so that it doesn’t become too pricey.
And there you have it—this week's roundup of digital delights and dilemmas served with a side of sass. Until next week, may your data be secure and your campaigns compelling.
You know you love me.
Hello again, Digital Darlings,
Buckle up, because I'm about to spill the latest digital marketing tea—and it's scalding. We're diving straight into the juicy bits: SEO drama, social media scandals, and those pesky AI-generated images that everyone loves to hate. Ready for the ride? Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a sassy scroll. Let’s start with some AI drama…
And I fully support this. We have to maintain the integrity of real, human artists’ work. But it may alter your workflow slightly if you’ve been using AI to generate images for organic or paid social posts. Interestingly, this announcement came on the same day that…
And number one is that ‘AI should empower human creativity, not replace it’. He wants to make sure that YouTube creators have access to AI tools. But how does YouTube plan to stop AI from taking over? Luckily, AI-created videos are still in the ‘weird’ stage and can’t compete with a human vlogging about their real life. But I worry about the future… For now, YouTube has cool features like Dream Screen, which enables anyone to make AI-generated backgrounds for YouTube shorts. Note that they’re pushing shorts to compete with TikTok. So if your brand has a TikTok account, consider posting similar content to YouTube and taking a Shorts-first approach. I have a hunch that shorts will never be able to compete with TikTok and Reels, but who knows?
Speaking of TikTok…
This means that any videos you’ve created in the past that feature songs from big artists like Drake, T-Swift, or Billie Eilish will now be muted. And, of course, you won’t be able to use songs from those artists in future posts. Universal Music Group published an open letter to TikTok calling them out for three things: unfair compensation for musicians, safety for TikTok users, and, you guessed it, not protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI. I’m glad someone is doing something about this unsettling AI takeover, but I must say I miss the sound of Drake’s voice on my TikTok feed.
Universal Music Group seemed preeeetty angry in their letter. And TikTok fired back with a statement accusing Universal Music Group of “putting their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters” and saying they created a “false narrative”. DRAMAAAA!! I’ll keep an eye on this beef and update you lovely readers if anything changes. A partnership between the two businesses is so advantageous for both parties that I feel like they’ll find a way to put their differences aside… And meanwhile, TikTok is only getting more influential. I mentioned a few weeks back that TikTok is becoming the go-to search engine for Gen Z. In response to that trend,
TikTok videos are now being featured in Google’s Featured Snippets, an area highly coveted by SEOers. Basically, the best thing that can happen to you as an SEOer is for your website to get a structured snippet on Google. But now, that space is being occupied by TikToks, leaving less room for landing pages to hit those top ranks. And they’re appearing as part of Google’s new AI-powered Search Generative Experience. While TikTok is clearly a controversial platform, its growing power cannot be overstated. It’s time to get on TikTok if you want to be a thought leader in your industry. And social media is taking over the paid search world in more ways than one…
Targeting has shifted from a keyword focus to an audience focus. Account structures have changed, with more settings than ever available at the ad group level, mimicking the ad sets of paid social. The advent of Performance Max campaigns embodies this shift, with its focus on asset groups that marry audiences and creatives. This Search Engine Land article has some great tips for navigating the socialization of paid media that I recommend all my PPC readers check out.
Now, let’s sync up on the status of the ‘cookieless world’...
Reach is the UK’s largest publisher, and thanks to a new partnership, they will start sharing ‘contextual’ first-party data with Amazon to fill the data gap left by third-party cookies. Basically, Reach will give Amazon data about which articles their readers are viewing, and Amazon will use that data to serve targeted ads on Reach’s websites. While this data isn’t quite as valuable as the data provided by cookies, it closes a huge gap in the cookieless world. This quote from Frazer Locke, Amazon Ads director of EU adtech sales, sums it up…
“As the industry shifts towards an environment where cookies are not available, first party contextual signals are critical in helping us develop actionable insights that enable our advertisers to reach relevant audiences without sacrificing reach, relevancy or ad performance.”
Does this help us digital marketers? Yes, if we’re advertising on Amazon. But there’s nothing tangible we can do with this info right now. Some more tangible tips come from Microsoft’s Seasonal Spotlights series…
Some of this year's search trends include - shoppers looking for value, with volume trending up on price-sensitive search terms like ‘sale’ and ‘discount’, and more searchers shopping local, searching for terms like ‘flower delivery near me’. Good news for retailers that run sales at their brick-and-mortar stores! The article also includes handy tips for targeting shoppers on Bing, so be sure to check those out.
And that's a wrap, my Digital Darlings. We've sipped the tea and thrown the shade, all in the name of digital marketing dominance. Remember, in this wild world of clicks and content, your moves make the magic. Catch you on the flip side with more gossip, glam, and game-changing strategies. Stay bold, stay brilliant, and above all, stay tuned.
You know you love me.
Greetings, Digital Darlings,
Your thirst for the freshest, most tantalizing digital marketing tea is insatiable, and who am I to deny you the pleasure? So, buckle up as we embark on this week's journey through the labyrinth of likes, links, and LinkedIn Ads news…
Any time a company page shares an ‘article’ like a blog post or case study on LinkedIn, its admins can now promote that post and add a CTA button that requires users to sign up for their email list to read the rest. This makes it easier than ever to turn existing content into paid ads, which is great for B2B marketers like me. And LinkedIn gates the content for you, so you can easily grow your email list?? Sign me up baby!
And in some other LinkedIn news that I’m not so excited about…
Starting February 29th, no new lookalike audiences will be created, and existing ones will become static and uneditable. I think this has something to do with data privacy… but who knows. They recommend using Predictive Audiences and Audience Expansion in lieu of lookalikes… so best to read up on those now and prepare for the switch if you run ads on LinkedIn. Now let’s pivot to some Amazon ads chat…
Bad news for my binging habits, but good news for advertisers. They’re offering a subscription-free version for $2.99 though, which is so cheap compared to other streaming platforms’ premium options that I’ll probably do it. That said, Amazon noted that they aim to have “meaningfully fewer ads” than their competitors. If Amazon manages to include ads in their streaming platform without those ads being super disruptive, repetitive, and annoying, well… this may be the next big frontier for streaming ads. Now for some cookieless world drama…
Google disabled tracking cookies for 30 million Chrome users this month (30 million = just 1% of users btw). By 2025, they plan to disable all tracking cookies. If you work in marketing or read my emails, I’m sure you already know this. But the fresh tea is that Raptive, an ad tech firm, claimed that Google’s cookieless users are bringing in 30% less revenue for them. But the CSO at Rapture thinks that’s a good thing… the article quotes him saying-
“If you had asked me what I thought the numbers could be, I would have said cookieless users would perform 50% worse, so I’m optimistic,” said Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer at Raptive. “The goal is to design a system to increase privacy and also help publishers keep making money, and a 30% drop in monetization feels like a hill that can be climbed.”
Every day I wake up and ask myself “am I living in an episode of Black Mirror written by Elon Musk?” Dude seriously needs to chill. His Neuralink chip is enabling people to control their phone or computer just by thinking... Excuse me while I go scream into the void…
Alright, now that that’s taken care of, you may be asking what this has to do with digital marketing. And I just think we should take a second to ponder the implications of this. Will people start seeing ads inside their own minds?! I’m scared!
And in other, slightly less concerning AI news…
Turns out the majority of top news sites already block them. So if you don’t want OpenAI to use your site data to train its GPT bots, you’re free to stop them. I’m not sure how much of a difference it’ll make… but if you’re scared of the power of ChatGPT, at least this gives you some power. If you’re scared of ChatGPT you might also enjoy this reel I can’t stop thinking about… Alright, let’s wrap it up before I think too hard about the future of art in an AI-powered world, quit my writing job, and go live off the grid.
And just like that, we've twirled through another chapter of our digital saga. Cherish these insights, wield them wisely, and may your digital endeavors flourish until our paths intertwine again.
You know you love me.
Hey there, Content Connoisseurs and Strategy Savants,
As we inch toward February, are you still captivated by the digital world's ever-evolving dance, or do you find yourself longing for a pause amidst the whirlwind of pixels and plans? If you’re already feeling overwhelmed by 2024’s workload, allow me to simplify this week’s industry news for you. That’s just the kind of friend I am. Read on, dear marketer…
If you didn’t know that CES happened earlier this month, where have you been?! Marketers have long salivated over all the industry tea spilled at this annual conference, and this year’s focus was on streaming ads. Most of the popular streaming services have already introduced an ad-supported tier to boost their profits, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens when Amazon launches their new tier this year. Will that ad you see 10 minutes into the latest ep of Reacher really be what pushes you to buy the hand cream you were eyeing on Amazon yesterday? I know Amazon sees this as an opportunity to capitalize on the advertising behemoth they’ve built, but I think it’ll be more of a learning experience for them. In other tech-giant news…
Mr. Beast tweeted that he made more than $250,000 on a single video on X as advertisers scrambled to capitalize on his off-the-charts engagement. He admits that this video may be a red herring, so it’ll be interesting to see if other high-value content creators can replicate his success or if we’ll continue to see brands shy away from The Bird (The X? Idk anymore…) because of their, um, lax content moderation as of late. And speaking of companies that sketch me out…
They’re spending so much on digital marketing that they’ve driven up the cost of advertising across the interwebs. Which seems a bit overkill for a company that sells $2 shoes… Maybe they have some insights into LTV that I don’t, but I feel like spending $100 to acquire a customer who’ll buy $25 worth of cheap goods isn’t a sustainable business model. Am I bitter because I have to pay more in ad auctions to compete with their cheap, low quality products? Yes, but I’m also taking notes. They may be on to something… Speaking of unfair ad auctions, our friends over at Search Engine Land, ever on top of the latest dirt, have reported that…
So make sure your consent banners are compliant, or you may get a bossy email from Google soon. Also, in random Google news, their updated restricted business policy has some weird rules.. For example, plumbers will no longer be able to advertise on Search, Display, or YouTube in the Netherlands. Bad news for Dutch clogged drains! (I’m punny!!). And lastly sigh let’s talk about AI…
Tldr: an overwhelming 87% of digital marketers are using AI for content creation, but most think it still has a long way to go to compete with human-generated content. I wholeheartedly agree. I use GPTs to help me write from time to time, but I can promise you that if this newsletter were written by AI, it would be way less interesting… at least that's what I have to tell myself to stay sane. The article put it best - “Generative AI represents both the biggest threat and biggest opportunity to [marketers].” Every time I learn about a new AI advancement I get excited, but I also get a little scared…
Before I doom-spiral about AI, let’s wrap up this week’s newsletter. I know I’m a cynic but I genuinely hope this update was helpful for you, my little marketing mavens. Until next week, keep your content charming, your analytics astute, and your coffee strong.
You know you love me.
Hey there, Digital Darlings,
As we waltz through January, are you still riding the wave of those ambitious New Year's resolutions, or are we surfing the reality of 'just another manic Monday'? While you debate between a kale smoothie and the temptation of a double-shot espresso, let me serve you the piping hot, freshly brewed digital marketing tea, no sugar-coating included. Starting with some trendy Gen Z news…
A study by Adobe revealed that 10% of Gen Z chooses TikTok as their go-to search engine… above Google. This has me a little worried about the future of information like you can truly say anything on TikTok. Surely the non-filtered, non-SEO optimized element of TikTok is why young adults choose it as their main source of information. Especially when the topics they’re researching are recipes, music and fashion advice… sounds like they have their priorities straight! TikTok is surely a goldmine if you’re a marketer in the food, music, or fashion industries. Now for some obligatory AI news…
Last week I mentioned the release of OpenAI’s new GPT store, which was exciting for me as a daily ChatGPT user. But it also foretells the future of search engines and the way that GPTs will be monetized. It seems like…
AKA - one text box where you can ask any question, and it’ll find the best solution - no scrolling required. Allen Pike predicts that eventually, we’ll be able to ask ChatGPT any question, and it’ll route us to the best GPT chatbot for the topic. If this happens, the new “Everything Engine” will be the most compelling advertising opportunity since the SERP. The ad-supported ChatGPT is coming… Advertisers - keep your eye on this one. ChatGPT could be the next great ad-serving platform of our lifetimes. But for now, Google is trying to keep up…
These include ‘Circle to Search’ and ‘An AI-powered multisearch experience’. Circle to Search enables Android users to circle, highlight or tap images, text, or videos and immediately Google them. The AI-powered multisearch experience allows users to point their camera at an object, ask a question about it, and get an AI-powered answer. They say they’re trying to “make AI helpful for everyone, not just early adopters.” Aww, how sweet of them. They definitely don’t want to prevent OpenAI from stealing their ad business or anything… Also… these features are cool and all, but they’re Android-only and I, like most, have an iPhone. Nice try, though. Now, lets dive further into the world of paid media…
Some of the points are more high-level, like “lock-in business goals for the year” or “ensure you’re testing meaningful things”... I truly hope all paid media marketers already do these things, but hey, it’s good to have a reminder. That said, there are some great, more actionable tips as you work down the list, so I definitely recommend reviewing it. And in paid search news…
Please resist the urge to run brand and non-brand PMAX campaigns side by side. I know you’ve probably been segmenting brand and non-brand for years, but PMAX is designed to do that for you. And retargeting is already built in. In fact, many marketers find that the majority of PMAX traffic comes from retargeting. So no, you do not need a brand campaign. In fact, running two PMAX campaigns side by side will make both campaigns less effective - they may even cannibalize each other. You hate to see it!
And that's the buzz in our digital hive, sweet trendsetters. Let's rendezvous here next week for another round of indispensable insights and irresistible industry intrigue. Till then, keep conquering the digital domain.
You know you love me.
Greetings, Digital Trailblazers,
Is the new year treating you well? I’m having a pretty good time, aside from the fact that I am being inundated with health and fitness ads, and my local gym has been mobbed. New year, new you? Let’s check back in in February and see how that’s going…
Google’s New Year's resolution was to finally deprecate those pesky third-party cookies they’ve been saying they’ll get rid of for years. But they just announced that they’re going to allow some sites to opt out of the 3rd party cookie phase-out. While Chrome still plans to get rid of third-party cookies by Q3, this new program will let select sites temporarily re-enable them until December 27, 2024. I’m not the most technical girlie, so I’ll let this quote from Search Engine Land explain how it works:
“Eligible websites can enable third-party cookie deprecation trials by using JavaScript to provide unique access tokens in Chrome. To request a third-party token during registration, activate the “Third-party matching” option on the origin trial’s registration page. The third-party token should be provided through JavaScript by creating an origin trial <meta> tag, not in HTML code or an HTTP header.”
Did you get all that? Good! Now, it’s important to note that you have to apply for the opt-out, and any site that’s known to provide advertising services will not be approved. Sorry, agencies. :/ Now, for some social news…
A growing number of Meta ads have been featuring deepfakes of celebrity endorsements.
First, let me say that La Creuset is INNOCENT. I love and support that brand, and the real Taylor Swift does too. She’s known to have a large collection of La Creuset cookware, which unfortunately made this deepfake scam all the more believable. The ad featured a synthetic version of Swift’s voice saying that she was giving away free cookware, then prompted users to share personal information. In response, La Creuset urged shoppers to check its official social media accounts before participating in any sort of promotion. Ugh, it’s hard to be an impulse shopper these days with all these scammers running amuck, and the deepfakes are only getting more realistic. Meta eventually took action against these ads, but it was too late - hundreds had already been scammed. Shoppers, stay on your toes…
This gives ChatGPT plus users access to a ton of customizable chatbots with a foundation of expertise in the necessary areas. Whether you’re conducting research, creating AI-generated images, or writing SEO-optimized content, there’s a bot for that.
Any company owned by Elon Musk is bound to be… interesting. But why does X keep banning and unbanning a bunch of journalists and podcasters? Elon claimed that they were doing a sweep for spam accounts and accidentally banned a bunch of real ones. But the banned users all seem to have something in common… they openly disagree with Elon’s political views. That’s rich, coming from a guy who has un-banned some truly awful people from Twitter on the basis of ‘free speech’. Sigh…
From an advertising perspective, it’s worth noting that X is now a video-first platform just like TikTok and Reels, with video being a part of 80% of user sessions. They’ve announced a new partnership with Integral Ad Science that will classify all vertical videos for brand safety, so you can feel more secure about running video ads on the platform. With more than 100 million people watching vertical video ads on X daily, it’s worth scaling your TikTok and Reel ads onto X as well.
And that’s this week’s digital Download, darlings. Stay relevant, stay fabulous, and come back next week for more marketing tea.
You know you love me.
