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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!
Happy November, Digital Darlings!
With Halloween now in the rearview mirror, it’s time to say goodbye to ghostly decor and hello to… holiday takeover! The season of sparkle, Mariah Carey on repeat, and ever-escalating ad budgets is officially upon us. This week’s updates are timely as the digital landscape is shifting just as fast as holiday displays are going up. Between Google’s algorithm shake-up, LinkedIn’s lead-gen boost, and OpenAI’s bold move into search, this week’s tea is as piping hot as your first peppermint mocha of the season. So grab your coziest scarf, and let’s dive into all things digital!
Hold onto your dashboards, Darlings - this week, a Google rep took some unapproved creative liberties with a client’s ad account, tweaking everything from ad copy to bidding strategies, all without so much as a “May I?” And the kicker? These changes didn’t even show up in the account’s change history! Cue the advertiser panic. Google’s own Ginny Marvin admitted it was a “mistake” (translation: processes weren’t followed), and reassured us all it wasn’t intentional. Still, this slip-up has everyone double-checking their campaigns like it’s final exam week. For brands, the takeaway is clear: keep a close eye on your accounts and don’t be shy about questioning any “ghost” edits. Google says they’re tightening up oversight - here’s hoping they lock that door for good.
In other Google news, the company is piloting a new search feature called Business Links, and it’s looking like sitelinks with a serious upgrade. Think customizable, AI-enhanced headlines that adapt to all kinds of customer intent within a single ad. You can add up to three headlines per link, meaning your ads can now hit those varied search vibes without breaking a sweat. With AI automatically generating extra headlines (don’t worry, you can turn that off), Google wants your ads to feel tailor-made for everyone’s search journey. And for brands, this means higher engagement and the flexibility to speak to multiple audiences within one campaign. It’s still in the pilot phase, so if you’re curious, ping your Google rep and see if you can get in on the action early - who doesn’t love a little exclusive access?
Hold the applause, marketers - Google just dropped a long-awaited segmentation tool for Performance Max (PMax) Asset Groups, finally giving us the detailed campaign insights we’ve been begging for. With the new “segment” option, you can break down performance by time, device, and even track those elusive “days to conversion.” This means deeper analysis and smarter optimization, letting you tweak campaigns with a precision that would make a Swiss watchmaker jealous. Shoutout to Thomas Eccel, who spotted this update on LinkedIn and shared it with the ad world. And speaking of LinkedIn, let’s get into their latest…
Attention, brands: LinkedIn just dropped a feature that lets you turn your most popular posts into lead-gen machines. That’s right - your witty, attention-grabbing content can now be boosted to capture high-quality leads, thanks to LinkedIn’s first-party data magic. With over 2 billion monthly interactions on company Pages, this is your chance to push beyond the echo chamber of your followers and get in front of fresh, high-value prospects. Just choose your post, set the budget, and let LinkedIn work its algorithmic charm. So if you’ve got a post that’s popping off like Mariah Carey in November - it’s time to give it a little love and watch the leads line up!
Google’s next algorithm update is about to hit, but don’t expect it to reverse lost traffic from past rollouts. For paid marketers, this update could mean even fiercer competition as organic visibility becomes harder to come by - especially if Google’s tightening the reins on big players trying to game the rankings. With organic reach potentially taking a hit, paid ads are primed to shine. Brands, now’s the time to level up your ad game with targeted, engaging creative, because as Google refines its search landscape, paid placements might just become your brand’s go-to strategy for staying top of mind. And now for some AI news…
OpenAI has officially entered the search ring with ChatGPT’s real-time search feature, letting users ask for up-to-the-minute updates - from stock quotes to sports scores - with an easy, ad-free experience. It’s conversational, intuitive, and cites sources, giving Google something to think about. For marketers, this could mean rethinking search strategies as users explore a fresh way to find answers. ChatGPT’s user-friendly, less cluttered approach might just lure searchers - and budgets - away from traditional search ads. Keep an eye on this one, folks; a new contender has entered the game.
Well, there you have it, folks - November’s first digital shake-up. As you deck the halls (or just brace yourself for an onslaught of carols), remember to keep that holiday sparkle in your ad game. From cozying up with LinkedIn’s lead-gen boosts to keeping Google’s algorithm shenanigans in check, this season’s all about staying sharp and adaptable. So here’s to a month of festive campaigns and high-engagement headlines. Stay cute, stay clever, and keep those conversions merry and bright.
You know you love me.
We meet again, Digital Darlings…
Well, my marketing mavericks and mavens, with the election drama (mostly) behind us, it’s time to settle into the real question: what’s next for our beloved digital world? Google’s antitrust tango, TikTok’s will-they-won’t-they saga, and Microsoft turning up the AI heat mean it’s time to stay on our toes. As we dive into this week’s juiciest updates, think of it as your guide to keeping your strategies agile, your budgets smart, and your brand basking in the spotlight, no matter what the 2025 landscape holds. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Alright, Darlings, let’s talk about the what if that’s been hanging over our heads: Google’s possible breakup and what it could mean for our ad game. Imagine a world where Google’s empire is split, and suddenly we’re no longer dancing to one PPC tune. It sounds like chaos - and it just might be. But if we prep smartly, we can turn potential turmoil into a masterclass in PPC resilience.
Here’s what savvy marketers should start doing now: First, get comfy with other ad platforms like Bing or LinkedIn, because if Google fragments, you’ll need backup plans ready to roll. Think of it as diversifying your PPC portfolio. Second, invest in cross-platform tools and skills that can make managing a multi-platform setup smoother - because if Google no longer controls the whole stage, your data integration game has to be top-notch. And finally, brace for a little cost bump; if everyone’s suddenly vying for space on new platforms, CPCs might inch up. Bottom line? No one’s ditching Google just yet, but a little future-proofing could keep your campaigns running strong, no matter what the ad landscape looks like next year.
Now that the U.S. election has wrapped, the incoming administration could bring unexpected changes to TikTok’s future in the States. Here’s the latest: despite a law requiring ByteDance to divest from TikTok by January 2025, a pending court case could push the issue as far as the Supreme Court next summer. For brands, this means TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users are still very much in play. As 2025 budget plans loom, savvy marketers might want to earmark funds for TikTok but stay agile - after all Darlings, this platform could be reshaped overnight by a single ruling. Stay tuned, stay flexible, and maybe keep one eye on other channels, just in case.
Given a potential Google breakup and/or TikTok ban, savvy CMOs are making sure they’re ready for anything. Want to know their secret moves? First, trim smart, not blindly. Sure, cutting costs is part of the game, but don’t touch those top-of-funnel ads - high-visibility platforms like CTV keep your whole campaign alive and thriving. Next up, polish your basics to a T: dazzling product images, sharp SEO, and gorgeous product pages are must-haves that cost next to nothing. And about data? Keep it real: short-term metrics can tempt you into chopping campaigns before they even bloom. Some brands, like Therabody, know big purchases take longer to convert - so play the long game. And last but definitely not least, cozy up to your CFO. Weekly updates on where that budget magic is going can make all the difference when the pressure’s on. It’s all about staying prepped, polished, and ready for anything.
And now for our updates in Search…
Google’s latest tweak to its Ads Optimization Score now does more than just push for better click-through rates—it highlights exactly when competitors are squeezing your impression share. Yep, Google’s giving you a front-row seat to the auction table, showing how much impact rivals like Amazon have on your campaigns. But let’s be real, darlings: Google knows how to dial up the FOMO. While this visibility into competitor influence could sharpen your strategy, there’s a risk it’ll nudge marketers to overspend trying to chase down every auction. For savvy brands, the move here is to treat this data as a nudge toward smarter allocation, not an excuse to throw budget around like confetti. Competitive transparency? Yes. Blindly mimicking Amazon’s bid tactics? Hard pass.
Google’s latest rollout for Performance Max (PMax) campaigns gives advertisers more creative control, letting you tailor branding details like logos, colors, and even fonts across ad placements. Think of it as your brand’s wardrobe upgrade—now consistent across YouTube, Display, and beyond. With this added customization, your campaigns can better reflect your brand identity, potentially boosting engagement without losing the cohesion that keeps your audience familiar. But heads up: a few quirks in the setup might need ironing out, so double-check those fonts and colors!
Ad agencies, Google just gave you some serious new firepower. With a suite of enhancements in Google Ad Manager, including a "curation" tool for easy inventory discovery and streamlined programmatic workflows, managing your clients' media buys just got simpler and more powerful. The new curation tool lets you access premium inventory packages and data segments at the click of a button, while Google also steps in to handle payments, consolidating billing for inventory and data providers. Plus, with unified reporting and single deal IDs across DSPs, performance tracking is streamlined like never before. For agencies navigating the increasingly fragmented ad landscape—especially in emerging channels like connected TV—these updates could be game-changers, setting you up to drive greater client value and make media buying a whole lot smoother.
And now for our weekly AI updates…
Looks like Microsoft is putting on the moves with some sleek updates to Copilot, darling. Advertisers, take note: the refreshed Copilot AI now serves up a more streamlined ad experience with a handy performance snapshot tool, helping you keep those campaign insights at your fingertips. And for all you video ad lovers, Microsoft’s expanded bid strategies and new audience targeting options add some serious finesse, plus—get this—you can now import your video campaigns from Google Ads. Microsoft’s also giving shopping campaigns a makeover, making setup a breeze and adding new product management tools. Translation? Microsoft Advertising just leveled up, letting you pivot your strategy with ease and reach audiences with the kind of control and personalization we’re all craving.
When it comes to AI, chatbots are marketers’ new BFFs. A recent survey shows that 38% of marketers worldwide pick chatbots as the most impactful AI tool for boosting digital experiences—no surprise, since they’re easy to implement and quick to deliver results. And with 82% of execs planning to integrate or expand chatbot use in the next 6-12 months, brands are betting big on bots to handle those customer queries 24/7. But here’s the twist: while marketers love chatbots, a hefty 45% of U.S. consumers aren’t so impressed. The key takeaway? Chatbots can be fabulous for handling those high-frequency, low-complexity interactions, but savvy brands will keep an ear to the ground for consumer feedback and refine these tools to ensure a seamless, satisfying experience that aligns with brand expectations.
And there you have it, trendsetters—this week’s digital scoop, served with all the sparkle! As we edge toward 2025, keep in mind: in a world where platforms might split, chatbots are becoming your brand’s new best friend, and competitive insights are handed out like candy, staying nimble is the name of the game. So whether you’re tweaking ad budgets, giving your brand a glow-up with PMax, or mastering the art of chatbot charm, remember to keep it bold, keep it brilliant, and keep it oh-so-Maddie. See you next time, darlings!
You know you love me,
Hey there Digital Darlings,
Welcome to another week of marketing tea, tech twists, and AI transformations! If you’ve been wondering what the cookieless future holds, if Google is finally getting its monopoly handed back to them, or if AI is about to take over your shopping cart, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Remember when Google shook the world by delaying third-party cookie deprecation… again? Well, while we all took a collective sigh of relief (or was it frustration?), Google’s still committed to moving forward with Privacy Sandbox. Barb Smith, head of the Privacy Sandbox team, took to the ADWEEK House stage last week, confirming that the Privacy Sandbox will power the future of digital advertising. Smith emphasized that fewer cookies are still the end goal, and ad tech firms better keep testing those cookieless technologies. While some are seeing lackluster performance compared to traditional cookies, it’s early days - so temper your expectations, folks. Privacy-first advertising is coming whether we like it or not, and the days of cookies ruling the web are numbered.
Google’s latest move? Cleaning house. Starting in November, the search giant will drop the hammer on third parties that violate ad policies. We're talking severe consequences - like immediate account suspensions for offenders without a second chance. Apps promoting incentivized ad clicks or violating AdMob and AdSense policies will be banned faster than you can say "non-compliant." It’s part of Google’s push for a more trustworthy advertising environment, but third-party ad tech providers and app developers better tread carefully or risk getting cut off from Google Ads entirely. Now, what’s happening in Europe? Buckle up…
It’s no secret that Google has been monopolizing the search game for over two decades, but Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is here to change that. The DMA’s “no preferencing” rule stops Google from promoting its own products—like Google Flights or Shopping—over competitors in search results. And honey, what are the penalties for breaking these new rules? They’re talking billions in fines. While Google is “willing to comply,” we all know a major shakeup in their operations is likely. The DMA’s ultimate goal? Restoring competition and leveling the playing field. SEO pros in Europe have already seen changes in travel-related SERPs, with more comparison services appearing instead of Google’s own. Get ready for even more shifts because the monopoly era might be coming to an end - at least across the pond. And now for some retail-focused updates...
If you’re tired of the same old static ads, this one’s for you! Google’s experimenting with expandable ads that let users interact more directly with sponsored content. Users can now expand or collapse sponsored search ads, revealing a carousel of ads for more immersive shopping. It even includes search refinement options, so users can get the perfect match without leaving the ad space. While this could increase user engagement, it’s a balancing act - hiding some ads may reduce visibility. The jury’s still out on how advertisers will feel about this extra click, but more interactivity could be key in catching a user’s eye and boosting conversions.
And now in new AI news...
Google’s AI game just got a massive upgrade in its Shopping platform. From AI-generated product searches to dynamic filters and virtual try-ons, it’s designed to give users a hyper-personalized experience. You’ll see AI summaries pop up when searching for products, plus, shoppers can “try on” clothes using AR tools. And don’t even get me started on the personalized home feed and deals page - it’s like Google is watching me knowing what I want before I even think about it (on-brand for Halloween/spooky season?). For advertisers, this opens new doors to target high-intent shoppers, making your products stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Walmart isn’t letting Google have all the fun. They’ve revealed their plan to completely reimagine the shopping experience using generative AI and augmented reality. Their “adaptive retail” strategy means that both online and in-store shopping will be more convenient, personalized, and—let’s be honest—cooler than ever. Walmart’s new Wallaby platform, powered by its own data, creates custom experiences for each shopper. They’re even rolling out AR features, like the ability to visualize products in your home. Oh, and Walmart’s gen AI customer support assistant is getting smarter too—handling returns and answering queries faster than ever before.
Amazon has also been busy developing generative AI features, and their latest toy? AI-generated audio ads. Through their AI Creative Studio, Amazon is helping brands create 30-second audio ads based on product descriptions for Alexa-enabled devices and Amazon Music. It’s perfect for brands already selling on Amazon, giving them an easy way to reach users with custom audio spots. But there’s always a catch, right? AI-generated ads, while efficient, risk sounding repetitive or generic. So advertisers will still need a human touch to keep things creative and engaging. But hey, it’s another tool in your digital marketing arsenal, and with AI running the show, things are only going to get more automated.
Google’s diving headfirst into new search behaviors with AI Overviews and Lens, allowing advertisers to reach users at the perfect moment—whether they’re snapping a picture or asking a voice query. Shopping ads are already appearing in AI Overviews, helping consumers find relevant products faster. For example, imagine asking, “How do I get a grass stain out of jeans?” and bam—a Shopping ad for stain removers shows up right in the results. Lens, on the other hand, is tapping into visual search, showing product ads alongside photos users snap on the go. Whether you’re catching eyes in-store or online, these AI-driven tools are making it easier for brands to connect with ready-to-buy consumers.
The rise of AI Overviews and chatbots is changing the SEO game. According to Google, you don’t need to do anything drastically different to rank in AI-powered search results—but staying on top of traditional SEO best practices is still key. High-quality content, technical SEO, and entity optimization are your best bets for making it into those coveted AI Overviews. And for brands, it’s all about answering detailed, long-tail queries. Think “how to choose the best black shoes” rather than just “black shoes.” AI Overviews are designed to remove the legwork from searching, so the more relevant and helpful your content, the higher your chances of ranking in this new search ecosystem. Check out this guide for more details on how to improve your AI Overview results.
And that’s the scoop for this week, Darlings! Fall is in full swing, and while the digital landscape keeps changing faster than new pumpkin spice options, you can always count on me to keep you up to date on the drama. Until next Friday, stay savvy, stay informed, and maybe indulge in a spooky movie or two this weekend.
You know you love me.
It’s apple-picking season, and if you’re looking for something juicy (albeit rotten right to the core), have I got the picks for you. G and T are fighting lawsuits and building black boxes, and we advertisers are just trying to keep up. Allow me to break the drama down for you and provide some order amongst the chaos. First, let's dish about G…
Welp, we all knew this was coming. According to Google, they’ve “found that people who engage with AI Overviews (AIOs) are more satisfied with their search results, and find ads appearing above and below the overview helpful.” So it sounds like AOIs will become the new coveted top-of-search ad placement that all the girls are dying to get. Both search and shopping ads can appear in AIOs when the ad is relevant to both the query and the response Google’s AI provides. You can check out an example of shopping ads in an AIO response in Google’s article. The ads are only running on mobile for now. Currently, there’s no way to target or segment clicks from AIOs. But according to PPC expert Nils Rooijmans…
Nils is on a mission to ‘open up the black box’ that is Google Ads in AI Overviews. Google doesn’t tell you which of your clicks come from AIOs, from standard search, from search partners… they just attribute the click to the ad. But he thinks we can get answers from the gad_source URL parameter, which “is used to identify the source of ads URLs and improve the accuracy of ads conversion measurement.” Could this parameter give search marketers the answers they’ve been longing for? Follow his investigation to find out. And in other Google AI news…
The AI takeover continues… This one does seem quite helpful, though. Now, Google’s AI will organize the SERP to provide the best possible answers and helpful links related to users' searches. The search results page will include a mix of articles, videos, forums, and more. You can see an example of what these mobile SERPs look like here. Now, let’s get into the real G tea…
My dear readers all know that Google was found guilty of illegally monopolizing search a few months ago, but no punishment has been doled out yet. This week, the DOJ submitted proposed remedies to end the monopoly and suggested that Google be prohibited from using its products, like Chrome and Android, to give its search business an unfair advantage. They didn’t exactly say Google has to divest, but they are proposing ‘structural changes.’ Google pushed back in a blog post, saying a breakup would harm data privacy, AI innovation, would give small businesses a disadvantage in the ad market, etc. Feeling a little threatened, eh? The next step is for Google to provide a detailed response to the DOJ’s recs and return it to the courtroom next year. So it’ll be a while before anything changes, but when it does, I’ll let you know. In my final bit of search news…
So like, what’s an answer engine? Basically, it’s a search tool that responds directly to questions rather than providing a list of links to websites that might answer the question. Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google AIOs are all examples of this type of LLM-powered engine. The data shows that we’re moving toward a world of zero-click search, but these new engines will still crawl your site for answers, so you’ll want to make sure they make your brand look good. Check out this SEO guide to optimizing for answer engines and generative search to ensure you’re ahead of the curve. Now for some social news…
On Monday, TikTok announced Smart+, “a new, AI-powered performance solution designed to maximize returns by automating campaign management across targeting, bidding, and creative.” All you have to do is provide assets, a budget, and an efficiency goal, and TikTok will do the rest. Sounds great, except for the fact that all these ad platforms are starting to do my job for me…
There’s GMV Max, which automates TikTok Shop campaign creation, Out of Phone, an in-store advertising solution, Conversion lift studies, and privacy-enhancing integrations with third-party providers. You can get the details on all these new tools here. And in my last bit of TikTok tea…
Between the black box automation and the constant lawsuits, they’re really taking a page out of Google’s book… Thirteen US states and the District of Columbia are suing TikTok for harming its young users. According to Reuters, “The states accuse TikTok of using intentionally addictive software designed to keep children watching as long and often as possible and misrepresenting its content moderation effectiveness.” We all know TikTok is addictive AF, so IDK how they will weasel their way out of this one. Probably just by, ya know, having a lot of money… sigh. TikTok rejected all the claims in a court filing on Monday, so we’ll have to see how this legal battle pans out (if TikTok doesn’t get banned first). Now, let's wrap it up with some good news for ecom marketers…
If you’re an Amazon multi-channel fulfillment merchant, you’ll soon be able to link your websites to Google’s Merchant Center. This should make life easier for MCF merchants in a ton of ways. The main takeaway is that MCF merchants will be able to offer free, fast shipping in their Google Shopping ads, which should lead to more clicks and conversions. If you’re an MCF merchant, check out the details here.
And that’s all for now. Time to wrap up work and start decompressing for the weekend. Until next week, remember to stay informed but also protect your peace. I’ll be back next Friday to break down all the fresh drama for you, so don’t worry, darlings.
You know you love me.
Hey there, Digital Darlings,
Firstly, let me say to any of my dear readers who were impacted by Hurricane Helene: my heart goes out to you. For those who want to help, there are tons of different ways to donate and provide support here.
It’s been a stressful week, so let’s take a few deep breaths together before we start…
Done? Ok, let’s get into it.
Have you ever heard of Spruce Pine? I hadn’t, but it sounds cute AF. It’s a tiny town in Appalachia known for gorgeous hiking, a great local art scene, and for being America’s only source of high-purity quartz, which is used to make semiconductors and solar panels. The town was tragically devastated by Hurricane Helene, and the entire tech industry is about to feel the impact. If Spruce Pine remains cut off from the rest of the world for too long, it could stall the production of solar panels, microchips… basically all the stuff the tech industry needs to function. So be prepared and donate to help Hurricane Helene survivors if you can. Now for a quick Google Ads update…
They still recommend Maximize Leads for this campaign type, but if you want to set an efficiency threshold, now you can. Just like any other tCPA campaign, some leads may cost more than your target, and some may cost less, but they should average out close to your target. If your local services ads are seeing a higher than desired CPL, consider adding a target CPL to your strategy’s settings. Now for some SEO news…
I know this may not be tea, but it is a big deal to me. I use Search Console all the time and I’m so tired of constantly having to re-apply filters. Now they’re sticky, yay! Just remember to hit the ‘reset filters’ button when you don’t want them anymore. Now for some social updates…
Say that 5 times fast. A recent study by eMarketer on what they call ‘creator-driven shopping’ revealed that Snapchat influencer shopping content has a higher conversion rate than TikTok or Instagram. So retailers, it’s time to reach out to some Snapchat influencers, especially if your target audience includes Gen Zers–who the study showed are most susceptible to influencer marketing. The study also found that Facebook had the lowest rate of creator-driven shopping… no surprises there. Let this report guide where you spend your influencer marketing budget this holiday season. In other social news…
These AI chatbots offer a new type of CTA. Rather than prompting users to ‘shop now’ in your ads, you can prompt them to chat. Then, ad-embedded chatbots can answer questions about your products–increasing brand engagement and boosting click-through-rates (according to Meta). That said, studies show that the majority of people would rather wait a minute or two to chat with a real person than chat with an AI bot instantly. But I still think an AI chatbot is better than nothing. Test out this new CTA and let me know how it goes? And speaking of AI…
A lot of companies are making big claims about how their software uses AI. It’s starting to feel like a buzzword that doesn’t mean anything… and the FTC thinks that’s a problem (I agree). They announced four cases against businesses that made “allegedly deceptive claims about AI-driven services” when marketing their businesses. “Some marketers can’t resist using the language of AI and technology to try to make it seem like their products or services deliver all the answers,” said attorney Julia Solomon Ensor. Facts!! To avoid beefing with the FTC, make sure you can back all your AI claims with legit technology. We at Marin recently noticed that there was a lot of confusion around the types of AI our software uses, so we created a handy landing page to spell it out for everyone. That’s one way to stave off the FTC! In more AI news…
The Pinterest Performance+ suite, a toolkit of AI and automation features for advertisers, can turn plain backgrounds on product images into lifestyle imagery. They started rolling out this feature on Tuesday. These AI backgrounds should drive more clicks for advertisers (according to Pinterest). It’s worth trying out and has the potential to improve the quality of your creatives in seconds. And in my final bit of AI news…
Her name is Amelia, and she’s here to help you manage and scale your business on Amazon. Of course, any new AI assistant warrants a bit of skepticism, but this one seems legit. In Amazon VP Mary Beth Westmoreland’s words, “Project Amelia provides sellers with an all-in-one, generative AI-based selling expert that is always available to immediately provide sellers with the answers, advice, and tools they need to succeed.”
Other new AI-powered features from Amazon include a video tool that uses generative AI to create video ads from a product image and A+ content, which generates custom content for product detail pages. You can learn more about the new features here.
And that’s all for now, Darlings. Try to get some R&R this weekend. I’m going to a music festival, so not much resting is happening on my end, but festivals always renew my lust for life. I hope you do something for yourself this weekend that renews your lust for life, too. Until next week, stay cute, stay smart, and stay on top of the latest marketing trends with yours truly.
You know you love me.
Hello, Dear Readers,
It’s our favorite day of the week again. Nothing quells my cynicism like a Friday night dinner with my besties, and I’ve got one planned this very evening. I encourage you all to do the same. But the workday isn’t over yet, Darlings. It’s time tik-talk about TikTok… I’m sorry, that was awful. Please forgive me and keep reading.
Google found dead. Just kidding, our overlords will never die. But they’re definitely feeling threatened by the clock app’s fast and furious rise to power. I’ve shared data in the past about how TikTok is becoming Gen Z’s go-to search engine, and the company self-reported that 57% of its users use their search functionality. Basically, they’re coming for Google’s bag. And now, advertisers can target keywords on their search results page, mimicking the paid search model.
The search ads feature is available in the US now and is coming to other markets soon. TikTok claims that “advertisers that run Search Ads in addition to In-Feed Ads see a 20% increase in conversions on average.” So, if you’re already running In-Feed Ads, I highly recommend adding search ads to the mix. In other TikTok news…
Combine the influence of TikTok Shop with the holiday buying frenzy, and what do you get? An opportunity to make a boatload of money if you’re a retail marketer. And what better way to get millions of eyes on your product than to be featured in TikTok’s holiday gift guide? The guide will be highlighted in TikTok Shop and promoted by influencers and in-app marketing pushes. Sounds ideal, except for one tiny detail… you have to spend a lot of money on TikTok Ads over the next three months to qualify. And even if you spend enough, there’s no guarantee that your products will be included. You can review the details here and decide if it’s worth a shot. In other social news…
If you recently tried to choose Advantage+ while creating a sales campaign in Meta Ads and noticed the option was no longer available, you’re not alone. Some advertisers saw the Advantage+ option disappear, and in its place, the option to create a Catalog Sales Campaign. No word from Meta yet on whether this is intentional or a bug. But if you’re hitting this issue, you can work around it by duplicating an existing Advantage+ Shopping campaign instead of creating a new campaign from scratch. Hopefully, things will go back to normal soon. If they do, I’ll let you know. Now, let’s chat about Reddit…
The layout is quite similar to Facebook’s ad library, but you can’t search for specific brands, and it only features ads that Reddit deems ‘top performers.’ So, maybe it’s not as good for competitive analysis as the Facebook Ads library, but it’s still a great place to go for ideas. You can search ads by keyword, industry, budget, format, placement, and objective. Take it for a spin to get your creative juices flowing. In other social news…
This benchmarking report from Hootsuite can help you understand how your content is performing on key social platforms compared to your industry’s average. It also outlines the best types of content to post on each channel, ideal posting frequency, follower growth rates, and more. Check it out to see how your social strategy stacks up. Now for a bit of ecom news…
Amazon recently announced that their second sale event of the year, ‘Prime Big Deal Days,’ will happen October 8th and 9th. And hot on their heels, Walmart announced that their first ‘Holiday Deals’ sale will start the same day, October 8th, and run through the 13th. So, if you sell on those platforms, it’s time to start scaling up ad spend in preparation for the big days. And if you want to make sure all your boxes are checked, my alter ego wrote a handy Prime Day Prep Guide. Now, let’s talk about everyone’s favorite streaming platform…
In addition to the typical placements before and during videos, YouTube is rolling out ads that play when a video is paused. They can be static images or short looping videos and occupy a small portion of the screen. Unlike unskippable ads, users have the option to close out of pause ads, making the whole experience less disruptive to viewers, but also likely decreasing user engagement with the ad. Regardless, this new placement is worth testing. In other video news…
The new feature is being rolled out now and is intended to improve video ad performance with automated adjustments. Advertisers have reported seeing this option in some of their PMax campaign settings and noticed campaigns are being opted in by default. The setting says, “Enhance videos by creating additional vertical and square versions, as well as additional shortened versions.”
Would you check yes on that? My initial instinct is no, because what if it crops out critical parts of my video ad? Isn’t this why we create multiple variations of our creative? Giving Google’s AI the power to edit my ads makes me a bit nervous, not gonna lie. Can someone else test this out for me and let me know how it goes? And for my last bit of news…
For those unfamiliar with Perplexity, they’ve developed an AI-powered search engine that costs users a moderate $20 a month. Their engine scans the web and provides AI-generated summaries of its findings to answer questions, and offers users a list of follow-up questions they could ask.
And that’s where us advertisers come in - we’ll be able to bid on those follow-up questions. Android Headlines provided this example - “If you ask ‘How long to heat up baby formula,’ a company can pay to display the follow-up question, ‘What are the best times to feed your baby.’ The follow-up question could lead to that company’s website, where it will be able to gain additional ad revenue.” It’s an interesting model that they plan to launch by the end of the year. Could it give Google a run for their money? Only time will tell…
And that’s all for now, darlings. October starts next week, and I know my Digital Darlings love autumn. So watch some spooky movies, frolick through a pumpkin patch or two, binge-watch Caitlin Covington’s Reels, and come back next Friday for some pumpkin-spiced tea.
You know you love me.
It’s Friday, Digital Darlings. We made it
Time for a social media drama-palooza. I hinted at this last week, and now I’m just gonna say it… I’m tired of talking about Google. So imagine my delight when I saw all the drama happening with Meta, TikTok, and Reddit this week! Let’s get into it.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that TikTok is currently fighting a potential nationwide ban in the US. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall in that courtroom… apparently, the girls were fighting for over two hours on Monday - on one side, TikTok’s team and a group of loyal content creators. On the other, the US government. The critical question is, who controls their precious algorithm - the US-based company that runs the app or its Chinese parent company, Bytedance? Since there is no historical precedent for a case like this, the US judges are struggling a bit to prove TikTok guilty. But all-in-all, things aren’t looking good for TikTok. They keep arguing that Congress lacks the authority to ban them (Weird take… if not Congress, who?) and that TikTok is being unfairly singled out. Since both those arguments are fairly weak, I fear we may live to see a TikTok ban after all. But, don’t worry, because…
The new app is a mix of TikTok and Pinterest or “Pinterest on steroids,” as one influencer aptly coined it. Bytedance has been promoting the platform more and more recently, and it seems like their backup plan following a TikTok ban - influencers will just send all their followers to Lemon8. The good news for us advertisers is that the new app already has a paid advertising platform. So if you’re seeing success with TikTok ads, don’t worry. There’s another TikTok in the works if the first one gets banned.
As part of ongoing efforts to court advertisers, X recently sent out an email blast where they claimed to have 570 million monetizable active users, up from 550 million in May. Now, these numbers are self-reported, and to quote Digiday, “the origin of this growth is still shrouded in mystery,” since, culturally, it seems people are shying away from X. They also self-reported 251 million daily active users, which is pretty huge if true. So maybe it’s not time to scale down spend on X just yet. That said, to quote Josh Rosen, “There is no data to demonstrate X users are more likely to engage with ads more often compared to Meta and TikTok, where this has been proven over and over.” So proceed with caution and do conclusive testing to make sure the channel is truly driving incremental revenue for your business. Speaking of Meta…
The first new feature enables advertisers to highlight promo codes in their ads, and they are currently testing highlights for first purchase offers and personalized discounts, too. Now, your promo codes will be displayed right above your CTA.
Another cool new feature is that Reminder Ads, which notify users of upcoming events or sales, can now ‘remind’ people more frequently, and drive clickers to your mobile app if desired. This will help get users more excited than ever about upcoming sales and product launches.
They’ve also added site links to Facebook Ads, so you can now feature links to several different landing pages within one ad. Then, users can choose to browse the product category that piques their interest most.
And, last but not least, they’re testing shop in-store ads that offer links to Apple Maps directions to the store nearest them. These ads will be shown to users that Meta’s algorithm believes are most likely to shop in-store. If you want to drive in-store traffic, this seems like a great ad format for the holiday season. And in my last bit of social (is Reddit really social?) news…
Reddit hosted an event just for us B2B marketers last week, and they shared some pretty great insights. If you missed it, here’s a recap. Check it out to understand the best Reddit ad formats for B2B, tips for authentically engaging in the Reddit community, and their four golden rules for advertising on the platform.
All this social drama has been fun, but I’m sure you’re wondering what G’s been up to this week. Back to our regularly scheduled Google tea party…
We all know Google’s second antitrust trial started last week, and it’s not going well for them so far. Internal documents revealed that employees expressed concern that if Google’s ad exchange (AdX) lost exclusivity to advertisers, “many publishers would terminate their AdX relationship in favor of their preferred vendors.” Google employees even admitted that its advertising tools were weaker because they were exclusive to AdX. It’s giving monopoly! You can read the juicy details here. There’s no way to know yet what this could mean for us advertisers, but I’ll keep you in the loop. In other Google Ad news…
Want to make sure your ad is the first thing people see when they start their YouTube binge? Now you can! With this new bidding strategy, you can reach users when they are most engaged with the platform. Studies show that running ads on YouTube first position bidding ahead of big brand events like sales or product launches can significantly bolster brand recognition. I’m sure it’s expensive, but if you’ve got the money, this placement seems worth it. To use this bidding type, you have to book an Instant Reserve deal. Here’s how. And for our last sip of Google tea…
Google announced that they’ll launch campaign-level negative keywords for PMax campaigns later this year. Finally! Up until now, we’ve had to either fill out a form or contact our Google Rep to apply negatives to these campaigns. This will give advertisers the power to refine the queries their PMax ads serve for. There’s no set date, but they said they’ll begin rolling out this feature before the end of the year. And lastly, let’s talk about Amazon…
They’re calling the event ‘Prime Big Deal Days’, and it’ll be here before you know it, so retail marketers - it’s time to lock in. Check out our Prep Guide to make sure all your bases are covered before the big day.
And that’s it for this week’s tea time, darlings, until next week; stay cool and collected as you prep your holiday campaigns. Black Friday will be here before you know it, and so will next Friday, so don’t miss me too much.
You know you love me.
Happy Friday, Digital Darlings,
Another week, another Google antitrust trial. Drama seems to follow G wherever they go, and at a certain point, they have to ask themselves - am I the problem? Let’s dish on all the Google drama and cover some paid social tea, too.
According to Marketing Brew, this trial “represents the biggest threat the tech giant has ever faced.” Spicy!! The trial is about how Google has made access to Google Ads contingent upon using its ad server, which the DOJ says allowed them to have a monopoly over the digital advertising market. There’s so much more to it, and this article does a great job of breaking down all the accusations thrown their way. The trial is expected to last a month or two, and could potentially lead to a forced breakup of Google’s ad-tech stack, so I’ll keep you in the loop as things progress. Meanwhile, in the EU…
In 2017, Google was fined a whopping €2.42 billion after being found guilty of monopolizing online shopping by giving prominent placement to its own shopping service (Google Shopping) while demoting rival comparison shopping services. This is Google’s second time appealing the ruling and losing. Time to accept the L, perhaps?
With their EU lawsuits, Google seems locked in a sisyphean loop of being found guilty of monopolizing, appealing the ruling, and being found guilty again. If they repeat the pattern with the US antitrust trials, it’ll be years before we see any impact from guilty rulings. So it looks like our daily workflows as paid search advertisers won’t be changing any time soon… for better or worse. In other Google news…
I audibly gasped when I read this headline. Maybe it’s just me, but this really feels like the end of paid search as we’ve known it. They’re going to start phasing out eCPC next month, and plan to complete the phase-out by March 2025. All campaigns on eCPC will be automatically switched to manual CPC.
In an email blast to advertisers, Google said they’re doing this because more advanced automated strategies like Max Conversions now exist, and are better. Sure, but those strategies also forfeit control entirely to the algorithm. eCPC always felt like the best of both worlds to me–you have control over your bids and get that extra performance boost from Google’s algorithm optimizing toward audience signals and such. But no more…
If you haven’t switched to fully automated bidding yet, now is the time, because in this modern PPC landscape, manual bidding isn’t gonna cut it. In more Google news…
These new conversion types will be exclusive to Demand Gen campaigns (for now) and will give full credit to the Demand Gen campaign if it had any impact on driving a conversion, rather than distributing credit across the multiple ads that contributed to driving the conversion. They said they’re doing this so that advertisers can fairly compare the performance of their Demand Gen campaigns with campaigns on other platforms–like Meta, where campaigns take full credit for any conversion that they’ve touched.
This seems like a step backward, away from accurate attribution and truly understanding the conversion funnel. It’s just another reason why advertisers need a third-party conversion tracking solution they can trust, rather than relying on in-platform conversion metrics. In my final bit of Google drama…
The good people at Search Engine Land ran some numbers and found that 20% - 80% of search term data is hidden. What?? Lack of access to this data could be seriously hindering advertisers’ ability to optimize their ads. Why would Google do this? We can’t be sure, but the Search Engine Land team posits that “It’s likely a short-term revenue-increasing decision. The less data advertisers can see, the less they can limit their advertising spend.”
The research also found that much more data is hidden from phrase match keyword results vs. exact match. Their solution? Switch to exact match keywords. This goes against all of Google’s advice, so it’s up to you to decide what’s best for your business. Read the article, analyze the details, and do whatever is best for you. Now for some paid social news…
In an email to advertisers, Meta announced that they’re going to “automatically restrict data, such as certain parts of URLs and custom parameters.” This could impact your custom audiences if the parameters used to collect their data include restricted information. Those audiences will shrink, and if they get too small, ads using those audiences for targeting could be paused. To prepare, check the Events Manager Overview to see what data the changes will impact. You may need to simplify some tracking parameters, or create a new audience with ‘standard parameters’. In other social news…
Facebook marketing expert Jon Loomer was filtering by placements in an ad report when a few new placement options caught his eye. The most interesting were placements in the Oculus VR app, in the Threads feed, and in Facebook notifications. Does this mean ads are coming to Threads soon? There’s really no way to be sure, but now we know the placements are at least being tested. I’ll keep an eye out, and when ads on Threads become a thing, trust me, I’ll let you know. And in my final bit of social news…
Attention, B2B marketers! This is great news for us. LinkedIn is rolling out vertical short form video feeds, joining the likes of TikTok and Reels (some are even calling it ‘LinkTok’... not me though). We all know that short form video is one of the most engaging ad formats, so it’s exciting that LinkedIn introduced a feed users can scroll for everything from career advice to rants about workplace drama. They’re still experimenting with where the feed should live in the platform, so in-feed ad placements are probably far off. But organic videos could be a great way to engage with your existing audience and share useful thought leadership content that’ll help grow your brand.
And that’s all, folks! I know it was a super Google-heavy week and you may be getting tired of hearing about them, but hey, I don’t write the headlines, I just spill the tea. I hope you all get a chance to tap out of the matrix and touch grass this weekend, especially now that fall weather has arrived. I’ll see you next week. In the meantime, treat yourself to a PSL. You deserve it.
You know you love me.
Happy pre-kend, Digital Darlings,
Google’s got a few new tricks with GA4 features and SEO updates, and X just got the axe in Brazil. The marketing world is nothing if not chaotic, but don’t worry—I’ve got all the juicy details to keep you one step ahead. Let’s dive in, shall we?
They say comparison is the thief of joy, but in the cutthroat realm of digital marketing, it’s important to know what you’re up against. GA4’s new benchmarking metrics compare your performance against cohorts of businesses that are similar to yours, called ‘peer groups.’
Once you’ve turned on benchmarking data, you can compare any of your metrics to your peer group’s average and the 25th and 75th percentile. That way, you know which of your numbers are aligned with the market and which need some work. You can find details on how to enable and use the benchmarking feature here. But don’t be too hard on yourself if some of your metrics are a little below average, ok darlings?? Now for some SEO updates…
After weeks of volatility, SEOers may finally get a moment of peace. The core update ran from August 15th to September 3rd, bringing about typical SERP changes. The update was intended to take into account the negative feedback Google received after the September 2023 Helpful Content Update and remedy some of the unfair negative impacts that the update had on small sites. But according to my sources, the new update didn’t move the needle for most independent sites. The majority saw little to no significant improvement in rankings, so if that’s you, take solace that you’re not alone. Google says to review their page on ‘Creating helpful, people first content’ if you want to improve your rankings.
Also, note that the update caused a ranking bug during its first few days, so you can ignore any fluctuations in traffic that you saw from August 15th to 20th. Now for some Bing updates…
They’re using machine learning to serve our ads to more relevant audiences than ever before and are giving us some new tools, too. Display and video audience ads are getting more bid strategies, better targeting options, and improved conversion tracking. Calls to action and business logos have been added to native ads. And IAS verification has been added so you can confirm that your ads are being viewed by real people in brand-safe environments. Get all the details here. Now, let’s dish about brand exclusions on PMax…
And @oliviaakory has answers. She summarized her findings from multiple clients who’ve tested it, and the biggest takeaway was - excluding brand terms drove more incremental revenue half the time, and when it did drive more revenue, it won by a landslide. So, you still need to test it to determine if excluding brand is the right move for your business. But here’s a hint: brands with an AOV over $238 saw significantly more revenue when brand terms were included. We’re not sure why, but OP thinks it comes down to data scarcity, saying, “Higher AOVs correlate with higher CACs, which means less data fueling the algorithm.” So, if you have a high average AOV, maybe skip out on brand exclusions for now. Check out Olivia’s thread for detailed recs on how to leverage her findings. In other Google Ads news…
The tab appears to pull data from the ‘google_product_category’ attribute and can be found in the Products tab. This handy tab will give you a better idea of which product categories are driving performance and which ones need your attention. It can also help you detect shifts in customer interest by category and will offer actionable recommendations like pausing underperforming categories and boosting top-performing ones. It’s a good one for retailers to check out! However, advertisers speculate that Google may not categorize products correctly, so watch out for that. In my final bit of Google Ads news…
These new plans should enable advertisers to “better align their full marketing strategy with campaign goals, offering customizable options for budget, ad format, buying method, and campaign objectives.” Sounds good to me! You can choose either an Action Plan which prioritizes conversions or an Awareness Plan which focuses on brand visibility. This feature is super new, but looks like a great way to ensure alignment across campaigns, so give it a try if you run a lot of video ads. Now for some social news…
Oh Elon, you just can’t seem to stay out of trouble. Earlier this year, Brazilian officials issued a court order for Musk to ban certain accounts that were spreading misinformation on his platform, which he refused in the name of free speech. So now, no more X for Brazilians. The ban is driving Brazilians to Bluesky, an app that functions quite like X, but is decentralized rather than run by a billionaire. People have already been running in droves from X to Threads lately, and recent data shows that brands’ X usage and ad spend continue to fall dramatically. So we know people are leaving X for Threads, but Bluesky may be a new social media platform to watch as well. In my last bit of social news…
Stories are officially the new feed posts. Not much else to say here - just be aware that followers can comment on your stories and make sure to engage with those conversations. You do have the option to disable comments on stories, but I wouldn’t recommend it. We all want any engagement we can get, right?! Another thing to keep in mind is if you use any bots to respond to comments with DMs, they probably won’t work on story comments just yet.
And that’s the scoop for this week, my marketing mavens. Until next week, stay sharp, werk hard, and keep serving looks AND ads.
You know you love me.
Happy Friday, my Digital Darlings,
Another week in the digital trenches and I’m here to break it all down for you. Let’s get right into it!
Guess who's stepping into the AI spotlight? Perplexity, with a pitch deck that’s turning heads and rewriting the rules of AI search. Advertisers, take note—this isn’t just another tech trend; it’s cutting edge thought leadership. With Perplexity’s fresh vision, you might just find your next campaign strategy within the depths of AI magic. So, are you ready to dive in or will you be left behind in the digital dust?
Pinterest is cozying up to publishers in a bid to boost ad sales. That’s right, my darlings, the platform known for pretty pins is getting serious about making bank. For digital marketers, this is your invitation to rethink how you use Pinterest. With new partnerships on the horizon, the potential for more targeted, lucrative ad placements is heating up. So, are you ready to pin your hopes on Pinterest, or will you miss out on the next big opportunity? And, finally, in e-commerce news…
While shopping certainly spiked at Amazon during Prime Week, shoppers weren’t just there for the deals. Turns out, 40% of shoppers didn’t wait for discounts and splurged on full-price items during Amazon Prime Day and Walmart Week. That’s right, even in the age of deal-hunting, luxury spending is alive and well. For digital marketers, this is your cue: the right products and the right moments can still command top dollar.
TikTok is in trouble—again. The infamous Blackout Challenge has sparked another lawsuit, and the appeals court says they can’t hide behind Section 230. For digital marketers, this is a stark reminder: the platforms where you push your content are more than just engagement goldmines; they're legal minefields too. As courts crack down on dangerous trends, your brand’s safety and ethics strategy needs to be sharper than ever.
If you’ve felt like something’s missing from your Looker dashboards lately, it’s probably because Auction Insights have disappeared. The tool you relied on to peek into your competition’s bidding strategies is gone. Why does it matter? Well, without this inside scoop, your digital campaigns might feel like navigating the Met steps blindfolded. You’ll have to work extra hard to stay ahead of the competition now. So, marketers, it's time to adapt or risk being left in the dust. In other Google news…
Google’s rolling out a new way to target audiences, and this time, it’s all about those YouTube creators. With creator-based audience targeting, your ads can now zero in on fans of specific influencers. For digital marketers, this means one thing: precision. If you play your cards right, your campaigns could hit just the right note with the perfect crowd.
Well that’s a wrap, my Digital Darlings. As we dive into the weekend, let these insights fuel your strategies and sharpen your campaigns. Remember, in the ever-changing world of digital marketing, staying ahead means staying informed and adaptable. Whether it’s navigating new tools from Google, leveraging AI, or keeping a close eye on privacy regulations, the digital landscape is always evolving. Keep your eyes on the prize and your strategies on point. Until next week—keep slaying those campaigns!
You know you love me…
Happy Friday, Digital Darlings,
It seems like all eyes have been on the DNC this week, but there’s plenty of other news brewing in the tech world, and I’m here to spill the tea. It’s hotter than your first PSL of the season, so let’s get into it!
Google to face trial over Chrome’s data collectionEvery week it seems like Google is caught in the crossfire of another major legal drama. This week, it’s Chrome under the judicial microscope. The tech giant must now face the music as a federal appeals court just hit rewind on a previous dismissal, reviving a class action lawsuit that accuses Google of sneakily collecting user data through Chrome without consent–I, for one, am shocked! The juicy details? Allegedly, Chrome’s “sync” feature wasn’t as harmless as it seemed, with plaintiffs claiming Google snagged their browsing history, IP addresses, and more, all while playing coy with privacy disclosures. But don’t worry, darlings, the case is headed back to the lower courts, where the real showdown is just beginning. Also sending in their lawyers is one of the darlings of AI...
Looks like Anthropic may have been naughty and is facing a lawsuit over some IP theft allegations. Allegedly, the chatbot has been trained on pirated versions of copyrighted work and the findings have plaintiffs claiming that the company has “made a mockery of its lofty goals”. Ouch. It’s yet to be seen if this sends shockwaves through the world of digital marketing, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on if AI's a key part of your content strategy. The risks of relying on these tools might be bigger than you thought, and this drama could reshape how we use AI in marketing. And actions like this certainly don’t help to assuage the strong fears that Fortune 500 companies have over AI in the workplace. The concerns over the future of AI and companies have flagged it as a risk factor 473.5% more this year than last. The U.S.’s biggest and most powerful businesses have started to see how the promise of AI can quickly go awry and are keeping a close eye on it. Enough about generative, and onto conversational AI…
Voice search has long been popular with Millennials, but Gen Z is getting in on the action. New findings released this week by PYMNTS found that Gen Z uses it for nearly a third of their purchases. As Millennials and Gen Z become increasingly important audiences, it’s time for digital marketers to make sure they’re keeping up with this important trend. Jake The Marketing Wizard has some tips on how you can capitalize on this trend and make sure your site ranks in voice searches, including putting a commonly asked question in your h2 tag and answering that question in one, concise sentence in your h3 tag. His content is great and is worth a follow, but I’ll definitely keep tabs on this trend for you as well. In exciting social news…
Snapchat’s shaking things up with fresh updates to its ad tools and creative options, making it easier to craft engaging, targeted campaigns. For digital marketers, this is your chance to get more bang for your buck on the platform, especially with these new tools designed to boost ad performance. If you’ve been sleeping on Snapchat, it’s time to wake up and take advantage of these shiny new features. But Snap certainly isn’t the only social platform to keep an eye on.
The latest buzz around TikTok is a mixed bag, and digital marketers need to listen up. While TikTok’s growth in the EU is holding steady, its ad spend growth in the U.S. is slowing down as the threat of a ban looms large. This could shake up your ad strategies, darlings, as the platform’s future becomes more uncertain. If TikTok’s your go-to, it might be time to diversify your playbook. Stay savvy—because in this game, adaptation is everything.
Meta’s up to something big with new web crawlers that can dance around traditional scraping blocks, even bypassing the trusty robots.txt file. For digital marketers, this means Meta may be collecting even more data than before, which could supercharge ad targeting but also raise some serious privacy eyebrows. If you're in the game, keep an eye on how this could shift the digital landscape. We’ll see how this plays out, but I’m intrigued to see the next play the blockers make to ensure that some things on the interwebs remain sacred.
And that’s a wrap on this week’s deluge of digital developments. From the courts getting super involved in tech to AI always moving the goalposts, there’s no shortage of intrigue. Keep your strategies sharp and your eyes peeled as we navigate this ever-evolving landscape. Make sure to give your furry friends some extra love on International Dog Day on Monday and I’ll see you next Friday, my Darlings…
You know you love me.
Happy Friday, Digital Darlings,
Another week, another digital drama manifesto from yours truly. Google’s monopoly could be on the chopping block as the Department of Justice weighs a breakup and Meta’s in hot water over allegedly inflating audience metrics. Meanwhile, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt blames remote work for Google’s AI woes, and Snapchat is simplifying ad management for a smoother ride. Let’s get into it.
My dear readers are all aware that Google was found guilty of monopolizing the internet search market last week. The US government is now discussing various potential routes to break up the monopoly. One option is to break Google apart so that Chrome, Android OS, Search, etc., will all become separate business entities. They’re also considering making Google share their data with competitors or abandon the agreement with Apple that makes it the default search engine on iPhones. There will be a hearing to discuss the next steps on September 6th, so you already know that this week's edition of TWiD is gonna be wild. Meanwhile, Meta is facing a legal battle of their own…
Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, Meta will face a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all US advertisers who have used Ads Manager or Power Editor to buy ads on Facebook or Instagram since August 2014… so like, all of my readers, I’m guessing. The battle started in 2018 when a business owner filed a complaint saying, "Facebook induced advertisers to purchase more ads, and pay more for them, by overstating the number of users who might see the ads.” So basically, they were inflating audience sizes… I’m shocked!! I’ll keep my dear readers updated on the potential impacts if Meta is found guilty. Now, back to more Google Drama…
During a speech at Stanford, he claimed, “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning, and the reason startups work is because the people work like hell,” so that’s why, in his opinion, Google is losing the AI race to the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI. Saying that with your whole chest to a group of college students in the middle of a student mental health crisis is… bold. But it’s sparked a fascinating debate on LinkedIn. Is it realistic to expect a massive, established company to have the grindset of a new startup? Also, isn’t encouraging workaholism a little… outdated? He backtracked the next day, saying he “misspoke about Google and their work hours” and “regrets the error,” so it sounds like the PR team got to him. Now, let’s cover the Google Ads API update…
In the past, we’ve had to wait 24 hours after a conversion occurred to upload conversion data adjustments, which was a hassle for Google Ads API users. Starting September 9th, we’ll be able to upload conversion data adjustments as soon as the conversion is recorded. This update should “streamline the conversion adjustment process, potentially leading to more timely and accurate campaign data for advertisers.” You may need to take a few steps ahead of the update, like removing any logic that enforces waiting periods for adjustment uploads from your API calls. Check out this article for a full list of tips and tricks. Now for a bit of AI news…
Grammarly is launching a new tool called Authorship that can detect if a document was written by AI and even detect which parts of the document are AI-written. So, if you use AI to draft marketing content, edit it to have a human voice. You can even run this new Grammarly tool on your own documents before publishing them to make sure they won’t fail the ‘humanity’ test. This is coming the same week that WaPo reported that even advanced AI-detection tools can’t suss out deepfakes. Maybe Grammarly can get on solving that problem for humanity, too! Now, let’s chat about eCom…
Shopaholics, rejoice! All it takes is a quick, one-time setup to link your TikTok and Amazon accounts. Then, whenever an Amazon ad pops up on your For You Page (FYP), you can buy the featured products with just a few clicks. You can even see real-time pricing, Prime status, and delivery estimates for each product. For eCom advertisers, I can’t stress the value of these Amazon + TikTok Ads enough. Simply research the influence of TikTok shop, and you’ll understand how readily people spend money on that app. In other eCom news…
Before Prime Day, we discussed how retailers like Target and Best Buy attempted to jump on the summer sale bandwagon, running their promotions during or around Prime Day. Turns out they were unsuccessful at taking any significant chunk of that promotional market share. According to a report from Earnest Analytics, “over 80% of shoppers who made purchases during the recent spate of sales only bought items at Amazon.” The ‘zon has us all trained!! Nothing hits quite like that seamless purchasing experience and near-instant Prime delivery, so I get it. So, dear readers, keep this in mind next year. Running ads on Walmart or Target during the summer sale season can’t hurt, but Amazon is where you should focus your energy. And now for a bit of social ad news…
Advertisers used to have to sort through 12 different options when setting objectives, but now Snap has narrowed it down to just 5 easy-to-use, goal-oriented options. The options are Awareness and Engagement, Traffic, Leads, App Promotion, and Sales. You can learn more about them here. These changes will be rolled out sometime between now and September, and old objectives will be phased out in mid-September. So, if you’re running ads on Snapchat, be sure to update your ad objectives in early September, or they’ll be updated for you.
And that’s a wrap on this week’s deluge of digital developments. From Google’s potential breakup to Amazon’s eCom domination, there’s no shortage of intrigue. Keep your strategies sharp and your eyes peeled as we navigate this ever-evolving landscape. Until next week, Darlings…
You know you love me.
Happy Friday, Digital Darlings,
How was your Prime Day? Did you score some delicious deals? I know I did.
While you’re recovering from your digital shopping spree (and hopefully not experiencing too much buyer’s remorse) allow me to pull you back down to reality with this week’s digital marketing digest. And hopefully next week I’ll have some post-Prime Day tea to share. I’ll kick it off with an app store update.
The search suggestions and top charts have been replaced by suggested apps and ads now appear at the top of that suggested apps list, right below the search bar. Since ads now appear at the top of the page, Apple Search Ads (ASA) advertisers can expect to see better click-through rates for their App Install ads. So, my dear ASA advertisers, keep an eye out for a lift in performance over the next few weeks! And speaking of things to keep an eye out for…
Let this be a warning to any of my readers who have brick-and-mortar locations – apparently competitors can move your Google Maps pin to the wrong location using the ‘suggest an edit’ feature. When the pin is moved to a different location, Google Maps thinks the store closed or changed, and this can tank your Google Business Profile rankings. What’s worse, Google doesn’t notify businesses when their pin is moved, so you may not even notice it happened. And you cannot simply go in and reposition your pin to the correct location, because that often results in Google Business Profile suspension. It’s so weird to me that making simple changes to your own Google Business Profile can trigger suspension, but Google allows any random user not associated with your account to make changes to your business’s listed location for you… WTF.
If this happens to you, the best path forward is to log into Google using an email address that’s not associated with your Google Business Profile and change your business’s location back to the right spot. In other Google news…
There’s a concealed report in GA4 called ‘Key Event Differences’. You can access it by adding “/advertising/key-event-differences” to the end of your GA4 property URL. Ooooh, I love secrets!!
The report breaks down the percentage difference between Google Ads reported conversions and GA4 reported conversions for each of your key events. I’m intrigued by the fact that it’s hidden – perhaps Google is testing it out and will add it to GA4 as an official report soon? Or, even better, they’ll fix the issues that cause data discrepancies between the two platforms in the first place… For now, you can see a step-by-step guide to accessing the report here. Now, an update for my dear SEOs…
Google Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said to expect another core update in the next few weeks. We don’t know exactly when, but SEOs can start bracing for volatility. As far as the goal of this core update… we don’t know that either. But Sullivan did say "I do hope we can improve in some of these cases where creators with their hearts in the right places, and who are doing the real content effort behind that, are rewarded as we should be doing." So fingers crossed the update makes things better for niche sites, not worse. In other search news…
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was ‘Readying a Search Product to Rival Google, Perplexity.’ They said “the feature would allow users to ask ChatGPT a question and receive answers that use details from the web with citations to sources such as Wikipedia entries and blog posts.” But not much has been heard about it since. That is, until late last week when the CEO of The Atlantic shared in an interview that he’s letting OpenAI train their search product on The Atlantic’s data. Could this be the Google rival we’ve all been waiting for? Only time will tell. Now for some Amazon updates…
Just in time for Prime Day! I must say, launching a new feature days before your biggest sale of the year is… confident. But I’m all for AI-assisted shopping as long as it helps me buy better products and get better deals. Rufus’s LLM is trained on Amazon’s product catalog and can answer questions about products, offer comparisons and alternatives, share fashion trends and more. Sounds cute! Try him out if you’re still doing some post-Prime Day shopping. Now, some good news for Amazon non-endemic advertisers…
The new lead gen ads, currently in beta, enable advertisers to retarget shoppers who have shown interest in their brand while they shop on Amazon, browse IMDB, and stream on Twitch. In the ads, customers can sign up to receive more information about the brand or product without being directed to another site, so users already considering your brand can get more info without disrupting their shopping or browsing experience. This ad format sounds great for businesses with long consideration and information-gathering sales cycles like travel agencies. It could even be good for B2B. B2B ads on Amazon?! I thought I’d never see the day, but I’m excited to test it out.
That’s it for this week, darlings. Until next week, stay cute, stay strategic, and enjoy your Prime Day spoils as packages begin to trickle in over the weekend. We’ll talk next Friday. Same time, same place?
You know you love me.
Hey there, Digital Darlings,
Between the 4th of July Holiday in the US and the rollercoaster elections in the UK and France, I know my dear readers are currently trying to bounce back after a wild week. Allow me to help by summarizing the latest digital drama…
When you create a new search campaign, you’ll see a ‘broad match keywords’ setting on by default. With this setting enabled, all the keywords in your campaign will be set to broad match. For now, we still have the option to toggle it off and choose the match type for each keyword. But with Google’s push for more automated, AI-driven campaign management, many are wondering if this is the first step toward getting rid of match types all together. I’ll keep you updated. For now, if you choose not to opt out of campaign-wide broad match targeting, make sure you have sufficient negative keywords in place to avoid wasted spend. In other Google news…
The box helps advertisers understand if current CPA is in the expected range, displays weekly CPA averages, forecasts conversions, and more. They released a similar feature for shopping and PMAX campaigns last week, so it seems like Google’s taking initiative to help advertisers understand more about how their Smart Bidding campaigns are doing. Transparency has not historically been Google’s strong suit, so I’d say these insight boxes, while not particularly actionable, are a step in the right direction. And in my last bit of Google Ads news…
Google created a Chrome extension called EC Assist that helps advertisers identify issues with the Enhanced Conversions setup on their site. Simply install the extension and run a test on your site. EC Assist will identify issues with your setup and offer next steps to resolve them. If you’re using Google Ads conversion data as your source of truth and optimization goal, having Enhanced Conversions installed properly is essential, so I’d definitely recommend trying out this extension. Now for some Microsoft news…
This new feature could certainly streamline the campaign creation process if the AI-generated creative assets are actually good! The process is super simple; advertisers input the ad’s landing page URL and Microsoft's AI generates video assets for the ad. Marketers can then edit and refine the assets if AI doesn’t get it right the first time (let's be honest - it rarely does). I have doubts about how well the tool actually works, but I respect Microsoft for trying to position itself as a leader in AI advertising. Next, let’s catch up on some SEO drama…
Last week I informed my dear readers that the reports were delayed by over 52 hours, so just an update the the issue was resolved on July 5th. I know that this issue was interfering with a lot of SEOs end-of-month reporting, so I just wanted to give you the green light. Report away! In AI SEO news…
We all know the initial launch of AIOs didn’t go smoothly. But it was worse than just bad press - the rollout actually led to a significant drop in search volume, particularly on mobile. This drop in usage prompted Google to scale back on AIOs and address some of the issues users had with them. AIOs now appear less frequently and cite more sources when they do appear. I know a lot of us were frantic to learn how to SEO our way into AIOs, but with this scale back, we’ve got a bit more time to figure that out. Now for some ecom updates…
Following a successful US launch, Amazon is rolling out Sponsored TV in the UK, enabling UK advertisers to reach audiences on streaming platforms like Prime Video, Freevee, and Twitch. As someone who’s currently watching Mr. Robot on Prime Video, I’m annoyed because these ads are disrupting my viewing experience. And annoyance driving negative brand consideration is definitely a factor you should consider when testing this new ad type. That said, tons of US advertisers have seen success with these streaming ads, so it’s worth testing if you’re an ecom marketer in the UK. Now let’s dish about social…
Recent data shows that while Meta and TikTok are favored by advertisers, Snap is actually the most cost-effective social ad channel. Inversely, Reddit is the most expensive, with an average cost per order of $158.96. Now, of course it makes sense that the most popular platforms would be more expensive - there’s more competition for ad space, and Meta and TikTok can simply get away with charging more thanks to their audience’s perceived value. But if you’re a paid social manager, maybe it’s time to allocate some more money to Snap and see where that takes your brand. And in my final bit of social news…
This new club offers tons of benefits to new merchants; up to 90 days of commission-free sales, free product storage and fulfillment, priority seller support, and dedicated promotion to get brands more exposure through ad campaigns and creator support. Those are some major perks! So if you’re a small business in the UK looking to grow on TikTok, I’d recommend filling out their interest form.
And that’s the scoop, my savvy marketers! From Google’s AI drama to new ad innovations, the digital world is buzzing. Until next time, keep your strategies sharper than a fresh set of acrylics. 💅
You know you love me. 💋
Hey there, Digital Darlings,
Everyone’s busy celebrating our nation’s birth, so this week was a bit quieter than usual when it comes to news. But drama never truly stops and Maddie Marinsider never misses, so I’m still gonna keep you in the loop. Firstly, I want to make sure all my cute little Amazon advertisers are prepared for Prime Day.
If you run ads on Amazon and plan to take advantage of the upcoming shopping frenzy, it’s time to launch your Prime Day campaigns. The big day is officially happening July 16-17, which is a mere two weeks away, so it’s go time. And if you’re looking to do a little Prime Day shopping yourself, start adding your desired products to your carts and wishlists now. The pre-Prime Day deals have already started! One particularly good strategy is to…
This strategy can be pricey, but it’s a great way to own the search results above the fold for your highest priority ASINs. The goal is to get your Sponsored Brand ad serving at the top of the page, and your Sponsored Product ads serving in the top three spots so that your brand and products are all users see when they first return results for your target keywords. If you’re ready to try out some more advanced Amazon bidding tactics, this blog’s for you. In other ecommerce sale news…
Target’s trying to hold its own against the Prime Day boom with Circle Week, a week of promotions available to all members of its free loyalty program. From July 7-13, Target will be offering tons of deals on toys, apparel, home goods, and more. Walmart is also running a July savings event called Walmart Deals from July 8-11. Other companies like Doordash and Best Buy are running summer deals as well. So if you sell on any of those sites, it may be time to scale up ad spend. And if you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on some pricey purchases, keep your eye out for discounts this month. Now for a bit of social news…
They’ve been charging this fee to US advertisers since February, and now they're going global with it. As of July 1st, any Facebook or Instagram ad purchase made through an iOS app anywhere in the world will see a 30% service fee. It can be avoided by doing all your ad buying on a web browser, which I assume is how most of us work anyways. But the workflow to boost a post right on your iPhone is pretty seamless, so don’t let that get you. Meta proactively updated its web platforms to offer the same boosting functionality as its mobile apps. This fee is kinda rude of Apple, IMO, and even the government is mad about it. US and EU officials say that the fee is ‘anti-competitive’ and gives Apple an unfair advantage. And they’re right! Now for some Google news…
It’s pretty common for these reports to be delayed, but since a lot of people are doing end-of-month reporting right now, I wanted to call it out. Google confirmed the issue on X yesterday, saying they’ll post again when it’s resolved. So keep an eye on Google Search Central’s X account for updates. In other not-so-great Google news…
IAB Tech Lab’s Privacy Sandbox Task Force was assembled to study the implementation of Google’s new data privacy solution. In their final report, they noted that the “Privacy Sandbox will restrict the digital media industry's ability to deliver relevant, effective advertising, placing smaller media companies and brands at significant risk. The lack of functionality will throttle their ability to compete, ultimately impacting the industry’s growth.” Oof.
They ran a test with Criteo and concluded that if third-party cookies were deprecated today, Criteo would expect publisher revenue to decrease by an average of 60%. Yikes! Unfortunate news, but considering the regulatory challenges Google is facing, I’m not sure how this can be avoided. They keep pushing back cookie deprecation, but it has to happen eventually… right? All us advertisers can do is take advantage of our first party data and prepare our tracking set up for the impending third-party cookie deprecation. Now for some SEO tips…
People are turning to channels other than search to find the info they need, and SEOs need to adapt. This detailed guide from Search Engine Land does a great job of breaking down each new platform we need to optimize for and what our next steps should be. I consider this required reading for any SEOer, so take notes! There will be a quiz next week…
And that’s a wrap for this week’s marketing digest. Enjoy some summer sun this weekend and come back refreshed and ready to tackle the digital domain.
You know you love me.
Hey there, Digital Darlings,
Ready for your weekly dose of digital drama? Google Ads is shaking things up with major updates, and TikTok is launching an Instagram dupe called ‘Whee.’ Let’s dive into all the juicy details.
They’ve been improving their AI-powered broad match capabilities over the past six months, which led to a 10% improvement in broad match performance for advertisers that use smart bidding. Now, they’re making updates to query matching and brand controls to help brands benefit further from broad match.
The first is a new recommendation for brand inclusions in broad match campaigns. When using brand inclusions, your ads will only serve for queries that include brand names you’ve selected. For example, if you were bidding on the broad match term “clothing” and had a brand inclusion for ‘Target’, your ads would only match to ‘clothing’ queries that included ‘Target’ or brand-related terms. Target’s loyalty club is called Circle 360, so the brand inclusion would allow ads to serve on a search for ‘Circle 360 clothes’.
They’re also rolling out brand exclusions across all match types and DSAs over the coming months, giving advertisers even more control over brand spend. If you’re confused about the difference between brand inclusions, brand exclusions, and negative keywords, this chart cleared things up for me.
Google also improved the search terms report by associating misspelled queries with their correctly spelled counterparts. 9% of the search terms previously appearing under the ‘other’ category due to misspellings are now visible. They’ve applied the same logic to negative keywords, too – rather than needing to add all the misspelled variations of a keyword as negatives, those variations will now be excluded when you exclude just the one properly spelled keyword. Nice! In other Google Ads news…
This insight box helps advertisers understand if their actual ROAS is within the expected range relative to their target. It charts actual ROAS for the campaign over time, and indicates whether performance is on track. Of course, ROAS will vary day-to-day, but this chart, shared by @thomaseccel on X, should make it easier to understand the big picture of how your campaigns are doing. Check it out for yourself. Now, let's chat about Google Analytics…
This is your final warning! Transition to GA4 now or face Google’s wrath (they’re literally going to delete all your data). If you haven’t made the switch yet, do it today. Here’s Google’s guide to transitioning to GA4. If you still want to have access to your old UA data, make sure to download or export it by the end of the week. In other Google Analytics news..
The first new feature is that users will be able to import third-party ad data from Pinterest, Reddit, and Snap and it’ll be included in the cross-channel performance report. Second is a new cross-channel budgeting feature that’ll help advertisers track budget pacing and projected performance against a revenue or conversion target. The third is that GA4 will start importing impression data from LinkedIn Ads. GA4 is also getting an AI bot that will identify patterns in your data and explain them in simple terms. And lastly, GA4 will start supporting Chrome Privacy Sandbox APIs later this year. Those are some big updates, so keep an eye out for them! Now for some SEO news…
Searchers can no longer scroll through an endless flow of search results. We’re going back to the old-school pagination bar at the footer of the SERP. Google said they're doing this to improve page load times, which is fair. But it could have a negative impact on site traffic if you’re ranking on page 2 of the SERP. You may see less clicks now that users have to take an extra step to get to that second page. In other SEO news…
Data scientists analyzed over 260,000 search results to get to the bottom of how Google ranks content. The biggest takeaway? Topic authority is the biggest on-page ranking factor, and domain traffic is the main way authority is measured. The scientists also found that since the March core update, Google places more emphasis on user experience, and particularly on site-load speed. There are TONS of other great insights for SEOers here, so give this article a read. Now let’s talk about something other than Google…
TikTok wants to beat Meta soooo bad, but it’s just not happening. With Instagram maintaining its place as the most downloaded app in Q1 (that said, TikTok is still #1 when it comes to consumer spending), TikTok decided to build their own photo-sharing app. It’s positioned as a platform for sharing photos with only your closest friends, which is smart since non-influencer Insta users seem to post mostly on their ‘close friends’ stories anyways, and there’s been a push for authenticity on social media lately. The app isn’t available in the US yet, so we’ll have to wait and see if we get a chance to try it out or if TikTok gets banned. Speaking of Insta…
Can’t say the same for TikToks… Instagram posts now appear in the ‘Perspectives’ tab of Google. Does this mean SEOers will start trying to gamify their brand’s Instagram captions? I’ve honestly never used that ‘perspectives’ tab, so I’m not sure how relevant this actually is… only time will tell. In my final bit of Meta news…
They’re calling it ‘Auto A/B testing’. This AI-powered feature automatically experiments with different variations of your content to determine which performs best. It’ll test versions of your Reel with various captions, cover images and more and then distribute the top performer for you. It’s built for business pages and is currently in the testing phase. Sounds handy! Sure, go ahead and do my job for me, Meta.
And that's a wrap, my dears! From Google’s updates to TikTok’s latest attempt to rival Instagram, the digital world is buzzing with excitement. Until next week, stay sharp, stay savvy, and keep reading.
You know you love me. 💋
Happy Pre-kend, My Digital Darlings,
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is happening right now and they didn’t invite me. How rude! Don’t they know about Maddie Marinsider, the greatest digital marketing mind of the modern world?!?! Now I have to get updates from the festival from news articles and blogs like a normie… sigh. But nevertheless, I’ll share with you, dear readers, the biggest bits of digital news I’ve seen from the festival so far.
As we’ve discussed in past editions, everyone is building an ad network – from Chase Bank to United Airlines. Both of those companies showed up to Cannes Lions to shake some hands and pitch advertisers on their new networks. Commerce media networks had more presence at the event than ever before, pitching deals and hosting parties for some of the advertising world's biggest players. It’s certainly good news for the future of retail media. So if you’re currently working in the industry… keep doing what you’re doing. Also at Cannes Lions…
Three new features were announced. The first is an AI chatbot that businesses can use to converse with their customers. The bot can auto-respond to chats started by customers via click-to-chat ads or the ‘send message’ button on the company Facebook page. For example, a clothing retailer’s chatbot could discuss things like sizing and return policy with interested Meta users. Users will always have the option to request a human agent and customer success employees can take over the AI- powered convo at any time. So hopefully this feature can take some work off your support team’s plate.
The next new feature is Marketing Messages AKA ads in Facebook Messenger. Soon, advertisers will be able to use Ads Manager to send ads to users via Messenger. This one sounds a little annoying from a user perspective, but you can always opt out of contact from a brand. And for brands, it's a great way to automatically engage in conversation with users. Users can respond to your in-messenger ads and chat with an AI-powered chatbot to get answers to any questions.
The final announcement was the new Threads API. Threads is rapidly gaining market share from X and Meta knows it. They're launching an API so businesses and creators can more easily manage their presences on the platform. Via the API, creators will be able to publish posts, engage with replies, and pull reporting data such as views and likes. This sounds like the first step toward Threads becoming an ad platform, so stay tuned. In other Cannes Lions news...
Remember back in November 2023 when Elon told advertisers who were boycotting the platform due to hate speech to “go f**ck themselves”? Well, he backtracked on this statement during his session on Friday, saying the remark “wasn't to advertisers as a whole. It was with respect to freedom of speech.” He then doubled down, saying “we're going to support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money." This statement was seen as an attempt to win back ad dollars for X. Is this an attempt in making it a more ad safe platform? Stay tuned…
That’s enough Cannes Lions drama for now. Maybe they’ll get more attention from me next year if they invite me… Now let’s dish about Meta’s ad testing updates.
Meta is phasing out dynamic creatives that let advertisers submit multiple creative assets for an ad set that Meta mixes and matches in an attempt to get the best possible ad engagement, kinda like Responsive Search Ads. They replaced it with something called “Flexible Ad Format” which does almost the same thing. There are two noteworthy differences – first, the variations are controlled within the ad, whereas with dynamic creative the assets ran across the entire ad set. Second, you can’t include multiple CTA options with Flexible Ad Format. If you want to test CTAs moving forward, you’ll have to create an A/B test. Why would they do this? Hopefully it’s just an oversight that'll be resolved soon. I love my CTA variations. Now let’s dish about Disney…
Disney+ is an active fighter in the streaming ads war, which has gotten more intense since Amazon Prime and Netflix entered the field. Now, they’re trying to make their ads more accessible to ‘mid-tier advertisers’ – Advertisers with budgets between $30 million and $300 million. Kinda wild that that’s considered ‘mid-market ad spend’, but Disney has traditionally only worked with massive advertisers.
They are expanding the accessibility of their BridgeID in hopes of bringing in more ‘mid-market’ customers that they think have ‘tons of room for growth’. Their BridgeID is what the platform uses for tracking and targeting in the cookieless world. It’s historically only been accessible via The Trade Desk, but now it’s accessible through Experian’s LUID, LiveRamp’s RampID, and Yahoo’s ConnectID too. So if you’re in that budget range and use one of those identifiers, consider expanding to Disney+. Now, time for some Amazon updates…
If you use Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), you probably know that the ad-attributed data sets are free to access, but a paid Amazon Insights subscription grants you access to a goldmine of additional audience data. The subscription historically granted you access to unique audience insights (called Audience Segment Insights) and full organic data sets (called Flexible Shopping Insights). But on Monday, Amazon made those Insights accessible to everyone! This means that anyone who uses AMC can create an audience from those highly valuable data sets. Check out this article to understand the different insights and why creating audiences from them could vastly improve your ad targeting. Now for a bit of Google news…
Apparently Google has seen cards decline one too many times. If you’re a “high-growth spender” (not entirely sure what that means), you should have received a notification that you must stop paying via credit or debit and switch to either monthly invoicing or direct debit by the end of July. If that’s you, make the switch by July 31st or risk account suspension. Google said this will provide “flexibility” and “control” for high growth spenders… sounds like they just don’t want to pay credit card processing fees anymore, but ok. In another bit of Google news…
The first new addition is keyword targeting. Advertisers can now pull and manage keyword lists via the API, making keyword analysis and management easier. The second is a new “optimizationObjective” field that was added to the InsertionOrder resource. This is only available for select advertisers, but it allows those lucky few to set optimization goals via API, making Google’s programmatic advertising more customizable at scale. Lastly, let's sync up about Reddit ads…
The new and improved conversation ads are larger and appear between comments in users’ Reddit feed, making them look more native to the platform. For example, an ad for mascara would appear on r/makeup in a thread about mascara, right in between the comments. Reddit continues to emphasize the power of authentic conversations in the modern digital landscape, but is this really authentic? Like, I know an ad when I see one. Regardless, Reddit is looking more and more like the next big ad platform, so it’s time to test it out if you haven’t already.
And that’s all the juicy gossip from Cannes Lions and beyond. From Meta’s new AI tools to the rise of commerce media networks, it’s clear that the digital marketing world never sleeps. Until next week, keep winning the digital game.
You know you love me.
Welcome back, My Digital Darlings,
Ready to dish? We’ve got lots to chat about. Google Ads is getting a makeover, new media networks are popping up everywhere I turn, and Reddit thinks it’s a shopping haven. Let’s dive into the drama!
Google’s director of product management for search shared lots of SEO insights during her keynote. She said not to get bogged down with the details of trying to game the SERP and just focus on creating helpful content that answers people’s queries… I’ve heard that one before. She also clarified why the March core update took so long, what led to the 45% reduction in unhelpful content, how Google defines low quality content, and more. A lot of her responses were a bit generic and she refused to comment on the recent content API documentation leak, but I still recommend SEOers review the key takeaways. Speaking of core updates…
The platform is upgrading to a new, more organized design. Updates include a new left-side navigation menu that segments the platform into 5 categories - campaigns, goals, tools, billing and admin. There’s also now a search bar at the top so users can quickly find the tools they need, and the new UI is more ‘modern’ looking… basically, she’s cuter. Users can expect to see the changes starting August 30th. They’ve actually been testing the new design for about a year now, so you may not experience any changes. But if you’re still using the old UI, it’s time to say goodbye. And in other Google news…
It details how the Google tag and consent mode work together to adjust tracking behavior based on the level of consent each user provides. According to Google, they work together to “provide in-depth website analytics while respecting user privacy preferences.” Sounds like the best of both worlds, right? The article provides a step-by-step guide to getting started with the Google tag + consent mode. So if your tracking is in need of an upgrade for the cookieless world, check it out. And in other media news...
Google recently announced their new Google TV network, “offering targeted, in-stream video inventory across more than 125 channels built into Google TV.” Google TV network is available in Google Ads today. In the settings for a video campaign you can easily select Google TV alongside your usual YouTube and Display Network serving options. It’s worth testing this network for your video ads, but keep in mind that since these ads will be served on TVs, people will be less likely to click on a CTA than on a YouTube video they watch on their phone or laptop. That said, a large percentage of people now watch YouTube on their TVs, so maybe performance won’t vary too much between YouTube and the CTV network. Regardless, it’s worth a test!
United Airlines also launched a media network, following the trend set by Chase Bank and Paypal, of companies that historically have had no skin in the ad game suddenly capitalizing on user data to make more money. United’s new Kinective Media Network will be the first network created by an airline company. The aim is to use the data they have on user’s travel behavior to serve targeted ads on United’s app and in-flight entertainment screens. So if you’re in a business that targets travelers, give United’s ads a shot.
Also hopping on the media network wave is Costco, who are working on building their first ad network. Considering the likes of Walmart and Target have been selling their shopper’s data for years, it’s about time. Nothing is sacred anymore, not even Costco… Their retail media network is still in the works, but if you advertise on other grocers’ networks, this is definitely one to look out for. Now, let’s dish about Reddit…
They recently released Dynamic Product Ads, where advertisers can upload their product catalog and then Reddit will serve ads for the different products to specific Reddit communities based on relevance. Seems great in theory, but if you’ve spent time on Reddit you know the platform’s success is based on peer-to-peer information sharing and authenticity, so how can advertisers run ads on these forums without making users angry?
Reddit’s EVP of marketing addressed this concern in a recent interview, saying “Reddit is inherently commercial. Even if you think about your hobbies, like some of the most fun [part of a] hobby is actually buying all the gear that’s associated with that hobby.” Ok, fair enough, but I’d still proceed with caution. Reddit ads are certainly worth testing for retail marketers. But try to keep the ads unintrusive, avoid ‘salesy’ language, and try to add value to the conversations which your ads are serving alongside. Redditers are looking for authentic insights, and any ad that's too pushy and corporate likely won’t be well received. Now, let’s chat about AI…
Earlier this month, Adobe sent out a notification about their terms of service update, which prompted users to agree that the company can ‘access their content for review’. People were outraged, interpreting this to mean that Adobe would use their creative work to train AI models. Adobe said that this new addition to the terms and conditions is not related to training AI, and that their generative AI models are trained on licensed content like stock photos and public domain content, not users’ work. The update is actually so that Adobe can create thumbnails from files in its cloud storage to scan for childhood sexual abuse materials, which we can all agree is a good thing. Still, users’ trust in Adobe took a hit. I can’t blame creatives for being fearful of AI stealing their work and using it to then steal their jobs down the line. It’s quite dystopian indeed. But it sounds like using Adobe tools is still safe, for now…
And that’s the scoop for this week! From Google’s SEO tips to Reddit’s ad ambitions, the digital world is buzzing. Stay sharp, stay sassy, and keep reading. Until next week, darlings!
You know you love me.
Welcome back, My Digital Darlings,
It looks like G’s still in the hot seat thanks to their AI Overview blunders… but we’ve got the scoop on how SEMs and SEOs can navigate AIOs (say that 5 times fast). In the social sphere, Instagram’s unskippable ads are causing outrage, and LinkedIn’s new AI tools are giving B2B marketers some much needed attention. Let’s dive into the details.
AI Overviews (AIOs) visibility in the SERP has dropped significantly following last week’s snafu where AOIs delivered many inaccurate and sometimes dangerous responses. In a recent blog post, Google said the crazy search results are happening because their AI has difficulty interpreting nonsensical or satirical queries like “how many rocks should I eat?” Since these aren’t ‘real’ questions, there isn’t much info on the web that Google’s AI can use to answer them. And what info does exist online is satirical, which AI has trouble interpreting.
They listed some changes they’ve made to improve AIOs. The first is that they’ve “built better detection mechanisms for nonsensical queries that shouldn’t show an AI Overview, and limited the inclusion of satire and humor content.” That’s a good start!
I get that new technology typically doesn’t work perfectly out of the gate. But c’mon Google, you gotta admit… this whole scenario has been pretty funny. AI Overviews aren’t going anywhere so…
PPC advertisers are rightfully concerned about impending drops in site traffic if searchers no longer need to click links to get information. Not only will revenue decline due to fewer site visits, remarketing lists and audiences will shrink due to the decrease in click data. The top tip to prepare for the shift is targeting more broad match keywords so that when Google starts incorporating ads into AI overviews, your site can be featured. The article also recommends embracing value based bidding, leveraging PMAX and Demand Gen campaigns, and more. Give it a read to prep for the AOI-powered future of search. And if you’re more of an SEO girl…
SEOer Shepard Cyrus tweeted (sorry…Xed?) a ‘mini case study’ on how to get your site to show up in AI overviews. He simply updated the text on his web page to match the text that the AI Overview provided… groundbreaking. That said, he noted that if a site wins a link in the AOI, it’ll lose its structured snippet (for context, sites that have historically had structured snippet features are most likely to appear in AIOs). Google also released a patent that explains how Google selects links for AI overviews, so feel free to use that to game the system. In other Google news…
If you’re site isn’t accessible via smartphone, Google will stop ranking and indexing it starting July 5th. John Mueller explained, “The largest part of the web is already being crawled like this, and there is no change in crawling for these sites.” However, “after July 5, 2024, we’ll crawl and index these sites with only Googlebot Smartphone.” For up-to-date brands, this shouldn’t be an issue, but if you happen to get a new client and their site doesn’t load on your phone, making a mobile friendly site should be priority #1. And in my final bit of Google news…
With privacy law provisions going into effect in Texas, Florida, Oregon, Montana and Colorado, Google is making product changes to help PPC advertisers comply with the new regulations. These changes will result in less personalized ad inventory, a decline in the size of customer match and remarketing lists, less accurate reporting, and more. Which is a bummer, but kinda inevitable. Now for some social news…
Instagram is testing a new feature called “ad breaks” - 3-5 second unskippable ads that are sure to disrupt users’ beloved doomscrolling. I get that they’re trying to compete with TikTok and like, make more money or whatever, but this is just too annoying. I stopped using TikTok because of the intrusive TikTok Shop ads, and I’ll do the same with Instagram… Don’t tempt me! In other social news…
LinkedIn’s algorithm has long punished posts that link to external sites, and now they’re taking it a step further. Link preview images for organic posts have shrunk to ¼ of their original size. Which is frustrating since posts with images have much higher engagement than those without. It’s a rule of thumb for LinkedIn - every post needs an image in order to perform well. But now, you’ll only get the full size link preview image if you pay for a sponsored post. LinkedIn said the smaller previews for organic posts are meant to “help members stay on LinkedIn and engage with unique commentary.” No… y’all just want my money.
To mitigate the image shrinkage, advertisers can include an image directly in the post instead of having LinkedIn generate the header image from the link in your post. The image won’t be clickable, so this isn’t quite as good of a user experience, but adding an image to every post will help with engagement, and so will the fact that users have to expand your post to find the link. That makes it worth it, IMO. And in our last bit of social news…
The first change is the addition of in-stream video ads, which LinkedIn is calling “The Wire Program.” They also added new features to Accelerate, their tool that leverages AI to “create optimized ads in under 5 minutes.” New features include a Microsoft Designer integration for creative design, better targeting via exclusion lists, and an AI assistant that provides strategic campaign guidance. It’s nice that us B2B advertisers are getting some attention for once, and I’m excited to test out these new features.
And that’s a wrap on this week’s digital dish. From Google’s AI missteps to the latest social media upheavals, it’s clear that staying ahead means staying informed. Keep optimizing, keep questioning, and most importantly, keep reading This Week in Digital 🙂. Until next week, Darlings…
You know you love me.
Hello, My Digital Darlings,
Listen up because this week’s tech tea is scalding. A massive leak of Google SEO ranking docs has shaken the industry, revealing some jaw-dropping secrets. Let’s dive into the juicy details and see what’s really going on behind the scenes.
This may be the craziest thing we’ve dished about yet, Dear Readers. Thousands of pages of leaked Google documents revealed a deluge of details on how their search algorithm really works.
The whistleblower shared the documents with industry thought leader Rand Fishkin, and you can read his detailed breakdown here. Key points include the fact that click-through rate impacts ranking (Google has repeatedly said it doesn't), that there’s a sandbox for newer websites (which again, Google has publicly denied), that a domain’s age is considered in ranking (again, they’ve denied this) and much much more. Fishkin’s article is full of tea and worth a read. But if you don’t have time, Search Engine Land summarized his findings here.
Google gave a statement to Search Engine Land 2 days after the leak, and guess what - it was another denial. Here’s the full quote from the Google spokesperson so you can decide for yourself if you trust them or not -
“We would caution against making inaccurate assumptions about Search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information. We’ve shared extensive information about how Search works and the types of factors that our systems weigh, while also working to protect the integrity of our results from manipulation.”
And speaking of Google spokespeople…
A site owner was concerned because SEMRush said his site had lots of toxic backlinks, and he looked to Reddit for answers. Google’s John Mueller responded in the thread saying "the concept of toxic links is made up by SEO tools so that you pay them regularly." This isn’t the first time Mueller has roasted toxic backlinks and disavow tools. He’s said the concept of disavowing is made up, a waste of time, and won’t get you any rankings back. So if your SEO tool is alerting you of lots of toxic backlinks, don’t waste your time disavowing them. In other Google news…
From telling searchers to use glue to keep cheese on their pizza to endorsing the health benefits of running with scissors, AI overviews are providing information that is nowhere near accurate. In fact, following their advice would likely get you killed. Screenshots of insane AI Overviews are all over X, and while it all seems a bit silly and goofy, the fact that the western world’s go-to source for information is spreading laughably inaccurate misinformation is actually a bit scary.
A Google spokesperson said that these bad responses are due to “extremely rare queries and aren’t representative of most people’s experiences,” adding that the “vast majority of AI Overviews provide high-quality information.” Huh?? This isn’t just one bad response we’re talking about here. Just this one thread on X showcases over 20 different examples of absurd search results.
There is always the option to use the new ‘Web’ filter at the top of the SERP to avoid AI overviews until they’re a bit more reliable. Now let’s move on before I get too annoyed.
Any ad experiments that don’t have an end date set will soon be assigned a default end date of August 23rd, 2024. Seems random, and I’m not sure what will happen to experiments created after 8/23, but ok Google… whatever you say! Dear readers, if you have any experiments running without specified end dates, be sure to set end dates before August to avoid this auto-shut down. Now for some social news…
Earlier this month I mentioned how Snap’s shares surged thanks to its new and improved ad system. They’ve been rebuilding their ad business over the past 2 years and are redesigning their ad formats with a focus on “intentionality”. The new formats reduce the amount of accidental ad clicks, making data for advertisers more accurate and improving Snapchat’s algorithm by feeding it more accurate data. They’re making a ton of other changes to ad formats too, like improving augmented reality (AR) ad options and adding new bidding options specifically for the mobile gaming industry, which surely spends a lot of ad dollars on the platform. They’re making tons of other updates, and you can get all the details here.
The TL;DR? Snapchat may be in its comeback era, and I’ll keep you updated on their progress. A lot of these updates have already been made, so maybe it’s time to start running some ad campaigns on the platform again. In other social news…
It’s about time they hopped on the AI mania in the ad industry! New AI-powered features for advertisers include TikTok One, a hub that unifies creator outreach, creative tools, and reporting. They also released TikTok Symphony, which is an AI-powered creative hub that offers script writing, video production, and asset optimization tools. They’re also using AI to optimize ad targeting, budgets, and more.
It’s interesting that even in the face of a US ban and a round of layoffs impacting around 1,000 of their US-based employees, they’re still fighting to embrace AI and compete with the likes of Google and Meta. It’ll be fascinating to see how things play out for them, and rest assured I’ll keep you updated. In my final bit of marketing news…
The payment giant announced plans to use data on user purchases and spending patterns from their millions of users across PayPal and Venmo (yeah, they own Venmo too) to build an ad platform. This is quite reminiscent of the new Chase Media Solutions, which I voiced my concerns about last month. A payment fulfillment company using data on what I buy to target me with ads feels super invasive, but it could be a good place to spend ad dollars. I mean, the targeting has to be good, right? And it sounds like a big part of their ad platform will be businesses paying to offer discounts and personalized promotions for users, which sounds cool… Who doesn’t love a discount? Regardless, this doesn’t sit right with me, but only time will tell…
What a massive dose of drama we had this week! Sheesh, I’m tired. I need some quiet time to recover from all the drama I just dished out. Let’s all take some deep breaths together…
Until next week, stay centered, stay savvy, and don’t let the drama get you down.
You know you love me.
Hello, My Digital Darlings,
Google Marketing Live was this week and, surprise, surprise… it was all about AI mania! From AI-generated ads to virtual try-ons, Google’s going full throttle on automation. But are they leading the pack or just panicking? Grab your popcorn and let’s dive into the digital drama.
No surprises here - the entire event was about AI. The opening line of this roundup even says, “we're showcasing how AI is transforming media, creative, and measurement to usher in a new era of ads”. I feel like the AI mania is getting a little out of hand. Ex-Googler Scott Jenson wrote on LinkedIn that Google’s AI projects are “poorly motivated” and “driven by a stone cold panic that they are getting left behind.” It sounds like Google is afraid that the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic could be the death of them, so they’re rushing to build generative AI features as quickly as possible. Thank you, Scott, for confirming my suspicions!
Anyways, here are the major updates from Google Marketing Live:
Dang, that was quick! It’s only been a week since they rolled out AI overviews and they’re already monetizing them?? One thing about Google - they’re gonna secure the bag. Search, PMAX, and Shopping ads can now be included within the AI Overview in a sponsored section. This could be good for advertisers, but it could also result in lower click through rates to our websites if all the info the searcher needs is summarized at the top of the SERP. And if your website is not featured in that AI overview… that could be bad news for CTRs.
The best thing we marketers can do is make sure the content on our website is as relevant and helpful as possible to increase our chances of being featured in an AI overview. I’m thinking about optimizing for AI overviews the same way I think about optimizing for snippet features - provide clear, concise, and helpful answers to the queries you want to rank for, and then pray the algorithm favors you. Speaking of SEO…
According to SEO expert Lily Ray, the March core update was one of the most significant updates in Google history. Woah! Since the update, she’s observed 4 major shifts:
The ‘Site Reputation Abuse’ update is still rolling out, and Google’s algorithms still appear volatile, so stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks. Now for a quick social update…
In a recent Q&A, IG chief Adam Mosseri said that send rate is more important than watch time or “like” and “comment” count. It sounds like the algorithm considers the likelihood that people will share your post via DMs to be the biggest factor determining which content to serve. So if you’re trying to measure the success of your Marketing content on Insta, perhaps send rates should be your top priority. Now for my last bit of marketing news…
Budgets for marketing have fallen from 9.1% of overall company revenue in 2023 to 7.7% in 2024. Gartner calls this “the era of less”... hmmm, that doesn’t sound fun. Apparently, CMOs are depending on AI to produce more with less. A Gartner rep said, “sixty-four percent of CMOs say they lack the budget to execute their 2024 strategy, but GenAI offers the opportunity to grow the marketing function’s impact far beyond its budgetary constraints.” Maybe I’m a skeptic, but I feel like counting on AI to solve every single problem the marketing industry faces may not be the best strategy. Only time will tell. Speaking of AI…
Remember that flirty AI we chatted about last week? It turns out OpenAI intentionally made the voice sound like Scarlett Johansson, who voiced the robot from the movie Her. The company approached Johannson 9 months ago and asked her to voice their AI system, and she declined. When she heard the voice they chose during last week’s reveal, she was mad. And rightfully so! Many news outlets and bloggers (myself included) immediately compared the voice to the robot from Her. Why would you intentionally make a robot sexy? Her was a cautionary tale. Why would OpenAI try to make it come true? I’m scared!! In my last bit of AI news…
You’ll be able to tell a Gem what to do and how to respond, then use it for repetitive tasks. According to a Google blog post, Gems can be “a gym buddy, sous chef, coding partner, or creative writing guide.” You can tell your gem to be positive and upbeat, or strict and disciplined. This sounds exactly like the custom GPTs you can build with ChatGPT+, so I’m curious to see how Google will attempt to stand out in the ‘AI-assistant’ space. Also, this sounds cool in theory, but what ever happened to having a real, human gym buddy? Methinks we are moving in the wrong direction… once again, I don’t understand why Google and OpenAI want to make Her a reality. Lord help us…
And that’s a wrap, Darlings. As AI takes over and budgets tighten, don’t let the drama get you down. Stay sharp, stay skeptical, and remember: knowledge is power. Until next week, keep it cute and stay ahead of the curve.
You know you love me.
Hello, My Digital Darlings,
Are you ready for summer? I personally need to be on a beach sipping something sweet ASAP. As the AI wave continues to roll in, Google is diving deeper than ever. I just hope we can keep our heads above water…
This week, we're unpacking Google's shiny new tools—from AI overviews that might outsmart ChatGPT to vacation itineraries crafted at the click of a button. Whether you’re a techie, a traveler, or just nostalgic for the days of simple SERPs, Google’s got something in store for you. Let’s get into it.
Google announced a long list of changes they’re making to put AI at the forefront of their search engine. Topping the list is AI Overviews, which appear at the top of the SERP and provide a similar answer to what you might see from ChatGPT or Google Gemini. They’re rolling it out this week, so you may have already seen AI overviews in your SERP. You won’t see them for all queries as they’re meant to answer complex questions for which AI thinks it can add more value beyond just search results.
Other AI-powered updates include a new feature in Google Lens which enables those with Google phones to search the web with a video. That’s cool and all, but as an iPhone user, I finally know how all the Green Bubblers have felt for all these years–left out. Next is a new Google Gemini feature that can build an entire vacation itinerary for you. Now that’s a feature I’ll be using!!
The Verge said it best; these updates are “nothing short of a full-stack AI-ification of search. Google is using its Gemini AI to figure out what you’re asking about, whether you’re typing, speaking, taking a picture, or shooting a video.” And we can expect even more AI-powered changes in the SERP soon. But if you’re nostalgic for the good old days…
This basically turns your SERP into early 2000s Google. Just good old-fashioned links. No images, no videos, no pesky AI summaries. This is cute! Google’s giving the people something they actually want for once. You can find the filter alongside all the other filters under the search bar, but you may need to click ‘more’ to see it. So if you’re nostalgic for simpler times, try out that filter next time you’re searching. In paid search news…
Now that everyone who’s anyone is running a PMAX campaign, Google has shifted to pushing Demand Gen campaigns (which are actually nothing new - just Discovery campaigns rebranded). They recently added creative controls for video assets, so now you can customize your creative to each unique video ad format. There are three formats available: in-stream, in-feed, and shorts. Check out Google’s step-by-step instructions for setting your ad format preferences here. In other Google news…
Starting in June, suspended Google Ads accounts will not be able to make any changes to their campaigns. Users will still be able to access their account but will only be able to edit billing options, account settings, appeals, security settings, and download reports. Of course, it’s never been good to let your account get suspended, but the stakes are even higher now, so be careful and make sure you pay the piper on time! And in one more bit of paid search news…
According to LocalIQ, the average conversion rate on a search ad is 6.96%, down from 7.04% last year. And the average CPL increased a whopping 25% YoY. Yikes! LocalIQ says these increases are due to “increased competition and intensified monetization of the Google SERPs.” With Alphabet reporting record-high profits this year, one has to wonder what “pricing knobs or tunings” Google might be pulling behind the scenes to pull more money out of advertisers. Google has once again left me wondering, “Is that legal?” If you’re looking to spend your ad dollars somewhere else, maybe it’s time to consider other platforms. Speaking of which…
A report from Adobe revealed that consumer spending online is up 7% year-over-year. As expected, electronics and apparel are the industries dominating online shopping. But there’s also been a surge in online grocery shopping, so if you sell groceries, maybe try advertising on Instacart.
Shoppers are opting for cheaper stuff, thanks to inflation. So if you’re a budget retailer, good news for you! And if you’re not, maybe consider running more sales. That said, the report also found that Buy Now Pay Later use is growing, so if you sell expensive stuff, just make sure you offer Afterpay. Lastly, let's dish about some dystopian AI news…
Thanks to recent updates, the chatbot is now capable of witty banter and can pick up on emotional cues. It can also have natural voice conversations. You can watch a demo here if you’re curious. It definitely still talks like a robot, but… it’s evolving. The upbeat female voice even giggles and seems to get embarrassed when it messes up. And when one of the hosts mentioned how useful and amazing the chatbot is, it responded with, “Oh stop it, you’re making me blush.” Ummm, does she want to get drinks later? Well, not she… it… see? This is the problem. I’m already using human pronouns to describe it! And I can totally imagine lonely guys falling in love with this humanoid robot girl. It’s giving Her.
On that unsettling note, I’ll wrap this up, but I’ll be back next week with more tea, so stay tuned. Until then, keep slaying the marking game with style and strategy.
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.
