Weekly Roundup of Breaking Marketing News Brought To You Each Friday
News 4/22/2024 to 4/26/2024
This week: a new law banning TikTok has been signed into law, there's a new study on the most popular ways to discover clothing brands and services, and you can now use AI-based targeting on X.
Here's what happened this week in digital marketing:
1. Is TikTok Really On the Way Out?
Earlier this week, Biden signed a new law, banning TikTok.
But is it for real this time?
Lawmakers and security experts have long been complaining about the risks of TikTok. This new bill is addressing those complaints.
This new law will allow TikTok to stay in operation in the United States as long as it’s bought from ByteDance within 270 days, or just about 9 months.
This raises many questions:
- Who can afford to buy TikTok?
- Will the Biden Administration block the purchase citing anti-trust laws?
- Will the buyer be able to survive the criticism that comes with the purchase?
We’ll have to see what unfolds over the next few months.
2. In-Store Browsing Is The Popular Way To Discover Brands
Did you know that 38.5% of US clothing buyers reported to eMarketer that they discover most brands and products by browsing in-store?
The second most popular way is through a brand's website or app, at 33.6%.
In-store browsing allows customers to feel fabrics and try clothing items on. With all the popularity and success that VR and AR technologies have seen, they have yet to find a way to replicate this experience.
And although in-store browsing is the most popular path to product discovery, websites and apps do generate more conversions when it comes to sales.
3. How Would You Like to Use AI-Based Targeting on X?
You can do that now, thanks to a new feature on X.
The company announced new AI targeting tools that do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
“With this streamlined interface, all you have to do is select your conversion event (such as ‘purchase’), set your daily ad budget, and input your desired demographic targeting for gender, age and location,” X said in a statement. “That’s it. This new flow enables you to create and launch effective campaigns in just a few minutes.”
X says that its AI-powered targeting feature is activated by default for sales campaigns.
4. Does Having 2 Sites Affect Rankings?
Nope.
The subject came up this week during a Google SEO Office Hours hangout.
Somebody asked: “My rankings have dropped due to Google finding out I have two websites. Is this correct?”
“No,” replied Google’s John Mueller. “That’s not likely. Many people have several websites. Separate websites are not a problem.”
Neither Mueller nor the questioner made it clear if the loss of traffic was caused by cannibalization. That is, two websites owned by the same person dealing with the same subject matter and one outranking the other.
In that case, it’s understandable that a site would lose traffic.
5. Will Changing Hosting Providers Affect SEO?
That’s another no.
The question came up during the same Office Hours hangout.
“My company is considering switching hosts for our website,” the questioner said. “Would switching have a negative and lasting effect on our SEO rankings?”
Mueller replied: “If you do things by the book, meaning the website keeps being resolvable and the actual downtime is minimal, changing hosts should not have negative effects on your pages’ rankings in Google’s search results.”
Indeed, unless your site gets moved to a provider that’s known to host spammy content, you shouldn’t have any problems.
6. Do You Use Video Carousel Markup?
If so, you might as well stop.
That’s because Google just announced that it’s discontinuing support for video carousel markup. References to it have also been removed from structured data docs.
“We initially tested video carousel markup with a group of site owners, and ultimately found that it wasn't useful for the ecosystem at scale,” Google said in a Search Central update. “You can leave the markup on your site so that search engines and other systems can better understand your web page.”
In the past, the Google docs offered this guidance: “Video host carousel (limited access): Enable users to explore your video gallery pages by adding ItemList structured data. This feature is currently limited to a small set of providers. Google Search may automatically show a host carousel for your site without you having to add ItemList structured data.”
7. How Important are Backlink Profiles These Days?
Apparently, not that important. That’s according to Google’s Gary Illyes.
This past week at SERP Conf, Illyes said flatly: "We need very few links to rank pages... Over the years we've made links less important."
That’s probably not a shock to most SEOs. Still, it’s nice to have confirmation from a high-ranking source in the know.
In fact, Google has de-emphasized the importance of backlinks for the past several years. The company also said that links will become less important in the future.
8. Would You Like to Advertise with YouTube Shorts?
If so, then I have some good news.
In a recent announcement, YouTube unveiled a “Select Shorts” advertising option. It lets you place ads alongside top content in different categories, including:
- Entertainment
- Beauty and Fashion
- Food
- Gaming
- Automotive
YouTube says that Shorts are viewed by 2 billion users every month.
9. What’s Google Doing to Combat Parasite SEO?
According to Google’s Gary Illyes, the Big G has already taken action.
"We have already done stuff against Parasite SEO; the recent update is the proof," he said at the recent SERP conference.
In fact, the recent March update targeted expired domain abuse. And there’s a promise of future action against other parasite tricks.
If you’re unfamiliar with parasite SEO, it’s a strategy that involves ranking content quickly by leveraging the authority of existing websites.
10. What’s the Latest With Cookie Deprecation?
Google has delayed third-party cookie deprecation. Again.
In a statement released this past week, Google said that it’s continuing to work with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The CMA needs “sufficient time to review all evidence including results from industry tests.” And market participants don’t need to provide those results until the end of June.
As a result, Google said that it won’t complete cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4.
Homework
Taking care of these action items should be more fun than mowing the lawn:
- If you’re practicing parasite SEO, you might want to stop that. Google is wise to it and your site will eventually suffer.
- Consider that premium advertising option with YouTube Shorts. Especially if one of those categories is relevant to your target market.
- In your own optimization efforts, emphasize quality content over backlink profiles.
- Consider advertising with AI-based targeting on X.
- Stop using the video carousel markup. It’s not supported anymore.
News 4/15/2024 to 4/19/2024
This week: Walmart is losing market share in the ecommerce world, meta-advertising costs are on the rise, and there's a new king of smartphone market share.
Here's what happened this week in digital marketing:
1. Consumers Changed Shopping Habits in Q1 2024
Overall, ⅓ of consumer online spending decreased over Q1.
According to eMarketer, we’re seeing some interesting trends:
- Amazon shoppers are motivated by price → 71% of shoppers look for the lowest price; customers stay price-sensitive
- Amazon edges out search engines for whopping queries → over ½ of consumers start their search on Amazon
- Walmart is losing its ecommerce share → the percent of consumers shopping on walmart.com declined by 15%
- TikTok Shop is seeing success → 35% of consumers browse or shop on TikTok Shop at least once a week
- Amazon’s View in Your Room AR Tool is proven valuable → 31% of consumers have used the AR tool and it’s led them to purchase something they would normally only buy in person
2. Do You Have a Loyalty Program?
If not, it’s not too late to set one up.
According to eMarketer, discounts are the leading factor in why consumers participate in loyalty and reward programs.
Why do consumers turn to loyalty programs?
For the discount. With rising prices, it’s appealed more than ever to join these loyalty programs.
So, if you build a loyalty plan, keep these in mind.
3. What’s Causing Ad Prices to Rise on Meta?
It’s not just inflation. According to a report by Bloomberg, it’s because of a few bugs in the system.
“[Meta’s ad system] has been hampered by major performance issues, according to numerous marketers,” the report says. “The cost of running ad campaigns is up significantly, while results are mixed and ensuing sales are down — and there has been no formal explanation from the company, ad buyers say.”
Meta, for its part, has responded. The company says it “fixed a few technical issues” and continues to investigate reports from advertisers.
The report also says that not every advertiser is affected. So your account might be just fine.
4. Samsung Beats Apple in Smartphone Market Share
The smartphone sector is seeing a shakeup.
By March:
- Apple held a 17.3% market share
- Samsung rose to 20.8%
- Xiaomi, a China-based smartphone supplier grew to 14.1%
While Apple traditionally releases new products in September in anticipation of the holiday season, we’ll have to keep an eye on how smartphone sales fluctuate throughout the year.
5. How Long Does It Take a Reddit Post to Rank on Google?
If you post the right keywords and decent content, you can rank in as little as 5 minutes on Page 1 of Google. That’s according to a Reddit thread.
Reddit user gronetwork shared that it only takes a few minutes to get a Reddit post to appear at the top of the SERPs.
“I have created for example a post named ‘Google SGE Review’ previously,” he wrote. “After less than 5 minutes it was ranked 8th for Google SGE Review (no quotes).”
He even shared a screenshot.
But Google’s Danny Sullivan entered the chat and said that “Reddit is not always prioritized over other forums.” He went on to share multiple examples.
6. Can a New WordPress Plugin Help With Load Times?
It looks that way.
A new announcement from WordPress shares details about the recently published “Speculative Loading” plugin.
According to the write-up, the plugin can give you “near-instant page load times.”
That should help your Core Web Vitals scores.
How does it work? According to WordPress, the Speculative Loading plugin makes use of the Speculation Rules API. That’s an API that allows you to define rules about which kinds of URLs get prefetched or prerendered.
Keep in mind: that it’s still an experimental plugin. And it requires Chrome 121 or higher.
7. Are RPM Earnings Dropping on Google Ads?
Lots of publishers seem to think so.
A thread on Google Support Forums highlights the problem. The original poster starts off with this complaint: “My RPM and earnings dropped like crazy 3 days ago.”
More than 170 people clicked the “I have the same question button.” And the replies contain testimonies of folks experiencing similar issues.
RPM, in case you’re wondering, stands for “Revenue per 1,000 impressions.” It’s a way some marketers measure the value of their ads against traffic.
In any case, if you’re experiencing a similar drop in revenue, you’re not alone.
8. Are Domains With Hyphens Bad?
That’s the question posed on a Reddit thread this past week.
Fortunately, Google’s John Mueller replied with an answer.
“It used to be that domain names with a lot of hyphens were considered (by users? or by SEOs assuming users would? it's been a while) to be less serious - since they could imply that you weren't able to get the domain name with fewer hyphens,” he said. “Nowadays there are a lot of top-level domains so it's less of a thing.”
Mueller went on to say that you should pick something for the long run instead of focusing on keywords.
9. Which Search Engine Does Gen Z Prefer?
They still love the Big G.
According to a report by Axios, 46% of folks aged 18-24 start info requests with Google. That compared to 58% of those aged 25-39.
Twenty-one percent of Gen Z’ers start searches with TikTok. Only 5% start with YouTube.
Some searchers prefer social media for more “authentic answers,” according to the report. That’s because you can get smaller bits of info from different sources. And no ads at the top.
Finally, Gen Z reports high satisfaction scores with Google’s Search Generative Experience.
10. What’s the Latest in Google Automatic Ads?
Google just announced a new ad format called “ad intents.” It links anchors into text on your website related to your content.
When a user engages with one of those anchors, the page will open a dialog box that shows related search results with ads that can help boost your revenue.
The new ad format is purely optional. You’re welcome to exclude ad intents from your website if you’d rather go with your existing advertising strategy.
11. How Would You Like to Work With a Virtual Influencer?
You can do that soon, thanks to TikTok.
According to a report published by The Information, TikTok is developing an army of virtual influencers. Unsurprisingly, they use AI tech.
The influencers will read scripts for video ads. The scripts are created from prompts.
And who provides the prompts? You do.
Everything is still in the testing phase. So a lot can change between now and the official release date.
12. Would You Like More Control Over Where Your Ads Appear on TikTok?
According to a new announcement by TikTok, you now get to choose where your ads appear. And, more importantly, you get to choose where they don’t appear.
You’ve got two options:
- Category exclusion - decide if you want your ads to appear alongside gambling, violent video game, combat sports, and youth content.
- Vertical sensitivity controls - select the industry verticals relevant to your campaigns.
TikTok also expanded its partnership with third-party verification companies to provide post-campaign analytics
Homework
Enjoy the Spring flowers and then take care of these action items:
- If you advertise on TikTok, make sure you take advantage of those new brand safety tools.
- Keep an eye on your RPM numbers on Google Ads. If they’re dropping, take action.
- Talk to your development team about the advantages of using speculative loading for your WordPress websites.
- Keep an eye on your ad spend on Meta. You may have to scale back until the company can fix some of its technical problems.
News 4/8/2024 to 4/12/2024
This week: Learn which types of posts get the most engagement on LinkedIn, uncover the most popular forms of influencer content, and dive into the newest API.
Here's what happened this week in the digital marketing news:
1. Which Types of Posts Get the Most Engagement on LinkedIn?
The folks at SocialInsider conducted a study to answer that very question.
Here are a few key findings from the research:
- Multi-image posts get the most likes and comments
- Videos get the most shares
- Polls generate the highest impression rate
- Multi-image posts with brief captions have the highest engagement rate
Social Insider also says that the overall engagement rate on LinkedIn increased 44% year-over-year.
The study looked at pages with a follower count between 1,000 and 1 million during the period ranging from January 2022 to December 2023.
2. eMarketer Reports Most Popular Form of Influencer Content
What’s the most popular form of influencer content on social media?
If you guessed cooking, that’s correct.
According to eMarketer, cooking recipes are the most popular form at 51% and are preferred over product reviews, tutorials, and lifestyle content.
3. Is Video a Valuable Tool for B2B Marketers?
It would appear so.
LinkedIn released an infographic this past week highlighting the value of video in B2B marketing.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
- 59% of B2B marketers identified video as a leading marketing technique they intend to use this year
- 2 out 3 marketers say they’ll increase video use in the coming year
- Video facilitates authentic storytelling
LinkedIn also shared the various tools it provides that can help with video marketing.
4. YouTube Shopping Updates Bring New Efficiency to Creators
Speaking of YouTube, the platform introduced new updates for shopping creators.
- Shopping Collections: Set up their own collections to show off their favorite products. They show up in your product list, store tab, and video description.
- Affiliate Hub: Access to the latest list of Shopping partners, competitive commission rates, promo codes, and the ability to request samples from top brands.
- Tagging: Tag products and merchandise across the entire video library at once
- Fourthwall: Makes it easier for creators to create and manage stories directly in YouTube Studio
5. Why Does Google Show Reddit Search Results So Often?
That’s the essence of a question posed by Lily Ray this past week on X. She was particularly concerned about YMYL queries returning results with Reddit threads.
In response, Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan answered by saying that the Reddit panel appears if the Google search algo determines that it’s “relevant and useful.”
Sullivan also said that, while SEOs might not appreciate the Reddit panel toward the top of the search results, searchers do appreciate it.
“They proactively seek it out,” he said. “It makes sense for us to be showing it to keep the search results relevant and satisfying for everyone.”
Sullivan also said that he’d pass Ray’s feedback to the search team.
6. Should You Disallow Internal Footer Links?
Nope.
That’s according to John Mueller.
Recently on Reddit, somebody asked the following question: “Big site I'm working on and client has a handful of pages in their footer that have no backlinks, traffic, nor authority score. These pages however, according to client are important for some people there. Should I disallow them in Robots but keep them in footer?”
Mueller replied: “If you do this, future-you will be annoyed by the problems current-you is creating.”
In the past, Mueller has criticized the practice of making internal links nofollow.
“I think it’s a waste of time to do that,” he said.
7. Are You Ignoring Bing to Your Peril?
So what’s the story with that “other” search engine these days?
According to Bing PM Fabrice Canel, “Bing usage extends beyond what many search engine optimizers (SEOs) may realize.”
He pointed to a Statcounter chart showing Bing steadily (although slowly) gaining market share since 2019.
“Additionally,” he said, “it’s important to remember that Bing powers several other search engines, including DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Ask, Ecosia, Swisscows and more surfaces as Windows, Copilot and more. If you sum up all, the impact is even more significant.”
8. Does Google Use Ad Strength in the Ad Auction?
According to Google’s Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin, Google does not use ad strength in the ad auction.
The subject came up on X recently, with Marvin saying that ad strength “is a diagnostic tool that was developed to help advertisers understand how the diversity and relevancy of their creative assets can maximize the number of ad combinations that may show for a query.”
She went on to say that ad strength could explain the lack of impressions. But it would never prevent ads from entering into auctions.
9. Who Is Snapchat Partnering With These Days?
This past week, Snapchat announced a series of new partnerships. The integrations will help you get the most out of advertising on the platform.
First up: Snap announced a partnership with Snowflake. That will enable you to “quickly implement Snap’s Conversions API (CAPI) signal solution without needing to build a bespoke back-end integration.”
Snapchat is also partnering with AppsFlyer. That’s an iOS-specific product that gives you insight via Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) attribution.
Finally, Snap is updating its Event Quality Score (EQS). Use that to “understand signal health with greater precision.”
Homework
While the April showers are falling, you should have plenty of time to take care of these action items:
- Take a look at the TikTok guide on promoted posts to learn more about how to turn organic posts into ads.
- If you’re in the B2B space, put together a strategy for using videos on LinkedIn.
- And take a look at that study on which types of posts get the most engagement on LinkedIn. Make sure you’re creating that type of content.
- Take advantage of those new Snap partnerships to get more insight into your marketing on Snapchat.
News 4/1/2024 to 4/5/2024
This week: Find out where mobile advertising is growing the quickest, what new targeting features Meta is revealing, and how much time you should be focusing on backlinks.
Here's what happened this week in digital marketing.
1. U.S. Mobile Advertising Is Growing Rapidly
US mobile ad spending will cross $200 billion this year, representing over half (51.2%) of total media dollars spent in the US and nearly two-thirds (66.0%) of digital ad dollars. The vast majority of mobile ad spending will take place in apps.
So, where is mobile advertising growing most quickly?
Apps will reach a dominant 81.9% share of mobile ad spending this year, but mobile web advertising also continues to add more dollars each year. Amazon accounted for 40% of ecommerce sales, and 4% of retail sales in 2023.
2. Gen Z Still Spends More Time on TikTok Than Any Other Age Group
According to eMarketer, time spent on social media among US adults who use social platforms will peak at an average of 1 hour and 50 minutes (1:50) next year (2025).
TikTok is still tops among most generations, but its growth is slowing—even among Gen Z. While it’s still incredibly popular, the app’s heyday could be coming to an end as it matures and deals with user gripes like its increased ad load and frustrations with TikTok Shop.
3. Meta's New Targeting Options Within Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns
No, this wasn’t an April Fool’s joke.
On Monday, Meta revealed new capabilities, allowing you to generate reporting breakdowns of your audience. Specifically reporting on those who have yet to convert.
New features include:
- Enhanced Audience Insights: Use it to define your engaged customers from the rest of your audience
- Demographics By Audience: Within the Reports breakdown, you’ll see separate rows for New Customers, Existing Customers, and Engaged Customers
When using Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, advertisers turn over most targeting control to the platform.
These new tools will help marketers analyze how many sales come from new customers vs. current customers, and how many people are engaging with your brand without converting.
4. Do Google's 'Top Ads' Always Appear at the Top?
Not necessarily.
Google recently updated its ads help document. Here’s how it now reads: “Top ads are adjacent to the top organic search results. Top ads are generally above the top organic results, although top ads may show below the top organic results on certain queries. Placement of top ads is dynamic and may change based on the user’s search.”
The Google help page says the same thing.
So “top ads” might not be the correct phrase to describe them.
Google’s Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, says that the definition change doesn’t affect how performance metrics are calculated.
5. YouTube Works to Provide Creators With Deeper, Valuable Insights
YouTube wants content creators to optimize their content more effectively. To do so, they need to understand what content their audience likes.
So, they’re rolling out three new updates:
- Live Stream Reaction Analytics: Creators can monitor viewers’ reactions in real-time, seeing data on the number and types of reactions from viewers
- Impression Breakdown: See the number of impressions segmented by new vs returning viewers for a clearer view of what content your audience likes
- HDR Live Streaming: Provide your viewers with higher-quality video. Think crispier whites and deeper blacks, and colors that pop
You’ll find the tool in YouTube Studio Analytics.
6. Are You Spending Too Much Time Focusing on Backlinks?
This past week on the SEO subreddit, somebody asked why Google Search Console shows a couple of backlinks for a web page whereas Ahrefs shows nothing.
Google’s John Mueller responded to that.
“There’s no objective way to count links on the web,” he said. He went on to say that every tool has its own method for collecting backlinks.
He also said that digital marketers “should not focus” on backlinks.
“There are more important things for websites nowadays, and over-focusing on links will often result in you wasting your time doing things that don't make your website better overall.”
7. Will Small Improvements in Core Web Vitals Boost Your Rank?
It doesn’t look that way.
In a recent Search Off the Record podcast, John Mueller said that obsessing over your yellow or even red Core Web Vitals scores won’t bear much fruit.
“I think a big issue is also that site owners sometimes over-fixate on the metrics themselves,” he said. “They see some number, and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to get this to like some other number, some higher state.’ And then they spend months of time working on this. And they see this as they’re doing something for their Search rankings.”
Mueller went on to say that “incremental changes” probably won’t be visible in search.
8. How Can You Get Additional Insights From Reddit?
Reddit just announced a partnership with Cision. It’s an integration that enables Cision users to gather trend info from Reddit’s 100,000 active online communities.
“Cision provides a social suite that monitors public conversations about brands, topics, products, and campaigns,” Reddit said in a statement. “By accessing Reddit’s Data API, Cision can layer more rich and real-time insights into their suite of products. This will give customers a richer view of consumer preferences, empowering them to develop data-driven marketing and communication strategies faster and with greater accuracy.”
And Cision says it will use Reddit’s API to “supercharge” the development of AI-driven reputation and audience analysis tools.
9. How Is X Doing These Days?
According to a new report by Edison Research, Twitter/X usage dropped 30% in the past year.
The research shows that the number of U.S.-based X users fell from 77 million in 2023 to 55 million this year.
Other recent third-party reports also show a decline in X usage. None of them show a drop of 30%, though.
X, for its part, says that it has 250 million daily active users worldwide. That’s the same amount from November 2022.
10. When Is the Best Time to Make Changes for the Core Update?
Recently on Reddit, somebody asked if the March Core Update has finished rolling out yet and when to start making changes to his website in line with the new changes.
The website owner also said that the site lost 60% of its traffic already.
In response, John Mueller answered that no, the core update hasn’t finished rolling out yet. And he told the SEO to start making changes right away.
“Regardless, if you have noticed things that are worth improving on your site, I’d go ahead and get things done,” he said. “The idea is not to make changes just for search engines, right? Your users will be happy if you can make things better even if search engines haven’t updated their view of your site yet.”
11. Can You Use ChatGPT Without a Login?
You can now.
A recent announcement from OpenAI offers this good news: “Starting today, you can use ChatGPT instantly, without needing to sign-up.”
OpenAI also says that content shared in ChatGPT might be used for training its large language model (LLM). However, the company says you can turn that off via the Settings.
And then there’s this: “By sending a message, you agree to our Terms. Read our Privacy Policy. Don’t share sensitive info. Chats may be reviewed and used to train our models. Learn about your choices.”
Be careful out there.
12. Are Websites Recovering From The Core Update?
I mentioned last week that no sites hit by the recent Helpful Content Update have recovered. But what about sites that got adversely impacted by the Core Update?
According to Glenn Gabe, some of them have bounced back. He posted a few screenshots on X this past week showing organic traffic recoveries.
Regarding the Helpful Content Update, though, he also posted this: “Checked the visibility of 360+ sites impacted by the Sep HCU(X) and none have bounced back at all still. Most are down even more.”
Looks like those folks are in trouble.
Homework
Before the NCAA basketball season comes to a close, take care of these action items:
- If you think your site got hit by either one of the recent updates, feel free to take action now. There’s no reason to wait any longer.
- If you’re into Reddit marketing, take a look at the Cision integration to gain more trend insights.
- Also, take a look at those new YouTube analytics to learn more about the people watching your videos.