Industry Focus for Friday, November 4, 2022
It’s November and you know what that means. It’s officially holiday season! We’ve replaced our Michael Myers masks with Santa hats and are here to deliver what’s at the top of your weekly wish list, fresh marketing trends!
This week, we’re taking a look at what’s new with some of the platforms and tools we utilize on a daily basis. Digital marketing success may sometimes seem random and the volume of trends, updates, new features, and outside forces can be overwhelming if you’re not properly equipped.
This is why at iFocus Marketing, we believe in pairing the right people with the right tools to draw insights and make calculated decisions for our clients to see results in website traffic, leads, and conversions.
These tools we wield are not static, so we can’t afford to be either. We like to stay on top of changes and trends to keep our insights relevant and impactful.
Here are the changes we’re adapting to this week and some of the insights we can draw from these new tools.
“Google Introduces Ads Data Hub for Marketers and Measurement Partners” by Nicole Farley in Search Engine Land
Google’s Ads Data Hub has introduced a separate dedicated platform for measurement partners in a move that will benefit all stakeholders. While the Ads Data Hub has long been a tool that helps advertisers analyze their data for valuable insights, Google has recognized that measurement partners can benefit from the opportunity to perform custom analysis as well. Splitting the Ads Data Hub into two separate platforms allows for more specialization in the tools and information provided to advertisers and measurement partners.
-Submitted by Alisha Ahern, Senior Digital Marketing Strategist
“Google Is Getting Rid of Similar Audiences Segments” by Nicole Farley in Search Engine Land
Similar audience segments will become an automation casualty starting in May 2023. By August 2023, all similar audience segments will be replaced by “more powerful, tested, privacy-centric automated solutions” called Optimized Targeting and Audience Expansion. Optimized targeting is meant to remove the reliance on third-party cookies for conversions of relevant audiences. Google predicts that advertisers using optimized targeting can see an average of 55 percent improvement. These features are currently available on the Google Ads platform, and now is a good time to start exploring them before it becomes a requirement to do so.
-Submitted by Amie Veach, Digital Marketing Strategist
“Twitter Is Planning to Start Charging $20 per Month for Verification” by Alex Heath in The Verge
With its recent ownership change, Twitter is all over the news (spoiler alert)! One of the biggest stories in the Twitterverse is the decision by Elon Musk to expand Twitter’s paid subscription service, Twitter Blue, into a $19.99 monthly paid verification mechanism for users to have their blue check mark and enjoy the benefits of being verified on the platform. The message has been that once the new verification is implemented, verified accounts will have 90 days to subscribe to the $19.99/month service or lose their coveted blue checkmark. Naturally, many people who have worked hard to build a following and earn their check are pushing back, but this doesn’t look like it’s going away. In fact, we’ll have a resolution rather quickly as Musk has given a November 7 launch date, or jobs will be lost. We’re not sure where this is headed, but it’s something we’re watching as this could have implications on social media for years.
-Submitted by Brandon Tietz, Senior Digital Copywriter
“Saudi Prince Alwaleed Becomes Twitter’s Second Largest Shareholder” by Matt Durot in Forbes
As promised, another piece of juicy Twitter news! If nothing else sent the message that Elon Musk’s Twitter is here to stay a while, this piece of news may have confirmed it for those last few doubters. In somewhat of a surprise, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia confirmed that he stayed true to his $1.9 billion commitment to the acquisition, establishing him as the ever-changing social media platform’s second-largest shareholder behind only Musk. Because of Prince Alwaleed’s heavy involvement in the U.S. market and the recent plummet of tech industry stock, some followers of the acquisition were skeptical that this announcement would come. This essentially seals the deal on the acquisition and locks Musk into influence he has already started to throw around at Twitter.
-Submitted by Joyce Wong, Project Manager
“2023 Is Going to Be Bad for Marketing, But There’s Hope” by Neil Patel
While this title speaks to gloom and doom in the digital marketing industry in 2023, we wanted to focus on this piece because of its use of tools and data to draw not only discouraging insights for 2023, but also potential solutions to problems that may be on the horizon. Analyzing economic trends and data will tell us that a global recession is coming and that will cause businesses to cut back on ad spending, especially in the industries seeing the highest drops in revenue. Further analysis will lead you to other outside factors like interest rates, supply chain issues, oil and energy prices, and even the ongoing war. This should signal panic for a digital marketing agency like iFocus, right? Wrong! Because the data can giveth just as it can taketh away, and marketing industry data points to businesses transitioning their traditional ad spend into more efficient and cost-effective options like conversion optimization and SEO, areas that we excel in. This is a message that not all bad news is actually bad news in digital marketing, and it is important to utilize ALL data and tools available to complete the picture you need to draw insights from.
-Submitted by Kandice Gerdes, Account Operations Manager
Tools Are Nothing Without the Right Experts to Use Them; Make iFocus Your Digital Marketing Experts
Don’t think we leave the learning and adapting to our weekly gift of industry insights; it’s in the fabric of who we are. You’ll always find the iFocus team taking the initiative to stay up-to-date in our knowledge of the tools and platforms that allow us to grow our client businesses and help them reach their goals and potential new heights.
The commitment to staying fresh and relevant shows in our results, especially in saturated online marketplaces with many similar competitors. You need forward thinkers and adaptable specialists bringing your business to the forefront of industry conversations.
Who better than the people who bring that conversation to you every week? Schedule a discovery call with us today.
