April digital round-up has been a difficult one to write… There were so many updates worth talking about but we’ve managed to choose a few of the important ones from Google, Apple and some social media channels.
This one is definitely one to read and take notes!
Learn more about the IOS update, new ad options coming to TikTok and Google’s page experience report below:
Contents
Google launches new Page Experience report
Google just announced that the full Page Experience rollout due in May 2021 will be delayed, with completion of the update now expected in August. Despite the delay, the new Page Experience report in Google Search Console is now live, with additional features anticipated over the next few months.
Marketers now have access to performance insights to see how well their site pages are doing and where the opportunities for improvement lie. The new Page Experience report focuses on the three Core Web Vitals metrics:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
The three Core Web Vitals, together with other aspects such as HTTPS security and mobile-friendliness, will provide details on how your website is performing and how to improve these metrics to boost SEO and subsequently elevate your ranking positions in the SERP.
This gives website owners and marketers an opportunity to address any issues prior to the full Page Experience rollout. Have you checked your Page Experience report to find out how your site holds up?
Auto-Applied Recommendations Available in Google Ads
Recommendations have long been a feature of Google Ads but the addition of auto-applied recommendations was the result of account holder feedback indicating that reviewing and implementing changes to ad campaigns could sometimes be too time-consuming. And follows a similar feature launched recently for Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads).
Google has assembled the recommendations into 17 groups that can be chosen or not depending on the suitability of your campaign or business. The Recommendations page details when ad suggestions will be applied automatically and gives you the chance to apply, edit or dismiss them.
It’s worth noting that you can only apply recommendations automatically on the account level. Ad suggestions will automatically apply 14 days after they’re created unless you proactively apply, edit or dismiss them beforehand.
Any ad suggestion that becomes auto-applied after 14 days will be marked as an ‘Auto-applied ad suggestion’ on the Ads & extensions page. Full control over whether to apply, dismiss, pause or edit them will remain.
The recommendations are designed to improve campaign performance and not increase budget but it’s still worth reviewing if the performance of the changes is being limited by your budget.
Instagram launches ‘Instagram Insider’ Digital Magazine
Instagram has just launched the first edition of their digital magazine ‘Instagram Insider’. The magazine is actually targeting Instagram users but involves some very valuable information for marketers as well.
There are different sections for upcoming trends, which creators to follow, a spotlight on small businesses and even a Q&A section which helped answer a lot of questions people have around Instagram’s features and what else is coming to the platform in the future. Here are some of the answers we’ve seen in the magazine:
‘We initially tested making like counts private in hopes of reducing the pressure some people say they feel on social media. Now we’ve started testing a new version where you can choose whether or not you see likes.’
‘Swipe up links have historically been available to large accounts because we viewed them as a professional tool and not something regular ol’ users needed. As we speak, there is a team working on some ideas that should be even more exciting than a swipe up.’
Download the magazine here.
TikTok launches lead generation ads
TikTok has just announced that a new ad option will be added to the platform. Lead generation forms are now a feature you can use with your TikTok ads. There will be a call-to-action button on your ads which will take people to your customised lead gen form and let them add their contact details in if they want to be contacted by the advertiser.
The forms can be automatically filled in with the information TikTok already has on the account holder and you can customise certain parts of the forms like the background images and questions to suit your individual needs.
TikTok ads and lead gen forms can be an interesting combination, how do you feel about it?
iOS 14.5 has arrived: the impact on tracking and ads
After months of waiting, the fateful update of Apple’s operating system has arrived and it will change the game in the world of advertising: iOS 14.5 will introduce important new features on devices that install it, including the ability for apps to track the behaviour of users only after their explicit consent.
Privacy according to Apple
The American company is the spokesman for the protection of its customers, ensuring new privacy criteria: the claim used by Apple is “Privacy. This is iPhone”. It doesn’t leave any room for interpretation: the protection of users’ personal data comes first.
With its latest iOS 14.5 update, Apple introduces App Tracking Transparency, a new system to protect against the tracking of users using apps installed on their devices: apps will only be able to obtain users’ data with prior authorisation, which is requested via notification when the app is opened, once the operating system has been updated.
If you have an iPhone and have updated your operating system, you will certainly have noticed these notifications.
The aim of App Transparency Tracking, as Apple says, is precisely to prevent apps from tracking users’ behaviour and obtaining data that is not necessary for their business, which is often passed on to third parties for advertising purposes. The user will now have full decision-making power on when and if to be tracked.
But what implications does this change bring?
First of all, it has an impact on the Facebook ecosystem: with this decision, Apple has set itself against the core business of large companies such as Facebook, whose revenues are largely derived from companies that decide to advertise on the platform.
This opens up a scenario in which advertising using tracking, remarketing audiences and conversions will no longer be so simple.
Facebook Ads: how user tracking is changing
With the iOS 14.5 update being released, the big players in the advertising industry, including Facebook, have certainly not been idle.
Facebook itself, after Apple announced the release of the update, has in turn informed its advertisers of new guidelines to be relied upon from now on:
Users will all be excluded from ad tracking by default. It will therefore be their choice whether to accept app tracking or not. Facebook itself estimates that this could mean a reduction of up to 60% in revenue for every dollar spent on ads.
Consequently, all events and conversions generated by users who have not consented to tracking will not be taken into account by Facebook in any way, and those users will not be included in advertisers’ custom audiences.
As previously announced, the way in which user behaviour is tracked through Facebook’s new Event Management settings will change, thus reducing the degree of accuracy of the tool.
How to deal with the change?
Facebook has been specifying for months what guidelines to follow in order to deal with this major change. If you are in charge of Facebook Ads and have not yet prepared your business manager for the change, we recommend that you follow these three steps:
- Verify the domain of your website: this option is present in the settings of your business manager. Facebook recommends that everyone completes the domain verification, but emphasises this for all advertisers who have installed the Facebook Pixel on their website.
- Choose 8 conversions to track: it will no longer be possible to decide to track all events, for all users. Each advertiser will then be able to select their main conversion events directly within the Facebook Event Manager. Campaigns that use events that are no longer supported will be paused.
- Prioritise the right conversion: the 8 selected events should be entered in order of importance. For each user, it will then be possible to track a single event based on the actions they take. Priority will be given to the tracking of the events selected as most important. This may mean a clear decrease in the amount of tracked events
Tough times lie ahead for digital marketers and social media managers. The change will bring with it a lot of unknowns and advertising performance will almost certainly be disrupted by the new rules introduced by Apple.
