Digital Roundup – January 2025
Welcome to this month’s digital roundup! Each month, we bring you the latest platform developments that are crucial for your marketing strategies. Dive into the key November updates that you need to know about, all outlined below.
Contents
Are You Paying Enough Attention To BlueSky?
Despite having far fewer followers on their BlueSky pages, some users are finding that their engagement and conversion rates are 3-4x better compared to other platforms like X and Threads.
This could be down to a couple of factors – the smaller number of users means there is likely to be less saturation on the platform and so posts will be more visible to the audience, and posts containing links are not demoted unlike on X.
Microsoft’s Launched Multi-Format Ads
Microsoft has just introduced multi-format ads, which are similar to Dynamic Ads from Google. This new ad format allows advertisers to deliver a variety of ad formats within a single campaign.
This development offers greater flexibility and potential for enhanced engagement with target audiences.
AI Overviews Are Growing (Literally)
You’ve probably seen AI Overviews, AIOs, in your search engine result pages since the middle of last year. However, since launch the average length of an AIO on a Google results page, has increased from 600px to 800px. As this new feature is positioned at the top of the SERP, the increase in size has further pushed traditional organic results down the page.
For any Semrush users, looking to report on their organic SERP results, you can now filter by AIO as a SERP Feature.
Local Searches Are Getting Social
There’s been a lot of discussion online about why social media SEO matters and how social media is becoming a search engine. However, something new is search engines becoming more social. Google is taking social media videos about nearby places and putting them in to a carousel for local searches called ‘Places people are talking about’.
This will probably cause a larger focus on UGC not just for social media, but to also take advantage of this new feature.
Google Search Console Launches “24 Hours”
This new feature does what it says in the name, it shows performance data from the last 24 hours with minimal delay. The feature includes hourly data breakdowns and works across Search, Discover, and News reports.
This feature has helped Google cut data delay times by nearly half, improving performance tracking.
Instagram Tests More Features
Last year, Instagram pushed new features hard, and it doesn’t look like that is going to change in 2025.
- They have reportedly been testing new scheduled DMs.
- Screenshot prevention has been added for DMs that are sent with the “view once” setting enabled.
- “Trial Reels” is a new feature that lets users share reels exclusively with your non-following audience.
- Instagram is testing the option to hide your view count on Reels on your profile.
Stay Up To Date With Marketing
Digital marketing is ever-evolving, with new social media channels, new forms of searching for content and updates to algorithms and consumer changes. It’s important to stay up to date with the latest information to ensure your marketing is moving towards hitting your goals and targets.
Never miss what’s happening in the industry again, with monthly news highlights and tips from digital marketing experts delivered straight to your inbox.
