A monthly update on overall marketing trends, PPC search and social, SEO, and development trends.

July is here, and we’ve got another Digital Marketing Industry Insights for you all. We ship these newsletters to our team and clients on the first of every month.

With the digital marketing landscape moving so quickly, we truly believe that keeping everyone one step ahead is crucial, and we’re committed to getting new and helpful information circulating within our circle. And so, without further ado!

Overall Marketing Trends:

• REMINDER Shopify Checkout Extensibility
  • A big change is coming to Shopify’s checkout that needs to be taken care of before 8/13/24 for Shopify Plus users (non-Shopify Plus users have until 8/25/25). We’ve put together a blog post in the link above that outlines exactly what’s happening and how to take care of it before it becomes a bigger issue.
• U.S. Consumer Confidence
  • U.S. consumer confidence fell slightly in June due to ongoing concerns about the economy’s future, despite positive views on the current job market. Uncertainty stems from persistent worries about inflation and potential economic downturns.

Search Insights:

• Google Ads Forcing Users Off Credit Cards
  • Google Ads is requiring some advertisers to switch from credit card payments to bank-based payment methods such as ACH, wire transfer, or paper check by July 31, 2024. Failure to comply will result in account suspension. Be sure to check your email and accounts and make the adjustment as soon as possible to not be impacted.
• YouTube Embeds Videos Into Ads to Beat Ad Blockers
  • YouTube is testing a new method of embedding ads directly into video streams to counteract ad blockers. This “server-side ad injection” makes ads indistinguishable from video content, effectively bypassing ad-blocking software and enhancing ad visibility
• Microsoft Ads Will Automatically Import Google Ads Conversion Data
  • Microsoft Advertising will soon start automatically importing Google Ads conversion data for advertisers who have previously imported data from Google Ads. This feature, which has now been rolled out, aims to streamline workflow but can be opted out of in the import settings to prevent potential issues.
• Google Ads Changes Query Matching Brand Controls
  • Google Ads has updated its query matching and brand controls, improving how misspelled queries are reported and allowing negative keywords to block all misspellings. Additionally, new brand inclusions for broad match campaigns and brand exclusions across all match types and Dynamic Search Ads have been introduced.
• Google Ads tROAS Insight Box for Performance Max
  • Google Ads is testing a new tROAS Insight Box for Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns. This feature provides insights on whether actual ROAS is within the expected range, using historical campaign data to project conversions and assess performance against targets.

Amazon Insights:

• Amazon Uses AI to Spot Product Defects Before Shipping 
  • Amazon has introduced an AI-driven system called “Project P.I.” to detect product defects and incorrect shipments. This technology uses computer vision and generative AI to identify issues such as wrong sizes or damaged items, enhancing the accuracy of their shipping process and reducing returns.
• Amazon Announces July Prime Day Dates: July 16th & 17th
  • Amazon Prime Day has been announced! This year, Prime Day will land on July 16th & 17th. Make sure you get your deals in! 
• Seller-Fulfilled Subscribe & Save Orders Starting June 27th
  • Historically, Amazon locked sellers into their network by making subscribe & save exclusive to FBA. Now, Amazon is allowing Merchant Fulfilled subscriptions Now, brands and sellers with extensive fulfillment networks can use Seller Fulfilled Prime and Seller Fulfilled Subscribe & Save to help “level the playing field” and pull away from other sellers.
  • Sellers must opt out from automatic enrollment if they don’t wish to participate!

Social Insights:

• LinkedIn Removes User Targeting For Groups Data 
  • Linkedin has stopped allowing advertisers to target users in Europe based on Groups data to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act. This change is specific to Europe with no mention of the change rolling out to the US at this time. 
• Meta Is Hyper-Focused On Young Adults & AI 
  • Tom Alison, Head of Facebook, recently released an updated vision for Facebook. They’re focusing on expanding their AI Capabilities with a goal of producing the best recommendation technology in the world by 2026. They highlighted that active users numbers for Young Adults (ages 18-29) in the US and CA are at a 3-year high. 
• TikTok Announces Deals For You Days On July 9th
  • TikTok announced that it will be partnering with popular TikTok Shop brands to offer discounts. This comes just two days after Amazon announced its Prime Day will take place on July 16th and 17th. The move comes in contrast with last year, when TikTok offered Prime Day-specific targeting options for advertisers to send traffic to Amazon. 
• Brands Are Loving Metas New AI Chatbots 
  • Last month we talked about Meta releasing it’s new chatbot with LLama 3, but this month we’re seeing it have a real-world impact. Brands are seeing a 20% reduction in customer support costs. 
• TikTok Filed Their Opening Brief In Federal Court 
  • TikTok is fighting the ban they’ve deemed unconstitutional in Federal Count. On June 20th they filed their Opening Brief in an effort to overturn the ruling. 

SEO Insights:

• Digital Position SEO Findings
  • Lately we’ve been noticing blogs over 1-2 years old, even though they may not contain outdated information, are dropping like flies in rankings. Across all different industries, we’re seeing increasing importance in refreshing old content even as little as a sentence or two of old content to show search engines that you’re paying attention to stay fresh and relevant with your content.
• Google is Killing Infinite Scroll on Search Results
  • Google began removing the continuous scrolling search results on desktop 6/25 and will remove the feature from mobile results in the “coming months”
  • Search Results will return to their previous Paginated structure
• Google’s Recent AI Overview Update
  • Google is actively working to improve AI Overview responses as they faced lots of backlash for inaccurate results in May. They have implemented over a dozen technical improvements, including better detection of nonsensical queries and limiting user-generated content, while maintaining strong monitoring and feedback mechanisms
• Google Business Profile chat and call history going away
  • Google will shut down the Google Business Profile chat and call history features on July 31, 2024, with new chats being disabled from July 15, 2024.
• Google Released June 2024 Spam Update
  • Google’s June 2024 spam update aims to enhance spam detection and removal, impacting search rankings over the week it was released. It has since finished rolling out. Sites affected should review Google’s spam policies to ensure compliance.

Development and Conversion Tracking Insights:

• Changes to TikTok Pixel
  • TikTok is upgrading pixel functionality to include landing page data, enhancing ad delivery and setup recommendations. This update applies to new pixels immediately and existing ones from July 31, 2023, with an opt-out option available in Events Manager. 
• Google Analytics Introduces New Metrics for User Conversion Tracking
  • Google Analytics has introduced “User Key Event Rate” and “Session Key Event Rate” metrics to enhance user conversion tracking. These new metrics will automatically integrate into User Acquisition and Traffic Acquisition reports, providing businesses with detailed insights into user engagement and conversion rates to improve marketing strategies.
• Prepare for phasing out third-party cookies
  • Chrome has restricted third-party cookies for 1% of its users to prepare for their deprecation in early 2025, urging sites to adopt more private alternatives.
• Universal Analytics Data Will be Gone on July 1st
  • Starting July 1, 2024, users will lose access to all Universal Analytics data, with properties showing deletion notices, though active BigQuery backfills will continue until completed if started by June 30, 2024.

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That wraps up our Digital Marketing Industry Insights for this month! Keep an eye out for these updates every month, and if you have any questions, you can book a discovery call with us or email us at info@digitalposition.com!