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Good Afternoon, welcome back to our weekly roundup of the latest digital news and trends at Intelligency.

This week, Google finished the produce review update, Auto-GPT took the news by storm, and TikTok launched its shop.

Let’s dive right in and learn some more about each.

Google’s April Product Review Update Finishes Roll Out

This week, Google’s April 2023 Product Review update finished rolling out. Due to the scope of this update, many publishers were affected for better or worse.

Google announced the end of the rollout on the Search Status Dashboard.

“Incident affecting Ranking
Released the April 2023 reviews update.

Incident began at 2023-04-12 09:00 and ended at 2023-04-25 11:24 (all times are US/Pacific).

DATE TIME DESCRIPTION
25 Apr 2023 11:24 PDT

The rollout was complete as of April 25, 2023.”

What changed in the update?

The main change is that product review updates will affect more than just products in the future.

The algorithm that’s improved in these updates is called the “reviews system”. It scans review-based content such as recommendations for physical products, services, films, and more.

Google’s guidance on the reviews system can be read below:

“The reviews system is designed to evaluate articles, blog posts, pages or similar first-party standalone content written with the purpose of providing a recommendation, giving an opinion, or providing analysis.

It does not evaluate third-party reviews, such as those posted by users in the reviews section of a product or services page.”

Google’s review system examines content on a page-by-page basis, however, if the primary content of a site is reviews, it can carry out a whole-site examination.

If you want your review content to be rewarded by Google and to rank higher, then it’s worth reading Write high-quality reviews.

Update reception

The reception to the update was less than positive, one WebWasterWorld forum member posted this about the update

“Umpteenth review update is finished:

Nothing positive to say, so I won’t for now.”

And another member talked about how the recent updates have affected them

“Seeing big drops again. We recovered to the same levels as before the March core update now taking big swings again.

Our mobile traffic is up a bit and desktop traffic is way down.

Conversions seem to be steady but much less impressions and clicks shown in GSC.

Not sure what’s going on but I could really use some stability for a while.

Our company is going through a lot at the moment and this is certainly not helping.”

One other member responded

“Seeing big drops again. We recovered to the same levels as before the March core update now taking big swings again.

Our mobile traffic is up a bit and desktop traffic is way down.

Conversions seem to be steady but much less impressions and clicks shown in GSC.

Not sure what’s going on but I could really use some stability for a while.

Our company is going through a lot at the moment and this is certainly not helping.”

Remember: always follow Google’s guidance and webmaster guidelines!

What is Auto-GPT?

In the midst of all of the AI craze dominating SEO and marketing news, it only makes sense that we have more in store.

Auto-GPT is a pretty groundbreaking AI technology. It adds new abilities to Chat-GPT, which allows it to complete tasks by itself by giving itself prompts.

Auto-GPT’s buzz has been causing it to trend on Twitter for the last few days.

But what is it?

Well, Auto-GPT is an experimental open-source interface, similar in nature to GPT-4. The technology included in the interface allows it to complete tasks.

All users have to do is provide the interface with a list of tasks, and it will complete them.

This is different from Chat-GPT, which requires multiple, detailed prompts because Auto-GPT can generate its own prompts to complete the tasks you’ve provided.

It can even access websites, use search engines, and can self-evaluate its own accuracy. If it finds information to be incorrect, it will discard it and try and find more, accurate information

Due to the self-generating prompts, Auto-GPT is referred to as an autonomous AI agent.

Github’s Auto-GPT describes the tool as such:

Auto-GPT is an experimental open-source application showcasing the capabilities of the GPT-4 language model.. This program, driven by GPT-4, chains together LLM “thoughts”, to autonomously achieve whatever goal you set.. As one of the first examples of GPT-4 running fully autonomously, Auto-GPT pushes the boundaries of what is possible with AI.

How do I access Auto-GPT?

Accessing Auto-GPT is fairly straightforward.

First, you’ll sign up for a paid open AI account. You can do this by signing up to or logging into OpenAI.

After you’ve got a paid subscription, you’ll need to acquire an OpenAI API. Once acquired, it will connect Auto-GPT to your account, and charge you for whatever amounts you use.

The API (Application Programming Interface) allows Auto-GPT to talk to GPT-4 and ChatGPT.

“The OpenAI API can be applied to virtually any task that involves understanding or generating natural language, code, or images.

We offer a spectrum of models with different levels of power suitable for different tasks, as well as the ability to fine-tune your own custom models.

These models can be used for everything from content generation to semantic search and classification.

…The API is powered by a set of models with different capabilities and price points.

GPT-4 is our latest and most powerful model.

GPT-3.5-Turbo is the model that powers ChatGPT and is optimized for conversational formats.”

How does Auto-GPT pricing work?

You can set hard limits on how much OpenAI will charge you, what your word limit is, and when it will stop working for you.

You can set soft limits, which trigger an email warning, and a hard limit, which is when it will stop.

Pricing is based on a token-per-charge. A token is:

“For English text, 1 token is approximately 4 characters or 0.75 words.”

One hundred tokens cost a fraction of 1 penny.

What can you do with Auto-GPT?

OpenAI users have been experimenting with Auto-GPT to carry out a variety of tasks, such as:

Here’s what happened next:

“First: It went straight to google to find the top 5 waterproof shoes reviews. Once it found links, it created questions for itself like:

“What are the pros and cons of each shoe”

“What are the pros and cons of each top 5 waterproof shoe”

“Top 5 waterproof shoes for men””

and

“It continued to analyze the various sites, with a combination of googling, updating its queries, until it was happy with the results.

Here’s an example of when it thought “critically”.

It knew that some reviews could be biased to fake, so it had to validate the reviewer.”

The entire process took 8 minutes and 10p

The power of AI is truly astonishing, and it will only continue to get more powerful as funding and research increase.

TikTok Shop Beta Launches

Sellers on Tiktok received an invite to try out the TikTok shop this week.

Here’s what the email looked like:

What is TikTok Shop?

It’s an e-commerce section of TikTok designed to boost brand growth and sales on the platform. Users can discover products and purchase from their favourite creators and brands in a smooth experience.

If you join as a seller, then you can use the platform to sell, provide feedback, and use 0% referral fees for 90 days,

To signup, use this signup link.

Here’s what it looks like on the platform:

This beta provides creators on the platform a new way to generate revenue, and for users to support their favourite creators.

We’ll have to see how it plays out to see if it’s worth signing up, creating videos, and selling on Tiktok once the beta is in full swing.

Good Afternoon, welcome back to our weekly roundup of the latest digital news and trends at Intelligency.

This week, Microsoft announced it would no longer use Twitter’s API, Apple updated Safari to be more restrictive for third-party data collection, and Google announced it would be optimising the current crawler’s performance.

Let’s dive right in and learn some more about each.

Microsoft Will No Longer Use Twitter’s API For Ads

In a surprise announcement, marketers using Microsoft Advertising received emails this week from Microsoft. The emails stated that as of the 25th of April 2023, Digital Marketing Center (DMC) would no longer support Twitter.

Due to this, DMC’s social media management tool will no longer allow users to manage a Twitter account. This means that scheduling or creating tweets will no longer be available.

Funnily enough, Microsoft announced this change just a day after Musk appeared at an advertising conference to attract new advertisers. Due to controversies associated with the platform after Musk took over, Twitter lost half of its biggest advertisers.

I suspect that Microsoft is stopping using Twitter due to the fact that the company recently changed its stance on the free API it offered. Intelligency wrote about the API change back in February.

What does DMC do?

The advertising features from Microsoft Advertising allow a user to manage various social media accounts, similar to Hootsuite (another platform affected by the API change). You’re able to respond to tweets (although not after the 25th), direct messages, or messages from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

The social media management is free to use for Microsoft Advertising users and is prominently displayed on the DMC dashboard. You will still be able to create and manage content for other platforms, just not Twitter.

Last year, Microsoft Advertising generated the company $12 billion in digital advertising revenue. So the platform is very profitable for users and Microsoft alike.

If you’re currently using DMC’s social media feature to run Twitter campaigns or manage accounts, you’ll need to reassess your strategy from next week.

It’s important to stay up to date with the latest Twitter news, as the platform seems to shift focus a lot with Elon Musk at the helm. Luckily, Intelligency is keeping track of it!

Safari Third-Party Data Collection Is Reduced

Apple’s Safari browser is renowned industry-wide due to its focus on user privacy. This week, Apple updated it to restrict more data collection methods, much to the ire of digital marketers. This is because Apple didn’t announce it was making the change.

What’s the change then?

Apple has closed a loophole present in Safari allowing websites to pass off third-party partners as third-party cookies. A first-party cookie allows a website to remember a user, saving their settings or not forcing them to log in again.

A substantial amount of websites use third parties in order to improve website functionalities. The typical third parties include Adobe and Google Analytiics. The sites using third parties want said third parties to track its audiences, but since 2017, Safari deprecated them.

Now, websites try to disguise the third-party cookies as first-party cookies, but Apple has attempted to combat this over the years.

Interestingly, in October last year, a GitHub user posted Apple’s intention to try and limit the cloaking technique. Apple would combat it by comparing the incoming response IP address with the main resource response. If the IP address is is significantly different, the cookies would only last for 7 days.

The 7 day cookie limit was designed to hamstring data usage and inferences that can be drawn from them.

A lack of announcement

The reason why marketers aren’t happy with the change is due to the fact that Apple didn’t tell anyone about it in a blog post, nor did they specify when it would be implemented.

The president of Delve, Anton Lipkanou, stated that the change is already live and is creating anomalies in website data.

Apple web developer for Safari Jen Simmons contradicted this however, she stated that the change wasn’t live.

If your businesses’ website uses multiple third-parties in this manner, you may need to reassess the website operations. It’s possible that you could lose a lot of functionality if you rely on a lot of traffic from Apple devices.

Unfortunately, if Apple do make it harder for websites and third-parties, it’s possible that campaigns could be hindered, audience targeting could be less effective, and you may see a lower ROI and diminished marketing efforts.

Google Introduce New Website Crawler

Google introduced a new website crawler called “GoogleOther” this week. The purpose of the new crawler is to optimise the company’s current crawler “Googlebot”.

Web crawlers, robots, or spiders, automatically discover and scan websites online. Once scanned, Googlebot will build the index for Google Search. It’s a fundamental step in how organic search works.

GoogleOther is more of a generic crawler, it will be used by internal teams to fetch content from websites.

Gary Illyes, a Google Search analyst, shared further details on LinkedIn

Googlebot and GoogleOther’s divided responsibilities

GoogleOther will take over generic duties which Googlebot is currently carrying out. This will in turn allow Googlebot to focus on crawling and building the index for Google Search.

GoogleOther will do the other jobs such as R&D crawls.

Illyes put in his post:

“We added a new crawler, GoogleOther to our list of crawlers that ultimately will take some strain off of Googlebot. This is a no-op change for you, but it’s interesting nonetheless I reckon.

As we optimize how and what Googlebot crawls, one thing we wanted to ensure is that Googlebot’s crawl jobs are only used internally for building the index that’s used by Search. For this we added a new crawler, GoogleOther, that will replace some of Googlebot’s other jobs like R&D crawls to free up some crawl capacity for Googlebot.”

What are the implications for site owners?

The good news is that you don’t really have to worry about GoogleOther affecting your site. While still a new crawler, GoogleOther uses the same limitations as Googlebot.

But if you are concerned, here’s some quick fixes or techniques you can do:

• Regularly review server logs to see how often GoogleOther crawls your site.
• Keep your robots.txt file updated with rules for GoogleOther.
• Use Google Search Console to monitor crawl statistics.
• Keep tracking and optimising website performance.

As always, thank you for reading the latest Intelligency Digital Roundup, see you this time next week!

Good afternoon, and happy easter!

Before I get into the roundup stories, I’d like to say that I hope everyone has an excellent easter bank holiday and enjoys the (hopefully) good weather.

Let’s get into this week’s digital marketing and SEO news.

Google’s CEO On The Future Of Search and Bard

This week, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, talked about AI innovation and the impact of Bard on Search. He spoke about it on a podcast called “Hard Fork” from the New York Times.

The conversation with the hosts primarily discussed AI safety, the future of search, and advanced AI tech.

Bard’s launch

Pichai spoke about Google Bard‘s launch. Bard is Google’s rival to Chat GPT and is powered by Google’s AI, LaMDA.

He stated that even though the reception to the test build has been somewhat quiet, a more capable version would release soon.

Assistive and generative AI tools such as Bard have been envisioned to be a part of people’s daily lives.

Bard and Gmail integration

At the moment, Google is testing Bard integration with Gmail with a limited number of users.

“You can go crazy thinking about all the possibilities, because these are very, very powerful technologies. I think, in fact, as we are speaking now, I think today some of those features in Gmail is actually rolling out now externally to trusted testers — a limited number of trusted testers.”

-Sundar Pichai

The advanced AI race

Pichai stated that he was surprised by the positive user reception of ChatGPT so far, and commended OpenAI for making good progress with advancing the tool.

AI incorporation into search

Microsoft’s CEO recently made some comments about how they’d challenge Google with AI tech in search Pichai responded to the comments by stating that the company has incorporated AI into Google for years.

“I would say we’ve been incorporating AI in search for a long, long time.

When we built transformers here, one of the first use cases of Transformer was birthed, and later, MUM. So we literally took transformer models to help improve language understanding and search deeply. And it’s been one of our biggest quality events for many, many years.

And so I think we’ve been incorporating AI in search for a long time. With LLMs, there is an opportunity to more natively bring them into search in a deeper way, which we will. But search is where people come because they trust it to get information right.”

-Sundar Pichai

Responsibility

Pichai stressed that for all the innovation Google wants to do with AI, they will continue to be responsible.

Bard was used as an example, it was explained that Bard has deliberately not been connected to the most capable LaMDA models.

A balance between innovation and responsibility needs to be achieved for any big-tech company.

Google Search’s future

Pichai discussed what the future of Google Search could look like. He offered the idea that the search bar where you type in search queries could be transformed into something resembling a command-line interface.

A user would type commands to perform various tasks, rather than just using the bar for searching. Google wants to assist users in a way that makes sense, but without becoming the solution for every interaction.

“I think I want to be careful where Google has always been about helping you the way that makes sense to you. We have never thought of ourselves as the be-all and end-all of how we want people to interact.

So while I think the possibility space is large, for me, it’s important to do it in a way in which users use a lot of things, and we want to help them do things in a way that makes sense to them.”

-Sundar Pichai

Stick with the Intelligency weekly roundup to learn more about how Google transforms search for the future!

What is Dolly- the ChatGPT clone?

On the topic of AI, Bard, and ChatGPT. Last week saw the announcement of a new open-source AI chatbot called Dolly, a clone of ChatGPT.

Databricks enterprise software announced a new AI language model called Dolly Large Language Model, or DLL for short. The name Dolly is a reference to the first animal that was ever cloned successfully, a sheep called Dolly.

Open-source language models

DLL is one of the latest iterations of the currently growing movement of open-source AI. It aims to offer users and developers a greater level of access to AI technology in an anti-monopolisation effort. Open-source AI ensures that powerful AI technology isn’t just controlled by large corporations.

An open-source basis

Dolly was actually created from an open-source language model called the Alpaca model. Alpaca was created by Stanford University and is also based on an open-source language model called LLaMA from Meta.

LlaMA was trained on publicly available data and can outperform most of the top language models such as GPT-3.

An improved dataset

Databricks has shown that if you use a smaller but high-quality dataset, you can still make a very powerful language model.

“Dolly works by taking an existing open source 6 billion parameter model from EleutherAI and modifying it ever so slightly to elicit instruction following capabilities such as brainstorming and text generation not present in the original model, using data from Alpaca.

…We show that anyone can take a dated off-the-shelf open source large language model (LLM) and give it magical ChatGPT-like instruction following ability by training it in 30 minutes on one machine, using high-quality training data.

Surprisingly, instruction-following does not seem to require the latest or largest models: our model is only 6 billion parameters, compared to 175 billion for GPT-3.”

Once Dolly is open to public testing, we’ll be able to cover more stories about it!

The new features for live streams on YouTube

YouTube announced that it will be adding new features for live streams held on the platform, such as live reactions. As well as this, creators will be able to see the types of content their viewers watch on other channels.

Let’s learn some more about each.

Live reactions

YouTube plans to roll out live reactions to live streams, which will allow a viewer to react and see how other people have reacted during specific moments. The company stated that this helps foster a community for a creator on the platform.

On iOS devices, you’ll be able to choose from a set of reactions in real time during a stream. Creators and viewers will be able to see the reaction, but not the user behind it.

If you’re a channel eligible to live stream, this feature will be turned on by default. However, you can opt out of live reactions if you so choose.

Improved live stream management

Two new features will help creators manage their live streams better.

• Ads automation– This feature allows YouTube to insert an ad into the stream at the time it feels it’s most appropriate.
• Live control panel– Creators will be able to see stream stats as well as ad-serving capabilities.

To access the panel, a creator will need to paste the panel URL into their third-party encoder such as OBS.

Audience interests

YouTube aims to assist creators by helping them come to informed decisions about the formats that they publish on the platform.

To do this, the platform is trialling a new card which shows a creator the top formats their audience watches on other channels.

It will break it down by showing the percentage of videos watched vs shorts or live streams.

While Intelligency doesn’t stream on YouTube, it sounds like a great time to start if you’re a creator looking to get into streaming.

Good afternoon, thanks for stopping by for this week’s roundup.

This week, in terms of digital marketing news you can learn about how Bing’s new chat AI is set to include ads. Intelligency has also written a guide to help you understand the features, benefits, and drawbacks of paying for Meta or Twitter verification.

Let’s begin!

Microsoft To Implement Ads In Bing AI

This week, Microsoft announced that it is currently planning to implement ads in the currently ad-free Bing Chat. Bing Chat is Microsoft’s AI-powered powered by Chat GPT, currently found on the Bing search engine.

This move could be controversial to users of the chat experience, as up until now the platform has been ad-free.

However, in an effort to create transparency, Microsoft has explained its decision.

Ads = revenue for publishers?

Ever since Microsoft launched the revamed Bing experience, and Microsoft Edge, it has aimed to provide a great user experience. The platforms now combine search queries, with a chatbot, and additionally answers as well as content creation.

Microsoft’s strategy is seeing good results, Bing has seen 100 million daily active users, plus 100 million chats with it’s AI.

One third of this number is entirely new to Bing, so it’s not just returning users.

Microsoft has outlined its goals for an AI-inclusive search landscape, which include:

• A focus on driving traffic to content publishers.
• Generate increased revenue for publishers by using new features in combination with advertising.
• Create a healthy ecosystem by working with the industry.

The datathat’s available from the preview has shown that these goals are on their way to be achieved.

Unique implementations have aided in driving this success.

New or additional publisher opportunities

Microsoft is exploring further content distribution methods to impact traffic and revenue. It has released some early ideas, including:

• Chat-based ads- Ads could be placed in the Bing Chat experience. If an ad was generated, the revenue would be shared with partners whose content contributed to the chat response.
• Expanded hover experience- The idea behind this feature is that when a user hovers over a publisher link, it will sho the user more historical content from the publisher.
• Rich captions for Microsoft Start partners- A rich caption would be placed beside chat answers for anything coming from a Microsoft Start licensed partner. Increasing user engagement and revenue sharing.

While these ideas are still in the early stages, the feedback has been positive.

Collaboration will be continued between Microsoft and publishers in order to help shape Bing and searches’ future.

If you wish to learn more about Bing AI, the below video is quite helpful:

A Guide To Investing In Paid Verification For Meta Or Twitter

As some of you may be aware, Twitter is planning to sunset its legacy verified program from the 1st of Apri. In order for companies or people to have the famous blue checkmark, you have to be a Twitter Blue subscriber.

If you tap or click a blue checkmark on Twitter, it will now show you if the checkmark has come from the legacy verification program, or if the account is a Twitter Blue subscriber.

What are the benefits of Twitter Blue, and what’s the criteria?

You may be thinking to yourself “What are the benefits of subscribing to Twitter Blue?” or “How do I know if I’m eligible?”. If you are thinking that, Intelligency is here to help!

To be eligible, your account needs to be or have:

• Have a confirmed phone number
• Older than 90 days
• No changes to the following in the last 30 days:
  • Name
  • Username
  • Profile photo

Once verified, you must not engage in deceptive tactics, such as using a fake identity, or else the verification will be revoked.

The benefits of Twitter Blue include:

• The verified checkmark next to your handle.
• Longer tweet or video publishing.
• Undo a tweet.
• Tweet editing in the first 30 minutes.
• A personalised feed
• Two-factor authentication.
• Increased platform visibility.

The price of Twitter Blue varies per country, in the UK it’s £9.60 to £11.

Meta Verified, it’s benefits, and the eligibility criteria

Additionally, Meta is currently rolling out its own form of paid verification called Meta Verified. This package includes verification for Facebook and Instagram.

The eligibility requirements are:

• Having an active profile
• The real name and photo from your profile must match ID.
• Two-factor authentication must be set up.

Furthermore, your account must comply with the Meta terms of service.

The benefits for Meta Verified include:

• A verified checkmark
• Exclusive Facebook and Instagram stickers
• 100 stars per month
• Help from a real person (rather than an automated system) when you have account issues

Right now, Meta Verified is only available to select users.

What are the drawbacks of paid verification?

While paid verification may sound good on paper, there are unfortunately some downsides to paying for a checkmark.

For starters, Twitter Blue subscribers have been vocal about a lack of increased engagement from the “increased visibility” benefit advertised by the platform. Some users have stated “we feel like we’re paying to be ignored”.

Another major concern is that it’s not immediately obvious if someone is a notable public figure, or if they’ve just paid for Twitter Blue. When the legacy verification system was in place, you had to be a prominently recognised individual or brand.

But now? Those same accounts have to pay, just like anyone else. This allows bad actors to spread misinformation or scam users. Whilst this violates the terms of service of Twitter, the accounts wouldn’t stop posting misinformation until Twitter had received reports and investigated.

This lengthy process could allow a lot of damage to be done in the mean time.

Certain Twitter users are also in strong opposition of Twitter Blue, and a campaign has been launched to block ever Twitter Blue user. See the below tweet for more info:

So just remember, before diving into paid verification, weight up the implications of paying for notability on social media.

As always, thanks for reading this week’s digital roundup!

Good afternoon, and as always, welcome to the Intelligency digital roundup.

This week, Google Search saw an update for desktops, Tiktok launched paid videos, and Google simplified audience creation for Google Ads.

Let’s get straight into the stories.

Google Update Search For Desktop

Google is bringing some of its latest features from mobile SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) to desktop. The company announced this via Twitter:

The features are intended to help users spot ads, and quickly identify websites.

So what are the changes?

Google is introducing Facvicons and site names to search results. As Google stated in the announcement, mobile search has had this feature since October.

Favicons

Your search results now show site names and a favicon so that you can easily identify websites associated with the links.

These changes are to organic results as well as paid results.

Clear ads

Ads on Google are now clearer on Google, as the company is committing to clear labelling to distinguish them.

Search ads have a label in the top-left corner of the ad, and mobile ads have a Sponsored label.

Providing a site name

Site names are automatically generated by Google, the search engine scans a site’s content and references to do this.

Although a user cannot manually change the site name which appears, you can improve how accurate the name is. You can do this by adding structured data to your website.

If you need more guidance on structured data, you can watch the following video below:

TikTok Announce TikTok Series

TikTok recently announced TikTok Series, a new way to monetise videos.

Series allows a creator to put a collection of videos behind a paywall. If a user wishes to see the videos, they must pay for them on the creator’s profile.

TikTok creators will be able to set their own price, depending on the type of relationship they want with their followers. The company has said creators should be able to see the types of prices other creators in their niche set.

20-minute videos

As well as the Series videos being placed behind a paywall, creators will also be able to make longer TikToks for it. A typical TikTok can be up to 10 minutes long, but a video in a Series can be 20 minutes long.

A creator can place up to 80 videos in a Series if they so choose. TikTok stated that users would be able to generate revenue through videos such as tutorials or in-depth guides in a Series.

Businesses who host webinars could also charge for outside viewers to access any historic webinars.

Who’s eligible for TikTok series?

TikTok Series is only available to accounts that meet the minimum criteria:

• At least 18 years old
• Having an account older than 30 days
• The account must be in good standing

In addition, TikTok monetization programs require creators to have:

• A minimum of 1,000 – 100,000 followers
• 1,000 – 100,000 video views within the last 30 days.
• LIVE monetisation programs also require creators to have spent at least 30 minutes LIVE within the last 28 days.

The creator tools in the TikTok app will state whether or not your account is eligible for monetisation.

If you do monetise your account, it’s important to strictly follow the community guidelines. If you don’t follow the guidelines, you may lose monetisation access.

Once there are more details on TikTok Series, avid readers of the roundup will be the first to find out more!

Google Simplify Audience Creation in Google Ads

This week, Google announced it is making creating a campaign audience easier than ever on Google Ads.

In the new update, marketers will be able to access the GA4 Audience Builder in the UI for Google Ads.

The aim is to make the audience creation process simpler from start to finish. This will also save time and allow marketers to work more efficiently.

Google stated that the update is due in the upcoming months.

Cross-product access management

In order to enable the above process, Google is introducing cross-product access management.

This model will allow GA4 admins to set permissions for linked Google Ads accounts.

For example, a GA4 admin can set an Ads user to be an admin, only have standard access, or make them a read only account.

The roles will ensure the level of access that user has to analytics features in Google Ads. This includes making an analytics audience in Google Ads.

Linking an analytics and ads account

Linking a Google Ads account to Analytics allows data flow between both products. As well as this, it also allows a you to see the entire customer cycle.

The customer cycle includes factors such as how users interact with a marketing campaign. Or how they complete goals on the website (such as purchasing an item or signing up to a newsletter).

Google Ads campaigns are included in the acquisition overview report. You can also access the new dimensions in the User acquisition report.

How to link a GA4 property to Google Ads

In order to link a GA4 property to an Ads account, you’ll need to do the following:

How to link a GA4 property to Google Ads

In order to link a GA4 property to an Ads account, you’ll need to do the following:

• Login to Google Analytics
• Click ‘Admin’
• Navigate to Product Links
• Click Google Ads Links
• Click Link
• Select Choose Google Ads accounts. You will then be able to choose the ones you want to link
• Finalise

And it’s as simple as that!

Good afternoon, and welcome to the weekly Intelligency Digital Roundup, The best place to keep up to date with marketing, SEO, and social media news.

This week, learn about what’s changed with Google’s latest product review update. Plus, learn about Meta Verified and the new SEO tools from LinkedIn.

Google February 2023 Product Review Update

Google has recently released its latest algorithm update focusing on product reviews. This update will have a notable impact on websites that provide product reviews, ratings, and comparisons.

The last Product Reviews update was back in 2022. This update rolled out for eleven languages and is predicted to take two weeks to fully launch.

The update aims to ensure that the search results for product-related queries display more accurate and helpful information to users.

Google’s algorithm will continue to consider a website’s expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) when ranking pages that offer product reviews.

Product Review updates make it more challenging for websites with low-quality or spammy reviews to rank high in search results.

On the other hand, websites that produce high-quality, in-depth, and informative reviews will be rewarded with higher rankings and increased visibility in search results.

For digital marketers and SEO professionals, this update means they will need to prioritise creating high-quality and trustworthy content to maintain or improve their website’s search engine rankings.

By investing in producing high-quality product reviews, websites can establish themselves as industry leaders and build their E-A-T, ultimately improving their search engine rankings.

The February 2023 Product Reviews Update is a reminder that Google’s search algorithm is continually evolving, and digital marketers and SEO professionals must stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices to maintain a strong online presence.

By providing valuable content and focusing on building E-A-T, websites can improve their search engine rankings and attract more traffic to their site.

Google’s EAT and Product Review guidance can be found here.

What is Meta Verified?

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has announced a new subscription service for Instagram and Facebook.

The subscription service is called Meta Verified and includes:

• A verified badge that authenticates the user’s account with a government ID
• Proactive account protection
• Access to account support
• Increased visibility & reach

Australia and New Zealand are the first countries to receive access to Meta Verified. If the service is a success, it will be brought to the rest of the world.

You can purchase a subscription for $11.99 on the web, or $14.99 on Android and iOS. All you need to be eligible is the following:

• Over 18
• Have a government ID (you’ll need to submit this)
• Meet the minimum activity requirements.

Meta Verified is an extension of Meta’s vision to expand verification access.

Criticism

Whilst creators may be excited about Meta Verified, it has also met some criticism.

A substantial amount of users are calling the subscription service a rip-off of Twitter Blue. Interestingly, there are a lot of similarities in the services.

Both services offer a badge, increased post visibility, and access to new and exclusive features. However, Meta Verified gives you two verified badges instead of one.

Some critics argue that Meta shouldn’t put features that everyone should have access to behind a paywall. This has led to Meta Verified being labelled a “cash grab”.

Only time will tell if Meta Verified will bring any value to the platforms in question.

LinkedIn Introduces SEO Tools for Articles

LinkedIn has recently introduced new SEO tools for articles on their platform, allowing content creators to optimize their articles for search engines and increase their visibility on the platform.

The new tools include keyword suggestions, suggested hashtags, and a new analytics dashboard that provides insights into article performance.

With these tools, content creators can optimize their articles for specific keywords and hashtags, helping them reach their target audience and increase engagement.

The analytics dashboard provides content creators with valuable insights into the performance of their articles, including views, engagement, and demographic data.

With this information, content creators can refine their content strategy and create articles that resonate with their target audience.

For businesses and marketers, the new SEO tools on LinkedIn provide an excellent opportunity to increase their visibility and reach on the platform.

By optimizing articles for search engines, businesses and marketers can attract more organic traffic to their profiles and increase their chances of generating leads and conversions.

LinkedIn’s new SEO tools are a reminder that SEO is an essential component of any digital marketing strategy, and businesses and marketers should prioritize optimizing their content for search engines to increase their visibility and reach.

By using the new SEO tools on LinkedIn, businesses and marketers can create engaging content that resonates with their target audience and drives results.

Good Afternoon, this week we’ve got some exciting news in store for you.

This week’s digital roundup is covering when religious leaders met to discuss AI in January, YouTube’s CEO stepping down, and how YouTube Short’s monetisation compares to TikTok’s model.

Let’s get into the news.

What is the Abrahamic Commitment to the Rome Call For AI Ethics?

In January 2023, representatives from the three major Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam visited Vatican City. Attending representatives launched an appeal for the ethical development of artificial intelligence.

The appeal, which was promoted by the Vatican’s RenAIssance Foundation, the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace, and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s Commission for Interfaith Relations, called for transparency and inclusion in the use of AI.

“It is not acceptable that the decision on the life and destiny of a human being is entrusted to an algorithm“

– Pope Francis

Participants in the appeal met with Pope Francis and Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia to sign a text emphasizing the importance of putting technological development at the service of justice and peace everywhere in the world.

Pope Francis expressed his concern about the discriminatory use of these tools and called for “algorethics”, ethical reflection on the use of algorithms, to be ever more present.

The Pope sees the appeal as a useful instrument for a common dialogue among all, promoting the human development of new technologies, and a significant step towards promoting digital anthropology based on ethics, education, and law.

Impacts and Principles

Their document was also signed by prestigious bodies such as Microsoft and IBM. According to the document, there are three impact areas which are:

• Ethics– All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
• Education- Transforming the world through the innovation of AI means undertaking to build a future for and with younger generations.
• Rights- The development of AI in the service of humankind and the planet must be reflected in regulations and principles that protect people – particularly the weak and the underprivileged – and natural environments.

There are also six principles which are contained within the document which are:

1. Transparency- AI systems must be understandable to all
2. Inclusion- These systems must not discriminate against anyone because every human being has equal dignity
3. Accountability- There must always be someone who takes responsibility for what a machine does
4. Impartiality- AI systems must not follow or create biases
5. Reliability- AI must be reliable
6. Security and Privacy- These systems must be secure and respect the privacy of users

Not only can the document be read online, but you can also watch the full summit take place:

YouTube’s CEO Steps Down

Susan Wojcicki, one of Google’s earliest employees and a notable figure in tech is stepping down from YouTube.

In a statement sent to the current employees of YouTube, Wojcicki told them that she was stepping down to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects I’m passionate about.”

Wojcicki was the CEO from 2014 up until 2023 and helped YouTube become vital to Alphabet. In 2022 for example, YouTube generated $29.2 billion in Ad Sales- which contributed more than 10% of its revenue.

About Susan Wojcicki

The departure of Wojcicki is symbolic in the tech industry, for years she was one of the few women to operate a tech company. Not only did she operate a big company, but she was the one who rented out her garage to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998.

Page and Brin had the following to say about her departure:

“Susan has a unique place in Google history and has made the most incredible contribution to products used by people everywhere. We’re so grateful for all she’s done over the last 25 years.”

Wojcicki started at Google in 1999 in marketing and ran a video service that tried to compete with YouTube. It was Wojcicki who suggested that the company should buy YouTube instead of competing with them.

YouTube’s accessibility to advertisers increased under her, but so did the criticism from creators on the platform. The criticisms lay in that videos were being demonetised whilst hate speech on the platform was growing.

Wojciki’s replacement, Neal Mohan, has a long history of working closely with Wojcicki and was called her ‘lieutenant’ by some.

Wojcicki’s full statement

Subject: A personal update

Hi YouTubers,

Twenty-five years ago I made the decision to join a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine. Their names were Larry and Sergey. I saw the potential of what they were building, which was incredibly exciting, and although the company had only a few users and no revenue, I decided to join the team.

It would be one of the best decisions of my life.

Over the years, I’ve worn many hats and done so many things: managed marketing, co-created Google Image Search, led Google’s first Video and Book search, as well as early parts of AdSense’s creation, worked on the YouTube and DoubleClick acquisitions, served as SVP of Ads, and for the last nine years, the CEO of YouTube. I took on each challenge that came my way because it had a mission that benefited so many people’s lives around the world: finding information, telling stories and supporting creators, artists and small businesses. I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved. It’s been exhilarating, meaningful and all-consuming.

Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects I’m passionate about.

The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube. When I joined YouTube nine years ago, one of my first priorities was bringing in an incredible leadership team. Neal Mohan was one of those leaders, and he’ll be the SVP and new head of YouTube. I’ve spent nearly 15 years of my career working with Neal, first when he came over to Google with the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 and as his role grew to become SVP of Display and Video Ads. He became YouTube’s Chief Product Officer in 2015. Since then, he has set up a top-notch product and UX team, played pivotal roles in the launch of some of our biggest products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and Shorts, and has led our Trust and Safety team, ensuring that YouTube lives up to its responsibility as a global platform. He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities and our employees. Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube.

With all we’re doing across Shorts, streaming and subscriptions, together with the promises of AI, YouTube’s most exciting opportunities are ahead, and Neal is the right person to lead us.

For all the YouTubers I’ve had the privilege to work with, you have done so much to make this platform better over the years. You created the largest creative economy the world has ever seen, enabled entirely new forms of art and storytelling, and supported millions of creators and artists to reach new audiences—all while investing in responsible growth so that this brilliant community of creators, artists, viewers and advertisers could not only co-exist but thrive together. Thank you!

As for me, in the short term, I plan to support Neal and help with the transition, which will include continuing to work with some YouTube teams, coaching team members, and meeting with creators. In the longer term, I’ve agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet. This will allow me to call on my different experiences over the years to offer counsel and guidance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet companies. It’s an incredibly important time for Google—it reminds me of the early days—incredible product and technology innovation, huge opportunities, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.

And beyond that, I’ll still be around, so I’ll have a chance to thank the thousands of people from all across the company and the world who I’ve worked with and learned from. But for now, I want to thank Sundar for his leadership, support and vision over the years. I also want to thank Larry and Sergey for inviting me on what has truly been the adventure of a lifetime. I always dreamed of working for a company with a mission that could change the world for the better. Thanks to you and your vision, I got the chance to live that dream. It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of it, and I’m excited for what’s next.

Thank you for everything,

Susan

YouTube Shorts Vs TikTok Monetisation

YouTube has now launched its monetisation for Shorts, its version of digestible short-form video. Creators want to know how much money they’d make from YouTube VS TikTok.

In an interview with YouTube Employees, Creator Support wanted to know if YouTube Shorts will pay more than TikTok. Here’s a breakdown of what was said by the employees, and below this paragraph you can find the video:

CPM for Shorts

CPM stands for “Cost Per Mile” and is the metric that YouTubers can use to track revenue. Cost Per Mile translates to cost per thousand, so the revenue earned for every 1,000 impressions.

This metric won’t apply to Shorts monetisation, as it’s for specific long-form video niches. Certain niches have an immense CPM and some have a small CPM.

A distinct business model

YouTube is rethinking the business model for Shorts and is instead focusing on how to align incentives for creators, advertisers, and music partners.

The present attributes, pre- and mid-roll ads, don’t work for short-form videos. So instead, YouTube has put together a pool-based model, to ensure that everyone gets paid as Shorts grows.

The Shorts model

Since YouTube cannot use CPM for Shorts, different niches contribute to the Pool-based model. The earnings generated by ads placed between different Shorts will be combined, and a portion is placed in the pool.

The pool’s revenue will be paid to creators, as long as they’re eligible, and is dependent on their share of total views and music usage of Shorts watched.

Creators will be paid 45% of their allocated revenue from YouTube Shorts. YouTube described the pool method as a “partnership” between creators and the platform.

Whilst initial earnings will be slow, creators and advertisers have been incentivised to make Shorts a success, so they can all get paid.

TikTok’s creator fund

TikTok’s creator fund, on the other hand, is a program which pays creators based on performance and engagement.

It’s dependent on several factors such as the number of views, level of engagement, and whether or not the video violates guidelines.

Every creator is unique, and there are no restrictions on the type of content which is supported by the fund.

However, the total amount changes daily and is dependent on the amount of content uploaded to the platform.

It will be interesting to see how YouTube Shorts evolves in the coming months and years and how it compares to other short-form video platforms like TikTok.

Eliot from Intelligency had a wonderful opportunity to speak to Wakefield College’s year 12 IT Students on Monday.

Working together with Curtis Holt from Binary Managed Solutions (BMS), they both delivered presentations on IT, Networks, Network Security, and Digital Marketing.

Eliot and Curtis spoke about the exciting and rapidly evolving fields of IT, Digital Marketing, and Network Security. The event was a great success and provided valuable insights and information to the students and teachers.

What Curtis spoke about

Curtis Holt from BMS kicked off the day by talking about IT, networks, and network security. He highlighted what services BMS provide, his job role, and how you can get into working in IT. Curtis also shared best practices for IT management and implementation.

In the afternoon, Curtis stressed the importance of network security in protecting sensitive information. This was carried out by explaining the different types of web attacks, as well as how modern companies can protect against them.

What Eliot spoke about

Eliot’s expertise and passion for Digital Marketing were evident throughout his presentation. He explained the critical role that digital marketing plays in business growth, and offered some strategies to the students. Eliot spoke about how to segment audiences, how to create a social media strategy, and defined SEO.

Wakefield’s IT students thanked Eliot for the presentation, as it was relevant to their current learning.

What came next

After the presentations, the students were tasked were given a brief for a fictional company and tasked with putting their knowledge from the session to the test. The students needed to create a company network by purchasing the relevant equipment such as servers and computers.

We’ll see how that goes before the 20th when the winning group will be decided and a prize is awarded.

Overall, the event was a great success and had a positive impact on the students and attendees. It provided a unique opportunity for them to learn about IT, digital marketing, and network security from people who work in the field.

Intelligency Group and BMS are highly successful in their respective fields, and the event provided valuable insights and information to those who attended.

If you would like to learn more about Intelligency Group and BMS, please visit our websites and follow our blogs for updates and news.

Once again, thank you to Wakefield College and Binary Managed Solutions for giving Intelligency this invaluable experience.

Good Afternoon, and thanks for stopping by this week’s Digital Roundup.

Stay ahead of the game and stay informed of the latest trends and updates in digital marketing and social media. This week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Plus after discussions from the other week, Google has notified companies to switch from Universal Analytics to GA4, and Twitter announced they’ll no longer support the free Twitter API.

OpenAI Launch ChatGPT Plus

The paid version of the trending AI-powered ChatGPT is finally here, but only for users in the US.

The good news is that it’s cheaper than first thought, as some media outlets reported it could cost $42 a month. If a user subscribes, it will only cost them $20 a month.

OpenAI will send an invite to users who signed up to the waitlist “over the coming weeks”.

What are the benefits of ChatGPT Plus?

Paid users of ChatGPT Plus will have three main benefits:

• Access to ChatGPT in peak times.
• Faster response times for prompts.
• Early access to new features.

Stick with us for more updates about ChatGPT Plus, such as when it comes to the UK.

ChatGPT has several uses for anyone who works in Search Marketing or PPC, it can help give inspiration for content or assist with day-to-day duties.

Here’s an article about how to get the most from it.

Google Stresses Businesses To Switch To GA4

This week, Google notified companies who still use Universal Analytics to switch to Google Analytics 4. This is because Universal Analytics will be “Sunsetted” on the 1st of July.

Google’s email says that if your website doesn’t have a GA4 property set up by March, Google will set one up for you with some basic settings. You can opt out of this if you want to.

What Google Has Said

The full email from Google reads

“Hello.

Universal Analytics standard properties will stop processing data on July 1, 2023. To maximize historical data and to ensure that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) meets your specific needs, we recommend you make the switch to Google Analytics 4 now. This will give you the opportunity to customize the setup including using the latest site tag. For any customer who does not set up a GA4 property with basic settings, starting in March, we will configure one with a few basic settings consistent with the existing Universal Analytics property; this includes certain conversion events, Google Ads links, and existing website tags.

For Universal Analytics customers whose websites are tagged with gtag.js or analytics.js (including through tag management systems like Google Tag Manager), we will create a connected site tag that will reuse existing tags when possible to send traffic to the new GA4 property. If you do not wish to have a GA4 property created and configured based on your Universal Analytics property and existing tags, you may opt-out.”

You may also see a yellow bar at the top of the universal analytics homepage, basically summarising the above.

Why it’s important to switch

It’s important to switch to GA4 sooner rather than later in order to maximise historical data collection. GA4 also comes with the latest analytics capabilities and features.

By allowing Google to create a property with basic settings, it may not have all the settings that you need. So to ensure that the data that’s collected is accurate, you should set up your own GA4 property.

Twitter To Stop Supporting Free API

Twitter announced on the 2nd of February that from the 9th, they would no longer support free access to the Twitter API. Instead of free access, developers will need to shut down their progress or pay to access public data.

This announcement was much to the shock of developers and companies using Twitter API, as it has come out of nowhere. Pricing structures have not been announced as of yet, and barely any details have been shared, according to Twitter, more details will come next week.

Digital News outlet The Verge reported that thousands of small developers will shut down free tools such as Thread Reader. This will inevitably impact the hundreds of thousands of users using those tools to maximise Twitter engagement.

Tom Coates, a developer and entrepreneur, criticised Twitter, stating:

“it is not unreasonable to want to find a way to charge those developers who extract more value than they contribute”

“one week’s notice and no indication of pricing shows Twitter is chaotic and unreliable. No one’s going to build a business on that.”

Thread Reader App, whose tool makes threads more easily read, posted that they wanted more transparency from Twitter. However, like other developers, they’re now waiting for price details for basic API tiers.

Forbes called out Twitter’s decision to remove free access to the API, saying it’s a “cash grab” that will make Twitter less enjoyable. Fun bots such as Foxes every hour will go away too.

We will have to wait and see how this affects Twitter in the future, so watch this space.

Intelligency has been awarded ‘Most Innovative Data Intelligence Provider‘ in the 2022 Northern Enterprise Awards by SME News. The Northern Enterprise Awards celebrates the industriousness and dedication of the businesses and enterprises hailing from the north of England.

This is the second year in a row that we’ve finished the year with an award for our digital intelligence team having been placed #20 in the ‘Top 100 MediaTech Innovators‘ list in 2021.

Intelligency Director, Sean Walsh, said;

“We’re extremely pleased to have been awarded an Northern Enterprise Award. A lot of the work we undertake is relatively niche and there are few companies globally that do what we do, so it’s pleasing for our team to receive this recognition.

2022 was a great year for us. We have won some great new clients in the likes of Viaplay and allweare.com, moved to larger premises (more on that soon!) and this award just tops it off. None of it could be done without our fantastic team and wonderful clients, so thank you.”

You can read more about the Northern Enterprise Awards in our article.