Posts by Sean

Good Afternoon, and welcome to this week’s Digitial Roundup.

This week, markets should be aware of Google rolling out their new core update, why Twitter is using the WhatsApp logo for the share button, the new innovative technology being integrated to Chrome, and why notifications for Safari are changing on macOS devices.

Google Begin Rolling Out New Core Update

Google announced on the 12th of September via Twitter that they’d be rolling out a new core update, which will take up to two weeks to finish rolling out.

The initial response from marketers and the wider search community was a positive one, although there was some criticism from affiliate marketing Facebook groups.

What is a Core Algorithm Update?

Core algorithm updates get announced by Google when they’re making changes that are significant enough to be felt by website publishers/owners and marketers.

Google’s Search Central account announced the core update, linking to the developers.google.com post

So what is a core algorithm update?

A core algorithm update can be described as multiple changes to parts of Google’s algorithm.

Whilst the algorithm is constantly being changed and updated, what separates a core update is that the changes are much more noticeable.

The changes should now be beginning to take effect because they will have reached most of Google’s data centres.

As of now, there’s no confirmation on how this will affect search engine results pages. What we do know is that because it’s a general update, most search results across most languages will be affected.

How should I respond to a core update?

Right now, it’s not worth making any changes off of the back of any positive or negative results you see in Search Console due to the update.

Wait for the changes to fully roll out first, and then depending on what’s been affected, you can make a plan of action.

Twitter Testing “WhatsApp” Share Button In India

Twitter has begun to test a new WhatsApp share button for India-based users. The new share button was announced via a Twitter India tweet:

The feature substitutes the share button for a WhatsApp icon but provides identical functionality. Once you click the icon, you get the typical options: copying the tweet link, sharing it to other apps, sending it as a DM, or bookmarking it.

On the surface, it appears to be a one-click share to share to WhatsApp, but you actually need to click “share tweet via” first.

Why the change?

WhatsApp has over 581 million users in India, which is expected to grow to 795 million by 2025.

By integrating this aesthetic change, Twitter is trying to spread tweets outside of its own platform onto meta-owned platforms such as WhatsApp.

Twitter said the following to TechCrunch:

“We are replacing the share icon on Tweets with the WhatsApp icon for the majority of people who use Twitter on Android in the country, so sharing their favorite or noteworthy Tweets is easy even beyond Twitter, making the experience more open, accessible, and holistic for them,”

Streamlining cross-platform sharing will allow Twitter to track engagement from people who aren’t logged into the app.

Due to the fact this feature is still being tested on a small group of users, we’re yet to see if the test is successful, if it is, then it could be brought to a wider group of Twitter users.

Chrome Using Interactive Screenshots To Improve Site Speeds

Google has announced that they’ll be using new technology in the popular browser Google Chrome, the technology will facilitate interactive snapshots of webpages that will speed up the user experience on sites.

The name for this technology is Freeze Dried Tabs, and it’s currently in use in the latest Chrome update.

The technology could be summarised as a hybrid of a webpage and a screenshot that can be scrolled or clicked on, then once the page has fully loaded, Google will switch you across to the webpage seamlessly.

The idea behind the technology is to improve the web experience of site visitors because they’ll be able to engage with a web page faster.

Freeze Dried Browser Tabs

Google is calling the screenshot webpage hybrid Freeze Dried Browser Tabs.

They’re a new way for a site to deliver web pages, but it’s not used for every site that a Chrome user visits.

They’ll mostly be used when switching between a tab or starting up/recovering your Chrome browser.

An optimised website on Chrome takes approximately 3.4 seconds, with a Freeze Dried Browser tab, it’s sped up by approx. 20%, so it would load in 2.8 seconds.

This is an innovative and remarkable new technology that should help both desktop and mobile users of Chrome in the future, and will no doubt lead browser competitors to build or replicate this idea.

There’s no layout shift when you’re moved from a tab to the live site, and it even renders content that you’d need to scroll down to see.

How the technology works

Google confirmed that the technology operates in a unique way, they take a snapshot of the visual state of the web page as a vector graphic and capture the hyperlinks.

They then play back the graphic in a lightweight fashion by rasterising the vector. This reduced the rendering cost of showing a full web page and still supports hyperlinks.

Web Push Coming To iOS

The message service alert Web Push from Webkit is soon to be supported by WebKit for iOS users on Apple devices. This was announced via a tweet from Jen Simmons, who’s a member of the Safari and Webkit dev team:

Web Push is an opt-in notification service, where users are asked to give permissions before they’re sent notifications from the service. There’s no release date but once it’s released, it will be available to users of macOS Ventura.

Notification Standards

Developers have been able to send notifications through Safari for a long time on macOS, but these notifications followed a different standard.

The integration of Web Push means that Safari applications will be able to send push notifications to the same web standards of other browsers, so no additional lines of code or application changes will have to be implemented first.

These standards include PushAPI, notifications API, and Service Workers. Safari Web Push will use the same notification service that powers Native Push on all iOS devices.

Good afternoon and thank you for reading this week’s Digital Roundup.

In this week’s edition, we look at how Twitter has removed the need for a private and professional account, how to have your content recommended on Instagram, the best practices for a meta description, and how you can enrich your skills with courses from Meta, Oracle, and IBM.

Twitter Circle Allows You To Send Exclusive Tweets

Social Media Platform Twitter is currently rolling out a new feature that shares similarities with Instagram’s ‘close friends’ feature, allowing users to share tweets that only selected users will see.

Twitter initially tested this feature in May with great success, so now Twitter Circle will be available to desktop and mobile users.

Whilst Twitter Circle was being tested, users felt comfortable enough to tweet at a higher frequency and in return saw increased engagement.

The feature removes the need for a personal and professional account, as you’ll be able to customise the audience for each tweet you send into the Twittersphere.

Here’s a guide on how to personalise your Circle.

Creating a Twitter Circle

Creating a Twitter Circle is pretty easy, you can do it from the tweet composer or the main menu.

To create a circle from the composer:

• Choose ‘choose audience’ within the composer
• Select ‘edit’ next to the Twitter Circle option
• Choose your desired audience
• Click the ‘X’ to carry on composing

Or from the main menu:

• Tap ‘Twitter Circle’
• Choose your desired audience by tapping ‘add/remove’
• Next time you post, only your Circle will see it.

You can have a maximum of 150 people in your Circle, and users cannot retweet a circle tweet.

The Best Practices for Instagram Recommended Content

Instagram has published a new best practice blog post for creators, it gives tips on how to increase their eligibility for recommendations.

Recommendations are photos or videos you see on the main feed, explore feed, or the reels tab that is from accounts that you don’t follow.

Instagram determine whether or not to recommend a piece of content based on signals, which look at factors such as how many times a post has been shared, saved, commented on, or liked.

The signals also look at a user’s prior interactions with a content creator, as well as other content they’ve engaged with.

If your content manages to surface as recommended, then it can give content momentum and it will receive more engagement and you’ll gain more reach.

Creators and businesses alike should aim to get their content picked up by Instagram’s recommendation, as it will help to get more followers or business.

In order to help achieve this goal, Instagram has shared a best practice document that users can follow.

The Best Practices

Eligibility

First of all, if you want to be eligible for appearing on the recommendations, your account needs to be public, if it’s private, it’s ineligible.

If you’ve got a public account, great! You do need to ensure though, that you’re following Instagram’s recommendation guidelines.

Instagram has specific guidelines your content needs to follow in order for it to appear as a recommendation.

Recommendation guidelines are different from community guidelines, which are rules about the type of content that’s allowed on the platform. You need to ensure that you’re following both.

The types of content that go against the recommendation guidelines are:

• Content that depicts fighting
• Content that promotes the use of regulated content i.e. cigarettes
• Content that’s sexually explicit or suggestive

Best Practices

And now the juicy bit, the best practices for having your content recommended are:

• Post original content– You’ll need to ensure that your content is both creative and original, try not to aggregate others’ content.
• Create Reels- You should aim to make Reels a part of your content strategy as Instagram is doubling down on the visibility of them.
• Optimise for search- Use descriptive captions, alt text, and hashtags for accessibility, as it will help your content get recommended.

Following these best practices isn’t a guarantee that your content will get recommended, but it will definitely help your chances.

LinkedIn Now Offering Professional Certifications

LinkedIn has partnered with Meta, Oracle, and IBM in order to expand its vast library of professional certifications.

The courses and content that LinkedIn offer allows people to enhance their skill set with materials that are provided by credited providers.

When a user completes a course, they can also add it to their LinkedIn profile, which will help build connections. 44% of LinkedIn users have added certifications to their profiles over the last two years.

And now subscribers will be able to take courses from Meta, Oracle, and IBM at no additional cost.

You can have a one-month subscription for free, and after that, it’s £29.99 a month.

However, taking a certification exam does cost extra, but subscribers can get a reduced price.

Here’s some information about the courses that you can take.

Meta Courses

The professional certificates offered by Meta are:

• Meta Certified Digital Marketing Associate
• Meta Certified Community Manager
• Meta Certified Media Buying Professional

Oracle Courses

The courses from Oracle focus on cloud infrastructure and are:

• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Cert Prep: Architect Associate
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Cert Prep: Foundations
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Cert Prep: Architect Professional
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Cert Prep: Cloud Operations Associate
• Oracle Autonomous Database Cert Prep: Cloud Specialist

IBM Courses

The IBM courses also focus on cloud computing and are:

• IBM Certified Cloud Advocate
• IBM Certified Cloud Technical Advocate
• IBM Certified Cloud Professional Architect
• IBM Certified Cloud Professional Site Reliability Engineer

How To Improve Your Meta Descriptions

Google has shared a help document about bad and good practices for your meta descriptions, here are the bad practices:

• Don’t just use a list of keywords that you want to hit such as “Sewing supplies, yarn, coloured pencils, sewing machines, threads, bobbins, needles”
• Using the same meta description for every article.
• Not summarising the page.
• Making the description too short.

Meanwhile, here are some good practices:

• Make your description specific and detailed
• Using a snippet from an article in the meta description
• Summarising the whole page
• For shops, explain what you sell and opening hours or location.

Read Google’s post on controlling your snippets

If you want to learn more about improving your meta descriptions, you can also watch this video from Kinsta:

It’s back to the regular digital marketing news in this week’s roundup after last week’s special content plan focussed article!

This week, is Instagram too fake to take on BeReal? Twitter help improve the mindset of social media managers with a new reply filter, and Google being Google, continue to improve its tools for users whilst sunsetting other features.

Instagram Tests BeReal Competitor Candid Challenges

Instagram has begun to test a new photo-centric feature called Candid Challenges, which overlaps with the features of the growing app BeReal.

Allesandro Paluzzi, an app researcher, discovered Candid Challenges, which will encourage users to share a different selfie every day at a random time.

Candid Challenges uses a user’s front and back camera to simultaneously take a photo on both.

Being Real About BeReal

BeReal is also built around candid photos simultaneously using the front and back camera.

The premise is for users to create an original or genuine snapshot of what they’re doing and where they are, hence the name ‘BeReal’.

BeReal was first launched in 2019 and hit the top spot in Apple’s App Store in July 2019, it has been downloaded over 28 million times.

The app currently has around 21.6 million monthly active users, and around 2.93 million use the app daily, which is an impressive feat.

Given the app’s popularity, it’s no wonder other social media platforms want to jump on the trend.

It’s currently unknown how far along Candid Challenges is into development as it’s currently only an internal prototype, which means that only internal employees can access the feature.

Twitter Allows Users To Filter Unwanted Replies

Users of Twitter will soon be able to filter out unwanted, harmful, or offensive replies with an automatic reply filter.

Jane Manchun Wong, an app researcher, discovered the feature and shared a screenshot on Twitter about the tool.

Twitter declares that the automatic reply filter will enact the following:

“Replies to your tweets that contain potentially harmful or offensive language will be filtered and appear here. Others can still see these replies.

Keep in mind we use technology to help us identify such replies, so while we’re always improving, we may not get it right all the time.”

The tool is located under the privacy and safety settings on your account and can be toggled on or off.

It’s important to note that the filter cannot be customised in any way shape or form, it’s either on or it’s not.

Twitter admit in the filter description that its tool isn’t 100% accurate, so it may filter out replies that aren’t harmful.

Filtering Isn’t Censoring

One important takeaway from this feature is that filtered replies aren’t censored, The replies will be visible to other users on Twitter, but they’re just filtered out of the responses that will appear in the notification stream.

It’s unlikely anyone else will really know when unwanted replies get filtered from a thread by the original owner.

The intent behind this new filter is to reduce the negative strain on mental health that social media or community managers can get by looking at negative replies to tweets all day.

You can always turn replies off completely, but that sort of defeats the purpose of social media.

It’s currently unknown when this feature will be available to users.

New Google Updates For Search Console and Ads

Google has released updates for two of the most useful tools for marketers and advertisers, Google Search Console and Google Ads.

More In-Depth Data For Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) will now start reporting on the Core Web Vital (CWV) score of specific URLs and aggregate scores for URL groups. So now there will be even more granular data for marketers and businesses to use.

The updated CWV section on Search Console will let users see which URLs are holding the website back from “good” scores.

Now you’ll be able to know where to focus if your scores aren’t as good as they could be.

So What’s New?

Previously, GSC’s Core Web Vitals report only showed aggregate scores based on URL groups.

URL groups will still get these scores, but now you can go a level deeper and get specific URL scores.

By clicking on a URL in the report, you will see the more specific URL data on the right-hand side. Here’s an example screenshot:

This will aid users who are investigating which CLS scores belonging to specific URLs need improving.

Google Ads Launches New Tool For Performance Max Campaigns

Google Ads is now rolling out a tool to help advertisers upgrade their eligible smart shopping campaigns to performance max campaigns.

Earlier this year, Google announced that they will be ‘sunsetting’ smart shopping and local campaigns, due to the fact that a performance max campaign offers the same features.

Google will be automatically upgrading campaigns at the end of September to performance max ones if they’re not already, but now you’ll be able to upgrade your campaigns earlier than that using the self-upgrade tool.

Here’s all you need to know about it.

The Performance Max Self-Upgrade Tool

The self-upgrade tool can be found for smart shopping or local campaigns under the ‘recommendations’ page, or by finding and clicking the notification about it.

Upgrading is very simple, all it takes is a click, you’ll just need to click “Apply all” to the recommendations. Here’s a screenshot of what the page will look like:

Historical campaign performance from previous local campaigns or smart shopping campaigns will convert over to the new performance max campaign, and so will all your campaign settings.

Google has aimed to make the upgrading process as easy as possible.

The tool is currently being rolled out now and through the beginning of September, if you choose not to upgrade, Google will do it for you. However, they’ll notify you before the campaign is upgraded.

Well, it’s a new sunny week, so that means it’s time for a new sunny roundup! This week covers how Meta is once again helping small businesses grow on their platform, a shocking Google outage, Bing’s new shopping feature, duplicated content guidance on Google, and fatal errors from Yoast SEO.

-Eliot

Meta Help Small Businesses With Ad Automation

Meta plans to roll out new tools to further help small business advertising on its platforms, which will use new advancements in AI and automation.

When a small business creates an ad through its Facebook page, it can take advantage of Meta’s Advantage+, which are Meta’s innovative advertising technologies.

Advantage+, Meta’s cutting-edge AI and automation tool, was originally exclusive to full-fledged campaigns, but now it can be used with single ads.

With this new update, Meta is also enhancing Advantage+ with additional capabilities for shopping campaigns, app campaigns, and more.

Here’s a quick overview of all the updates for advertisers and digital marketers:

Advantage+ For Small Business Ads

Small Businesses are eligible to use Advantage+ creative and Advantage audience when they’re creating ads through their Facebook page.

Advtange+ creative will allow advertisers to use AI to adjust creative in ads to show the version of the ad with which a user is most likely to engage.

Advantage+ audiences allow a business to target its audiences more effectively by creating personalised audiences for serving ads using the details on the business’s Facebook page.

These tools are now available for small businesses to start using.

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

Advantage+ can also help advertisers who are running shop campaigns to learn what’s working and what isn’t a lot faster.

Using cutting-edge AI and automation technologies, Advantage+ can generate up to 150 creative combinations at once.

The intent behind this feature is to help advertisers what is converting and what isn’t so that the advertising budget is being used efficiently.

Meta stated in a blog post:

“In a study of 15 A/B tests, we discovered that Advantage+ shopping campaigns drove 12% lower cost per purchase conversion compared to advertisers’ Business as usual ads. With these savings, businesses can reinvest in their marketing strategies and drive customer acquisition and sales more efficiently.”

This feature is expected to be available on the 15th of August for small businesses.

New Updates To App Campaigns

Advantage+ app campaigns will also be receiving the following updates:

• More creative flexibility with asset pairing
• Improved stability
• 7-day click attribution
• Split testing capabilities
• Granular reporting insights with the region and ad-level data.

It will be interesting to see if these changes will help Meta’s ad revenue grow again, as in the company’s last quarterly report they showed declines for the first time. We’ll be able to see if these changes have helped in the next quarterly report.

Google Goes Down For Ten Minutes

On the 9th of this week, Twitter was flooded with reports that Google had a widespread outage, a rarity for the company. `

Google users around the world were met with the following 500 error message when trying to search:

Down Detector reported that the outage lasted for just over ten minutes.

Here are some of the tweets reporting the error:

But Eliot, What Caused The Outage?

At this moment in time, the source of the outage still hasn’t been released by Google, and they’ve refused to comment for American news outlets such as CNBC.

However, earlier that day there was an explosion in a Google data centre located in Iowa that injured three technicians.

Some news outlets are reporting that this explosion caused the outage, but Google hasn’t confirmed it.

What Is A 500 Error?

A 500 Error is a server-side error, which means that the problem is at the server host’s end, and not the user’s. A 500 error is typically a blanket term for the following issues:

• A permission error
• A PHP timeout
• Incorrect code in a .htaccess file
• Syntax errors in code or scripts
• An exceeded PHP memory limit.

Bing Adds Voucher Codes To Shopping Searches

Bing is adding new annotations to shopping SERPS (search engine result pages), which includes live discount codes for shopping websites.

This is a welcome change, as there will no longer be FOMO when it comes to money-saving opportunities in a cost-of-living crisis. Bing will actively tell you if there’s a promotion or discount available for the items you’re searching for.

Microsoft stated in a blog post:

Ever wondered if you were overlooking coupons or special promotions when you shop online? Or perhaps you didn’t even consider that a discount might be available, and you missed out! Bing now provides you with this information within shopping searches – annotations neatly nested within your search results, without the need to install a browser extension or plugin (third-party cookies must be enabled.)

Here’s a screenshot from Bing showing what the new feature will look like:

All you’ll need to do is click on the annotation, click “copy & go” then shop as normal, the discount code will then apply automatically at the checkout.

This feature will be available in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Germany, and France.

Google Release New Duplicate Content Guidance

Google have announced that duplicated content for posts that are published by Google Business Profiles will now be classed as spam.

This new guidance can be found in an updated version of the content policies for Google Business Profiles.

Amongst the list of content that users shouldn’t post on their Business Profiles, there’s a new line:

“Duplicate photos, posts, videos, and logos”

This new line was discovered by Twitter user Colan Nielsen, who posted the following:

Whilst this might sound obvious to some marketers, it’s still important to be aware of because it may change content strategies so that Google’s content policy isn’t violated.

Duplicate Content

Google is wanting to send a clear message with this update, that duplicated content will no longer be tolerated.

Posting the same photos, videos, or even text blocks will no longer be allowed.

Being unaware of this can get you into trouble, even if your intention isn’t to spam.

For example, let’s say you’re in charge of the Google Business Profile for the restaurant you own, and you post the same type of graphics weekly to advertise your special menu, whilst this is honest, it would still be classed as spam.

Google also want to limit the use of logos, you cannot put your logo on every photo as it will be classed as spam.

The best way to avoid content policy violations is to make sure every post is unique.

Yoast SEO 19.5 Update Causing Fatal Errors

Publishers who have updated to Yoast’s 19.5 version have experienced more than they bargained for, there have been reports of fatal errors on their respective websites.

The fatal errors were confined to specific situations and were not across the board.

Yoast 19.5

Version 19.5 for Yoast contained changes which help to improve user experience, as well as fixing a vadiation issue in structured data, and minor bug fixes.

One standout improvement that was packed with 19.5 is the Front-End SEO inspector, which provides publishers with an overview of posts as well as SEO settings such as meta tags and structured data.

But, with these positive changes came negative experiences in the form of fatal errors.

Fatal errors occur when two plugins conflict with one another.

The Fatal Error

Eli Schwartz, a search marketing expert was one of the first to tweet about the fatal error:

These sorts of errors aren’t exactly uncommon, but other users confirmed they were having the same issue:

Yoast eventually responded on WordPress.org to the numerous reports about the issue:

We’re sorry that you’re experiencing a fatal error. Thanks for reporting. We’re investigating and it seems to be a problem with the latest update of Yoast SEO while the newest Premium wasn’t released yet. This shouldn’t have happened. We’re looking at getting this resolved as soon as we can by releasing a patch for free and also by releasing Yoast SEO Premium asap. Either should fix the fatal error.

Yoast Identify The Problem

Yoast’s founder Joost de Valk offered feedback to SEO news outlet Search Engine Journal:

“A patch was created quickly by the team indeed and for most sites that resolved it entirely.

For some sites, the auto update mechanism failed to run properly and therefore those sites didn’t automatically fix themselves. We’ve been discussing this internally a lot, as we weren’t happy that this happened at all, and we weren’t happy with how we handled it.

We’re all honestly really bummed by it and feel sorry for the sites we’ve broken.”

Yoast put out a patch fairly quickly with 19.5.1 and put in the following update note:

• Fixes a bug where a fatal error would be thrown on the front-end when Yoast SEO 19.5 was used with an older version of Yoast SEO Premium.

The issue has now been resolved for publishers who are using Yoast as long as they’ve updated the plugin to the latest version.

Good afternoon and welcome to an early roundup of this week’s latest digital activity! Facebook has made their stance on the future of short-form videos very clear, YouTube has carried on with its weekly creator updates, and Twitter is testing new tweet features. Let’s take a gander at the goings on this week.

-Eliot

Facebook To No Longer Allow Live Shopping Events

Facebook has announced via blog post that from the 1st of October 2022, sellers will no longer be able to host live shopping events.

The blog states that due to users pivoting towards short-form video, Reels will become the focus and not live events such as live shopping.

Facebook first launched live shopping in August 2020 with the aim of making shopping easier for consumers as well as empowering retailers to grow their business and reach online. Live shopping allowed businesses to create interactive ways to sell their products and engage with audiences.

Now, this doesn’t mean that Facebook Live is dead completely (as it’s still available), but e-commerce merchants will no longer be able to create either product playlists or tag their products. Retailers will now have to use other avenues to sell their products on Facebook such as display ads.

Live shopping will remain a feature on Instagram for the time being.

Short-form Video Focus

Due to their main competitor being TikTok, Meta has been shifting its attention completely to Reels, which allows users to seamlessly share videos across Meta’s major social platforms.

When Reels were first released, Instagram users did not greet them with open arms, but now they’re increasing in popularity among users. The Integrity Institute, a social internet think-tank, reported that 11 out of the top 20 posts on Facebook were Reels in 2021.

This has allowed retailers to publish videos to tag their products, give audiences CTAS, and engage with their target audience.

“If you want to reach and engage people through video, try experimenting with Reels and Reels ads on Facebook and Instagram, you can also tag products in Reels on Instagram to enable deeper discovery and consideration.” was the advice given by Meta in the blog post.

New YouTube Update For Creators

YouTube’s new updates for creators this week include new subscriber metrics and a greater copyrighted music library.

Let’s take a look at the new updates.

An Expanded Library

YouTube is expanding its library of copyrighted music for creators with new partnerships with record labels and producers, giving creators more choices for music for their videos.

This is important because using copyrighted music without the consent of the rights holders means that a video won’t earn revenue.

As of now, this feature is limited to a small set of creators in order to test it, but more detail will be shared in the upcoming months.

New Subscriber Metrics

Creators are now able to see a new metric when it comes to their subscriber count: subscribers from posts.

This metric can be seen in the subscription source report within YouTube Analytics.

Twitter Increase The Capabilities Of The Edit Button And Allow Multimedia Tweets

Last week, Twitter announced that they were testing a feature which would allow users to not only add an image to a tweet but a video and a gif all in one too.

Multimedia tweets can only be posted and viewed in the app, as of now they cannot be viewed or created on a desktop. Additionally, only a small group of users has access to this feature, it’s unknown when everyone will be able to create these types of tweets.

Here’s what a multimedia tweet would look like:

Twitter made a statement to TechCrunch and said the following:

We’re testing a new feature with select accounts for a limited time that will allow people to mix up to four media assets into a single tweet, regardless of format. We’re seeing people have more visual conversations on Twitter and are using images, GIFS and videos to make these conversations more exciting. With this test we’re hoping to learn how people combine these different media formats to express themselves more creatively on Twitter beyond 280 characters.

The Edit Button

Twitter is also continuing to test its edit button on a limited number of accounts.

Jane Manchun Wong, a front-end engineer who made the Forbes 30 under 30, discovered that when a tweet is edited, the original one doesn’t go away, but users will get a notification saying “a new version of the tweet is available” just below it, and then the new tweet is shown above.

Twitter first began testing an edit function back in April to premium Twitter users (Twitter Blue subscribers) and 73% of users who responded to a Twitter poll Tesla CEO Elon Musk put up said that they’d like an edit button.

Coincidentally, Twitter stated a day later that they were testing an edit feature, but it wasn’t related to the poll that Musk posted.

Twitter users have been asking to edit their tweets since the day the platform reached a massive audience, but there’s no indication that free users will have access to an edit button, perhaps it’s something that Twitter will lock behind their Blue paywall.

Google Test More Local Service Ads Per SERP

Google is currently testing displaying more local service ads per set of search results, choosing to show three ads instead of the usual two.

Ginny Marvin, who is a Google Ads Liaison, confirmed that the test aims to increase consumer confidence in local service ads.

Here’s the tweet below:

Google’s experiment is somewhat the opposite of the intent because it’s drawing attention to a controversial Google issue: the local service ad spam.

Local Service Ad Spam

Whilst increasing the local service ads that are displayed from two to three has the potential to be a positive change, it does make the local service ad spam significantly more prevalent.

There are issues which are highlighted in the replies to Marvin’s tweet, such as:

• Ads for fake businesses
• Fake reviews for business profiles
• Ads for deactivated business profiles

Considering that each one of these ad packs has the “Google Screened” promise, there’s a QA gap somewhere at Google.

Although Marvin has stated that Google takes these reports incredibly seriously.

“We are committed to ensuring the LSA unit provides a trusted experience for users & service providers. We have taken your reports seriously and are continuing to work on this.”

Hopefully, Google can put a stop to the spammy local service ads before everyone loses faith in the service, as they are legitimately helpful for small and local businesses.

Good Afternoon and welcome to the latest edition of the Intelligency weekly Digital Roundup, where I’m reporting on what you need to keep track of in the vast world of digital marketing. This week stories can be seen regarding TikTok’s problematic Creator Fund, Google improving reviews across the net, Adam Mosseri rolling back Instagram changes and more!

-Eliot

TikTok’s Low Creator Funds Are Making Creators Quit The Platform For Good

Content Creators are becoming disappointed with how much they’re being paid by the platform’s Creator Fund, which is significantly lower than competitors such as YouTube, and are leaving the platform for good due to mental health blows and burnout.

A History Of Low Payouts

There have been several creators in the past who have criticised the low payout they get despite the social media giant pledging $1 billion to their creator fund over a three-year period. Content creators like Hank Green have made claims that they’re only paid around $0.02-3 per one thousand views on their content, this is substantially lower than YouTube which will pay $1 per one thousand views to creators.

Here are some more examples of TikTok’s low payout:

• Kevin Yatshuro, a creator who went viral on TikTok, posted a video in 2021 which received over 3 million views but only received $12.50.
• Another creator, Alicia Trautwein, had a video which received 1.8 million views, but only got a pitiful $10.
• Jimmy Donaldson, a top creator will 32 million followers, was only paid $25.10 in January this year.

The YouTube model

Multiple creators have suggested that TikTok needs to create a standardised payout program like YouTube’s rather than a payment scheme based on a variety of factors.

Interestingly, YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki published a blog post last year stating that YouTube had paid over $30 billion to creators from 2018 to 2021:

“We can’t compare overall revenues for the two apps — TikTok is owned by a private company — but we do know that YouTube has roughly twice as many users as TikTok, not 30 times as many.”

-Susan Wojcicki

The alternative for TikTok creators is to seek a sponsorship deal, one creator, Vi Luong, receives around $32,000 a month due to their sponsorship with large brands. Another creator who also publishes Instagram reels as well as TikTok’s earned around $535,000 last year due to the fact that they acquire 15 sponsorships a month.

TikTok’s Payment Model

TikTok has claimed that its payment model is based on multiple factors such as video views, engagement, where it has been seen, as well as how many people are in the Creator Fund.

TikTok needs to start paying its prominent creators more if they want to keep their competitive edge, as Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook still struggle with short-form videos.

Google Roll Out July 2022 Product Review Update

Google has confirmed that they have begun rolling out the July update for the product review algorithm, this is the fourth update in total for product reviews, which have been targeting low-quality reviews.

The update is expected to fully roll out in around three weeks’ time.

The update was announced via Twitter on the Google Search Central account, which linked the official page for search ranking updates:

As always, Google released the update without warning like many of their updates, however, this update has the potential to improve your website’s ranking, especially if the last product review update hurt them.

Here’s all you need to know about the July 2022 Product Review Update.

What’s New?

The new update is an improvement for the product review algorithm which was introduced in March 2021, the algorithm rewards reviewers who share in-depth reviews that are beneficial to a user, rather than thin content which only summarises information from a manufacturer’s website.

There has been no new guidance released with this update, but reviewers should continue to follow Google’s criteria for what constitutes high-quality content.

To summarise the guidance, Google and therefore users want to see that a reviewer has first-hand experience with whatever they’re reviewing. This can be made clear to your audience by including quantitative measurements, benefits, drawbacks, and comparisons with other products.

Rewriting the same content that already exists and that is easily found will no longer help a website’s ranking, it will only be a detriment, you need to offer unique value.

Please note: this update only affects sites which review products, if you don’t review products, your website will not be impacted.

Instagram To Roll Back New Home Feed Changes After Criticism From Influencers

Instagram’s new home feed changes have been surrounded by controversy since the update went live for most accounts, with celebrities such as Kylie and Kim Kardashian posting memes which asked the company to “Make Instagram Instagram again”.

Now, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, posted a reel explaining that the changes will be rolled back over the next two weeks, and there will be fewer algorithm-suggested posts.

Mosseri was interviewed by the tech newsletter Platformer and had this to say about the changes:

“I’m glad we took a risk – if we’re not failing every once in a while, we’re not thinking big enough or bold enough, but we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup. [When] we’ve learned a lot, then we come back with some sort of new idea or iteration. So we’re going to work through that.”

-Adam Mosseri

Various users of the platform made complaints that their regular feeds had been drowned out by unwanted algorithm recommendations, the changes received enough backlash for Mosseri to post the reel on Tuesday, just a day before his interview, and before the Kardashian posts.

“more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time” is what Mosseri stated on the reel, but by Thursday this week, Mosseri changed his tune and conceded that the platform had gone too far.

“For the new feed designs, people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great,” Mosseri stated in his interview. “So there I think that we need to take a big step back, regroup, and figure out how we want to move forward.”

Mosseri explained that Instagram would reduce the amount of algorithm-suggested posts due to complaints from users about how content is being pushed from accounts they don’t follow or aren’t interested in. “

“When you discover something in your field that you didn’t follow before, there should be a high bar – it should just be great,” “You should be delighted to see it. And I don’t think that’s happening enough right now. So I think we need to take a step back, in terms of the percentage of feed that are recommendations.”

-Adam Mosseri

Google’s Cookie Ditching Plan Delayed Until 2024

Google is now delaying the plan to deprecate third-party cookies for their Chrome browser by another year, the phasing out will now start in 2024.

This is actually the second extension that third-party cookies have received for Chrome, as Google initially planned to discontinue them this year.

Then Google extended the deadline by a year and stated they would be phased out by 2023, but now the deadline has been extended to 2024.

The delay is due to the Google wanting to further test its Privacy Sandbox initiative, which has been described as a less intrusive solution for targeted advertising delivery.

The delay was announced by Anthony Chavez, who is the VP of Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative, in a blog post:

“The most consistent feedback we’ve received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome…

This deliberate approach to transitioning from third-party cookies ensures that the web can continue to thrive, without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques like fingerprinting.”

-Anthony Chavez

Google began testing the Privacy Sandbox over the last several months, but devs, publishers, and marketers have agreed that it needs a longer testing window- hence the delay.

The big change in the plan is that rather than abruptly switch to the privacy sandbox and kill cookies, cookies will be phased out slowly and the privacy sandbox will be gradually introduced.

Developers can test with a trial version of the Privacy Sandbox API, and in August the trial will expand to millions of users and businesses globally.

Google plan to roll out the test to more and more users throughout the rest of this year and into 2023.

Chavez continued in the post:

“By Q3 2023, we expect the Privacy Sandbox APIs to be launched and generally available in Chrome. As developers adopt these APIs, we now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024. As always, you can find up-to-date timelines and milestones on the Privacy Sandbox website.”

-Anthony Chavez

This will allow marketers and businesses will have more time before they have to adjust their ad strategies to target chrome users. At the moment, it is still unknown how the phasing out of third-party cookies will impact advertisers or how effective the targeting for Privacy Sandbox will be.

Twitter’s Transparency Report Exposes The Dark Side Of Social Media

Twitter released their transparency report from July to December 2021, and it showed a darker side to the platform.

Not only were fewer accounts suspended or banned for violating the Twitter TOS, but the report also showed that there was an increase in governments requesting information and how often Twitter complied; perhaps the darkest element is an increase in governments targeting journalists with legal demands.

The transparency report also revealed that violations such as child exploitation were on the rise.

Accounts Actioned

The data from the report showed that there was a decrease in action taken on accounts, whether that’s suspending them or removing violating content. This total figure of actioned accounts was 12% lower compared to the previous reporting period.

Violating content was removed 14% less compared to the previous report period.

The amounts that were suspended increased by 2%.

The Reasons Why Accounts Got Suspended

The reason why over 600,000 accounts were suspended may come as a shock, but the platform saw a massive rise in child sexual exploitation.

The other primary cause which led to 169,369 suspensions was “impersonations”.

Twitter Safety

The Twitter Safety data showed that almost every category experienced a decrease in actioned accounts. Only the categories of child sexual exploitation, promotion for self-harm, and illegal or specific regulated goods saw an increase in actioned accounts.

Press Freedom

There was a worrisome trend in the transparency report which showed that governments across the world were trying to limit press freedoms.

Part of the pressure stems from legal demands, with both trends reaching an incredibly high figure.

The data showed:

• “Record number of legal demands on accounts (45,572 requests on 198,931 accounts)
• An increase of 103% in legal demands from governments targeting verified journalists and news outlets since the last reporting period
• The United States accounted for 20% of all global requests
  Tweet impressions that violated Twitter rules accounted for less than 0.1% of total impressions on all Tweets
• We objected to 29 US civil requests for account information that sought to unmask the identities of anonymous speakers”

The report stated:

“For the latest reporting period, 349 accounts of verified journalists and news outlets located all around the world were subject to 326 legal demands, a 103% increase since the previous reporting period and a record high since we started tracking this important metric, which is all the more important at a time when freedom of the press is strained globally.”

The US say that they guarantee freedom of the press under the first amendment, yet the US accounts for the largest information requests made compared to other governments.

Read the full Transparency Report from Twitter.

Streamlining is the theme of this week’s Digital Roundup, with three internet giants cutting down the fat from some of their processes and making experiences a lot smoother for users. Let’s take a delve at all things digital.

-Eliot

Facebook’s Home Feed Changes May Be More Beneficial To Businesses Than Before

New updates to Facebook’s main home feed are giving brands the opportunity to improve their content reach and allowing them to reach brand new audiences.

The way that Facebook updates the primary home feed skews towards new content discovery for users, showing users content based on personalised recommendations when they open the app.

A secondary feed will show users content from their friends and accounts they follow.

Due to the addition of an algorithm-generated feed for content suggestions, the level of content distribution will almost certainly be impacted.

Here are all the changes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced.

Facebook’s Home Feed Gets Split In Two

Rather than a single home feed, the home feed will be split into two tabs: Home, and Feed.

Home will be the first tab a user sees when they open the Facebook app, whilst Feed will be a tab with content they’ve chosen to see.

Zuckerberg stressed the benefits of the Feed tab, as it allows you to catch up with posts that your friends, family, and favourite accounts have made.

On the other hand, Home is almost certainly the most exciting aspect for brands and content creators because it will allow them to expand their audience.

Discovery Engine

I’ve spoken about this in a past Digitial Roundup, Facebook wants to change the Home tab into a “discovery engine”, so instead of seeing content from local businesses you’ve followed (moved to the Feed tab), you’ll see content from creators and brands Facebook think you will be interested in.

A lot of articles covering this change are calling it “TikTok-like”, which rings true because the Home feed will now be an endless rabbit stream of content, and especially true because you will see Reels and Stories on the Home feed.

You will still be able to see photos, videos and text posts on the Home feed despite the change.

Brands can benefit from the discovery engine because of the fact that additional content is being recommended to regular users, so it will potentially be easier to build an audience.

Facebook explained how the feed recommends content:

“Your Home tab is uniquely personalized to you through our machine learning ranking system. This system takes into account thousands of signals to help cut through the clutter and rank content in the order we think you will find most valuable. We’re investing in AI to best serve recommended content in this ranked experience.”

As of now, the change has started rolling out but we won’t understand what this update really means for marketers for a few months.

New Updates To Instagram Reels And Shopping

Meta has also introduced new updates to Instagram by adding new tools for Reel creativity, additional ways to drive engagement, changes to how videos are shared, and an additional payment feature.

For Reels, the additional new features include:

• Enhanced remixes
• Additional templates
• Automatic conversions for video posts to Reels
• Reel boosts

And for payments on the Instagram shop, you can now pay in the chat.

Here’s some information on the new features.

New Reel Features

Instagram has added new remix options, now you can remix a public photo (a photo posted by an account that’s not private), and also choose new layouts such as green screen, split screen, or picture in picture. You will also be able to add your recording after the original clip, rather than appearing at the same time.

For Reel templates, you can use a dual template, which allows you to record a video using both the front camera and back camera from your phone.

Automatic Conversion

Instagram will also now automatically change new video posts that are less than 15 minutes into a reel, when this change is rolled out the reels and video tabs on a profile will merge into one.

Boosting Reels

Creator and Professional accounts can now boost their reels and turn them into a paid social advert, thus giving them the potential to have more views and create more engagement.

The requirements for boosts are as follows:

1. The content must be 100% original
2. The reel must be less than 60 seconds long
3. The reel must be recorded in a 9:16 aspect ratio

If you boost a reel, it will appear in the main feed, stories, the reel tab, and also on the explore page.

In-chat payments

Instagram also announced that they are adding a new “Payments in chat” feature to Instagram to streamline the buying process for users. The feature will allow consumers to purchase products directly from small businesses’ DMs on Instagram.

Consumers will also be able to communicate in real-time with sellers, request a payment, or track an order.

Meta stated the following in their announcement:

“We want to help people start conversations with businesses they care about and help them find and buy products they love in an easy, seamless experience, right from the chat thread.”

Meta also stated in the announcement that one billion users message various businesses in a week across their different social media platforms. Chatting with brands, browsing or discussing products, asking for customer support, and interacting with stories are all included in this count.

YouTube Reduce The Length Of The Copyright Strike Dispute Process

In a series of positive changes for channels on YouTube, the company is reducing the length of the copyright dispute process, with the aim of reducing the impact of false claims.

If your video receives a copyright claim and YouTube block it, you can now expedite the appeals process to get the video visible again.

In this next section, I’ll talk a little bit more about how this process works, what is changing with it, and how it can benefit content creators.

The YouTube Copyright Dispute And Appeal Process

If a channel uploads a video with copyrighted content such as licensed music, the video can receive a “content ID” claim, colloquially known as copyright claims in the YouTube community.

If you receive a claim you believe to be false, you can start the once lengthy dispute process. A dispute will be sent to the claimant to inspect and review, and then they have 30 days to decide whether or not the claim is worth it. If it is not, it’s dismissed, if it is worth pursuing then it will move forward to the next stage.

The claim is automatically dismissed if it is not acknowledged and reviewed in 30 days by the claimant.

Creators can also file an appeal if the claim is not dismissed, then if the claimant rejects the appeal they have the option to send a copyright takedown request.

Claimants also have 30 days to review an appeal, which has the potential to let your video be blocked for up to 60 days.

The process is entirely independent of YouTube until a copyright takedown request is proposed, YouTube then reviews the request, and if it is valid they remove the video and issue a strike to the channel.

If you can prove you have ownership of the content that was taken down, YouTube will review the appeal and reinstate the video.

As you can tell, this whole process is lengthy and bloated, hence the streamlining of the process.

The Changes

The significant change to the process is that YouTube is cutting down the 30-day timer to 7 days for appeals. Whilst claimants have 30 days to review the initial dispute, they only have 7 to review the appeal.

Creators can skip the dispute process now and escalate straight to an appeal if the claim is blocking viewers.

With these changes, the process looks like the below:

This week’s stories cover Google continuing to improve Performance Max Campaigns, insight into YouTube’s Guideline Appeal process, if linking to HTTPS can hurt your SEO, and how to take yourself out of a user’s Twitter mentions.

Google Roll Out Six New Features For Performance Max Campaigns

Google is currently rolling out six brand new features for Performance Max Campaigns on Google Ads, including optimisation score- which was a highly requested feature.

Marketers and advertisers will now have access to an easy and fast way to identify areas where their campaigns can be improved or optimised before they go live.

In addition to the above feature, there will be new explanations in order to help answer queries regarding the success of the campaign’s performance after it is launched.

Here are all the new features and details from Google’s announcement.

The 6 New Features For Performance Max Campaigns

Optimisation Score

Optimisation score shows you ways to improve your Performance Max Campaign. The score is on a scale from 0-100%, and if the campaign is scored anything below 100% then you’ll receive recommendations on how you can improve your campaign.

Optimisation score is a feature that marketers and advertisers rely on when they’re creating different campaign types in Google Ads, and now they’ll be able to use it in Performance Max Campaigns.

Seasonality Adjustments

The seasonality adjustment feature will allow you to adapt your bid strategy to different events where your conversion rates are predicted to increase, such as when you’re running a promotion or sale.

Data Exclusions

Data exclusions let you tell Google’s smart bidding to ignore specific data from dates where your campaign faced conversion tracking issues.

Advanced Location Targeting Controls

Advanced location targeting controls will allow you to find more options to target your audience based on “physical presence” or “presence or interest”

Explanations

Explanations will help marketers understand why they might see an unforeseen performance shift.

The platform will provide users with suggestions to correct the campaign performance and will allow you to identify performance issues immediately.

Diagnostic Insights

This is a feature that was spoken about in last week’s Digital Roundup, it allows you to use diagnostic insights to determine any potential issues with your ad policy, billing, budget, and more when you’re setting up a new performance max campaign.

YouTube Answer Frequently Asked Questions In Regards To Community Guideline Appeals

YouTube has cleared the air and answered frequently asked questions in regards to the process for community guideline appeals in a new video.

One of YouTube’s product managers cleared up the process of who actually reviews an appeal, how the appeals are reviewed in such a quick manner, what you should put in your appeal, and more.

The information from the video will help you to understand and navigate the guidelines if your channel receives a strike.

What Is A Community Guideline Appeal?

When a channel on YouTube publishes content that violates the community guidelines for the platform, a strike is sent against the channel.

If you gain three strikes, the channel is banned.

However, you can appeal against the strike by submitting an appeal, basically, you need to prove that the strike was unwarranted and undeserved.

Who Reviews The Appeal Though?

YouTube has said on the record that a human reviews the appeal and not a machine.

There’s a team of people who are employed all over the world to assess every appeal that is received.

They assess the content to see whether or not it violates the community guidelines.

How Was The Appeal Reviewed So Quickly?

You’ll often have your appeal reviewed so fast that you wonder how a human could read through it and watch the video in such a short amount of time.

In addition to having a dedicated content team, the training for this team includes being able to recognise a specific point in the video where a guideline was breached.

They’ll use this timestamp to recognise whether or not the guideline was truly breached, rather than watching the entire video.

If You Delete The Video, Will The Strike Disappear Too?

No, the strike will not be removed if you delist the video in question.

How Many Times Can An Appeal Be Submitted?

YA channel can appeal once per restriction, but if the appeal is rejected then you cannot submit another for that video.

You can watch the full video below:

Does Linking To A HTTP Page Affect SEO?

Google guru and Search Advocate John Mueller has provided intriguing insight as to whether or not there is an impact on a website’s SEO from linking to an unsecured HTTP web page.

Initially, you’d think that linking to HTTP rather than HTTPS would be seen as a negative by Google because it can lead to a negative user experience.

What is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS?

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.

HTTP is used to transfer data from a server to a browser.

HTTPS is a more secure version that affirms to the user that the site they’re on is protected.

Is HTTPS A Ranking Signal?

Yes, HTTPS is a ranking signal and has been since 2014. When Google announced it they said the following:

“Beyond our own stuff, we’re also working to make the Internet safer more broadly. A big part of that is making sure that websites people access from Google are secure.

For these reasons, over the past few months we’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms.

We’ve seen positive results, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal.

For now it’s only a very lightweight signal—affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content —while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS.

But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.”

Now you know that HTTPS is a ranking signal, it provides insight into the question being asked. Surely if secure webpages are important to Google, then linking to a HTTP page should be a negative?

The answer isn’t as simple as you’d think, as Mueller explains.

Is it detrimental to link to HTTP pages?

There is a multitude of reasons why it is not recommended to link to a HTTP page. However, the question asked specifically related to the SEO impact:

“Does it affect my SEO score negatively if my page is linking to an external insecure website?

So, on HTTP, not HTTPS.”

Mueller answered with the following, clarifying that an SEO score does not exist, and then he reinterpreted the question into what he believed the person was actually asking:

“…first off, we don’t have a notion of an SEO score.

So you don’t really have to worry about kind of an SEO score.

But regardless, I kind of understand the question is like, is it bad if I link to an HTTP page instead of an HTTPS page.

And from our point of view, it’s perfectly fine.

If these pages are on HTTP, then that’s what you would link to.

That’s kind of what users would expect to find.

There’s nothing against linking to sites like that.

There is no kind of downside for your website to kind of like avoid linking to HTTP pages because they’re kind of old or crusty and not as cool as on HTTPS.

I would not worry about that.”

So is linking to a HTTP page okay?

On an SEO basis, linking to a HTTP page is fine.

Unfortunately, HTTP is less secure than HTTPS, so there’s no verification to the browser that you’re using that the server which is responding to your request for the page is the correct server.

Due to the unsecured nature of HTTP, websites using this protocol can be attacked, with unforeseen consequences resulting to those websites that can affect their bottom line.

Hackers have developed new ways to trick site visitors into thinking they’re on a specific website such as an online bank, they will then collect the sensitive user data that you use to log in such as bank passwords. Therefore, it is best practice for UX to verify outbound HTTP links, and if your instinct tells you something is wrong with it, link to a HTTPS page instead.

Safety for users is just as important as SEO.

Twitter Now Allows Users to Untag Themselves From Tweets

Social media platform Twitter will now allow users to untag themselves from tweets they’re mentioned in with a unique feature called ‘unmentioning’.

You can now ‘unmention’ yourself from a conversation you want no part in with this new feature.

This new feature is a significant improvement compared to purely muting a conversation due to the fact it gets rid of the link to the mentioned user’s account, it also stops other users from mentioning them in the same conversation.

Here’s how to unmention yourself on Twitter!

Unmentioning yourself

To unmention yourself, do the following:

• Tap on the three dots at the top right of the tweet you want to unmention yourself from.
• Select “leave this conversation”
• Then confirm, and the tags will be removed.

This new feature is accessible on both mobile and desktop and is rolling out worldwide.

In this week’s Digital Marketing News, Google has expanded the insights available in Google Ads, TikTok clapped back at U.S Senators who alleged their data handling was unsafe, and a former Google CEO spoke about the 20% Project and how “brutal” it could be.

Google Ads Adds Diagnostic Insights

Google is introducing a fresh data set to the Insights page on Google Ads, which emphasises any issues that are found whilst a diagnostic check is running. This new data set is called Diagnostic Insights.

Diagnostic insights will help marketers identify any issues that are preventing a campaign from showing, generating low engagement, or making it more difficult to track conversions.

The data set is located on the Insights and Overview page, which is found under your Performance Max campaigns. The data will let you troubleshoot problems as soon as they get detected.

Google Ads provides you with a thorough breakdown of the following data insights:

• Account status
• Billing status
• Policy review
• Conversion tracking
• Campaign budget
• Bid strategy target
• Campaign status
• Ad strength

Tailored recommendations will remove the guesswork out of fixing any issues Google find, so the campaign can go back to performing optimally in a quick fashion.

Diagnostic insights were teased by Google in May this year, with an announcement stating that the new insights would be rolling out soon. After two months, they’re rolling out.

Diagnostic Insights

The diagnostic insights data set only shows when an ad campaign has not received traffic or conversions.

If the campaign is running and people are engaging with the ad, there will be no diagnostic issues that are reported.

This feature is currently in beta, so not everyone has access to it. It’s being gradually rolled out.

As well as not everyone having access to diagnostic insights, they’re only available for performance max campaigns at this moment in time.

TikTok Responds To Unsafe Data Allegations

TikTok has denied that user data was accessible to China-based employees. The current TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew offered a strong refutation of a news article that claimed TikTok was not handling sensitive U.S user data in an unsecured manner.

Chew also answered questions that were sent by senators from the U.S about who can access the data, as well as questions regarding Chinese government control over TikTok.

The article in question was published by BuzzFeed and alleged that in a business meeting for TikTok, it was expressed that company employees located in China had full access to sensitive user data.

In response to the Buzzfeed article, nine U.S senators sent a letter to TikTok asking for more clarity, which drove the CEO of TikTok to provide an explanation.

The Letter

Nine Senators sent TikTok a letter of concern due to the allegations that the China employees could access sensitive user data. The letter contained eleven questions regarding user data, one asked if the social media giant has ever conveyed sensitive data to the Chinese government.

The letter addressed to TikTok stated:

“The implications of these findings are stark, but not surprising. Rather, they simply confirm what lawmakers long suspected about TikTok…”

TikTok’s Response

Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, responded with their own letter that was addressed to the senators. These answers were later shared as a PDF by the New York Times.

Chew stated TikTok was complying with securing the U.S. user data and has completed the necessary steps for locking down the data together with two prominent U.S companies.

Collaborating with the companies Oracle and Booz Allen, the security initiative that will be put in place is called Project Texas.

According to Chew, the employees who are working on Project Texas work on various parts of a project and do not know the project’s full scope.

The CEO affirmed that the employees involved in the leak which prompted the Buzzfeed article were unaware of other parts of Project Texas and weren’t aware of the data security policies involved.

Chew stated:

“Some people working on these projects do not have visibility into the full picture , working on a task without realizing that it’s a single step in a much bigger project or a test to validate an assumption.

That’s critical context for the recordings leaked to BuzzFeed, and one thing their reporting got right: the meetings were in service of Project Texas’s aim to halt this data access.”

The response also discloses that TikTok is working discreetly with the U.S. Government to secure user data in a way that not only ensures that U.S User data stays in the U.S but also controls who has access to it.

He continued:

“…circumstances now require that we share some of that information publicly to clear up the errors and misconceptions in the article and some ongoing concerns related to other aspects of our business.

…As we recently reported, we now store 100% of U.S. user data by default in the Oracle cloud environment, and we are working with Oracle on new, advanced data security controls that we hope to finalize in the near future.”

China-Based Employee Access

Countering the articles, TikTok has rigid rules over access to user data.

Regarding China-based employee access to data:

“Employees outside the U.S., including China- based employees, can have access to TikTok U.S. user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our U.S.-based security team.

In addition, TikTok has an internal data classification system and approval process in place that assigns levels of access based on the data’s classification and requires approvals for
access to U.S. user data.

The level of approval required is based on the sensitivity of the data according to the classification system.”

Chew also denied that the Chinese government can govern or access U.S user data or TikTok.

He wrote:

“…employees of Beijing Douyin Information Service Limited are restricted from U.S. user database access.

The Chinese state-owned enterprise’s acquisition of 1 % of Beijing Douyin Information Service Limited was necessary for the purpose of obtaining a news license in China for several China- based content applications, such as Douyin and Toutiao

The Chinese government does not directly or indirectly have the right to appoint board members or otherwise have specific rights with respect to any ByteDance entity within the chain of ownership or control over the TikTok entity .”

At this moment in time, TikTok can still be downloaded on app stores worldwide.

Google’s Brutal Review Process For New Projects

Eric Schmidt, a former CEO of Google has spoken about the company’s “brutal” review process employees had to experience when they were pitching ideas for new products or projects.

The process was revealed Schmidt took part in a Q&A session at a Collision conference in Toronto. He was questioned about his approach to forecasting a company’s future and whether he uses a bottom-up or top-down method.

Collision is an event mainly for startup companies and investors, so the questions are typically involving those subjects.

One question that was asked encouraged Schmidt to reveal some insights about Google and how an employee pitched a new business idea when he was the CEO.

Google had something called the 20% project that ran from 2004 until 2013, which was a company benefit that allowed an employee of Google to work on a side project. Multiple side projects became top products for Google, such as Gmail, AdSense, and Google News.

The former CEO spoke about how he managed the 20% project when he was in charge, and how it differed from how he explained it while working for Google.

The 20% Project

As a response to the aforementioned forecasting question, Schmidt spoke about how he, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin approached it during his tenure at Google.

Schmidt always remarked that Google used a bottom-up method to manage the 20% project. A bottom-up method means that there is a joint effort in deciding how to approach an idea for a new product.

However, at the Collision event, Schmidt stated that Google’s leaders were actually more involved than the public would believe.

It wasn’t a joint effort or a team decision that allowed these side projects to become more than just side projects. Instead, the judgment was cast through a “brutal” review process that came from Google management.

“When I was running Google, I would always explain how we did it. It was completely bottoms up. You had 20% time where teams could assemble, and people could follow their passion. These were brilliant people, the highest talent.

I would not tell you the rest of the story — and the rest is that Larry [Page], Sergey [Brin], and I would review these things, and these reviews were brutal.

Are these ideas good enough?
Can we fund them?
Are they going to work?
Are they going to scale?
Are they legal?

To build a systemic innovation culture, which is what I think we’re talking about here, you need to have both bottoms up and tops down.”

Schmidt further explained how using both a bottom-up and a top-down approach can be beneficial, and that both are needed in order for a business to succeed for the next 10 to 20 years:

“The bottoms-up is where the creative ideas come from, and the top-down organizaes and systematizes the decision-making. If you do both, you will win big in the next 10-20 years.

If you do a bit of it, you’ll do OK. You’ll be ‘one of’ the companies. The great companies can invent something and then systematize it, and then regularize it, and then scale it.”

Criticism Of The 20% Project From Employees

The quotes from Schmidt actually reflect the criticism that the 20% Project has received from employees of Google. 12 years ago, one Google employee started a thread on Quora.

The Quora thread stated that the 20% Project was ineffective because of the number of levels that a project would have to go through in order to be approved:

“There is a colossal amount of overhead involved in launching anything. The number of approvals (both technical and product) needed for the smallest of launches is overwhelming. For example, you’ll need to have your service live in multiple data centers from day one, because Google has extremely frequent planned maintenance. There are some tools to help you, but you’ve got to do a ton of leg work.”

More information about The 20% Project

To learn more about the 20% Project, you can watch the following video from SHRMWeKnowNext, which features Shannon Deegan talking about the 20% Project:

Advantages and Disadvantages to Deepfake Technology

Deepfake technology is changing how different people perceive digital marketing. Whilst marketers are still experimenting with ways to include deepfakes and deepfake technology into their strategies.

At the moment, deepfake videos can convey an immersive marketing experience for a target audience through storytelling.

Deepfake technology is a form of “deep learning”, which means it’s a machine learning type that lets a computer learn different tasks without being explicitly programmed to learn the said task. It also allows a computer to identify different objects in images. This is known as “computer vision”

Computer vision uses algorithms to recognise and identify different objects in both videos and images, for example, it can tell you if a cat appears in an image or not.

As well as the learning technologies and computer vision, creating a deepfake includes image synthesis. To explain the image synthesis process, it involves for instance:

• Taking an image (like someone holding up a Union Jack flag).
• Incorporating it with a different image (a person holding up an American flag).
• And then making something entirely new from these two components (Someone holding up both flags).

Examples of Deepfakes in popular media

Some examples of deepfakes you may have seen in popular media or in real life you may have seen are as follows:

• The Star Wars film Rogue One involved a performance from a deepfaked young Carrie Fisher.

• A deepfake of the famous artist Salvador Dali was used to host a museum dedicated to him in Florida.

• Deepfake technology even allowed a voice synthesised John F. Kennedy to read a speech he never got to make.

The benefits of Deepfake technology

Deepfake technology can provide the following benefits to marketers:

• Lowers the cost of video campaigns.
• Deepfake technology can create better omnichannel campaigns.
• It can provide a hyper-personalised experience for customers.

Low-cost video campaigns

Marketers using deepfakes can save money on the budgets for their video campaigns using because you don’t need an in-person actor.

Instead of using an in-person actor, a marketer can purchase a license for an actor’s identity. You can then use previous digital recordings of the actor, insert the appropriate dialogue from a script for the actor and create a new video.

If you follow this process, you can also save time if you want to use other employees for ads.

To use an example, if you want to use your business’ CEO for a new video campaign but they do not have time to record a new ad due to a busy schedule, you would only need a few previous recordings from past campaigns or interviews to make the new campaign.

As another benefit, you don’t even need to reshoot the video if it’s not what you wanted, you can just edit the deepfake accordingly.

Improved Omni-Channel campaigns

Since you don’t need to use in-person actors for a campaign, you can repurpose existing content for various marketing channels for both less time and less money.

Instead of reshooting to fit different purposes for different channels, you can instead just edit or replace video cuts to create a paid social campaign.

Or, you can use voice synthesis to create new dialogue to create a podcast, radio, or streaming services ad.

Hyper-Personalisation

Deepfake technology has led to an upsurge in hyper-personalization.

A brand can provide individual customers with more relevant messaging and experiences based on their personal preferences, such as their ethnicity or skin colour.

For example, if a customer was of a different ethnicity than a brand’s model for their marketing.

Deepfake technology would allow you to alter the skin tone of that model so the customer can experience what the product would look like on their skin tone.

This process can help your brand increase inclusivity and reach a broader market with campaigns.

Deepfake disadvantages

Unfortunately, deepfake technology has the potential to be used for malicious purposes just because of the sheer power behind it.

For a marketer, this can mean a fake customer complaint, a fake product review, as well as a decrease in trust from customers.

Lack of trust or ethics issues

The most obvious impact of deepfake technology is that it can be used to create a fake video, so ascertaining the authenticity of a piece of content has become more difficult.

If you could tell whether or not someone’s image was actually them or not before viewing a video, it would still be impossible for anyone who didn’t know the person on a personal level.

If a marketer or brand uses a deepfake video, a consumer may feel manipulated by the campaign and not trust the brand in the future.

For example, it’s possible to use deepfakes to create a fake review, this would be considered unethical.

On the other hand, if a brand uses deepfakes to elevate the brand’s storytelling, this would be considered ethical.

Scamming increases

Deepfake technology may also increase the number of scams online, you could create false accusations or complaints against companies.

A deepfake such as this is made by taking a recording of an actual incident and then altering the audio with new dialogue to mislead viewers.

An example of this happened recently, a German energy firm’s U.K. subsidiary handed around £220,000 to a Hungarian bank account after a swindler used the power of deepfakes to synthesise the CEO’s voice.

You could also use deepfakes to make product reviews that are fakes, to make your product more appealing than they actually are.

Google revamp Google News for Desktops

Google has redesigned Google News for desktops as of the 22nd of June.

The redesign is more customisable, so a user can meet their information needs in a personalised way, you can now:

• Add filters
• Customise topics you’re interested in
• And check more facts with an expanded fact-checker section

Google confirmed that the redesign was inspired by feedback from users of Google News. The update coincided with the 20th anniversary of Google News, which was one of the earliest tools that aggregated stories in real-time.

Here’s a bit more about the update:

Filters

You are now able to add filters to the ‘local news’ section of Google News, this allows you to see stories from different locations all at once.

Customisable topics

You can now customise the topics that appear on your Google News home page. A user is able to add, remove, or even reorder topics.

Expanded fact-checker

Google News allows a user to gain more content in regards to a story in the expanded fact-checker section. Users will be able to see the original claim along with the fact-checked assessment from an independent body, separate to Google.

Google News returns to Spain

After eight years, Google News has also returned to the country of Spain.

Here’s what the new homepage looks like:

TikTok Leaders discuss their platform strategy at Cannes

On the 20th of June, TikTok hosted its first company event at the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Multiple leaders of the number one social media platform discussed their vision for TikTok’s future and the challenges they may face.

The event is held annually at the resort town located on the French Riviera and is deemed one of the premier awards shows for the advertising industry, the execs from TikTok discussed multiple topics.

The topics included adding shopping functionality for brands, safety challenges, the impact that iOS’ privacy changes brought to social media advertising, and the influencer/creator economy.

TikTok aim to win more advertisers, despite privacy changes

Blake Chandlee, who is TikTok’s president of global operations solutions, revealed that the social media platform currently hosts hundreds of thousands of advertisers — but they aim for somewhere in the millions.

The heads at TikTok plan to achieve this by adding new tools to the platform and executing a program that has been developed in-house and is designed to report back on the quality of ads.

Just like other social media platforms, TikTok has been pursuing fresh and unique ways to target advertising in the wake of Apple’s privacy changes.

Ray Cao, the managing director and global head of monetization product, strategy, and operation stated that TikTok’s platform will include more contextual targeting for audiences.

Also, the platform is taking steps to address both quality controls as well as brand safety, which has caused some advertisers to shy away from using TikTok to advertise in the past.

Francis Stones, the current head of TikTok’s European brand safety, stated that the platform’s review process now includes more than just images. The process now includes checking sounds, text, and emojis to make sure brands are not inadvertently associating with something that is potentially problematic.

Expansion of in-platform shopping

TikTok is also currently aiming to globally expand the live shopping functionality on the platform, according to Sofia Hernandez, global head of business marketing for TikTok.

These new features for live shopping will let brands capitalise on the viral status that they can gain from user-created content that the platform is famous for.

These fresh changes will open new opportunities for marketers by enabling them to target audiences more accurately.

Brands, as well as content creators, will be able to improve their exposure with less concern about negative associations, whilst also gaining a means to make sales.

Instagram to change the home feed, again

Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Instagram will begin to test a full-screen redesign of the main home feed.

This announcement was made on an Instagram story, so don’t be surprised if you missed it.

Here is a screenshot showing how the main feed currently looks:

And here is how the main feed may potentially look in the future:

This change will make Instagram look more like its rival, TikTok, with the bulk of the content filling an entire length of the screen.

There is a small area at the bottom of the screen for navigation, whilst every other factor is overlayed on the content itself.

Zuckerberg has said that Instagram will still focus on pictures and that the changes will not make the platform video only.

The full announcement reads:

“We want to make it easier to discover content and connect with friends.

Photos are still an important part of Instagram, and we’re working on ways to improve the way they show up in a full-screen feed too.

Some people will start seeing this test soon.

Exited to hear your feedback.”

This change may mean that Instagram photos will have their dimensions changed, as they’re currently not uploaded in full screen dimensions. The likelihood is that the sides of photos will get cropped off, so detail will be lost.

It’s a risk, we may have entirely new Instagram and Facebook home feeds before the end of the year, so be prepared for changes.

You can read about Facebook’s radical changes in our latest Digital Roundup.