So what’s new in the digital world in February?
Despite the rumors, Meta is not thinking about leaving Europe. Google introduced the Privacy Sandbox on Android, a new Google Shopping experience scorecard was introduced, Auto-tagging was added to Google Merchant Center free listings, short titles were rolled out for product ads, and much more!
Let’s get you up to speed.
CLICKTRUST News
CLICKTRUST remains a Google Premier Partner in 2022
Google has strongly reviewed its partner program this year. As of February 2022, only the top 3% of agencies are entitled to have the status of Premier Partner. We are happy to announce CLICKTRUST is part of this top 3%.
CLICKTRUST Brainfood
Chrome browser extensions for digital marketeers
– Benjamin Niyonkuru
As a digital marketer, Google Chrome has a wide range of tools, plugins, and extensions designed to make your life easier. In this article, we cover our favorite, easy-to-use chrome extensions that can help you save time and increase your efficiency.
Waiting for unicorns isn’t a strategy
– Fabian Van De Wiele
Last Thanks to our own bootcamp, we are now finally able to recruit based on soft and fairly common hard skills, increasing our talent pool massively. Since then, we’re offering this bootcamp to all companies who are fed up with waiting for that perfect trilingual with 3 years of performance or paid media experience…. We’re organizing trainings specifically for newcomers who are just hired.
Data & privacy
Introducing the Privacy Sandbox on Android
– Google Product Updates
“Today, we’re announcing a multi-year initiative to build the Privacy Sandbox on Android, with the goal of introducing new, more private advertising solutions. Specifically, these solutions will limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID.”
Android’s toothless “Privacy Sandbox” fails to answer iOS tracking limits
– ARS Technica
“Since Google is not making any privacy changes mandatory, it is basically asking advertising companies to voluntarily stop collecting data on users. If advertisers wanted to do that, they could make that change today. Advertisers don’t actually need to wait for a technical solution to be finished.”
On Meta’s ‘regulatory headwinds’ and adtech’s privacy reckoning
– TechCrunch
“Facebook’s ad business is certainly heavily exposed to any regulatory hurricane of enforcement against permission-less Internet tracking since it doesn’t offer its own users any opt-out from behavioral targeting.”
Google-related updates
Auto-tagging added to Google Merchant Center free listings
– Search Engine Land
“Google has enabled auto-tagging for free product listing and free local product listing through Google Merchant Center. This should enable better tracking of your shopping campaigns through Google Search by adding a result ID to your URLs.”
Google adds new exposure frequency controls for CTV campaigns
– Social Media Today
“Google has added the capacity for Google advertisers to manage the frequency of exposure to their CTV campaigns per viewer, enabling broader exposure for lower cost, while also avoiding over-saturation, and potential annoyance, with their ads.”
Google Ads makes changes to automated extensions
– Search Engine Journal
“Google announced new improvements on ad extensions to advertisers geared towards easier management. Updates are coming to sitelink, callout, and structured snippet extensions.”
Google makes offline conversion tracking easier with Enhanced Conversions for Leads
– Search Engine Land
“Google Ads has rolled out Enhanced Conversions for Leads. This option offers an alternative to the existing Google Click ID-based offline conversion tracking method.”
Google Rolls Out Short Titles For Product Ads
– Search Engine Journal
“Google recently added a new optional attribute to Merchant Center called “short title”. This update allows you to be more concise and to the point with your products.”
New Google Shopping experience scorecard
– Search Engine Land
“Google is notifying Google Merchant Center merchants of a new program called the Shopping experience scorecard. In short, Google is telling these merchants that if they provide an “excellent customer experience” Google will, in turn, reward those merchants with “a boost in rankings,” “a badge” and “other benefits that will help consumers find your business,” within the Google Shopping tab in Google Search”
Social media news
It’s the beginning of the end of Facebook
– Protocol
“Facebook is dying. The signs have been out there for a while, of course: slowing growth around the world, an increased focus on Instagram and WhatsApp and Messenger, and then a hard pivot toward the metaverse, including a whole-ass name change so that Meta’s potential might not be brought down by Facebook. But all we saw until now was slow growth, not decline.”
Meta Is Absolutely Not Threatening to Leave Europe
– Meta
“We have absolutely no desire to withdraw from Europe; of course, we don’t. But the simple reality is that Meta, like many other businesses, organizations, and services, relies on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate our global services.”
Meta Launches Facebook Reels to All Users, Expanding its Short-Form Video Push
– Social Media Today
“Meta’s taking its battle against TikTok to the next stage with the full launch of Reels on Facebook, using the platform’s massive scale to capitalize on the popularity of short-form video content.”
Tools
Welcoming the new Search Console URL Inspection API
– Google Search Central
“With the new URL Inspection API, we’re providing a new tool for developers to debug and optimize their pages. You can request the data Search Console has about the indexed version of a URL; the API will return the indexed information currently available in the URL Inspection tool.”
Screaming Frog Adds Google URL Inspection API
– Search Engine Journal
“Screaming Frog didn’t waste any time integrating Google’s new URL inspection API that allows access to current indexing data. The new API allows Screaming Frog to include seven brand new filters that identify website problems in need of attention.”
Unlimited Google Search Console Keywords Through BigQuery – Data Studio Template
– Mike Ginley
“One of the tougher parts of SEO is not having access to all keywords that lead users to your site. Google Analytics shows (not provided) for 99.9% of keywords and we are limited to 500 keywords in Google Search Console. This led me to find my own workaround to get unlimited Google Search Console keywords for free in Google Sheets. I then upload them to BigQuery and report them through Google Data Studio in an easily digestible format.”
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