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

We’re welcoming August with another Digital Marketing Industry Insights for you all! We ship these newsletters to our team and clients on the first of every month.

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

Overall Marketing Trends

• REMINDER: Shopify Checkout Extensibility
  • August is here and you have until the 13th to take care of the Shopify Extensibility Checkout changes if you’re on Shopify Plus. We’ve put together a blog post in the link above that outlines exactly what’s happening and how to take care of it before it becomes a bigger issue.
• US Consumer Confidence Mixed in July
  • In July 2024, the Consumer Confidence Index rose to 100.3, driven by improved short-term outlooks for income, business, and labor market conditions, despite a decline in the Present Situation Index. Consumers remain cautious due to high prices and interest rates, with spending plans shifting towards non-discretionary items and less on services.
• OpenAI Announces SearchGPT Prototype
  • ​OpenAI has announced the test of SearchGPT: “a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources”. You can join the waitlist through the article link above.

PPC Search

• Google Ads Launches New PMax Reporting & AI Tools
  • Google is enabling asset-level (image, headline, etc.) conversion reporting for all PMax campaigns, alongside individual placement reports to allow advertisers to get a better idea of what’s working and what’s not. This is a massive win for us as we now get to see what’s working other than what’s getting impressions.
  • They will also be rolling out more generative AI capabilities on top of the ones that already exist, such as more image editing capabilities and integrations with image-creation/editing platforms like Typeface and Canva.
• Google Makes Broad Match Default For Search Campaigns
  • While this won’t have a day to day impact for most advertisers, it signals Google’s intent to continue pushing broad match and eventually search themes. In the future, building a campaign might not use keywords at all, rather “themes” around what you want to show for.
• Google Expands Data Capabilities For Organic Shopping
  • As organic shopping continues to see a lift in traffic, Google is now launching better reporting in Google Merchant Center so you can see conversion level data alongside click data. This will allow you to gauge within Google Merchant Center which products are driving results and optimize based off that data.

Amazon

• Amazon Ad Spend Is Up 22.6% YoY
  • According to Pacvue’s Q2 report, Amazon ad spend is up over 22% YoY and CPCs up 10% due to increased competition. They also noted that most categories saw ROAS remain relatively flat or decline YoY.
• Amazon Plans To Launch Discount Store To Fend Off Temu & Shein
  • Amazon has announced their plans to launch this new section of their site to allow Chinese sellers to ship directly to U.S. consumers. This is an attempt to fend off growing competition from Temu & Shein. This storefront will feature a range of unbranded items, many priced under $20.
• Amazon Announces Record-Breaking Sales For 2024 Prime Day Event
  • Amazon reported that Prime Day 2024 was it’s biggest shopping event yet, with sales up 11% YoY.
• Amazon Introduces Brand Store Quality Ratings
  • Brand store quality ratings assess the overall quality and user experience of your brand store on Amazon. Stores with higher ratings tend to see up to 50% higher sales compared to those with lower ratings.
• Amazon Launched Cart Abandoners & Declining Audiences Feature
  • Now available through brand tailored audiences, Amazon launched these two new critical audience segments. Previously, while brands could engage with New Potential and other loyalty segments, addressing declining audiences effectively was challenging. Now, with predictive Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) insights and the ability to create tailored promotions directly from the Customer Loyalty Dashboard, brands can strategically engage with Cart Abandoners and declining segments to maximize retention and sales.
• Amazon’s AI-powered Shopping Assistant, “Rufus,” Is Live
  • “Rufus” is now live for all U.S. customers in the Amazon mobile app. The assistant, which lives in the bottom right of the app’s main navigation bar, is designed to offer customers help with finding products, performing product comparisons and getting recommendations on what to buy.
• On July 28th, Amazon Will Update Attribute Usage & Enumeration Values
  • Amazon will update the attribute usage and enumeration values of numerous product types across marketplaces. These changes will take effect when you create or edit listings for products with offers. This change requires you to provide values for the newly added attributes with required usage.
• New Amazon Bot Suppresses Listings Mentioning “Warranty”
  • A new Amazon bot is targeting listings that mention “warranty” in bullet points, images, and descriptions, often causing them to be search-suppressed without clear error messages. Sellers should remove any mention of “warranty” from their product listings, including bullet points and images, to avoid suppression. This issue, unannounced by Amazon, has caused significant disruption and frustration among sellers.
• Thousands Of Listings Miscategorized as “Seed & Plant”
  • Amazon falsely flagged listings as being miscategorized as “Seeds and Plants,” with many sellers reporting that bots misidentifying items including sporting goods, an industrial thread locker, shoes, toys, clothing, candy, books, and curtain rods included in the takedown notices.
• New “Send It Again” Feature For FBA
  • The new “send it again” feature replicates previous Fulfillment by Amazon shipments with one click. This feature replaces the need to select SKUs individually or via bulk upload when you’re replenishing your Fulfillment by Amazon inventory with the same SKUs and quantities.
• Amazon Is Now Accepting Deals For Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Prime Big Deal Days
  • Check your accounts for lightning deal & best deal offers to be submitted for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Prime Big Deal Days.

PPC Social

• Meta Updates Ad Attribution For Clearer View Of Conversions
  • Meta’s latest ad attribution update allows advertisers to differentiate between all conversions and first-time conversions, addressing concerns over inflated performance metrics. This new feature aims to provide more accurate insights into ad effectiveness and customer acquisition costs by distinguishing between initial and subsequent conversions.
• Instagram Ads Get New Offer Focused CTA Buttons
  • Relevant details will be dynamically sourced from the ads URL, with the ability to source up to 20 different promotions and show the discount that is most likely to convert to each consumer.
• Meta Removed Detail Targeting Exclusions
  • As of July 29, 2024, Meta removed detailed targeting exclusions in new ad sets. Advertisers will receive warnings in Ads Manager, and existing campaigns using exclusions must be adjusted by January 31, 2025, or they will stop delivering. Alternative exclusion methods, such as Custom audience exclusions, remain available.

SEO

• Reddit is now blocking major search engines and AI bots — except the ones that pay
  • Reddit is intensifying its efforts to block web crawlers, now requiring search engines to pay to show recent posts and comments. Currently, only Google displays recent Reddit results, likely due to a $60 million deal allowing Google to train its AI models on Reddit’s content, leaving out Bing, DuckDuckGo, and others.
• Google Confirms Ranking Boost For Country Code Domains
  • Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed that country code domain names perform better in search results because Google gives an edge to local sites.
• Google: Core Update Expected In The Coming Weeks
  • Danny Sullivan said that he expects the next core update to be rolling out in the coming weeks.
• Google AI Overviews only show for 7% of queries, a new low
  • Some of the biggest visibility drops were on education, entertainment and ecommerce queries. Reddit and Quora are almost never cited anymore.

Development & Conversion Tracking

• Google reverses its decision to drop third party cookies in Chrome
  • Google has announced a reversal of its previous plan to eliminate third-party cookies in Chrome, citing the need for more time to develop effective privacy-preserving alternatives.
• Global tech outage caused over $5B in direct losses to fortune 500 companies
  • A major tech outage attributed to CrowdStrike has resulted in over $5 billion in direct losses for Fortune 500 companies, highlighting the widespread impact of cyber vulnerabilities.
• Performance upgrades make Shopify faster and more performant
  • Shopify’s latest engineering updates have introduced significant performance enhancements, reducing complexity and boosting the speed and efficiency of the platform for merchants.
• Meta open sources Llama 3.1 405B AI model
  • Meta has released its newest AI model as an open-source project, promoting collaboration and innovation in the AI community.

That wraps up our Digital Marketing Industry Insights for this month! Keep an eye out for these updates every month, and if you have any questions, feel free to email us at info@digitalposition.com.