Google has confirmed an issue with the real-time analytics reports within Google Analytics, GA4. Many profiles show zero real-time traffic being reported since early this morning; some are seeing a fraction of their normal real-time traffic being reported, and some are seeing normal traffic. Google working on a fix. Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liaison, responded on X saying, “Thanks for flagging. This is a bug and the team is working on it. Apologies for the inconvenience!” Here is that post: What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of GA4 reporting zero real-time traffic: Why we care. If you are noticing zero or a lot less real-time visitors via Google Analytics, you are not alone. This is a bug with Google and Google hopes to resolve the issue soon. I know a lot of site owners woke up in a panic to these reports but again, this is just a bug. Fixed now. At around 11:35pm ET, it seems like it is now resolving and was resolved by 12pm ET. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/0GDkYoz
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Google’s 2023 Ads Safety Report revealed that it blocked or removed 12.7 million advertiser accounts last year – nearly double the previous 12 months. Additionally, the search engine blocked or removed 5.5 billion ads for violating its policies – slightly up from the prior year. Why we care. Cracking down on fraudulent accounts is critical for brand safety and also helps to ensure a safer space for consumers so that they can confidently make online transactions. However, there’s also a potential risk associated with AI, as it may mistakenly suspend genuine advertisers and ads. The report findings. In the 2023 Google Ads Safety Report, Google found:
Updates. Google claimed that scams and fraud across all platforms were on the rise in 2023. To counter these threats, it deployed 31 updates to its Ads and Publisher policies, such as:
AI. In the report, Google highlighted how AI is playing a crucial role in its efforts to combat bad actors. By using AI, Google claims it can identify and suspend fraudulent accounts before they even get onto its platforms, or remove them as soon as they’re detected. Moving forward. Google did not share exact details on what future updates we can expect we move further into 2024, however, the search engine confirmed it would continue to investment in policy, detection and enforcement. Appeals. If you disagree with Google’s decisions and do not believe your ad violated its policies, you can appeal any enforcement action. Google will review your appeal, and if it determines that it made an incorrect decision, it will use these instances to enhance its systems. What Google is saying. Duncan Lennox, VP & GM of Ads Privacy and Safety, said in a statement:
Deep dive. Read Google’s 2023 Ads Safety Report in full for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/tCom7Y5 Meridian, Google’s new open-source Marketing Mix Model (MMM), has entered the rapidly evolving market for advanced marketing analytics and forecasting tools. This article explores Meridian’s key features, capabilities and limitations, comparing it with Meta’s MMM called Robyn. It delves into how Meridian leverages advanced techniques like hierarchical geo-level modeling, Bayesian methods and scenario analysis to offer actionable insights for cross-channel budget optimization and marketing strategy development. Understanding marketing mix modelsThe marketing mix model empowers marketers to analyze how various marketing strategies influence sales and forecast future results. In essence, MMMs split the drivers of sales into factors (e.g., price, product attributes, distribution, promotional actions) and external issues (e.g., economic state or competitive moves). By analyzing historical data, these models assign numerical values to each component of the marketing mix in relation to total sales, requiring statistical methods to assess individual marketing activities and external factors. Consequently, this knowledge allows marketers to optimize strategies, allocate budgets more wisely and forecast how a change in one element will affect future sales. MMMs employ regression analysis or similar statistical techniques on large quantities of data related to sales and marketing to identify patterns and causality relationships, among others. This enables companies to make data-driven decisions, optimizing resource allocation across key activities like product pricing and improving brand loyalty through enhanced consumer understanding. In navigating a complex market, the precision and insights marketing mix models provide are essential for strategic planning. Dig deeper: How to win with PPC in a dataless world How does Meridian fit into the MMM landscape and what does it offer?Meridian is an open-source MMM that aims to support teams in developing models that provide deeper insights into marketing outcomes and decision-making. It strongly emphasizes privacy, advanced measurement and accessibility for marketers. Meridian brings forth innovations that offer more precise and actionable insights, according to Google. It includes features like calibration with incrementality experiments, incorporation of reach and frequency and specialized guidance on measuring search across all media channels. What makes Meridian stand out is its transparency, allowing users to customize the code and parameters to meet their specific requirements. This makes it a highly effective tool for enhancing measurement strategies. Additionally, it provides actionable data inputs and modeling guidance for optimizing cross-channel budgets. It also offers comprehensive educational resources and support for implementation. As companies increasingly recognize the value of MMMs in achieving revenue goals, Meridian provides a solution that combines innovation, transparency and practicality. Based on the press release, it seems Meridian does not differ from other MMM tools. Reputable MMM tools prioritize privacy, employ Bayesian methods and offer a wide selection of control variables and customizable settings. The documentation reveals that Google’s Meridian employs a more advanced approach than other solutions. While Google’s documentation is extensive, it’s essential not to underestimate the complexity of implementing and handling data. Technical and analytical support for modeling work is highly recommended. Implementing MMMs can be challenging even without prior experience, as it requires selecting the right data, training the model and adjusting various parameters. Meridian’s capabilities and limitationsLocal vs. national-level modelingMeridian is a powerful tool that takes your marketing data to the next level. Unlike the traditional, national-level models, Meridian lets you zoom into your marketing efforts on a local or regional scale using hierarchical geo-level modeling. This approach gives you more detailed insights and often results in more reliable figures on how effective your marketing strategies are, particularly in terms of ROI. With Meridian, you’re not limited to just a few data points. It can handle over 50 geographical locations and 2-3 years of weekly data, making it a beast at crunching numbers. Thanks to its use of advanced tech like Tensorflow Probability and the XLA compiler and the option to use GPU hardware through tools like Google Colab Pro+, Meridian works fast, keeping pace with your needs. For those times when you don’t have local data, Meridian still supports the traditional national-level approach. However, one of its standout features is that it lets you bring what you already know into the equation. Incorporating past knowledge for Bayesian modelingUsing Bayesian models, you can add your past knowledge about how your media performs into Meridian. This includes insights from previous experiments, other marketing mix models, industry know-how or benchmarks. This way, you’re not starting from scratch but building on what you already know. Meridian intelligently models the waning effectiveness of marketing strategies over time and their spread of impact, enhancing prediction accuracy. Additionally, it delves into the influence of unique viewers and ad frequency on marketing, offering deeper insights into strategy effectiveness. It doesn’t stop there. Meridian is also about making wise decisions, especially with online channels like paid search, using data like Google Query Volume. This helps you see the real impact of your strategies. When spending your marketing budget wisely, Meridian shines by helping you figure out the best way to spread your budget across different channels or suggesting the best total budget to meet your goals. With Meridian, you can also play around with “what-if” scenarios to see how different strategies could have played out. Finally, it gives you a clear report on how well it fits your data, helping you decide which strategies work best. Limitations in analyzing marketing performanceMeridian has significant limitations, notably its lack of upper vs. lower funnel support, a common issue with most MMMs. This makes it challenging to separate and analyze these components independently. However, if Meridian had this feature, it could stand out more compared to competitors. Another limitation is that Meridian doesn’t account for fluctuations in performance within the analyzed time frame. In real-world marketing, events can significantly impact the performance of individual channels. As a result, Meridian’s failure to consider this could lead to inaccurate forecasts and analysis, particularly when dealing with longer timeframes. Google’s Meridian vs. Meta’s RobynMeta’s MMM Robyn appears more advanced, putting pressure on Google to deliver a competitive tool as the leading global advertising platform. Despite Robyn’s compact presentation, it shares many features with Google’s Meridian. Meta has published case studies for Robyn, whereas Google is still in the process of building theirs, with limited access via application. Robyn is accessible to all via GitHub, fostering community support. The effectiveness of Meridian and Robyn will be determined as more advertisers use them, revealing their strengths. These MMM tools also serve as crucial marketing opportunities for advertising platforms. Meridian may boost paid search traffic, while Robyn might favor impression-heavy ads on Meta’s platforms, though this will become clearer with continued usage. As of now, Meridian is a nice early-access project to play around with. It will have to show if implementation and analysis with real data can benefit advertisers. Dig deeper: The role of paid search in attribution via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/lp0bPRG This guide offers a curated collection of prompts tailored to various marketing roles, from social media to SEO. Learn best practices for interacting with AI and discover how to effectively leverage tools like ChatGPT to boost productivity, creativity, and strategic thinking. Each prompt comes with a detailed explanation and practical example, making it easy to apply AI to your everyday marketing tasks and challenges. Whether you’re looking to craft engaging content, analyze data, or manage potential crises, this guide will help you harness the potential of AI to take your marketing efforts to the next level. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download 10 ChatGPT Prompts for Digital Marketers by MoreVisibility and start optimizing your digital marketing strategy with the power of AI! via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/pMHTWLn In B2B marketing, the traditional approach of casting a wide net is increasingly being challenged by a more targeted and personalized strategy: account-based marketing (ABM). This method focuses on identifying and engaging with specific high-value accounts, treating each as its own distinct market. But is ABM the right approach for your business? This article explores the potential benefits and challenges of implementing an ABM strategy, along with key factors to consider when evaluating its suitability for your organization. Understanding account-based marketingAt its core, ABM is a strategic approach that focuses on targeting high-value accounts with personalized and relevant marketing efforts. Unlike traditional marketing methods that typically cast a wide net, ABM is laser-focused, treating individual accounts as unique markets in themselves. The upside: Benefits of ABM
The downside: Challenges of ABMWhile the benefits of ABM are significant, it’s essential to also consider the challenges that come with implementing this type of strategy:
A contrarian approach to ABMThe LinkedIn B2B Institute’s “2030 B2B Trends” tackles contrarian ideas for the next decade. Below are key takeaways to think about from the 43-page report:
Dig deeper: 6 areas to address before increasing B2B paid media investment So, is ABM right for you?The key to identifying whether you are ready for ABM comes down to this. Unless you can seamlessly pass account information from the top of the funnel to the bottom and then automate the transfer of this information to the sales/business development team, you can’t execute ABM correctly, period. Ultimately, you must have the capability to exclude or update accounts from all targeting based on their status with the sales team in order to provide the desired experience to the client. The following notes are also important when considering ABM:
Where to start?The best place to start is LinkedIn. It is the go-to platform for B2B marketers. LinkedIn easily integrates with your marketing automation, CDP or CRM platform, allowing seamless back-and-forth sharing of audiences. These audiences can include email addresses (both business and personal) and account names. While you can manually upload audiences using a CSV file, doing so may hinder the effectiveness of your ABM efforts. You can technically add email addresses to all major ad platforms (such as Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, X, Reddit, etc.), but none offer the match rates you can find on LinkedIn, where they typically exceed 70%. If your company leverages tools like 6Sense, Terminus or DemandBase, you can also target specific decision-makers or influencers across diverse placements and platforms they use daily. Dig deeper: 7 LinkedIn advertising pitfalls: Where your B2B ads setup might stumble Deciding on ABMWhile ABM offers a potent strategy for B2B marketers, its success ultimately depends on carefully considering resource availability, target account characteristics and a commitment to personalization. These are simply necessary for success. Furthermore, the LinkedIn B2B Institute’s report sheds additional light on key considerations, including the challenges of third-party data and the need for a balanced approach, considering the dynamic nature of buying committees. With this information, you are set up to make an informed decision. Leveraging the benefits and challenges discussed, use strategic evaluation to determine whether ABM aligns with your digital marketing objectives – then reconsider the question, “Is ABM right for you?” Dig deeper: 2024 B2B trends: 6 key areas for marketing success via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2SwbEq3 LinkedIn is launching a new solution for monitoring campaign performance without third-party cookies. Dynamic UTMs, which will be available to all users globally by the end of March, simplify adding custom tracking elements to campaign URLs, improving tracking accuracy. Previously, marketers had to manually create UTM parameters for their campaigns, but with Dynamic UTMs, this process is automated. What are UTMs? UTM parameters, short for Urchin Tracking Module parameters, are small pieces of text added to the end of your ad’s destination URL that can help you track information about the source of an ad click. For example, you can add tracking parameters to help measure how many clicks to your website were from a specific campaign or placement. Why we care. UTMs are essential for marketers to grasp a campaign’s performance, especially in a privacy-focused landscape, as they don’t rely on third-party cookies or IP addresses for ad measurement. However, creating them manually can be time-consuming, inefficient and prone to errors. This solution looks address these challenges. Supported URL tracking parameters. You can add both static and dynamic URL parameters to your campaigns (see the screenshot below). When adding a URL parameter, you’ll need to add both the parameter key and value. Deep dive. Read LinkedIn’s announcement in full for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/nGQtagF In today’s experience economy, customers expect personalized and relevant experiences at every touchpoint. But maintaining that level of personalization at scale is becoming even more challenging with third-party cookies going away. Join our expert panel to learn how Salesforce allows marketers to unify customer data into a single view – helping you drive true omni-channel personalization without relying on third-party tracking. You’ll see how AI and real-time data activation can help you:
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from the experts and unlock the full potential of your customer data. Register now to save your spot! via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1o35GA6 YouTube issued guidance to creators and marketers on the best times to upload videos for maximum reach. For news, trends, or content with a shorter lifespan, it’s best to post as soon as possible. However, if you’re sharing evergreen content, the platform suggests posting at whatever time suits you prefer. Live videos. To maximize reach with live videos, YouTube advises going live when your analytics chart indicates that most of your audience will be available to watch. Off-hour posting. YouTube Liaison Officer Rene Ritchie mentioned on X that if you post during “off hours,” like the early morning, the initial boost in views might be slower. Therefore, it’s important to adjust your expectations. However, he pointed out that over a few weeks or a month, the total views usually even out, regardless of the initial posting time. Why we care. This guidance provides valuable insight into easily increasing reach by posting more strategically. However, if your content isn’t time-sensitive, YouTube confirmed that you don’t need to stress about researching optimal posting times– meaning one less thing to worry about in your content strategy. What YouTube is saying. YouTube Product Lead Todd Beaupre said in a video shared on X:
Deep dive. Read our guide on how the YouTube algorithm works for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/CefMKzt YouTube advised creators and marketers against deleting videos from the platform. Additionally, the app strongly suggested avoiding making videos private. The Google-owned site explained that removing content from the app or restricting access could disrupt your channel’s connection to people who have watched that video and negatively impact ranking. What YouTube is saying. YouTube Product Lead Todd Beaupre said on X:
What this means. In simpler terms, YouTube’s algorithm recommends videos within its search results by connecting the dots between each upload. When you take away one of those dots (aka video on your channel), it is a bit like taking away a jigsaw piece. This means deleting or hiding content could lower your overall channel ranking and limit reach because it disrupts the pattern of your content. Why we care. It might be tempting to delete or hide content you’re not happy with, however, unless the video is really bad or harmful, it’s best to keep it on your channel. Otherwise, you could end up hurting your channel’s overall ranking. Deep dive. Read our guide on how the YouTube algorithm works for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/reQT9Cx Google Product Studio is now available to merchants based in Australia and Canada. Previously, the suite of free, AI-powered tools was only accessible in the U.S., however, Google has confirmed it is planning to roll out the feature to more markets throughout the year. What is Product Studio? Product Studio is a tool you can use to create unique, high-quality product imagery across your marketing channels. Its tools can be used to generate scenes, increase image resolution and edit backgrounds. Why we care. Creative can be a headache for many SMBs, but Product Studio’s free tools offer a potential solution.They enable quick testing of diverse creative strategies, saving valuable time and resource. Getting started. You can access Product Studio’s tools in Merchant Center Next or in the Google and Youtube app on Shopify. Deep dive. Read Google’s announcement in full for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/AnjWg3h |
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