Author: tom

It’s been another busy week in the world of Digital Marketing, with a relatively major announcement from Google potentially changing Search forever – certainly one which merits some of your consideration.

Otherwise it’s business as usual – Instagram provides some useful advice on content creation, X provides an (admittedly and, for once, potentially brilliant) platform update, while there’s plenty going on elsewhere. Let’s get to it!

How is Generative AI changing SEO?

This week heralded the launch from Google’s of AI-generated “AI Overviews” in search results. This could majorly impact SEO and referral traffic. 

Generative AI is rapidly changing SEO on several fronts – in terms of content creation, in terms of how users consume content, and then in terms of how firms are now defining SEO strategies.

The challenge is that with Google favouring quality content and supposedly down-weighting AI-generated articles, it isn’t quite as simple as saying “Hey ChatGPT, can you please write 100 articles about cake for my website”, publishing and hoping for the best. Instead, in order to best harness AI tools, you need to become a prompt master and then still apply that extra 20% of editorial insight to ensure that what you’re publishing is actually relevant and useful to your audience.

These summaries, powered by Gemini AI, aim to directly answer queries in the search results page, reducing the need for users to click through to websites. This shift may particularly affect sites optimized for informational content like Wikipedia, as users can get answers directly from search results.

Google suggests that these AI Overviews could lead to increased diversity in site visits for more complex queries, potentially offsetting some negative impacts on traffic. This development will likely necessitate new SEO strategies as the dynamics of search change.

The good news is that if you get the first bit right (i.e. write good, relevant and well-presented content), you’ll then be well prepared for this. Social Media Today took a deeper look which inspired this musing. Bloomberg has also shared some interesting thoughts.

X will soon enable advertisers to create audiences with AI

X has announced that advertisers will soon be able to create advertising audiences via AI prompts. This is actually the neatest idea I’ve heard from X (or Twitter) in literally years. 

This article includes an example showing that you’ll soon be able to describe the target audience you have in mind, such as “users who are leaders in technology,” and X’s AI matching system will then provide you with an appropriate audience based on that description.

I am fascinated to see how this actually works, as there is often a lot of nuance and curation to this type of audience creation that a prompt such as this simply doesn’t cover. But it would be a great way to build a first draft, or even answer a quick question from a stakeholder.

Instagram says longer reels can hurt performance

After years of driving people to post more and seemingly longer videos, Instagram now tells us that this might actually be harmful for performance.

The key headline here is that Reels which are longer than 90 seconds can hurt distribution.

It’s relatively unlikely if you’re reading this that you even post Reels that long on a frequent basis, but good to know moving forwards; don’t do it.

Further Reading

Google also introduced a ‘web filter’ this week, to near-universal acclaim. In short, this is a way to filter results to more meaningful and useful content.

OpenAI launched Chat GPT 4o this week, a new version that inputs and outputs in voice, images and text.

In this week’s edition of “Remember that?”, Meta is shutting down Workplace. No, really, it was still going.

TikTok, or specifically BookTok, is driving a book buying renaissance. Remarkable to see us going full circle and social driving offline economies in this way.

And finally, Zuck celebrated his 40th birthday with a nostalgic recreation of locations important to him and his formative years. Imagine the expectation you’d have of being on that guest list and how wild a night it would be, only to find out you’d be spending the night in a recreated office. It’s a genuinely sweet gesture but not what we’re about here at Digital Marketing in 3 Minutes.

That’s it for another week – if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate if you shared this with your friends and colleagues. 

If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!

After what felt like an endless wave of platform updates and controversies in April, May has so far been a little lighter. However there are still some updates from the ongoing TikTok vs the US Government saga, a perplexing new Gen AI kid on the block, plus updates from Google and Meta to take a look at.

TikTok Strikes Back

While the US Government is attempting to either shut down or force ByteDance to divest TikTok, it appears the platform is not going down without a fight. Essentially, it feels singled out (they aren’t wrong on that), that the ban is unconstitutional, and are taking action accordingly. 

In a word, Yikes.

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In other TikTok news this week, it has said that it will call out and flag AI-generated videos, even if they were created on other platforms. If you’re reading this you probably know authentic content > Gen-AI content, but an important case study nonetheless.

Perplexed by Perplexity?

I’ve been reading a little bit in the last few weeks about a new search/Gen AI kid on the block: Perplexity. It’s designed to blend the search capabilities of Google with the ‘conversational ease’ of AI tools such as Chat GPT, meaning a far more comprehensive user experience than currently offered by search. 

Valued at $1bn, a lot of people are betting big on it. Whether or not it achieves the same mainstream success as ChatGPT remains to be seen, but the broader lessons are the same; it’s key to ensure your website content is authentic and high quality, as it will likely inform searches related to your brand.

Google Gets Tough

Google has begun to enforce its site reputation abuse policy, with (in this case) manual actions against certain websites.

High-profile sites like CNN, USA Today, and LA Times have seen their subdomains or sections, especially those hosting low-quality third-party content like coupon directories, either deranked or delisted from search results. This targets content that aims to exploit a site’s search ranking without genuinely being a part of the main website.

An example of this is where a well-known news site allows a third-party to use a subdomain to offer discount vouchers. Relatively unlikely you’d be exploiting this, but another sign that Google is clamping down on ‘low quality’ content’.

Further Reading

In case you aren’t already doing this, Search Engine Journal has pulled together a handy guide to use Chat GPT to help guide and improve your keyword research.

Meta is (finally!) testing cross posting from Instagram to Threads.

This popped up in my feed this week and seems useful, although I haven’t had the chance to put it into practice yet – How to Create an Email List and use it for SEO.

And finally, quite a fun piece from Social Media Today making the case that marketers need to focus more on using social media to entertain.

That’s it for another week – if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate if you shared this with your friends and colleagues. 

If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!

It’s been a busy week in Digi Marketing-land, with plenty going on at TikTok, while we saw another quarter of ‘record’ growth at LinkedIn – but should we believe everything we hear?

Meanwhile, Google Ads will soon be stepping in and pausing lower volume keywords, while a case bubbling up in the US might redefine how social media platforms are held accountable. Let’s dive in…

All go at TikTok

This newsletter feels like a weekly missive from TikTok plus An Other. Well, they didn’t disappoint; in the wonderful world of TT we saw;

• An agreement was finally struck with Universal Music (remember that?), meaning Universal artists can now be utilised by platform users once again. The answer, as ever, involved more money changing hands.
• TikTok owners Bytedance have reportedly said they are happy to ditch the US altogether rather than sell up, if the company can’t win its case to avoid a spin off. It feels surprising they’d want to leave money on the table (workarounds can often somehow be found) and it does seem like posturing, but fighting talk to say the least.
• Not exactly platform news, but adjacent to this; I found this piece on the emergence of superstar therapists on TikTok fascinating.

LinkedIn seeing record levels of engagement

For around the 25th quarter in a row (no joke, this is enjoyable, and contains some healthy scepticism), LinkedIn has declared record growth levels. In all honesty this is actually believable – it does feel like the platform has gone from strength to strength over the past 3-4 years, with an influx of creators, content types and advertisers.

No real key learnings or headlines beyond the fact that if you/your brand aren’t already upping your LinkedIn game, you really should be looking at your options. More and more consumer brands are starting to see the potential of the targeting capabilities on there. Anecdotally I’m seeing content on there fly at the moment for a couple of clients and peers. Although for balance, it is worth saying that you shouldn’t believe everything you hear from LI.

Google Ads will automatically pause low activity keywords from June

One for the SEM marketers out there, but potentially an important one – Google will start to automatically pause low volume/activity keywords from June onwards. Make sure you keep a close eye on your keyword lists – you might find those long tail, hype-specific and niche terms you have on there suddenly get paused unceremoniously.

Do social media users have the right to control what they see in their feeds?

An interesting question, and one currently being explored via a lawsuit against Meta. This lawsuit is challenging the protections traditionally afforded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the USA. 

This law has historically shielded platforms from liability for user-generated content. The case, notably involving claims that Meta’s ad tools facilitated discrimination in housing ads, could redefine how platforms are held accountable.

This demonstrates the (increasing) importance of ethical ad targeting and is a sign of potential shifts in compliance and liability risks on digital platforms​. One to keep an eye on.

Further Reading

LinkedIn shared an infographic showcasing the most in-demand marketing skills from the platform. Encouragingly for many reading this newsletter, “social media marketing” is right up there.

Pinterest doesn’t attract much drama or attention; it just sits there doing its thing and seemingly seeing solid, sturdy levels of user growth.

Having talked up its AI tools, studies and stories are now showing that Meta’s Advantage+ ‘set and forget’ tools are burning through budget, and in some cases even exceeding budget caps. Alarming and demonstrative of why you need to keep a close eye on your online spend.

Alphabet’s Q1 revenue was up 15%, something it attributes to Gemini AI. This, unsurprisingly, is the strategic focus and integrating it into search will be a key theme of the next 12 months and beyond.

That’s it for another busy week – if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate if you shared this with your friends and colleagues. 

If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!