Google delays testing its third-party cookie replacement to Q1 2022
It’s important to take your time when changing the entire face of the web.
Google has pushed back the testing of FloC (their third-party cookie replacement) and FLEDGE (their retargeting replacement) until early next year.
Why this happened: Google has come under fire for its FloC proposal, which has been rejected by every major browser. Now they’re going back to square one and probably trying to take things slow.
FloC? FLEDGE? In case you’ve been living under a rock, Google has announced that third-party cookies will be blocked in Chrome somewhere in 2022.
Big plans have a tendency to experience delay, and this one is no exception. Recently, Google postponed the death of third-party cookies to mid-2023.
FloC is Google’s solution to the problem they created. It’s a proprietary replacement for third-party cookies. As expected, this didn’t fly with most tech companies who, in majority, rejected the proposal.
What you can do about all of this: As we wait with bated breath for Google to figure out FloC, another option is to rely on more first-party data and direct partnerships.
In any case, we know what the future holds (or more aptly, what it doesn’t). We’re just not sure who exactly will be a part of it.
CONTENT MARKETING
Clubhouse to allow you to export your content and grow outside Clubhouse
Clubhouse has always struggled with an “interesting-ness” problem.
You open the app and look for something interesting. The problem is…nothing relevant appears. And even if you find a room, chances are that no one is discussing the topic you’re interested in.
Clubhouse has announced 4 new updates, 2 of which address this issue:
- Replays: You’ll be able to record your room and download the audio. Clubhouse users can also search for recorded rooms within the app.
- Clips: You’ll be able to take 30-second clips from the room and publish them as separate content. You can also share the clips on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, iMessage, and WhatsApp.
Relevant for content marketers: If you do content marketing with audio, you know that one of the best ways to grow is to cut interesting segments from a long podcast and publish them as separate content on platforms like YouTube.
This was previously possible on Clubhouse, but it required far too much time and effort. This update reduces that time from hours to minutes, potentially making clubhouse a viable acquisition channel if you do content marketing.
This is what we call a #win!
SPONSORED BY ATTEST
If you don’t know what consumers want, you’re fighting a losing battle. This will help!
Think about your best friend. Or your partner. You probably know a few things about them:
- The last product they bought.
- The brands they like.
- The stories that hook them.
- The problems they’re experiencing right now.
As a marketer, knowing this information about your target audience makes more money.
- You can plan campaigns you know will work, before pouring money into launching them.
- You can expand into new channels, geos or segments, without the risk of a big failure.
- You can make decisions based on real data – not feelings – because you know where, when, what, and how your customers buy.
If you don’t already know all this, there’s good news for you: Research via Attest is available 24/7/365 so you can easily get the data you need to make the right decisions, and see your results soar. Right now.
Organic Valley, Brew Dr. Kombucha, and Wise use Attest to understand their customers like Neo understands The Matrix.
You can do the same.
Check out Attest today and unlock your own cheat code to more effective marketing.
ADVERTISING
3 strategies to siphon your competitors’ traffic into your website
If you don’t run Google Ads, then you should be aware of these three strategies to target your competitors’ traffic.
No, we aren’t talking about bidding on their brand names with search ads.
Let’s let WordStream’s Joe Martinez talk about them:
1) Build custom audiences with competitors’ keywords.
This strategy helps you target users who have searched competitor terms with Discovery and Video campaigns.
You can create a list of all your competitors’ names and target all the users that searched for them.
Sweet, isn’t it?
It won’t be as effective as bidding on their names in the search, but you’ll still target highly relevant audiences.
2) Create custom audiences with competitors’ URLs.
Similar to the previous one. But, instead of using your competitors’ search terms, you go straight for the URL.
This doesn’t mean re-targeting users who visited your competitors’ websites. This option, rather, tells Google to show your ads to people who visited websites similar to the ones you’ve added.
3) Put your YouTube Ads in front of your competitors’ videos.
It doesn’t get much more genius, and slightly mischievous, than this. You can actually show your ads to people watching your competitors’ YouTube videos, and even target specific videos or their entire channel.
If you want to apply one or all of these strategies, Joe Martinez shows how to do it in the Google Ads manager.
These are definitely some cheaper options than targeting your competitors’ keywords in the search.
SPONSORED BY INSIGHTS
This is how a YouTuber is crushing the DTC men’s style niche
Pete & Pedro is not your typical direct-to-consumer brand.
They don’t rely on Facebook Ads, they don’t even rely on paid social (even though they do it quite well). This is a 7-figure brand started by YouTuber Aaron Marino, and we dove deep into its marketing. Facebook Ads, YouTube, content marketing, email marketing, and more.
Check out our free preview right here.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How to write subject lines that get opens
After 3.5 years of sending newsletters and 19,000+ awesome readers later, we don’t think we’re doing too poorly in this area.
We recently published this thread on Twitter dishing out some insights we’ve gained on the subject (pun totally intended).
And while subject lines aren’t magical because (let’s face it) your deliverability will matter far more, a good subject line can still get you an extra 4-5% more opens.
What matters? Two things will affect your subject line’s effectiveness the most. The first is length. (Yes, size does matter.)
The goal here is to stay away from the middle of the road. It should either be insanely long, or incredibly short. What shouldn’t it be? Average.
The second? We tell you that one, along with more details on how you can work these insights into your own email marketing strategy, in our thread here.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
COPYWRITING: Learn the 9 copywriting secrets to write like an Amazonian.*
TIKTOK: Tsunami of new features. That’s a pretty good description of the business features that TikTok released last week. Here are the parts relevant to advertisers.
TWITTER: Your business is not you. Twitter will soon roll out Professional accounts. The look will be a bit different from personal profiles.
ADVERTISING: Tracking your phone’s location data is a multibillion-dollar business. Here are the companies that are behind it.
EMAIL MARKETING: If you notice an increase in your email open rates, check if it’s due to the iOS 15 update.
GOOGLE: Gambling ads will soon be allowed in the Netherlands, according to Google’s blog post.
ADVERTISING: Online TV advertising is alive and well. And while Hulu may not be at the front of the pack, they are growing at a decent rate.
AMAZON: Here’s a lawsuit that could bring big Chinese retailers back to Amazon.
*This is a sponsored post.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
This country faces a shortage of clowns
Northern Ireland is facing a clown shortage due to the pandemic which forced circuses to close.
To make matters worse, the pool of talent available to circus managers has been severely reduced as a result of Brexit.
It’s not easy to be a clown: The proper type of clown, we mean (the other one is easy).
“There’s a lot more to being a clown than just putting on a big red nose and a big baggy pair of pants.”, according to David Duffy, co-owner of Duffy’s Circus. Duffy is appealing for more people from the country to become clowns due to the shortage.
Some Redditors from Northern Ireland were creative enough to propose places on where to find clowns to hire.
One of them: the Parliament.