New Search Console Insights report arrives, the June core update is here, and more

Google might not be our “ride or die,” but it’s definitely a ride.

Rollercoasters for days: First up, the good news—Google Search Console has started rolling out its new Insights report, which means lucky marketers can see:

• Total clicks and impressions from Google Search and how they’re trending compared to the previous period.
• Which pages are attracting clicks, including “trending up” pages and “trending down” pages.
• Top search queries that pull users to your site in addition to “trending up” and “trending down” queries.

All of this sounds useful for monitoring your site health and getting content ideas, assuming AI Overviews don’t eat your traffic before you get access. Sorry, we couldn’t resist…

When’s it coming? Google says it’s rolling out the Insights report “gradually over the coming weeks,” so if you don’t see it yet, give it some time.

Speaking of insights, Google is also bringing conversion environment tracking to Ads, which is great news if you’re using the Google Ads API and collecting in-app conversions.

Look for this option starting September 30. And by “look” we mean put this in your calendar now, because if you don’t have it set up, Google says it may degrade your performance.

Buckle up: Another month, another core update. Google’s June core update has begun rollout—which is slightly confusing, given we’re now in July, but anyway.

Supposedly this one could take as long as three weeks to complete, so monitor your dashboards, document any changes, and keep making great content.

Or just go on vacation for a few weeks. That works, too.

This is fine: As of this writing, the Google Ads API and even the Google Ads interface seems to be experiencing some issues and outages.

Even Microsoft Advertising’s Ads Buddy noted potential issues for advertisers using Google Imports.

So far, Google hasn’t addressed the issue. We don’t know what’s up with that, but we’ll do our best to keep you posted.

In the meantime, hopefully you’re not seeing major disruptions to your workflow…

Ad prices are changing at X, and ad market growth shrugs

Describe this vibe: Elon Musk is changing how X charges advertisers, leaving some users feeling a bit betrayed, while the ad market tries to remember what growth feels like.

Living the dream, or nah? Musk announced X will charge for ads based on their vertical size. Yep, for better or worse, full-screen ads will cost more than quarter-screen ads.

Why? The goal is to disincentivize advertisers from launching ads that disrupt user experience, apparently.

Of course, this certainly causes some disruption for advertisers, but it will be interesting to see the response as a whole.

Speaking of disruptions, users paying for X’s highest premium tier are reporting ads in their feeds.

Is this a bug or a sneaky policy change? We don’t know for certain yet, but premium subscribers are definitely not feeling very… premium.

Of course, this might be an opportunity for you to get more eyeballs, if you play it right.

Lastly, a tiny ray of sunshine: The US ad market grew 4.4% in May compared to last year—slightly better than April’s 3.4%. Still, that’s about as tepid as the coffee we forgot on our desk this morning.

And that’s the tea—or lukewarm coffee—on this Tuesday’s ad world developments!

Your emails aren’t broken, your deliverability is

If your best emails stopped working, it’s probably not your subject line or frequency or timing…

It’s the invisible reputation signals that email clients like Gmail, Outlook, and Apple use to decide where your emails land.

And unfortunately for you, these clients don’t warn you before sending you to spam.

… Which is why our Email Deliverability Essentials shows you how to spot and fix the hidden issues killing your inbox placement.

In just one hour, this course shows you:

• The Gmail snowball effect that builds trust over time… or breaks it.
• The “deliverability pyramid” that focuses you on the right things so you land in primary inboxes and lift open rates.
• Best practices for keeping your list clean and your reputation strong.

Fix your inbox placement so you can increase those engagement and conversion rates again.

What you need to know about Google Ads Maximize Clicks

Google Ads gives you three bid strategy types: manual, automated, and Smart Bidding.

What you choose is all about your vibe as a marketer. You either love the control manual offers, or you prefer a more automated, hands-off approach.

Maximize Clicks, on the other hand, is the in-between strategy that tells Google to spend your full budget chasing clicks.

… Which sounds a little scary. Before you select this option, Jyll Saskin Gales wants you to be aware of a few things:

What does it do? It’s an automated bid strategy that aims to get the most clicks for your budget. Emphasis on “most,” not “best.”

When should you use it? There are a few use cases, like when you have a brand new campaign with no conversion data, or when you’re driving new traffic, or when you’re in an early-stage Shopping campaign.

When should you avoid it? If you’re tracking conversions, you’re better off using Smart Bidding with a target CPA or ROAS.

Is it the same as Smart Bidding? No. Maximize Clicks is automated, but not “smart,” even if it considers contextual signals like device, location, and time of day.

Can you cap cost-per-click (CPC)? Yes. You can set a max CPC limit, but it might limit scale and learning.

Where can you use it? All over the place. In Search, Shopping, Display, and Demand Gen. You can’t use it in Video or Performance Max, though.

The strategy has its place, but mostly as a stepping stone.

Once you’ve got conversion data, switch to a strategy that optimizes for what really matters: Results.

This 7-minute Saturday habit could lead to your next marketing breakthrough

Seriously, what if spending a few minutes every Saturday helped you hit record-breaking ROI?

That’s what Tactics does. Every Saturday, this free newsletter sends one actionable strategy for increasing conversions, driving more sales, or saving thousands in ad spend.

These strategies have already worked for brands like yours, and you’ll be surprised at how simple they are to put into action.

Sign up for free and get your first winning idea this Saturday.

Content managers, are you distributing content on these platforms?

We need to clear something up.

When researching for one of our recent Data Stories, we found a report from WordPress content managers about where they invest their content distribution resources.

Keep that in mind as you look at this chart:

X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook lead the pack, with LinkedIn wrapping up the top three.

Why? Because marketers use these platforms to drive traffic to blog posts and news articles—both paid and organic.

Surprisingly, YouTube is also quite popular among content marketers. It complements written content, and video is becoming ever more important.

… And YouTube makes it easy to boost visibility. It also lets you add links to the post.

Why is X so popular? It’s relatively link-friendly, and if you’re well-versed in creating threaded content, you can use it to drive traffic to your news or thought leadership posts.

In other words, written content marketers need to find a way to leverage micro-content and break it into X threads, or Threads threads, or Bluesky threads…

What else can you do: Repurpose written content on YouTube, use Facebook for community-driven engagement or paid traffic, and repurpose your blog on LinkedIn.

You can also summarize content for TikTok and Instagram for visibility—but only for top-funnel stuff. Don’t expect tangible results and traffic from these platforms!

B2B MARKETING: How’s demand gen going lately? Is AI changing your day-to-day? Pomerantz Marketing wants your input about what’s working, what’s not, and what’s driving your 2025 strategies. In exchange for three minutes of your time, you get a chance to win a $200 gift card. Take the survey now.*

YOUTUBE: They might be short, but they’re also getting huge. YouTube Shorts are now racking up over 200B daily views—three times more than this time last year—and 200 times more than TikTok, which admittedly last published its numbers in 2024. Kudos, Shorts… kudos.

GOOGLE: Imagine this. An ad that’s written in real time by LLM, and based on an auction for the words being generated. No need to imagine this ad-ception, it will apparently happen soon, according to Google’s own research. Hmm…

INFLUENCER MARKETING: You’ve probably encountered “faceless” content at some point—videos where creators don’t show faces, but rely on personality and niche to amass following. Well, looks like these guys are packing some serious cash, and might even be good promoters of your brand as well. Interesting.

*This is a sponsored post.

What English word has three consecutive double letters?

You can find the answer here.

POOLSIDECHAT

Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.

Only Santa’s meant to go down there

A man in Connecticut got stuck in a chimney while trying to rescue his dog from a locked building.

After the doors auto-locked for the night, he figured the chimney was the best route. Oh, how wrong he was…

Firefighters had to pull him out, the building took about $10K worth of damage… and he was arrested.

At least the dog was OK. Whew!

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