Advertisers spent $61.2 billion on Google Ads in Q4 2021
Yup, that figure starts with a B.
Google has reported their Q4 earnings and here are the stats we care about:
- Google Ads totaled $61.24 billion, a 32% increase over the same period last year.
- Search advertising accounted for $43.3 billion of that total, while YouTube Ads accounted for $8.63 billion.
Step aside, TikTok: YouTube Shorts are booming. So far, the platform has delivered over 5 trillion views and continues to have a daily view count of 15 billion.
Partners will get an edge: Google has also made changes to their Ads Partners program.
Premium Partners will benefit from new perks such as product beta access, 24-hour ad support, and higher Google Ads coupons for new clients. Gaining access to these benefits isn’t gonna be that easy, though. Google has recently tightened up their partner criteria.
BUSINESS
Most consent popups violate GDPR, according to the EU. Google Fonts isn’t spared either
After recently declaring that Google Analytics violates GDPR laws, EU authorities have now set their sights on a new target… Consent pop-ups.
The IAB Europe’s consent system used by Google, Amazon, Microsoft and 80% of European internet is unlawful, according to a ruling just released by EU data protection authorities.
The reasons: A lot of failures. Failure to ensure personal data is being kept secure and confidential. Failure to properly request consent, provide transparency about what will happen to people’s data, etc. All of these IAB failures will result in a $283,000 fine.
IAB plans to fight back: IAB plans to appeal the ruling. Let’s see how things will go.
Google Fonts isn’t spared either: Yes, Google Fonts. A German regional court fined a website for using Google Fonts. The reason? Breaching GDPR, of course, by sending the visitor’s IP address to Google.
SPONSORED BY #PAID
TikTok influencer marketing mystery: Why are businesses doing it all wrong?
Here’s the wrong way most companies are running TikTok influencer campaigns:
- They spend hours searching through TikTok to find creators.
- They jump between seventeen tabs to list them, reach out to them, analyze their performance, and so on.
- They waste more time negotiating deals with them, sometimes bad ones.
- They’re left in the dark when it comes to the performance achieved by the creators.
It’s a true mystery why businesses do this when they could just use #paid and have everything handled in a matter of minutes. And within a single platform!
- #paid’s algorithm matches you with the right creators according to your product and goals.
- You can reach out to them and negotiate through #paid.
- #paid handles the rates, and all of the legal and admin work.
- #paid even shows you the performance stats of your campaign.
- Hit launch and watch.
Make #paid your secret sauce to a positive ROAS.
SEO
Why and how you should constantly monitor your Google Business Profile
Let’s start by seeing why you shouldn’t set your Google Business Profile (GBP) and forget it:
- Changes the appearance of local search results.
- Changes the way buyers search and make choices, which changes how your clients search for you.
- Changes to GBP features, which change how your listing shows up in the SERP.
- Interactivity and user-generated content (UGC): Your client’s reviews, comments, and questions change the look of your GBP.
If you agree with any of these reasons, Claire Carlile listed ten pieces of the big GBP puzzle you should monitor. Some of these are:
– Monitor the SERPs: You should be aware of how your GBP presents across devices and platforms.
You can do this by looking at the following:
- Branded search
- Non-branded search
- Map Pack
- Local Finder
- Google Maps
- Different devices and operating systems
- Various locations
You should also do the same for your competitors.
– Monitor and plan for local search justifications: If you don’t know, justifications are small snippets that Google shows in your profile to justify why the business appeared in the search. It’s not an immediate process to check them. The article shows you the steps.
– Monitor the search landscape: You should know the changes affecting what you search for, how you search, how the search results look, and how this relates to your business. Think with Google is a good resource to start.
– Monitor photos:
- Images uploaded by you: Do your current photos reflect the present? Maybe you have old photos of your store, employees or products that do not reflect your current status anymore. Update them.
- Your Google Business Profile cover photo.
- Monitor images uploaded by customers: If any of the images uploaded by customers go against Google’s policy, flag them for removal.
SPONSORED BY AHREFS
This free intelligence tool tells you exactly why you’re losing organic traffic
It’s almost impossible to find a website that is not experiencing any SEO issues that stop them from ranking higher.
This means that at this exact moment, your website could probably be ranking higher. But it’s not.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools helps you identify those issues and fix them. For free.
So you stop losing traffic (and money!). And it also finds optimization opportunities to get more of those clicks.
Start ranking higher without investing a penny.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
Niche agency ideas you can pursue in 2022
The Facebook and Google Ads agency space is extremely crowded. But those are not the only channels where brands can get growth. Here are three niche agency ideas we think could work well in 2022.
1. Newsletter ads agency.
Why we think it’s good: Newsletter ads work well once you find the right placements. It’s also a growing space with plenty of underpriced inventory. If you can connect the right advertisers with the right brands, the magic happens.
Challenges: You need to be good at sales, not just marketing. You need to build relationships with publishers and brands, which will take some time.
2. SMS marketing agency.
Why we think it’s good: The channel is great and more brands know they have to do it, but they don’t know how to get it going. It’s a similar thought process to email marketing agencies that are already very popular nowadays.
Challenges: Well, you need to know SMS marketing… Go learn it if you want to try this idea!
3. TikTok content agency.
Why we think it’s good: Notice we didn’t say “ads agency.” The magic is in creating the right videos, not in uploading videos and selecting a budget. TikTok content can perform well organically, but it’s also a great ad type to use on paid social (not just TikTok).
Challenges: You have to put yourself on camera and follow TikTok trends. Don’t worry, the trends have plenty of variety, you don’t have to dance unless you want to.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
MARKETING: If you want to win in business, you must hire high-achievers. That’s why MarketerHire vetted the top 5% of marketers so you can choose from high-quality profiles with no worries. Over 2,500 businesses found professionals on MarketerHire. And the average time to meet your match is 48 hours. Work with expert marketers.*
FACEBOOK: Uh-oh. Facebook lost users globally for the first time since its existence.
GOOGLE: Wow, that was fast! After teasing the feature yesterday, Google announced that Performance Max campaigns will now be included in Data Studio reports.
MARKETING: Email is no longer the top channel for B2B marketers, according to a new report.
WORDPRESS: Do you use the “Essential Addons for Elementor” plugin? If this is the case, you should update your WordPress right away. This newly discovered vulnerability appears to have affected half a million sites.
FACEBOOK: Celebrate love and make some money in the process. Facebook recently released a report on how to prepare for Valentine’s Day as a marketplace seller.
TWITTER: Goodbye, Twitter threads? Twitter is apparently working on “Twitter Articles.”
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
Why did Tigger go to the bathroom?
You can find the solution here.
FROM THE CREW
It’s Jack Bauer time!
There are less than 48 hours to enter the US$ 25,000 business giveaway raffle.
The winner will have a wide variety of businesses to choose from the Flippa Marketplace: mobile apps, content websites, Shopify stores, SaaS, and Amazon FBA stores—all profitable and ready to put money in your pocket.
To enter the raffle, you must refer at least one person using your unique referral link. (In other words, you can win a US$ 25,000 business by simply sharing your link on social media.)
But you have to hurry. The giveaway ends tomorrow (Feb 4th) at 23:59 CET.
Good luck!
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Move away bridge, Jeff Bezos is passing through
The city of Rotterdam will dismantle a portion of the iconic “De Hef” bridge. The reason? So that Jeff Bezos’ massive superyacht can pass through.
Yup, this is real news. Bezos bought a giant three-masted ship that’s so large that it cannot pass under De Heff.
As a result, Bezos’ ship approached the company building, the municipality of Rotterdam, and requested that the bridge be temporarily dismantled. Of course, Bezos will cover the expenses.
The only thing that can make this story even more bizarre is if pirates seize the ship before it sails away.