Welcome to this week’s Digital News to Watch! We highlight standout Euro 2024 ads, Google’s new payment policies, and Mozilla’s acquisition of Anonym. Plus, we explore Google’s clarification on duplicate content, a study revealing declining marketing effectiveness, and the importance of adopting Schema Markup for SEO. For more information or support with your digital marketing or in-housing, contact us at team@modo25.com.
Read on for more info on the hottest digital marketing news topics this week…
Table of Contents
The best Euro 2024 ads
As the Euro 2024 men’s tournament has kicked off in Germany, the focus for many marketing professionals has shifted from squad selections to standout advertising campaigns. Noteworthy campaigns being discussed on LinkedIn include Specsavers’ multilingual billboards, which translate its famous tagline for all participating nations; The British Heart Foundation’s “Til I Died” campaign honouring young football fans who lost their lives to heart disease; and Adidas’ emotional tribute to a new generation of players. Read more here.
Google Ads to stop accepting credit & debit cards from 31st July for high spending advertisers
Google Ads will stop accepting credit and debit card payments for certain high-spending advertisers by July 31, 2024. Affected advertisers must switch to bank-based payment methods like monthly invoicing or direct debit. Google is aiming to enhance automated payment processes for high-growth accounts. Many advertisers may be relying on credit so this is likely to cause some issues with cash flow. Notifications are being sent to impacted accounts, although the specific criteria are unclear. The transition aims to provide more control and flexibility but has received some negative feedback from business owners. Failure to comply may result in account suspension. Read more here.
Mozilla acquires Anonym to help improve user privacy
Mozilla has acquired Anonym, a company specialising in privacy-preserving digital advertising. This move aims to improve user privacy while maintaining effective advertising. Anonym’s technology combines encrypted data sets securely, providing anonymized analytics and using differential privacy algorithms to protect individual user data. This acquisition aligns with Mozilla’s commitment to a more sustainable and privacy-focused advertising ecosystem. The integration will allow Mozilla and Anonym to lead the industry towards a future where privacy and effective advertising coexist. Read more here.
Clarification on what duplicate content means from Google
In an episode of Google Search Central’s Office Hours podcast, John Mueller clarified that “localised content is not considered duplicate content” and let us know when duplication is and isn’t acceptable across localised websites. Whilst there are a few instances where having the same content across multiple pages is acceptable – such as having the same page content duplicated and translated across different language versions of the site or using the same core product/service descriptions on local pages for different cities. Duplicate content should definitely not be carried across:
- Service pages – where you should uniquely describe how your service meets customer’s needs in the particular area.
- City/metro landing pages – where you should be incorporating local landmarks, suburbs and other localised details into your content.
- Articles/blogs – where you should use this opportunity to create timely content in response to local trending topics and real time events in the location.
Focus on marketing effectiveness in decline, study shows
The focus on marketing effectiveness across the wider industry appears to be in decline, according to findings from Marketing Week’s exclusive 2024 Language of Effectiveness study, supported by Kantar. Only just over half (53.4%) of the more than 1,200 marketers surveyed believe attention on effectiveness has ramped-up over the past three years. The number of respondents who agree there has been a greater focus on marketing effectiveness over the past three years fell from 75% in 2022 to 61.2% in 2023, showing a declining trend. Returning to the 2024 sample, just over half (52.4%) of marketers working in B2B businesses say the effectiveness agenda has grown in importance since 2021, compared to 53.8% of their peers in B2C. Some 52.3% of marketers working in large organisations (250 employees and over) say the focus on marketing effectiveness has grown over the past three years, compared to 57.3% of their peers in SMEs. Read more here.
Why now is the time to adopt Schema Markup as part of your SEO strategy
With the rise of AI, now is the time to prioritise Schema Markup as part of your SEO strategy. Although schema markup (or structured data – however you prefer to refer to it) is not a new concept, helping search engines to understand your site and content is more important than ever to have a chance at appearing in their AI generated results. Schema markup allows you to clearly signal to search engines what your content is about and which other pages on your website it relates to, to build a content knowledge graph for your organisation. Read more here.
For more information on any of these stories, or for support with your digital marketing efforts, please get in touch with our team. Whether you’re looking to expand your PPC campaigns, improve your website’s SEO or CRO, or explore affiliate marketing, send us an email to team@modo25.com