Happy Monday! Stay up-to-date with the latest digital marketing trends and news as we bring you our weekly roundup. In this week’s news, marketers expect to spend more on TikTok despite the looming ban, Google has introduced an AI tool to compete with ChatGPT – who have just released third-party plug-ins to work alongside the platform. If you haven’t migrated to GA4, it could affect your Google Ads performance.
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Google have entered the AI race with Bard
Google have released their own answer to Open AI’s Chat GPT last week, named Bard. It is currently only available for testing at the minute but is due to be integrated into Search soon. Bard is powered by LaMDA large language model to provide answers to users’ text-based questions. Google’s new AI explores topics and summarises an answer from across the web, before providing links for further exploration.
CMOs struggle to balance first-party data and value exchange
The transition to first-party data is encountering some bumps in the road, even as many marketers have been careful in managing the transition from a privacy standpoint.
According to a new Gartner report, 60% of surveyed CMOs believe executing first-party data strategies that balance a value exchange with privacy will be more difficult this year.
As a result, privacy headaches persist as 85% of leaders in the industry have now introduced a formal policy around customer data management. Nearly one-third of respondents said they have cut ties with an agency or channel partner over the past year over trust- or privacy-related concerns.
75% of marketers expect to spend more on TikTok even as ban looms
Despite a looming ban by the US government, three in four marketers expect to increase spending on the video-sharing platform in the next 12 months.
87% still believe it is a viable platform for long-term marketing strategies, and more than half of respondents believe it is highly or somewhat unlikely that the federal government will ban TikTok or prevent it from operating in the US.
If TikTok were to be banned, digital media channels outside of social media, like email and video, could stand to benefit, with Facebook (80%) and YouTube (79%) the most popular social media platforms for marketers seeking TikTok alternatives.
ChatGPT releases third-party plug-ins
Last week, Open AI released support for a number of plugins that help ChatGPT access up-to-date information, run computations, or use third-party services. These plugins will solve the previous issues that meant the data the AI tool could train itself from was limited to 2021, but now through one of the new plugins available, ChatGPT can generate up-to-date information which makes the tool much more powerful.
Not migrated to GA4? It could affect Google Ads performance
With the end of GA UA right around the corner, Google is applying more pressure whilst reminding advertisers to upgrade to GA4. Advertisers using Pmax and GA UA conversions will see significant performance decreases if they haven’t made the switch by the time GA UA stops collecting data. Google have already created an auto-migration feature but for many, it’s going to be best to avoid this unless absolutely necessary. Without manually reviewing setup and tracking there are likely going to be issues that go unidentified which later feed into Google Ads performance.
Digital advertising is growing in the US
A recent study has shown that users in the US are becoming more comfortable with clicking through ads. In 2021, 57% said they would not be likely to click on an ad, this is down to 44% in 2023.
There are likely a few reasons for this, as mentioned both TikTok and major retailers have increased and improved their ad offerings in the last 2 years. However, more relevant targeting, higher quality ad copy and a reduction in scam ads across platforms is likely also behind improved consumer confidence.
It will be interesting to see how these figures continue to change as the demographics of online users continue to shift. Those who grew up without online advertising vs those that have known only internet advertising at a higher quality.
If you would like support with your digital marketing; if you need help with your paid search campaigns or if you’d like to explore new channels such as affiliate marketing or CRO – get in touch with our team by sending us an email to team@modo25.com
