Digital news to watch: Core Web Vitals revised guidance released

Happy Blue Monday! Today (January 16) has been dubbed one of the most depressing days of the year but we’re feeling positive here at Modo25 HQ. Our digital gurus Kylie and Tom have researched their top stories in PPC and SEO. In this week’s digital news to watch, Meta have updated ad targeting for teenage users, Google have revised their Core Web Vitals guidance and email is still the number one marketing channel.

Meta adds additional ad targeting restrictions for teen users

Meta is continuing to prioritise age-appropriate advertising experiences for teenage users, highlighted in a recent blog post with several updates. Gender will no longer be an available metric for targeting. However, age and location can still be targeted.

Additionally, engagement on Meta apps including Facebook and Instagram will not contribute to the types of ads teens consume. In March, teen audiences will also be able to manage the types of ads delivered to them through Ad Topic Controls that allow them to filter topics and specific advertisers.

Core Web Vitals revised guidance released

Google have released a revised list of recommendations for improving Core Web Vitals scores. This new list is aimed at those with limited time and resources, focusing on the absolute essentials that are realistic for most site owners to implement, applicable to most websites and will lead to the most impact.

The recommendations are split down into the top three for each of the three Core Web Vitals metrics:

LCP

• Make sure LCP resource is easily found in the HTML source code
• Make sure the LCP resource is prioritised
• Use a CDN to reduce time to first byte (TTFB)

CLS

• Set explicit sizes for on-page content
• Ensure pages are eligible for Bfcache
• Avoid animations/transitions

FID

• Avoid or break up long tasks
• Avoid unnecessary JavaScript
• Avoid large rendering updates

ChatGPT watermark could make AI content detectable

OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to grow in popularity as marketers discover new ways to use the revolutionary tool for content creation and idea generation. But, you shouldn’t be relying solely on AI content.

We wouldn’t recommend copying and pasting straight from the tool anyway. Although it is useful for ideas and initial word count, there are definitely improvements that can be made with a human eye over it. But this is going to become even more important as a watermark is said to be in the process of being developed which will make it easier for Google to detect.

McDonald’s achieves ‘exceptional’ branding score with latest ad

According to data from effectiveness firm System1, McDonald’s latest campaign achieved an “exceptional” brand recognition score of 98 for their latest campaign which doesn’t showcase either its restaurants or food. Their latest campaign ‘Fancy a McDonald’s?’ was tested on 150 consumers and 98% recognised the 60-second spot was a McDonald’s ad before the end. The ad has impressed many in the marketing industry, with marketers praising McDonald’s for leveraging the strength of its existing brand equity.

Email is still the number one marketing channel

Sopro’s new whitepaper The State of Prospecting 2023 has revealed that email is still the top marketing channel when it comes to new business prospecting.

The annual whitepaper has revealed that 59% of marketers believe that email is over twice as effective at generating leads than channels such as PPC and paid social media, despite some marketers focussing spend on those channels. The whitepaper also reveals that 77% of B2B buyers prefer to be contacted over email – more than double any other channel.