Digital marketing and its updates were like a match made in heaven. As a profession, it was the updates that kept digital marketing evolving and made it one of the top business strategies of today. However, I doubt that the update part has turned toxic and that their relationship has soared with tonnes of monthly updates. July 2023 and August 2023 were landmark periods for digital marketing, with updates rolling out every week.
Various platforms were racing to release updates. This is evident as they start bombarding the digital landscape with new guidelines for their services. It was either an algorithm update or something related to their creativity or collaborations. In this blog, I have personally cherry-picked a dozen relevant Digital Marketing Updates from a pool of unending updates.
So let’s go.
SEO
SERP
Google has announced some new features in Google Search to help you stay in control of your personal information, privacy, and online safety.
- Firstly, Google will notify you if any web results contain your personal information. You can request the removal of your personal information from appearing on search engine results.
- In addition, SafeSearch blurring is rolling out for all users globally. Explicit imagery such as adult or violent content will now be automatically blurred when it appears in Search results.
- Furthermore, People can now remove from Search any of their personal, explicit images that they no longer wish to be visible in Search.
Google Analytics 4
- GA4 Reports can now be further customized with Match Types. Report Filters now supports match types, including ‘begins with’, ‘exactly matches’, and so on.
Google Ads
Google Ads introduced an AI ad tool that lets advertisers and businesses auto-generate advertisements. By using large language models (LLM) and Gen AI on Google Ads, it is now possible to create campaign workflows based on business prompts given by marketers.
- The advertising platform has partnered with Wix to help more businesses find more customers. With an integrated paid advertising solution, it allows you to create a campaign directly from your Wix dashboard. This is a great strategy to get more eyes on your business when advertising on Google.
Social Media
YouTube
- Youtube is testing a new feature that allows viewers to create shorts from comments on other people’s videos. The update seems innovative, as I haven’t seen such a feature anywhere before.
- The social media platform is going to label AI-generated contents for its easy identification. App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi has posted a screenshot of a page in the Instagram app that reads, “The creator or Meta said that this content was created or edited with AI.”
- Instagram is launching a new feature that protects users from unwanted media in DMs. People whom you don’t follow will face two new restrictions. They can no longer send you more than one message at a time. Additionally, DM invites are now limited to text alone. It means they can send media only after you accept their chat request.
- WhatsApp now supports screen sharing in video calls. It works for group calls. This can be a great start, as the platform can now be useful for conducting business meetings and collaborating with colleagues on the go.
- Further, WhatsApp now lets you record and share short video messages directly in chats. An instant video message option will sit with the voice note button on the chat tray. This one’s a good feature. But we could do this by recording a short video, isn’t it?
- The platform is reportedly working on a feature that allows users to verify accounts via email. If implemented, the decision will beef up security on the platform. It will allow users to communicate with anyone on the platform without having to share their phone number.
- Elon Musk said that monthly users of social media platform X (formerly Twitter) reached a record high. In 2022, total users were 229 million, and now, in 2023, they stand at 541 million.
- Twitter begins paying out to users, and the online world is abuzz with excitement. Netizen and social media influencer Maithun @Being_humor went crazy on Twitter when he got a payout of Rs. 35,1000.
Threads
- According to Sensor Tower, daily active users on Threads dropped to 13 million, down almost 70% from a July 7 peak.
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Meta rolls out the following feed option: By pressing the Threads symbol on the app’s screen, users can show or hide the “For You” and “Following feeds”. In addition, it has introduced new categories to sort users’ Activity feed, allowing them to filter by Follows, Quotes, and Reposts, and a new Follow button on the followers list to easily follow other accounts back.
- Mark Zuckerberg released new features on the Threads platform. Firstly, Users can send a post directly to DMs by tapping the share button and choosing Send to Instagram.” Secondly, users can now add custom alt text to photos and videos, which was not available earlier. Lastly, users will be able to mention someone by using the new mention button, which was a major missing feature in the app.
- The career building platform is reportedly building an AI coach to help users learn new skills and network on it. So far information from the source is limited. Once updated, you can check out our blog for the details.
Snapchat
- Daily users of Snapchat rose 14% to 397 million in Q2 2023, said the CEO. Am I the only one who has never downloaded Snapchat on my phone?
E Commerce
The Wunderman Thompson report, which involved a consumer survey of over 31,000 people globally, found that Indians are the world’s most impatient online users and expect delivery in 2 hours. Also, Indians return more than 37% of items, making them the second highest returners globally, behind the UAE.
Flipkart
- Walmart buys out a $1.4 billion Tiger Global stake in the Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart. The transaction will reportedly value the e-commerce firm at $35 billion.
ONDC
- The new player in the game Ondc is planning to introduce financial services, comprising credit and insurance products, to customers, the CEO, T. Koshy, said.
Zomato
- The food delivery giant uses AI to visualise food delivery in the past, present, and future. The platform employs creative minds, for sure.
ChatGpt
- Sam Altman, the creator of ChatGpt, said that many jobs will go away because of AI. The AI wave threatens to replace 1/3 of US work hours, says a McKinsey report. It is believed that the AI wave will impact Women workers more.
- OpenAI has shut down its AI classifier tool to identify AI text generators. It was configured to prevent plagiarism in the contents presented to Universities. But half a year later, the tool is forced to shut down because it failed to do what it was designed for.
Influencer Marketing
- Influencers having over 5 lakh followers or earning more than ₹ 40 lakh per year will now be classified as ‘celebrities’ appearing in ads, ASCI said on Wednesday. But what necessitated the move? in recent years, the phenomenon of social media influencers has created new centres of mass influence. With the announcement in force, Celebritieshave to adhere to requirements by doing due diligence before endorsing a brand and also producing evidence when called upon by Asci.
In Brief
Digital Marketing is not just about sales; it’s about creating value for customers. But how can one do that? By providing updated and unique content, we can foster customer loyalty and retention. At least in the long term, you could generate more sales and revenue.
As a digital marketer, I love updates. At least I am getting topics for content creation. But that’s not enough. I want you to keep up with the latest digital marketing trends. There is a saying in the marketing industry. It reads “If you are not at the high table, you will not know what is happening”. So stay tuned and follow our website for trending and viral digital marketing blogs and more.