Digital Marketing Round-Up: The Top News in February 2021

Here’s a quick round up of what’s happening around the globe in the digital marketing sphere. Buckle up, it’s one helluva rollercoaster ride! 🎢

Facebook VS Apple iOS 14 Privacy Updates

If you haven’t heard it already, Apple recently announced new app policies with iOS 14 which impacts how Facebook receives and processes conversion events, including tools such as Facebook pixel. Some updates to take note of include the new Tracking Transparency Prompt: All apps on the App Store will be required to show a Tracking Transparency Prompt. This policy will restrict certain data collection and sharing unless users on iOS 14 devices opt in.

Honestly a true depiction of how we felt… jk!

We’re kidding, it’s not all bad news! In fact, there are a ton of things you can do to make sure your Facebook digital marketing efforts stay ahead. Read more here.

Google Page Experience Update

User experience (UX) has always been an important factor when it comes to Google’s SEO. The Page Experience Update, which will be rolled out in May 2021, will be giving more weight to websites with better UX. There are 3 new Core Web Vitals that will be added to the Search algorithm.

• Page load speed – How long does it take for the main content of your website to load?
• Interactivity – How long will it take before the interactive elements are ready for user input?
• Visual stability – Is there a noticeable page “shift” when a pop-up loads after the rest of your page?

We know what you’re thinking. More web vitals to take note of? Sounds troublesome… But if you think about it, you should already be ensuring that your website checks off the aforementioned vitals because marketers will want a webpage with good UX anyway. Find out more about Google’s Page Experience Update here and what you can do to prepare for it.

Modified Broad Match Is Going Away

Using broad match modifier (BMM) in your Google ad accounts? You’ll want to read this. Google will be retiring modified broad match while phrase match type will be expanded to match more search queries that are traditionally matched only under BMM. Most of the PPC community feel that the removal of modified broad match seems to be in line with Google’s push for automated/ smart bidding. While this may cause a shift in some of your digital marketing campaigns, ad accounts who get more traffic from phase match keywords can look forward to a possible increase in clicks, impressions and potential conversions when this change takes place. Read more here.

Facebook Ad Limit

Facebook announced last September that it would be rolling out a limit on ad volume per page, which is aimed at helping advertisers reduce costs and improve ad performance. The limitation will go into effect from February 2021. When this happens, you won’t be able to create or edit your ads until you reduce your ad volume. SMEs need not worry, as the ad volume limitation are significantly generous, but there is no harm in understanding why Facebook is putting in such a restriction. To put it simply, when advertisers run too many ads at one go, their ads often see less stable results and higher CPA. Since each ad delivers less often, fewer ads will exit the learning phase and more budget is spent before the delivery system is able to optimise performance. TLDR: Too many ads can result in worse performance, which is why Facebook is adding in this limitation. Read more here. We hope you found this useful! See you in next month’s round up 👀