Digital Marketing Round-Up: Top News in Jan 2023

It’s 2023 everybody! And the year has started with new waves of updates, signaling strong sentiments in digital marketing for the next few months to come.

Google Removes “Redundant Keywords” from Google Ads’ Auto Applied Suggestions

On 19 January, Google updated their policy to remove redundant keywords across different match types, which caused quite a stir among advertisers, who are already using it to remove redundant keywords of the same match type.

Google claims that the redundant keyword update would help advertisers manage their accounts with more ease and does not impact the overall performance, but online sentiments expressed their concern on the lack of communication prior to the policy change.

Google Ad’s liaison however gracefully responded on Twitter, reassuring advertisers that there will be no retroactive changes and the update will only affect those who make the recommended changes after January 19.

IG Shuffles Their Buttons Again: Removes Shopping Tab

What does it mean when an app replaces a tab with another?

Meta made positive strides towards developing and marketing their online shopping feature on Instagram, following the accelerated interest in the segment over COVID lockdown. 

It’s been 3 years since the day lockdown dawned on the world. Borders are now open and consumers are able to shop physically like they used to pre-covid. 

There is an obvious shift back to the norm and Instagram has taken the hit for over-estimating the growth in online shopping, which also explains Meta’s move to cut back on live-stream shopping push on Facebook. 

TLDR; Meta replaces the Instagram shopping button with the Reels, and places the Create Content {+} button back to where it once was.

Read more about it here: https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/541982071188223 

Facebook Moves ‘Creator Studio’ Page to Business Suite

Facebook does an early Spring cleaning by announcing the consolidation of their ‘Facebook Creator Studio’ tools over to its Meta Business Suite platform.

The Business Suite platform includes analytical, scheduling and messaging features that are helpful for creators and page managers to gauge online sentiments and make informed changes to their creative assets and planning. 

Although the addition of ‘Facebook Creator Studio’ to Meta Business Suite didn’t feel like a surprise, Meta is giving users time to be familiar with the new platform, giving the option to “switch back” to the soon-to-be-retired tool if ever needed.

ChatGPT is Trending; and what it means for SEO

ChatGPT needs no introduction. It’s the open source Chatbot by OpenAI that has had its servers work on overdrive in the past week as they make headlines across all social media platforms.

Artificial intelligence isn’t a new story, but the fact that a fine-tuned Chatbot (in comparison to other similar free AIs on the net) is now easily accessible for FREE to the public, it becomes this new shiny thing that everyone wants a taste of.

If you are in SEO and you have some concerns over ChatGPT replacing you in the future, don’t be! Limitations in AI such as programming biases and its inability to cross check for information credibility shows that there is still major R&D to be made before it robs us from our jobs.

The new advancements should actually encourage fellow SEOs to think of ways to be more productive with AI as our extra pair of hands (or brain).

Examples:

• Erase doubts when creating a content outline
• Shorten the research time for content gap analysis
• Create engaging meta descriptions two times the speed
• If you’re also a writer: ease your editor by writing in the right tone from the get go

Tiktok For You Page Shows Why A Video Is Recommended

TikTok must be learning a thing or two from the search engine pioneers with the addition of “Why this video”, embedded within the share panel of the “For You” page.

The new transparency feature not only gives back some control to the users but also provides another source of inspiration for content creators.

Some reasons that TikTok might suggest includes:

• user interactions, such as content you watch, like or share, comments you post, or searches
• accounts you follow or suggested accounts for you
• content posted recently in your region
• popular content in your region

Conclusion

At Heroes of Digital, we strive to keep our clients informed by searching for clear, comprehensive information on updates and new features to act quickly on any necessary changes that help to minimize the impact on their campaigns.

To stay updated on the latest Digital Marketing news, subscribe to our newsletter.