News in Brief
- TikTok rolls out new tools for creators and shoppers
The platform announced two new features: Creator Search Insights and Identify Similar Products. Creator Search Insights is currently available in select regions of the United States. It gives creators a window into the most-searched topics on the platform, helping them find inspiration, sharpen their creative strategies, and produce content that resonates.
The Identify Similar Products feature, enabled by default (but can be turned off), helps users discover and purchase products similar to the ones they're browsing, directing them to the TikTok Shop tab.
- LinkedIn launches a public ad library
LinkedIn recently made an ad library publicly available, letting anyone browse all ads currently running on the platform. Users can search by keyword, country, date range, and advertiser name.
- Google Maps tests a new AI-powered feature
Google introduced a new feature that uses AI to deliver personalized recommendations in Google Maps based on a user's specific needs. The feature supports both voice and text queries, returning tailored results for each request. It is currently in an experimental phase in the United States and is not yet available to the general public.
- TikTok's user base is older than you might think
A study by the Pew Research Center found that in 2021, TikTok saw a 14% increase in users aged 18 to 30. Did you know that today nearly 40% of TikTok users are between 30 and 49 years old, and that age group is actually more active on the platform than 18-to-34-year-olds? The numbers make it clear: TikTok reaches far beyond Gen Z.
- Google integrates social media posts into Google Business Profiles
Google is now pulling social media posts into Google Business Profiles based on the accounts linked to a given profile. Only one account per social platform can be synced per profile. The feature is currently rolling out in select regions only.
Google adds Interaction to Next Paint to Core Web Vitals
As of March 12, Google replaced First Input Delay (FID) with Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as an official Core Web Vitals metric.
As a reminder, the Core Web Vitals report shows how pages on a website perform based on real-world user data, giving a picture of the site's SEO (Search Engine Optimization) performance. The Core Web Vitals assessment now rests on three metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
So what exactly is INP?
Google describes Interaction to Next Paint as a metric that "assesses the overall responsiveness of a page to user interactions by observing the latency of all interactions that occur throughout the lifespan of a user's visit to a page. The final INP value is the longest interaction observed, ignoring outliers."
What changes when FID is replaced by INP?
Many businesses had been optimizing their FID score: the measure of how quickly a site responds the first time a visitor interacts with it. Going forward, improving your INP score is what will drive better SEO performance. Unlike FID, INP accounts for all user interactions throughout the entire visit, not just the first one.
How do you check your site's INP score?
The Google PageSpeed Insights tool lets you evaluate your site's Core Web Vitals. Google considers an INP of 200 milliseconds or less to be good. Values between 200 ms and 500 ms need improvement. Anything above 500 ms is rated poor.
How do you improve your site's INP?
A number of optimizations can improve your INP and, in turn, your SEO performance. The first step is diagnosing the root cause of a poor score. Depending on your results, different paths may apply. For example, you might need to optimize event callbacks or reduce presentation delay. We recommend reading this article to learn more.
In short, the addition of Interaction to Next Paint (INP) to Google's Core Web Vitals raises the bar for page responsiveness as an SEO signal. Where First Input Delay (FID) only looked at a user's first interaction, INP provides a more complete picture by measuring responsiveness across every interaction during the entire page visit.
The impact of a misconfigured Consent Mode V2
As of March 6, 2024, Google introduced Consent Mode V2 to govern how user data is collected. If you implement it incorrectly, or skip it entirely, you will lose the ability to run remarketing campaigns and track certain users. Conversion tracking will also be unavailable.
What is Consent Mode V2?
Consent Mode V2 adds two new signals on top of the existing ad_storage (advertising cookie tracking) and analytics_storage (analytics cookie tracking):
- ad_user_data: Does the user consent to their personal data being used for advertising purposes?
- ad_personalization: Does the user consent to their personal data being used for ad retargeting?
V2 also introduces the concepts of Advanced Consent Mode and Basic Consent Mode.
In plain terms:
- No consent mode: Consent Mode is not implemented at all. No data can be collected.
- Basic Consent Mode: Consent Mode is implemented, but data is only collected when the user explicitly agrees.
- Advanced Consent Mode: Consent Mode is implemented, and data is collected whether the user consents or declines, using modeled data for non-consenting users.
What happens if Consent Mode V2 is set up incorrectly?
A missing or incorrect Consent Mode V2 implementation means you lose conversion modeling benefits, can no longer run remarketing campaigns, and cannot track conversions.
Advertisers must ensure Consent Mode V2 is properly set up to stay compliant and protect the effectiveness of their online advertising campaigns.
Working with qualified experts gives businesses the specialized support they need to implement and optimize Consent Mode V2, ensuring user data is used responsibly and effectively in their digital advertising. Need help getting this right? Reach out to us.