Read Time: Approx. 5 Minutes 28 Seconds 
Author: Joe Weatherill 
Welcome to the December edition, where we share the updates in the world of digital. 

Google Analytics enhances remarketing with Customer Match integration 

What is it?: Google has launched its new feature Customer Match, aimed to help Google Analytics users reach their most relevant audiences as efficiently as possible. It enables advertisers to use first-party customer data for their remarketing campaigns across Google’s platforms. Campaigns using smart bidding and optimised targeting automatically leverage Customer Match lists for improved performance. 
 
Why is it important?: This feature will be particularly important when third-party cookies are unavailable, as Google is aware that tracking methods such as third-party cookies are becoming less reliable. The addition of Customer Match will improve the alignment of campaigns, as well as potentially becoming a strategic way for advertisers to future-proof their campaigns. Creating highly personalised marketing campaigns based on known customer behaviours and preferences, will lead to better ROI as the ads will be tailored to people already interested in the brand. Advertisers will also benefit from improved efficiency, as there is no need to manually create customer lists in Google Ads. Google will ensure that the data collected is hashed and anonymised, allowing advertisers to remain in compliance with privacy regulations like CCPA and GDPR. 
 
What action should you take?: You should begin by collecting users first party data (ensure you have consent from your customers to collect and use their data), for example their name, email, phone and address, this information will be hashed, and this data will match with Google’s database. Ensure that your Google Ads account is linked to Google Analytics to allow sharing audience data between the platforms. To allow Customer Match audiences to be used for remarketing campaigns, you must turn on personalised advertising in Google Analytics. As always you should regularly check the performance of your campaigns in Google Ads and Analytics, for example looking into whether you need to adjust bids, targeting or any media products based on campaign insights to improve ROI. 
 

Reddit Integrates AI-Powered Search With New “Reddit Answers” 

What is it? A tool to help improve the search functionality of Reddit, in which you can ask questions and be shown a list of relevant answers and discussions that have already been posted by other Reddit users. This new feature by Reddit has been made due to findings that many users turn to Google to search for Reddit content, due to Reddit search often lacking relevant results. 
 
Why is it important? This AI-powered search will help Reddit users find the answers and advice they need more seamlessly, as well as showing summaries of conversations that are relevant. Reddit Answers will also show communities and posts that are linked to the keywords that you have searched, allowing you to explore much more information for more context, helping Reddit users gain as much insight/help as possible into their query. By using this AI feature to provide targeted answers and summaries, Reddit will therefore keep their users more engaged and remain on their platform. 
 
What action should you take? For Reddit content creators and moderators, you should be planning on creating high-quality well-structured posts and comments, to increase the likelihood of your content being featured in the Reddit Answers summaries. This can be done by including clear and concise language, using relevant keywords in both your title and comments. Monitor AI summaries for what topic you will talk about, find what keywords are showing up the most and use them. For marketers and researchers, Reddit Answers will be a good tool to quickly gather trends, community opinions and questions related to your product/services. Helping you identify audience preferences or concerns can help you get ahead of your competitors and help solve the audiences’ problems, resulting in overall increase in your performance. 
 

YouTube Aims to Simplify Influencer Partnerships with Its Own Platform 

What is it?: YouTube BrandConnect is YouTube’s own platform designed to streamline collaborations between brands and creators. The recent updates aim to simplify the process establishing influencer partnerships directly within YouTube’s ecosystem. The platforms provide access to analytics and performance metrics, which enables brands to make informed decisions and optimise their marketing strategies, such as which influencer they think will be most suitable for their marketing campaign. Brands will be able to leverage the established audiences of YouTube creators to amplify their message and engage with target demographics more effectively. Creators can still ensure brand integrations feel natural, by producing content that resonates with their audience, maintaining viewers trust and helping brands to easily identify what industries/themes creators will stick to. 
 
Why is it important?: With the platform able to help manage negotiations, contracts, and performance tracking, it eliminates the need for third parties, reducing costs and making the overall process much simpler. The changes to YouTube BrandConnect will help smaller creators gain easier access to sponsorship deals, enabling more consistent growth for their channels. This way of advertising can be seen as much more authentic than channels such as TikTok shop, as audiences on YouTube are usually much more engaged with the creators, meaning audiences value genuine recommendations more from influencers that they trust and are subscribed to, rather than generic ads. This is shown in higher engagement rates, with this innovation reflecting the future of marketing, being much more authentic and personalised to a specific audience. 
 
What action should you take?: For brands, when launching a campaign, your first step should be identifying the purpose of your campaign and who your target audience will be and their typical interests and behaviours. Then you should begin setting up a YouTube BrandConnect account, so you can begin researching creators and find the ones which align with your brand values and have the right type of audience you need to be advertising to. Before taking this further, it is recommended you look into the creator more, to make informed choices. 
For Creators, firstly you should join YouTube BrandConnect and ensure that you meet the eligibility requirements. Then the most important part is to build a strong profile, showcasing your niche and audience demographics, as this will ultimately attract potential brands or push them away from working with you. Constantly review potential partnership offers and maintain transparency when you go into the negotiations phase, as building a good reputation will go far on this platform. 
 

Bonus Update 

Since it’s launch in May 2024, Google AI overviews have been taking up more and more screen space. Starting at 600 pixels of screen space, it is predicted (by BrightEdge) that this figure could reach 1,000 pixels, after it had reached 800 at the end of summer. 600 pixels is around the mark in which the users see without scrolling. This dramatic growth of screen space will therefore harm a large majority of publishers in the search rankings, negatively influencing earnings. Google AI overviews have mainly taken over search terms related to health, B2B technology, eCommerce and financial queries. Health related search terms have been shown to have reached over 80% of AI overview results and B2B technology has reached almost 50%. To attempt to combat this publishers will attempt to create more content that directly addresses topics and is more unambiguous, in order to rank for more complex search queries. 
 

Our final thoughts ... 

Throughout its 19 year history, Reddit has often been overlooked by brands as a potential marketing channel. This is not surprising, given what could be classed as a community centric, private platform which brands shouldn’t inhabit. However, with stats showing that Reddit was in the top 10 sites for visits in August 2024 and the development of their ad offering to target consumers, we feel that Reddit is a destination which can help brands showcase their expertise in solving the communities challenges and has to be part of the discussion when planning for 2025 and beyond. 
 
For further information on any of the latest product updates or anything new that is on your mind, get in touch with our team of digital experts today. 
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