June 2022: What's new in the world of digital
Posted on 29th June 2022 at 20:35
Today we look back at some of the key changes and innovations across all aspects of digital in June 2022. We give you a snapshot of what the update is, why it is important and what action should you take.
LinkedIn Makes Further Announcements
What is it?: Following the announcement of improving its content relevancy last month, further announcements have come from LinkedIn on June 9th, including the capability to promote events.
Why is it important?: Primarily a B2B platform, investment from LinkedIn has appeared to be relatively small in comparison to Instagram. Last year it was reported that the worldwide users of LinkedIn had grown to 756 million, with 42 million being from the UK, meaning that almost every working UK adult has an account.
The LinkedIn events platform has been a popular way for many brands to host virtual events. Whilst many events are moving from the virtual to the physical in 2022, a hybrid approach is likely to remain the new norm. The ability to boost events seamlessly to increase awareness and drive registrations will increase the reach of events.
What action should you take?: You should have access to be able to boost your events via your LinkedIn events page. There will be the option to select your target audience in the same way that other advertising works on LinkedIn, ensuring that you can be highly targeted with the boosting.
Pinterest Introduces Idea Ads and Paid Partnership Tool
What is it?: On June 17th it was announced that two changes were being launched to Pinterest, including the new ad format Idea Ads, providing advertisers with a more richer and immersive creative to showcase their products and services and provide educational content to audiences. Initial tests prior to the full rollout across 30 countries has shown people exposed to the new ad format was 59% more likely to recall the brand. A paid partnership tool, allowing content creators to tag brands has also been launched.
Why is it important?: These new launches by Pinterest recognise the increased investment in their advertising solutions. The brand partnership tool looks like this paves the way for more influencer collaborations on the platform. This is an important step for Pinterest to take, in what is a high investment area for many brands in 2022, as brands start to take advantage of partnering with content creators on rival platforms such as TikTok.
What action should you take?: Whilst Pinterest isn't likely to be the first social platform that you set up and doesn't have the highest number of users, its growth and current UK user base of 10.3 million shouldn't be ignored. If you already have an organic account, increasing the discoverability of your content via their paid advertising offering should be part of your testing plan.
Core Web Vitals Scores Improve For Top Sites
What is it?: New research from Brightedge, an enterprise level SEO platform has reported how Core Web Vitals metrics have improved by sector, since its rollout 12 months ago in June 2021. The metrics benchmarked include the First Input Delay, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), with a specific focus to mobile devices.
Why is it important?: The launch of Core Web Vitals caused much debate as to how quickly these metrics would affect SEO ranking performance in addition to how important it was for site owners to invest in improving these metrics. It is clear from the report that many have invested time and money into improving these metrics. Whilst it is hard to say with 100% certainty that the sites in these report rank better because of this, it will definitely be a factor.
What action should you take?: Looking at the results of the report, on face value sites across all sectors need to improve. The benchmark suggests for the LCP metric should be 2.5 seconds or less. For CLS, there should not be any content volatility at all. From a speed perspective, it is important to remember that there is a balancing act between delivering a site quicker for the user and the functionality that is provided (which may compromise speed) to improve conversion. We would recommend reviewing all page types, to ensure that you are only loading scripts that are required for that page and ensuring that all media content is fully optimised. If you have site functionality that is compromising the speed, carry out analysis using tools such as Hotjar and use A/B testing where possible, to validate conversion rate improvements.
Our Final Thoughts ...
Whilst only making up a fraction of advertisers budget, Paid Social continues to be a big question as to its importance in acquiring and retaining customers. Can it be a channel that drives sales and leads? Is it only about awareness and inspiration? Do I rely on email and SMS once I have acquired the customer? The reality is that it can deliver across all; the key is to create content, apply relevant targeting and not to constrain to un-realistic Return on Investment targets. Plus work out where some of the new features and formats continuously being released fits into your plan.
If you would like further information on any of the above updates or you would like to access a free no obligation consultation, please get in touch to understand how we can help you.
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