Industry Roundup: September 2021

Google Server-Side Tagging Now Out of Beta 

Server-Side Tagging in Google Tag Manager removes measurement and advertising tags from your website and puts them into a secure server container. It’s a privacy solution that seeks to provide a balance between user privacy concerns (and regulation) and marketing performance analytics. It protects customers by restricting access to their information and benefits site owners by reducing page load times. Find more information on Server-Side Tagging in Google Tag Manager on Google’s blog post. 

US Viewers Opt for Streaming Services 

A recent study conducted by Hub Entertainment Research shows that streaming services are the first thing US consumers turn on when they want to watch television. Hub surveyed 1,616 US consumers, aged 16-74, who have broadband access and watch a minimum of 1 hour of TV per week. The findings continue to demonstrate the massive opportunity for brands as consumption shifts: 

• The ‘traditional TV only’ group has been cut in half, due to expedited tech and streaming adoption during COVID lockdowns. 
• Younger audiences watch less live TV, across both OTT and traditional channels. 
• Live TV viewership, whether streaming or traditional, has decreased across all age groups. 
• The average number of TV streaming sources has risen to almost six (up from 3 in 2018). New streaming platforms, including free, ad-supported options, are now available, and more providers are making their content available via streaming platforms. This highlights the importance of a diverse OTT inventory approach as most OTT streamers use multiple streaming platforms. 

Access the free excerpt here. 

Apple Mail Privacy Protection is Here – What Email Marketers Need to Know 

Over the summer, Apple announced the release of a new privacy feature in the iOS 15 update, Mail Privacy Protection, which will affect reporting accuracy for email campaigns. Email services like Mail Chimp and SendGrid are warning that open counts, device-type, and location reporting may be unreliable and inflated for contacts who use Apple Mail and have enabled the new security feature. Emails will likely be automatically reported as ‘opened.’ Rest assured that the emails are being delivered, but marketers may need to adapt and develop new goals around email marketing campaigns if metrics in the coming months seem off.  

Find Mail Chimp’s guidance here. 

Find SendGrid’s advice here. 

The Rise of Automation in Search Ads 

A testament to the rise of automation in digital marketing, Google is now phasing out Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) in favor of Responsive Search Ads (RSAs). RSAs work by automatically testing different combinations of your headlines and descriptions to see which combinations more closely match customer queries and perform better. Location3 is ahead of the curve. Learn more about the update and how we’re adapting here. 

Get Google to Display Your Title Correctly 

Google is updating the way it displays your page titles in search results. While the algorithm previously leveraged the user’s query to generate title tags for pages in search results, it is now using page title-tags as-is around 87% of the time. Learn more about the update, when a title might be changed, and how you can ensure your titles display correctly on search in our post by SEO expert, Will Robinson.