SEO
Top Creator Economy & Video Ads Insights From IAB NewFronts
IAB NewFronts, billed as “the world’s largest digital content marketplace,” kicked off on Monday with in-person events in New York City and virtually on IAB.com.
The unifying theme of this year’s series of events for media buyers is “Stream On,” which reflects the twin trends driving the industry: Both consumers and brands are leaning into streaming video.
Here are the top three takeaways from Day 1 of the 2022 IAB NewFronts.
1. Setting The Agenda: Harnessing The Creator Economy
Tara Walpert Levy, Vice President of Americas at YouTube, and Michael Kassan, Chief Executive Officer of MediaLink, set the agenda for the 2022 IAB NewFronts to discuss “Harnessing the Creator Economy.”
During the discussion held at Google’s Pier 57, Walpert Levy announced that beauty star Jackie Aina and makeup artist Pat McGrath would lead a live shopping event on May 3 featuring items inspired by the Netflix series Bridgerton.
Then, YouTube will team up with Paramount on May 4 to live stream the premiere of the incoming film sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
Now, the elephant in the room that few in the industry trade press have yet to acknowledge is this:
- YouTube is fueling the economy, generating $20.5 billion to the US GDP in 2020.
- YouTube is creating employment, adding 394,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the US in 2020.
- YouTube is growing small businesses, prompting 80% of SMBs with a YouTube channel to agree that YouTube played a role in helping them to grow their customer base.
A Creator Coffee Talk featuring: Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry, two filmmakers based in Los Angeles; Cassey Ho, a certified Pilates and fitness instructor whose “blogilates” channel on YouTube has 6.4 million subscribers; and Collins Key, who posts funny comedy videos on a YouTube channel with 23.7 million subscribers.
Image from YouTube, May 2022They talked about their evolution from “YouTubers” and influencers to creators and entrepreneurs. The panel gave a shout-out to YouTube for paying creators more than $30 billion between 2017 and 2020 – $7.5 billion annually on average.
In 2021, YouTube brought in $28.8 billion in advertising revenue.
With around 55% of that going to creators, this means YouTube paid creators more than $15 billion last year, which is a huge chunk of the overall funding for the creator economy.
Other social video platforms have invested only hundreds of millions of dollars to “support” influencers and creators.
Or, as Key said,
“The rev split that YouTube gives us is what allows us to build these businesses. And as a creator, it’s so frustrating because I hear every platform is saying, ‘Oh yeah, we support our creators. We’re behind our creators.’ But no one’s putting their money where their mouth is except for YouTube.”
Now, YouTube normally holds its annual Brandcast during the IAB NewFronts, but the company has bucked tradition this year by moving that event to coincide with the Upfronts, the annual marketplace for TV ad sales.
This means we’ll have to wait until May 17 to learn what YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki will say.
But, Jim Louderback, the GM of VidCon, predicts her presentation will emphasize that “Big Red is as much a TV company as it is an online video platform.”
2. IAB Insights: 2022 Video Ad Spend Report
On Monday, IAB Media Center Vice President Eric John shared the findings of this year’s “Video Ad Spend and 2022 Outlook” report.
Digital video advertising spending increased 49% in 2021 and is expected to increase 26% to $49.2 billion in 2022.
And Connected TV (CTV) ad spending surged 57% in 2021 to $15.2 billion and is expected to grow an additional 39% in 2022 to $21.2 billion.
Even though 76% of video buyers now label CTV as a “must buy” in their media planning budgets, they’re currently allocating only 18% of their total video ad dollars to CTV, which falls short of the 36% of total time spent with linear TV and CTV combined in 2022.
John said, “The time is now for brands and buyers to follow consumer attention.”
Image from NewFront, May 2022The report found:
- CTV enables buyers to leverage several types of data not available within linear TV buys, including first-party brand data, location data, and shopping data.
- 57% of video buyers with sales lift as their KPI felt that CTV was more effective than linear TV. But even 46% of video buyers with improving brand perception as their KPI said that CTV was more effective.
- 59% of video buyers said it was “very clear” where their CTV ads ran compared to only 50% who said that for social video and 43% for other digital video.
But, video buyers say they still face challenges:
- 48% said measuring incremental reach across platforms/publishers was an issue.
- 43% said managing frequency across platforms/publishers was a problem.
- 35% said fragmentation continues to be the Achilles heel of programmatic supply paths.
Video buyers are preparing for a converged linear TV/CTV marketplace and are implementing a myriad of creative and targeting tactics to address CTV’s opportunities and challenges.
But, John observed, “To use a baseball analogy, we’re still in the first inning.”
3. New Virtual Product Placement Offering From Amazon
On Monday evening, Amy Poehler, who is not only an Emmy-award-winning actress but also the director of Lucy and Desi on Prime Video and an executive producer on Harlem, hosted Amazon’s event at the Lincoln Center.
Eight executives from Freevee, Amazon Ads, Twitch, Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Amazon Studios joined her to unveil new shows, ad products, and ways to engage customers.
Image from NewFront, May 2022The top takeaway from Amazon’s plethora of pronouncements was a new virtual product placement offering that inserts brands into Prime Video and Freevee original content in post-production and during Thursday Night Football, which will be streaming exclusively on Prime Video this fall.
If you haven’t heard of Freevee before, don’t worry. Up until last week, it was known as IMDb TV.
In other news, Amazon also announced Streaming TV Media Planner, which enables advertisers to see their incremental streaming TV reach through Amazon Ads and compare that to linear reach.
These were just the top three takeaways from Day 1 of the 2022 IAB NewFronts.
Over the next three days, media buyers will also hear from Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitter.
I’ll share the highlights from those events later this week.
More resources:
Featured Image: AlessandroBiascioli/Shutterstock
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SEO
Google Updating Cryptocurrency Advertising Policy For 2024
Google published an announcement of upcoming changes to their cryptocurrency advertising policies and advises advertisers to make themselves aware of the changes and prepare to be in compliance with the new requirements.
The upcoming updates are to Google’s Cryptocurrencies and related products policy for the advertisement of Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts. The changes are set to take effect on January 29th, 2024.
Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts are financial products that enable investors to trade shares in trusts holding substantial amounts of digital currency. These trusts provide investors with equity in cryptocurrencies without having direct ownership. They are also an option for creating a more diversified portfolio.
The policy updates by Google that are coming in 2024 aim to describe the scope and requirements for the advertisement of Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts. Advertisers targeting the United States will be able to promote these products and services as long as they abide by specific policies outlined in the updated requirements and that they also obtain certification from Google.
The updated policy changes are not limited to the United States. They will apply globally to all accounts advertising Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts.
Google’s announcement also reminded advertisers of their obligation for compliance to local laws in the areas where the ads are targeted.
Google’s approach for violations of the new policy will be to first give a warning before imposing an account suspension.
Advertisers that fail to comply with the updated policy will receive a warning at least seven days before a potential account suspension. This time period provides advertisers with an opportunity to fix non-compliance issues and to get back into compliance with the revised guidelines.
Advertisers are encouraged to refer to Google’s documentation on “About restricted financial products certification.”
The deadline for the change in policy is January 29th, 2024. Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts advertisers will need to pay close attention to the updated policies in order to ensure compliance.
Read Google’s announcement:
Updates to Cryptocurrencies and related products policy (December 2023)
SEO
SEO Trends You Can’t Ignore In 2024
Most SEO trends fade quickly. But some of them stick and deserve your attention.
Let’s explore what those are and how to take advantage of them.
If you give ChatGPT a title and ask it to write a blog post, it will—in seconds.
This is super impressive, but there are a couple of issues:
- Everyone else using ChatGPT is creating the same content. It’s the same for users of other GPT-powered AI writing tools, too—which is basically all of them.
- The content is extremely dull. Sure, you can ask ChatGPT to “make it more entertaining,” but it usually overcompensates and hands back a cringe version of the same boring content.
In the words of Gael Breton:
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t use AI to write entire articles. They’ll be boring as heck. Instead, use it as a creative sparring partner to help you write better content and automate monotonous tasks.
For example, you can ask ChatGPT To write an outline from a working title and a list of keywords (which you can pull from Ahrefs)—and it does a pretty decent job.
Prompt:
Create an outline for a post entitled “[working title]” based on these keywords: [list]
Result:
When you’ve written your draft, you can ask to polish it in seconds by asking ChatGPT to proofread it.
Then you can automate the boring stuff, like creating more enticing title tags…
… and writing a meta description:
If you notice a few months down the line that your content ranks well but hasn’t won the featured snippet, ChatGPT can help with that, too.
For example, Ahrefs tells us we rank in position 3 for “affiliate marketing” but don’t own the snippet.
If we check Google, the snippet is a definition. Asking ChatGPT to simplify our definition may solve this problem.
In short, there are a near-infinite number of ways to use ChatGPT (and other AI writing tools) to create better content. And all of them buck the trend of asking it to write boring, boilerplate articles from scratch.
Programmatic SEO refers to the creation of keyword-targeted pages in an automatic (or near automatic) way.
Nomadlist’s location pages are a perfect example:
Each page focuses on a specific city and shares the same core information—internet speeds, cost, temperature, etc. All of this information is pulled programmatically from a database and the site gets an estimated 46k monthly search visits in total.
Programmatic SEO is nothing new. It’s been around forever. It’s just the hot thing right now because AI tools like ChatGPT make it easier and more accessible than ever before.
The problem? As John Mueller pointed out on Twitter X, much of it is spam:
I love fire, but also programmatic SEO is often a fancy banner for spam.
— I am John – ⭐ Say no to cookies – biscuits only ⭐ (@JohnMu) July 25, 2023
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t use programmatic SEO to publish insane amounts of spam that’ll probably get hit in the next Google update. Use it to scale valuable content that will stand the test of time.
For example, Wise’s currency conversion pages currently get an estimated 31.7M monthly search visits:
This is because the content is actually useful. Each page features an interactive tool showing the live exchange rate for any amount…
… the exchange rate over time…
… a handy email notification option when the exchange rates exceed a certain amount…
… handy conversion charts for popular amounts…
… and a comparison of the cheapest ways to send money abroad in your chosen currency:
It doesn’t matter that all of these pages use the same template. The data is exactly what you want to see when you search [currency 1] to [currency 2].
That’s probably why Wise ranks in the top 10 for over 66,000 of these keywords:
Looking to take advantage of programmatic content in 2024 like Wise? Check out the guide below.
People love ChatGPT because it answers questions fast and succinctly, so it’s no surprise that generative AI is already making its way into search.
For example, if you ask Bing for a definition or how to do something basic, AI will generate an answer on the fly right there in the search results.
In other words, thanks to AI, users no longer have to click on a search result for answers to simple questions. It’s like featured snippets on steroids.
This might not be a huge deal right now, but when Google’s version of this (Search Generative Experience) comes out of beta, many websites will see clicks fall off a cliff.
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t invest too much in topics that generative AI can easily answer. You’ll only lose clicks like crazy to AI in the long run. Instead, start prioritizing topics that AI will struggle to answer.
How do you know which topics it will struggle to answer? Try asking ChatGPT. If it gives a good and concise answer, it’s clearly an easy question.
For example, there are hundreds of searches for how to calculate a percentage in Google Sheets every month in the US:
If you ask ChatGPT for the solution, it gives you a perfect answer in about fifty words.
This is the perfect example of a topic where generative AI will remove the need to click on a search result for many.
That’s probably not going to be the case for a topic like this:
Sure. Generative AI might be able to tell you how to create a template—but it can’t make one for you. And even if it can in the future, it will never be a personal finance expert with experience. You’ll always have to click on a search result for a template created by that person.
These are the kinds of topics to prioritize in 2024 and beyond.
Sidenote.
None of this means you should stop targeting “simple” topics altogether. You’ll always be able to get some traffic from them. My point is not to be obsessed with ranking for keywords whose days are numbered. Prioritize topics with long-term value instead.
Bonus: 3 SEO trends to ignore in 2024
Not all SEO trends move the needle. Here are just a few of those trends and why you should ignore them.
People are using voice search more than ever
In 2014, Google revealed that 41% of Americans use voice search daily. According to research by UpCity, that number was up to 50% as of 2022. I haven’t seen any data for 2023 yet, but I’d imagine it’s above 50%.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
75% of voice search results come from a page ranking in the top 3, and 40.7% come from a featured snippet. If you’re already optimizing for those things, there’s not much more you can do.
People are using visual search for shopping more than ever
In 2022, Insider Intelligence reported that 22% of US adults have shopped with visual search (Google Lens, Bing Visual Search, etc.). That number is up from just 15% in 2021.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
Much like voice search, there’s no real way to optimize for visual search. Sure, it helps to have good quality product images, optimized filenames and alt text, and product schema markup on your pages—but you should be doing this stuff anyway as it’s been a best practice since forever.
People are using Bing more than ever before
Bing’s Yusuf Mehdi announced in March 2023 that the search engine had surpassed 100M daily active users for the first time ever. This came just one month after the launch of AI-powered Bing.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
Bing might be more popular than ever, but its market share still only stands at around ~3% according to estimates by Statcounter. Google’s market share stands at roughly 92%, so that’s the one you should be optimizing for.
Plus, it’s often the case that if you rank in Google, you also rank in Bing—so it really doesn’t deserve any focus.
Final thoughts
Keeping your finger on the pulse and taking advantage of trends makes sense, but don’t let them distract you from the boring stuff that’s always worked: find what people are searching for > create content about it > build backlinks > repeat.
Got questions? Ping me on Twitter X.
SEO
Mozilla VPN Security Risks Discovered
Mozilla published the results of a recent third-party security audit of its VPN services as part of it’s commitment to user privacy and security. The survey revealed security issues which were presented to Mozilla to be addressed with fixes to ensure user privacy and security.
Many search marketers use VPNs during the course of their business especially when using a Wi-Fi connection in order to protect sensitive data, so the trustworthiness of a VNP is essential.
Mozilla VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN), is a service that hides (encrypts) a user’s Internet traffic so that no third party (like an ISP) can snoop and see what sites a user is visiting.
VPNs also add a layer of security from malicious activities such as session hijacking which can give an attacker full access to the websites a user is visiting.
There is a high expectation from users that the VPN will protect their privacy when they are browsing on the Internet.
Mozilla thus employs the services of a third party to conduct a security audit to make sure their VPN is thoroughly locked down.
Security Risks Discovered
The audit revealed vulnerabilities of medium or higher severity, ranging from Denial of Service (DoS). risks to keychain access leaks (related to encryption) and the lack of access controls.
Cure53, the third party security firm, discovered and addressed several risks. Among the issues were potential VPN leaks to the vulnerability of a rogue extension that disabled the VPN.
The scope of the audit encompassed the following products:
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for macOS
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Linux
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Windows
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for iOS
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Androi
These are the risks identified by the security audit:
- FVP-03-003: DoS via serialized intent
- FVP-03-008: Keychain access level leaks WG private key to iCloud
- VP-03-010: VPN leak via captive portal detection
- FVP-03-011: Lack of local TCP server access controls
- FVP-03-012: Rogue extension can disable VPN using mozillavpnnp (High)
The rogue extension issue was rated as high severity. Each risk was subsequently addressed by Mozilla.
Mozilla presented the results of the security audit as part of their commitment to transparency and to maintain the trust and security of their users. Conducting a third party security audit is a best practice for a VPN provider that helps assure that the VPN is trustworthy and reliable.
Read Mozilla’s announcement:
Mozilla VPN Security Audit 2023
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Meilun
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