Google’s full transition to new analytics is fast approaching, as of July 1st, 2023 UA3 (the old analytics) will no longer be supported.
The digital ads industry is going through a major shift. At the recent Google Marketing event Google showcased a number of Ai “enhancements” to Google Ads as they proclaimed they were an “Ai first company”. Google has said that 80% of advertisers use a form of Ai-powered search product. This would mean PMax campaigns with are auto-created campaigns. Many agencies have noted significant decreases in performance using Ai and an increase in ad spend.
Google is showing no signs of stopping the Ai train, you can learn more about new changes at the Marketing O’Clock podcast. Oh and just in case you were wondering How Google will handle Bard Ai search and Google Ads, moving forward, it will be pretty seamless and they’ve cracked it! Makes sense they would since their revenue and future kinda depended on it.
GA4 IS HERE
Many clients have noted getting annoying Google emails warning them to migrate to GA4, for our clients, this is a Google error and you are fine and migrated. The issue is that many people have not migrated and Google knows it, so they are trying to cover themselves in an “I told you so” moment.
Kow Abundant has been shouting about the GA4 change since March 10, 2021. Since that time, we have also transitioned to GA4 and moved client accounts to it including conversion tracking. We even noted the coming storm of all the changes we are seeing now back in November of 2022. Even going as far as to announce in April 2022 that all our client accounts would be migrated to GA4.
Image created using Ai of Cow in an office with a man in the style of Norman Rockwell
Videos are still in the early stages of Ai creation, but using Ai instead of stock photos shows some promise (see above). The prompts are still not accurate though so you have to be happy with what you get. Watch the Ai created Iams dog food mock commercial
We are hiring, careers in content creation, video, and marketing, go to Kowabundant.com/JOBS to apply.
If you or someone you knows has the marketing chops we are looking for then inquire on our website at kowabundant.com/jobs
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Winner of Local Excellence Award 3rd year in a row!
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Award winner of Local Excellence SEO, 2023, 2022, & 2021 from Upcity.com.
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Winner Expertise.com named a top SEO agency in Columbus.
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Winner of SocialAppsHQ top 3 Facebook Marketing agencies.
Top Client Questions Of The Month:
Thanks to all the clients and newcomers for these great questions. Watch the Video Newsletter below for more detailed answers. Here they are.
1. Are websites still important?
– Yes! For the sales funnel a great website is still the no.1 sales tool for businesses. Almost 60% of businesses said that SEO had the biggest impact on their lead generation. Other notable channels include email marketing, social media, & event marketing.
2. Why am I hearing agencies are down now and issues with Google ads?
– Ai changes and focus on Pmax and other new ad campaign types have spent more while still in beta or testing phases for the products. Google is trying out many Ai bidding strategies for many people now. We don’t let our clients be Google’s guinea pigs. Be smart when it comes to using Ai and our advice for now is use it sparingly. We even tell our Google reps we are not taking calls for client accounts as all they do at the moment is push Ai changes to accounts we know just spend more with less ROI.
We have managed to keep costs lower for our clients but it will be an ongoing battle as GA4 and more Ai changes rollout that we continue to stay on top of!
3. Can I add or update my listings using Yext without issues on my Google listing?
We as an agency do not recommend using Yext for listing management and have had negative experiences. You can read about our listings platform of choice here.
4. How often should I send emails, I say every day or two, but another in my company says every 2 weeks.
– We recommend sending emails at most every 2 weeks and even less if possible unless you have important updates to send to people. Email is one that really needs to focus on quality vs quantity. For more frequent updates we recommend saving that for social media posts.
For example, we only send out a monthly newsletter to our subscribers so as to not bore them but also we work really hard on our newsletter each month to deliver the best, most fresh content we can to you!
5. What do you use to film your tiktoks? They look really good.
– Thanks so much 🙂 We often use either a Google pixel smartphone camera for quick thoughts or we like to use a digital SLR pro-level camera like the Sony A7S iii with various lenses to fit our mood. We like using the Helios 44mm lens to get some nice creamy backgrounds like the one in this award video.
From there we edit using premiere pro and export it using a Youtube shorts preset we customized so it is all optimized for your eyes on various channels.
6. My Google review I left isn’t showing up, why isn’t it there right away?
– More than likely it will appear after a “cool-off period” from Google which typically takes anywhere from 24-72 hours. In our experience reviews will usually show within or about 1 week that you submit.
If they don’t show then it could be because your account is too new, you haven’t left reviews, or has been flagged such as when another user reports on of your reviews on Google.
7. Are your videos commercially licensed?
– Yes they are! Not only that but we are also FAA commercially licensed drone pilots so we always get clearance to fly. All the music we use is fully licensed as well in our videos. When we create videos for our customers they can use the videos wherever they like but it is important to read the license and *consult an attorney if you have more questions about specific use cases. Generally, for social media and youtube use it is totally able to be used for your business without issue.
We are hiring, go to Kowabundant.com/hiring to apply
Check us out on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@kowabundant
If you have any questions or would like this kind of help please contact us at Kowabundant.com/contact
SEO NEWS
SMBs plan to invest more in SEO & Social, 20% less in PPC this year. Our advice recommends this as well with a caveat.
https://searchengineland.com/
PRO TIP
Create Audiences in GA4 to segment your sales funnels into specific groups based on actions they take. They you can use those audiences in Google Ads and retarget to those users.
DIGITAL ADS NEWS
Is Google Marketing Event 2023 too obsessed with AI? We think yes.
https://searchengineland.com/
Meta announces AI features to create ads for advertisers
https://techcrunch.com/2023/
SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS
META fined largest-ever $1.3b in EU over data privacy issue https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/
DO YOU AGREE?
Be More Productive at meetings and don’t have them
Cut down on office meetings, save productivity https://youtu.be/CfiSKKnWaOI
This month’s charity to support is
Gateway Film Center in Columbus Ohio
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This Month In Memes
This is a sure-fire way to confuse Ai
Many marketers are asked to move mountains when it comes to making a product sell. If you core positioning of the product is the issue, there really isn’t any way for marketing to “fix” the issue other than retooling your positioning or product.
I bet that most of us want to have an option to never see ads about insurance or doctors ads we will never use nor should we consider ourselves.
Having a clear message is very important in marketing.
Ai Generated Art
Some Ai Generated Art of a woman on cell phone in medieval times. Created using midjourney
A woman taking photos, the prompt said surrounded by digital cameras but you can see it looks great however it missed some elements of the original prompt. The text also is random on the camera body.
Listen to the Thermostat Podcast with all new episodes on work culture and leadership in 2023.
The Thermostat Podcast with Jason Barger. A workplace culture and leadership podcast going 150+ episodes strong
Thanks for reading! Please comment below with any questions.
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Kow Abundant is Now Hiring – Click the image for apply or view more