You all, there is sooo much news this week. You should see the amount of tabs I currently have open trying to narrow down my important article list and I just can not do it. I do feel a bit like a broken record in that there is an ever increasing pattern to what I’m reading and therefore choosing to share with you. Data privacy, “is it a housing bubble?”, and helpful tips for managing your digital marketing are the three biggies.
IS IT A HOUSING BUBBLE?
We can’t say for sure, but there is certainly more doom and gloom in my housing news. Obviously NAHB is doing what it can to help and they have gathered a group of 35 organizations that sent a letter to the Commerce Secretary to ask for help with regards to the lumber shortage and associated rising costs. In the meantime housing starts were slow in February both due to the lumber shortage and because of trouble obtaining other building materials. And then there was this piece about housing becoming a luxury item that gathered a bunch of articles together to discuss the rising cost of housing from last year’s increased demand combined with the aforementioned issues with supplies causing increases to home prices.
Our clients continue to tell us that there’s incredible demand for their homes, so much so that it’s hard to keep up. With that being said, it’s important to think ahead from a marketing perspective. While the temptation may be to pull back now so that you have a chance to catch up with current demand, don’t pull back so much that your pool of future home buyers dwindles to such a degree that you’ll be cutting your nose off to spite your face so to speak.
CDPA FLoC UID2, SAY WHAT?
With the rise in data privacy conversations there seems to be an associated rise in acronyms and it’s super annoying IMO. See what I did there? No but seriously, there’s a lot to keep track of these days. This week there was no shortage of articles and thought pieces on how to prepare and what the impacts will be. Without further ado here are some articles that you might want to read to catch up on it all.
First up, a review of the newly passed CDPA out of Virginia. It appears there are some loopholes that allow the possibility of scraping public social media posts, public news sources, most public government records, or in any other public medium or public forum. A head scratcher for sure; did they mean to write the law that way?
In the meantime, while Google’s out there talking FLoC’s, it’s also busy getting sued for tracking people who were using incognito mode. FYI, the point of incognito mode is to not be tracked. Whoopsie.
And while there’s lots of debate about Google not tracking and about their planned FLoC’s, there’s another solution on the block, UID2. FWIW, there’s not a lot of information available on how it actually works. (Side note, you all, I’m killing it with my acronym game here and I’m not even trying!) And of course, as with all of the news in data privacy, the jury’s still out on how to proceed and what the ultimate impact of it all will be on digital marketing.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Moving on from the brain bender that is digital privacy, let’s talk about some helpful tools for managing your digital presence. There were some goodies out there this week for Google, GMB, Facebook, Copywriting, and PPC.
GMB has rolled out a new tool to help manage reviews. There is nothing worse than a bad review that isn’t true. You know the ones that are left on your GMB but are actually meant for another business, or the ones that are just plain fake, and the worst offenders, the reviews that are full of untruths.
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that one way I can research what home builders are doing on Facebook is by using the tracking to my advantage. Visit a few client sites and BAM, Facebook thinks I want to buy a new home so it starts sending me all the top of funnel housing ads. While that is effective, there’s an even quicker way to research your competition, the Facebook Ad Library. Just run a search for housing and behold all the builder ads a person could wish to see!
This next one had me intrigued and I plan to test it out myself. An AI tool that writes ad copy for you. 🤯 Amazing if it works!
Circling back to last week’s SEO conversation, this article about how paid search works hand in hand with SEO was an interesting read. We find ourselves saying this to our clients a lot, but a rising tide lifts all boats. When you pull back on your paid search budget, your organic traffic declines, conversely, when you don’t have a strong organic presence, your paid search performance takes a hit.
Closing out our tips and tricks with some KPI’s to pay attention to when you’re analyzing PPC performance. There are a lot of facets to a strong PPC game and sometimes it can be confusing. This list is a helpful guide to what’s important.
That was a lot. I know. But I couldn’t help myself. It’s been a good week, I was feeling extra enthusiastic and apparently my enthusiasm manifested lots of news to cover. I’ve been practicing positive energy, the law of attraction, and manifesting stuff thanks to someone I follow on Instagram this month and it freaking works. I swear. It’s an extension of my gratitude practice. Highly recommend you give it a go. Thanks Annie! Total tangent so I’ll close with this, Spring is Springing on Saturday!! And Maryland is entering phase 2 of its vaccination schedule on Tuesday. Life is Good.
