Insert a thousand cliches about time, the weather, spring, and sunshine.
It’s been a great week. I started a pottery class on Monday night – it’s really hard but I love it. I gave up drinking and carbs during the week to try and shed some Covid habits and it’s paying off. I feel much more energized. My kids had their first tennis match of the season and Iz (14) won hers. She’s also a team captain (not even a humble brag, that’s just straight bragging). This weekend we’re attending a small family gathering to celebrate the confirmation of an extended family member; we haven’t seen them in like 2 years so that’s exciting. And my job is super fulfilling. Writing these is fun and I look forward to it. Now let’s get to it! What happened in home building and digital marketing this week?
🎶🧜♀️IT’S A WHOLE NEW WORLD 🎶🧜♀️
Welcome to the first week of life with iOs 14.5 and ATT. Doesn’t feel all that different does it? It doesn’t really look that different in my analytics, Facebook ads, and Data Studio dashboard either if I’m being honest. Of course my newsletters were filled with articles on ways to combat the loss of tracking and new tracking efforts but only a couple stood out as newsworthy.
First up, another piece of evidence that the move from Apple isn’t all about benevolence towards the consumer, there is of course, lots to be gained for them in making this move. Not the least of which is perhaps the beginning steps of kicking Google to curb. Google bought it’s way into the Apple ecosystem as the default search engine and ever since Apple’s been trying to figure out how to get into that space and make Google relevant. Just as they now build their own chips (onto which they can add myriad other functions), they are making moves by creating their own search engine.
While Apple’s doing that, how are the rest of us going to get by without all the data from Apple’s mobile devices? One article I read made the case for Private Marketplace Programs. Essentially, publishers who serve ads on their own that aren’t available through other options like the Google Display Network or Facebook’s Audience Network. This made me think of my first internet job at….wait for it…AllyKatzz. Yup it’s so old it doesn’t exist anymore but back in the late aughts it was a social networking site for tween girls and we sold the ads directly. I worked as the digital producer and my boss was the Ad Sales Manager. Needless to say, the idea of PMP’s is appealing to me and I can see value in it.
On the flip side, research out of Europe shows that a majority of people there are super fine with tracking as long as it’s transparent. They see the value in targeted ads and don’t mind how it is that ads are able to target them. This is something that I’m wagering, also happens here. Perhaps not in such large quantities, but enough not to totally upend the current system. Based on Facebook’s earnings projections, it doesn’t appear too worried either.
THE TEENS HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE HOUSING MARKET
I can officially confirm that everyone and their sister is aware of the struggles the housing market is facing. My 14 year old daughter got in the car at school pick up yesterday and informed me that the housing market was going to crash just like it did in 2008, her teacher told her so. I then had to explain to her that, in fact, what is happening now is nothing like 2008 and in my opinion there would be no crash, only a slow down. We talked through the differences and she was excited to correct that teacher today.
Even though people love to talk about a potential bubble or crash, the information that is readily available, clearly paints a different picture. Lumber prices are OOC, costing 250% more than a year ago which has led to an average increase of over $35,000 in the cost of a new home. But still, the people want new homes and they want them now. Hello new home sales in March increasing 66% over March 2020 (I know it was the beginning of the after times but still)! NAHB’s chief economist agrees with this statement BTW. And if you’re curious where the hottest housing markets are in 2021, take a look here. I for one, did not see Idaho coming in at number one.
Do you think next week I can get my kids teacher to talk to them about digital marketing? And then she could ask me questions about that and my whole world would be complete! Seriously, generally speaking my kids interest in my work is a solid 0️⃣and my husband (whom I love dearly) is a total luddite who left the housing industry (mortgage banker for more than 20 years) 3 years ago and has never looked back. So I relish the opportunity to talk shop outside of work. This may or may not be related to my love of writing this each week.
As always, I hope you find this useful and that you enjoy the read. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you here next week!
