It’s Friday, the 13th you all! The last Friday, the 13th I remember was in March of 2020 and it was a very bad day for the whole world. It’s the day we shut down. A quick google revealed that there’s been another one since then in August of 2021 but I have no recall of that day. And today feels more like that kind of Friday, the 13th. Rather unremarkable and if anything perhaps a little more optimistic feeling than it’s supposed to especially given the downright gloomy weather we’re experiencing in Maryland.
I’m rambling a bit but that’s really because I’m thinking while I type about how to succinctly pull together the 6 articles I have to share today. I whittled it down to those 6 from about 40. At first glance I was like woah, it’s been a banner news week, but upon further reading, I realized that much of it was just stuff I was curious about and not necessarily info that was worth sharing with you all.
I present to you 3 Googles, 2 lumbers and 1 privacy law.
First up is some ad news. Google will be hosting its marketing conference later this month and has provided a sneak preview of some improvements it’s making to its ad offerings. TBH, I’m pleased with all of them. Responsive display ads (which currently are oddly dated looking) are getting some improved mobile layouts, it’s speeding up the machine learning to help deliver better ad experiences, and the best feature upgrade IMO is image uncropping. No more awkward white space!
Next up is for your personal use, Google’s My Ad Center. Users can go here to select which brands they’d like to follow and opt out of certain ad categories that fall into the sensitive area such as gambling, alcohol, dating, weight loss, and pregnancy & parenting. This won’t cover all Google ad types at launch but it is definitely a good look for them as data privacy continues to be at the forefront of conversations.
Finally, a little GA4 follow up from our last Homefiniti & Beyond. GA4 is part of just about every conversation we’re having with our builders right now and that’s because it’s time to launch so that we can establish historical data for when GA3 stops tracking info in July of 2023. Martech lays out a short outline of what you need to know about the transition. If you’re a Homefiniti user though all you need to know is how to contact us. We’ve got you covered!
👩💻DATA PRIVACY
Connecticut is joining the likes of California, Virginia, Utah, and Colorado and enacting a data privacy law. That’s 5 states with GDPR like provisions for privacy and I’d expect that the 45 aren’t far behind. If you are selling homes in these 5 states and or are headquartered in them, then your website needs to be compliant. And if you’re in one of the other 45 states, I’d go ahead and make sure your data privacy standards are up to date too.
🪵LUMBER
For all the roadblocks and bad news in the world of building and selling new homes, there’s a bit of a bright spot this week with lumber prices that have fallen 30%. And it looks like that’s about where they’re predicted to stay for a bit. Here’s hoping that these improvements let new home prices stabilize a bit too.
Thanks for reading along. Have a great weekend!
