🚨New Google Ads API Just Dropped: What You Need to Know
gm nerds 🤓
welcome back to the newsletter that never fails to get the people talking 😤
always appreciate the fan mail 🥲
but next time, talk your sh*t in the YouTube comments instead, please 🙏
Speaking of…
This Week’s Pod 🗣️🎙️
This week we’ve got the legendary James Camp dropping by to talk growing, flipping, buying, selling, 8-figure exits, AI SERPs, and more. Consider that brain picked.
Banger episode, don’t miss it.
What else is new this week in digital marketing:
→ Google Ads API 13.0 🚨
→ The State of Backlinks 🔗
→ a Rowdy Social Media Round-up: Zuck Cops Elon & More 🐮
→ Thread of the Week: 5 AI SEO Tools 🧵🪡
→ Wisdom from the Kings: Actionable Tips from Ahrefs 👑
Let’s go.
Google Ads API 13.0 🚨
Crew at SEORoundTable.com are back with news re: the latest important Google update. Google? Update? You don’t say.
Version 13.0 of Google Ads API has finally dropped. The verdict? “The big changes include Performance max for travel goals and remarketing with rule-based user lists but there are tons of changes in version 13.”
Here’s a few of the changes:
Depending on your grind, there might be important stuff in here. Here’s a YouTube clip released by google documenting the changes.
The State of Backlinks 🔗
Backlinks matter. Some say their importance has faded— this article presents a good discussion on the state of backlinks in SEO today… here’s the lowdown:
The article cites a poll by Barry Schwartz suggesting that the haters are real, and that many marketers are starting to leave backlinks behind and focus elsewhere. Recognizing that backlinks are still a top 3 ranking factor, the article discusses how Google seems to always be weighing user experience, content relevance, E-E-A-T, etc. heavier and heavier. OK point taken. But still, backlinks remain key for demonstrating authority. As always, high-quality backlinks stay winning. That’s facts.
TLDR; it’s worth taking Google’s emphasis on user experience seriously and adjusting accordingly, but it’d be pretty naive to think that backlinks are becoming a thing of the past…
As a wise man once said (like a couple days ago):
Recommended by LinkedIn
Social Media Round-up 🐮
Hard to deny that Elon has become the main character of social media. Guess Zuck’s taking that personally?
Despite some mixed reviews from Elon’s adventure into verification (still under 200K Twitter Blue subs), Meta is adding their own blue-check— and they’re charging $12 for web, $15 for mobile. The perks? A badge, higher post visibility, and a higher grade of customer service. Plus, the badge will be cross-app, appearing on both Facebook and Insta.
→ The other big news out of Meta? Announcing Instagram Broadcast Channels for content creators to “deepen connection” with their followers
→ Insta also announced that they’ll be dropping their livestream shopping experiment… sometimes you’ve just gotta take the L
→ Massive TikTok Update will see 70,000 new data insights; app also Launches “Creativity Program” Beta, ana “invite-only program designed to help creators monetize their content and unlock more opportunities”
→ YouTube Shorts Keeps Growing, allowing users to comment w/ short videos (you may recognize from TikTok’s “video reply” function… lol)
→ SnapChat hits 750M monthly users, basically 150M more than April 2022
→ Twitter Exclusivizes 2FA for Blue subscribers only, making many people very upset, as usual. Twitter 2.0 gonna Twitter 2.0
Thread of the Week: 5 AI SEO Tools 🧵🪡
Solid thread by @fba re: 5 generative AI content creation tools that might not be on your radar yet. They’re worth looking into, fo\r sure. What’s he got?
→ Sudowrite: a “magical” writing AI that claims to solve the problem of writer’s block
→ Outranking.io: “helps content teams achieve predictable content success with AI assistance.”
→ Closer’sCopy: provides better CTAs for your copy
→ Swiftbrief: “the brief generation engine that helps you scale your content marketing efforts”
→ text.cortex: chrome extension that “makes it fast & simple to write content for your website, blog, social media, ads, and more… amazing content at a fraction of the cost of working with copywriters.”
Haven’t tried any of these yet, LMK if you do and they work out for ya. What a time to be alive.
Speaking of SEO & what a time to be alive—
Do you need help with growing your organic traffic? Schedule time to talk with us here. We’ll get your SEO set straight.
Actionable Tips From Ahrefs 👑
In these parts, we put respect on the Ahrefs name. If you’re an SEO you’re not using Ahrefs— wtf? Their expertise also comes out in blog form, ICYMI. This post on 17 Actionable Marketing Tips is full of gems… I pulled five, but you should drop in for the other 12.
Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome: Part of strategizing is choosing what not to do. The hardest part, sometimes, is not being swayed by every hot topic, every flavor of the week, every interesting offer that someone you respect vouches for. Here's the thing: "focus only on the tactics that advance you toward your #1 marketing objective." That's the deal.
Build an email list: if you're not already on this, it's never too late to start. Well, you should've started already-- but don't let that keep you from getting started. Ahrefs reminds you that "your reach can be throttled anytime" on your socials, "your account can be suspended for no reason," or even "your country could ban the platform altogether." Email may be old news, but it's part of the future, too. Get on it.
Optimize Your Google Business Profile: Select your Business Categories, add your Attributes, and make sure you're incentivizing customers to leave Reviews.
Run ads on less popular platforms: Facebook, Insta, Google Ads are obvious choices. But there's a strong case to be made for advertising on Twitter and TikTok, too. And the surprise? "Especially Quora... we've seen great results from Quora."
Get interviewed on podcasts: just dm me.
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