Welcome to our July Marketing Roundup! As we reach the height of summer, the marketing world is heating up with exciting innovations and updates. From game-changing features in Google Analytics to the latest trends shaping digital campaigns, we’ve got a lot to cover. So, let’s dive right in!
Universal Analytics Sunset
July 1st saw the sunset on the beloved Universal Analytics platform. The Universal Analytics platform has now completely been removed from the Analytics dashboard, and you can no longer access any historical data, unless you were prepared and downloaded it beforehand.
Worried that you didn’t download your UA data in time? It’s not that much of a big deal, and it certainly won’t impact your website outside of being able to measure performance over previous years. Going forward, just ensure you have Google Analytics 4 set up properly, and ensure your key conversion events (sales, calls, form submissions etc), are set up correctly.
New Google Analytics 4 Features
At the very end of June, following the turn-off of Universal Analytics, Google announced a heap of new features are going to be introduced to the Google Analytics 4 platform over the coming months. So, what should you look out for?
- Third-Party Ad Data Integration: Users can now import advertising data from Pinterest and Reddit into GA4, which will be included in the cross-channel performance report.
- Cross-Channel Budgeting: A beta cross-channel budgeting feature will include a projections report for tracking media pacing and projected performance against set targets across multiple channels.
- Campaign Manager 360 Integration: GA4 will begin importing aggregated impressions from linked Campaign Manager 360 accounts.
- AI Pattern Detection: GA4 will introduce an AI engine designed to detect patterns in various combinations of dimensions and metrics, which will make the platform more helpful to users, as it will assist with data storytelling.
- Cookieless Measurement: Later this year, GA4 will support some Chrome Privacy Sandbox APIs to maintain audience reach and measurement capabilities without relying on third-party cookies.
Google Search Console Bug
At the beginning of this month, Google Search Console users experienced a lack of new data in their Performance Reporting dashboard for over 83 hours! This left many SEOs and business owners frustrated, with some even taking to X/Twitter to express their frustrations.
This doesn’t happen often with Google products, but when it does, it can be downright annoying, or sometimes even slightly worrying, depending on how much you rely on the tool. Search Engine Journal quite rightly said “This could potentially lead to missed opportunities to identify sudden changes in search performance or promptly address any negative trends.”
So, what can you use instead next time there’s an outage? There are plenty of analytics tools available on the market today, so instead you could use one of the following options to track your website performance:
- Google Analytics
- Semrush
- Moz Pro
- Ahrefs
- Bing Webmaster Tools
Google Ads Enabling Broad Match By Default For New Search Campaigns
If you aren’t already familiar with what a “Broad Match” campaign is, Google defines it as “Broad match is the default match type that all your keywords are assigned. This helps your ads reach a wider audience without requiring you to build an extensive keyword list.”
Whilst it may sound like a good thing, Broad Match isn’t always the best campaign choice, particularly if your PPC budget is limited, as you may end up appearing for searches not entirely relevant to what you do.
You can turn off the automatic Broad Match campaign setting by heading into the settings, find “Broad Match Keywords” and select “off” (make sure you save changes!). Your campaign will now use the match type applied at the keyword level.
Tools We’ve Loved in June
Here are some of the best tools that our team has loved in June and beyond:
UpTime Robot
It’s happened to the best of us… you go to check Analytics on a Monday morning only to realise no sales have been made over the weekend. After looking into it further – the website has been down for 3 days! A client’s worst nightmare… this is where UpTime Robot comes in!
UpTime Robot is one of the first bits of tracking software that we install for our client’s websites. It checks every few minutes for errors or outages and emails you as soon as a website goes down. Plus, it’s FREE and it can even give you insight into the potential cause, so that you can work with developers to get it fixed as soon as possible!
Answer Socrates
Answer Socrates is a free tool that we use when writing landing pages or blogs in order to generate FAQ prompts that a user will actually find helpful. You simply pop in your target keyword, and it will return with a list of questions that users search relating to your keyword, broken down into clear ‘how’, ‘what’, and ‘why’ sections.
We’ve found Answer Socrates to be an upgraded version of Answer The Public, as it doesn’t have any usage limits, and offers a better website experience.
Qwoted
Qwoted is an excellent tool that we use when doing PR for clients. It allows you to set up ‘expert’ profiles for a person, which includes:
- A headshot
- Job tile
- Contact details
- Industry experience
- Professional credentials
- Publications where they’ve previously been published
You can then use the platform (in combination with your expert profiles), to connect to journalists and collaborate on stories. Once you have a profile set up, you’ll receive notifications of media opportunities that align with your expertise, allowing you to respond to journalist queries efficiently.
Dates For Your Marketing Diary
Having a successful marketing strategy requires thinking ahead, and knowing what opportunities are around the corner is a great way to align your content strategy with your audience. Whether it’s National Cocktail Day or Employee Appreciation Week, there are always dates that your business can leverage for engagement. Here are some of the key dates that you should look out for in August:
- 8th August – Cycle To Work Day
- 8th August – International Cat Day (a favourite for the Wildcat Digital team!)
- 9th August – International Beer Day
- 11th August – National Friendship Day
- 12th August – International Youth Day
- 13th August – National Prosecco Day
- 19th August – World Humanitarian Day
- 26th August – National Dog Day
Keep Up To Date With All Things SEO & Marketing With Wildcat Digital
Here at Wildcat, we keep our fingers on the pulse of modern digital marketing, updating our strategies as the landscape changes to keep our clients, and you, ahead of the game. Don’t forget to check in each month for the latest in SEO, PPC, and everything in between. In case you missed it, here is June’s Digital Roundup.
Looking to punch above your weight online? Enquire about our tailored SEO, PPC and Paid Social services.
Jasmine Savery
SEO Account Manager
