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Alright, on to the newsletter, and this week we’re starting with some great new jobs that were added to the board this week:

Jobs

• Social Media Manager @ Tenet — if you’re into Fintech, this seems like a fantastic opportunity to lead social for a new brand.
• Community Manager, Podcast Network @ HubSpot — manage the advertorial calendar for the business podcast arm of everyone’s favorite marketing automation platform. This one has huge career growth opportunity!

Social

• Did you know you can add a cover photo to your Instagram Reels? Here’s how.
• You might soon be able to add pinned videos to your TikTok profile, which is surprisingly not a standard feature. This is great for users because we’ll be able to better control how our content shows on our profile.
• Another week, another dumb Facebook headline. This time, the NYT revealed signed off on a project that used Facebook’s news feed to push pro-Facebook stories. This was one of a handful of efforts to improve Facebook’s image.
• Remember iOS privacy changes and how they affected Facebook ads? Seems like not even Facebook can accurately measure conversions. This report also caused their stock price to drop this week. Oof.

Advertising, Branding, and Design

• Did you know that by the time a Super Bowl commercial airs, it’s already been tested with audiences countless times? It makes sense when you consider a 30-second spot costs over $6M (that’s just for the air time). Here’s a bit of insight into the testing.
• Apple’s iOS 15 update rolled out this week. That might seem like a general technology headline, but it could mean quite a bit for advertising in the future. Apple already added an ad type for App Store search.
• Here’s an in-depth and entertaining guide to OTT advertising. If you’re wondering what OTT ads are, these days it’s basically ads on streaming services. They have a few considerable upsides that you can learn about in that handy guide.
• Seth Rogen is a savvy marketer, and this deep dive into how Houseplant operates proves it. Houseplant sells house wares and plants. Take a wild guess what type of plant, based on the company owner :)
• I really like this tweet about Lil Nas X and how marketing shouldn’t be stifled with data.
• The New York Times published an interesting article about what the internet privacy changes we’re going through actually mean for all of us as consumers of the internet.
• If you’re in advertising, you already know how important retargeting is to your overall strategy. Hopefully, you aren’t simply retargeting every visitor to your site. If you are, take a look at these 3 retargeting strategies that are more effective.
• This week, Google announced changes to the way keyword targeting words in paid search. The goal is to match ads more closely with the correct search query. Paid search folks, this is worth a read.
• E-commerce ad costs have skyrocketed since earlier this year. The culprit? Apple’s app tracking update that made it difficult to track iPhone users and get them to convert. Changes like this just show the continued importance of having a diverse bag of tactics to pull from to get traffic and customers.
• Here’s an infographic of 24 different websites and apps you can use to create your own infographics (so meta)! There a few I knew about (Canva!), but there’s a good variety if you’re looking to add to your toolset.
• And finally, the ultimate guide to LinkedIn Ads, via the good folks at Later.

SEO & Content

• Google Analytics is the standard for tracking your website’s performance, but it does have quite a learning curve. Here’s a great guide for beginners to get up to speed on the latest version, GA 4.
• Google made a big splash in the SEO world a few weeks ago when it was reported site titles were rewritten in search results pages. They are now walking that back and will serve up the title the website provides most of the time. Based on feedback, aka SEO panic and fury.
• Search Engine Journal released a State of SEO report this week featuring the results of surveys to SEO pros and what their clients want. One result that shocks not a single person: everyone wants increased traffic, brand awareness, and new customers. Because if you can’t deliver on those, you are not doing your job as an SEO. Change my mind :).

Email Marketing

• As mentioned above, iOS 15 was finally released this week and brought with it much celebrated, and simultaneously maligned, email privacy protection features. Here’s a great overview of what changed, and what do now.

You made it to the end! Thanks for reading along for another week. I’m really enjoying writing this each week and getting to know everyone that replies back. If we haven’t connected yet, reply and introduce yourself!

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Thanks so much again, and see you next week.

Forge