Once again, Fusion Unlimited is proud to announce our position as a Google Premier Partner, for the seventh year running. A demonstration of our industry-leading advertising techniques and our consistent delivery of both client and agency growth, our status as Google Premier Partner puts us within the top 3% of marketing agencies in the UK.

How our clients benefit from our partnership status

Our status as Google Premier Partner gives us the opportunity to pass invaluable information and insight to our clients and puts us in the best position to traverse the coming year. 

Ahead-of-the-curve insights

Access to insight briefings means that we get the latest news from Google on market movement, industry trends, and consumer behaviours and interests. For our clients, this means we have information to help create winning strategies ahead of the competition.

Invites to executive events for our staff enable us to constantly learn directly from Google and other leading industry bodies, gaining knowledge that we can pass on to our clients.

Support from our Google account managers

Our Google Premier Partnership grants us access to experts within Google, including:

• Some dedicated account managers for our clients.
• Our own agency manager.

Consequently, help is always on hand when needed. We find that having access to experts can really make the difference when needing support on the most complex, perhaps even platform-specific challenges that may not actually have a clear answer available yet in market.

Feeling bold

Through our partner status, we have managed to learn, adopt, and implement new technology across client accounts time and time again. One great example of this is Performance Max campaigns, which we helped some of the biggest brands in the UK dive into bravely – and they’re now sitting on a year’s worth of learnings, insights, and profits to help steer future decision-making. We help brands remain forward-facing, even in the face of new challenges.

If you would like to learn more about how Fusion Unlimited can support your brand, get in touch.

Google Analytics 4, otherwise known as GA4, is the next-generation measurement solution set to replace Universal Analytics this year. This powerful tool collects both website and app event-based data, including traffic and engagement, to track user behaviour, gain insights into customer journeys, and measure how people interact with your website.

According to BusinessDIT, approximately 28.1 million websites currently use Google Analytics, so this change will impact many businesses. There are two key challenges:

1. Implementing GA4 properly so that it is recording data in full, and setting up event tracking.
2. Understanding the new GA4 metrics, knowing how to navigate the platform, and actioning the new insights the platform can unlock for you.

If you currently rely on Universal Analytics to measure your website’s performance and haven’t yet made the switch, it’s essential that you set up GA4 now.

WHEN IS THE DEADLINE?

Universal Analytics will stop collecting data from the 1st of July 2023. Considering Universal Analytics 360 was only introduced relatively recently, Google has extended the deadline for users of UA 360 to 30th June 2024.

After this deadline, the platform should still be accessible for a while to review historical data, however comparing data sets may be tricky – especially given how metrics have changed.

WHY SHOULD I SET UP GA4 NOW?

1. Google will make you switch, either way

Google has sent out an email explaining that if you do not make the switch to GA4, a property will be configured for you starting in March. You can see this email below:

The email shows that Google will configure your property with a ‘few basic settings’, meaning you could find yourself with an account that is not tailored to your business’ needs. Taking the time to make the switch now, means you’ll have an analytics platform that is more useful in the long term. You should migrate goals, ads, users and audiences to make the most of GA4.

2. Maximise historical data

Universal Analytics and GA4 use different data collection models, meaning that you cannot move your historical data over to GA4. Because of this, ensuring you have the new Google Analytics platform set up as soon as possible, means you can start collecting data to track performance over time. You will benefit from having data available to compare month-on-month, and year-on-year performance figures.

As Google states, “The earlier you migrate, the more historical data and insights you will have in Google Analytics 4”. You will, however, be able to access historical data on Universal Analytics for at least six months after it ceases to collect new data. 

It is recommended that you export your historical data when possible, which Google says can be done in several different ways:

• Export individual reports, which can be saved in different formats including CSV, PDF, Excel, and more.
• The Google Analytics Reporting API can be used to export data.
• Google Analytics 360 users can export to BigQuery.

As we approach the end date for Universal Analytics, Google is set to offer more guidance on exporting this data.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?

If you’re currently still using Universal Analytics, it’s time to make the move over to GA4 as soon as possible to start collecting important performance data. To do this, Google has provided a lot of information on its support forum to help with the setup and use of the tool. You can read more about making the switch on their website, or follow one of their GA4 video tutorials.

Opinions of GA4 have been conflicted, with some users finding the new tool difficult to wrap their heads around. 

https://twitter.com/StoriesWithGill/status/1407313217538478083?s=20&t=UEUoJ_jXMs1I4Tozu80o5Q

However, Google Analytics 4 is here to stay, so it’s important to embrace it and be prepared for the change. At Fusion Unlimited, our teams have already undertaken specialist GA4 training and helped some of the biggest brands in the country transition to this new analytics platform seamlessly.

If you’d like support in setting up GA4, don’t hesitate to get in contact with Fusion Unlimited – a leading performance marketing agency in Leeds.

For many businesses, deploying a recession-proof digital strategy is an integral part of 2023’s marketing activity. And one crucial lens to view this through is the eyes of your target audiences.

• Have you identified your least price-sensitive audience segment?
• Does your pre-existing segmentation make sense?

These are critical questions for brands to ask themselves as we progress through Q1. One good example of a desirable audience segment for many brands in the current climate is the 50+ market of homeowners who are more resistant to inflation. How, then, can we target this segment?

Our six targeting tips for 2023

1. Utilise first-party data

As first-party data is information you collect about your customers and site/app visitors, its use can seriously impact a channel’s performance. By ensuring the existing proprietary knowledge in your business is fed into advertising platforms and layered into campaign targeting, brands can make efficiencies and gain a competitive advantage. We could write an entire blog purely about first-party data strategies (adds topic to blog calendar) however the key principles to follow are;

Don’t forget your CRM! This data is rich and valuable; initially test using a few one-off uploads, but then automation tools like Zapier can seamlessly integrate data with your platform of choice.

Build a rich set of site remarketing lists in analytics platforms/advertising platforms, not just based on converters but also people who have shown interest (e.g., spent lengthy time on site), or completed micro conversions.

Be policy compliant, by having a process to remove people off lists if they opt out, and ensuring cookie policies are all in line, to name just a few.

2. Review your audience/targeting strategies

Let performance data and testing of new audiences drive your targeting strategy. These strategies need to evolve with your audiences. For example, it may be the case that since COVID, the audiences most receptive to your offering have shifted a little, or that new audiences have emerged that you may not yet be fully accessing. Reviewing your keywords, affinity audiences, demographics, and first-party list strategy regularly, in tandem with making use of machine learning signals, will enable you to do this in a smart manner.

3. Challenge your pre-conceived ideas

Continuously evaluate what your target audience responds to. Previous work done to map out consumer interests could have been made redundant by cost-of-living trends, and Performance Max may hold the keys to identifying new and current audiences. Test new messaging, review the data, and allow it to help drive strategy.

4. Think bigger than bottom-of-the-funnel marketing

Do this within your comfort zone initially; only live on one channel? Broaden out the targeting so you can find the sweet spot for upper-funnel audiences or searches. Already maxed that channel out? Use those audiences on multi-channel campaigns or display/video targeting.

Doing this in tandem with smart bidding and the attribution modeling available in GA4 will ensure each is valued correctly, and you can nurture potential customers across their journey while working towards your KPIs.

5. Start your long-term discovery project now

Ensure GA4 is fully set up now, so you are prepared for the July deadline and already have data tracking/learning. This will then ensure you are partially ready for your peak season. The other step is to get your campaign learnings in now; start testing Performance Max if you haven’t already, build and refine your assets, adapt your targeting, etc.

6. Don’t disregard Bing

Bing’s demographic is typically older and could yield untapped potential for many brands. As the smaller search engine to Google’s Goliath, Microsoft Ads has made it easy to run activity on Bing. After getting tracking set up, a few mouse clicks is all that’s needed to import Google Ads structure into the account. Just make sure to set aside some optimisation time, as it will perform differently.

Moving forward

As we move further through 2023, getting a firm grasp on exactly what your audience really looks like is going to help your brand to really steel itself against any of the turbulences the future might have in store. Not only does it mean that your marketing spend puts messaging in front of the right eyes, also that you can better calculate which audiences to invest in based on ROIs.

Better targeting means that your brand gets seen by the right people, and that your customers see what’s really of value to them.

If you are unsure where to start with audience segmentation and are looking for support in building a robust marketing strategy fit for a new year with new challenges, then get in touch with the Fusion Unlimited team to discuss how we can support you.

As quickly as it came around, January is just about in the rear-view mirror; and with it, a busy month in the SEO-sphere. “What’s happened?” I hear you ask. Allow me to explain…

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

In the spirit of the new year, Google is sticking to the “new year, new me” mantra by implementing a few new changes to kick off 2023. An update has been added to the article structured data help document, removing the character limit for headlines.

Previously the document stated “The title of the article. The value should not exceed 110 characters.” The updated document now reads “The title of the article. Consider using a concise title, as long titles may be truncated on some devices.”

This means that headlines no longer have to adhere to the strict 110-character regime, and you will no longer receive errors regarding headlines being too long. However, Google wants you to consider how headlines will appear across devices. So while there are extra characters, it’s still best practice to keep them concise.

Products Making A Big Impression

An update to Google Search Console’s performance report this month may see an increase in impressions and clicks for products. The update came on the 6th of January to report on product results, even without structured data. 

Googles say on the matter:

“Sites may see an increase in impressions and clicks for Product results search appearance type on their site. This is because Google now includes products found only in page content, without associated Product structured data.”

Picture Perfect 

Google has updated two additional help documents this month; both the Get On Discover documentation and the image SEO best practices document received little tweaks.

The Get On Discover documentation received a new line to the feed guidelines for Google Discover’s Follow feature: “The most important content for the Follow feature is your feed <title> element and your per item <link> elements. Make sure your feed includes these elements.”

For those looking to succeed in Chrome’s follow feature, including the <title> element and the <link> elements in your RSS feed is best practice.

The image SEO best practices document also received an incremental tweak this month with Google clarifying that they parse <img> elements even when they’re enclosed in other elements when indexing images.

Previously the document stated: “Google parses the HTML of your pages to index images, but doesn’t index CSS images.” The document now reads:

“Using semantic HTML markup helps crawlers find and process images. Google parses the HTML <img> elements (even when they’re enclosed in other elements such as <picture> elements) in your pages to index images, but doesn’t index CSS images.”

When It Leaks It Pours

A Yandex source code repository has allegedly been leaked by a former employee. The leak contained over 1,900 factors used for ranking websites in search results. And whilst Google may not use the factors as Yandex (even if they did they may not carry the same amount of weight) the document is an interesting read for those who want to better understand how search engines work.

Many of the factors were as expected (PageRank, text relevancy, content age, etc). However, some were pretty interesting – notably number of unique visitors, percent of organic traffic, and average domain ranking across queries.

A handy tool has been launched to search the various ranking factors by Rob Ousbey which can be found here.

Return of The King

Don’t call it a comeback! Yahoo has been sending signals into the universe suggesting that it’s back in the search game. 

The company recently posted a job listing for a “Principal Product Manager, Yahoo Search” *raised eyebrow emoji*. The job listing expresses that the gang over at Yahoo is looking for “folks that are interested in pushing beyond the status quo to change the way folks interact and use search.”

If that wasn’t enough to cement Yahoo Search raising from the dead like The Undertaker, they also reactivated their Twitter account which has been busy posting teasers: 

Just popping in to remind everyone that we did search before it was cool.

BRB making it cool again.

— Yahoo Search (@YahooSearch) January 20, 2023

Your last Yahoo Search. No cheating.

— Yahoo Search (@YahooSearch) January 27, 2023

To Disavow or Not To Disavow

Google’s John Mueller came out guns blazing on Twitter, taking aim at marketing agencies that sell link-building and disavow link services. In a reply to a tweet regarding agencies that offer these services, John Mueller said:

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1620447184662704130?s=20&t=W9zuK1tRtOxt9J6rMs2xZg

Mueller wasn’t finished there. He goes on to suggest that disavowing links is a waste of time and that site owners should be focusing on practices that “build up your site” instead:

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1620447706610290694?s=20&t=uyvLi8ffxMG6z-SIW5Uqhg

Rolling to A Stop

Two of Google’s December updates have finally fully rolled out this month. 

The helpful content update launched on the 6th of December and was designed to punish those webpages with low-quality content with no real informational merit. The helpful content update was built upon the initial version of the system which launched in August 2022, however this new update expands across languages globally rather than just English.

Also taking a wrap is the December 2022 link spam update which was launched on the 14th of December. The update aimed to “neutralize the impact of unnatural links on search results” by harnessing the power of SpamBrain: Google’s AI-based spam-prevention system. If you saw a decline in rankings in this time then it’s time to dust off the link-building handbook and get cracking on securing some natural links that adhere to the webmaster guidelines.

If you’ve been affected by these recent updates or need some help putting the right SEO practices in place, we’re always on hand help.