Weekly Marketing Insights and News Digest (14-20 September)

Are you curious about the impact of keywords on your top-level domains? How to improve your e-mail marketing strategy? A few changes to the social networks, the drama around TikTok, marketers’ attitude towards the updates on IOS 14, and much more from the world of digital marketing in our new episode of the RGray Weekly Marketing Insights and News Digest.

• China claimed that it would rather see TikTok U.S. close than a forced sale. Last month, Trump released two executive orders forcing ByteDance to sell the U.S. properties of TikTok or risk being banned in the country where the app is hugely popular with youths. See more details in our article below.
• Even though TikTok is in the center of attention these days, because of all the drama thriving around it, other social networks are implementing some new changes that are sound as new advertising opportunities. Want to know more about it? Check out our digest. 
• Want to know whether domain-specific keywords are important? The keywords in top domains are not going to help you rank higher and there is no bonus from including a keyword in your top-level domain. Learn more about the topic in our article.
• The IOS 14 update has troubled advertisers. If you wonder why, here’s the deal: a new privacy feature in IOS 14 will ask users to opt-in on their phone to track individual applications. Right now, tracking is automatically activated. Read about the apps’ reaction to the update in our article.
• Do you know how to influence the email campaign’s success rate? Are you interested in improving your email marketing strategy? Check out an infographic with some tips for success prepared by our team.

1.Your obligatory TikTok drama update

Recently, there is a lot of drama going on around the TikTok app, and we are going to share several updates on the application’s future path.

So, what’s going on? Let’s take a look at the quick summary:

• Today, ByteDance informed us that they will not sell the US operations of TikTok to Microsoft. They are sure that their plan will maintain national security interests, while would have been good for TikTok users. To do this, they must implement major improvements to ensure that the service meets the highest standards in terms of security, privacy, online security, and combating misinformation.
• Chinese officials would prefer to see TikTok shut down in the United States, rather than being sold to an American company. Last month, Trump released two executive orders forcing ByteDance to sell the U.S. properties of TikTok or risk being banned in the country where the app is hugely popular with youths. U.S. officials have questioned the security and privacy of the app, implying that user information might be exchanged with Beijing. Chinese officials claim that a sale to the United States will make China appear weak, as tensions between the two countries are already high.
• As to various sources familiar with the process, Oracle has leapfrogged Microsoft as the most probable buyer of TikTok’s US operations. But the situation remains very complex, not to mention the risk of no deal at all.

 2. Ready, set, advertise!

Even though TikTok pushed towards an Oracle offer on Monday and took all the attention recently, all the other platforms are not left unnoticed. A few changes in different social networks were marked by the advertisers as new opportunities.

Let’s check them out:

• By a gigantic demand, captions are offered to IGTV videos on Instagram. You should just go to the settings and switch the captions on (under the video.) This can’t be classified as a new real advertising opportunity, but it is something that many users asked for.

• Snap is experimenting with the introduction of ads to Minis, the series of lightweight third-party developer apps. Minis are developed using HTML 5 and sit within the Snapchat app chat area. A version of the Headspace meditation app, Atom’s movie tickets Mini and Tembo, a research app, are the six Minis that currently exist. Snap states that live experiments with advertisers have not yet started.

• For certain viewers, Twitch has begun to automatically run advertisements in the middle of streams. Streamers are not allowed to choose when the ad will be displayed. Ads will run across affiliate channels and partner channels. For every ad that runs, creators will get paid. You would not see these advertisements if you pay to subscribe to a channel.

The yesterday list of the updates turned out to be very helpful and exciting, with no new terms or tactics to pick up!

3. Are domain-specific keywords important?

Want to know whether there is any bonus from including a keyword in your top-level domain?

Unfortunately, the answer is no!

• The keywords in the top domains are not going to help you rank higher. Just to clarify: a top-level domain is a part in your domain that comes after the ‘dot’. For instance: .com, .org, .uk, .rgray (wouldn’t that be cool), and so on. What Google stats is, that using .jobs as your TLD will have no influence on your rank for job-related searches.
• However, there are some restrictions. The algorithm for Google is extremely smart, and for instance, the Netherlands and Ukraine are handled differently by country-related TLDs such as .nl or .ua. Google understands that these are country-specific and will display outcomes accordingly.

But, keywords in your domain, that are used at the part, which comes before the TLD, can cause an effect on the SEO. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, though – but it can be a factor, particularly in low-competition SERPs.

4. How bad is iOS 14 going to be for marketers?

Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, said the company would push back on a proposed update to Apple’s iPhone operating system that would affect how users are monitored by it and other smartphone advertisers.

The company will push back on a proposed update to Apple’s iPhone operating system, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said. Apple regulates the only way apps can be used on around 1 billion computers,” I don’t think we have much leverage over Apple. In iOS 14, the change affecting Apple’s advertiser identifier, or IDFA, was previously planned as a feature. Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, said that Apple last week it was delaying the launch until 2021 “to allow developers time to make required adjustments,” Apple said that when opening an app, iPhone users would be given the option to block monitoring.

But Facebook and Instagram don’t just give up. If iOS 14 hurts advertisers, it hurts Facebook-that ‘s why the company claims they’re working on solutions that clarify what monitoring means and allow users to opt-in.

• Silver lining: up to 60 percent of users will be fine if they are opt-in. A survey conducted by Search Engine Land and Suzy found that when using apps, about 60 percent of individuals would be able to be monitored. Sounds promising.

5. 10 Dos and Don’ts for a Successful Email Marketing Campaign [Infographic]

Want to know how to strengthen your email marketing strategy? Are you curious about how to enhance the email campaign’s success rate?

Our team prepared an infographic with some tips for success.

Take a look at the brief of the stats used to make their case:

• Email segmentation increases open rate by 203%
• The overall data health of 60% of companies are unreliable
• Automated emails generate 320% more revenue
• 53% of emails are opened only on mobile devices
• Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates
• Emails with a single CTA increased clicks by 371%

See the infographic for more information.