Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – January 2025

We hope that everyone had a good start to the year.

Even though we’re only a month in, 2025 has already brought with it some significant changes in the digital marketing and social media space, including new Google search updates, TikTok’s temporary shutdown and some controversial moderation changes over at Meta.

 

TikTok Takes A Power Nap

TikTok was a major topic of discussion this January. On the 18th of January TikTok briefly went offline in the U.S., only to be reactivated a couple of hours later following a 75-day extension given by President Trump. Whilst the app is still accessible, it remains unavailable in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the U.S. The uncertainty around the future of TikTok led to a 5,000% surge in searches looking for alternative apps and VPNs, with platforms such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and apps such as RedNote and Clapper seeing an increase in users. This news highlights the importance of businesses expanding their social media presence across different platforms.

 

 

Meta’s Free Speech Shake-Up

Meta has announced plans to remove independent fact-checkers from Facebook and Instagram in the U.S. and replace them with user-moderated community notes. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains that this change is due recent concerns over political bias and a return to free expression on his platform. This change has led many to believe it will cause an increase in misinformation and harmful content being shown to users. Fortunately, for now, the European fact-checking program remains unchanged. 

 

 

Google Glosses Up Search Results 

Google has made some recent updates to how their search results are displayed, by removing breadcrumb-style URLs and only showing the domain name on mobile search results. The aim of this change was to make search results cleaner and easier to navigate on smaller screens. Whilst this change won’t affect desktop search, many are arguing that the removal of the site navigation path makes it harder for users to understand a page’s location within a website. It is important that pages continue to offer a clear and accurate page title and meta description so that users will understand the content of the page, since these will be much more prominent on mobile search. 

 

Google’s Search Share Dips As Rivals Rise

Google’s global search market share fell below 90% during the last three months of 2024 – the lowest it’s been since 2015. This decline in users was most significant in Asia, while there was minimal change in the UK (dropping from 94.41% in August to 93.34% in December). This decline has been due to rivals such as Bing, Yandex and Yahoo gaining more users. What’s interesting is that AI search engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity weren’t included in the report (yet!). While Google remains the most popular search engine, this decline shows that there has been a decrease in users relying on Google search, and that businesses should ensure their website performance is monitored and optimised for all other major search platforms.

 

 

Over on the advertising front, Google has made several updates to their Demand Gen campaigns by offering expanded placement controls, AI-powdered creative tools and retail-focused enhancements. From March 2025, advertisers can now select ad placements across Youtube, Discover and Gmail and also serve vertical ads on YouTube Shorts. Google had also introduced AI-powered tools such as automated video shortening and an improved ad creation workflow. This update helps provide advertisers with more control and creative capabilities.

Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – December 2024

As 2024 comes to a close, December has delivered some significant developments in the digital marketing space. These include search updates from Google and Microsoft, and some notable controversies surrounding TikTok.

 

Google’s Christmas Gift: Another Core Update

The main news this December is that Google rolled out its fourth core update of the year, following on the heels of the previous November update. This new update has been reported as being more volatile than the previous November update, with some websites seeing major fluctuations in their search positions. Early results show that news, arts and entertainment websites have been predominantly affected. Whilst it is still unclear what impact this update will have, Mackerel Media are able to assist clients with identifying any issues and opportunities to optimise the performance of their domain.

 

As an extra December surprise, Google rolled out their December Spam update. This new update helps to detect any search spam, which are low quality, deceptive pages which can often harm or mislead users when visited. This new update will address the removal of parasite SEO content, which is when publishers create low-quality content on third-party domains to manipulate their search rankings.

 

 

Track Data Around the Clock

Google has made some significant changes to their Search Console interface, including the new addition of a 24-hour data performance filter. This feature allows users to see the most recent data and provides hourly data breakdowns across Search, News reports, and Discover. This is especially useful for users to track recent performance changes such as during peak sale periods or to monitor the launch of new pages and services. 

 

To round off the year, Google published their Year in Search 2024 report which highlights the most popular search trends in 2024 across different industries. It was the U.S. presidential election that dominated the news and people category, whilst the most searched movies were Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine and Saltburn. Some of the more surprising results were ‘Mob wife aesthetic’ being the most popular global lifestyle search term, and over in the UK, Oasis hold the top spot as the most searched artist/band.

 

TikTok Gets A Global Time-Out

There’s also been drama around TikTok. The European Commission has opened formal proceedings against TikTok due to allegations of the app breaching EU laws by enabling foreign interference in Romania’s presidential elections. If this is to be proven, it means there could be significant penalties for the platform and its use in Poland. The United States is also coming close to banning TikTok. This is due to a law mandating that its parent company ByteDance divest ownership of the platform. If this isn’t resolved TikTok faces the risk of a complete United States ban starting January 19, 2025. This is not the first time a ban has been put in place, as India fully banned TikTok in 2020, which only slightly slowed its growth. This means that anyone using TikTok in the USA may need to look for alternative advertisement options should the ban be put in place.

 

 

Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – November 2024

This November, the search and digital marketing world has been dominated by Google, with new ranking and search updates, ad enhancements and ongoing legal challenges around its Chrome browser.

 

Google’s in Hot Water

The latest news is that the U.S. Department of Justice has proposed that Google may have to sell their Chrome browser and potentially its Android operating system due to antitrust concerns and their alleged search monopoly. A court ruling found that Google maintained its online search dominance through restrictive agreements and ensuring that Google is the default search for third party developers. Google has called this proposal a “radical interventionist agenda” which they plan to appeal. A hearing is planned for April next year.

 

On November 11th, Google launched its latest core algorithm update. This update aims to improve search results by prioritising content which is useful to users, rather than content designed to rank well. Many websites which were negatively impacted by the Helpful Content Update (HCU) back in September 2023, especially review sites and how-to sites, are still in the process of recovering. Google has cautioned there is no guarantee that this new update will help restore previous rankings and stresses the importance of writing valuable, user-focused content.

 

 

AI Goes Shopping!

Google has introduced new AI-powered features to search, including a new inventory feature in Google Maps which displays product inventories for local stores. This makes it easier for users to check the availability of items before visiting. They have also updated Google Lens to include price comparisons for product searches. Both of these new features will affect purchasing decisions and could lead to increased competition among online retailers.

 

Google ads has been updated to track Whatsapp started conversations, meaning that advertisers can track how many message-based ad interactions they receive. For performance Max campaigns, Google has introduced new brand guidelines, allowing users to customise elements of their campaign such as business names, logos, colours and fonts so that they better align with their existing brand identity. This new feature helps to ensure that a company’s branding is consistent across all of Google’s ad placements, including YouTube and display networks.

 

 

YouTube’s New Toolkit

Finally, YouTube has improved its platform with new creator tools and a content disclosure system. This recent update includes features such as allowing creators to produce YouTube Shorts up to three minutes long, a DreamScreen tool for generating images and a new content disclosure system which can authenticate videos filmed with compatible devices for added transparency. These updates aim to provide content creators with greater flexibility and build trust with audiences.

 

Mackerel Media Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – October 2024

Welcome to our October Search and Digital Marketing roundup, where we highlight the recent developments currently shaping search and digital marketing strategies. This month has brought with it some important SEO updates, such as Google and Bing rolling out changes to their search experience, whilst social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn are changing the way that users are engaging with them.

 

Bing Things Up A Notch

At the start of the month, Microsoft announced the roll out of generative search results on Bing. This new expansion is designed to better address informational queries, and offers more in-depth answers with clear, easy to follow numbered links. Even with this development, Google still holds a dominant 90% share of the search market and so it may take time before Bing emerges as a significant competitor in the search landscape.

 

 

Google Fights Back

Not to be outdone, Google has also made some changes to their own generative search this month. On the 28th of October, Google announced it is rolling out AI search in more than 100 countries. This new expansion aims to reach more than 1 billion global users every month, and includes language support across all countries so that users can see AI overviews in their preferred language.

Google has been making changes to their search results and overall user experience by removing the Sitelinks Search Box. This feature allowed users to search within a website in real time directly from Google search, however usage of this function has dropped over time, and to simplify their search results Google will discontinue the feature from November 21st 2025.

 

LinkedIn Levels Up 

Meanwhile, LinkedIn has improved its marketing capabilities with a new feature which allows businesses to boost posts for lead generation. This update uses LinkedIn’s first-party data to target potential leads, so that businesses can extend their reach beyond their existing page followers. This new feature allows businesses to create lead capture forms, set campaign parameters and launch targeted campaigns directly from their LinkedIn Page.

 

 

Ticking All the Smart Boxes

Over in the world of Social Media, TikTok has launched Smart+, an AI-driven advertising solution that automates campaign management across targeting, bidding and creative elements. This new ad platform aims to deliver the best ad to the best audience for enhanced performance. Advertisers simply have to enter their assets, budget, and targeting goals and Smart+ handles the optimisation process using TikTok Symphony’s AI capabilities. Smart+ can be accessed through TikTok Ads Manager, and when running will adjust creative elements such as videos, text and call-to-action buttons, while automatically reallocating budgets towards the best-performing content. 

 

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, confirmed that Instant adjusts the quality of videos based on their engagement, and that popular videos are presented to users in higher quality, whilst less popular videos are shown in lower quality. This feature is meant to save on video encoding and storage, however Instagram have stated that the quality difference is minimal and that ultimately the video content matters more than the resolution. This announcement has upset some creators who argue that it creates an unfair advantage for established accounts and makes it harder for new and emerging content creators to gain visibility and grow their audience.

 

From Chatting to Finding

Finally, on October 31st, OpenAI announced the launch of their built-in ChatGPT search functionality for paid subscribers. This new feature means that ChatGPT can now dynamically search the internet and provide users with relevant text, sources and up-to-date information all within the ChatGPT interface. This advancement could lead many users away from Google since there are no ads being shown and ChatGPT incorporates videos alongside their text. OpenAI plans to expand this functionality over to free, enterprise and education users in the upcoming weeks.

 

Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – September 2024

As the seasons start to change, so too do the latest trends and developments in the SEO and social media landscape. At the start of the month, Google reported that their August 2024 core update has now completed rolling out. As reported in our August SEO update, the focus of this update was to optimise search results to serve up the most useful content to users, rather than over-optimised content that only performs well on search.

 

Google Search Goes AI

It’s not just website owners that are impacted, Google themselves have said that their own AI overviews have been affected by this core update. As AI overviews are gradually being introduced throughout Google search, ensuring that your content offers valuable information, is easily readable and that it contains the appropriate structured data is more important now than ever. 

 

Google Says ‘Cache’ You Later!

Outside of their core update rollout, Google has now officially retired their cache feature. Google originally planned on removing the cached link of pages back in February 2024, however it took them 9 months to action this (no doubt tied up with their recent EU antitrust fines which they’ve had overturned). Fortunately, and no doubt due to the mass outcry from users, they have added a new feature where you can see previous versions of a website in the Internet Archives wayback machine. This change shows a significant change in Google now relying on external websites, rather than trying to maintain their own cached versions all under the Google umbrella.

 

There have been a few updates over at Meta. The latest development is that Meta are implementing new data restrictions in their Business tools, including restricting custom URL parameters and ads using highly targeted UTMs. Going forward, it would be wise to keep an eye out on your Meta campaigns to check if any have been paused, and update any custom audience rules that use existing rules which include restricted data to prevent any disruption.

 

Google Assists in Scoring Black Friday Deals

With Black Friday fast approaching (29th of November in case you’re wondering!) Google has lent a helping hand by adding support for sale pricing on Google Merchant product listings. This means that you can now add a sale price next to your product listings, whilst listing the full original price to highlight potential savings and hopefully boost conversions.

 

Speaking of Black Friday, here at Mackerel HQ we are working on a Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotion playbook, full of tips and strategies to optimise your campaigns and help improve your reach and maximise conversions. This playbook will feature ideas for Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest and other sources of promotion. Once ready, we will share this playbook with all our clients. Watch this space…

Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – August 2024

There have been quite a few notable developments in the digital space this August. One major update is that Google has rolled out its August 2024 core update. This recent update to their search algorithm aims to boost the visibility of high-quality content, whilst lowering the visibility of low value, overly SEO-heavy content. This update continues Google’s focus on improving the quality of search results by showing content that users find useful and engage with, rather than content that is written solely for search performance and ranking. (NB: If you would like to discuss how your site might have been impacted by these recent updates, you can get in touch with us at hello@mackerelmedia.co.uk.)

 

Google Breaks Antitrust Laws

It’s not been a great month for Google however… A federal judge has ruled that Google violated U.S. antitrust laws by maintaining a monopoly in the search and advertising markets. This ruling found that Google tried to sustain its dominance in general search services and text advertising. The outcome of this ruling could lead to future restrictions or even a breakup of Google’s search business. Whilst Google plans to appeal the decision, the success of this case could lead to further trials against Google and other major tech companies.

On the Facebook front, Meta announced that they will be introducing a new range of ad optimisation and integration options. One upcoming feature called ‘Conversion Value Rules’ will allow businesses to define higher bids for audiences they value more (or less). This means that users will no longer have to manually segment these audiences into a new, separate campaign. Meta is also planning on enabling businesses to integrate their analytics data directly into Meta. This data integration should make it easier to refine your audience targeting and gain a clearer insight on overall campaign performance.

TikTok and Amazon Team Up 

It was reported this month that TikTok has partnered with Amazon, allowing users to buy products from Amazon directly within the TikTok app. Products will show real-time pricing, along with extra details such as delivery details and Prime eligibility. This move continues Amazon’s integration into social media, having now partnered with Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. This is good news for companies that already sell on Amazon as this partnership could lead to an increase in brand visibility and sales. This new integration helps to remove the extra step of a user navigating to Amazon separately, potentially improving conversion rates.

 

 

YouTube and Shopify Join Forces

Not to be outdone by the above, Youtube is also launching a new integration with Shopify, which means that creators can tag products in their YouTube videos, Shorts, and live streams. This new integration will allow viewers to order the products being featured whilst continuing to watch the video.

 

 

Finally, Instagram has announced that you can now post a carousel on the platform with up to 20 pictures or videos. Instagram previously only allowed a maximum of 10 photos or videos. This is a great new addition to their platform that will benefit brands who use carousels as part of their social media strategy.