The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 AI OVERVIEWS KILLING CLICKS

F U “AI Overview”: A new study shows that Google's AI Overviews (AIOs) are tanking click-through rates for both organic and paid search results. But there's a catch: when clients show up in AIO, both organic and paid click-through rates increase. more

• Still, queries with AIOs generally had lower CTR from the start, possibly due to Zero-Click searches.

• For queries without AIOs, organic CTR actually improved year-over-year, suggesting there’s still potential for organic traffic when AIOs are absent.

• But when AIOs are present, organic CTR plummets from 1.5% to 0.6%, showing how they can overshadow organic results.

🥈 ADS ARE COMING FOR GEMINI

Google's AI won't stay ad-free forever: CEO Sundar Pichai said during Alphabet’s investor call yesterday that the company has “very good ideas” for incorporating ads into Gemini down the road. He added, however, that for this year, the focus will be on monetizing through subscriptions. more

• Users can currently access Gemini for free or pay for a subscription to unlock advanced features.

• While Google is prioritizing subscriptions for now, ads seem like they’re in the pipeline for the future.

🥉 GOOGLE’S AD GROWTH SLOWS

Google might need those AI ad dollars sooner than expected: The company's ad revenue growth is slowing. In Q4 2024, ad revenue increased 10.5% year-over-year to $72.45 billion, but still missed analyst expectations. more

• YouTube's ad revenue was up 14%, totaling $10.47 billion, though growth showed signs of slowing.

• Search and other, Google's largest segment, increased 12.5% to $54 billion, showing a smaller slowdown.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• 🎶 Seasons change and Snap puts ads in chat:
  Oreo is promoting its Post Malone cookie collab with a Snapchat campaign using its new in-chat ad format, Sponsored Snap, which delivers full-screen vertical videos directly into users’ chat inboxes — one of the app’s most viewed sections. The campaign launches today. more

• Criteo's latest earnings call highlighted the company's shift away from planning around the deprecation of third-party cookies. Despite a slight revenue decline, retail media grew 25% in 2024. The company forecasts mid-single-digit growth, continuing its focus on becoming a commerce media platform. more

  • 🎯 Criteo, a pioneer in ad retargeting with third-party cookies, is seen as a bellwether for the industry's shift as targeting tools lose relevance due to global privacy concerns.

• LinkedIn’s new guide looks at how B2B marketers are evolving their measurement strategies to better track the impact of their spend. It covers different tracking options, with expert tips on the pros and cons of each, along with advice for applying these strategies. more

Search & GBP 🔍

• Linking a specific URL in your Google My Business listing can affect local rankings. Sterling Sky tested changing a law firm’s URL from its homepage to the company's niche bus accident page and saw improved ranking due to the page's targeted content. more

  • 🎯 While linking to a homepage is ideal for most businesses, the study suggests using a niche URL for certain businesses with multiple listings can boost rankings.

• 💬 Texting made business-friendly: Google Business Profile has added a new feature that lets businesses integrate WhatsApp and text messaging for direct customer communication. The integration can help businesses manage inquiries, share information, handle bookings, and provide customer support. more

  • Business owners can set it up by heading to their profile and selecting chat options.

Social Media 📱

• 🤔 Job hunting? Think outside the keyword box: LinkedIn is testing a new job search tool that analyzes vast amounts of data to find roles users might overlook. The company says it goes beyond keyword searches to find relevant jobs job seekers wouldn't have thought to look for. more

• Snapchat’s Q4 report shows user growth and a 14% YoY revenue increase to $1.56B, but challenges remain. The platform added 10M users, reaching 453M daily actives, but lost users in North America, raising concerns about long-term profitability. more

• Also, Snapchat's new report shows users are highly engaged with sports, with 9 in 10 users interacting with sports weekly and 85% watching matches monthly. Additionally, 90% say they're more likely to remember brands they encounter while engaging with sports content. more

  • 👉️ Note: This data is from Snapchat’s own survey, so take that for what you will.

• Threads is copying Bluesky (again) with custom feed sharing. Now, when you're browsing a user-generated timeline focused on a specific topic, you can tap the quote icon at the top to re-share it in a new Thread, or just hit "Share Feed" to send it directly. more

• Pinterest's new 'Tailored' campaign honours Black fashion creators for Black History Month, showcasing their influence on the fashion industry. The campaign will also feature Black-owned brands on the Pinterest Shop profile for users to discover. more

Infrastructure 🚧 

• 👀 More internal shakeups: Meta is reportedly merging its Facebook and Messenger teams, ahead of upcoming layoffs next week. Messenger's head will transition to the generative AI group, while Facebook chief Tom Alison will oversee both Facebook and Messenger. more 

Filter Anything Out of LinkedIn

🔨 MARKETING TOOL OF THE DAY

For me, LinkedIn is a necessary evil. It’s got some good information, but most of it is content I don’t care about.

LinkedIn lacks any kind of filtering that can keep certain content away from you — but this free Chrome plug-in called FilterIn adds it.

It’s pretty simple — you add whatever words or phrases you don’t want to see into it, and reload the page. And presto, posts with those words in them are gone.

I’ve been playing around with it for a bit and it’s already helped my feed be more relevant.

Today’s Trivia Question

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