The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 GOOGLE WILL DEMOTE YOUR ADS

🫡 Align or get demoted: Google Ads will now use its AI to better prioritize landing pages that align with user intent, rewarding straightforward, user-friendly experiences. Ads linking to confusing or misleading pages will now be demoted. more

• Google's AI now checks if the landing page aligns with user expectations, assessing whether it provides a customer-friendly experience that matches the ad’s promise.

• Misleading landing pages, such as showing promotions instead of a promised login page, will be penalized in search results.

• 🎯 Bottom line: If you want Google to keep serving your ads, make sure your landing pages align with what users expect.

🥈 NEW U.S. TARIFFS HITTING SMALL BUSINESSES

U.S. President Trump’s new tariffs are already hitting consumers and small businesses hard, after a key trade exemption for parcels under $800 was eliminated. Just one day after the new tariffs on Chinese imports took effect, shipping companies began charging higher import duties and processing fees. more

• This affects non-Chinese sellers too. For instance, Canadian businesses selling Chinese-made products are caught up.

• U.S. consumers are reporting fees from UPS and DHL ranging from $20 to more than $50.

• Some small business owners say they are being forced to halt shipments to the U.S. due to the new costs.

• Even customers who ordered from sites like Shein before the tariffs were announced are now stuck paying the fees or having their packages sent back.

🥉 THREADS: 73% MORE ENGAGEMENT THAN X

Threads is now outpacing X in engagement. With 320 million active users, growing momentum, and ads on the horizon, the app is becoming a major player in the social landscape. A recent survey found more than half of marketers are already posting on the platform, and nearly a quarter plan to establish a presence this year. more

• New data shows Threads is driving higher engagement, as X pushes users towards its subscription model for greater reach.

• Threads posts are generating 73.5% higher engagement rates than X.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• The IAB Tech Lab’s new standard for classifying video ad inventory, which was released in 2023, is facing slow adoption due to many demand-side platforms (DSPs) sticking with the old system. While the majority of supply-side platforms (SSPs) have switched, AdExchanger reports many DSPs are hesitant, fearing limited supply and higher prices. more

• YouTube's $10.5B in Q4 ad revenue helped Alphabet ride out a tough quarter, with earnings missing projections and stock dropping 6%, as AI players like DeepSeek shake up Big Tech.

  • With AI competition heating up, Google’s betting big on its AI stack, planning a $75B investment in 2025. more

• Microsoft is adding LinkedIn audience insights to Performance Max, letting advertisers target professional data like company, industry, and job function signals for PMax campaigns. more

Google Updates 🔍️ 

• Google Ads now requires advertisers using Offline Conversion Import (OCI) for apps to include the 'conversion_environment' in data uploads by April 30. This lets Google track whether conversions happen on the web or in an app. more

• Starting this week, Google Photos will start adding its invisible SynthID watermarks to images edited with Magic Editor’s Reimagine tool, helping people identify AI-manipulated photos. more

• Google released updated guidance on how to combine data from Google Analytics and Search Console via Looker Studio. It covers how to track, visualize, and fix any data issues to improve site performance. more

• Heads up blog/recipe sites: Google’s updated Quality Raters Guidelines now slam recipe blogs for excessive scrolling, warning against burying the main recipe behind a wall of ads, filler, and unrelated content. The "jump to recipe" link should be easy to find — otherwise, you might get a low quality rating. more

  • 😭 We’re just out here trying to make some bolognese, not read a whole saga about the chef’s long-lost Italian lover.

Social Media 📱

• Potential lead gen for IG Stories: Instagram has a new WhatsApp sticker for Stories, which lets you link directly to a WhatsApp chat by providing your phone number for verification. more

• YouTube is expanding access to its ‘Communities’ tab, giving channels a text-based discussion board for creator-viewer interaction. The platform is also adding more insights on CTV viewership, with device type data now more visible in the 'Audience' tab on both desktop and mobile. more

• TikTok's loss, YouTube's gain: Shorts is seeing a big rise in ad revenue, according to the company's recent earnings call. The monetization rate of Shorts relative to in-stream viewing increased by more than 30% in the U.S. in 2024, and the company expects growth in 2025. more

TikTok Sale 💰

• A great think-piece up on the The Information looks at why U.S. President Trump's plan to set up a sovereign wealth fund to buy TikTok is unlikely to work out. Beyond the unclear source of funding and tight timelines, China may resist a government-backed purchase, potentially blocking the sale altogether. more

Simplehuman: Super Fast Gmail

🔨 MARKETING TOOL OF THE DAY

For those who wish they could navigate Gmail faster: For better or worse, I’ve used Gmail as my primary email since it launched. In that time, it’s had exactly one UI makeover, and almost no product innovation. It’s the same Gmail it’s always been.

That’s why every year or so I go looking for a more updated email app — and top of my wish list is better keyboard access. Gmail is designed for a mouse, and you really can’t use it with just your keyboard.

I’ve looked at Superhuman, which is very keyboard-first, but it’s expensive and has a kind of slimy techbro vibe.

This morning, I found Simplehuman — which brings all the keyboard-first functionality into Gmail. It’s $5/month (they have a lifetime plan too) and I’m definitely going to give this a try.

Today’s Trivia Question

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