😣 Tussle.

More info about Google’s cookie replacement proposal. Reels coming to the Facebook app. February 23, 2022 [Read in browser]( [logo] [sponsor]( It’s Wednesday! Yesterday we asked you what your favorite palindrome was and we learned that “fear of palindromes” is a thing. So much so, that it has its own name - “[Aibohphobia](”. Now read that one backwards. Yep, the word for “fear of palindromes” is a palindrome. Thanks to Alun H. for letting us know about it! MICROSOFT Microsoft rolls out dynamic descriptions for search ads Now this could be interesting. [Microsoft has introduced dynamic descriptions]( for Dynamic Search Ads. And yes, they do exactly what they sound like. How dynamic descriptions work: In essence, Microsoft will use artificial intelligence to create a unique search ad description for every visitor. The goal here is to get higher CTRs, and ultimately conversions. Google doesn’t (yet) have this: We won't blame you if you're thinking, "Finally, Microsoft is releasing something good that Google doesn't have." Availability: This feature will be available in the US, UK, Canada, France and Germany. GOOGLE We have more details about Google's new cookie replacement proposal It’s not a matter of if, but of when: third-party cookies are going away. The big question is: What will replace them? Google recently published a new proposal called Topics API in hopes of replacing third-party cookies in Chrome. Yesterday, [we learned more details]( about the core of the proposal - the topics themselves. - Types of topics: The Topics API will initially have [350 topics](, ranging from Beauty & Fitness to Science & Robotics. Google will then share up to three of those categories with your website, based on the interests of your users over the past three weeks. - This will reduce the risk of fingerprinting: If you only have 350 topics, it will be difficult to uniquely identify a user based on their recent interests. They don’t want advertisers to uniquely identify visitors using the topics they’re interested in. Again, think of these categories as rough drafts. Who will ultimately determine the categories? It’s still an [open question](. Should sites set their own categories, should the browser do it, or should Google be responsible for the categories? We expect to see plenty of discussion before we know the final answer. SPONSORED BY ATTEST Quadruple flower sales on Valentine’s Day once they stopped selling red roses… Say what?! [article-image]( Meet Bloom & Wild, a D2C flower brand. Last year they did something quite controversial: They stopped selling red roses on Valentine’s Day. At first, you’d think this is like Costco deciding not to sell turkey for Thanksgiving. It paid off: 4x increase in Valentine’s Day sales, 51% more press coverage and became the most talked about brand in their category. Bold move, right? But how did they know? [Thanks to Attest](, Bloom & Wild discovered people wanted anything but red roses for Valentine’s Day. So it was not a risk at all! Attest is a world-class consumer research platform that lets you access high quality consumer insights from 110 million across 49 countries. [Instantly](. If you think 4x sales is impressive… Insights from Attest helped [Little Moons]( get a 1,000% lift in sales and 3x growth in awareness. Consumer preferences are constantly changing. Are you aware of what they want to buy next? [Attest answers this question quickly and accurately.]( BUSINESS Twitter tussles can be better than Netflix [article-image] Marketing Twitter is a funny world. Sometimes your tweet goes viral and you earn visibility. Other times you get burned. The protagonist of our story is Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong. “Borrowed” ideas and not giving them credit is the topic. A few days ago, [Brian Armstrong turned to Twitter]( to explain the behind the scenes of their epic Super Bowl QR code ad: - After buying the Super Bowl ad, they got pitched different ideas by agencies. But they didn’t like any of the ideas, so they started brainstorming ideas for themselves. - One of their ideas included a QR code at the end, inspired by the Reddit Super Bowl ad of the previous year. - Since they were short on time, they decided to make the whole ad a QR code. - Brian closes the post sharing the lessons he learned from this adventure, like don’t be afraid to break rules, empower your team and so on. And then he got called out! Apparently, the brilliant QR code idea didn’t originate in the Coinbase team… But it came from The Martin Agency. Kristen Cavallo, the agency CEO, [called Brian out by replying to his tweet.]( The Coinbase team then tried to recover, and the CEO added another tweet 12 hours later saying that the work with the creative agency was so seamless [he thought it was the same team.]( Kate Rouch, Coinbase CMO, also had to jump in [to do some damage control]( but the Twitterverse isn’t having it. The Crew’s thoughts: From all this debacle, all we can think of is “The production cost for that QR code was actually almost $100k?” Or does production here include all the work agencies did to reach this final product before? SPONSORED BY CAMPAIGN MONITOR How do your email stats stack up against your competition? [article-image]( This 100 billion emails analysis will tell you. Campaign Monitor is part of CM Group, which is one of the largest email marketing companies in the world. And they created The Ultimate Email Marketing Benchmarks for 2022. [You can read it for free.]( Average CTR, open rate, stats per industry, day of the week with worst CTR, and more - it’s all there. Whatever you want to know about the state of email marketing, [this free report will tell you.]( THE CREW'S INSIGHTS When you should avoid newsletter ads [article-image] We like to talk about how great newsletter ads can be. We [explained what stats matter](, but we thought it’s time to also give our 2 cents on when you should not advertise in newsletters. 1. New high ticket product with unclear sales process If you’re selling something at a relatively high price, say $500+ but don’t have a good sales funnel where you go through multiple touchpoints with your leads, newsletters will probably not work. This is not an issue necessarily for newsletters only, but no matter how engaging and relevant an audience from a newsletter is, it won’t fix a bad sales process. 2. Unclear value proposition Many new products are guilty of this. If you can’t explain in maximum 3 sentences how your product saves time, saves money, or makes money, you are unlikely to have success with newsletter ads. You are unlikely to see success with any channel - we just say it once again that newsletter ads won’t magically work. 3. When you’re an in-person event taking place in the next 14 days Newsletters and events can go together, but not if you rush that relationship and expect people to just buy tickets right away. Newsletters can be a great way to keep your event audience engaged but if you sponsor a newsletter with an event taking place really soon it’s unlikely to work well, unless it’s a hyper-local event sponsoring a hyper-local newsletter. ROUNDING UP THE STACK [SEO:]( Keyword research, competitive research, content ideas search, link tracking, optimization, or site audit. Whether you're experienced or a newbie, SEO can be a tough challenge to handle. Semrush helps you ride the wave with an all-in-one solution! Cover your entire workflow from SEO to content research to optimization to site audit! [Try it for free now.](* [META:](Facebook Reels are coming to a browser near you. Meta has launched Facebook Reels to over 150 countries. This also comes with extra funds for creators to earn money by posting Reels. [APPLE:]( After governments around the world forced Apple to open up its App Store to other third-party payment methods, the race to see who will be the “de-facto” alternative payment method is heating up. [META:]( The EU will not budge, and US companies will not be able to transfer data from EU users back to the US. It appears Meta is working with the EU to resolve this issue. [GOOGLE:]( Merchant Center is getting short titles. You can now add shorter titles for smaller ad sections such as Discovery or Shopping ads. *This is a sponsored post. BRAIN TEASER What runs around the whole yard without moving? You can find the [answer here](. [poolside-logo] POOLSIDE CHAT Is your hair impossible to comb? You might have uncombable hair syndrome [article-image] When we hear the phrase "rare genetic syndrome," we usually associate it with something we don't want to happen to us or our children. [Meet Lock Samples](, a 16-months-old Georgian toddler with a rare genetic syndrome that most of his peers wouldn’t mind having. Lock grew just like any other toddler. That is, until he turned six months old and his hair really began to stand out. Everywhere he goes, Lock turns heads, according to his mother. She tried to tame the hair by washing and combing it. But nothing worked. As soon as the hair dries, it pops back up. The parents later learned that Lock has a one-in-a-million hereditary condition known as “uncombable hair syndrome”. His hair, as the name implies, is extremely difficult to comb and can be fragile. Fortunately, that's all there is to it; there are no other health risks. After this story went viral, many people in the United Kingdom began to speculate that one of their most popular politicians might have something similar. [Can you guess who](? SHARING IS CARING Enjoyed today’s newsletter? Share it with your marketer friends using your unique referral link. For every referral you get one point. And when you collect these points, we’ll reward you with stuff like lifetime access to our Insights membership, comfy hoodies, cozy T-shirts, and even a trip all the way to Vienna, Austria. It takes just 30 seconds to share, so grab your link below. [article-image]( [CLICK TO SHARE]( Or copy your referral link: [ [SUBSCRIBE]( | [INSIGHTS]( | [ADVERTISE]( You are receiving this email because you want to know what is going on in digital marketing. If you aren't thrilled about our emails, reply and let us know why. Or you can unsubscribe from all daily updates by clicking [here.]( Our postal address: Spectrum IT Solutions GmbH, Canettistraße 1/Top0107, 1100 Wien, Austria