Flying to France was crazy. I was 18 and jittery and by myself. The flight was *surprise* just the beginning.

I took French classes with classmates from China, Japan, Italy, Russia, Germany, and more. And French was our common language. I went on weekend trips to Barcelona, took the 30-minute tram to the Mediterranean beach, and stayed out all night at summer festivals.

Receipt:

I also felt a bit like a ghost who had no way of conveying their personality. I was using this new language and I didn’t know how to be funny or have deep conversations in French. It was frustrating.

In a way, that’s how I feel when I start creating content on a new platform. It seems like newsletters, TikTok, Medium, etc. each have their own “language.”

We’re always moving our brands to new countries platforms, and we have to learn how to express ourselves. Super fun, and often challenging.

I have no idea if people caught hold of my personality when I didn’t have English to express myself. But I can remember the personalities of my classmates. Valencia was always making eyes at strangers and dancing to street music. Takahiro was great at teaching in a quiet, humble way. Nadia liked to learn new things about people and places. You get the picture.

So I believe we can figure out how to convey our personalities in these new places. But we won’t figure it out by watching and staying quiet.

À bientôt!
Hayley

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PS Ok, it’s your last chance to send me a marketing gem! I’m giving away a thousand dollar gift card to whoever sends me the most helpful tip for fellow marketers.

It could be a productivity tool you love, a site you visit all the time because it’s so useful, a framework that helps you write landing page copy. Anything like that. Just hit reply and share before Sep 1.

​GOOGLE IS ROLLING OUT A SEARCH ALGORITHM UPDATE​

It’s that time of year when Google shakes up search by altering how they rank stuff. This broad core update started Aug 22 and will finish rolling out around Sep 5.

​GOOGLE ADS OFFERING SPECIALIZED ADVICE TO SMALL BUSINESSES ​

A new book an appointment feature is appearing in some Google Ads accounts for SMBs. It lets people pay $50 for a consultation with a Google Ads rep. This is part of a long-term plan Google is cooking up to help SMBs get more ad attention.

​NOW YOUR TIKTOK ADS CAN APPEAR IN THE APP’S SEARCH FUNCTION​

This new placement is exciting because users searching a term show higher purchase and engagement intent. The Search Ads Toggle is a feature of TikTok’s In-feed ads. To use it, you just keep the toggle switched on and then TikTok will serve your ad in search based on its algorithm.

​FTC ASKED TO INVESTIGATE GOOGLE’S POSSIBLE BREACH OF CHILDREN’S PRIVACY​

Four non-profit organizations asked the FTC to check if YouTube is serving behaviorally targeted ads to kids 12 and younger. The US has a federal law against that: the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

A report by Adalytics seems to be the catalyst for these concerns. Their report suggests that Google is not doing what they’ve said they’d do when it comes to ad targeting, tracking, and data collecting around YouTube’s Made for Kids content. And some of that may be…illegal… Bummer.

Good ol’ Ginny (Google Ads liaison) responded by posting: “There’s been some confusion about brand safety controls and reporting supported in PMax. So I want to share a rundown of important levers available to help you control the types of content your PMax ads can appear next to.” And then she shared reminders about how to use various suitability controls for PMax ads in her post.

​REDDIT LAUNCHED TWO FIRST-PARTY MEASUREMENT TOOLS​

(1) Reddit Brand Lift which measures the influence of your Reddit ads on your brand’s perception using a randomized controlled survey. (2) Reddit Conversion Lift which analyzes the next steps taken by users after viewing a campaign on Reddit like visiting your site, downloading your app, etc.

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​OTHER UPDATES

​YouTube’s “Hum to search” test directs you to music and Shorts featuring the song​

​Google can now index CSV files​

​The web version of Threads is finally here​

​YouTube trials smaller ‘Skip Ads’ button​

​People can now publicly label their LinkedIn post as a brand partnership ​

​Microsoft’s AI-powered design tool is now widely available in Edge

​​KAPWING​

This is a cool tool. They say, “It’s like Google Docs, but for video.” It lets your team edit and collab on video projects together. It’s also nice for editing to repurpose video content.

​EVIDENCE THAT WE TRUST GOOGLE DATA TOO MUCH​

Before sharing his examples, Patrick says, “I think SEOs trust Google data a little too much. Some consider this 1st party data, but it’s not.

It’s still 3rd party and they have mistakes, the same as 3rd party SEO tool data has mistakes. But y’all seem to always think the SEO tools are wrong. 😿”

​3 STEPS FOR EFFECTIVE PPC REPORTING AND ANALYSIS​

Do you have to explain your PPC results to clients or your boss? This gives you some ideas for rocking those conversations. I especially like their example of a short, effective analysis at the very end.

​YOUTUBE SHORTS ALGORITHM — EXPLAINED​

YouTube Director answers FAQs about their Shorts algorithm, like does the Shorts algorithm differ from YouTube’s typical, long-form content algorithm? Or, what counts as a view?

🍴 FUNNY KFC CAMPAIGN: OUR SINCEREST APOLOGIES TO UTENSILS EVERYWHERE​

🚇 DOVE’S BOLD SUBWAY TAKEOVER ENCOURAGES TRAVELERS TO #FREETHEPITS​

🏈 NFL PLAYS ON SCRIPTED RUMORS IN SPOOF​

🎯 GEN Z IS MORE LIKELY TO BE OK WITH TARGETED ADS — HERE’S WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY

Some of the links in my newsletters are affiliate links. So sometimes I get monies (aka dollary doos, aka sweet sweet dough) when you buy or sign up for some of the stuff I mention—at no extra cost to you.