Paid Media Updates You Need To Know | February 2022

It’s been an exciting beginning to 2022 with lots of updates in the paid media world, from the trialling of favicons beside search ads, to the shifting behaviours of beauty consumers, testing pin highlights on Pinterest, and much more.

We explain what these changes mean to you and provide advice on handling these changes.

Favicons Beside Search Ads

After much speculation, Google have recently confirmed that they are indeed running a small experiment, testing the addition of favicons beside the URL in text ads.

For those who don’t know, a favicon is a 16×16 pixel that serves as branding for your website, often used to help visitors locate your page when they have multiple tabs open.

More commonly used in SEO, favicons are an important tool for improving your ranking on search engines.

Why we care?

The new addition to search ads could help users more easily identify the brand they are looking for based on their query.

This feature would be an interesting way to catch the eye of searchers, potentially increasing engagement and click-through-rate.

What to do?

For now, we will need to wait and see if this is something that Google roll out to more/all search ads in the future. In the meantime, why not start thinking about what your business favicon might be?

Shifting Behaviours Of Beauty Consumers

A recent study carried out by Google has revealed that online is set to remain dominant in 2022.

New figures show that 49% of beauty consumers would describe themselves as shopping mostly or entirely online (compared to just 31% pre pandemic).

Why we care?

The window-shopping experience has now transitioned to online, with a significant shift towards Google search and YouTube for ideas and inspiration.

Not only this, but search demand for beauty categories has remained constant throughout the duration of the pandemic; consumers are now far less likely to remain loyal to just one brand and are increasingly open to experimenting with new brands.

As we are now seeing generic searches (‘nude lipsticks’ etc.) grow faster than branded terms, it is increasingly important to bid on generic terms to help connect with consumers who are open to trialling new brands/ products.

Whilst the initial return may not be as high as with existing customers, we then have the opportunity to nurture and grow their lifetime value.

What to do?

• If you don’t already, look to bid on more generic terms surrounding your business offering that would allow users who are not familiar with your brand to see your advertisements
• As we move away from third-party data, first-party data is becoming increasingly important; the data you have can be used to then tailor your ad messaging to a discount off your first order messaging to any user who is not on your mailing list

Pinterest Test Pin Highlights

With the growth in popularity of short videos, and the ability to create a more visual narrative using image and video stories (up to 20 frames per sequence), Pinterest are currently rolling out a new ‘highlights’ function for idea pins.

This will allow businesses to display the pins they want to showcase at the top of their page.

Why we care?

When using Pinterest to advertise for some of our clients, this new element will allow us to pin up to six highlight folders at the top of our profile, and a maximum of 20 pins can sit within.

Shoppers on Pinterest spend 2x more per month than users on other platforms – we can use this feature to create engaging content that will allow us to better connect with our audiences, and reach consumers who are ready to purchase.

What to do?

As this feature is still to be rolled out, for now, read more about how the new Pinterest Pin Highlights will work here.