Cloud-Digital-Leader Study Guide - Google Cloud Digital Leader Updated: 2024

After years of delays and adjustments, Google's plan to wipe out third-party cookies from Chrome is finally happening. Starting on 4 January, the tech giant began testing Tracking Protection, a new feature that limits cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default.  

Initially, this trial will impact only 1% of Chrome users globally, allowing industry players time to test their readiness for a web without third-party cookies. This also marks a key milestone in Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of the year.  

In fact, Google has been talking about the importance of adopting privacy-centric, durable strategies and solutions for years. In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, a spokesperson said the company recommends a three-prong approach, including strengthening first-party data, and reducing data use to Boost products with AI-powered solutions and privacy-preserving technologies.  

“In April 2023 we published results of an experiment serving interest-based ads with a combination of privacy-preserving signals instead of third-party cookies. Campaign performance maintained a pretty high fidelity relative to third-party cookies-based performance. We strongly encourage other ad tech providers to start testing these and other privacy-preserving techs early to find the best outcomes,” the statement reads.  

Will this set hurdles for effective digital advertising? 

The long-awaited deprecation of cookies is finally beginning but Google’s solution, the Chrome Privacy Sandbox, which only works on a Chrome browser, likely doesn’t benefit anyone other than Google, according to Chris Ngan, general manager of Hong Kong and Taiwan, The Trade Desk.  

“Removing third-party cookies appears to be just an exercise to position Chrome as a privacy-conscious browser, while attempting to do just enough to avoid the watchful eye of antitrust authorities, while in my view stopping digital advertising from reaching its full potential,” he added. 

However, Nathan Petralia, former managing director, Merkle Hong Kong, said the cookieless future does not necessarily spell the end of effective digital advertising.  

“While third-party cookies have enabled in-depth targeting and tracking, their loss pushes the industry to adapt with new strategies that can maintain personalisation and results while protecting user privacy,” he added. 

First-party data should still be used to take the guesswork out of marketing, create thoughtful, personalised campaigns, and build amazing digital experiences all customers crave, said Laura Quigley, senior vice president, APAC at Integral Ad Science. “This approach, combined with a well-planned and thoughtful contextual targeting strategy, will ensure success in an age of privacy,” she added. 

While retargeting and hyper-personalised ad experiences might become less effective, they open doors for other creative approaches, such as data-driven creativity, contextual relevance, brand storytelling, amongst others, she said.

How can industry players better embrace the cookieless future? 

Google's cookie phase-out presents a significant challenge and an opportunity. No silver bullet can replace its power, but a kaleidoscope of innovations has emerged: first-party data, contextual targeting, identity solutions and innovative measurement solutions. 

True enough, key industry players have come together to create a patchwork of different identity solutions over the past few years. They cover not only the browser environment but also growing channels such as digital audio and streaming.  

“These solutions have been built to do what cookies never could - benefit publishers and advertisers, while at the same time supporting the consumer experience,” The Trade Desk's Ngan said. 

Moving forward, marketers will need to be very clear about how consumer data is used, shared, and stored, with whom and for what purposes, said IAS’ Quigley.  

On the other hand, advertisers have a real opportunity to make an impact without sacrificing specificity. Quigley said regulatory bodies such as IAB will play a key role in privacy compliance and setting the standards for contextual targeting.  

“With the imminent ‘death of the cookie’, marketers will have to get innovative about their marketing, leading to a better connection, personalised, contextual offerings, and overall happier consumers," she said.

Furthermore, marketers and advertisers should focus on diversifying their approach to data collection and audience targeting, said Petralia.  

“Investing in first-party data strategies will become more crucial - improving direct customer relationships and collecting visitor data through engaging content and loyalty programs. Exploring new technologies like AI-driven predictive analytics and privacy-centric advertising platforms can also open up alternatives,” he added. 

Related articles:

3 things you need to do right now as we transition into a cookieless world
Opinion: When the cookies crumble: The CMO’s guide to a cookieless world
Study: 59% of Asia marketers unprepared for cookieless world

(CNN) -- Can Google make you smarter? Is the more you Yahoo, the better? A new study suggests that searching online could be beneficial for the brain.

A study at the University of California, Los Angeles, measured brain activity of older adults as they searched the Web.

"There's so much interest in exercising our minds as we age," said the researcher, Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "One result of this study is that these technologies are not all bad. They may be good in keeping our brains active."

To study what brains look like when people are searching the Internet, Small recruited two groups of people: one that had minimal computer experience and another that was Web savvy.

Members of the technologically advanced group had more than twice the neural activation than their less experienced counterparts while searching online. Activity occurred in the region of the brain that controls decision-making and complex reasoning, according to Small's study, which appears in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Small said he can't pinpoint why there was more brain activity in the experienced users.

"The way I theorized is that when we are confronted with new mental challenges, we don't know how to deal with it," he said. "We don't engage neural circuits. Once we figure out a strategy, we engage those circuits. "

In the study, 24 people were divided into the two groups, who were similar in age ranging from 55 to 78 years old, sex and educational achievement. Their only difference was their technological experience.

The number of people in the study was small, "but adequate to see a difference between the groups. It was so significantly different," Small said.

The subjects went into the magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, scanner, which is like a large tunnel. The MRI monitored their brain activity while the subjects strapped on goggles, through which they saw a book page or an Internet search page.

They were given search tasks such as finding out how to choose a car or looking up the benefits of eating chocolate or drinking coffee. They had buttons and keyboards to conduct a simulated online search.

Their other task was to read pages laid out like a book.

"The bottom line is, when older people read a simulated book page, we see areas of the brain activated that you'd expect, the visual cortex, and areas that control language and reading," he said. "When they search on the Internet, they use the same areas, but there was much greater activation particularly in the front part, which controls decision-making and complex reasoning. But it was only for the people who had previous experience with the Internet." Interactive: See MRIs of study participants' brain activity »

Liz Zelinski, a professor of gerontology and psychology at the University of Southern California, said the findings about the brain activity differences aren't surprising and offered this analogy: "If you wanted to study how hard people can exercise, and you take people that already exercise and people that don't exercise, aren't they going to be different to start out?"

Research has shown that as the brain ages, its structure and function also changes. Such changes have been linked to declines in brain speed, control and working memory and other cognitive abilities.

Taking on mentally challenging tasks could Boost brain health, according to recent studies. Brain teasers, such such as Nintendo's Brain Age game and computer programs are geared towards boomers and aging adults. And everyone has different recommendations from crossword puzzles to Sodoku to video games as ways to keep the brain sharp, Zelinski said.

Her recommendation: "Do something hard and challenging that's fairly unusual for them to do, something they haven't done before. The idea is it should be difficult. If you do a crossword puzzle all your life, it's not going to be challenging for you."

For many aging Americans, learning how to use a computer is a challenge.

The barrier for most seniors is the disinterest and intimidation, said Tobey Gordon Dichter, the founder of a nonprofit group, Generations on Line, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based organization that provides instructions and encourages seniors to get on the Web.

"It does so much for the mind," Dichter said about searching online. "It allows for the mind to take where you where you want to go. It's on-demand information."

But it's difficult at first, she added. "When you're undertaking new frustrating tasks, like learning a language or how to use a computer, you're pushing those neurons."

The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported in a 2006 sample survey that about 32 percent of people who are 65 and older used the Internet.

Jewel Hall, 71, surfs the net on her laptop every other day. The Maryland resident said searching online forces her to think.

"It'll make you think, 'Do I have the right thing in there?' " Hall said. "Should I try to put something else in there? It makes you think, "What can I put in there to make the right things come up?' You do use your brain a lot."

Small has written a book, "iBrain," which examines the impact of technology on the human brain and said he wants to conduct further studies on the effects of technology on the organ.

Small encourages older adults to learn how to use search engines and said, "This could be exercising their brain and their neural circuitry in a way that's helpful."

All About Neurology • Aging and the Elderly • Internet

As the digital economy expands and as countries are developing their digital maturity, there is a need for increased focus on coherent digital transformation strategies for a whole-of-government or even whole-of-nation approach. This approach would align the undergirding institutional structures, the physical and immaterial enablers of a digital economy, and digital capabilities towards the ambition of the digital transformation strategy, thereby enabling the desired outcomes.

Digital economy interventions have often focused on establishing the physical and immaterial enablers such as digital infrastructure and applications. However, this study posits that to succeed, digital transformation of countries, regions or cities must be driven by leadership and include strategies that address digital skills for all and fosters a digital culture.

This study is a deep dive into the digital capabilities of leadership, skills and culture and is aimed at stimulating reflection and at repositioning the human capital aspects of digital transformation as a key contributor alongside digital infrastructure and applications. Any digital strategy should supplement investments in technology with one or more ‘fit for purpose’ digital capability initiatives that invest in what is often labelled the 'soft' or ‘people’ infrastructure.

Written by the Priests and Pastoral Associates of Priests for Life

This study guide is based on the Vatican Translation of Humanae Vitae

Table of Contents:

Forward

Introduction to the Study Guide

Summary of the Introduction to the Encyclical and Section I: New Aspects of the Problem and Competency of the Magisterium

A Summary of Section II. Doctrinal Principles

Summary of Section III. Pastoral Directives 

Essay: Finding Our Way Back Home

Essay: Life, Purity and Humanae Vitae

Essay: The Transmission of Life -- On Whose Terms?

The Contraception of Grief: A Personal Testimony

Glossary of Terms

Foreword

That is also why our Priests for Life pastoral team wrote this Study Guide. We have also established a special website, www.HumanaeVitae40.com, to promote the teachings of this document. It is our daily prayer that this effort will lead many believers to understand, embrace, and proclaim the beautiful truth of human life. 

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY GUIDE

For those considering the possibility of facilitating a study group, this study guide lends itself to a discussion study group method of learning. While a leader/facilitator encourages the group and keeps it “on track”, it is the individual sharing and group dynamic that contribute most to the learning process. The facilitator is not a lecturer, neither is he there to deliver all the answers. The facilitator seeks to shepherd the group learning process and does everything possible to solicit their contributions. Members interact and learn from everyone, including the facilitator. A Facilitator’s Guide is available through Priests for Life at www.HumanaeVitae40.com. The Facilitator’s Guide seeks to assist you in leading a group and lays out suggested study sessions.

It is our hope, that on the fortieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae, this study guide will assist in promoting the Church’s clear and authoritative word on transmitting human life. May all who hear this true, prophetic and lovely word be assured that: the Church has always issued appropriate documents on the nature of marriage, the correct use of conjugal rights, and the duties of spouses. These documents have been more copious in recent times. (n.4)

Celebrate the Holidays with some of SEJ’s best articles of 2023.

Our Festive Flashback series runs from December 21 – January 5, featuring daily reads on significant events, fundamentals, actionable strategies, and thought leader opinions.

2023 has been quite eventful in the SEO industry and our contributors produced some outstanding articles to keep pace and reflect these changes.

Catch up on the best reads of 2023 to deliver you plenty to reflect on as you move into 2024.

“Is this a good click-through rate for our campaigns?”

“Why is our cost per conversion high? Is this in line with our competitors?”

“What’s a good conversion rate?”

“Why was performance down yesterday?”

How many times do you get asked these questions in a week? A month?

Nothing’s more frustrating than getting these questions from your C-suite team without having data to back them up. Or, you have outdated data that is not useful in today’s advertising world.

Keeping up-to-date on industry Google Ads benchmarks is crucial to help answer these questions for your business.

Wordstream by LocaliQ recently published its Search Advertising benchmarks for 2023.

The data consists of data points from thousands of campaigns in both Google and Microsoft Ads for the top 20 industries. Some of the top industries include:

• Arts & Entertainment.
• Automotive.
• Education.
• Finance & Insurance.
• Health & Fitness.
• Home Improvement.
• Shopping & Retail.
• Travel.

While these benchmarks are a starting point, it’s important to note that many factors go into setting benchmarks that are attainable for your business.

We hope this data is useful for you to help level-set expectations and goals for your business, and get a sense of how you stack up to the competition.

In this report, you’ll find benchmarks for Search campaigns in Google & Microsoft Ads for:

• Click-through rate (CTR).
• Average cost-per-click (CPC).
• Conversion rate (CVR).
• Cost per acquisition (CPA).

Let’s dig into the data.

Average Click-Through Rate In Google & Microsoft Ads By Industry

The average click-through rate across all industries sat between 3-5% in 2023.

In LocaliQ’s data, the industries it pooled together outperformed that CTR, averaging over 6%.

Compared to when the company first started gathering data in 2015, the average CTR for Search ads was minimal at 1.35%.

The business category that boasted the highest CTR was Arts & Entertainment, with an astounding 11.78% CTR.

At the other end of the spectrum was Attorneys and Legal Services at a 4.76% CTR.

The CTR metric should be analyzed as only one indicator of performance, not the end-all-be-all when trying to determine if your ads are doing well.

Many factors can influence CTR, including:

• Your competition (Is the SERP saturated?).
• Your bidding strategy.
• Your position on the results page.
• Your ad copy relevancy.
• Your audience targeting.

When analyzing your ads, Google gives you indicators of performance within your Quality Score. If your average CTR is below your peer set in your industry, Google will let you know.

When optimizing your Search Ads, make sure you’re taking a look at levers outside of just ad copy.

Average Cost-Per-Click In Google & Microsoft Ads By Industry

While the Attorneys and Legal Services showcased the lowest CTR, it also boasted the highest average CPC. In 2023, the average CPC for this industry came in at $9.21.

This average is unsurprising, given the higher-than-average cost of acquiring a customer.

On the lower end of the spectrum, Real Estate and Arts & Entertainment industries had the lowest average CPC at $1.55.

Similar to analyzing the CTR metric, average CPC is just one performance indicator.

For example, your ads may show a low average CPC and a low CTR. This could mean your bids aren’t high enough to be competitive in the market, and you may want to consider raising bids.

On the other hand, if you have a higher-than-average CPC, you’ll want to monitor these more closely to ensure you can prove your return on ad spend/investment.

Average Conversion Rates In Google & Microsoft Ads By Industry

The average conversion rate is calculated from the number of leads/sales you get divided by the number of clicks from your ad.

When looking at the data from 2023, the average conversion rate varied highly across industries.

On the high end of performance, Animals & Pets had the highest conversion rate at 13.41%, followed by Physicians and Surgeons at 13.12%.

The industries that had the lowest conversion rate included:

• Apparel/Fashion & Jewelry: 1.57%
• Furniture: 2.57%
• Real Estate: 2.88%

When looking at these industries and the products they sell, these conversion rates make sense.

Furniture is a high-ticket item for many customers. Users do a lot of research online before making a purchase. Not only that, but because of the price tag, many customers end up purchasing in stores instead of online.

While the conversion rate may be low in this particular industry, it’s more important than ever to be able to measure offline conversions, such as in-store visits or purchases.

In the apparel industry, new brands seem to pop up every day.

If you do a simple search for Nike sneakers, the number of sellers and resellers for these types of products has skyrocketed in recent years.

The amount of competition can directly contribute to a low (or high) conversion rate.

Average Cost Per Acquisition In Google & Microsoft Ads By Industry

The average cost per acquisition is a core KPI that advertisers should keep a pulse on when analyzing performance.

It’s no surprise that certain industries have a much higher CPA compared to other industries. Some of the factors that can influence CPA include:

• Average CPC.
• Average CTR (this influences your CPC).
• Audience targeting.
• Conversion rate.
• The type of product/service you’re selling.

The Careers & Employment industry had the highest CPA out of all industries at a whopping $132.95.

This is not surprising considering the possible barriers to entry during economic volatility.

In the past 12-16 months, many businesses have been forced to lay off a portion of their employees.

On the other hand, many workers are voluntarily leaving their professions to switch companies, start their own businesses, or simply take time off.

Those factors together can result in the high CPA in the Careers & Employment industry.

However, while the CPA may be high, many businesses in that industry find that well worth the investment, considering their return on each employee.

Those industries with lower-priced products and services likely have a lower CPA goal.

The industries that showed the lowest CPA in 2023 were Automotive Repair, Services & Parts at $21.12, followed by Animals & Pets at $23.57.

Compared to last year’s data, 21 out of the 23 industries reported an increase in CPA.

As mentioned above, such a large fluctuation in CPA could be due to the record inflation and economic instability of the past few years.

Summary

If you find yourself on the lower end of the spectrum compared to others in your industry, don’t fret!

These benchmarks are meant to be a guidepost for you.

If you’re struggling to Boost campaign performance, try following the tips below:

• #1: Set the right (and realistic) goals for your campaigns.
• #2: Test out other search engines besides Google.
• #3: Choose the right budget(s) for your campaigns.
• #4: Invest in a good keyword strategy.
• #5: Focus on your landing page strategy and ad optimization.
• #6: Don’t forget about the mobile experience!

Make sure to check out Wordstream by LocaliQ’s full report on benchmarks and tips to Boost your campaigns.

More resources:

Featured Image: VideoFlow/Shutterstock

Editorial Note: Forbes Advisor may earn a commission on sales made from partner links on this page, but that doesn't affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Skip to main contentSkip to main navigationSkip to footer content

Using digital devices to read for fun does little to Boost the ability of a student to read a text and understand its meaning, new research suggests.

For years, research has suggested that print reading, whether for leisure or school, improved the ability of people learning to read to comprehend text.

However, the use of digital reading devices – including mobile phones, tablets or a computer – constant access to these devices, and new types of reading materials have introduced new reading habits.

A study now suggests there is virtually a non-existent relationship between digital reading and improvement in reading comprehension among primary and middle school students.

Study co-author Lidia Altamura, a PhD student at the University of Valencia, Spain, said: “In sum, for developing readers, leisure digital reading does not seem to pay off in terms of reading comprehension, at least not as much as traditional print reading does.

“Our findings are particularly surprising when you compare them to what we already know about the well-established positive association between reading frequency in print and text comprehension.”

The researchers put forward two reasons why digital reading may not have the same impact as print reading for developing readers.

First, reading on a screen may distract readers as devices tend to offer many other features.

Second, they say the internet has brought new types of reading, with features such as short and fast-paced stimuli, lower quality content and less sophisticated vocabulary.

The authors emphasise that educators and parents should encourage students, especially younger ones, to read in print more often than on digital devices.

“Based on our results, we cannot just assume that all leisure reading will be beneficial for developing readers,” said Ms Altamura, adding that “the medium used matters”.

Based on what they know from previous studies, the researchers estimate that if a student spends 10 hours reading in print in their free time, their ability to comprehend will likely be six to eight times higher than if they read on digital devices for the same amount of time.

Ms Altamura added: “We expected that digital leisure reading for informational purposes, such as visiting Wikipedia or other educational webpages, or reading the news, would be much more positively linked to comprehension.

“But even that was not the case.”

The study focused on the specific links between leisure reading habits on digital devices and understanding what is being read.

The authors found there were small negative relationships between leisure digital reading and comprehension at primary school and middle school.

According to the findings, at high school and university, the relationship turned slightly positive.

However, the research indicates that regardless of education stage, digital reading habits had a smaller relationship with reading comprehension, compared to print reading results from previous research.

The findings are based on the authors’ review of 25 studies, published between 2000 and 2022, involving around 470,000 participants from at least three dozen countries.

The study is published in the Review of Educational Research journal.