Walmart.com, Target.com, and Tripadvisor.com -- as well as social sites such as Facebook.com, Instagram.com and Pinterest.com -- are among the major brands that did not meet all three of Google’s minimum thresholds for good website performance and usability as of October, according to recent analysis.

Research from Searchmetrics, a global provider of search data, software and consulting services, estimate that 50% of the top 100 most visible websites on Google fail to deliver a “good” page experience on desktop and 44% of the top 100 websites fail on mobile.

Fashion and travel are the worst-performing verticals. The metrics are defined by the search engine’s Core Web Vitals update that rolled out in August 2021.

Google’s Core Web Vitals benchmarks help website owners assess web user experiences. It provides insight into the speed in which the content on a page loads, interactivity such as the time taken to respond to a visitor’s first interaction, such as a click on a button or a link, and the visual stability of the layout or content on the page.

In the update for Core Web Vitals, which have an influence on rankings in Google Search, the signals are combined with other signals that Google uses to measure the quality of the page experience.

Updated monthly, the data analyzes the Core Web Vitals performance of the top 100 most visible domains on Google.com in the U.S. with monthly benchmarks for eight key industry segments such as B2B, Dictionary and Reference, Electronics, Fashion, Finance, Healthcare, Media and News, and Travel.

This research comes from the newly launched Core Web Vitals Monitor section on The Searchmetrics website.

The percentage of the top-performing domains that satisfy Google’s requirements continues to improve.

In January 2020, only 22% of the desktop top 100 and 28% of the mobile top 100 passed the Core Web Vitals tests. By October 2021, this increased to 50% on desktop and 56% on mobile.

Google’s minimum requirement for the largest image or text block to become visible when the page first starts loading is 2.5 seconds.

The average time taken among the top 100 websites analyzed in October was 2.43 seconds on desktop and 2.48 on mobile, according to Searchmertics. Some 36% of the top 100 websites on desktop and 33% of mobile still fail to meet this minimum requirement.

Nearly one-quarter, or 24%, of the top 100 websites on both desktop and mobile failed to pass the minimum requirement for the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) -- the extent to which elements on a page jump around while loading. A “good” score, per Google, is below 0.1 and the average score was just a little over this (0.11 on both desktop and mobile).

Most websites tested by Searchmetrics were found to pass the test for FID (which measures interactivity). However, the company notes that due to difficulties in gathering accurate data, experts could not collect meaningful analysis for this metric.

The data suggests that ecommerce sites in categories such as fashion and travel performed the worst. For example, only 24% of the top 100 most visible fashion and apparel websites pass Core Web Vitals on desktop, and just 16% on mobile. For the top 100 in travel, only 20% pass Core Web Vitals on desktop and 21% on mobile.

B2B and Healthcare sites performed the best, with 60% and 59% of top domains in these sectors passing all 3 Core Web Vitals tests on desktop respectively (51% of the top B2B sites and 63% of the top Healthcare sites pass on mobile.

The average LCP for the top travel sites was 3.37 on desktop and 3.66 on mobile outside of Google’s minimum requirements for a good experience of 2.5 seconds. In fashion, the top 100 sites the average LCP for on desktop was 2.8 seconds and 3.31 on mobile.

Global traditional TV spending will see a smaller rise in 2022, versus this year, up 3.3% to $184.7 billion, according to a new estimate from WARC, the marketing research/analytics group.

This would be slightly down from a 5.5% gain this year.

Overall, WARC projects a gain of 12.5% next year to $867.3 billion in 2022 in total advertising spending; it estimates a 24% rise this year to $771 billion.

“Market data shows we are currently witnessing a boom in advertising trade like none seen before, led by increased demand for retail media and ancillary publishers, such as Google and Instagram,” writes James McDonald, director of data, intelligence and forecasting at WARC.

Still, he cautions: “New coronavirus variants — such as Omicron — may have a negative impact on our current outlook. Our base scenario assumes that impact is muted.”

One of the fastest-growing segments continues to be new digital/OTT video platforms -- expected to climb globally 23% to $76.3 billion. It adds that just looking at YouTube and Amazon ad-supported digital video platforms -- like Amazon Fire TV -- those two collective OTT platforms are poised to see a sharp 42% rise of $63.7 billion globally.

Digital-first ad platforms will still command major attention and growth: Social media will see a 23.1% rise next year to $232.1 billion. Paid search is forecast to be up 13.9% to $209 billion.

Broadcast radio is poised to gain 3.5% next year to $33.8 billion.

In a separate WARC survey of some 1,500 executives, it says 69% either expect TV ad spend to stay the same or rise next year -- with 18% saying it will grow; 41% noting it will remain the same. Another 26% saying there will be a decline in spend.

When it comes to those sharply growing media platforms, 77% of executives said online video will increases in spend, 68% say increases are also coming fro social media and 66% for mobile.

Well into the pandemic’s second year, over-the-counter healthcare brands like Mucinex, Afrin, Nature Made, Natrol and Icy Hot continue to show strong sales growth despite consumers’ making fewer trips to drug and grocery stores, according to Catalina Marketing’s Buyer Intelligence Database. However, Catalina cautioned marketers about shifting brand loyalties.

Analyzing data from Sept. 1 to Nov. 10, Catalina found consumers were spending more per each retail visit than they had before the pandemic. Compared with the same period in 2019, consumers made 5% fewer trips to stores, but spent 19% more per visit, with dollars per store up 13%. (The 19% increase in dollars per trip is offset by the 5% decrease in trips, leading to the overall 13% increase in store sales, according to a Catalina spokesperson.)

From June 1, 2020 through Nov. 14, 2021, 23% of consumers did not return to their previous OTC health care brands, and 44% of those who did return still reported a decrease in their brand loyalty.  Consumer behavior has been impacted by “persistent out-of-stocks,” the marketing data firm noted.

In cough and cold remedies, Catalina found sales up 61.8% over the same period a year earlier, and attributed that gain to more people seeking treatments to deal with a resurgent cough, cold and flu season versus a milder season in 2020, when people were relatively sequestered.  Reckitt’s Mucinex was the top brand in this category, with sales up a whopping 94% over 2020.

Sales of nasal sprays and asthma remedies were up 29.4%, with Bayer’s Afrin leading the way with a 32% increase.

Immunity-boosting products showed a 14.1% increase YOY and an 86.7% increase boost over 2019, with Nature Made leading the way at 11% over 2020.

Sleep aids were up 12.9% over 2020 and 44.8% over 2019, with Catalina suggesting that “people continue to deal with restless nights as the pandemic goes on.” Natrol led in this category with an 19% increase over 2020.

External analgesics were up 5.5% over 2020 and  23.9% over 2019, with Icy Hot up 8% over 2020.

Vitamin sales rose 9.5%, over 2020 and 31.2% over  2019, led Led by Nature Made at 12% over 2020.

Catalina broke down target audiences into four groups: new enthusiasts, symptom busters, lapsed users and vulnerable brand loyals.

To reach new enthusiasts, it suggests marketers “proactively target these shoppers and tailor your messaging to the benefits and attributes that brought them to your brand.”

To reach symptom busters: “Promote your brand’s reputation and link to treating specific symptoms. Reinforce and amplify correct usage through social and new media.

To reach lapsed users: “Use sequential messaging through mobile and digital ads, CTV, and out-of-home. Offer ‘re-trial’ incentives to those who don’t respond to advertising.”

To reach vulnerable brand loyals: “Review your pricing and promotion strategy to regain preference for your brand, and remember it’s less expensive to keep current customers than gain new ones.”

“It starts with knowing your audience and tailoring your outreach to them with messaging that is both personal and relevant," stated Catalina CMO Marta Cyhan.

Whoah! On the heels of upbeat reports about Black Friday sales come new data that reveal that a third of all online shoppers were bots and fake users.

Cybersecurity company CHEQ says 35.7% of all online shoppers were malicious scrapers and crawlers, sophisticated botnets, fake accounts, click farms and/or proxy users as well as a host of illegitimate users committing e-commerce-related fraud. 

The study was conducted across a pool of over 42,000 websites in North America, Europe and Asia, applying hundreds of cybersecurity tests to each website visitor to determine their authenticity. 

E-commerce sites were found to be particularly vulnerable, with high exposure to carding attacks, chargeback fraud, data breaches, fake sign-ups and other types of disruptive activities. 

The cost? CHEQ estimates that damage to businesses could surpass $1.2 billion.

The study found that 27% of organic and direct traffic is invalid, 32% of organic and direct traffic from mobile is invalid, and 32% of organic and direct traffic in the retail sector is invalid. 

Furthermore, $697 billion is wasted globally on skewed data each year, $42 billion is the amount of revenue uplift if invalid traffic (IVT) is removed, and $115 billion in sales labor costs is wasted on invalid leads.

It’s official. Dotdash, the former Mining Company, the former About.com, once owned by the defunct magazine company Primedia, once owned by the New York Times Co. — a media business that toiled in relative obscurity since its founding in 1997 — is now the largest publisher in America.

Dotdash, a unit of Barry Diller’s Interactive Corp/IAC, announced Wednesday that it has closed its acquisition of Meredith Corp’s print and digital magazine business. Dotdash is now the owner of some of the most iconic media brands in the world, including People Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, Food & Wine, Allrecipes, Southern Living, InStyle and Real Simple. The deal was an all-cash transaction at a purchase price of $42.18 per share, or $2.7 billion.

The new Dotdash Meredith combines those celebrated brands with Dotdash’s digital DNA to create a top 10 internet property able to deliver intent-driven content and experiences at scale. Prior to the Meredith acquisition, Dotdash had 14 digital brands in food, beauty, advice, financial services and other vertical categories.

The company, headquartered in New York City, will be led by CEO Neil Vogel, who as been with Dotdash and its predecessor company, About.com, since 2013. Vogel was named to Business Insider’s “The Coolest People In New York Tech This Year” in 2012.

“Dotdash Meredith’s future has begun,” Vogel said. “No other media company in the world combines this kind of heritage with the scale, speed and power of a digital-first business. Dotdash Meredith will deliver intent-driven media at a scale never seen before.”

It’s worth noting that similar hyperbolic predictions were made about these same brands recently, when Meredith acquired Time Inc. in 2018, making it a magazine media colossus.

"We are creating a premier media company serving nearly 200 million American consumers across industry-leading digital, television, print, video, mobile, and social platforms," then-Meredith CEO Stephen M. Lacy said in a press release at the time. “We are creating a powerful digital media business with 170 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S. and over 10 billion annual video views, enhancing Meredith's leadership position in reaching Millennials.”

Dotdash began life as a topic directory, a series of digital guides clustered around enthusiast markets and DIY information. It changed its name to About.com in 1999. It was acquired by Primedia in 2000, and by The New York Times Company in 2005. IAC acquired the company in 2012.

The company has been acquisitive in recent years, acquiring Byrdie (beauty), MyDomaine (women's lifestyle), Brides (from Conde Nast) and Liquor.com in 2019. Last year it acquired TreeHugger and Mother Nature Network in one deal, and Simply Recipes and Serious Eats in another.