Kick Point Playbook gives you the digital marketing skills you need to grow—whether you want to land more clients, level up your career, or make smarter marketing decisions. Get bi-weekly insights on analytics, SEO, and reporting, curated by Dana DiTomaso and her team. Each issue is packed with expert tips, must-read articles, and free resources like templates and checklists—all designed to help you take action and see real results.
Share
🔍 Is Your CMP Failing You? Get a Diagnostic on Your Setup!
Published 3 months ago • 5 min read
Is Your Consent Management Platform (CMP) Set Up Correctly?
Data privacy in 2025 isn’t just about having a CMP, it’s about making sure it works exactly as it should. Over the past year, we’ve seen countless companies implement a CMP, but few have nailed the setup from day one.
A misconfigured CMP can mean your user consent choices aren’t being respected, potentially inviting regulatory headaches and costly fines. Here’s what to ask yourself:
Are you honoring consent choices across the board?
Do you have robust governance preventing unauthorized tracking scripts?
Have you rigorously tested your setup for full compliance?
Get a free evaluation of your consent management platform!
Are you confident in diagnosing common consent management issues? If you’re unsure how to identify and fix potential problems with your CMP setup, you’re in luck! We’re creating a comprehensive video tutorial that explores the risks websites face when using third-party tags, highlights potential compliance violations, and outlines the steps you need to stay compliant.
Volunteer to have your consent management platform reviewed for free in our tutorial and get your CMP system on track. 👇
AI isn’t just changing how we do SEO; it’s also optimizing our testing processes to be faster, smarter, and more efficient. Join Celeste Gonzalez from RicketyRoo on March 18, 2025 as she explores AI-powered SEO testing, including:
✅ Automating metadata creation to speed up implementation
✅ Using AI integrations in Microsoft Clarity for better data analysis
✅ Generating Python code with AI for data visualizations and reporting
Whether you’re new to AI or already experimenting, this webinar will give you practical insights to level up your SEO workflow.
Avoid confrontation: Don’t turn the discussion into an “I’m right, you’re wrong” debate or a boardroom showdown.
Show empathy: The best approach for resolving a data disagreement is to handle the situation with empathy and patience.
Use clear language: Speak in terms the CEO understands and avoid technical jargon that might seem condescending.
Walk them through the data: Explain how the data is collected and processed, and outline its limitations.
Address data sources: If the CEO is relying on less trustworthy sources, explain why sources are unreliable and share alternative, more dependable data sources.
Make time to resolve the issue: Don’t rush the process, you will likely need to have more than one meeting.
Get support: If you’re frustrated, seek support from other analytics professionals (like me, I’m happy to listen), so you can vent or get advice.
“In the first year of my first real job, I shared an office with a coworker. He was on what I thought was just a phone call with a client, but I didn’t realize he was also screensharing. So, blissfully unaware and trying to be “fun” at my new job, I sent him a number of Slack messages joking about what a boring time he was having talking with this client. Meanwhile, he was trying to gesture at me to stop but I was completely oblivious. What I didn’t know: he had message previews on.
We never found out if the client read the messages before my coworker dismissed them, but needless to say I was beyond horrified. I learned a real lesson that day: don’t interrupt or insert yourself in any way when someone is dealing with a client AND also be incredibly careful to close anything potentially embarrassing when screensharing!!!!”
Thank you to Laura S for sharing her marketing mishap. It's a good reminder that we all make mistakes and we can all learn from each other. Reply to this email to share your on-the-job horror story!
Articles Worth Reading ———•
💔 When to Break from Meta Advertising Defaults: A Guide
If you've been letting Meta's ad defaults do all the work, Jon Loomer says it’s time to rethink things. He breaks down how sticking to the 'easy' options, like automatic placements and Advantage+ audiences, can lead to wasted budget and missed opportunities. If you want more control (and better results), this is a must-read.
AI is changing the SEO landscape by prioritizing conversations over traditional backlinks. According to Britney Muller, while Google still values links, AI focuses more on context and who’s talking about your brand. The real winners are those who share original insights and build a genuine voice in the industry.
If some of your website pages aren’t showing up in search results, Sitebulb’s guide explains how to use noindex, robots.txt, and rel attributes to improve crawling and indexing. By giving search engines clear signals, you can make sure your important pages get noticed while keeping less relevant pages out of the way.
🔗 Google Says “Links Matter Less”—We Looked at 1,000,000 SERPs to See if It’s True
Ahrefs tackles a question many SEOs are asking: Do links still matter in 2025? While backlinks might not hold the same weight they once did, they’re far from irrelevant. Ahrefs breaks down why quality still beats quantity and how to make link building work alongside other important SEO signals like content relevance and site authority.
📲 Google’s New ‘Ask For Me’ Reviewed: Is This Bad For Local Businesses?
Google's new 'Ask for Me' feature is rolling out. It uses AI to call businesses on behalf of users for tasks like getting quotes and booking appointments. It’s currently being tested with auto repair shops and nail salons in the U.S. While this could be a win for user convenience, local businesses might see fewer direct website visits and customer interactions. To stay competitive, keep your business information accurate and your online presence strong!
🖼️ New Creative Updates to Help Advertisers Generate Lifestyle Imagery
Google’s latest update allows advertisers to use AI-generated lifestyle images in ads, providing a cost-effective alternative for brands with limited budgets. While this could help businesses avoid expensive photoshoots, there are concerns about ads looking generic and how the "Generated with AI" label might impact trust. Original content usually performs better, and it’s unclear if AI-generated visuals will resonate with audiences in the same way.
You’re already part of the team—now help us grow the fan club! Refer your digital marketing and analytics friends to the newsletter and earn exclusive rewards.
Refer 2 people: Get a shout out from Dana DiTomaso on LinkedIn
Refer 6 people: Get access to an exclusive presentation from Dana on Unpacking GA4 Explorations
SMX Munich is just around the corner. If you’re heading to the event, mark your calendar for March 18 when Dana presents her session, From Data Dump to Decision Driver: Evolving Your Looker Studio Approach. She’ll share how to transform raw data into engaging, actionable dashboards.
Plus, if you're looking to elevate your GA4 expertise, consider joining her full-day workshop, A Search Marketer’s Hands-On Guide to GA4. Designed specifically for search professionals, this session will equip you with practical insights to harness GA4 as your ultimate SEO asset.
Today's edition of The Playbook Huddle was brought to you by Jessie Low and Kyra Piper. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here!
PO Box 68171 RPO Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre, Edmonton, Alberta T6C 4N6 Unsubscribe · Preferences
Kick Point Playbook
Insights that fuel action. Learn, apply, and grow your marketing skills.
Kick Point Playbook gives you the digital marketing skills you need to grow—whether you want to land more clients, level up your career, or make smarter marketing decisions. Get bi-weekly insights on analytics, SEO, and reporting, curated by Dana DiTomaso and her team. Each issue is packed with expert tips, must-read articles, and free resources like templates and checklists—all designed to help you take action and see real results.
Hello Reader, Thank you for attending today’s webinar, Making the Move From Search Optimization to Answer Optimization with Wil Reynolds! If you missed the webinar or want to rewatch it, here’s the replay link → We had an incredible discussion about how the future of SEO is evolving beyond rankings—and why marketers should be focusing on where (and how) real answers are being delivered across AI, social, and search. Key takeaways: We’re in the answers business, not just the SEO business....
How to Verify Consent Signals Are Being Received Correctly in GA4 for Modeling Eligibility and GDPR Compliance You put a consent banner on your site. That’s great! But here's the problem... Just because your banner looks nice doesn't mean GA4 is actually respecting what your visitors choose. We see this mistake all the time during analytics audits. The banner is there, sure. But the data? Still flowing in before getting consent. Oops. Here's what you should check right now: Is data being sent...
GA4 Explained: The Essential Guide to Page Path, Page Location, and Other Page Data Page path versus page location versus page path + query string… if you find yourself getting tripped up by these GA4 dimensions and are stuck navigating messy reports, you’re not alone. Knowing which dimension to use can seriously improve your reporting! In our latest guide, Dana DiTomaso breaks down what each dimension actually tracks, when to use them, and how picking the right dimension makes all the...