Read This Week’s Digital Marketing News Updates

Digital Marketing News 12/2/2024 to 12/6/2024

This week: New studies on organic reach and CTRs, OpenAI has some updates on the possibility of ads, and Google Analytics addresses two issues. Find out what happened this week in the digital marketing news.

1. Increase Your Organic Reach on Google With one of These 148 Terms

A recent study determined that only 148 terms drive 15% of all Google searches. Of those terms, YouTube, Gmail, Amazon, Facebook, ChatGPT, and Google Translate top the list. Some other surprising information discovered by this study includes:

• 44% of Google searches were for specific branded terms but the rest were generic.
• 51% of searches are informational
• 33% of searchers are navigational
• 14.5% are commercial
• 0.69% are transactional

Why We Care: This data explains some of the reasons why organic search traffic seems to be decreasing. If anything, it proves the point that marketers need to diversify their content. Consider mixing up your content marketing strategy to include a mix of SEO, PPC, social media, and email marketing.

2. Advertising on OpenAI Is... Not Coming Soon

Some marketers have been looking for a way to advertise on OpenAI, but according to the platform, they’re going to have to keep waiting … at least for a while.  Here’s what OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Friar, had to say about the requests: “Our current business is experiencing rapid growth and we see significant opportunities within our existing business model. While we’re open to exploring other revenue streams in the future, we have no active plans to pursue advertising.” CEO Sam Altman is also no fan of ads, stating earlier this year that, “I kind of hate ads just as an aesthetic choice. I think ads needed to happen on the internet for a bunch of reasons, to get it going, but it’s a momentary industry. The world is richer now. I like that people pay for ChatGPT and know that the answers they’re getting are not influenced by advertisers.” More recently, he reinforced that sentiment by saying, “I’m not saying OpenAI would never consider ads, but I don’t like them in general, and I think that ads-plus-AI is sort of uniquely unsettling to me.”

3. LinkedIn Revealed B2B Ad Tips

LinkedIn released some new creative guidelines to help B2B marketers get better ad results. They noted that:

• Vertical mobile ads drive 31% more engagement than horizontal ones.
• 81% of ad campaigns fail to be both attention-grabbing and memorable.
• Funny content gets 65% more engagement than other types of content.
• Cohesive branding can boost profitability by over 20%.
• 85% of business leaders respect brands that disrupt industry stances.

What do you think? Will you be upping your LinkedIn ads budget for 2025?

4. Youtube Introduces New Creator Tools

YouTube is on a mission to make itself one of the most creator-friendly apps around. They just recently rolled out new updates, including:

• Longer Shorts options - from 1-3 minutes
• Tools to share and publish videos from other apps
• Addition of text-based quiz posts
• Two new AI tools: Transform, which helps you rephrase and customize text and DreamScreen, which helps you generate images based on prompts
• Expanded access to Brand Connect - the platform that helps creators manage brand deals within the app
• A new “captured with a camera” label to help viewers know how authentic the content is

In addition to all of these updates, they also launched a new program called Open Call. Currently in its testing phase, this program allows brands to request customized videos from creators. The goal is to make collaborating on content easier for brands and creators.

5. Google Updates Two Analytics Issues

This week, Google launched two new updates to improve data issues. Google Analytics added two new features to help merchants identify and fix hidden product listings to improve visibility on Google Shopping. Now, Google Analytics will display Merchant Center recommendations directly on the interface. This means that you’ll be able to fix potential product disapprovals that limit your product exposure on Google Shopping. The second update expanded Google’s Custom Channel Groups to support manual ad content parameters. This will help marketers have more flexibility in channel analysis and remove the limitation of only using automatically tagged parameters.

6. Does This CTR Data Reveal an Industry Shift?

New data from Advanced Web Ranking shows that click-through rates on Google have shifted in Q3. Arts & Entertainment saw a dip in CTR but some industries saw a big boost, including:

• Science
• Law, Government, and Politics
• Shopping
• Automotive
• Business
• Education
• Family & Parenting

Key Takeaways of this study show:

• Branded, informational, and short keyword searches (1-3 words) searches both saw a rise on mobile devices.
• Science and Automotive sectors are growing the most.
• Arts and Entertainment need improved audience engagement.
• Personal Finance has good CTRs but lower search volume; be ready for traffic drops.

7. ChatGPT Search Fails a Columbia University Test

Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism released a report that AI fanatics might be interested in. According to their study, researchers found multiple misquotes and incorrect attributions in ChatGPT Search’s results. Of those responses, they noted:

• Of 200 queries, 153 responses were incorrect.
• The AI rarely acknowledged its mistakes.
• Phrases like “possibly” were used in only seven responses.
• ChatGPT Search  also failed to properly cite news sources regardless of whether publishers allow or block its crawler.
• It often links to plagiarized or syndicated content instead of original sources, and gives inconsistent results for identical searches.

They also noted that enabling crawlers doesn’t guarantee visibility, yet blocking them doesn’t prevent crawling either. When asked about this research, an OpenAI spokesperson replied: “We support publishers and creators by helping 250M weekly ChatGPT users discover quality content through summaries, quotes, clear links, and attribution. We’ve collaborated with partners to improve in-line citation accuracy and respect publisher preferences, including enabling how they appear in search by managing OAI-SearchBot in their robots.txt. We’ll keep enhancing search results.”

8. Bluesky is Taking Off!

Decentralized social network, Bluesky, has been proving its importance in the world of journalism. Of the new text-based app, publishers have said:

• The Boston Globe said: “Traffic… is already 3x that of Threads, and we are seeing 4.5x the conversions to paying digital subscribers.”
• Traffic from Bluesky to The Guardian is “significantly higher than the very obvious 2x that of Threads.”
• The New York Times claims, “It’s hard to exaggerate how nuts the engagement is on Bluesky compared to 𝕏. A vastly smaller user base (at this point) but so much more active and attentive.”
• The Democracy Docket said: “Traffic from Bluesky to @democracydocket.com is surging while X is falling and Threads remains largely dormant.”

Why We Care: If Bluesky continues to take off in this way, it could be the next great social media app for marketers, too.

9. Threads Creator Hub

This week, Meta launched a new info hub for Threads creators, including tons of information on how to use it.  Within the dashboard, you can see insights on things like views, interactions, likes, replies, reposts, and quotes. It also gives you insights into your follower count and audience demographics. Why We Care: If you want to use Threads as a business tool, you’re going to need access to these important numbers!

Weekly Homework

1. If you want to increase your LinkedIn Ads success, check out the recent content guidelines from the platform to see how you can improve your campaigns for 2025.
2. Organic search traffic down? Consider reworking your content and use one of the 148 most popular keywords.
3. If you were using the sitelinks search box feature, you’re going to have to find another way. Remove all mention of sitelinks search from any of your SOPs or business documents, since Google has officially retired the feature.
4. More journalists are embracing Bluesky. Is it time for your brand to do the same?

Digital Marketing News 11/18/2024 to 11/22/2024

This week: data discrepancies cause reporting issues in GA4, AI video generation is here, and Threads is going rouge. Here's what happened this week in digital marketing.

1. GA4 Update Issues Confirmed

Some Google Analytics 4 users noticed some data discrepancies, starting last week, November 13th. Now, we can confirm that this was an issue with a GA4 update. Some of these discrepancies included underreporting website traffic, historical data, channel attribution data, landing page metrics, and event tracking. As of November 18th, Google acknowledged the issues, stating: “We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Analytics. There is an issue affecting the generation of standard reporting tables. Granular reports (accessed via the explore module) and BigQuery exports are unaffected. We are working on restoring the reporting tables.” Keep an eye on your data and raise a red flag if it seems off to you!

2. Google is Cracking Down on Site Reputation Abuse

Google updated their site reputation abuse policy this week, with Chris Nelson from the Google Search Quality team quoted as saying: “We’ve heard very clearly from users that site reputation abuse – commonly referred to as ‘parasite SEO’ – leads to a bad search experience for people, and today’s policy update helps to crack down on this behavior.” Some examples of policy violations include:

• Educational sites hosting third-party payday loan reviews
• Medical sites publishing unrelated content about casino reviews
• Movie review sites featuring content about social media services
• Sports websites hosting third-party supplement reviews without editorial oversight
• News sites publishing coupon content from third parties without proper involvement

Site owners who violate this policy will receive notifications through Google Search Console. If they disagree with the decision, they can submit a reconsideration request.

3. Google Lens, Maps & Pay Are Aiming to Help Shoppers This Holiday Season

Google announced a new update this week that uses AI to improve in-store shopping this holiday season. This update includes:

• The ability for in-store shoppers to find reviews, compare prices, and look up inventory information by simply taking a picture of the item they’re interested in and uploading it to Google Lens.
• The ability to find similar items in nearby stores with the help of Google Maps’ product inventory search feature.
• Additional security features for Discover users and the addition of Afterpay on Google Pay

According to Google’s internal data: 

• 20 billion monthly visual searches via Lens.
• 45+ billion product listings in Shopping Graph.
• 72% of shoppers use smartphones while in-store.

These updates should make shopping easier for consumers while also increasing sales for retailers!

4. Google AI Overview Ads Are Launching on Mobile

AI Overview Ads have officially launched! US users have reported seeing them pop up on mobile devices this past weekend. This is just the beginning, as not everyone will have access to them immediately.

• Ads in AI Overviews appear to be live in the U.S. and are limited to mobile search results.
• Availability may still be in the testing phase, so not all users will see them immediately.

Why We Care: This is a fantastic new way to reach consumers directly. It could help boost visibility and engagement for those who participate.

5. Threads is Maintaining Its Momentum

There has been much talk about Bluesky recently, but Threads seems to be still holding on strong in the race to be X’s predecessor.  According to Appfigures, Threads was the most downloaded app on iOS devices and the sixth most downloaded app overall. What’s missing from this list? Bluesky. While Threads has 275 million users, Bluesky is still pretty far behind, with only 20 million users right now. X/Twitter is still ahead, but the Musk-run social media platform is still losing users. It’ll be interesting to follow this tread through the next few months to see which text-based social app comes out on top.

6. Threads is Taking Steps to Distance Itself From Instagram

The close connection between Instagram and Threads was stopping a lot of people from downloading the text-based social media platform. Now, that might not be an issue. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced that Threads is now moving into an independent phase. This is probably a great move, considering most people follow different types of accounts on different apps. Not everyone is going to be interested in following the same thing on Instagram that they want to follow in Threads. Why We Care: Threads could, eventually, be a place where you can reach a totally different audience than you do on Instagram. This would open up brands to connect with different sections of their audience in different ways.

7. So Long Hashtags!

Instagram announced this week that, as of December 13th, you’ll no longer be able to follow hashtags in the social media app. This is great news for those of us who want to cut down on scammers and spammers from hijacking trending hashtags with nonsense. On the flip side, it could negatively impact who is finding your content. One thing is clear: hashtags are still relevant on IG, just not as much as they used to be.

8. TikTok Launches AI Video Generation Tool

Are you struggling to create TikTok content? Symphony Creative Studio is helping advertisers create TikTok-style videos based on a simple product description or URL.  How it works:

• Brands input product info or assets, or import them from a URL.
• The AI generates multiple video options using licensed assets (from partners like Billo and Getty Images).
• Content is cleared for commercial use and designed to be TikTok-ready.

This new tool will revolutionize the use of TikTok for small brands or brands unfamiliar with video production or who lack experience with the app. We warn marketers not to rely 100% on AI, but to use it as an inspiration tool. 

9. TikTok Leads With Social CPMs Projected to Reach Record High

Speaking of TikTok, it’s leading the pack in CPMs.  TikTok’s US ad CPMs will rise 15.6% in Q1 2025, a bigger increase than CPMs on Meta, Snapchat, or YouTube, according to our forecast. eMarketer estimates the average TikTok CPM will be $7.03 in Q1, which, compared to Meta's rate of $12.53, is impressive. Overall, the gap is narrowing as TikTok matures and more ad dollars pour into the platform.

10. Consumers Are Warming Up to AI

According to a recent study by Yext, consumers are warming up to AI finding brand information for them. The study found that:

• 45% trust AI tools to find information
• 51% turn to social media
• 28% trust voice assistants

This isn’t terrible news for Google and traditional search options, though. Of those surveyed, 64% said that they still turn to a traditional search engine to find relevant and accurate information. While this study shows that consumers are exploring AI tools more, it also demonstrates that marketers still have the responsibility to diversify their sources of information. If you want to get discovered by new audiences, a mix of SEO content and content to support AI tools is your best bet.

11. Google Unveils 2025 Ads API Plan

Google’s releasing its 2025 plan for Google Ads API updates.  Here’s what you need to know:

• 3 major versions (V19, V20, V21)
• 2 minor updates (V19_1, V20_1)
• 12-month sunset window for each version

Key rollout dates:

• V19: February/March 2025 launch
• V20: Mid-year release
• V21: Q4 2025 rollout

Use this to plan accordingly! The staggered rollout time lets advertisers and developers know that there will be a significant amount of transition time between updates. 

Weekly Homework

• Keep an eye on your GA4 dashboard and report if your traffic count seems off.
• Explore ways to boost your business with Google’s new holiday purchasing updates.
• Consider adding Threads to your social media strategy to reach audiences that have abandoned your Twitter feed.
• Reevaluate the way you’re using hashtags on Instagram.
• Research ways to improve your brand’s ability to get your content noticed by AI search tools.

Digital Marketing News 11/11/2024 to 11/15/2024

This week: Google's launching ANOTHER core algorithm update this year, Instagram expands post boosting, Perplexity has new sponsored questions, and more. Here's what happened this week in digital marketing.

1. Did You Miss Google's Announcement? New Core Algorithm Update!

Google launched its November 2024 core update on Veteran’s Day, 11/11/2024. It will take about two weeks to roll out completely.  “There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page,” Google said previously. New information is coming out about Google’s November Core Updates and how it’s impacting businesses across the web. Enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge released preliminary observations about Google’s latest update. Here are their biggest takeaways:

• Prioritize genuine user value in content creation over keyword optimization.
• Don’t ignore the importance of your content that may not be on page 1 for your target keywords.
• Carefully monitor your AIO citations, as the data suggests there could be some fluctuations.
• The biggest industry-specific changes affected e-commerce, education, healthcare, and B2B tech.
• There are patterns in how AIO cites content with industry expertise appearing to gain prominence.

2. New Updates Make It Easier to Monetize YouTube Shorts

Advertising on YouTube Shorts just got better! YouTube announced this week that advertisers can now run campaigns exclusively in the Shorts feed. This matters because YouTube Shorts account for 40% of YouTube viewers who don’t actively use Instagram Reels or TikTok. In addition to new buying controls that allow advertisers to design campaigns specifically for YouTube Shorts, they also added:

• New measurement and performance tools
• Increased support for Creator Partnerships
• Interactive stickers for Shorts ads
• Animated image ads for Demand Gen campaigns
• AI-powered video enhancements

The goal is to enhance engagement and drive results for advertisers and creators alike. Are you interested?

3. Google Reports That PMax is Stable & Search CPCs Are Increasing

The latest Google Ads campaign data shows some interesting results. While PMax campaigns are delivering modest improvements, search campaigns are skyrocketing.  The key metrics for PMax showed:

• ROAS: Up 1% YoY
• CPA: Up 8% YoY
• CPC: Up 6% YoY
• Conversion Rate: Down 3% YoY

While key metrics for search campaigns showed:

• ROAS up 2% YoY
• CPA down 3% YoY
• CPC up 22% YoY
• Conversion rate up 21% YoY

Why We Care: While PMax has previously been the best way to reach your goals, at this point, it may be smarter to develop a balance of PMax and other campaign types to optimize performance and maximize your reach.

4. Google Gemini Is Available on iOS

Previously only available on Android, Google’s Gemini is breaking into the world of Apple. Apple users can now access Gemini Live. The AI app is available in 12 different languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Arabic, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Turkish, and Vietnamese.  Some key features include:

• The ability to have a conversation with Gemini Live
• Image creation
• Study support
• Extensions to connect with other Google apps, including YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and Calendar

Why We Care: This new connection could mean an increase in people finding your business through this AI connection.

5. Google Maps Adds Products

Google is making it easier for people to shop brick-and-mortar businesses! With the new upgrade announced this week, searchers can now find products nearby. They don’t even have to search for your specific business. When they enter the item they’re looking for in the search bar, Google will return a list of stores near them where they can purchase the item. This includes home goods, electronics, apparel, and grocery store goods. “Now, you can search in Google Maps for items like pickleball rackets, board games, ice cream makers and more to find nearby stores that have them in stock so you can pick up what you need, stat.” If you fall into one of these categories, be sure to head to Google Merchant Center to see how you can get your product featured in their new Maps feed.

6. Google's Local Guides Celebrates 8 Years

Are you a big Local Guides fan? The Google platform recently celebrated its 8th birthday but the jury is still out on whether or not this experiment has been successful or not. Over 150 million people have signed up to participate in the program. By adding their thoughts, answers, reviews, and other content to Google Maps, these “guides” are eligible for rewards. But some contributors are saying that the incentives are leading to a decline in quality UGC, with some people posting only to get the rewards and not actually helping the businesses.  Google still maintains that it’s a fun way to build community and promote local businesses. With the 10th anniversary just a few short years away, it’ll be interesting to see if Google continues the program or not.7. Google's Local Services Ads Mobile App Is Going Away If you use the Google Local Services Ads Mobile App, you’re going to need to get familiar with the website. The search engine giant announced this week that they will be sunsetting the app on January 6th to “streamline the experience and encourage users to leverage the full capabilities of the web-based platform.” It’ll be interesting to see if this affects Local Service Ads customers or not as they make the transition from app to website.

7. Seller & Product Ratings Are Combined In Google Ads

Gone are the days of separating seller and product ratings in your Google Ads! Now, they both will be shown in an effort to improve Google Shopping recommendations.  Key takeaways from this seemingly minor update include:

• Seller ratings reflect the overall store experience, including shipping, customer service and packaging.
• Product ratings are tied to individual items, covering quality, features, usability and customer satisfaction.
• Ads can now display either no ratings, one type, or both rating categories simultaneously.

Google says the goal is to help advertisers gain trust, boost visibility, and gain a more competitive advantage.

8. Advertisers May Be Returning to X, But Are Users?

X, formerly known as Twitter, saw another rapid decline in users this week, with more than 115,000 US users deleting their accounts the day after the US election. This isn’t great news for the troubled app, as it was the biggest mass exodus since the day Musk took over the company. However, it seems to be great news for Bluesky, an X rival. That app gained 1 million new users last week, bringing its total to 15 million. Experts are saying that the exodus may not affect X as much, with advertisers considering a return to the app as a way to “gain political leverage with the incoming administration.” It’s definitely something for marketers to keep an eye on. The app has lost 68% of its ad revenue since its peak in 2022. Will X be able to recover to its 2022 numbers?

9. Perplexity Tests Ads as Sponsored Follow-Up Questions

Sponsored questions are coming! Answers to these sponsored follow-up questions will be AI generated and will start appearing this week in Perplexity. How does it work?

• The ads will appear as follow-up questions and on the side of the answer
• All questions will be labeled as “sponsored”
• Brands are not sponsoring the questions, they are generated by Perplexity 

The first brands and agencies that are testing Perplexity’s new ad offering include Indeed, Whole Foods Market, and PMG.

10. Instagram Expands Boosting to Include More Post Types

Post boosting options are finally expanding on Instagram. But not all posts are boost-able.  Instagram’s latest update now allows for boosting with copyrighted music, GIFs, stickers and more. You do have to be running a Professional Account for these boosting options. Copyrighted music is still restricted, however users now have the option to switch out the song for one that is eligible to be boosted. These boosting post updates are now live in the app.

Weekly Homework

1. Listen to the Reddit Leadership AMA recording for ideas on taking advantage of the growing platform’s popularity.
2. Review your current SERP rankings to see if you’ve fallen victim to Google’s November Core Update.
3. If you’re a PMax fan, it’s time to evaluate your campaigns and see if you need to rebalance your campaign types in order to optimize performance.
4. If you’re a brick-and-mortar retailer, add your items to Google Merchant Center to increase your odds of ending up on Google Maps.
5. The Google Local Services Ads app is going away! Be sure to get familiar with the website before the app is sunsetted in January.
6. Consider whether Bluesky is worth adding to your social media marketing strategy or if you can continue to hold out.

Digital Marketing News 11/4/2024 to 11/8/2024

This week: Search Engine Journal releases recommendations for ranking in ChatGPT search,  chatbots are the most impactful AI tool to improve customer engagement, and new options to update your PMax campaigns. Read the stories now!

1. Do You Need a ChatBot?

Chatbots are continuing to become more popular and are central to enhancing the customer experience.  According to a September 2024 survey by Advanis and Sitecore, 38% of marketers globally recognize chatbots as the most impactful AI tool for improving customer engagement.  Additionally, a SAS survey conducted by Coleman Parkes Research in July 2024 reveals that 82% of marketing leaders are either utilizing or planning to implement AI chatbots in the next 6-12 months, underscoring the technology’s increasing adoption for customer interactions. This shows that marketers should look into chatbot implementation to align with customer expectations. How can you do that? 

• Offer product or service recommendations based on user preferences
• Provide 24/7 customer support by answering FAQs
• Give accurate order tracking updates
• Provide smoother onboarding experiences with instructions
• Engage customers through quizzes, polls, games, etc.
• Automate event sign-ups and send reminders 
• And more

2. Ask Me Anything About ChatGPT

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and a number of the OpenAI executives went live on Reddit for an AMA to answer questions about ChatGPT Search and other AI questions. There were lots of great questions and answers, but here are some of the biggest takeaways that marketers should focus on:

• The product is still in the early stages, and things will change.
• ChatGPT Search uses Bing as its main search engine, making Bing an important place to boost your visibility.
• ChatGPT users are accustomed to natural language interactions.
• OpenAI may use Reinforcement Learning at some point.
• Personalization will also be arriving to ChatGPT soon.

One of the biggest takeaways is that ChatGPT isn’t here as a rival to Google, but rather to provide a “completely different experience for searching the web.”

3. Get Your Website Ready for ChatGPT Search

Speaking of ChatGPT Search, Search Engine Journal has some recommendations on how to improve your site and your chances of getting crawled by the new AI tool. There are three bots that crawl your website:

• OAI-SearchBot, which looks for search functionality
• ChatGPTUser, which handles real-time user requests
• GPTBot, which manages AI model training

In order to improve your visibility, you have to appeal to each bot. Some of SEJ’s suggestions include adding:

• Source attribution
• Source sidebar
• Multiple citation opportunities
• Locations

They also said to refresh your content often and noted that pages behind paywalls can still be cited, as well as those URLs returning 404 errors.

4. Google Stresses the Need to Maintain Consistent Link Structures

Google updated its crawl budget guidelines this week, and it’s full of good stuff! If you aren’t familiar with what a crawl budget is, it refers to the number of pages Google will crawl and index on your website. Here are the highlights for this recent update:

• Large websites must ensure mobile versions contain all desktop links or risk slower page discovery.
• The update mainly impacts sites with over 10,000 pages or those experiencing indexing issues.
• Link structure consistency across mobile and desktop is now a Google-recommended best practice for crawl budget optimization.

The most important part is that your website should now have the same links on both mobile and desktop. To help you get your website into tip-top shape, here is some homework for you:

• Audit your website’s mobile and desktop link structures
• Update sitemaps to include all important URLs
• Verify that critical navigation paths are accessible on mobile versions
• Monitor crawl stats for potential discovery issues

5. YouTube Creators Now Have More Control Over Ad Partnerships

YouTube is super creator-friendly and this new improvement will only make it better!  Key highlights of this recent update include:

• Allowing Creators to initiate ad partnerships directly through YouTube instead of waiting for advertisers to come to them.
• Giving brands access to valuable organic metrics and clear usage rights when videos are linked through Google Ads.
• Protecting Creators by letting them restrict their content to only approved advertisers.

6. TikTok's "Q5" Holiday Guide

TikTok wants to make it easier for you to advertise after the holiday rush, so they released this new guide of opportunities in what they’re calling “Q5.” As they explain, “Q5, the period right after the holiday season, is a prime opportunity for brands to capture consumer attention. Audiences on TikTok are actively seeking new deals, trends, and products to kickstart their new year. Drive post-holiday sales during this hidden gem of a shopping moment.” It goes into a ton of data and detail, so if you’re selling on TikTok, you might want to download it today!

7. Reddit Sees Growth in Users AND Google Rankings

Reddit has been on a steady increase since last year, rising from 66 million daily users to 97 million daily users. But what does that mean for digital marketers? Well, according to The Information, “⁠Reddit’s content is now 4x more visible in Google’s search results than it was in July 2023.” That’s a big increase in visibility, especially if you’re working to increase your own! This could be due to Reddit’s deal with Google, but it could also be the fact that Reddit’s user base is growing significantly.  Will you be adding Reddit to your content marketing strategy?

8. You Can Now Customize Your PMax Campaigns

Google rolled out some new brand guidelines for Performance Max campaigns this week, and they have made an awesome improvement! Advertisers can now customize elements like their business names, colors, fonts, and logos to better align with their brand identity. Give yourself even more control over your brand identity. keeping everything consistent across ads on YouTube and across Google. Will this lead to measurable performance improvements? Time will tell, but we love that advertisers will have the ability to control their brand representation!

9. WordPress and WP Engine Updates

More news came out in regards to the Word Press & WP Engine saga this week.  Automattic and Matt Mullenweg filed their motion to dismiss the lawsuits, and their claims are much different from WP Engine’s take on the events. There are accusations of harmful community threats and trademark infringement.  Why we care: Both of these companies are a pretty significant part of the digital marketing community, so it’ll be interesting to see how the outcome of this lawsuit affects everyone.

Weekly Digital Marketing Homework

1. Review Google’s new crawl budget guidelines and see what you need to change on your site to align better.
2. Read the Reddit AMA about ChatGPT and SEO. Make a list of some ways you can improve your SEO using Reddit and ChatGPT.
3. Are you a YouTube Creator? Get familiar with the new advertiser controls!
4. Do you want to boost your sales with TikTok? You don’t have to stop after the holidays. Download their new guide to learn how to rock “Q5”!
5. Explore Google’s new brand guideline improvements in your Performance Max dashboard to see how you can add your brand’s colors, logos, and fonts to your Google Ads.

Digital Marketing News 10/28/2024 to 11/1/2024

This week: LinkedIn launched a post-boosting feature for lead generation campaigns, Meta's new search engine pushes to make it more independent, and call ads are being replaced. Here's what you missed this week in digital marketing.

1. LinkedIn Research: How Effective Are CTV Ads?

LinkedIn shared a project about the effectiveness of CTV ads for their audience.  Here’s some insights: 

• The majority of LinkedIn users consume CTV regularly
• CTV consumers are in management and decision-making roles
• Younger audiences like Millenials are most receptive to CTV ads

2. Will Meta's Newest Tool Decrease the Dependence on Google?

Meta’s user agent, Meta-External Agent, has been crawling the internet since last year. It makes sense since this is about the time the Meta AI function appeared on everyone’s profiles. Currently, Meta AI results have typically been presented with a link to Google Search, but Meta wants to change that. This week, we learned that Meta is developing its own search engine index to decrease its dependence on Google.

Could this be a foreshadowing of other big tech companies breaking off from their dependence on Google? Time will tell!

3. Google's Core Web Vitals Dashboard Gets an Upgrade

Google introduced Interaction to Next Paint (INP) in the spring but it’s already getting an upgrade.  This metric shows how long it takes for a site to respond to clicks, taps, and keyboard strokes. Since it can be much easier to get a higher INP score on a desktop than on a mobile device, Google thought that the way it was presented in the dashboard needed some changes. In order to take all devices into account, Chrome decided that the breakdown of good vs. bad scores should be as follows:

• Scores of under 200 ms (milliseconds) were chosen to represent a “good” score.
• Scores between 200 ms – 500 ms represent a “needs improvement” score.
• Performance of over 500 ms represent a “poor” score.

4. New Shopping Structured Data for Shipping Information

Speaking of technical SEO… Google is proposing new shopping structured data to give merchants even more freedom with shipping information. The new structured data will give merchants the opportunity to provide even more shipping details. It will offer sitewide shipping structured data, helping improve efficiency.

5. Google AI Overviews Are Growing... Again!

Google’s popular AI Overviews are growing! Previously, the snippets were only available in the United States but, as of this week, they are now available in over 100 countries, reaching 1 billion monthly users. Better yet, the snippets are now available in multiple languages, including English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Users can set their language preferences regardless of their geographical location. This update also included an advertising integration. Currently, ads are only available for mobile users in the United States, and they will be labeled as either organic or sponsored results. It’ll be interesting to see how these updates impact Google AI Overviews across the board.

6. Is Your Canonical URL Giving You Trouble? Google Has Some Tips

Google’s John Mueller has heard your cries about incorrect canonical URLs and he has something to say about it. When you have multiple URLs for the same content, Google will choose one to be the representative for search results reasons unless you tell it otherwise. This is known as the canonical URL.  There are three ways to indicate which URL is the canonical one:

• Redirecting duplicate pages to the preferred URL (a strong signal)
• Use the rel=canonical link attribute to specify the preferred URL (a strong signal)
• List the preferred URL in the sitemap (a weak signal)

When it comes to canonical URLs, Mueller says this: “If you have a strong preference, it’s best to make that preference very obvious, by making sure everything on your site expresses that preference – including the link-rel-canonical in the head, sitemaps, internal links, etc.” So, if you feel really passionate about this topic, check those codes!

7. YouTube is Adding New Tools to Help Creators

YouTube wants to make it easier to produce and manage content on its platform. This week, they rolled out a number of new creator tools, including an expansion of its AI-generated video summaries.  This upgrade includes:

• AI-generated video summaries globally for English content
• A reorganized mobile Studio app with sections for different video formats, simplified visibility of monetization status, and scheduled content filters
• New AI tools to manage comments and access an interactive support chatbot

What do you think of these new YouTube tools?

8. LinkedIn: Post Boosting for Lead Generation

Have you been creating lead generation content? LinkedIn’s new post-boosting feature allows you to turn these organic posts into targeted ads to capture high-quality leads.  Here’s a quick setup guide:

1. Select the post you want to promote
2. Select your budget, targeting options, campaign objective, and campaign end date
3. Complete your lead form template to capture the correct prospect information
4. Launch your campaign

LinkedIn boasts about its 2 billion member interactions with company Pages each month. As the ultimate B2B social media platform, this new feature creates an efficient way to increase visibility and engagement. 

9. Is Bluesky the New Twitter Replacement?

Although Threads is still thought to be Twitter’s successor, Bluesky is now emerging as a serious contender for the crown. This week, the app announced that it is now up to 13 million users worldwide. They got a big bump thanks to X’s blocking updates but they still have ongoing funding issues after Elon pulled out of his original deal with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to pledge $13 million to the app as part of a five-year service agreement. Will you be exploring the idea of adding Bluesky to your content marketing strategy or will you wait it out for a little bit longer?

10. X Steps Back From It's "Everything App" Idea

Speaking of X and Elon Musk, the social platform withdrew its payment process application in New York this week. Musk previously said that he wanted to make X an “everything app,” meaning it could handle everything you need in one place. However, this application withdrawal is a big step back from that plan. It’s also a hit to the app’s ability to enable direct in-stream shopping and facilitate funds transfers. While it has been granted the payment transmitted licenses in 38 US states, the inability to get the New York license is a hit to their plans. This could be due to a recent legal filing in New York, where the state questions whether X has the “general fitness and character to hold such licenses.” I guess time will tell if X is going to re-think its strategy or re-apply for the necessary licenses.

11. Is Your Instagram Reel Looking Blurry? Meta May Be to Blame

Instagram boss, Adam Mosseri, recently explained that the social media platform can reduce or increase the quality of Stories and Reels based on the engagement the content is receiving.  During his weekly Q&A Live, he was asked about some Stories looking blurry. This was his response: “In general, we want to show the highest quality video we can when someone is watching a Story or Reel […] But if something isn’t watched for a long time, because the vast majority of views are in the beginning [after initial posting], we will move to a lower quality video, and then if it’s watched again a lot, then we’ll re-render the higher quality video.” He also explained, however, that they are working on algorithmic shifts to help benefit smaller creators. These changes should boost their views and limit the amount of times their video quality is downgraded.

12. Google Ads Are Still Going Strong

It’s no secret that Google has found itself amid mounting regulatory and legal challenges. However, that hasn’t changed Google Ad performance.  Just this week, parent company Alphabet, announced that Google’s revenue rose 10% from last year to cap out at $54.85 billion in Q3. While this is across the board, it’s worth noting that Search and others was up 12% to $49.39 billion, thanks to large increases from financial services and retail marketers. YouTube also recorded a 12% growth in that same year-to-year period, reaching $8.92 billion in revenue last quarter. Seems like the legal challenges aren’t slowing this tech giant down!

13. Google's New Pilot Feature

Speaking of Google, they’re piloting a new asset type that relies on customizable AI-enhanced headlines to target customers.  The catch?  These ads target user search intent, all within a single search ad. Business Links work similar to sitelinks, but have more flexibility. 

1. Customized Headlines: Advertisers can add up to three headlines per link. This helps one add reach a broader audience and satisfies user intent.
2. AI Enhancements: Google AI generates additional headlines and optimizes content in real-time

Advertisers can add a Business Link at the account, campaign or ad group level. Each link requires: 

• Headlines: Up to three, 30-character headlines.
• Description: One 90-character description.
• Final URL: The landing page URL for the link.

Advertisers can pause or fully remove a business link as needed. 

14. AI Tool for Large Advertisers - Next Google Test

It seems like Google is constantly releasing new tools and updates. Here’s another for you - “Search Bidding Exploration.”  This new AI tool, while still in beta, will identify valuable, low-traffic search queries for your brand. Here’s how to use it:

• Find converting queries that get less traffic.
• Automatically adjusting tROAS targets (up to 10% lower).
• Expand reach beyond historically successful search terms.

Google’s latest AI test will automatically adjust tROAS targets and broaden keyword matches for those who won’t be too dramatic about negative results — those with unlimited budgets.

15. Call Ads Become Responsive Search Ads

If you're an advertiser, listen up. Google is requiring advertisers to upgrade call ads to responsive search ads format. What you need to know:

• All new call ads will require a landing page.
• Business names must be added at campaign or account level.
• Existing call ads without final URLs won’t automatically migrate.

Action Items: 

1. Upload business name.
2. Add final URLs to existing call ads.
3. Create new ads in responsive search ad format.

Take action now. Otherwise your call ads might see poor performance.

16. Google to Demote Content That Doesn't Match Web Content

Always trying to improve their algorithm and search results, Google confirmed this week that they will demote content that is “independent or starkly different from the main content of the site.” They say that it will help them surface the most useful information from a range of sites. This situation became the talk of the town as a result of sites like Fortune Recommends, Forbes Advisor, APNews Buyline, Time Stamped, WSJ Buyside, and CNN Underscored seeing huge declines in certain sections of their websites. Originally thought to be due to the site reputation abuse policy, Google stated that that policy is not live and only enforced manually.  They called back to a statement made in 2019 posted on X. Why We Care: If you are creating content that is all over the place, you might want to reconsider that strategy. Stick to your site’s overall content theme or lane if you want your rank to continue to climb the SERP.

Weekly Digital Marketing Homework

• Check out your site’s INP in the Google Search Console to see if you need to improve your reaction speed.
• Consider adding Google AI Overview ads into your content marketing strategy.
• Make sure your site’s canonical URL is correct by following John Mueller’s instructions listed above.
• If you’re looking to spice up your content marketing strategy, check out Bluesky. The rapidly growing social media platform may be Twitter’s successor.
• Perform a site audit and nix any content that seems too unrelated or starkly different from your general theme to reduce the chances of a declining ranking.

Digital Marketing News 10/21/2024 to 10/25/2024

This week: PMax is no longer the priority over Google Shopping Ads, PMax has a variety of new updates, and there's some new experiments going on. Let's dive into this week's digital marketing news.

1. Google Brings a Big Change to the Relationship Between Performance Max and Standard Shopping Interact

Struggling with the relationship between your PMax and regular Google Shopping campaigns? Google is doing something about it! Now, instead of PMax taking priority over Standard Shopping Campaigns, Google says, “normal auction dynamics will now apply and the campaign with the highest Ad Rank will serve.” So, what does this mean for digital marketers? Well, now you can increase your Standard Shopping Hero products without waiting for the Pmax to run out of budget. According to Google Ads Liaison, “The rollout of this change is now complete. You can adjust ROAS and Budgets for both PMax and Shopping campaigns to guide campaign spend as needed.” It’ll definitely be interesting to see how this affects brands as we head into BFCM and the big holiday season!

2. Video-Enabled Shopping Ads in Search Results

Google’s experimenting with shopping ads. In their latest test, users can watch a product video right in the SERPs. Shopping ads are shown with a video “play” button. Then, when a user hovers over the video the icon moves into a watch button. Once clicked on, the user will see the product ad in a loop. There’s pros and cons here. One pro is that users can view product videos directly, meaning ads could benefit from higher interaction rates. One pro is that it could reduce traffic to your  landing page significantly. These tests are similar to the expanded product ads in carousels last week. Both tests are moving to make the search experience more interactive. 

3. Page-Specific Assets for PMax Campaigns

Speaking of PMax, Google Ads is now letting you generate tailored creative content for specific web pages.  How does it work? Input a list of specific web pages and Google Ads will generate customized video and image assets. They will be automatically optimized to match the specific, unique content on those pages over time.  Why We Care: Advertisers can expect Google to deliver ad creatives that are more aligned with the context of the page, improving control over the creative elements of an ad. Over time these page-specific assets will help improve ad relevance and performance. 

4. AI-Asset Testing for PMax

Once more Pmax specific story this week. To improve capabilities, Google will integrate its advanced Imagen 3 AI model into advertising tools in the near future. These new updates are meant to boost ad performance and simplify workflows for advertisers.  Creative Tools:

• Imagen 3 AI model creates high-quality ad visuals.
• New sharable previews work without Google Ads login.
• AI automatically adapts videos for different formats and lengths.

Testing Capabilities:

• Asset experiments for Performance Max (coming in beta).
• Final URL expansion testing.
• Performance impact measurement tools.

Campaign Management:

• Ad Rank now determines serving priority between Standard Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
• Improved flexibility in managing multiple campaign types.

These features will launch in beta before the end of the year. 

5. Google Ads is Getting an Upgrade for the Holidays

Is it already Christmas? Because this announcement from Google sure feels like it!  The tech giant announced this week that Google Ads is getting an upgrade, including:

• Sharable Ad Previews - simply creative reviews and approvals across the board
• Asset Experiments - test different combinations to see how they impact campaign performance
• Test Final URL expansion - see which landing page will get you better results

Sharable Ad Previews are available to everyone now, while the Asset Experiments and Test Final URL expansion tools will be rolling out later this year.

6. Google Wants You to Focus on Value - Not Numbers

John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate, recently took to Reddit to let marketers and web developers know that value and quality are still what will get you noticed – not third party metrics. He described these third-party tools as sometimes pushing quick fixes but that many of these tactics are “smoke & mirrors.” Instead of focusing on these quickly evolving numbers, he tells marketers to focus on the quality of their content. “If you want to think about the long term, finding ways to add real value that’s unique and wanted by people on the web (together with all the usual SEO best practices as a foundation) is a good target. … It’s hard, it takes a lot of work, and it can take a lot of time. If it were fast and easy, others would be – and probably are already – doing it.” Will this insight from Google itself change the way you approach content creation and marketing?

7. New Study Shows that Google AI Overviews Still Have Work to Do

According to a new study from The College Investor, Google’s AI Overviews have a lot of work to do, at least in terms of its personal finance searches. The results of this study showed some interesting statistics after running personal finance search queries. Of the queries tested:

• 57% were accurate
• 43% contained misleading or inaccurate information
• 12% were completely incorrect
• 31% were either misleading or missing crucial details

The results seemed to show that Google AI can handle basic definitions, simple or straightforward questions, and recent trending topics. Topics like complex tax topics, nuanced financial products, time-sensitive or state-specific questions, and investment comparisons fell short. Looking ahead, we’re sure that Google will continue to adapt and redefine its search results so that its users can count on the presented information. But right now? They aren’t there quite yet.

8. Blocked... Or Not: X is Diluting the Power of Blocking

It’s no secret that X, formerly known as Twitter, has been undergoing some serious reorganization since Elon Musk took over the app. Since he learned that he’s one of the most blocked people on the app, he has taken up the aspect of blocking in general. According to a post from X Engineering, “If your posts are set to public, accounts you have blocked will be able to view them, but they will not be able to engage (like, reply, repost, etc.).” Musk says that this change makes sense since, technically, the blocked user could just log in on another account to view the public posts. But some experts say this change could cause problems across this and other social media platforms. So far, this change hasn’t rolled out yet but we should expect to see it in the very near future.

9. Threads is Joining the Analytics Game

Do you want to check your Threads analytics on mobile? Now you can!  Meta has added new mobile analytics to help users evaluate and understand their performance on the text-based social media platform. Although desktop analytics were launched back in August, it wasn’t until now that mobile users could see the same data. Now that this is possible, could it push Threads into the conversation of must-have social media platforms for brands and businesses? Not all users have this function yet but Meta is actively working on rolling out the analytics on both iOS and Android apps this week.

10. Developers Can Watermark AI-Generated Text

According to TechCrunch, Google is making SynthID Text, which will allow developers to add watermarks to any AI-generated text.  “Today, we’re open sourcing our SynthID Text watermarking tool,” the company wrote in a post on X. “Available freely to developers and businesses, it will help them identify their AI-generated content.” Watermarking AI-generated text could help flag inaccurate and fake information. And Google’s not the only company working on it. Stay tuned to see how widely adopted these watermarks become for AI-generated content. 

11. YouTube Adds New Stickers for Polls

Shorts are getting an upgrade. YouTube has added a new poll sticker option for Shorts. Start driving more engagement as you ask your audience for their opinions. Previously, you had to create a poll post, or by asking users to comment on your videos. Now, similar to Instagram, you can just add a sticker.

12. Are You Running Meta Ads? Check Your Account!

This week, Meta implemented a new function that allows their system to make “automatic adjustments” to advertising accounts, without explicit advertiser approval. Now the system can:

• Pause or activate campaigns.
• Adjust budgets up or down.
• Consolidate ad accounts.
• Make changes without notifying advertisers.
• Consolidate audience segmentations and more.

If you don’t like the idea of Meta automatically optimizing your campaign’s performance, you can opt out by clicking the button under “Automated Rules.” The biggest issue with this update is that it was rolled out silently, which caused a lot of confusion among digital marketers. Long story short, check your accounts immediately to see if this automatic optimization is working for you or if you should continue to run your campaigns manually.

13. Google and Yahoo Update New Rules for Bulk Email Senders

If you’re sending out bulk emails, you need to check out this update.  Back in February of this year, Google and Yahoo announced new rules for bulk email senders. They wanted to streamline the ability to authenticate outgoing emails, report spam, and make unsubscribing from lists easier. While this is not news, what is news is that Cox.net users are now being managed by Yahoo, which means Yahoo’s rules will now apply to Cox.net users. This is a big deal because Cox is one of the largest broad consumer providers in the country.  This means that you need to treat all Cox.net emails the same way you treat other Yahoo-managed domains, including aol.com, netscape.com, frontier.net, rogers.com, sky.com, and verizon.net. If you’ve been noticing some fluctuations in your email marketing metrics, check your subscriber list to see if this could be the reason behind it.

14. Instagram Reels Experiment: Pro Tips

Instagram is ready to help you create better-performing Reels to boost their content performance and reach.  It’s still being tested, but this feature could help you better understand what works best in Reels, highlighting the aspects that drive reach in the app. These new notes will give you context to the most impactful element for each Reel. If you tap on that prompt, you’ll get an even better breakdown of notes, helping improve engagement.

15. Google Drops Sitelinks Search Box

This is the end of a Google feature launched ten years ago. As of November 21, 2024, the Sitelinks Search box will be retired in all languages and regions. This little box gave users a quick way to search your site while looking for other information on the SERP. Citing lack of use, Google is now in the process of removing it.  Recently posted on the Google Search Center blog, they said, "over time, we’ve noticed that usage has dropped. [To] help simply the search results, we’ll be removing this visual element starting on November 21, 2024.” This change will impact users who have added sitelinks search box structured data to their site. However, Google says there’s no need to remove that data, claiming that “unsupported structured data like this won’t cause issues in Search, and won’t trigger errors in Search Console reports.” Why We Care: While there was a drop in usage, that doesn’t mean all users stopped using it. If you’re one of the few who received a lot of traffic from this feature, you may see a reduction in traffic after its removal.

Weekly Digital Marketing Homework

• Explore the changes between PMax and Google Shopping to see if it will affect your holiday marketing strategy.
• Were you affected by Meta’s new “automatic optimization?” Better check those Meta ads asap!
• If you’ve seen some issues with your email marketing deliverability, could it be due to Cox.net being taken over by Yahoo?
• Check whether your site relies on Google’s Sitelinks Search box. If it does, you’re probably going to lose some organic search traffic when Google takes those little boxes away. Explore other options to boost that traffic so it doesn’t cause a real impact on your conversion rate.