This week: holiday sales are already smashing records, chatbots can save you money, and wait until you hear about how well programmatic display ads are performing on social media.
Here’s what’s been happening in digital marketing.
Cyber Monday Sales Top $9 Billion
Cyber Monday sales set a new record this year, surpassing $9 billion.
According to Adobe Analytics, consumers dropped $9.4 billion in online purchases. That’s an increase of 19.7% year-over-year.
Mobile transactions took in $3.1 billion. That’s also a record.
During peak hours on Cyber Monday (between 11PM to midnight Eastern Time) consumers spent $12 million on average every minute.
On a related note, Amazon said that Cyber Monday was its biggest shopping day ever.
Black Friday Digital Sales Break Record
Black Friday this year set a new record in sales.
According to Salesforce, shoppers spent $7.2 billion in U.S. digital sales alone. That’s an increase of 14% year-over-year.
On a worldwide scale, sales hit $20 billion.
Mobile sales accounted for more than half of all ecommerce transactions on Black Friday. That’s an increase of 35% from 2018.
Thanksgiving sales were up as well, surpassing $4.4 billion. Mobile sales accounted for just under half of that figure.
Salesforce predicts that online holiday sales will increase by about 15% this year.
Study: Chatbots Saved Businesses $300,000 on Average This Year
It looks like chatbots can boost your bottom line.
According to a recent study by Intercom, businesses saved $300,000 on average in 2019 with chatbots.
The study also found that 74% of consumers expect to encounter a chatbot on a website. Still, 87% of those polled said they prefer to talk to a live human being.
Sales departments are the primary users of chatbots in businesses, followed by support departments.
Google: Use Either Relative or Absolute URLs for Internal Linking
Did you ever wonder if you get any more “bang for your buck” with absolute versus relative URLs when it comes to internal linking?
According to Google, it doesn’t matter.
During a recent Google Webmaster Central hangout, someone asked John Mueller if it’s best to use absolute or relative URLs.
Mueller gave two responses.
If the site is perfectly structured, he said to use “whatever makes sense.”
If the site isn’t perfectly structured, Mueller said that there might be some benefit to using absolute URLs. But even in that case, you can still help Google find the preferred versions of URLs with canonicals.
So you can use absolute or relative URLs in either case.
Video Creators Concerned About Upcoming YouTube Ad Policy Changes
At the beginning of next year, YouTube will make some ad policy changes that have content creators up in arms.
Here’s what’s happening: in an effort to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), YouTube will stop serving personalized ads to children.
Why? Because that’s not allowed under COPPA.
The concern for video producers is that they don’t know how YouTube will determine which videos are intended for kids and which ones aren’t.
However, it looks like YouTube has a definite set of criteria for content that’s designed for kids. For example, content that puts an emphasis on children’s characters, popular children’s programming, or stories using children’s toys would get flagged as children’s content.
Still, there could be some grey area. And if the history of online protection has taught us anything, it’s that platforms tend to err on the side of caution.
Google Allows Businesses to Add a Custom List of Services to GMB Listings
Google recently updated Google My Business (GMB) so that you can list the types of services you offer customers.
Even better, the platform will provide a list of suggested services that you can choose from. Examples include “Install a faucet” and “Repair a toilet.”
If the service you offer isn’t listed in Google’s suggestions, you can add your own.
Report: Paid Social Performed Better Than Expected in 2019
According to a new report from eMarketer, social networks will make up a larger share of programmatic digital display than originally anticipated.
Here’s what the report says:
“Since our April 2019 forecast, we’ve increased our estimates for social as a portion of total programmatic thanks to stronger-than-expected performance from social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, and ongoing expectations that advertisers will continue to seek out social networks and other walled gardens over the next 24 months.”
This year, advertisers in the U.S. will spend more than $57 billion on programmatic display ads. Over half of that will go to ads on social networks.
Forecast: Snapchat Usage Will Grow 14% This Year
It looks like Snapchat had a pretty good 2019.
Research firm eMarketer is upping its estimates for total Snapchat users for 2019. It’s also increasing the number of projected users on the platform through 2023.
“By the end of the year, Snapchat will have 293.01 million users worldwide, up 14.2% over last year,” the report says. “That’s an upward adjustment from 281.27 million in our Q2 forecast. With higher growth rates built into our new forecast, we expect Snapchat to add more than 63 million users by the end of 2023, vs. our previously estimated 52 million.”
Snapchat has grown every quarter this year as well as year-over-year.
Google: Don’t Follow the SEO Strategies of Big Websites
So you think you can make a fortune by mimicking the SEO practices of your favorite mega-sites? Think again.
Recently on Reddit, John Mueller responded to a person who asked whether it’s better to follow Google’s advice or imitate what big sites are doing.
Mueller said that it’s a bad idea to follow the lead of large sites for one very simple reason: they often get it wrong.
Apparently, bigger isn’t always better.
Twitter Is Testing Tweet Scheduling
If you like to schedule tweets so they don’t flood your followers’ feeds, you’ll want to pay attention to this story.
Twitter recently confirmed that it’s testing a new option to schedule tweets.
It works just like you’d expect. As you’re composing a tweet, you’ll have the option to schedule it to post at a later time.
The new feature could put pressure on social media management platforms like Hootsuite and Buffer. Part of the attraction of those tools is the ability to schedule social media posts.
Tweet scheduling on https://t.co/8FModRv1sl? Yes please! Starting today, we’re experimenting with bringing one of @TweetDeck’s handiest time-saving features into Twitter. Tell us what you think if you’re part of the experiment. pic.twitter.com/4pI9xrbPEP
— TweetDeck (@TweetDeck) November 20, 2019
Pinterest Launches Shop for Businesses That Sell Products
It looks like Pinterest is trying to eat into some of Etsy’s market share.
The company just launched a new dashboard called Pinterest Shop. It showcases the profiles and products of small businesses.
As of now, Pinterest Shop includes 17 businesses that sell products and shared their catalogs with Pinterest. The company said it will continue to update the dashboard with products from other companies.
If you’re interested in landing a spot on Shop, feel free to share your story with Pinterest.
Google Confirms Update to How Local Search Results Surface
This past week, Google confirmed that it made an update affecting local search results.
Specifically, the local search algorithm now includes something called “neural matching.” That’s just a fancy way of saying that it’s using a thesaurus on steroids.
Neural matching enables Google to understand the meaning behind queries and match them with relevant businesses. In some cases, business listings will surface even if they don’t include the specific keywords used in the query.
That should be a good thing. Time will tell.
Google says that, although the update has finished rolling out, the current results aren’t set in stone. In other words, you might see some more changes in the coming weeks.
Weekly Homework:
There’s a lot to unpack in the current round of digital marketing news. Here are a few takeaways:
- Check your local search presence. See if the algorithm update affected your listing positively or negatively. Consider what changes you need to make if you took a hit.
- If you’re running a small business that sells products, tell your story to the Pinterest crowd to see if you qualify for Pinterest Shop.
- If you’re blindly following the SEO strategy of another company, reevaluate what you’re doing to see if you can get even better results.
- List all the services you offer on your Google My Business page.
- If you work with a company that could benefit from a chatbot, make the investment. You’ll likely save some money in the long run.
