Technology News and Industry Knowledge

Bing has added aggregated ratings, expert reviews, product specifications and the ability to compare historic prices across sellers to its shopping search engine, the company announced Thursday. Examples of Bing Shopping results featuring aggregated and expert ratings. Image: Bing. Clicking on the details within a shopping result takes the user to Bing’s detail page for that product (shown below). There, users can compare buying options, check out the price history, see excerpts from expert reviews and view product specifications. Bing Shopping’s new product detail page experience (left) compared with Google Shopping’s product detail page (right). Why we care. These at-a-glance features may facilitate comparison shopping between products. Historical pricing data may also help users make buying decisions as well as inform marketers of how competitive their pricing is. In addition, these updates help Bing reach parity with (and in some regards, surpass) Google’s shopping s...

Last year's incoming class of CMOs saw a "steep dropoff" in racial and ethnic diversity despite a deluge of brands pledging to improve hiring practices. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/almost-half-of-cmos-are-women-but-role-slips-on-other-diversity-fronts-st/599382/

It’s common to hear “content is king” in the SEO industry. Although I agree with that statement, it should not be applied cart blanche for every single site in every single situation. In fact, there are cases in which adding too much low-value content can have the opposite effect for SMBs and local businesses. The situation. Last year, Sterling Sky worked with a personal injury lawyer client in Florida that wasn’t ranking very well for some of the main keywords that they were targeting. Prior to working with us, the law firm had another company set up dozens of boilerplate service area pages targeting social security disability terms. Each page was focused on an individual city or service area but provided no real value to the users who visited those pages. The issue. The pages had the following characteristics: Very similar content. The location served as the main difference in most of the service area pages. This is a common tactic for businesses that target multiple areas in...

Researcher eMarketer predicts Amazon's U.S. ad business will grow 30% this year to exceed $20 billion for the first time, and surpass $30 billion by 2023. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/amazons-ad-sales-soar-77-as-marketers-target-online-shoppers/599340/

Along with an influencer partnership, the Frito-Lay brands are asking people to vote on their favorite snack for a chance to win branded merch. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/cheetos-doritos-face-off-in-flamin-hot-social-media-contest/599341/

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily. Good morning, Marketers, let’s talk about the cycle of spam and why some of you may be led down the wrong path without even knowing. In the newsletter items below you will read about how Google released its webspam report for 2020, saying how spam is increasing but Google’s efforts to detect and ultimately block spam from its search results are improving. If there is one guarantee in life, outside of taxes and death, is that as long as search engines are popular, spam will always be a concern for Google and those search engines. In What We’re Reading below, I listed an article I wrote (I also did read it after I wrote it, which is rare): Brands Value Domain Authority Because They Mistakenly Think Google Values It . It is a vicious circ...

When advertisers upload a customer list, Google will now show them the estimated match rate (the percentage of the list that is usable with Customer Match ) the company announced Thursday. Match rate data is also be available for previously uploaded customer lists as well. The estimated match rate is shown after advertisers upload a customer list. Image: Google. Improving your match rate. To get the most out of your customer lists and increase your match rate, Google recommends adding as much customer information as you can: “Advertisers who uploaded two types of customer information saw an average list size increase of 28%, and with three types they saw an increase of 35%.” Keeping your customer lists up-to-date can also provide Google with more information to reach your audience. Traffic and conversions for Customer Match lists increased by an average of 17% after they’ve been updated, according to Google’s internal data. A suggestion to update a Customer Match list withi...

The latest gamified activation from the digital financial services firm demonstrates the power of a dollar while supporting healthcare workers. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/ally-reemploys-ar-for-new-instant-win-mobile-game/599223/

Earnings reports released on Wednesday show that Facebook nearly doubled its Q1 earnings compared to last year. Revenue from advertising was up 146% compared to 2020 while daily active users only increased 8%. The increase was driven largely by an uptick in ad prices, according to the CFO outlook commentary on the earnings report: “We are pleased with the strength of our advertising revenue growth in the first quarter of 2021, which was driven by a 30% year-over-year increase in the average price per ad and a 12% increase in the number of ads delivered.” COVID affects reporting numbers. When pulling your own numbers, it’s important to remember that metrics for most businesses may be off one way or another this year as COVID lockdown began in Q1 of 2020 and lingered for the rest of the year. As such, numbers may have been lower or stagnant in 2020, making 2021 seem exceptionally high (or even low depending on your or your client’s business). COVID accelerated digital advertising. ...

Warner Bros. again tapped agency Movers + Shakers to develop a viral campaign that blends the right mix of creative elements with an understanding of the app's user base. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-godzilla-vs-kong-notches-monster-views-tiktok/599213/

The deal with TikTok and Enthusiast Gaming reinforces E.l.f.'s commitment to empowering women in the historically male-dominant gaming world. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/elf-cosmetics-courts-gamers-with-tiktok-talent-series/599258/

Buzz around one-of-a-kind digital images sold as nonfungible tokens is drawing interest from brands looking to drive publicity for their campaigns. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/general-mills-auctions-nfts-to-promote-return-of-chocolate-dunkaroos/599239/

The tech giant's increasingly essential Services business saw 27% revenue growth to $16.9 billion on the quarter as subscriptions hit 660 million. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/apple-revenue-up-54-as-services-hit-all-time-high/599276/

The social media giant predicts revenue growth may slow by the second half of this year as Apple limits ad tracking. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/facebook-ad-revenue-surges-46-as-marketer-demand-lifts-prices/599257/

Already a billion-dollar industry in China, live e-commerce is a trend to watch in the U.S. this year as it offers a more immersive shopping experience. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/livestreaming-popularity-set-to-grow-in-2021-coresight-research-forecasts/599288/

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily. Good morning, Marketers, and are you the kind of person who needs background noise to work? I’m the kind of person who relishes working in absolute silence. Maybe I need to hear the cogs of my own brain turning in order to sort things out, but there’s nothing like listening to just … nothing. My partner, on the other hand, is a verbal processor. In order to work through things, he has to talk through them. Opposites attract? And thanks to COVID work from home, we have been working from the same townhouse for over a year now. We’ve made it work by separating our working spaces by an entire floor (yes, I shoved him in the basement) and by setting boundaries about when he can come up and work through his work ideas via word waterfalls. I...

Google detected 40 billion pages of spam every day in 2020, which is up from the previous year by 60%. These 40 billion pages included hacked sites, deceptively created sites, and other forms of web spam, scams and fraud. Google announced its new webspam report for 2020 that can be accessed here . AI helps. Google has credited advancements in AI with having reduced sites with auto-generated and scraped content from showing up in its search results “by more than 80% compared to a couple of years ago,” the company said. While hacked spam was “still rampant in 2020,” Google said they improved “detection capability by more than 50%” which resulted in the company removing most of hacked spam from its search results. Google shared this cute graphic to show how it fights spam: COVID. Google also said it focused a lot of protecting searchers from misinformation around the pandemic. They “devoted significant effort in extending protection to the billions of searches” on such important...

Google has released a new version of the Google Ads API . This is version 7.0, which is an upgrade from version 6.1.0 which was released on April 10, 2021. What is the Google Ads API. The Google Ads API lets you programmatically interface with your Google Ads accounts so that you can automatically bring in reporting to your own stack, and/or build in procedures to automate your ad creation, change your bids or bidding strategies and more. The API enables developers to interact directly with the Google Ads platform. Some features include… Automated account management Custom reporting Ad management based on inventory Manage Smart Bidding strategies What is new in version 7.0. There is a full list of changes in the release notes if you want to do a deep dive, but here are some highlights: New assets for test accounts including callout assets, structured snippet assets, and sitelinks assets Promotion assets are available both in production and test accounts The API now sup...

You’ve audited websites a lot of times and probably used different tools to identify the issues that harm SEO and UX. While this process is nothing new to you, there might be different ways to look at it and new tools to try out.  This post will show you how to efficiently audit a website using a US-based marketing agency site as an example. We’ve purposefully selected a website from Google’s page 2—by studying its backbone, we’ll try to figure out if any technical flaws can hold this website back from success. Chances are those are the same common issues the updated SE Ranking’s Website Audit detected on 170K+ websites in the last couple of months:  Get the big picture before diving into details When you audit a website, you may feel eager to immediately start fixing all the errors detected by an auditing tool. However, we find it really beneficial to study the big picture before tackling all the issues. Try to get a holistic view of your website’s technical health ...

With all of the changes Google has been making over the past year, including its cookieless world, and as we begin to enter the new post-normal, marketers are looking to reinvent their search strategies — especially personalization. But where do you start? Join Adthena for a live webinar and learn how to adapt to the new post-normal. Register for “Why Google’s Cookieless Data Policy Isn’t The Only Concern in Search Marketing,” presented by Adthena. The post Why Google’s cookieless data policy isn’t the only concern in search marketing appeared first on Search Engine Land . Via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1BDlNnc

Most brands aren’t operating full newsrooms and don’t have the capacity to cover breaking news, but there are still ways to participate in relevant, newsworthy conversations — and surveys are a great option. See how you can utilize surveys to add value to conversations, and earn the interest of writers at top publications.

It’s been nearly nine years since Google rolled out its Disavow Tool. This guide covers how and when to use it, and the potential risks and benefits.

Google has added a new feature to report an indexing issue directly to their search team. You can access this feature in the footer of URL inspection help document and indexing coverage report document. Google is “currently piloting this in the US only and it should be fully available to all in the US within a week or less,” the company said . Report an indexing issue. The feature is designed for those who need further support with indexing issues outside of the the Google “community forums and support documentation.” Where to access this. You can access this button, if you are in the United States, in the footer of the URL inspection help document and indexing coverage report document . This is what it looks like: What it asks for. “This form collects issues raised by site owners when trying to fix Indexing issues with their site in Google Search. A verified Search Console account is a prerequisite for site owners to report issues. Please visit the Google Search Central Help C...

In the debut iteration of its broader "I See A Taco" push, the brand will give away tacos on a night when the moon looks like one. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/taco-bell-turns-the-moon-into-a-billboard-for-its-first-global-campaign/599139/

"Outside Academy" is available as a photo overlay on Instagram and has location-enabled features for road trips through Zion, Yosemite and more. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/hyundai-touts-hybrid-cars-in-nat-geos-ar-series-on-national-parks/599170/

The 138-year-old label's first major effort with agency Johannes Leonardo extends an experimental approach to media, including through five-second ads. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/oscar-mayer-introduces-extensive-brand-refresh-with-pop-art-ads/599190/

Marissa Jarratt details a new campaign positioning the brand as an "ingenious accomplice" and how she's approaching digital and experiential channels. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/7-elevens-cmo-plans-to-meet-evolving-consumers-by-doubling-marketing-spend/599126/

YouTube's ad revenue jumped 49% to $6 billion as its Shorts feature, a TikTok rival, saw a big increase in activity. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/googles-ad-sales-surge-32-amid-renewed-strength-in-digital-media/599168/

Mayur Gupta, former CMO of Freshly, speaks at the 2019 MarTech conference in San Jose. For organizers forced to abandon conference centers for digital consoles, here’s the good news: The majority of marketers are ready to come back to in-person conferences by the start of 2022. But improvements in virtual conferences and lingering uneasiness about the pandemic will likely mean smaller shows at the outset. About 38% of the nearly 250 marketers we surveyed in March said it is extremely likely that they will attend an in-person show in the first half of 2022, while about 45% gave the prospect a moderate to somewhat likely possibility. The numbers shrink as you get closer to the present, with only 21% saying it is extremely likely they would attend in-person events in the fourth quarter of 2021 and an even smaller 17% saying it is extremely likely they’d attend in the third quarter. The results were part of the March edition of the Events Participation Index survey, which we have fie...

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily. Good morning, Marketers, today is National Superhero Day and that’s enough of a segue for me. It’s really not about the “super” part. This “holiday” made me think of the many kindnesses that I rely on daily to perform my job, which boils down to serving the search community. Every time I tweet a request for perspectives on breaking news or reach out to my network to see if anyone knows of a person that works in a specific vertical, I usually get what I need, thanks to the professionals that I am fortunate enough to write for — thank you very, very much. That’s my specific experience, and I’ve discussed with others why they do (or don’t) engage with potential colleagues on Twitter or LinkedIn. There’s just so much knowledge and experien...