Technology News and Industry Knowledge

As video games and esports become increasingly popular, the deal lets the chain connect with a younger generation on a more personal level. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/7-eleven-deepens-rocket-league-partnership-with-in-game-customization/619534/

Etsy will raise its seller fees from 5% to 6.5% (a 30% increase), the company announced during its Q4 2021 earnings report . The new seller transaction fee will take effect starting on April 11. Why we care. In many cases, Etsy’s seller fees are still lower than eBay’s and Amazon ’s, but the margin is getting thinner, which may also erode some of the benefits of selling on Etsy.  Etsy last increased its transaction fees in 2018, raising them from 3.5% to the current 5% rate. This latest increase may be a bitter pill to swallow for Etsy merchants, especially when other marketplaces may offer access to more customers or more sophisticated tools for sellers. However, some of the additional revenue from the fee increase will be reinvested (more on that below), which may offset the impact on sellers by improving the customer experience, potentially increasing customer lifetime value. Etsy’s plans for the added revenue. “We plan to reinvest a considerable portion of that incrementa...

The agency holding company hit its 2023 revenue target two years early as the segment continues to benefit from a better-than-expected ad market rebound. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/wpp-grows-at-fastest-pace-in-20-years-as-experience-commerce-surge/619427/

The video platform will still appear at the NewFronts with a different slate of programming focused on topics like creators. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/youtube-shifts-brandcast-to-upfronts-in-latest-sign-of-streaming-tv-conver/619313/

The Metaverse Foundry from WPP's Hogarth is the latest example of how agencies of all sizes are orienting teams around the buzzy technology. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/agencies-metaverse-practices-ramp-up-in-preparation-for-new-digital-age/619428/

A new brand platform targets younger diners through influencer menu collaborations positioned as different from common "hacks" in the QSR category. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/dennys-refreshes-247-heritage-with-help-of-diverse-tiktok-stars/619513/

In SEO, you have access to so much data. But what good is all that data if you aren’t turning it into actionable strategies that have a clear and measurable impact? Used correctly, you can do many things with Google Analytics combined with Data Studio: pulling data, turning it into insights, and then using those insights to acquire, serve and retain customers. Ready to learn how to turn your challenges into solutions? Here’s how to transform your data into relevant and impactful SEO actions. 1. Dealing with data Data is the foundation of Google Analytics and the greatest obstacle. To make the most of it, you’ll need simple access to high-quality data in one spot. Challenges Creating a Dashboard Taking the data from Google Analytics and other sources and synthesizing it into a dashboard is a common struggle among users. You are not alone in this. In the report “Global State of Consumer Analytics Survey” (Forrester/Burtch Works Q3 2019), providing quality data from various source...

The new class of consumers wants new commerce features. They want personalized experiences. And above all, they want shopping to feel the same whether they're in-store or online.  source https://www.marketingdive.com/spons/why-you-should-be-taking-cross-channel-phygital-shopping-seriously/619257/

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New business openings in year two of the pandemic were only 1% down from the year before the pandemic (2019), according to Yelp’s COVID-19 Second Anniversary Report . Demand for socially distant/outdoor options also remains above pre-pandemic levels for dining and other activities. New business openings in years one and two of the pandemic. Image: Yelp. New business openings are nearly at pre-pandemic levels. In year two of the pandemic, new business openings reached 521,926, up 14% from the first year of the pandemic. This brings new business openings roughly in line (down by just 1%) with the levels Yelp reported in 2019 (the year before the pandemic). But, business openings in major cities varied. While new business openings rose nationally, the Delta and Omicron variants resulted in decreased business openings in nearly all of the largest metropolitan areas across the country, Yelp said. Change in business openings in major metro areas. Image: Yelp. Boston, Los Angel...

Google Search has updated the map in the local pack within the web search results from a static map to an interactive map. The new interactive map allows you to zoom, pan, hover and click to see more details on the map. Previously, clicking on the map just took you into the Google Maps interface. What is new. When you do a search in Google Search and the local pack comes up showing you nearby businesses that match your query, you can now hover your mouse over the map and see the businesses, their reviews, zoom in and out of the map, drag the map around to see more places or click on a listing directly in the map interface. Here is a GIF I made of this in action: Note, this may also appear on the right hand side of the three local listings. How does this impact local search? Allie Margeson, who first spotted this change , said “businesses that aren’t ranking in the top 3 positions may still have a pin on the map, and now a searcher can hover over that pin and see the business’s ...

Microsoft made a few announcements this week on the Bing webmaster blog around more software providers adding support for IndexNow leading to millions of sites using IndexNow since its launch in October 2021. Part of these announces have that Duda, All in One WordPress SEO plugin and Rank Math SEO plugin all added IndexNow integration into their systems. What is IndexNow . IndexNow provides a method for websites owners to instantly inform search engines about latest content changes on their website. IndexNow is a simple ping protocol so that search engines know that a URL and its content has been added, updated, or deleted, allowing search engines to quickly reflect this change in their search results. The co-sharing of IndexNow went fully live last month in January 2022. Millions of sites using IndexNow. Last November, Cloudflare announced it added integration with IndexNow and 60,000 websites turned on that feature. Microsoft released a simple to use WordPress plugin for IndexN...

Dolph Lundgren races around in sweat-inducing scenarios in several spots showcasing the Procter & Gamble brand's new antiperspirant.  source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/campaign-trail-old-spice-deepfake-80s-action-movie/619386/

LinkedIn is piloting its own podcast offering, known as the LinkedIn Podcast Network. The pilot program will include shows about topics such as technology, recruiting and mental health, from external experts as well as its own in-house news team. A few podcasts from the LinkedIn Podcast Network. Image: LinkedIn. Why we care. There is a growing number of podcasts aimed at professional audiences — this is especially true in the search marketing industry. Hosting your podcast on LinkedIn may help your brand — particularly if it’s a B2B brand — get closer to professional audiences than they might on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, for example.  While the LinkedIn Podcast Network isn’t open for all brands to join, there is a lead form for those that are interested in learning how to join it, so that may be a possibility down the road. Where to listen. All LinkedIn Podcast Network shows will be available globally on LinkedIn by following the podcast hosts and subscribing to their ...

The first cheese-inspired "Singles Single" follows buzzy Kraft Heinz campaigns like the Oscar Mayer bologna face mask. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/kraft-singles-squares-up-with-kelis-on-culture-play/619418/

“Migration is a burden that we all have with websites,” said SEO industry leader Bruce Clay at SMX Next . “We have to upgrade them periodically. A stale or an out-of-date website deteriorates your rankings in the search engines.” “There are all sorts of reasons to do it — maybe you have an e-commerce platform or just need an upgrade,” he added. Source: Bruce Clay Design upgrades, domain changes for a rebrand or necessary website merges can all necessitate a website migration . But, with so many moving pieces, the potential for errors — both from a ranking perspective and a site functionality standpoint — can increase if site owners and SEOs aren’t prepared. Here are some of the most important do’s and don’ts Clay recommends SEOs consider when migrating a website. What to do when migrating a website There are many tasks involved when migrating a site, but the following are critical for preserving your rankings. Make an inventory of old URLs . Before beginning the migration pr...

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Google is testing a new messaging feature that would allow customers to send messages to the customer service email address provided in your Google Merchant Center account. Google has invited select merchants to participate in this pilot via email. The messaging pilot invitation email Google sent to merchants. Image: Kirk Williams. We’ve reached out to Google and will update this article as more details become available. Tip of the hat to Kirk Williams for bringing this to our attention. Why we care. Providing potential customers with a way to contact retailers via Google Shopping may increase the value of the platform for both merchants and customers. Winning over more shoppers and retailers will also help strengthen Google as a shopping destination, helping it compete with the likes of Amazon, eBay and other marketplaces. The company has not announced when (or whether) this feature will become widely available. What Google said in the email. “We’re excited to announce a n...

Grocers need to consider labor, speed and marketing when determining what route to take with their own service, experts say. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/examining-the-potholes-and-potential-of-branded-grocery-delivery/619365/

A previous partnership around the marketer's Philadelphia Cream Cheese saw ad recall rise by 29% and view-through rates on YouTube increase by 38%. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/mondelez-personalization-tie-up-with-innovid-prioritizes-ctv/619345/

To discover "the next big names in beauty," the company will provide up-and-coming brands with access to a brand management consultant and training on its ad platform. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/walmart-launches-beauty-accelerator-walmart-start/619361/

As the American whiskey industry grows, brands reach for the millennial market. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/tx-whiskey-serves-texas-cool-on-ice-with-new-ad-campaign/619340/

Google has updated its Buy on Google Retailer Standards policies. The changes include removing: order caps, automatic suspension via the Retailer Standards program and the “Defects” tab within the Merchant Center dashboard. The email Google sent to merchants notifying them of Retailer Standards enforcement changes. Image: Lawrence Chasse. Tip of the hat to Lawrence Chasse for bringing this to our attention. Why we care. Order caps were previously imposed on merchants that were performing poorly (according to Google’s Retailer Standards score); the same was true for automatic suspensions. Order capping could also slow down sales for new merchants until they complete onboarding by requesting a review of their store.  Now that these two penalties are gone, merchants have fewer potential bottlenecks when it comes to selling via Buy on Google. However, these policies were designed to protect customers (as well as Google’s reputation as a shopping platform) from disreputable m...

The stakes are high for marketers today to adapt and scale their operations. Trends like the hybrid work shift and the looming metaverse have cemented our digital reality while workforce and customer demands continue to escalate and create new challenges. As a result, it’s never been more perplexing for CMOs to manage and grow their organizations effectively. Yet, many do not realize there is one overlooked issue that’s seriously costing their organizations—one that, if addressed, could significantly enhance their business: poor communication. That’s what new research by Grammarly and The Harris Poll found. The “ State of Business Communication ” survey of business leaders and knowledge workers reveals that poor workplace communication is a pervasive problem burdening businesses and employees alike. In fact, the study estimates a $1.2 trillion annual loss among U.S. businesses due to poor communication—or approximately $12,506 per employee every year. The findings are especially ...

Google Ads has rolled out Enhanced Conversions for Leads . Spotted as a beta test earlier this month, this option offers an alternative to the existing Google Click ID-based offline conversion tracking method. How Enhanced Conversions for Leads works. Image: Google. Why we care. Since this can be configured from your Google Ads account (instead of your CRM), it may be easier to adopt, enabling more advertisers to track their offline conversions. Using that data, Google’s systems may be able to make better auction decisions, which could mean more efficient campaigns and better conversions. For those using the existing Google Click ID-based upload method , this option is still supported. How it works. When a potential customer fills out a lead form on your site, you’ll likely receive first-party data including their email address, name, home address and/or phone number. That data can be captured in your conversion tracking tags, hashed and then sent to Google. When a lead con...

Taco Lover's Pass subscribers visit three times more often than non-members, and close to half of transactions included more than one taco. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/taco-bells-subscription-service-increased-rewards-members-by-20/619283/

To promote the new Kind Whole Fruit and Nut Box, consumers will be unable to purchase the brand's bars through its website on March 1 and 2. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/kind-spotlights-whole-foods-by-refusing-to-sell-its-snack-bars/619273/

NBCU's Kelly Abcarian and iSpot.tv CEO Sean Muller detailed what a massive test-and-learn portends for the upfronts and beyond. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/what-the-super-bowl-and-olympics-taught-nbcuniversal-about-the-new-era-of-m/619223/

Google AdSense publishers this morning have been complaining that the report that shows them their estimated earnings on the AdSense console overview page is wrong and significantly lower than what is expected. It seems there is some sort of bug with the report on the overview page, but the reports within the reporting tab seem to be more aligned with expected publisher earnings. The complaints. There are a number of complaints in the AdSense forums that have concerned publishers worried that something is wrong and their AdSense earnings have dropped significantly from what they normally see on a daily or monthly basis. There is one thread that has the most detail, which can be found over here . A top contributor, not a Google employee but a volunteer recognized by Google as someone who is helpful in the forums, wrote “Looks like there are issues with the statistics on the main dashboard page (it’s happening to my account too): go to the Reports tab which seems to be showing the ac...

BrightEdge, an enterprise SEO platform, has acquired technical SEO platform Oncrawl. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Oncrawl will continue to run as its own company. Both customer bases will soon have access to additional technology without an accompanying price hike.  What it means for BrightEdge.  This acquisition mirrors the merging of SEO and data science. It will allow BrightEdge to perform sophisticated data scientist tasks in their website analysis to complement the work they are already doing on the platform, BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu said. He added that this acquisition is good news for digital marketers who want to scale campaigns with speed and precision. SEO is creating more data than ever – too much for anyone to process without the right marketing technology, Yu said. Data analysis for SEO is complex – and most SEOs aren’t data scientists. So this acquisition means that BrightEdge users can combine Oncrawl’s “zero-code” data science with Brigh...

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A new campaign uses the testimonials of former doubters to emphasize the brand's ability to foster long-term loyalty.  source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/peloton-ads-track-journey-of-converted-skeptics-as-business-challenges-moun/619207/

Auto-apply recommendations in Microsoft Advertising are now out of beta and generally available, the company announced Monday. By default, advertisers are opted into all five of the platform’s recommendation types (more on that below). Why we care. Microsoft Advertising first launched this feature in beta in March 2021 and now it’s widely available, which means it can potentially help more advertisers save time when creating ads or optimizing their campaigns. While opting into auto-apply recommendations won’t increase your budgets, it’s still authorizing the platform to make changes on your behalf, without your involvement. Advertisers should assess whether that’s acceptable for them and opt out if it’s not. Five types of recommendations. Microsoft Advertising currently offers the following auto-apply recommendation types: Create Expanded Text Ads . Create Responsive Search Ads. Create multimedia ads. Remove negative keywords conflicts. Fix conversion goal setting issue. ...

Hershey, Conagra and Post are a few companies using the strategy to expand their business, build equity and keep products relevant. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/once-an-afterthought-brand-licensing-reaps-billions-for-cpgs-hungry-for-gr/619205/

Remi Bader will serve as brand ambassador and size consultant in a yearlong partnership with the brand. source https://www.marketingdive.com/news/victorias-secrets-pink-introduces-xxl-swimwear-with-the-help-of-a-tiktok/619206/

On February 8, 2022, Google released a document to the U.S. Copyright Office saying “when a site is demoted [by the Pirate update], the traffic Google Search sends it drops, on average, by 89% on average.” This is a statement about Google’s efforts to remove sites that “received a large number of valid removal notices” over DMCA requires, hence the Google Pirate update from 2012. The Pirate update. The Pirate update, which Google originally called the DMCA update, looked at if a site had a large number of DMCA takedown requests and if so, it demoted the site. Google officially only confirmed updating this algorithm once after its launch in 2012, that was in 2014 . It is without a question that Google runs this algorithm update periodically to catch new sites that may be copying copyrighted content from others. But Google clearly does not announce each time the search company runs this update. Google said in the new PDF document “we have developed a “demotion signal” for Google Sea...

Microsoft Advertising has launched dynamic descriptions for Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), the company announced Tuesday. Advertisers can opt for dynamic descriptions beginning today, but starting in April, all existing DSA campaigns will be forced over to dynamic descriptions and it will also become the default option for new DSA campaigns. Examples of dynamically generated descriptions in DSAs. Image: Microsoft Advertising. Dynamic descriptions for DSAs are available in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France and Germany. Why we care. Microsoft Advertising DSA campaigns can now dynamically generate both headlines and descriptions. However, this change also means that advertisers will lose control over their DSA descriptions starting in April. Interestingly, the company added the ability to use static headlines for DSAs in March 2021. Those that are using static headlines in their DSAs will not be able to run them with dynamic descriptions, Microsoft said in the announcement. ...