Welcome to our eighth episode of our “Fortnightly Digital Marketing News Roundups”.
We know it can be difficult to keep up with all the changes in the Digital Marketing industry. Many of us work in busy offices, sometimes barely having time to grab a sandwich or a coffee. So, we wanted to make it easier for all of you to know what’s going on.
Learn about the changes to Google Smart Bidding, YouTube targeted Children’s ads, Yelp personalisation and much more…
On the move? You can also listen as a podcast on our Spotify and Apple Music channels…
Transcript
Martin: Hi everyone and welcome to episode 8. There’s been a lot of changes in the ad world. It’s amazing since we started doing this how many changes we’re actually noticing happening. There’s been a lot going on, from not only Facebook but YouTube and Yelp. Yeah lots of good stuff this week, and I hope you enjoy.
Martin: Facebook are rolling out their Off-Facebook Activity Tool
Katy: YouTube are ending targeted ads on children’s videos
Martin: New Google Smart Bidding Strategy
Emily: Instagram have confirmed that they are testing increased ad loads in stories
Lucy: Yelp have added new personalisation features to regain their local momentum from Google.
Katy: Google Introduces Smart Bidding Seasonality Adjustments
Martin: Facebook releases a new automated lead gen feature for Messenger to all advertisers
Emily: WordPress Is Changing How It Blocks Indexing
Lucy: Facebook have confirmed that they are thinking about removing “like” counts
Martin:Facebook are rolling out their Off-Facebook Activity Tool
Facebook have developed a new tool that will allow users to see the data that apps and websites have passed to Facebook about them. Facebook developers have created this new feature from scratch and users will be able to access it from their account settings. Although it is first rolling out in Ireland, South Korea and Spain before worldwide roll out in the coming months. This tool will allow users to disconnect themselves from specific data about themselves. The data currently held is being used to target ads on the platform. When users are disconnected this data will no longer be available to use. This may increase privacy for regular users. However, for marketers who use the platform, there could be a reduction in performance if a large number of users start to take advantage of the tool.
Katy: YouTube are ending targeted ads on children’s videos
YouTube are planning to end targeted ads on videos that are mostly watched by kids to satisfy regulators. The federal trade commission are looking into whether or not YouTube have breached the Children’s Online Privacy Act. This is likely linked to YouTube’s decision to remove targeted ads from these videos. This could hit Google’s bottom line, with analysts estimating a loss of $50million, with the withdrawal of these videos from their ad space.
Martin:New Google Smart Bidding Strategy
On the 21st of August, Google released a new smart bidding strategy: Maximize Conversion Value. This bidding strategy is Google automated and it will help you to maximise the total conversion value of your campaign within your specific budget.A brand who tested the new strategy saw in increase of 283% in conversion value, and a 286% improvement in return on ad spend.
Emily: Instagram have confirmed that they are testing increased ad loads in stories
Instagram have reported that they are testing running back-to-back ads in Stories from different advertisers. Marketers had started to report an increase in story ads with 23% of stories being an ad. Apparently, this test is only running for a small percentage of users and all advertisers are eligible to be used in the test. If you aren’t already running Story ads, you should be taking note. If Instagram increase the ad space available in this format, those who have already had success will be in the perfect position to take advantage. However, there is also a good chance that users will start to experience ad fatigue with this increase. Therefore, you should distinguish yourself from competitors by focusing on the creativity of your ads.
Lucy: Yelp have added new personalisation features to regain their local momentum from Google.
In the near future, Yelp will be allowing users to select their preferences and favourites, that will be used to offer better recommendations and search results. In the newest update to the app, users will be asked to indicate dietary and lifestyle preferences. Users will then be asked to indicate their favourites across food & drink, things to do and lifestyle categories. The Yelp app will soon be updated to include these new features. First it will be rolled out to iOS and then in stages for Android. Android users can expect to have all features by the beginning of next year. With the increased functionality of Google My Business, Yelp are facing intense pressure from Google. Google currently has more reviews than Yelp, so Yelp desperately need to differentiate the experience to regain their momentum.
Katy: Google Introduces Smart Bidding Seasonality Adjustments
It is now possible to give seasonality adjustments to search and display campaigns. These bidding methods will help when you see a change in conversion rate in relation to seasonality changes such as a sale. This is useful as it allows the bidding to take into account the conversion rate adjustments for these times. This will be really useful if you’re running campaigns over the Black Friday period.
Martin: Facebook releases a new automated lead gen feature for Messenger to all advertisers
Initially announced in May, Facebook are releasing their new Messenger features. This automatic lead generation feature will allow businesses to create an automated question and answer experience within Facebook’s Messenger app. This new feature will be available when advertisers use the click-to-messenger ads for the Facebook news feed. When a user clicks “send message” from the ad, an automated chat between the business and the user will be launched. 42% of people polled said they expect a reply from an online chat within five seconds. This new feature will help brands on Facebook respond faster to customer inquiries and streamline communications.
Emily: WordPress Is Changing How It Blocks Indexing – Moving Away From Robots.txt
WordPress is no longer going to use the Robots.txt method to block search engines from indexing sites. It is now going to use the robots meta tag: <meta name=’robots’ content=’noindex,nofollow’/. This change is coming about because the robots.txt feature, although blocking search engines from crawling the site did not always stop Google from showing the pages in the search results. The robots meta tag is a more reliable way to stop indexing AND stop sites from being shown in the search results.
Lucy: Facebook have confirmed that they are thinking about removing “like” counts
Instagram recently started removing like counts for users, and it looks like Facebook may be following in their footsteps. App researcher Jane Wong, first spotted the Facebook test. She stated that the reaction count is hidden from anyone other than the post creator. You can still see the people who reacted, but the amount is hidden. Social platforms are focusing heavily on hiding so called ‘vanity metrics’ due to the impact on people’s mental health.
Younger generations have said that not getting enough likes or staying active enough on social media has caused them high levels of stress. The negative impact of this move may be on the brand-influencer relationships. But it just means that influencers will now need to create more valuable content without relying on like counts.
Martin: That’s it! We’ll see you in 14 days time. Don’t forget to subscribe or sign-up to get this directly to your inbox by visiting our website.