Welcome to our ninth 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 Canonical URLs, Facebook New Ad Features, Microsoft Negative Keyword Identification and much more…
On the move? You can also listen as a podcast on our Spotify and Apple Music channels…
Transcript:
Emily: Welcome to episode 9 of our fortnightly digital news. Lots has changed for Google and Facebook so keep watching to find out.
Emily: Google Explains How Canonical URLs Are Chosen
Katy: Google are allowing all developers access to their differential privacy tool
Emily: Google Is Prohibiting Advertisements for ‘Speculative and Experimental’ Medical Treatments
Lucy: Facebook are testing two new ad features.
Katy: Google Changes Nofollow Attribute And Announces 2 New Attributes
Lucy: Facebook are changing how they handle user location data
Emily: Microsoft Ads can Now Identify Negative Keywords That Conflict in Shopping Campaigns
Lucy: Facebook creates new ways to build audience through stories
Katy: The Google Ads App Showing Campaign Optimisation Scores
Lucy: Google Have Updated Their Search Rankings to Favour Original News
Emily:Google Explains How Canonical URLs Are Chosen
Google explains that canonical URLs are chosen by 2 methods: the site’s preference and which URL is more useful to the user. The “site’s preference” is determined by: link rel canonical annotation, redirects, internal linking, URL in the sitemap file, HTTPS URLS over HTTP URLS, and the “nicer-looking” URL.If you have a preferred URL for users to see you can make changes to help ensure these are shown, such as the rel=canonical attribute and standardizing URLS.
Katy: Google are allowing all developers access to their differential privacy tool
Google are allowing developers access to their privacy tool so that companies can safeguard their user’s privacy. Google are releasing an open-source version of the differential privacy library. Differential privacy is a new form of data science, it allows companies to mine large amounts of user data without risking any individual privacy. However, these tools are difficult to build from scratch which is why Google are releasing their tool for open-source use. They are also including a stochastic tester to help prevent mistakes.
Emily:Google Is Prohibiting Advertisements for ‘Speculative and Experimental’ Medical Treatments
Google has announced its new policy which prohibits ads for medical treatments that are unproven or experimental. This change comes about to help stop and discourage advertisements for treatments that are not clinically proven and therefore could cause harm to individuals. If you run ads for medical treatments or companies that provide medical treatments these ads will only show if they have an established biomedical or scientific basis, if not they will not be shown.
Lucy: Facebook are testing two new ad features.
Facebook are testing in-app checkout for Facebook ads and a new ad unit for Instagram.
Currently in testing with a small group of advertisers, the in-app checkout experience is being used in dynamic ads for Facebook News Feed. While you can now turn organic shopping posts on Instagram into ads. Facebook say that these new ad types and features are based on the way people are currently discovering and purchasing products on Facebook. This means the experience will be the same for users through the ads. Facebook is aiming to create a more seamless checkout experience to prevent loss of sales. Estimating that checkout friction will cost US businesses $213 billion this year.
Katy: Google Changes Nofollow Attribute and Announces 2 New Attributes
The 2 new attributes are rel=”sponsored” which shows that a link was created for advertisement, sponsorship etc. and rel=”ugc” which shows that a link is for user generated content such as comments or forum posts. These, and the nofollow attribute will be seen as ‘hints’ by Google as to whether to exclude them from ranking, rather than excluding them from the get-go. These new attributes can be used immediately. The 2 new attributes can be helpful to site owners to correctly label their content and ensure the search engines view the page as being sponsored or user generated content.
Lucy: Facebook are changing how they handle user location data
With the latest Android and iOS updates, Facebook are updating how their user location settings work. With Android and iOS releasing new features to manage their location settings at a device level as well as within individual apps, Facebook has had to make a decision. To resolve the issue of the different settings, Facebook have said that they will follow the most restrictive setting the user has chosen. If your device location is set to share at all times, but your Facebook background location data is off, then Facebook won’t track your location when the app is closed. Marketers and businesses should care because this move will limit targeting data for advertising. This change is great news for those worried about their privacy. But not so good for ad targeting, advertisers will need to find new ways to engage audiences beyond their location.
Emily: Microsoft Ads can Now Identify Negative Keywords That Conflict in Shopping Campaigns
A new report from Microsoft Ads identifies negative keywords that are accidentally blocked from the wrong campaigns. The report will also highlight negative keywords with an unsuitable match type for the campaign. The report called ‘product negative keyword conflicts report’ is accessible through the product ads section of the report tab in Microsoft Ads. This is a great time saving device and another element of quality control to help ensure the best campaigns are running.
Lucy: Facebook creates new ways to build audience through stories
Announced on September 10th, Facebook will let multiple public figures contribute to one collaborative story. Facebook are focusing on releasing more features that allow creators to engage with fans and more monetisation opportunities. Facebook have been testing their Collaborative Stories with various musicians, including The Chainsmokers, at the Tomorrowland festival. They found that 92% of story views were coming from users who don’t follow the band on the platform. They have also been testing a Fan Reply Sticker, this lets users submit their own photos and videos which can be reposted by the story owner. Facebook want to directly compete with YouTube in terms of creator friendliness. These new tools will enable creators and public figures to grow their following on the platform, as well as provide monetisation options.
Katy: The Google Ads App Showing Campaign Optimisation Scores
Now, when using the google ads app you can check the optimisation scores of the campaigns you’re running. This is now in the app to see. This will help you see the score when necessary and allow you to make immediate changes wherever you are. Meaning campaigns can be optimised anytime, anywhere to ensure top performance.
Lucy: Google Have Updated Their Search Rankings to Favour Original News
Google wants to give more weight to the original news stories. Therefore, Google aims to surface the original content more prominently and for longer. Google says there is not a complete definition of original reporting, therefore it does make this task a bit challenging. These changes have now been implemented, so only time will tell how Google handles defining original reports.
Katy: Thank you for joining us for episode 9 of our digital marketing news. If you’ve enjoyed it, don’t forget to follow us on our socials and subscribe for notifications when a new video is released. See you in two weeks.