PING — Top Digital Marketing Stories — August 2018
In the forever changing Digital Marketing Landscape, the month of August was equally eventful. Here are the top stories of this month in the search and social space.
SEARCH ENGINES
Measure the effectiveness of your ads with new ‘Ad strength Indicator’ by Google
Before your ads go live, you can now measure the effectiveness of your ads with a new ‘ad strength indicator’. It ranks your ads from “Poor” to “Excellent” based on the
relevance, quantity, and diversity of ad copy. Google also provides actionable feedback to improve your ad quality. The ad strength will be rolled out in stages and could be a very handy tool for marketers.
Google tells you why singular and plural keywords have different ranking
Google throws up different results for the singular and plural forms of a keyword. One reason for this difference is user search intent. The intent behind the search query might vary between synonyms of words, singular and plural forms, and across topics. While some of the singular keywords do not feature in the top 100 ranking, their plural forms make it to the top 10. Therefore, one of the key elements that drive keyword accuracy is the understanding of the intent of the user behind the use of a keyword phrase.
Know the best way to update internal anchor text to improve ranking
Google recently explained how changing internal links can have far-reaching consequences to the ranking of a site, negative as well as positive. If a change in the internal anchor text helps the user to understand the site better, it naturally follows that it would allow Google to understand what the context of the site. That might be a factor in contributing to better rankings of a site, but it is not the only factor that impacts rankings. The idea is to look at keywords as elements that enhance user accessibility rather than looking at them as a means to boost site rankings.
BING
Improved Search Results for News Stories in BING
BING recently introduced a new feature called “spotlight” that is designed to provide more news in less time. This new feature involves grouping together different elements of a trending news item at the top and putting them at the top of the search results for a topic. Spotlight includes a headlines carousel, different perspectives on a topic, the development of the news story and the impact on social media. Bling monitors millions of stories and articles, analyses user signals and assesses media prominence to come up with detailed stories.
Currently available on Bing desktop and mobile web in the US, this feature also appears in the main search results and homepage carousel.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Create mobile video ads on Facebook
Facebook is releasing a set of tools that would allow users to create customized video ads for mobile devices. Users can convert still images and text into mobile-friendly video ads. These ads will be optimized for feed and stories on Facebook and Instagram. It will have 4 new templates for ad creation. The aim is to help users promote their products, sell multiple products, highlight benefits and enhance product reach. Facebook has also released a cropping tool and simple video creation tools that would help users to optimize their existing videos for mobiles. It also provides users with an option to boost posts by simply selecting the ‘animate’ option to turn an existing post into a video.
Facebook challenges Google Local
Users can now easily locate and interact with local businesses on Facebook. This update is posing a serious challenge to the Google Local. Facebook page now functions like a webpage and comes with ‘Action feature’ that allows the user to book an appointment, order a product or service, write a recommendation and so on.
Facebook is focusing on the “recommendation” option that will help in promoting the business and trust building. It has also added an Events feature that allows businesses to create a local event and promote it. Additionally, the Facebook will also have a job application tool for users to apply for various jobs around the world.
Twitter is testing comment thread and online status indicator
Twitter is testing a comment thread feature that looks like Facebook’s comment system. This feature would allow users to follow a conversation on Twitter. It has also been playing with the idea of introducing online status indicators of users. Users can see whenever their contact are online. This will help users to better connect with brands and businesses. But nothing has been finalized yet and it may so happen that these changes may never see the light of day.
Twitter pulls the plug on third-party app feature
Third party apps will no longer be able to deliver push notifications and automatically refresh timelines as Twitter has restricted access to API’s. This will impact third-party apps such as Talon and Tweetings. The company has stated that it has taken this step to devote additional resources to its native app. The stated aim is to organize Twitter better, ensuring data control, accessibility, notifications and so on.
YouTube
You can now track the time you’ve spent watching YouTube Videos
YouTube users will now be informed about the time they’ve spent on watching videos to hint them to take appropriate breaks to improve digital wellbeing.
Users can check their actual watch time form the account menu. The new set of tools will highlight the time spent on actually watching the videos and not the total time spent on YouTube. This will help in differentiating between users and video creators. Users can see their watch time for today, tomorrow or for past 7 days along with a daily average.
Users can also set personal reminders to take a break via the settings menu. The reminder will pop up at a specified time and can be dismissed if the need be.
The tools would also allow users to limit notifications that they receive per day.
All YouTube creators will now enjoy non-skippable ads
YouTube video creators will soon receive notification that they can choose to run non-skippable ads on their current and previous videos. Previously, non-skippable ads were available to selected creators but now it will be available to every creator to provide creators opportunities to earn. They can track the revenue, and audience engagement from videos that contain these ads. YouTube is also planning to launch a tool that will allow the user to add or remove skippable ads in bulk. Furthermore, the length of the non-skippable ad is limited to 20 seconds so that the users do not lose interest in the content.
Group feature is back on LinkedIn apps
In February, LinkedIn removed the standalone Groups app for iOS and made an announcement that they are looking into ways to integrate the feature into the flagship app. By next month, the feature will be rolled out and it will be available on the main app. In addition, more functions like threaded replies, ability to post rich media like videos will be included. Furthermore, users will be able to see the group conversation in their main feed and the activities of the group will be notified under the notification tab.
Instagram plans to display the recommended post in the user feed
Instagram will launch ‘Recommended for You’ section which will display posts from accounts that the users do not follow presently. The recommended posts will be based on liked videos and photos as well as on the accounts that a user follows It is a test feature. The recommendations will appear after users have viewed the latest posts from the accounts that they follow. The feature will be rolled out only after analyzing the user’s response during the testing phase.
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