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Episode 166 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of June 19 - 23, 2023. And the show notes for this episode was generated using generative AI. And like always, I curated the articles for the show.

1. YouTube's New Thumbnail A/B Testing Tool - YouTube has launched a new thumbnail A/B testing tool that allows creators to test different variations of their thumbnail images to see which one performs best. The tool is currently in live testing with a small group of creators, but it is expected to be rolled out to more creators in the coming months.

The thumbnail A/B testing tool is a valuable addition to YouTube's creator toolkit. By testing different thumbnail images, creators can ensure that they are using the most effective thumbnail to attract viewers and maximize their video views.

1. TikTok Expands TikTok Shops to All Businesses In The US, UK, Canada, and France - TikTok is expanding access to its TikTok Shops eCommerce program to all businesses in the US, UK, Canada, and France. The program allows businesses to sell products directly through TikTok, and it has been growing rapidly in popularity. In the first quarter of 2023, TikTok Shops generated over $1 billion in GMV.

To join the TikTok Shops program, businesses need to have a TikTok account and a Shopify or Ecwid store. Once they are approved, they can start adding products to their TikTok Shop and linking their product catalog to TikTok. Businesses can then tag products in their videos and create shopping posts that allow users to purchase products directly from TikTok.

The expansion of TikTok Shops to all businesses in these four countries is a major step for the platform. It will allow more businesses to reach a wider audience and sell more products through TikTok. This is likely to further boost the growth of TikTok Shops in the coming months and years.

1. Instagram Now Lets You Download Public Reels! - Instagram is now rolling out the ability for users to download publicly posted Reels content to their camera roll. This means that users can now save Reels to their devices for offline viewing, sharing, or editing. To download a Reel, simply tap on the share icon and then select the "Download" option.

There are a few limitations to this feature. First, only Reels from public accounts can be downloaded. Second, creators can opt out of enabling downloads of their content in their Account Settings. Finally, some users have reported audio issues with some Reels content, which could be linked to Meta's music licensing agreements.

Overall, this is a welcome addition to Instagram that will give users more flexibility with how they interact with Reels content. It will also make it easier for users to share Reels with others, even if they don't have Instagram.

1. LinkedIn's New AI Image Detector Catches 99% of Fake Profiles - LinkedIn has developed a new AI image detector that has a 99% success rate in catching fake profile photos. The detector uses a variety of techniques to identify fake images, including analyzing the image's pixels, comparing it to other images in its database, and looking for inconsistencies in the image's metadata.

The advent of AI-generated profile images has made it easier to create fake LinkedIn profiles, which has exacerbated an already huge problem. In the first half of 2022, LinkedIn detected and removed 21 million fake accounts.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that LinkedIn's AI image detector is working well. An affiliate marketer who deployed fake LinkedIn profiles said that their success rate dropped significantly after LinkedIn implemented the new detector.

1. Meta Expands Reels Ads To Instagram And Tests AI Features - Meta is expanding Reels ads to Instagram and testing AI features to boost engagement and broaden advertiser reach. Previously, Reels ads were only available on Facebook. Now, advertisers can run ads between Reels on Instagram, expanding beyond Facebook. Meta is also introducing app promotion ads to Reels to boost app downloads. Additionally, Meta is testing AI to optimize music in single-image Reels ads, aiming for better viewer engagement.

2. Meta's New Speech-to-Text Translation Tool Can Translate Text into Audio in 6 Languages - Meta has announced a new AI system called Voicebox that can translate text to audio in a variety of styles and voices. The system is based on a new method called Flow Matching, which allows it to synthesize speech with fewer learning and processing requirements than other similar systems.

Voicebox can translate text into audio in six languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. It can also perform noise removal, edit content, and transfer audio style.

The system is still under development, but Meta plans to make it available to developers in the future.

1. GA4 Update: Now You Can Control Conversion Credit - Google Analytics 4 has added a new feature that allows you to select which channels are eligible to receive conversion credit for web conversions shared with Google Ads. This means that you can now choose to give credit to organic and paid channels, even if the last non-direct click was not from a Google ad.

This new feature can help you to get a more accurate picture of the impact of your marketing campaigns. For example, if you're running a paid campaign and you see that organic traffic is also converting, you can now give credit to both channels. This will help you to allocate your budget more effectively and improve your ROI.

1. Google Sues Rank and Rent Marketer: What You Need to Know - Google is suing an online marketer for violating its terms of service and for engaging in activities that mislead users and violate both federal and state laws. The marketer, who was a member of a public Facebook group called "Rank and Rent – GMB Strategy & Domination," is accused of creating fake businesses and fake websites, and then associating them with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone numbers whose area codes correspond to the fake businesses' supposed locations. Google alleges that the marketer has been associated with over 350 fake Business Profiles listings since mid-2021.

2. Google Launches New INP Report in Search Console to Help you Prepare for FID to INP Transition - Google has launched a new report in Google Search Console to help site owners prepare for the upcoming change of First Input Delay (FID) to Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as a Core Web Vital metric. The report, which can be accessed by clicking this link and selecting a property, shows how well your site performs with the INP metric.

INP is a measure of how long it takes for a user to be able to interact with a page after it has loaded. It is a more accurate measure of user experience than FID, as it takes into account the time it takes for the browser to paint the first content on the page as well as the time it takes for the user to be able to interact with that content.

The INP report in Google Search Console shows the following data for each page on your site:

• The average INP for the page
• The percentage of users who experienced an INP of 100 milliseconds or less
• The percentage of users who experienced an INP of 300 milliseconds or less

Google has not yet announced a specific date for the FID to INP transition, but it is expected to happen in March 2024. By using the INP report in Google Search Console, you can start preparing your site for the change and ensure that your users have a good experience.

1. Google Postpones Data-Driven Attribution Switch: What You Need to Know - Google has postponed the switch to data-driven attribution in Google Ads from June to mid-July 2023. This means that first click, linear, time decay, and position-based attribution models will still be available for new conversion actions until mid-July. However, once the switch is made, these models will be removed from all Google Ads reporting. Advertisers who want to continue using these models will have to manually switch to them.

The reason for the postponement is that Google wants to give advertisers more time to prepare for the switch. Data-driven attribution is a more complex model than the other attribution models, and it requires more data. Google wants to make sure that advertisers have enough data to get accurate results from data-driven attribution.

1. Google Ads Now Lets You Track Store Sales and Optimize Your Bids - Google has announced that store sales reporting and bidding are now available across Performance Max campaigns within Google Ads. This means advertisers can measure total sales wherever customers prefer to shop and optimize their bids for in-store revenue.

To use this feature, you'll need to upload and match your transaction data from your business to Google. Once you've done that, you'll be able to see how your ads translate into offline purchases.

Store sales reporting and bidding offer a number of benefits for businesses, including:

• The ability to measure the true value of your ads in terms of in-store sales
• The ability to optimize your bids for in-store revenue
• The ability to gain insights into how your ads are driving offline purchases

If you're using Performance Max campaigns, I encourage you to take advantage of this new feature. It's a great way to track the impact of your ads on your offline sales and optimize your bids for maximum results.

1. Google's John Mueller Warns: Custom Elements in Head Can Hurt SEO - Google's John Mueller has advised against using custom elements in the head of a web page. Custom elements are HTML tags that are not part of the standard HTML specification. They can be used to add new functionality to web pages, but they can also disrupt how Google renders and indexes pages.

Mueller's warning comes after a user on Twitter asked him if it was technically valid to have a custom element in the document head. Mueller responded that using custom elements in the likely breaks page rendering in Google Search. This is because Google's crawlers may not recognize custom elements, which could lead to the page being indexed incorrectly or not at all.

As an alternative to custom elements, Mueller recommends using JSON-LD tags. JSON-LD is a lightweight markup language that can be used to add structured data to web pages. This data can be used by Google to better understand the content of a page, which can improve its ranking in search results.

1. Your Homepage is Not Indexed? Fix It With These 3 Steps! - Google's John Mueller explained in a recent Twitter thread that there are a few reasons why a homepage might not be indexed by Google. These reasons include:

2. The homepage may not be linked to from any other pages on the site.

3. The homepage may have been blocked from crawling by robots.txt or a meta robots tag.
4. The homepage may contain errors that prevent Googlebot from crawling it successfully.
5. The homepage may not have enough content to be indexed.

Mueller also said that the crawl budget, which is the amount of time and resources that Googlebot has available to crawl websites, is not usually a factor in why homepages are not indexed. However, if a site has a large number of pages, the crawl budget could become a limiting factor.

To fix a homepage that is not indexed, you can try the following:

• Add links to the homepage from other pages on the site.
• Remove any robots.txt or meta robots tags that are blocking the homepage from being crawled.
• Fix any errors that are preventing Googlebot from crawling the homepage successfully.
• Add more content to the homepage.

If you are still having trouble getting your homepage indexed, you can use Google Search Console to troubleshoot the issue.

1. Launch a New Domain Before Migrating Content to Reduce SEO Risk - Google's John Mueller says it can be beneficial to launch a new domain before migrating your site to it. This can help to reduce some of the risks associated with migration, both internal and external. For example, if you launch the new domain and start building links to it, this can help to establish its authority before you start migrating your content. Additionally, if there are any problems with the migration, you can still keep your old domain up and running while you troubleshoot.

Here are some of the benefits of launching a new domain before migrating your site:

• It can help to reduce the risk of losing traffic during the migration.
• It can help to build up the authority of the new domain before you start migrating your content.

• It gives you a chance to test out the new domain and make sure it is working properly.

• Google's Gary Illyes: Don't Use AI for SEO - Google's Gary Illyes recently warned SEOs against using large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose SEO issues. He said that these tools are not yet sophisticated enough to provide accurate insights into the complex factors that affect search rankings. Instead, Illyes recommends using traditional SEO methods, such as manual analysis of site data and search console reports.

• Google Ads is Phasing Out DSAs: Are You Ready for PMax? - Google Ads is asking advertisers to "upgrade" from dynamic search ads (DSAs) to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. This is because Google is gradually phasing out DSAs in favor of PMax, which is a more sophisticated campaign type that can reach a wider audience and generate more conversions.

When you upgrade your DSA campaign to PMax, your existing assets, settings, and budget will be used to create a new PMax campaign. You can then continue to optimize your PMax campaign as you would any other Google Ads campaign.

Some PPC experts believe that this is the beginning of the end for DSAs, and that Google will eventually force everyone to switch to PMax. If you're currently running DSA campaigns, it's a good idea to start planning your transition to PMax now.

1. Microsoft Ads Renames Platforms and Integrates AI - Microsoft is renaming several of its advertising platforms and integrating AI into its ad platforms to help advertisers automate campaign creation and improve campaign management efficiencies. The name changes include:

2. Microsoft Advertising becomes Microsoft Ads

3. Xandr becomes Microsoft Audience Network
4. PromoteIQ becomes Microsoft Retail Media

Microsoft is also adding AI-powered predictive targeting to its ad platform. This will allow advertisers to target their ads more effectively to potential customers.

1. Microsoft Launches AI-Powered Advertising Tool That Can Help You Increase Your Conversion Rates - Microsoft has announced the launch of Predictive Targeting, an artificial intelligence-powered advertising tool that uses machine learning to help advertisers reach new, receptive audiences and drive higher conversion rates. Predictive Targeting is now available to all advertisers on the Microsoft Audience Network.

The tool uses a variety of data points, including website traffic, search history, and social media activity, to create a profile of each user. This profile is then used to predict which ads are most likely to be clicked on by each user.

Predictive Targeting is available through Microsoft's Advertising Platform, and it can be used to target ads across a variety of channels, including search, display, and video. For more information on Microsoft’s predictive targeting feature, read its complete guide here.

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Episode 165 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of June 12 - 16, 2023. And the show notes for this episode was generated using generative AI. And like always, I curated the articles for the show.

1. LinkedIn Removes Carousel Posts, Profile Videos, and In-Image Links - LinkedIn is removing native carousel posts, profile videos, and the ability to embed clickable links within the image or video of your posts. These changes will take effect on June 26, 2023.

Carousel posts were introduced in July 2022, but they never really caught on with users. Profile videos were added in 2021, but they also failed to gain traction. The ability to embed clickable links in images and videos was a more popular feature, but LinkedIn says that it is being removed because it is not being used as much as other features.

LinkedIn says that it is making these changes in order to "focus on the features that our members use the most." The company says that it will continue to evaluate its features and make changes as needed.

1. Instagram Broadcast Channels Are Here!: A New Way to Connect with Your Audience - Instagram Broadcast Channels are now available worldwide. Creators can use Broadcast Channels to send one-way messages to their followers with text, photos, videos, polls, and voice messages. Broadcast Channels are only available in the Instagram app. Instagram is testing experimental features for Broadcast Channels, including question prompts, a dedicated tab in the inbox, collaborators, expiration dates and times, content moderators, and preview links.

2. TikTok Launches AI Ad Script Generator: How to Use It and What to Watch Out For - TikTok has launched a new AI tool that can create scripts for ads in a matter of seconds. The Script Generator is available to all TikTok Creative Center users with a desktop TikTok for Business account. Advertisers simply have to enter in some basic information about the services or products they're offering, and the tool will generate various video scripts with hooks, scenes, calls to action, and visual/audio cues.

The Script Generator is a free tool, and advertisers can run their enquiry as many times as they like. However, it's important to note that there is a risk of inaccurate information being published when using AI-generated content. TikTok has warned digital marketers that they shouldn't rely solely on AI-generated scripts, and that they are solely responsible for ensuring that the content is accurate and complies with applicable laws and regulations.

1. Google's New Search Spam Report Form: How to Help Keep Search Results Clean - Google has updated its search spam report form to include more types of feedback, such as spam, paid links, malicious behavior, low quality, and other search quality issues.

To submit a spam report, simply visit the Google Search spam report form and fill out the required information. You can also submit feedback in bulk by clicking the "Bulk Submission" button.

This new form is a great way to help Google keep its search results spam-free. If you see any spam on Google, please take a moment to submit a report.

1. Google Sues Scammers for Creating Fake Businesses and Reviews - Google has filed a lawsuit against a group of scammers who created fake businesses and fake reviews on Google Maps and Business Profiles. The scammers allegedly created over 350 fraudulent Business Profiles and over 14,000 fake reviews. Google is seeking to stop the scammers from continuing their illegal activities and to recover damages.

2. Google Merchant Center Updates: What You Need to Know - Google has updated its Merchant Center product data specification, with some changes taking effect immediately and others rolling out over the next few months. The most notable changes include:

3. Expanding the list of countries where shipping cost is required using the shipping [shipping] attribute or through account shipping settings and enforced to additional countries. Offers without shipping cost will now be disapproved. Per Google, Shipping cost is one of the most common reasons for customers to abandon their shopping choices, so offering accurate information can help the performance of your ads and free listings. Shipping cost is recommended in all countries, but only required for certain countries. This policy is in effect as of June 15, 2023.

4. Introducing a new certification attribute to describe product certifications, such as energy efficiency ratings. The certification [certification] attribute is used to describe certifications like energy efficiency ratings, and will allow for compliance with updated EU energy efficiency labeling regulation for products covered by rescaled EU energy labels. Learn more about the certification certification [certification]. This policy is in effect as of June 15, 2023.
5. Previously, the quantity [quantity] attribute was required and the availability [availability] attribute was optional for local inventory feeds. To simplify setup, they’re making the availability [availability] attribute required and quantity [quantity] optional. Google will begin warning merchants who don’t use the availability [availability] attribute in their local inventory feeds. Availability required instead of the quantity for local inventory ads and free local listings. This policy is in effect as of June 15, 2023.
6. Clarifying the guidance for unique product identifiers. If your landing page has multiple prices, such as price for other variants, original currency, or promotional prices, they require the additional prices to be clearly differentiable from the advertised base price. For example, if you show the base price and a members-only price on your landing page, then it should be clear to the user which price is the advertised base price and which price is for members-only. This policy is in effect as of June 15, 2023.
7. Expiration date [expiration_date] : Starting July 18, 2023, you can use the expiration date [expiration_date] attribute to stop showing a product on a specific date. For example, you can use this attribute for limited stock or seasonal products
8. Beginning September 1, 2023, products that misuse out_of_stock availability will be disapproved. The availability [availability] attribute tells users whether or not a product you’ve listed is in stock, and should accurately represent the state of your product. Previously, the availability [availability] attribute could be used to pause and unpause ads from showing on Google. Instead, you should now use the pause [pause] attribute, which was introduced last year, to temporarily stop products from showing.

If you are listing your products on Google Shopping then you should review your product data feeds to ensure that they are compliant with the new specifications. Failure to comply could result in product disapprovals or other penalties. If you need help then reach out to us.

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Episode 164 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of June 5 - 9, 2023. And the show notes for this episode was generated using generative AI. And like always, I curated the articles for the show.

1. Google’s Structured Data Validator vs Schema.org -During June 2023, Google SEO Office Hours, Google’s Martin Splitt answered a question about structured data validation and how Google’s validator can show different results than the Schema.org validator.

Both Google and Schema.org offer tools for validating if structured data is correct.

Google’s tool validates structured data and it also offers feedback on whether the tested structured data qualifies for rich results in the search engine results pages. Rich results are enhanced search listings that makes the listing stand out on the search results. The Schema.org Schema Markup Validator checks if the structured data is valid according to the official standards.

Per Splitt, “Schema.org is an open and vendor-independent entity that defines the data types and attributes for structured data. Google, as a vendor however, might have specific requirements for some attributes and types in order to use the structured data in product features, such as our rich results in Google Search. So while just leaving out some attributes or using some type of values for an attribute is fine with Schema.org, vendors such as Google and others might have more specific requirements in order to use the structured data you provide to actually enhance features and products.”

In conclusion, Google’s validator has a purpose that is different from just checking if the structured data is valid. It’s checking to see if the structured data that Google requires (for potentially showing a webpage in enhanced search results) is valid. The Schema.org validator is just checking for standards and has nothing to do with how Google uses structured data.

You can watch the June SEO office hour here.

1. Google's Latest Search Console Update Makes it Easier to Fix Video Indexing Issues -
   Google has released an update to its Search Console, aimed at refining video indexing reports. This enhancement promises to offer you more precise problem descriptions and actionable solutions to help boost the visibility of your videos in Google Search.

Previously, users encountered a generic "Google could not identify the prominent video on the page" error. Now, Google has decided to provide more specific details to overcome this problem. Here's what you need to know:

1. Video outside the viewport: If your video isn't fully visible when the page loads, you'll need to reposition it. Make sure the entire video lies within the renderable area of the webpage.
2. Video too small: If your video is smaller than desired, you should increase its size. The height should exceed 140px, and the width should be greater than 140px and constitute at least one-third of the page's width.
3. Video too tall: If your video is taller than 1080px, it's time to resize it. Decrease the height to less than 1080px to comply with Google's new guidelines.

While you might still see some old error messages for the next three months, Google plans to phase these out, replacing them with these new, more detailed notifications.

By adhering to these updates, you can maximize your video's prominence on Google Search and enhance user engagement. Happy optimizing!

1. Navigating the World of Domains: A Google Insider's Advice - Let’s delve into the world of domain names and how they can impact your business's digital reach, guided by insights from Google Search Advocate, John Mueller.

Mueller recently clarified the differences between generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), following Google's decision to reclassify .ai domains as gTLDs, breaking away from their previous association with Anguilla.

In essence, gTLDs (such as .com, .store, .net) are not tied to a specific geographical location, unlike ccTLDs (like .nl for the Netherlands, .fr for France, .de for Germany) that are country-specific. Mueller pointed out that if your business is primarily targeting customers within a certain country, a ccTLD might be the way to go. On the other hand, if you're aiming for a global customer base, a gTLD could be the better option.

Importantly, Mueller also highlighted the need to consider user perception. He posed a question to consider: will users click on a link they believe is meant for another country's audience?

Furthermore, Mueller also cautioned against using TLDs that may appear spammy, as it can harm your site's credibility.

His advice underscores the importance of strategic decision-making when registering your domain, reminding us that the choice of a domain name is not just a technical one, but a business decision that can have a significant impact on your online presence.

1. Google's Verdict on the Impact of Security Headers on Search Rankings - In your quest for a secure website, you may have come across HTTP headers - bits of data that offer valuable metadata about a webpage to browsers or web crawlers. The most well-known among these are response headers, like the infamous 404 Error or the 301 redirect.

A subset of these headers, known as security headers, play a critical role in fortifying your site against malicious attacks. For instance, the HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) header mandates that a webpage be accessed only via HTTPS, not HTTP, and ensures the browser remembers this preference for the future.

While a 301 redirect can guide browsers from HTTP to HTTPS, it leaves your site exposed to potential 'man-in-the-middle' attacks. An HSTS header, on the other hand, ensures your browser requests the HTTPS version directly, effectively bolstering site security.

A question was recently posed to Google's John Mueller about whether integrating security headers, like HSTS, could influence website ranking. Mueller's response was clear: the HSTS header does not impact Google Search. This header's purpose is to guide users to the HTTPS version of a site. As for deciding which version of a page to crawl and index, Google uses a process known as canonicalization, which doesn't rely on headers like HSTS.

So, while security headers might not boost your site's search ranking, their importance in maintaining a secure browsing experience for your users cannot be overstated. Remember, a secure website is a trusted website, and trust forms the foundation of any successful online presence.

1. Debunking 'Index Bloat': Google's Take on Effective Web Page Indexing - In a recent episode of Google's 'Search Off The Record' podcast, the Search Relations team at Google tackled the topic of web page indexing, putting a spotlight on the much-discussed theory within the SEO community: "Index Bloat."

This theory, often cause for concern, refers to a situation where search engines index pages that aren't beneficial for search results. It includes pages like filtered product pages, printer-friendly versions, internal search results, and more. Advocates of the index bloat theory argue that such pages can confuse search engines and negatively impact search rankings. They link this issue to the concept of a crawl budget, which is the number of URLs a search bot will crawl during each visit. The theory proposes that index bloat can lead to an inefficient use of this crawl budget, with search bots wasting time and resources gathering unneeded data.

However, Google's John Mueller challenged this theory, stating there is no known concept of index bloat at Google. According to Mueller, Google doesn't set an arbitrary limit on the number of indexed pages per site. His advice to webmasters is not to worry about excluding pages from Google’s index, but instead, focus on creating and publishing useful content.

While some supporters of the index bloat theory have pointed to issues like accidental page duplication, incorrect robots.txt files, and poor or thin content as causes, Google asserts that these are not signs of a non-existent "index bloat," but simply general SEO practices that require attention.

Some have suggested using tools like Google Search Console to detect index bloat by comparing the actual number of indexed pages to what's expected. Google's stance implies this comparison isn't indicating a problem, but is instead part of routine website management and monitoring.

Google's official stance dismisses the idea of index bloat. Instead, the emphasis should be on ensuring the pages submitted for indexing are valuable and relevant, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.

1. Controlling Googlebot: Decoding Google's Search Relations Podcast Insights - In the latest episode of the 'Search Off The Record' podcast, Google's Search Relations team, John Mueller and Gary Illyes, delved into two key topics: blocking Googlebot from crawling certain parts of a webpage and preventing Googlebot from accessing a website completely.

When asked how to stop Googlebot from crawling specific sections of a webpage, such as the "also bought" areas on product pages, Mueller emphasized that there's no direct method to achieve this. "It's impossible to block crawling of a specific section on an HTML page," he clarified.

However, Mueller did propose two strategies, albeit not perfect ones, to navigate this issue. One involves utilizing the data-nosnippet HTML attribute to stop text from being displayed in a search snippet. The other strategy involves using an iframe or JavaScript with the source blocked by robots.txt. But be wary, as Mueller cautioned against this approach, stating it could lead to crawling and indexing issues that are difficult to diagnose and solve.

Mueller also reassured listeners that if the same content appears across multiple pages, it's not a cause for concern. "There's no need to block Googlebot from seeing that kind of duplication," he added.

Addressing the question of how to prevent Googlebot from accessing an entire site, Illyes provided a straightforward solution. Simply add a disallow rule for the Googlebot user agent in your robots.txt file, and Googlebot will respect this and avoid your site. For those wanting to completely block network access, Illyes suggested creating firewall rules that deny Google's IP ranges.

To sum up, while it's impossible to stop Googlebot from accessing specific HTML page sections, methods like the data-nosnippet attribute can offer some control. To block Googlebot from your site altogether, a simple disallow rule in your robots.txt file should suffice, though you can take further steps like setting up specific firewall rules for a more stringent blockade.

1. Sweeping Changes to Google Ads Trademark Policy: What You Need to Know - Google Ads is making significant changes to its Trademark Policy that could impact how your advertisements are run. Starting July 24, Google will only entertain trademark complaints that are filed against specific advertisers and their ads. This is a shift away from the current policy, where complaints can lead to industry-wide restrictions on using trademarked content.

This change is a response to feedback from advertisers who found the previous system frustrating due to over-flagging and broad blocks. The new policy aims to streamline resolutions, making them quicker and more straightforward. In addition, it will provide greater clarity and transparency for advertisers, a much-needed improvement many have been advocating for.

As explained by a Google spokesperson, "We are updating our Trademark Policy to focus solely on complaints against specific advertisers in order to simplify and speed up resolution times, as opposed to industry-wide blocks that were prone to over-flagging. We believe this update best protects our partners with legitimate complaints while still giving consumers the ability to discover information about new products or services.”

Do note that any trademark restrictions implemented before July 24 under the current policy will continue to apply. However, Google plans to phase out these limitations for most advertisers gradually over the next 12-18 months.

You can learn more about these changes by visiting the Google Ads Trademarks policy page here.

1. Double Menus, Double Fun: SEO Unaffected by Multiple Navigations - In a recent SEO office hours video, Google's Gary Illyes made it clear that the presence of multiple navigation menus on your website doesn't affect your SEO performance - be it positively or negatively.

The question arose during the video discussion, asking whether having two navigation menus - a main one featuring important site categories and a secondary one focusing on brand-related extensions - could potentially harm SEO performance.

Illyes' response was reassuring. He stated that it's highly unlikely that multiple navigation menus would have any impact on your website's SEO. In other words, whether you have one, two, or even more navigation menus on your page, Google's algorithms are sophisticated enough to recognize these elements and process them accordingly.

So, rest easy and design your website to best serve your audience. Remember, whether your navigation is on the top, left, or bottom of your page, Google's got it figured out!

1. Google's Eye on XML Sitemap Changes: Resource Efficiency in Action - Google's own Gary Illyes recently reaffirmed that the tech giant is diligent about scanning XML sitemaps for updates before launching the reprocessing protocol. This practice is rooted in the desire to conserve valuable computational resources by avoiding unnecessary reprocessing of unchanged files.

When asked whether Google compares current and previous versions of XML sitemaps, Illyes's response was a resounding yes. He explained that Google refrains from reprocessing sitemaps that have remained the same since their last crawl - a measure designed to prevent wastage of computing resources.

However, any modifications in your sitemap, whether in the URL element or 'last mod', will trigger a new round of parsing and generally initiate reprocessing. Illyes pointed out that this doesn't automatically guarantee that the altered URLs will be crawled, as they must still pass through the usual quality evaluations like any other URL.

Importantly, if a URL is deleted from the sitemap because it no longer exists, it doesn't imply that it will instantly be removed from the index or prioritized for crawling to expedite its deletion. Keep this in mind when making changes to your sitemap.

1. Boost Your Search Rankings: Google's Advice on Consolidating Pages - In a recent SEO office hours video, Google's Gary Illyes brought up a valuable point about web page consolidation. He discussed 'host groups', a term used when Google displays two results from the same domain in search results, with one listed below the other.

Illyes suggested that when your website forms a host group, it indicates that you have multiple pages capable of ranking well for a particular query. In such cases, he recommended considering the consolidation of these pages, if feasible.

This advice aligns with Google's host groups documentation, which recommends setting one of these pages as the 'canonical' if you'd prefer users to land on that page over the other.

The concept of a host group comes into play when two or more consecutive text results from the same site rank for the same query and hence, get grouped together.

The rationale behind Google's recommendation for consolidation could be understood as an attempt to prevent your pages from competing against each other. When two pages vie for the same ranking, consolidating them could potentially boost the ranking of the remaining page.

From an SEO perspective, having two listings could increase your click-through rate. However, the idea of consolidation is to create a more streamlined user experience and possibly enhance your page's ranking.

Keep in mind that this is an approach to consider and may not suit every situation. Always consider your unique context and audience needs when making SEO decisions.

1. Unlocking Video Thumbnails in Google Search: Key Insights Revealed - Recent changes to Google's approach to video thumbnails in search results have prompted many queries. These alterations ensure that video thumbnails are displayed only when the video constitutes the main content on a webpage.

This doesn't imply that the video must be the first element on your page. Instead, as Google's Gary Illyes explains, the video should be immediately noticeable — it should be "in their face right away." This user-centric approach enhances the user experience, eliminating the need for them to hunt for the video on the page.

Illyes encourages web developers and SEO experts to consider the user's perspective. When visitors land on your page, they should not have to actively search for the video. It should be prominently displayed, akin to the approach of popular video platforms like Vimeo and YouTube.

Remember, the aim of these changes is to reduce confusion and streamline the user experience by ensuring that videos are easy to find and view. Take inspiration from major video sites to better understand what Google's algorithms are seeking.

1. Enhanced Conversion Tracking with Microsoft Advertising's New Cross-Device Attribution Model - Microsoft Advertising is set to enhance its tracking capabilities with the introduction of a Cross-Device attribution model. Revealed in Microsoft's latest product update roundup in June, this model promises to provide more accurate insights into customer conversion journeys across multiple devices and sessions.

With this new feature, if a customer clicks an ad on their laptop and later completes a purchase on their phone, Microsoft Advertising will attribute the conversion to the original ad click on the laptop. This development will ensure that your marketing efforts are accurately credited, regardless of the device where the conversion ultimately occurs.

As a result of this new tracking model, marketers may notice a slight uptick in the number of conversions reported in their performance metrics. If you observe an increase in conversions, the new Cross-Device attribution model could be the driving factor. Keep an eye on your reports to understand the full impact of this latest update on your performance data.

1. New Verification Mandates for Microsoft Ads: Everything You Need to Know - Starting August 1st, Microsoft Advertising will be implementing a new policy to enhance transparency and security. Only ads from verified advertisers will be displayed on the platform. If you haven't yet met the Microsoft Ads verification requirements, it's crucial to complete them before August 1st to ensure your ads continue to run smoothly.

The Microsoft Ads Advertiser Identity Verification program, which was launched in June 2022, is rolling out the following important dates:

• As of July 1st, all new advertisers must be verified before their ads can go live.
• If you haven't received an email from Microsoft about account verification by July 15th, you should reach out to Microsoft support.
• Starting August 1st, Microsoft Advertising will exclusively display ads from verified advertisers.

Once verified, all ads will showcase:

• The name and location of the advertiser.
• The business or individual responsible for funding the ad.
• Additional information explaining why a user is seeing a specific ad, including targeting parameters.

In addition to these updates, Microsoft Advertising is also launching a new feature - the Ad Library. This will enable all users to view ads shown on Bing that have gained any impressions in the European Union. Users will be able to search for ads in the Ad Library by using the advertiser's name or by entering words included in the ad creative. The details of the advertiser will be displayed in the Ad Library.

Stay ahead of the game and get your account verified to enjoy uninterrupted ad delivery with Microsoft Advertising!

1. Unleashing New Opportunities: LinkedIn Introduces Direct Messaging for Company Pages - In a bid to foster more professional connections and interactions, LinkedIn is set to expand its messaging tools. The platform has now introduced a new feature that allows Company Pages to send and receive direct messages (DMs). This marks a major development as previously, one-to-one messaging was only available for individual LinkedIn members.

LinkedIn's new feature, termed Pages Messaging, paves the way for members to directly contact brands. Conversations can cover a broad range of topics from products and services to business opportunities. To handle these two-way conversations, organizations will be equipped with a dedicated inbox, enabling them to manage and prioritize incoming inquiries that are most relevant to their business.

As a result of this feature, companies might see a significant increase in messages inquiring about opportunities. However, LinkedIn's 'focused inbox' system, which segregates DMs based on priority and topic settings, can help manage the influx. In addition, companies have the option to disable the Message feature if they wish.

LinkedIn has been quietly testing this feature with a select group of users in the past month. Considering that over 63 million companies actively post on their LinkedIn Company Pages, this new feature could potentially revolutionize direct interactions and unearth fresh opportunities.

Furthermore, LinkedIn is exploring the integration of an AI assistant to aid in lead nurturing. This could be a significant asset, allowing users to research the person they are communicating with without the need to manually browse through their profile or posts.

While it might not be a 'game-changer', the new Company Page messaging feature, which is being rolled out from today, is certainly a noteworthy addition to consider in your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

1. Apple Amps Up Privacy: A Glimpse at iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma - In a continued commitment to user privacy, Apple has introduced fresh security enhancements in iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, aimed at curbing intrusive web tracking. The new Link Tracking Protection feature is at the heart of this upgrade.

Activated by default in Mail, Messages, and Safari (while in Private Browsing mode), Link Tracking Protection zeroes in on tracking parameters in link URLs, which are often used to monitor user activity across different websites. The feature scrubs these identifiers, thereby thwarting advertisers' and analytics firms' attempts to bypass Safari’s intelligent tracking prevention functionalities.

Typically, these tracking parameters are attached to the end of a webpage's URL, bypassing the need for third-party cookies. When a user clicks the modified URL, the tracking identifier is read, enabling the backend to create a user profile for personalized ad targeting.

Apple's new feature disrupts this process by identifying and removing these tracking components from the URL, ensuring the user's web page navigation remains as intended. This operation is quietly executed during browser navigation in Safari's Private Browsing mode and when links are clicked within the Mail and Messages apps.

To strike a balance, Apple has also unveiled an alternate method for advertisers to gauge campaign effectiveness while preserving user privacy. Private Click Measurement, now accessible in Safari Private Browsing mode, enables the tracking of ad conversion metrics without disclosing individual user activity.

In conclusion, Apple's latest efforts reflect a renewed commitment to user privacy, promising to make online experiences safer and more secure across their operating systems.

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Episode 163 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of May 29 - June 2, 2023. And the show notes for this episode was generated using generative AI. And like always, I curated the articles for the show.

1. Google Search Console Insights Adds New Report to Track Growing Content - Google has added a new report to Search Console Insights that track your content's growth over time. The report shows you how many impressions and clicks your content has received and how its ranking has changed. This information can help you identify your most popular content and change your content strategy to improve its performance.

To access the new report, go to the Search Console Insights page and select "Your Growing Content" from the menu. The report will show you a list of your top content, along with the following information for each piece of content:

• Impressions: The number of times your content has been shown in Google Search results.
• Clicks: The number of times users have clicked on your content in Google Search results.
• Position: The average position of your content in Google Search results.
• Growth: The percentage change in impressions, clicks, and position from the previous period.

You can use the information in this report to identify your most popular content and change your content strategy to improve its performance. For example, you can promote your most popular content on social media, write more content on similar topics, or optimize your content for specific keywords.

1. Google Now Treats .ai Domains as Generic Top-Level Domains - Google has updated its search algorithm to treat .ai domains as generic top-level domains (gTLDs), rather than country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). This means that .ai domains will now be eligible to rank for global search queries, not just those specific to Anguilla.

This is a significant change for businesses that use .ai domains. In the past, these businesses were limited to targeting local traffic. Now, they can reach a global audience with their websites and marketing campaigns.

If you have a .ai domain, you can optimize your website for global search queries today. Here are a few tips:

• Use relevant keywords throughout your website content.
• Create high-quality content that will attract and engage visitors.
• Build backlinks from other high-quality websites.
• Promote your website on social media and other online channels.

Following these tips can help your .ai domain rank for global search queries and reach a wider audience.

1. Google Penalizes Websites with Cheap TLDs - Google's John Mueller said on Reddit that Google penalizes websites that use cheap top-level domains (TLDs). Cheap TLDs are domains that cost less than $10 per year and are often associated with spam and low-quality websites.

Google's decision to penalize websites with cheap TLDs indicates that the search engine is more aggressive against spam. In recent years, Google has been cracking down on spam and low-quality websites, and this latest update is another step in that direction.

If your website uses a cheap TLD, you may want to consider transferring it to a more reputable domain. This will help to improve your website's ranking in Google Search results and protect you from being penalized.

How do you know which TLDs are spammy? Check out, Spamhaus.org.

1. Google Launches ‘Product Studio’ - Google has announced the launch of Product Studio. This free tool uses generative A.I. to create high-quality product images. Product Studio is available to all businesses, regardless of size, and can create images for various purposes, including product listings, marketing campaigns, and social media.

To use Product Studio, businesses upload their product images and provide details about the product, such as the product name, category, and color. Product Studio will then use this information to generate high-quality images, including lifestyle images, product shots, and close-ups.

Product Studio will be a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes. It can help businesses to save time and money on product photography, and it can help businesses to create more engaging and visually appealing product listings.

It's important to note that Product Studio is currently in the pilot phase, and Google is working with a select group of retailers to test and refine it. However, they have expressed their excitement to see what's possible with this technology.

1. YouTube Shopping and Discovery Product Ads Requirements - Google has clarified the requirements for YouTube Shopping ads and Discovery product ads. The new requirements are designed to help retailers understand why their ads may not perform well and how to address any issues.

The new requirements for YouTube Shopping ads include the following:

• Your products must be eligible for sale on Google.
• Your products must be in stock and available for purchase.
• Your product prices must be accurate and competitive.
• Your product descriptions must be clear and concise.
• Your product images must be high-quality and relevant to your products.

You can review the Google Shopping ads policy center and free listing policies to understand better how the policies are enforced.

1. Microsoft Introduces ‘Insights’ for Universal Event Tracking Tags - Microsoft has unveiled ‘insights’ for Universal Event Tracking (UET) tags in an exciting development for data-driven marketers. This feature, designed to enhance your understanding of user engagement on your website, will be automatically enabled for all existing UET tags starting June 29.

A Microsoft Advertising UET tag monitors visitor activities on your website following an ad click. This tag collects relevant data, empowering you to keep track of conversion objectives and create specific remarketing lists for effective audience targeting. UET tags enable the tracking of various conversion goals, such as purchases, sign-ups, downloads, and more. These goals can be configured based on criteria like visitor count to specific pages, time spent on the website, the number of pages browsed, and clicks on your mobile app, among others.

The newly introduced UET Insights bring several advancements designed to provide a more in-depth understanding of user interactions on your website. These insights are integrated into a powerful dashboard that showcases crucial data such as:

• Overall visits to your website and the number of visits each page has received
• Breakdown of sessions based on country of origin and device type
• Data on quick backs (customers who spend only a few seconds on your website)
• Information on the duration visitors spend on your website

Additional indicators like page latencies, interactions (clicks and scrolls), purchase cart carts specifics, cart abandonment details, and JavaScript browser errors are also included.

UET Insights extend beyond providing a comprehensive understanding of your website's performance. They help enhance the effectiveness of ads through refined targeting, fraud detection, and minimizing conversion loss. This leads to a richer understanding of user behavior and website performance, resulting in more efficient advertising strategies.

Activating UET Insights doesn't require coding. Existing tags were automatically updated, and any new tags created will come pre-equipped with UET Insights. Notably, there's no data sampling involved, ensuring that the information you receive is complete and representative. UET Insights does not adversely affect your site's performance, and the collected data is processed and presented almost instantly on the UET dashboard.

Advertisers maintain complete control over UET Insights and can choose to turn them off if needed. Those wishing to opt out can do so through the UET Dashboard in the Microsoft Advertising platform. To learn more, visit the Microsoft Advertising help page.

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1. Google’s Introduces Policy Circumvention - Google has added a new spam policy to its search spam policies - “Policy circumvention.” In short, if you take any action you take to bypass the other Google Search spam or content policies such as creating new sites, using other sites or other methods to distribute that content, maybe on third-party sites or other avenues then Google will restrict or remove the content from showing up in search. Here is what Google wrote:

“If you engage in actions intended to bypass our spam or content policies for Google Search, undermine restrictions placed on content, a site, or an account, or otherwise continue to distribute content that has been removed or made ineligible from surfacing, we may take appropriate action which could include restricting or removing eligibility for some of our search features (for example, Top Stories, Discover). Circumvention includes but is not limited to creating or using multiple sites or other methods intended to distribute content or engage in a behavior that was previously prohibited”

1. Google’s Advice On When You Should Move Your Blogs To A Sub-Domain - John Mueller of Google recently shared his advice on when you should add blogs to a Sub-Domain. John shared that he will move blogs to a subdomain over a www when he thinks the content on the subdomain can live on its own.

He said "my way of thinking with regards to subdomains is that it depends on what you're trying to do. Is it content that's meant to be tightly connected to the main site? Then put it on the main site. If you want the content to stand on its own, then a subdomain is a good match."

He also shared that there are technical considerations to think about outside of SEO. He said "There's also the technical side-effect of subdomains sometimes making things a bit more complicated: verification in search console, tracking in analytics, DNS, hosting, security, CSPs, etc."

Lastly, John added "To be clear, I think it will affect rankings of the new content, but ultimately it depends on what you want to achieve with it. Sometimes you want something separated out, sometimes you want to see something as a part of the main site. These are different situations, and the results will differ."

1. Google: 60% Of The Internet Is Duplicate & Prefers https - Gary Illyes from Google shared during Google Search Central Live in Singapore that 60% of the content on internet is duplicate. To find duplicates, Google compares the checksum generated from the main content and if the checksum matches then the content is duplicate. Lastly, Gary mentioned that Google will always pick a https url over http.

Ensure that you have https on your website and focus on producing something way more unique and useful than most of what is out on the internet.

1. Google Re-confirms That E-A-T Applies To Every Single Search Query - During recent SMX Next event, Hyung-Jin Kim, the Vice President of Google Search (who has been working on search quality for the past 20 years and leads up core ranking at Google Search) reconfirmed that E-A-T is used in every single query, it is applied to everything Google Search does. "E-A-T is a core part of our metrics," he added, explaining that it is to "ensure the content that people consume is going to be, is not going to be harmful and it is going to be useful to the user." Here is the transcript of what he said exactly:

“E-A-T is a core part of our metrics and it stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. This has not always been there in Google, and it is something we have developed about 10 to 12 to 13 years ago. And it is really there to make sure that, along the lines of what we talked about earlier, that is it really there to ensure the content that people consume is going to be, is not going to be harmful and it is going to be useful to the user. These are principles we live by every single day.

And E-A-T, that template, of how we rate an individual site based on expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, we do it to every single query and every single result. So it is actually pretty pervasive throughout everything we do.

I will say that YMYL queries, the your money or your life queries, such as when I am looking for a mortgage or when I am looking for the local ER, those we have a particular eye on and pay a bit more attention to those queries because those are some of the most important decisions people can make, some of the most important decisions people will make in their lives. So I will say that E-A-T is has a bit more of an impact there but again, I will say that E-A-T applies to everything, every single query that we have.”

1. Google Publishes A Guide To Current & Retired Ranking Systems - You can find out which algorithms Google uses to rank search results and which ones are no longer in use with the help of a new guide to Google's ranking systems. Furthermore, Google distinguishes between ranking "systems" and ranking "updates" in its most recent guide, using new terminology. RankBrain is one example of a system that is always operating in the background. On the other hand, an update describes a one-time adjustment to ranking structures.

For instance, when Google returns search results, the helpful content system is always active in the background, while it is subject to modifications to enhance its performance. Other examples of one-time adjustments to ranking algorithms include spam updates and updates to the core algorithm.

Here is the list, in alphabetical order, of Google’s ranking systems that are currently operational.

• BERT: Short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, BERT allows Googe to understand how combinations of words can express different meanings and intent.
• Crisis information systems: Google has systems in place to provide specific sets of information during times of crisis, such as SOS alerts when searching for natural disasters.
• Deduplication systems: Google’s search systems aim to avoid serving duplicate or near-duplicate webpages.
• Exact match domain system: A system that ensures Google doesn’t give too much credit to websites with domain names that exactly match a query.
• Freshness systems: A system designed to show fresher content for queries where it would be expected
• Helpful content system: A system designed to better ensure people see original, helpful content, rather than content made primarily to gain search engine traffic.
• Link analysis systems and PageRank: Systems that determine what pages are about and which might be most helpful in response to a query based on how pages link to each other.
• Local news systems: A system that surfaces local news sources when relevant to the query.
• MUM: Short for Multitask Unified Model, MUM, is an AI system capable of understanding and generating language. It improves featured snippet callouts and is not used for general ranking.
• Neural matching: A system that helps Google understand representations of concepts in queries and pages and match them to one another.
• Original content systems: A system to help ensure Google shows original content prominently in search results, including original reporting, ahead of those who merely cite it.
• Removal-based demotion systems: Systems that demote websites subject to a high volume of content removal requests.
• Page experience system: A system that assesses various criteria to determine if a webpage provides a good user experience.
• Passage ranking system: An AI system Google uses to identify individual sections or “passages” of a web page to understand better how relevant a page is to a search.
• Product reviews system: A system that rewards high-quality product reviews written by expert authors with insightful analysis and original research.
• RankBrain: An AI system that helps Google understand how words are related to concepts. Allows Google to return results that don’t contain exact words used in a query.
• Reliable information systems: Google has multiple systems to show reliable information, such as elevating authoritative pages, demoting low-quality content, and rewarding quality journalism.
• Site diversity system: A system that prevents Google from showing more than two webpage listings from the same site in the top results.
• Spam detection systems: A system that deals with content and behaviors that violate Google’s spam policies.

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1. Wix Rolls Out Feature To Edit Page Level SEO Settings - Wix has rolled out new SEO settings that provide 100% control of critical technical SEO data at the page level in one place. This update gives businesses the option to custom craft technical SEO related factors like structured data on a page by page level from one single settings page. Going forward, Wix users will be able to accomplish the following two things from the SEO dashboard

2. Review the SEO settings across the website

3. Edit those SEO settings

4. LinkedIn Launches ‘Brand Safety Hub’ To Manage Audience Network Placements - LinkedIn has launched a new Brand Safety hub for its Audience Network ads, which will enable advertisers to find out more information about LinkedIn’s partner platforms, and create allow and block lists to manage the same.

LinkedIn’s Audience Network enables advertisers to extend their campaigns beyond LinkedIn itself, and share their promotions across the platform’s network of publishing partners, which includes ‘thousands of premium partner apps and websites where LinkedIn members spend their time’. The new Brad Safety hub provides direct control over these placements, which could help to both avoid unwanted placements and improve specific targeting. You’ll also be able to apply your own Brand Suitability settings to your Audience Network placements.

You can read more about LinkedIn’s new Brand Safety hub here.

1. TikTok Announces Accelerator & $100 Ad Credits For Small Businesses - TikTok and American Express are launching a brand new program to help merchants reach new audiences and grow their business. The #ShopSmall Accelerator, powered by TikTok and American Express features popular TikTok creators Anna Sitar, Brandon Blackwood & Sofia Bella and will be complemented by a custom Shop Small® soundtrack created especially for TikTok content. This new effort aims to help small businesses stand out in the crowded holiday shopping season and make the most out of Small Business Saturday® on November 26.

The #ShopSmall Accelerator is a one stop shop for small businesses who are looking for expert creative guidance from popular TikTok creators, an opportunity to reach new customers by jumping on the latest trend, or a way to boost growth. To help small businesses get started on the platform, TikTok is also giving away up to $250,000 in ad credits to eligible small businesses. Those eligible can receive a $100 ad credit each to use on TikTok after they spend $50 on their first TikTok Ads campaign. See TikTokShopSmall.com for more details.

1. TikTok Launches Audience Insights Tools - TikTok announced that advertisers can now use the new Audience Insights in TikTok Ads Manager, which will enable them to drill down into specific demographic details about their audience in the app, including interests, usage behaviors, gender splits and more. TikTok’s Audience Insights filters are now listed at the left-hand side of the Ads Manager ‘Reporting’ section. Audience Insights is now available globally within TikTok Ads Manager.

You can also check out TikTok’s Creative Center Insights for broader trend notes, or Ad Library to see what’s working in your niche.

1. Google Introduces Shopping Tab In Search Console - Google is rolling out a new Shopping tab within Google Search Console that contains more information about your product snippets, merchant listings and shopping tab listings in Google Search.

Google announced “eligible online store owners that have implemented product markup will see a new section called Shopping tab listings.” This is rolling out “gradually over the next few weeks,” Google said, “so you might not see any changes for now.”

This feature should provide deep insights as to how well your products are performing in Google Search.

1. Google Recommends Using Dots For Decimal Numbers In Review Snippet Structured Data - Google updated its review snippet structured data help documentation to now recommend using dot separators for decimal ratings. Google added this section twice to the documentation, in both the reviewRating.ratingValue property and the ratingValue property sections.

Google explained that if you are currently using comma separators for decimal ratings in your markup, you’ll still be eligible for review snippets. However, Google now recommends that you update your markup for a more accurate interpretation.

1. Microsoft Ads Now Supports Video Ads - In September 2021, Microsoft tested video ads in a few countries. Now Microsoft announced that video ads are available on the Microsoft Audience Network and can supplement existing search and image advertising efforts.

Microsoft video ads are targeted based on user browsing behavior, LinkedIn, and intent data from Bing search and the Microsoft Edge browser.

During testing, Microsoft found that including video in search campaign increased conversions by 50% when compared to search campaigns alone. Microsoft video advertising can vary in length - from six seconds to two minutes. Microsoft offers the following bidding options for video ads:

• Optimize for impressions: Bid per 1000 viewable impressions. An impression is counted when a viewer watches two seconds of continuous play.
• Optimize for views: Bid on a single video view. A view is counted when a person watches at least 15 seconds of video or clicks on the ad.
• Optimize for clicks: Bid per click on the video. A click is counted when the viewer lands on your website.

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1. Vulnerabilities Discovered In Five WooCommerce WordPress Plugins - The U.S government National Vulnerability Database (NVD) published warnings of vulnerabilities in five WooCommerce WordPress plugins affecting over 135,000 installations. The affected plugins are:

2. Advanced Order Export For WooCommerce

3. Advanced Dynamic Pricing for WooCommerce
4. Advanced Coupons for WooCommerce Coupons plugin
5. WooCommerce Dropshipping by OPMC – Critical
6. Role Based Pricing for WooCommerce

If you are using any of these plugins then you should do an update and move to the latest version. It’s also a best practice to back up the site before making any plugin updates.

1. Schedule Instagram App Now Allows You To Schedule Posts & Reels - Instagram users with professional accounts can schedule posts and reels up to 75 days in advance directly from the mobile app. Until now, it hasn’t been possible to schedule Instagram posts in the app. Users previously had to go through third-party tools or use desktop solutions like Meta Business Suite.

2. TikTok Testing TikTok Shop - This week in the US, TikTok officially began testing TikTok Shop, where users can now make purchases directly through the app. It was previously only available in the UK and seven countries in Southeast Asia. TikTok is currently inviting select U.S. businesses to participate in the testing. In the announcement, they wrote “We’ve seen the positive impact of TikTok Shop, and we’re excited to continue experimenting with this new commerce opportunity to support businesses of all sizes.”

3. YouTube Now Allows You To Control How Many Times Your Video Ad Is Shown - Google has rolled out target frequency for YouTube campaigns, letting advertisers control how many times an ad is shown. This feature is globally available for all advertisers running YouTube campaigns. Previously, controlling ad frequency on YouTube was only possible when running connected TV campaigns in Google Display & Video 360 (the enterprise solution). Here is what Google wrote in their announcement:

“This will help advertisers optimize towards more precise reach and frequency, while ensuring that we continue to provide a suitable advertising experience for viewers. Target frequency allows advertisers to select a frequency goal of up to four per week and our systems will optimize towards maximum unique reach at that desired frequency.”

There’s always a risk of diminishing returns when repeatedly showing people the same ad. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where viewers tune out, and the added impressions drive fewer sales. Google acknowledges that seeing the same ad is frustrating for viewers and wasteful for advertisers. A Google-commissioned study finds that TV advertisers’ ROI decreases by 41% when the frequency exceeds 6+ weekly impressions, representing 46% of TV impressions served. That’s nearly half of impressions wasted.

With target frequency, Google aims to help advertisers increase impressions without negatively impacting ROI. Advertisers can select the frequency target, and Google will optimize toward maximum unique reach at the frequency goal. In testing, Google says over 95% of target frequency campaigns on YouTube achieved their frequency goals when set up following recommended best practices.

1. Use Google Ads Reach Planner To Plan YouTube Video Action Campaigns - The Google Ads Reach Planner makes it easier for advertisers to plan for Conversions, Views, Reach, and Impressions-based metrics. It provides a forecast for how your media plan might perform, based on your desired audience, budget, and other settings such as geographic location and ad formats. Google says that forecasts are modeled on trends in the ad market and the historical performance of similar campaigns run in the past.

Going forward, advertisers will now have the option to select “Action – Online Conversions” as a goal when setting up your plans in Reach Planner and can also add Video Action Campaigns to existing plans.

1. Google Will Not Ding You If You Redirect From Http to Https -Luke Budka asked if Google will pass pagerank from unsecured http pages to https if proper 301s exist? He was asking on behalf of a client who did not bother buying ssl certificate for his old site but did set up redirects when they migrated.

John Muller responded that Google can pass PageRank and other link signals from an HTTP non-secure URL to HTTPS secure URL through redirects. This is how Google does canonicalization and that there is "no special "security dust" involved."

P.S: PageRank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results.

Canonicalization: Rel=”canonical” is an HTML tag that can be used to tell Google which version of a page to show in search results when multiple versions of the page exist. It’s most commonly used as a way to consolidate duplicate URLs on one’s own site, but the tag can also be used when content is republished or syndicated across multiple domains. Google doesn’t like to show duplicate content in search results, so it will instead choose one URL and omit the others. This is referred to as the canonical URL. Google’s official guide to advanced SEO has a whole chapter about using canonicalization to consolidate duplicate URLs.

1. Google: Fixing Search Console Issues Will Speed Up Recrawling - This week Google's John Mueller explained why fixing an issue flagged in search console will help to speed up recrawling but that does not mean that the site will rank.

For ranking, Muller suggests everyone to read the quality raters guidelines. The 167 page Google Search Quality Raters Guidelines is a guide for assessing site quality in an objective manner, free of subjective ideas on what is a good quality site. It may also be helpful to read Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines Overview because it’s shorter and easier to understand.

Google also recently published new documentation for helping publishers understand what Google considers rank-worthy content. The document is called, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.

1. Google: “Search Is Never Guaranteed” - Google's John Mueller reminded site owners that getting indexed in search results is not guaranteed.

Google Search Advocate John Mueller said, “Search is never guaranteed,” in response to a site owner asking why their content isn’t indexed. The site owner was dissatisfied that a website re-publishing identical content was getting indexed faster and was asking if he can use the Indexing API to brute force his way into Google’s index.

Mueller shoots that idea down, saying the Indexing API is reserved for specific types of content, such as livestreams and job postings. Instead, Mueller advices the site owner to think of ways to make their website more valuable, increasing the likelihood that Google indexes pages quickly. Read what Muller shared to increase your likelihood of getting indexed and ranked:

“Search is never guaranteed, and there are tons of sites that are trying to push their updates into Google. I think what ultimately works best is that you prove to Google (and users) that the updates you’re providing are valuable: unique, compelling, high-quality, and not something that’s already published elsewhere.

I realize that’s hard when it comes to user-generated content (which I assume some of this will be), but ultimately your site is what you publish, regardless of where it initially comes from. So the more you can do to make sure the indexable content on your site is easily findable and significantly valuable to the web, the more likely Google will be able to pick it up quickly (and that can mean that you block content that you determine is less-valuable from being indexed, for example).

One of the things even smaller, newer sites can do is to mention and link to updates on their homepages. Google usually refreshes homepages more frequently, so if there’s something important & new, make sure you have it there. Many sites do this intuitively, with a sidebar or a section for updates, mentioning the new headlines & linking to the content.”

1. Google: Create Good Category Pages - When asked if it is a best practice to noindex the internal search result pages in online shops because of possible thin content or other reasons? Google Search Advocate John Muller said, "If you have good category pages, there's usually no need to also have search pages indexed." That means, (1) people won't have to search your site to find what they are looking for, they can just use your navigation and (2) Google will index your category pages and rank them, if you want Google to rank a search results page, then maybe that should be a category page…”

John also added that having your internal search results pages can lead to spam or other issues.

P.S: A category page is a page that sits above your product pages in your site hierarchy. It is is basically the bridge between your homepage and your product pages. It helps a user navigate to the section of your site they want and find the specific product types they are looking for.

1. Google: On How To Handle Negative SEO Attacks - Negative SEO, also sometimes called “black hat SEO,” involves the use of malicious tactics on your site to tarnish your reputation with Google and steal search engine rankings for important keywords to be used on a competitor's site.

This week, a user asked Google Search Advocate John Mueller on how to handle Negative SEO Attacks, such as competitors building spammy links to your domain.? Mueller’s advice is to ignore the problem. That’s it; ignore it. Here’s his full reply:

“I’d just ignore them. Think of it this way, if your competitors are competent, they won’t build links for you. If your competitors are incompetent, the links won’t have any effect.”

FYI: Google ignores many links, such as low-quality links a bad actor might build en masse in an attempt to damage a competitor’s rankings. Therefore, website owners and SEOs should ignore said attacks since Google won’t count the links against a site’s rankings.

In the past, Muller also suggested that you shouldn’t rush to use the disavow tool if you’re concerned about negative SEO. This is because Google ignores the spammy links, so there’s no need to disavow them. The disavow tool is more for recovering from manual action penalties. However, there’s nothing wrong with using the disavow tool if it makes you feel more comfortable.

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1. YouTube #golivetogether Feature Update - YouTube has announced that it’s opening up its ‘Go Live Together (#golivetogether)’ option to more users from next week, which will provide more creative considerations for your live-streams in the app.

Go Live Together enables you to invite another YouTube user to your stream, with the video then displayed in vertical split-screen, providing new engagement and interaction options during a YouTube live broadcast. That could open up new opportunities for brands to run live interviews or internal spotlight sessions on their YouTube channel, while also facilitating Q and A sessions and other options to build engagement among your YouTube community. Hosts will be able to rotate the guest on their live-stream, but only one guest at a time will be able to take part in the broadcast.

YouTube will also allow pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads on Go Live Together streams, which will be attributed to the host channel of the broadcast. YouTube says that all channels with at least 50 subscribers will soon be able to launch Live Together streams, with the roll-out beginning next week – though YouTube does note that it may take a few weeks to become available to all users.

1. Instagram Subscriptions - Launched as a limited test back in January, subscriptions on Instagram are now available to all eligible US creators. Subscriptions allow creators to offer exclusive content in exchange for a recurring monthly payment from their followers. To see if you’re eligible for Instagram Subscriptions, open the Instagram app and go to your professional dashboard. If you’re eligible, you’ll see an option to set up subscriptions for your account. With this feature activated, you can start posting subscriber-only:

2. Live Streams

3. Stories
4. Badges
5. Posts
6. Reels
7. Group chats
8. Broadcast channels

You can promote subscriptions in your Instagram stories with a dedicated sticker. When users tap on the sticker, they’re taken to the subscription page. In addition to exclusive content, subscribers also get a special badge next to their name when commenting on posts.

1. Facebook Professional Profile Is Now Available To All Users - Facebook’s professional profile mode is now available to users worldwide, allowing everyone to showcase their skills and abilities. Facebook’s “Professional Mode” is a profile setting that removes the need to create a Facebook Page to get your content in front of a larger audience.

Also, you can now earn money from your Reels, or by enabling ads before, during, and after longer videos. Lastly, you can allow your fans to increase their support for you with a monthly subscription and share subscriber-only content. To learn more about Professional profile, click here.

1. New UET Tag Dashboard In Microsoft Clarity - Understanding both user behavior and customer journey is crucial for successful marketing. To empower you with richer insights in a seamless experience, Microsoft launched Microsoft Clarity offering insights for Microsoft Advertising on Oct 18, 2021. In hindsight, this is something I should have covered in Episode#79 and now regret skipping over the launch announcement.

Anyways, Microsoft Clarity helps you better understand post-click user behavior and engagement on your landing pages because it’s powered by the Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag that you place across your website.

Now there’s also a new UET tag dashboard which can help you monitor tag data and fix any issues that arise. This is a one-stop shop for all things UET, including real-time insights into the data that gets sent via UET tags and troubleshooting action recommendations.

1. Microsoft Rolls Out Import Tool For Google Ads Performance Max - To simplify duplicating your efforts across platforms when using Google Ad’s Performance Max campaigns, Microsoft Advertising has rolled out an update in their Google Import tool that allows advertisers to duplicate their Google Ads Performance Max campaigns.

Currently they only support Performance Max campaigns that use a Merchant center and will import the campaigns as Smart Shopping Campaigns and Local Inventory Ads.

They have also started a pilot solution for importing your other Performance Max campaigns that aren’t using the Merchant Center, starting with an experience that will import these campaigns as Search campaigns and create Dynamic Search Ads (DSA).

Click here to learn more about on how to import your Performance Max campaigns in to Microsoft.

1. Microsoft Ads Expands Availability Of ‘Similar Audiences’ - If you're looking to expand your reach and find new potential customers, Similar Audiences automatically find new customers for you by looking for people who are similar to those in your remarketing lists. These audiences are generated automatically by Microsoft Advertising once you have a remarketing list in place. Similar Audiences can be used in the US and Canada, and the great news is that they’re now generally available in more markets

2. Similar Audiences Is Going Away In Google Ads - Starting May 1, 2023, Google Ads will no longer generate similar audiences (also referred to as “similar segments”) for targeting and reporting. If you have active campaigns with similar segments, those will remain with your campaigns until August 1, 2023. After August 1, similar segments will be removed from all ad groups and campaigns. You’ll continue to have access to historical reporting for similar segments from past campaigns.

According to Google, In place of similar segments, different campaign types will offer different solutions to help you leverage your first-party data, reach the right audience, and improve campaign performance so that you can optimize directly for your business goals.

If you have been using similar segments on Display, Discovery, or Video Action campaigns, and haven’t yet turned on optimized targeting, you should turn on optimized targeting to reach additional relevant and expanded audiences and optimize for your conversion goals.

If you have been using similar segments on Awareness and Reach video or Consideration video campaigns, you should include your first-party data segments in your ad groups, and turn on audience expansion to reach people similar to those in your first-party data.

If you have been using similar segments on Search or Shopping campaigns and are not using Smart Bidding, you should use Smart Bidding with your campaigns. If you’re using Smart Bidding already, or running Performance Max campaigns, you don’t need to take any action, since Performance Max campaigns automatically leverage signals from your first-party data.

1. Google Introduces New Search Labels For Coupons & Promos - According to a recent survey by Google, among Americans planning to shop for the holidays, 43% are planning to look for deals and sales more than last year. And Google is a central part of the shopping experience for US customers. On average, 60% say they’ve used Google properties for shopping in the past two days.

To help searchers find the items they want at the best available prices, Google is updating shopping search results with new labels highlighting coupons and promotions and the ability to compare prices from multiple retailers.

The promotion badge in search results on items that offer a discount using a coupon code, such as “15% off with coupon code HOLIDAYS.” Furthermore, a new coupon clipping feature lets searchers save promo codes for when they’re ready to buy. This is similar to what Bing already has in-place for a while.

A new deal comparison tool in Google search results makes it easier to view deals across retailers. For example, if you search for “women’s puffer coat,” Google will display a side-by-side comparison of available deals in the SERPs.

Lastly, Google’s price insights feature is coming to search results to help shoppers make more informed buying decisions. Price insights allow you to see prices across merchants and whether the price is low or high based on historical values.

If you are looking to tap into all the good things mentioned above then you need to make sure you are using structured data and Google Merchant Center. And don’t forget you can always see how your deals are performing and review your business’ promotions as well through Google Merchant Center.

1. Google: Search Console Verified Sites Do Not Get Crawled More - Google's John Mueller was asked if sites that are verified with Google Search Console get crawled more often or at a higher priority. The answer is no, "crawling is independent of Search Console," John said.

Yes, you can use the URL Inspection tool to manually push URLs to be crawled faster but that is on a URL by URL basis and must be done mostly manually. Otherwise, just having a Search Console account won't lead to expedited crawling.

1. Google: Don’t Rely Only On Backlinks For Rankings - Backlinks (also known as “inbound links”, “incoming links” or “one way links”) are links from one website to a page on another website. Google and other major search engines consider backlinks “votes” for a specific page. Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to have high organic search engine rankings. And back in March 2016 during a Q&A session, Google's Andrey Lipattsev revealed that backlinks, content and RankBrain are the top three ranking signals in Google's search algorithm.

Now Google’s John Mueller says that in the future he can see a Google Search ranking algorithm where links are not as important in the overall algorithm as they are today. He also hinted that links are not weighted as much as they were in the history of the Google ranking algorithm. Here is what he had to say when asked about backlinks:

“Well, it’s something where I imagine, over time, the weight on the links. At some point, will drop off a little bit as we can’t figure out a little bit better how the content fits in within the context of the whole web. And to some extent, links will always be something that we care about because we have to find pages somehow. It’s like how do you find a page on the web without some reference to it?

But my guess is over time, it won’t be such a big factor as sometimes it is today. I think already, that’s something that’s been changing quite a bit”

This is a similar message to what Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said in a 2014 video that backlinks, over time, will become a little less important.

My advice is that focus on writing better content and do not just rely on backlinks or else you will be in for a big surprise down the road.

1. Google: Header Fonts Size Is Irrelevant For SEO - Google’s John Mueller was asked "would google deem huge heading font size as a sign of "overdoing it", thus lower quality?" He said that the size of your header tags, i.e. H1s, H2s, etc, does not matter for SEO or ranking purposes. John said it might matter for users and conversions but for SEO, nope. Another SEO myth busted.

2. Google: Stop Focusing On Writing Content Solely Based On Search Volume - Google's John Mueller said that if you make your content creation decisions based off of keyword search volume lists, then those pieces of content will be mediocre, at best.

What John is saying is that if you are looking for content ideas and use base them on a list of keywords that show high search volume, then the content likely won't be good enough to rank well in Google Search. In short, write content that you can write something awesome about, and do not force your writing based on what people are searching for - especially if you don't know the topic super well.

John added, "seeing a list like that as a target for content makes me worry that you're not going to get a lot out of your work, or that your work is going to be quite superficial." He said "I'd look for topics that match your expertise & passion. Where can you contribute that isn't already covered by lots of others, and do so in ways that provide something new & useful? Don't focus on keywords & "search volume" lists like this, they'll lead you into mediocracy."

In my opinion, writing content solely on keyword volume is ridiculous. You should be writing your content on what your product, subject, or the market needs are and make it superior to your competitors.

Also, if you peruse the Search Essentials document, you will find that Google advices you to: "Use words that people would use to look for your content, and place those words in prominent locations on the page, such as the title and main heading of a page, and other descriptive locations such as alt text and link text."

To an untrained eye, it may come across as an implicit advice that you need to write content using keyword lists or research. However, what this means is that instead of creating content on those highly searched keywords, make content about topics you are an expert in and then sprinkle those highly searched keywords.

Great Educational and Informative content -- not keywords -- always wins.

1. Google: Your Website Doesn't Need 200k+Words To Be Authoritative - A Twitter user @natmiletic claimed that "You need around 200,000 words on your website to be considered authoritative by Google." John replied, "I don't know who made up that 200,000-word number, it's definitely not from Google."

I’m including the screenshots just in case the user deletes his tweets.

Remember that in 2019, John said word count is not a ranking factor and in 2018 John said word count is not indicative of quality. Google won't penalize you for short articles and Google said short articles can rank well and then again in 2014 said short articles are not low quality. Google has been recently advocating to avoid fluff . In addition, word count is not a sign of thin or how helpful content is or is not. In fact, Google even removed the reference to word count in the Search Console document recently.

This goes to show that how much crap & myth is out there. Aren’t you glad that you follow the #TWiMshow?

14.

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1. TikTok Publishes Holiday Marketing Guide - TikTok has published a new, 17-page 2022 holiday marketing guide, which provides an overview of key engagement stats around seasonal events, insights into when critical engagement points occur within each relevant period, checklists for planning, explainers on TikTok’s various ad options, and more.

You can download TikTok’s full 2022 holiday guide here.

1. TikTok Launches ‘TikTok Academy’ Marketing Education Platform - TikTok has launched a new education program for marketers called “TikTok Academy”, which will provide free video courses on how to make best use of TikTok for marketing, along with research data and other information to expand your understanding of the app.

This is similar to Meta’s Blueprint courses, and Twitter’s Flight School, TikTok Academy aims to provide marketers with key lessons to help them optimize their campaigns, while also providing more in-depth notes on usage trends and behavioral shifts that are important to understand in a TikTok context.

1. Pinterest Q3’22 Earnings: Increase In Users And Revenue - Pinterest has released its Q3’22 earnings report. They are reporting increases in both users and revenue (earned $685 million in Q3’22, up 8% YoY. ).

During Q3’22 Pinterest added 12 million more users, taking it back up to 445 million monthly active users, which is exactly where it was at this time last year. Pinterest saw the most growth in the ‘Rest of World’ category, though it also added 3 million users in both the US and Europe as well. That’s still below the 98 million North American users it had last year, but any growth is a positive, after three periods of decline in its most lucrative market.

Pinterest credits its rising usage to increased video engagement, with video content supply in the app increasing 3x YoY. Idea Pins, its Stories-like option, has been a big winner in this respect, while Pinterest is also looking to latch onto the live-stream commerce trend, which hasn’t taken hold in western markets yet, but could develop into a key opportunity for the commerce-focused app.

1. Microsoft Q1’23 Earnings: LinkedIn Up 17%, Search And News Revenue Up 16% - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reported that YoY LinkedIn’s revenue grew 17% and search and news advertising revenues grew 16% for the Q1’23. There are now more than 150 million subscriptions to newsletters on LinkedIn.

2. Google Q3’22 Earnings: YouTube Revenue Down & Slow Growth For Ads - Google released their Q3’22 earnings ( slowest revenue growth in nearly 10 years despite earning $69.1 billion revenue, up 6% YoY) and YouTube earnings were down about 2% to $7.07 billion from $7.21 billion. This is the first-ever decrease since Google began reporting. Search ad revenue grew 4% to $39.5 billion. Analysts had expected revenue of $41 billion. Google CFO Ruth Porat said that the modest growth was because of difficult comparisons to an unusually strong quarter a year earlier, a trend she said would continue in the fourth quarter. Google also saw advertising pullbacks in the mortgage, loan, and crypto categories, says Philipp Schindler, CBO, Google.

3. Meta Q3’22 Earnings: Increase In Daily Active Users While Revenue Declined 4% - Meta shared its Q3’22 today and their advertising revenue came in at $27.2 billion, down roughly 4% YoY. Overall ad impressions were up 17%, while the cost per ad decreased 18% YoY. Monthly active users on the platform increased 2% to 2.96 billion YoY.

Looks like Meta is still dealing with the after effects of Apple’s ATT as well as growing competition from TikTok. Internal company documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal, indicate that Instagram users cumulatively are spending 17.6 million hours a day watching Reels, less than one-tenth of the 197.8 million hours TikTok users spend each day on that platform.

You can review the Meta Investor Relations site with slides and a Webcast replay here.

1. Instagram Announces New Live Events Series to Assist With Holiday Campaigns - Instagram has announced a new series of live events, in which it will share tips and tricks to help businesses boost their sales and marketing results in the app. The live events will feature a range of speakers, including SMB owners who’ve found success in the app, members of Instagram’s Business team, and experts in Instagram shopping. All of the events will be live-streamed and hosted on the @instagramforbusiness account.

In addition to this, Instagram will also publish a new holiday checklist for businesses to help get their Instagram Shops ready ‘to drive discovery of their products’. The new checklist will be published on the Instagram for Business blog next week (we’ll also share it here).

1. Trim Videos - Google’s Bumper Ad Creation Tool - After several years of testing, Google finally released its bumper ad creation tool called “ Trim Video” to all advertisers. Google’s bumper ad tool, which shortens longer videos to six-second bumper ads, is now generally available.

I tested the tool, and I can say that it’s easy to operate. All you have to do is paste a link to one of your YouTube videos or grab one from your Google Ads library, and the tool will generate four different six-second ads. You can compare the auto-generated videos, save the ones you like, or edit them by selecting different clips.

1. Google Added 5 Features To Performance Max Campaigns - Performance Planner is a tool that lets you create plans for your advertising spend and assess how changes to campaigns might affect key metrics and overall performance. Advertisers can now use the new Performance Planner to create Performance Max campaign plans and understand how to invest their budgets while maximizing ROI.

With Asset group scheduling, you can add automated rules which allow you to schedule asset groups so they can be paused and enabled as needed. With scheduling, you can run ads at specific times of the day, or create and run different asset groups ahead of time.

Performance Max asset groups will now allow to add up to 15 headlines. Previously it used to be 5.. Google says that by adding more headlines “you can take advantage of machine learning’s ability to create and test even more combinations to find the best-performing variations.”

Performance explanations can help you identify what’s driving performance fluctuations, diagnose issues, and view recommendations. You can see these in the explanations panels and they are available for all Performance max campaigns.

The Insights page helps you identify trends in your market and understand your performance. You can soon see your first-party data segments added as audience signals in audience insights on the Insights page. These insights may help you understand the value of your first-party data and see which of your customer lists may be converting best.

You can read the announcement from Google here.

1. Music Genres As Placement Option For YouTube Ads - Google, YouTube’s parent company is rolling out a new placement option for video ads that allow advertisers to target specific types of music on YouTube. The new “Music Mood Lineups” placement is designed to help advertisers reach users when they’re in a positive mood. The following five types of Music Mood Lineups in 20 countries:

2. Romantic

3. Happy & Uplifting
4. Chill
5. Downbeat
6. Funky Moods

When placing ads by Music Mood Lineup, ads will be served alongside videos pulled from the same mood signals that YouTube uses as part of YouTube Music playlists.

1. Google’s Official Stance On Stock Photography - Lizzi Sassman, who curates Googles Search Central documentation and John Mueller recently discussed the merits of using stock photography and the impact on web and image search.

Per John, if you wanted to use stock photos as a decorative element on a page, then it’s perfectly fine. After all, it adds a little bit flavor, a little bit more color to the post, or to whatever content we have on the page. However, don’t expect stock photography to rank on image search.

1. Google’s October 2022 Spam Algorithm Update Completed - Last week, in episode#131 I mentioned about the October 2022 Spam Algorithm update was launched by Google. Now I’m happy to share that the update finished rolling out on October 21, 2022, at around 5 am ET. If you missed Episode#131, here is what a Spam Algorithm update is all about:

“While Google’s automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates. For example, SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam. Sites that see a change after a spam update should review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. Making changes may help a site improve if our automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies with our spam policies”

1. Google: Human Written Content Doesn't Automatically Make The Content Useful Or Helpful - Google’s John Muller said, "Just because something is human-written doesn't make it helpful & good content." Instead, John suggested that you "focus on making things awesome, unique, compelling, that people recommend to friends - not just something that's technically ok."

2. Google No Longer Uses The Page Speed Algorithms - Google's John Mueller confirmed that Google no longer uses the old Google page speed algorithms from 2010 or 2018. Instead, he said, Google only uses the page experience update, looking at the core web vital metrics.

3. Link Wheels Are Against Google's Guidelines - Link wheels are a SEO technique that is against Google's guidelines where one creates several sites and link them to each other in a round-robin fashion. They are purposefully and solely built to manipulate the rankings of a website, to manipulate Google into thinking those links are natural.

Now John Muller said that link wheels are against Google's search essentials (previously known as webmaster) guidelines,and Google would consider them link schemes and thus spam.

1. GA4 : Two New Features You Should Know About - Google announced new features and reporting for Google Analytics 4 including behavioral modeling in real-time reporting and custom channel reporting for data-driven attribution.

Behavior modeling with real time reporting will give advertisers a complete picture of user behavior as it happens, in a privacy-centric way. Behavior modeling uses machine learning to fill in the gaps of your understanding of customer behavior when cookies and other identifiers aren’t available. Real-time updates will be available in the near future to give advertisers a complete view of the customer journey as it’s happening.

Data-driven attribution (DDA) was introduced into GA4 earlier this year, after becoming the default for all ads conversions last fall. Soon, Google will launch custom channel grouping, a feature that lets advertisers combine different channels to compare cost-per-acquisition and return-on-ad-spend based on data-driven attribution. For example, businesses will be able to compare the performance of their paid search brand with their non-brand campaigns.

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1. Highlights From Snapchat Q3’22 Earnings - Here are the highlights from the Snapchat’s Q3’22 Earnings report. Analysis is in the podcast.:

2. Revenue increased 6% YoY to $1.13 billion in Q3’ 22.

3. Average revenue per user (ARPU) was $3.11 in Q3’22, compared to $3.49 in Q3’21.
   • ARPU in US was $8.13
   • ARPU in ROW $.89
4. Daily Active Users (DAUs) were 363 million in Q3’22, an increase of 57 million, or 19% year-over-year
   • Snap is still seeing the majority of its growth in the ’Rest of World’ category, where it’s added 45 million users year-over-year.

5. Snapchat+ reached over 1.5 million paying subscribers in Q3’22 and is now offered in over 170 countries.

6. Uber Testing “Journey Ads” - Marketers Can Target Riders By Destination - Uber, the ride-hailing company is expanding its advertising business and is testing out ‘Journey Ads’ to its riders based on their travel history and their geographic locations. The journey ads will be shown in the Uber app at least three times during the riders’ journey. Uber will allow brands to place ads using data drawn from riders’ travel history and their precise geographic destinations. For example, if a user books an Uber to a specific retailer, cinema or airport, an advertiser could buy ads centered on that location.

An Uber spokeswoman said, "Uber does not share user data with advertisers. The information that Uber shares is limited to aggregated information or other non-personal data, such as the percentage of users who clicked on an ad, or the number of users who visit the retail locations of advertisers using our platform. Users can opt-out of targeted ads on the Uber app at any time"

1. New Features for Facebook Groups Announced In Communities Summit 2022 - Facebook has announced a range of new groups features during the Communities Summit 2022, including new Stories sharing tools, view-only chats, custom member profile displays, and more.

2. Reels in Groups- With Reels now in Groups, community members can share information, tell stories and connect on a deeper level. Group admins and members can also add creative elements such as audio, text overlay and filters on top of their videos before sharing to bring their stories to life.

3. The ability to share a public Facebook event for your community to your Instagram story. Whether you’re a group admin hosting a meet-up to celebrate a community milestone, or a group member sharing your passion with friends, this feature can help you showcase your community more broadly.
4. Facebook’s also testing new customization options for people’s ’About Me’ section specific to each community, in order to better highlight relevant information for that audience, along with a new indicator that highlights whether you’re open to private messaging.
5. Facebook’s also testing the ability for group admins and moderators to create view-only chats to send one-way communications to all of their members (without having to maintain or respond to messages in the chat), and a new process to highlight top contributing members, who’ll be able to earn points by taking on group engagement responsibilities.

6. Facebook’s also trying out a new element within Admin Assist that’ll enable group admins to implement automatic removal of posts containing information, as determined by Meta’s third-party fact-checkers.

7. Instagram Announces ‘Creator Portfolio’ Option - Instagram has officially announced its ‘Creator Portfolio’ option, which will enable creators to build what’s essentially a media kit type package, in order to showcase their audience reach, as well as previous brand work. It’s similar to Instagram’s Creator Marketplace listings where influencers are presented in a collective showcase – though a Creator Portfolio enables individual users to share their profile direct with potential partners in the app.

8. Google: The Importance Of Image Filenames And One Big Mistake To Avoid - Google’s documentation doesn’t say if image filenames are ranking factors. But they do say that Google takes note of them in order to help figure out what the image is about. For that reason it’s recommended by Google that images be given meaningful filenames. It’s also a good practice to give meaningful filenames to images because it makes it easier for organization purposes to be able to see the image filename and know what it’s about.

In Episode 48 of Search Off the Record podcast, Google’s Lizzi Sassman and John Mueller discussed the importance of image filenames and here is the gist of their conversation:

• Image filenames that are descriptive are helpful from an Image Search standpoint because they help Google understand what an image is about.
• Alt text and the text surrounding the image provide a stronger and more important signal about the image than the filename.
• Changing the image filename of an already indexed image has a “minimal effect” and likely won’t make it better.

• Changing the filename of an indexed image may result in the renamed image going uncrawled and not indexed for months.

• Google : The One Thing To Do Before Implementing Geo IP Redirects - Geo IP based redirection is the process of automatically redirecting a website visitor by their geolocation (country, state or city). It works by detecting the visitor's location from their IP address by matching it against a database of IPs and locations.

In the latest #AskGooglebot video series, Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, shares that “this is a pretty complex topic and it can cause headaches depending on how it’s implemented. So I’d recommend getting help from experts or reaching out to the Search Central help forum for advice.

The most important aspect here is that Googlebot usually crawls and indexes a website just from a single location. If you’re showing different content by location only one version will be indexed for search. Because of that, if there’s something you consider important on your website, make sure it’s on the default content that’s shown to all users. And finally, if there’s any page you want to have findable in search, make sure that you’re not blocking users in other locations from reaching that page.”

1. Google: To Have An Unique URL You Need A Character The /? - Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter "Using just "/?" at the end of a URL is equivalent to not having anything after the slash. You need at least 1 character after the "?"."

2. Google: There Is No Need To Use English URLs For Pages Not In English - Google’s John Mueller wrote on Twitter "There's no need to use English URLs of the content isn't in English. That said, keywords in URLs are a bit overrated, so I wouldn't worry too much about it." The same information was conveyed back in 2018 in a video.

3. Google: Spam Update Rolling Out - It has been 11 months since the last time Google released a spam update and now Google announced the October 2022 spam update. The spam updates help document reads:

“While Google's automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates. For example, SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam.”

Here are the important things you need to know about the October 2022 Spam Update:

• Name: Google October 2022 Spam Update
• Launched: October 19, 2022 at around 11 am ET
• Rollout: It will take several days to fully roll out
• Targets: It improves Google's spam detection techniques, Google said "sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all."
• Penalty: It penalizes spam techniques that are against Google's spam policies.
• Global: This is a global update impacting all regions and languages.
• Impact: Google will not disclose what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update.
• Recover: If you were hit by this, Google said you should review its spam policies to ensure they are complying with those.

• Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to the spam update. It can take many months to recover, Google said.

• YouTube Ads: Moment Blast & Expanded Product Feeds For Discovery Ads - YouTube is launching a new offering called “Moment Blast,” designed to reach viewers during events like live sports, movie releases, or product launches. Moment Blast gives advertisers prime positioning on YouTube Select content on connected TVs (CTV) and other devices, plus a Branded Title Card and optional Masthead placement. Moment Blast is intended for brands looking to raise awareness during key moments, like major sporting events, movie releases or product launches. In the announcement, YouTube says “People have always connected in front of the TV screen, but YouTube gives them the unique chance to bond over shared passions — like watching live-streamed concerts, fitness classes or even religious ceremonies together. They feel a similar connection to the ads they get, too.” YouTube also claims that 59% of respondents in a survey feel that ads they see on YouTube are more relevant than on linear TV or other streaming apps.

Furthermore, YouTube will be expanding product feeds to Discovery ads to help advertisers scale their social media creative and reach more engaged viewers. Soon, product feeds will also include local offers, allowing brands to show real-time availability for products in their Google Merchant Center so people can find the most convenient place to buy. Creators will also be able to transform their content into virtual storefronts. Additionally, more creators will have the ability to tag products in their videos and Shorts. These features will be available on November 10.

1. Google Ads Updates “Unavailable Video” Policy - This week, Google quietly updated its “Unavailable Video” policy to give advertisers a clearer understanding of the disapproval reason and how to rectify the issue quickly. The four reasons why you may receive an ad disapproval with “Unavailable Video” policy are:

2. Video status changed to “deleted” after submission.

3. Video status changed to “private” after submission.
4. Video marked live premiere.

5. Videos marked sponsors or members only.

6. Google Ads: Seasonal Video Ad Templates Are Now Available - To support your holiday and seasonal marketing efforts, new seasonally-themed video ad templates are available in Google Ads. The templates have designs and music tracks that reference the following holidays and moments: Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas and seasonal sales events like Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Expect to see additional templates applicable to more seasonal moments throughout the coming months.

As with all of their templates, you can customize them with your images, logo, brand colors and text. Videos you make may be used in any campaign that accepts video assets, like Performance Max campaigns, Video action campaigns and App campaigns. These campaign types automatically scale to YouTube Shorts inventory, where vertical video assets are most effective. You can browse all of the templates by clicking here.

1. Google Ads : 3 New Reporting Columns - Google Ads has rolled out three new columns to reports that make it easier to understand how conversions impact campaign performance. Before this update, you would have had to apply custom segments to see each conversion action and the categories they fall under. Now the data is more readily available. The new columns are:

2. Results : shows the number of conversions you've received across your primary conversion actions for each of the standard goals in your account. In addition, you’ll also see the impact this campaign is driving against goals it’s not optimizing towards.

3. Results value : shows the calculated conversion values you've received across your primary conversion actions for each of the standard goals in your account.

4. Conversion goals: shows the goals listed in your campaign-level settings that drive performance.

5. Google/YouTube Audio Ads Now Available - Google in their announcement cites data from Edison Research that finds YouTube is the second-most popular destination for listening to podcasts. Now, all Google advertisers can reach podcast listeners with audio ads on YouTube. Audio ads are also served to people who listen to music on YouTube. However, there’s an option to limit targeting to podcast listeners if that’s who you’re primarily interested in targeting.

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1. Facebook Retires ‘Instant Articles’ - Originally launched in 2015, Instant Articles were designed to provide publishers with a more engaging, fast-loading way to present their articles on Facebook, helping to maximize reader engagement within the app. As reported by Axios, Meta’s ending support for Instant Articles as it works to better align with user preferences, which, increasingly, see video being its most engaging content format.

2. TikTok Adds Photo Mode - Now TikTok has copied Instagram (perhaps in retaliation for IG copying all of its stuff) and launched a new ‘Photo Mode’ for still images in the app. Photo Mode looks exactly like Instagram, with users able to post carousels of still images that users can scroll through in the app. Per TikTok:

“Photo Mode allows you to share carousel posts of still images that automatically display one after another. You can add music to soundtrack the images, which viewers can swipe through at their own pace.”

1. YouTube Launches @handles For Channels - YouTube’s moving more into line with other social networks with the addition of @handles for channels, which will make it easier to drive traffic to your profile, and promote your channel in the app.

“Handles are a new unique identifier (example @youtubecreators) & ALL YouTube channels will have one. Your unique @handle will help people find & interact with you & your YouTube channel. And because handles are unique (unlike channel names), it’s easy to confirm if you’re engaging with the right person or not.”

Your @handle, which will be unique to your channel (unlike Channel names), will directly connect people to your content, like it does on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc. @handles will also function as a unique channel URL, providing another branding opportunity. Up till now, custom channel URLs have only been available to creators with 100 subscriptions, but now, YouTube’s making the option available to all users in the app. @handles will also make it easier and faster to mention channels in comments, community posts and video descriptions.

“For example, creators can be shouted out in a mention in comments or tagged in the title of a recent collab, helping them increase visibility and reach with new audiences.”

Part of the idea here is to better promote channels, in alignment with habitual trends, with a key consideration likely being Shorts and helping to maximize Shorts channel growth by making it easier to follow creators. Another element that YouTube’s looking to tackle is the rise of copycat channels, where scammers create channels that look similar to popular YouTubers’, often by using the same channel name. By ensuring that each channel has a unique @handle, which they can promote direct, that will make it harder to create replica channels, and trick users with uploads and scams.

1. Google Data Studio Is Now Looker Studio - Google launched Data Studio in March 2016 as part of the enterprise Google Analytics 360 suite, with a free version that lets you turn your data into informative, easy-to-read, easy-to-share, and fully customizable dashboards and reports. There are easy-to-use drag-and-drop features to customize reports from various data sources, including Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Ads, and much more.

Now Google has renamed the popular analytics and data platform from Google Data Studio to Looker Studio. Google wrote “starting today, Data Studio is now Looker Studio.” “With this complete enterprise business intelligence suite, we will help you go beyond dashboards and infuse your workflows and applications with the intelligence needed to help make data-driven decisions,” Google added.

Google also announced a Pro, paid, version of Looker Studio named Looker Studio Pro. Google said that the Pro version will get new enterprise management features, team collaboration capabilities, and SLAs. Google said that is just the first release and the company has “developed a roadmap of capabilities, starting with Dataplex integration for data lineage and metadata visibility, that our enterprise customers have been asking for.”

You can learn more about this change on the Google blog.

1. Google Swaps Title Tags With Site Names For Mobile Homepage Results - Google is now only showing the generic site name in mobile search results that are for the entire website, such as for the home page. Google is using site names in order to make it easier for users to identify the specific website in the search results. Here is what Google published in the official announcement:

“Today, Search is introducing site names on mobile search results to make it easier to identify the website that’s associated with each result…”

This new feature is available in the English, French, Japanese, and German languages and will begin showing up in other languages over the next few months.

Google is recommending the use of the WebSite structured data type because Google is using the WebSite structured data type, specifically the “name” property, to understand what the site name of a website is. So it is best that your site has the following:

1. WebSite structured data
2. Title tag
3. Headings (H1, H2, etc.)
4. Open Graph Protocol meta data, specifically the og:site_name

You can read the official announcement here and the Search Central Documentation here.

1. Google Renames Webmaster Guidelines To Search Essentials & Some Changes - Google has renamed the Google Webmaster Guidelines to Google Search Essentials. The name change is Google's ongoing efforts to remove the term "webmaster" so that these tools and documentation do not narrow the focus to just "webmasters," but expands it to publishers, site owners, developers, creators, and so on. Google also changed the overall format, added clearer terms and examples and also tried to simplify them for easier consumption. Google explained they updated the:

2. Technical requirements: It is a new section to help people understand how to publish content in a format that Google can index and access.

3. Spam policies: Google updated its guidance for its policies against spam, to help site owners avoid creating content that isn't helpful for people using Google Search. Google explained that most of the content in these spam policies has already existed on Google Search Central in the "Quality Guidelines", Google did make a few additions to provide clearer guidance and concrete examples for issues like deceptive behavior, link spam, online harassment, and scam and fraud.

4. Key best practices: Google published new guidance with key best practices that people can consider when creating sites, to create content that serves people and will help a site be more easily found through Google Search.

5. Google Announces Search Central Live Conference - Google announced live conference series called Search Central Live previously known as Webmaster Conference. The conference is scheduled for November 24, 2022 in Singapore. Registration for a limited amount of seats is currently open until November 15th, with ticket confirmation set to begin on November 17. Admission to the event is free. Per Google:

“Before you buy your transcontinental plane ticket, keep in mind that we do plan to have more of these events in the future, and some might be closer to your base. Stay tuned for these updates on the Search Central Live event page or on Twitter.”

Here is the official announcement.

1. Microsoft Bing Launches Image Creator - An AI Image Generator - Microsoft has launched Image Creator - an AI image generator to its Bing search engine, which enables users to create digital art from text input. Let’s say a picture of a Shiba Inu as an astronaut would go perfectly with a blog post you’re writing. You turn to the search engines for a free-to-use image, but you can’t find one that matches your criteria. With the new Image Creator tool coming to Microsoft Bing, you can generate the exact image you need by inputting descriptive text.

Image Creator is powered by DALL-E 2 image generator technology developed by OpenAI. Microsoft says Image Creator can assist searchers with creating images that don’t exist yet.

1. Google’s Stance On The Use Of AI Images - Google’s John Mueller and Lizzi Sassman discussed the topic of using AI Images on your site in Episode 48 of the Search Off The Record podcast. Although autogenerated text content is prohibited/limited for ranking in Google Search, surprisingly there was no similar prohibition or caveat discussed about AI generated images and ranking in Google Images.

2. Google Updates Image Structured Data - Google has added three new structured data properties to be used with the ImageObject type in order to add support for credit, copyright and image creator information via structured data. Google’s developer support changelog states:

“Added support for image credits to the Image Metadata structured data documentation. Previously, you could only provide image credit information with IPTC photo metadata. When you specify image metadata, Google Images can show more details about the image, such as who the creator is, how people can use an image, and credit information. ”

This is what the new structured data types are for, according to Schema.org:

• creditText - Text that can be used to credit person(s) and/or organization(s) associated with a published Creative Work.
• creator - The creator/author of this CreativeWork. This is the same as the Author property for CreativeWork.

• copyrightNotice - Text of a notice appropriate for describing the copyright aspects of this Creative Work, ideally indicating the owner of the copyright for the Work.”

• Google’s Advice On How to Write Good Alt Text - The purpose of alternative text (alt text) in images is to provide audiences with screen readers a way to understand the images. In Episode 48 of the Search Off The Record podcast, John Muller and Lizzi Sassman gave the following advice on how to write Good Alt text:

“Imagine that you’re reading the web page aloud over the phone to someone who needs to understand the page. This should help you decide what (if any) information or function the images have. If they appear to have no informative value and aren’t links or buttons, it’s probably safe to treat them as decorative.

From an SEO point of view, my recommendation is always to provide context for the image as well in the alt text. So if you have a picture of a beach, don’t just be like, ‘Oh, this is a photo of a beach.’ But rather like, ‘This is the beach before the chemical spill happened.’ And… Because it’s very different context if someone is searching for a beach for a holiday, it’s like, ‘Oh, I want to see a beautiful beach. I’ll go there on vacation.’ And if you notice, well actually, this is before the chemical spill happened, then it’s like, ‘Well, maybe like that would lend itself to different kinds of Search queries.’

Because ultimately, when you’re talking about Image Search, it’s not that people want an image, but rather they want information which is attached to that image. They want kind of to understand a specific topic to find some information. And that additional context is something that you can provide in the alt text. And that’s something that they might be searching for. And if they’re searching for it, then make it easy for them to find that.”

1. 3 New Examples From Google On How To Write Product Reviews - There has been a lot of confusion about the types of sites that may be impacted by the product reviews algorithm updates. This algorithm was designed to look at sites that offer product reviews, not necessarily e-commerce sites that have reviews on the product listing pages. So Google has added three new examples to the top of the “how to write product reviews” help document, clarifying more types of sites that may be impacted by the product reviews algorithm updates. The 3 example are:

2. An expert staff member of a merchant that guides shoppers between competing products.

3. A blogger that provides independent opinions of products.
4. An editorial staff member at a news or other publishing site.

These examples provide additional guidance on what types of sites may be impacted by this set of algorithm updates.

In short, it is about content where someone is doing a review of a product, either as a comparison or a deeper dive into a specific product. This can include merchant sites, shopper guides, bloggers that share their opinion, news or publishing sites doing reviews, and more.

As Alan Kent of Google recently said on Twitter “a merchant’s product page with user reviews is not considered a “product review page” in this context.”

Google also recently clarified that structured data may help Google identify product review-type content, but it is one of many ways Google identifies such content. Danny Sullivan wrote, “as for structured data, it might help us better identify if something is a product review, but we do not solely depend on it.”

1. Google Still Does Not Use HTML Lang Attribute - Google's John Mueller https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1577945097693532166re-confirmed that Google Search does not use the HTML lang attribute. He said many screen readers do and Microsoft Bing might use it as well, but Google Search still does not.

This is a similar statement to what he said several years ago in a video response - “We don't use that at all. So we use the hreflang links if you have that if you have different language versions. But the language attribute within the HTML markup is something we don't use at all. We've found that this language markup is something that is almost always wrong. So we tend to ignore that.”

1. Google: SEO Is A Long Game - We all know that ranking well for competitive terms in Google Search is not as easy, or even a fraction as easy, as it was two decades ago. This is because of many variables including but not limited to Google's algorithms getting better and there being a lot more competition.

John Mueller of Google responded to a complaint about SEO being too hard for news businesses to even bother trying. The question was "is SEO dead? I mean, starting with a new website these days it is basically impossible to outrank high authority websites. So many high DA showing up in the SERP. What can we do with a new website?"

John's response was solid, he said "If you mean it should be trivial to out-rank long-existing, legitimate businesses with some SEO tricks, then yes, that kind of SEO is long dead. It's not enough to throw some keywords on a page to make it useful to users."

But that does not mean SEO is dead or you should give up and not try to start a competing business with others. You just need to take the time and effort to compete. The same logic applies to offline success as it does with online success. You can't just start a new brand of soda and expect to compete with Pepsi or Cola overnight, it takes time, resources, marketing and a good product.

1. Google: Do This To Get New Content Indexed Quickly - Google's John Mueller said that pinging Google that your sitemap file has been updated can help Google index your new content quickly. He said it is simply Google practice to ping Google with when your sitemap file is updated.

Of course, this does not guarantee indexing. Google still does not index everything, so just because you might ping Google about a new URL, it does not mean Google will index it.

John Mueller wrote on Twitter "Pinging a sitemap is a bit different than just providing it in the robots.txt -- by pinging, you're actively flagging a change in the sitemap file. If you're keen on having new content indexed quickly, that's a good practice."

According to Google developers guide "Google doesn't check a sitemap every time a site is crawled; a sitemap is checked only the first time that we notice it, and thereafter only when you ping us to let us know that it's changed. Alert Google about a sitemap only when it's new or updated; don't submit or ping unchanged sitemaps multiple times."

To use the ping tool, send a GET request in your browser or the command line to google.com, specifying the full URL of the sitemap. Make sure that the sitemap file is accessible. E.g: https://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=FULL_URL_OF_SITEMAP

1. Google Ads Launches Content Suitability Center - Google has launched a new content suitability center in Google Ads where you can manage your suitability settings for all campaigns on YouTube and the Google Display Network.

Google wrote, “previously, managing suitability settings was done in multiple, segregated sections of Google Ads and the experience differed across Google platforms.” “This led to a time-consuming and cumbersome implementation process, along with misconceptions and misuse of the controls. While exclusions can be helpful tools, brands also want to be mindful of the types of content they choose to exclude. Over-exclusion can negatively impact your cost and reach. It can also unintentionally exclude great, brand-safe content or content relevant to diverse communities,” Google added.

When you enter the new suitability center in Google Ads, you can now select one of the three inventory modes. Inventory modes “cater to your preferences for various sensitive themes, such as profanity, sexual suggestiveness and violence,” Google explained. You can fine-tune additional exclusions from that point. Once you have designated your preferences at the account level, Google Ads will now automatically apply these settings to your future campaigns.

1. Google Ads Will Remove Some Content Targeting In YouTube Conversion Campaigns In 2023 - A major benefit of YouTube ads has been the powerful targeting options, many of which will now be removed early next year according to a Google Ads help article. The help article, “Optimize your Video campaign for more conversions” contains a content targeting section that recommends avoiding the addition of content targeting (by keywords, topics or placements) in campaigns.

These content targeting options are beloved by many advertisers due to the granularity they provide. Placements could target YouTube Channels, specific videos, video lineups, URLs, Apps, or collections.

With the current targeting, advertisers could match ads to channels/videos to deliver more customized messages to audiences. This change will effectively put an end to the hyper-targeting that made YouTube so appealing for ad dollars.

Another major blow is the loss of keyword targeting on the self-proclaimed 2nd largest search engine in the world. The removal of query targeting on a (video) search engine hurts.

While keywords on YouTube haven’t historically been as powerful as traditional search, it has been a way for advertisers to help answer queries with their video content. There is no doubt that advertisers will need to get more creative in order to hit their target audience.

Advertisers running YouTube content targeting campaigns that leverage keywords, topics or placements will have the targeting removed.

If you are running ads using content targeting options, you should stay tuned to updates as those targeting settings will be automatically removed from your campaigns. With less targeting, you’ll reach a larger audience and may spend more on less qualified users.

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1. Facebook Ad Policies Renamed To Meta Ad Standards - Meta has renamed their Facebook Advertising Policies to Meta Advertising Standards to make them “as useful, transparent and clear as possible. We’re not making any changes to the scope of these policies or how we enforce them, nor are we announcing any new policies. Instead, our goal with this update is to make it easier for people and businesses to access and understand our policies.”

2. Meta Announces Facebook Communities Summit 2022 - Per Meta, “the Facebook Communities Summit is back. Join us virtually to celebrate inspiring community builders, hear from Facebook leaders, and learn about a number of new products and features to help you build, grow, and support your groups.”

The event is scheduled for October 20, 2022. Previous Communities Summit events have seen the launch of various new tools and updates, so it could well be worth tuning in if you’re looking to stay up with the latest group moderation options that could help to maximize your Facebook community. You can learn more about 2022 Facebook’s Communities Summit, and sign-up to attend, here.

1. Meta Shutting Down ‘Bulletin’ Newsletter Platform - Meta launched Bulletin in April 2021, as part of an effort to take a piece of the growing newsletter market and compete with Substack (btw, Twimshow is hosted on substack). Now Meta says that it will shut down Bulletin by early next year.

Per Meta, “Bulletin has allowed us to learn about the relationship between Creators and their audiences and how to better support them in building their community on Facebook. While this off-platform product itself is ending, we remain committed to supporting these and other Creators’ success and growth on our platform.”

1. Meta Rolls Out ‘Advantage Custom Audience’ - Per Meta, “... rolling out Advantage custom audience, a new targeting automation product that leverages an advertiser’s Custom Audience to reach new and existing customers. This is similar to Lookalike audiences that find people who are likely to be interested in your business, except that Advantage custom audience goes beyond the 1%, 5% or 10% similarity ranges you are used to, while also prioritizing delivery of ads to people in your Custom Audience. This entire process is guided by AI and machine learning to help improve advertiser campaign performance with less manual effort.”

2. Instagram : Multi-advertiser, Explore And Profile Feed Ads - Multi-advertiser ads allow businesses to be discovered by people who are in a shopping mindset and have recently engaged with relevant business content in feed. When a person expresses commercial intent by engaging with an ad, Instagram will deliver more ads from other businesses that may be of interest, powered by machine learning. Through a large-scale back end study, they observed that adding multi-advertiser ads to ad campaigns drove improved efficiency in incremental conversions per dollar spent.

Explore home, the grid that people see when they first arrive on the Explore tab, will now feature ads to reach people in the earliest stages of discovering new content they care about.

Instagram is also testing ads in profile feed for non-teen, public profiles, which is the feed experience that people can scroll through after visiting another account’s profile and tapping on a post. Ads in profile feed give advertisers the opportunity to expand their reach easily using existing feed assets, while giving people the same personalized ad experience they enjoy in their main Instagram feed. As a part of this test, we will experiment with a monetization opportunity that will allow eligible creators to earn extra income from ads displayed in their profile feeds, beginning with select U.S. creators.

1. Google Analytics Stops Reporting Store Visits - Store Visits in Google Analytics provides an estimated count of the number of store visits from users who visit your website and then visit your physical store within 30 days. Store visits are estimates based on data from users who have turned on Location History. Only aggregated and anonymized data is reported to advertisers, and they aren’t able to see any store visits from individual website sessions, ad clicks, viewable impressions, or people.

Now Google states that, “on 10/31/2022, Store Visits reporting will be discontinued. As of this date, new Store Visits reporting will not be generated. Historical Store Visits reporting will remain available.”

1. Google Announces ‘Tag Coverage Summary’ - Sitewide tags are the building blocks of a strong measurement foundation. They help advertisers understand how customers are interacting with their website and ads.

But, it’s historically been difficult to set up and manage tags without technical expertise or a tag management platform like Google Tag Manager. To address this, Google rolled out a single, reusable Google tag so you can do more across different Google products and accounts without changing your website code. We covered this in more detail in Episode#120.

Now, with the new Tag coverage summary, you can quickly determine whether your Google tag has been implemented on all of your website pages. You can access this summary from the Google tag sections of both Google Ads and Google Analytics, and through Google Tag Manager.

1. Google Ads: Target Users Who Are More Likely To Click On In-App Ads - Through this update, Google Ads’ app campaigns allow you to target people with an affinity for clicking on ads within apps. The new targeting option is target return on ad spend for ad revenue or tROAS for ad revenue for short. Per Google, “this is an update to the Target Return on Ad Spend, or tROAS bid strategy, which is recommended if you are seeking a specific Return on Ad Spend from your App campaigns..”

To use tROAS for ad revenue, your develope will need to send all AdMob or third-party ad revenue data to Google Analytics for bidding. Because third-party ad revenue in Google Analytics enables revenue import from any monetization platform into Google Analytics for tROAS bidding. In addition, you’re required to link your Google Analytics property to Google Ads and send your Google Analytics ad_impression event to Google Ads. With those requirements met, you can implement this new targeting capability by setting up a tROAS for ad revenue App campaign and selecting the ‘ad_impression’ event to optimize toward ad revenue.

1. Google Ads Testing ‘Automatically Created Assets’ - Automatically created assets are a campaign-level setting that helps you generate additional assets (headers and descriptions) to complement the assets you input for your ads by using relevant creative content from your landing page, website, existing ads, and keywords in your ad group. Note that automatically created assets setting is currently in beta and not available for all. Automatically created assets will appear in campaign level settings as accounts are added to the beta.

You can see which assets are being used in the RSAs by navigating to “Asset report” from the Ad level to “View asset details” and viewing all of the assets used.

• You can use the “source” column to distinguish between automatically created assets vs advertiser-created assets
• Automatically created assets will show impressions and performance ratings
• On the channel-level asset report, auto-created assets are visible like advertiser-provided assets

If you have access to this new feature, you’ll instruct Google to generate the assets from eligible sources based on relevance and predicted performance. You can choose to opt-out of automatically generated assets by going into your Google Ads account, navigating to Settings, then clicking Automatically created assets, then selecting Off: Use only assets I provide directly for my ads.

Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11259373

1. Google Ad Recommendations Can Now Be Applied As Experiments - Google Ads announced that you can now apply a recommendation as an experiment in the Experiments page. This allows you to more efficiently "in as few as two clicks, you can set up an experiment where you compare your base campaign to a trial campaign which will have the recommendation applied," Google said. Currently, this functionality is available for broad match and target return on advertising spend recommendations. Google said it will continue to roll out support for more recommendation types on the Experiments page in the coming months.

Google said this was done because many advertisers felt that it can be hard to understand the impact of applying a recommendation to your account.

Google recommends you monitor your results within the Google Ads Experiments page for 4-6 weeks. Once the experiment has concluded, you can apply the results by either converting your trial campaign into a new campaign or by transferring the learnings to your original campaign.

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1. Twitter Leans Into Video With 2 New Features - Twitter is leaning into emerging video consumption trends and with these two new updates – I guess to get people spending more time in the app.

2. Immersive viewing and easy discovery - This new feature expands videos to full screen by simply clicking on the video in the Twitter app. When the video is in full-screen mode, users can scroll up to browse additional video content. This feature will be available on iOS and Android in select countries in English.

3. Showing more videos in Explore - A new video carousel makes it easier to find more videos you're interested in next to Tweets and Trends that might interest you. You can access these videos by opening the Explore tab. This feature will be available on iOS and Android in select countries in English.

You can read the full announcement from Twitter here.

1. TikTok Community Guidelines Enforcement Report Highlights - Here are the highlights from the TikTok’s published Q2’22 Community Guidelines Report that you should be aware of:

2. TikTok took down over 113 million video clips between April and June (Q2) this year due to policy violations and other issues - an 11% increase on the previous quarter, though that remains pretty much in line with the ongoing trend.

3. Proactive removal of videos improved from 83.6% in Q1 to 89.1% in Q2; removal of videos at zero views improved from 60.8% in Q1 to 74.7% in Q2; and video removals in under 24 hours improved from 71.9% to 83.9%.
4. Over 33 million fake profiles removed in the period, a 62% increase on the previous quarter (Q1’22). Clearly fake account is an issue in all the social media platforms.

Listen to the podcast to find out more as to why I am including this data in this episode.

1. 5 Updates To Facebook Call Ads - Facebook added 5 new features to help businesses build better customer relationships, find more quality leads, and reach more potential customers to grow their business, they stated in a blog post.

2. Get a call back - This feature is currently being tested and gives customers the option to request a callback from a business.

3. Call Ads in Sales Objective - Businesses will now have the option to include call ads as a format under the Sales/Conversions objective in Ads Manager.
4. 60s call in Lead Gen, Traffic, and Sales objectives - A60-second call optimization option in lead generation, traffic and to-be-released sales ad objectives to allow businesses to optimize their ads to reach people who are most likely to engage in a longer conversation.
5. Pre-call business feature in Ads Manager - Businesses can provide additional context in ads to help educate potential customers to help them make informed decisions before they make a call.
6. In-app calling - Facebook is testing a platform calling solution to enable businesses to connect with customers wherever they are browsing and allow them to continue that same experience within the app after the call is complete. Facebook says that no call information is captured.

To learn more, you can read the blog post from Facebook here.

1. Voiceover Now Possible In YouTube Shorts - YouTube has added a new option that allows creators to add voiceover to their short-form clips in the app. Functionality wise, it’s not a revolutionary addition since this feature already exists in TikTok and Instagram reels. Follow these steps to add voiceover to your Shorts after recording content:

2. Tap the checkmark button in the bottom right of the camera screen

3. Tap the voiceover button
4. Move the playhead (vertical white line on the video filmstrip) to the spot you want to start your voiceover
5. Hit the red record button to start recording and tap it again to stop recording (you can also hold down the record button while recording and lift up to stop recording)
6. Tap the undo button if you want to delete your last voiceover recording, or tap the redo button to add it back again

7. Use the volume panel to adjust audio levels across music, your original video’s audio, and voiceover

8. 3 Updates To LinkedIn Pages - LinkedIn rolled out three pages updates that allow businesses to facilitate more meaningful communication with their audience.

9. Post Templates For LinkedIn Pages - Businesses now have an easier way to create rich LinkedIn page content with customizable templates. Post templates are available directly in the LinkedIn app without downloading additional tools. Start creating a post and tap the “use template” button. Then you can customize the background, choose the font, add text, attach clickable links, and more.

10. Pinned Comments - Businesses can now highlight their favorite comments on posts by pinning them to the top of the comment section. You can change the pinned comment at any time to keep the conversation flowing or shift it in a different direction.
11. Page Commitments - Businesses can utilize a new LinkedIn page section dedicated to highlighting company values. LinkedIn will feature your commitments in the About section of your Page. You can include up to five commitments in your featured commitments section, such as:
    1. Diversity, equity, and inclusion
    2. Career growth and learning
    3. Work-life balance
    4. Social impact
    5. Environmental sustainability

If you want to read more about these features then click here.

1. 4 New Features In LinkedIn Ads - LinkedIn has rolled out 4 new features for marketers advertising through the B2B platform.

2. Offline Conversions - Offline Conversions allow you to connect the conversions you track in other tools directly to LinkedIn. Advertisers will be able to manually upload CSV files to the Campaign Manager. New supported CRM partners include Adverity, Hub Spot, LeadsBridge, LiveRamp, and Make. Offline data will automatically be incorporated into your aggregate reporting on conversions and will provide a more holistic understanding of your marketing impact on lower-funnel outcomes.

3. Audience Insights - Free audience insights are now in Campaign Manager. These can help advertisers pinpoint who their audiences are, what they’re interested in, and how they’re engaging with other content and topics. Audience insights are available for both Matched and saved audiences. It generates aggregated insights based on topics and content they’ve engaged in, but also job titles, years of experience, seniority, location, company name, industry, and more. Insights can also be used to discover new audiences.
4. Document Ads - Document Ads allow you to promote long-format content directly into members’ feeds where they can read and download whitepapers, case studies, and reports without leaving the platform. You can also use a Lead Gen Form to collect leads if you decide to gate your documents.
5. Media Library - The new LinkedIn Media Library allows you to create ads more easily by storing all of your images and videos in one central location. Advertisers can now create up to five ads at once by selecting the video or image from the media library, each then becoming its own ad. This feature seems to make ad creation easier, faster, and collaborative.

You can read the announcement from LinkedIn here.

1. GA4 Can Now Measure Website Form Interactions - Google has added an enhanced measurement option for Form interactions. Now you can not only see when a form has been submitted, but you can also see when one has been started by a new user.

2. form_start shows you the first time a user interacts with a form in a session

3. form_submit shows you when a user submits a form

The new option is enabled automatically for all newly created web data streams. If you already have a web data stream, you can turn this on by navigating to Enhanced Measurement.

You can read the announcement from Google here.

1. Google: Site/Page Speed Is Not A Factor In Ranking Or Search Results - When asked if Google removes sites/pages from search results (serp) on the basis of page speed, Google's John Mueller said that your site or page would not be removed from the Google Search results over page speed issues.

Now this does not mean you should not have a slow loading site. Optimize to the best of your ability but do not kill yourself to load your site in under 2 secs.

Source: https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1573972885630328832

1. Google: Stop Updating URL’s For SEO - Google's John Mueller said in most cases, changing URLs will have a negative impact on SEO and that you probably should not change URLs just for SEO reasons.

John wrote on Reddit "If you're an SEO, and billing by the hour to implement this change, then it'll help your bottom line. Will it help the site? Very, very rarely (if they have terrible URLs that you can't even copy & paste, maybe). Will a change negatively affect the site for a while until it's reprocessed? Probably. Some risk + usually no gain = ... ?"

Then on Twitter he wrote "If you change URLs, you should do redirects per page. There's no maximum number of redirects per site. Also, likely you're shooting yourself in the foot for a while for no visible gain. Change URLs for real reasons, not for handwavy "good for SEO" reasons."

1. Google : No Way To Measure Duplicate Content - Bill Hartzer asked Google’s John Muller if there is a measurement percentage that represents duplicate content? For example, should we be trying to make sure pages are at least 72.6 percent unique than other pages on our site? Does Google even measure it? John Mueller responded by saying, "there is no number" and then asked, "how do you measure it anyway?"

IMO, I disagree with John. If there was no way to measure duplicate content then there would not be a duplicate content penalty. John either does not know how it is coded in the back end or he doesn’t want to share so that people do not game the algorithm.

1. Google: No Penalty For Keyword Stuffed URL’s - Google's John Mueller said that you "won't get penalized for keyword-stuffed URLs." He said stuffing the keywords in your URLs "basically has no effect, positive or negative for search engines." John said this on Twitter and he also added it is "a good practice to mention your keywords in the URL, but the effect is minimal." But said focusing on keywords in the URL is "often the wrong prioritization" of your SEO efforts.

2. Updates From The Google Search On ‘22 Event - During the Search On 2022 event, Google announced lot of features and tools geared to help improve the user experience. The overarching theme of the updates is visualization and personalization. Here are the updates that matters to you the business owner.

3. Search with the word “shop” - In the US, when you search for the word “shop” followed by the item you’re looking for, you’ll access the visual feed of products, tools, and inventory for that product. The shoppable search experience is also being expanded beyond apparel to electronics, beauty, and more, to additional regions for both mobile and desktop.

4. Shop the look - For the apparel category, users will now be able to “shop the look” which showcases individual products to help create an entire outfit. Google’s tool will show complimentary products to the main product a user is searching for, such as handbags or shoes to go along with a top or jacket.
5. Multisearch expanding - Google multisearch lets you use your camera’s phone to search by an image, powered by Google Lens, and then add an additional text query on top of the image search. Google will then use both the image and the text query to show you visual search results. Google is expanding multisearch to 70 new languages in the coming months. Google launched multisearch last year for English and U.S.-based queries.
6. Multisearch near me - Slated to be launching late fall’22, the near me aspect lets you zoom in on those image and text queries by looking for products or anything via your camera but also to find local results. So if you want to find a restaurant that has a specific dish, you can do so.

These updates clearly demonstrate the need as to why you need to have Google Merchant Center (or appropriate schema on your site) as well as Google Business Profile. If you do not have either of these then you are at a disadvantage.

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1. Twitter Shares How Its Recommendation Engine Work -Twitter is experimenting with new ways to recommend content in user feeds, in order to show you more of what you might like, and ideally, keep you active in the app for longer.

Twitter has provided a new overview of how it adds recommended tweets into user feeds, while it’s also launched a new experiment to give users more control over such. Per Twitter:

“If you’ve ever seen a Tweet you enjoyed from someone you didn’t follow, you’ve probably seen a recommendation. Think of them as personalized suggestions that are shown to you based on actions you take on Twitter.

The content we recommend to you is informed by actions you take on Twitter, also known as signals. Signals can include things like interests you’ve told us about, Topics you follow, Tweets you engage with, and even Tweets people in your network like. Based on these signals and more, we’ll show you content we think you’ll be interested in”

1. TikTok Launches Comment Downvotes To All Users - TikTok has announced that it’s rolling out comment downvotes for all users, as a means to flag inappropriate responses to video clips. TikTok’s ‘Thumbs Down’ comment downvote option will be displayed at the far right of each comment, providing a quick and easy way for users to tag such, in order to help TikTok identify negative behaviors in the app.

Unlike Reddit, dislike counts will not be public. Their sole purpose on TikTok is to help TikTok’s moderation team get on top of negative trends, as it gets flagged by TikTokers.

Downvoted comments will be displayed to TikTok mods in ascending order, based on total downvote activity across the app, which will then enable them to them wade through the list and pick up on rising negative trends, providing another way to detect and address such in their process.

This can provide protections against targeted attacks on people or opinions based on alternative motivations. For example, bad actors might try to use this feature as a means to downvote conflicting political opinions into oblivion, but as the downvotes themselves don’t impact public display, and are only an indicator for TikTok’s moderation team, that’s less likely to become an issue. It’ll be interesting to see how TikTok will decide to police user generated content in the future.

1. TikTok Expands Descriptions Length To 2,200 Characters - TikTok is giving creators more opportunities to optimize their content for search and is expanding the length of descriptions from 300 characters to 2,200 characters. In addition to making content more searchable, TikTok says it uses text in the description to decide which videos to recommend to users. Writing detailed descriptions can make videos more discoverable in traditional search engines and TikTok. In July 2022, Google Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan publicly acknowledged that TikTok and Instagram are the preferred search engines for a sizeable amount of young people.

FYI: Google indexes TikTok videos and shows it in search results.

1. Google Survey Is Shutting Down - Google announced that it’s shutting down market research product Google Surveys. The service will be unavailable after November 1, and users will have another month to download historical data. Google hints at plans to repackage the service and offer it to customers through Google Ads.

2. Google Ads Self-Upgrade Tool Rolling Out For Local Campaigns - Google has announced that it has begun rolling out the self-upgrade tool for Local campaigns to Performance Max. As a reminder, back in July 222, Google Ads announced that Google will start the process of automatically "upgrading" accounts to Performance Max for Local campaigns. Automatic upgrades will gradually progress and finish in September for most advertisers.

Google mentioned that "if your campaigns are not eligible for the self-upgrade tool and you are not notified about an automatic upgrade, then your Local campaigns will not be upgraded to Performance Max until 2023. If your campaigns have access to the self-upgrade tool and do not auto-upgrade by the end of September, you will continue to have access to the self-upgrade tool until auto-upgrade resumes in 2023. This will ensure you do not see any campaign disruption during the busy holiday season.

We strongly recommend using the tool to upgrade your campaigns as soon as you can to get a head start on the holiday season"

You can read more about the upgrade tool here.

1. Google Ads ‘Smart Bidding’ Can Not Guarantee Conversions - Google does not guarantee clicks will lead to conversions.

Ginny Marvin of Google Ads wrote in her tweet "Smart Bidding takes many signals into account to bid based on the predicted conversion opportunity, but every click won’t convert & looking at one click is usually not informative."

1. Can Soft Penalty Be The Cause Of A Ranking Drop After A Google Search Core Update? - A Google penalty is a punishment against a website whose content conflicts with the marketing practices enforced by Google. This penalty can come as a result of an update to Google's ranking algorithm, or a manual review that suggests a web page used "black hat" SEO tactics. In a recent Google Office Hangouts, a question was asked about whether ranking losses from a Core Update result in a soft penalty for a website.

A soft penalty has been a term used in the SEO (search engine optimisation) industry for over 22 years, but it doesn’t actually exist – and there’s no half-penalty either. The only penalty from Google is a manual action – you can check if your website has had a manual action by visiting the respective section in Google Search Console. Ranking drops aren’t always related to a penalty on your website. They can be caused by:

• Content-related issues
• Google’s algorithms improving to give better search queries
• Website quality issues
• Competitors having content that is better than that on your website

Google recommends that you review and follow its general guidelines for content to help improve your website’s performance in search results. For example, you can look at competitors to see why your content isn’t doing as well and then improve your own content to help boost its performance. Another factor to look at is making sure that your website has the best user experience, as this now a ranking factor for Google. Looking at improving your page load times, for example, can help to improve your performance and will make sure that visitors to your site have a better experience.

Your website should be one of the biggest generators of new business, and harnessing the power of search engines can help to increase awareness of your business and, ultimately, get more sales and leads. Get in touch and have a chat with our team to see how marketANDgrow might be able to help grow your business.

1. Semrush Partners With Wix - Wix has partnered with Semrush, allowing Wix users to access Semrush’s global database of more than 21 billion keywords directly through the dashboard to find relevant terms and phrases.

This will give Wix users insights that can help them improve search rankings and identify which keywords to target. This integration is offered at no added charge to Wix users, though a paid Semrush membership will allow you to do more with it.

Furthermore, Wix users can access metrics like search intent and keyword difficulty from Semrush’s SEO toolkit. Semrush integration is now available to all Wix users in English.

The cheapest Semrush plan is $120/month. And the cheapest Wix plan is $16. So theoretically, you can pay Wix $16/month and use Semrush data.

1. Do Robots Meta Tags Affect Search Rankings? - Websites use robots meta tags to customize the appearance of search snippets. “If a site does not have a robots meta tag, does this affect the ranking negatively?” The short answer is no; robots meta tags aren’t ranking signals. The longer answer is they can influence click-through rate. Robots meta tags are worth using when you’re unhappy with how Google displays your pages in search results. Google’s John Mueller answer on robots meta tags:

“We talk about some of these SEO elements so often that it’s easy to assume that they’re required. In this case, no. A meta robots tag is not required for ranking.

The robots meta tag can specify how a specific page should be shown in search, or if it shouldn’t be shown at all. This meta tag is only necessary if you want to change the default appearance of a page in the search results.

For example, if you want to limit how long the snippet can be, then you can use the max snippet robot meta tag. If you don’t have any preferences regarding how a page is to be shown in search then not having a robots meta tag on a page at all is also perfectly fine.

If you’re curious about the options, I’d check out our documentation on both the robots meta tags as well as on other tags that Google supports.”

For more information about the robots meta tags Google supports, see the official help page.

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1. Recommendations In Google Analytics - Google Analytics now has tailored recommendations to help users become aware of new features by reviewing your property’s history, settings, and trends across Analytics. The recommendations appear in the Insights and Recommendations section of the homepage, as well as throughout Analytics wherever they’re relevant.

Going forward, you should check you Google Analytics accounts regularly for outages, updates, and, now, recommendations. As always, we discourage enabling auto-apply recommendations.

1. HTTPS Report In Google Search Console - Google has announced it will begin rolling out a new HTTPS report in Search Console. The announcement came via Google’s Search Central Blog and indicated the search engine expects the launch process to take a few months. This new report will show how many indexed URLs on your site are HTTP and how many are HTTPS.

With the ability to check a page’s HTTP/HTTPS status from Search Console, Google can help us address the issues that are causing the HTTPS URL indexing failure.

1. Hey Google!, Can I Use STOP Words In My URL? - Stop Words are common words like “a”, “and”, and “the.” In the early days of search, those kinds of words used to not be considered important for SEO because they weren’t considered important for search engines.

Now someone asked John Muller of Google, “In Short, when using words from a page title in the URL, should I include stop words, too? For example, should I call a page why-is-the-sky-blue.html or why-sky-blue.html?”

To this question, Muller answered “Words in URLs only play a tiny role for Google Search. I would recommend not overthinking it. Use the URLs that can last over time, avoid changing them too often and try to make them useful for users. Whether you include stop words in them or not, decide to use numeric IDs, that’s totally up to you.”

1. Hey Google!, Is It A Good Idea To Target Keywords With Zero Search Volume? - During a recent Google Search Office hour, someone asked whether or not they should try ranking for zero search volume (targeting long tail search queries) keyword. Lizi Harvey from Google responded that “…You can optimize for whatever keywords you want. And it’s not always about the keywords that have the most volume. I would think about how people should find your page and target those keywords.”

Lizzi’s answer is similar to what’s written in Google’s documentation in the SEO Starter Guide. The SEO starter guide document also recommends thinking about how users might find a webpage. What’s interesting is that they suggest thinking of how different readers might search depending on their knowledge or experience level. Someone who’s new to a topic might search with unconventional phrases while someone who’s experienced will use the jargon that is commonly used. For example, someone new to saltwater fishing might search for saltwater fishing lures. Someone who is more experienced might search for a pikie metal lip plug (which is a handmade wooden lure that swims with a puppy tail wagging motion).

1. Hey Google!, Will You Penalize Sites That Look The Same? - Google’s John Mueller answered the question if Google penalizes sites that are nearly identical. Mueller used examples of different levels of similarity between sites and suggested which one to avoid.

“First off, there’s no penalty or web spam manual action for having two almost identical websites. That said, if the URLs and the page content is the same across these two websites, then what can happen for identical pages is that our systems may pick one of the pages as a canonical page. This means we would focus our crawling, indexing and ranking on that canonical page. For pages that aren’t identical, we generally index both of them. For example, if you have the same document on both websites, we’d pick one and only show that one in search. In practice, that’s often fine. If you need both pages to be shown in search, just make sure they’re significantly different, not just with a modified logo or color scheme.”

John’s answer is interesting because it provides an insight into how Google deals with actual duplicate content where the entire content is identical. In this case he says that it will canonicalize one version of the content, which means that it will choose one version of the content for ranking purposes. This can pose a problem for sites that syndicate their website content, which is why it’s important for websites to require the publisher of the syndicated content to use a cross-domain canonical.

1. Hey Google!, Is There A Benefit To Publishing Content Daily? - During a recent SEO Office hour, someone asked if adding content on a regular basis was helpful for ranking.

The answer that was given from Google: “No. Posting daily or at any specific frequency for that matter doesn’t help with ranking better in Google search results. However, the more pages you have in the Google index, the more your content may show up in search results.”

It’s been noted over the past few years that Google does not crawl all content. And if the content isn’t crawled then it’s not going to be indexed, which is important for ranking. Part of the reason why Google might not crawl that content is the overall quality of a website.

“The other big reason why we don’t crawl a lot from websites is because we’re not convinced about the quality overall. So that’s something where, especially with newer sites, I see us sometimes struggle with that. And I also see sometimes people saying well, it’s technically possible to create a website with a million pages because we have a database and we just put it online. And just by doing that, essentially from one day to the next we’ll find a lot of these pages but we’ll be like, we’re not sure about the quality of these pages yet. And we’ll be a bit more cautious about crawling and indexing them until we’re sure that the quality is actually good.”

Getting crawled then is the first hurdle to ranking. Getting that crawled content indexed is the next step, which seems increasingly difficult for some publishers. In the past. John Muller has offered the recommendations for helping web pages get indexed:

1. The first tip was to make sure the pages can be crawled and that there isn’t a technical reason why a site can’t be crawled. He suggested crawling your site to check how easily pages can be crawled. A site crawler like Screaming Frog will show 500 errors if the server is unable to serve the web pages. Similarly, check your Search Console for 500 errors because that is the classic indicator that the web host is having trouble serving web pages.
2. Promote the web pages that are having trouble getting indexed.”…So that when our systems look at your website, they say, oh this is actually a legitimate small business. We should try to index everything. Because especially if you’re talking about a smaller website with a couple hundred pages, that feels like something where if we have a little bit of a hint then we’ll go off and get all of that. If you’re talking about an e-commerce site that has 500,000 pages then obviously (like) if we get all of those pages or not, that’s a totally different story.”
3. Use internal linking to help Google determine which content is important. “for example, that are linked from the home page are usually a sign that you care about these pages, so maybe we should care about them more.”

4. Focus less on quantity and more on the quality of content.

5. Non Google Merchant Center feeds Are Eligible For Product Rich Results - Merchant Center feeds are no longer necessary to be eligible for product rich results. Google expanded eligibility for Merchant Listing search experiences and product snippets through the use of structured data. This change affects merchants, product review sites and product information aggregator sites. In the announcement, Google stated

“Initially, product snippets in Google search results were primarily powered by schema.org Product structured data, and merchant listing experiences were primarily powered by product details supplied via a Google Merchant Center feed. Now merchants can be eligible for merchant listing experiences by providing product data on web pages without a Google Merchant Center account. This improved eligibility has in part been made possible by recent extensions to product-related properties and types in schema.org for areas such as apparel sizing and energy efficiency ratings.”

Google also announced that it is removing from Search Console the Product structured data report and replacing it with two new reports. The new reports that are viewable within Search Console are:

• Merchant listings report - Merchants that sell products should use the merchant listing report. This report shows structured data issues related to the free listing experiences.

• Product snippets report - Sites that publish product reviews or don’t sell products but use product structured data should use this report. This report shows structured data problems related to product snippets in search. The product snippets report absorbs the old product structured data report. The data from the old report is now available within this new report.

• Google Now Supports Performance Max Campaigns In Ad Scripts - Ad scripts let you automate specific actions in your ad account, saving time and making management of large or multiple accounts much easier. Advertisers and developers using Google Ad scripts now have support for Performance Max campaigns. You can pause and enable the campaign, and modify most asset types. However, you won’t be able to modify text assets or create new campaigns or asset groups. Furthermore, listing groups cannot be managed via Scripts. If you’re interested in setting up your Performance Max campaign script, you can visit the AdsApp here. You can read the announcement from Google here.

• Google Ads Introduces “Manage” Tab In Recommendations - Google has added a “Manage” tab to give advertisers more control and flexibility over how recommendations are applied.

• Maintain your ads - This option includes recommendations to improve your responsive search ads, remove redundant keywords, and update your conversion tracking

• Grow your business - This option helps with advanced recommendation optimizations such as upgrading keywords to broad match, maximizing conversions with auto bids, and adding store visits as conversions.

Google says these new bundled recommendations give advertisers more flexibility, but this seems to do the opposite. You can select and deselect the options you want, but the options are broad and don't provide any details on what's being changed. If you don't know specifically what updates are being made, then the element of control is lost and Google gets the upper hand in terms of how "flexible" they can really be. Like any new Google feature, always make sure auto-apply is turned off until you've had the chance to test it for yourself.

You can read the update from Google here.

1. Google Rebrands Ad Extensions & Adds Features To Create Engaging Ads - Google has renamed the Google Ads extensions to "assets" plus it has released new workflows, tools and reports to "make it easy for you to deliver more engaging ads and provide you with helpful, actionable information about their performance."

First off, Google’s now referring to ’ad extensions’ – like sitelinks, callouts and additional images - as ‘ad assets’, which aligns the broader scope of Google’s new approach to your various add-on elements. And with the shift to these being viewed as additional assets, Google’s looking to make it easier to manage them as well, by providing a broader overview of the assets that you can include within your campaigns. Per Google:

“As you create assets and apply them to your campaign, the preview tool will automatically update so you can see them in the context of your ad. In addition, Google Ads will now recommend assets based on your chosen campaign goal. For example, if you’ve selected “Leads” as your campaign objective, we’ll automatically recommend that you add a lead form asset.”

Google’s also added a new ‘Ads & assets’ menu, where it will display stats for all of the assets across your account, providing more context on which elements to include.

There’s also a new ‘Combinations’ report, which will display sitelinks, callouts, and images alongside your headlines and descriptions, making it easier to review your ad approaches from a higher viewpoint.

In combination, the new reporting tools will provide much more oversight of your Google campaigns, and their related elements, which could help to uncover new opportunities and options to optimize your results.

Google says that unified reporting in the ‘Assets’ page will roll out over the coming weeks for all campaign types that previously supported ad extensions, while the updated combinations report will roll out ‘in the next few months’.

1. Microsoft Launches Multimedia Ads - Microsoft has announced new ad formats to be shown at the top of search results in Bing Search, Windows 11, and Microsoft Start. The new ad formats are collages of videos and images shown at the top of search results. On the right side, the search result is expanded and opens to a bigger window so the user never needs to click off the page.

Here are the best practices and general guidelines for those thinking about taking advantage of the new formats:

• The responsive ad format uses Microsoft machine learning to combine images, headlines, and descriptions to create relevant visual ads
• To ensure your ad stands out, there will only be one Multimedia Ad per page. (This could also mean much higher costs.)
• The ads leverage Creator tools which are available in the Ads platform. The tools allow you to extract images from your website, edit the images, crop, and add colors and filters
• Use the Bulk API and Editor tool to create or modify Multimedia Ads in bulk
• The new ad formats are available immediately where Bing Search is available. Soon, Microsoft will expand to new surfaces and experiences such as DSA and retail

You can read the full announcement from Microsoft as well as review their case studies here.

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1. Meta Lists 4 Ranking Signals For Video On Facebook - In a blog post, Meta has shared four top signals its algorithm uses to determine which videos receive wide distribution on Facebook.

2. Originality - “Facebook’s video ecosystem values original content and encourages intentional and loyal consumption. We want videos on our platform to be authentic, enduring, and entertaining, which can turn casual viewers into passionate fans.”

3. Audience retention -“Retention is one of the indicators of how well the content was received by the audience – a slow and gradual decline in the audience retention graph can show that the topic and structure of the video match well with what your audience wants to see, while an early drop off may mean that the content isn’t what the viewer expected.”
4. Audience loyalty - “When people regularly come back to view an account’s videos, we take it as a strong, positive signal for distribution. This is especially true when we see that people actively search for your content or seek it out on video-first destinations like Facebook Watch or directly on your account.”
5. Engagement - “We prioritize content that sparks conversations and meaningful interactions between real people.”

Meta says you should avoid doing these things if you want your videos to be seen by a broad audience:

• Engagement bait - Urging people to interact with content, such as writing captions like, “like this post if you agree!”
• Watch bait - Intentionally withholding information to get viewers to watch to the end.

• Click bait - Luring viewers to click on a link for information intentionally omitted from the video.

• Regional Trend Insights Now Available To TikTok Advertisers - TikTok has announced that it’s added a heap more data to its ‘TikTok insights’ tool, which provides a range of snapshots and notes on key market trends, which you can filter down to specific info for your campaigns. This can be a helpful resource for mapping out an optimal TikTok marketing approach.

The best part is that you can download the data as cards for use in presentations, or just in your own planning.

1. Twitter Launched New Workshop Series To Maximize Your Twitter Business Presence - Twitter has announced a new series of free ‘Twitter Flight School’ workshops, which will provide in-depth, expert insights into how to set up your business for success in the app. The sessions will be run by Twitter Product Marketing Manager Morgan Cornelius. The new workshops will focus on two areas:

2. How to Establish Your Business on Twitter - will look at how to make best use of Twitter’s more recent business additions, including Professional Profiles, Shops, etc.

3. Get Holiday Ready on Twitter - will look more specifically at holiday marketing trends in the app, and how you can tap into them to maximize your Christmas sales push.

4. YouTube Now Allowing Sport Betting Ads On Mastheads - YouTube is now allowing sports betting ads to serve on the masthead as long as the ads comply with the related gambling and games policy. You can read the announcement from Google here. Google’s guidelines for advertising sports and gambling can also be found here.

5. Google’s “Helpful Content” Rollout Completed - Google has confirmed that the helpful content update rollout has been completed. The update took 15 days to roll out, starting on August 25, 2022 and ending on September 9, 2022. Google has posted it completed today, September 9th.

As a reminder, Google’s helpful content update is a sitewide signal. It targets websites that have a relatively high amount of unsatisfying or unhelpful content, where the content is written for search engines first. “Helpful Content” has been covered in-depth in episode#122/123/124 of #TWIMshow including what to do if you were hit by this algorithm.

1. Google Shares Best Practices For Creating Quality Meta Descriptions - Google updates documentation on search snippets to include examples of both good and bad meta descriptions. Search snippets are the summaries and descriptions shown in the search results for sites that rank. The data used to generate the search snippet traditionally comes from the meta description and, sometimes, the content itself.Google listed four categories of good and bad meta description examples. They are:

2. Instead of listing keywords, Describe the business, not the webpage . Explain what the shop sells and details like opening hours and location.

3. Instead of using same description on every news article or blog posts, use a snippet from the article or post.
4. Summarize the page.
5. Instead of being too short (broad and vague), make it specific and detailed.

You can read Google’s updated guidance here

1. Google To Automatically Upgrade Smart Shopping Ads To Performance Max - Google has reminded us once again that Smart Shopping campaigns will be sunsetted and any new campaigns created in Merchant Center will be Performance Max.

Read the FAQs from Google and the announcement about Merchant Center upgrades here https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/12280808.

1. Google Ads Revamps Examples Of Invalid Traffic & Activities - Google has updated their Invalid Traffic site. Invalid Traffic is “any activity that doesn’t come from a real user with genuine interest. It can include accidental clicks caused by intrusive ad implementations, fraudulent clicking by competing advertisers, advertising botnets and more.” Google provides 12 examples of Invalid Traffic but adds that this is not an exhaustive list.

Invalid traffic affects everyone in the Google Ads ecosystem. Advertisers who consistently see increased clicks, lower CTR, or suspect that their ads are being clicked by bots or competitors may see their ad spend decrease. as Google works to stop the fraud and lessen the costs to account holders.

If you suspect that your account is being affected by invalid clicks, impressions, or other traffic, then Google’s team of specialists can investigate it for you. To open a support ticket, follow the step-by-step guide.

1. Google Will Reject Ads With Poor Landing Page Experience - A change to Google’s destination requirements policy states if an ad leads to a page that doesn’t comply with the better ad standards, Google will disapprove the ad.

If you’re running Google Ads, this new policy means you must be extra careful about the pages people land on. Google doesn’t want advertisers sending people to pages that contain intrusive or annoying ad experiences. Your landing pages may be complying with the better ads standards already, especially if they’re optimized for Google’s page experience update. If you’re unsure whether your landing pages meet the standards, Google will inform you in the Ad Experience Report. Ads that do not comply with the better ads standards are as follows:

• Pop-up ads
• Autoplaying video ads with sound
• Ads that block visitors from seeing the main content
• Prestitial and postitial ads with countdowns
• Large sticky ads that stay on a page as the visitor scrolls
• Ad density greater than 30%
• Flashing animated ads

A good rule of thumb — if an ad interrupts a visitor’s browsing experience, it’s almost certainly against the better ads standards. Google is giving advertisers until October to comply with a new policy, or their ads will be disapproved.

You can read the announcement here or read about the better ad standard here.

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1. Quick Updates -

2. Meta Provides New Insights Into How its Video Distribution Algorithms Work

3. Meta Invites Applications for the Third Phase of its ‘Community Accelerator’ Program
4. Instagram Best Practices For Recommended Content
5. Twitter Shares New Insight into the Value of Utilizing Ad Format Combinations in Your Tweet Marketing
6. Google Updates Privacy Threshold For Analytics Search Queries Report

7. Danny Sullivan at Google Tweets That “Helpful Content” Is WIP

8. Twitter ‘Circles’ Option Is Available To All Users - Because sometimes your Tweets aren’t for everyone add up to 150 people to yours and use it. “Before you post on Twitter, you’ll now see an option to share your Tweet with either your circle or your full followers list. Circles can contain up to 150 people, and you can adjust who’s in and who’s out at any time. Don’t worry, no one will be notified of any changes you make to your circle.” Members of Circle will be alerted that their tweets are only viewable by those in the group via a green indicator attached to each Circle tweet.

9. Microsoft Ads Re-extends RSA Migration To Feb. 2023 - In April,2022 Microsoft extended the original June 30 deadline to August 29. Now Microsoft has announced that they are extending that deadline to February 1, 2023. Microsoft says the extension is in response to advertisers need for more time. Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) will continue to serve with RSAs but advertisers will no longer be able to create new or edit existing ETAs.

You can read the announcement here.

1. Google Wants You To Add Product Information To Your Business Profiles! - Google has added a new section for products to the Google Business Profile guidelines. The section says "If you run a retail business, you can show nearby shoppers what you sell by adding your in-store products to your Business Profile at no charge." You can either add products to your Business Profile manually through the Product Editor or with Pointy - a hardware device that is free from Google and sits in the middle of your barcode scanner and point of sale system so that it can add your products to Google.

Products submitted via Product Editor or Pointy must adhere to the Shopping Ads Policy. Google does not allow content related to regulated products and services, including alcohol, tobacco products, gambling, financial services, pharmaceuticals and unapproved supplements, or health/medical devices. Submitting products that violate Google's policy may result in removal of the entire product catalog, including products that aren't in violation.

You can read the guidelines over here.

1. 4 New Features In Google Shopping Campaign - Google just announced four new features for advertisers to implement in their ad campaigns and merchant feeds.

2. Conversion value rules for store sales and store visits - Advertisers can now set store visits or sales default values at the campaign level. Before this update, Google Ads applied conversion value rules equally to all conversion actions. In addition to setting specific conversion values for store visits and sales, you can select the values at the campaign level. If you’re running multiple campaigns promoting store visits, you can assign a higher value to one than the other. Additionally, you can set rules for store visits or sales on the conditions of geographic location, audiences, or devices. The ability to adjust values by location or device means you can increase the value of store visits for customers in New York versus customers in other areas, for example. You can set conversion value rules by logging in to your Google Ads account and navigating to Measurement > Conversions > Value rules. Then, click create conversion value rule and fill in the required information.

3. Product-specific insights - Product-specific insights are available at the account level and help advertisers spot underperforming offers, identify products with missing feed attributes, and compare bidding with your top competitors. Product insights work on shopping and Performance Max campaigns and are intended to leverage ads performance data to optimize products and provide visibility on what actions to take to fix issues.
4. Deals Content API - The Deals Content API is intended to make uploading and managing deals easier at scale. Merchants and advertisers can now add their sales and promotions to their listings via the Content API, which makes it even easier for merchants to upload and manage their deals at scale.

5. Shipping & Returns Annotations - Merchants will now be able to list the expected delivery date (dynamic) (“Delivery by XX/YY”) and free returns right on their ads. Advertisers can also easily add their return policies.

6. Google Publishes 6 SEO Tips For E-commerce Websites - Alan Kent, a Developer Advocate at Google, shared six SEO tips that combine structured data and Merchant Center to get the most out of your website’s presence in search results.

7. Ensure Products Are Indexed - Googlebot can miss pages when crawling a site if they’re not linked to other pages. On ecommerce sites, for example, some product pages are only reachable from on-site search results. You can ensure Google crawls all your product pages by utilizing tools such as an XML sitemap and Google Merchant Center. Creating a Merchant Center product feed will help Google discover all the products on your website. The product page URLs are shared with the Googlebot crawler to use as starting points for crawls of additional pages potentially.

8. Check Accuracy Of Product Prices Search Results - If Google incorrectly extracts pricing data from your product pages, it may list your original price in search results, not the discounted price. To accurately provide product information such as list price, discounts, and net price, it’s recommended to add structured data to your product pages and provide Google Merchant Center with structured feeds of your product data. This will help Google extract the correct price from product pages.
9. Minimize Price & Availability Lag - Google crawls webpages on your site according to its own schedule. That means Googlebot may not notice changes on your site until the next crawl. These delays can lead to search results lagging behind site changes, such as a product going out of stock. It would be best if you aimed to minimize inconsistencies in pricing and availability data between your website and Google’s understanding of your site due to timing lags. Google recommends utilizing Merchant Center product feeds to keep pages updated on a more consistent schedule.
10. Ensure Products Are Eligible For Rich Product Results - Eligibility for rich product results requires the use of product structured data. To get the special rich product presentation format, Google recommends providing structured data on your product pages and a product feed in Merchant Center. This will help ensure that Google understands how to extract product data to display rich results. However, even with the correct structured data in place, rich results are displayed at Google’s discretion.
11. Share Local Product Inventory Data - Ensure your in-store products are found by people entering queries with the phrase “near me.” First, register your physical store location in your Google Business Profile, then provide a local inventory feed to Merchant Center. The local inventory feed includes product identifiers and store codes, so Google knows where your inventory is physically located. As an additional step, Google recommends using a tool called Pointy. Pointy is a device from Google that connects to your in-store point-of-sale system and automatically informs Google of inventory data from your physical store. The data is used to keep search results updated.
12. Sign Up For Google Shopping Tab - You may find your products are available in search results but do not appear in the Shopping tab. If you’re unsure whether your products are surfacing in the Shopping tab, the easiest way to find out is to search for them. Structured data and product feeds alone aren’t sufficient to be included in the Shopping tab. To be eligible for the Shopping tab, provide product data feeds via Merchant Center and opt-in to ‘surfaces across Google.’

For more on any of the above tips, see the full video from Google.

1. Google Shares Insights On Factors That Determine Which Content Is Indexed - Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt from Google recently published a podcast discussing what’s known as a crawl budget and what influences Google to index content.

Gary Illyes said that the concept of a crawl budget was something created outside of Google by the search community and most sites don’t need to worry about the crawl budget. According to Gary, part of the calculation for a crawl budget is based on practical considerations like how many URLs does the server allow Googlebot to crawl without overloading the server. Another interesting point that was made was how, in relation to crawling, there are different considerations involved. There are limits to what can be stored so, according to Google, that means utilizing Google’s resources “where it matters.” It all boils down to the issue of “spending our resources where it matters.”

Because Google can’t index everything, it tries to index only the content that matters and how frequently it is updated. "Google can infer from a site overall which areas they might need to crawl more frequently. E.g. if there's a blog subdirectory & there are signals that it's popular/important, then Google might want to crawl there more." " And it's not just update frequency, it's also about quality. E.g. if G sees a certain pattern is popular (folder), & people are talking about it & linking to it, then it's a signal that ppl like that directory,"

Listen to the podcast here.

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1. LinkedIn Is Updating Post Search Algorithm - LinkedIn has announced that they are updating the search architecture for posts, which will lead to faster and more relevant results. LinkedIn Post search uses an intermediate language called Interest Query Language (IQL) to translate a user query into index-specific queries used to serve search results. They now have a new user interface that allows people to search for posts from a specific author, posts that match quoted queries, recently viewed posts, and more. The new algorithm will considers the following aspects to rate a post:

2. Relevance of the post to an user query

3. Quality of the post
4. Personalization & User Intent - Combine real-time signals for the users intent, interests, and affinities
5. Engagement (Likes, Reacts, Comments, Shares)

6. Post freshness/recency (especially for trending topics)

7. LinkedIn Now Allows You To Pin Comment - LinkedIn has long enabled business users to pin an update on their LinkedIn Company Page, while you can also ‘feature’ your own top posts at the top of your profile, which is functionally the same thing as pinning. And now, you can pin specific replies as well, which opens up new considerations for maximizing LinkedIn engagement, and interacting with your network in the app.

The option to Pin comments is now being rolled out to all users, while you can unpin a comment via the three dots menu on a pinned response.

1. Twitter Updates Measurement Solution For Advertisers - Twitter announced that they’ve launched three new and improved measurement solutions to all advertisers globally.

2. Improved Twitter pixel - The new Twitter pixel has additional functionality such as allowing advertisers to measure more actions, such as add-to-cart.

3. Conversion API - The Conversion API (CAPI) enables advertisers to connect to the API and send conversion events to Twitter without using third-party cookies. CAPI can also be used to improve and optimize ad targeting without the pixel. Multiple data signals including Twitter Click ID or email address can be used to send conversion events to the API endpoint and help advertisers understand the path users are taking as a result of their campaigns.

4. App Purchase Optimization - Now available only on Android, it enables advertisers to deliver ads to people most likely to install an app or make a purchase by using machine learning to identify audiences that are most likely to take action. Early testing saw that 89% of advertisers saw a reduction in cost-per-purchase.

5. YouTube Launches A Podcast Page - YouTube’s podcast page is now available to a small subset of people, providing a full overview of podcast content in the app. Here is what YouTube wrote:

“The podcast destination page on YouTube helps users explore new and popular podcast episodes, shows and Creators, as well as recommend podcast content. It’s currently available in the US only.”

1. Google Ads Will Automatically Update Local Campaigns To Performance Max - Google Ads announced that Google will start the process of automatically "upgrading" accounts to Performance Max for Local campaigns. Automatic upgrades will gradually progress and finish in September for most advertisers. As a note, performance max campaigns has been available to all advertisers since November 2021 and a beta launched October 2020. Google started this process with auto-upgrading accounts to Performance Max for Smart Shopping campaigns in July.

Google wrote "if your campaigns are not eligible for the self-upgrade tool and you are not notified about an automatic upgrade, then your Local campaigns will not be upgraded to Performance Max until 2023. If your campaigns have access to the self-upgrade tool and do not auto-upgrade by the end of September, you will continue to have access to the self-upgrade tool until auto-upgrade resumes in 2023. This will ensure you do not see any campaign disruption during the busy holiday season."

1. Google Search Console’s Video Indexing Report Is Live - In July 2022, Google started to roll out Video Indexing report to some properties. It was covered in Episode#117. Now, the report is fully live for all properties where Google can detect video on the site.

The video indexing report shows how many indexed pages on your site contain one or more videos, and how many of those pages a video could be indexed. The report shows the status of video indexing on your site. It helps you answer the following questions: In how many pages has Google identified a video? Which videos were indexed successfully? What are the issues preventing videos from being indexed?

1. Google Officially Launches “Helpful Content” Update On Aug 25, 2022 - Last week, we covered “Helpful Content” update in episode#122. Now on its official search rankings update page, Google confirms the release of the helpful content update on August 25 and states that it will take up to two weeks for the rollout completion. Here are seven things you need to know to ensure you’re creating people-first content based on guidance provided by Google.

2. Don’t Stray Too Far From Your Main Topic - “Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?”

3. Do Demonstrate First-Hand Experience - “Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?”
4. Don’t Combine Multiple Topics Into One Site - “Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?”
5. Do Provide Sufficient Answers To Searchers’ Questions - “After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?”
6. Don’t Neglect The Overall Reader Experience - “Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?”
7. Don’t Answer A Question That Has No Confirmed Answer - “Does your content promise to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there’s a release date for a product, movie, or TV show when one isn’t confirmed?”
8. Do Follow Google’s Guidelines For Other Major Updates - “Are you keeping in mind our guidance for core updates and for product reviews?”

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1. Snapchat+ Reaches 1 Million Subscribers & Adds New Features - Snapchat+ launch was covered in Episode#115. And now it seems that in 6-weeks, Snapchat+ has crossed 1 Million subscribers. FYI: Snapchat+ is a premium membership tier available for $3.99 per month that grants access to exclusive features. At launch time, it had the following features:

2. A Snapchat+ badge.

3. “Ghost trails,” which is the ability to see where your friends were in the past 24 hours.
4. The ability to see who rewatched your snaps.
5. The option to designate a “best friend” and pin them to the top of your feed.
6. Various exclusive icons and themes.

And now here are the new features that Snapchat has added:

• Priority story replies: Your replies will be more visible to influencers and celebrities.
• Post-view emoji: Show people a specific emoji after they view your snaps.
• Bitmoji backgrounds: More options when selecting a background for your bitmoji.
• App icons: Change the Snapchat icon on your Home Screen to one of several new designs.

Snapchat+ seems to have better features than the comparable subscription service Twitter Blue. And Twitter Blue is about a $1 more per month ($4.99). While Twitter hasn’t revealed how many premium subscribers it has. However, there’s evidence suggesting the service isn’t doing well. According to Twitter’s Q2 2022 earnings report, revenue from ‘subscriptions and other’ sources is down 36% year-over-year.

1. Pinterest Announces “Hosted Checkout” For Shopify Merchants - Pinterest claims that the Hosted Checkout shopping experience removes multiple steps from the checkout process, making it simpler than ever for people to shop on Pinterest—and for merchants to sell. According to them “This new purchasing process removes friction from the shopping process—making it simpler and faster for people to complete the purchase.”

Prior to hosted checkout, when shoppers wanted to shop from a product Pin, they has to click the Pin, visited the retailer’s own site and go through extra steps to add products to their cart, enter payment and shipping details, etc.

With hosted checkout, shoppers will pick the exact product they want—think colors or sizing. Then, they tap “Buy” to enter the hosted checkout experience via Shopify where they will enter details like shipping and payment.

In my opinion, it does eliminate couple of steps in the checkout process. The hidden benefits of this integration are:

a.) The time delay from transferring a shopper from Pinterest to Shopify store is eliminated

b.) Better conversion data that would otherwise be lost due to Apple’s ATT update.

1. 3 New Types Of Shopping Ads On TikTok - Advertisers can now run shopping ads on TikTok with three different formats to choose from. They are:

2. Video shopping ads - Video shopping ads allow advertisers to create shoppable videos for display on the For You page. This ad type combines features from existing TikTok ads — collection ads and dynamic showcase ads. Video shopping ads will dynamically combine video creative and product cards into different variations. The format can be either product-specific to drive sales or a broader brand message to drive consideration. As TikTok gathers data, it will optimize a campaign’s performance by dynamically choosing the top converting combinations. When a user taps on the ad, TikTok will create an in-app landing page to better determine a user’s intent to buy. These pages let shoppers learn more about products and redirect users to a retailer’s site when they’re ready to purchase. Collection ads and dynamic showcase ads will remain available until the end of the year, then TikTok plans to phase them out in favor of video shopping ads.

3. Catalog listing ads - Catalog listing ads allow advertisers to promote product catalogs at scale with new placements across TikTok. Something advertisers may appreciate about catalog listing ads is that they’re not required to create video content. The ads allow brands to get in front of the TikTok audience without making videos, which is a first. Instead of video, catalog listing ads pull product images from a retailer’s catalog and promotes them in shoppable placements. Users discover the ads through branded content on the For You page.
4. Live shopping ads - Live shopping ads are specifically designed to promote live shopping streams. The ads help direct people from the For You page to a live shopping event. TikTok says these ads can boost traffic to a live shopping event by getting it in front of people who are ready to buy.

The new advertising formats are accessible in TikTok Ads manager through buying objective ‘Product Sales.’

Advertisers can utilize these new shopping ads with or without an e-commerce store on TikTok. Access to shopping ads requires advertisers to reach “level one” status by integrating advanced signals and linking their product catalogs. TikTok has a PDF guide that outlines the whole process. Advertisers are not required to utilize TikTok Shop, an in-app ecommerce solution, to run shopping ads. Although TikTok Shop can be used with shopping ads, advertisers can direct shoppers to an external site.

1. TikTok Recommends You To Use ‘Instant Page’ With Your Ad - Back in Jan 22, we covered “Instant Page” in Episode#93 after it was first announced by TikTok. TikTok “Instant Page” enables brands to connect their TikTok ads through to a lightweight, native landing page, built within TikTok itself, that loads up to 11x faster than standard mobile pages. With “Instant Page”, TikTok users can view videos and images, swipe through carousels, or even click on buttons to explore another destination, all without leaving TikTok itself.

Now in a new tips post, TikTok also says that “Instant Page” can be great for providing additional contextual detail and insight, in order to boost campaign performance.

“Instant Page is especially useful for informing, educating, and engaging users on complex topics where ad creatives can’t go into the necessary detail e.g. for finance brands. With added vital information about the product and service clearly listed on the Instant Page, it provides prospective users with the necessary consideration points in order to make more sound judgments before purchasing. This, in turn, shortens their decision-making time.

Campaign results from our platform prove this again and again. Campaigns that use an Instant Page reduce their cost per acquisition up to 75%, compared to campaigns that don’t use the feature. Not only that, these campaigns also achieve a 25% to 35% higher click-through rate on call to action buttons within the Instant Page. That means out of every three or four people who view an advertiser’s Instant Page, at least one person will engage with the CTA button.”

If you are considering “Instant Page” as a potential addition for your ads, TikTok has also shared some key best practice tips and notes:

• Create an “Instant Page” using one of their many available templates, or customize your own from the ground up
• Set up several different Instant Pages to test their varied effects on your selected audiences.
• Include a broader target audience at first, then narrow down to higher-performing segments.
• Have at least one call to action button.
• Choose a distinctive call to action button design that matches your brand’s style and color, etc.
• Consider your Instant Page’s average view percentage and average view time together for a holistic understanding of the page’s performance.
• Onsite page views and call to action button clicks are also major metrics to watch.

You can learn more about TikTok’s Instant Page tools here.

1. IG/FB Reels Update - Here the updates to IG/FB Reels:

2. Crosspost Instagram Reels To Facebook - If you have accounts on both social networks you can post a Reel on Instagram and have it post on Facebook at the same time. The next time you create a Reel on Instagram you’ll get a prompt asking if you want to share it to Facebook. After opting in to crossposting all reels created on Instagram will automatically share to Facebook unless you indicate otherwise at the time of posting. Meta’s also expanding its Remix option to Facebook Reels also. Keep in mind the default privacy setting for Reels is public. Even If you have a private Facebook profile, people you’re not connected to will be able to see your Reels.

3. “Add Yours” Sticker From Instagram Stories - Instagram is bringing the “add yours” sticker from stories to Reels. You can add the sticker to any Reel to encourage others to create a Reel in response. It could be something like, “My highlight of the weekend was spending time at the beach. Add yours.” Users can tap on the sticker and add their own reel responding to your prompt.
4. New Insights For Reels On Facebook - Now you’ll be able to analyze data such as reach, average watch time, total watch time, and other metrics that can help you understand how your Reels are performing on Facebook.

5. Schedule Reels On Facebook - Using Creator Studio you can schedule Facebook Reels content in advance, and manage all your published Reels in one central location.

6. Meta’s “Foundations of Performance” Guide Provides Tips To Mitigate ATT Impacts - Since Apple’s ATT update went live, most brands are simply not getting the same bang for their buck as they once were. May be this is why Meta has published a new guide to help brands realign with the latest changes, and get their ad performance back on track. The new 21 page guide outlines key points of focus for advertisers. I skimmed through the guide and the 2 points that jumped out are:

7. Use Conversions API - Enables brands to use their own marketing data for improved retargeting and measurement. Meta claims that Advertisers who followed best practices while sending events redundantly via the Meta Pixel and Conversions API received an 8% CPA improvement on average. The Conversions API lets advertisers plug their customer information directly into Meta’s system. That alleviates the need to rely on the data that Meta itself can (or more effectively can’t) collect, which can help to mitigate the impacts of ATT on your ad targeting.

8. Use Conversion Optimization - Enables Meta to gather more insight based on actions taken on-platform - because it can’t track website activity in the same way. Optimizing for conversion means that it can use that intent data more effectively, which can then help to improve results. Meta also recommends that advertisers show their ads across six or more placements, test new creative formats (Reels, Carousel, Stories, Live), and refresh creative to avoid creative fatigue .

You can download the full Meta ‘Foundations of Performance’ guide here,

1. Hey Google, Will You RANK Non-https Sites In 2022? - A twitter user asked Google’s John Muller this question: “do you still RANK non-https sites in 2022?”

John responded on Twitter saying, "Sure. There are a lot of great & old websites on HTTP. It's not a requirement to be on HTTPS."

But do keep in mind that HTTPS is one of the ranking signals that Google uses. Just spend the extra dollars and get the https (SSL certificate).

1. Hey Google, Do You Drop URLs From Index Over Time? - A Twiiter user asked Google’s Search Advocate John Muller, if Google will de-index a page under certain condition?

John wrote "It doesn't really matter what happened, but yes, any URL can drop out of the index over time." What this means is that, you need to periodically check your Google Search Console and make sure that your pages are still indexed and if you find that a page has been de-indexed then go ahead and request a re-indexing manually.

1. Google Merchant Center May Limit The Visibility Of Free Product Listings - According to a latest policy enforcement announcement, Google will no longer automatically remove shopping listings that are missing the return and refund policy and also that have insufficient contact information. The free listings policies but the policies remain unchanged. It’s just how Google enforces the policy has changed.

Previously, Google would automatically disapprove Google Merchant Center feed listings that either is missing a return policy, refund policy and/or containing insufficient contact information. Going forward, that is no longer the case. Google said these free listings with these issues will remain active however it may have limited visibility due to how the policy enforced. Google said, “free listings accounts with these issue statuses will remain active, but their products will have limited visibility on Google.”

Google defines “Insufficient contact information” as “Websites that are missing required contact information, have unverified business information in Merchant Center, or both.” Examples include the Website is missing contact information (e.g. no social media link, contact email address, or phone number); Merchant Center account has missing contact information, such as a physical business address or a verified phone number; contact information is missing from both the store website and Merchant Center account.

Google defines “Missing return and refund policy” as “Websites that are missing return and refund information.” Examples include the Store return policy pages that are empty or don’t state all the requirements for return; refund policies that aren’t clear or easy to find; no return or refund policy is clearly stated.

1. Google ‘Helpful Content’ Algorithm Will Target Sites With Low Quality Content - Starting the week of 8/22, Google will launch a new search algorithm update, called the helpful content update. Google’s new helpful content update specifically targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.” The purpose of this algorithm update is to help searchers find “high-quality content”. This update will initially launch for English-language searches globally. Google plans to expand to other languages in the future.

Google wants to reward sites with useful content that was written for humans and to help users. And penalize sites where the content was written for the purpose of ranking in search engines – what you might call “search engine-first content” or “SEO content”.

Unlike other Google algorithms that get applied on a page-by-page basis, this new helpful content update will be sitewide. That means that if Google determines your site is producing a relatively high amount of unhelpful content, primarily written for ranking in search, then your whole site will be impacted. This will not just impact individual pages or sections of your site, but rather, it will impact the whole site.

Google won’t say exactly what percentage of the pages on your site need to be helpful versus unhelpful to trigger this classifier but they did say it is sitewide and will impact the whole site, even if you have many pages that are helpful. Again, if you have helpful pages but a relatively high amount of your content is unhelpful, even your helpful content or sections of your site will be hit by this update. Google said “removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.”

If a site gets hit by the helpful content update, it can take several months for the site to recover. A site needs to prove itself over time that it no longer publishes content with the sole reason to rank in search engines, a search engine first content experience, and that takes time. Here is what Dan Sullivan from Google wrote: “Sites identified by this update may find the signal applied to them over a period of months. Our classifier for this update runs continuously, allowing it to monitor newly-launched sites and existing ones. As it determines that the unhelpful content has not returned in the long-term, the classification will no longer apply.”

Google is using a new machine learning algorithm that looks at a variety of signals about the page and site to determine the ranking of a page and decide on the quality of the content. Google engineers tweaking and improving the overall algorithms on a regular basis so the algorithm should get better over time. While these algorithms do not specifically target any specific niche, Google said these types of content may be impacted the most:

• Online educational materials.
• Arts and entertainment.
• Shopping.
• Tech-related.

Here is an example from Google search where the helpful content update would make an impact:

• “If you search for information about a new movie, you might have previously encountered articles that aggregated reviews from other sites without adding perspectives beyond what’s available elsewhere on the web. This isn’t very helpful if you’re expecting to read something new. With this update, you’ll see more results with unique information, so you’re more likely to read something you haven’t seen before.”

To write better content, Google shared these questions around building human-first content:

• Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
• Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
• Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
• After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
• Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?
• Are you keeping in mind our guidance for core updates and for product reviews?

And when it comes to avoiding search-engine first content, Google laid out these questions:

• Is the content primarily to attract people from search engines, rather than made for humans?
• Are you producing lots of content on different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?
• Are you using extensive automation to produce content on many topics?
• Are you mainly summarizing what others have to say without adding much value?
• Are you writing about things simply because they seem trending and not because you’d write about them otherwise for your existing audience?
• Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again to get better information from other sources?
• Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don’t).
• Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you’d get search traffic?
• Does your content promise to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there’s a release date for a product, movie, or TV show when one isn’t confirmed?

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1. Wix Site Inspection Tool Integrates Google Search Console - Knowing whether your pages have been crawled (discovered by Google) or indexed (stored in Google’s index), or whether your structured data markup is valid, for example, can help you fine-tune your online presence and make large leaps in search visibility.

Google has always provided this information via Search Console, its platform for measuring search traffic and performance. To make those insights and tools more accessible to all business owners and SEO professionals, Wix now offers an approachable way to monitor and understand your site’s issues and indexing status at scale.

The Wix Site Inspection tool enables you to keep an eye on your site’s technical health, mobile usability, rich result eligibility, and more, without having to pull the data manually or leave the Wix dashboard.

“The tool will report any index status that Google is reporting, sometimes with easier language to understand. For example, it could be “crawled but not indexed” or “blocked by robots.txt” etc. Each index status detail will have a “learn more” link to an article explaining it and mentioning the common reasons why it could happen, with links to more relevant explanations. We also tell the users exactly what app and type of page each URL is so they can easily know where they need to take action.

With this tool, users can debug any issue that they would get if they manually used Search Console’s inspect URL tool. Users can understand the index status of their pages in Google and the specific reason for it. For each issue, we have additional resources to help guide users. These articles provide in depth explanations about each response, the possible reasons for it and how to fix it. Users will also be able to debug their mobile readiness and their structure data status.”

The value of Wix is that it enables businesses to focus on doing business without having to deal with the underlying technology.

Click here to learn more on how to get started with Wix Site Inspection tool.

1. Google: Duplicate Content In Business Profile Posts Is Spam - Google added a line to its Business Profile posts content policy section cautioning users to avoid posting duplicate content.

According to the update, duplicate content in posts published by Google Business Profiles is now considered spam. Google is sending a clear message that it wants businesses to post unique content.

In addition, it sounds like Google wants businesses to limit their use of logos. Putting a logo on every photo, for example, may get you in trouble. The best way to stay within the new guidelines is to ensure every post published by your Google Business Profile is unique.

Click here to read the complete content policy.

1. LinkedIn Lets You Add Clickable Links To Photo Posts - LinkedIn rolled out a new feature that allows users to add external links to photos shared in posts as stickers. You can add link stickers to your photos and videos via the post creation tools in the LinkedIn mobile app. You cannot add link stickers through the desktop interface. However, users on any platform can see and click on the links when they see the posts in their feed.

Link stickers are rolling out to users in phases, which means some people will have access to it before others. When you’re eligible to use it, you’ll see a chain link icon button when creating a post in the LinkedIn mobile app.

1. IndexNow attributed for 7% URL Clicks On Bing - Fabrice Canel, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Bing told Search Engine Land that 7-percent of all the new URLs clicked in Bing Search in the past month were sourced from the IndexNow protocol. And more than 16 million websites are using IndexNow, publishing over 1.2 billion URLs per day to the IndexNow API.

IndexNow provides a method for website owners to instantly inform the supported search engines about the latest content changes on their website.

The IndexNow plugin was released by Microsoft back on Jan 5, 2022 and was covered in Episode#90. It was also covered in Episode#91 when it added support for Yandex - the russian search engine. It is unclear if IndexNow still sends data to Yandex now that there is a sanction on Russia since the Ukraine invasion.

1. Google: Clicking On Your Site In Google Search Won't Change Your Rankings - One of the oldest myths in the Google SEO-verse is that clicking on your search results in Google Search will help you rank better. However, Google does not and has never used click data for ranking purposes. So someone asked John Mueller of Google the other day if clicking on my own link doesn't help but does it hurt? What if I get an army of people clicking on your site in Google Search daily, will that lead to some Google penalty?

The answer is no, it does not hurt either. It does not hurt or help to have people clicking on your site in Google Search to try to manipulate Google's rankings in a positive or negative manner for that site. Google has said it countless times, CTR does not impact rankings and bot clicks don't either.

1. Google Now Officially Supports GTIN12 Property - Even though the GTIN12 property was always supported but Google, it was not clearly mentioned in the documentation until now. Google also clarified that you can also use the generic gtin property for all GTINs, but they recommend that you use the most specific one if possible.

So what is GTIN? GTIN, or a Global Trade Item Number, is an internationally recognized system for identifying products. It brought together several systems to ensure they all adhere to a common structure. GTINs can be 8, 12, 13, or 14 digits long. They are a numerical representation of the product's barcode. Different types of GTIN exist depending on where in the world the product comes from and the type of product. The four different types of GTIN in use are:

• GTIN-8 - used mostly for EAN-8 barcodes
• GTIN-12 - used mostly for UPC barcodes
• GTIN-13 - used mostly for ISBN, JAN, and EAN-13 barcodes
• GTIN-14 - this is for wholesale or multipack products

All GTINs, regardless of the number of digits, have a similar structure. The structure is Company Prefix, Item Reference, and a Check Digit. In GTIN-14 there is an additional packaging level indicator to indicate whether the product is an item or a case.

Where GTIN-8, GTIN-12, and GTIN-13 numbers are represented as GTIN-14 (the main data structure), left-justified zeros pad out the number.

For example, the GTIN-12 number 012345678905 becomes 00012345678905 in GTIN-14 format. Two additional zeros are added to the left of the number to bring it from 12 characters up to 14.

Many comparison shopping engines, including Google and Amazon, use GTINs. They keep large databases containing almost all the GTINs that exist in the world.

When you upload a product to one of these platforms through your data feed, the product must have a GTIN.

If you don’t include a GTIN or you include the wrong one, the platform is likely to reject the product.

Shopping platforms like Google Shopping and Amazon Marketplace benefit from GTINs in several ways:

• GTINs help make more relevant matches between a user’s search and the products available
• GTIN’s also help search engines and shopping comparison platforms to compare products
• They can also offer the user a more feature rich shopping experience, as GTINs enable them to use product data in ad visuals

Consumers also benefit when vendors, search engines, and comparison shopping engines use GTINs:

• They get better product comparisons to help them find the right product, the right seller, and the right price
• They see more relevant results when searching for a product
• They see more relevant ads in non-shopping environments like Facebook (Facebook and other platforms use the browsing habits of users to determine the best products to display in ads)

As a seller, you also get benefits from using GTINs. Finding the right GTINs can sometimes be tricky, but it is worth the effort. The reasons for this include:

• You will be able to submit your product feed to a higher number of platforms
• You should see conversions increase because your products will appear in more relevant search results and ads
• You can compete more effectively as your products will be in the comparison mix

In some cases, you may have a product that does not have a GTIN. Examples include one-off products like artwork, handicrafts, or vintage products. Most platforms have procedures in place to deal with these situations. On Google Shopping, for example, there is an Identifier Exists field. You can set this to false if there is no GTIN.

1. TikTok Launches New Ad Targeting Transparency Tools - TikTok is giving users more understanding of how their personal data is being used for ad targeting in the app through the 'About this Ad' info panel. This info panel lists all of the different targeting factors that TikTok has used to display each ad to each user. You’ll also be able to switch off ad personalization based on third-party data - though whether it’s on or off, TikTok will still be able to use your in-app activity in its ad targeting process.

This update moves TikTok more into line with other social apps, which offer similar ad transparency features - though it’s also worth noting that TikTok has been working to continue utilizing personalized ad tracking, in various ways, despite regulations and restrictions around such getting tighter in certain regions.

Last month, TikTok was forced to suspend a planned change to its privacy policy relating to the use of user insights for targeted advertising, amid questions over whether the change is actually legal under the latest EU provisions for data protection and control.

The planned update would have seen the app do away with asking users for their consent to run personalized ads, with TikTok seeking to process such data under what’s essentially a legal loophole in this respect, via the provision for ‘legitimate interest’. By implying that personalized ads fall under legitimate interest grounds, TikTok was seeking to circumvent the EU ePrivacy Directive, but authorities called for a review of the process before it could go into effect.

In other words, while on one hand TikTok’s looking to be more upfront about how your personal information is being used for ad targeting, on the other, it’s seeking to avoid restrictions on such, through questionable means.

1. TikTok Is Rolling Out ‘Order Center’ eCommerce Tracking Hub - TikTok is a bigger push on in-app shopping, with some users now seeing a new ‘Order Center’ panel in the app, which tracks any products that you’ve purchased, looked at, or even, potentially, may be interested in, in the app.

The new ‘Order Center’ is now appearing for some users alongside their ‘Edit Profile’ option in the app. Tap on it and you’ll be taken through to a dedicated eCommerce display, where you can track all aspects of your TikTok shopping experience, including payment details, items you’ve tagged, recommendations, order status, etc.

TikTok continues to find ways to make their user experience better, Facebook on the other hand had to kill their live shopping experience last week since it never took off.

1. Instagram Is Adding A Native Post Scheduling Option Within The App - Instagram is developing a native post scheduling process within the app, which will eventually enable users to schedule all of their posts, including Reels and Stories, to go out at set times.

Up until now, the ability to schedule a post in Instagram was available via the Creator Studio, and now Instagram is slowly rolling out this feature natively on the app. This means, you no longer need to jump hoops (create a post and then send it to your desktop, login to Creator Studio and schedule posts).

1. Instagram Shared “How Instagram Suggests New Content” - So how does Instagram select which additional content to show you in your Home feed? Instagram’s post recommendations fall into two categories – ‘Connected’ and ‘Unconnected’, with the latter being the posts that Instagram’s systems find and highlight, based on your interests.

In both cases, Instagram is looking at the engagement data (Like & Save) for ranking.

While this is not anything new, however it is good to see that Instagram is officially admitting that they use engagement data for ranking.

If you want to geek out on all the other technical details then click here.

1. Meta Advantage Ad Suite Now Supports All Businesses & Launches Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns - As per the announcement posted on Meta’s website, Small businesses can now use Advantage+ creative and Advantage audience to create ads through their Facebook page. When using Advantage+ creative, ads will automatically adjust for each person who views them. Meta will show individual users the version of the ad they’re most likely to respond to. Advantage audience allows businesses to target ads to relevant people more effectively. Meta will create personalized audiences for serving ads using details on the business’s Facebook page.

Meta also announced the launch of Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns. Per Meta “Advantage+ shopping campaigns help advertisers get smarter, faster on which campaigns are converting. It eliminates the manual steps of ad creation and automates up to 150 creative combinations at once. This helps advertisers more quickly learn what ads are working, while making the most of their advertising budget.”

Click here if you are not familiar with “Meta Advantage.” The rollout of Meta Advantage was covered in Episode#101.

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1. LinkedIn Launches ‘LinkedIn Collective’ For B2B Marketers - LinkedIn has launched LinkedIn Collective, a community designed for and by B2B marketers to inspire excellence and success for all of us. Per LinkedIn:

“The Collective will offer groundbreaking thought leadership and content resources informed by LinkedIn data and insights, our team of experts, and leaders across the B2B marketing industry.

Some see LinkedIn purely as a distribution or promotional channel but we’re here to challenge this assumption. Our platform is more than that – it’s a thriving community of 850 million members that turn to us to help build their brands, foster connections and grow their communities.

With the Collective, we want to showcase what it looks like to build a content brand on LinkedIn, proper. Though we will continue to provide the excellent and resourceful content that you’ve come to expect on this blog, our new content brand is platform-first and will live and grow on LinkedIn.”

1. YouTube Update: New Metrics, Copyrighted Music.. - For creators, YouTube has added a number of new capabilities, including more data on their subscriber growth.

2. Creators can now see how many subscribers they gain from community posts. This new metric can be accessed in YouTube Analytics' subscription source report. YouTube plans to introduce per-post subscriber analytics in the future.

3. To provide creators more music choices for their videos, YouTube is broadening its partnerships with music labels and publishers so that they have the ability to access more copyrighted content while being able to earn revenue on their videos. Before this update, including copyrighted music would disqualify a video from monetization.
4. If you’ve enabled the option to allow other creators to remix your content, you can now get more information about those remixes in YouTube Analytics. The three metrics you can see are:
5. Total remix views
6. Top 15 remixes on mobile

7. Top 15 remixes on desktop

8. Google Added Structured Data For Product Pros And Cons - Google has added structured data support to read and potentially use pros and cons for product review snippet in the Google Search results. Google said you can now “tell Google about your pros and cons by supplying pros and cons structured data on editorial review pages.” Even if you don't use this markup, Google may still show pros and cons in the product search result snippets.

So take actions and do not rely on Google.

1. Google Changed Search Result For Queries With Quotes - Now if you do a search such as [“google search”], the search results page will show the snippet where the quoted text appears.

According to Google, prior to this update, the quoted search term was not always displayed in the Google Search result snippet because sometimes the quoted text exists in portions of a document that don't lend itself to making helpful snippets. For instance, a word or phrase might be present as a menu item on a page where you can access the site's many sections. Such portions might not result in a snippet that produces a readily accessible description. And now Google says that they made this change due to user feedback - “We’ve heard feedback that people doing quoted searches value seeing where the quoted material occurs on a page, rather than an overall description of the page. Our improvement is designed to help address this.”

P.S: This is not a ranking change but rather a user interface change on how Google Search will show some searches, searches that use quotes. This may impact your click-through rate from the Google search results but will have no impact on how you rank for those types of queries.

1. Google Launched A New Version Of Google Tag - The Google tag (gtag.js) is a single tag you can add to your website to use a variety of Google products and services. Instead of managing multiple tags for different Google product accounts, it lets you send data from your website to linked Google product destinations to help you measure the effectiveness of your website and ads.

The new Google tag (currently only accessible and configurable from Google Ads and Google Analytics 4), which was shared at Google Marketing Live, is rolling out. The aim is to make tagging easier to ensure reliable measurement for the long-term. If you’re already using the global site tag (gtag.js), you don’t need to take any action, but here are some things to know:

• The new Google tag is a single, reusable tag built on top of your existing gtag.js implementations so no need to add new code
• There are also new codeless capabilities so you can set up & track on-page events right from the UI – no developer resources needed.
• You can easily combine & manage your Google tag settings from the new Google tag screen in both Google Ads & Google Analytics. The one code works across both products.
• Soon, you’ll be able to use your existing Google tag installation when creating new Google products, accounts, conversion actions – no extra code needed. Plus, more updates to come, including for those using Google Tag Manager.

For more information, you can read the Google announcement here. To see all the tags you have access to, go to Google Tag Manager and click the “Google tags” tab on the Accounts table.

1. Google Keyword Planner Now Allows You To Organize Keyword InTo Ad Groups - This “Organize keywords into ad groups” feature was released in 2021, only to a small number of users. And now Google is slowly rolling out this feature to global user base . Here is what Google had to say:

"You could always manually choose to add keywords to ad groups (manually picking which ones to add where). This feature adds the ability to use an automated machine learning system where we suggest which ad groups are the best ones for the keywords, instead of you manually doing the placement.

This should hopefully save advertisers time and effort if they have thousands of keywords/ad groups to sift through. The ability to manually add keywords still exists."

FYI: Just like with most automation, use with caution. Test, analyze, and adjust as necessary.

1. New Features In Google Discovery Ad - The new features are:

2. The onboarding flow for creating Discovery ads has been rebuilt. Advertisers will be asked to add different aspect ratios, distinct headlines, and text overlays over images when they create their ads. Additionally, users will get real-time feedback on how effective their ads are, with scores ranging from "Poor" to "Excellent," as well as an optimization score with useful advice.

3. Discovery advertisers can now use the insights page to see which audience segments may deliver the biggest impact. Advertisers can also use asset reporting to view performance across the Discovery ads. Users can compare the performance between assets and decide which ones to turn off, switch, or edit. Advertisers can also use optimized targeting to assess information about keywords and landing pages to find audiences that can meet your campaign goals.
4. There is a new audience builder advertisers can use to create and reuse audiences across campaigns. Users can also use the Google Ads Editor as well as API to manage campaigns at scale.

You can read the full announcement from Google in their help guide.

1. Facebook Shutting Down Live Commerce On October 1, 2022 - Over the past few years, Facebook has been experimenting with live shopping implementations as part of a larger effort to capitalize on growing eCommerce trends. And now the company has announced that it’s shutting down its experiments with live shopping in the app, as of October 1st this year.

However, it is not completely abandoning live shopping; Instagram will continue to host it and expand it. Mark just did not see a future for it on Facebook, which is understandable. And it also reflects the generally unfavorable reception to live shopping in western markets. Plus e-commerce is slowing down in the US. Remember in episode#119, we covered the 10% headcount reduction at Shopify.

1. Twitter ‘Location Spotlight’ Is Now Available To All Businesses - Initially launched to selected businesses earlier in the year, now, all businesses that have switched to a Professional Profile can add the module, which displays your physical business location on a map within your Twitter profile presence.

You can read more about how to convert your Twitter account to a Professional Profile at this link.

1. New Workshops Added To Twitter Flight School - Twitter’s Flight School is a free education element, which provides you with a Twitter accreditation, and covers all the basics of tweeting and tweet strategy - which is worth taking to ensure that you’re across all the various opportunities of the app.

Now, Twitter is launching a new ‘Taking Care of Business’ workshop series, which is designed to help professionals starting out on Twitter gain a better understanding of its latest products and offerings.

“The workshops will cover how to set up your Professional Account, how to activate an appropriate spotlight for your business and how to tweet confidently and engage with your audience.”

You can register for the workshops, run via Twitter Flight School, here.

Twitter is also launching additional business courses in its Flight School education platform. Here is what Twitter said:

“We’ll be rolling out 10 a la carte courses on Twitter Flight School that will cover several topics that are top of mind for professionals on how to leverage Twitter to drive customers to buy. Our #TweetLikeAPro coursework will be designed specifically for small to medium businesses and will cover topics like how to Up Your Tweet Game, Creating a Community of Engaged Followers and Keeping it Simple: The 4 Cs of Content Strategy.”

You can find more about the latest Flight School courses here.

1. Pinterest Reports 9% Revenue Increase In Q2’22 With Errors In Their Quarterly Report - Pinterest published its Q2 2022 results with some mistakes. In their quarterly results they state that they have 433 million DAU - same as Q1.) However when I sum up the breakdown, I see the number at 432 million in Q2 and they lost 2 million actives in US. Meanwhile they had 434 million actives in Q1 while they reported 433 million. Also they had lower than expected revenue though they earned $665.9 million (a 9% year-over-year).

Also their revenue per user is off since you divide the total revenue by active users. So I will not cover it here and I plan to blog + tweet about it to Pinterest later this week.

FYI: Elliott Management has a track record of buying up assets in companies that it believes could be performing better has recently purchased a 9% stake in Pinterest.

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1. Shopify Lays Off 10% Of Workforce - Tobias Lütke, the founder of Shopify, announced that it is letting go of ten percent of its workforce. He blamed himself for misjudging trends, resulting in too many employees. What was anticipated at Shopify was that the rapid Covid-era increase in E-commerce shopping would continue as a trend, hastening a greater adoption of online shopping.

Unfortunately, the forecasted boom in post-Covid shopping failed to materialize. The CEO said that he decided to scale up hiring to meet the increased demand and that now that the projections are falling short, he was forced to make a difficult decision. Shopify employees face a layoff in recruiting, support roles, and sales.

1. Instagram Backtracks And Rethinking Instagram Forward Strategy - In a new interview with Casey Newton, Adam Mosseri explained that Instagram will actually take a step back from recommended content, as well as its experiment with a full-screen, TikTok-like viewing experience.

“For the new feed designs, people are frustrated and the usage data isn’t great. So there I think that we need to take a big step back, regroup, and figure out how we want to move forward. When you discover something in your field that you didn’t follow before, there should be a high bar - it should just be great. You should be delighted to see it, and I don’t think that’s happening enough right now. So I think we need to take a step back, in terms of the percentage of feed that are recommendations, get better at ranking and recommendations, and then - if and when we do - we can start to grow again.”

1. Revenue Roundup: Microsoft, Google & Meta - Here are some key takeaways:

2. Microsoft ad revenue decreased by about $100 million due to reductions in advertising spend

3. LinkedIn revenue increased 26%, while user sessions grew 22%.
4. Total Alphabet revenue 13% increase YoY to $69.7 billion (from $61.9 billion by the end of Q2 in 2021)
5. Google Ad revenue $56.3 billion (up from $50.4 in 2021)
6. YouTube revenue $7.3 billion (up 5% from $7 billion in 2021), which missed analysts’ predictions of $7.5 billion
7. Meta’s ad revenue dropped one percent in Q2 2022 compared to last year’s period.
8. They brought in $28.82 billion from ads, though it expected to earn $28.94 billion. One positive trend to note is Facebook’s daily active users are up three percent. There are now 1.97 billion people logging in every day.

9. Meta’s apps aren’t declining in popularity by any means. The audience is there. The problem is that advertisers have smaller budgets, and they’re not getting the same value from ads as they used to. To remedy the issue of declining ad revenue, Meta has plans to offer new types of monetization. More specifically, the company is working on ways to make money from Reels.

10. LinkedIn Launches Native Carousel Posts - LinkedIn users have been posting makeshift carousel posts for some time, using its PDF attachment option to create individual frames. And now, LinkedIn has decided to make it a fully-fledged functionality, with a new ‘Carousel’ post option being added to your update tools.

11. Pinterest Launches Real-Time Analytics - Pinterest has now officially launched real-time analytics elements within Pin Analytics on mobile, which will provide more data on exactly how your Pins are performing at any given time. Real-time insights are also available in the web Analytics platform, but now, you’ll also be able to access much of the same data on the go, which is likely where many more people are looking to check in.

Real-time insights are not available for audience metrics, like ‘Total Engaged Monthly Audience’ and age and gender filters. But you will be able to see overall data on response to your Pins, whenever you check in, which could be a helpful guide for your Pin strategy.

1. Google Extends Deadline For Third-Party (Tracking) Cookies To 2024 - Google is now expanding the testing window for its Privacy Sandbox APIs before it moves to disable third-party cookies in Chrome. They announced that it’s expanding the testing period for its Privacy Sandbox, and its alternative tracking tools, in order to give the industry more time to provide feedback and adjust to the coming shift.

“The most consistent feedback we’ve received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome. This feedback aligns with our commitment to the CMA to ensure that the Privacy Sandbox provides effective, privacy-preserving technologies and the industry has sufficient time to adopt these new solutions. This deliberate approach to transitioning from third-party cookies ensures that the web can continue to thrive, without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques like fingerprinting.

We now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024. As always, you can find up-to-date timelines and milestones on the Privacy Sandbox website.”

1. The Reason Why The Search Console CWV Report & PageSpeed Insights Differ - Google's John Mueller explained that the two scores are different because the method for calculations is different.

“... there’s a difference between so-called field data and the lab data. Field data is what users have actually seen when they go to your website. And this is what we use in Search Console. That’s what we use for search as well. Whereas lab data is kind of a theoretical view of your website, like where our systems have certain assumptions where they think, well the average user is probably like this, using this kind of device and with this kind of a connection perhaps. And based on those assumptions, we will estimate what those numbers might be for an average user. And obviously you can imagine those estimations will never be a hundred percent correct.”

So what Mueller is saying then is that Search Console scores reflect what actual site visitors saw. The way Google measures those actual numbers is through visitors who have opted in to allowing Chrome to provide anonymized core web vitals data.

Google doesn’t measure every site visitor, only those who have opted in to sending that data to Google.

Contrasting with Search Console’s field data, PageSpeed Insights is creating a simulation of what a user might experience. The purpose of Search Console data is to show what real site visitors are experiencing. The purpose of PageSpeed Insights data is to provide an estimate of what’s going on in order to provide diagnostic feedback on what may be causing poor webpage speed performance.

“And similarly, the data that users have seen, that will change over time as well, where some users might have a really fast connection or a fast device and everything goes really fast on their website, or when they visit your website. And others might not have that. And because of that, this variation can always result in different numbers. Our recommendation is generally to use the field data, the data you would see in Search Console, as a way of understanding what is kind of the current situation for a website. And then to use the lab data, namely the individual tests that you can run directly yourself, to optimize your website and try to improve things. And when you are pretty happy with the lab data that you’re getting with your new version of your website, then over time you can collect the field data, which happens automatically and double-check that users actually see it as being faster or more responsive as well. So in short, again, there is no absolutely correct number when it comes to any of these metrics. There is no kind of like absolutely correct answer where you’d say, this is what it should actually be. But rather, there’s different assumptions and different ways of collecting data and each of these are subtly different.”

• The purpose of the Search Console tool is to provide granular snapshots of real-world site performance.

• The purpose of PageSpeed Insights is diagnostic, to identify problems and offer suggestions for improvement.

• Google Wants You To Replace HTTP Links With HTTPS - Several years ago, Google’s Gary Illyes said replacing links isn’t worth it when proper redirects are in place. Now, Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller says you should always try to replace internal links pointing to HTTP URLs with the newer HTTP versions.

Here are the reasons why replacing old HTTP internal links with https is a good idea:

• First, it’s cleaner than having a bunch of redirects. And, unlike external links, you have complete control over the URL visitors are sent to. Anyone clicking on a link that redirects to HTTPS has to go through the HTTP version first. Getting rid of the extra ‘hop’ means visitors get to the content faster.
• Relying on redirects for internal links is a fool’s errand. Many things can go wrong, such as redirect chains, redirect loops, and broken links. If a site loads images with HTTP URLs, it can cause browsers to give visitors a “not secure” error message, deterring them from staying on your site.
• Redirects eat your crawl budget because every redirect counts as a page crawled. Google can potentially crawl more pages per session without the redirects in place.

• Lastly, you can’t depend on redirects working indefinitely. Redirects can break or get deleted while replacing the links ensures they’re changed forever.

• The 411 On Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines Update - Google has made a variety of significant updates to its Search Quality Rater Guidelines. The most significant overhauls were to Google’s definitions of YMYL (Your Money, Your Life), and the extent to which E-A-T matters as a matter of page quality.

Google defines YMYL topics as either being inherently dangerous (violent extremism), or harmful because presenting misinformation related to the topic can be harmful. For example, providing bad advice related to heart attacks, investments or earthquakes could cause harm to the user.

Google also revamped its definition of what it means to be a low-quality page. In a previous version, Google claimed a page may be low quality, in part, because the creator of the main content may lack sufficient expertise for the purpose of the page. This statement was deleted. Google now expands upon the role of E-A-T in determining whether a page is low-quality.

You can download the full 167-page PDF raters guidelines over here.

1. Google Ads Will Now Automatically Update Conversion Attribution Models - Google has sent an email letting advertisers know that if their account qualifies then their ad accounts would be switched to data-driven attribution. Advertisers have until August 24 to cancel the auto-switch.

Google announced in September that data-driven attribution would become the default model, but advertisers would still have access to the five other rule-based models. Data-driven attribution uses advanced machine learning techniques to more accurately understand how each marketing touchpoint contributed to a conversion. According to Google, data-driven attribution takes multiple signals into account including ad format and time between the ad and interaction and conversion.

1. Google Merchant Center Now Accepts Gated Product Listings - Google has updated its Merchant Center policy to no longer automatically disapproved free listings for products that have login required and/or restricted purchase access. Google said it now will list these products as active but with the caveat that they may “have limited visibility on Google.”

Google explained “Login required” issue status means that customers visiting your store website need to provide account access information, such as entering a username and password or installing a program, before being able to view your products.

Google explained “Restricted purchase” issue status means that the ability to buy products on your store website is limited to certain customers as defined by location, device type, information provided, or some other exclusive criteria. Fields like business information should be optional and content should be consistent and available to visitors in all locations.

1. Google Publishes 6 Tips For E-Commerce Sites - Google published a new video offering six tips for how to make ecommerce sites eligible for special presentations in the search results.

2. Title Tags - If the title element doesn’t adequately describe what the webpage is about that Google will rewrite it, using content from the heading at the top of the page or even the anchor text from links to the webpage. Take extra care with automated product title tags to ensure there is no duplicate content or missing information. Avoid dynamically generated title tags to add availability or price data to the title tag because there’s a lag between when the title tag is updated and when Google eventually shows the updated title link in the SERPs. By this time, the information may be outdated.

3. Include High Quality Images - High quality images are a user experience consideration in that they help potential customers make up their minds about a product. Audit your site for low quality images and replacing them with higher quality photos. Checking the Max Image Preview meta data because it guides Google on how to show those images in the SERPs. Lastly, use product structured data to help Google identify the correct images to show in the search results. Many businesses consider things like images in terms of how they may help their webpage rank better in the search results. But it’s more productive to consider product images in terms of how they help users decide to purchase a product.
4. Share Rich Product Data - Structured data helps Google better understand webpages and makes them eligible to be displayed as rich results, what he referred to as “special presentation treatments” in the search results. The following are essential elements for product structured data to include:
   1. Product title
   2. Description
   3. Images
   4. Ratings
   5. Price
   6. Availability
5. Share Price Drop Data - Sharing pricing information with Google can make the product page eligible for a special price drop presentation in the search results, which may call attention to it. Appearing in the search results with a special price drop presentation isn’t guaranteed. To make a page eligible for price drop rich results, you must include the Offer property in the product structured data that is a specific price point and not a price range.
6. Identify Products You Sell - This tip advises using accurate product identifiers such as GTIN identifiers, using a combination of Google Merchant Center feed and product structured data. Following this advice can make a product eligible for listings such as the product carousels.
7. Create a Business Profile - Creating a Google Business Profile if the business has a physical presence. This makes a site eligible for a special listing alongside the search results. This type of listing is only available for businesses with a physical store presence or a covered service area.

Watch the Google YouTube Video - How to Make Your Ecommerce Website Stand Out in Google Search (6 Tips)

1. YouTube’s New Feature Will Help You To Turn Your Long Form Videos Into Shorts - YouTube is looking to encourage more short clips via a new option that will enable creators to convert segments of their existing long-form content into minute-long Shorts variations.

The new ‘Edit into a Short’ option will enable you to select a section of your regular video uploads to then cut into a bite-sized version.

1. YouTube Answers Common Questions On YT Shorts - YouTube demystifies the Shorts algorithm in a Q&A video that addresses several of the most common questions creators have about gaining visibility with short-form content. Here’s a recap of each question and answer in the video.

2. Should I Mix Long And Short-Form Content On The Same Channel? - “We’ve done some analysis recently where we looked at audience growth for channels that only made long-form videos, and channels that made both long-form and short videos. Channels that made Shorts actually seemed to be growing faster. We anticipate that audience demand for short-form content is here to stay. This is a format that’s becoming increasingly popular, and the very reason we’ve been testing so much in more mobile-first creation tools and Shorts discovery.”

3. Will YouTube Recommend More Long-Form Videos If People Watch My Shorts? - “Viewers watching Shorts aren’t always the same viewers watching longer-form content… For this reason, we separate Shorts and long-form content from watch history. So when someone discovers a new channel via Shorts, we’re not currently using that to inform what longer videos are recommended to them outside of the Shorts experience.”
4. Is There A Benefit To Starting A Separate Channel For Shorts? - “Try to group your channels around similar audiences who enjoy the same or similar content. Separate them out when your viewers have totally different interests… If you start building up different audiences with different interests then consider making a separate channel.”
5. How Many Shorts Do I Need To Upload Before The Algorithm Recommends My Content? - “Every Short is given a chance to succeed no matter the channel or the number of videos on the channel. Performance of a Short is dictated by whether or not people are choosing to watch and not skip a video in the Shorts feed. That audience engagement is often built over time as opposed to happening instantaneously.”

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1. LinkedIn Business Manager is Now In Public Beta - The LinkedIn Business Manager was announced in June and finally the public beta was announced this week. Unlike invite-only betas, our public beta is open to all marketers who want to use Business Manager.

The new business manager dashboard allows advertisers who manage multiple ad accounts to grant access to ad accounts and pages, create and edit campaigns, manage pages, and create reports.

Matched audiences allow you to retarget your website visitors, and upload lists of accounts or emails to target within LinkedIn. Through the new Business Manager, you can share those matched audiences across all accounts.

You can create a Business Manager account here. When you move your current ad accounts under the Business Manager umbrella, all settings including current campaigns and billing remain the same.

1. Twitter Posts Lower Revenue Despite Adding 9 Mil Users - Twitter added 9 million new daily active users in Q2’2022, taking it to 238 million total mDAU. Most of the new growth has come from international markets, with Twitter only adding 2 million new users in the US. In terms of its ‘rest of the World’ stats, Twitter hasn’t provided a breakdown of where its newest 7 million users have come from, but Japan and India remain its second and third largest user bases, after the US.

In terms of revenue, Twitter brought in $1.18 billion in Q2, a decrease of 1% year-over-year.

1. Snapchat Added 15 Million New Users - Snap Inc. has posted its Q2 2022 numbers, which show a steady increase in usage, but slower growth on the revenue side. First off, on users – Snapchat added 15 million more users in Q2, taking it up to 347 million daily actives. Though Snapchat has seen significant growth in India, there was virtually no growth in the North American market.

Average revenue per user remains relatively low in other markets, especially in the ‘Rest of the World’ category, where Snap added the majority of its new users.

1. Meta Launches Small Business Studios Project - Meta has launched a new Small Business Studios project, which will provide both online and in-person training elements to help small businesses make the most of their marketing efforts across both Facebook and Instagram.

2. Build Your Brand workshop: An online workshop providing creative inspiration and branding guidance to small businesses using Facebook and Instagram. This workshop champions a customer mindset and dives in on business branding, how to build copy and creative when creating a post and then deciding what to post.

3. Reels School: A course designed for small businesses to simplify Reels creation while expanding their audience reach and helping achieve business goals.
4. Photography virtual workshop: Since building great creative can feel daunting, this training pairs small businesses with an expert to teach owners how to make great, low-cost and low-lift images that are made for mobile.

In addition to this, you can also sign-up to get a one-on-one business support session with someone from Meta’s Small Business Team, which could provide some valuable insight into how to maximize your Facebook and Instagram presences.

It’s also one of the only ways that you might be able to speak to a real person within Meta, which could see it flooded with non-brand-building queries. Either way, you can register for the initiative here.

You can learn more about Meta’s Small Business Studio programs and content here.

1. Facebook Changing The News Feed - “One of the most requested features for Facebook is to make sure people don’t miss friends’ posts. So today we’re launching a Feeds tab where you can see posts from your friends, groups, Pages and more separately in chronological order. The app will still open to a personalized feed on the Home tab, where our discovery engine will recommend the content we think you’ll care most about. But the Feeds tab will give you a way to customize and control your experience further.”

Facebook’s main UI will now be split into a ‘Home’ feed, which will primarily focus on recommended content to keep you entertained, while you’ll also have a new ‘Feeds’ tab, where you’ll be able to view the latest posts in different categories, including ‘Favorites’, ‘Friends’, ‘Groups’, etc.

The move shifts the Facebook experience more into line with TikTok, which calls itself an ‘entertainment app’, not a social network.

1. Instagram Adds In-Chat Payment Feature - Now you can make purchases and track orders directly in chats with small businesses on Instagram in the US. The new process will enable businesses to request payment within a message thread, with users then able to transfer funds, right then and there, streamlining purchase.

Users will be able to use Meta Pay (the payment system formerly known as ‘Facebook Pay’) to complete their purchase, with businesses then able to maintain connection on updates and details as the order is processed. It’s essentially the same as payment transfers between friends, which have been available in Messenger since 2017. Now, businesses will also be able to tap into that same capacity.

1. Discovering Local Business On Instagram - Instagram’s location maps are now searchable, making it easier to discover places and businesses in your geographic area. Previously, the map experience on Instagram was limited to discovering posts tagged with nearby locations.

This update to Instagram maps makes it possible to find popular establishments near you and filter businesses by categories.

Finding businesses on the Instagram map is as simple as searching for the name of a city and dragging the map around. When you find a location you’re interested in, you can save it for future reference or follow the Instagram account to keep it top of mind.

Locations are not pre-populated or user-submitted, like on Google Maps. As a business, the only way to get found on the Instagram map is to have a professional account filled in with your contact information.

In practice, the new Instagram Maps experience is similar to discovering Google Business Profiles on Google Maps. The Instagram experience is more engaging in some ways, as you can see all kinds of visual content published by the business and interact with them directly. You can even see content shared by other customers, provided they add the appropriate location tag. The only thing lacking from the experience is customer reviews.

1. Instagram Converting All Videos Under 15 Mins To Reels - Instagram will automatically convert all video posts shorter than 15 minutes into Reels. This change applies to new videos only. Existing videos shorter than 15 minutes will remain as video posts. The Video and Reels tabs on your Instagram profile will join as one when this change rolls out in the coming weeks.

2. Latest IG Features: Templates, Boosts & More - New features for Reels include:

3. Enhanced remixes - Instagram is enhancing the remix feature for Reels, which allows you to react to videos from other users. Now, you’ll be able to remix public photos and record your reaction to them as a Reel. For the first time, you’ll be able to add your recording after the original clip instead of having both pieces of content appear simultaneously.

4. New templates - You can now create Reels using templates, which preload audio and clip placeholders so you can add your photos or video clips. A new Dual template lets you record video with your phone’s front and back camera at the same time.

5. The ability to boost Reels as ads - Businesses can now boost Reels within the Instagram app by turning them into ads. To boost a Reel, it must be 100% original content, less than 60 seconds long, and recorded in the 9:16 (vertical) aspect ratio. After publishing it, you can boost a Reel by viewing your content and tapping Boost Post. Boosting a Reel gives you access to engagement insights exclusive to advertisements. Boosted Reels appear in the Instagram main feed, Stories, the Reels tab, and the Explore page.

6. TikTok Adds Auto-Caption & Translation - TikTok’s auto captions will appear at the lower left hand side of the screen, adding important context to the viewing experience, especially in sound off environments.

TikTok’s also added new translations for captions and descriptions, which could help users around the world engage with more clips.

Finally, TikTok’s also adding translations for text-based stickers and overlays to provide even more context for non-native speakers.

Both of TikTok’s new translation tools will initially support English, Portuguese, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish and Turkish, so there’s a range of translation options to consider, which could spark entirely new, global trends.

P.S: TikTok says that it’s in the early stages of rolling out these new tools, which are available on select videos at present.

1. Google Auto-Upgrading Smart Shopping Campaigns To Performance Max - Google has begun to roll out automatic updates converting Smart Shopping campaigns into Performance Max. Google will send a notification about 2-3 weeks before the updates take effect and provide a specific date when your campaigns will be converted.

Google says when your campaigns are self-upgraded using the tool or automatically upgraded, learnings from your previous Smart Shopping campaigns carry over to your new Performance Max campaigns to maintain consistent performance. Your campaign settings will also automatically transfer.

If you don’t want to wait for Google and prefer to update your campaigns on your own, you can use the “one-click” upgrade tool.

1. Now You Can Add FAQ’s To Your Google Business Profile - Google has added a new feature to help businesses automated some of the responses to questions submitted through their Google Maps and Google Search business listings. This new feature is part of your Google Business Profile and can be managed under the FAQs section of the messaging section.

2. Hey Google!, Will I Rank Lower If I Am On A Shared Web-Hosting? - Google's John Mueller again said on Twitter "using a shared IP address is fine" for SEO and Google Search ranking purposes. "There is no SEO advantage to using a unique IP address," he added.

3. YouTube Partners With Shopify & Expands In-Stream Commerce Tools - YouTube has announced a partnership with Shopify which enables Shopify merchants to feature their products across their YouTube channels and content. Using the Google Channel app within your Shopify add-on tools, you’ll now be able to activate YouTube Shopping, and connect your YouTube account to easily display products from your Shopify inventory. Shopify merchants will be able to display their products on YouTube in three ways:

4. Live streams - Merchants can tag and pin products at key points during a livestream, and picture-in-picture playback means consumers can watch while they check out

5. Videos - Merchants can show a curated list of products in a product shelf below on-demand videos
6. Store tab - A new tab will be added to a merchant’s YouTube channel, featuring their entire selection of products

Merchants will need at least 1,000 subscribers to qualify for these options, while there are also requirements around appropriate content and channel strikes.

In addition to this, YouTube’s also added new tools within the ‘Shopping’ tab in YouTube Studio, in order to help creators manage how their products are tagged and appear across their channel.

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1. Removing Unwanted Mentions In Twitter - With the help of a brand-new feature called unmentioning, Twitter now lets users remove their own tags from messages.

Unmentioning enables individuals to disengage from a conversation they do not wish to be a part of.

It's an improvement over muting a conversation because it takes away the reference to the specified person's account and stops others from bringing up the subject again.

Here's more information on how unmentioning functions and what happens after you do it on Twitter.

• It removes the link to your Twitter profile from the original tweet and all replies.
• It stops people from mentioning you again in the same conversation.
• It stops any further notifications about the conversation you were tagged in.

To unmention yourself, tap the three-dot menu at the top right of the tweet and select “leave this conversation.” Confirm your decision, and all tags will be removed.

1. Twitter Now Prompts You To Add Alt Text Descriptions To Images - Hey, are you adding alt text captions to your images? You should be, and now, Twitter’s going to prompt you to do exactly that, with new pop-ups being shown to some users alerting them to the benefits of alternative text summaries within tweets.

Text descriptions are a key tool for visually impaired users, with screen readers able to communicate these descriptions to add relevant context.

FYI: Facebook introduced a new technology called automatic alternative text (AAT) in 2016, that generates descriptions of photos on demand so that blind or visually impaired individuals can more fully enjoy their News Feed.

1. Netflix Partners With Microsoft For Ad Supported Tier - FYI: On Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 Microsoft announced that they had been selected as the new partner to help bring an ad-supported subscription plan to Netflix.

Last month the media speculated that Google & NBCUniversal were frontrunners, but it makes sense for Netflix to partner up with Microsoft - they do not have competing products aka streaming service. The details of the partnership are scanty and we will bring you additional information as it is released to the public.

1. YouTube Explains The Appeals Process For Community Guidelines Violation - A product manager at YouTube answered commonly asked questions about submitting appeals for community guidelines violation strikes. So what is a community guidelines violation? When a YouTube creator publishes content that violates the website’s community guidelines, they receive a strike against their channel.

We are publishing a blog on Tuesday (7/19/22) that will go in depth on this topic.

1. Video Index Report Is Now Available In Google Search Console - Google is adding a new report to Search Console that will help you understand how your videos perform in search results. The Video Indexing report makes it easy to identify and fix issues preventing your videos from surfacing in Google Search.

FYI: If Google detects videos on your site, the Video indexing report will appear on the left navigation bar in the coverage section. If Google has not detected a video on your website, you will not see the report.

The report will help you answer the following questions:

• In how many pages has Google identified a video?
• Which videos were indexed successfully?
• What are the issues preventing videos from being indexed?

In addition, if you fix an existing issue, you can use the report to validate the fix and track how your fixed video pages are updated in the Google index.

1. Not All Search Queries Show Up In Google Search Console - A couple of weeks ago, Ahrefs released a report showing that on average about 50% of queries in Search Console are hidden, i.e. classified as anonymized. The Ahrefs study looked at 146,741 websites and about nine billion total clicks and it compared the total clicks by URL compared to the clicks by query reported in Google Search Console. It found that Google hid 46.08% of all query data, or as Google calls it, classified them as anonymized queries.

Now Google has updated their help document from saying "Very rare queries (called anonymized queries) are not shown in these results to protect the privacy of the user making the query" to saying "Some queries (called anonymized queries) are not shown in these results to protect the privacy of the user making the query."

Google also added a section about "other limits on queries" that says "due to internal limitations, Search Console stores top data rows and not all data rows. As a result, not all queries beyond anonymized queries will be shown. Instead, the focus is on showing you the most important ones for your entire property."

1. Google Proposes Splitting Ads Business To Prevent Antitrust Suit - Last year, Google’s advertising revenue was more than $209 billion. The US Justice Department has been investigating allegations that Google has abused its power as a digital advertising broker and auctioneer for some time. As recently as October 2020, it sued the company over claims it was illegally using its power to hamstring competitors.

Now according to the Wall Street Journal, Google has proposed separating parts of its ad-tech business to prevent an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department. Google proposes restructuring the company’s division that auctions and places web advertising into a separate company under Alphabet, Inc, the search engine’s parent company.

1. Google AdsBot Mobile Web Crawler Gets New ID - Google has updated the Google crawler documentation stating that user agent string for the AdsBot Mobile Web crawler has changed.

The new user agent string for Google AdsBot Mobile Web is:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 14_7_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/14.1.2 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1 (compatible; AdsBot-Google-Mobile; +http://www.google.com/mobile/adsbot.html)

The old user agent string for Google AdsBot Mobile Web was:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 9_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/601.1.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/9.0 Mobile/13B143 Safari/601.1 (compatible; AdsBot-Google-Mobile; +http://www.google.com/mobile/adsbot.html)

You need to update the user string if the user agent string is hard-coded anywhere on your site.

1. Now You Can Hide Your Address In Google Business Profile - There is now a toggle to "show business address to customers" in Google Business Profile. So if you are a small business and you use your home address, you can toggle that off to hide your address from showing in Google Maps or Google Search.

2. Hey Google! Is CMS A Ranking Factor? - It’s common to hear that WordPress is the best CMS for SEO, which may lead a person to believe they’re at a disadvantage if they choose anything else. However, John Mueller confirms there’s no difference from one CMS to another when it comes to ranking signals. Google isn’t concerned with what’s going on in the back end of a website. What matters is the final result shown to visitors.

Read his complete response below:

“As far as I know, our search systems don’t look for any particular content management system to treat it differently. For us, a CMS is just one way of creating webpages. Google systems don’t focus on how the page was created. Instead, they focus on the final result. Hand-created web pages can be just as good as those generated by WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or similar.

As far as I can tell, all mainstream CMS systems can create pages that work well in search. For the most part, SEO is not magic. It’s well documented, and there are many testing tools so all providers can include SEO elements if they choose to do so. There are slight differences across systems, just like all webpages are slightly different. For the average site owner, they either all work well for search out of the box, or can easily be tuned to do so with a few settings or plugins.”

1. Hey Google! Is It Bad to Link to HTTP Pages? - HTTP is the protocol for transferring data from a server to a browser. And HTTPS is a secure version that verifies and encrypts the communication between the server and browser. Furthermore, Google announced in 2014 that HTTPS is a ranking signal. And when someone asked John Muller if there will be any side effects from linking to an external insecure website, he said the following:

“And from our point of view, it’s perfectly fine. If these pages are on HTTP, then that’s what you would link to. That’s kind of what users would expect to find. There’s nothing against linking to sites like that. There is no kind of downside for your website to kind of like avoid linking to HTTP pages because they’re kind of old or crusty and not as cool as on HTTPS. I would not worry about that.”

1. Hey Google! Is It OK To Delete The Disavow File? - The disavow tool was introduced in 2012 by Google in response to the overwhelming demand of the SEO community, who wanted an easier way to deal with the thousands of sites suffering from the Penguin algorithm. The disavow tool provided SEOs an easy way to deal with links they couldn’t remove.

When asked if there are any risks, upside or downside to just deleting the disavow file, Google’s John Mueller stated it’s okay to stop disavowing random links and to delete the disavow list if it wasn’t done to deal with manipulative links, especially ones that caused a manual action penalty.

“So this is a good question, it comes up every now and then. And disavowing links is always kind of one of those tricky topics because it feels like Google is probably not telling you the full information. But from our point of view, it’s actually like, we do work really hard to avoid taking these kinds of links into account. And we do that because we know that the disavow links tool is somewhat a niche tool. …SEOs know about it, but the average person who runs a website has no idea about it. And all of those links that you mentioned there are kind of links that any websites gets over the years. And our systems understand that these are not things that you’re trying to do to kind of like game our algorithms.

…our systems understand that these are not things that you’re trying to do to kind of like game our algorithms.

So from that point of view, if you’re really sure that there’s nothing around like a manual action that you had to resolve with regards to these links, I would just delete the disavow file and move on with life and kind of leave all of that aside. One thing I would personally do is just download it and make a copy so that you have kind of a record of what you deleted. But otherwise, if you’re sure these are just kind of the normal crufty things from the Internet, I would just delete it and move on. There’s much more to spend your time on when it comes to websites than just disavowing these random things that happen to any website on the web.”

1. Google Adds 3 New Metrics To GA-4 - Google Analytics 4 is introducing three new metrics to the platform this week. The metrics will be available to view across explorations, segments, audience, reports, and the Google Analytics data API. The new metrics added are:

2. Bounce rate - Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that were not completed due to a user exiting the landing page. These sessions are the opposite of the engagement rate. The Bounce rate metric is available in the Explorations and Reporting Customization. In GA4, the Bounce rate is calculated differently than in Universal Analytics. You can learn how the new metric is calculated in the help doc.

3. UTM term and UTM ad content - These metrics are available in the Explorations, Reporting, and Audience Builder. Google has added both a user scope and a session scope dimension. For the UTM content parameter, you’ll be able to see the value assigned to first user manual ad content as well as session manual ad content. For the UTM term parameter, you’ll be able to view the first user manual term and session manual term.
4. Conversion rate - GA4 is now reporting on the conversion rate for any event. This includes both the user conversion as well as the session conversion rate.

You can review the release announcement from Google here.

1. Google Ads & GA-4 Integration Is Now Available In Ads Manager - Google announced that web data reporting will be supported within the Ad Manager publisher networks. Now when you link a Google Analytics 4 property to your Google ads account, data from that property is available to view in your Ad Manager reports.

To view the technical requirements for linking Google Analytics 4 to Ad Manager, you can read the help doc here.

1. 4 New Features In Google Ads Performance Max Campaigns - Last week Google announced two new features ( advanced location targeting controls and diagnostic insights) to Performance Max campaigns and this week Google added four new features to Performance Max campaign. They are:

2. Seasonality adjustments are intended to allow advertisers to adjust the bid strategy based on anticipated changes in conversion rates for events such as holiday sales. Because Smart Bidding already exists for predicted seasonal events, advertisers should only use the adjustments for changes that are otherwise atypical. The adjustments should be used for long weekend promos or sales that typically last between 1-7 days.

3. Data exclusions will tell Smart Bidding to ignore data from dates where you may have encountered issues with conversion tracking which may have impacted the accuracy of your data. An example of this would be website outages, bugs or tagging issues.
4. Explanations will make it easier for advertisers to identify performance fluctuations and diagnose issues. The feature will also provide recommendations to help improve performance. If you have a product feed, the explanations will analyze the product status as well as top moving products, groups and types. This will become available for PMax campaigns in the coming weeks.
5. Optimization Score allows advertisers to see where the campaign has room for improvement and finds recommendations to help you take action to try and drive better results.

You can understand more about Performance Max campaigns here.

1. Did You Know There Is An Asset Library In Google Ads? - The asset library works as a gallery for all of your assets that you’ll need to create an ad for your campaign. Initially, the asset library will support images, with more asset types to follow in the future.

The asset library is an account-level feature in Google Ads that allows you to access all your assets, which are required to create an ad, in one place. This feature lets you search and select assets in your account more efficiently while creating ads. Benefits of the asset library are:

• All assets in one place
• Easily find all your assets within the asset library by using their name, type, content, etc
• Organize, name, and sort all your assets according to your preference in folders and sub-folders
• Upload your assets for current or future campaigns with a single click

• Reuse your assets for as many ads as you want without uploading them every time

• Google Launches Ad Creative Studio (ACS) - The Ads Creative Studio is now available globally. In the ACS, advertisers or creators can create multiple versions of a single display or video ad. The ads can be customized for different audiences, locations, languages, or contexts. To make the changes, creators select the changes they want to make and provide the different versions of that particular element based on the rules you set.

The feature is now available for video and will soon be launched for display as well.

Google is now allowing advertisers to export images from the ACS asset library to the Google Ads asset library of any linked account. This means that when you’re assembling creatives for display or Performance Max campaigns, you’ll be able to easily find the images you want to use.

ACS will be an interesting feature for advertisers to test. If you’re running campaigns aimed at multiple audiences, the ACS seems like a helpful tool to quickly manage and make dynamic changes to video ads when you’re trying to reach multiple demographics, without creating additional campaigns or ad types. While we haven’t tried ACS ourselves, we’ll be interested to see how this works in comparison to just creating new ad sets

You can learn more about Ads Creative Studio here.

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1. TikTok Launches Free Marketing Education Series For SMBs - TikTok is launching a new initiative to help small businesses learn the key tips and tricks to maximizing their success on the platform.

Called ‘Follow Me’, the new, free education program will include a range of expert tips and insights to help refine and improve your TikTok marketing approach. The six-week, email-based series will provide an overview of key best practice notes, including how to set up a free Business Account, how to use TikTok’s Creative Center for content inspiration, and explainers on TikTok’s Ads Manager and other promotion features.

You can sign up for TikTok’s ‘Follow Me’ course here.

1. Pinterest Doubles Down On Shopping - This week Pinterest introduced three new merchant features to help retailers promote their stores.

2. Product Tagging on Pins - allows businesses to make their pins shoppable so that customers can click and buy directly from the app. In early experiments, Pinterest found that product Pins labeled in scenes had a 70% higher intent than isolated product photo Pins.

3. Video in Catalog - Video ads allow merchants to show additional angles of their products to further drive conversions. In early studies, compared to static images, video ad formats raised click-through-rate by 158 percent, decreased cost-per-click by 42 percent, and increased cost-per-acquisition by 58 percent.

4. Shop Tab on Business Profiles - In order to make it simple for customers to identify and view shoppable products, merchants will be able to prominently display a Shop button on their business profiles. About 30% of the first credited sales made by merchants in early tests came through the Shop tab.

5. Google Ads Relocated Diagnostic Insights To Overview Page - Google Ads has moved the diagnostic insights which was launched in April 2022, to the Insights and Overview page of the ad console.

Diagnostic insights help you identify common reasons why your campaign may not be serving or getting conversions. Google announced this saying the reason they added this was because "it can be difficult to identify and troubleshoot these issues in a timely fashion."

The diagnostic insights will indicate when a campaign's ads aren't running because, among other diagnostic checks, all ad groups are paused, an account has been suspended, or the Ad Strength is too low. In addition, they can automatically identify issues that range from ad policy, billing, budget, bids, and more.

1. Google Adds Feature To Exclude Locations In Performance Max Campaigns - “In campaign settings under “Location options,” advertisers will now find the ability to target based on physical “Presence” or “Presence or interest”. For Performance Max campaigns for online sales with a product feed, we’ll also be adding advanced location exclusions for “Presence” or “Presence or interest” similar to what is available in Smart Shopping campaigns today,” a Google representative tweeted.

Hopefully this feature will help removing all of the junk traffic we’re seeing when we are running Performance Max Campaigns.

1. Microsoft Launches Auto-Updates For Shopping Campaigns - Two new updates for Microsoft Shopping Campaigns to help you deliver better customer experience and increase your sales. They are:

2. Automatic item update - Microsoft Merchant Center will crawl advertisers’ websites, gathering price and availability data for the products offered. If a price change or availability issue is detected (e.g., if an item is out of stock), the product information will be updated in your ads. You can opt-out of auto-updates by navigating to the Automatic Updates tab under Settings in your Merchant Center account. Keep in mind that if your products are not up to date, your ads may be disapproved.

3. Automated coupons through Merchant Promotions - This is attractive for online stores looking to expand their reach and capture new customers. Because it will allow advertisers to promote products directly from the Microsoft Shopping Campaigns inventory with special offer tags. The tags will appear at the bottom of the product listing and will display a “special offer” link.

Microsoft will use crawled data gathered directly from the advertisers’ website to automatically create the Merchant Promotions. Microsoft says the automated coupons will only apply to store-wide promotions, not individual products.

However, you should be aware of automatic features and ensure that the correct information is being captured and relayed to potential buyers.

You can read the announcement from Microsoft here. For more detailed information, check out the Automatic item update help page and the Merchant Promotions help page.

1. Google Merchant Center Adds Auto-Tagging For All Free Listings Across All Of Google - You can now use auto-tagging to view conversions for all free listings and free local listings experiences on Google. Previously, auto-tagging was only available for listings in the Shopping tab.

What is auto-tagging and how does it work? When a searcher clicks on your free product listing and free local product listing in Google Search, then auto-tagging adds a parameter called “result id” to the URL.

For example, if someone clicks on your free listing for www.example.com, the final URL will look like www.example.com/?srsltid=123xyz. The result id is created at the time of an impression.

In the future, if the same user clicks the same free listing or free local listing again, the same result id will be used. That is then tracked through to your analytics tools for deeper analytical purposes, including tracking conversions and purchases.

P.S: Auto-tagging is not turned on by default and has to be enabled at the Merchant Center account by an admin.

1. Google Updates Requirements For Course Structured Data - Google revised the requirements for appearing in the Course rich results using structured data. To be qualified for the Course Rich result, you must add three courses. Previously, this requirement was not explicitly specified. If the requirements are not met, you might not be eligible for the rich result.

Students may find the courses they're looking for in the rich results produced about by educational course search queries as long as you adhere to the Google Search Central structured data guidelines and requirements for the Course structured data, and everyone wins.

1. Google Search Console Insights Now Supports Google Analytics 4 - Search Console Insights gives you a comprehensive insight of how people find your content online by combining data from Search Console and Google Analytics. It helps you answer these types of questions:

2. What are your best performing pieces of content?

3. How are your new pieces of content performing?
4. How do people discover your content across the web?
5. What people search for on Google before they visit your content?
6. Which article refers users to your website and content?

However, up until now, Search Console did not support GA-4. This was a challenge since Google will stop supporting GA-3 next year.

1. Google Launches A Landing Page With A Timeline Of Major Ranking Updates - Want to stay on top of all the major Ranking updates that Google considers important for Website owners? Well now you can through the recent major algorithm page at https://developers.google.com/search/updates/ranking.

The new page contains updates that Google has confirmed since January 2020, listed in chronological order.

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1. Snapchat Launches ‘Snapchat+’ Subscription Program - Snapchat has officially launched its new Snapchat+ subscription service which will initially be made available to users in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

“Today we’re launching Snapchat+, a collection of exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features available in Snapchat for $3.99/month. This subscription will allow us to deliver new Snapchat features to some of the most passionate members of our community and allow us to provide prioritized support.”

The new subscription program will include:

• Access to exclusive Snapchat icons
• A new profile badge to show that you’re a Snapchat+ user
• New data insights, including the capacity to see your friends’ location history (over the last 24 hours) and info on who’s rewatched your Story
• The capacity to pin a user in the app as ‘your #1 best friend’

If SnapChat can convert 1% of their active user base then they stand to make about $13.2 million in recurring monthly revenue. This is a similar program to Twitter’s Twitter Blue which is not faring well. Don’t take our word for it, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has also said that Twitter has not hit ‘intermediate milestones that enable confidence’ with its new revenue and growth projects, like Twitter Blue.

1. Twitter Launches #BrandedLikes To Select Advertisers - After previewing the #BrandedLikes features at the Cannes Lions event, Twitter has now launched it officially to businesses with managed advertisers in US, UK, Saudi Arabia and Japan.

BrandedLikes lets advertisers customize Twitter’s Like button animation for 24 hours. Branded Likes will appear on any organic or promoted Tweets that contain the advertiser selected hashtags after an individual has liked that Tweet.

Branded Likes are being built into Twitter’s Timeline Takeover ad offering, which ensures a brand’s ad is the first ad to appear when someone opens Twitter for the first time that day. Twitter hasn’t provided a specific price range for Timeline Takeover ads, but Promoted Trends, which are somewhat similar, cost around $200k per day. This is not ideal for promoting your upcoming sales promotion unless you are a brand such as Nordstrom announcing and drawing attention to your annual sales event.

Click here, if you are interested to check out what #BrandedLikes in action.

1. Instagram Now Allows Third-Party Platforms To Access Reels API - Beginning June 28, 2022 Meta has allowed 3rd Party platform to access Instagram Reels API. This allows platforms such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social and etc to post reels on your behalf. I am excited because it can be much simpler to manage all of your social media posts and schedules in one location thanks to services like Hootsuite and Sprout Social that offer cross-platform publishing and analytics capabilities.

Announcement here.

1. Tips From Instagram To Create Engaging Reels - Instagram’s parent company Meta has published an article giving us tips on how to create engaging reels. Here are the tips:

2. Nail the hook: Keep brand objectives in mind—if brand lift is your aim, highlight your brand in the first few seconds of your Reels. If the intent is conversions, showcase your product or service in action. Also, keep your storytelling short and sweet. Short-form videos mean short time limits and even shorter attention spans! Use your content wisely.

3. Get creative with transitions: Experiment with transitions in your Reels to entertain your viewers and show off your brand’s personality. You can also use creative features like augmented reality effects, custom audio and timers to keep things fresh.
4. Match the rhythm: Sync your music. Don’t underestimate the power of using sound to grab and retain the audience’s attention. Reels is already the biggest engagement growth driver on Instagram, and over 80% of Reels are viewed with sound on. Also, try to use auto-captions.
5. Keep it on trend: Stay in touch with the latest, and use the newest effects on Reels. Take part in cultural moments, trending topics and popular challenges that are relevant to your brand. Create and encourage your audience to remix your Reels, or spark a conversation with them in the comments section. Try adding relevant hashtags to optimize exposure for your content.
6. Explore collaborations: Partner with creators to tell your brand story in new and fresh ways. Collaborating with influencer voices drives more engagement, authenticity and awareness.

7. Be authentic: Reels is a place where authenticity thrives, so create Reels that are true to you and that reflect your brand values.

8. TikTok Releases A New ‘Attribution Manager’ - Attribution is a big thing in the digital marketing world. TikTok has released its new Attribution Manager tool, which enables advertisers to set custom attribution windows within TikTok campaigns.

“For web and app campaigns, TikTok Attribution Manager enables marketers to select a specific time period to measure success: the click-through attribution (CTA) window can range from one day to 28 days, while view-through attribution (VTA) window options range from off to up to seven days.”

TikTok attribution, by default, will show you 7-day click and 1-day view data, based on TikTok Pixel and/or Events API response. This will give you more accurate info on how people respond to your ads in the app – though there will be some limitations based on in-app tracking, with Apple’s ATT update giving users the capacity to opt-out of in-app tracking tools, which could impact insight.

1. YouTube Disables Option To Hide Subscriber Counts - Currently, YouTube channels can opt to hide their subscriber numbers, which some users might prefer if they think it might scare off visitors or diminish their reputation.

However, YouTube has discovered that channels impersonating platform stars frequently use this function as well. So now these scammers will have fewer options to hide their identity. Per YouTube:

“While we’re aware that some creators find this feature valuable, as YouTube grows, we found it is often used to impersonate channels. Bad actors often lure people to their channel page by impersonating other creators in comments. And now, channels will no longer be able to hide their subscriber pens on YouTube.”

On the other hand, if you’ve been telling people that you have more subscribers than you do, maybe it’s time to shut down your YouTube account. Just claim that you were banned for your controversial opinions or something.

Finally, YouTube’s also implementing new limits on the amount of special characters that people can use within their Channel name.

“Using special characters in channel names is another way that bad actors impersonate established channels. So we’re reducing the character set that creators can choose from when updating their name moving forward.”

1. 8 SEO Tips For E-commerce Sites From Google - Alan Kent from Google published a video on SEO tips for e-commerce sites, with the following 8 tips:

2. Technical SEO Basic: Make sure you do the technical SEO basics like allowing Google to crawl your web site. Make sure your page titles including the brand name, color and type of product is important to have in your title. And make sure to add structured data to your product page. Also think about your out of stock products.

3. Content breath: Make sure to have content that is available based on different stages of the shopping journey. From gift ideas, reviews, categories and more. Ideas is more general but categories pages are more specific. Having reviews and detailed content about a product or product category can help some shoppers during the earlier stages. He goes through some ways to do this, including looking at competitors and making your own unique content compared to your competitors.
4. Markup your product variant pages: This was covered last week in Epsiode#114. In short, each product variant should have a unique URL, such as query parameters and then select one variant should be the canonical.
5. Deal or sale URLs should be preserved: Reuse the same URL for your sales pages, if you can. So every year you might want to use the same Mother's Day URL every year, don't make a new one for year.
6. Performance: Users care a lot about how fas the page is and Google uses Core Web Vitals for rankings (limited). Alan said page speed might be the tie breaker if you are using the same text as your competitors.
7. Be Patient: Alan said SEO is a long game and some ranking signals may take many months to take affect and sometimes you might not see results. So keep working on it and be patient. Until then, look for ways to diversify your traffic through other marketing channels.
8. Ask Others For Help: If you are not getting the results you want after all of these tips, then seek expert SEO advice and beware of scams and taking steps against Google's guidelines.

9. Users: It is all about the users Google has said for years. So think about the users first, collect data, and think about making changes to help your users and not specifically about Google Search.

10. Google: Near Duplicate URLs Can Lead To Wrong URL Ranking- If you have near identical content and URL’s (say if you have a .com and a .ca domain with the same content) then the Google AI can get confuse and choose to rank one site over another. Here is what he wrote:

“If you wanted to change the indexing / canonicalization here, you'd have to make sure that the pages are significantly different, not just a bit different. Given that the search results would essentially be the same, I don't know if that's really worthwhile for you -- at least it probably wouldn't be an urgent problem to solve”

1. Google: Rich Results Not Allowed On Prohibited, Regulated Or Harmful Product- Effectively immediately, Google has updated its rich results content guidelines disallowing rich results for products that are widely prohibited or regulated, or that can facilitate serious harm to self or others. These include, but are not limited to, weapons, recreational drugs, tobacco & vaping products and gambling-related products.

Google said this policy applies to all forms of rich result markup, including star ratings, prices, or availability information and more. This can impact products with rich result structured data markup that are widely prohibited or regulated, or that can facilitate serious harm to self or others. “This could include goods like fireworks, recreational drugs, and other products that can pose acute threats of physical harm,” a Google spokesperson clarified.

If you sell any of these types of products, you will probably want to remove the structured data markup from those pages. If you do not remove the markup, either way, Google will not show rich results for these product categories.

1. Warby Parker vs 1-800 Contact Lawsuit Over Branded Keywords- The complaint from 1-800 Contacts was that Warby Parker "confused" potential consumers by utilizing 1-800 Contacts' trademarked terms to steer searchers to the Warby Parker online store.

And a federal judge has dismissed the case that 1-800 Contacts had brought against Warby Parker, an online merchant.

Kevin Castel, senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled against 1-800 Contacts, saying that customers are unlikely to think that they’re buying from 1-800 Contacts when they click on a Warby Parker ad.

Castel also said the companies’ trademarks were too dissimilar to confuse contact-lens buyers, who are likely to pay close attention to what they are purchasing and noted that Warby Parker’s name is clearly displayed in the search results and on its website.

Castel added that prospective customers will take the time to figure out that the search results link to Warby Parker’s website, and will therefore discern that they are buying from contacts from Warby Parker’s website.

This is the latest reminder that, in general, using a competitor’s trademarks in PPC ads is not trademark infringement from a legal standpoint. You can visit the Google trademark help document if you find yourself facing a similar issue.

You can read more about the ruling from Reuters here.

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1. Shopify Announces Audience During Their Semi-Annual Showcase - Shopify Editions is Shopify's new semi-annual showcase demonstrating the speed and breadth of innovation at Shopify to bring merchants into the future. Per Shopify, they are powering a radically different model of commerce: Connect to Consumer (C2C). To help merchants embrace C2C, they unveiled an entirely new B2B offering, launching Tokengated Commerce, partnered with Google to help consumers shop local, brought commerce to Twitter, launched Tap to Pay on iPhone—just to name a few.

Shopify Audiences, a new marketing tool helps Shopify Plus merchants find new customers. Using Shopify’s unique view on purchase intent and their merchant network helps identify buyers who are looking for your products. Then create and export high-interest audiences to ad platforms like Facebook.

Other notable things announced at Shopify Editions are:

a.) B2B on Shopify makes it seamless for Shopify Plus merchants to sell to other businesses on the same platform that they use for D2C. Say goodbye to spreadsheets, one-off invoices, and manual data entry. Not to mention, they’ve also partnering with ERP providers such as NetSuite, Brightpearl, and Acumatica to automatically integrate merchants’ essential data with their B2B solution.

b.) With Shopify’s offline GMV growing nearly 80% year over year in Q1 2022, they figured out that in-person shopping is coming back in a big way—and they want a piece of the pie. That’s why they’re one of the first commerce platforms to launch Tap to Pay on iPhone in the U.S. in partnership with Stripe. Currently in early access with select Shopify point-of-sale merchants, Tap to Pay on iPhone will be fully available in the U.S. in the coming months.

With Tap to Pay on iPhone, they’re lowering the barrier to entry for Shopify merchants to expand into offline retail for the first time without needing extra hardware or investment. Per Shopify, “Think farmers markets, new pop-up experiences, test shops for established merchants to expand to new physical locations. Enabling Tap to Pay on iPhone will broaden the possibilities in offline commerce, giving merchants who haven’t yet tried in-person selling an easy way to connect with customers IRL.”

c.) Local Inventory on Google . Turning browsers into local buyers. We know that nearly all U.S. consumers have searched for local businesses online, with more than a third searching multiple times every week. Shopify is about to improve those searches in a big way with local inventory sync on Google, available through Shopify’s Google channel. Now, Shopify merchants can automatically let nearby customers know when a product is available in store. Shopping local has never been more convenient.

Local inventory sync on Google is globally available via Shopify’s Google channel to merchants using Shopify’s point-of-sale app.

You can find all the details here.

1. Twitter Launches New Shopify Integration - Social commerce continues to be a growing opportunity for merchants. Orders placed with Shopify merchants through partner integrations quadrupled YoY in the first quarter of 2022.

Sometimes, a brand’s biggest audience is the one they haven’t tapped. Twitter’s hundreds of millions of users represent potential connections for independent merchants, and that’s why Shopify is the first commerce platform to partner with Twitter as it continues to scale its Twitter Shopping ecosystem. In fact, shopping-related Tweets saw 40-billion impressions over the last year alone.

Using Shopify’s new Twitter sales channel, merchants can reach consumers directly from their Twitter profiles, creating a frictionless path to purchase in today’s digital townsquare. This will enable Shopify merchants to list their products on their Twitter Professional Profiles, with each item, when tapped, then redirecting users to the Shopify product page to make a purchase.

Twitter’s shopping features include Twitter Shops and Shop Spotlight, and, starting today, both are available for free to all Shopify U.S. merchants selling to U.S. consumers.

“The Twitter sales channel makes it quicker and easier to meet our customers wherever they are,” said Jessica Stevens, Senior Social Media Manager at Trixie Cosmetics. “The automatic syncing is going to help us save so much time, and the sales channel allows me to easily connect the two platforms that we already tap into to sell products and engage with customers.”

1. Twitter Releases Twitter Write, Notes Feature - Finally available on some user profiles, Twitter's new "Notes" feature offers a quick, seamless method to include lengthy text pieces in your tweets. The Notes UI is quite simple and has all the standard features of a blog post composer, such as the ability to add header pictures, insert photos and links within the text, and a quick way to add tweets.

Once posted, Notes will display as a Twitter card that directs users to the complete article. You have a lot more area for your longer-form content on the app because Note titles are only allowed to be 100 characters long and the body of a Note can be up to 2,500 words.

Additionally, unlike tweets, notes can be edited after they are published, and a "Edited" label will be appended at the top of the note.

1. LinkedIn Updates Event Engagement Options & Simplifies ‘Repost’ Process - In order to promote on-topic conversation and interaction within LinkedIn Events, LinkedIn is now introducing new comment engagement options. You may now interact with participants before, during, and after the session by using the Comments tab of a LinkedIn event. You can also reply to particular comments in-stream. With more than 24,000 events being added to the app each week as of this writing, the option is intended to take advantage of LinkedIn Events engagement. Furthermore, LinkedIn recently added LinkedIn Events to its simplified "Boost" ad option, giving users another method to promote their LinkedIn event listings.

p.s. Users are currently starting to see the enhanced Comments choices in-stream as the option is being rolled out.

Additionally, LinkedIn is making it simpler to share updates on LinkedIn by adding a new, streamlined "Repost" option to the "Share" menu. When you tap the "Share" prompt, a new "Repost" option will soon be available, allowing you to share without leaving a comment (currently your only option). By removing the requirement for users to contribute their own commentary to every re-share, this will make it simpler to share posts.

1. Will Google Crawl URLs In Structured Data? - Does Google crawl alternative kinds of links like those found in structured data? Google’s John Mueller answered:

“So for the most part, when we look at HTML pages, if we see something that looks like a link, we might go off and kind of like try that URL out as well. That’s something where if we find a URL in JavaScript, we can try to pick that up and try to use it. If we find a link in kind of a text file on a site, we can try to crawl that and use it.”

Do not blindly assume that just because a link is in structured data means it will or will not be indexed.

He recommends that if you want Google to go off and crawl that URL, make sure that there’s a natural HTML link to that URL, with a clear anchor text as well, that you give some information about the destination page. If you don’t want Google to crawl that specific URL, then maybe block it with robots.txt or on that page use a rel=canonical pointing to your preferred version, anything like that.

1. Google Crawls And Indexes The First 15MB - The Googlebot help page has been updated to reflect the fact that Googlebot will only crawl the first 15MB of a page before stopping. Therefore, if you want to make sure that Google ranks your website appropriately, make sure that the first 15MB of the page can be crawled and indexed by Googlebot.

Generally speaking, you should aim to keep your pages as lightweight as possible for both users and search engine crawlers. However, Google is being very upfront about how much of your website it will use here.

Using the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console to examine what portions of the page Google renders and detects in the debugging tool is an excellent approach to test this.

1. Google: Images Can Impact Your Rankings - You might not be aware, but the images on your website might affect how well it ranks in Google Search results.

If the image dimensions on a web page are not specified, the page's content may move about while the image loads. This is interpreted by Google Search as a bad signal.

The solution is as easy as including the width and height attributes in the image's HTML code.

1. Google: Keywords In Domain Names Are Overrated - Keywords in domain names are overstated, according to John Mueller of Google. He repeated what he and other Google employees have said countless times over the years. He advised choosing something for the long term and for your business instead.

2. Google: It’s OK To Link Your WhatsApp Number - John Mueller from Google stated on Twitter that including a link to your WhatsApp number on your website is not a negative SEO strategy. Contrary to what some SEO toolkits claim, connecting to a WhatsApp, phone, or fax number is acceptable, and Google does not evaluate your site differently dependent on the type of number you link to.

3. Google: Do This For Product Variants Pages - When a product is offered in a variety of sizes or colors, ecommerce sites generally take URL structure into consideration. A product variant is any combination of a product's attributes. For product variants, Google supports a broad variety of URL configurations.

To help Google understand which variant is best to show in Search, choose one of the product variant URLs as the canonical URL for the product.

The following restrictions apply if you decide to display many product variants on a single page (i.e., if the variants all have the same URL).

• The page may be ineligible for Product rich results in search results because the experience is only supported for pages holding a single product (and product variants may be treated as distinct products by Google Search).
• Experiences such as Google Shopping cannot take a user to a specific variant of a product on your site, leading to the user needing to select the variant they wish to purchase on your site before checkout. This can lead to a poor user experience if the shopper already selected the variant they wanted in Google Shopping.

If you choose to use a distinct URL per variant, Google recommends using either:

• A path segment, such as /t-shirt/green

• A query parameter, such as /t-shirt?color=green

• Google Changes Requirements For Local Service Ads - Google has increased the requirements for local service ads, mandating five reviews. This is an increase over the prior requirement of simply requiring one review.

According to Ginny Marvin of Google's AdsLiaison, "The procedure for placing an ad with Local Services Ads has not changed; rather, the quantity of reviews has increased from 1 to 5. More customer testimonials increase credibility and increase the likelihood of connecting with prospective customers."

Industries that now need five reviews are:

• Real estate agents and brokers
• Lawyer for personal injuries
• HVAC Companies
• Home Cleaning Companies
• Tree care/services companies

• Roofing

• Updates From Google SEODay - John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, discussed improvements to the search engine's scoring system and the effect of page experience on rankings at an online session at SEODay 2022.

Google now bases desktop search results on a site's desktop experience and mobile search results on a site's mobile experience, among other modifications that were made public.

The search engine calculates experience scores using three main metrics: largest contentful paint (LCP), first input delay (FID), and cumulative layout shift (CLS).

"Interactivity to next page," often known as INP, is a new page experience statistic that Google has added. Other things that came out of SEODay are:

• Users can create custom reports and obtain a fresh perspective on the data by using analytics and Search Console data.
• Videos & Images Take On More Prominent Role In Search - “We see that people love videos and authentic images in search results, so we try to show them more,” Mueller said.
• Google now offers a WordPress plugin for creating Web stories - A collection of pages that often have videos.
• Authentic Product Reviews Factored Into Rankings - “People have high expectations of reviews they find online, so we’ve also worked specifically on updates to algorithms with regards to ranking these product reviews,” he said.

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1. TikTok To Show Who Viewed Your Post - In addition to the “Profile View”, TikTok is now working on a new feature that will allow users to see who viewed their posts. This is another set of data you can use to identify your most engaged followers.

The trade-off is that your followers will be able to see when you view their posts too. If you’re not comfortable with that, you can opt-out of post view history. But then you won’t be able to see view history for your content either. TikTok’s post view history isn’t like Instagram and Facebook stories, where it’s turned on for everyone by default.

1. Making Your Pages Appear As A Sitelink In Search Results - Sitelinks are the additional results that are sometimes shown below a Google search result, where it’s usually just a one-line link to a different part of the website.

And there is no meta tag or structured data that you can use to kind of like enforce a sitelink to be shown.

It’s for Google Algorithm to figure out what is actually kind of related or relevant for users when they’re looking at this one web page as well.

To improve your odds, Mueller recommends to have a good website structure, to have clear internal links so that it’s easy for Google to recognize which pages are related to those pages, and to have clear titles that they can use and kind of show as a sitelink.

This is also covered in the Google’s Search Central page.
“We only show sitelinks for results when we think they’ll be useful to the user. If the structure of your site doesn’t allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or we don’t think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user’s query, we won’t show them.

• Make sure that the text you use as your page titles and in your headings is informative, relevant, and compact.
• Create a logical site structure that is easy for users to navigate, and make sure you link to your important pages from other relevant pages.
• Ensure that your internal links’ anchor text is concise and relevant to the page they’re pointing to.

• Avoid repetitions in your content.”

• ‘Warning’ Labels In Google Search Console Going Away - There seems to be a lot of confusions around the ‘warning‘ label for URLs and items in Google Search Console. So In an effort to help people focus more on critical issues, Google will now label top-level items as either valid or invalid.

‘Valid’ refers pages or items without critical issues, while ‘invalid’ to pages or items with critical issues. You’ll also see ‘valid’ and ‘invalid’ labels when looking at reports rendered by Google’s URL inspection tool.

Individual issues are still classified as error, warning, or good, which is communicated through use of color and icon rather than a text label. The following reports are affected by this update:

• Core Web Vitals: Poor/Need improvement/Good categories are retained, while pages are grouped into good and not-good tables.
• Mobile Usability: Categories are labeled as either ‘Not usable’ and ‘Usable.’
• AMP report: Warnings are replaced with ‘valid’ and ‘invalid’ labels.
• Rich result reports: New labels will apply to Events, Fact checks, Logos, and other types of report.

• URL Inspection: The top level verdict for a URL will be either:

  • URL is on Google
  • URL is on Google, but has issues
  • URL is not on Google

• Microsoft Implementing Advertiser Identity Verification - Microsoft Advertising now requires advertiser identity verification, which the company claims improves customer experiences by ensuring that customers see ads from reputable sources. "Advertisers will be required to go through a verification process to confirm their legal identity as part of this program," Microsoft wrote.

Advertisers can complete this process with Microsoft Advertising by using government-issued, photograph-enabled personal identity or business-related documents issued by relevant regulatory authorities. Microsoft claims that the process is highly automated, and that it has been simplified so that "advertisers can finish it fast."

The current scope of the program has been restricted to advertisers belonging to specific verticals or unclear business models. The program is currently available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Poland, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

How does advertiser identity verification work?

• Microsoft Advertising will request advertiser identity verification for one or more of your accounts via email.
• Follow the instructions in the email request that you receive to complete identity verification. You may be required to verify your status as a business, an individual, or both.
• You must complete all identity verification related tasks within 30 days of receiving the email request or we will pause your account and your ads will not show. In that case, once you have successfully completed identity verification, we will enable your account and will start showing your ads again.
• Review and approval of your verification submission may take 3-5 business days to complete. To appeal a decision, please contact support. For more information on verification status, please see Identity verification status below.

You can learn more in this help document.

1. Google Ad Manager Integration With GA4 For Web In Open Beta - The Google Analytics 4 integration with Google Ad Manager for web data is now in open beta. Follow the steps to link your Ad Manager account to Google Analytics 4 properties. To view reporting on Google Analytics metrics and dimensions, you can use the Analytics report type.

2. YouTube Now Allows ‘Corrections’ After Publishing - Per YouTube,

“Up until now, if a creator wanted to correct an error in an existing upload or provide an update to information that was no longer accurate, short of editing and re-uploading the video, resulting in loss of engagement metrics and comments, the options were limited to adding a note in the description, responding to comments calling out the error, pinning a comment or doing nothing. With the launch of Corrections, creators will be able to call attention to corrections and clarifications in the descriptions of their already published videos.”

The new Corrections info card will show up at the top right of the playback window, at the timestamp of the first Correction in the clip. Clicking on the info card will expand the video description, where the creator will be able to provide a written correction or clarification based on the change.

But as YouTube explains, that could save creators from having to re-upload their clips – and it could be a particularly big help in adding important context to timely and evolving news-related videos shared in the app.

Creators could also use the option to direct viewers to newer clips on the same subject. So if you’ve posted a popular tutorial video on, say, a certain app or device, you could add a note that it’s since been updated via the Corrections marker, where you could also point users to your newer video on the topic.

To add a correction to your YouTube clips, you can write “Correction:” or “Corrections:” within the video description, followed by the timestamp (00:00), and an explanation of your update. You can read more about video Corrections here.

1. 1.5 Billion/Month YouTube Users Engage With YouTube Shorts Content - “YouTube Shorts are now being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month.” That is a huge amount, especially when you also consider that YouTube’s total monthly ‘logged in’ audience is 2 billion total users. That means that around 75% of YouTube users are engaging with Shorts.

2. Additional Reels Remix Options In IG - Remix for Photos enables users to create Reels based on your feed post content, which they can then download themselves, within their own clips. Which means that people can re-use your content however they like – but you can switch off the option in your settings if you’d prefer that not to happen.

Remixing your existing videos into shorter clips - Meta is notifying Creator Studio users of its new process to trim your existing videos into Reels clips. The process guides you through the editing process to create Reels and Stories clips, by using the best parts of your existing video uploads.

1. New Promotional Options From Pinterest - Pinterest is introducing two new ad options to enable marketers get into its Stories-like Idea Pins, as well as a new 'Paid Partnership' tagging procedure that will provide creators another way to profit from their Pin efforts.

The 'Idea Ads' feature, which are full-screen, multi-page presentations with unique links, similar to Idea Pins. Pinterest's interest targeting technologies will be used to increase response for Idea Ads, which will show in user feeds. It's basically an Idea Pin that you can boost with paid marketing to get your content in front of even more app users.

Meanwhile, Idea ads with paid collaborations allow marketers to promote user-created Idea Pin content. This feature enables businesses to increase the reach of collaborative Pin projects, putting your promotions in front of the creators', your, and those you pay to reach audiences.

Paid partnership Idea Ads feature a 'Promoted by' badge beneath the creator's name, as well as links to both the creator's and partner brand's app accounts. It's another method for the app to generate more lucrative creative collaborations, which helps brands create better content while also paying creators for their platform knowledge.

According to Pinterest, brand collaborations with creators result in a 38 percent increase in brand recognition and a 37 percent increase in Pin awareness. This method allows creators to tag a partner brand in their Idea Pin, alerting the brand to the possibility of collaborating. The creator and the company then work out the details of their collaboration, and brands can promote the content further if they want to.

This is another method for creators to generate money streams while also serving as a showcase for them, with free ad examples accessible for approval in the app.

It could be a smart way to streamline brand relationships while also offering up new avenues for promotion through collaborators you might not have considered before.

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1. Digital Avatars Now Available In TikTok - TikTok’s Avatars, now available via the ‘Effects’ panel in the camera view, enable users to create their own custom character depictions for use across the app. Per Tiktok:

“Choose from an array of hairstyles, accessories, piercings and makeup, to create a TikTok Avatar that reflects your personal look and style. After your Avatar is ready, you can start recording videos. As you gesture and move, your Avatar will mimic your motion.”

1. SEO Tool Yoast Is Adopting IndexNow Protocol - Yoast has reversed position and stated that they will now support Microsoft's open-source IndexNow search engine indexing protocol, which they previously dismissed.

IndexNow is an indexing technology that allows search engines to index websites very instantly. It's an open-source project that helps websites notify search engines when they have new or updated material.

1. Pin Posts on Your Instagram Profile - Instagram has now announced a new feature that allows you to pin posts to your profile, giving you another more way to customize your IG profile's appearance. A new 'Pin to Your Profile' option can be found in the three dots function menu at the upper right of any post.

2. New Way To Announce Your Product On Twitter - Twitter's Product Drops is a new feature that allows brands to alert their followers when a new product is released. This is the first time a social media network has offered such a tool. Followers will notice a "Remind me" button at the bottom of a merchant's tweet when the merchant announces a future launch. To be reminded of the launch date, they'll merely tap that button.

They'll get a notification in the app 15 minutes before and at the time of the drop on the product's debut day. They can shop for the product and (hopefully) get it in time by clicking the notification, which will take them to the merchant's website.

1. LinkedIn Audio Events Now Available To All Creators - LinkedIn is broadening audio-only live events, which were first offered in a beta test in January, to all users with Creator Mode enabled.

LinkedIn's response to the success of apps like Clubhouse and features like Twitter Spaces is audio-only live events.

They were always free to listen to for all LinkedIn members, and now anyone who activates Creator Mode can host their own audio events.

1. Promote Your LinkedIn Events Via Paid Ads - LinkedIn now allows you to amplify your event and increase attendance by boosting it for a fee. Last year, LinkedIn introduced the 'Boost' feature, which offered a simple and quick way to boost organic posts in the app. The function seeks to streamline ad spend, similar to Facebook's Boost approach, by allowing advertisers to leverage on early traction to expand their pitch.

2. LinkedIn Launches New ‘Business Manager’ - LinkedIn has announced a new Business Manager platform, which offers a centralized dashboard for managing 'people, accounts, and Pages,' as well as the marketing activities linked with them. People, Partners, Ad Accounts, and Company Pages, as well as Matched Audiences, are all managed separately on the new platform. It's effectively a stripped-down version of LinkedIn's paid Sales Navigator service, with the goal of getting more firms to sign up for a Sales Navigator membership by luring them with its basic brand management skills.

But even in its most basic version, there are some useful options here, including the ability to manage all of your LinkedIn activity from a one location. Here's where you can learn more about the new Business Manager platform and its features.

1. Google: No Added Benefit For Hosting Your Site On A CDN Unless.. - Is it true that placing a website behind a CDN boosts your ranking? When asked if hosting on a CDN, or content delivery network, has any SEO benefits, Google's John Mueller said the short answer is no; as long as your host is fast, you'll be OK; hosting on a CDN offers no further benefits.

If your crawl activity is slow and you have millions of pages, John Mueller says that speeding up your host or employing a CDN will enhance crawling and indexing, which has an indirect impact on your rankings and SEO.

But, according to John, "it doesn't matter in terms of SEO" if your server is already fast.

1. Google: Stop Chasing SEO Metrics - Over the years, we've seen Googlers downplay, invalidate, and even parody some SEO data. They've done it with both third-party and internal tools. But why do Google employees detest SEO metrics?

On Twitter, Google's John Mueller expressed his dissatisfaction with them, stating that many SEOs regard these SEO metrics as the ultimate SEO aim. Your SEO goals will be accomplished and you will be done whenever you reach a certain DA number, reduce your bad links by Y, or increase your keyword density by Z percent.

John said "The part I struggle with (with our tools too) is the desire to treat them as a goal of their own, or as a checklist." He said he has "nothing against third party metrics like these - and I'm sure they're made by smart, honest, & well-meaning folks." But he added "Simplifying them to a checklist ("fix toxic links") is misdirected work, selling them as such (which imo you don't do) is unfair towards everyone involved.

Instead focus on creating good quality content that answers your customers questions.

1. Google: Stop Putting Your Name In Image Alt Text - The majority of websites leave their image alt text blank. Some people want to save time by having their company name autofill any blank alt text. Google's John Mueller answered by saying that doing so "doesn't make sense" and would be a waste of effort.

By definition, alt text for an image is supposed to convey what the image is - it should describe the image for people who are unable to see it. Unless it is your corporate logo, simply typing in your company name does not describe the image.

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1. Instagram New Features - Amber Alert And More - Instagram rolled out new features this week. First, they are adding a new AMBER Alerts feature to distribute important information about missing people in the app, and share timely, critical updates to help address child abductions and related situations. Users can respond to an alert if they have any info, while they can also share the alert with friends to help spread the word. The new AMBER Alerts, which will be targeted by geographic area, will alert users that there’s an active search for a missing child nearby.

Next, IG added new ways for creators to apply creativity to their reels. Here is what you need to know:

• In addition to refreshing its collection of sound effects, Instagram Reels now allows users to directly upload their own audio files that is at least 5 seconds long.
• Users can post up to 90 second clips
• Interactive stickers that were previously only available for Instagram Stories are now also available for use in videos.
• Instagram now also allows creators to use another video as a template when creating their own Reels. By pre-loading audio and clip placeholders from source videos, users will only need to add and trim their own unique clips.

FYI: According to Instagram, public accounts with more than 10,000 followers who posted at least five reels over a 60-day period gained 250% more followers than those in the same category who did not post reels.

News Source: Instagram Blog

1. Apple Search Campaigns Moving Away From CPM Pricing Model - Apple Search ads help people discover your app when they search on the app store. Apple will phase out the current CPM, or cost per thousand model and will transition to cost-per-tap (CPT) model. CPT is Apple’s version of CPC, or cost per click. It is calculated by dividing your total spend by the number of taps your ad received. The current CPM model charges your account for every thousand impressions your ads receive – regardless of whether users click or tap. Similar to typical manual pay-per-click ads:

2. You choose a maximum amount you're willing to spend for each click or tap on your ad.

3. The amount you'll be charged is determined by how much your closest competitor is willing to pay for a tap on their ad.

4. Google: You Don't Have To Resubmit Your Page For Indexing Each Time You Update It - The question posted on Reddit was, "Do I need to reindex my article in the google search console if I update it?"

Google’s John Mueller responded saying "No, you don't. Google refreshes the index of the pages it knows over time automatically, you don't need to do anything to make that happen. If it's urgent, you can submit it for reindexing, but that's extremely rare across the web."

Of course, if you want to, you can, using the URL inspection tool and request indexing feature - but you do not have to.

1. Google Updates Title Algorithm For Multi-language Sites - For multi-lingual or transliterated titles, or where the title element is written in a different language or script than the content, Google has added an additional "algorithmic improvement" for how it selects titles for the search result snippets. This algorithm change is "based on the general idea that the title of a document should be written in the same language or script as its core contents," according to Google. More details and example on this in the podcast.

2. Reminder: Google Ending Expanded Text Ads This Month - A quick reminder that starting June 30, Google will no longer allow creation and editing of expanded text ads. Google announced this change in August 2021. After this deadline, users will only be able to create or edit responsive search ads in standard search campaigns.

3. Google Updating The Condition Attribute For Shopping Ads - Google will make a change to the condition attribute for shopping ads on June 26. If you're a store, having the wrong attribution set could result in your products being rejected. The condition property informs potential buyers about the state of the item you're selling. There are three condition attributes available at the moment now: new, refurbished, and used. All shopping accounts will be automatically opted in to receive condition updates. This important attribute, which is utilized to refine Google's search results, will leverage the information from your landing page to assist keep your data (products) more accurate and current.

4. Google Search Ads Releases Automation & Keyword Matching Guide - Google's Ginny Marvin has shared two new resources and guidelines related to Google Ads. The first is a guide to Search Ads Automation, while the second is a guide to Google Ads keyword matching systems.

The Search Ads Automation guide was created "to help provide a fuller picture and more transparency around how search ads automation works and how to steer it," Ginny wrote. This guide was created by combining the Google Ads Help center explainers and best practices on Smart Bidding, Broad Match, and RSAs.

Google has also published a new keyword matching guide to assist in the understanding of the company's keyword matching systems. It dives deeper (with new details) into how keyword matching works, what this means for account structure, and more, according to Ginny. She explained that they did this because keyword matching has changed dramatically over time. Google has totally retooled broad match and reimagined how it works when combined with Smart Bidding thanks to developments in automation.

Links to the two guides: Search Ads Automation and keyword matching guide.

1. “Under Review” Google Ads Ineligible To Run & Must Wait - Google's Advertising policy has been updated to specify that keywords will not be able to trigger ads until they've been approved. This is immediately effective and will be fully ramped up and implemented within two months.

Link to the announcement here.

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1. Post To TikTok From Your Favorite Social Media Management Tools - TikTok's Marketing Partners Program has expanded to include a new set of social media management tools that will allow you to organize, schedule, and, yes, publish content to TikTok from your preferred platform. Per TikTok:

“Today, we are excited to introduce the TikTok Marketing Partners Program’s inaugural group of badged partners in the Content Marketing specialty. These eight industry leaders - Brandwatch, Dash Hudson, Emplifi, Hootsuite, Khoros, Later, Sprinklr, and Sprout Social - have built innovative solutions that make it easier for brands to publish, manage, and track their content on TikTok, all within the content management tools that brands already use and love. We are excited to connect brands with these trusted partners who can help them lean into and level up their TikTok-first content strategies.”

This will make planning and posting TikTok updates much easier, as well as streamlining the repurposing process so you can re-share your video assets across platforms.

1. TikTok Introduces Livestream Subscription Service - You can now subscribe to your favorite LIVE TikTok creators with a monthly membership to LIVE Subscription.

Currently, LIVE Subscription is only available to invited TikTok creators, and it will be available to everyone in the following months. This functionality contributes to TikTok's efforts to give creators more ways to earn money on the platform.

The current subscriber benefits are fairly similar to those found on Twitch and YouTube. Subscribers will receive badges that will be displayed next to their names, as well as personalized emotes to use in chat and access to a subscriber-only chat.

Source: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/live-subscription-invite-only

1. Ads In YouTube Shorts - With Shorts now driving more than 30 billion daily views, Google will be a fool not to monetize it without Ads. Now Google revealed at its Marketing Live event this week that it will begin to gradually roll out ads in YouTube Shorts around the world. The company has been experimenting with ads in YouTube Shorts since last year.

Video action marketing and app campaigns will automatically scale to YouTube Shorts starting this week. Advertisers will be able to connect their product feed to their video campaigns later this year, making their video advertising on YouTube Shorts more shoppable.

FYI: TikTok already has shoppable video ads, allowing users to view things without having to switch to a browser.

Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/resilience-results-reinvention-google-marketing-live/

1. Google Marketing Live ‘22 Event Announcements - Google's Discover feeds are getting additional additional video options.

“Discover is where people scroll through their favorite personalized content for ideas and inspiration. We’re exploring ways to help you bring short video assets to Google’s feeds so you can offer more compelling and engaging ad experiences.”

Although Discover is a less-used personalization feature within the Google app, the new video ad possibilities may assist to engage with users who are interested in specific themes and trends.

A/B testing, support for store sales targets to optimize for in-store sales, new insights and explanations, including attribution, audience and auction data, and optimization score and suggestions, are all part of Google's Performance Max updates. Performance Max campaigns enable advertisers to effectively extend their Search ad efforts, by enabling Google’s system to showcase your promotions across more surfaces.

In order to increase contextual understanding and targeting, Google is now adding fresh search data to its ad insights page.

“Based on the billions of searches we see every day and the millions of signals we analyze for every ad auction, we’re introducing three new reports that will roll out worldwide over the coming months.”

The three new reports are:

1. Attribution insights - show how your ads work together across Google surfaces — like Search, Display and YouTube — to drive conversions.
2. Budget insights - find new opportunities for budget optimization and show how your spend is pacing against your budget goals.
3. Audience insights - for first-party data show how your customer segments, like those created with Customer Match, are driving campaign performance.

Google is also introducing automatically generated assets for responsive search advertising, which will generate assets for your campaigns based on material from your landing pages and existing ads.

“The system will then display the best-performing combination of automatically created assets, and the assets you provide, to make your ads more relevant.”

Check out the sessions from Google Marketing Live here.

1. How Does LinkedIn Feed Algorithm Work? - LinkedIn is facing the same issues as other platforms: re-posts from other platforms, spam, vaguely topical polls, and various other low-interest posting actions, designed specifically to generate shallow engagement. So, LinkedIn’s VP of Engineering Sabry Tozin shared what types of content LinkedIn seeks to amplify in-stream:

a.) In “What kind of conversations are welcomed on LinkedIn?” Tozin emphasized the importance of constructive and respectful conversations. Conversations that people care about and talk about.
b.) In “What does it mean to be professional when it comes to content on LinkedIn? Tozin, share advice on what it means to be "professional" on LinkedIn. Be authentic and talk about what’s important to you.

Things you ought to know about:

• LinkedIn considers a user's 'dwell time' when ranking content, which is the amount of time someone spend looking at an update or link as a measure of relative interest.
• LinkedIn posts containing double-spaced text, which are intended to entice clicks by requiring the user to tap on the post to see the entire message, are now penalized with lower reach.
• Posts that ask or encourage users to interact with them through likes or reactions will have a lower reach.
• LinkedIn is now actively limiting the number of polls that viewers see in-stream.

So, if you want to get the most out of your LinkedIn content, stay away from these elements and concentrate on writing useful, engaging pieces that are relevant to your target audience.

Source: https://blog.linkedin.com/2022/may/23/mythbusting-the-feed-helping-our-members

1. Google Ads Prohibiting Skin Lightening Products - Starting in June 2022, Google Ads will ban any skin whitening product Ads that implies one skin tone is superior to another.

Google has already published this new policy, which can be seen here "In June, Google will update the Dangerous and Derogatory policy under the Inappropriate Content section to enforce against the promotion of skin lightening products that imply the superiority of one skin tone over another. These products will be prohibited under enforcement guidance."

Advertisers who promote such products are being warned by Google to delete their advertising before June 30, 2022, or Google will do so for them.

Through this policy update, Google is telling the world they “value diversity and respect for others, and we strive to avoid offending users, so we don’t allow ads or destinations that display shocking content or promote hatred, intolerance, discrimination, or violence”

1. Google Ads Display Campaign Changes - Google announced that, to simplify campaign creation and management, Smart Display campaign features are now available within all Display campaigns. What do you need to do? Nothing. Any Smart Display campaigns in your account (on Aug 1, 22) will automatically migrate (keeping your settings intact.) without any action needed on your end. Per Google, the migration will not cause any fluctuations with your campaign’s performance and Optimized targeting is now set as the default targeting method when you create new Display campaigns.

Display campaigns will be the only Display campaign type. Your migrated Smart Display campaigns will become Display campaigns.

To replicate Smart Display campaigns you can use the recommended defaults for a new campaign. This will include using the Smart Bidding strategy that works best for your needs, using optimized targeting, and using responsive display ads.

FYI: Optimized targeting looks beyond manually-selected audience segments in your campaign to find audience segments that you may have missed to improve the campaign’s performance. Optimized targeting works best for advertisers in any of the following situations:

• You want your campaign to serve to audience segments most likely to convert.
• You want to acquire new customers beyond your existing segments and still meet your goals.
• You want to identify new people who perform well for your campaign.

• You want to increase conversions without increasing bids or the cost per customer.

• Google Announces May 2022 Broad Core (SEO) Update - Google announced "Several times per year, we make substantial improvements to our overall ranking processes, which we refer to as core updates. Core updates are designed to increase the overall relevancy of our search results and make them more helpful and useful for everyone. Today, we're releasing our May 2022 core update. It will take about 1-2 weeks to fully roll out."

Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:

• Name: Google May 2022 Broad Core Update
• Launched: May 25, 2022 at around 11:30pm ET
• Rollout: It will take about one to two weeks to roll out
• Targets: It looks at all types of content
• Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards great web pages
• Global: This is a global update impacting all regions, in all languages.
• Impact: Google did not share what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update.
• Discover: Core updates impact Google Discover and other features, also feature snippets and more.
• Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's advice below.
• Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to this algorithm but may not communicate those updates in the future. Maybe this is what we saw the past couple of weeks or all those unconfirmed Google updates.

If you are impacted by this update, check out the Google core update advice story for more.

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1. Meta Announces ‘Recurring Notifications’ for Business Messaging - Meta introduced 'Recurring Notifications' on its Messenger Platform this week at its first-ever 'Conversations' messaging conference, allowing businesses to send 'proactive, automated messages to users who have opted in to receive them.'

Businesses will be able to send sales notifications, updates, newsletters, and pretty much anything else they want, with frequency options ranging from daily to monthly, allowing them to reach customers at any point in their journey.
“Recurring Notifications is a new, optional premium feature that we intend to charge businesses for in the future. It is currently available to all businesses using Messenger Platform as part of a free trial period. We currently charge businesses to send messages from the WhatsApp Business API and we’re listening to customer feedback to guide decisions on our pricing model.”

After failing to find a viable way to commercialize its messaging services, Meta appears to have landed on charging businesses to use its messaging capabilities – but it is unclear when this will begin and how much it will cost.

1. Displaying eBay Listing in Snapchat Snaps - Snapchat has launched a new partnership with eBay, allowing users to share eBay listings directly from their Snaps. You can now share an item you're seeing in the eBay app to your Snaps and Snap Stories, with the listing appearing as a sticker that you may overlay on your post. Per Snapchat:
   “More than 142M buyers shop on eBay globally to find everything from the latest sneaker drops to rare, vintage handbags, and now, Snapchatters have a seamless way to share what they’ve been eyeing, or even what they are selling, right where conversations with real friends are already happening.”

With eBay sellers able to efficiently market their current listings to their Snap contacts, the latter could be more useful. This is similar to free advertising, except it is limited to your contacts alone.

1. TikTok Launches New ‘Branded Mission’ Creator Monetization - TikTok is trying to make it easier for creators to make money from their clips by launching a new program called 'Branded Mission,' which will allow creators to participate in what are essentially branded content challenges, with the brand then choosing from the submitted clips for promotional campaigns. Per TikTok:
   “To make it easier for brands to tap into the creative power of TikTok communities and co-create authentic branded content that resonates with users, we’re launching Branded Mission. Branded Mission is an industry-first ad solution that enables advertisers to crowdsource authentic content from creators on TikTok, turn top-performing videos into ads, and improve brand affinity with media impressions.”

Brands will be able to set challenges, which creators with more than 1,000 followers will be allowed to join. The chosen makers are then paid in cash, albeit the sums won't vary dependent on individual video performance at this point.

Instead, each Mission will list possible revenues dependent on the brand's willingness to pay.

1. LinkedIn Shares What’s Not Allowed in the App - LinkedIn has updated its Professional Community Policies, which regulate what is and is not allowed in your various LinkedIn discussions. Per LinkedIn:
   “As part of our updated policies, we’re publishing a set of expanded resources for members to better understand our policies and how we apply them, including detailed examples of content that isn’t allowed and how we handle account restrictions. While harassment, hate speech, and other abusive content has never been allowed on LinkedIn, we’ve added what types of comments and behaviors go against our Professional Community Policies.”

Keep the following in mind: -Harassment and abusive content -sexual innuendos and unwelcome advances'

LinkedIn's modified Professional Community Policies can be seen here.

1. 6 JavaScript Optimization Tips From Google - Developer Advocate Alan Kent outlines six strategies to optimize JavaScript to improve the performance of your website in a new video from Google.

2. Reduce the spread of JavaScript files

3. Limit the number of DNS lookups
4. Remove JavaScript that is inefficient.
5. Remove any unused JavaScript code
6. Make JavaScript Files Smaller

7. Set Appropriate JavaScript Code Cache Durations

8. Video Activity Tab Launched In YouTube - YouTube is launching a new video activity graph that will show users the most engaged times depending on when they revisit portions. Users can utilize the graph to locate the most relevant bits of each YouTube video.

YouTube Studio now has a new option that allows artists to see which auto translated subtitles are utilized the most on their videos. This will assist producers figure out which languages are most important to their audience, which may then help you decide which translations to focus on in your own caption uploads while also giving you a better idea of who your video are reaching.

The new translations report can be found in the Audience tab or in advanced analytics' subtitle report.

1. YouTube Sets Weekly Ad Frequency Limits - Weekly frequency capping for video ad campaigns has been added to YouTube, allowing advertisers to limit the number of times a single viewer sees their offer in a given week. Because we've all seen how seeing the same ad, with the same song, can drive a company to bankruptcy. Per Youtube,
   “Now, you can compliment your reach by actively setting your weekly frequency goal – a solution only YouTube can provide. Combining our unmatched audience reach and leading machine learning capabilities, advertisers will now be able to optimize how many times viewers see their ads in a week. Not only does this mean more efficient spend, but crucially, a better experience for viewers.”

Furthermore, YouTube is expanding its live-stream shopping capabilities.
“Later this year, two channels will be able to go live and cohost together, uniting their communities in a single live shopping stream. And with live redirects, creators can start a shopping live stream on their channel, then redirect their audience to a brand’s channel for fans to keep watching.”

That might be a useful update, as it has a large audience reach and will enable more substantial influencer collaborations, as businesses will be able to combine their audience with that of their partner influencer for much larger exposure.

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1. TikTok Introduces A New Interactive Market Insights Tool - TikTok has released a new insights tool that allows you to discover critical data points on your target market/s using a variety of filters. The new site, which you can find here, has a number of filters to help you narrow down your target demographic and learn more about specific topics.

For example, if you wanted to know what the major trends were among TikTok users in the United States around the holidays, you'd get a data highlight that listed the top three categories in which TikTok was used, as well as other information.

It's comparable to Facebook's interactive insights tool, which is intended to provide you with a more personalized perspective on crucial data points rather than more generalized studies and whitepapers that may not be relevant to your requirements.

The data may be useful in guiding your strategic approach and influencing your decisions. The one disadvantage right now is that TikTok's insights database doesn't appear to be particularly large, so many of the same data points appear in multiple categories, which means they may not be as specific as you'd like.

You can check out TikTok’s new insights platform here, Facebook’s Insight Tools here, and Facebook’s Monthly Trending Tool here.

1. The First 'For You' Summit in Canada by TikTok - Next month, TikTok will host its first-ever 'For You' Summit in Canada, with Canadian creators and marketers invited to attend and learn about the newest trends and insights in person in a real-life meet-up event.

Keynote addresses, new study findings, guest appearances, live music, and more will be included at the Canadian ‘For You’ Summit.

TikTok has held several For You Summit events in other countries, the most recent of which focused on the Southeast Asian market.

The Canadian Summit will be held over two days, with the first day focusing on keynote speakers and the second on major trends and recommendations, including eCommerce prospects within the app.

You can register for the Canadian ‘For You’ Summit here.

1. Speakers & Agenda For Meta's 'Conversations' Business Messaging Conference Are Now Available - Next week (5/19), Meta will have its first-ever 'Conversations' corporate messaging conference, where it will show off its latest innovations and upcoming enhancements for its messaging systems, which currently have over 2 billion users combined.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will also speak at the event.

Following the keynote presentations, there’ll be a range of breakout sessions and deep-dives, covering topics like ‘How to get started with messaging to support your customers’, ‘Building conversational commerce experiences’ and ‘Working with Meta’s partner ecosystem’.

It could be worth tuning in to glean some more insight into how messaging can complement your business process. You can check out the full Conversations agenda here where you can also register to attend the single day event.

1. No More Anonymous Sitemap Submissions On Microsoft Bing - Microsoft Bing will no longer accept anonymously submitted XML sitemaps via HTTP queries because of abuse by search spammers.

You can still use robots.txt on your domain name and/or Bing Webmaster Tools to submit your sitemaps.

To tell all search engines, include a reference to your sitemap in the robots.txt file located at the root of the host. Example: http://www.example.org/sitemap.xml Sitemap

Webmaster tools from Bing: Alternatively, you can use Bing Webmaster Tools to upload your sitemaps: https://www.bing.com/webmasters/sitemaps

Finally, don't overlook the IndexNow plugin.

1. Live Captions For Audio Events And Custom URL Listings On LinkedIn - Here is what LinkedIn announced this week:

“Up until now, when members joined an audio event on LinkedIn, they could only listen to it. By adding real-time captions, we are making audio events more accessible and inclusive for members with hearing impairments.”

Finally, LinkedIn has confirmed that all users will soon be able to put a link to the top of their profile that would redirect visitors to their company's website.

The function, which was originally noticed in testing late last month and already covered on our show, will first be available exclusively to those who use LinkedIn's Creator Mode option, before being handed out to all users in the near future (though no timeline as yet).

1. YouTube Makes 'Clips' Video Highlights More Accessible - YouTube has announced that all creators will soon have access to the 'Clips' feature, which allows viewers to select and share a tiny segment of a video clip (up to 60 seconds in length) that will play on a loop straight on the original video's watch page.

According to YouTube, more channels have been granted Clips access in recent weeks, and by next week, all channels will have the choice.

If a channel has Clips enabled, the 'CLIP' button will appear below the video playback screen. Here is a demo of the Clips feature.

1. Video Page Indexing Report Is Coming to Google Search Console - Google will be introducing new kinds of data to Search Console to make video indexing easier to track and fix. You can use Search Console to check if your structured data markup is correct and how many impressions a video obtained if you upload videos on your site. You'll be able to do the following with the new report:

2. Check out how many video landing sites Google found and how many of them have a video.

3. Examine the reasons for videos not being indexed in video landing sites.
4. To debug and fix issues, use the list of URLs for the video pages that are affected.
5. Validate the fix before re-crawling the impacted URLs.
6. The URL Inspection tool can be used to check the video indexing status of a certain video page.

To learn more about the new report, visit here.

1. Google Shares How To Manage Titles In Search Results - The title link is usually derived from the title tag used by the publisher.

Google, however, has the ability to modify the title link to something else. Google is now offering advice on how to manage the site title that appears in search results. The new part is about debugging title tags to figure out why Google's title links are changing.

1. Check that each page includes a title tag.
2. Create succinct title tags that summarize the web page's content. Avoid using ambiguous terms like Home Page or Profile.
3. Stay away from keyword stuffing.
4. Avoid boilerplate that is repeated across the site.
5. Branding terms are OK until they become prevalent.
6. Google uses the header elements in the title links on occasionally.
7. Use the Robots.txt correctly.

You can read more about the new TitleTag Documentation here.

1. Google's 6 Image Optimization Tips - Google’s Developer Advocate Alan Kent provided six ideas for optimizing images on websites. They are:

2. Remove the cumulative image layout shift (CLS)

3. Size Your Images Properly

4. Select the most appropriate image file format

5. Use Appropriate Image Compression

6. Sequence Your Image Downloads Correctly 5. Cache Images In The Browser

The complete Google video is here.

1. Hey Google, What Do I Do About Spammy Links from Malicious Domains? - According to Google’s John Mueller, the best way to deal with Spammy links from malicious domains is to disavow the whole domain that they’re coming from and then move on. Per Mueller, “If they’re being disavowed then we tell our systems that these should not be taken into account, neither in a positive nor a negative way.”

2. Hey Google, Can I Have Multiple Variation Of The Same Content? - Per Mueller, “From Google’s point of view, if you’re taking content from your own website and publishing that again with some elements of the page changed, that’s essentially up to you.”

A lot of times we can think of content in terms of how Google might respond. But Google’s response is generally based on how much value that page is providing to the site visitors.

“And it’s something where my assumption is in many cases you’re not providing a lot of value by just copying the existing article and changing some of the words on it.

So my feeling is, from a strategic point of view, probably you would be better suited writing something unique and compelling for those topics or to create one article that covers kind of these different variations.

But my recommendation is really kind of make fewer articles that are actually really good.”

Source: https://youtu.be/1-gNsTHYAQU?t=454

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1. Pinterest Launches New ‘TV Studio’ App - Pinterest continues to expand its video capabilities, discreetly releasing the 'Pinterest TV Studio' app on both the Apple and Google Play stores earlier this week, albeit it is now only available to a limited number of users. With multiple camera capability, greater editing tools, and more, this program is meant to help live-stream creators improve their broadcasting setups.

2. TikTok Pulse - A New Option For Brands- TikTok Pulse is a new contextual advertising option, which means that your adverts will appear in the top 4% of all videos on the platform.

Your advertising can appear next to content in a user's For You stream, for example.

It gives you the ability to engage with the groups that are most relevant to you by allowing you to choose the category where your adverts appear. Currently, TikTok will offer 12 categories of Pulse for brands to choose where to show their content. Some of the categories included (but not all encompassing) are:

• Beauty
• Fashion
• Cooking
• Gaming

TikTok will apply an in-house inventory filter to ensure that your adverts appear next to high-quality content. They make certain that the content displayed is authenticated and of the greatest brand suitability on the site.

You'll be able to assess that impact in several ways, including through third-party verification. You’ll have access to these tools for post campaign measurement.

Source: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-pulse-is-bringing-brands-closer-to-community-and-entertainment

1. Google Ends Support For Some Image and Video Sitemap Extensions - Google has announced that certain image and video sitemap extensions will be phased out. After assessing the value of the tags, Google decided to phase out the use of these sitemap extensions. After August 6, 2022, the deprecated tags and attributes will no longer be valid. In addition, the documentation for the deprecated tags and attributes has been removed. If publishers opt to leave the discontinued tags in their sitemaps, there will be no penalty or negative consequences.

These are the discontinued tags and attributes:

• autoplay and allow_embed of the tag
• tag and its attributes
• tag and its attributes

Read the Official Notice of Image and Video Sitemap Deprecations here.

1. What Is The Reason For Core Web Vitals Scores Flux? - Google's John Mueller explains why fundamental web vitals scores fluctuate despite the fact that online pages remain unchanged. There are two types of core web vitals scores, according to John:

a. Field Data - These are the primary web vitals scores that are collected from real-world visitors to a website. The goal of Field Data is to display the real-world user experience of actual site users.

b.Lab Data - These are the main web vitals scores that a simulated visit generates. A Google Lighthouse bot will visit the page being tested, and an algorithm will simulate the visit as if it were made on a mobile phone with a slow internet connection.

And Google uses Field data for the core web vitals score.

According to John Mueller, there are a slew of other elements that influence the basic web vitals scores, and many of them are out of our control.

Google's Web.dev website provides an explanation of why field data is always changing and not necessarily consistent from month to month.

Source: https://youtu.be/p9CTwNA66V0

1. Google Answers If Meta Description Matters For Rankings - The question of whether a meta description can be used to impact search rankings was answered by Google's John Mueller.

John Mueller answered:

“So the meta description is primarily used as a snippet in the search results page. And that’s not something that we would use for ranking. But obviously, having a good snippet on a search results page, that can make it more interesting for people to actually visit your page when they see your page ranking in the search results.”

Source: https://youtu.be/p9CTwNA66V0?t=1607

1. Meta Updates Reels Monetization Options to Better Incentivize Creators - YouTube already has its Partner Program, which serves as a complement to Shorts, as well as its Shorts Fund, and TikTok just took its first steps toward a revenue share program for top creators. And now, Meta is sweetening the deal for Reels with an update to its Reels Play Bonus program, which will restructure its payouts process, as well as a new 'Challenges' option for Facebook Reels, which will give you more possibilities to make money from your short movies.

Meta hasn't given a detailed explanation of how its calculations will change, but the upgrade appears to be targeted at rewarding smaller-scale entrepreneurs rather than the huge players who take up all of the money.

For example, if someone has a million followers, reaching whatever engagement requirement set for Reels incentives will be considerably easier for them, which disadvantages rising stars and those wanting to establish themselves in the field. By taking into account unpredictability and possibly compensating producers based on some form of engagement per viewer ratio, the program could become more egalitarian and encouraging.

In addition, Meta is launching "Challenges" on Facebook, which is "a new incentive that lets Reels Play bonus program creators uncover new methods to earn up to $4,000 in a given month."

While creator funding programs sounds awesome, they are not scalable. Thus Meta announced that:

“Building on the strong advertising and revenue sharing foundation we’ve established with in-stream ads, we’ve been rolling out overlay ads in Reels on Facebook, and we’re starting to test them with a wider set of creators, (beyond the in-stream ads program) to expand availability to more creators and open up more high quality inventory for advertisers on our platform.”

1. Meta Is Adding New Ad Formats And Tools For Small Businesses - During National Small Business Week, Meta added new lead generation and content sharing options for small businesses. Over 70% of people want to be able to engage with businesses in the same way they communicate with friends and family: through messaging, according to Meta. Meta is using this new data to create Facebook and Instagram advertising that can be created directly from the WhatsApp Business app. The mailbox receives the second messaging update. By combining all messaging systems into one inbox, Meta is simplifying business communications. It will also include WhatsApp messages in the future. The most recent messaging update allows you to deliver promotional message adverts straight through the Meta Business Suite to clients who have opted into communication.

Meta is also introducing a slew of new tools to assist businesses in capturing and managing leads on the platform. Quote Requests on Instagram, Lead Filtering with Instant Forms, Creative Flexibility, Gated Content, and Partner Integrations are some of the features available.

On Instagram, the Quote Request is presently being tested with a few businesses. It basically lets businesses to put a "Get Quote" button to their Instagram profile as well as stickers to their Instagram Stories.

Lead screening will be available to businesses in the near future. This will be accomplished by going over the answers to a multiple-choice question.

Meta is also putting its Instant Form to the test in order to improve personalisation. Selected firms can experiment with adding pictures and content to their Instant Forms, providing more visual information to consumers.

Companies will soon be allowed to access gated content. SMBs can provide resources to leads when they fill out the Lead Ad form by providing gated content. This allows the user to stay on the platform without leaving it.

While all of these elements are currently in testing, Meta is having a conference called Conversations on May 19th to further discuss them. You'll be able to get additional information on the above tools and services once you've registered.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/introducing-new-ads-and-messaging-tools-for-small-businesses

1. LinkedIn Updates Their Content Ranking Algorithm - LinkedIn now allows users to filter out stuff that they aren't interested in. Individual postings can be marked as "I don't want to see this," and content from specific authors can be minimized. Users will also be able to control how much political content appears in their news feed. It will try to prioritize quality postings and activities over comments or actions that members will not find beneficial.

LinkedIn’s feed will now show more of:

• Posts, videos and other content relevant to users’ individual interests
• Opportunities for authentic engagement
• Safe and productive conversations that adhere to community guidelines

LinkedIn’s feed will show less of:

• Irrelevant updates, i.e., a connection’s comment on the post of someone you’re not connected to
• Politically oriented posts (if you choose to)
• Alerts – users will no longer be notified of every position change or update in their network
• Low-quality clickbait posts designed for interactions
• Polls from people you don’t know

Source: https://blog.linkedin.com/2022/may/5/keeping-your-feed-relevant-and-productive

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1. LinkedIn Introduces Features To Drive Up Engagement - LinkedIn has added a showcase link to your profile, as well as new group post statistics and newsletter display settings.

To begin, you can now add a website link to the showcase link, which will be displayed underneath your user name and description. In addition, LinkedIn has launched new group post analytics, allowing users to see engagement data for their group shares directly from their post. In this regard, the ability to gain greater insight into your contributions could be beneficial.

Finally, LinkedIn users may now publish their newsletter links in the 'Featured' part of their profile, which will contain a 'Subscribe' button, giving them another method to get people to join up.

1. WhatsApp to Debut Communities - WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, isn't just for one-on-one discussions, as demonstrated by the addition of a Communities option, as well as new features for its current groups capability, last week.

WhatsApp users will be able to combine multiple groups under one roof and exchange updates with the entire community, as well as establish smaller discussion groups.

Administrators will have control over which groups can be included and will be able to send out announcement messages to all participants.

"We believe Communities will make it easier for a school principal to gather all of the school's parents together to exchange must-read messages and set up groups regarding certain classrooms, extracurricular activities, or volunteer needs," WhatsApp wrote in a blog post last week.

1. Twitter’s Q1’22 Results Show 12 Million New Users While Revenue Declines - With the Elon Musk buyout still pending, Twitter has released its newest performance update. To begin with, Twitter currently has 229 million monetizable daily active users, up from 217 million in Q4. That's a much better rate of growth than the previous two reports, with 12 million new users joining Twitter during that time.

Twitter also stated that, due to a mistake on its part, it has been miscounting its mDAU data for the past two years. Due to the miscalculation, it was overstating its user counts by roughly 2 million on average.

Twitter also said that subscription and other revenue (which includes data licensing) totaled $94 million, down 31% year over year. To me this is a sign that new options like Twitter Blue are not gaining any really any traction as yet, and not driving the supplementary income streams that Twitter was banking on.

1. Meta’s Q1’22 Results Show Revenue And User Growth - Meta announced in its first performance update of the year that Facebook has regained its user growth momentum. In March 2022, the average number of Facebook DAUs was 1.96 billion, up 4% from the previous year. The Asia Pacific region, where the app is still reaching out into developing nations and seeing steady take-up, accounted for the majority of Facebook usage growth.

Meta does not provide usage statistics for its other platforms.

In terms of sales, Meta earned $27 billion in the first quarter, growing 7% year over year.

1. Pinterest Adds 2 Million New Users in Q1’22 - Pinterest's latest quarterly update shared some not-so-great stats, with revenue up year over year but down quarter over quarter, while user growth has returned, if only slightly, with 2 million more monthly actives logging in in Q1.

Due to lockdowns and other pandemic mitigation measures, Pinterest usage has dropped dramatically from its heights early in the epidemic, when it was the big winner of the forced eCommerce push. People who were stuck at home flocked to Pinterest to browse and shop, bringing the app's total number of users to 478 million. Since then, it's been on the slide, though it may currently be stabilized around 433m.

1. LinkedIn Business Highlights from Microsoft’s FY22 Q3 Earnings - Microsoft has released its earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 22. The following LinkedIn highlights were included in the financial performance report:

In the third quarter, LinkedIn's revenue climbed 34% year over year, and they saw record engagement, with over 830 million professionals using the platform to connect, learn, grow, and get hired.

And creators are increasingly leveraging the platform to develop their voices and grow their networks, using tools like as Newsletters to distribute information they care about. LinkedIn now has 28 million members who subscribe to at least one newsletter, up 51% in just the last quarter.

You can see LinkedIn’s quarterly product highlights, releases and enhancements in the Q3 FY22 product list here. For more information, see the Q3 FY22 earnings release here.

1. Both Google Ads & Microsoft Bing Ads Report Strong Search Ad Revenue Growth - Both Alphabet/Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) reported earnings this week, with both seeing about 22 percent growth in search ad income year over year.

Alphabet's total revenue was $68 billion, up from $55.3 billion in the first quarter of 2021. Here are the important metrics for Q1 2022 (compared to Q1 2021) for Google search, which accounted for 58 percent of Alphabet's revenues:

• Total Google advertising revenue: $54.7 billion (up 22% from $44.7 billion)
• Google Search & other: $39.6 billion (a 24% vs. $31.9 billion)
• Google Network: $8.2 billion (up 20% vs. $6.8 billion)
• YouTube: $6.9 billion (up 14% vs. $6 billion)

Microsoft's revenue for the third quarter of 2021 was $49.4 billion, up 18 percent from $41.7 billion in the previous quarter. Search and news advertising are combined by the company. In Q3 2022, revenue was $2.9 billion, up from $2.4 billion in Q3 2021.

LinkedIn's sales increased by 34% to $3.4 billion, up from $2.6 billion a year before. The revenue from LinkedIn advertising increased by 61 percent year over year.

1. New Features in Google Ads Performance Max Campaigns - Updates to Google's Performance Max (PMax) campaigns include new insights and manual checking options, a new customer acquisition objective, and improvements to existing Smart Shopping and Local campaigns.

PMax is largely intended to increase conversions, with Google's automated system using Smart Bidding to enhance ad performance in real time and across channels. Essentially, the technique allows Google's automatic bidding, budget optimization, audiences, and creative aspects to work together to optimize for the greatest outcomes in your campaigns, decreasing manual strain in focusing your ad performance.

Google is adding a new Insights aspect for PMax as part of its current update, which will provide more information on the particular variables being weighed into your campaign, as well as the levers to optimize your performance.

The first is 'asset insights,' which will show you how your text, image, and video assets are performing with different client categories.

“For example, if you’re an outdoor retailer running a campaign for bikes, you may find that exercise enthusiasts engage more with images of people mountain biking, rather than product images of the bike itself. Using these insights, you can tailor your creative and influence your broader marketing strategy.”

Meanwhile, consumer interest data will reveal the most appropriate search query themes for your advertisements.

Google is also adding a new customer acquisition target to Performance Max, which is aimed to optimize for leads and sales.

“This was previously available for retailers using Smart Shopping campaigns and is now expanding to more advertiser goals in Performance Max. This goal will allow you to either bid more for new customers compared to existing customers, or focus your optimizations on new customers only while maintaining your cost efficiency.”

Advertisers will be able to optimize the performance of their advertisements by using their own Customer Match lists.

Finally, relevant ad accounts are now receiving notifications in the Ad Manager app when they can upgrade to Performance Max campaigns.

1. Google Adds Nine Policies to Three-Strike Ads System - Google has added nine new restrictions to its three-strikes system for advertisers who break the rules. Enforcement begins on June 21, 2022.

In July 2021, the three-strikes system was announced. The three-strikes regulation is now global, according to Google, and is still being phased out across rules. To be clear, Google Ads does not have any of these policies. They're only new in that they're part of the three-strikes system.

Running advertising on any of the following sites could result in a strike against your account:

• Compensated sexual acts
• Mail-order brides
• Clickbait
• Misleading ad design
• Bail bond services
• Call Directories, forwarding services
• Credit repair services, binary options and personal loans

You will be alerted via email and in your account if your account earns a warning or strike.

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1. Web.com Launches eCommerce Platform - Web.com has released a new eCommerce platform that combines a simple drag-and-drop interface with advanced SEO and eCommerce automation. The Web.com eCommerce platform enables SMBs to compete online with the same level of automation as larger companies while maintaining the agility of a smaller company.

The new platform is an end-to-end eCommerce management platform, not merely a store builder. Features include:

• Inventory management
• SEO is baked into the solution
• Marketplace integration
• Shipping integration
• Dropshipping management
• Purchase order management
• Shipping management

Read the Official Announcement here.

1. SpamBrain: Google’s 2021 Web Spam Report - Google has released its annual webspam report, and in it, the company has given its machine learning-based spam detection systems the name SpamBrain. SpamBrain is a new name, but the technology behind it, artificial intelligence (AI), is not.

Google credits SpamBrain for catching around six times more spam sites in 2021 than it did in 2020, reducing hacked spam by 70% and nonsense spam on hosted platforms by 75%.

So now we'll see advertising from SEOs promoting SpamBrain optimization?

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/04/webspam-report-2021?hl=en

1. YouTube Will Highlight Top Shorts clips in the 'Trending' Tab - YouTube has added a new Shorts shelf display to the Trending page, which will highlight the best-performing Shorts video in your region at any given time.

It'll also help you research and understand what your target market is watching on Shorts. Given the option's growing popularity (Shorts clips have already topped 5 trillion total views), it could be a good way to stay on top of things and establish your own Shorts strategy in the app.

In addition, YouTube is introducing new Shorts tabs for desktop, tablet, and browser, which will give consumers more opportunities to interact with Shorts clips. Until now, only the mobile app had a dedicated Shorts section, and now YouTube is integrating Shorts into all forms of the app.

YouTube’s new Shorts shelf in Trending is rolling out to users in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, France, Indonesia, and MENA, with more regions to follow.

Source: https://youtu.be/5wEAe5xZSkc

1. Microsoft Advertising Extends RSA Migration Deadline - If you are a Microsoft Search Advertiser who has still not migrated from Expanded Text Ads (ETA’s) to Responsive Search Ads (RSA’s), then you can take a breather. The migration deadline date has been extended from June 30 to August 29 by Microsoft Advertising.

If you need help, Microsoft is offering additional help with an RSA course available anytime and a virtual automation bootcamp on May 10-12.

1. Snapchat Q1’22 Results: 13 Million More Users in Q1 & Revenue Increase - Snapchat has released its first-quarter financial report for 2022, revealing continuous improvements in both users and revenue as the platform continues to carve out a position for itself in the social media market.

To begin with, in Q1 2022, Snap added 13 million new daily active users, bringing the total to 332 million. The 'Rest of the World' category has accounted for the great bulk of that growth. India particularly continues to experience strong Snap adoption as mobile use rises in the country.

In terms of revenue, Snapchat witnessed a 38 percent rise year over year, with $1.06 billion in revenue for the quarter.

Snap's Dynamic Ads, which allow advertisers to upload their product catalog and have Snap's system match users with the most relevant product and ad formats depending on user interests, were a big revenue highlight for the quarter. As more businesses upload their product catalogs to the platform, Snap claims that revenue from Dynamic Ads has more than tripled year over year.

1. TikTok Launches 'Interactive Add-Ons' - TikTok is introducing new 'Interactive Add-Ons,' which give a variety of engagement features that inspire consumers to take action on your ad by welcoming them into the experience.

There are two different types of Interactive Add-Ons, Standard and Premium, which do not relate to ad spend tiers, but your specific goals.

Per TikTok, “Standard add-ons offer a way to reach lower-funnel marketing goals, like driving clicks and conversions. Premium add-ons offer a way to reach upper-funnel goals, like brand awareness and community building. Both offer you a unique chance to capture people's attention in a format that resonates with them.”

You can learn more about TikTok’s new Interactive Add-On ads here.

1. Create Fundraisers Directly in Instagram Reels - Reels fundraisers are available from April 19, 2022, in 30 countries As explained by Meta: “Available today in more than 30 countries, you can donate and create fundraisers directly in Instagram Reels for more than 1.5 million nonprofits. As always, we cover the donation processing fees, so all the money raised using Fundraisers on Instagram goes directly to the organization.”

In the Reels creation process, users will be able to add funding details, with fundraiser links remaining valid for 30 days.

The feature adds to Instagram's long-standing attempt to increase user participation in fundraising activities, which has accelerated in light of the pandemic.

In 2020, Instagram introduced personal fundraisers and Instagram Live fundraisers, as well as the ability for users to organize and share charitable fundraisers directly from their Instagram feed. Instagram also offered group fundraisers as a way to assist raise awareness for user-supported charities last year.

Source: https://about.fb.com/news/2022/04/make-an-impact-for-earth-day/

1. Meta Releases 'Community for Brands Playbook' - Meta has released a new guide to help brands make the most of online communities. The guide, which is mostly focused on Facebook groups, but includes a variety of considerations and ideas that will help with any community-based endeavor, is available here.

The 39-page playbook is divided into six sections, each of which examines how to develop a community, essential resources for community building, Meta tools that can help, and case studies that show how certain brands have already found success with these methods.

You can download Meta’s full ‘Community for Brands’ playbook here.

1. Instagram’s Ranking Algorithm Will Reward Original Content - To reduce the dominance of aggregator sites and give more credit to original creators, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has announced that Instagram is making updates to how it ranks content. Going forward, the focus will be on original work. Things to know:

2. Content edited outside of Instagram and then uploaded to the app won’t be penalized under this change. Per Mosseri: “The idea is if you made it, it’s original. It’s okay if you edited it outside of Instagram and then bring it in via the gallery.”

3. Posting history is a factor - Mosseri makes it clear that content aggregators are the focus of this update. “If the account is an aggregator, we’ll more likely be able to detect that it’s not original.” If you're re-posting a lot of content from other accounts, you'll notice a drop in reach. Until now, posting popular memes was a straightforward way to increase engagement, but that may no longer be the case.
4. Instagram’s original content ranking is a work in progress. Instagram, according to Mosseri, has no way of knowing whether or not anything is original. "We create classifiers to forecast how likely something is to be unique, but that's not the same as knowing. We consider stuff like who's in the video and whether or not we've seen it before." So, if you're sharing information from other sources, you might see that different people appear in each of your uploads, which could be a red flag, especially because Instagram's algorithm looks for duplicate posts.

Announcement here.

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1. TikTok Launches ‘Effect House’ AR Creation Platform - Creative effects are part of what makes it, so fun to create on TikTok. Whether you’re teleporting into new worlds with Green Screen or freeze-framing with Time Warp Scan, creative effects empower creators to express themselves, entertain, and share stories through a wide array of engaging and immersive formats.

Thanks to the ‘Effect House’ AR Creation Platform, now anyone can create vibrant effects on TikTok. Effect House has been in closed beta since last fall. This week, they have opened the beta to all creators, designers, and developers from around the world, inviting them to imagine new frontiers for TikTok's effects universe.

To date, more than 450 effect creators have published effects on TikTok, inspiring the creation of more than 1.5 billion videos and garnering over 600 billion views globally.

You can access TikTok’s new Effect House effects workshop here.

Source: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/effect-house

1. Snapchat Introduces 'Dynamic Stories' - Snapchat Introduces 'Dynamic Stories,' a new feature that allows news publishers to present up-to-date content on the app.

With the launch of a new Dynamic Stories feature, Snapchat hopes to keep 319 million daily active users up to date on the latest news and information in the app. The feature essentially allows partner publishers to link their content feed into the platform, ensuring that the latest updates or big stories are reflected via the app.

Rather than requiring the publisher to manually curate and update their Discover feed, Dynamic Stories will adapt to updates as they come in, ensuring that the app is always up to date.

Source: https://newsroom.snap.com/discover-dynamic-stories

1. Pinterest Launches an Extension for WooCommerce eCommerce Platform - Selling your products on Pinterest just got easier. If you are one of the three million WooCommerce merchants, there’s now a Pinterest extension that turns your entire product catalog into shoppable Product Pins.

It’s one more way that Pinterest is becoming easier for merchants to use to build their audience and drive more sales.

Announcement here. Download the extension here.

1. Meta Introduces New Creator Funding Programs To Grow The Metaverse - Meta’s launched two new creator funding options designed to better incentivize user contributions to its digital worlds - Metaverse.

The first is a $10 million expansion of its Horizon Worlds Creator Funding program, which began in October of last year. Horizon Worlds is Meta's virtual reality sandbox, where users can create their immersive worlds. They'll be able to monetize their efforts in new ways now.

According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the goal is to "thank the people who are doing fantastic work in Horizon," though the bonuses will target specific aspects of the VR experience that Meta wants to improve. So, if Meta notices that users are interested in a certain aspect of its virtual experience, it may make it an incentive objective for others, or it can get creative with 'the most interactive' worlds or 'the most innovative uses.'

The second piece is probably the most interesting: Meta is starting a test program that will allow some creators to sell virtual products and effects within their virtual worlds. "For instance, someone may create and sell attachable fashion accessories or provide paid access to a new region of the world."

It's a reasonable move from Meta to develop from the ground up with collaboration in mind, which will considerably increase its creative potential and allow new trends to emerge organically, generating interest and attracting new users.

1. Google: Updating Images Can Backfire - John Mueller mentioned in a recent Google Office Hours that Google indexes images slowly, which might be a problem if you make large modifications to thousands of images. Two workarounds to this problem are:

2. Redirect old image URLs to the URLs of the new images.

3. A fast server response.

Source: https://youtu.be/lMc456P2fLs?t=3047

1. Google: No Shortcut To Rank In The Featured Snippets Section Of The Google Search Results - John Mueller of Google was asked for guidance on 'how to rank' in the highlighted snippets section of Google Search results.

In response, John stated that "no technical means for achieving that" exists.

"Given that there's no technical manner of doing that, this seems fairly pointless as a major objective," he stated on Twitter. "I'd propose concentrating on other things that are more linked to what's genuinely valuable for the site/business," he continued.

In other words, John is claiming that there is no specific meta tag or technique to tell Google that you want this particular piece of information to be a featured snippet.

1. Register for Google Marketing Live: May 24, 2022 - It's almost time for Google Marketing Live, Google’s annual event where they showcase the most cutting-edge product developments to help your company grow.

The virtual event will take place on Tuesday, May 24th, beginning with a keynote from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. PT, live-streamed across the world.

Following the keynote, you'll have the option to participate in a selection of on-demand breakout sessions aimed at helping you achieve your business objectives.

Click here to register.

1. YouTube's 'Search Insights' Feature Is Now Available To All Creators - In November of last year, YouTube released an overview of Search Insights, which will feature data on what people are searching for in the app, both in regards to your channel and content and for more broad search queries.

YouTube announced this week that all creators would get access to its new Search Insights feature, which will provide a slew of new data points to help you fine-tune your YouTube approach.

On desktop, Search Insights will be available in the 'Analytics'>'Research' section of YouTube Studio and will provide information on the most popular topics among your viewers, as well as the overall search volume for each and the amount of traffic your channel has received as a result of each query.

For 'Content Gap' searches, which are search phrases that don't generate a lot of results, YouTube will show a marker. The idea is that by displaying these queries, content creators will be able to focus on developing content that corresponds with searches that aren't currently being provided by the videos in the app, perhaps opening up new opportunities for your efforts.

There's also a feature called 'Searches Across YouTube,' which will show you the most popular search queries for any keyword.

You may use 'how to' as a search phrase to see the most prevalent 'how to' queries on the platform.

YouTube added that the data used to power its search trends information would initially only include search activity from users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India. YouTube is trying to add more countries in the near future, but even if you don't live in one of these markets, the data could indicate greater interest in the app.

Search Insights is available in the desktop version of the YouTube Studio software, which is now available to all users (YouTube says that the full rollout will be complete by the end of April).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhGfQxr4Owo

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1. Meta Cancels Facebook’s F8 Annual Developers ConferenceAs it looks ahead to the next great developments, both within the firm and for broader internet usage, Meta has announced that it will not hold its renowned F8 Developer Conference in 2022.

This means we will have less insight into Meta’s plans – but then again, it is still running its ’Conversations’ business messaging event (May 19th). And probably they will proceed with the 'Connect Conference' later this year.

Event cancellation announcement is here.

1. Third-Party Apps Can Now Share Reels to FacebookAs the popularity of short-form video grows, Meta is introducing a new 'Upload to Reels' option for third-party developers, which will make it easier for users of non-Meta apps to share their works directly to Facebook Reels.

Third-party apps will be able to include a 'Share to Facebook Reels' button, giving users more creative options and tools to use with Reels.

Instead of downloading and painstakingly uploading videos created in third-party applications, you'll now be able to post Reels footage from non-Meta apps with the touch of a button.

Click here to learn more about Meta’s ‘Sharing to Reels’ developer process.

1. ‘Background Playback’ Is Now Available For Live TikTok VideosAs the popularity of short-form video grows, Meta is introducing a new 'Upload to Reels' option for third-party developers, which will make it easier for users of non-Meta apps to share their works directly to Facebook Reels.

Third-party apps will be able to include a 'Share to Facebook Reels' button, giving users more creative options and tools to use with Reels. Instead of downloading and painstakingly uploading videos created in third-party applications, you'll now be able to post Reels footage from non-Meta apps with the touch of a button.

1. Microsoft Advertising Has Announced Open Beta for RSA Ad CustomizersIn this quarter's open beta, Microsoft Advertising announced that Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) would be able to use ad customizers. This matches similar functionality that Google Ads offers.

RSA customizers can assist in the creation of more dynamic advertising with more product information in the ad copy without requiring advertisers to modify the copy manually. These improvements enable advertisers to produce hundreds of different ad variations from a single ad.

Based on specific product characteristics provided to the ad, these adverts can be more targeted. This personalization can lead to improved conversion rates and cheaper acquisition costs.

The custom attributes announced for this open beta are:

• Text – Product names, descriptions and product categories
• Number – Inventory count and colors available
• Price – Sale discounts and product costs

• Percent – Interest rates or discount rates

• Google Introduces Retail Search For Ecommerce Sites“Shoppers know what they want. Does your site’s search understand?” Retail Search, a solution designed to give retailers the capabilities of Google's search engine on their own domains, has been released by Google Cloud.

It is built to help improve on-site search and the overall shopping experience by utilizing Google's technologies that understand context and user intent.

Retail Search is the newest feature in Google Cloud's Product Discovery Solutions, a suite of solutions aimed at improving retail operational efficiency, streamlining digital shopping experiences, and addressing changing customer preferences.

Read Google Cloud’s announcement on Retail Search here.

1. Google Ads Updates ‘Inappropriate Content’ PolicyThe updated Google Ads ‘Inappropriate Content’ policy will go into effect on June 1, 2022.

The new policy will make it illegal to post content that promotes financial fraud, identity theft, detrimental direct contact, or harassment through sharing personally-identifying information.

This is why Google recommends that you "examine this policy update to see if any of your advertising comes inside the policy's scope and if so, delete those ads before June 1, 2022," according to the company.

Here is a high-level list of what is not allowed:

• Dangerous or derogatory content
• Sexually explicit content
• Compensated sexual acts
• Child sexual abuse imagery
• Mail-order brides
• Adult themes in family content
• Shocking content
• Sensitive events
• Animal cruelty
• Hacked political materials

To learn more about the updated policy, click here.

1. Google Adds “Recycling” Attribute In Google Business ProfilesAccording to Google, "recycling" has become one of the most popular Search subjects, and 82 percent of consumers who consider sustainability to be a major priority support eco-conscious firms.

Thus, Google has added a new recycling attribute to business profiles, allowing companies to enhance awareness of their recycling programs and drive additional activity as a result.

To add the recycling attribute to your business profile:

1. Go to your Business Profile (you can search for ‘my business’ in Google search or go to Google My Business)
2. Select ‘Edit profile’, then ‘Business information’
3. Near the top, click on the ‘More’ tab
4. Select the category that you want to change
5. Next to the attribute, select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’

6. When you're finished updating your attributes, select ‘Save’

7. AI Generated Content Is SPAM & Against Google GuidelinesGoogle’s Search Advocate John Mueller reminded everyone during a recent office hour that according to webmaster standards, text written automatically utilizing AI writing tools is considered spam.

Therefore, AI-generated content falls under the category of auto-generated content, which could result in a manual punishment. Using them in any capacity is considered spam, he adds.

“Currently, it’s all against the webmaster guidelines. So from our point of view, if we were to run across something like that, if the webspam team were to see it, they would see it as spam.”

Source: https://youtu.be/Yx997SsiYlw

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1. LinkedIn Introduces New Features For Creators to Analyze Posts for Better Reach - Improved content analytics, new profile video features, newsletter showcasing choices, a subscriber bell for update notifications, and other new tools for creators have been introduced by LinkedIn.

To begin with, LinkedIn is introducing more data to its existing Creator Mode tools to help artists plan and optimize their on-platform content strategy. The new Creator Mode data will provide a more detailed picture of content performance, allowing you to see what's working and what's not with your LinkedIn audience.

Improved post analytics are also being rolled out by LinkedIn. Here is what was shared from LinkedIn “.. members have always been able to see analytics on posts, but now LinkedIn’s adding a new level of detail. Members will see analytics detailed in a summary page, along with more in-depth data like impressions and reshares. This data is available for all post types, whether it’s an article, video, or simple text post.”

LinkedIn is also offering new data on profile video views as well as updated profile video capabilities to help users grow their audience. Along with these improved view numbers, LinkedIn will also provide new prompts to help users decide what to publish in their Profile Videos.

Thanks to a new 'Profile Video ring' that will appear in the feed and search, people will be aware that you have a profile video active on your page, where they can learn more about you and your experience.

LinkedIn is also introducing a 'Subscribe Bell,' which will let a creator's audience receive notifications whenever they publish new content and the ability for creators to promote their Newsletter in the 'Featured' section of the profile.

1. Meta Announces Virtual Messaging Event - 'Conversations' - Meta has launched a new 'Conversations' messaging conference (May 19, 22), during which it will show off its newest innovations and upcoming enhancements for its messaging systems, which have a combined user base of over 2 billion. Every week, more than a billion people use Meta's messaging services to communicate with businesses, according to the company.

The Conversations conference will offer new product updates and technical deep dives for developers, as well as demonstrations, discussions, and other activities.

You can register for the ‘Conversations’ conference here.

1. Snapchat Announces 2022 Partner Summit - 'Back To Reality' - We'll soon find out Snapchat's next move. Snap has announced the date of its fourth annual Partner Summit, which will take place on April 28th. Snap will utilize the event, dubbed 'Back to Reality,' to show off its most recent initiatives and features, such as its expanding work on augmented reality, digital products, Snap Minis, content enhancements, and more.

You can register for the event (and receive updates) here, and all of the sessions will be streamed live on Snap's YouTube page.

1. New Profile Rings for Stories and Live on YouTube Plus Other Updates - YouTube is rolling out two new types of profile rings: one with a 'Live' marker and one without, to represent the different forms of content. This is part of YouTube's larger effort to include more conventional social app functionality into the app.

In my opinion, it's another approach to raise awareness of YouTube Live and Stories, which, although being a minor feature in the app, have served to strengthen the bond between creators and their followers by providing a new content choice.

Furthermore, YouTube has expanded its Community Tab available to additional channels and added Shorts, Reactions, and other well-known social networking platform alternatives to its offers.

Last but not least, YouTube is lowering the bar for using its Mentions tool. Mentions allow you to include another channel's username in the title or description of your video, and the other channel will be notified of the mention in their inbox.

Previously, this option was only available to channels with 500 subscribers, but YouTube has now made the mentions function open to all channels. This might be a terrific method to start collaborations on the app and get your films in front of related people, who might subsequently magnify your work.

If a channel prefers, it can turn off mentions.

Source: https://youtu.be/NFiMcE2MTQA

1. YouTube Drops Maximize Lift Bidding - As YouTube continues to improve its ad capabilities, Google has discontinued support effective 4/1/22 for Maximize Lift bidding, leaving a TrueView, in-stream advertisements alternative in place.

Maximize Lift was a highly particular bidding strategy that worked in tandem with Brand Lift measurement to reach more of the right audience currently in the consideration stage. If you're unfamiliar with Brand Lift, it's a tool that helps assess memory, awareness, and consideration, and you'll need to have a Google Account Rep activate on your behalf.

Maximize Lift created content for Brand Lift surveys based on information provided by advertisers about their brands and goods. Maximize Lift then used the survey data to zero in on the customers who could be the ideal fit for your products. Unlike other bidding types, Maximize Lift would prioritize lift overviews.

The promise of driving meaningful B2C results drew Maximize Lift to the market in 2018. According to Google, COVERGIRL's Lashblast Mascara product had a 2x return on ad investment when it was released.

Source: https://searchengineland.com/youtube-to-drop-maximize-lift-bidding-383272

1. YouTube Videos Can Now Be Shared via Snapchat Camera - Snapchat is finally adding another new sharing option, with users now able to share YouTube videos with friends directly from the Snapchat Camera, after allowing users to embed tweets directly into their Snapchat snaps in late 2020.

When sharing from YouTube, Snapchat users will just press the Snapchat icon to add the YouTube link as a sticker to their Story. This opens up a new set of creative ways for sharing YouTube links, benefiting both YouTube (through increased referral traffic) and Snap (by expanding your Snap expression and engagement options).

The sticker display provides a more integrated, direct sharing procedure, which is a fantastic method to encourage more active sharing.

To share a YouTube clip on Snap:

• Open the YouTube app and select a video to watch
• Tap "Share," and then tap the "Snapchat" icon to automatically jump to the Snapchat Camera
• From there, create an original Snap with the automated YouTube sticker, and layer on using any of our creative tools
• All friends need to do is tap the YouTube Sticker to view the video in their YouTube app or default mobile browser

Source: https://www.adweek.com/media/integration-allows-youtube-videos-to-be-shared-via-snapchat-camera/

1. Professional Accounts Are Now Available To All Twitter Users Worldwide - All Twitters users are now able to convert their account to a Professional Profile which then gives you access to a range of additional features, like a new business information display, product listings, a newsletter module (for those that have a Revue newsletter) and more.

Professional Profiles were first tested by Twitter in April of last year, with only a few brands participating in the initial beta experiment. Twitter began inviting more businesses to join until finally opening it up to all applicants in September. You no longer require Twitter's blessings to convert your profile; instead, you can choose whether or not to have a Professional Profile in your profile choices.

The following rules must be followed to qualify for a Professional Account:

• You must not have a history of repeatedly violating the Twitter User Agreement
• You must have a complete profile with an account name, a bio, and a profile picture
• Your authentic identity must be clear on your profile. Your profile must not feature another person’s identity, brand, or organization, nor does it use a fake identity intended to deceive others. Profiles that feature animals or fictional characters are ineligible unless directly affiliated with your brand or organization. Parody and fan accounts are not eligible for Professional Accounts.

To convert your Twitter profile to a Professional Account:

• Go to either your profile settings or swipe open the sidebar when on your Home timeline in the app. Scroll until you see the “Twitter for Professionals” tab in the sidebar and select it. If you’re in your profile settings, scroll until you see “Switch to Professional” and select it
• Once you’ve entered the conversion flow, select “Get Started”
• Select a category for your Professional Account and select “Next”
• Choose either “Business” or “Creator” and select “Next.”
• Congratulations! You are now a Professional on Twitter!

You can read more about Twitter’s Professional Accounts conversion process here.

1. Descriptive Structured Data Error Reporting In Google Search Console - The structured data report in Search Console has been updated by Google to provide additional context regarding problems, helping you fix invalid markup with less guesswork.

Let's imagine you're using review snippet markup but missing the author's name. This would result in an error. Previously, the structured data report provided a message that said, "Missing field "name."

Now, if the page has multiple name fields in the markup, then the previous method of reporting problems wasn't as useful as it could have been.

Thanks to the latest update, the identical error will now appear as: Missing field "name" (in "author").

The additional information in parentheses allows you to quickly identify what's missed from the markup.

1. New Insights Reports in Google Merchant Center - To ensure you're pricing your products competitively, Google has added several new analytics for retailers, including free listings conversion and product price insights.

To begin, a new display of total traffic, impressions, and conversion rate for free product listings are now available in your Google Merchant Center tools.

This will make it easy to gain a complete picture of your Google product display performance, while the new price insights tool will assist merchants in determining whether their products are competitively priced, as well as the revenue impact of price changes.

The new display will show businesses how their pricing compares to other retailers selling the same goods.

You can read more about Google’s product display updates here.

1. Google's Trusted Store Badge Is Now Available For Free Shopping Listings - Google is launching a new Shopping Experience Scorecard program, which will provide shoppers with yet another method to learn more about each seller's performance based on previous activity.

Top-rated sellers will now receive a new 'Trusted Store' label, which will help potential customers feel more confident in your service.

So, how does Google evaluate these factors? According to Google, the badges will be assigned depending on Google's tracking of each seller's performance.

“The program will monitor the experience you provide to customers in several areas, including shipping speed, shipping cost, return cost, and return window. You’ll be given a rating of “Excellent,” “Comparable,” or “Opportunity” on each metric.”

Google will continue to track performance in order to give shoppers more information as they browse Google Shopping listings.

Google claims that merchants who displayed the Trusted Store label received higher hits in early testing, and they also helped generate more traffic to lesser-known merchants.

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1. Shopify Launches Linkpop & Other Features - Linkpop, a link-in-bio solution from Shopify, enables artists and followers to instantly access and purchase promoted products. Creators on social media networks like Instagram may add the Linkpop link to their profile, and their fans will be led to a Shopify-powered storefront with just one click.

Users who click the link are led to a selected selection of products that they may purchase straight on Linkpop without having to leave the social networking app. Consumers will not have to look for things elsewhere, and marketers will have a better notion of the impact the creator had on the sale.

Separately, Shopify has added a number of features to help advertisers on the site this week.

For example, a new predicted spend tier tool allows marketers to evaluate clients' spending potential into three tiers: high, medium, and low.

Segmentation. The new customer segmentation tool uses the predictive spend tier as a filter. Geographic location, the amount of orders a consumer has placed, and other distinctive behaviors are among the other divisions.

Marketers can now automate their Shopify customer email campaigns. Users can choose from a variety of email themes and design their own procedure for sending and scheduling emails.

Shopify also announced that its Shopify Email service will allow marketers to send up to 10,000 emails for free every month.

1. LinkedIn Allows Company Pages To Publish Newsletters - Company Pages may now establish their own newsletters in the LinkedIn app, which will also include new notifications for Page followers for newsletter changes.

In November, LinkedIn brought newsletters to Creator Mode, giving users a more direct approach to tap both into the growing popularity of newsletters as a connection option and optimize in-app interaction.

Company pages will now be able to participate as well.

As previously stated, the ability to notify Page followers with newsletter updates via an automatic, one-time reminder to your audience for each new issue is a major benefit for brands.

Subscribers will also be able to opt-in to get email updates in the future. It could be a terrific method to stay in touch with your audience, and LinkedIn reports that early testers have had a favorable response.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/helping-you-grow-your-organic-communities-/

1. All U.S Instagram Users Can Now Create Product Tags - Instagram will soon allow all users to tag products in their IG posts, starting with users in the United States, as part of its continuous focus on extending its eCommerce offerings. Instagram is now allowing everyone to include direct links to products and companies in their uploads, which was previously only available to certified producers.

This may provide marketers a huge boost in the app for no cost, while simultaneously enhancing Instagram's eCommerce focus and changing customer behavior.

Users who have a company or creative account can tag products in Stories and Reels as well.

When someone tags one of your goods, you'll get a notification, and you'll be able to see all of the marked content on your profile.

At the same time, product tags may be misused, and brands will have control over who can tag their products, as well as the ability to delete tags from their things and brand if they so desire.

According to Instagram, over 1.6 million users tag at least one brand each week, implying that the ability to more precisely tag each product will be an enticing and widely used feature - one that, if it works properly, might help keep the main Instagram feed relevant for a bit longer.

1. Instagram Adds ‘Algorithm-Free’ Feed Sorting For All Users - Instagram has now made its algorithm-free, chronological feed option available to all users, after introducing it in December as part of Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri's testimony before the US Senate amid concerns about how Instagram is damaging to children.

To modify the appearance of your main content, you now have two new Instagram feed display options to pick from:

Favorites — This section shows the most recent postings from the accounts you've added to your 'Favorites' list. You can add up to 50 accounts to your Favorites list, which will help you prioritize updates from these people.

Following — Similar to the conventional Instagram feed, this shows posts from all the accounts you follow in the app.

Both the new 'Favorites' and 'Following' feeds will display your posts in chronological order as they are published. There's no more algorithm tampering – it's the Instagram you used to know and love, with everything in its proper position.

The issue with Instagram's reverse-chronological feed options is that you can't set either as your default – you'll have to manually select your preferred feed presentation every time you check-in.

1. Meta Renames Automated Ad Suite Under Meta Advantage Umbrella - Meta has stated that it is renaming its ad automation products to make the purpose of each more apparent and to improve performance.

Meta's ad automation tools will now be grouped into a single portfolio dubbed 'Meta Advantage.'

Meta's options will be divided into two product lines under the 'Advantage' name. The title change doesn't provide anything new in terms of functionality just yet, though Meta has hinted at some upcoming changes to its automation possibilities.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/meta-advantage-automation-ad-suite-performance

1. TikTok 'For You' Summit Is Back - TikTok has launched its second 'For You' Summit, this time focusing on the Southeast Asian market, in which it will conduct a series of sessions with platform experts and creators to highlight the app's current marketing potential.

The seminars will focus on measurement, content production, and 'Shoppertainment,' according to TikTok.

This is TikTok's second For You Summit; the first was held in July of last year. TikTok is aiming to expand its eCommerce capabilities and integrations – hence the 'Shoppertainment' reference – and there will be numerous information on the app's newest usage trends and habits to help marketers plan their tie-in campaigns.

You can register for the For You Summit next month here.

1. Google Merchant Center Can Now Be Linked To Google Analytics 4 - You may now link your Google Merchant Center account to your Google Analytics 4 property, according to Google. You may also "watch your conversions from free product listings by connecting your Merchant Center and Google Analytics site," according to Google.

If you already have a Google Analytics (GA4) property, go to the conversions settings page and connect it to your Merchant Center account. This feature will not operate unless you enable auto-tagging, according to Google.

Source: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/11996548

1. Google Has Launched A New Partner Directory - The new Google Partners directory, which includes new ways to search for partners as well as an overhauled partner program, has been introduced by Google. "Finding the appropriate partner to help you expand your business is now easier than ever," Google stated.

What are the new requirements to be a Google Partner? Google settled on the following requirements to participate:

• Achieve an optimization score of 70%.
• Spend $10,000 across all of a partner’s managed accounts within a 90-day period.
• Have at least 50% of designated account strategists certified in Google Ads, with at least one certification in each product area (Search, Display, Video, etc.) with a campaign spend of $500 (or more) in 90 days.
• The ability to dismiss recommendations without them counting against your Optimization score

Source: https://twitter.com/adsliaison/status/1506687138204631043

1. Google Explains How They Rank Pages With Abbreviations - A concern about how Google's algorithm handles abbreviations was answered by Google's John Mueller. John went into great detail in response to the question, clarifying that these are simply synonyms and that Google doesn't do anything extra with abbreviations.

“And the short answer is we don’t do anything special with those kinds of things.
We essentially treat them as tokens on a page.
And a token is essentially a kind of like a word or a phrase on a page.
And we would probably recognize that there are known synonyms for some of these and understand that a little bit.
But we wouldn’t really do anything specific there in that we’d like to have a glossary of what this abbreviation means and handle that in a specific way.
So that’s something where, especially when it comes to synonyms, our systems learn these over time.
And for the most part, we handle them when people search and not when we do the indexing.”

If you want to learn more, he recommends that you watch this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/DeW-9fhvkLM

1. Google's Search Algorithm Has Been Modified to Highlight Better Product Reviews - Google has released an overview of how it plans to improve the quality of reviews displayed in Search results.

In order to provide the greatest review insights to searchers, Google is now highlighting product reviews that:

• Include useful in-depth information, such as a product's benefits or cons, as well as insights on how a product works or how it varies from earlier versions.
• Come from people who have used the products and can demonstrate what the product looks like or how it is used.
• Include information that isn't provided by the maker, such as graphics, audio, or connections to other resources that detail the reviewer's experience.
• Compare and contrast products, or explain how a product differs from its competitors.

In general, these are some pretty excellent criteria for the types of reviews you want anyway, and this is the type of information you'd want to elicit if you're trying to call on your top brand supporters to post about your business/products.

If you need more information, Google has also created a comprehensive guide on 'How to Write Quality Reviews,' which is in line with what it wants to emphasize in its products.

Source: https://blog.google/products/search/more-helpful-product-reviews/

1. Google Explains Why Not Every URL Is Crawled And Indexed - Google's John Mueller published a thorough and open explanation of why Google (and third-party SEO tools) does not crawl and index every URL or link on the internet. He stated that crawling is not objective, that it is costly, that it can be inefficient, that the web changes frequently, that spam and garbage exist, and that all of this must be considered.

Here is what he wrote:
“There's no objective way to crawl the web properly.
It's theoretically impossible to crawl it all since the number of actual URLs is effectively infinite. Since nobody can afford to keep an infinite number of URLs in a database, all web crawlers make assumptions, simplifications, and guesses about what is realistically worth crawling.

And even then, for practical purposes, you can't crawl all of that all the time, the internet doesn't have enough connectivity & bandwidth for that, and it costs a lot of money if you want to access a lot of pages regularly (for the crawler, and for the site's owner).

Past that, some pages change quickly, others haven't changed for 10 years -- so crawlers try to save effort by focusing more on the pages that they expect to change, rather than those that they expect not to change.

And then, we touch on the part where crawlers try to figure out which pages are actually useful. The web is filled with junk that nobody cares about, pages that have been spammed into uselessness. These pages may still regularly change, they may have reasonable URLs, but they're just destined for the landfill, and any search engine that cares about their users will ignore them. Sometimes it's not just obvious junk either. More & more, sites are technically ok, but just don't reach "the bar" from a quality point of view to merit being crawled more.

Therefore, all crawlers (including SEO tools) work on a very simplified set of URLs, they have to work out how often to crawl, which URLs to crawl more often, and which parts of the web to ignore. There are no fixed rules for any of this, so every tool will have to make their own decisions along the way. That's why search engines have different content indexed, why SEO tools list different links, why any metrics built on top of these are so different.”

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/tigvq6/why_seo_tools_dont_show_all_backlinks/

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1. Sharing Pinterest Idea Pins On Other Platforms - If you want to improve your Pinterest presence, this could be a useful update. Pinterest has made it possible to download your Idea Pins for sharing to other apps, replete with a Pinterest watermark, as of this week. You can easily share your Idea Pins to other social apps by selecting the "FBStories" or "IG Stories" option in the sharing menu, which will start a download tailored to each app, and then open either with the video ready to go in the upload flow, or you may download the clip and upload to TikTok. The issue, in my opinion, is that Instagram already penalizes Reels uploads with a TikTok watermark in order to prevent users from simply copying and pasting TikTok content. So should you leverage this feature? Listen to the podcast and find my viewpoint.

Source: https://newsroom.pinterest.com/en/post/idea-pin-sharing-available

1. Assigning Moderator During IG Live Streams - With a new live-stream moderator option, IG creators will be able to assign a moderator within a Livestream. Instagram is adding greater ability to control your live broadcasts in the app. The feature will give users another way to manage the flow of material inside a stream, as well as address concerns about inappropriate behavior during IG Live sessions. It's also worth mentioning that TikTok debuted a similar feature in July of last year.

The menu icon on the comment area allows creators to add a moderator. Within here, you can either search for a specific individual or choose from a list of Instagram's recommended users.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-launches-new-moderator-option-for-ig-live-streams/620284/

1. Performance Lab Plugin - The WordPress Official Plugin That Speeds Up Website - WordPress has announced the availability of the Performance Lab plugin. It was created by the WordPress performance team to aid in the speeding up of WordPress sites. The plugin allows website owners to make use of new features before they are integrated into the core of WordPress.

The Performance Lab plugin gives website owners access to WordPress enhancements that are aimed to help them speed up their sites and address issues that may be holding them down. The plugin is modular in design, allowing website owners to pick and choose the enhancements they want to make.

The new Performance Lab plugin has four modules.

• WebP Uploads - Converts newly uploaded JPEG files to the faster WebP format. The functionality is dependent on server support for WebP.
• WebP Support - This is a site health module that checks to see if the server supports WebP and shows a warning if WebP is not supported.
• Persistent Object Cache Health Check - A site health check module that may suggest the use of object caching. Object caching is a way to speed up the amount of time it takes for the site to respond, helps reduce the database load, and speeds up the website for site visitors.
• Audit Enqueued Assets (experimental) Provides an audit of CSS and JavaScript files enqueued on the home page. This helps to identify unnecessary CSS and JavaScript files that might slow down a website. The developers chose to label it as experimental because the module itself will be improved.

Source: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/07/the-performance-lab-plugin-has-been-released/

1. Free Web Application Firewall For Websites From Cloudflare - Cloudflare has announced the availability of a free Web Application Firewall (WAF). The Cloudflare WAF is a website application firewall that analyzes incoming web traffic from the Internet and automatically blocks any content it deems harmful.

To identify malicious traffic and filter it out, the firewall uses a ruleset, which is a set of patterns and signals that it searches for.

The free managed ruleset has been tested against the Cloudflare network and allows free users to immediately activate their firewall and start reaping the benefits of a firewall.

Free users will benefit from updates that will defend their sites from new wide-ranging security risks because the ruleset is a managed ruleset.

Source: https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf/managed-rulesets/

1. Google’s Free Hotel Listing Now Shows Results On Google Map - Free hotel booking links will now appear on the Search Results Page and Google Maps, allowing hotels to reach a wider audience and providing travelers with additional options. Travelers can finalize their booking directly on the hotel's website after clicking on these links.

Hotels of all sizes, from small boutique hotels to huge online travel agencies, have reaped the benefits of greater user interaction since the introduction of free booking links. For example, during the summer of 2021, the booking engine myhotelshop employed free booking links to drive 30 percent more bookings for their hotel clients.

In addition, Hotel Center's new click reporting reveals hotels how many individuals clicked on their free booking links.

Google plans to expand the report to include other insights, such as free booking link impressions and booking value, in the coming weeks.

Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/new-tools-hotels-reconnect-travelers/

1. Snap Launches AR Certification to Snap Focus Educational Portal - Snap has published its first Snap AR certification on Snap Focus: Augmented Reality Strategies for Advertisers, as the pioneer in Augmented Reality (AR). This five-part learning route provides hands-on training and real-world examples to help you better grasp how AR may help you achieve your business and marketing goals. To get certified, visit :

Source: https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/blog/introducing-our-first-snap-focus-ar-certification

1. Google Announces End Date For Universal Analytics. Now Is the Time To Start Using GA-4 - Universal Analytics will be phased down by Google next year, the company stated on Wednesday. On July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits. After the deprecation dates stated above, previously processed data in Universal Analytics will be kept for at least six months.

“Universal Analytics was built for a generation of online measurement that was anchored in the desktop web, independent sessions and more easily observable data from cookies,” Russell Ketchum, director, product management at Google, said in the announcement. “This measurement methodology is quickly becoming obsolete.”

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is different from its predecessor in that it works across platforms, doesn't require cookies, and measures data using an event-based data model. It also does not keep IP addresses, which can assist brands in complying with privacy laws.

When it comes to GA4, organizations have been dragging their feet. That will be no longer be an option in just over 15 months.

We are also publishing a blog on this topic, this Tuesday (3/22/22).

Source: https://blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/prepare-for-future-with-google-analytics-4/

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1. SEOPress WordPress Plugin Now Supports IndexNow - SEOPress is the newest WordPress plugin to support the IndexNow protocol, which notifies search engines when new or updated content is published.

With a rising number of search engines, including Bing, adopting IndexNow, support from SEO tool providers is growing as well.

Source(s): WordPress Plugin SEOPress Updated With IndexNow Support

1. Instagram Launches "Creator Lab" Portal for Creators by Creators - Instagram has launched a new Creator Lab project to help artists better grasp important posting best practices and procedures. The program includes videos and insights from a variety of successful producers on essential topics. The Creator Lab, which you can see here, has sections on channel growth, monetization, safety tips, and more, all hosted by well-known Instagram personalities.

Source(s): Instagram Launches New Creator Lab to Help Creators Maximize their On-Platform Performance

1. Instagram Rolls Out "Enhanced" Tags - On Instagram, appropriate crediting has never been more crucial as creators interact, encourage one another, and move the culture forward. Thus, Instagram is introducing enhanced tags to make it easier for contributors to get credit for their work. Users will be able to share and examine a creator's unique contribution to a photo or video post, according to Instagram. Within the tag, the creator's self-designated profile category describing their role will be displayed. Creators will be able to tag other creatives in their postings with these new tags, giving them more exposure for their work.

To use the new enhanced tags, you need to tap "Tag People" when creating a post. From there, you'll need to tap on "Add Tag" and search and select your contributors. Then you can select "Show Profile Category" to display the creator category, such as "stylist" or "photographer."

Source(s): Instagram Launches Enhanced Tags to Encourage Better Creator Crediting

1. Q.R. codes for Facebook Groups, and An Option To Invite People via Email - Facebook has announced new features to help group admins keep their groups safe and healthy, reduce misinformation, and to make it easier for them to manage and grow their groups with relevant audiences. The features are:

2. Using Admin Assist, you can automatically deny incoming postings that have been recognized as containing incorrect information. Incoming posts with content that has been flagged as false by third-party fact-checkers are refused before they are visible in the group, reducing the visibility of misinformation.

3. Admins and moderators can temporarily suspend group members and participants from publishing, commenting, reacting, engaging in a group chat, and creating or entering a Room in a group by expanding the capability of "mute" and renaming it "suspend."
4. Admin Assist can be used to automatically approve or reject member requests depending on pre-defined criteria, such as whether the prospective member has answered all of the member questions.
5. Facebook has included Q.R. codes that admins may download or copy and paste from the Share menu and share as they see fit to help make sharing groups and connecting with a specific community a more seamless experience. People will be brought to the group's About page after scanning, where they can join or request to join.
6. Invite people via email to join your group.

Source(s): New Tools to Help Group Admins Protect, Manage and Grow Their Facebook Groups

1. Microsoft Advertising Launches Professional Service Ads For Service Providers - Professional Service Ads, a new ad style aimed at service providers such as insurance brokers, realtors, and others, has been launched by Microsoft Advertising. Professional Service Ads are created dynamically based on the information you provide in your feed files, such as your plan type, organization category, federal registration status, and URLs. Microsoft will display more information in your adverts if you offer more specifics in the feed file.

Professional service ads are currently being tested in the United States and Canada. Comparison websites, Regional offices, subsidiaries, and even national businesses that provide relevant services can use Professional Service Ads.

According to Microsoft, advertisers using Professional service ads were able to raise conversion rates by roughly 60% when compared to conventional text ads in the early stages of the test. And the average CPA decreased by 67 percent when compared to overall performance in advertiser campaigns. By the way, the Professional Services Ads Auction is separate from text ads.

Source(s): Helping better connect consumers to professionals

1. Google Launches Automated Vehicle Ads In The U.S. - In the United States, Google is launching Vehicle Ads. This new format combines Google Merchant Center's automobile data feeds to match users' searches with adverts. Auto advertisers can use car advertisements to showcase their full vehicle inventory to potential customers on Google. The details supplied in the advertiser's vehicle inventory data stream (image, make, model, price, miles, and advertiser's name) are all used by Google to match people with automobile adverts. When a user clicks on a vehicle ad, they are directed to the advertiser's website's vehicle description page, where they may learn more and fill out a lead form. Advertisers can choose which actions to track, such as leads or store visits, and assign a monetary value to them.

Source(s): Introducing vehicle ads - Get into gear with vehicle ads on Google

1. Twitter Shops (Beta) Lets Brands List Up To 50 Products - Merchants can handpick a collection of up to 50 products to showcase to Twitter shoppers using Twitter Shops. People can now browse products from the profiles of their favorite businesses on Twitter, which is a free function. When you chat about and find things on the timeline, you can now browse them on Twitter as well.

When you visit a merchant's profile that has enabled Twitter Shops, you'll notice a "View shop" button just above their Tweets. When you tap the button, you'll be sent to that merchant's shop, where you can browse things. When you're ready to purchase, you can click on the product of your choice, which will open an in-app browser where you can learn more about the product and checkout on the merchant's website.

Twitter Shops is available to select merchants and managed partners in the U.S. Businesses who have their Shops enabled today include @Verizon, @ArdenCove, @LatinxInPower, @GayPrideApp, and @AllIDoIsCookUS. For now, people in the U.S. who use Twitter in English on iPhones will be able to view and interact with Twitter Shops.

Source(s): Twitter Shops: More space to shop

1. Announcements From Pinterest’s Annual Summit - Pinterest Presents - Every month, more than 400 million individuals visit Pinterest to discover inspiration for living a life they love, and brands play a critical part in establishing this positive atmosphere. During “Pinterest Presents,” the worldwide marketing community had access to engaging discussions and creative workshops hosted by an intriguing line-up of Pinterest speakers, including Pinterest's CEO, Ben Silbermann, and Chief Marketing Officer, Andréa Mallard, as well as special guest and fashion designer Tan France, during the event.

Attendees at Pinterest Presents got a sneak peek at some of the company's planned product launches, including:

1. Your Shop is a new way to shop on Pinterest that is powered by a taste-based algorithm. Every Pinner will be shown a personalized shopping page made up of content from creators and companies that are tailored to their personal tastes and preferences. Your Shop is presently in beta for Pinners in the United States and will be available to all US audiences later this year, with additional nations to follow.
2. Checkout is a tool that allows shoppers to purchase without leaving Pinterest, avoiding a misdirected experience. It is presently in beta. Checkout is now in beta for a limited number of Shopify merchants in the United States.
3. Pinterest's Shopping API makes it easier for retailers to establish and post catalogs on the site, allowing it to serve as a commerce destination for businesses of all kinds. Is it time for a sale? Pinterest will update your price in real-time based on what's on the feed.
4. Pinterest Trends Tool - Coming soon, businesses will be able to access new capabilities such as real-time search data, additional trend types, granular audience tools, and personalized trend predictions through the Pinterest Trends Tool. They are planning to expand the tool beyond the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada later this year.

For more details on what was previewed at Pinterest Presents, check out the Pinterest business site for videos and more information: business.pinterest.com

Source(s): Pinterest Announcement; Pinterest adds in-app checkout and personalized shopping recommendations

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1. 4 New Things in Microsoft Advertising:

2. Smart Shopping campaigns and Target ROAS for Shopping Campaigns are now accessible in 29 new regions, including 7 new markets in Latin America (LATAM). Last month, Microsoft announced the launch of Shopping Campaigns in Latin America, but these new shopping features will be accessible soon! You'll be able to expand your shopping campaigns to the Microsoft Audience Network as well.

3. Business attributes from Marketing with Purpose will now be offered in all markets. There are currently 32 attributes available across four categories: Inclusion, Environmental, Community/social responsibility, and Accessibility. See the help page under Dynamic partner data upgrades for more information on all the business attributes and how to use them.
4. Google Import improvements: Image extensions and Shopping Campaigns - you can now import your image extensions into search and audience campaigns through Google Import! These campaigns will automatically come over to the associated campaign, and you can find these images in your image library to use across other campaigns as well. Microsoft also allows you to import products from Google Merchant Center to Microsoft Merchant Center, streamlining the process of setting up an import and successfully running Microsoft Shopping Campaigns. For more information on all things, Google Import, see Import shopping campaigns from Google Ads (microsoft.com).
5. Automated bidding seasonality adjustments are rolling out globally this month - This feature is supported for Search campaigns (including Search campaigns extended to the Microsoft Audience Network), Shopping campaigns, and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns. Through this feature, you can inform Microsoft automated bidding algorithms with more signals that specify when you expect performance changes, like when conversion rate (CVR) variance will occur during a seasonal event, promotion, or other variation for your business. This helps address anticipated short-term fluctuations without significant long-term impact on your algorithms' learning, as well as help maximize performance around critical times such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

You can create multiple adjustments targeting various campaigns or various time periods. If multiple adjustments target the same campaign, all adjustments will be applied. Lastly, keep in mind that seasonality adjustments should only be used for campaigns with stable performance with automated bidding and have already completed their learning period.

1. 10 Minutes TikTok Video Is A Reality - The maximum video duration on TikTok has been upped yet again, this time to ten minutes, according to the social media platform. This update, which will be implemented globally in the coming weeks, is the result of months of testing. TikTok videos were initially limited to 15 seconds. TikTok later doubled the maximum video duration to 60 seconds and then tripled it to 3 minutes in July of this year.

When it comes to advertising a business, product, or service, short-form material can be restrictive. In terms of monetization, it's all really limiting. This improvement allows viewers to stay on the platform for longer without having to watch several portions of a video series. TikTok is the third most popular social media platform (after Facebook and Instagram), and its user base continues to expand.

1. Instagram Will Shut Down IGTV App - Last week, we shared that Instagram is going all-in with Reels. Now Instagram has announced that it will soon shut down its separate IGTV app, while it's also removing its in-stream video ads option. This makes sense since Instagram retired the IGTV brand in October 2021 so it was inevitable that the IGTV app will be retired soon. While this may seem like a step back for creator monetization, Instagram's looking to replace this with sticker ads for Reels and other options.

Per Instagram, "As part of our efforts to make video as simple as possible to discover and create, we will no longer be supporting our standalone app for IGTV. Instead, we will focus on having all video on the main Instagram app. We believe that this makes it easier for people to have all of these features and abilities in the main app, and are excited to continue to simplify and improve video in the main Instagram app."

P.S: Short-form content is wonderful for engagement, but it's challenging to monetize because 30-second snippets don't allow for mid- or pre-roll commercials. That's why YouTube has been promoting its own short-form video format, 'Shorts,' as a supplemental channel to assist producers to expand their main content stream and TikTok just increased the video length to 10 minutes.

1. Instagram Rollsout Automated Captions for Feed Videos - Instagram has taken the next step with the addition of auto-generated captions in Instagram feed videos, following the launch of automatic captions for IGTV uploads in 2020 and the expansion of captions to Stories last year.

Auto captions will now be available for any Instagram feed post, giving users another way to consume content on the app. It will also assist creators in maximizing viewership in both sounds on and sounds off contexts, which is a huge plus. It's inconvenient to be in a public location or even on the couch with your lover and not be able to grasp the whole context of a clip because you can't turn on the sound without provoking the fury of others around you.

Instagram's auto-captions for feed posts will initially be available in 17 languages, with more to come soon.

1. Desktop Rollout For Google Page Experience Update Is Complete - Google has announced that the page experience update for desktop is now done rolling out. This update started to roll out on February 22nd, and now, 9-days later, it is now fully rolled out.

This update will include all the current signals of the mobile version of the page experience update, outside of the page needing to be mobile-friendly. Google said all of the page experience factors for mobile will be included with the exception of the mobile-friendliness requirement, which is kind of obvious.

1. Per Google: Ranking Quotas Do Not Exist - Google's John Mueller reiterated that the company does not have a quota system in which a website can only rank for a certain number of keywords. There are no hard limits on how many pages they can show from a site, subdomain or not, according to him. It gets hard, he said, if you're attempting to compete against yourself for the same set of keywords. Why construct numerous pages to try to rank for the same term, after all? So, if you want five of your pages to appear on the same search results page, that method might not be the best. "Regardless, from a strategic point of view, if you're competing with your own content, you're going to have a harder time against stronger competitors."

There are endless opportunities for your site to rank for endless keywords.

1. Per Google: We Will Verify Merchant Experience Scorecard Metrics - I recently reported on Google's new Shopping experience scorecard program, which is a collection of ranking indicators related to the Google Shopping tab. The fear was that merchants would be requested to submit these metrics to Google and would only feed positive scores, perhaps manipulating the metrics and thus their rankings.

After the concerns were raised two weeks ago, Google's Alan Kent eventually reacted, saying that Google has "mechanisms in place to validate the information merchants are supplying." So, somehow, Google is able to verify that the products are delivered on time, that the shipping cost displayed on the checkout page was accurate, that the return cost was accurate, and that if the client returns the product, it is accepted within a particular return window.

He did state, that "merchants attempting to provide false information will be excluded from the program as this creates a poor customer experience."

1. Google Ads Launches Enhanced Conversions for Leads - We live in a multi-touch and multi-influence world. Simply relying on last-click attribution is not the best thing for us.

Understanding which leads convert to paying clients is crucial if you're a lead generation marketer. Importing your offline conversions can help: you can identify how campaigns are producing impact and optimize for important customers by measuring and reporting on your closed leads. However, in order for this method to succeed, it frequently necessitates time and developer resources. Google Ads has introduced enhanced conversions for leads, which allows you to track your offline leads using technologies comparable to enhanced conversions for the web.

Enhanced conversions is a Google Ads tool that you can use in conjunction with existing conversion tags to improve conversion measurement accuracy. Enhanced conversions make use of your existing Google Ads tag, which securely sends first-party conversion data to Google in a private and secure manner. First-party data includes:

• Email address (preferred)
• Name and home address
• Phone number (this must be provided in addition to one of the other attributes)

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1. Facebook Reels Available Globally - Facebook is taking its battle against TikTok to the next stage with the full launch of Reels on Facebook, using the platform's massive scale to capitalize on the popularity of short-form video content.

Facebook Reels will include remix functionality to encourage trend engagement, while creators will also be able to post Facebook Reels up to 60 seconds in length, in line with Instagram's Reels extension launched last July. Users will also be able to share publicly posted Reels to their Stories, adding even more engagement potential.

In addition to this, Facebook's also adding Reels drafts and a new video clipping option "that will make it easier for creators who publish live or long-form, recorded videos to test different formats."

That last one is important because, like YouTube, Facebook's looking to use its short-form option as a complementary channel while also giving creators the opportunity to build community and maximize their monetization potential through longer content as well.

1. LinkedIn Has Launched The LinkedIn Marketers Group - LinkedIn Has Launched a New Group to Provide Insights and Tips for LinkedIn Marketers, which will aim to provide community support and direction for digital marketers. LinkedIn's redesigned Marketing Partner Community Group will focus on sharing industry knowledge and relevant topics and conducting discussions about new and upcoming changes and insights from the platform itself to improve LinkedIn marketing tactics.

You can visit the LinkedIn Group now and request to join. You should hear back about approval within 24 hours. Once you've joined, you'll see group posts in your LinkedIn feed.

1. What You Need To Know About LinkedIn Podcast Network - With the debut of its new 'LinkedIn Podcast Network,' LinkedIn is trying to capitalize on the growing popularity of podcasts by hosting a variety of shows centered on major professional themes, prepared by both internal and external experts. Listeners will be able to access all of LinkedIn's podcasts by following each podcast host in the app and subscribing to their newsletter, as well as via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other audio source. The key benefit of engaging with these hosts on LinkedIn, according to LinkedIn, is that you'll be able to expand the conversation beyond passive listening.

2. LinkedIn Reveals New Post Analytics - LinkedIn is hoping to provide interesting insights into content performance with new post analytics tools, which will provide you information about the people who are reading your LinkedIn updates, as well as the number of Reactions each has received. The new analytics will give you a better idea of who is viewing your content, with filters for job title, industry, geography, and more. This could be a terrific approach to make sure your material reaches the people you want to target. If you've created personas for your own branding or marketing efforts, this could be a quick way to double-check your target audience and fine-tune your strategy based on the information you've gathered.

3. Microsoft Advertising Rolls Out Dynamic Descriptions - Dynamically generated headlines are often helpful to drive relevant experiences and more traffic for your business. Now to help advertisers provide even more relevant ad experiences while also saving them time, Microsoft Advertising has announced dynamic descriptions for DSA, a new tool that's unique to the search advertising landscape. Dynamic descriptions are the default option for creating new DSA campaigns in Microsoft Advertising online. With dynamic descriptions, you can supplement your generic static descriptions with more relevant information to your searchers and help drive more clicks. This is now available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

When you're in your DSA campaign settings, you'll now see a new checkbox that says Enable dynamic search ad text. Once you've done that, you'll be able to start getting descriptions dynamically generated and powered by Microsoft Advertising's Artificial Intelligence. They are continually optimized to provide the best messages to your customers.

Starting in April, Microsoft Advertising will enable dynamic descriptions for all existing DSA campaigns, with any advertisers that are insensitive verticals remaining opted out for their current campaigns.

1. Microsoft Advertising Launches Auto-Apply Recommendations - Advertisers Opted In By Default - Microsoft Advertising's auto-apply recommendations are now broadly available, the company stated Monday. In March 2021, Microsoft Advertising released a beta version of this feature, which is currently generally available. Advertisers are automatically enrolled in all five of the platform's suggestion kinds. While enabling auto-apply recommendations will not boost your budgets, it does give the platform permission to make adjustments on your behalf without your input. You should decide whether or not that is acceptable to them, and if it isn't, you should opt-out.

Microsoft Advertising currently offers the following auto-apply recommendation types:

1. Create Expanded Text Ads.
2. Create Responsive Search Ads.
3. Create multimedia ads.
4. Remove negative keywords conflicts.
5. Fix conversion goal-setting issue.

Advertisers can opt-out of auto-apply for any recommendations at any time. Each auto-apply recommendation has a check box in front of it. Simply clearing those who do not want to be adopted will opt-out, and they won't be added to the account moving forward. However, they can still be manually applied in the future.

1. Google Page Experience Update For Desktop Is Live - Google confirms the Page Experience algorithm update is now rolling out to desktop search results. The update is scheduled to finish rolling out by the end of March. Back in November 2021, we shared about the Page Experience update when it was first rolled out to mobile search results, and now it will be applied to desktop search results. For the most part, Page Experience on desktop includes the same ranking signals as the mobile update except for "mobile-friendliness." Mobile-friendliness, which is a signal built into page experience for mobile search, will not apply to desktop.

This means the same three Core Web Vitals metrics: LCP, FID, and CLS, and their associated thresholds will apply for the desktop ranking. Other aspects of page experience signals, such as HTTPS security and the absence of intrusive interstitials, will remain the same as well.

Google Search Console has a new report dedicated to evaluating Page Experience criteria on the desktop versions of web pages. You can utilize this report to get an idea of how your site may be impacted by the update when it finishes rolling out at the end of next month. The desktop report can be accessed from the Page Experience tab in Search Console, directly underneath the mobile report. It looks identical to the mobile report, with the exception of the Mobile Usability section.

1. Google Merchant Center Adds Short Title Attribute - Online retailers can now add an optional short title to identify their products in Google Merchant Center. The new [short_title] attribute differs from the existing [title] attribute in that the short title should be concise and is intended to show in "browsy experiences," like Discovery campaigns and Shopping ads on Gmail. Full product titles often get truncated in the "browsy" contexts Google has mentioned, which means that users may not be seeing all the relevant information from your ad. Short titles provide merchants with an alternate, concise way to identify their products, which could help to improve click-through rates. While Google allows 1–150 characters for this field, it recommends using between 5 and 65 characters. Google also advises that merchants:

2. Use a relevant, concise short title that clearly describes their product.

3. Ensure that the short title describes the product on the landing page.
4. Use professional and grammatically correct language.
5. Avoid foreign languages unless they're well understood (e.g., "sushi").
6. Avoid using capital letters for emphasis.
7. Avoid including promotional text (i.e., prices, sales dates, your business' name, etc).
8. Don't add extra white spaces.

You should also highlight the most important details by placing them towards the front since users don't always read the entire title. And, adding a brand name is a good idea if it helps differentiate the product — this can be important when you sell similar products across brands.

1. Google Shopping Experience Scorecard - A new tool dubbed the Shopping experience scorecard has been announced by Google for Google Merchant Center retailers. In other words, if these merchants produce a "great customer experience," Google will reward them with "a boost on ranks," "a badge," and "other perks that will help people find your business" in Google Shopping tab of Google Search.

There is a help document that explains that "the program will monitor the experience you provide to customers in several areas, including shipping speed, shipping cost, return cost, and return window. You'll be given a rating of "Excellent," "Comparable," or "Opportunity" on each metric. "To see your performance for each metric and your overall score:

1. Sign in to your Merchant Center account.
2. From the navigation menu, click Growth.
3. Click Shopping experience scorecard.

Suppose you are a merchant and part of Google Merchant Center and you know you can provide that level of "excellent" customer service. In that case, it might make sense for you to share these metrics with Google so you can gain better visibility in Google Shopping.

Google did add that if you do not provide the data, you will "not be penalized" — so there is no reason to feel pressured to provide the data to Google, outside of knowing that other merchants might and they might benefit, while you may not.

1. Google Ads Launches Enhanced Conversions For Leads - Google has officially launched enhanced lead conversions. Google Ads' Enhanced Conversions feature can "increase the accuracy of your conversion measurement and unleash more effective bidding," according to Google. You may receive first-party customer data such as an email address, name, home address, and/or phone number when a client completes a conversion on your website. It works in conjunction with your existing conversion tags by securely delivering hashed first-party conversion data from your website to Google. This information can be collected using conversion tracking tags, hashed, and provided to Google in hashed form, where it can be utilized to improve conversion measurement.

2. Google SEO 'Discovered – Currently Not Indexed' Status - When asked how long webpages can remain discovered but not indexed, Mueller says:

"That can be forever. It's something where we just don't crawl and index all pages. And it's completely normal for any website that we don't have everything indexed.

And, especially with a newer website if you have a lot of content, then I would assume it's expected that a lot of the new content for a while will be discovered and not indexed.

And then over time, usually it kind of shifts over, like well it's actually crawled, or it's actually indexed when we see that there's actually value in focusing more on the website itself. But it's not guaranteed."

1. Is There SEO Value Of User Comments On Websites? - Should visitors to your website be able to make comments? According to Google, user comments on web pages may bring additional SEO value, but they must be strictly regulated for spam and other concerns that may develop. It's incorrect to suggest that website comments are a ranking component because allowing users to submit comments will not improve your site's ranking. User comments can provide SEO value to web pages in the form of added context. If people stay on topic and provide comments that are relevant to the topic of the page, this information can help with search rankings. Comments relevant to the webpage's subject matter can help Google better understand the content and determine which types of queries it should rank for.

It's also true in the other direction. When visitors leave irrelevant comments, it might degrade the overall quality of the page. Off-topic comments may provide Google conflicting information about what the page is about and which queries it should appear for. Even if they are written by people who are not directly linked with the site, websites are accountable for user comments.

It's your responsibility if it's on your website.

For example, comments containing spammy links may result in a penalty or demotion in search results.

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1. Instagram Enables Likes On Stories - Instagram has added a new, simple way for users to engage with Stories content with Stories likes, which enables you to ‘like’ any Story in your feed, and let the creator know, without having to start up a DM conversation.

Stories likes are not public, and only the creator will be able to see them. Creators will be able to view their Story likes in their Story insights, with a small heart icon added next to the viewers’ name in the view listing.

Stories likes will not come through as a DM, so you’re not suddenly going to get an influx of DMs as people use the function to react to your Stories. To be clear, Instagram hasn’t indicated that this is or will be a ranking factor at this stage. But you would assume that with another means of direct insight, Instagram will look at how it could utilize such to improve each users’ experience, by showing them more of what they literally like.

1. Snapchat Will Enable Top Creators to Insert Mid-Roll Ads into Their Stories - Snapchat's adding another new monetization opportunity for Snap creators, with mid-roll ads for Snap Star Stories, providing a directly attributable revenue pathway for the app’s biggest stars.

As explained by Snap, soon, Snap creators will be able to switch on ads within their Stories, with a cut of any revenue generated by those ads then allocated back to the creator. Though the specific revenue cut here is not entirely transparent – according to Snap, the revenue share from these ads will be based on its proprietary payment formula, “which may include a number of factors such as posting frequency and audience engagement”.

1. Microsoft Advertising Expands to 29 New Countries - Microsoft announced the expansion of Microsoft Advertising in 29 new countries. This expansion goes across Europe and Africa, with a reach to 19 new languages. Microsoft estimates this brings the reach of the ad network to 41 million consumers, making 400 million searches each month on Microsoft and partner sites.

The following markets are live and ready for you to upload your Microsoft Advertising ads: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, and the Vatican City.

You can learn more about the expansion on the Microsoft blog.

1. Smart Pages, Microsoft’s Free Site Builder, is Now Available to US-based SMBs - Microsoft first launched Smart Pages, Microsoft’s free website building service, in February 2021. Until now, businesses that were interested in the service had to sign up for the closed beta. In October 2021, Microsoft announced the website builder’s first round of feature updates, which included an analytics dashboard and the ability to create a Smart Page from directly within a Bing Places account.

Starting Feb 16, 22, Smart Pages, is available to all US-based small and medium-sized businesses. Microsoft has also added new features to the service, including video embeds, text suggestions, integration with Bing Maps, and an updated Social Posts section.

Far too many SMBs operate with just a social media profile or a local listing as their only online presence. Having your own website opens up more opportunities to connect with potential customers and drive both online and in-store traffic. Now that this service is more widely available, more business owners can use it to establish a basic website for free. And, the new features, particularly the video embeds and Bing Maps integration, can be used to improve the user experience while providing relevant business information.

1. Meta Provides New Recommendations to Help Advertisers Lessen the Impacts of Apple's ATT Update - Meta has published some new recommendations to help advertisers maintain their data flows, and improve the performance of their campaigns.

First off, Meta says that advertisers should integrate with the Conversions API, which will provide more insight into consumer pathways.

Meta also recommends that advertisers verify all of their domains, especially for brands looking to track performance across multiple websites, while it also says that businesses should ensure that their conversion events are aligned with their campaign priorities.

Meta also recommends that brands allow some time before analyzing campaign performance, due to delayed data and modeled reporting (Meta recommends giving conversion-optimized campaigns at least 72 hours), while for App Conversion campaigns, it also recommends that brands use a 24-hour conversion window to help its ad systems optimize “for the fastest and most predictable feedback cycles”. Meta also says that its machine learning ad recommendation and audience tools are improving, which can help to limit the impacts.

Meta also suggests showing your ads across 6 or more Placements – “like on Facebook Marketplace or in Instagram Stories”, which can give its system more flexibility to control costs and generate better results.

1. YouTube Adds New Shorts Shelf in Channel Listings - YouTube continues to make Shorts a bigger focus, with a new addition on the desktop version of YouTube channel pages that will display each channel’s Shorts clips (where available) in a separate element.

Now, when a channel has uploaded Shorts, they’ll be displayed in a separate section, giving Shorts content a more specific focus, and likely driving more viewers, which could also make Shorts a more critical promotional element.

This is in line with usage trends, and engagement around short video clips. Indeed, YouTube recently reported that Shorts clips have cumulatively amassed over 5 trillion views thus far, and with Shorts catching on in India in particular, it makes sense for YouTube to lean into the format where it can, and help its creators boost their channel performance via the format.

1. YouTube Rolls Out New Metadata For Educational Videos - YouTube is bringing additional metadata to English language videos that are educational in nature. Videos can be marked as educational during the upload flow via a drop-down menu where you can select a category. Selecting Education as a video category will grant access to a new set of metadata you can use to describe the content. The new metadata fields include:

2. Type of video

3. Academic system
4. Education level
5. Exam, course, or standard

Each of these fields is optional. You can utilize some, all, or none of them during the upload process. This is an important update for YouTube channels because, in the future, this metadata will be added to YouTube’s search results to help viewers decide whether the content meets their needs.

1. Google: Good Core Web Vitals Scores Won’t Improve Indexing - Having good Core Web Vitals scores won’t necessarily lead to improved indexing of your webpages in Google’s search results. This is stated by Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller during a recent Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout.

As per Mueller, “the Core Web Vitals kind of plays into the Page Experience ranking factor — and that’s more of a ranking factor. That’s not a quality factor. And in particular, it doesn’t play in with how much we actually crawl and index from the website. In some cases, there is a little bit of a relationship between how fast the page is and how fast we can crawl it, but it doesn’t have to be that way. So that’s something where usually these sides are less connected and not completely tied together.”

1. Google: More Content Does Not Mean More Traffic - Google's John Mueller said on Twitter "more content definitely does not mean more traffic." Meaning, writing more content does not always translate to more traffic, especially from Google Search.

I can relate, creating more content, does not always translate to more traffic. Sometimes sites push out bad or spammy content and that won't always lead to more traffic. But in general, if you write quality and useful content often, it is more likely that you can produce more traffic from more content. Not always but often. John Mueller has said this before, saying Just putting out more content doesn't necessarily make a site better. He also said content frequency is not a ranking factor.

1. 15% Of Search Queries On Google Are Still New - Here is a not-new piece of data, 15% of the searches Google sees each day are new. Google shared this stat, again, on Twitter the other day saying "Fun fact: 15% of all Google searches have never been searched before."

Just some history on this stat, in 2007, 25% of all queries that searchers entered into the Google search box was never seen by Google before. That figure changed to 15% in 2013 and has remained at that figure according to Google even through today. Last I covered it was about two years ago in 2020, Google reconfirmed the 15% figure in 2017 and 2018 and now again in 2022.

1. Google Ads Announces 3 Changes to Automated Extensions - Google Ads rolled out three updates to automated ad extensions. Here's what's new.

2. Automated extensions will be eligible to show alongside your manually added extensions. This change will roll out sometime in mid-March. The ad extensions that will be eligible to show in tandem with manual extensions include Sitelinks, Callouts, and Structured snippets. This change to automated extensions eligibility helps your ad take up more real estate on the SERP. Previously, the automated extensions above weren’t eligible to show when manual extensions were created. What were the implications of this? For example, if your ads had two manual site link extensions created, your ad would only be eligible to show those manual extensions. With this update, your ad would now be able to show your two manual extensions, as well as automated extensions, at the same time. Keep in mind, your account has to have opted into automated extensions in order to show.

3. In addition to the automated extensions eligibility, Google is making updates to reporting capabilities. Reporting will now be viewable at an individual level in the Extensions page of Google Ads. At this individual level, you’re able to pause or remove any automated extension. This allows for easier management of your campaigns. You’ll also be able to easily identify which extensions were created manually, or automatically created by Google.

4. Manual Extension Viewability - Google already allows you to create extensions at a more granular level (account, campaign, or ad group). However, the more granular these extensions were created, these would prevent extensions created at a higher level to be ineligible to serve. Campaign or account-level extensions are eligible to show in your ads if they are predicted to improve performance. Predicted performance improvement comes from Google’s machine learning algorithm. If you have created hyper-specific ad extensions at the ad group level, it’s a good idea to review any campaign or account-level extensions that may be eligible to show in your ads. If there are any extensions not relevant to those ad groups, you will want to reorganize them in a way that makes sense for your account.

5. New Google Ads Destination Not Accessible Policy - Google Ads announced it is adding a new "destination not accessible" policy under the Google destination requirements policy. Google is also making changes and clarifications to the document overall. Google said the changes go into enforcement on March 21, 2022.

The new independent destination not accessible policy is part of the overall Destination Requirements category for ads related to a destination's access limitation. Google said that this policy will also "provide self-service appeals management for advertisers." These include pages that lead to error messages such as "This site is not accessible in your location" or "down for maintenance" that were previously enforced under the "Destination not working" policy. The new policy language will say "Not allowed Destinations that are not accessible in the targeted location."

1. Like Apple, Google Will Limit Sharing of User Data with Third Parties - Google announced that it will be bringing Privacy Sandbox to Android with the goal of introducing new, more private advertising solutions. Privacy Sandbox is an existing initiative by Google to better protect users’ private data. These solutions will limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID.

2. Google Confirms Standard Shopping Campaigns Will Remain Available - Google confirms Standard Shopping campaigns will remain available. This will come as a relief to advertisers that still rely on Standard Shopping’s manual controls and capabilities — especially as Google Ads continues to release more automated products.

Standard Shopping campaigns offer a set of capabilities, controls, and data that many advertisers rely on, and knowing that they’ll continue to be available will come as a relief, especially since Google has been taking away manual controls in so many areas.

1. Performance Max Will Absorb Smart Shopping and Local Campaigns - Performance Max is set to absorb Smart Shopping campaigns this summer. Local campaigns will also be rolled into Performance Max sometime between August and September. Once that occurs, advertisers will no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping or Local campaigns.

To facilitate the transition, Google Ads will offer a self-service tool for advertisers that want to move their campaigns over to Performance Max ahead of the transition window, which could give them more time for testing. The tool will be available for Smart Shopping campaigns starting in April, with support for Local campaigns starting in June.

1. Google Ads Needs At Least 15 Conversion In 30 Days For Machine Learning To Work Better - Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, confirmed some time ago that for the Google Ads machine learning models to work faster (and probably better) Google would need a minimum of 15 conversions in the last 30 days. She added that you really need 50 to 100 conversions if you want machine learning to outperform manual strategies.

2. Google Ads Shares Top 3 Priorities for 2022 - Jerry Dischler Vice President / General Manager, Google Ads shared his top three priorities for 2022: automation, measurement, and privacy.

3. New Opportunities With Automation - Under the Automation pillar, Google is emphasizing the use of Performance Max and Discovery campaign types. Both campaign types focus on reaching users at scale from a single campaign. Google touts the benefits of these campaigns to include:

4. More simplicity in management (fewer campaigns)

5. Multi-channel reach
6. Greater ad inventory

7. Incremental conversions

8. The Future Of Measurement - It’s no secret that measurement has been a challenging topic for most advertisers. With the iOS 14 update, the future removal of third-party cookies, and more – new approaches to measurement will be critical for success. Without meaningful results and data to back up your marketing efforts, it’s going to be harder to prove the value of marketing. Google is rolling out new solutions to privacy and measurement including:

9. Enhanced conversions

10. Consent mode
11. Conversion modeling

12. Data-driven attribution

13. Delivering Expectations For Digital Privacy - It’s difficult these days to go without hearing of some sort of privacy breach. Google understands the increasing need for user privacy and controls. While you need to build and cultivate relationships with your customers, they need to know that their data is safe and maintain some level of anonymity. Google has updated its privacy playbook to capture these needs both from the advertiser and user perspective. The three main highlights of this playbook include:

14. Building direct relationships with customers

15. Ensuring measurement remains accurate and actionable
16. Keep your ads relevant

In building direct relationships with customers, you’re able to capture first-party data for more 1:1 direct communication, such as email marketing or in-app messaging.

What does this mean for advertisers?

While we are all used to relying on paid media to drive the final sale and showing direct ROI, the role of paid media may need to change. For example, the goal of some of your non-branded or awareness efforts should shift to capturing first-party data, instead of the final sale.

If you’re able to capture that first-party data on the first touch, you would be able to attribute a final sale back to that original touchpoint. Just remember to shift your attribution modeling to reflect changes in strategy.

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1. Microsoft Launches “Cruise Ads” - Microsoft announced a new Microsoft Advertising format for Bing Search named Cruise Ads. Cruise Ads appear on the right rail of Microsoft Bing search results and run alongside mainline text ad placements. These ads can be triggered by queries like cruise name, location, length, and more. Cruise Ads use search intent and dynamically-generated elements to deliver relevant ad experiences based on data feeds. Advertiser feed offers are automatically matched to queries without a need for keywords. Advertisers can also use negative keywords for optimization.

As a reminder, Microsoft Advertising launched automobile ads, health insurance ads, credit card ads, and tour and activity ads.

1. Second Annual 'Pinterest Presents' Conference - The countdown to second #PinterestPresents is on and Pinterest is calling it the “The ads summit you’ll actually want to watch.” And it's all going down on March 10.

The virtual event will provide new insights into key usage trends, while also enabling Pinterest to preview upcoming platform features and updates for your planning. You can register for it here.

1. YouTube 2022 Roadmap: Community, Collaboration, and Commerce - Through a blog post, YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan has shared the platform's roadmap for the year. Here are the updates you need to know of:

Shopping capabilities will expand via shoppable videos, Live Shopping, and via the user interface of the YouTube app.

YouTube plans to keep adding features to its Shorts format, the platform’s answer to TikTok and Instagram’s Reels. In addition to new effects and editing tools, YouTube plans to introduce the ability to reply to individual comments by creating another Short (similar to TikTok).

YouTube is also exploring monetization options for this format. In the coming months, it plans to test BrandConnect for Shorts creators, integration of the Super Chat feature (in which viewers can purchase visually distinct chat messages) as well as the ability to shop directly from a Short.

Collaborative live streaming will also be introduced, enabling creators to go live with other creators. And, YouTube has begun testing gifted memberships, which allow viewers to purchase channel memberships for other viewers in a Livestream.

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1. Microsoft Introduces Portfolio Bid Strategies & Integration with Google Tag Manager - Microsoft Advertising said that portfolio bid methods are now accessible globally. The platform's automated Google Tag Manager (GTM) integration is now available to everyone.

Portfolio bid strategies. This feature automatically adjusts bidding across multiple campaigns to balance under- and over-performing campaigns that share the same bidding strategy (like maximize conversions, target CPA, target impression share, etc). Portfolio bid strategies can help save time that might otherwise be spent manually adjusting bids.

Automated integration with GTM. Microsoft Advertising’s integration with Google Tag Manager enables you to automatically copy the setup used by your existing Google tags. To do so, sign in to Google and select the Google Tag Manager account and container via Microsoft Advertising online. Next, enable the permissions to update your setup, and Microsoft Advertising will set up the UET tag with additional parameters.

1. Pinterest Introduces AR Try-On for Furniture - With a new 'AR Try-On for Home Décor' process, Pinterest is taking its augmented reality purchasing possibilities to the next level, allowing users to digitally place furniture in their homes. The approach makes use of Pinterest's continually expanding AR Lens technology to determine the virtual object's true dimensions and characteristics in order to create an accurate representation of how it will appear in our real-world location. Pinners can then alter the product in the camera view to evaluate how it fits in their space and how well it matches their current decor.

2. Twitter Launches New 'Toolbox' Hub to Highlight Helpful Creation, Moderation, and Analytics Tools - Twitter has launched a new 'Twitter Toolbox' hub, which will feature useful, dependable Twitter statistics and creation tools to help you get the most out of your Twitter marketing and growth efforts. Expression tools, Safety Tools, and Measurement Tools are the three sections of the new Toolbox. The measurement aspect is likely to be of most relevance to marketers, with a variety of Twitter analytics software available to provide greater insight into your tweet performance.

3. FaceBook, Pinterest, and Snap Revenue Updates - Pinterest Turns a Profit in 2021 - Pinterest, Inc. recently reported better-than-expected results ($846.7 million, up 20% year-over-year.) for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021, on the back of growth in revenues. In other operating metrics, Pinterest’s average revenue per user (ARPU) increased 23% from the previous year to $1.93. However, the company’s Monthly Active Users (MAUs) saw a 6% year-over-year decline to 431 million.

Snap Posts Its First Full Year of Positive Cash Flow in 2021 - Snap reported its first quarterly net profit on Thursday, and beat analyst estimates for the fourth quarter on earnings, revenue, and user growth.

Facebook Loses a Million Daily Active Users, Posts Big Revenue Result for Full Year 2021 - Facebook earnings came in below expectations for the fourth quarter, and the company said numerous challenges are ahead in the first quarter. Facebook said it’s being hit by a combination of factors, including privacy changes to Apple’s iOS and macroeconomic challenges. It blamed the lower-than-expected growth in part on inflation and supply chain issues that are impacting advertisers’ budgets.

1. Google Q4 Search Ad Revenue: $43.3 Billion While YouTube Generated $8.6 Billion - In Q4 of last year, overall Google advertising income was $61.2 billion, up from $46.2 billion in Q4’2020. Google search and other, YouTube advertising, and Google Network are all included in "total Google advertising." In Q4 2021, YouTube made $8.6 billion in ad revenue, with a total of $28.8 billion in advertising revenue for the year. That's a substantial improvement above YouTube's 2020 results. With artists receiving roughly 55% of YouTube ad revenue, that means YouTube will pay creators more than $15 billion in 2021. Search advertising generated $43.3 billion in revenue in Q4 of this year, compared to $31.9 billion in Q4 of last year. In the fiscal year 2021, Google search and others generated slightly about $149 billion, up 43 percent from $104 billion in the fiscal year 2020.

2. Google Search Console Domain Properties Can Now Be In Search Results - Google has announced that the Search Console snapshot in the search results now includes domain attributes. This is a snapshot card showing some of the higher-level data for your site immediately in the search results from Search Console.
   This card can appear only if you are an owner or full user of the site in Google Search Console, and you are signed in with that Google account while searching for your site or queries it might rank for. You can turn this snapshot on or off as well, those instructions are in this help document.

Having this snapshot appear can be handy for site owners who have access to Search Console but don't check their data very often. This serves as a helpful reminder to site owners that Search Console contains a wealth of data and information that they may examine or have an SEO professional examine on their behalf.

1. Auto-tagging Added to Google Merchant Center Free Listings - Google Merchant Center now supports auto-tagging for free product listings and free local product listings, according to the firm. By adding a result ID to your URLs, you should be able to follow your shopping efforts better using Google Search.

Auto-tagging is a Google Merchant Center feature that allows you to measure conversions from your free product listings and free local product listings on your website separately from other conversion types. It also allows you to separate your free listings and free local listings from total Google organic traffic via a third-party site analytics tool like Google Analytics.

1. Google Ads Launches Revamped Partners Program - The new Partners program rules went into force about two years ago, and Google will notify all Partners of their current status. All Partners will be notified of their current status by Google. Those who have already accomplished the new standards will receive their Partners badge right now, while those who have not will receive it once they have met all of them. This program's criteria adjustments were first announced in February 2020, but the debut was postponed owing to the effects of the coronavirus epidemic, giving Google time to incorporate comments from advertisers into the final version of the requirements.

To be eligible for the new Google Partners program, advertisers must:

• Achieve an optimization score of 70%.
• Spend $10,000 across all of a partner’s managed accounts within a 90-day period.
• Have at least 50% of designated account strategists certified in Google Ads, with at least one certification in each product area (Search, Display, Video, etc.) with campaign spend of $500 (or more) in 90 days.

Agencies that meet Partners requirements and are within the top 3% of participating agencies in their country are eligible to become Premier Partners. The top 3% is evaluated annually; the factors that determine the top 3% include, but aren’t limited to:

• Client growth – Ability for partners to grow their existing clients and acquire new clients, measured by year-over-year ads spend growth and ads spend among first-time Google Ads clients.
• Client retention – Demonstrated ability to sustain client business, measured by the percentage of clients retained year-over-year.
• Product diversification – Demonstrated investment in results-focused product mix beyond Search, measured by the percentage of spend in Display, Apps, Video, and Shopping each calendar year.
• Annual ads spend – Investment in Google Ads or Google Marketing Platform, measured by spend across managed accounts each calendar year.

Google Ads is now offering its Premier Partners the following:

• Product betas – Receive ongoing access to the most current product betas.
• Advanced Google Ads support – Access 24-hour advanced ads support.
• Executive experiences – Attend invite-only industry events, such as roundtable discussions with Google leaders, sessions with other Premier Partners, and opportunities to hear from industry thought leaders.
• Premier Partner Awards – The Premier Partner Awards highlight excellence in digital marketing and showcase Premier Partners that help drive results for clients with Google Ads.

• Newly redesigned 2022 Premier Partner badge.

• Google Consolidates Advertiser Identity & Business Verification - In March 2022, Google Ads will combine the current advertising identity and business operations verification programs into a single advertiser verification program, resulting in a more streamlined and better advertiser experience. On Monday, January 20, 2022, Google began distributing alerts to advertisers who will be affected by the move. "Advertisers will be contacted through email and an in-account message when they have been selected for the Advertiser verification program," Google added.

Here is what Google wrote:

• About your business: In the first step of the unified Advertiser verification program, Google will ask advertisers a few basic questions related to their Google Ads account and business under a new ‘About your business’ section. The questions will ask, for example, the advertiser’s industry and billing country, and information to help Google understand if they are a direct or indirect provider (third party) of the products or services advertised on the Google Ads platform. Advertisers will be given 30 days to submit their answers. If advertisers have not submitted their answers by the end of the 30th day, their account will be paused.
• Verification timeline updates: Responses from the completion of the 'About your business' questions will determine the verification requirements and direct advertisers to the next steps of additional verification, which may include verifying your identity, your business operations, or both (see the 'Advertiser selection criteria updates' section below). Advertisers will be given 30 days to successfully complete these additional verifications. Failure to complete or meet the verification requirements in the specified time period will result in an account pause. Note that the pause will only be applied by the end of the 30th day if advertisers have not completed or met the requirements.
  • For Identity verification: Previously, advertisers were given 30 days to start verification and additional 30 days to successfully complete the identity verification.
  • For Business operations verification: Previously, advertisers were given 21 days to successfully complete the Business operation verification along with a 7 days notice period before account suspension.
  • For the unified Advertiser verification: Now, advertisers will have 30 days to complete the ‘About your business’ questions and an additional 30 days to successfully complete all requested verifications, which may include verifying their identity, their business operations, or both.
• Business operations verification updates: To reduce the administrative burden and provide a consistent and synchronized experience for our advertisers, we are aligning the enforcement actions for all the verification requirements under the Advertiser verification program. As a result of this alignment, failure to complete or meet the business operations verification requirements (if requested) will now result in an account pause instead of an account suspension. This means that advertisers' accounts will stay open, but their ads will not be able to serve until they are able to complete this program successfully. Note that the pause will only be applied by the end of the 30th day if advertisers have not completed or met the requirements.
  To run ads again, advertisers must complete the verification successfully by submitting the requested responses to the survey along with the relevant documentation (as applicable).
• Advertiser selection criteria updates: As a part of a unified Advertiser verification program, we are combining the advertiser selection criteria for the current advertiser Identity verification and Business operations verification programs for a more harmonized experience, introducing additional criteria to provide an increased layer of protection for our users, and clarifying the instances when the advertiser accounts may be paused immediately. Details below.
  • Additional criteria: Google may request that advertisers complete the Advertiser verification program if, for example, they are advertising on brand-related queries or user queries in business verticals or industries susceptible to abuse, fraud, and scams (such as travel, customer or technical support services and financial services). Where an advertiser is asked to complete additional verification, advertisers' campaign performance may be impacted when advertising on certain Google restricted queries. Successful completion of the requested verifications will help improve campaign performance (as applicable).
  • Criteria for immediate account pausing: In certain circumstances, we may pause advertisers’ accounts immediately when the Advertiser verification program is initiated. Your account may be paused immediately for the following reasons:
    • If we suspect your ads violate our Google Ads policies, including, for example, Misleading representation, Unreliable claims, Unidentified business, Business name requirements, Solicitation of funds, Sensitive Events, and Coordinated Deceptive Practices.
    • If we suspect that your advertising or business practices may cause physical or monetary harm to users. Non-exhaustive examples include: misrepresenting yourself in your ad content; offering financial products or services under false pretenses; or offering unauthorized customer support services on behalf of third parties.
    • If we suspect you are attempting to circumvent our verification process.
    • If your identity or your advertising behavior has been identified as unclear.

• Transparency & disclosures: Similar to the current process followed in the identity verification, as a part of the identity and/or business operations verification steps, advertisers will be required to submit their legal business or their individual name along with supporting documentation for the unified Advertiser verification program. With the information advertisers provide, Google will display the advertiser name and location via an ad disclosure. Learn more about ad disclosures.

• Google Ads Introduces Discovery Optimization Score & Updates Auto-Applied Recommendations - Google Ads rolls out updates to Discovery Optimization Score, auto-applied recommendations, and YouTube campaign optimizations. Until now, the Optimization Score in Google Ads only scanned across Search, Display, Shopping, and Video campaigns. Today, they now include Discovery campaigns. Your Discovery campaigns will now show a score of 0-100%, with 100% meaning the campaigns are performing at their full potential. The new recommendations for Discovery campaigns are geared to getting you to lean more into automation through audiences.

The second set of updates is within auto-applied recommendations. You are now able to auto-apply Google’s campaign recommendations at the manager account level. This update means that you no longer have to go into individual accounts and apply recommendations manually. You do have the option to personalize which recommendations you automatically apply if any at all. The recommendations are aimed to scale the level of effort it takes to optimize campaigns. However, at the end of the day, these automatic recommendations are best used in conjunction with manual monitoring.

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1. TikTok Launches 'TikTok Tactics' Online Course - TikTok has launched a new, video-aligned platform training course for marketers, designed to provide tips and insights on how to make the best use of the platform for brand promotion and development.

The new ‘TikTok Tactics’ course is an ‘easy to follow, best-practice guide to advertising on TikTok’, which provides a range of lessons on attribution, targeting, creative best practices, and more.

The course, which you can sign-up for here, focuses on four key elements:

1. Attribution
2. Targeting, Bidding + Optimization
3. Catalog
4. Creative

You can sign-up and go through the TikTok Tactics course here.

1. TikTok Instant Page Meets Users’ and Brands’ Needs for Speed - As it looks to maximize business engagement in the app, and boost its revenue opportunities, TikTok is rolling out a new ‘Instant Page’ shopping display option, which will enable brands to connect their TikTok ads through to a lightweight, native landing page, built within TikTok itself, which will load up to 11 times faster than standard mobile pages.

The process is a lot like Facebook’s Instant Articles, with the content built into the app itself, as opposed to referring users off to a third-party website. In the case of Instant Articles, that comes with inherent problems, because it limits the data collection capacity of publishers, where the IA offering is primarily aimed. TikTok’s Instant Pages are a little different, in that they’re focused, ideally, on direct conversion for brands, but it is still a consideration. If people aren’t clicking through to your site, and you’re not getting referral traffic data, that could be a concern.

To set up a TikTok Instant Page, businesses will need to create an eligible ad on TikTok Ads Manager (full eligibility details here) and then build an Instant Page as the destination link for the campaign.

Once you’ve created an Instant Page, you can save it to your TikTok ad library, so you can add it to multiple campaigns.

P.S: TikTok’s Instant Pages are currently in testing, available via a TikTok sales rep, but they’ll likely be rolled out to more businesses soon. Another consideration for your strategy.

1. YouTube Creators to Receive a Separate Account for YouTube Earnings - Google sent emails to YouTube publishers that their YouTube AdSense payments will be separated from their other AdSense payments. So if you get paid through Google AdSense for AdSense ads on your sites and also on YouTube, you will now get payments individually for each.

The issue is, that means each has to hit the $100 payment threshold individually and you might get paid out slower. That is, some publishers take time to hit the $100 payment threshold but when you combine AdSense for Search, AdSense for Content, YouTube, and other earnings together, you can hit the $100 payment threshold sooner. Now that Google is paying YouTube out differently, it may take you longer to get a payment from Google if your payments are small - thus hurting smaller publishers.

1. YouTube Adds New Guided Support Process for Community Guidelines Violations - YouTube’s looking to provide more guidance for creators who’ve been hit with guideline violations via a new, more detailed reporting process that will take them through the specifics of the issue with their content, and what they can do to resolve it.

The updated process will provide more information on the specifics of each violation, and what it means for the visibility and monetization of your content, before taking you through the next steps of how you can resolve the issue.

The review process specifies the element in question and then enables creators to update the clip to address the noted concern/s.

The last element provides an easy way for creators to ask for a second review if they feel the report was incorrect, while they can also add additional contextual info for YouTube in relation to the violation reported.

It’s a good update, with many YouTube creators expressing frustration at the platform’s current reporting process, which has seen a lot of videos penalized incorrectly. Violations are also reported via a general email template that offers little insight on specifics.

1. The Rise of YouTube Shorts And Creator Economy Update - YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has shared an overview of the platform’s key areas of focus for 2022, and where it sees new opportunities, which points to some interesting developments in the platform’s roadmap, and for online video more broadly.

Key elements of focus for YouTube include Shorts, its TikTok-like short video platform, which YouTube reports has now hit 5 trillion all-time views, underlining the potential of the format.

Wojcicki also shared that:

“The number of channels around the world making more than $10,000 a year is up 40% year over year [while] YouTube’s creative ecosystem supported more than 800,000 jobs in 2020. Now there are 10 ways for creators to make money on YouTube. Last year, YouTube Channel Memberships and paid digital goods were purchased or renewed more than 110 million times.”

1. Facebook Is Removing Profile Video Feature - Facebook has announced that it’s removing video profile images as of February 7th, with people who currently have a video profile image being reverted back to a still picture instead.

Originally launched in 2015, profile videos enable users to upload a 7-second video clip, which then loops on repeat, adding an animated, engaging element to their Facebook presence.

It hasn’t been a highly used feature, but some people have been able to create interesting, even entertaining profile video clips, which adds to the personality of their profile.

It’s not a major shift, and again, I doubt it will impact many users, nor that many people will care. But if you do have a video profile image, prepare to say goodbye to your clever, 7-second clip that encapsulated your ‘crazy’ personality.

1. Instagram Rolls Out A Live Banner Feature - Instagram has now outlined its new display of scheduled live streams on creator profiles, providing another way to raise awareness of upcoming live broadcasts in the app.

The new display option will enable you to list your upcoming IG live streams on your profile, which, when tapped, will provide additional info in a pop-up prompt, where people can also sign-up for a reminder of when the stream is set to begin.

Users can create as many scheduled lives as they like, with a side-scrolling list then added to your profile display.

1. Twitter’s New Flock Feature Lets You Tweet to Select Followers - Creating a separation between your public and personal lives has become more difficult than ever before due to the rise of social media, and there is no platform in which this difficulty of separation becomes more apparent than with Twitter. Having a large following on Twitter can often result in you being forced to censor yourself for fear of revealing too much to followers that you might not even know. Going private is one way to curb this issue, but many users felt that this left them between a rock and hard place because private Twitter accounts are rather limited in their scope.

Twitter is trying to fix this by taking a leaf out of Instagram’s book. Similar to how on Instagram you can have a circle of close friends that you share more personal or private content with that would not be visible to your regular followers, Twitter is rolling out a new feature called “Flocks”. You can add up to 150 people to your Flock, and anything that you tweet to said Flock would not be visible by anyone else. This gives most users the best of both worlds. We already saw an experiment called Trusted Friends back in July, and it seems that Twitter is now rolling it out properly with a new name that appears to be more or less on brand from most points of view.

1. Twitter Updates Its Ad Platform - Twitter has announced some new updates to its ad platform which are designed to streamline ad targeting, while also providing more insights on campaign performance.

First off, Twitter’s changing the name of its ‘Website Clicks & Conversions’ objective to ‘Website Traffic’, a more generalized header, which will now also include a new ‘Site Visits Optimization’ goal within your available campaign objectives.

Now, when setting up a Website Traffic campaign, you’ll be able to use ‘Site visits’ as the goal, which will then direct Twitter’s system to serve your ads to audiences most likely to visit your website. That will then enable Twitter’s systems to better determine audience objectives, and present your ads to the right users. Twitter says that it’s seen strong results with site visits in testing, and it’ll be interesting to see whether the new goal generates a better direct response to your promoted tweets.

In addition to this, Twitter’s also adding a new aggregated view of site metrics and conversion events within Twitter Ads Manager, which Twitter’s adding as a means to counter data loss as a result of Apple’s ATT update, and more users opting out of in-app tracking.

The process will utilize data gathered via Twitter’s website tag to provide a generalized estimate of key metrics, by Ad Group, at campaign level, by device type (iOS or Android), and placement level, where possible. The data obviously won’t be as accurate as you would get from direct reporting via the Twitter tag on each user response, but by providing some insight into user actions, Twitter will be able to replace a level of indicative insight that’s been lost due to the iOS change.

And finally, Twitter’s adding a new ‘Events Manager’ dashboard to manage your Twitter Website Tag and its associated web-based conversion events.

The new Events Manager overview will provide in-depth insight on tag events, enabling you to better track and utilize the data being gathered from your site visitors.

1. Microsoft Earnings: Search, LinkedIn Advertising Revenue Rise - Microsoft posted the second quarter of its 2022 financial results today, reporting revenue of $51.7 billion and a net income of $18.8 billion. Revenue is up 20 percent, and net income has increased by 21 percent.

Search and news advertising revenue was up by 32% year on year, which is impressive when you consider the fact that Microsoft was not even a major player in this industry not too long ago which represents just how many new revenue streams it has developed over the years.

Another area of growth is LinkedIn. The social media platform geared towards professional networking got a 37% increase in revenue year over year. A lot of that has to do with an increased demand for advertising on the platform, making this one of the most successful acquisitions that Microsoft has managed to complete during its recent history. LinkedIn has gone from being a relative footnote in the social media industry to a major player that is considered one of the top social media sites from an advertising point of view.

Overall, Microsoft earned $10 billion from advertising alone if you include LinkedIn. It has also seen strong growth in some of its more traditional areas of expertise like PC which earned Microsoft well over $17 billion, representing a 15% increase in that area during a time when many other industries are seeing decreased sales.

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1. Google Ads’ Updated Experiments Page - In the new Experiments pages, advertisers no longer have to create a separate campaign draft and changes made to the original campaign are automatically synced to the experiment as well.

This streamlined experiments workflow saves advertisers time by eliminating campaign draft creation. Similarly, the experiment sync feature is also a timesaver because advertisers may no longer have to manually copy changes over from their original campaigns, which can be particularly time-consuming when running multiple experiments simultaneously. And, the ability to apply the changes from an experiment to the base campaign with just one click also makes implementation easier.

1. Google Search Console Now Includes Desktop Page Experience - Google Search Console has a new report dedicated to evaluating Page Experience criteria on the desktop versions of webpages. This report can help you prepare for the launch of the page experience algorithm update on desktop, which will begin rolling out in February and finish at the end of March.

The desktop report can be accessed from the Page Experience tab in Search Console, directly underneath the mobile report. It looks identical to the mobile report, with the exception of the Mobile Usability section.

About Page Experience On Desktop: Google has confirmed the three Core Web Vitals metrics: LCP, FID, and CLS, and their associated thresholds will apply for the desktop ranking. Other aspects of page experience signals, such as HTTPS security and the absence of intrusive interstitials, will remain the same as well.

1. Yoast Now Supports SEO on Shopify - Like the WordPress version of the app, Shopify merchants can use it to optimize their products and posts to show organic, non-shopping results. Yoast SEO for Shopify costs $29 per 30 days, unlike the WordPress version of the app, which operates under a freemium model.

Yoast SEO is one of the most commonly used SEO apps in the WordPress ecosystem and the launch of an app for Shopify speaks to the rise of e-commerce (particularly over the last two years).

1. Why Site/SEO Migrations Are Hard - John Mueller from Google explained that URL changes are not simple for search engines to deal with because Google stores in its index a set of URLs, its on a URL or page by page basis. John said, "this may at first sound like a small change within a website." He said, however "it's not that simple for search engines." Why? John explained that "search engines like Google store their index on a per-page basis." "So if you change the address or the URL of a page that page's data has to be forwarded somehow otherwise it gets lost," he explained.

First, John recommends you deeply study the Google site move documentation, it was vastly improved in 2014 and updated since then over time. John then summarized what you should do, but it is important to see all those details in the help docs:

1. Do your research
2. Create a list of the old & new URLs
3. Implement the migration
   1. 301 redirects
   2. Internal updates
4. Monitor the migration

And he said these changes can take Google several months to process with the more important URLs happening faster and the less important URLs happening slower. Google has said most of the time these moves take a few months but again, John reminded us to keep the redirects in place for at least a year.

1. Google New robots tag: indexifembedded - Google has a new robots tag for when you use embedded content on your pages named indexifembedded. Google said with this new tag “you can tell Google you’d still like your content indexed when it’s embedded through iframes and similar HTML tags in other pages, even when the content page has the noindex tag.”

If you embed content on your site and want to control indexing of the content on the page, now you have more control with this new indexifembedded robots tag.

Google explained that sometimes publishers want the content on the page to be indexed and sometimes not when they embed content. This new robots tag gives you more control over communicating those wishes to Google Search.

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1. Open Enrollment For The Microsoft Advertising Partner Program Has Begun! - Open enrollment for the Select and Elite tiers of the Microsoft Advertising Partner Program will run from January through March. The opportunity to enroll at the Partner tier and begin unlocking benefits will remain available year-round. If you're ready to enroll but aren't sure what tier you qualify for, reach out to Microsoft Advertising support or your Microsoft Advertising representative.

Elite and Select partners are eligible to enroll only during the annual open enrollment cycle (January 1st to March 31st). Partner tier partners may enroll throughout the year. Eligibility and participation are based on meeting a set of criteria, including being an existing Microsoft Advertising customer for at least six months and maintaining a minimum combined total Microsoft Search Network spend for the geographies that you serve.

The Microsoft Advertising Partner Program tiers are determined by the level of investment in Microsoft Advertising, in addition to other requirements. Your Partner Program tier will remain for a calendar year and will be evaluated every December to take effect January 1.

1. Google Ads Allows Sports Gambling Ads In New York Now - As of Jan 8, 2022, Google Ads, is allowing certified and state-licensed entities in New York to run ads for sports betting. This was previously disallowed but now that the state Gaming Commission in New York changed the rule, it is now allowed in New York State.

2. 4 New Messaging Features From Snapchat - Snapchat introduced four new messaging (Chat Replies, Bitmoji Reactions, Polls, and a revamped audio and video calling interface) features, which will roll out to Snapchatters “in the coming days” on Android and iOS.

First off, Snap’s added Poll Stickers, which enable you to create emoji-focused polls that you can share in Snaps and Stories. Per Snapchat, “Our visual Polls work across iOS and Android, so all your friends can weigh in and show their thoughts. Plus, our Polls were designed with transparency in mind - you can see how your friends voted to help ensure responses stay thoughtful and kind.”

Snapchat also adds a new option to reply to individual messages within an ongoing group chat, enabling you to specifically address any comment with a separate chat thread. The functionality will be familiar to those who engage in group chats on Messenger, given Meta added the same functionality back in 2019. The option will make it easier to ensure your messages are understood, while additionally providing more context to all group chat members.

Snap’s also rolling out Bitmoji Reactions, which are similar to the reaction options in other social apps but utilize your Bitmoji character for a more personal touch. As you can see here, within a chat thread, you’ll now be able to choose one of seven Bitmoji reactions, providing a quick way to respond to messages, while also incorporating Bitmoji use.

And finally, Snapchat’s updated its video and audio calling interface in order to “make live conversations more fun”. The new process makes it easier to add Lenses in video calls, a key engagement element for Snap’s video calling option, while you’ll also now be able to preview who’s on a group call before you join.

1. Google: Nofollow Is Not A Substitute For Noindex - Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller advises that the nofollow link attribute isn’t a substitute for the noindex directive. Googlebot is capable of can finding and indexing nofollowed links. So it should not be used in hopes of keeping a page out of Google’s search index.

Mueller addresses a submitted question asking if rel=”nofollow” can be used as noindex. The person who submitted the question notes they’ve been nofollowing internal links to pages that they don’t want to be indexed in search results.

When asked if rel=”nofollow” can be used to keep a page out of Google’s search index, Mueller says:

“No. Essentially, nofollow tells us not to pass any PageRank to those pages, but it doesn’t mean that we will never index that page. So if you really want a page to be blocked from indexing, make sure it has a noindex on it.
Don’t rely on us not accidentally running across a random link to that page. So I would not assume that those two are the same.”Mueller goes on to reference an article from Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes, which explains the difference between nofollow and other types of link attributes.

In the article, Illyes explains how nofollow is treated as a hint and not a directive.

That means it can’t always be relied upon to do what it’s designed for.

Nofollow tells Google that a site doesn’t want to pass PageRank from one URL to another, but Google may decide to do so anyway.

With that being the case, it’s sometimes used by Google as a signal for link discovery.

1. Google Has Two Types Of Crawling – Discovery & Refresh - Google utilizes two types of crawling methods when it goes through web pages — one to discover new content and one to refresh existing content.

You can find out how often Googlebot crawls your site via a report in Search Console, and there may be periods when your site is crawled more than others. When questioned about the report, Mueller confirms the fluctuations are normal and discusses the two types of crawling:

“That can happen. It’s not so much that we crawl a website, but we crawl individual pages of a website. And when it comes to crawling, we have two types of crawling roughly.
One is a discovery crawl where we try to discover new pages on your website. And the other is a refresh crawl where we update existing pages that we know about.”Not only can crawl frequency vary for the whole site, but it can also vary by individual web pages. If your homepage is updated more regularly than other pages, for example, then you’ll see more Googlebot activity on that page.

1. YouTube Launches Understanding Performance Trends by Highlighting Similar Videos - Inside the advanced analytics element in YouTube Studio – you can now view a scatter plot of all your videos and their comparative performance on variable timelines. This new element enables you to select ‘Show videos with similar topics’ from the plot display, which will then switch the graph to a specific listing of uploads on the same subject.

That means that you’re getting a better comparison of video performance, as you’re comparing more like-for-like clips, as opposed to measuring each video against every other.

It could be a good way to better contextualize video engagement, while also helping to highlight the specific topics that are resonating over time.

Fun fact: You can display up to 100 videos at once in the chart and sort the listing by ‘First 24 hours’, ‘First 7 days’ or ‘First 28 days’. You can also compare various metrics, including views, impressions, and average view duration.

It is an amazing addition for your YouTube analytics and planning – to access your video performance chart, go to:
Channel analytics > Advanced mode > Compare to’ > ‘First 24 hours video performance’

1. IndexNow Enables Data Sharing Between Bing And Yandex - The Microsoft Bing team said that the IndexNow protocol is now at a place where those participating are co-sharing URLs submitted, meaning if you use IndexNow to submit URLs to Microsoft Bing, Microsoft will immediately share those URLs with Yandex, the company announced.

The promise of IndexNow was to submit a URL to one search engine via this protocol and not only will that search engine immediately discover that URL, but it will also be discovered on all the other participating search engines. Right now, that is just Microsoft Bing and Yandex, but Google is exploring using this protocol. Microsoft said...

“The IndexNow protocol ensures that all URLs submitted by webmasters to any IndexNow-enabled search engine immediately get submitted to all other similar search engines. As a result of co-sharing URLs submitted to IndexNow-enabled search engines, webmasters just need to notify one API endpoint. Not only does this save effort and time for webmasters, but it also helps search engines in discovery, thus making the internet more efficient.”Also, you no longer need to submit the URLs to https://www.bing.com/IndexNow?url=url-changed&key=your-key or https://yandex.com/indexnow?url=url-changed&key=your-key. IndexNow.org is also directly accepting these submissions at https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=url-changed&key=your-key

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1. Starting 1/19, Facebook Will Be Removing Some Detailed Targeting Options - Starting January 19, 2022, Facebook will be removing some Detailed Targeting options because they relate to topics people may perceive as sensitive. Although the options mentioned below are going away on January 19, 2022, campaigns will continue to deliver for about eight weeks after that, until March 17, 2022, which should give advertisers some time to test out alternatives. The company provided the following examples of targeting options that will be removed:

2. Health causes (e.g., "Lung cancer awareness," "World Diabetes Day," "Chemotherapy").

3. Sexual orientation (e.g., "same-sex marriage" and "LGBT culture").
4. Religious practices and groups (e.g., "Catholic Church" and "Jewish holidays").
5. Political beliefs, social issues, causes, organizations, and figures.

The company will also remove targeting options that haven't been widely adopted, citing that they may be redundant with other options or be too granular, although it did not specify which options.

1. TikTok Partners Up With Atmosphere To Provide More Exposure To Creators - In yet another sign of TikTok’s ever-increasing presence and popularity, the platform has announced a new deal with video content provider Atmosphere which will see curated TikTok content appear on TVs in restaurants, bars, gyms, and more, providing new exposure potential for TikTok creators.

Atmosphere provides licensed and curated video content for commercial venues, with clients including Westin, Taco Bell, and Burger King. As per the above example clip, Atmosphere repurposes video content from a range of platforms, which also includes YouTube, then adds its own audio soundtrack, essentially creating a stream of music video content that points back to the originating platform. And now, TikTok clips will be part of that offering.

Given TikTok’s rising popularity, the partnership makes sense, and it’ll be interesting to see how many waiting rooms and venues take on this new TikTok channel as a means of keeping their customers entertained. Atmosphere reports that it doubled its business footprint over the last year, with its content now being shown in over 19,000 venues worldwide. Cumulatively, Atmosphere claims to reach more than 20 million unique visitors per month, which could provide another boost for TikTok, and prompt more users to log into the app and become regular users.

1. Twitter Adds Spaces Replay Stats for Recorded Broadcasts - In the details for recorded Spaces chats, hosts will now be able to see how many listeners tuned into the stream live, and how many replays the session has garnered. This will add more context to your Spaces analytics, and help you better plan your strategy, by giving you more info on how your audience is tuning in after the fact.

2. Clubhouse Adds New Way to Share Rooms, Additional Analytics and Access Options - Clubhouse has added a new way to improve Room discovery, with a new re-share option that will enable users to highlight interesting sessions that they’re into other users. The process is essentially Clubhouse’s version of re-tweeting, in order to help amplify great discussions. To be clear, Clubhouse has had the share via social network and share via messaging app options for some time, it’s only the new, internal sharing function that’s been added.

3. LinkedIn Launches Audio Rooms - First off LinkedIn’s launching an initial test of its own, Clubhouse-like audio events platform, which will enable users to tune into live discussions in the app, and participate by raising their virtual hand to join as a speaker, or posting likes in response to the chat. The format looks very much like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, with separate panels for those ‘on stage’ and speaking, and those tuning in below.

4. Google: Keyword Density Still Not An SEO Search Ranking Factor - So it is now 2022 and some folks are asking if keyword density is an SEO Google search ranking factor. The answer is still no, according to John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google.

Keyword density as an SEO topic is older than Google and it is one of those topics that will likely never die.

According to Wikipedia, "Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. In the context of search engine optimization, keyword density can be used to determine whether a web page is relevant to a specified keyword or keyword phrase."

1. IndexNow WordPress Plugin Released By Microsoft Bing - Microsoft Bing has published a new WordPress plugin that makes it easy to integrate your WordPress blog and site with the IndexNow protocol. The plugin was released over the holidays and is available over here in the WordPress plugin directory. Currently, both Microsoft Bing and Yandex have adopted the protocol, and Google is supposedly testing it out as well.

The WordPress IndexNow plugin enables automated submission of URLs from WordPress sites to multiple search engines without the need to register and verify your site with them. Once installed, the plugin will automatically generate and host the API key on your site. It detects page creation/update/ deletion in WordPress and automatically submits the URLs in the background. This ensures that search engines will always have the latest updates about your site.

What is IndexNow? IndexNow provides a method for websites owners to instantly inform search engines about the 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.

Instant indexing is an SEO’s dream when it comes to giving search engines the most updated content on a site. The protocol is very simple and it requires very little developer effort to add this to your site, so it makes sense to implement this if you care about speedy indexing. Plus if you use Cloudflare, it can be turned on with the flip of a switch.

In Episode#47 of TWIMshow, we covered the release of “Bing URL submission API”. Index Now is somewhat duplicative to that, however, Bing’s URL Submission API only works with Bing’s index. So there is a benefit to switching to IndexNow.

1. Google Launches' Shops' Section In Mobile Search Results - Google has launched a “Shops” section in the mobile search results. The Shops section shows three retailers (but can be expanded to show up to ten) based on their organic search rankings and is available on mobile devices for select shopping-related queries in the U.S.

The Shops section is another area in the search results where retailers might potentially appear, which can increase awareness for their brands and drive traffic. However, since the Shops section is based on the organic search ranking, retailers who don’t already rank well may not be able to reap its benefits.

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1. Put Your Product At The Top Using Google Business Profile - Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business, has a new feature in the products section that lets you mark a product as “special.” After you mark a product as special, that product will be moved to the top of the products you listed in your Google Business Profile listing.

2. Like Bing, Does Google Have A Limit On Crawling Long pages? - Google does have a limit but most pages won't come to that limit. Google's John Mueller said on Twitter when it comes to really large HTML file sizes, Google can handle it - and you should not worry about it.

John responded, "we don't have a documented limit, last I saw someone check it was 10's-100's of MB, so I wouldn't worry about that." John did add that it might impact your page speed and core web vitals metrics. He said, "giant HTML pages do slow things down, so it's probably still something to keep on your to-do list."

1. Google: No Difference In SEO Value Between Nofollow, UGC, Or Sponsored Link Attributes - Google supports no-follow, UGC, and sponsored link attributes. Someone asked John Muller if one is better than the other.

John responded on Twitter "there's no practical difference in terms of "SEO-value" for the site you're linking to." They all do the same thing - which is not pass any link value from the source page.

1. Re-activate Previously Disapproved Google Ads - Google now allows you to reactivate an ad that was once disapproved because of a past violation but now that ad is no longer disapproved because Google changed its Ad policy.

But Google doesn't just automatically flip the ad on fully because you might not expect a past ad that was disapproved before would activate on its own and thus use your budget. So Google notifies you in the console about this as “Eligible (Limited) Policy (Past Violation)”

Here is how Google defines past violations "Google continuously re-reviews ads to ensure they conform with our policies. During the standard re-review process, our system may identify disapproved ads that no longer violate our policies. If your ad was disapproved for an extended period of time and our enforcement system later decides that the policy no longer applies, we may keep the ad disapproved and classify the ad as “Past Violation”. We do this to prevent you from unintentionally exhausting spending on old ads. In order to re-activate your ads, please follow the steps below."

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1. Facebook Ads Manager Updating Campaign Objectives with Outcome-Driven Ad Experiences - Ads Manager objectives are being updated to help you choose the objective most closely aligned to your business goal. When you create a new campaign, you’ll choose from six, new objectives. Campaigns you create before the release of our new objectives will remain active and there is no need to make any changes to your existing campaigns. You’ll also be able to edit and duplicate your existing campaigns through the end of 2021.

Objectives are now grouped together based on their expected business outcome. Objective names will change but you can still perform the same functions and access the features you’re familiar with. Most objectives will now require that you choose a conversion location. The conversion location is the place where your desired business outcome will occur. For example, if you create a campaign with the Leads objective, you can choose Website, Instant Forms, Messenger, Phone, or App as your conversion location. Depending on the conversion location you select, you’ll then choose a conversion event. The conversion event you choose will tell us the action you want your audience to take once they’ve landed on your conversion location.

• Brand Awareness & Awareness will become Reach.
• Traffic will remain Traffic.
• Engagement remains Engagement.
• App Installs will become App Promotion.
• Video Views will become Engagement.
• Lead Generation will become Leads.
• Messages will become Engagement or Leads.
• Conversions will become Engagement, Leads, or Sales.
• Catalog Sales will become Sales.

• Store Traffic will become Sales.

• Meta Shutting Down Facebook Jobs - Jobs on Facebook is shutting down outside of the United States and Canada. from Feb 22nd, 2022. Facebook's 'Jobs' was a feature that allowed businesses to post job vacancies on their page, which were visible to anyone who visits the page, and also appeared on the news feeds of FB users who have 'liked' the page, easing the job finding process for the people. Here's everything that you need to know about the new update.

• Existing Facebook Groups with a “Jobs” group type will be changed to the “General” group type and the “Jobs” group type will no longer be available.

• The ability to distribute free jobs via a partner integration with the Jobs on Facebook API will no longer be available.
• Jobs on Facebook will no longer be available on the Facebook Lite app or Facebook mobile website (m.facebook.com/jobs) for both employers and seekers.
• The Jobs on the Facebook browser will no longer be available.
• JOBS on Facebook is shutting down outside of the United States and Canada.
• Employers in the United States and Canada can continue to use Jobs on Facebook tools to create job postings from their Page for free on the Facebook app and Facebook desktop website (www.facebook.com). They can also choose to boost their posts as ads.
• Employers in the United States and Canada will continue to be able to manage their job applications and view details about all their job posts (boosted & non-boosted) through the Inbox and Manage Jobs sections of their Page.

• Job seekers in the United States and Canada can continue to apply to positions using Job on Facebook product features like clicking Apply now on the job post, which will bring them to the detail view and then to an application form.

• Export a List of Paid YouTube Members & Members-only Form with IFTT - YouTube now allows you to export a list of paid members in .csv format. They have also introduced an integration with IFTT that helps you connect with members via a custom form.

• Delivery-Only TikTok Kitchen Restaurants Experiment - In partnership with Virtual Dining Concepts, TikTok is opening 300 delivery-only restaurant kitchens next year across the United States that will serve the same meals you scroll through on your For You Page.

• TikTok Adds Live-Stream Intros - TikTok has added a new ‘LIVE intro’ option which enables you to add a short text description to welcome new viewers as they come across your broadcast. The new LIVE Intro option, when switched on, will display a short explainer to viewers when they come into your stream.

That could be a simple way to welcome viewers, and explain what your broadcast is all about, and what you would like them to do, as participants in your stream. Live-streaming has gradually become a bigger element of TikTok as it looks to broaden its horizons beyond short video clips.

1. Clubhouse Launches Saved Replays - Clubhouse has launched the ‘Saved Replays’ option which will enable users to save the audio from recorded Clubhouse chats to listen to at a later stage. I’m guessing not many people will care. Clubhouse has dropped off the face of the social media earth after its massive, sudden rise earlier in the year, and while audio social is still being used by many, it now seems fairly clear that it’s not the game-changing format that some had envisioned at one stage.

2. Google Search Algorithm Update - December 2021 Products Reviews - Google has confirmed that the December 2021 product reviews update is now finished rolling out. This update has officially completed rolling out a few days before Christmas. This update is “designed to better reward” product reviews that “share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products.” Reviews that are written in a way that has “insightful analysis and original research” will be rewarded, especially “content written by experts or enthusiasts who know the topic well,” Google said.

3. What’s Good For SEO - Self-Hosted WordPress or Wix? - Google’s John Mueller Says Wix is Fine For SEO.

“Wix is fine for SEO. A few years back it was pretty bad in terms of SEO, but they’ve made fantastic progress, and are now a fine platform for businesses. The reputation from back then lingers on, but don’t be swayed by it. What they’ve done in recent years is really good stuff, including making it trivial to have a really fast site (as you see in the Lighthouse scores — admittedly, speed is only a tiny part of SEO). If Wix works for them, and they don’t need more, there’s no reason to switch.”

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1. Revisiting Microsoft’s 2021 Consumer Retail Trends Predictions - In early 2021, Microsoft Published Consumer Retail Trends Report and made five predictions for the year. Now according to a Microsoft report, all but one turned out as expected.

2. Instagram Publishes The Trending Topics For 2022 - Instagram wrote in the introduction to the report, “Next-gen audiences are consistently creating the future and defining trends on Instagram. Instagram is where teens, creators, tastemakers, and niche creators are key to the creation of new trends. Almost 50% of young people view individuals like themselves or influences with smaller, loyal audiences as key for creating trends.”

This is a forward-looking report so take it with a grain of salt.

1. Instagram Adds New Option to Embed User Profiles on Third-Party Websites - Instagram is adding another way to promote your Instagram presence outside the app, with a new option to embed a mini version of your Instagram profile on third-party sites. You’ll be able to link to an Instagram profile direct within a website, providing another way to connect through to a user, as opposed to specific content in the app.

As explained by Instagram chief Adam Mosseri:

“You’ve been able to embed an Instagram photo or Instagram video into a website for many years now. This extends on that idea and allows you to embed a miniature version of your Instagram profile on a website. Maybe you want to showcase your Instagram content on a website somewhere or link to someone else’s.”

Instagram profile embeds are available to US users only at this stage. Will this be useful?

1. Instagram Is Rolling Out Reels Replies - Instagram’s new Reels Visual Replies are just another feature copied from TikTok. Now, if a user comments on a reel you’ve posted, tapping the “reply” button will let you add a sticker of the comment into a new reel, which you can then move around or change its color. The feature is very similar to how TikTok lets you do video replies

2. Pinterest Adds Option to Reply to a Comment with an Idea Pin - Following on from Instagram’s addition of the capacity to reply to a comment with a Reels video clip, Pinterest has announced that users can reply to Pin comments with an Idea Pin video, providing similar functionality. If you want to add a visual element to your Pin comment reply, you can tap on the three dots menu next to any comment, which will give you an option to ‘Reply with new Idea Pin’. That will then open up the full-screen Idea Pin composer, so you can add more context to your response.

3. Longer Videos on TikTok Are Doing Superb - According to TikTok, videos longer than one minute receive over 5 billion views globally, and they have been blown away by the community's creativity as it's shared longer-form content of all kinds - from podcasts to vlogs, to cooking tutorials, fashion commentary, and more.

Question of the day: How long before other platforms copy this feature?

1. Twitter Adds Auto Captions for All Video Uploads in Tweets - Twitter has announced that all videos uploaded within tweets will have auto-captions enabled, providing more ways for users to consume video content in the app.

As explained by Twitter, all videos attached to tweets from today will have auto-captions enabled. Captions will be activated for in-stream videos that are muted, on both iOS and Android, while desktop users will be able to switch them on and off as they choose.

Twitter’s auto-captions are available in 37 languages, and while translation is not available as yet, the captions will appear in the language of the device used to upload the clip.

Also, a key downside, Twitter’s auto-captions are not editable at this stage. Both translation and editing tools are still in development.

1. YouTube Videos That Are Contributing to Your Audience Growth - This was an experimental feature but now YouTube officially launched this feature. Now you can see the videos that are contributing to your audience growth.

2. Google: You Don’t Need To Be An Authority To Rank - Not all websites need to be seen as authorities in order to rank well in search results, says Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller. For example, a website can’t just publish 30 articles about a medical condition and be viewed as having the same authority as a doctor. Most sites don’t need to concern themselves with being an authority. They can still put content out there and have it rank in search results.

Mueller gives the example of a small business selling a product or service. The business doesn’t need to be the foremost authority in its field in order for customers to find its products. Mueller goes on to say that a one-page website is a good starting point, but it can always grow from there. Consider how more pages can be added to the site in the future so it doesn’t get stuck in a place where new content keeps getting added to the single page.

1. Google Will Deindex Pages If Site Is Down For Several Days - Google will begin to deindex your pages from search results if your website experiences more than a couple of days of downtime. This is stated by Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller during the Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout.

If a website’s pages become inaccessible then it will only take a matter of days before they start to get de-indexed, Mueller says. Mueller goes on to suggest an alternative method for handling planned downtime, but it still doesn’t guarantee no harm will be done in the short term.

1. Google Analytics 4 Now Links To Google Search Console - Google announced that now Google Analytics 4 supports data from Google Search Console. This was something Google has supported with the original Google Analytics since 2011 and now has brought over support for the new GA4.

Associating your GA4 and GSC properties expands your ability to analyze search traffic and enable you to directly compare search data with site analytics, which can help you get a better view of the user’s journey and identify correlations.

1. Twitter Publishes 2022 Tweet Planning Guide - Twitter has published a new 2022 planning guide to assist in your tweet strategy, which includes a range of templates, tips and prompts to get you thinking about how to maximize your tweet approach over the next year. Here’s a look at some of the key highlights from Twitter’s handy new strategy manual, which is definitely worth a look for those seeking to make Twitter more of a focus, or enhance their results from the platform.

First off, Twitter prompts marketers to plan ahead, with templates to help them map out their month-by-month tweet strategy.

The guide then seeks to help marketers develop guiding principles for their tweet strategy, by outlining keywords, visual approaches, emojis, etc., that they can then use as a basis for their brand guidelines.

This is a valuable and often overlooked element, and prompting marketers to consider these elements, that could ensure a more uniform, strategic approach across the board, maximizing alignment with your tweets.

Twitter also includes a range of prompts like FAQ, Retweet, Pro-Tip, and etc, which can help in establishing your practical approach.

The main chunk of the new guide, however, is dedicated to month-by-month listings, where Twitter has left room for marketers to enter daily details on key objectives, events, and ad campaigns to assist in performance tracking.

The final element of the guide is a listing of tweet tips and notes, to give you that final push in maximizing your tweets.

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1. Pinterest Predicts: The trends to watch for 2022 - Pinterest through its Predicts report provided an overview of where things are headed in 2022, based on Pin activity, in a range of business categories. They have highlighted 35 trends that it says are not trending yet but will be in the near future (Pinterest shared 30 trends last year).

The trends range from make-up to fashion, to home décor, with various other, less Pinterest-y elements along the way. Pinterest has also provided a more visual overview of each trend on its dedicated Pinterest Predicts mini-site, along with Pin samples in each category.

There’s some interesting data here, and if you’re marketing on Pinterest, or considering the platform for your 2022 strategy, it’s worth taking a look at the search trend notes and data, which may provide some key guidance in your approach.

And at 80% predictive value, in terms of flagging what’s coming next, Pinterest’s track record is solid.

1. Pinterest Acquires Vochi, A Video Creation and Editing App - As part of its broader push into video content, Pinterest has announced the acquisition of video editing app Vochi, which enables users to easily add effects to their clips.

Vochi enables users to remove items from clips, add 3D effects, and add other specialized visual features that can make your clips stand out in feeds. The app is currently used by around 500k people per month and is generating around $4 million in annual revenue through subscriptions and add-on features.

And now, it will become part of the broader Pinterest creator suite, which will add more elements to its growing video push, which also includes its ‘Idea Pins’ social Stories variation.

1. Facebook Launches 'Professional Profiles' for Creators - Facebook’s making a push to facilitate more opportunities for creators in its app, with new ‘Professional Mode for Profiles’ to welcome new creators in, and updates for Creator Pages.

As per Facebook:

“We know that many creators - especially those who are just starting out - are on profiles, so from today, we’re announcing the roll-out of a new professional mode for profiles. Professional Mode will open up access to post, audience, and profile insights, as well as give easy access to monetization features – all in one place.”

So rather than pushing new creators to professional Pages, Professional Mode for Profiles will provide more insights on post-performance and audience growth for those using regular Facebook profiles.

Those who turn on Professional Mode also qualify for Reels bonuses and other features, which Facebook will be hoping will lure more people into posting more often, with a view to increasing these newly present engagement stats. Note, right at the bottom of the first screenshot, that you can turn off Professional Mode at any time if you decide that being a social media creator isn’t for you.

1. Facebook Launches 'Stars Fest' to Increase Donations & Audience - Stars are essentially a virtual currency that can be purchased in various bundles, which then enables Facebook users to allocate them to creators via live-streams (audio and video).

And from now on until December 31st, you’ll be able to purchase more Stars for less, with discounts on Stars packages, while Facebook’s also adding new Stars features and usage options to spark further interest in the tool.

The biggest functional addition, at least from a general user perspective, is the launch of a new Stars Store, “where people can buy Stars at lower prices”.

“Stars are deposited into people’s virtual wallets to then send to eligible creators during Facebook Live, on-demand videos, or Live Audio Rooms. In the Stars store, fans get more Stars for their money at lower prices, so they can support even more of their favorite creators.”

In addition to this, Facebook’s also looking to make Stars useable in more functions, including for videos in the News Feed, in Facebook Watch, and within the Facebook Gaming tab.

Facebook’s also adding a new ‘Stars Party’ option, which will provide Stars fundraising goals when groups of people are viewing and donating in a live stream.

1. Twitter Extends Access to Spaces Recording - Twitter is expanding access to its Spaces Recording capability, which began rolling out in late October. All users can listen to them, and more hosts can use the feature.

2. Snap Unveils 523 Content Accelerator Program - Snapchat launched "523," a new content accelerator program for small, minority-owned content companies. Many accelerators at social media companies are designed to bolster individual creators. The 523 programs is focused on media companies creating premium shows for Snapchat's content arm, Discover.

The program will award 20 minority-owned media upstarts $10,000 per month for six months to help them create content for Discover.

Snapchat defines minority-owned businesses as those that are 51% owned and operated by individuals who identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, non-binary, LGBTQ+, women, veterans, or having a disability. Eligible businesses must also employ fewer than 20 people and have gross revenue in 2021 — or in the last 12 months — that's less than $5 million.

1. New Marketing with Purpose Business Attributes Showcase Brand Values - Microsoft Advertising has added Asian-owned, Latin-owned, Women-owned, and Diabetic-friendly business attributes, enabling advertisers to showcase more of their selling points and values, the company announced Thursday. These four new attributes join the 32 Marketing with Purpose business attributes that Microsoft introduced in September.

Personal ethics and brand values have become factors in buying decisions for many customers. Being able to quickly differentiate your brand from others, through attributes such as these, can help you stand out from the competition.

1. Google Ads Image Extensions Are Now Available on Desktop Devices - Google announced that image extensions for Google Ads is rolling out to desktop ads now. Note, it launched for mobile search ads in May 2021. Also, Google Ads image extensions now support dynamic image extensions for any language and you can use stock images as well for these image ad extensions.

Google said image extensions complement your Search ad with relevant visuals of your products and services. "Previously, image extensions only showed on mobile devices," Google said. Google will soon show them on desktop devices in the next few weeks. If you are already using image extensions on mobile Google said they will show on desktop devices automatically as the update rolls out.

You can view your desktop device performance by segmenting your performance data by "Device". This update applies to dynamic image extensions as well, Google said.

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1. Shopify Shares BFCM Sales Figure - Shopify’s 2021 Black Friday / Cyber Monday data is based on sales by its more than 1.7 million businesses in approximately 175 countries around the world from November 25th 11:00 UTC to November 30th 08:00 UTC. 2021 Black Friday / Cyber Monday Global Highlights.

2. Black Friday saw the highest shopping volume during the weekend, with peak sales of more than $3.1 million per minute at 12:02 PM EST on November 26.

3. 47 million consumers globally purchased from independent and direct-to-consumer brands powered by Shopify.
4. Top selling countries & cities where shoppers made purchases from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, with the top-selling cities on Black Friday including London, New York, and Los Angeles.
5. Globally, 71% of Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales were made on mobile devices compared to 29% on desktop.
6. Top product categories: Apparel and accessories followed by health & beauty and home & garden.
7. Average cart price: $101.20 USD, which is up from last year’s Black Friday average of $90.70 USD.

8. Black Friday / Cyber Monday continues to be a worldwide phenomenon with cross-border sales representing 15% of all orders globally, with the most popular cross-border routes being U.S.-Canada, Canada-U.S., and United Kingdom- U.S.

9. LinkedIn Adds Live Video & Newsletters To Creator Mode - LinkedIn’s beefing up its ‘Creator Mode’ features with the addition of LinkedIn Live access for those with Creator Mode turned on, as well as a new newsletter option for creators to help maintain the connection with their audience.

First off, on LinkedIn Live – initially only available to Members and Pages with more than 150 followers and/or connections who met certain criteria, LinkedIn is now giving creators access to the option, providing another way to maximize audience engagement on the platform.

LinkedIn’s also giving Creator Mode users access to newsletters, which will also help you keep in touch with your audience.

“Whenever you publish a new article in your newsletter, your subscribers are automatically notified via push, in-app, and email notifications so they stay up to date with your latest content.”

That could be a good way to incentivize more creators to maintain a regular column on their chosen topics of interest, helping to boost their presence and thought leadership.

“To create a newsletter, click ‘Write an Article’ at the top of the homepage. This takes you to the publishing tool. If you have access, you’ll see the ‘Create a newsletter’ option here. We’re currently not accepting one-off requests for access to author newsletters.”

Finally, LinkedIn’s also improving discovery for LinkedIn Creators:

“With creator mode on, you're eligible to be featured as a suggested creator to follow.”

That could help to improve your on-platform presence and following, with LinkedIn looking to highlight relevant creators, based on topics and activity, to interested users.

1. LinkedIn Kick-Starts Privacy-Friendly Approaches to Data Collection and Ad Targeting - As explained by LinkedIn:

“With Group Identity for B2B, we leverage our first-party data to group members together based on shared professional identity attributes, such as seniority and industry. This process helps you reach your intended audiences across channels, like the LinkedIn Audience Network, without the need for individual-level tracking across sites.”

In essence, the process enables you to use LinkedIn categorization to reach users with your promotions on third-party sites that are part of LinkedIn’s Audience network. The actual benefits of this will vary, but it could be a good way to reach, say, ‘IT managers’ across the web with promotions based on their LinkedIn profile information.

In addition to this, LinkedIn’s also testing new machine learning models which will estimate and report campaign conversations across channels “with a high degree of accuracy by using data from across our platform”.

LinkedIn’s also working on the attribution of offline or offsite conversion events to LinkedIn campaigns.

LinkedIn’s still developing these approaches, but it does advise that marketers should enable first-party settings on their LinkedIn Insight Tag on their sites and apps to continue facilitating campaign measurement.

1. Twitter Bans Sharing Sharing Images & Videos Of Private Persons Without Consent - As explained by Twitter:

“Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy and may lead to emotional or physical harm. The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.”

In line with this, Twitter says that, now, when it receives a report that a Tweet contains unauthorized private media, it will take action in line with its existing privacy enforcement options.

1. Meta Loosens Restrictions On Cryptocurrency Ads - With cryptocurrencies gaining momentum, in line with the broader Web 3.0 push, Meta has today announced an update to its ad policies around cryptocurrencies, which will open the door to more crypto advertisers on its platforms.

As per Meta:

“Starting today, we’re updating our eligibility criteria for running ads about cryptocurrency on our platform by expanding the number of regulatory licenses we accept from three to 27. We are also making the list of eligible licenses publicly available on our policy page.”

Essentially, in order to run any crypto ads in Meta’s apps, that currency needs to adhere to regional licensing provisions, which vary by nation. With crypto becoming more accepted, Meta’s now looking to enable more crypto companies to publish ads on its platform, which will provide expanded opportunities for recognized crypto providers to promote their products, while also enabling Meta to make more money from crypto ads.

“Previously, advertisers could submit an application and include information such as any licenses they obtained, whether they are traded on a public stock exchange, and other relevant public backgrounds on their business. However, over the years the cryptocurrency landscape has matured and stabilized, and experienced an increase in government regulation, which has helped to set clearer responsibilities and expectations for the industry. Going forward, we will be moving away from using a variety of signals to confirm eligibility and instead requiring one of these 27 licenses.”

1. TikTok Introduces Monetization Options Tips, Video Gifts - Creator Next, where eligible creators can easily unlock new and existing tools to be rewarded for their creativity on TikTok. And TikTok continues to expand its creator monetization tools with the addition of video tipping and virtual gifts for regular uploads, in addition to live-streams in the app.

To be clear, live tipping and digital gifts have been available for selected live-stream creators via its Creator Next program since last year. This new expansion brings the same functionality to regular TikTok videos, which will add another way for users to generate direct income from their TikTok videos.

To be eligible for the new Creator Next program, users will need to have at least 1,000 followers and will need to have generated more than 1,000 video views in the previous 30 days.

In addition to this, TikTok’s also lowering the threshold for those who can list their profiles in its Creator Marketplace brand collaboration platform, which enables businesses to find TikTok influencers to partner with on in-app campaigns. Up till now, creators have required 100k followers to qualify for these listings, but now, TikTok is reducing that number to 10k, which will further expand available opportunities for both users and brands.

That could make it much easier to find relevant creators to partner with, in a lot more niches, which will add more considerations into your TikTok posting and engagement process.

1. Google’s Mobile-First Indexing Is On Hold - Google’s mobile-first indexing deadline is no longer a deadline and it decided to leave the “timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing,” John Mueller of Google said on the company blog. Previously, Google postponed the deadline from September 2020 to March 2021, and that deadline came and passed.

Now, Google said there is no specific timeline, instead, Google said the search company “decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.” Google added currently Google does not “have a specific final date for the move to mobile-first indexing.”

1. 4 New Features In Google Ads Performance Planner - Google has added four new features to its Performance Planner forecasting tool, including options for previously ineligible campaigns, “suggested changes,” and more, the company announced Tuesday.

Performance Planner’s new features are:

• The ability to add previously ineligible campaigns by using past performance or adding manual forecasts to plan across your entire account.
• The “Suggested changes” column, which displays budget and bid recommendations for a specific campaign.
• The ability to add secondary metrics to a performance plan, which may help advertisers understand impacts on performance beyond their most important metrics. “For example, if you create a plan to maximize conversions, you can now also add a column that shows the changes to clicks as well,” Dean Chen, product manager at Google Ads, wrote.
• The ability to select a specific time range for historical conversion rate. This enables advertisers to use a historical conversion rate that may be closer to what they’re expecting for their plan’s date range.

These new features expand Performance Planner’s flexibility, making it potentially more useful for advertisers in more situations.

Now, advertisers can add campaigns that may have been previously ineligible, enabling them to generate forecasts for those campaigns.

Suggested changes may help improve campaign efficiency and secondary metrics can help you anticipate the impact of changes on metrics that are important but aren’t your key metrics. And, being able to select a specific time range for historical conversion rate may help advertisers get more accurate predictions, which may be especially useful since the pandemic has shifted consumer behavior and introduced supply chain challenges.

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1. TikTok TV is Now Available in North America - TikTok TV app is exactly as it sounds – TikTok on your home TV. Users are able to log into the TikTok TV app with their existing TikTok account, ensuring your preferences are factored into the content displayed, while you can also search for content and creators via the Discover function in the TV app. The expanded viewing options could drive broader consumption and awareness of TikTok content, with the pandemic pushing more people to consume more web-based content on their home TV screens, and younger viewers, in particular, increasingly aligned with connected TV offerings.

2. Google Ads App Updated With 3 New Features - Google Ads updates its mobile app with new features to help marketers monitor campaign performance and make changes from their mobile devices.

3. Improved Performance Insights - The Google Ads app now gives you more context about campaign insights, such as explanations for performance fluctuations. If you make a change to your bid and budget strategy, for example, the app will explain how the change impacted performance. Shifts in search interest will also be better explained, as well as insights into positive performance changes. This new data can help you understand what worked in your campaigns and why, which is information you can use to create more successful campaigns in the future.

4. Real-time Search Trends - Keep up with consumer demand with a new report on search trends, which is updated in real-time. Tapping on an individual search trend will show you popular queries associated with it. A search trend like “pies & tarts,” for example, can reveal the exact types of pies people are searching for. Google may also show a recommendation, when applicable, to help you optimize your campaign for an emerging search trend.

5. Create Campaigns On Mobile - Using the Google Ads mobile app, you can now create a search campaign while untethered from your desktop computer.

6. Twitter Launches Live-Stream Shopping Broadcasts - YouTube’s doing it, as is Instagram, as well as Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest too – and now Twitter becomes the latest social media app to dip its toes into live-stream shopping, in the hopes of maximizing eCommerce activity via the immediacy and engagement of retailer broadcasts.

Twitter’s variation of live-stream shopping will enable users to tune into the live broadcast, with shopping options displayed below the video feed. The presentation, as it currently stands, will enable users to either tune into the live tweet discussion around the event or check out a ‘Shop’ tab featuring all the products highlighted in the broadcast.

1. YouTube Adds Option to Reuse Details from Previous Videos - YouTube has added a new option in YouTube Studio which enables users to re-use details from previous uploads for new uploads within the posting process on desktop. The new option enables you to re-use:

2. Video title

3. Video description
4. Language settings
5. Shorts sampling permissions
6. Category selections

This can save you a lot of time, particularly for those who regularly post on the same topics, or have to manually input language options with each new post. You can access the new option in the ‘Details’ section of the upload flow, with a new ‘Reuse Details’ option above the title field.

It’s actually fairly similar to YouTube’s existing upload defaults option, which you can use to apply the same settings to each of your clips, but this new variation enables more control, with the capacity to utilize different settings for each clip, while you can also customize your selections with each upload.

1. YouTube Introduces Search Insights - Find Out What Your Audience (And The Rest of YouTube) Is Searching For in the last 20 days

2. Your Viewer’s searches (including content gap)

3. Searches across YouTube

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1. Snap Introduces Multi-Format Delivery - Snapchat will enable advertisers to incorporate multiple video ad formats within a single ad set, with its new ‘Multiple Formats’ delivery option.
   As explained by Snap:

“Multi-Format delivery will offer brands buying on Snap the opportunity to purchase multiple advertising formats in one cohesive ad set, optimizing towards clients central goal or objective. The product launch will include all of Snap’s video ad formats including Snap Ads, Story Ads, Collection Ads, and Commercials and will feature Snap’s camera offerings (augmented reality) by Q2 of 2022.”

You’ll soon see a new ‘Multiple Formats Ad Set’ option within your Snap Ads set up, which will then enable you to bundle various creative options for placement across Snap’s suite.

That will better enable Snap’s automated placement tools to help maximize ad response, while also streamlining management of your Snap campaigns by keeping your creative elements in a single ad set.

Of course, that will also reduce some control and insight into specific elements, while it also puts the increased onus on Snap’s automated placements. But it could provide more options for efficiency - and it may well drive better results based on broader placement and capacity for exposure, especially for brand awareness campaigns.

1. YouTube Video Discovery Ads Are Now In-feed Video Ads - YouTube Video discovery ads place your brand, product, or service alongside YouTube content that is likely to be viewed by your audience. The ads can appear in the YouTube Home feed, Watch feed, and Search feed. Now, YouTube is updating the name of ‘YouTube Video discovery ads’ to ‘In-feed video ads’.

This change will not affect campaign features or functionality, and there’s no action required for existing campaigns. You’ll start to see the new name in Google Ads over the next weeks.

1. Microsoft Bing Releases List Of Bingbot IP Addresses - Microsoft has published its list of IP addresses that Bingbot, the Microsoft Bing crawler, users when crawling your website. Fabrice Canel from Microsoft said, “to help all webmasters, we also published Bingbot IP ranges.”

Knowing which bot is really from Microsoft Bing and which is not can help you decide which rogue bots to block from your site.

1. Learning Lab, Microsoft Advertising’s Hub Has Been Updated With New Resources - Learning Lab, Microsoft Advertising’s hub for all things learning, has been updated with new resources to help you grow your Microsoft Advertising knowledge and optimize your campaign success.

The new resources include 13 foundation-level search product and feature courses on topics including UET and conversion tracking, Microsoft Advertising Editor, Google Import, bidding and budgets, and more.

They’ve also added three new learning paths to help you organize and focus your learning. Interested in learning more about search or studying to become a Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional (MACP)? Check out the Search Advertising learning path. If you’re interested in learning more about display advertising, use the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) learning path. Preparing for the upcoming holiday season? Try the Microsoft Shopping learning path to learn about setting up your merchant store and shopping campaigns.

A link to the announcement can be found here.

1. Instagram Adds A Bunch Of New Features To Its Interface - Badges, And Editing Carousels - First, IG Badges in Live to All Eligible Creators in the U.S. For now, creators will need to meet the following criteria to be eligible to apply to use badges in Live:

2. Reside in the United States

3. Be over 18 years old
4. Have a Creator or Business account
5. Have at least 10,000 followers
6. Pass and remain compliant with our Partner Monetization Policies, Content Monetization Policies, and Community Guidelines.

Creators who meet the eligibility criteria will need to update to the latest app version and will be able to apply by going to “Profile” and tapping “Professional Dashboard”. If they’re approved for monetization, they’ll see a button to “Set Up Badges.” Supporters can purchase badges, available in increments of $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99, that give them additional visibility in Lives.

Promoting lives: Creators can use the Countdown Sticker in Stories to promote upcoming Lives that feature badges, reminding followers to subscribe to receive notifications when the Live begins.

Practice before going live with Practice Mode: Creators can meet with their live guests in a private space to adjust their staging, rehearse, experiment with new content, or simply practice if going live for the first time so they can feel more comfortable when going live with badges.

Recognizing supporters: Creators can encourage the purchase of multiple badges, which helps them earn more, and gives Live viewers more ways to support and be recognized. Creators get reminders from Instagram during the Live to thank supporters, and supporters who buy multiple badges will stand out with a glowing avatar.

Thank supporters with a Thank You sticker: Creators can say thank you with the Thank You Stories sticker, which tags and notifies supporters from a specific Live.

Meta aka Facebook will not collect any fees on badges purchases until at least 2023.

Instagram has also announced the addition of a much-requested option – the capability to delete individual posts from within a previously uploaded carousel.

1. Google Launches New Local Search Features - Google is rolling out new features for local search, as well as new tools to assist journalists with producing locally-relevant stories. As more searchers look up the query “news near me” than ever before, Google is launching new features for local search results and new tools for journalists.

Google reports that searches for “news near me” have tripled over the past five years, reaching an all-time high in May 2020.

1. Google Ads Insights Page Updated With New Features - Google is adding some new predictive elements to Google Ads insights, which will utilize both machine learning and historical data to predict likely consumer trends in your niche.

First off, Google’s testing demand forecasts, which will provide estimations of likely search interest for your products over the coming six months, by combining machine learning with past seasonal search trends.

Google’s also testing a new consumer interest insight element, which will aggregate the top-performing search query themes that are driving performance in your campaigns.

Lastly, Google’s also testing audience insights, which aims to provide more info about the interests of your customers, including what creative they’re responding to.

Google says that these elements will be launched in Google Ads over the coming weeks, while you can check out the Insights page on Google Ads now to view the latest trends for your business.

1. Google Ads Customer Match Is Now Widely Available And Easier To Use - Google announced that Customer Match is now "widely available" and also a new preview tool to help you figure out errors or issues with using the tool. Google is opening Customer Match to "all policy-compliant advertisers" with more than $50,000 lifetime spend.

Customer Match lets you use first-party data to share the unique insights you have about your customers beyond Google's understanding by bringing in your own data into it. Customer Match helps you reach custom segments of your existing customers and deliver a tailored message when it's most relevant to them by uploading first-party customer data, which Google uses to match against Google users.

Google recently opened Customer Match to more advertisers in May but now is opening it up more widely to:
All policy-compliant accounts1 can use Customer Match and similar audiences for Customer Match to observe performance and exclude audiences from your campaigns.

If you have 90 days of policy-compliant history in Google Ads and more than $50,000 lifetime spend, you can use Customer Match and similar audiences for Customer Match to observe performance, reach and engage with audiences, change the bids for your audiences, and exclude audiences from your campaigns.

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1. Twitter Adds New Option to Let Non-Twitter Users Tune into Spaces - Twitter continues to build out its audio Spaces offering, this time with the addition of a new way to expand your Spaces audience, even among people who don’t have a Twitter profile. As Twitter explains, now, when you share a link to a Spaces broadcast, non-Twitter users will also be able to tune in, which will give you more ways to showcase your audio broadcasts to a wider audience, both inside and outside the app.

Non-Twitter users can’t actually participate in the Spaces chat – they can’t be invited on as guests and they can’t react to the discussion. But it may provide more utility, with your shared Spaces links now having value beyond the app itself, which means that you can share them with all of your contacts and invite them to listen to your Spaces chats.

1. The Microsoft Audience Network Now Prohibits Four Types of Ads - The Microsoft Audience Network now prohibits gambling, lawsuit, health supplement, and end-of-life ads The updated policy aligns the Microsoft Audience Network with other advertising platforms. Here is the list of categories that are no longer allowed on the Microsoft Audience Network as well as on native advertising served on Microsoft-owned and operated properties, like MSN and Outlook:

2. Lawsuit advertising and invitations to participate in a lawsuit.

3. End-of-life products and services, including but not limited to cremation services, funeral flowers, urns, coffins, and obituaries.
4. Health supplements and vitamins (however enforcement for supplement and vitamin ads that are currently running on the network will not begin until January).

5. Gambling (which is already prohibited on the Microsoft Audience Network but will now also be prohibited on native advertising served on Microsoft-owned and operated properties).

6. Facebook Launches 'Creative App Platform' & Expands Stories Functionality - Facebook has announced a new ‘Creative App Platform’ for Facebook Stories, which will enable developers to create and promote Stories-related apps direct within the Stories ecosystem.

Through Facebook’s new platform, app developers participating in the program will be able to get their tools listed within the Stories composer flow, which will enable users to access more creative apps for their Stories, without having to go find them off-platform.

The concept is a lot like Snapchat’s 'Minis' offering, which enables developers to share micro-versions of their full apps within Snapchat. That expands on the creative potential of Snaps, by providing even more tools and add-on options that you can share, via your private Snaps, Stories, etc.

Facebook’s variation is focused on Stories specifically, and creative add-ons, as the name would suggest, with various developers signing up for the first phase.

1. Instagram Adds New Text-to-Speech and Voice Effect Options in Reels - Instagram is once again adding more TikTok-inspired features into its app, with the addition of a new ‘Text to Speech' option in Reels clips, which provides an artificial voice to read any text overlays you add to your clips, and new voice changer options to alter your vocal tones.

First off, text-to-speech will give Reels creators two voice options to choose from, with the auto voice, then reading out any text that you’ve added to your clip. To add the new text to speech option, once you’ve added text to your clip, you’ll need to tap on the text bubble at the bottom of the composer screen, then select ‘Text-to-speech’ from the three dots menu (which is very small, so good luck if you’ve got larger fingers).

Instagram’s also added new ‘Voice Effects’, which provides another option to add a different creative element to your Reels clips. You can now change your recorded voice to make it sound like you’ve been sucking on helium, or you’re a robot, or a giant, among various others, which could be an interesting way to change up your clips.

If Instagram is always copying, then it’s inevitably always a step behind, which means it’s never going to be the trend leader and the cool place to engage younger audiences. Users know that it’s simply copying TikTok, which really just further solidifies TikTok’s leadership. If Meta/Instagram really wants to win over these groups. It’ll need to come out with more new, original ideas for its tools – which, as we’ve seen over the past decade, Meta is not exactly great at.

1. Shopify, Google & Pinterest Shares What’s Trending This Holiday Season - So what can you do with these guides? Well in addition to making decisions on what to buy for your loved ones this holiday season you can actually use this guide to plan for your marketing campaign and/or stock up on sought-after products. You can view the guides here:

2. Shopify BFCM 2021 Season Trends

3. Google Shopping Holiday 100

4. Pinterest Gift Guide

5. Google: Legal Interstitials / Banners Does Not Affect SEO - Google has clarified that legal interstitials are fine and you don't really have to worry about any penalty or ding for those types of legal banners. even with the new rules coming to desktop pages (see episode 81). Google clearly understands that some sites require these intrusive interstitials for legal reasons and has to make an exception for it there.

This is the official tweet where they clarify this.

1. Google Publishes The List of Googlebot IP Addresses - Google has published the full list of IP addresses it uses for crawling and accessing your website under the Googlebot user agents. Google said if you do not want to use reverse DNS other than those types of methods for verifying Googlebot, you “can identify Googlebot by IP address by matching the crawler’s IP address to the list of Googlebot IP addresses.”

If you believe someone is crawling your site, pretending to be Googlebot, and you want to verify that blocking this fake Googlebot crawler is not really Google, then you can use either the command line method or automated IP list method.

Knowing which bot is really Google and which is not can help you decide which rogue bots to block from your site. You can access the full list of Googlebot IP addresses over here, note that Google may update this list, so you should check the file probably daily. You can also access all other Google crawlers that match the crawler’s IP address against the complete list of Google IP addresses. Again, these IP addresses may change over time, so you should build into your mechanisms a way to update the IP addresses on your end.

1. Google Logo Structured Data Supports ImageObject Type - Google logo schema now supports ImageObject type, in addition to the URL type, according to updated information on the help document. Google said this provides “new flexibility” to specify an organization logo using this schema markup. ImageObject type gives you the ability to add additional data to an image, such as width and height, or the author or a caption. Whereas the URL type did not give you these added values.

2. How To Enable Key Moments Snippets In Google Search - Google explained how to use schema markup to enable key moments snippets for video content in search results. So what Are Video Key Moments? Key moments are a way for users to jump directly to the point within a video that’s most relevant to their query. In Google Search, key moments can appear alongside a video result as seen in the featured image for this article.

3. A timestamp indicates where that moment starts.

4. A label describes what happens at that moment.
5. A thumbnail from that moment in the video.

When you click a key moment and land on the video page, that video will begin playing from the specific moment you selected.

However, key moments will only appear for results where a video is the main content on the page. They won’t appear for pages that mix videos with other content, like a news article or an eCommerce product page.

There are two ways to enable key moments:

1. SeekToAction markup: Allows Google to identify key moments in your videos automatically.
2. Clip markup: This allows you to identify key moments in your videos manually.

Note that Google will prioritize key moments that are identified manually. If you don’t want key moments at all you can opt out by using the NOSNIPPET tag. In order to support key moments, video page URLs must support a parameter that begins playback from a specific number of seconds into the video.

1. Google Keyword Planner Tool Has 3 New Columns - Google is making more data available that you can use to make informed decisions about your search campaigns. The new columns are:

2. YoY Change – The year-over-year change compares the monthly search volume of the latest month with the same month the previous year.

3. Three-month change – The three-month change shows a three-month change in search trends by comparing the latest month’s data, with the data from two months prior. For example, if the latest month is July, the July data would be compared to May to show a change in search volume over three months.

4. Three-month trending type – This shows you if the trend is going up or down or remaining flat for the keyword. I no longer see this but Google was testing this.

5. YouTube Removes Dislike Counts - YouTube has announced that it’s making a change to the way dislikes are displayed on videos, with the dislike count to be made private, in order to limit misuse of the option. The change comes as a result of attacks on users, where the dislike option has been used to harm a video’s performance.

As explained by YouTube’s Creator Liaison Matt Koval:

“Groups of viewers are targeting a video’s dislike button to drive up the count, turning it into something like a game with a visible scoreboard, and it’s usually just because they don’t like the creator or what they stand for. That’s a big problem when half of YouTube’s mission is to give everyone a voice.”

As a result, YouTube ran an experiment earlier in the year where it made dislike counts private, in order to examine whether that might have an impact on coordinated dislike attacks. And it did.

“As part of this experiment, viewers could still see and use the dislike button, but because the count was not visible to them, we found that they were less likely to target a video’s dislike button to drive up the count. In short, our experiment data showed a reduction in dislike attacking behavior.”

YouTube says that it also heard from smaller creators and those just starting out that they are often the subject of these brigade attacks, which its examination found to be true.

As such, YouTube has made the decision to hide dislike counts across the board, with a view to limiting the damage and impact, and encouraging more participation from more users.

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1. New Tools In Facebook Group - During this week's Facebook Communities Summit, Facebook introduced new features to help group admins build the community they want, strengthen group culture and manage and sustain their communities. The most notable features are:

2. Customizing the colors, post backgrounds, and fonts that display in groups, along with the emojis members can use to react to content.

3. Using feature sets to select preset collections of post formats, badges, admin tools, and more that can be turned on for their group with one click, so that communities can engage in the ways they want.
4. Suggesting preferred formats for members to use when they post in their group. This will appear in a new posting button that stays with members as they browse the group, eliminating the need to scroll back to the top when they’re ready to post.
5. Creating a unique greeting message and sharing group rules that new members will automatically receive when they join a group, so they can develop a sense of belonging sooner.
6. Members will also soon be able to give community awards, like Insightful, Uplifting, or Fun, to content that they find valuable.
7. Connecting in real-time by using Community Chats in both Facebook and Messenger, as well as creating recurring events when group members want to get together more regularly, either virtually or in person.
8. Admins can pin announcements and choose the order in which they show up in a new Featured section at the top of groups, to ensure their community sees the most important details first.
9. Creating community fundraisers to raise money for group projects, to offset the costs of running the group, or to enable members to show their appreciation for their admins and moderators.
10. Selling merchandise they’ve created through a shop in their group, enabling members to show their support and deepen their sense of community.

11. Creating paid subgroups that members can subscribe to for a fee to gain exclusive access to more content, experiences like coaching or networking, or deeper conversations.

12. Instagram Rolls Out “Add Yours” Sticker for Stories - Instagram is once again following the lead of TikTok with a new feature and has launched a new ‘Add Yours’ sticker for Stories, which enables users to prompt others to respond to their Stories content, in order to create more engaging reply threads to Stories posts.

When users respond, they’re added to the profile bubble listing on the sticker, which, when tapped, enables users to go through all the other responses to the thread, building a response chain within Stories that can help prompt more engagement.

1. Instagram Launches Live-Stream Shopping Events for the Holidays Plus More - Instagram is diving deeper into live-stream commerce with the launch of a new series of shopping-based broadcasts heading into the holidays, which will also incorporate exclusive product launches and influencer recommendations to help maximize interest.

“On Fridays in November, (November 5, 12, 19) lookout for the #BuyBlack Live Shopping series to discover brands from talented Black creators. From December 5 – 15, we’re hosting a Holiday Pop-Up Shop LIVE series. Picture the magic and charm of a holiday market, but from the comfort of your couch.”

Instagram’s also launching new Gift Guides by price category on the Shop tab, which will highlight ideas in variable price ranges (up to $250), while it’ll also share new tips from the Instagram Shop team on key seasonal trends and recommendations. The new features will be accessible by tapping “Holiday Picks” on the Shop tab in the app.

And finally, Instagram’s also looking to help retailers maximize their holiday sales by offering 20% off a users’ first purchase in the app, as well as free shipping on eligible purchases.

1. Pinterest Introduces Live Shopping Feature - Carving out its share of the shoppable Livestream market, Pinterest on Friday introduced Pinterest TV, a series of live, shoppable episodes featuring content creators. Each Friday, the social media platform will facilitate exclusive, live product drops from the likes of Allbirds, Crown Affair, and Outdoor Voices.

Starting Monday, Pinterest will release new episodes every weekday at 6 p.m. EDT, with each day focused on a different category, and will record them for users to watch on-demand via iOS and Android. The social network is also setting up a virtual studio where Pinterest producers work with content creators on program development, according to the announcement.
Pinterest TV creators can tag products for viewers to buy, as well as access other tools, including a product drawer with prices and product details, product drops, and brand collaborations, and a module to offer limited-time discounts. They can also show how many items are left during the show, per the announcement.

1. Microsoft Advertising Rolls Out Smart Shopping Campaigns - Microsoft Advertising has said they focus on automating the repetitive tasks of search advertising so that marketers can focus on the creative and strategic endeavors and these features and updates enforce that concept.

“In this time of market uncertainties and competition, creating engaging online shopping experiences that can be effectively scaled and optimized is of utmost importance, especially for small business owners,” said Kevin Salat in an announcement today. Smart Shopping campaigns allow advertisers to use Microsoft’s automation tools to optimize their shopping campaigns to target customers who are more likely to convert at higher revenue values. These campaigns are “a combination of traditional shopping campaigns, automated bidding, Universal Event Tracking (UET), and remarketing. With these powerful automation tools enabled for Smart Shopping, you can help serve the right ad to the right user at the right time to boost conversion rates and reduce your costs,” said Salat.

Other big additions for this month are:

• Automated Universal Event Tracking (UET) setup with Google Tag Manager.
• Expanded targeting. The Microsoft Audience Network is expanding its footprint to 18 new markets, available to all customers in mid-November.

• CPC and CPM pricing. On the Microsoft Audience Network, you can now choose between CPC or CPM Pricing, so you can select the right pricing model for each campaign.

• “Google My Business” Is Now “Google Business Profile” - Google is renaming Google My Business to Google Business Profile, as it moves efforts to bring more of the business profile management out of the Google My Business app and directly into Google Search, Google Maps and those respective apps.

Google Business Profile will be the new name going forward for Google My Business. Google said the reason for the new name is to “keep things simple” and sometime in 2022, Google will retire the Google My Business app completely.

Google is encouraging businesses to manage their single listings directly on Google Search or Google Maps, either via the web interface or mobile apps.

If you manage multiple locations for your business and/or you are a local SEO that manages a number of businesses, you will still continue to use an interface like Google My Business, renamed to Business Profile Manager going forward.

Google also announced some new features with this announcement. The new features include:

• Claim and verify your Google Business Profile directly in Google Search and Google Maps
• Call History is officially launching in US and Canada (more details here)
• Messaging can be done directly from Google Search (more details here)

• Message read receipts can be controlled in Google Search and Maps

• Google Page Experience Algorithm Update Coming to Desktop in February 2022 - Google will begin rolling out the page experience ranking update to desktop search results starting in February 2022. Google said the rollout will finish rolling out by the end of March 2022. This update will include all the current signals of the mobile version of the page experience update, outside of the page needing to be mobile-friendly.

Which factors is will be included in this desktop version? Google said all of them with the exception of the mobile-friendliness requirement, which is kind of obvious. So be mindful of LCP, CLS, FID, HTTPS Security, and the Absence of intrusive interstitials
While I do not believe this page experience update will be a significant update where you will see tons of sites see their rankings drastically change, those working towards improving their page experience have been primarily focused on their mobile pages. Now, that you have your mobile pages ready for this update, you can shift focus towards your desktop pages.

1. Tag Assistant Conversion Support In Google Ads - Google also introduced Tag Assistant, a tool that can help you diagnose issues with your conversion actions, such as unverified conversion actions, inactive tags, or no recent conversions. Additionally, the Tag Assistant shows which conversion actions are being properly measured in real-time.

The Tag Assistant can help advertisers troubleshoot unverified or inactive conversion actions, which can help them more accurately record conversions.

You can access the Tag Assistant debug mode here.

1. Conversion Goals Group in Google Ads - Google Ads is introducing conversion goals, which group conversion actions into categories based on conversion type and can be used to optimize bidding at the account or campaign level, the company announced on November 1.

So now there are three types of conversion goals:

• Standard goals — Conversion actions added by the advertiser, which are then automatically grouped into conversion goals based on their conversion category type (e.g., “Purchases,” “Contacts” or “Submit lead forms”).
• Account-default goals — The standard conversion goals (above) that you have designated as your account default. When you create a new campaign, all account-default goals in your account are selected for optimization by default.
• Custom goals — Goals that advertisers can create and add any combination of primary (used for bidding) and secondary conversion (not used for bidding) actions.

“For example, let’s say you’re an online clothing retailer. Going forward, you can set a purchase as your account-default goal so that all of your campaigns can optimize for that outcome,” Google said in the announcement, “Within this purchase goal, you’ll also be able to define which specific conversion actions, such as ‘completed sale’, should be used for bidding.” Advertisers can decide which individual conversion actions are used for bidding optimization when the goal it belongs to is used for bidding.

Advertisers will begin seeing their conversion actions grouped by these new conversion goals when they create new campaigns over the coming weeks. Existing conversion, conversion optimization, and bidding settings will not be changed.

1. Performance Max Campaigns in Google Ads is Available To All Advertisers - Performance Max campaigns are a new way to buy Google ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps from a single campaign. Per Google, they complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help you grow performance across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory.

Performance Max campaigns rolled out to all advertisers around the world starting November 2nd. They will also become the next generation of Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, which will both upgrade to Performance Max next year.

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1. LinkedIn Business Highlights from Microsoft’s FY22 Q1 Earnings - On Oct 26, 21, Microsoft announced Q1 FY22 Earnings. Included in the report on the financial performance were the following LinkedIn highlights:

2. In Q1 FY22, LinkedIn’s revenue was up 42% year-over-year (39% in constant currency).

3. They’re experiencing a Great Reshuffle across the global labor market as people are rethinking not only where and how they work, but why. With more people changing jobs than ever before, we saw record engagement as nearly 800 million members turned to LinkedIn to connect, learn, grow, and get hired.
4. Confirmed hires on the platform also increased more than 160% year over year, and this quarter they launched new ways to help job seekers discover roles that align with how they want to work.
5. In this rapidly evolving labor market, companies are increasingly turning to LinkedIn Learning to upskill and reskill their employees. They now have more than 15,000 enterprise customers, and are expanding their opportunity in the creator economy, including offering new ways for LinkedIn Learning instructors to build their audiences and connect with learners live.
6. Businesses continue to choose LinkedIn as the trusted way to reach professionals, with their advertising revenue up 61% year over year.

You can also see LinkedIn’s quarterly product highlights, releases and enhancements in the Q1 FY22 product list here. For more information, see the Q1 FY22 earnings release here.

1. LinkedIn Updates Pages to Quickly Attract Top Talent With New Tools - According to the Glint’s Employee Well-Being Report, employees who are satisfied with their organization’s flexibility on work schedules or location are 3.4x more likely to balance work and personal obligations, 2.6x more likely to be happy working for their employer, and 2.1x more likely to recommend working for their employer.

And workplace policies matter when it comes to attracting top talent, and being ultra-transparent about those policies, from day one, can benefit your brand. To help, LinkedIn has invested in a feature that allows you to convey whether your organization is working remote, hybrid or on-site in your LinkedIn Page header, and additional space to clarify your evolving policies on vaccines, pay adjustments, and more.

And remember, LinkedIn has added customizable competitor analytics to your LinkedIn Page Analytics Tab, in which you can add up to nine of your competitors to benchmark their LinkedIn Page performance. This feature also allows you to track and compare their follower growth and organic content performance with yours.

1. PayPal Confirms: ‘Not Pursuing an Acquisition of Pinterest at This Time’ - A rather big rumor that was brewing across the internet has now been shut down, with PayPal declaring that it is currently not interested in buying Pinterest. They shared it via a news release post on their website.

2. Instagram Makes Links in Stories Available to All Accounts - Instagram has announced that links are now being made available in Instagram Stories for all users, not just those with 10k followers or verified accounts. Now, all users will now be able to access the link sticker for Stories, which Instagram introduced as the primary link sharing option, instead of ‘Swipe up’ links, back in August.

Instagram does note that new accounts, as well as accounts that repeatedly share content that violates its Community Guidelines, will not have access to the Link sticker. That provides it some safeguards in limiting misuse of the option – though the details of what qualifies as a ‘new’ account in this context have not been communicated.

1. Facebook Launches Virtual Training Sessions for Female Business Owners - Facebook has launched a new series of virtual training sessions for female business owners, in celebration of Women’s Small Business Month, which provide tips and insights to help female entrepreneurs succeed in the post-COVID landscape.

“According to our recent Global State of Small Business Report, women-owned businesses face closure rates of 18% in the US compared to their male counterparts at 13%. But despite the obstacles, the resilience and tenacity of women-owned businesses remains high - which is why we want to take time to celebrate them during National Women’s Small Business Month.”

The videos, which you can view here, each run for around 10 minutes and include lessons on effective financial management, business leadership as well as tips and tricks on ways to leverage digital marketing tools to maximize sales leading into the holidays.

1. Facebook Manages To Have A Successful Q3 - Facebook recently posted results for the company's Q3 2021 revenue, displaying steady growth in users while revenue ($2.8B) remains about the same when compared with Q2, 21. Which goes to show that despite the number of controversies they wade into, corporations find a way. The Q3 2021 report can be easily found on the platform's investors section but we'll break down some of the more important and relevant details here. Starting off with perhaps the most important metric of them all: userbase. Facebook added 22 million new daily active users (DAUs) to its platforms, leading to an overall massive number of 1.93 billion DAUs. With such a track record, all Facebook needs is another solid quarter, and Q4 will push the numbers over the 2 billion DAUs line.

The most active site of growth proved to be the Asia Pacific region, with numbers going from 788 million DAUs in Q2 2021 to 805 million this quarter. Europe, & the US and Canada regions displayed the least amount of growth, with numbers going up by 1 million DAUs from Q2 to Q3 for both. This very much plays into the current perception that the West continues to be less and less enamored by the likes of Facebook, with platforms such as TikTok displaying more engagement and success

The only major hit that Facebook has taken across Q3 is that ad revenue still seems to struggle a little bit. Most of this, if not all of it, has to do with Apple's Tracking and Transparency features, which were introduced to the iOS 14 all the way back in 2020. Tracking and Transparency features mean that third party apps and advertisers cannot take any form of personal user data without explicit consent being provided by the users. This means that advertisers can no longer gauge information such as location data or browser history; the sort of information that makes targeted advertisements easier on these companies.

1. YouTube Explains Why They Recommend Old Videos - In a new video on the Creator Insider channel, YouTube’s Rachel Alves, says that YouTube’s system is designed to match viewers with videos that they’re likely to enjoy, regardless of when that video was published. That means that even older videos, which still see relatively high engagement, will continue to be recommended in line with viewer interests.

2. Maximizing Discovery On YouTube: Specific Tags or More Broad Matching Topics? In a new video on the Creator Insider channel, YouTube’s Rachel Alves says that YouTube’s video tags provide another way for creators to align their content with specific queries, though YouTube specifically notes that tags are not a major algorithm consideration.

“Tags are descriptive keywords you can add to your video to help viewers find your content. Your video’s title, thumbnail, and description are more important pieces of metadata for your video’s discovery. These main pieces of information help viewers decide which videos to watch.”

Alves reiterates this, advising creators to focus on the elements that viewers make decisions about when they’re choosing what to watch – so the title, thumbnail image and description. Alves says that creators would be better off focusing on what’s working for other, similar videos related to their topic, as opposed to optimizing tags.

1. Do Share Your Videos Outside of YouTube, Even When YouTube May Not Be Able to Attribute All The Engagement Metrics - Creators should ‘absolutely’ share their videos outside of YouTube as that can only increase your chances of discovery based on viewer activity, regardless of direct attribution. “If your videos are getting more traffic from external sources, like social media, it’s likely increasing your potential to be discovered by more viewers. Another benefit is that those viewers now have that video in their watch history, so there’s a higher likelihood that they may be recommended one of your other videos in the future.”

2. YouTube Ads Is The Breakout Star of Google’s Q3 Earnings Report - Revenues for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, went up a whopping 41% YoY according to the report, with ad revenues driving $51.3 out of the $65.1 billion. YouTube advertising revenues reached $7.2bn, an increase of 43% from the previous quarter thanks to both direct response and brand advertising. This increase is a big deal since Apple’s App Tracking Transparency had the potential to affect YouTube similarly to other video social media apps.

While shoppers are returning to physical stores, the company’s also seeing 'strong growth in local shopping queries' at the same time.

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1. Pinterest Announces New Features - 'Watch' Tab and 'Takes' - Pinterest has officially announced its new, TikTok-like ‘Watch’ feed for Pin content, as well as a new ‘Takes’ response option for Idea Pins.

First off, on the new Watch feed , Pinterest is adding a scrolling, vertical feed of content to both align with the latest social content consumption trends, and provide a new means to discover a broader range of Pin content.

Pinterest is also adding another interactive element in ‘Takes’. “A Take is an Idea Pin that is created in response to another Idea Pin. Takes appear as responses to the original Idea Pin and can also be seen in your home feed, from people you follow or on your profile.” Takes is also, of course, very similar to the way TikTok’s Duets feature is used to respond to an original clip.

1. Instagram Adds More Demographic Insights About Your Audience - Instagram’s looking to provide more data for marketers with an update to its Insights element for business and creator profiles, which will give you more specific info on who’s engaging with your content – whether they follow your profile or not – as well as the total reach of your posts.

The new data points will help guide your posting decisions, and provide more opportunity to optimize your approach based on more specific data points.

The new metrics being added to Instagram insights are:

• Accounts engaged – This will show the total number of accounts that interacted with your content in a given time period
• Engaged audience – This data will provide demographic insights into the users that are engaging with your content, whether they follow your profile or not, including top cities, top countries, top age ranges and gender
• Reached Audience – Similar to Engaged Audience, this will provide demographic information about the people you’ve reached with your posts in a given time period, including top cities, top countries, top age ranges and gender

You can learn more about Instagram’s new Insights updates here.

1. Instagram Collabs - A New Way To Co-Author Feed Posts And Reels - The Instagram Collab tag is only available for Reels and feed posts. This isn’t a new content creation tool. It’s not a new post format and it doesn’t give you any more editing or analytics. But it does make it easier to communicate with your audience.

Until now, there were two ways to show a partnership on Instagram:

Tag a brand or creator in your posts, just as if you were tagging a friend. There’s no way to differentiate personal and professional tags so this lacks transparency.

Use the branded content tag to show that a post was sponsored. Only some creators are eligible to use this tag.

The Collab label gives you a third option. Anyone you tag as a collaborator will be shown as a co-author of the post. And they’ll instantly be able to reshare the post on their profile without having to use screenshots or a third-party regram app.

What’s more, any public account can use the Collab tag, regardless of their audience size. It’s a new, more straightforward way to signal a professional partnership.

So, to recap, the Collab tag…

• Makes it faster to share content.
• Gives full credit to all authors of a post.
• Makes conversions easier, as users can simply tap the name of a brand or creator on the post to visit their profile.

• Improves transparency for your followers.

• Instagram Now Allows Us to Upload Photos And Videos From Desktop - Finally, Instagram has announced that it’s adding image and video posting functionality from the desktop version of the platform as of October 21st, providing a more centralized way for social media managers to maintain their IG presence.

The process, which will facilitate the posting of photos and videos of less than one minute in length, will not include Stories or Reels uploads at this stage. But it will make it a little bit easier for social media managers to stay across their various apps and posts, by providing a way to upload content for each platform from the one place – so you won’t have to keep saving images in varying ways to then upload from your phone, etc.

1. Microsoft Partners With Shopify To Help Merchants Grow Business - Because of this partnership, Shopify merchants in the United States and Canada can reach more customers using the updated Microsoft Channel app available in their Shopify store. Merchants can quickly connect through the Microsoft Channel using their Microsoft Advertising account or sign up for a new one in few easy steps.

Shopify merchants will be able to easily reach shoppers on the Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network with just a few clicks. The onboarding is simple, allowing merchants to quickly connect with shopping offerings that showcase their products using free and paid listings.

1. Shopify & Spotify Integration Allows Artists To Sell Merch Easily - Using Spotify, artists can introduce products to the place where listeners and fans are already engaging with their music most. By connecting their Spotify for Artists accounts with their Shopify online stores, artists can sync their product catalogues and seamlessly showcase products of their choice directly on their Spotify artist profiles, making it easy for fans to browse and purchase.

With Shopify, artist-entrepreneurs have access to an all-in-one commerce platform to manage their brands across multiple touchpoints that not only include leading social and entertainment channels and marketplaces, but now the most popular audio streaming services in the world.

1. BigCommerce Merchants Can Now List Their Products for Free on Google - BigCommerce works with small, medium and large merchants around the world. With this new integration, BigCommerce merchants of all sizes will be able to easily list their products for free on Google, create ad campaigns and review performance metrics directly in their BigCommerce store. This also means BigCommerce merchants can now integrate with Google’s shopping features across Search, Shopping, Image Search and YouTube.

2. Google Rebrands & Launches 'Google for Creators' Platform - The launch represents a brand update and strategic shift from ‘Google Web Creators’ to ‘Google for Creators.

Google for Creators offers marketers and publishers resources to develop content strategy, monetize content, and build their web presence.

Julia Lee, Engineering Director, Search Ecosystem at Google, said that the rebranded Google for Creators is “a new home base for creators to learn, grow and get inspired.”

Google for Creators resources help marketers and content creators achieve four main objectives:

1. Learn the essentials.
2. Build your content strategy.
3. Engage and find fans.
4. Grow and make money.

The experience starts with a quiz on the homepage to help assess the visitor’s goals and surface the most relevant content. Guides are authored by a variety of expert content creators, social media influencers, successful digital marketers, and bestselling authors.

In addition to the guides on the website, you can find Google for Creators on Instagram and Twitter. There’s an email newsletter for those who want to hear from the program more often.

You’ll find upcoming events like Creator Conf, billed as the world’s largest event for creators, listed in the Creator Community section of the site, as well.

1. YouTube Announces Live Shopping - YouTube has announced a new series of live-stream shopping events, as it looks to tap into the rise in shopper behavior leading into the holidays.

“The YouTube Holiday Stream and Shop will kick off on November 15th, with seven days of shoppable live streams. Fans tuning in will be able to score new products, unlock limited time offers, and get their product questions answered through live Q&A and polls with creators and other viewers.”

Live-stream shopping is a key opportunity, combining the immediacy and FOMO-factor of live broadcasts, with the compulsion of in-stream purchases. The process has been a big hit in China, where live-commerce is on track to become a $423 billion market by the end of next year. Facebook, TikTok and YouTube are now all looking to link into the same, with the hopes that western consumers will also adopt the live shopping trend.

1. YouTube Adds Auto-Chapters as a Search Element - YouTube began rolling out auto-chapters back in July, with its system detecting segments of videos in order to provide more specific matching for search queries.

When chapters are enabled, YouTube can highlight specific segments in response to searches, giving it more capacity to help users find the key elements that they’re looking for in each clip.

This could play a much bigger role in video discovery over time, with each element of each clip becoming searchable, providing more data on what, specifically, people are looking for, while also facilitating more discovery potential based on your content.

Given that it’s now going to be used in this way, it could be worth checking the segmentation of your own YouTube clips, and optimizing your chapter names based on relative keyword search and likely matching.

It’s worth also noting that not all videos are subject to auto-segmentation, and you can opt-out (via your upload defaults in YouTube Studio) if you choose to as well.

You can find out more about YouTube video chapters here.

1. Snap: Q3 Earnings Snapshot - In the earnings call, Snap said that it failed to meet revenue expectations for its third quarter by $72million. They reported $1.07 billion in Q3 revenue, missing Wall Street’s hopes that the company would bring in $1.1 billion.

The company notched 306 million daily active users, up from the 293 million it reported in Q2. That growth isn’t stratospheric, but it looks plenty healthy for a platform that risked falling out of relevance entirely not long ago.

Snapchat attributed the revenue miss to Apple’s big iOS privacy change, which put new restrictions in place for apps seeking to track user behavior beyond their own borders. On the call, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel noted that the company was caught off guard by how disruptive the impact on advertiser tools proved to be. Without the wide view that many advertisers were accustomed to, they had to adapt to new, more restrained ways of measuring user behavior. “Those tools were essentially rendered blind,” Spiegel said.

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1. Facebook Updates Measurement Process for Ads Reach - Facebook has announced that it will begin counting people who’ve not connected their Facebook and Instagram accounts in its Accounts Center as separate entities for ad purposes – i.e. if your accounts are not connected, Facebook will now assume that your Facebook and Instagram profiles are two different people.

Facebook’s Accounts Center, which is accessible via your settings in each of its apps (Facebook. Instagram and Messenger), enables you to connect your accounts on each, so that you can do things like cross-post content, log-in using your credentials from each app, use Facebook Pay and more.

“Previously, we counted someone with multiple accounts as one person for ads purposes if they linked their Facebook and Instagram accounts via those apps, or if we believed that the accounts were owned by the same person. For example, if someone used the same email address across their Facebook and Instagram accounts or accessed both platforms from the same device, we counted them as one person when they interacted with ads.”

So this will make Facebook’s ad reach numbers look a lot better, with much broader scope, based on variable accounting. This is interesting because recently Facebook broadened its campaign reach estimates, with its ‘Potential Reach’ data now being displayed in ranges instead of specific numbers.

You can read more about Facebook’s coming measurement update here.

1. Instagram Now Supports Live Scheduling for Instagram Live Videos - Starting immediately, Instagram has added a new option to schedule upcoming IG Live broadcasts in the app, with users then able to tap through to get a reminder notification on the day of the broadcast.

Broadcasters will now be able to schedule an upcoming stream, up to 90 days in advance, from the live composer, which can include a title description, as well as product tags, if you’re looking to promote such in your stream.

The option to schedule your streams provides even more potential on this front, with users, as noted, then able to register for reminders, which will be sent through to them the day before the broadcast, then 15 minutes before the stream begins.

1. Facebook Audio Rooms Now Available to Public Figures Globally & More - Facebook has announced an expansion of its audio social plans, with live audio rooms being made available to public figures globally, and a new, dedicated space within the Watch tab to help users connect to all of the platform’s various audio options.

Facebook’s Live Audio Rooms will be displayed at the top of the News Feed for those following each creator (even above Stories), while they’ll also be accessible via a feed post.

The playback format is very Clubhouse-esque, showing the speakers and listeners in separate sections, while Reactions icons will float up the screen as they’re applied, similar to video live-streams.

The new expansion will mean that many more people will now be able to tune in to Facebook audio broadcasts, though creation will remain restricted to only public figures and those with verified accounts at this stage.

Facebook will also now enable all groups to host live audio rooms, another way to boost interest in the option in a more confined, specific contextual environment.

1. Remove Your Twitter Followers Without Having To Block Them - The newest update released by Twitter as a part of its bracket of advanced privacy features includes the ability in the first and foremost to remove a user from following while not blocking them. This came around as a blessing as blocking sends a notification to the user of being blocked creating discomfort whereas removing a user as a follower would now not send a notification to the user of any such activity.

2. Twitter Launches Twitter Spaces 'Spark' Program to Fund and Support Audio Creators - Per Twitter, “The Twitter Spaces Spark Program is a three-month accelerator initiative that’s designed to discover and reward great Spaces on Twitter with financial, technical, and marketing support. We’re looking for emerging Creators who are passionate about the live social audio format and interested in creating recurring programming on Spaces.”

This is similar to Clubhouse’s Creator Accelerator program, while TikTok has also implemented its own Creator Fund, as has Pinterest, Snapchat, etc. So looks like the major social media platforms are now looking to provide more support and assistance for creators, in order to build their content eco-systems, and keep their best talent aligned to their apps.

Twitter’s Spark program will provide the chosen participants with $2500 per month, along with ad credits and custom Spaces swag. They’ll also be able to connect with the Spaces dev team, and get early access to new features, while Twitter may also promote their broadcasts via its brand handles.

From the program overview, it is evident that Twitter is particularly interested in applicants that ‘have an established show in social audio on other platforms’.

To be eligible for Phase 1 of the Twitter Spaces Spark program, you need to be US-based, and have over 5,000 followers in the app. You also need to commit to hosting a minimum of two Spaces per week – more info here.

1. Twitter Now Supports Multi-Destination URL’s for Carousel Ads - Twitter has announced an update to its Carousel Ad format where it gives you the option to add custom headlines and landing pages into each frame of your Carousel Ads, which will provide more options to build responsive ads for variable audiences within one campaign.

This will provide more capacity to utilize different ad creative within a single campaign, highlighting specific features or use-cases to help broaden appeal. It could also help in your targeting segmentation, with each click highlighting the specific elements of interest for each user, helping to categorize responses.

Twitter says that it’s been testing the new option for the past few months, with beta advertisers seeing a 25% lift in click-through rates, on average, for campaigns that optimize for site visit conversions (relative to single-asset ads).

1. Microsoft Updates Its Smart Pages Website Builder - This February, Microsoft launched Smart Pages, a free website builder service to help small businesses that may not have had websites.

“With Smart Pages standalone mode, you can create, edit, and publish your website for free — no payment information required. We know that not every business with a web presence is prepared to advertise online and want to give everyone the access to Smart Pages,” wrote Will Rivitz, Program Manager, and Cristiano Ventura Sr. Product Marketing Manager. If business owners choose to partake in Microsoft Advertising later, they can easily sign up when they’re ready.

The new Smart Pages reporting feature allows marketers to track pageviews, clicks, and more all within the platform. “By tracking these metrics over time, you’ll see how the improvements and edits you make affect your customers’ experiences,” said Rivitz and Ventura.

Marketers will be able to create a new Smart Pages website directly from their Bing Places account and integrate the two properties. “Customers viewing your business on Bing Places will be able to go directly to your Smart Page, where you can show even more information,” according to the announcement.

1. On Mobile, Google Search Result Will Scroll Continuously - Rolling out over the next two weeks starting October 14, Google’s mobile search results will offer infinite scroll, what Google is calling continuous scroll. That is, as you scroll, Google will not show you the “more results” button when you reach the bottom of the page, instead, Google will just load the next page of results automatically.

Per Google, it does affect the Google Search Ads a little. “As part of this change to how search results show, we’re redistributing the number of text ads that can show between the top and bottom of pages for US-English mobile queries. Now, text ads can show at the top of the second page and beyond, while fewer text ads will show at the bottom of each page. There is no change to how Shopping and Local ads show. “

And yes, you Ads can be shown more than once.

Finally, as a result of this change, expect to see more mobile impressions for Search, Shopping, and Local campaigns that serve ads on US-English queries, and potentially result in lower CTR. However, Google expects clicks, conversions, average CPC, and average CPA to remain flat.

This change to mobile search results is expected to roll out to additional countries and languages next year.

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1. Microsoft Advertising Sunsetting ETAs Too & Auto-Generate Remarketing List - Following Google Ads footsteps, Microsoft Advertising announced that beginning June 30, 2022, responsive search ads (RSAs) will be the only search ad type that can be created or edited in standard search campaigns. introducing a new product that can automatically generate remarketing lists for advertisers. The three types of auto-generated remarketing lists are:

2. All Visitors list: A list of users who visited the advertiser’s website in the past 30 days.

3. All Converters list: A list of users who converted within the past 180 days.
4. Smart Remarketing list: A list of users likely to convert, powered by Microsoft Advertising’s audience intelligence and designed to deliver a higher conversion rate.

Advertisers can use one, two or all three lists simultaneously, along with their existing remarketing and audience targeting lists. Universal Event Tracking and active conversion goals will need to be configured to leverage the All Converters and Smart Remarketing list options.

1. Pinterest Adds New Shopping Features, Including Brand Profile Details and Sponsored Idea Pins - Andrew @ Socialmediatoday.com writes - Pinterest is adding a new ‘Slideshow for Collections’ promotion option, which will source products from your uploaded catalog “into an automatically generated, attention-grabbing collections ad”. The new Slideshow for Collections ad unit will appear in-stream in relevant searches, helping to reach people that have already shown interest in similar products. When tapped, the unit then expands into a more focused collection of your products, again, all automatically generated based on your inventory.

Pinterest is also adding new merchant details to brand profiles, which will enable businesses to showcase their values in the app. This provides another way to facilitate stronger brand connection, especially among more socially-conscious, younger shoppers who are increasingly looking to buy from brands that align with their values.

Pinterest is also expanding its Verified Merchant Program, which highlights businesses that meet Pinterest’s customer service and brand connection guidelines with a verified checkmark in the app. Launched last year in the US, Pinterest’s Verified Merchant program ensures that more businesses are linking their product catalog into the app, while also adhering to Pinterest’s customer response standards.

And finally, Pinterest is also testing a new sponsored content option for Idea Pins, which is Pinterest’s take on the Stories format. Sponsored Idea Pins are displayed with a profile image of the creator, along with a “Paid Partnership” tag to disclose the brand relationship. Sponsored Idea Pins will also, importantly, provide Pinterest with another means to help creators earn money, and get paid for their efforts, which will ensure more, higher quality Idea Pins keep flowing.

1. Snapchat Rolls Out Run for Office Mini - From socialmediatoday, over the past few years, Snapchat has been working to get its young user base more involved in the political process, through voting awareness stickers, polling location tracking, voter registration pushes, Discover programming and more. And now, Snap’s looking to take the next step in civic engagement, by prompting its users to actually become politicians, and directly influence political shifts.

The ‘Run for Office’ mini provides a range of key insights into local political positions, as well as explainers on the steps that people need to take in order to nominate themselves for relevant local ballots and positions. The mini will also include info on filing deadlines and signature requirements, and provide contact information for local election offices.

Snapchatters in the US can access the new ‘Run for Office’ mini by opening Snapchat and swiping down on the camera screen to access Snap’s in-app games, where the mini will be listed, or you can search ‘Run for Office’ within Snapchat.

1. Snapchat Announces New Creator Monetization Tools as it Seeks to Maximize In-App Engagement - From SocialMediaToday.com, Snapchat’s launching new ‘Spotlight Challenges’ (payment program for its TikTok-like Spotlight feed), which will provide cash prizes for users who post the best videos on a specific theme. The new Spotlight Challenges will outline the specifics of each trend, as well as the prizes on offer for the best performing clips in each category.

It’s a fairly straightforward process, and it could provide a means for Snapchat to fuel rising content trends, which is one of the key ways that users engage on TikTok. It could also provide a new revenue opportunity for the app, with brands eventually able to sponsor specific Spotlight trends relative to their promotions.

“The total prize amount for individual Spotlight Challenges will typically range from $1k to $25k, although occasionally we may make available a larger sum for a particular Challenge, and the minimum prize a Snapchatter can win in a Spotlight Challenge is $250.”

At launch, in November last year, Snapchat announced that it would pay out $1 million per day, to be shared among the top-performing Spotlight clips, as means to incentivize engagement, and kick-start the offering. Which worked – by the end of Q1, Spotlight had jumped to 125 million monthly active users (out of Snapchat’s 280m total actives), but by that stage, Snap had already paid out $90 million in creator payments, with more to come, and the cost-to-benefit ratio was starting to look a little out of whack.

Hindsight aside, with the costs continuing to mount up, in June, Snap announced an update to its Spotlight payment process, shifting from daily payments of $1 million for Spotlight clips to a more vague 'millions per month'. That’s caused various problems for Snap creators, who had already raised concerns about delayed payments and other issues with the program. Maybe, then, this will be a more logical, and sustainable means of funding Spotlight clips, which could also entice a broader range of creators into the program, as opposed to the top creators taking the lion’s share of the funding.

1. Mailchimp Helps SMBs Optimize Email Campaigns - Mailchimp, the email marketing platform, has announced new functionality to help optimize email campaigns. Content Optimizer will recommend specific improvements to email campaigns based on an AI-driven comparison of the content with best content practices gleaned from Mailchimp’s billions of marketing data-sets.

Content Optimizer will make recommendations relating to readability, typography, CTA placements and compliance with brand standards.

This is Mailchimp’s latest attempt to level the playing field between small and larger businesses by providing affordable automation of an important marketing process

1. Twitter Professional Profiles Available to More Businesses - After an initial rollout to a small test group, Twitter is now opening up applications for professional profiles to all interested businesses. All businesses can now apply for a professional profile on Twitter, which grants access to exclusive features.

A professional profile is a free upgrade to standard profiles, which is available as an option to those with professional accounts. You can use a professional profile to display information you’re not able to showcase on a standard profile.

Businesses, publishers, developers, and creators can display the following information on their upgraded profile page:

1. Business location: Listed directly in the profile and displayed visually on a small map. People can tap on the location map/listing to open Google Maps and get directions.
2. Hours of operation (optional): Showcase the days and times people can reach your business at a physical location.
3. Methods of contact: Enable options for customers to contact your business through any or all of the following methods:

In addition, a professional profile opens up access to enhanced features that aren’t available to businesses with a standard profile. A couple that can be added to a professional profile today include Newsletter & Shop module.

In order to qualify for a professional profile you must first have a professional Twitter account. A standard account can be converted into a professional account from the settings screen by selecting “Switch to Professional.” From there Twitter will guide you through the rest of the steps. Along with having a professional account, your business must meet the following criteria:

1. Have a physical location where you do business with clients or customers.
2. Be based in the United States and use Twitter in English.

Note that any business can submit an application, but Twitter is going to review every application that comes through to make sure the business qualifies. Businesses are asked to submit a brief form to confirm their eligibility for a professional profile.

1. Clubhouse Makes Clips Available for All iOS Users - Last week in Episode 76, we covered the announcement about Clips. And this week, it was rolled out to all iOS users. Coming soon to Android.

2. Instagram Combines IGTV, Feed Videos Into Single Format, Instagram Video - From Instagram:

“Starting today, we’re combining IGTV and feed videos into one format - Instagram Video. We’re also introducing a new Video tab on your profile, where this combined video format will live, to make it easier for people to discover new video content.”

The new video tab, signified by a play button icon, will now display all of your uploaded videos in one place. The merging of IGTV and general Instagram video will also provide new playback functionality, with viewers able to tap anywhere on the video to enter full-screen mode, while users will also be able to keep scrolling “to discover new video content from creators that may interest them”.

In addition, Instagram’s also adding new trimming tools and filters for all uploaded video clips, as well as location tagging in videos (previously not available for IGTV).

“Video previews in feed will now be 60 seconds long, unless the video is eligible for ads - in which case, the preview will still be 15 seconds.” That means users will be able to view more of your content without having to tap through, which could help generate more interest, and will have impacts for those looking to maximize engagement with their in-stream previews.

And finally, Instagram’s also changing the name of its video ads: “With Instagram Video, IGTV Ads are now called Instagram In-Stream video ads. Eligible creators can still monetize their long-form content, and brands can reach audiences engaging with long-form video. For businesses interested in boosting their videos to reach more people, videos must be no longer than 60 seconds in length.”

1. Google Shifts AdSense to First-Price Auction. How Will It Impact Google Ads? - Per Google: “In the early days of online display advertising, ad space was sold to advertisers in a second-price auction, where the final price paid by the winner was determined by the amount of the second-highest bid. Over time, many ad selling platforms in the display advertising ecosystem, including Google Ad Manager and Google AdMob, switched their auction to first-price. In a first-price auction, the final price reflects the winning bid.”

For example, right now, in AdSense bidding, the final price of each ad is 0.01c higher than the second-placed bid. So if two brands bid $5 and $6 respectively for an ad slot, the winning bidder ends up paying $5.01. Under a first price auction model, however, the winning bid would be the full top bid – so the advertiser would pay $6 for the impression.

That will likely mean more revenue for publishers, and Google – though Google says that the actual impacts will be limited.

You can read more about the coming update here.

1. Google Adds Search Console integration to Google Analytics, New Data Attribution Modeling - From Google: “Search Console provides detailed information about your website’s organic Search performance, including the site’s rank in Search results, queries that led to clicks, and post-click data, like engaged sessions and conversions. With the new Search Console integration, you'll be able to understand the role that organic Search plays in driving traffic to, and engagement on your site, relative to other marketing channels like Search ads, email, or social.”

Analytics has always incorporated various search insights, and for many, those will be enough to provide a picture of how Google search is driving traffic to your site (or not). But for those looking to further optimize their SEO processes, the new Search Console integration will provide more specific data, which could help you develop a more all-encompassing, and engaging, SEO optimization process.

In addition to this, Google’s also adding data-driven attribution, with no minimum threshold requirements, to Google Analytics 4 properties. BTW, we cover a lot more about data-drive attribution in episode 76 of the TWIMshow where we shared how Google is moving away from last-click attribution wherever possible, as it’s not an accurate indicator of overall digital marketing performance.

“Google’s data-driven attribution models give you a better understanding of how all of your marketing activities collectively influence your conversions, so you don’t over or undervalue a single channel. Unlike last-click attribution, where 100% of the credit goes to the final interaction, data-driven attribution distributes credit to each marketing touchpoint based on how much impact the touchpoint had on driving a conversion.”

And finally, Google’s also looking to counter the loss of attribution data, amid the shift to more data privacy controls, by adding new modeling prediction capacity to Analytics.

“Using Google’s advanced modeling technology, the new Google Analytics allows you to fill gaps in your understanding of customer behavior when cookies and other identifiers aren’t available. It analyzes vast amounts of historical data, identifies correlations and trends between key data points, and uses those insights to make predictions about the customer journey.”

1. YouTube Ads Available on Connected Television (CTV) Platforms - YouTube is looking to help advertisers tap into the rising consumption of YouTube content on home TV sets with the expansion of Video Action campaigns to Connected TV (CTV) placements. Video action campaigns now include CTV inventory to help advertisers reach new customers and drive more online sales.

Per Google, “If your goal is to drive online sales or generate leads, we recommend using Video Action campaigns. Video Action campaigns make it easy to find new customers efficiently in a single campaign by combining inventory from across YouTube and Google video partners - and now YouTube CTV. For the first time, performance advertisers can take advantage of YouTube on CTV to drive and measure conversions.”

Video Action campaigns display a URL at the bottom of the screen, prompting further action on the brand’s website. Which, given that people can’t click or tap on a URL link on their TV set, is one of the best ways to drive direct response – though it is less ‘direct’ than the normal definition of that term.

The expansion of Video Action campaigns is the latest advance on this, while YouTube also provides Masthead ads for CTV, and has improved its ad targeting options specifically for CTV campaigns.

It’s a good addition, which will be valuable for brands seeking traditional TV-like ad placement. And as CTV consumption continues to rise, TV-like ads are becoming more affordable, with better targeting and more specific audience options to better balance cost, and maximize efficiency.

You can find out more about YouTube’s Video Action campaigns here.

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1. Businesses on Instagram Can Boost Posts to Message Them on WhatsApp - Instagram has announced that all businesses can now connect their WhatsApp business account to Instagram to facilitate new connection opportunities in the app. By connecting your WhatsApp business account, you’ll be able to add a new WhatsApp connection tab to your Instagram business profile, providing another way for people to get in touch, and spark direct conversations with your business. This could be a big deal - according to Facebook, 75% of adults want to communicate with businesses via messaging. Which seems high, but even if that’s partially correct, providing a means for each individual to contact you via message, and in the messaging app they prefer, could be a positive step.

Furthermore, after you’ve connected your WhatsApp business account, you’ll also be able to boost posts that drive customers to message you in the app.

1. Facebook Officially Launches Reels (on Facebook) to US Users - On Sep 29, 21 Facebook launched Reels on Facebook for all users in the US, bringing its short-form video to its bringing the option to its 250+ Million US audience. Up until this launch, Reels was only available on Instagram.

Along with the capacity to share your Reels to your News Feed, you’ll also be able to post your Reels direct to groups that you’re a member of, while Facebook’s also launching a new ‘Single Theme’ group setting “that makes it easy to prompt members to share their Reels”.

1. Facebook’s Pre-Campaign Estimates Moving Away from Specific Audience Projections - Facebook advertisers take note – Facebook has announced that it’s changing the way it displays estimated audience reach for ads, by switching from more specific reach estimates to generalized potential reach categories.

Right now, when you go to set up your Facebook ad, Facebook will display ‘Potential Reach’ with a fairly specific number range of people that your campaign is likely to be seen by, based on the targeting criteria that you select.

The new Estimated Audience display is more broad, with the potential reach figure in this example covering a potential discrepancy of 10 million users. Not all of the estimates will be that broad, but the basic premise is the same – Facebook will now show you a much more generalized reach estimate, as opposed to specific numbers, based on your targeting criteria.

You can read more about Facebook’s Estimated Audience Size calculations here.

1. Second Annual Pinterest Creators Festival Set for Oct. 20 - Pinterest will host its annual Creators Festival on Oct 20, 21, where the platform will showcase its latest features, highlight key usage trends, provide engagement tips for Pin marketers, and more.

The Creators Festival provides an opportunity for Pinterest to present its evolving vision for the platform, via new tools and coming additions, while also facilitating connection among Pin creators.

Pinterest’s Creators Festival will be hosted in local time for audiences in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany and France on October 20th. You can find more info here.

1. YouTube Ads Retires TrueView for Action Campaign - Introduces Video Action Campaigns - YouTube Ads is evolving TrueView for action and scaling its best features to more places on and off YouTube with Video action campaigns. With Video action campaigns, you can tell your brand’s story with longer headlines and have access to top performing places like YouTube’s home feed, watch page, watch next feed, and Google video partners—all within one campaign. Per YouTube, they’ve seen Video action campaigns drive 20% more conversions per dollar compared to TrueView for action.

Starting early 2022, all existing TrueView for action campaigns will automatically upgrade to Video action campaigns. As a reminder, September 30, 2021 is the last day to create a new TrueView for action campaign and any existing TrueView for action ads will continue to run until early next year.

1. Google Display Ads Introduces Engaged-View Conversions - Measuring the full impact of your Display ads means looking beyond clicks, especially when you incorporate the rich storytelling power of video ads into your customers’ increasingly complex online journey. That’s why Google has developed engaged-view conversions (EVCs), a more robust non-click conversion metric. These are counted when a user watches 10 seconds of a video in your ad and doesn’t interact, but later completes a conversion on your site.

Now, you can more consistently measure the impact of your ads across different Google Ads channels. Engaged-view conversions can also be tracked on TrueView skippable in-stream ads, Local campaigns and App campaigns.

1. Data-Driven Attribution is Now The Default Attribution Model for All New Google Ads Conversion Actions - Per Google, in the face of a changing privacy landscape the current last-click attribution increasingly fall short of advertisers’ needs.

The Data-driven attribution in Google Ads uses advanced machine learning to more accurately understand how each marketing touchpoint contributed to a conversion, all while respecting user privacy.

While Google Ads offered data-driven attribution for sometime, not all advertisers was able to use it due to minimum data requirements or unsupported conversion types.

Now to help all advertisers take advantage of better attribution and improve their performance, they’re removing the data requirements and adding support for additional types of conversions. With these improvements, they're also making data-driven attribution the default attribution model for all new conversion actions in Google Ads.

1. Microsoft Advertising Launches Open Beta for Credit Card Ads - Microsoft Advertising has announced a new ad unit called Credit Card ads. Credit card ads are available to advertisers targeting the United States and Canada. Credit card ads are feed-based, dynamically generated ads. The ads are created purely from the feeds – and are not triggered by keywords, or site content. Feeds for credit card ads include things like the card issuer, cash-back percentages, rewards, annual fees, and sign-up bonuses.

Advertisers are increasingly looking to stand out from the competition and captivate their target audience in new, innovative ways. With the introduction of video ads on the Microsoft Audience Network, you can reach potential customers where they are actively consuming content on MSN and Microsoft News. Video ads can help you boost awareness, capture attention, and drive leads for your brand, while creating deep emotional connections with your customers.

1. Microsoft Introduces Video Ads on the Microsoft Audience Network - Advertisers are increasingly looking to stand out from the competition and captivate their target audience in new, innovative ways. With the introduction of video ads on the Microsoft Audience Network, you can reach potential customers where they are actively consuming content on MSN and Microsoft News. Video ads can help you boost awareness, capture attention, and drive leads for your brand, while creating deep emotional connections with your customers.

Not only will you be able to captivate your audience in a compelling format, but Microsoft is the only platform with access to Microsoft Bing search intent data, as well as LinkedIn profile data on video assets — this means your video ads on the Microsoft Audience Network work harder to drive deeper connections and deliver performance across the funnel.

1. Clubhouse Adds Universal Search, Clips & Room to Help Boost Sharing - Universal Search - will allow you to search for people, clubs, live rooms and future events — so you can find your friends more quickly, discover amazing clubs and events related to any breaking news or nerdy interest, and find rooms about specific things happening in the world right now.

Clips - will allow anyone to share 30-second clips of public rooms, so more people on the Internet can discover and join your club. Here’s how it will work:

1. When you start a room, you can choose whether you want clips enabled. They’ll be on by default for open/public rooms, and you can toggle them off anytime. They are not available for private, social or club rooms.
2. If you’ve enabled Clips, people will see a new icon (✄), which they can tap anytime to grab a Clip of the past 30 seconds. This lets them share a preview of your room with others, or capture an incredible moment that just happened.
3. People can share Clips of your show to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, iMessage, or WhatsApp — and even save them to their camera rolls for quick editing first.

Replays - a new way for people to experience your live rooms on Clubhouse. Just later. :)

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1. TikTok Shared Holiday Marketing Guide to Assist with Strategic Planning - This week, TikTok has published part one of its 2021 Holiday Marketing guide, which outlines some key usage stats, important shopping dates to note, and even provides a calendar overview for planning your outreach.

TikTok will provide more tips next week – you can check out the full overview here, or the infographic summary below.

1. LinkedIn Launches Updated Lead Gen Forms Integration - LinkedIn has made collecting audience data a little easier with the launch of a new Event Registration trigger in the Lead Generation Forms integration for Zapier, enabling you to connect your gathered lead gen forms info with third-party tools and apps.

For example, using the Zapier/LinkedIn lead gen integration, you could create an automation flow that automatically adds a webinar registrant in Zoom every time someone signs up for your event, or you could add all Lead Gen Forms responses to a Google Sheet for easy sorting and retargeting.

1. Microsoft Advertising launches Marketing with Purpose Business attributes - New attributes from Microsoft Advertising allow businesses to indicate their dedication to “responsibility, how your brand values align with the values of your customers, and how your brand is being inclusive,” said an announcement from Microsoft Advertising.

“Marketing with Purpose Business Attributes allow you to communicate quickly and easily how your brand is ‘for someone like me.’ They allow you to be authentic, which is the key attribute to building trust with customers,” said the blog.

Marketing with Purpose. This initiative is exclusive to Microsoft Advertising and follows the lead the company has taken with its Marketing with Purpose playbook and course. The idea behind the initiative is to “build a brand that’s welcomed into people’s lives by earning genuine trust, upholding their values, and inclusively advertising.”

Attributes included. The attributes advertisers can choose from fall under four main categories: inclusion, environmental, community/social responsibility, and accessibility. Within those categories, there are 32 attributes that a business can choose.

1. Facebook Shared Its Content Distribution Guidelines - On Sep 23, Facebook published Content Distribution Guidelines to share more detail on how content is distributed on Facebook. While the Community Standards make it clear what content is removed from Facebook because they don’t allow it on the platform, the Content Distribution Guidelines make it clear what content receives reduced distribution on News Feed because it’s problematic or low quality. Many of these guidelines have been shared in various announcements, but in efforts to provide clarity and make them more accessible, they brought them together in one easy-to-navigate space in their Transparency Center.

There are three principal reasons why they might reduce the distribution of a content:

• Responding to People’s Direct Feedback: They listen to people’s feedback about what people like and don’t like seeing on Facebook and make changes to News Feed in response.
• Incentivizing Creators to Invest in High-Quality and Accurate Content: They want people to have interesting new material to engage with in the long term, so they’re working to set incentives that encourage the creation of these types of content.

• Fostering a Safer Community: Some content may be problematic for their community, regardless of the intent. They’ll make this content more difficult for people to encounter.

• Facebook Testing 'Community Awards' to Encourage Engagement in Groups - Facebook’s trying out another way to boost positive contributions in groups, with a new feature called ‘Community Awards’ now in live testing.

The idea is that by rewarding more engaging, more beneficial interactions, that you can encourage individual users to interact more often, while the awards will also highlight to other group members what types of comments you want to see, which could help to improve overall interaction.

Facebook’s tried similar group engagement markers in the past, with ‘Top Fan’ and other badge types to recognize key contributors.

1. Facebook Updates Business Ad Options in Reaction to iOS Update - Apple’s recent privacy changes messed up Facebook’s Ad business so much so that the company warned that the impact of Apple’s privacy changes will more severely impact its Q3 earnings. Vice president of product marketing Graham Mudd said in the blog post that Facebook estimates that in aggregate, it has been underreporting iOS web conversions by approximately 15%; with individual advertisers falling into a broad range. Mudd said the company believes real-world conversions, such as application installs and sales, are higher than what is being reported to advertisers, writing, “We’ve heard from many of you that the impact on your advertising investment has been greater than you expected. The cost of achieving your business outcome may have increased and it’s also gotten harder to measure your campaigns on our platform.”

Now to counter this issue, Facebook has rolled out new features that include expanded click-to-chat options from ads where “businesses can choose all the messaging platforms where they’re available to chat, and we’ll default the chat app in your ad based on where a conversation is most likely to happen,” according to the announcement.

You can also start a WhatsApp chat from an Instagram profile, and the company will “begin testing paid and organic tools to help small businesses find and qualify leads directly within the Instagram app,” said Facebook. New communication options include a test to allow “businesses to manage emails through Inbox and send remarketing emails from Facebook Business Suite,” as well.

“We’re also introducing File Manager, a new feature that allows businesses to easily create, manage and post content within Facebook Business Suite. Lastly, we’re making post testing available in Facebook Business Suite to let businesses test and compare multiple versions of a post to see which one people are more likely to engage with,” said the announcement from Facebook.

1. Google Launches “Things to Do” Free Listing & Paid Ads. Plus Eco-certification Badge for Hotels - Google is introducing new organic and paid features for travel and leisure businesses, including ticket booking links and pricing in search results, new “Things to do” ads and an eco-certified badge for hotel listings

In addition to showing general information when users search for attractions, such as the Statue of Liberty or Tokyo Tower, for example, Google will now also show booking links for basic admission and other ticketing options (when available).

The company also has plans for a wider rollout of this feature: “In the months ahead, we’ll also begin showing information and booking links for experiences in a destination, like wine tasting in Paris or bike tours in California,” the search engine said.

Google is also introducing a new paid product for travel and leisure businesses: Things to do ads (shown below).

These ads will appear above the search results when users search for tours, activities and local attractions on Google Search. They show details such as images, reviews, pricing and include a booking link for the activity, and are shown to users based on their search terms, location and other related details.

Things to do ads are an automated format that use data from your inventory feed based on the ad group label. Advertisers can designate a budget and target users based on their country of residence and device type. Except for target impression share, all bidding strategies available for Search campaigns are also available for Things to do campaigns. Google’s Help Center has more details on how to get started with this new offering.

Lastly, beginning this week, hotels that are certified for high standards of sustainability from certain independent organizations, such as EarthCheck or Green Key, will have an eco-certified badge next to their name, in the search results.

1. Google Ads Advertiser Page Focuses on Transparency - “To give users of our products even more transparency, we are enhancing ad disclosures with new advertiser pages. Users can access these disclosures in our new ‘About this ad’ menu to see the ads a specific verified advertiser has run over the past 30 days,” said Google in an announcement on Sep 22, 2021

As part of the company’s advertiser transparency initiative, Google Ads introduced their advertiser identity verification program as well as their “About this ad” information this past year. The new Advertiser Page program takes that transparency for searchers to the next level.

“This transparency helps users learn more about the company behind a specific ad. It also helps differentiate credible advertisers in the ecosystem, while limiting the ability of bad actors to misrepresent themselves,” according to the announcement blog. Searchers can report any ad policy violations they believe an ad is breaching. From there a Google team member reviews it and takes the ad down if the violations are found to be true.

“[The advertiser page] will be generated based on the approved ads running and the information in their account. In terms of information about the advertiser, we will continue to show the advertiser’s name and location,” according to Google representative.

1. Google Publishes New, Practical Guide on Key Ad Creative Best Practices and Tips - If you’re looking to optimize your Google marketing approach, then this will help – this week, Google has published a new, 30-page guide to its various ad tools and options, which provides a range of valuable insights and pointers to assist in your holiday marketing strategy.

You can download the full guide here, but here is my key take away.

1. Lead with a clear call to action (CTA)
2. Connect more authentically with a wide variety of assets
3. Build for smaller screens

4. Give your creatives time to test

5. Google Ads Phrase & Broad Match Keyword Preferability - A phrase match or broad match keyword that is identical to a query is now always preferred as long as it is eligible to match, Google announced on Thursday. In addition, the company has provided new details on how keyword matching works when a search is identical to a given keyword as well as when a search is not identical to any of an advertiser’s keywords.

Here’s an example provided by Google: “Let’s say someone searches for ‘sushi delivery near me’, and you have the broad match keywords sushi delivery and sushi delivery near me. Before this update, both of these keywords would be eligible to serve. Now, the keyword sushi delivery near me is preferred because it is identical to the search term. Note that if you have an eligible exact match keyword that is identical to the query, it will still be preferred over the phrase and broad match keyword.”

Now that broad and phrase match keywords that are identical to a search term also receive priority, according to Google, there is no benefit to using the same keyword in multiple match types as broad match already covers the same queries. However, depending on your structure and setup, this may not apply so test before making any changes.

When a search isn’t identical to any of your keywords. Ad Rank used to determine which keyword was served when multiple keywords matched, but none were identical to the search. Now, in addition to Ad Rank, Google is taking relevance signals into account. Relevance is determined by assessing the meaning of the search term, the meaning of all the keywords in the ad group and the landing pages within the ad group.

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1. LinkedIn Rolls Out Articles, Live Events for Pages & Creator Accelerator Program - LinkedIn users have long been able to publish longer content from their personal accounts. Company pages, on the other hand, have been restricted by an arbitrary character count. LinkedIn’s new Articles For Pages gives companies the ability to publish long-form content for the first time, rather than being restricted by a character count.

In addition, company pages are getting a new way to produce live content through an all-new product called LinkedIn Live Events, which combines live streaming with event planning. The simplified experience allows companies to:

• Promote a livestream in advance to a targeted audience
• Notify registrants and select Page followers when the event goes live
• Generate views on the event page from anyone on LinkedIn, whether they’ve hit “Attend” or not, during and after the show.
• Share the replay of the live content for further reach and engagement.

LinkedIn is rolling out additional updates to Live Events to make the feature accessible and easy to use.

• Fewer followers are required for access to LinkedIn Live
• Automated and expedited review process for LinkedIn Live applicants
• All Page admins can go live once a Page is approved
• An expanded registration form for Events
• A lead management integration with Zapier

It may not seem like the most obvious choice for creators, but LinkedIn is also looking to tap into the emerging creator economy, with the launch of its own ‘Creator Accelerator’ initiative to support in-app talent, and keep its top voices posting to the platform. The ultimate goal, of course, is to get these popular users to keep posting to LinkedIn more often, which will help drive on-platform engagement. You can find out more info, and apply for a spot in the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program here.

1. Facebook’s Invoice Fast Track Program & a New In-App Application Process for Grant & Loan Opportunities - Facebook’s launching an expansion of its Invoice Fast Track program, which enables SMBs to apply for Facebook to buy up their outstanding invoices, providing immediate cash flow benefits.

As explained by Facebook:

“For a low, fixed fee, eligible businesses can get cash immediately for the goods and services they’ve invoiced their customers for but would otherwise have to wait months to get paid - time and capital they can now use to invest in the recovery and growth of their companies. We will fund up to $100 million in invoices on an ongoing basis and are operating the program in partnership with Supplier Success and Crowdz.”

Through the program, eligible businesses can submit their invoices to Facebook, which Facebook will then pay immediately. Facebook then notifies the relevant customers that they’ll pay the Facebook Invoice Fast Track program when the invoices reach term – so essentially, Facebook becomes a debt collector of sorts on the business's behalf, while the business doesn’t have to wait around for the cash.

Businesses can find more information on the program at the dedicated Invoice Fast Track mini-site.

And on the opportunities side, Facebook is launching a new in-app application process for grant and loan opportunities, making it easier for SMBs to access resources and information.

The new resource showcase will highlight grant opportunities and business education programs, as well as SMB groups that can help provide guidance and support. Facebook’s partnering with a range of ‘mission-driven’ organizations for the initiative, which are focused on providing resources to owners from underserved communities, in order to ensure that such opportunities are reaching those most in need.

Business Page Admins will be able to access this new experience on Facebook by clicking on Business Resources and Small Business Funding.

As per Facebook’s latest State of Small Business report, more than 60% of small businesses are facing some form of difficulty in paying business-related expenses, as the COVID crisis drags on, and while the end is now seemingly in view, it’ll still be too far off for many to remain in operation at the current impact rates.

1. Shopify Makes it Easy to Market to Specific Countries - Up until now, if a business wanted to reach a global market, they’d have to sell on a marketplace or through another retailer. Shopify Markets is a new solution that will allow businesses to manage cross-border storefronts from a central hub. This eliminates the the need for a third party and allows businesses to sell directly to international consumers.

With Shopify Markets merchants can sell outside of their home country without having to worry about complexities like currency conversion, language localization, providing local payment methods, and duty and import taxes. All cross-border tools are available to Shopify merchants right out of the box.

With Shopify Markets, you can:

• Easily enter new markets
• Create tailored experiences for each market
• Customize variable such as:
  • Local currencies and payment methods
  • Pricing and price rounding rules per market
  • Product availability per market
  • Local languages
  • Local domains with automatic SEO optimization
  • Automatically show the right currency / language based on buyer country
  • Duties and import taxes on behalf of the buyer to eliminate surprise costs at product delivery
  • Gain access to actionable insights and smart settings for each market
• Manage everything from a single place

Shopify store owners can target single country markets, or create custom markets by grouping multiple countries together.

Shopify Markets is available in early access globally as of September 14, and will roll out to all merchants in the coming months.

1. Changing WordPress Themes Can Impact Your Google Rankings - Google's John Mueller said in one of his #AskGooglebot short video answers that changing your WordPress theme can directly impact your rankings in Google Search. It obviously depends on what is changing with the website when you change the theme, but in general, it can impact your Google rankings.

John first said that often when it comes to site themes, it is often more than just a splash of color on your web site. Often, the theme can impact how:

• Content is displayed including, headings, text and images
• Internal linking and the site navigation
• Page load time and speed
• Content options Structured data use

John then gave some tips on how to see if changing a theme impact your rankings at a high level, so watch the video here.

1. Google: Ignore Mobile Usability Issue Notices If Your Site Passes Live Test - Google's John Mueller said that if your page passes the live mobile usability test - that means you can ignore the Search Console notices of "new mobile usability issues detected for site." So as long as you pass the live mobile friendly test, you are good to go.

Why might your site pass the live test and you would still get these notices? Well, those email notices can be days late from what you might see on the live site. So if you fixed the issue already, and the live test picked up on it, then you are good.

1. Google Ads Combining Smart and Standard Display Campaigns - Beginning this month, Google Ads will combine standard Display campaigns and Smart Display campaigns into a single option. In addition, Google Ads will also be introducing optimized targeting to Display campaigns.

When advertisers create a new campaign, they’ll see the new Display campaign type. During the setup process, advertisers can choose what to automate or control manually, and they can change their automation choices at any time without having to create a new campaign.

As explained by Google:

“In the new Display campaign experience, you’ll have all of the reach and performance you’re used to, with the ability to choose the level of automation you prefer in bidding, creatives and audiences. A smooth setup process will allow you to choose between automation or control up front, and you’ll have the flexibility to change your automation choices at any time - without creating a new campaign.”

Essentially, the new process will merge Google’s Smart Display campaigns and regular Display creation into one flow, which will provide more ways to automate your ad targeting, or specific elements of your process that you want to use automation for.

In addition to this, Google’s also adding optimized targeting to Display campaigns, which provides additional automatic audience targeting options for Display advertisers.

1. Google Will Enforce Unique Product Identifiers on Free Merchant Listings - Starting September 15, 2021, Google has begun enforcing the requirement of products having unique product identifiers in the merchant feeds for free listings.

Google said a unique product identifier, also known as UPIs, are considered products that include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs), and brand names in the product feed you submit to Google Merchant Center.

Google said it may disapprove product feeds if they do not have UPIs. Google said “different products that use the same GTIN with the same variant attributes will be considered ambiguous and will be disapproved.” This includes “variant attributes” that include condition [condition] and multipack [multipack] for all products, as well as color [color] and [size] for apparel products, the company said. Also, Google said “if a group of products are identified as duplicates, only one will remain active and eligible to show in free listings.”

If you are taking advantage of the free Google Merchant Center and you are not using UPIs on your products in those feeds, you may soon start seeing those products being rejected and disapproved. Your next steps is to ensure you have UPIs on those products in those feeds. You can find a list of these approved unique product identifiers over here in the Google help docs.

1. YouTube Partners Can Appeal via Video - If your channel was suspended or rejected from the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), you can create a video explaining more about your content and why you believe an appeal is necessary. Our teams will view your video and make an assessment – if found to comply with our policies, we’ll either approve your channel for YPP or turn monetization back on within 30 days. Upon review, your channel will be assessed in its current state. This means you should not delete videos before submitting your video appeal.

You can read more about the appeal process here.

1. YouTube Community Posts is Now Available to Channels with 500+ Subscribers - YouTube has announced that content creators with just 500 subscribers can now access and make Community posts. Earlier, at least 1000 subscribers were required to get access to YouTube Community. But starting from October 12, 2021, any YouTube channel owner with just 500 subscribers will be eligible

2. YouTube Shared How Its Recommendation System Works - YouTube has published a new overview of how its content recommendations system works, which is one of the central drivers of video reach and views on the platform, and may help YouTube marketers get a better understanding of what guides optimal response. If you are interested in increasing your presence and reach on YouTube then this is a must visit article for you.

Per YouTube:

“Our recommendation system is built on the simple principle of helping people find the videos they want to watch and that will give them value. You can find recommendations at work in two main places: your homepage and the “Up Next” panel. Your homepage is what you see when you first open YouTube - it displays a mixture of personalized recommendations, subscriptions, and the latest news and information. The Up Next panel appears when you’re watching a video and suggests additional content based on what you’re currently watching, alongside other videos that we think you may be interested in.”

Here are some of the key notes on exactly how YouTube’s recommendations process works.

• Clicks – The videos you click on provide YouTube with a direct indicator of your interest in the content. But it’s not always the thing that defines your experience. For example, you might click through on a video looking for something, then not find it in that specific clip, so that click, in itself, is not a strong indicator of what you want. Which is why YouTube also measures ‘Watchtime’ as an additional qualifier.
• Watch-time –As it sounds, watch-time measures how long you actually watch each video you click on for, which helps YouTube recommend more specific content aligned with your interests: “So if a tennis fan watched 20 minutes of Wimbledon highlight clips, and only a few seconds of match analysis video, we can safely assume they found watching those highlights more valuable.”
• Sharing, Likes, Dislikes –YouTube also measures your share and like activity, another direct response measurement in the app. “Our system uses this information to try to predict the likelihood that you will share or like further videos. If you dislike a video, that’s a signal that it probably wasn’t something you enjoyed watching.”
• Survey Responses –Finally, and in addition to these explicit response indicators, YouTube also conducts regular viewer surveys to find out if users are having a good experience in the app. For example, if you watch a clip for 20 minutes, YouTube may ask you if you enjoyed the clip, and to give it a star rating to better guide its recommendation systems.

“So if you like tennis videos and our system notices that others who like the same tennis videos as you also enjoy jazz videos, you may be recommended jazz videos, even if you’ve never watched a single one before.”

YouTube does also note that it is working to limit exposure to what it identifies ‘low quality content’. YouTube also bans content that includes false health claims (like COVID conspiracy clips), while it’s also taking more steps to address political misinformation.

In seeking to limit the reach of borderline clips – those that don’t necessarily break the platform’s rules, but do present potentially harmful material – YouTube uses human evaluators to assess the quality of information in each channel or video. To determine ‘authoritativeness’, YouTube says that its evaluators answer a few key questions:

• Does the content deliver on its promise or achieve its goal?
• What kind of expertise is needed to achieve the video goal?
• What’s the reputation of the speaker in the video and the channel it’s on?
• What’s the main topic of the video (eg. News, Sports, History, Science, etc)?
• Is the content primarily meant to be satire?

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1. LinkedIn Page Now Has Competitor Analytics - From now LinkedIn Pages will have a new “competitors” option in the pages analytics section. Page admins will now be able to compare their page with their competitors’ pages. The comparison will be on the basis of the following: Total number of followers the company has on their page, Number of new followers that have followed them recently, the engagement level the two compared pages have received from their followers and the total posts that are present on the page.

2. Twitter Announces Communities: Build Your Own Tribe - Twitter announced the Communities feature, what some see as a challenge to Reddit and Facebook Groups. Communities are groups where like-minded people can discuss their shared interest. A Twitter Community is open and visible for anyone to read what is being discussed. Also, anyone outside of the community can report the community if the community is breaking rules. While anyone can read and report discussions in the Community, only the members of the community are able to participate in the discussions. Joining a community is currently by invitation only and creating a community is currently limited to approved accounts.

3. Microsoft Introduces Start - The Bing Version of Google Discover - Microsoft announced Microsoft Start, which looks and feels a lot like its own version of Google Discover. Microsoft describes it as a "personalized news feed and collection of informational content provides news from premium publishers, timely updates tailored to your interests, and is available when and where you want it."

It works on Chrome and Edge browsers at microsoftstart.com - so go give it a try. There are also iOS and Android apps for this, check that out as well. You can also access it via the News and Interests experience on the Windows 10 taskbar, and on the Widgets experience in Windows 11 and from the Microsoft Edge new tab page.

1. Microsoft Ads Announces Optimization Score - Optimization Score is now available on the Recommendations tab in Microsoft Ads, according to the latest announcement from the company. The new scoring system is meant to help improve advertisers’ account optimization status and potential, help advertisers spend their time more efficiently and to prioritize the optimization actions with higher impact, and track their optimization efforts over time.

“Along with the overall Optimization Score, you’ll see a list of recommendations tailored specifically for your account, to help you optimize each campaign. Each recommendation displays a score uplift percentage, showing how much your optimization score will be impacted when you apply or dismiss that recommendation. Optimization Score is available at Account and Campaign level, and is shown for active Search, Shopping and Audience campaigns,” said Jessica Cui, Principal Program Manager and Cristiano Ventura Sr. Product Marketing Manager.

1. Google Ads Search Terms Report Adds Historical Query Data for Impressions Without Clicks - Beginning Sep 9, 2021, Google Ads will show advertisers historical data for queries that received impressions but no clicks in the search terms report for Search and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns.

“Historically, the report only ever showed queries that resulted in a click,” according to Pallavi Naresh, senior product manager at Google. “Most advertisers will continue to see most of their queries prior to Sept 1, 2020,” Naresh said, reiterating, “We are only removing historical queries that did not meet the new thresholds for search query reporting that we established in September 2020. We are removing this data as part of our ongoing effort to make our privacy thresholds consistent across Google.”

And, on February 1, 2022, the company will remove historical query data collected before September 1, 2020 (the day before the company initially limited search terms reporting) that doesn’t meet its privacy thresholds.

1. Facebook Announced Its First-Generation Smart Glasses - They may not be fully functioning AR glasses, as such, but Facebook’s preparing to launch its first foray into wearables, with the initial iteration of its smart glasses set to be released, in partnership with Ray Ban. The functionality displayed looks very much like Snap’s Spectacles product, with the glasses able to capture your real world view, which you can then share, presumably to Facebook and Instagram direct.

Will Facebook’s smart glasses be a big statement, a marketing win, and a commercial failure? Listen to the podcast for our analysis.

1. New Verification Guidelines For Facebook And Instagram Accounts - There is one thing that Facebook evidently wanted to make perfectly clear – Verifications are not endorsements from the platform. Rather, it’s a signal of notability and authenticity. Facebook also stressed that getting your business or personal profile verified has no weighting on the system’s preferences, and will not be ‘favoured’.

To submit a verification application, brands and personalities must submit a form. The form now asks for the following:
a) Specification

b) Authenticity Confirmation

c) Notability Confirmation

d) Optional Extras

1. Instagram Settles Debate Regarding Ideal Hashtag Placement - Some people claim that putting the hashtag in the caption of your post is the best place for it to go whereas others are going to claim that the hashtag will end up being better placed in the comments with all things having been considered and taken into account. Instagram has now weighed in on this in an official capacity by announcing on its creators page that the best way to use a hashtag is to incorporate it into your caption rather than posting it in the first comment, second or so.

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1. LinkedIn Removing Stories on September 30 - First, it was Twitter's to abandon its social stories project 'Fleets' last month, and now LinkedIn is now also moving away from its LinkedIn Stories experiment. Does that mean that people have had enough of the Stories format in general? Likely not. Instagram Stories remains hugely popular, and Stories on Snapchat still appear to be gaining traction. Instagram Stories remains hugely popular, and Stories on Snapchat still appear to be gaining traction. As explained by LinkedIn:

“We introduced Stories last year as a fun and casual way to share quick video updates. We've learned a ton. Now, we're taking those learnings to evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience across LinkedIn that’s even richer and more conversational. We want to embrace mixed media and creative tools of Stories in a consistent way across our platform while working to integrate it more tightly with your professional identity.”

Among its key learnings from its year-and-a-bit old Stories project, LinkedIn says user response has shown that:

• Users want their Stories-like content to live on beyond the 24-hour window, and be available on their profile
• Users want more creative tools to make engaging videos across the platform

As a result, LinkedIn will incorporate these two elements into its next video project, which it will now develop in replacement of the Stories product. So, another Stories option down, and one less consideration in your strategic planning.

1. Finally, Twitter Launches $uper Follows - Following someone is cool but have you tried Super Following? Subscribe to your favorite creators on Twitter for access to a whole new world of Tweets. ICYMI, Super Follows can help you:

💰 Earn monthly revenue

⬆️ Take your relationship to the next level

⭐ Customize what you offer and charge

1. 'TikTok World' - Get the Scoop on Unreleased Features - So what's next for the platform? Can TikTok continue to innovate and evolve in line with user expectations and become real, significant, ongoing competition for the big players in the space?

We'll get more of an idea of this on Sept 28, when TikTok hosts its first-ever 'TikTok World' showcase event. The event will give us a preview of what's next for TikTok, though the full program schedule details have not been released yet.

It sounds similar to Facebook's F8 and Snapchat's Partner Summit events, where each platform presents an overview of their various projects and insights on what they're working on bringing to market.

1. Learn How to Build Your Audience on Pinterest - Are you looking for ways to maximize your Pinterest strategy or tips on getting started with Pins to boost your overall marketing efforts? In that case, you should check out the latest content series from Pinterest. It aims to provide expert insights from both experienced Pin creators and internal staff on how you can use the platform to best effect.

The first post in the series provides pointers on how you can build your Pin audience. As explained by Pinterest:

“On Pinterest, you get more than a passive follow. People are looking for authentic connections with creators they trust. They’re hoping to discover and follow creators who share their passions. Here, you can build an active community that values and engages with your content.”

Pinterest provides five key tips for connecting with users:

• Create fresh content weekly
• Use trends to inform your strategy
• Add text overlay to your Pins
• Topic tag before you publish

• Fill in all of your board details

• '10 Days of Live Shopping' Event on Instagram - On 9/1, Instagram's launched a new '10 Days of Live Shopping' event, featuring a range of celebrities streaming product launches. It is an excellent experiment to assess the capacity of live-stream shopping for connecting with Instagram's audience.

As explained by Instagram:

"Fashion, beauty, music, and lifestyle are coming together like never before with Instagram's 10+ Days of Live Shopping. People can tune in starting September 1st for intimate events with Selena Gomez, Kacey Musgraves, Lil Yachty, and more surprise guests. The events give you access to fresh releases, offers, and exclusive merch only on Instagram. "

1. 'Preferred Shop' Labels Coming to Facebook - Facebook has provided some new tips for those using Facebook and Instagram Shops on standing out this holiday season. Facebook's Holiday Shop tips include:

2. Ensure your catalog data is up to date and complete

3. Add shopping tags to your posts
4. Create custom, holiday-themed Collections

In addition, Facebook's also flagged a new label for top-rated Shops that could help provide more assurance and drive more purchase traffic. Per Facebook:

"To help buyers make more confident purchases and easily identify shops on Facebook and Instagram, we are testing a new label that identifies shops offering consistent shopping experiences."

Facebook itself added similar tags back in 2015 for Pages that responded to message queries on time.

The new Preferred Shop tags will serve a similar purpose. It aims to highlight businesses that consistently provide positive buyer experiences and meet customer demand.

Facebook's testing the new label now and will provide more info on how you might be able to get your own 'Preferred Shop' label soon.

1. Google Introduces New Product Listing and Discovery Options for Merchants - Social media is powerful brand awareness and connection tool, playing a significant role in the discovery and product connection. But Google remains the key platform for product searches. This is particularly relevant right now, as consumers look for local shopping options and whether stores are open for them to buy in person. And now, Google has announced a range of new commerce tools for the upcoming holiday season, which all retailers need to be considering in their plans.

First off, Google has added new shipping and return annotations in Google Search and Shopping results, now available across free and paid listings. Per Google,

“Shoppers can now see when their orders will arrive, with shipping annotations like "Free delivery by Fri, Dec 24,” “Get it by Dec 24” and “Free X-day” for products that ship for free in five business days or less. And to give shoppers more confidence in their purchases, you can now indicate extended holiday return windows with return annotations like "Free 90 day returns" or "Free returns until Jan 31.”

Prompts like these could be all it takes to get your customer to take that extra interest and click-through to your site. And it could eventually boost your SEO and rank you higher in search queries.

Merchants can also turn their YouTube videos into virtual storefronts to showcase their products by connecting a product feed to video action campaigns to drive customers to your site.

In the coming weeks, advertisers will also be able to link a product feed to Discovery ads to show more relevant products in moments when customers are exploring their interests in Google’s feeds.”

Google also suggests that brands should ensure that their product and business information, via Google My Business, is up to date. Their catalog listings are connected through to each Google surface, helping to provide additional context.

You can read more about Google’s latest shopping and product listing additions here.

1. YouTube Premium Hits 50 Million - In his monthly newsletter, YouTube's Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen shared that it has been almost six years since they kicked off the subscription journey. This week they have crossed 50 million Music and Premium subscribers, including trialers. Listen to our podcast to learn about our analysis as well as the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for YouTube advertisers.

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1. Ads in Instagram Shop Tab Roll Out Globally - After testing them out over the last few weeks, Instagram is now rolling out its new promoted products option within the Shop tab to all merchants in the app. Brands with product listings in the app will now be able to promote them on the Shop tab, with a 'Sponsored' disclaimer marking the paid posts. Clicking on a sponsored product will take users through to a product details page, where they'll be able to learn more about the item. The details page will also highlight additional products from that brand. Users will also be able to save sponsored product listings to a wishlist, or share them with friends from the details page.

The addition is part of Instagram's broader eCommerce shift, which involves slowly teaching users to expect that they'll be able to shop for items from images within the app. And as Instagram learns more about each users' shopping preferences, and the product that they like, the Shop tab will become more valuable, again increasing the potential of this new addition. At the least, it may well be worth an experiment for those that are looking to tap into Instagram's billion-user audience.

The new Instagram Promoted Products option is rolling out in countries where the Instagram Shop tab is available.

1. Instagram Shared How Search Algorithms Work, And How You Can Optimize Your Presence - Instagram has published the second installment in its new 'How Instagram Works' series, with an overview of how its search algorithms function, and how you can maximize your chances of showing up in relevant search results.

The first post in the series looked at how Instagram's feed ranking works, providing more oversight into how the platform looks to match relevant content with user interests, and how creators can ensure their posts reach people in the app.

The basics of Instagram search are fairly straightforward - Instagram uses the keywords that you enter into the search field to highlight the most relevant content, with the specific text that you input being the primary matching device.

But that's not the only factor - when providing relevant search matches for a query, Instagram factors in three primary elements:

• The text you enter - This, Instagram says, is "by far" the most important signal for Search. "We try to match what you type with relevant usernames, bios, captions, hashtags and places".
• Your activity in the app - In addition to basic text matching, Instagram will also rank your search results based on your previous in-app activity, including the accounts you follow, the posts you've viewed, and how you've interacted with certain profiles in the past. "We usually show accounts and hashtags you follow or visit higher than those you don’t". This is to help you find things that you're more likely to be interested in, and to streamline your discovery process.
• Popularity of each query - Finally, Instagram also factors in the popularity of the matches for your query when ranking the results it displays. The elements that could influence this include the number of clicks, likes, shares and follows that a particular account, hashtag or place sees

It is worth noting that re-sharing memes might get you likes, but it might also penalize you in discovery, while Instagram also actively seeks to limit the reach, at least in a discovery sense, of contest/giveaway posts.

1. Facebook Publishes New Christmas Marketing Guide to Assist with Campaign Planning - With Christmas now only 120 some days away, Facebook has published a new Christmas Marketing Guide to help guide your strategic planning, and map out a more effective approach based on key shopping behaviors and events.

The 18-page guide is geared around what Facebook's calling its 'Discovery Commerce System', a process that utilizes Facebook's ad matching tools to optimize your marketing approach, based on four steps.

For each step, Facebook provides practical recommendations on how you can put it into action, and how that will then contribute to your broader marketing goals.

For example, in the first step - 'Personalization Engine' - Facebook provides a range of tips on how you can personalize your outreach by using tools like the Facebook Pixel and the Conversions API.

The guide essentially provides quick tips for each element, and links to read more about how you can enact them within your strategy.

1. TikTok and Shopify introduce TikTok Shopping -
   TikTok is expanding its relationship with Shopify to provide more ways for Shopify merchants to promote their products direct to their audience in the app.

Today, TikTok has announced a new shop tab expansion for Shopify merchant profiles, which, as it sounds, will add a new product display showcase to your in-app presence.

So it's not direct, in-stream shopping, as such, with users referred back to the merchant's Shopify store for purchase. But it's another big step in TikTok's broader eCommerce push, facilitating direct product promotion within a dedicated storefront space, which is very similar to Instagram's in-app Shops option.

The real winners,are Shopify merchants, who now have another way to directly promote their products within another social app - but for TikTok, it's another advance that will help it maximize its business potential, and provide more ways for users to more directly monetize their TikTok presence.

1. How to Analyze Your Snapchat Ads Campaign Performance - Not only is measuring campaign performance an exciting moment when you’re working hard to advertise your business, but it’s critical to understanding what has worked well, what might not be working as well, so you can best adjust your marketing to optimize towards your goals.

So Snapchat wrote a blog post, covering everything you need to know about analyzing your advertising campaigns on Snapchat - from how to set advertising goals, how to analyze campaign performance against your marketing and business goals, to how to create custom reports in Snapchat’s Ads Manager to streamline and automate your performance reporting.

Checkout the post here: https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/blog/how-to-analyze-your-snapchat-ads-campaign-performance

1. Twitter Publishes New Twitter Ads Checklist to Help Guide Your Approach -
   Twitter has published a new one-page checklist of all the key considerations for effective tweet ad campaigns, including hashtag notes, media attachment tips and targeting pointers.

The checklist is an extension of Twitter’s recently published Agency Playbook, a 41-page guide that covers all aspects of Twitter marketing. And while the notes are aimed at agency staffers specifically, the checklist does cover all the key info that you need to build effective tweet ad campaigns.

You can download Twitter’s full Agency Playbook here, or check out the list below.

1. LinkedIn Publishes New Guide on Using Organic and Paid Strategies to Maximize Branding Impact -
   LinkedIn has published a helpful new guide which looks at the branding benefits of using paid and organic outreach in combination, and how you can best pair these elements for different purposes using LinkedIn’s tools.

The 45-page guide includes insights into all aspects of building your brand on LinkedIn, and a range of helpful pointers to guide your strategy. You can download the full guide here

1. Google's "How Search Works" Website - This week, the search giant has published an updated version of its 'How Search Works' website, which includes a range of insights and links to provide more information about its ever-evolving ranking algorithms, which could help you better understand what you should be doing to match-up with its systems.

The mini-site covers all aspects of Google's search process and it does help to provide more insight into Google's ranking processes, and what it looks for in web content.

Google includes basic overviews of each ranking element, including, for example, why it uses automated keyword matching.

"Every day, fifteen per cent of searches are ones that we haven't seen before, so we use automated systems to get you the most relevant and reliable information that we can find. To help you find what you're looking for, these systems consider many factors, including the words in your query, the content of pages, the expertise of sources, and your language and location."

The site also includes basic pointers on keyword usage, and how its algorithms rank keyword match relevance based on each query:

"For example, with web pages, if those keywords appear on the page, or if they appear in the headings or body of the text, the information might be more relevant."

It also outlines the fundamentals of backlinks, and how Google factors in the value of links in ranking:

"One of several factors that we use to help determine this is understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content. This has often proven to be a good sign that the information is well trusted."

But as anyone who's ever tried to stay on top of SEO knows, that information can change quickly. Indeed, Google notes that it made over 4,500 search 'improvements' in 2020 alone.

1. Google Is Updating The Way It Generates Web Page Titles In Search Results - Google’s Danny Sullivan confirms the search engine is updating the way it generates web page titles in search results.

“Last week, we introduced a new system of generating titles for web pages. Before this, titles might change based on the query issued. This generally will no longer happen with our new system. This is because we think our new system is producing titles that work better for documents overall, to describe what they are about, regardless of the particular query.”

Google’s new system of generating web page titles has been documented extensively since it was discovered in live search results last week.

Google’s Danny Sullivan confirms the search engine is updating the way it generates web page titles in search results.

“Last week, we introduced a new system of generating titles for web pages. Before this, titles might change based on the query issued. This generally will no longer happen with our new system. This is because we think our new system is producing titles that work better for documents overall, to describe what they are about, regardless of the particular query.”

Google’s new system of generating web page titles has been documented extensively since it was discovered in live search results last week.

If you’re wondering whether it’s still worth your time to create unique titles for your pages, the answer is 100% yes.

Don’t just leave it up to Google. Sullivan says original HTML title tags will still be used over 80% of the time.

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1. LinkedIn Publishes New Guide to Effective Brand Building on the Platform -
   LinkedIn has published another new guide on the value of brand-building on the platform, and establishing connection with your target buyers through a more all-encompassing promotional and outreach process.

The 33-page guide is the latest in a series of marketing overviews from the platform, which also published a similar branding guide last month. One Key advice from LInkedIn:

"Before customers come to market, in a buying scenario, they should be primed with repeated, memorable exposure to your brand. Then, as those buyers come in-market, more rational messaging can help you capitalize on this underlying brand strength to achieve short-term results"

1. Twitter Pauses Verification Program, After Accidentally Verifying Fake Accounts - So it's not the same as the total pause that Twitter put on verification applications back in May - a week after re-opening them, following a four-year halt. But it's indicative of another spanner in the works for Twitter's internal assessment and approval systems, which have been consistently problematic, and have left many confused as to what Twitter's blue tick actually means, and whether it carries the weight that some appear to place upon it.

2. Pinterest Introduces Hair pattern Search for Inclusive Results - Pinterest is taking another step towards maximizing inclusion, with the addition of a new, first-of-its-kind hair pattern search option, which will enable Pinterest users to search for hair products and ideas based on varying hair types.

Similar to Pinterest's skin tone search qualifier, Pinners will now also be able to discover ideas based on their specific hair type, which will help narrow down their results with more personalized, useful matches in the app.

Pinterest also notes that its system has detected a hair pattern in over 500 million images, ensuring that users will be able to get results based on their personal selection.

The easy-to-apply filters will make it much easier to find more specific matches for each user, and as noted, add to Pinterest's broader focus on maximizing inclusion, and catering to a broader range of people with functional processes to help guide their discovery process.

And hair, specifically, is an important element of interest for Pinners.

"In the past month alone, there were over 120 million searches for hair and over 5 billion Pins were created related to hair on Pinterest. We’ve also seen that top hair searches on Pinterest are personalized - for example, “natural hair twists protective" (15x) and "best haircuts for thick wavy hair" (13x)."

1. TikTok Partners with Vimeo and Canva to Streamline Content Creation - Vimeo is used popularly for uploading and sharing videos (a decent alternative to YouTube), the TikTok users will be able to access the “Vimeo Create” tool on the platform which Vimeo had introduced in February last year. The Vimeo create has a variety of new tools which will help users in creating and editing their videos in such an attractive way that it will be a standout content among the millions of videos that circulate around TikTok and the best part about this is that users can directly upload their edited and finalized videos from Vimeo to TikTok.

This is a great opportunity for users who do not want to buy subscription of high end editing application because it is way out of their budget and the subscription on Vimeo Create not only gives you access to a variety of new tools; it is budget friendly too.

Moving on from Vimeo, another great platform we would like to talk about is Canva which now has worked on 50 TikTok related templates for users and saving their time in the editing process. The best part about the tool is that it is extremely user friendly, and so even if you are new to the application it will not take much time for you to get a hang of Canva.

1. Snapchat Launches 'Snapchat Trends' - For the first time, Snap is giving a glimpse into the topics and moments most relevant to the Snapchat Generation with the introduction of Snapchat Trends. Snapchat Trends highlights the most popular keywords shared with the Snapchat community via public Stories and My Stories that have been viewed by a large group, in addition to a searchable database of terms. With these insights, Snap is able to provide a new level of visibility into organic chatter on Snapchat, looking at what our community is talking about and showcasing popular Snaps that exemplify each trending topic.

5 Ways to Apply Snapchat Trends to Your Business

1 Product Market Research

Trends data can be a helpful jumping off point in researching organic consumer behavior to evaluate overall market fit for your product or service. Any vertical or industry — whether it’s Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Automotive, or Entertainment — can use trend data to understand what products, shows, flavors, or models are most commonly being talked about.

2 Creative Messaging and Copywriting

For brands looking to build contextually relevant creative, this is a great way to keep a pulse on those trends and ensure that creative copy not only fits its context, but stands out.

3 Building User Profiles and Personas

Because communication on Snap most often occurs among close friends, Snapchatters often share what they’re doing in their daily lives, including both major life moments and more mundane daily activities. This can lead to powerful insights when building a profile of who your target audience is and what they do throughout their days and weeks, like going to work, shopping online, and streaming the latest content online.

4 Researching Key Moments

Similar to the concept above, we’ve seen that Snapchatters not only use Snapchat to celebrate major milestones, but they also tend to celebrate those moments in between — what we like to call Snapchat Holidays. This can be anything from National Ice Cream Day to International Women’s day, and we tend to see a massive groundswell in conversation around these “in-between” holidays. For any brand looking to “own” a relevant moment, Trends can be an incredibly powerful planning tool in finding just the right moment to align a media strategy to.

5 Competitive Research

One final and very valuable use is to understand the market in which a brand, product, or service operates. It can be used not only to understand consumer sentiment towards specific products or types of products, but also to understand competitive offerings and how those products fit in the market. By analyzing multiple products in one query, you can easily compare the peaks and valleys of conversation over time to see how your brand is faring relative to the competition on Snapchat. This can be incredibly insightful input for both ongoing brand-health monitoring and also larger quarterly business reviews.

1. Google: Cover All Your Bases With Searcher Intent & Your Content - Lily Ray shared an interesting chart from Ahrefs, the SEO toolset, showing how for a single keyword phrase, there were multiple intents from searchers spike over a different time period. In which, John Mueller of Google responded that it makes sense to create content that covers "both possible intents."

2. Google Now Allows You To Report Indexing Issues - Google announced that all signed-in Google Search Console users who go to the English help form can now submit indexing bug notifications to Google.

To access the form, you need to be signed in to your Search Console account and access the English version of either of these two help documents.

Google did say "before reporting an Indexing issue, always consult our community forums and check our support documentation, which highlights some additional helpful tools." "Support is limited to English at the moment, but we will explore expansion to more languages in the future," Google added.

1. YouTube Rolls Out 3 Updates For Creators - YouTube Studio is receiving three updates on mobile and desktop that will help creators stay informed on data that matters to their channel.

The updates include:

• Improved real time cards - These cards display up-to-the-minute data on important channel metrics like subscriber counts and video views. Realtime cards are getting improved at the video level and at the channel level. The improvements appear to be the addition of reach and engagement data, which now have dedicated tabs.
• An inbox for channel mentions - Creators now have access to a mentions inbox in YouTube Studio. The inbox will show you all the places where your channel has been mentioned on YouTube. If your channel is tagged in the comment section of another channel’s video, for example, the mentions inbox is where you can go to find out about it. Replying to mentions may help get more eyes on your channel as it can make you more visible to different audiences. The mentions inbox can be found where you access viewer comments in YouTube Studio. A new tab will let you toggle between the comments inbox and mentions inbox.

• Hashtag autocomplete suggestions - YouTube is launching hashtag autocomplete suggestions, which will recommend relevant hashtags based on what’s most popular. The feature works in a similar way to hashtag suggestions on Twitter and Instagram. Start typing the hashtag and YouTube will display possible tags to use, along with data on how many channels and videos are using each hashtag.

• YouTube Updates Search Results - YouTube is overhauling its search results with changes to the visual presentation of SERPs as well as the types of content returned.

The updates to YouTube search include three significant changes:

• Improved visual presentation - YouTube is making it easier for users to see what a video is about before clicking on it. The search results pages are now more visual. Instead of a static thumbnail, users can see a preview of each video when they scroll over it. Users can now make more informed decisions about the content they watch. This is already possible on desktop and now the feature is coming to mobile. In addition, YouTube search results pages will display video chapters when available.
• Automatic translations - YouTube is making more content available to more people with the introduction of automatically translated captions, titles, and descriptions. This makes it possible for users to enjoy a greater variety of videos regardless of the language they’re in. When YouTube is not able to return relevant content for a user’s search in their own language, it will return translated content. YouTube will first start supplementing search results with English videos, with plans to expand to more languages in the future. Eventually, YouTube hopes all its content will be accessible through automatic translations.

• Integration of Google search results - Google search results are getting integrated into YouTube. But only on a limited basis, for now. YouTube is experimenting with returning search results from Google when there’s not enough video content available to satisfy a query. This feature is currently available on mobile devices in India and Indonesia. YouTube will consider further expansion based on user feedback.

• Google Advertisers Can Adjust Conversion Values in Smart Bidding - Stephen Chang, Product Manager, Google Ads in an announcement wrote “You can adjust conversion values based on characteristics like location, device, and audience. By applying a rule to these characteristics, you can adjust conversion values to align more closely with your business outcomes,”

This added feature means that businesses can use their inherent knowledge of what’s working in their industry to improve their conversion rates in Google Ads. For example, if advertisers know certain audiences or people in certain locations are most likely to convert, they can set a rule to multiply the conversion value for the chosen group by two.

For example, let’s say you run a sporting goods store and know that an audience of people similar to repeat customers who have bought triathlon gear will be worth more to your business in the long run. Now, you can set a rule to multiply the conversion value for this specific group by a factor of two.

“These rules will also be used by Maximize conversion value and Target ROAS to optimize your bids in real time. Conversion value rules will be available for Smart Bidding across Search, Shopping, and Display over the next few weeks,” wrote Chang.

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1. Instagram Rolls Out Limits Feature to Prevent Abuse - Instagram announces 3 new features to help protect people from abuse :

2. The ability for people to limit comments and DM requests during spikes of increased attention

3. Stronger warnings when people try to post potentially offensive comments

4. The global rollout of our Hidden Words feature, which allows people to filter abusive DM requests

5. Facebook Announces First-Ever #BuyBlack Summit - As part of its expanded effort to support Black business owners as they deal with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, Facebook has announced a new #BuyBlack Summit, an all-day event that will provide advice and guidance for Black-owned businesses, to be held on August 24th. Sign up for the event and learn more https://buyblacksummit.splashthat.com/

6. Facebook Shares New, Privacy-Focused Approach to Advertising - The spin from Facebook is that they are helping to provide more insight within the data limitations in place after Apple’s ATT. And now they are developing a set of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) for ads, which will minimize the amount of data gathered and processed, in order to help protect personal information, while still facilitating insight into campaign performance. They are:

Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) - allows two or more organizations to work together while limiting the information that either party can learn. MPC is useful for enhancing privacy while calculating outcomes from more than one party, such as reporting the results of an ad campaign or training a machine-learning model where the data is held by two or more parties.

Today, this type of reporting requires at least one party to learn which specific people made a purchase after seeing a specific ad. With MPC, say one party has the information about who saw an ad and another party has information on who makes a purchase. MPC and encryption make it possible for both parties to learn insights about how an ad is performing, without the need to entrust a single party with both data sets. Last year, they began testing a solution called Private Lift Measurement, which uses MPC to help advertisers understand performance.

On-Device Learning - trains an algorithm from insights processed right on your device without sending individual data such as an item purchased or your email address to a remote server or cloud. For example, if lots of people who click on ads for exercise equipment also tend to buy protein shakes, on-device learning could help identify that pattern without sending individual data to a Facebook server or cloud. Then, Facebook can use this pattern to find an audience for protein shakes using ads. Similar to a feature like autocorrect or text prediction, on-device learning improves over time. As millions of devices each make small improvements and start to identify new patterns, these patterns can train an algorithm to get smarter so you may see more ads that are relevant to you and less that aren’t. On-device learning data can be further protected by combining it with differential privacy.

Differential Privacy - is a technique that can be used on its own or applied to other privacy-enhancing technologies to protect data from being re-identified. Differential privacy works by including carefully calculated “noise” to a dataset. For example, if 118 people bought a product after clicking on an ad, a differentially private system would add or subtract a random amount from that number. So instead of 118, someone using that system would see a number like 120 or 114.

Adding that small random bit of incorrect information makes it harder to know who actually bought the product after clicking the ad, even if you have a lot of other data.

1. Video Calling on LinkedIn Is Now a Reality - After adding support for various third-party video providers over the last year in order to facilitate video meetings in the app, last week, LinkedIn quietly rolled out a new, native video option within its messaging platform, which provides another way to connect with users, without the need to download a separate video app.

As explained by LinkedIn:

"From an initial job search to a 1:1 conversation, we wanted to drive the productivity of our members end to end while keeping them safe. By adding video conferencing as a part of the messaging experience, members can connect virtually while maintaining the context of their existing conversation. Now, members can easily schedule free video meetings with their network without the need to download a client or sign up to any service."

1. Google Search Console May Contain Bot Traffic Data - Google's John Mueller confirmed that Google Search Console does not filter out all bot traffic. John said on Twitter in response to someone suspecting seeing bot traffic in the Performance report, "sometimes it can be from bots - we don't necessarily filter all of that out in Search Console."

2. Google Ads attribution models now support YouTube and Display - Attribution is a common issue for search marketers and continues to be muddied as more of the web focuses on privacy. The ability to model your attribution journeys through YouTube and Display will help marketers determine which channels to invest in and which channels could use a different strategy.

As of August 9, Google Ads has upgraded all non-last click models, including data-driven attribution, to support YouTube and Display ads. In addition to clicks, the data-driven attribution model also measures engaged views from YouTube.

Along with knowing which channels are contributing along the buyer journey toward a final conversion (whatever that looks like for your business), the new inclusions mean that “when used along with automated bidding strategies or updates to your manual bidding, data-driven attribution helps to drive additional conversions at the same CPA compared to last click.”

1. YouTube Updates Default Settings on Kids Content, Implements New Restrictions on Promotions - YouTube has announced some new measures to assist in protecting young users from questionable content and unwanted exposure on the platform, with new default privacy settings for uploads by young people, and new reminders and prompts to help avoid overuse.

First off on the new upload settings - in the coming weeks, YouTube says that it will upgrade the default privacy settings for uploads from users ages 13-17 to 'the most private option available'.

So kids can still mitigate the defaults, but by using this as a starting point, YouTube's hoping to ensure that younger users gain more awareness of the risks involved in such, potentially limiting unwanted exposure in the app.

YouTube's also looking to tackle overuse, with the addition of 'take a break' and bedtime reminders, also by default, for all users ages 13-17. So, again, savvy youngsters can just switch these settings off if they choose - and most of them are far more savvy and attuned to such than their parents. But by implementing new defaults, YouTube's looking to increase awareness of its various options in this respect, with a view to improving safety.

And finally, in what may be a big blow for kidfluencers, YouTube's also removing more commercial content from YouTube Kids.

1. Google Ads Editor Rolls Out New Features: Lead Form Extensions, Hotel Ads & More - Google Ads Editor is a tool that allows advertisers to make changes in bulk, making it easy to make optimizations and edits across multiple keywords, ads, ad groups and/or campaigns, easily and seamlessly. With Google Ads Editor, changes are made offline before being pushed live. Making adjustments offline allows advertisers better control and visibility into changes before pushing them live. This week, Google Ads released a new version of Google Ads Editor with a slew of new features. Here's what you need to know!

Lead Form Extensions - Previously only accessible through the UI, lead form extensions were released in 2019 allowing users to append a lead form to their ads so that prospects could complete the form without ever leaving the SERP. Since their initial release, users could only create or edit lead form extensions within the UI. Users can now download, edit, and create lead form extensions within Google Ads Editor. Lead Form Extensions.

YouTube Audio Ads - Similarly, YouTube Audio Ads, which were released in 2020, were previously only available to set up directly within the UI. Now audio ads can be set up through Google Ads Editor.

Hotel Ads - Users can now use Google Ads Editor to manage Hotel Ads, which are feed-based ads that help hotel advertisers promote prices and availabilities of their properties on any given day. Since 2018, Hotel Ads have been available but only accessible to work on through the Google Ads UI.

1. Google Provides More Transparency Over Custom Bidding Process - Custom Bidding is Google's automated bidding strategy for Google Ads 360, which enables advertisers to assign a value to a conversion or purchase, which Google's system can then optimize for within its process. It can be a good way to maximize campaign performance, based on Google's ever-evolving machine learning processes - but up till now, Custom Bidding has required a degree of technical expertise to implement, due to coding elements.

To mitigate this, and lower the barrier to entry, Google's now adding 'Floodlight activities', which are pre-created HTML code snippets that can be used to track conversions, or other information about transactions.

Through this new process, you'll be able to choose pre-determined goals for your Custom Bid approach, then export the code for insertion on your site. So there is still a level of technical expertise involved - but you won't have to understand all the code parameters and build the relevant HTML yourself.

In addition to this, Google's also adding 'pay per viewable' impressions for display and video campaigns, providing more customizable campaign elements, while it's also adding a new 'Bidding Insights' report, which will provide more transparency over its automated bidding processes.

1. New Requirements for Google Podcasts Recommendations - Beginning on September 21, Google will enforce new requirements for podcasts to show in recommendations on the Google Podcasts platform, the company told podcast owners via email on Thursday. Podcasts that do not provide the required information can still appear in Google and Google Podcasts search results and users can still subscribe to them, they just won’t be eligible to be featured as a recommendation.

The new requirements. Starting on September 21, to be eligible to show as a recommendation, podcast RSS feeds must include:

• A valid, crawlable image: This image must be accessible to Google (not blocked to Google’s crawler or require a login).
• A show description: Include a user-friendly show description that accurately describes the show.
• A valid owner email address: This email address is used to verify show ownership. You must have access to email sent to this address.
• A link to a homepage for the show: Linking your podcast to a homepage will help the discovery and presentation of your podcast on Google surfaces.
• The podcast author’s name: A name to show in Google Podcasts as the author of the podcast. This does not need to be the same as the owner.

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1. Instagram Adds New Way for Businesses to Discover Inspiration - Instagram is looking to help brands improve their posting approach by highlighting top examples of both organic and promoted posts from other businesses in the app, which may help to spark creative thinking and consideration. The new element has been added to Instagram's Professional Dashboard, which it launched back in January, and is accessible within the app to those who have Business and Creator accounts.

Now, when you tap through to the Professional Dashboard (at the top of your profile), you'll be able to find a new 'See How Other Businesses Connect with People' guide within the 'Stay Informed' section, which is in the lower part of the display. Tap on that tile and you'll be able to access a range of examples of good brand posts and ads, as chosen by Instagram's creative team.

Once you tap into any example, you'll also be able to scroll down to see more, while Instagram has also included 'Create Post' and 'Create Ad' CTAs in between the displayed posts to streamline your own creation process.

Instagram says that the feature is part of its ongoing commitment to build a suite of solutions "to help businesses of all sizes unlock their potential".

1. Instagram Shares How its Reels Algorithm Works - This week, Instagram has shared a new overview of the key factors that it considers in ranking Reels, which ultimately points to how you can maximize Reels reach, by aligning with these elements.

In order to Determine, which Reels to show you, Instagram considers how likely you are to

• Watch a Reel all the way through
• Like it
• Say it was entertaining or funny
• Go to the audio page to make your own Reel

So the more Reels you watch - ideally all the way through - the more signals of interest Instagram then has in order to determine what you want to see, with the additional, direct factors of Likes and comments also playing a big part.

Next, Instagram shares the four most important signals that can boost Reels reach. The most important Signals, roughly in order of importance are:

• Your activity - They look at things like which Reels you’ve liked and commented on, and engaged with recently.
• Your history of Interacting with the person who posted
• Information about the Reel such as Audio track, Video understanding based on pixels and whole frames, as well as popularity.
• Information about the person who posted and how others interacted with them.

And finally, Instagram also shares this interesting overview of what it will limit in Reels distribution.

• Low-resolution or watermarked Reels
• Reels that focuses on political issues

• Reels that are made by political figures, parties, or government officials or on their behalf.

• Facebook Updates Its Settings Page - Facebook is launching a redesigned settings page in the app, in order to make it easier to find the various tools and options available to customize and improve your individual on-platform experience. The updated format provides more room between each element, with less text on the main screen to clutter your view, better guiding you towards each option. It also groups several elements together, reducing the amount of main options displayed - the new 'Payments' menu, for example, will incorporate all payment tools, as opposed to having each individually listed at present.

Facebook's redesigned settings layout is being rolled out to all users from today, across Android, iOS, mobile web and FB Lite.

1. Shopify Launches Entrepreneurial Space in New York City - According to Shopify’s press release, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs in New York City have opened businesses on Shopify in 2020. And to support this vibrant entrepreneurial spirit in the city, they’re excited to open Shopify New York. Now, existing and budding entrepreneurs will have a space to call their own, with the ability to attend workshops and events, get one-to-one support, book podcast and photography studio space, and sell in their pop-up shop.

Shopify New York is a one-stop destination for entrepreneurs, featuring:

• Support 1:1s: They’re bringing their world-class support experts in person to offer free, 30-minute 1:1 sessions daily for founders and their employees to get all of their questions answered.
• Podcast Studio: They have created a professional-grade audio- and video-recording studio for merchants to access in order to grow their business.
• Photo Studio: They know that photos can make or break a brand’s success, so we designed a easy-to-use photography studio that comes with professional equipment ideal for taking beautiful product shots, along with a handbook to show merchants how to bring their photos to life.
• Cha Ching Café: Named after the famous sound effect that plays when merchants get a sale on their Shopify store, the coffee shop is operated by merchant Birch Coffee, visitors will be able to purchase coffee, tea, and to-go snacks.

• Pop-up Shop: Our pop-up shop features several local merchant products (from Greenery Unlimited and Nguyen Coffee Supply) for visitors to purchase.

• Twitter Adds New Co-Hosting Option for Audio Spaces - Twitter has launched its new co-hosting option for Spaces, providing another option for managing your audio chats. Spaces hosts will now be able to easily add co-hosts from the 'Guests' tab at the bottom of the Spaces screen. Within that tab, you'll see a new 'Invite co-hosts' option highlighted in blue, which, when tapped, will enable you to search through those attending your Space and add that user as a partner host.

You'll be able to add a maximum of two co-hosts to each Space, which will give them the capacity to invite speakers, manage requests within the Space and pin Tweets. Co-hosts will also be able to remove guests - so really, it's a perfect supplementary admin tool, and if you're going to host a massive Space, with a heap of attendees, then having two additional hands to moderate and direct the discussion could be a major help in the process.

It could be especially handy for brands looking to run Spaces, with more capacity to manage the discussion, fend off spammers, and keep things civil in the chat. Even the basic ability to pin tweets could be big in this regard, enabling your co-host to add contextual elements into the discussion in order to better illustrate key points, without the speaker having to be distracted from the presentation task.

1. Microsoft Ads August Updates: New Bidding Strategy, Automated Extensions, & More - Microsoft announced a list of new product updates and releases for Advertisers. Here's what you need to know!

Target Impression Share - Mirroring that of Google Ads, Microsoft Ads will automatically set your bids based upon where you want your ads to appear and your Target Impression Share. Advertisers can choose that they’d like to show anywhere on the page, meaning that they don’t care which position they are in on the first page, “Top of page”, meaning they want to show in the first set of ads that appear on the first SERP, or “Absolute top of the page” meaning that they want to be the very first ad in the SERP. Target Impression Share is a good bid strategy for folks who prioritize visibility, though it may cost more.

New automated extensions- Starting in August, Microsoft is launching new automated extensions, which will be available to all advertisers.

• Dynamic Location extensions will pull in location information from advertiser location extensions and Bing Maps
• Dynamic Multimedia extensions will append multimedia assets, such as images and videos (begins flighting in early 2022)
• Syndication Decorations are automated buttons or enhancements that partners use to entice clicks

All advertisers will have the ability to opt-in or out of any of these extensions.

Track product-specific conversions with product conversion goals - Advertisers using Shopping Campaigns or other feed-based campaigns will now be able to create product conversion goals.

Changes to Unified Campaigns - Lastly, Microsoft Advertising announced a host of updates for unified campaigns based upon feedback from early adopters.

• Instagram posting: Users can now post to their Instagram accounts from the social media section of unified campaigns.
• Updates to access management and user invitation: unified campaigns users can now invite other Microsoft Advertising users to have access to and manage their accounts.
• A new billing experience: unified campaigns users can now use the same billing pages as Expert mode users.
• Updates to the campaign management experience: Microsoft notes that they’ve received user feedback and made several tweaks to improve the usability of unified campaigns, such as always visible overview information during campaign creation.

• Last but not least, users of unified campaigns are now able manage multiple sub-accounts underneath a single parent account. Manager accounts are able to:

  • Create multiple unified campaigns accounts underneath the same manager account.
  • Create a mix of unified campaigns and expert mode accounts underneath the same manager account.
  • Link to and from manager accounts that contain a combination of unified campaigns and expert mode account.

• Google Drops Safe Browsing as a Page Experience Ranking Signal - Google is removing the safe browsing signal from the Google page experience update, the company announced. Google said “we recognize that these issues aren’t always within the control of site owners, which is why we’re clarifying that Safe Browsing isn’t used as a ranking signal and won’t feature in the Page Experience report.”

Google said it is removing this as a signal because these are issues that are not always in the control of site owners. Google said “sometimes sites fall victim to third-party hijacking.” Google will continue to flag these notifications in Search Console but outside of the page experience report. Google is also removing the Ad Experience widget, Google said “to avoid surfacing the same information on two parts of Search Console.” But Ad experience was never used in the Google page experience update.

1. Google Explains Importance of GMB for Local Search - Google’s John Mueller explained what a business needs to do to rank for local search queries, stressing the importance of Google My Business (GMB).

A “Local Search Query” is a search question that someone types into Google when they are looking for a service or a store that is in their geographic area. Examples of a local search business can be a plumber, a restaurant, a retail store or a lawyer. And informational search query is one where a searcher is trying to find information, like, for example, the cast of a movie, a product review or instructions on how to cook a Hungarian goulash.

SEO for Local and Informational Intent Essentially the Same. So what he’s trying to say is that SEO considerations like the title tag, meta description, heading use, content on the page and perhaps even the structured data is all the same between a web page that’s optimized for a local search query and page that’s optimized for an informational search query.

Mueller next underlined the importance for setting up a Google My Business profile.

“With Google My Business set up, you automatically have a location specified anyway.

So it’s a little bit easier there.

But having all of that combined makes it a lot easier for us to actually understand this is a local result, and the user is local and they’re looking for something local, therefore we should highlight this better in search.”

One thing to keep in mind is that a business must be local if it is included in Google My Business (GMB). GMB may not be a good fit for a company that has national and/or global clients. What can happen is that the site may disappear from the search engine results pages (SERPs) to searchers outside of the service areas indicated in the GMB profile.

1. YouTube Launches Shorts Fund - Up to $10k Per Month for Top Performing Shorts Video - On August 3, 2021 YouTube announced the launch of its new Shorts Fund. They will will pay up to $10k per month to individual creators based on Shorts performance.

As explained by YouTube:

"Each month, we'll reach out to thousands of eligible creators to claim a payment from the Shorts Fund - creators can make anywhere from $100 to $10,000 based on viewership and engagement on their Shorts. The Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetization model for Shorts on YouTube and is not limited to just creators in YPP - any creator that meets our eligibility criteria can participate."

The funding will come from YouTube's broader $100 million Shorts Fund, which it announced back in May, and will provide a direct pathway to monetization for short-video creators, who aren't able to monetize their Shorts efforts with ads at this stage.

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1. Facebook Launches 'Campaign Ideas Generator' to Help US with Our Promotional Efforts - Facebook has launched a new Campaign Ideas Generator mini-site, which aims to help spark inspiration for our promotional approaches through various insights, templates and recommendations, specific to seasonal events and business types.

As explained by Facebook: "The Campaign Ideas Generator provides campaign ideas, pre-made assets and resources that are specific to your small business needs."

To get started, first head to the Campaign Ideas Generator website and select your business vertical and promotional focus. Select your business type, and what time of year you're looking to run your promotion. Not all verticals are listed. Choose the right details, then click 'Get Campaign Ideas' and Facebook will provide you with a range of pointers and notes to guide you in the right direction.

1. Facebook Revenue Grows in Q2, but DAUs are shrinking in Europe and the US - Facebook has published its latest earnings results, which show steady overall increases in both users and revenue. First off, on users - Facebook added 30 million more daily active users in Q2, taking it to 1.91 billion on average. That's in line with Q1, with Facebook continuing to add significantly more users in the Asia Pacific region, despite a slow down, and even a reversal, in other markets. Facebook's DAU count has stalled in the US entirely, after declining in Q2 last year, while it's also now receding in Europe as well. Does that mean that people in Europe and the US are gradually moving away from Facebook, and looking to other apps instead?

"Advertising revenue growth in the second quarter of 2021 was driven by a 47% year-over-year increase in the average price per ad and a 6% increase in the number of ads delivered. Similar to the second quarter, we expect that advertising revenue growth will be driven primarily by year-over-year advertising price increases during the rest of 2021."

Facebook ad prices are rising, which is another element to consider - so while Facebook's daily active user count is stalling, Facebook's charging more for ads. That's largely driven by demand,

On the revenue side, Facebook brought in $29 billion for the quarter, a new record high for the company. Advertising remains its key revenue driver, bringing in more than 98% of its overall revenue intake, but it is still seeing steady income developing from its 'Other' bets.

1. Instagram ‘Reels’ now Allows 60 seconds videos - On July 27, 2021 Instagram announced that the Reels length limit is being extended from 30 seconds to 60 seconds for all users. Given that TikTok now enables the upload of longer clips (up to 3 minutes), and YouTube Shorts can also be up to 60 seconds in length, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Instagram followed the trend.

2. LinkedIn Business Highlights from Microsoft’s FY21 Q4 Earnings - On July 27, 21 Microsoft announced Q4 FY21 Earnings (basically for the quarter ending on June 21). Included in the report on the financial performance were the following LinkedIn highlights:

In Q4 FY21, LinkedIn’s revenue surpassed $10 billion for the first time, up 27%. This is a testament to how mission critical the platform has become to help people connect, learn, grow, and get hired over the course of their careers.

In the five years since the Microsoft acquisition, revenue has nearly tripled, and growth has accelerated. LinkedIn has become a leader across multiple secular growth areas spanning B2B advertising, professional hiring, corporate learning, and sales intelligence.

LinkedIn has more than 774 million members who are more engaged than ever; sessions were up 30% this quarter, compared to a year ago.

LinkedIn’s advertising business surpassed $1 billion in revenue this quarter for the first time, up 97% year over year, growing three times faster than the category.

LinkedIn also has this new program where they are working directly with Creators. How do I know this? Well yours truly has been contacted by a LinkedIn Creator Manager. More details in the podcast.

1. New Ways for Creators to earn money and Partner with brands on Pinterest - Now, Pinterest users can turn idea pins into shoppable pins. When other users buy a tagged product after clicking a link in an idea pin, the user who posted it will earn a commission. Users can tag their idea pins with any of the millions of product pins on Pinterest. According to company data, users are 89% more likely to exhibit shopping intent on products tagged in idea pins than on standalone product pins. Pinterest also reports that engagement with idea pins is nine times higher on average compared to standard pins.

2. Twitter Announced #TheCreatorSessions - Twitter will be hosting #TheCreatorSessions from August 304, 2021. DM @ArtHouse for an invitation to the event. As per announcement, expect Special Creator guests, Inspirational stories, Tips on monetization and Sneak peeks on upcoming features.

3. Twitter’s Shop Module pilot adds a product carousel to profiles - Twitter has launched Shop Modules, a dedicated section at the top of profiles where brands can showcase their products, as a pilot, the company announced on July 28, 21. The Shop Module pilot is currently rolling out with a handful of brands in the U.S., and only people in the U.S. who use Twitter in English on iOS devices are currently able to see the module.

The Shop Module is a carousel of products. Tapping on a product takes the user to the associated product detail page (in an in-app browser, so they aren’t leaving Twitter), where they can learn more and/or complete the purchase.

The Shop Module pilot is currently not open for businesses to sign-up.

“We’re creating deeper partnerships with businesses that reflect whom we’re building for with a new Merchant Advisory Board,” the company said in its announcement. The board will consist of “best-in-class examples of merchants on Twitter” and the company hopes to utilize this advisory board to address the needs of businesses of various sizes and across verticals in its own product innovation.

1. Snapchat Launches New 'Campaign Lab' to Help Guide Marketers on Best Snap Ads Approaches - Snapchat is looking to provide more guidance for brands seeking to maximize their Snap ad performance with a new element called 'Campaign Lab', available within Snap Ads Manager, which will enable marketers to run split tests, view full results, and get recommendations on next steps.

Users can access Campaign Lab from the 'Analyze' section of the Snapchat Ads Manager navigation menu, which will take you through to the main screen (above). The main window will also display a listing of recommendations based on previous tests as to what steps to take next.

Within the Results listings, you'll also be able to see more in-depth data on each of your tests, helping to refine your focus. While you'll also be guided towards next steps based on that data, making it easier to understand the best approaches. It could be a handy tool for refining your creative assets, which is probably particularly helpful on Snapchat, where winning creative is key to holding audience attention.

Campaign Lab is available in Snap Ads Manager from July 29, 21.

1. Microsoft Bing Ad Revenue Grows 73% - Microsoft reported a 53% increase year over year with an increase in $737 million for its search advertising business. Microsoft wrote "Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 53% (up 49% in constant currency)." It added "Search advertising revenue increased $737 million or 46%. Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 53% driven by higher revenue per search, on a low prior year comparable."

2. Google Ad Revenue Grows 69% - Google had a 69% increase year over year from $29.8 billion to $50.4 billion in the Google Advertising column of the earnings statement. Overall, Alphabet has reported revenues of $61.9 billion, up 62% Year-on-Year, on an operating income $19.3 billion, up 31% year-on-year.

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1. Twitter Earnings Highlights- First off, on users - Twitter's Monetizable Daily Active User (mDAU) count is now up to 206M, an increase of 11% YoY, and an additional 7 million on its Q1 figure. In terms of revenue, Twitter posted a strong result of $1.19 billion in Q2, a 74% increase YoY. As per Twitter:

“Total international revenue was $537 million, an increase of 69%, or 64% on a constant currency basis. Japan remains our second largest market, growing 40% and contributing $151 million, or 13% of total revenue in Q2. Revenue from Japan declined on a sequential basis in Q2, reflecting typical country-specific seasonality.”

Twitter included this generic note on Blue take-up within its shareholder letter:

“We’ve been encouraged by the initial response and look forward to further innovating and growing this new revenue stream with additional features, geographic expansion, and other offerings as part of our revenue durability strategy.”

Read the Q2’21 Shareholder Letter here: Q2'21-Shareholder-Letter.pdf (q4cdn.com)

1. Snapchat Earnings Highlights- First off, on users - Snapchat added 13 million more daily actives in Q2, rising to 293 million, which represents a 23% increase, year-over-year. On the revenue front, Snap posted a huge 116% YoY increase to $982 million for the period.

Review the Q2’21 Earnings Report here: Q2'21-Earnings-Slides-Final-7.22.21.pdf (q4cdn.com)

1. LinkedIn Offers Free Marketing Certification Program to Help Showcase Your LinkedIn Marketing Knowledge - LinkedIn is allowing professionals to become accredited LinkedIn marketing experts by completing a free course. This program is for professionals who want to show that they not only have experience with social media marketing, but they have specialized knowledge in LinkedIn. The two courses available are:

Fundamentals Certification (Basic): Demonstrates expertise in launching LinkedIn Ad campaigns and tactics. With this certification, you can run successful LinkedIn Ad campaigns that drive business results.

Marketing Strategy Certification (Intermediate): Demonstrates expertise in leveraging LinkedIn Ads for full-funnel strategies, including Brand Awareness and Lead Generation. Once certified, you can create marketing strategies that leverage the full suite of LinkedIn marketing tools.

The process for earning your certification involves first learning about LinkedIn's ad products, via a range of courses available on the LinkedIn Certifications page.

After you've gone through each module - or if you're confident that you know all the key details - you can then take the relevant certification exam, in which you'll have 60 minutes to answer 60 multiple choice questions on LinkedIn's ad tools and processes. You can retake the test up to 3 times, and the certification expires in 2 years. And while you do have 60 minutes, if you know your stuff, you can get it done in significantly less time than that.

1. YouTube Introduces Super Thanks for Fans to Support Creators of Uploaded Videos - Until now, creators on YouTube were able to earn money directly from fans on their live streamed videos and Premieres, via Super Chat and Super Stickers, but fans had no way to support on-demand videos uploaded by creators until Tuesday’s introduction of Super Thanks. It is essentially an expansion of its Super Chat streamer donation feature to regular video uploads, providing another way for creators to generate income from their content. As explained by YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan:

"Since launching Super Chat in 2017 and Super Stickers in 2019, creators from around the globe have wanted us to bring this magic beyond live-streams and Premieres to video uploads. Enter Super Thanks! Fans watching YouTube videos can now purchase Super Thanks to express their gratitude and show support. They will see an animated GIF and, as an added bonus, get a distinct, colorful comment to highlight their purchase, which creators can respond to."

1. 4 Additional YouTube Updates You Need To Know - YouTube announced four new features that will make make way for YouTube to be a more interactive experience for creators and viewers. They are:

2. Comment Translation

3. Polls - Live polls can be used, for example, to ask your audience’s opinion on the current topic of discussion.
4. Subscribers-only chat - A new option to make live chats available only to subscribers can help with moderating the live chat and creating more connections. This feature can be enabled during live stream setup or while broadcasting live – directly from Live Control Room settings.
5. Expansion of Clips feature - YouTube is expanding the rollout of Clips, a feature which has been in testing with a limited number of creators. Clips allow viewers to select a 5-60 second segment of content (both video uploads and streams) that can be shared with others on YouTube and across third-party platforms.

FYI: YouTube is not breaking any new ground with these features. Rather, it’s catching up to what are standard offerings from live streaming competitors like Twitch.

1. TikTok Adds New Features to Live-Stream, Including Live Guests and Q&A Panels - This week, TikTok has added some new elements to its live-streaming options, including scheduled events that you can promote, live Q & A, and a co-streaming option to enhance the experience.

First off, on scheduled events, you can now create an event card for your upcoming stream, which you can then share on TikTok and across other platforms. Users can tap the 'Register' CTA for an in-app reminder, which provides another way to increase awareness and interest in your upcoming streams, which could be great for brands considering the option.

Next up is live guests, which, like other platforms, will display you and your guest in split-screen mode in the live broadcast window. Which is actually not new. All TikTok users with more than 1,000 followers (who are over the age of 16) are able to live-stream, while those with more than 5,000 followers have been able to stream with guests in this mode for some time. It seems that TikTok is reducing this requirement, with all users that are able to stream (i.e. those with 1k followers) now also able to add guests.

And last is the updated Q & A overlay on-screen, which provides another way to engage with streamers in the app. Live viewers have always been able to post questions via the comments, while the Q and A option has been available on selected creator profiles since January this year. This new option combines the two, adding another engagement option for streamers, which will improve the context for viewers, and give those posting questions more individual focus.

1. TikTok Launches New 'Spark' Ads Which Enabled Brands to Tap into Trending Organic Content - TikTok has launched a new ad option which essentially enables brands to sponsor already trending organic content that aligns with their offerings, in order to get an association boost without having to create anything themselves, or even commission a creator to do so. Through TikTok's new 'Spark' ad option, brands can identify existing organic videos that might fit their campaign - like, say, if a beauty influencer has showcased your product in his or her organic clips. Brands can then reach out to these creators and repurpose their clips for paid campaigns. Per TikTok:

"TikTok is made up of creators who are redefining entertainment, starting trends, and sharing with the world their take on popular products and services. Brands can now tap into the plethora of creative, diverse content and connect with the creators who help bring these products and services to life."

1. Instagram Announces Sensitive Content Control for Its Explore Feed - Instagram has added a new way to help users better manage their on-platform experience with a variable 'Sensitive Content Control', which provides three options for restricting the content that you are shown in the app. If you head to Settings > Account > Sensitive Content Controls, you'll now be able to choose between these options:

Allow - You may see more photos or videos that could be upsetting or offensive

Limit (Default) - You may see some photos or videos that could be upsetting or offensive

Limit Even More - You may see fewer photos or videos that could be upsetting or offensive

The middle ground 'Limit' is the default setting for all users, while only those over the age of 18 will be able to select the 'Allow' option, which removes any restrictions on displayed content.

1. Google Launches Free Deals Listings in Search Results - Google is highlighting deals in the shopping tab of search results. When searching for a product, the shopping tab will now organize and show product listings that are competitively priced or discounted from retailers across the web. When people search for deals during major sales events, like “Black Friday deals” or “Cyber Monday sales,” they will see a new section highlighting relevant deals, alongside other related sales information.

When retailers upload promotions and deals in Google Merchant Center will be automatically surfaced for relevant queries in the Shopping tab.

Google will surface offers based on factors such as the discount itself, how popular a product is, how popular the site it’s listed on is, and more.

1. Google Adds ‘About This Result’, Which Explains Why You're Seeing Each Result - Google has added a new element to its 'About This Result' panels in search results, which will provide more context about each result that you're seeing, including a brief overview as to why it's being shown in response to your query. Per Google,

"Starting today, About This Result will show searchers information about some of the most important factors used by Google Search to connect results to their queries. Because just as these factors help Google decide if a result may be relevant, they may also help people decide what result is useful for them."

1. Google Launches New Way to Optimize Videos For Search - Google now officially supports SeekToAction markup for videos on your site, so that you can use the SeekToAction markup to communicate the key moments (timestamps) Google shows for videos in Google Search. Google said this is "a new way for you to enable key moments for videos on your site, without the effort of manually labeling each segment. All you have to do is tell Google the URL pattern for skipping to a specific timestamp within your video. Google will then use AI to identify key moments in the video, and display links directly to those moments in Search results."

2. Google's Ads New 3-Strike Policy - What Counts As a Strike? - Google announced a 3-strike policy, which would effectively suspend ad accounts that have received repeated violations. Google does have some checks and balances in place to try to ensure that only accounts that have truly violated policy are being penalized. For now, these penalties are only applicable to three categories: Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Unapproved Substances, and Dangerous Products or Services. These are policies that monitor deceptive behavior, hacking services, spyware, drugs, weapons, etc.

Wrongful violations that are successfully appealed will result in the removal of the strike. So that means, if your business receives a violation for ad content and you are able to appeal it (without making any edits to the ad), you will not receive a strike as the disapproval was not truly a violation.

The first incident will result in a warning. After that, advertisers will receive strikes. Each expires within 90 days. So if an advertiser receives a warning and then, within 90 days, violates the same policy then they will receive a strike. If it has been more than 90 days, they would receive a warning and the process would start over.

Once they’ve received their first strike, the account will be placed on a temporary hold for 3 days. Regardless of when the warning occurred, if another violation happens within 90 days of the first strike, then they would receive a second strike which would result in a 7-day temporary hold.

Finally, if the violation occurred again within 90 days of the second strike (regardless of when the warning or first strike happened), then the account would be suspended for repeated violation of policy.

Keep in mind, if any of those strikes were successfully appealed as being incorrectly flagged for violation, the strike would be removed and it would not count.

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1. Facebook Announces $1 Billion Funding for Content Creators - Facebook has launched its latest offensive in the escalating digital creator war, with the announcement that it will invest more than $1 billion in programs for creators over the next 18 months, with a prime focus on providing more ways for creators to earn money for the content that they share on Facebook and Instagram.

2. Facebook Pay is Now Available as a Payment Option on Third Party Websites - "Starting this August, businesses in the US who use participating platforms will have the ability to enable Facebook Pay as a payment option directly on their websites, giving their customers the ability to speed through checkout without having to re-enter their payment information. We’re starting the rollout with Shopify merchants and expect to expand availability with more platforms and payment service providers over time."

3. 🔊 Facebook Rolls Out Soundmojis on Messenger for 🌎 Emoji Day 🥳 - Facebook welcomed World Emoji Day July 17 with its introduction of Soundmojis, a new feature that enables people to share short sound clips in chats.Messenger users who want to get started with Soundmojis can start a chat, tap the smiley face to open the expressions menu and select the loudspeaker icon, at which point they can preview and send Soundmojis.

4. Facebook Group Admin can Now Designate Subject Matter Experts - Group administrators can now recognize specific members in their communities by designating them as group experts. Those members will see badges displayed next to their names, making it easier for group members to discover informative posts and comments from experts on certain topics. Facebook is not part of the process of designating people as experts, with full control going to the group admins. There are no requirements, such as credentials or degrees, for being named an expert. Group admins can also team up with group experts to host question-and-answer sessions, respond to questions and share perspectives on topics.

5. YouTube Launches Shorts Beta in All Regions - On July 12, YouTube announced that YouTube Shorts beta will be available everywhere where YouTube is available.

6. TikTok Announces 'Small Biz Block Party' Event Series to Provide Marketing Tips and Insights - TikTok is looking to help small businesses across the US make best use of its platform for their promotions by running what it's calling a 'Small Biz Block Party', a nationwide, 20-event virtual workshop series which will bring together business owners and TikTok experts, in order to share knowledge, tips and insights.. The Small Biz Block Party kicks off on August 5, 2021, with an event designed for businesses of all sizes and co-hosted by Main Street America, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening communities through preservation-based economic development. RSVP here: https://www.tiktok-smallbizblockparty.com/

7. Bye Bye Twitter Fleets - Twitter is giving up on Fleets nine months after rolling it out to everyone, saying the feature didn’t accomplish what the company hoped it would. As of August 3, Fleets will no longer be available on Twitter. Twitter launched Fleets in hopes that its ephemeral nature would encourage more people to “join the conversation.” In other words, the company wanted to see a noticeable uptick in new users and increased activity among existing users. Fleets accomplished neither of those goals, Twitter says:

8. Microsoft Advertising Announces Video Extensions - It is available for all advertisers globally. This is a unique opportunity only available on Microsoft Advertising. With Video Extensions, advertisers have the flexibility to combine video with other ad extensions. This is a great way to provide enriching content to those searching for your offerings. Advertisers can set up an action link on the video overlay which will take users to your website or a specific page of choice where conversions occur.

9. GoDaddy Merchants Can Now Easily Show Inventory Across Google - GoDaddy merchants can add products ‘to Google’ from their online store and either promote them via a Smart Shopping campaign or make them eligible for free listings. Merchants aren’t the only ones who will benefit from this partnership. Google has specified that they want searchers to have more choice when it comes to finding unique products from new and smaller businesses online.

10. Google Launches Free Tools For Travel Marketers - Google is launching free tools designed to help travel marketers make more informed decisions based on search data for destinations and hotels. To ensure travel businesses and tourism officials have the information they need to recover from the pandemic, Google has created a set of tools that provide insight into real-time travel demand. Google began testing these travel insights tools last December in the Asia Pacific region. Now, Travel Insights with Google is being launched in the United States. Travel Insights with Google includes four tools in total: following tools:

Destination Insights : Destination Insights provides a clear picture of top sources of demand per destination. The tool allows you to input an original country, a destination country, and date range, and view data related to travel demand for that destination. This data can help marketers understand where potential travelers may be coming from and adjust campaigns accordingly. For example, if you set the origin country to “Worldwide” and the destination country to “United States” you can find out where demand is coming from and which cities they’re looking to visit.

Hotel Insights : Hotel Insights analyzes search trends to help travel marketers understand where interest is coming from and attract new guests by creating a stronger digital presence. Simply input a destination and get an overview of recent search trends.

Focusing Facts : Focusing Facts is a tool nested within the Destination Insights tool that displays a set of quick insights such as “Fastest growing destination globally,” “Country with the most inbound interest” and “Top city in demand.” Focusing Facts are based on the previous 84 days of data which provides a well-rounded vantage point. This data appears at the top of the Destination Insights tool.

Demand Sizing : The Demand Sizing Tool is also found within Destination Insights. It allows you to apply distinct filters to compare inbound and outbound interest between one primary country and up to ten comparison countries.

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1. YouTube’s “New To You” Feature Will Help Viewers Discover New Content -
   YouTube's rolling out a new feature called 'New to You', which is designed to help users discover content from channels that they've not previously viewed, but are aligned with their interests based on past viewing behavior.

The option is primarily focused on maximizing viewer engagement, but it may also help creators reach new audiences through targeted exposure.

How is this different from “Explore” page? Explore helps viewers find content in particular verticals - such as gaming or content that is trending worldwide. But content that is not necessarily personalized to them. In other words, it does not take their specific interests into account. But “New To You” is personalized to the viewer. So they take a balanced approach to things they think you might be interested in plus things that are farther afield from things you typically watch.

This is all being done for two reasons: a.)Help viewers explore content that is beyond their typical recommendations b.)creators having a chance to reach new viewers.

1. TikTok Introduces 'Shoutouts' - A Clone of Cameo - As competition rises for top creators, TikTok is working hard to provide more revenue-generation options, in order to keep its top stars from drifting off to other, more lucrative opportunities. Along this line, TikTok has this week added a new Cameo-like option called 'Shoutouts' in the app, which enables fans to pay to have platform stars send them a personalized video message. users are able to pay, in TikTok coins, to have their favorite creator send them a personalized message. The creator then has three days to either accept an assigned Shoutout or decline, then a further week to create the clip, which is finally sent to the users' inbox.

What are TikTok coins, you might ask? TikTok added its own virtual currency last year, which primarily enables users to purchase virtual gifts that can be sent to creators during TikTok live streams. TikTok virtual gifts As TikTok explains, users can purchase bundles of virtual coins in the app: "Coins can be found in your profile Settings within the “Balance” tab. Select the “Recharge” icon to view the coin denomination options."

So, like Facebook Stars and YouTube's Super Chat options, you exchange real money for on-platform TikTok coins, which you can then use to make donations to your favorite creators, through digital effects and stickers, and now, via Shoutouts as well. So how much does it cost to get your favorite TikTok-er to make you a custom video? Well it depends on what they want to charge - based on the above example, at 100,000 TikTok coins, that's around $US1800 at present. Which is pretty steep - but then again, the amount is variable, and some people will probably pay whatever it takes to be 'seen' by their favorite stars.

1. TikTok Launches New 'Unplugged' Info Sessions to Share Insights Into How Marketers Can Succeed -
   This month, TikTok is running a range of free 'TikTok Unplugged' business info sessions, which will see some of the platform's biggest successes share their secrets and tips on how to grow your brand with TikTok marketing.

As explained by TikTok:

"Go beyond ads and collaborate with creators to get your brand in front of the TikTok community authentically. Learn about their creative processes LIVE on TikTok: UNPLUGGED Creators Spotlight sessions."

TikTok has a listed a range of sessions which will be broadcast throughout the month, which anyone can join from its dedicated site:

You can read more about TikTok's Unplugged Series, and sign-up for events, here.

1. TikTok Copies LinkedIn - Launches “TikTok Resumes" - Want to stand out to recruiters and HR managers? Maybe TikTok is your ticket, with the platform today launching its new 'Resumes' program in the US, which enables people to post personal job pitches via TikTok clips.

As explained by TikTok:

"TikTok Resumes is a pilot program designed to continue expanding and enhancing TikTok as a new channel for recruitment and job discovery. We're teaming up with select companies and inviting job seekers to apply for entry-level to experienced positions with some of the world's most sought-after employers, including Chipotle, Target, WWE, Alo Yoga, Shopify, Contra, Movers+Shakers, and many more, with a TikTok video resume."

The process of actually posting a TikTok Resume is fairly simple - candidates use TikTok clips to "showcase their skillsets and experiences", then post them to the app using the #TikTokResumes tag in their caption.

There's also a dedicated TikTok Resumes website where you can get inspiration and tips for your personal video pitch, and search through listed openings.

You can then apply to any listed job by providing a link to your TikTok application clip (as well as a link to your LinkedIn profile if you choose).

The program is accepting video resumes for U.S. job openings from July 7 through July 31.

1. Facebook Outlines 4 Key Areas of Focus for the Platform Moving Forward - This week, Facebook's Vice President, Ads & Business Products Dan Levy has provided a new overview of its evolving business focus, and the key elements that Facebook's looking to maximize as it continues to build for the next generation of user behaviors.

And there are some valuable pointers and notes here - first off, Levy outlines Facebook's four key areas of business product innovation.

a.) Privacy-enhancing technologies - Levy says that Facebook's working to develop new 'privacy-enhancing technologies' in order to minimize the amount of personal information that the platform takes in, while still enabling advertisers to focus their promotions with optimal efficiency.

b.)Product and business discovery - First off, Facebook's trialing a new option in user News Feeds which enables people to tap to browse content from businesses on topics - "such as beauty, fitness, or clothing, and explore content from related businesses". In addition to this, Facebook's also looking to build improved ad placements based on the content users are interacting with.

"So if you’re watching a travel video, we could show ads for hotels and flights." Facebook already offers this to a degree via its ad targeting options, but it's looking to get more specific, which could open up new ad opportunities.

Levy says that they're also looking to help boost small businesses specifically, with a new badge that will be displayed on some ads from SMBs.

c.)Commerce - Levy says that a billion people now visit Facebook Marketplace each month, while Facebook and Instagram Shops, which were launched last May, now see over 300 million monthly visitors. "Facebook and Instagram are fast becoming a destination to buy and sell and over the coming years, we are building a modern commerce system to meet that demand across ads, community tools, messaging, Shops and payments. It's all in service of creating a personalized, seamless customer journey, in which it is easier to discover a product, learn about it, decide to buy it, pay for it, and find it on your doorstep."

d.)Business tools beyond marketing - Levy also notes that Facebook's continuing to work on improved business management tools and processes, in line with these trends, while also adding in new elements like job listings (and resume uploads on profiles) as well as improved messaging and digital education tools.

1. Facebook Launches 'Creative Guidance Navigator' for Marketing Stats and Tips - This week, Facebook has launched what it's calling 'Creative Guidance Navigator', which is a mini-site of various ad tips and notes that can help improve your ad creation approach. The mini-site is fairly straightforward - The main listing displays a range of Facebook ad tips, one-by-one, with a 'Load more' prompt at the bottom to generate more examples of relevance.

You can also filter the display by ad format, industry, region and more to get more specific creative notes of relevance to your brand niche. You can check it out here https://www.facebook.com/business/creative-guidance-navigator

1. Facebook Updates Conversion Modeling and Events to Tackle ATT Changes - Here's what's changed:

First off, Facebook will now allow advertisers to update their focus event for a campaign without the advertiser having to pause and manually restart it with every change. That'll make it easier to keep your campaigns moving, with more flexibility to change focus based on performance trends.

Facebook's also adding estimated conversions into its 7-day click attribution window, which will help advertisers account for data lost due to the ATT update. With the ATT changes, many Facebook advertisers have seen a significant reduction in conversions because Facebook is no longer able to track them, but this will provide a more accurate view of performance based on modeled estimates. Many advertisers are also reporting major mismatches between their data reporting tools, because they can't connect the dots between Facebook reporting and their actual performance, and this will help to reduce those gaps.

And lastly, Facebook's providing more flexibility for marketers looking to maximize performance to Android users, by expanding their event options in their campaign set-up. That will mean that advertisers looking to target Android users will have more capacity to optimize their campaigns based on performance - though this won't help those looking to reach users on iOS.

1. Microsoft Advertising Updates - On July 6th, Microsoft Advertising announced its July product releases and updates. Here’s what you need to know!

2. Microsoft Expands Verticals for Dynamic Remarketing - they will expand dynamic remarketing to additional verticals including automotive listings, entertainment events, and the travel industry (specifically tours and activities). Dynamic remarketing uses product IDs to identify what product an audience has interacted with and then uses that to deliver targeted ads.

3. In-Market Audience Data Refined - Updated the user experience for advertisers implementing in-market audiences. Now, when advertisers are adding in-market audiences, they’ll be able to easily see how big a segment size is based upon the specific markets that they are targeting within that campaign. Previously, by default, the audience size was global. Now, if a campaign is targeting the U.S., the audience size will be reflective of those audience members that are within the US only.
4. Automated Bidding Expands to the Microsoft Audience Network - This change will only be effective for search campaigns that are opted into the audience network. Standalone audience campaigns (with no search components) will have this feature available in future months.
5. New insertions for your Responsive Search Ads - Two new ways to customize responsive search ads with the addition of countdown customizers and location extensions. Countdown customizers allow advertisers to dynamically insert countdowns into your RSAs to key moments for your business; like sales or online events. For instance, you could countdown to the end of a sale or the end of a shipping window to be delivered by a specific date. Location insertions allow advertisers to add locations into your RSAs to maximize relevancy to the searcher based on their location.
6. New Action Extensions - Has expanded the number of actions available for action extensions! For more information on setting up those, see the help documentation.
7. Deprecation of Microsoft Advertising Intelligence Tool - For the time being, the tool is still accessible but it won’t be updated or maintained going forward. Instead, advertisers should plan to use the Keyword Planner within the UI.

8. Multimedia Ads For Search - The ads will combine advertisers’ images, headlines and descriptions using machine learning to create engaging, attention-grabbing ads. Multimedia ads will be delivered on the Bing.com search pages and will be featured prominently in the mainline at the top of the SERP or on the right rail. There will only be one multimedia ad per page, so only one advertiser can deliver a multi-media ad at a time. Folks that are familiar with Google’s responsive display ad creation will find the setup of Multimedia Ads to be very familiar. The proves also closely resembles the creation process for Responsive Search Ads, but with the ability to use rich visual assets in combination with text.

9. Machine Learning Will Not Replace Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Google’s John Mueller recently did a Q&A in which he was asked the question of about the future of SEO industry. What Mueller essentially said was that regardless of how advanced machine learning gets, it is unlikely that it will end up rendering good old fashioned SEO obsolete anytime soon. He definitely struggled to come up with a satisfactory answer though, but it is heartening to think that an executive with such a high ranking position in Google decided to give good news in this regard.

10. HTTPS boost : Google’s Magic Signal to Break Tie & Rank Higher on SEO - Google doesn't typically disclose what factors go into its ranking algorithm—it's a well-guarded secret. But, in the second part of the Search Off The Record podcast released on July 6, 2021 Gary Illyes from Google explained how Google does ranking. In short, they assign a score to each page (using different algorithms such as PageRank, RankBrain and etc) in a result set based on topicality and relevancy based on the query and content of the page. It is highly unlikely that two pages will have the same score. However, if any two pages ends up with the same score then they use the score from HTTP boost, which is a magic signal, and works as a tiebreaker.

HTTP boost is nothing but having SSL turned on for your website. There you go folks, if you were unsure about the importance of SSL now you know how important it is and hope you turn it on.

This was an interesting podcast to listen to, so I’m embedding the audio at the start time below at 28:52 where Gary explains how results are returned. Give it a listen if you want to geek out on SEO ranking.

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1. Facebook Releases Bulletin - A Platform for Independent Writers - Bulletin is a fusion of substack, facebook and clubhouse. As of now Facebook have made the platform available only in the US, moreover only people with a big audience on Facebook will be able to start a meeting on 'Bulletin'. Facebook says that this is also an initiative towards making audiences feel more connected creators and give creators a space where they can communicate with their viewers. Bulletin has a lot of features that are similar to its competitors like Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse, one of which is scheduled rooms, which allows creators to allot a certain time for their live and notify the audience prior to it.

To see the full list of writers and their articles visit fyi.bulletin.com.

1. ICYMI: Facebook Is Now Embedding Reels In News Feed - While there are no formal announcements, Facebook has started to embed Reels from my friends in my newsfeed. For now, it seems to be working. As I scroll through the newsfeed, I’m stopping right in my tracks. It’s just a matter of time before I train my brain to tune out and keep going.

2. Facebook Filing Lawsuits Against Deceptive Advertising - Facebook Inc on Tuesday sued a California marketing company and its representatives as well as a Vietnam-based group of individuals in separate lawsuits for running deceptive and unauthorized advertisements on its platform. The social media giant said the defendants ran misleading ads that promoted the sale of merchandise including clothing, watches and toys. As soon as someone clicked on the ads, they were directed to a third-party website to pay for their purchase.

But once the payment was completed, users either never got any merchandise or the delivered item was not what they ordered for or it was of a poor quality, Facebook said.

The company also sued a group of individuals based in Vietnam who it said “misled the victims into self-compromising their accounts” and ran over $36 million in unauthorized ads.

Can I sing “Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do when Facebook comes for you?”

1. PSA: Google Broad Match Modifier Is Going Away This Month - This is just a quick reminder that Broad Match Modifier (BMM) will be going away in July 2021. We covered this topic in detail (including our own analysis) back in Feb 2021 after Google announced that they plan to sunset to BMM.

2. Non-skippable In-stream Ads Can Now Be In YouTube Ad Pods - Ad pods - Two ads served back-to-back. Ad pods are typically served to viewers who watch longer form content to reduce interruptions to their viewing experience. Now ad pods will be eligible to serve non-skippable in-stream ads in addition to skippable in-stream ads and bumpers.

3. Updated Pinterest Ad Policy Bans Weight Loss Imagery & Language - As explained by Pinterest: “As our community of Pinners grows, so do searches for topics like healthy eating, healthy lifestyle and fitness tips. We’ll continue providing useful and relevant content for those searching for it while prohibiting content that displays, rationalizes or encourages eating disorders and other types of self-injury. For example, whenever Pinners search for keywords related to eating disorders, we block search results and direct them to expert organizations, like NEDA, so they can find additional resources. Pinterest also offers a variety of emotional well-being activities developed by emotional health experts, accessible directly within our mobile app and website. Pinners can simply search for “#pinterestwellbeing” to explore gratitude and self-compassion exercises, along with other interactive practices that can help improve their mood.“

Pinterest had already banned ads that featured any of the following: Weight loss or appetite suppressant pills, supplements, or other products; Before-and-after weight-loss imagery; Weight loss procedures like liposuction or fat burning; Body shaming, such as imagery or language that mocks or discredits certain body types or appearances; and Claims regarding unrealistic cosmetic results

The new policy, prohibiting all weight loss related ads now also includes: Any weight loss language or imagery; Any testimonials regarding weight loss or weight loss products; Any language or imagery that idealizes or denigrates certain body types; Referencing Body Mass Index (BMI) or similar indexes; and Any products that claim weight loss through something worn or applied to the skin Pinterest adds that ads promoting healthy lifestyles and habits, like fitness products and services, will still be allowed as long as they don’t promote weight loss.

1. Updates from Shopify Unite : Shopify App Developers Get A Break - Shopify wrote: "As of August 1, 2021, we’re offering zero percent revenue share on the first million dollars you make annually on the Shopify App Store." That’s right—if you make less than $1 million USD per year in the Shopify App Store, you can register to no longer pay revenue share. And every year, those numbers reset. When you earn more than $1 million USD, you’ll pay a 15 percent revenue share, which is lower than the previous 20 percent revenue share. Shopify will also be introducing a one-time registration fee for all developers who sign up after August 1, which will be paid when the developers submit their first app to be reviewed. All the more reason to sign up and start building your app today!

Full announcement here: https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/shopify-unite-announcements-2021

1. Here Are Some Changes That YouTube is Making for Creators - Creators and viewers alike often complain about channel mentions in video descriptions, with the primary complaint here being that tapping or clicking on the mention navigates you away from the video that is currently being watched. This hurts creator viewership and also makes it difficult for users to have a consistent experience as well, so in order to address these concerns interacting with a channel mention will now open a card while the video continues to play in the background. This is being done in the hopes that it will create a more seamless experience and improve viewer stats for creators to boot so it is a win-win for all concerned parties.

2. Redirects and Google Search - Redirecting URLs is the practice of resolving an existing URL to a different one, effectively telling your visitors and Google Search that a page has a new location. Now, Google has “significantly expanded” the help guide it has for how Google Search handles various forms on redirects. The redirects and Google Search help document use to be a few paragraphs long, but now it goes into much greater detail.

You can find the guide here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/301-redirects

1. TikTok Announces Longer Videos - TikTok announced that users will be able to edit, film and upload videos of up to three minutes in length

2. Instagram Is No Longer A Photo Sharing App - Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, shares plans to expand the app into more areas than just photo sharing, such as video and shopping. The company’s first priority is creators and helping them earn a living with new monetization features. Mosseri recognizes there’s been a shift in power from institutions to individuals across industries, and he wants to move Instagram in that direction. Second in priority is video, which is seeing an immense amount of growth online on all major platforms right now. Mosseri says Instagram needs to lean into video more, and later explains how he plans to do that. A third area Instagram plans to expand on is shopping. The pandemic accelerated the shift of commerce from offline to online, moving the industry ahead by a number of years. Instagram is trying to capitalize on that trend. The fourth area Instagram plans to build out is messaging, which Mosseri says has become the primary way people connect with their close friends on the app. Over the past five years communication has shifted away from feed posts and stories and moved toward DMs.

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1. Facebook Launches Live Audio Rooms - Live Audio Rooms is way to host an audio event on Facebook, like a live radio show with an audience. The feel of the Live Audio Room is like a live event attended by an audience with interactive elements included like hand raising and the ability to be invited to speak or ask questions at the live event. The creators of the live events will be able to create Live Audio Rooms via an iOS app while the audience can participate in the event via Android or iOS devices.

At this time Facebook is rolling out the Live Audio Rooms for public figures who are invited to participate and “select” Facebook groups. The host can invite people to the Live Audio Rooms and broadcast up to fifty speakers. There is no limit to the size of the listening audience.

1. 4 New E-commerce Features from Facebook - Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are gaining new features that will help retailers get their products in front of more customers and drive sales. The 4 New Features are:

2. Facebook shop - After a Facebook Shop is set up, products are eligible to appear in the Shop tabs on Instagram and Facebook. Businesses in the US can now choose Marketplace as an additional sales channel. addition, businesses in several countries can showcase their entire Shop in WhatsApp. WhatsApp users can browse a Shop’s inventory, get product information, and chat about specific items before making a purchase.

3. Customer reviews on Instagram - Customer ratings and reviews will be expanded to products in Shops on Instagram. After this feature rolls out it will include photos and videos from the community in addition to written reviews.
4. Personalized Shop Ads - Shop ads will have the ability to send shoppers to where they are most likely to make a purchase based on prior shopping activity.

5. Expanded use of AR Try-On Feature - Facebook is developing new APIs that will make it easier, faster and more cost-effective for brands and advertisers to bring AR into their catalogs. This is rolling out first to brands in the beauty category, with support coming to other verticals in the near future. Lastly, Facebook is bringing AR to a new ad unit that will automatically show relevant products to people based on their interests, encouraging them to “try it on.”

6. Twitter Accepting Applications for Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows - Twitter is moving ahead with the next phase of its creator monetization push with users now able to apply to test its coming Super Follow and Ticketed Spaces options. Twitter has been developing both options for some time, with the platform first announcing the expanded monetization tools at its Analyst Day overview back in February.

First, on Ticketed Spaces users will be able to charge for exclusive access to audio Spaces sessions, with variable ticket price options.

While Super Follows, meanwhile, will also enable users to charge a monthly fee to give fans access to a range of additional content and engagement features, like newsletters, exclusive live-streams, product discounts, etc.

Both will facilitate new opportunities for creators, and incentivize them to establish a stronger presence in the app, which will help Twitter improve engagement overall, and ideally, grow its audience significantly over the next few years, in line with its stated targets.

1. iOS Twitter Users Can Now Share Their Stories Directly to Instagram Stories - Skip the screenshots –– sharing Tweets to Instagram Stories right from the share menu is out for everyone on iOS!

Tap the share icon on a Tweet and select “Instagram Stories”. Once your Instagram app opens, you can resize/reposition the Tweet sticker before posting.

1. Twitter Adds 15-Second Views as a New Objective for Ad Campaigns - Twitter is providing advertisers with more options to maximize their video ad campaigns, with a new 15-second view bid unit, which will prioritize reach to users who are more likely to consume video content. As explained by Twitter:

"To better meet the needs of advertisers who rely heavily on quality video views and video completion rates, we’re rolling out a ‘15-second (15s) view’ buying model that prioritizes for engaged, longform views on their content. This new bid unit is built to optimize for delivering 15-second or completed views, whichever comes first, and early testing has shown that it drives Twitter’s highest video completion rates yet."

1. TikTok Jump Allows Creators to Add Third Party Apps & Services - TikTok has announced the launch of a new feature called 'Jumps', which will enable creators to link to third-party owned mini-programs and services from their video clips, including recipes, quizzes, and more.

The 'Jumps' are displayed as links on the screen. When tapped, the links then take users through to a selection of approved, third-party experiences, which users are able to add to their clips within the upload process.

This is very similar to Snapchat's recent expansion of its developer tools to facilitate support for third-party apps within Spotlight, its own version of TikTok.

Not all users will be able to add Jumps to their clips straight away, though TikTok notes that it is opening up broader access to the option over time. In addition to this, TikTok is also giving more developer access to its Jumps creation program, which will enable it to add in more creative options for additions to your TikTok clips.

1. Google May Suspend Merchant Sites that Show Invalid Product Availability - Google Merchant Center has a new policy named “Inaccurate availability” that is caused “due to inconsistent availability between the landing page and checkout pages on your website,” the company said. This policy replaces the existing “Delivery issues” policy violation and goes into place on September 1, 2021.

What is the inaccurate availability policy? Google explained that a Google Merchant Center account can receive a warning or a suspension when “one or more of your products show as unavailable for purchase at checkout even though they’re displayed as being in stock on your landing pages.” If you are showing users that a product is available on the product landing page but when they click to add it to the cart, it changes that availability as not available, that can lead to violating this policy.

1. YouTube is Adding Detailed Info for Policy Violations - YouTube has announced a new test designed to improve the process of addressing policy violations in video clips.

"We want to make it easier for Creators to understand policy decisions, know when to appeal, and avoid similar violations in the future – that’s why we’re testing out improved policy emails that provide an example of a timestamp showing where we believe the policy violation exists in the video."

The new process will provide a direct, time-stamped linked to the section of your video which YouTube's system has identified as potentially breaching its rules, while the alerts will also include specific details about the relevant Community Guideline and links to related help resources.

"To start, we’re testing this with a subset of YouTube policies (so you may not see it yet) and have plans to expand to more policies in the future pending feedback and results. Many of you have specifically asked for timestamps from our Support teams, so we’re looking forward to your thoughts."

1. YouTube Introduces New Tools & Resources for Small Biz Owners - As part of Google’s International Small Business Week Event, YouTube on 24th June has published a free step-by-step guide designed to help business owners launch a channel, establish an online presence, and reach new customers. The guide covers the following topics:

2. Launching a Channel

3. Creating Videos
4. Live Streaming on YouTube
5. Getting Started With YouTube Ads

Also, YouTube reported that 79% of small businesses with a YouTube channel agree that publishing videos help with getting found by customers. And currently there are over two billion monthly users on YouTube watching a collective one billion hours of video a day.

1. Google Simplifies YouTube Ad Creation Process - Taking a cue from the Facebook post Boost feature, Google launched a simplified ad creation workflow for video ads on YouTube. In the new workflow, which is now available globally on mobile and desktop, advertisers can launch a campaign by adding a video, selecting the audiences they want to reach, and designating a budget.

Previously, advertisers had to use Google Ads Dashboard to launch a video ad campaign on YouTube, which may have been an intimidating prospect for some SMBs. This new workflow makes it easier for advertisers to get their campaigns up and running with a user interface that may be more appropriate for their needs and experience level.

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1. Instagram Launches Reels Ads - If you have been following our #TWIMshow, you know that I had predicted that Reels Ads will be coming on the day we covered IG Reels. Then they tested Reels Ads in select countries. Well IG Reels Ads are available globally as of June 16, 2021.

According to IG, “ Reels is the best place on Instagram to reach people who don’t follow you and a growing global stage where brands and creators can be discovered by anyone. These ads will help businesses reach greater audiences, allowing people to discover inspiring new content from brands and creators.”

Reels ads will be full screen and vertical, similar to ads in Stories, and will appear in between individual Reels. As with regular Reels content, these ads will loop and can be up to 30 seconds. People can comment, like, view, save and share Reels ads.

1. Group Fundraisers on Instagram - Instagram has added a group fundraising capability that allows people to raise money for a social cause, and every donation goes directly to the nonprofit.

As explained by Instagram: "Offline fundraising is often a group activity, from things like walk-a-thons, to bake sales, to concerts, and we wanted to bring that same sense of community to Instagram fundraisers so people can activate together around a single cause. 100% of the funds go directly to the nonprofit you’re raising money for, too."

When you set up a fundraiser on Instagram, you will be able to invite people to join the effort and have more people promote it. The question is, will this replace GoFundMe or be an addition to GoFundMe? Listen to the podcast to find our take on this feature.

1. Google Launches Search Console Insights - Google is introducing a new tool called Search Console Insights which is designed to help site owners better understand their audience. SCI combines data from both Search Console and Google Analytics in an effort to make it easy to understand content performance. The user interface is pretty simple to understand which means that even novice users would not face all that much trouble while attempting to wrap their heads around it.

Data in Search Console Insights will help site owners answer question such as:

• What are your best performing pieces of content, and which ones are trending?
• How do people discover your content across the web?
• What do people search for on Google before they visit your content?

• Which article refers users to your website and content?

• Shopify’s Shop Pay is Now Available to Online Stores Who Don’t Use Shopify - On Jun 15, 20 Shopify announced that they have made their one-click checkout service available to all merchants on Facebook and Google, even if they don't use Shopify. Starting with Facebook and Instagram later this summer and followed by Google in late 2021, Shop Pay will be available to more than one million merchants across both platforms—even if they don’t use Shopify’s online store.

Each day, more than 1.8 billion people log on to Facebook and a billion shopping sessions take place across Google. By bringing Shop Pay to all merchants regardless of the commerce platform they use, they are making an industry-leading checkout more accessible to independent brands at a time when finding and converting customers has never been more important. The merchant benefits of Shop Pay include:

• Faster, more efficient, and secure payments: Checkout on Shop Pay within the Shopify platform is 70% faster than a typical checkout, with a 1.72x higher conversion rate. This means fewer abandoned carts and increased conversion.
• Convenient order tracking and management: With 430+ million orders tracked over 450 billion miles, our global order tracking service enables consumers to track all of their important purchases, receive updates, and manage orders with Shop, Shopify’s shopping assistant.

• Carbon emissions offset on every delivery: One of the first carbon-neutral ways to pay, Shop Pay offsets 100% of the delivery emissions for every order.

• Shopify’s New Feature Will Help Your Store To Become More SEO Friendly - Shopify store owners are now able to edit their robots.txt file, which gives owners more control over how search engines crawl their site. Per Tobi Lutke, Shopify CEO, all shopify stores start with the same robots.txt, which the company says works for most sites, but now the file can be edited through the robots.txt.liquid theme template. Now you can make the following changes to the robots.txt file:

• Allow or disallow certain URLs from being crawled

• Add crawl-delay rules for certain crawlers
• Add extra sitemap URLs
• Block certain crawlers

P.S: Shopify recommends using Liquid to add or remove directives from the robots.txt.liquid template, as it preserves the ability to keep the file automatically updated.

1. YouTube Bans 4 Business Types From Advertising on its Masthead - Google will no longer allow certain types of ads on YouTube's masthead. In case, you are unfamiliar with Google’s Lingo and are unsure what a masthead is then YouTube’s masthead advertising unit is ad appearing at the top of the YouTube home page. Per Google,

“This is a video ad that appears at the top of the YouTube homepage. The YouTube Home feed is a very important destination for viewers, and the Masthead ad allows you to be first and foremost in that home experience. Buying a Masthead ad means targeted reach across a campaign with budget and frequency controls. Masthead ads bought are available on YouTube across desktop, mobile apps, and the YouTube app for TV.”

The affected verticals that are known so far are:

• Alcohol sales
• Gambling
• Prescription drugs
• Election and political ads

In my opinion, this makes sense as YT is gaining popularity in mainstream (big screen TV).

1. New Ad Formats in Microsoft Advertising - Microsoft is introducing new ad formats called Tours and Activities that they say will be unique to the platform (at least for now until this format gets copied by another platform). The ads are made in real-time by the Microsoft’s AI (thus no keywords are not required) for relevant queries using unique feed files that include images, price, reviews and videos. Advertisers in the U.S. and UK can sign up for the open beta by filling out this form or getting in touch with their Microsoft Advertising representative. You can learn more about the required and optional attributes at Microsoft Advertising’s Tours and Activities ads help page.

2. Integrating Your Podcast to Your Facebook Page - Facebook is providing podcasters with more ways to promote their content by connecting it back to their Facebook page. After you connect your podcast’s RSS feed into your Facebook page, facebook will automatically generate connected, playable News Feed posts all episodes published moving forward. And users will be able to listen to every episode directly on Facebook. And Facebook is also planning to add a feature that’ll allow listeners to create clips from their favorite shows.

3. Facebook Adds New Features to Group Admin - Facebook adds new tools for Facebook Group Admins, including improved comment moderation processes , ‘Conflict Alerts,’ and an updated overview dashboard that will highlight group tasks that require attention. They also made the Admin Home customizable that admins can tailor to their needs.

The comment moderation feature will enable group admins to set up their own criteria around what they want to moderate, and even automatically moderate both posts and comments based on these rules. For example, admins can setup a rule to automatically decline comments that include a link to a third-party site, which could be good for branded communities and avoid conflicts with competing options.

Group admins will also be able to restrict people who don’t qualify to participate based on a range of options (including how long they’ve had a Facebook account and/or how long they have been a member of the group), while the tool will also provide access to Facebook's advanced anti-spam tools.

‘Conflict Alerts’ will use Facebook’s AI to detect and notify admins when there may be contentious and unhealthy conversations in their group, so that they can take action as needed. And then admins can take actions such as temporarily limit how often specific group members can comment, and control how often comments can be made on certain posts that admins select.

Other things Facebook added are:

a.) new overall management and insight tools for groups, including new member summaries, which provide an overview of each group member’s activity,

b.) a new appeal process for group admins, covering content that they or other admins have posted, or that they have approved from members.

c.) ability tag group rules within comments and posts for clarity, while group members will also be able to tag specific group rules when they report posts and comments to admins

d.) and finally, making pinned comments and admin announcements notifications available in all groups.

1. Facebook Launches Program to Provide Opportunities for Independent Artists - Facebook’s Independent Artist Program will help unsigned musicians earn money from their music by making their content available on Facebook and Instagram through Facebook’s partner platforms DistroKid and TuneCore. Facebook will also provide data insights to help artists track their content performance over time. Remember, back in April we covered on our TWIMShow how TikTok provided similar opportunities to independent artists through their partnership with UnitedMasters.

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1. TikTok is Accepting Applications for Next Cohort of Support Black Businesses - On June 7th, TikTok announced that they are accepting a the next cohort of Support Black Businesses! In partnership with Vimeo, Support Black Businesses aims to give Black small business owners critical skills and resources to help them not only rebuild, but grow stronger. The second round of Support Black Businesses builds on the program that TikTok launched last year and gives participants tools and resources to better advertise on digital platforms and drive sales.

Here's what to know about the program:

• They're selecting 40 black owned businesses for the cohort

• The program will run from July 2021- December 2021; there will be at least one event to attend a month.

• Participating in this program is free of charge.

• The events and programming will be held virtually and will be a mix of educational content, thought leadership, mentorship and culture + community.

To apply to be part of this program, your business must have the following:

1) ​Less than 100 employees

​2) Public facing website representing their business ​

3) Offering a product or service ​

4) Current social media presence (does NOT need to have a TikTok account)

5) ​Commit to attend at least 75% of the programming offered

Deadline to submit the application is June 23rd at 11:59pm. You can find the application here.

1. Instagram Shared How the Algorithm Works & Shadowbanning - This week, Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri wrote a blog post to clear up one of the main misconceptions about the Algorithm. According to his post, IG uses a variety of algorithm, classifies, and processes, each with its own purposes. The main goal of these algorithms is to make the most of our time by personalizing our experience. Thus each part of the app - Feed, Explore, Reels - uses its own algorithm tailored to how we use it.

Feed and Stories - are places where people want to see content from their friends, family, and those they are closest to so they show all the recent posts shared by the people we follow. Next they take all the information they have about what was posted, the people who made those posts, and our preferences. IG call these “signals”, and there are thousands of them. They include everything from what time a post was shared to whether we’re using a phone or the web to how often we like videos.

Explore - was designed to help us discover new things. The grid is made up of recommendations – photos and videos that IG goes out and find for us – which is very different from Feed and Stories, where the vast majority of what we see is from the accounts we follow. Again, the first step they take is defining a set of posts to rank. To find photos and videos we might be interested in, they look at signals like what posts we've liked, saved, and commented on in the past. Once they’ve found a group of photos and videos we might be interested in, IG then order them by how interested they think we are in each one, much like how they rank Feed and Stories. The best way to guess how interested we are in something is to predict how likely we are to do something with the post. The most important actions they predict in Explore include likes, saves, and shares.

Reels - is designed to entertain us. Much like Explore, the majority of what we see is from accounts we don’t follow. So IG goes through a very similar process where they first source reels they think we might like, and then order them based on how interesting they think the reels are to us. The most important predictions they make are how likely we are to watch a reel all the way through, like it, say it was entertaining or funny, and go to the audio page (a proxy for whether or not we might be inspired to make our own reel.)

“Shadowbanning” - is a broad term that people use to describe many different experiences they have on Instagram and people consider their posts getting fewer likes or comments as a form of “shadowbanning”. They can’t promise us that we’ll consistently reach the same amount of people when we post. The truth is most of our followers won’t see what we share, because most look at less than half of their Feed. But they realized that they can be more transparent about why IG take things down when they do, work to make fewer mistakes – and fix them quickly when we do – and better explain how their systems work. So now they are developing better in-app notifications so people know in the moment why, for instance, their post was taken down, and exploring ways to let people know when what we post goes against their Recommendations Guidelines.

1. FB/IG Introduce New Ways for Creators to Make a Living - Zuckerberg & co wants Instagram and Facebook to serve as a home base for creators to tell their story, grow and make a living. Whether they are just starting out or are further along in building their business – they want to support creators and give the creator ways to accomplish their goals. So On June 8th, they announced new ways to help creators make a living as they build their personal brands across the platforms.

Affiliate & New Shops Features on Instagram - a native affiliate tool that will allow creators to discover new products available on checkout, share them with their followers and earn commissions for the purchases they drive — all within the Instagram app. When people come across an affiliate post from a creator featuring a tagged product, they will see “eligible for commission” at the top of the post, so it’s clear that their purchases help support that creator.

This will make it easier for people to shop directly from the creators they love and give brands a new way to partner with and reward creators who share their products.

For creators who want to sell their own merchandise, they're making it easier to add an existing shop or open a new shop on their Instagram profile.

Stay up to date on new shopping features for creators here.

More ways to earn from Badges and Stars - Badges on Instagram Live and Stars on Facebook give creators ways to earn from their supporters. As they see more and more creators use these tools to engage directly with their fans, they want to reward the creators for the impact they’re bringing to FB & IG communities. That’s why they ’re launching ways for creators to make extra money for hitting certain milestones with badges and Stars.

Starting June 8, 2021, creators on Instagram are eligible to earn an extra payout when they meet certain milestones while using badges in Live, such as going Live with another account.

Also, Facebook launched the Stars Challenges. Creators in the program can earn payouts from Facebook in the form of free Stars if they meet certain milestones, such as broadcasting a certain number of hours or earning a set number of Stars within a designated time period.

1. YouTube Now Detects Copyright Violations During the Upload Process - YouTube has rolled out some new options to give users more capacity to stop copyright violations in uploads, and detect potential IP infringements within the app. First off, YouTube added a new element in the copyright claim process which will enable creators to tick a new box when reporting a copyright violation in order to 'Prevent copies of these videos appearing on YouTube going forward' in the detection/removal options.

When this box is checked on a successful copyright claim, YouTube will then work to stop any other users from uploading the same video, using its Copyright ID detection and video matching tech. The same process will also enable YouTube to alert creators when any similar content is uploaded if this box is ticked, with these additional, potential violations then displayed in the 'Copyright Match' tab within YouTube Studio.

You can read more about the new copyright detection and removal processes here.

1. YouTube Now Allows Creators To Add Midrolls, End Screens and Captions While Their Video Is Processing - YouTube has rolled out a new update which will enable creators to place add-on features - like midroll ad breaks, end screens, info cards, etc. - while their video is processing, The new process will save creators time by enabling them to incorporate these processes into their upload flow, rather than having to wait till the video is fully available before adding in these features.

2. YouTube Shorts, TikTok’s Rival Launches in 3 New Countries - Shorts will soon be available to users in the UK, Canada and Latin America, in addition to India and the US. The full list for the expanded rollout also includes the Cayman Islands, Aruba and Bolivia - you can check all the nations in which Shorts is now available here.

3. YouTube Ads is Replacing TrueView with Video Action Campaigns - People are turning to YouTube to help them learn new skills, connect with others, and discover their next purchases with 70% of YouTube viewers saying they bought a brand as a result of seeing it on YouTube. A few years ago, they began to see YouTube’s role shift from being a singular entertainment destination to a prominent knowledge hub that inspired action. This insight led them to build TrueView for action, tehir direct response video solution that helps brands engage with prospective customers on the watch page.

As customer journeys became more complex, it’s important to reach customers in moments of exploration and evaluation. That’s why they have evolved TrueView for action and scaling its best features to more places on and off YouTube with Video action campaigns. Per YouTube, Video action campaigns drive 20% more conversions per dollar compared to TrueView for action.

Starting early 2022, all existing TrueView for action campaigns will automatically upgrade to Video action campaigns. To get ahead of this change and start driving conversions immediately, they recommend creating new Video action campaigns by using the responsive ad group type during campaign set-up. If you’d like to continue creating TrueView for action ads, you can do so until September 30, 2021 and any existing TrueView for action ads will continue to run until early next year. To make this process easier for you, they will also launch a copy and paste feature in Google Ads over the next few weeks, which allows you to copy existing TrueView for action ads and paste them as Video action campaign ads.

1. Related Video Extensions Now Available Globally - Related video extensions are now globally available to all advertisers who use Google Ads. With related video extensions, you can show a list of 2 to 5 related videos below your video ad on the YouTube mobile app. Related video extensions extend your message beyond your primary video ad, keeping viewers engaged with your creatives (including other videos on your YouTube channel).

Learn how to implement related video extensions here.

1. Pinterest Rolls-Out Shopping List & Other Features - People are already saving ideas and products they love on Pinterest, and Pinterest knows that Pinners are over 7x more likely to purchase products they’ve saved (Pinterest Internal Data, May 2021). This is why they have launched Shopping List, a way for Pinners to have their product Pins automatically saved in one place, making it easier for them to come back and shop the items they’ve been eyeing when they’re ready to buy, just like they would in their favorite local shops. Pinners will also be notified when they can get a good deal on products they’ve saved with price drop notifications. Available first in the US and UK, Shopping List will be coming to Australia, Canada, France and Germany later this year.

Pinterest is also expanding its newest suite of merchant tools to help retailers of all sizes, with the launch of the Verified Merchant Program in the UK, Australia, Canada, France and Germany, as well as of shop tab on profile, and product tagging in Australia, Canada, France and Germany.

In the US, UK and Canada, they will reveal “The Goods by Pinterest”, a two week Shopping Spotlight that will give Pinners access to limited edition products exclusively sold through Pinterest from emerging brands such as Outdoor Voices (US), Olive & June (US), Lucy and Yak (UK), Charlotte Tilbury (UK) or Park and Fifth (CA).

1. Apple Announces New Privacy Features That Will Upend Digital Marketing - This week at the WWDC Conference Apple announced that it will be bringing out new features for its Mail and Safari applications to ensure that their users are not tracked online.

According to Apple many advertisers use pixels online to track when a user opens their email and determine their IP address through all this information. All this can be used to help advertisers with targeted advertisements as well as track when you opened the email. So now Apple will block this pixel so that it hides the IP address, location and when the email was opened.

In Safari, Apple is going to launch a new privacy feature called Private Relay. When Private Relay is turned on, nobody can track your browsing history -- not your internet service provider, anyone standing in the middle of your request between your device and the server you're requesting information from.

The third feature you should know is 'Hide my email.' It lets you generate random email addresses when you sign up to a newsletter or when you create an account on a website. If you've used 'Sign in with Apple,' you know that Apple offers you the option to use fake iCloud email addresses. This works similarly, but for any app.

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1. Meet Twitter Blue - Twitter’s First-Ever Subscription Offering - Twitter on 3rd June 21, officially launched its first-ever subscription service, Twitter Blue, initially in Australia and Canada. The subscription will allow Twitter users to access premium features, including tools to organize bookmarks, read threads in a clutter-free format and take advantage of an “Undo Tweet” feature — which is the closest thing Twitter will have to the long-requested “Edit” button.

2. Twitter Launches Birdwatch Tool - Twitter's realized that there is so much they can do to curb misinformation when they are catering to millions of active and opinionated individuals. So Twitter is trying something different and has Birdwatch that will rely on community-based crowdsourcing. Essentially, Birdwatch will allow users to attach notes to tweets that carry misleading information. The notes will serve to provide further context, either clearing up the author's intention, or simply falsifying their information.

3. Twitter Pauses & Unpauses Verification Requests - The long-awaited return of Twitter’s verification application process is in a timeout after the social network was overrun with requests. And then 4 days later they have resumed taking in application for verifications again. Twitter have said that users will start seeing a blue tick if their verification was approved and if not users can apply again 30 days after they have received a response from the tech giant.

Though anyone can apply for verification the tech giant verifies users from six distinct categories which are government, companies and organizations; news organizations and journalists; sports and gaming; companies, entertainment; activists, companies, organizers, influential individuals, though they plan on expanding the categories in the future.

1. YouTube Paid Out $4+ Billion In Royalties - On June 2, 2021, Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music wrote that YouTube has paid over $4 billion to the music industry in the last 12 months alone (30% is from user-generated content (UGC).) And they have added more paid members in Q1 ’21 than in any other quarter since launch.

Through their ad-supported free tier in 180 countries and subscription tiers in 96 countries, they give users the choice to pay with their attention or their wallets. YouTube is the world’s largest stage, and advertisers are eager to tap into the deep music engagement that the platform enables. With over 2 billion users watching music videos monthly, YouTube allows advertisers to reach audiences they can’t find anywhere else.

1. 5 Updates To YouTube Analytics - YouTube is rolling out 5 new things to YouTube Studio to give Creators data on how users engage with their channel’s content. The new features are:

2. More data about channel memberships - Membership metrics will now report on which videos helped a channel gain (or lose) more members than usual.

3. More data on mobile (which was previously exclusive to desktop) - Now creators can view ‘other channels your audience watches’ and ‘other videos your audience watches’ cards on mobile.
4. Clearer information about video performance - An update to the video overview page in YouTube Analytics on desktop provides a clearer, more visible explanation of video performance.
5. Insight into revenue changes - If revenue goes up or down due to a channel’s audience shifting to a higher or lower CPM country, YouTube will now call that out. This is helpful information when diagnosing when revenue has changed from one month to another. If a channel’s revenue goes down because more of its audience is coming from a lower CPM country, at least the creator knows they’re not necessarily producing worse content.

6. Engagement metrics for YouTube posts - Engagement metrics for YouTube posts, which were announced and previewed back in May, are now live. Now a card on the channel’s engagement tab shows votes and likes on the creator’s top posts over the last 28 days. This card can be filtered by post type.

7. Facebook Will Allow Users To Post Anonymously In FB Groups - Matt Navarra, a social media consultant and known to unleash upcoming features on applications posted about this feature in a tweet on June 2nd, 21. There he posted a screenshot on which he mentioned that Facebook is now rolling out a feature called Anonymous postings. This feature will allow users to keep their identity hidden and publish a post on any group they want. Previously though this feature was available on only two groups categories which were parenting and health related but the tech giant has now expanded its list.

8. Cryptocurrency Exchanges & Wallets Can Now Use Google Ads - Beginning August 3, advertisers offering Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Wallets targeting the United States may advertise those products and services when they meet the requirements and are certified by Google. To be certified by Google, advertisers will need to:

9. Be duly registered with

   • (a) FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money transmitter; or
   • (b) a federal or state chartered bank entity.
10. Comply with relevant legal requirements, including any local legal requirements, whether at a state or federal level.
11. Ensure their ads and landing pages comply with all Google Ads policies

The following is not allowed:

Ads for initial coin offerings, DeFi trading protocols, or otherwise promoting the purchase, sale, or trade of cryptocurrencies or related products.
Examples (non-exhaustive): ICO pre-sales or public offerings, cryptocurrency loans, initial DEX offerings, token liquidity pools, celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements, unhosted wallets, unregulated DApps

Ad destinations that aggregate or compare issuers of cryptocurrencies or related products.

Examples (non-exhaustive): Cryptocurrency trading signals, cryptocurrency investment advice, aggregators or affiliate sites containing related content or broker reviews

1. Embed Facebook Videos At Any Given Time On Your Blogs & Website - Facebook recently updated its video embed settings through which users can share already uploaded Facebook videos at any chosen time, on other websites and blogs

2. Microsoft Advertising Announces June Updates & Feature Rollouts - New PPC features & updates are scheduled to roll out in June. Here’s what you need to know to ensure your accounts are up to speed.

3. Shopping Campaign Import Enhancements - Allowing advertisers to import their Google Merchant Center (GMC) store along with their Shopping Campaigns.

4. Smart Shopping Integration for Shopify Users - Adding “Smart Shopping” to their Shopify app, which is designed to simplify shopping campaign creation. Through the app, advertisers are also automatically opted in to show your products for free on the Bing Shopping Tab
5. Microsoft Audience Network Expands - As of this month, Audience Ads can now run in France and Germany, expanding global footprint to seven markets worldwide: US, CA-EN, UK, AU, FR, DE, and NZ.
6. New In-Market Audiences in the UK, France & Germany - New audience segments in the UK, France, and Germany for both search campaigns and audience campaigns. Advertisers can download the In-market segment list to see what’s new.
7. Phrase Match Updates Set to Roll Out in June - In May, Microsoft announced that phrase match would begin to match more similarly to modified broad match, copying Google’s recent change. That change is set to take effect this month in the United States (US) and Canada markets.
8. Similar Audiences U.S. Roll Out - Similar audiences, which have been in beta, will roll out in the U.S this month.
9. Last but not least, advertisers can now choose to import campaigns automatically from Google, as changes occur in Google Ads, as opposed to scheduling at a certain frequency.

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1. Instagram Adds Engagement Insights for Reels and Instagram Live Broadcasts - Based on feedback from creators and businesses, Instagram has launched insights for Reels and Live on May 24, 2021. For Reels, they will be showing new metrics including Plays, Accounts Reached, Likes, Comments, Saves, and Shares. For Live, they will be showing Accounts Reached, Peak Concurrent Viewers, Comments, and Shares. They will also be including these metrics in Account Insights to provide a broader picture into how Reels and Live shape an account’s performance.

Additionally, they are launching new detailed information about Reach in Account Insights. They have built new breakdowns that provide transparency into which types of accounts we are reaching and which content formats are the most effective at driving Reach.

1. To Boost eCommerce Activity, Instagram Adds 'Drops' Product Showcase - Instagram has launched a new product showcase option called 'Drops', which will highlight the latest product launches from brands you've engaged with, or may be interested in, at the top of the Shop tab in the app. The new Drops display will showcase the latest new releases and limited offerings, related to your interests. The option essentially builds on Instagram's product reminders option, which it first launched in 2019.

2. Everyone On Instagram And Facebook Can Now Hide Their Public Like Counts - As of May 26, everyone on Instagram and Facebook now has the option to hide their public like counts, so they can decide what works for them. Previously, they tested hiding like counts to see if it might depressurize people’s experience on Instagram. And I have even covered it in one of our previous episodes. What they heard from people and experts was that not seeing like counts was beneficial for some and annoying to others, particularly because people use like counts to get a sense of what’s trending or popular, so they are giving us the choice. You can find the announcement here: https://about.fb.com/news/2021/05/giving-people-more-control/

3. Facebook Will Reduce Your Reach If You Keep On Spreading Fake News And Misinformation - Facebook announced a number of measures, including penalization, aimed at individuals who spread false information. This is an escalation on the part of Facebook in its effort to reduce the amount of toxic content shared on the platform. The effort to limit misleading content is structured into three actions

a. Inform Users Before Interacting with Misleading Pages
b. Penalize Users Who Share False Information - The penalty consists of limiting the reach of these members Facebook posts so that less people see them.
c. Educate Users Who Have Shared Toxic Content - At present, when the content is rated a notice is sent to the user alerting them of the status of the content they shared. Facebook has improved this notice by redesigning it to make it clearer so that the user has a better understanding of why the content is rated false and to warn them of future action against them in the form of penalties should they share more false information. For more information, visit https://about.fb.com/news/2021/05/taking-action-against-people-who-repeatedly-share-misinformation/

1. Google Ads Product Updates From Google Marketing Livestream 2021 - This week, Google announced a slew of new features and tools at its Google Marketing Livestream 2021 event. This includes new features for hotel ads, local campaigns, local inventory ads, customer match, insight page upgrades, performance max, product feeds, tROARS and more.

2. Hotel Ads

3. Local Campaigns
4. Local Inventory Ads
5. Customer Match
6. Insights Page
7. Performance Max
8. Product Feeds
9. tROAS

10. Other Items

    1. Image Extensions
    2. Ad Customizers
    3. Robust Attribution Reporting
    4. Enhanced Conversions to preserve accurate and complete conversion measurement
    5. More Customized Information in the Google Ads Feed
    6. Drive shopping inspiration and action across YouTube and Google
    7. New OCI (Offline Conversion Import) helper tool to implement offline conversion imports

11. Increasing In-Store Sales With Online Ads - Google announced a number of new local ad-based features at its Google Marketing Livestream event. They are:

12. “Auto Suggest Ads” that shows ads based on searcher’s location.

13. “Navigational Ads” are shown while you are using Google Maps driving directions. This allows businesses to show their ads while a user is en route to a destination
14. “Similar Places Ads” that show up when you search for a specific business location and that business is closed at the time of the search.

15. “Pickup later” (still in beta) adds to the “pickup today” and “curbside pickup” options that local inventory ads already have within the nearby shopping features.

16. Google Expands Its Shopping Integrations - Last week we covered that Google has announced that it’s expanding its partnership with Shopify, which will provide new, simplified processes to enable Shopify’s 1.7 million merchants to get their products featured across Google “in just a few clicks”. This week Google has launched partnerships with WooCommerce, GoDaddy and Square to enable retailers on those platforms to list their products for free on Google.

17. YouTube Says Videos Won’t Get Removed For Too Many Flags And “Right to Monetize” - YouTube says videos will not automatically get removed for being flagged too many times. All content goes through the same review process.

They also announced the addition of YouTube’s “Right to Monetize,” to their terms of service - This means that if you’re not part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), YouTube still reserves the right to run ads on your videos. The program is scheduled to roll out globally beginning in June.

1. Now You Can Boost Your Post And Event on LinkedIn - Just like Facebook, LinkedIn now enables users to boost their post on the platform through just a single click followed by an uncomplicated payment process. The prime benefits of this service include expanding your reach, helping you grow, and amplifying the impact of your work.

And to help you amplify your event promotion they have rolled out Event Ads. By appearing right in the LinkedIn feed, the Event Ad feature helps you promote your event by highlighting key event details, like date, time, and how to join your event, to an entirely new audience, while also allowing members to learn if a mutual connection has expressed interest in attending.

They’ve also enhanced their Events analytics to help us better understand the impact of our efforts. According to LinkedIn, the new Event Analytics tool provides marketers and event organizers with aggregated insights into the reach, engagement, and firmographic makeup of event attendees, so we can more easily and effectively plan for future events.

1. Pinterest Accepting Applications for the Next Phase of Creator Fund - Back in April, Pinterest announced its new 'Creator Fund' initiative, through which it would provide $500k in funding to facilitate support for creators from underrepresented communities. Creators who were selected for the fund received hands-on training to help them succeed on Pinterest. Topics include making Idea Pins, taking advantage of Pinterest trends and measuring campaign success. Participants also got personalized consulting to boost their Pinterest creative strategies. And to top it off, every creator received a financial grant of $25k in cash and ad credits. On average, Fund creators saw 2.9x more Idea Pin impressions and 72% more monthly viewers compared to their previous performance. Now you can apply through June 30 for the next round of the Creator Fund which will run from August to September.

For more information, visit: https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/apply-pinterest-creator-fund/

1. “Unified Smart” By Microsoft Advertising: A Single Management Solution for Multi-Channel Paid Advertising And Social Media - In an effort to make paid search and social media advertising accessible to businesses of all sizes, Microsoft Advertising announced the pilot program for a single streamlined place to manage all of a business’s advertising campaigns. Highlights of the solution include

2. Automatically creating campaign based on website content

3. Create image and video ads for Facebook and Instagram
4. Reporting in single place
5. Consolidated inbox and post scheduling for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
6. Organic social media reporting

Interested parties can complete the online questionnaire to get early access.

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1. Updates From Snapchat’s Partner Summit - Snapchat has shared that they reached 280M daily users and over 500M monthly active users globally. Other features they have announced include Creator Marketplace, where businesses will be able to find and partner with Snap creators, and Public Profiles, which will help users get discovered organically, engage with customers, build a following, sell products, and manage their profile - all in one place.

2. Facebook Explains “What’s Allowed” & Community Standards Enforcement Report (CSER) - People often wonder what content is allowed on Facebook’s platforms. Well, it all starts with their Community Standards, which outline what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and Instagram. Community Standards cover over 20 distinct topic areas that span everything from violence and criminal behavior to safety, integrity and authenticity to objectionable content. To enforce these policies, they use a combination of content reviewers and artificial intelligence. When they find harmful posts on Facebook and Instagram, they take a zero tolerance approach and remove them. But zero tolerance doesn’t mean zero occurrence.

And they published their Community Standards Enforcement Report for the first quarter of 2021. In the report, Facebook shares that they have seen a decrease in the prevalence of bad content; improvement in the amount of hate speech on the platform. They have also introduced their new Transparency Center which will provide many resources of integrity and transparency efforts to its users. Guy Rosen, who is the vice president of integrity at the tech giant, shared that they are working towards having a secure platform and they have implemented 12 policies for Facebook and 10 for Instagram, to let everyone know they are enforcing policies.
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/facebook-content-policies-commitment-to-safety#

1. How Does Facebook’s Ad System Work? - A new overview has been published with additional context that can help you understand any errors or missteps that you may have experienced. They require advertisers to follow their Advertising Policies in addition to their Community Standards. Their Community Standards guide what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and apply to all types of content, including ads.

Their Advertising Policies place additional requirements on advertisers in order to help further protect people from poor experiences — especially because ads may be delivered to people in their News Feed from Pages or accounts they don’t follow. For example, they don't want ads that use profanity, show excessive nudity or include misinformation.

The system reviews all ads before they are released. It relies primarily on automated technology to apply the Advertising Policies to the millions of ads that run across the apps. They also rely on their teams to build and train these systems, and something to manually review ads.

However, the platform has admitted that their enforcement isn’t perfect, and both machines and people make mistakes sometimes.
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/facebook-ad-policy-process-and-review#

1. Say Hello To “Live Shopping Friday” By Facebook - The session has just been introduced now and it will run until July 16. It is a way for shoppers to discover the best products for them, and for brands to build relationships with customers. These streams will be available via the brand’s Facebook page or the social network’s Shop page. Viewers could also complete the checkout process without leaving the app, by tapping on the features products.
   https://about.fb.com/news/2021/05/introducing-your-new-favorite-way-to-shop-live-shopping-fridays/

2. Instagram Has Planned Their First Creator Week - "The first-ever Instagram Creator Week will run June 8-10, with a series of virtual streaming sessions. Those will be accessible by invitation only, with about 5,000 creators from the U.S. expected to attend. The three-day event will include sessions like 'How to Supercharge Your Community', 'Media Training 101', 'How to Break Into Entertainment', 'How to Start a Podcast', 'How to Get Discovered on Instagram', and 'Fund My Merch Line', in which creators will be able to pitch their dream product idea to a panel of judges - and the winners will get their ideas funded. Sessions will also address burnout and algorithm myth-busting. In addition to all of this, there will also be surprise special guest appearances and product news announced during the week."

While Creator Week is invite only, Instagram will make a portion of the content from the sessions available publicly on the instagram.com/creators account (4.5 million followers), including in a daily recap series called “The Rundown.”

1. Pinterest Launches Idea Pins & Shares How It Handles 5B+ Searches Per Month - After testing their Idea Pins for the past 8 months, Pinterest has finally launched the feature. It will allow creators to capture and edit innovative videos of up to 20 sections of content, utilizing resources like voiceover recording, sound effects, animations, and other creative features, very much like their own TikTok mashup of Stories.

"There are now more than 5 billion searches on Pinterest every month. As people prepare for a post-pandemic life, searches for outfits, vacations, and home renovations are at all-time highs, and searches for weddings have presumed pre-pandemic levels."

That's a lot of search activity - for context, Pinterest last, officially reported its total search volume in 2016, when it was facilitating 2 billion searches every month. That means Pinterest has increased its search volume by 150% over the last five years - which, given the pandemic, and the subsequent boost for eCommerce and online product discovery, is not overly surprising. But it does provide some additional context on Pinterest's user traffic, with the majority of these searches (if not all) for products that people are looking to buy.

1. Twitter Adds Scheduling for Spaces And Relaunches Verification - Bringing back the blue badge features is a great way to help people distinguish the authenticity of high public interest accounts. In Twitter’s research, that has shown to lead to healthier, more informed conversations between people. Moreover, broadcasters on Twitter will now be able to plan out, and build hype around their upcoming events, with the addition of Spaces scheduling on the platform.

2. Google Expands The Way Customers Can Shop: Shopify Integration And Shopping Graph - First off, Google has announced that it's expanding its partnership with Shopify, which will provide new, simplified processes to enable Shopify’s 1.7 million merchants to get their products featured across Google "in just a few clicks".

"This new collaboration with Shopify will enable merchants to become discoverable to high-intent consumers across Google Search, Shopping, YouTube, Google Images and more."

Google says that it's seen a 70% increase in the size of its product catalog, and an 80% increase in merchants on its platform, over the past year. That was most notably boosted by Google eliminating all charges for Google Shopping product listings last April, in order to assist retailers looking to shift their focus amid the pandemic.

And now, Google's looking to push that further with the evolution of what it calls its 'Shopping Graph'.

"The Shopping Graph is a dynamic, AI-enhanced model that understands a constantly-changing set of products, sellers, brands, reviews and most importantly, the product information and inventory data we receive from brands and retailers directly - as well as how those attributes relate to one another. With people shopping across Google more than a billion times a day, the Shopping Graph makes those sessions more helpful by connecting people with over 24 billion listings from millions of merchants across the web. It works in real-time so people can discover and shop for products that are available right now."

1. 4 New Features In Google Ads - Top signals for target ROAS and maximize conversion value; seasonality adjustments that can be made at the manager account level; recommendations for max conversions, and Target Impression Share simulators for performance predictions.
   https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10715180

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1. Apple’s Paid Ads Business Expansion (0:37) - Apple didn’t want to comment on their employment of Antonio Garcia Martinez, however, it looks like they are planning big steps in the advertising industry, just in time with the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) introduction. Back in 2016, Apple had its own advertising platform, called iAd, but that was considered unsuccessful.

2. TikTok Coins, New Features, And A Refreshed Safety Center (3:10) - The improved Safety Center includes new guides and resources to help with digital safety and security among families - A guardian's guide to TikTok; Bullying education and prevention resources, and more. On the creative side, they have also introduced the latest layout addition, green screen duet, along with the already existing left & right; react, and top & bottom.

3. Google's John Mueller Shares Valuable Advice (6:57) - He shares that there shouldn’t be any problem with the following situation: “moving the navigation in your HTML code from the top of the source code to the bottom while using positioning techniques to render the navigation at the top.” He also mentions that just because your site has ranked well at some point in the past or now, it doesn’t mean it will continue to be ranking well forever.

4. Some Medical Treatments Are Prohibited On Google Ads (8:42) - The treatments that are not allowed to be advertised include stem cell therapy, cellular (non-stem) therapy, gene therapy and similar forms of regenerative medicine, platelet-rich plasma, and others. Violations of this policy will be given a 7-day notice before further action is taken.

5. YouTube Updates Features On Their Community Posts And Adds A Subscribers’ Only Feature (In Beta) (9:44) - The 3 updates to their community posts include a first-ever look at analytics data; the ability to add more images, and the ability to schedule posts on iOS. Furthermore, they are working on a subscribers’ only feature, similarly to Twitch, where content creators will be able to host live streams and chats with their subscribers exclusively.

6. $100M For YouTube Shorts Creators And Expanding Clips (11:58) - The fund will be distributed in 2021-2022 among creators with unique content who also follow the Community Guidelines. During the past 3 years, YouTube has invested over $30 billion in its creators, artists, and media companies, and they will continue to provide the necessary support. Moreover, the platform is rolling out new Clips option to 10x more channels, which will provide another way for users to share specific segments from videos.

7. Snapchat’s Report On Rising AR (14:10) - To measure top consumer AR trends, Snapchat teamed up with Deloitte Digital and interviewed more than 15,000 users across 15 nations. The platform has acknowledged that 64% of the younger users that were reached didn’t watch any Television, which is why Snapchat was able to reach 71% of the Gen Z while televisions couldn’t.

8. Pinterest Ads Guide, Removing Scams And Testing Live Stream Events (16:21) - The platform has published an overview guide of how to utilize Promoted Pins, and they have also shared how they are tackling spam and malicious content: “Our models detect spam vectors, like Pin links, as well as users engaging in spammy behaviors. We quickly limit distribution of Pins with spam links and take direct action against users identified with a high confidence to be engaging in spammy behavior." Meanwhile, they are also expanding to live events.

9. Facebook Conversions API For Better ROI (18:15) - The Facebook Conversions API aims to respect Facebook users' privacy controls. For example, if a customer uses the Off-Facebook Activity privacy tool, their choices will extend to data sent via Conversion API. It is designed to be less vulnerable against a browser crash or connectivity issues.

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1. Pinterest Expands Its Advertisement To Mexico (0:39) - Paid promotions are now possible in Mexico via Pin. The platform is seeing increased engagement in Mexico, in terms of search activity which rose by 93% year-over-year throughout 2020. At the same time, Pinterest continues to expand its ad tools outside of the US, with Argentina, Colombia and Chile being next in line.
   2.New Sound And Login Kits Are Available On TikTok (1:43) - Sound and Login Kits are introduced alongside the “TikTok for Developers program”. Their aim is to help third-party apps create more frictionless sharing and authentication experiences for their users. The Software Development Kits (SDKs) are now available for mobile, web, and console applications globally. The Sound Kit specifically will allow creators and artists to seamlessly bring original sounds and music from third-party apps into the TikTok ecosystem.

3.TikTok Introduces PIP Feature And Talks About Its Commitment To Content Creators (3:07) - PIP stands for picture in picture, and it is a type of window mode that lets users view content inside another content that they are looking at. It will appear on a small window, pinned to the original content on the main screen. TikTok also discussed their commitment to content creators, during the NewFronts 2021 Convention, and how brands need to focus on earning the trust of creators and users, and not the other way around.
4.Tip Jar Is Now Live On Twitter (4:16) - It is a new and easy way for users to support content creators on Twitter for iOS and Android. However, it is only available for users using the platform in English fo the moment, with plans to expand to more users and more languages later in its stage.
5.“I Wish I Knew” - A New Podcast By @TwitterResearch (6:12) - It will bring you directly into the world of @TwitterResearch. Each episode will be co-hosted by different researchers who will share their journeys into the field, discuss how the team is elevating conversations across the company through insights, explore why research matters, and celebrate the people and culture surrounding the work. Moreover, Twitter has acquired Scroll - an innovative way for readers to read articles without the ads, pop-ups and other usual clutter that gets in the way, for a better reader experience.
6. New Updates For Microsoft (9:12) - Microsoft is planning to treat Phrase Match the same way Google does - ads will be shown for searches that include the meaning of your keyword. Microsoft gives an example with “winter vacation in Miami” being matched with “Miami vacation.” Moreover, there is a new integration between Dynamics 365, Microsoft’s customer data platform, and Microsoft Advertising - advertisers will now be able to use their customer segments from Dynamic 365 Customer Insights to reach users in the Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network via Customer Match targeting. Lastly, from August 2021 advertisers will no longer have the ability to create new BMM keywords.
7. Automatic Translation Is Added To YouTube (7:49) - Non-English speakers can now take advantage of this feature, which will automatically translate all video titles, description, and captions into their native languages. These translations will be powered by Google Translate, so accuracy might not be 100%. On another note, YouTube shares a record number of viewings on big screens - 120 million only in December 2020.

1. YouTube Leverages AI, and Facebook Follows The Same Approach (10:16) - YouTube can now identify individual objects within videos and tag products that are present, thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence. Google has been working on this feature and along with this update, the platform will also be able to provide direct shopping options for users. Because of the success of this introduction, Facebook is working on introducing a similar feature and the platform claims that it will be much more advanced in terms of functionality.

2. YouTube Improves Its Shoppable Feature (12:12) - It has decided to release a new collaborative feature targeted at marketers that will enable YouTube viewers to get more details on the product being displayed on their screens without redirecting to other links. Advertisers would intelligently target the advertisements to the right audience by focusing on the video content.

3. Fraudulent Ads Are Still Common On Google (12:49) - This has been revealed by a BBC report, and it’s about ads that claim to offer government services for a fee, although these services are offered by the government for no charge. It reflects badly on Google Ads’ team, which is responsible for verifying ads before they are launched. The process of verifying was put in place back in January 2021, however, it can take some more time before all of the ads that appear on Google are checked for being trustworthy.

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1. Microsoft, YouTube and Google Announce Their Advertising Revenue Figures - Google leads with a 32% increase in ad revenue, compared to Microsoft and their 17% increase in ad revenue. Meanwhile, YouTube is also growing with a 49% jump in ad revenue, followed by a 86% increase in daily views of YouTube Shorts.

2. LinkedIn’s Continued Growth Reaches 25% Revenue Increase - Since Microsoft acquired LinkedIn back in 2016, we only see brief overviews of the platform. Some of the impressive growth figures, besides revenue, include 43% increase in conversions; 29% increase in content sharing, and 80% increase in hours spent on LinkedIn Learning.

3. A Promising End Of Q1 For Facebook And A Questionable Future For Q2 - In terms of revenue and users, Facebook did exceptionally well and showed an increase in both metrics. A presentation on FB's Earnings illustrated a 2.86 billion increase in monthly active users (MAU), which is around 10% increase. However, despite this success in Q1, it is questionable what the numbers will be during Q2. Now that Apple has released iOS 14.5 and users will need to give permission to have their data and online activity tracked, there are speculations that the revenue of Facebook Marketplace will go down.

4. Pinterest Reveals What Users Are Planning, With a 96% Increase In Overall Searches - Some of the searched terms predict that people are preparing for a travel boom; looking for outfit inspirations; searching for party-related entertainment, and planning home renovations. Pinterest users all share 1 common characteristic - a positive attitude towards what is coming post-Covid19.

5. Shopify’s Impact On The Economy - According to Deloitte’s report on Shopify’s Economic Impact, the platform has provided $2 billion in funding to entrepreneurs and 3.6 million jobs around the world. Moreover, the economy has received $307+ billion from Shopify merchants, and that makes them the 7th largest company in the world in terms of revenue.

6. TikTok Launches Lead Generation Ads - These ads will enable businesses of all sizes to create seamless interactions, gather audience information, and reach prospects in order to convert them into potential customers. Users will be able to provide their name, email and telephone number if they have an interest in a given product or service. Businesses will also be able to create fully customizable messages that are relevant to multiple customer segments.

7. How YouTube Creators Are Generating Revenue - YouTube’s efforts began 13 years ago when they launched their Partner Program. The statistics show that over 140K channels earned money from Paid Digital Goods on YouTube in December 2020, which is a 140% increase compared to December 2019. At the same time, creators on the platform earned over 4x as much revenue from channel memberships in 2020, compared to the previous year.

8. Google Updates Customer Match Lists - Customer Match help advertisers build a stronger relationship with their customers and Google has introduced some updates to improve that feature. Advertisers can now see how much of their list is usable in real-time; and they can also keep their lists up to date with Recommendations.

9. Google Gives Guidance on Apple’s ATT Policies - iOS apps submitted on or after 26 April must comply with Apple’s ATT policies and ask for permission when using certain information from other companies’ apps and websites. Here are steps that ensure a smooth transition, for advertisers promoting web-based conversion goals:

10. 1) Understand the impact of ATT on Google Click ID, website and offline conversions

11. 2) Take advantage of Google’s new innovations that can help with measurement on iOS 14
12. 3) Expect performance fluctuations and monitor delivery and bid settings closely

And this is how advertisers promoting iOS apps can ensure a smooth transition:

• 1) Evaluate whether Apple’s ATT prompt is right for your app
• 2) Implement Apple’s SKAdnetwork API
• 3) Consolidate iOS App campaigns and use only tCPI or tCPA bidding:

• 4) Get reporting insights for your iOS App campaigns

• Google Reports An Increase In Search Spam Detection - According to data, there is an increase of 60% in spammy pages, compared to 2019. However, Google has improved in detecting spam and blocking it as a result, from detecting 25 billion pages of scam each day in 2019.

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1. Facebook and Reddit Are Launching a Clone of Clubhouse - Although these news have been covered in a previous episode of the #TWIMshow, there are some updates worth sharing. For example, Facebook is not only creating its Clubhouse version, they are also creating it in a new and improved way, using speech-to-text and sound morphing technologies. At the same time, Reddit Talks will be available for Android and iOS users, which is automatically a jump ahead of Clubhouse.

2. Facebook’s Advice on Minimizing Disruptions After iOS 14.5 - Apple’s update of the iOS 14 were confirmed on April 20, 2021, and advertisers need to be fully prepared by now. If you’ve missed this update from one of our previous #TWIMshow episodes, it is about users giving permission to be “tracked” across apps and websites owned by third parties for advertising and measurement purposes. As part of the release of iOS 14.5, Facebook will implement new advertiser experiences and measurement protocols, including Apple’s SKAdNetwork API and Facebook’s Aggregated Event Measurement. Details can be found here https://www.facebook.com/business/news/how-to-prepare-for-changes-to-facebook-ads-from-ios-14-update

3. Pinterest is Expanding its Partnership with Shopify - As outlined by Pinterest: "The Shopify Pinterest channel is now live in a range of new countries including Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Now, more than 1.7 million Shopify merchants around the world have an easy way to bring their products to Pinterest and turn them into shoppable Product Pins that are discoverable across the platform." Additionally, Pinterest continually improves advertising and promotions within the app, and they’ve adding a range of new shopping tools and display options on user profiles.

4. Pinterest Launches Content Claiming Portal - It’s called a “Content Claiming Portal” and it enables creators to claim their content and decided if and how it can appear on Pinterest. Creators will need to submit an application to join the Portal, and if they are approved, they can upload original content and select one of the enforcement options:

5. “Mine only: Remove existing and future versions of the images from Pinterest, except Pins originally saved by me.

6. Website only: Remove existing and future versions of the images from Pinterest, except Pins that link to my claimed website(s). (This option will only be available if you have a claimed website.)

7. Block all: Remove all existing and future versions of these images from Pinterest.”

8. Google Launches YouTube Select Sponsorships for Big Brands - They will be offering a rolling set of seasonal sponsorships available on a quarterly basis, and focusing on what’s prominent in culture during the given time of the year - for example, Mother’s Day, Summer Wellness or Women in Music during Women’s History Month. What this means for advertisers is that they will have a wider opportunity to celebrate diverse communities and topics, and more ways to promote their brands through the specific moments and themes.

9. Target ROAS Bidding Now Available to Attract High-Value App Users - If you’re using Firebase SDK conversion reporting and have an Android app, you can use Target Return on Ad Spend (“tROAS”) bidding within App campaigns for installs. Detailed steps can be found here https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10617884

10. Google Shares When and Why They Remove Content From the Search Results - The reasons for removing content include: being compliant with legal regulations, such as copywriting, and voluntary removal requested by users. And although they can remove the content from Google Search, it is the website’s owner to remove that content from the web. Google’s responsibility is to fight against harmful effects of sensitive personal information appearing in their results page, and they implement strict practices to ensure they’re complying with legal regulations.

11. How Accurate is the Average Position Metric on Google Search Console? - Google’s John Mueller answers some questions regarding this metric. He confirmed that average position is calculated using data from actual search results and it is not theoretical. He adds that ““The average position is based on the average top position of a URL from your site. If there are multiple URLs from your website which are shown in the search results page we’ll use the topmost one for this average.” And lastly, he shares that site owners’ URLS might be ranking in Google Images with the normal search results, and that those ranking positions are considered when calculating average position.

12. 5 Must Know Updates from Microsoft Advertising Partner Summit - With over $5 billion spent on video ads in 2020, Microsoft announced that advertisers will be able to run video ads within Microsoft Audience Network campaigns for the first time. Much like the Google Ads import feature, advertisers will soon be able to import campaigns from Facebook Ads into Microsoft Advertising - this feature is in beta version. A new pilot is also launching in the U.S. on desktop of price comparisons and coupons native to the browser. For small businesses that don’t have a website yet but want to run ads on Bing, Microsoft is launching a pilot in the US called Smart Pages. Lastly, Bing is also announcing the launch of Private Search for Bing - it will allow partners like DuckDuckGo to serve ads and search results to their use without the searcher’s data being transferred.

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1. Insights On How Older Users Engage On TikTok - So what products are parents looking for on the platform? "Compared to TikTok users who are in the same age group but don’t have children, TikTok parents are more likely to post about home appliances, snack products, business, cars and grocery products."

2. LinkedIn Launches New Ad Guides for Marketers - Planning campaigns on LinkedIn is becoming a simpler and easier task, thanks to LinkedIn’s new overview that includes image size info, call-to-action options, technical requirements, and more, for each ad type. All the details on this guide are based on the 4 different categories of LinkedIn ads - “Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messaging, Lead Gen Forms, and Text and Dynamic Ads, as well as the various ad formats available within each." You can access the new LinkedIn Ads Guide here.

3. Facebook Upgrades: Scheduling For Stories and Business Discovery Options - This new option in the Business Suite will help many advertisers and content creators plan their content ahead of time - not just for posts but now also for stories! Business Suite users will also be able to save their Facebook and Instagram posts as drafts. Additionally, a new business discovery element will be added, which will highlight relevant content, based on interests, from Facebook pages underneath posts when users take the time to check out certain updates within their feed.

4. The New Insights Page on Google Ads is Now Available - After months of testing, advertisers globally can now see the finished product. The new Insights page makes it easy to explore insights and emerging trends. Here is what Google gave as an example: "Let's say you're a pet store looking to reach more customers. With the Insights page, you can see rising demand for “dog subscription boxes” and “dog toys”. You can then act on these trends by creating campaigns to reach new pet owners, or even explore selling dog care packages."

5. Dynamic Exclusion Lists: Google Advertisers Have More Control On Where Their Ads Run - This is a move towards increasing online brand safety and helping advertisers manage negative placements. These new placement exclusion lists will also allow advertisers to opt into third-party lists and keep their exclusions updated automatically for ongoing brand protection. However, an account can have a limit of up to 20 shared exclusion lists with thousands of URLs and domains per list.

Example from Google:

• A travel agency has an ad group that features ads about various types of tours. They decide to target the topic Travel which has lots of relevant sub-topics like Adventure Travel and Regional Parks & Gardens, but exclude sub-topics that are less relevant to their offerings like Air Travel.

• Google Ads Updates Its Smart Bidding: Moving Target CPA and Target ROAS - The change for advertisers will mainly be that from April 2021, they will switch to a different bidding strategy, with very little impact on performance. Instead, these bid strategies will be replaced by a new field to add a target CPA when using the ‘Maximize Conversions’ strategy and a new field for target ROAS when using the ‘Maximize Conversion Value’ strategy.

• 17 Auto-Applied Recommendations Are Now Available On Google Ads - According to Google, they can “improve your account performance and save time”. However, if you’ve listened to our TWIMshow before or watched some of our IGTV videos, then you’d know how we feel about recommendations by Google - a big NO. If you’re looking to learn how to create ads from scratch, we have the perfect resource for you that you can find from here - https://marketandgrow.com/google-ads-training/.

• Organic Video A/B Testing For Users of Facebook's Creator Studio - Very similarly to Google Ads’ video experiments, that were covered on last week’s episode #51 of the TWIMshow - A/B testing to find out which video will work better for you. This is an older update, which Facebook reminded of us by a new overview on how to make best use of the new tool to maximize your Facebook video performance. You can create a maximum of 4 variations of your video, which will then be tested with a portion of your audience, and the “winner” will then be distributed beyond its initial test audience.

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1. Reddit Has Launched a New Advertiser Resource Hub Called 'Reddit Ads Formula' - It will include a range of guides, tips, case studies and additional help for businesses to fully utilise the platform. Sam Hughes adds: "Reddit Ads Formula features the latest on our ad solutions, industry insights, creative best practices, seasonal moments and more. On-demand courses will be launching in the coming months to take our education efforts to the next level." Anyone can register and access Reddit Ads Formula here with email sign-up.

2. Auto Captions Are Now Available On TikTok - This is one of the many features TikTok has worked on, to make the platform more accessible. Auto captions will automatically generate the subtitles, which will initially only be available in American English and Japanese. The aim is to help people who are hard of hearing or deaf better use and enjoy TikTok.

3. TikTok Releases an In-App Video Shooting And Editing Tool - It will help users to extend their creativity, both beginners and professionals, and it will also enable the creation of longer, more polished advertisement videos. The video editor will include in trend music, colors, fonts, and other filters and features which contain customization, subtitles transitions; cropping, and cutting - all of this available for free.

4. Pinterest Ads Are Expanding To Brazil - Statistics from Brazil show that 50% of women, 45% of Gen Z and 60% of moms use Pinterest, which makes the platform the 2d most used one after Facebook. All these people use Pinterest to find ideas, to shop, for inspiration and product discovery, so expanding paid promotions via Pin is a great way for businesses to reach this highly engaged audience.

5. Pinterest “Creator Fund” Will Pay $500k To A Small Group Of Influencers - This “Creators Fund” program will choose and pay $500,000 in cash and media to small groups of influencers throughout 2021, starting with eight creators who come from under-represented backgrounds. But the company plans to add more people to the program throughout the year. While TikTok and Snapchat have launched similar programs for trendsetting content, it looks like Pinterest has a much broader perspective and plan.

6. Clubhouse Is Allowing Content Creators Monetization, While Facebook And Reddit Are Working On Their Own Audio Rooms - The next step for Clubhouse is to allow its content creators to be monetized for their work, through a payment feature that will enable users to give tips to the speakers. Compared to YouTube, Clubhouse is only a year old and only available to iOS, yet it is still attracting many users and has just reached a 1 billion dollars worth. This is a good reason for Reddit and Facebook to work on their own audio rooms, which are now in a testing stage.

7. Changes to Google’s Search Console Report - Firstly, site owners will now be able to use Search Console to filter data by regular expression (regex), which will help with creating more complex query and page based filters. Secondly, you can now utilize a revamped comparison mode which supports more than one metric.

8. Facebook Launches Dynamic Ads For Streaming - They will help video streaming brands highlight their content library so they can showcase the right titles to the right audiences. When people see an ad for your service in their feed, they can swipe through the ad and see personalized, relevant titles. That will be based on any interests they’ve shown on Facebook and Instagram.

9. YouTube Adds Violative View Rate (VVR) to Community Guidelines Enforcement Report - As part of the Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, the Violative View Rate (VVR) will help determine what percentage of views comes from content that violates YouTube’s policies. VVR is calculated by taking a sample of videos and sending them to the content reviewers who will tell which videos violate any policies and which do not. Through this sampling, YouTube will gain a more comprehensive view of the violations that are not cathed through their systems.

10. Video Experiments In YouTube Ads - Per youTube, these experiments are easy to set up and quick to deliver results that you can act on. So whether you’re looking to understand the impact of different video ads on Brand Lift, conversions or CPAs, you too can make more informed decisions that improve your results on YouTube. Follow this Help Centre guide to learn how to set up a successful video experiment. - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10436762

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1. Instagram Expands IGTV Ads To The UK and Australia - After first testing ads in IGTV with some US-based creators, Instagram has decided to expand this service to the UK and Australia. The video ads will be suitable for mobiles and will last no longer than 15 seconds. Bloomberg has predicted that creators will be earning 55% of ad revenue, while Instagram will receive the remaining 45% - the same ration that YouTube offers.

2. YouTube is Allowing More Content To Become Eligible For Full Monetization - Previously certain videos were restricted from monetization but now YouTube is bringing in more creators to run their ads. The platform has announced that first they will expand monetization on “educational, documentary or news content that may include violent interactions with law enforcement, recreational drugs and drug-related content, or sensitive events” as well as “for controversial issues where non-graphic, objective discussions of controversial issues are in the video”. Additionally, they will allow monetization for adult themes delivered through humor; harmful or dangerous acts and Firearms-related sections in the Advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

3. Microsoft Advertising Announced an Open Beta For Automotive Ads in The US and UK - Similarly to shopping ads, automotive ads are product ads based on the feed. On the other hand, these ads won’t require a merchant center, as the feed will be uploaded directly into the advertiser’s advertising account.

4. No Limits on Title Tag Length, According to Google - The myth of having 50 to 70 character length for a title was only invented from by SEO community as a standard. Gary Illyes, an analyst at Google, advices people to keep the title precise but to not think too much about how long it is, whether it’s too long or too short.

5. Google Maps and Google My Business Welcome a Number of AI-powered Updates - These updates include pickup and delivery attributes, a curbside pickup pilot program, indoor Live View, an updated directions interface and several eco-friendly tweaks to Maps. The features aim to improve customer experience since users will have all the information they need before deciding on a purchase.

6. Back to School on Snapchat: A New Resource Center For Marketers - With 85% of Snapchat users being on the app while shopping for back to school, Snapchat wants to provide as much support as possible for marketers. This resource center includes a range of insights into platform usage and rising trends, along with case studies to help brands shape their approach.

7. Updated Ad Campaign and Account Management Tools for Pinterest - This is Pinterest’s first ever B2B ad campaign, which aims to better frame its expanding use case and highlight opportunities for marketers. While 97% of the searches are unbranded, 8 in 10 users say they’ve purchased samething based on a brand they found on the platform.

8. New Profile Features for LinkedIn - You can now introduce yourself through a video cover story option and express your identity through an optional gender pronouns field at the top of your profile. Additionally. LinkedIn is also introducing a new “Creators Mode” for profiles, enabling them to showcase their activity and engagement on the platform, in a whole new way.

9. Facebook Analytics Will Be Discontinued from June 30, 2021 - Facebook was forced to retire FB Analytics because of iOS14. And instead they are moving to “Aggregated Event Measurement” While this is far from perfect solution this is the best solution Facebook has for the time being. Albeit many users will find this change (including the setup) bring them unnecessary challenge when trying to gain useful data about their ads.

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1. Read Receipts and Typing Indicators Expanding To LinkedIn Messages and InMailsLet’s welcome LinkedIn to the club, no matter how late. Users will now be able to see read receipts and typing indicators for messages and InMails. You can always choose to have this feature ON or OFF, and you can adjust your preferences from the settings.

2. WhatsApp Making Lives Easier: Using WhatsApp Web Without a Connected Mobile Will Soon Be Available

You won’t need to have your mobile phone connected anymore, to be able to use WhatsApp Web, making lives so much easier.

1. Microsoft's Annual Ad Quality Review Reports An Increase in Ad FraudDid you know how strict Microsoft is when it comes to advertising? If not, look at the facts - 1.6 billion ads removed, 21 million ads rejected and 270,000 sites deleted. Only in 2020, they have received about 50,000 complaints related to ads not being compliant with advertising policies, and Microsoft found that 65% of these reports were indeed in violation of their policies, most of which were related to trademark infringements.

2. Auto-Apply Ad Suggestions for MicrosoftMicrosoft has a great new way to boost ad group performance and save time, through their auto-apply ad suggestions. Starting this month, advertisers will receive an email notification from Microsoft Advertising and will have 14 days to review, with suggestions for new ads, depending on email preference setting.

3. An Expanded Partnership That Integrates Google My Business (GMB) Directly Within Wix.

For Wix users, you can now integrate Google My Business (GMB) into your website, thanks to the expanded partnership between Google and Wix. Businesses will be able to access GMB data, customer interactions and manage their profile directly from Wix. They will also be able to update their business information and hours, add photos, update their website, respond to reviews, and more.

1. Google VS SparkToro: Are 65% of all searches in Google not leading to a click on a website?This ongoing debate between Google and SparkToro is the highlight of this week’s episode. SparkToro has made accusations that 65% of Google searches do not lead to a website click, while Google contradicted those assertions. ”...we’ve seen that as we’ve introduced more of these features over the last two decades, the traffic we’re driving to the web has also grown — showing that this is helpful for both consumers and businesses.” said Google. What about you, whose side are you on?

2. Google Launches Promotion Ads for Hotels and Adds Free Property to Dataset Structured Data DocsGoogle has launched property promotion which is "an ad format that helps advertisers reach users who have not yet identified the exact hotel they would like to book." It aims to drive incremental outbound clicks, while retaining the booking value and expected conversion rates. This is valuable information for travel-related industries during the post-COVID19 period, since it will show a spike in traveling, both personal and business related. Moreover, Google has added a free property to dataset structured data, which tells Google Search if the dataset is accessible for free or if you need to pay to access the data.

3. Updates to Facebook's Brand SafetyFacebook is serious about brand safety - it has announced that content right holders can claim profit from their content even when it’s published by another page, but not when it’s simply re-shared. Pages can only monetize content if they are either the main creator or they have been involved in the creation of it. Additionally, Facebook has an update on its Commerce and Ads IP Tool, which will help businesses identify products being sold on Facebook that infringe on their intellectual copyright. The Tool is designed to help businesses identify and report infringing content.

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1. Clubhouse Has Announced an Accelerator Creators Program. This program will provide the opportunity to monetize some creators’ shows and conversions. It aims to support and train 20 creators who want to share their ideas and creativity with the world, but lack the financial support. To apply, go to https://www.joinclubhouse.com/creator-first-accelerator

2. Google Ads Introduces a New Summary View. The new, simplified layout of the summary view can now help you do the following: view performance at a glance; improve performance with custom recommendations; create and edit campaigns in just a few clicks, and manage keywords in one place.

3. TikTok has a new Ad Library which Helps You to Find the Best Performing Ads. TikTok for Business is getting easier and easier. You can now take inspiration from other businesses’ ads, and you can find them through a range of categoies, including 'Ad Type', 'Region' and 'Industry. To be even more specific, you can filter through ads on a given period of time (last 7 days or last 30 days), and you can also filter further by performance (CTR, Impressions, 6 second video view rate).

4. LinkedIn Provides Fundamental Strategies for Video Ads. According to LinkedIn, its users are 20x more likely to share a video, compared on any other type of post. The platform has analysed more than 3,500 video ads to identify key elements for video ad performance optimization, and they have come up with the following key tips: Include a product demo and an offer; animate your video ad; keep audio simple and use captions, and keep copy short, with a call-to-action button.

5. TikTok and OpenSlate Expand Its Safety Tools to Advertisers in the UK, Australia and Canada: TikTok and Open Slate first announced their arrangements in October 2020. According to TikTok, Open Slate will put an extra layer of safety on brands, so they can filter the content on which their ad can either be shown, or not shown. They have control over the type of content, which will reduce undesirable situations. However, brands are not confident to go 100% in TikTok ads, considering that the platform is banned in India and Pakistan due to data protection failure.

6. New Auto-Reply Message Option for TikTok Business Accounts. Answering to common queries and questions has been made easy, through the option of automated replies. It applies only for business accounts and you can create a welcome message for when people first DM you, as well as an auto-reply message, based on keywords. However, due to the possible misuses, TikTok has a process of first reviewing all requests for automates messages.

7. TikTok Shifts to Personalized and Mandatory Ads from April, 15. Users will no longer be able to skip ads, just like the ads on television and YouTube. However, the ads shown will be personalized based on users’ activity on the platform and personal interests. They could also switch the ads back to being general, which still leaves them with some kind of control over what advertisements they see.

8. YouTube Launched a New Tool, "Checks", which Will Help with Detecting Copyrighted Videos before they are Published: Many content creators have experiences the non-organized system of YouTube when it comes to copyright issues. Some of them have broken copyright laws by accident, leaving all their hard work go to waste. This process is now improved by YouTube, thanks to their new tool that will detect copyright elements before a video is published, saving users a lot of potential frustration.

9. TV Data is Now Connected to YouTube Analytics. Creators can see how many of their viewers are seeing content on their TV screens. You know what that means? It is time to consider how to maximise video ad reach, given the growth of connected TV viewing.

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This week, we sat down with Bettina Stern to talk about bartering with influencers, generating aesthetic social media content, standing up for social justice, testing new menu items, and more as she explains strategies that have helped drive growth for her small business Chaia Tacos despite the pandemic. Plus, hear Bettina’s advice on the importance of a good landlord. Follow Chaia tacos @chaiatacos

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1. TikTok Releases New Business Tips. These tips include advice on how to get discovered, how to produce creative content, how to drive performance, and how to connect to the trending culture. Find the page HERE.

2. Even If You Don't Use Snapchat Ads, You Need to Know About Snapchat’s New Resource Hub! Apple’s IDFA changes are making all advertisers adapt to a new normal. Snapchat assembled a resource hub to help its advertisers adjust to the new rules. You can find the link to the hub HERE.

3. Twitter is Now Allowing Brands to Limit Who Can Reply to Promoted Tweets. There will always be trolls on the internet, and now Twitter has given brand owners the option to disable comments on their promoted tweets. See https://business.twitter.com/en/blog/announcing-conversation-settings-for-ads.html

4. Twitter Receives TAG Certification for Reliable Ad Placement. Brand safety and insurance is becoming more and more important with the increase in digital ads. Twitter is taking steps to make sure that ads are properly and accurately displayed on their platform.

5. You’re Going to Want to Know About This New Monetization Option on Facebook. Creators can finally start monetizing 1-minute video content.

6. Google’s Key Moments Feature is Redefining Video Search. Key Moments scans through videos to identify the key moments of the video and gives you the time stamp of those key moments. As this feature progresses, manually watching entire videos will be in the past, as you can automatically skip to the part of the video that has the answer that you’re looking for.

7. Will YouTube Overtake Network Television. People are choosing YouTube CTV more and more. What does this mean for advertisers?

8. Microsoft Advertising Introduces Static Headlines for DSAs. Gain more control for your ad copy with this new tool.