The Week in Digital Marketing (so far) – February 7th, 2020

YouTube has finally revealed how much revenue they make on ad sales, and it’s a gigantic figure: $15 billion annually

YouTube

Is talking with potential content partners to use their $100 million Kids Content to fund to create videos for kids
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/05/youtube-to-invest-100m-in-kids-content-that-showcases-character-strengths-like-compassion-and-curiosity/

Revealed they make about $15 billion in advertising revenue per year, but stated that most of that revenue goes to content creators, around $8.5 billion per year.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/4/21121370/youtube-advertising-revenue-creators-demonetization-earnings-google

Will stop running mid-video ads for videos less than 8 minutes long.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/chrome-and-youtube-will-banish-ads-from-the-middle-of-short-videos/

Google

– Search
No News

– Ads
No News

– Analytics
No News

– Search Console / Webmasters
Had a bug with GTM verification which has been resolved, you may need to reverify.
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-console-fixes-issue-with-tag-manager-sites-may-need-to-re-verify/346718/

– Google My Business
Is testing showing large photos on desktop search results
Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-my-business-local-listings-massive-photos-28934.html

Showing a “Own this business claim it now” button, even if a profile is already claimed
Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-own-this-business-claim-it-now-28959.html

– Other Google
Google Maps has a new design and icon
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-maps-updated-with-new-icon-new-features/347278/

Chrome will begin blocking ‘intrusive’ video ads
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-chrome-expands-ad-blocking-efforts-to-ads-within-videos/347156/

Facebook

Facebook is shutting down web publishers from Audience Network, a direct result of the current environment around third-party cookies.
Source: https://www.adexchanger.com/platforms/facebook-is-killing-off-its-web-supply-in-audience-network-and-dont-be-surprised-if-it-all-shuts-down/

Instagram

Has released a new feature to show users what accounts they interact with most and least
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21126641/instagram-new-feature-following-accounts-most-shown-in-feed-least-interacted

Snapchat

No News

Bing

No News

Pinterest

No News

Reddit

Has partnered with Tagboard to bring Reddit content to live TV broadcasts. Tagboard has relationships with TEGNA and NFL Network already.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/06/reddit-partners-with-tagboard-to-bring-its-content-to-tv-broadcasts/

TikTok

No News

Twitter

Stated that artificial intelligence helped them make better tweet suggestions to users which led to an increase in usage
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21125431/twitter-q4-2019-earnings-daily-user-growth-machine-learning

BONUS ROUND!!!

Amazon’s ad business grew by 30% in 2019
Source: https://searchengineland.com/amazons-booming-ad-business-grew-by-40-in-2019-328597

Hitwise has paused reporting data in the wake of Jumpshot closing down. Uncertain if they will begin again soon
Source: https://searchengineland.com/hitwise-halts-some-reporting-services-in-wake-of-jumpshots-closing-328658

TripAdvisor is getting into the review management game with a new paid subscription service that will allow restaurant owners to see and reply to review on TripAdvisor, Google, Facebook, Yelp, TheFork, and other sites
Source: https://searchengineland.com/tripadvisors-new-review-hub-lets-restaurateurs-manage-reviews-from-multiple-sources-in-one-place-328684

SEMPO has officially closed down after 17 years
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/sempo-officially-ends/346618/

The Week in Digital Marketing (so far) – January 31st, 2020

Google has officially recommended hiring SEOs for website performance in a new video.

YouTube

None

Google

– Search
When a new website is seen by Google it estimates ranking signals immediately and then figures the actual values out later on

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-new-site-ranking-algorithm/345342/

The new favicon and breadcrumb design on Google’s desktop results is so unpopular they are “experimenting” with removing it

  • Search Engine Roundtable – https://www.seroundtable.com/google-revert-favicons-black-ad-label-28899.html

Last week Google took away the second ranking position of a document that was granted a featured snippet. Initially this only took the positon from page 1 of the search results, but this week RankRanger found that the second ranking was disappeared completely from at least the first 20 pages.

  • Rank Ranger on Twitter – https://twitter.com/RankRanger/status/1222448089874751489

On desktop if a featured snippet appears in the right hand side of the page, the listing will also appear at the top of the search results listings

  • Search Engine Roundtable – https://www.seroundtable.com/google-right-side-featured-snippet-not-deduplicated-28910.html
  • Search Engine Land – https://searchengineland.com/google-has-stopped-deduplicating-right-sidebar-featured-snippets-328393

Has confirmed that having Google Assitant actions doesn’t help with Google rankings

  • Search Engine Roundtable – https://www.seroundtable.com/google-assistant-actions-ranking-seo-28920.html

– Ads
Is eliminating Accelerated Delivery ads completely by May of this year

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/all-google-ads-campaigns-to-utilize-standard-delivery-as-of-may-2020/345966/

– Analytics

– Search Console / Webmasters
Is now allowing pages or documents on a website to be temporarily removed (again). This was a useful feature of the old Webmaster Tools which many SEOs have missed

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-makes-it-possible-to-temporarily-remove-sites-from-search-results/345688/
  • Google Webmasters Blog – https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/01/new-removals-report-in-search-console.html

The Performance report in Google Search Console has a new color pallete

  • Search Engine Roundtable – https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-changes-colors-28895.html

Officially recommends hiring professional SEOs for website performance in a new video

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-recommends-hiring-seos-in-new-search-for-beginners-video/345524/

– Google My Business
Local SEO’s (myself and Yan Gilbert) have found business profiles on Google Maps in the USA using Pakistan phone numbers

  • Gain Local – https://gainlocal.net/blog/local-seo/local-seos-have-found-fake-local-businesses-on-google-maps-that-are-using-phone-numbers-in-pakistan/

– Other Google
Chrome appears to be running a limited test where a URL in the URL bar is replaced by a keyword typed into Google instead

  • Search Engine Roundtable – https://www.seroundtable.com/google-chrome-hide-url-28911.html

Is releasing an app called Tangi for 60 second tutorial videos

  • Gizmodo – https://gizmodo.com/googles-latest-video-app-tangi-is-tiktok-for-people-who-1841334863

Facebook

Released their ‘off-Facebook tracker’ data for users to see

  • Business Insider – https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-clear-history-offline-activity-tracker-tool-how-to-use-2020-1
  • Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/

Instagram

None

Snapchat

Announced a new unique programming called Bitmoji TV which will be animated video episodes starring a users own Bitmoji.

  • USA Today – https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/01/30/snapchat-flips-switch-bitmoji-tv-series-staring-your-animated-self/4607417002/

Bing

Microsoft Ads has rolled out Responsive Search Ads worldwide

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/microsoft-advertising-updates-responsive-search-ads-improved-reports-more/346018/

Made a smaller and nearly unnoticeable UX change to their search box. They said they found the problem with their new tool
Clarity, you can pilot this tool for free.

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/bing-implements-ux-change-to-reduce-missed-clicks/345724/
  • Microsoft Clarity – https://clarity.microsoft.com/

Partnered with Botify for real-time indexing

  • Search Engine Land – https://searchengineland.com/botify-partnership-with-microsoft-brings-real-time-content-indexing-to-bing-328309

Pinterest

Has a new AR tryon feature for makeup pins

  • Business Insider – https://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-launched-augmented-reality-makeup-try-on-feature-2020-1
  • Marketing Land – https://marketingland.com/pinterest-debuts-new-ar-feature-that-lets-users-try-on-lipstick-before-buying-275025

Reddit

You can now bulk edit the schedule, budget, and bid of your Ad Groups in Reddit Ads

  • Reddit /r/redditads – https://www.reddit.com/r/redditads/comments/es3isd/bulk_edit_the_schedule_budget_and_bid_of_your_ad/

TikTok

No News

Twitter

Several NFL affiliated accounts as well as the UFC and some ESPN accounts were hacked. Just a friendly reminder to update your passwords and check in on your account
security.

  • The Verge – https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/28/21112015/nfl-ourmine-hack-social-media-twitter-facebook-instagram-accounts

BONUS ROUND!!!

Jumpshot has shutdown completely over privacy concerns

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/marketing-analytics-tool-jumpshot-to-shut-down-amid-privacy-concerns/346190/

Vine’s co-creator is back in the looping short video game with Byte

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/byte-a-6-second-looping-video-app-launches-on-ios-and-android/345458/

DuckDuckGo is showing ‘Quick Answers’ again, this time it looks like a majority of content is coming from WikiHow

  • Search Engine Journal – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/duckduckgo-adds-quick-answers-to-search-results/345224/

MoviePass filed for bankruptcy and is now completely dead

  • MarketWatch – https://www.marketwatch.com/story/moviepass-parent-helios-and-matheson-files-for-chapter-7-and-stock-falls-to-zero-2020-01-29

WooCommerce has updated to v3.9

  • Joe Youngblood on Twitter – https://twitter.com/YoungbloodJoe/status/1222226731051954187/photo/1

Godaddy purchased the content creation app Over

  • Marketing Land – https://marketingland.com/godaddy-buys-content-creation-app-over-plans-to-integrate-features-into-its-product-suite-275191

The Week in Digital Marketing (so far) – January 24th, 2020

Google has determined that when a page or document is granted the featured snippet, that the same document or page will not be listed anywhere else on page 1 of the search results. In some cases this might mean ranking #2 is a better option than ranking #1. Google also clarified that the featured snippet is position #1 in the rankings and not position 0 as it has been referred to in the past.

YouTube

No news

Google

– Search
Google has stopped charging flight partners for being listed in their flight search engine and has dropped the ‘ads’ and ‘sponsored’ labels

Google is dropping support for data-vocabulary.org in favor of Schema.org

Updated the Mobile-First indexing documentation

It does seem Google thinks URLs are irrelevant today, but that domains are relevant

Tweets have been showing up in Featured Snippets and the “People Also Ask” section

– Ads
No News

– Search Console / Webmasters
No News

– Google My Business
No News

– Other Google
No News

Facebook

Won’t be monetizing WhatsApp with ads

Instagram

There’s a new feature that allows users to quickly see all story mentions, select them, style them, and share those mentions to their own stories

Removing the IGTV button

University researchers published research showing that Instgram filters may lead to fewer likes on selfies

Reddit

No News

Pinterest

No News

TikTok

No News

Twitter

No News

BONUS ROUND!!!

Apple will officially end support for Adobe Flash completely in an upcoming release of Safari

Verizon Media, owners of Yahoo! and AOL, have launched a new privacy focused search engine called OneSearch

Call tracking company CallRail can now directly integrate with Google My Business

The Week in Digital Marketing (so far) – January 17th, 2020

YouTube is now the single most visible website / brand in Google’s search results, ousting Wikipedia from that position, according to new data from analysis firm Searchmetrics.

YouTube

YouTube has taken over the #1 spot as the most visible website on Google’s organic search results according to Searchmetrics.

Added cards to show a users comment history on videos for the same channel

Google

– Search
Started rolling out another ‘broad core update’, the first of this year, on Monday.

Danny Sullivan advised that Google makes several small changes daily, but releases broad core updates 2-4 times per year.

Changed the look for search result pages by adding favicons next to results and placing a url / breadcrumb at the top above the title of the page.

Introduced a new “popular products” shopping section.

– Ads
Google Ads introduced a target ROAS bid simulator

Parellel tracking is now mandatory for video campaigns

– Search Console / Webmasters
The Rich Results testing tool is adding in embedded or third-party data / elements that appear on a page

There was a bug that resulted in a spike in unparsable structured data errors within Google Search Console. If you
saw that between the 13th and 16th of January, you can safely ignore it.

– Google My Business
GMB now has a program called “My Business Provider” which will allow groups that manage data for a large number of businesses to get their members verified on GMB. Don’t be surprised if your local chamber calls you.

The Reinstatement request form was offline on Monday for awhile, but is now working again

– Other Google
Chrome now has global media controls, allowing users to control audio and video in all active tabs

Facebook

Is rolling out a new design they call F5. It will first be rolled out to all mobile users, then to desktop users.

Instagram

The new fake information filter appears to be targeting digital artwork and not just images with fake information

Is testing direct messaging on the desktop version of the site

Reddit

The Reddit Ads pixel now supports first-party cookies

In a bid to promote more user communities, Reddit has been giving away one-word subreddit’s all week abandoned by their previous owners

Pinterest

According to eMarketer Pinterest is now the third post popular social media platform in the US, beating out Snapchat.

TikTok

According to Sensor Tower was the second most downloaded app of 2019, behind WhatsApp

Twitter

Banned a dating app from advertising over GDPR breech

May soon release a “pinned lists” feature on Android

CEO Jack Dorsey says there will likely never be an edit button.

Facebook started tweeting from a new Twitter account for the Facebook app:

BONUS ROUND!!!

Google and Amazon are two of the most trusted entities in America beating out Tom Hanks, Extreme Weather Advisories, Teachers, and even Oprah. Google is the single most trusted entity among American millenials and Gen Z.

Huffington Post, now called HuffPo, is reaching out those named to their “Best Podcasts of 2019” list and requesting they pay a fee of $1,995 to license the use of the related imagery on their website for 1 year.

Yelp says they are going after Review Rings in a new fight against fake reviews

Mozilla has laid off 70 employees

Microsoft, YouTube, and Facebook’s efforts to poach Twitch streamers appear to be paying off

Super Bonus!!!!

10 Important 2020 Social Media Trends You Need to Know