Atomic Media

3 simple PPC optimizations you may have overlooked

Wednesday, June 21st, 2023

As PPC pros, we’re trained to look for new ways to optimize our PPC programs. 

But in this quest, our natural bias is to focus on the big stuff, like revamping account structures or updating landing pages. These projects can make a real difference in performance but take time to complete. 

Fortunately, not every optimization has to be a weeks-long project. Some optimizations are relatively quick and simple but can still pack a punch. Here are three you may have overlooked.

1. Reevaluate Microsoft Ads

Many advertisers only advertise on Google networks, where competition can be high. In contrast, fewer advertisers are on Microsoft Ads.

With less competition, some advertisers effectively squeezed out of Google Ads can still get some traction on Microsoft. It’s one reason I’ve always advocated for Microsoft Ads. 

True, the volume of leads and sales we get for our clients with Microsoft Ads is typically only 5% to 10% of what we get from our Google programs. But still, that’s not an insignificant amount, especially for B2Bs in competitive spaces. 

But unfortunately, Microsoft Ads is changing – and not for the better. 

The context

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that the Microsoft Audience Network is now integrated with their search network. You have no option but to advertise in both spaces. You can’t opt out of one or the other. 

Naturally, Microsoft touts the value of being in both networks, writing: 

“We’ve conducted studies across accounts that are running search and audience traffic to understand the incremental value for advertisers. We found that advertisers maximize performance and drive lift when combining their Microsoft Search and Audience Network efforts.”

In theory, this sounds great. I’ve always believed in future-proofing your brand with campaigns that grow awareness – so it’s not like I have anything against the Microsoft Audience Network.

But still, I would much prefer to control the terms of how I advertise. 

When Microsoft made this change, it initially didn’t seem like a big deal. Microsoft assured us that while we couldn’t opt out of the Audience network, we could add a few main exclusions to cover us.

So everything would be okay, right?

Moving away from Microsoft

At the time of this writing, this change took place about three months ago.

Some of our client accounts remain largely unaffected. But one of our larger accounts is hurting and bad. 

Despite daily monitoring and updating of site exclusions, we haven’t been able to turn things around.

No matter what we do, Microsoft keeps increasing impressions and ad spend on the Audience Network, with little to show for it. 

Performance has been so dismal we’re at the point of recommending that this client funnel their Microsoft Ads budget to Google or LinkedIn instead.

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2. Rethink retargeting 

Retargeting (now known as Audience Segments) may seem a little 2010. But it is still around because it’s a great way to re-engage with someone previously engaged with you.

However, retargeting is widely underutilized and a little bit misunderstood.

The context

If you haven’t refreshed your thinking about retargeting recently, here are three reminders about how to optimize it:

Narrow your focus

Retargeting has been around for so long that we forget it’s not just a way to reach people who have previously visited a website. 

You can also retarget people who’ve viewed a particular video on your YouTube channel, any video on your YouTube channel, or your video ad (or some combination of the three) – making it even more targeted.

As you can see from the image below, you have multiple targeting options, from website visitors to app users to YouTube users and more:

Add exclusions

Don’t forget to exclude audiences that you don’t want to retarget. These could be:

• People who have already converted.
• Past customers who are unlikely to purchase again.
• Audiences who aren’t relevant to the category of solutions or services you’re promoting. 

Unless your business is very narrow with one point of focus (e.g., you sell only one product to one type of audience), you should never target all previous website visitors. 

Audit your audiences regularly

Retargeting isn’t “set and forget.” As your business changes and grows, you’ll need to update the audiences you target accordingly. Have you added a new service line or adjusted your target market? Make sure those changes are reflected in the audiences you target.

Retargeting with a limited budget

We applied these strategies recently when a B2B client gave us a special launch budget to create awareness for a new product. 

The budget wasn’t huge. So rather than retargeting people who had visited the client’s website, we retargeted people who had watched a video of the new product in action – a much smaller segment of prospective customers. 

The result? This strategy worked extremely well for this client – and at a very reasonable cost. 

3. Revisit sitelinks 

Like retargeting, sitelinks have also undergone a recent name change, now known as “assets” instead of “extensions.” Whatever they’re called, they remain my favorite ad extension. 

The context

Like retargeting, sitelinks are ripe for optimization. Many advertisers fail to optimize them in three ways: 

Not quickly fixing disapproved sitelinks

Every PPC Pro knows that ads can get disapproved. Most of us monitor and address these disapprovals promptly.

But just like ads, sitelinks can also be disapproved. Unfortunately, the reporting of disapproved sitelinks isn’t nearly as obvious, and they’ll often go unnoticed until an account is audited. 

Not turning off automated sitelinks

Turning off automated sitelinks is another way to optimize. We do this as a matter of course whenever we onboard new clients.

Generally, we don’t like to give Google permission to create content on our behalf. At a minimum, we want the opportunity to review and approve.

That’s not to say that Google creates bad sitelinks, exactly. It’s just that, in our experience, Google-created sitelinks rarely align with our client’s goals.

Not implementing a sitelink strategy

As hinted above, you want your sitelinks to support your goals. 

If one of your goals is to sell products, you should create sitelinks to support that goal. Maybe you could use them as a way to upsell or cross-sell products.

However, even if sales is your primary goal, you don’t want to overdo it. Not every sitelink has to be (or should be) sales-y. 

Save some sitelinks to grow brand awareness or tell people about your new product. Use them to provide helpful information, such as links to educational webinars or other events. 

Optimization doesn’t have to be long or complex

Optimization is a never-ending task. But that doesn’t mean every optimization must be difficult or time-consuming. 

Sometimes minor changes, whether that’s shifting budget from one platform to another or retargeting a slightly different audience group, can happen in mere minutes – as these three examples prove. 

The post 3 simple PPC optimizations you may have overlooked appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Essential guide to Google Reviews by Digital Marketing Depot

Wednesday, June 21st, 2023

Every business owner wants to get positive reviews. But apart from their feel-good potential, reviews serve another important function that’s sometimes easy to overlook: they can actually help boost your business in search engine rankings.

The “New Business Guide to Google Reviews” by GatherUp is an essential resource for growing businesses looking to attract more customers through the power of Google search.

This comprehensive guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to claim and optimize your Google My Business profile, how to solicit and respond to customer reviews, and how to deal with Google and their overall review process.

Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download your copy today.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Microsoft Ads announces major policy updates that start July 1

Wednesday, June 21st, 2023

Microsoft is urging marketers to review and adjust their ad campaigns as it prepares to roll out a major policy update.

Advertisers can expect big changes to their Microsoft Advertising accounts in the coming months, as new policies and resources start being introduced from July 1.

Why we care: Advertisers will potentially need to take action depending on how their brands are impacted by the updates. Microsoft says the changes are set to help marketers reach greater audiences and offer more security for consumers to align with upcoming regulatory changes.

The update comes just two weeks after Microsoft announced advertisers might see a small increase in conversions when it rolls out its new Cross-Device attribution model later this month.

What are the new rules? Microsoft has confirmed additional policy updates which will have a significant impact on marketers working in sectors such as health and gambling: The new policy updates are as follows:

• Vitamin and supplement ads are given the green light – The Microsoft Audience Network will now permit vitamin and supplement ads. However, claims must be accurate and truthful. Marketers cannot say that their product “cleanses the liver,” for example. Under the new policy, landing pages must be product pages as opposed to advertorials or video content.
• Gambling ads are now approved – Marketers in the gambling and betting sectors can now place ads on the Microsoft Audience Network. However, advertisers must be licensed in the market they wish to reach and have gone through the gambling enablement process to obtain approval.
• Gambling ads in Belgium are banned – Microsoft will cooperate with Belgium authorities when it rolls out a ban on gambling advertising. The tech giant has announced it will begin enforcing rules to ensure local laws are adhered to from July 1 and is telling marketers to ensure that they no longer target this market.
• Restrictions on gambling ads in Ireland – Microsoft is introducing a watershed on gambling ads in Ireland and is urging marketers to update any relevant ad campaigns that may be impacted. However, an exact date has not yet been confirmed.
• Ban on clinical trial ads – From Aug. 1, Microsoft will be rolling out a global ban on ads promoting clinical trials or experimental treatments across all ad types.

How are Microsoft Ads accounts changing? Microsoft has given some insight into how these updates will impact Microsoft Ads accounts:

• Ad and ad component disapprovals – including keywords, ad copy and landing pages.
• Store or product disapprovals.
• A three-strike violation policy – this policy already existed but the tech giant has explained its rules in more detail.
• Immediate suspension penalty for egregious violations – this policy already existed but Microsoft has provided more clarity as to how these violations are classified.

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What has Microsoft said? The company said the changes are meant to provide greater visibility for advertisers and users.

• “We will be updating some of our advertising policies with a focus on helping you reach greater audiences for some products and services. Some updates will help further protect those who use our products and services, and some updates will align with upcoming regulatory changes. We are also making updates to our policy pages to provide better alignment on some policy areas by moving content to different pages or adding examples and clarity where needed.”

Deeper dive: For more information on Microsoft’s policy changes, read its Advertising Policy here.

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Google Performance Max adds Store Sales reporting, bidding

Wednesday, June 21st, 2023

Google has upgraded the capabilities of its Store Sales reporting and bidding to help marketers working on Performance Max campaigns to boost offline sales.

The new features have been built to help advertisers better understand omnichannel shoppers, who are 2.9x more likely to make a purchase from brands, according to Google.

Why we care: Marketers can accurately measure their brand’s total sales both on and offline using Store Sales, helping them to better optimize bids for in-store revenue, potentially resulting in a higher omnichannel return on ad spend (ROAS) and increased offline sales.

What’s new? Google has added an array of new and improved features to Store Sales to help advertisers better understand the success of their campaigns. This includes:

• Smart bidding capabilities: This feature optimizes Google ads for improved store sales conversions.
• Alignment of reporting: This methodology, which can be used across Store Visit and Store Sales, will enable advertisers to better understand store visit-to-purchase rates by campaign.
• Holistic measurements: There will now be ROAS calculations for online and offline conversions.

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How it works: Store Sales analyses sales data to measure online-to-offline ad activity. By uploading and matching your brand’s transaction data, Store Sales can help advertisers identify how ads translate into offline purchases.

What has Google said? Beta customers who have used Store Sales have reported a significant lift in their sales volume and ROAS. In a statement, Google said that Dutch variety chain store HEMA saw an 89% rise in Omnichannel return-on-ad-spend as it was able to create more personalized ads by using its data. Meanwhile, Indian jewelry brand Tanishq reported a 7% increase in offline sales.

Deeper dive: For more information on implementing store sales data and Performance Max bidding campaign analysis, visit Google’s Help Center for Store sales or Smart Bidding.

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Take your career to the next level: Become a search marketing master in 2023

Tuesday, June 20th, 2023

With never-ending changes across the search marketing ecosystem, including:

• July 1st marks the long-anticipated forced switch to GA4
• Generative AI is taking the world by storm
• The future of SERPs and PPC is hanging in the balance
• The next major Google algorithm is just around the corner

… now is the perfect time to sharpen your skills and expand your professional horizons. Attend your choice of tactic-rich SMX Master Class — a live, expert-led, two-day deep dive into your search marketing specialty — online August 16-17.

These 100% live training experiences deliver actionable tactics you can implement immediately to drive measurable results – and intimate Q&A opportunities with industry legends that address your specific queries and curiosities. It’s all streamed directly to your computer for a fraction of the cost of in-person events (and a fraction of the time investment, too).

Check out the complete SMX Master Class lineup, featuring essential search marketing topics taught by some of the most iconic experts on the planet.

• These six-hour courses are split across two focused days of training and Q&A – equipping you with tactical insights, reliable next steps, and fresh inspiration without a major time investment.
• Digital access means you can tune in from anywhere – no plane ticket, hotel reservation, or travel headaches required.
• On-demand access is included in your Master Class pass, so you can watch and rewatch for deeper learning.

• Unlock a personalized certificate of completion and downloadable digital badge, perfect for posting on LinkedIn to showcase your knowledge of the latest in search.

Check out more of your peers’ favorite reasons to attend.

Registration is open – and now is the best time to buy (Early Bird rates expire July 15!). Secure your spot at one of these exclusive SMX Master Classes for just $249!

Psst… Think you have what it takes to be an “award-winning” search marketer? Enter the 2023 Search Engine Land Awards for your chance to boost team morale, attract new business, and stand apart from the competition!

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Link intent: How to combine great content with strategic outreach

Tuesday, June 20th, 2023

AI is sure to have fundamental ripple effects in SEO, but I’m predicting that the importance of establishing authority won’t be diminished. 

Your content will now be battling with even more competition: AI results in the SERP and AI-produced content from other publishers.

Delivering signals of authority and value will be more vital than ever. As long as organizations and individuals are still publishing content, backlinks will be an important part of that authority.

If you’ve been in the SEO field as long as I have, I’m sure you also get 10 or more LinkedIn messages daily from “link building agencies” promising you a set number of links.

It’s not just super-annoying. It’s the wrong way to approach getting links to your content. 

Link building is important. Establishing external authority matters.

So let’s talk about a way to do it better (and turn off fewer people in the process): building content that naturally generates links, or what I call writing content with link intent.

In this article, I’ll break down how to approach link intent, including:

• The philosophy behind content that generates links.
• The business significance of effective link intent.
• Practical steps to plan content with link intent.

The philosophy driving content with link intent

Link building and content creation should be part of the same process (although I’ve found that to be rare). Link building as a separate initiative makes it likely that you’re making the mistake of optimizing for links alone without regard for down-funnel effects.

Instead, start by thinking about who in your community cares – or should care – about what you’re writing and why. 

Content generated from this mindset, not a quantity-based “must get links” attitude, has a far better chance of passively gaining links over time. 

If you do the work of writing strong, relevant content that makes people want to share it, and you’ve provided value, the links will come (without the need to send spammy emails or InMails). 

If you’re working in content and link building silos, your resources are likely working toward a goal number of links and asking for link swaps. 

In my experience, this strategy tends to ignore whether the content being pushed is relevant or useful and would actually reflect well on your brand, which is the opposite of what good content should achieve.

Content that’s written with a nod toward Google’s helpful content guidelines – providing value and geared toward the user experience – will actually appeal to the people who write about the same concepts and are looking for fellow experts to validate their positions. 

If you can produce content good enough to contribute to the topic’s discourse, it will attract links, and Google will come to recognize its relevance. It’s a much deeper and more integrated approach than sheer link building numbers.

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The business significance of effective link intent

I can confidently tell you that I’ve won several clients for my agency thanks to the content I’ve written (thanks, Search Engine Land!). Chances are that many B2B businesses can make similar claims. 

Content good enough to generate passive links gives you a great chance of getting shared and driving referral traffic, which is generally undervalued in SEO.

Valuable content produced with link intent will naturally drive links and equity over time, producing a built-in snowball effect. 

That does more than save you time with link outreach. It ideally creates a network of related sites and publishers for referral traffic that can provide tons of value over time.

Think of it as an organic version of affiliate marketing, which is a huge channel (and gathering steam). 

Practical steps to building content with link intent

Ready for a checklist to get you on your way? 

You’ll notice an outreach component, but it comes near the end after the heavy lifting of relevance is done.

• Research keywords where bloggers and journalists are searching for references (these keywords often include “statistics” or “reports”). Use Reddit, Quora, Twitter, Ahrefs (Matching terms report) and Exploding Topics among your references.
• From those keywords, build a list of topics around which your team can share valuable insights and perspectives. 
• Research a list of writers and journalists who cover those topics.
• Find expert resources (either internal or closely connected), and interview them for resources to build a cache of content.
• Refine and develop that content into contemporary insights using Google Trends and social listening, using timing and a list of audience modifiers to heighten relevance.
  • Example: Get a list of tips from an expert targeted to help hay fever sufferers (niche audience/modifier) get a better night’s sleep (core topic/target) during a particularly bad high pollen count period (relevance).
• Pitch a group of writers and journalists who cover your theme and/or sub-theme on why this matters right now and how it’s different from other content they might find to reference.
• If (or even before) those writers and journalists link to your content, follow them on their social channels to deepen your connection for future opportunities. 

Does this work? Consider Todoist, whose unique presentation of productivity methods has generated hundreds of referring domains – a number that’s grown 50% year over year and contributed mightily to the brand’s growth.

Honing in on intent-driven link building

I talk to many SEOs these days who put less emphasis on link building than they did years ago.

In my opinion, this is less about links losing importance than it is about old link building tactics becoming irrelevant. 

A link-intent approach combining great content with strategic outreach is more effective, evergreen, and efficient than siloed content and link initiatives.

It burnishes your brand’s reputation at the same time, which, along with driving incremental traffic, influences your users’ experience for the better.

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Elevate your PPC with ChatGPT: The art of asking disconfirming questions

Tuesday, June 20th, 2023

Have you tried to use generative AI in your digital marketing but found that it behaves more like “spicy autocomplete” than actual intelligence?

Try using disconfirming questions. Here’s how.

The power of disconfirming questions

Disconfirming questions challenge what you already believe or think is true. 

Instead of asking questions that agree with your ideas, disconfirming questions encourage you to question and explore different possibilities.

Contrast this with confirming questions, which seek validation and reinforce existing perspectives.

Notice the difference between these two questions and the answers they’ll elicit:

• Confirming: Do you agree this new feature will greatly enhance the user experience?
• Disconfirming: What potential drawbacks or challenges might arise from implementing this new feature, and how might they impact the user experience?

How you ask a question has a big impact on the response.

In a Wharton study, participants were asked to play the role of a salesperson selling a used iPod. They were told the iPod had crashed twice in the past, wiping out all the music stored in it.

The researchers wanted to see what types of questions would lead the sellers to disclose the problem. Here are the questions from the experiment:

When asked, “What can you tell me about the iPod?” fewer than one in 10 sellers disclosed the problem. More than 10x as many sellers disclosed the crash when asked, “What problems does it have?”

I borrowed this experiment to see how ChatGPT would change its responses based on the questions I gave. Here’s how it went:

Prompt A: “I would like to buy this used iPod. What can you tell me about it?“

ChatGPT response: “…iPod models vary in terms of features, storage capacity, and generation. Please provide me with the necessary details or any identifying information about the iPod so that I can assist you better.”

After confirming that it’s a language model and informing me it would need more specific details, the response is a vague overview of the differences between iPod models. 

Compare that answer to the one it provides for a disconfirming question:

Prompt C: “I would like to buy this used ipod. What problems does it have?“

ChatGPT response: “…I don’t have access to specific information about the individual iPod you’re referring to. However, when buying a used iPod, it’s important to consider potential issues that could arise. Here are some common problems that could affect a used iPod:

Potential Issues	Description
Battery Life	The battery may not hold a charge as well as it did when the iPod was new, resulting in shorter battery life and more frequent charging.
Physical Condition	Used iPods may have scratches, dents, or other signs of wear and tear. It’s important to assess the physical condition of the device through pictures or inspection.
Screen Issues	The iPod’s screen may have dead pixels, discoloration, or backlight problems. Check for any visible screen defects or irregularities.
Functionality	Verify that all buttons, ports, and features of the iPod are working correctly. Test the headphone jack, volume buttons, and other essential functions.
Software and Compatibility	Ensure the iPod is compatible with the software and operating system versions you plan to use. Older iPod models may not support the latest updates or apps.
Storage Capacity	Confirm the exact storage capacity of the iPod and ensure it matches your requirements. Verify that the advertised storage size is accurate.

To minimize the risk, consider purchasing from reputable sellers with good ratings or warranties, if available. Additionally, ask the seller about any known issues or defects the iPod may have before making a final decision.”

The second prompt didn’t provide any extra information, but the response gave me an action plan to ensure I get a working iPod.

Much like the sellers in the original Wharton study, ChatGPT seeks to answer the specific questions we ask. 

This means we can influence the quality of responses we get based on the prompts we provide. 

Asking disconfirming questions to generative AI can result in more transparent and useful responses.

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How disconfirming questions can benefit your digital marketing strategy

While disconfirming questions are useful in most professions, they’re especially valuable in digital marketing, where the volume of data and lurking variables can easily lead to the wrong conclusions.

Using disconfirming questions in your marketing strategy can help you:

• Avoid confirmation bias by actively seeking evidence that contradicts your assumptions or initial interpretations.
• Uncover hidden patterns by digging deeper, exploring outliers, and considering alternative perspectives.
• Test assumptions by adopting a more rigorous approach to data interpretation.

All this drives more accurate data and conclusions, leading to better results.

Building a practice of asking high-quality disconfirming questions also contributes to professional growth, including:

• Critical thinking skills: Develop a more balanced and objective perspective as you seek ideas and viewpoints that contradict your current understanding.
• Breakthrough innovation: Challenge conventional wisdom and question the status quo to find innovative insights that would have been overlooked.
• Strengthened problem-solving abilities: Build a more holistic and complete analysis of a situation to identify new angles and potential solutions.

When paired with generative AI, the benefits of disconfirming questions are even more powerful. 

That’s because you can use generative AI as a brainstorming partner, giving you guidance and answers to otherwise rhetorical questions. AI can help you:

• Identify diverse perspectives: Generative AI can provide fresh and diverse perspectives you may not have considered.
• Overcome mental blocks: Get help with new ideas, alternative viewpoints, and unexpected connections.
• Collaborative iteration: Use AI iteratively, ask follow-up questions and challenge responses, and bring your own judgment and expertise to the conversation for a productive and interactive dialogue. 

Let’s look at specific digital marketing areas where you can combine disconfirming questions and generative AI for powerful results.

How to uncover untapped marketing opportunities with disconfirming questions 

To make the most of your prompts and questions, it’s important to start by clearly understanding the problem. When problems are well-defined, they become easier to solve. 

So, before creating your prompts and questions, take the time to grasp the problem and its details fully. This will help you develop effective prompts and questions that lead to meaningful solutions.

Landing page disconfirming questions

Your PPC ads’ success depends on a high-converting landing page, but landing page development is often a different discipline than digital marketing. 

If you work on landing pages, these questions can help your process.

If you aren’t directly responsible for landing pages or don’t feel comfortable weighing in on edits, you can provide high-quality feedback as a value-add.

Here’s how to use generative AI to identify improvements to increase conversion rates.

First, paste your landing page content into the prompt box, or use a plugin to connect to the page directly. Then ask disconfirming questions, such as these sample prompts:

Prompt: “What is missing from the landing page that might keep a customer from buying?”

ChatGPT can provide feedback on specific elements (such as product descriptions or CTA buttons), usability and navigation, value propositions, social proof and trust signals, and persuasive content.

Prompt: “What elements or features of my landing page could be confusing or misleading to visitors, and how can I clarify them?”

ChatGPT can analyze your page’s clarity of messaging, message hierarchy, navigation, consistency and trustworthiness, and the potential of information overload and provide recommendations for improvement.

Audience disconfirming questions

Many prebuilt prompts for audience insights address strictly demographic data, such as asking about the age range of your target market.

What if instead you ask disconfirming questions like:

Prompt: “What are some potential biases or assumptions that I may have about my audience, and how can I challenge them?”

ChatGPT can help identify potential behavior assumptions about your audience, such as their decision-making process, cultural or linguistic biases, psychographic assumptions (like motivations and needs), and demographic assumptions.

Prompt: “What are some reasons why my audience might not be interested in my product or service, despite its benefits and features?”

ChatGPT can help you consider factors like misaligned value propositions, brand awareness (or lack thereof), the effectiveness of targeting, competitive landscape, communication gaps, and price and affordability.

You can also use disconfirming questions to identify new target audiences (”Could there be a different demographic group that would benefit from our product/service that we haven’t considered?”), or to evaluate specific audience segments (“How might our marketing messages be perceived differently by diverse segments of our audience?”).

Client disconfirming questions

Managing digital marketing and managing client expectations are two different skill sets. Fortunately, ChatGPT can help with both. 

Prompt: “What are some potential objections or concerns my client may have about my marketing strategies, and how can I address them in a clear and effective manner?”

ChatGPT can help anticipate and address issues your clients may have with strategy, messaging, measurement, reporting, positioning, brand identity, or budgets. 

Prompt: “Can you think of any reasons why my client may not be satisfied with my current communication approach, and how can I improve it?”

No one’s a perfect communicator. ChatGPT can reveal issues with clarity, frequency, personalization, channel selection, feedback methods and use of visuals to make your client communication more effective.

Driving innovation in ChatGPT with disconfirming questions

The best way to use generative AI is through collaboration.

Combine your own knowledge, creativity and experience with the power of disconfirming questions to drive high-value discussions, get better results and grow professionally.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Microsoft on the future of advertising and conversational AI

Thursday, June 15th, 2023

Microsoft is reviewing different ways to implement conversational AI within the Microsoft advertising platform, Kya Sainsbury-Carter, corporate vice president of Microsoft advertising, told Greg Finn yesterday at SMX Advanced.

That’s one thing we learned yesterday from the keynote, which explored how conversational AI might radically change search marketing.

From higher CTRs to increased ROIs to conversational AI making an appearance in ads for the first time, Bing Chat has been specifically designed to tackle universal problems experienced with traditional search, according to Sainsbury-Carter.

Here’s a recap of the wide-ranging SMX Advanced keynote interview.

Tackling traditional search issues

The new Bing, unveiled in February, was designed to succeed where traditional search results can sometimes fail.

• “The universal problem with traditional search is that billions of searches fall short of the mark. It can be hard at times to find the information that people are seeking, and so we launched Bing Chat to bring better search results and answers to complex questions,” Sainsbury-Carter said.

Microsoft has worked on solving historic search issues by combining the power of large language models like open AIs with its own search index.

• “This is to ensure we’re delivering results that are current, that are cited and, as I said, that are conversational,” Sainsbury-Carter said.

The new Bing for advertisers: ‘so far, so good’

While it may be early days, Microsoft has confirmed that there have already been more than half a billion Bing Chat conversations since its launch, with more than 70% thumbs up for the answers it serves.

In addition, people have created more than 200 million pictures with Bing Image Creator.

Early data indicates great news for advertisers too, as Microsoft’s conversational AI is driving a higher click-through rate than traditional search, which is subsequently leading to increased conversions.

• “It’s because the user journey is shortened, so there is a faster path to conversions. So far, so good, would be the summary here,” Sainsbury-Carter said.

Sainsbury-Carter did not reveal any specific numbers. But she did reveal that increased CTR applies to both search results and ads, which is promising news for search marketers.

In more good news for advertisers: Microsoft is working on more opportunities for advertisers to further boost user engagement, which could again result in an uplift in conversions.

Conversational AI comes to Microsoft Ads

Sainsbury-Carter stressed that the company was committed to investing in integrating chat AI, noting that Bing Chat is “stronger than ever”. She added:

• “We’re doing a lot of work to understand how we can use Chat to drive internal efficiencies to make sure our people are working on the highest valued, most complex work. So you know there’s the platform aspect of it and there’s the internal aspect of it – both of which we think are very meaningful.”

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From keywords to topics

Microsoft has suggested that advertisers can expect traditional keyword targeting to shift towards a topic-centric approach with conversational AI. Explaining the change, Sainsbury-Carter said:

• “If I’m trying to find a dress for a wedding in Chicago in July and I type in a traditional search query, I’m likely to get results for dresses for weddings – and for Chicago. But if I put that same query into Chat, Chat can put together something that says, OK, it’s hot and humid in July in that part of the country and therefore show me a sleeveless flowy dress and a lightweight fabric.
• “What’s happening is we’re expanding our understanding of intent…rather than just matching answers to keywords and so it definitely turns the idea of keyword bids on its head. We think this offers a tremendous opportunity for ads to match the conversation better and will lead to better ROI.”

Rethinking traditional ads

Sainsbury-Carter explained that Microsoft is taking a new approach when it comes to ads, the user experience and ROI scenarios:

• “We’re being more thoughtful about monetization within the experience. So, for example, in Chat mode, when you see sources cited, those citations will be a mix of algorithmic results, like you would see in traditional search, as well as some ad placements.”

Visual ads

Visual ads are another major newer feature that should be of interest to marketers, according to visual ads.

• “The ads we’re running in the new Bing Chat experience include both text ads that appear upon hover, and then more visual ads served in line with the conversation, such as a multimedia vertical pr product ad.”

Microsoft is making visual ads a huge priority and has already been trialing this feature for hotel ads. Next, it’s planning to roll out this experience for travel and real estate verticals.

Although the spotlight is currently on conversational AI, Sainsbury-Carter said this isn’t the end of traditional search:

• “Traditional search isn’t going away and there are good reasons to continue using it. That’s why we’re also focusing on delivering more visual and immersive experiences, as well as new vertical ad experience that you can’t find on any other platform.”

Ads quality over quantity

Bing Chat launched with ads and the plan is to ensure that they remain an integrated part of the chat experience – just as they are with traditional search. However, Microsoft is focusing on improving the ad experience by making sure that ads served are relevant and meet user intent.

• “It’s less about how many people are seeing the ads and more about the questions people are asking the new Bing, and how we respond to those queries. That’s how we’re thinking about it – not so much about numbers but in terms of matching queries,” added Sainsbury-Carter.

Huge opportunities for small businesses

Conversational AI is resulting in people running queries 3x the length seen on average in traditional search, meaning that they are giving more details. This extra information is helping bots to better understand user intent and so they are able to serve more detailed responses.

• “We do see a big opportunity here for small businesses. They need that extra details because they’re not looking to cover the entire world…so that opportunity to get more detailed is key.”

Small local businesses looking to improve their SERP rankings have also been advised to ensure they have Bing maps on their website. “It’s not required for ads,” said Sainsbury-Carter. “But it does help!”

Driving traffic to news publishers

Microsoft has introduced a chat API, which is going to be made available to news publishers that want to implement chatbot technology in their websites.

Whether publishers source their AI chat experiences from Microsoft or not, Microsoft Advertising can help them to monetize their services by serving relevant ads designed specifically for the chat experience.

• “This solution gives publishers and app companies flexibility and control over the user experience – because nobody knows their audience better than they do,” added Sainsbury-Carter. “They can choose the ad formats they believe are best for their audience and integrate that in a way that feels most natural to their native experience. We’re super excited about bringing that out into the market more broadly.”

Dig deeper: Microsoft’s vision for a prosperous content ecosystem in a generative AI world

Bing Chat isn’t perfect – but Microsoft is learning ‘very quickly’

Sainsbury-Carter acknowledged that safety and privacy concerns have been a huge talking point for search marketers. She stressed that addressing these issues has been a priority for Microsoft.

She pointed out that Bing Chat has been designed in partnership with AI experts and is in line with Microsoft’s Responsible AI Principles.

• “We made sure we were leveraging the expertise of Microsoft to ensure that we weren’t reinventing the wheel with this. And we are continuing to learn lessons from real world experiences and real world testing,” Sainsbury-Carter said.

Microsoft has taken many steps to prevent the abuse of its technology, such as limiting the number of sequential chats per session and limiting the total number of chats per day.

However, while Bing Chat has been developed to Microsoft’s highest standards, Carter admitted that they are expecting teething issues.

• “We didn’t bring the product out and say it’s perfect or that you should use it in every instantiation of every interaction and it is going to be perfect. We are learning, but we’re learning very quickly so that we can continue to evolve our approach.”

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Major Looker Studio GA4 connector update adds 170 new fields

Thursday, June 15th, 2023

Looker Studio has rolled out a major update to its system, unveiling 170 new fields for reporting. In order to access the new data, users must refresh their GA4 data sources.

Why we care: You can now create more in-depth, detailed Looker Studio reports because they will have access to data that previously wasn’t available. Advertisers are particularly excited as they’ll have insights into landing page, user conversion, page location and session conversion rates by event data, which will help them to make more informed decisions with regards to ad placements and campaigns moving forward.

What are the new fields: An impressive 170 new fields have been implemented – so we’ve just highlighted some of personal favourites here:

• Ads clicks & cost
• Average session duration
• Landing page
• Page location
• Page referrer
• Session & user conversion rate
• Session conversion rate by event name
• Time dimensions like hour or week

How do you get the new fields? To get access to Looker Studio’s new fields, follow these step-by-step instructions:

• Click on ‘Data Sources’ in their Looker Studio account.
• Select the GA4 source you wish to update and select the ‘Refresh Fields’ button in the bottom left corner.
• A new window will then pop up on your screen with all 170 new fields listed.
• Click on ‘Apply’.
• All the new fields should then appear in your existing reports.
• You’re all set!

Some marketers may not have access to all 170 new fields right away. The number of new fields your account has access to will depends on how many conversion events you have.

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How higher education is failing at SEO

Thursday, June 15th, 2023

As academic institutions continue to focus on providing quality education and research, their online visibility is often neglected.

This means that potential students may be unable to find them easily on search engines, leading to missed opportunities for growth and impact.

In the fall of 2022, Search Influence commissioned a study with the research team at UPCEA, the preeminent trade organization for professional, continuing and online (PCO) education. Here’s what we found.

Attracting new learners through organic search

With the millions of dollars spent in higher education digital marketing and advertising, there is very little understanding of search engine optimization and its role in attracting new learners.

With this belief, we commissioned a multi-part study which:

• Reviewed 100 websites of university professional and continuing education departments.
• Surveyed marketing leaders and institutional leaders.

In this mini-audit, the UPCEA team reviewed several factors we call SEO readiness. These include common SEO and user experience metrics, such as:

• Number of unique pages (titles).
• Unique meta descriptions.
• Number of inbound links.
• Domain and page authority.
• Accessibility.

The UPCEA team surveyed both marketing teams and institutional leadership to understand their perceptions of – and alignment around – their own readiness.

At the risk of telegraphing the punchline, there are some big disparities.

In his introduction to the published research study, Jim Fong, Chief Research Officer at UPCEA, emphasizes the need for innovative practices, models, and credentials tailored to nontraditional and professional audiences, such as stackable degrees, non-credit programs, and micro-credentialing, among others.

Fong points out that reaching new adult learners requires precision, planning, and better prospect and student interfaces. These learners are savvier than previous generations, relying on various sources of information and influencing others through their outcomes.

One critical area of improvement lies in optimizing the degree programs’ “storefront” – the institution’s website – for better user experiences.

While Fong is cautious not to create panic, he believes a greater sense of urgency is needed to address the impending challenges in higher education.

With the labor shortage and a decline in the population of college-age students, universities need to do more to stay relevant to all learners, not just recent high school graduates.

It’s not unusual for individual PCO units in major universities to spend a million dollars or more on digital advertising.

And as we see in the research, those same departments are not even sure their teams are doing SEO.

The state of SEO in higher education

The UPCEA/Search Influence research highlights the perceptions and comprehension of SEO among institutional and marketing leaders. It also points to the potential impact on the SEO preparedness of the institutions involved.

Some key findings from the study:

• Marketers and institutional leaders see SEO as foundational but admit their units lack an SEO strategy.
• Institutional leadership often lacks reporting.
• UPCEA members performed poorly in an SEO audit.

84% of marketing departments see SEO as a core part of their marketing strategy, but half (51%) do not have an established SEO strategy 

The disconnect is pretty striking. When so many see it as valuable, but so few have a strategy, we have to ask ourselves, “Why?”

Some possible reasons are:

• SEO seems too complex.
• Digital advertising (and its return) is easier to understand.
• The ROI of SEO isn’t clear to decision-makers.

I’m often asked when talking to leaders, both academic deans and directors of marketing, if we have case studies on the ROI of SEO.

We do, of course, but it’s still surprising that these senior professionals don’t make the connection.

If they’re willing to pay to be at the top of Google rankings, earning their way, there is imminently more valuable.

The difference between Page 5 (essentially nonexistent) and Page 1 can mean hundreds of additional visits and thousands of dollars in revenue.

Institutional leadership often lacks reporting

Despite the indication that institutional leaders want reporting, a few of them are getting it. 

It’s possible that marketing teams don’t know how to quantify their SEO efforts, or perhaps worse, they don’t know what efforts are being made.

‘SEO readiness’ has room for improvement

Among the more surprising revelations was the number of sites that were not 100% accessibility compliant.

Our testing tool for accessibility, accessiBe’s accessScan, evaluates whether a website is non-compliant, semi-compliant, or compliant. 

A vast majority of institutions (81%) were just semi-compliant. Our clients report this is a hot-button issue for their administrations.

Furthermore, there are several lawyers who perceive it as an area of opportunity for trolling as well.

SEO is essential to drive organic traffic from potential students.

A weak SEO foundation can negatively impact ranking factors and significantly hinder a website’s ability to attract potential students.

We often hear from higher education institutions that they are “doing SEO.” But we wonder – is it being done strategically?

From our experience, a comprehensive digital marketing strategy is critical for schools that want to meet their enrollment goals.

The results of this research demonstrate that SEO is an area of opportunity for many universities.

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Overcoming challenges and embracing innovation

Although marketing and institutional leaders value SEO as a tactic, only 47% report that their unit has an established SEO plan or strategy. 

This disconnect suggests that, while marketers know SEO’s critical role, they may not have the skills, staff, or resources to develop a strategy. 

Most web traffic comes through organic search, i.e., utilizing popular search engines such as Google.

This means regardless of where prospects are in their student journey, they expect a search engine to answer their questions about the availability of programs, applying, and even enrollment. 

Common challenges for educational institutions implementing SEO strategies

Centralized control of marketing and ‘webcomms’

In many higher education institutions, centralized departments are responsible for many functions.

Like facilities and food service, IT, communications, and marketing often reside at or are directed from the university level rather than in the individual departments.

In some cases, there are individuals or teams charged with marketing at the department level. Often, they are constrained by the brand guides, templates, and technology choices made at the institutional level.

In a minimal number of cases, we have seen individual departments or units allowed to make their own technology choices as long as they stay within the general guidelines of the parent organization. 

Institutional support for IT, marketing and SEO

These centralized teams are beholden not to the individual department but to the university or college. 

While they intend to serve all departments equally, what we have seen is typically one of two conditions: favored programs get more institutional resources, or all programs get basic support. 

With this as the reality, the most likely scenario is that there are not enough human and financial resources in an area (like SEO) that isn’t as tangible as email marketing or advertising.

When an individual department is in control of their marketing and their website, we see it as a great advantage. While they have less institutional support, they also have less institutional oversight and control.

Maintaining and growing knowledge of SEO 

In cases where there are department-specific web support or marketing teams, they are charged with many functions. They are updating faculty bios, course descriptions, social media and more.

They are often generalists without deep knowledge of the technologies they manage. 

It is challenging enough to establish a foundational understanding of SEO, digital ads, email marketing, social media, and website technologies – even more to maintain up-to-date best practices in an ever-changing field.

Most marketing leaders recognize that there is room for improvement in the SEO capabilities of their unit, scoring their knowledge with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5.

Higher education CMS issues

In addition to the institutional challenges to good management of the websites, there are CMS challenges as well.

In our study, the most-used CMS platforms for university websites are: 

• Drupal (31%).
• Cascade (17%).
• WordPress (15%)
• Omni (6%). 

Other platforms mentioned included Blackboard, Slate, Adobe Experience Manager, and Terminal 4, among others.

With so many CMS platforms within these PCO units, content management likely requires more training and support than in more commonly used systems, such as WordPress.

The challenge is pretty clear. Inconsistent support, teams with many roles, centralized command and control, and hard-to-manage systems mean not much will get done, even with the best intentions.

Is there a silver bullet for higher education SEO?

Sadly, there’s none.

In the best case, administrative leadership would come to understand the importance of SEO for higher education. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem those administrators are making the connection between their important work – growth, fund-raising, enrollment, research – and SEO.

For most departments in higher education, SEO is an afterthought.

Best practices for higher education SEO

SEO basics

Without doing a deep dive into the basics of SEO, there are a few things that we know to be true.

Relevance + Authority = Winning in search engines

The shortest version of what good SEO looks like is:

• Keywords
• Content
• Links

In other words, are you saying the things people are searching for on your pages? 

Do search engines understand that yours is a trustworthy and respected website deserving of their traffic?

Higher ed SEO has an unfair competitive advantage

Given the importance of relevance and trust (surely you’ve heard of E-E-A-T), there are few more trusted websites than those associated with educational institutions.

In Maslow’s Hierarchy of link building, .edu links are right up there with self-actualization. They are the definition of what makes a good backlink. 

They have authority, relevance, trust, and lots and lots of actual user traffic. In academic research, this would be considered an authoritative citation.

Think about it, they publish constantly and much of their content is research people are interested in. 

They get tons of branded searches from prospective students. And they’re responsible for significant contributions to their local economy.

So as an academic unit within a university, your ability to appear for relevant searches is amplified. All you need is great content.

In higher education, content optimization is critical

The great news is that individual units are responsible for one of the most critical factors in university SEO: content.

If I control the content, I can control how it’s optimized. I can often control the formatting, including the use of headings and other on-page optimization elements. I can also likely control what is being linked to from within the content.

So, from our perspective, focusing on content is one of the most important – and realistic – things that any unit within a higher education institution can do for SEO success.

This is not to say they don’t need to be thinking about technical SEO. If there are critical failings within their technical infrastructure, they will have a harder time reaching prospective students.

But, if they can build relevant content and get good links, they’ll be a lot more likely to rank well in search than another site might, given the inherent authority of their university website.

Understanding what good content looks like becomes critical for those marketers working within those university units trying to attract new learners.

Getting started with higher education SEO content

Temet Nosce. As the Greek maxim states, it is important to know oneself.

One of the most important tools a higher education marketer can have is Google Search Console. Obviously, one has to take anything Google says with a grain of salt, but there are some good reasons to start with Search Console.

• It’s free.
• The information is pretty easy to understand compared to other tools.
• It shows you Google’s point of view.

A good starting point for higher ed marketers is to look at what queries their pages already show up for.

With Google Search Console, you can see what phrases Google already thinks your website contact is relevant for.

Starting with those queries you’re already doing well for. You can start to think competitively. 

A review of competitive sites can give you some good clues about what you must do to get over the top.

• Do they have more content?
• What are the features of that content?
  • More images, more headers, more text, video?
• Do they have more links?
  • You may need tools for this one.
  • A good free option is the SEOquake extension. You’ll need a free Semrush account that gives you access to many SEO metrics.

With the data from the above investigation, you’re now able to start outlining content.

The best web content is like a persuasive essay. Present the important information and then bring it home with a strong call to action.

In any industry, and especially in higher ed, it’s less about the words and more about the journey.

Just because people are searching for a phrase doesn’t mean that those people are prospective students.

Educating stakeholders on the value of SEO

It’s easy for us to look at a problem and see a marketing solution.

SEO is a foreign language to many, and as this study proves it is still not understood as a great way to drive ROI for higher education.

In the review of your own site, analysis of competing sites, and optimization of your content, you are never done. The key is to develop a system and cadence that work for you.

Whether due to complexity, lack of knowledge, or institutional inertia, SEO is not getting its due in higher ed. There are a lot of considerations outside the control of the folks executing the strategies within higher education marketing.

Our job is to support them. We must provide the best knowledge we can, meet them where they are, and ensure we are not asking them to do things that, in their situations, are “impossible.”

The UPCEA study shows much room for improvement in higher ed SEO. There are some winners in the analysis who still have opportunities for improvement.

By focusing on function and form, higher education marketers can start where they are within their current constraints: 

• Create great content.
• Build links, even if they’re just internal.
• Get better placement in organic search so they will be less dependent on paid advertising.

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