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Who’s verified? Who’s not? Who knows, it’s Twitter

Monday, April 3rd, 2023

Did a Twitter account get a blue checkmark by paying for Twitter Blue or is it a legacy verified account? Right now it’s nearly impossible to tell.

Why we care. Twitter’s designation for “notable” accounts was supposed to disappear April 1. Some have (e.g., The New York Times lost it) but many others have not yet lost the designation. And with April 15 approaching, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has said that “only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations” starting April 15.

What it looks like. On all blue checkmarks, Twitter now says: “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”

Before April 2, Twitter showed a different message: “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue.”

The addition of “or is a legacy verified account” has made it impossible to tell who paid for their checkmark and who didn’t. Probably the hope is Twitter will drive more sign-ups for Twitter Blue.

And before April 1, on legacy verified accounts you would see the message “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable. Learn more“:

Many search marketers have said they won’t pay for Twitter Blue, so they are voluntarily giving up the blue checkmark. Such as Google’s Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin.

“Twitter has been an integral aspect of my professional life for more than a decade,” Marvin tweeted. “I don’t need a blue check mark for that to continue.”

Twitter Blue. About 180,000 U.S. accounts (approximately 290,000 worldwide) had signed up for the $8 per month (or $11 on mobile) service, as of mid-January, according to documents obtained by the Information (warning: paywalled).

Furthering the confusion. Twitter’s top 500 advertisers, as well as the 10,000 most-followed organizations with prior verification, reportedly will continue to have verified accounts – without paying – under the new Verified Organizations program.

The post Who’s verified? Who’s not? Who knows, it’s Twitter appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

Decoding the SEO success of LinkedIn collaborative articles

Monday, April 3rd, 2023

On March 3, LinkedIn introduced collaborative articles, a new type of content that LinkedIn publishes with the help of AI and LinkedIn users. 

While it was marketed as an initiative to surface the expertise of LinkedIn users (i.e., “Unlocking nearly 10 billion years worth of knowledge to help you tackle everyday work problems”), it is also a brilliant AI-driven SEO play.

In less than three weeks, the content hub /advice/ launched almost 30,000 articles (9,000 in the last week).

LinkedIn also gained 17,658 keywords and is estimated to gather thousands of organic sessions per Ahrefs data. 

This article explores how LinkedIn’s latest AI- and member-assisted content initiative works and its impressive performance in Google search.

What is a LinkedIn collaborative article?

Collaborative articles on LinkedIn are created with AI and edited by human experts.

It allows LinkedIn to scale its content efforts with AI while maintaining quality through community insights. (Similar to how Wikipedia allows users to create and edit content.)

Collaborative articles are clearly labeled as such:

LinkedIn collaborative articles and SEO

“How do you showcase your teamwork skills on your resume?” is an example of the SEO success of collaborative articles. 

It is already on Page 2 for the keyword cluster “teamwork on resume,” with 2,290 monthly searches in the U.S.

While this piece has 920 words, the average collaborative article is even longer – between 1,000 and 1,500 words. And they get longer with every quote and user insight added.

The content is clearly structured with one H1, several H2s and a unique page title and meta description – all optimized for the keyword cluster.

URL	https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-do-you-showcase-your-teamwork-skills-resume-skills-teamwork
Word Count	920
Inlinks	4
Readability	Fairly Easy
Indexability	Indexable
Title 1	Teamwork Skills Resume Examples: How to Stand Out
Title 1 Length	49
Meta Description 1	Learn how to use teamwork skills resume examples to impress hiring managers. Choose relevant skills, use action verbs and results, and provide examples.
Meta Description 1 Length	152
H1	How do you showcase your teamwork skills on your resume?
H2	Choose relevant teamwork skills Use action verbs and quantifiable results Provide examples from different contexts

The hub has already collected 343 referring domains., and its popularity is only growing.

Imagine creating 30,000 articles of 1,200 words each and the cost and time associated with it. 

AI allowed LinkedIn to scale massively – the community component guarantees pageviews, social shares and backlinks, two perfect loops for growth and engagement. 

Why would you want to contribute to a collaborative article?

You will receive exposure through the quote box where your contribution will appear:

The whole advice hub is currently gaining massive momentum in Google Search.

LinkedIn is one of the strongest domains on the web, with a domain rating of 98 (Ahrefs). If your website can not rank for a keyword or topic, LinkedIn probably can.

By contributing to collaborative articles, you have a chance to:

• Gain exposure on search queries you otherwise have no chance to rank for.
• Gather credibility as an industry expert and thought leader.
• Build your professional expertise on LinkedIn.
  • As LinkedIn puts it, “…to make sure that contributors are rewarded for giving their time and experience, they can earn a new Community Top Voice badge in their skill areas (e.g., “Top Sales Voice”) for adding their insights. You’ll be able to see the badge on profiles and next to contributions on the articles.”

As for selecting who can contribute, Linked states that they:  

“[Identify] members who are likely to be experts in a certain topic based on their work experience, skills proficiency, and prior engagement on the platform. They must also meet high trust standards by adhering to LinkedIn’s User Agreement and Professional Community Policies.”

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Understanding user-generated content on LinkedIn

There are two more article types to understand and distinguish from the collaborative articles:

• Users were already able to publish their own articles on LinkedIn and rank.
• LinkedIn already scaled up its content production massively through “LinkedIn News.” 

User-generated content: Publishing your own articles

Your own LinkedIn articles already get indexed on the search results. They live on the slug /pulse/. Everyone with a LinkedIn account can create these articles – similar to Medium.

The /pulse/ slug ranks for more than 7 million keywords. The good thing is you do not need to share space with the AI. 

So, if you are looking to rank for a competitive term, and you do not see a LinkedIn article ranking on Page 1 yet, write your own unique and keyword-optimized articles, and with a bit of luck (and backlinks), you can secure a top position.

Some people call this on-SERP SEO because it allows you to own real estate on Page 1 even if your own website is not there.

Partner-generated content: LinkedIn News content

You will notice that the /advice/ slug redirects to the /pulse/ hub of the website, with the title: 

• “Explore LinkedIn: Dig into what’s trending on LinkedIn. Learn something new, follow a topic of interest, find inspiration and join the conversation.”

Here, you will find LinkedIn News stories produced by the platform’s content creators and collaborators.

Because LinkedIn’s editorial team develops the content hub, it is very focused and structured, strategically speaking to the core areas of LinkedIn’s professional offerings. (Not so much Linkedin, the social media platform.)

You can learn about the following:

• Career.
• Job search.
• Workplace.
• Technology.
• Job skills.
• Human resources.
• And more.

Each core pillar is broken down into subcategories. For example, “Job search” is broken into:

• Resumes and cover letters
• Interviewing

Every SEO loves this clean site structure. And /pulse/ has surely been an SEO play for LinkedIn.

Collaborative articles and skills pages

The new collaborative articles are published by skills pages, which look similar to company pages. 

Some skills pages already have hundreds of thousands of followers. LinkedIn automatically adds you to relevant pages based on your profile.

Following them is a good way to get notified about new articles going live.

SEO learnings from LinkedIn’s collaborative articles

These AI articles are LinkedIn’s big SEO bet

The collaborative articles are a creative example of AI content at scale. The contributions by LinkedIn users add human editing, stories and examples without making the LinkedIn content team a bottleneck during growth.

Since the LinkedIn editorial team originally briefs these pages, they have a structured approach to scaling content across new areas, e.g., business planning, customer experience, employee training or event management. 

The search volume for the main keywords of the first 4,069 pages ranked in the U.S. is already 710,080 per month – and more pages are getting ranked daily.

My hypothesis: Collaborative articles are LinkedIn’s big SEO bet this year. 

LinkedIn hints at that in its own FAQs, where they note search engines as one of the best ways to find these new articles.

Growth loop

The /advice/ hub works because it is a clever growth loop for Linkedin, as Juliana Mendez, fractional VP Growth and advisor for B2B SaaS, explains:

• “Acquisition loop: AI and user-generated content brings in new users via SEO impact. These potentially contribute to these articles and share them – which again increases SEO impact (content and referrals) and again wins more new users or engages existing ones.
• Engagement loop: Updates and new contributions trigger notifications and hence create higher engagement and likelihood of returning to the platform.”

LinkedIn’s brilliant SEO play

Collaborative articles align with LinkedIn’s general push of becoming a place where professionals come to learn.

With their unique combination of AI and user-generated content, they just put their content marketing and SEO on steroids. 

The post Decoding the SEO success of LinkedIn collaborative articles appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

How to create, optimize and promote an ebook

Monday, April 3rd, 2023

As far as lead magnets go, an ebook is a great one.

A well-written, well-designed, optimized ebook can be an enticing appetizer for your audience. It’s a complete example of your brand voice, expertise, and knowledge in a portable, endlessly sharable format.

And if your appetizer (your ebook) impresses, your audience is likelier to partake in your main course (your products/services). 

About 43% of marketers say ebooks are the content assets that produce the best results for them.

In other words, an ebook is an indispensable part of a brand content marketing strategy. For that reason, let’s learn how to create, optimize and promote your ebook.

What is an ebook?

In marketing, an ebook is a digital book designed to teach your audience about a topic relevant to their problems and interests.

Brands make their ebooks available via downloadable files (in formats like PDF or EPUB)  that readers can view on their smartphones, tablets, and other devices. Some readers may even choose to print them out.

A typical ebook has a few important elements:

• Written content in book format with a table of contents, chapters, and page numbers.
• Graphic design elements include a designed ebook cover, pages, charts or graphics, and images. (The main draw should be your written ebook content.)
• An author page with a bio or an “About us” if the author is a brand.
• CTAs (calls to action) encourage readers to check out your products, services, or related content.

For example, this ebook called The Freelancer’s Bible has all the above elements to create a very effective package.

Why create an ebook?

An ebook is a trust-building, credibility-creating, illustrated digital book that should nurture your audience and pull them further into your marketing cycle.

There are tons of benefits to creating an ebook. Needless to say:

• It’s portable: Download it to read on your phone or tablet, or print it out.
• It’s relatively low-cost to produce: You’ll either have to spend the time and effort to DIY your ebook or pay for a writer and a designer to create it. But ultimately, if you produce an evergreen ebook, it pays for itself over time.
  • You can distribute it infinitely without having to pay printing or shipping costs.
  • If your ebook has a lot of high-value content, you can charge a flat fee for readers to download it, which will cover your production costs.
• An ebook can be interactive: You can embed links in the text and add CTAs readers can tap or click to further engage with your brand.
• It can be accessible: If you make your ebook available to download in different formats, like EPUB, readers can adjust the text size and other screen options.
• Ebooks aren’t intimidating: Usually, ebooks created for marketing run the gamut from five to 50 pages in length. This means your audience won’t be scared away from downloading it but rather encouraged because ebooks are quick and easy to read.

Ebook creation: How to write content and design your ebook

So it’s time to create your ebook. Before you write a single word of content, you must first have an ebook topic in hand that you know your target audience will love.

After that, you can move on to content creation and design.

1. Choose your ebook topic

Vet your ebook topic carefully. If you choose any random topic out of a hat, you can’t be sure your audience will be interested enough to download your ebook – that’s the entire goal!

Here are some tips to find the right topic:

Follow your content strategy

Your strategy should include guidance on content creation topics your brand focuses on. Refer to these areas to find a topic relevant to both what your audience wants and what you sell.

Look at your blog content for inspiration

Is there a topic you wrote about where you only scratched the surface? Expand on it in an ebook. Did one blog get a lot of engagement? Consider repurposing and expanding your best-performing blog into a high-value ebook format.

Mine your customer questions and feedback for ideas

What’s the number one question your customers ask? What do they wish they knew more about? Could you turn that topic into an ebook?

Research your topic to make sure it’s the right depth

Some topics don’t require an entire ebook to explain them. Others might be too in-depth and can’t be covered in less than 50 pages. For these reasons, look at how other people have approached your chosen topic to see whether what you want to discuss will fit in an ebook.

Research your topic on Google to see what types of content already exist online about it. If you find many books, check out their length and number of chapters.

If you find many articles, check what topic facets they include and what they might be missing that you could cover.

Do keyword research on your topic

Particularly, look at how competitive your topic is in search rankings. You’ll also see how many monthly searches it gets, which can help you understand the topic’s popularity. 

2. Create a table of contents

Next, once you’ve chosen a good topic, you can outline what you’ll include in the entire ebook by creating a table of contents.

This doesn’t have to be fancy right now (for example, you don’t have any content written yet, so don’t worry about page numbers). Just list the chapters you plan to include, and brainstorm your titles.

For example, in this ebook by Intercom (called “The Sales Handbook”), the table of contents is very simply laid out, but it tells you what piece of the topic each chapter covers.

(The topic, by the way, is sales strategy and techniques to achieve growth.)

3. Outline what you’ll talk about in each chapter

Once your chapters are laid out, you can outline what you’ll discuss in each.

Don’t skip outlining, by the way. It gives you a roadmap to follow as you write, which is super helpful for creating ultra-long-form content like ebooks. Content this long can quickly become unwieldy if you’re not organized.

Go as deep with your outline as you want. Maybe you’d prefer to keep it super simple and loose, so you just jot down a few key points for each chapter. Or, perhaps, you want to create a point-by-point outline that maps out every paragraph. Or maybe you float somewhere between these two extremes.

However you do it, just create a helpful guideline to follow later when you write the brunt of the content and fill in the blanks.

Remember: Your outline can include more than just text. 

For example, you could add placeholders and ideas for visual elements for your ebook, such as charts or graphs, photos you still need to source, or graphics you’d like custom-created. You can also add lists of resources you’d like to reference or content you want to use as inspiration.

This is your outline, so make it work for you.

4. Create a compelling ebook title

If you haven’t come up with a compelling, descriptive title yet for your ebook, now is the time.

Don’t be tempted to phone this part in – it matters because the title is the first thing people will see. They may not be motivated enough to learn more if it doesn’t immediately speak to them.

Consider these three rules when crafting your ebook title:

Keep it simple

A simple title beats a long, convoluted title any day. Especially for an ebook. You want your audience to understand exactly what your ebook is about without any confusion.  Let’s reference the ebook examples from earlier to show you what I mean. They’re short, sweet, but effective:

• The Sales Handbook.
• The Freelancer’s Bible.

Keep it clear

What if, instead of “The Sales Handbook,” the title was “The Handbook of Sales Strategy for Faster Business Revenue”? It doesn’t quite have the same ring, does it? 

Be descriptive

This doesn’t mean your title has to include a lot of adjectives. Instead, consider one strong word that conveys the purpose of your ebook.

In the above title examples, those words were “handbook” and “bible.” Both tell you that these ebooks are either exhaustive or contain step-by-step practical guidance. That’s the power of one strong word.

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5. Brainstorm visual elements to complement the text

At this point, start thinking more deeply about the visual aspects of your ebook. 

And, yes, you do need visuals. They’re standard in a marketing ebook, not to mention they make your content much more engaging.

Pull quotes: Highlight important quotes from the content. Here’s an example from The Sales Handbook:

Stats: Similar to pull quotes, use graphical elements to make interesting or valuable stats stand out.

Charts or graphs: If you’re including research in your ebook, help readers visualize the data with a chart or graph. For example, this Dropbox ebook features simple bar graphs:

Infographic-style images: Again, help readers visualize what you’re talking about. Infographics are great for highlighting your most important points, too.

Photography: Photos are engaging and even better when they’re unique to your brand.

Design elements: Consider adding design elements to the text, like call-out boxes, typography, borders, accent colors, or custom illustrations.

For example, this ebook by Talking Shrimp is simple but features tiny illustrated shrimp around page headers. Note that it also includes blank space for readers to reflect on concepts taught in the content:

6. Strategize CTA placements

Don’t forget to add CTAs to your ebook in strategic spots. For example, you could add a CTA at the end of each chapter that encourages readers to check out related content. 

At the end of your ebook, add a CTA pointing to your best landing page selling your best, most relevant product or service.

Most ebook formats allow embedded links in your document, so don’t forget to add links to your website, your social accounts, and a link to sign up for your email list.

7. Enlist editing and graphic design help

You can DIY your ebook design using templates in tools like Canva, Issu, or Adobe InDesign. But, if you have the resources, consider hiring help from a graphic designer who can customize your ebook and align it with your branding.

In addition to design help, consider enlisting an editor who can comb through your ebook and catch any grammar slip-ups or mistakes you might have missed. The more eyes you get on your content, the more likely you will end up with a flawless final product.

A good editor can also help you nail the structure of your ebook and help you come up with engaging titles. If you need help finessing your copy/content, this person on your side will be indispensable.

Ebook optimization

Optimizing your ebook will make it more readable and likelier to rank in Google. Optimize with a few simple tasks:

8. Include relevant keywords

Yes, you can optimize your ebook with keywords. Here are some crucial places where you can add them:

• The ebook file name.
• The ebook title and chapter headings.
• Inside the anchor text for any embedded links.
• If applicable, in image captions or image alt text.

9. Make it easy to read

You should also optimize your ebook for ease of reading. If your audience has to zoom in by 200% just to squint at your tiny text, that’s a barrier to enjoying or learning from your content. And, without those value factors, they may not see any further value in engaging with your other content.

So, make sure your ebook is formatted for readability. Choose a clear, clean font for the majority of the text. Make sure it’s a comfortable size for reading on most devices. Ensure graphical elements don’t disrupt the reading experience or hinder it.

If you enlist a graphic designer, they can take the reins here to ensure your ebook is easy to read – not just pretty to look at.

10. Offer it in multiple formats

Not every reader has access to the same technology. If you offer your ebook in multiple formats (PDF and EPUB are great options), you’ll broaden the number of people who can access and read it.

Ebook promotion

When your ebook is written, designed, formatted, and ready to go, you can start promoting it.

11. Create an ebook landing page

Number one on your list for promoting your ebook should be to create a landing page.

A landing page is a dedicated page on your website that promotes and describes your ebook so people will want to read it. 

This page is the main spot where people can download your ebook. When you link to it on social media, in emails, or blogs, you’ll point people to this specific page.

What should you include on your landing page? 

• Descriptive/promotional copy: Include your ebook title, a summary of what it’s about, and the benefits of reading your ebook (what will your readers walk away with in terms of education, information, entertainment, growth, or value?). 
• A picture of the cover: Display a photo of your ebook cover to entice potential readers.
• A preview of what’s inside: Your preview could include the table of contents or a full-page spread to give your audience a taste of what’s in store. If your ebook is on the longer side, this is especially worthwhile to include.
• A form: Your ebook is meant to convert your audience from casual followers of your content to engaged subscribers. Hook up a form to your landing page that allows the reader to download your ebook only after filling out their contact information.
• SEO: Don’t forget to optimize your landing page for search. Include the keywords you researched earlier in the page title, the meta title/description, the summary, and other bits of copy on the page.

Here’s an example from Crowdstacker:

12. Add CTAs to your ebook in relevant blog and website content

Once your landing page is ready, you can add CTAs that point to it in your blog and website content. Good rules of thumb to follow include:

• Only add a CTA to your ebook when it’s relevant to the topic. For instance, point readers to your ebook when a “learn more about this topic” opportunity presents itself in related blogs.  
• Don’t spam your audience with CTAs. Include them at key moments on a page or blog – no more, no less.

13. Promote your ebook on social media and in emails

Share your ebook with a wider audience to get more downloads. Go beyond your website to:

• Post on social media with a link to your ebook. Include an image of the cover or a preview of the contents.
• Send an email to your subscribers alerting them that you just published a new ebook. Include the link to the landing page and photos of the cover and contents.

Create, optimize, and promote your ebook – and convert your audience

Ebooks are a top content type for a reason. 

A good ebook converts well because it’s packed with value. Much thought and care should go into creating your ebook, from the presentation to the design and content.

When executed well, it should look like a printed publication in a handy digital package.

All that effort is worth it when considering the infinite ways an ebook can be distributed. As long as you choose an evergreen topic, you’ll have a conversion vehicle in your arsenal for years to come.

The post How to create, optimize and promote an ebook appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

Google updates Bard to improve math, logic responses

Saturday, April 1st, 2023

Google Bard just got an upgrade. By incorporating Google’s PaLM language models, Bard is now better at math and logic responses.

“Today I wanted to share that we’ve improved Bard’s capabilities in math and logic by incorporating some of the advances we’ve developed in PaLM,” Jack Krawczyk, the Google executive leading up Bard and Google’s AI efforts, said on Twitter.

What improved. Bard can now better understand and respond to your prompts and questions when they are in a multi-step word and multi-step math problems format, Krawczyk said.

Math improvements coming. Coding is coming soon to Bard, Krawczyk added.

The tweets. Here are his tweets with this announcement:

Google PaLM. PaLM stands for Pathways Language Model. It is a large language model developed by Google with 540 billion parameters. Researchers also trained smaller versions of PaLM (8 billion and 62 billion parameter models) to test the effects of model scale.

More on Bard. As a reminder, Google announced Bard was coming the day before Bing Chat launched but Bard did not open to general users until 10 days ago. The response Google received from Bard has been somewhat disappointing and underwhelming compared to that of Bing Chat and ChatGPT’s efforts. Even inside Google, employees urged the company to improve Bard.

But Google promises more is to come and Bard will get better.

Google intentionally launched a lightweight version of Bard and it will continue to get better over time, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a New York Times interview published today.

Why we care. Mostly, it is fun and exciting to see how these AI assistants and tools improve and are improving rapidly in such a short period of time. Be it ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google Bard or others, following this space is a lot of fun.

So give Bard another try and see if you find it to be any better today than it was yesterday.

The post Google updates Bard to improve math, logic responses appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

Search marketing: Evolving roles, responsibilities, challenges

Friday, March 31st, 2023

Search marketers design, run and optimize campaigns – and rely heavily on spreadsheets to successfully do their jobs, according to a new Search Engine Land survey.

Why we care. Although search marketers have several responsibilities and face a variety of challenges related to their roles and the technology they use, our survey shows that the majority of search marketers are satisfied with their work.

The biggest responsibilities for search marketers. Designing, running and optimizing campaigns is the responsibility that falls onto most search marketers, either directly or through their team, according to our survey.

At the director level and higher, 81% of marketers said designing, running and optimizing campaigns was their top responsibility. For managers/staff, the number was 67%.

The next three responsibilities for all respondents were the same (though the percentages varied based on the role):

• Designing and managing internal workflows and processes.
• Researching and recommending new marketing technology products.
• Training and supporting marketing staff on using marketing technology products.

Here’s the full list of responsibilities we asked about:

Search marketers live in spreadsheets. The overwhelming answer: spreadsheets. The question: Which marketing technology tools, if any, do you spend at least 10 hours a week working in?

Clearly, the higher you go in an organization, the more time you’ll find yourself spending in spreadsheets:

• 87% for directors or higher roles.
• 77% for managers/staff.

Spreadsheets beat out analytics, project management, content management, marketing automation and other types of marketing tools. Most of the tools were used similarly by both groups.

67% said churn increased. Remember the Great Resignation (a.k.a., the Great Reshuffle) of 2021? It was real. LinkedIn was inundated with updates about people moving onto their latest and greatest career opportunities. 

While career moves are great for the individual, they proved challenging for 67% of organizations in 2022.

Churn increased significantly (31%) or moderately (36%), according to our respondents. 

Luckily, 33% of survey respondents said they didn’t notice an increase in churn in their organizations in 2022 compared to 2021.

Job satisfaction is high. Despite challenges and the ever-increasing complexity of search, 76% of search marketers are satisfied with their roles:

• 25% said they are “extremely” satisfied.
• 51% said they are “somewhat” satisfied. 

Part of this satisfaction may tie into our previous section – several marketers have changed jobs in the past two years. You would hope those who have changed jobs (or those who haven’t) are currently satisfied where they work and find their day-to-day duties rewarding.

Meanwhile, 13% were either “somewhat” or “not” satisfied with their current role. The remaining 11% were neutral.

Methodology. We surveyed 510 marketers between Jan. 11 to 23; 413 of those provided salary information. Invitations to take the survey were amplified on and by Search Engine Land.

Nearly 67% of the 510 respondents live in North America; 20% live in Western Europe. The conclusions in this report are limited to responses from those individuals only. Others were excluded due to the limited number.

The survey had more than 20 questions related to career roles, salary, technology, job satisfaction and challenges/frustrations. Respondents were given the opportunity to reveal their age and gender.

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

These 44 hilariously terrible BuzzFeed travel articles were AI-assisted

Friday, March 31st, 2023

I know what you’re thinking. “I’m going on a trip to Cape May, NJ and need a true ‘hidden gem’ of a travel guide.” Well, if by some extreme fluke, you see one of BuzzFeed’s AI-assisted content in your search results, here’s my recommendation: avoid it.

That’s because BuzzFeed has published 20 low-quality travel articles under the byline “As Told to Buzzy.” They’re all super formulaic and written in the first-person point of view. Or, do we now have to call it the “first-AI point of view”? (Does AI even have a view?)

Why we care. Multiple articles are calling these “SEO-driven” travel guides. Let’s stop that now. If these pages rank for any competitive terms, Google has failed as a search engine.

No, what BuzzFeed has done here is not “SEO”. BuzzFeed has simply published super low-quality, shallow, AI-generated articles written as a first-person narrative by the AI, about locations that exist in the world. Nothing more, nothing less. If these pages rank, it will be because it lives on an authoritative site, not because it’s any good.

As Told to Buzzy. That is the profile name under which the 44 articles live. The biography of this AI writer: “Articles written with the help of Buzzy the Robot (aka our Creative AI Assistant) but powered by human ideas.” But this is BuzzFeed, so E-E-A-T doesn’t matter, right?

All of Buzzy’s articles I looked at had a note at the top saying a version of “This article was collaboratively written by [insert name here] + Buzzy, our creative AI assistant.” Those collaborators seemed to all be non-editorial staff (from the business and sales side of the company), the Verge reported.

• Fun fact: BuzzFeed has a separate AI quiz writer byline for Buzzy the Robot, author of 26 quizzes.

Hilariously terrible. Some of the lowlights, via Futurism:

• “Now I know what you’re thinking…”

• “A hidden gem”

• And beyond.

Part of BuzzFeed’s core business. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced its big ambition in January: to “lead the future of AI-powered content.” If the future is now, I’m not impressed.

AI can make many parts of the content creation process easier (e.g., brainstorming topics, structuring the article). The one thing AI clearly can’t do yet is improve the final product for the unfortunate humans who try to read it.

Yes, you can easily create tons of AI-assisted or AI-generated content about whatever topic you want now. But the question is: should you?

And the bigger question is – how will Google respond? Will the helpful content system catch low-quality, AI-assisted content and prevent it from ranking? Or will Google need to take new action as it did with content farms a decade ago with Panda?

Dig deeper. More coverage on Techmeme.

The post These 44 hilariously terrible BuzzFeed travel articles were AI-assisted appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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How to write a content marketing mission statement

Friday, March 31st, 2023

You’ve heard of a business mission statement – but have you also heard of a content marketing mission statement?

This is an important piece of text that should head up your content strategy.

Outlining your content marketing mission statement will give your content efforts a greater purpose. It will drive you toward a specific direction that aligns with your goals and the impact you want to create.

Needless to say, it’s really important to know how to create this special mission statement. Crafting it should be one of the first things you do when you build a content strategy.

Let’s dive into all the details.

What is a content marketing mission statement?

A content marketing mission statement is a short statement that describes the overarching purpose of your content marketing efforts and activities.

This statement answers the question: What do you want your content marketing to achieve overall for your business and your audience?

• What kind of content (format + topics) will you become known for?
• Why will you be creating this content?
• How will it benefit your audience?

A content marketing mission statement can act as the banner or guiding light your team follows to ensure every action you take in the name of your content stays true to your brand values and your audience.

And if you’re confused about the difference between your business mission statement and your content marketing mission statement, think of it this way:

Your business mission statement explains the reason why your brand exists. Your content marketing mission statement explains why you’re doing content marketing.

Why should you create a content marketing mission statement?

Creating a content marketing mission statement is key to building a content strategy. And without a content strategy, your content efforts are much more likely to fall flat.

Up to 78% of marketers who reported their marketing was very successful also reported having a documented content strategy, according to a Semrush survey.

“Documented” just means “written down somewhere.” That distinction is important. You can talk about strategy all day, but recording it makes it real and present. 

With a document in hand, you have something substantial to reference and follow, an agreed-upon set of guidelines versus the idea of that strategy floating around without form or function.

To sum up, your content marketing mission statement sets the purpose of your content marketing overall. (Without that purpose, your strategy will be aimless.) It can guide:

• The types of content you create.
• The kinds of stories you tell.
• Your goals for content marketing.

And once you write that mission statement down, it becomes a solid, shared, agreed-upon guideline your whole team can follow and unite around.

How to write a content marketing mission statement in 3 steps

There are three major components to writing a content marketing mission statement: target audience, topic area and benefits.

1. Know your target audience

Who are you creating content for? You must know this before crafting your content marketing mission statement.

In a nutshell, these are the people who will get the most value and benefit from your content. 

They’re not necessarily people who know your product or service exists or have a pressing need. Instead, your content audience includes people with information needs you can meet. They’re the people your brand can help with expert knowledge.

For some of these people, enough nurturing and positive experiences with your content might eventually lead to them becoming your customers. That’s what content marketing does – but it’s not the point of your content marketing mission statement.

So, when you think about your audience, keep it focused on who needs your content and who’s missing the unique expertise of your brand.

2. Find your topic areas and content formats of focus

Next, determine what information you’ll share in your content.

The intersection of the brand expertise (your unique mix of knowledge + experience) and what your audience wants is the sweet spot to find:

• Brand expertise: What do you sell? Why are you qualified to sell it? What knowledge/experience do you have about what you sell that sets you apart? What topics are tied to what you sell? Which of these topics are you most passionate about as a brand and align with your values?
• What your audience wants: What does your audience want to know within your topic area(s)? What problems and questions are they concerned with? What do they need to learn to meet their goals? What knowledge gaps do they have?

After you narrow down your topic areas, you should also outline the main content formats you’ll focus on. This shows how you’ll deliver the information your audience wants.

Blog posts are a given, but what form will those take? Tips and advice? Helpful guides? Step-by-step tutorials? Ideas and inspiration? Stories?

Consider other formats, too, beyond blogs. Videos. Podcasts. Original research. Interviews with experts.

For example, my brand delivers value through content through weekly blog posts, bi-weekly podcast episodes, and bi-weekly videos.

3. Explain how you help your audience using content

It’s time to combine items 1 and 2 to craft your content marketing mission statement.

How do you help your unique audience with your unique content? What benefits will your potential reader get from the information you’ll provide?

Explain the biggest benefit(s) as simply as possible. Consider what will make your content different from what’s already out there and how you’ll deliver value differently.

Here’s a formula for how to state your content marketing mission:

• We help [audience] by providing [type of content] to help them [goal they want to achieve/benefit].

For example, “We help small business entrepreneurs by providing insightful financial tips and advice to help them manage their businesses better and reach their career dreams.”

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Need some real-life examples of how other brands have crafted their content mission statements? Here are seven of them.

Canva

• “Achieve your design goals with Canva’s in-depth articles and resources.”

The Kitchn

• “Inspiring cooks and nourishing homes through daily recipes, tips, kitchen design, and shopping guides.”

OpenForum

• “Insights, inspiration, and connections to grow your business.”

Harvard Business Review

• “Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world’s best business and management experts.”

WordStream

• “WordStream is your go-to resource for digital marketing tips and strategies to help you learn, grow, and succeed.”

NerdWallet

• “Millions of people turn to the Nerds to find the best credit cards, up their credit score, land the perfect mortgage and so much more.”

Apartment Therapy

• “Lifestyle and interior design community sharing design lessons, DIY how-tos, shopping guides and expert advice for creating a happy, beautiful home.”

Write your content marketing mission statement with confidence

Your content marketing mission statement is a guiding sentence that gives your content efforts a deeper purpose. 

You’re not just creating content to increase leads or get more traffic – you’re creating content to help a specific type of person reach a specific goal with your brand’s unique mix of knowledge and expertise.

And, when you write down your content mission and share it with your team, that’s a uniting factor that will give everything you do more purpose.

Rally around your content mission, rely on it as you build your content strategy, and return to it as you create content and execute your plan. In turn, it will help guide you toward the results you want.

The post How to write a content marketing mission statement appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

How paid placements will evolve alongside AI-powered search

Friday, March 31st, 2023

Google’s ad business will celebrate its 23rd year this fall, but not before paid search undergoes massive changes. As traditional search evolves with the advent of AI-powered functionality, so will pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

It’s unlikely Google will sit idly by and take massive revenue hits as paid placements decline. We don’t yet know what they will roll out to capitalize on AI-powered search – or when exactly users will see ads in this AI-powered experience.

We do know there will be fewer advertising opportunities, increased competition and higher costs. But AI will also help advertisers better target consumers – and it could help them optimize campaigns, too.

Here’s a closer look at how paid search will remain relevant, but advertisers must adjust their strategies to reach their targets in this new era.

The new search

AI assistants like Google Bard will help search evolve from transactional to conversational, according to Aaron Levy, vice president of paid search at performance marketing firm Tinuiti.

“Historically, each query would yield a series of answers and that’d be the end of the relationship,” he said. 

“ChatGPT/Bard is asking that we shift from repeating and tweaking searches toward refining with a human-esque conversation. It’s the same task, but a different way of getting there.”

In other words, there’s a new UI on the horizon for search.

“The usual list of links you get will be replaced by a chat box where you can converse with an AI bot and get direct responses to your queries,” said Trifon Tsvetkov, head of growth at online code interview tool CodeInterview. 

“To an extent, this will be similar to the featured snippet functionality we can see now, but with a lot more detail.”

To what extent this experience will overtake traditional search remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, Tsvetkov noted that some portion of traditional search will decline, so businesses should expect their paid search acquisition channels to be negatively impacted in at least some capacity.

That means brands that rely on paid search should also be prepared to evolve.

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The new paid search

This could theoretically be troublesome for search giant Google, which Jon Clark, managing partner of digital agency Moving Traffic Media, noted has built its entire model around paid search.

“But I can’t imagine Google’s just going to blow up their ad model tomorrow,” he added.

Indeed, Tsvetkov noted the odds are good Google will instead create new offering(s) to capitalize on AI-powered search functionality. 

“Fundamentally, these will still be driven by the user’s input and online behavior, just like it is now,” he added. “One example is referring products and services related to your AI-powered search, such as attraction tickets when asking the AI bot to create a travel itinerary.”

Levy, however, questioned at what point a query will be refined enough to deliver a relevant ad experience.

“Are platforms going to deliver an ad on the first question, embed it in the conversation … or as part of a conclusion?” he asked.

“My expectations are they’ll be interspersed but closer toward the ‘conclusion’ of the chat experience.”

That means ChatGPT/Bard will spend time understanding a consumer’s preferences and budget before presenting sponsored ads.

“This, to me, feels natural and won’t be too ‘in your face,’” Levy added.

In a similar vein, Eduard Dziak, CMO of B2B marketing site B2BDigitalMarketers, pointed to potential in “a more sophisticated version of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising” that is more natural and interactive and presents “a list of organizations that have paid to be featured, along with relevant information such as reviews, testimonials and experience.”

With more graphics and information, he said, “I believe it will provide an even better return on investment (ROI) than the current version of paid search ads, which can only provide information formatted in a limited way.”

He also envisions search engines incorporating display ads into search results to compensate for the loss of revenue from decreased web traffic.

“These display ads can be seamlessly integrated with chatbots, using images, animations and even pre-selected frequently asked questions by advertisers,” Dziak said. 

“This will make the search experience more interactive and natural for less technical users, such as my grandma, who can simply talk to chatbots about PPC or display ads.”

The new paid ads

That said, fewer links mean fewer ads.

“Companies need to recognize that if AI is driving more efficient search results that deliver more accurate results to consumers, fewer searches will be necessary, leading to less overall ad exposure,” said Rob Silver, executive vice president and head of media at interactive agency Razorfish. 

“This could lead to higher ad costs for sponsored listings and more competition for fewer placements.”

Hamza Hanif, SEO executive at web design agency Objects, agreed costs might increase as competition for top results intensifies.

“Advertisers may need to pay more to achieve the same level of visibility on search engine results pages, especially if AI-powered algorithms favor organic search results over paid ads,” he added. 

“This is because AI algorithms may be better at matching user intent with organic search results, making it more difficult for paid search ads to compete for visibility.”

Zaira Céspedes, junior SEO executive at digital marketing firm GA Agency, agreed.

“Due to the improvement in the accuracy and relevance of organic search results that appear for users, it will become more challenging for paid search ads to stand out,” she said. “This can lead to higher costs for PPC campaigns.”

Iu Ayala, founder of AI consulting company Gradient Insight, pointed out the potential for greater competition from larger companies with more resources and “an advantage in developing and implementing AI-powered strategies.”

At the same time, Silver noted this evolution makes SEO even more important since AI chatbot results increase the prominence of organic search results.

As consumers interact with fewer links, Casey Jones, head of marketing at digital marketing company CJ&CO, expects to see an increased focus on upper-funnel ads in particular.

When planning a trip, for example, AI-powered search will eliminate many necessary queries from traditional search.

“This means businesses will need to invest heavily in building brand awareness so that when AI serves options, people will choose what they’re already familiar with,” Jones added. 

“When people know what your products and services are about, they’ll be able to distinguish and make an informed choice while buying.”

Silver agreed.

“Companies need to prioritize brand awareness through elevated content that showcases the benefits and differentiation of their offerings,” he said. 

“When one of their ads does appear, it will be that much more important for it to resonate and have an impact with the consumer who sees it.”

Meanwhile, because AI-powered search better understands user intent, it will prioritize ads that are even more relevant to a given query. It may even become more selective about which ads to display.

“This means that advertisers will need to create more targeted ads tailored to specific user needs and interests,” said Syed Sameem Rizvi, a data scientist at IT company Code Avenue. 

“[And] advertisers may need to create a variety of ad formats in order to optimize their visibility on SERPs.”

The new targeting

On the plus side, AI-powered search should yield better targeting.

“AI can analyze large sets of data more efficiently than humans can, without compromising accuracy or relevance,” said Oskar Nowik, head of SEO at point of sale software company Epos Now. 

“With this capability, search marketers are able to more accurately predict what their consumers want when they make their queries – resulting in more targeted ads that generate higher engagement rates and improved conversions.”

In addition, AI-powered search can yield more accurate insights into search behavior, which will also help target consumers, personalize content and increase efficiency/ROI from paid search campaigns, said Søren Lassen Jensen, a junior digital marketer at cybersecurity firm CyberPilot.

The new optimization

In addition, Hanif expects AI-powered algorithms will help advertisers better optimize their paid placements. 

“By analyzing user behavior and search patterns, AI algorithms can identify which ads are most likely to resonate with users and which ones are not,” Hanif said. 

“Advertisers can then use this data to tweak their ad copy, keywords and targeting parameters, improving their ad performance over time.”

Ayala agreed.

“One of the main advantages of using AI in paid search is its ability to identify the most effective keywords, ad placements and targeting strategies,” he said.

“By analyzing consumer behavior and historical data, AI-powered tools can provide recommendations on how to optimize campaigns and improve conversion rates.”

In addition, Nowik noted that AI-powered algorithms could quickly determine the best possible ad placements and the optimal time for consumers to view ads to maximize conversions and minimize cost.

Céspedes said some AI-powered search tools might not provide full transparency into how results are generated, which could be an optimization challenge. 

Meanwhile, Jensen warned algorithms and AI-powered search might not be able to capture all of the nuances within a query, which could lead to inaccurate results or costly mistakes if not monitored closely.

He expects results will be difficult to replicate and monitor due to the complexity of the AI algorithms. 

“This can also lead to skewed data insights, which can then lead to inappropriate decision-making,” Jensen added. 

“Also, how will it be facilitated? We already know that the AI bots learn from the previous chats that you have with them.”

Levy, however, noted tracking is already “very broken” and he expects it will only get muddier as cookies finally pass and Google rolls out its version of Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP).

“Things will get more complicated and, if anything, rely more on AI modeling to present the most correct view of performance,” he added. 

The new keywords/bidding

Finally, expect changes in the backbone of PPC campaigns: keywords.

Nowik believes AI-powered algorithms will help automate the bidding process by detecting which keywords are most relevant so marketers don’t have to test combinations themselves manually.

“This helps save time and money since prices for each keyword need not be adjusted based on trial-and-error tests,” he said.

In the meantime, Jones expects broad match – which helps advertisers reach wider audiences without extensive keyword lists – will be more relevant than ever. 

This, he said, is good news for Bing because it uses Microsoft’s AI model, which prioritizes relevancy and will enhance the performance of broad match in paid search. 

“In the present scenario, Microsoft’s language model is better equipped to make Bing’s broad match more effective and improve paid search traffic to advertisers,” he said.

“This means Bing will have a larger paid search budget compared to Google, which will be a big positive for advertisers.”

Levy questioned whether AI-powered search will change auction dynamics from a bidding model to a commission-based/affiliate model, like Microsoft’s Hotel Price Ads and Google’s Local Services Ads.

“I envision more payment options for advertisers, which could throw things for a loop,” he added.

But, Kacper Rafalski, demand generation team leader at software development company Netguru, said it could also lead to increased reliance on automated systems and decreased control over ad targeting and bidding. 

For his part, John McGhee, owner of digital agency Webconsuls, believes keywords will become obsolete in their current form as Google Ads and Microsoft Ads migrate to a conversion-based system.

“Currently, adjusting keyword match types, keyword bids and adding negative keywords are still the primary way to improve relevancy and get your ads in front of the right users,” he said.

“In the future, those tasks will move over to adjusting various conversion actions and their values.”

That means PPC will use ROI-based bid strategies – and instead of raising a keyword bid, advertisers will adjust the value of a conversion action. 

“With AI expanding touch points massively, signals will replace search queries as the primary method of gauging user intent,” he added.

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

2023 Salary & Career guide: How much search marketers make

Thursday, March 30th, 2023

Search marketers earn anywhere from $60,000 to $220,000 in annual compensation (salary and bonuses), on average, according to a new Search Engine Land survey. 

Why we care. Search marketing is an attractive and satisfying career choice that can, over time, become increasingly lucrative. The keys to earning that higher compensation? Seniority, role and the size of the company or organization you work for.

By the numbers. VP and C-level positions earn the most – $220,613 in annual compensation, on average. Directors and senior directors earn $122,760; managers $87,688; and staff $60,866, all on average.

• Those who hold the position of VP or higher make 3.62 times more than their staff, according to our survey. 

Salaries vary greatly within roles. Averages sometimes can be misleading. So let’s break that down a bit further to get a more nuanced view:

• VP and C-level positions range from $50,000 to $400,000.
• Director and senior director-level salaries range from $25,000 to $300,000.
• Manager-level salaries range from $15,000 to $300,000.

Why the variance? Location is one big reason (see our Methodology section below). But there are more factors, such as the size of the organization and years of experience.

Case in point. Respondents who work at the largest companies get greater compensation. Search marketers at organizations with more than 10,000 employees earned $169,988, on average.

• 41% of the search marketers in our survey work at companies with more than 500 employees.

Compensation increases with seniority. Years of experience typically translate into higher compensation.

The first jump in salary comes around year six or seven (~$66,000 to ~$88,000), and the second salary jump comes when you reach year 10 (~$88,000 to ~$120,000), our data showed:

Graduate degrees don’t factor in compensation. Of the 276 respondents who answered this question, 66% said they did not have a graduate degree and earned $95,039, on average.

Meanwhile, 16% reported having a graduate degree in business, but their average salary was only slightly higher at $98,988, on average.

• Context: In the U.S., 14.4% of those age 25 and older hold an advanced degree (master’s, professional or doctoral), according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Meanwhile, more than 90% of search marketers have an undergraduate degree.

64% work at brands; 32% at agencies. Nearly two-thirds of respondents worked at brands. 

• Almost half (47%) of those working at brands primarily reported into marketing, while 15% reported to digital or ecommerce.

The majority (72%) of respondents said their role was digital marketing.

Of the 11% who answered “other,” more than half had “SEO” in their title.

Methodology. We surveyed 510 marketers between Jan. 11 to 23; 413 of those provided salary information. Invitations to take the survey were amplified on and by Search Engine Land.

Nearly 67% of the 510 respondents live in North America; 20% live in Western Europe. The conclusions in this report are limited to responses from those individuals only. Others were excluded due to the limited number.

The survey had more than 20 questions related to career roles, salary, technology, job satisfaction and challenges/frustrations. Respondents were given the opportunity to reveal their age and gender. 

More to come. Over the next two days, we’ll look at the differences in salaries and careers of women and men, and also dig deeper into roles and responsibilities.

The post 2023 Salary & Career guide: How much search marketers make appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

5 must-know Reddit Ads tactics for B2B marketers

Thursday, March 30th, 2023

Millennials and Gen Zers are set to dominate B2B buying committees this year, so keeping up with them is a must.

More than knowing the latest trends, we must continually assess:

• Where this target audience is. (What platforms are they on?)
• Where they are engaging with content.
• What type of material they are consuming.
• And most importantly, how to win their trust and keep it. 

On the flip side, all marketers know many platforms today are overcrowded with advertisers.

This is an uphill battle for B2B marketers competing against the often punchier and eye-grabbing creative for B2C brands. 

Enter Reddit Ads. B2B marketers can leverage Reddit to stand out from the crowd and stay in front of target audiences.

This article will outline tactical recommendations if you want to test the platform for the first time or need help to improve current campaigns.

1. Conversation placement ads > standard ads

Why use standard promoted ads when you can engage prospects when they are the most engaged? 

Conversation placement ads, positioned immediately after the original post and before the first comment, were created in 2021 to get brands where users spend most of their time – in a conversation thread.

Picture this. You’re a business interested in placing an ad on Reddit.

You go to the platform, learn about “Google Ads” and navigate to a conversation thread comparing three solutions you believe are right for your business.

Surprise, you can place your ad right there to add more information about your business. 

Since Reddit ranks organically, this increases your chances of showing up at the right time, especially when prospects are actively researching – particularly important for niche searches or verticals.

2. Instead of uploading emails lists, create website remarketing pools

B2B marketers love good email remarketing. While it’s available on Reddit, match rates for business emails are very low. 

Since email domains are not a popular option – unless you are paying for a solution like Liveramp – there is only one other alternative.

Set up the Reddit pixel across your website. You only need 50 users to start promoting your ads, and you can say hello to untapped niche audiences. 

The Reddit pixel is also a great window to confirm your best audience, whether it’s your current customers (if you have a login section on your website) or customers who land on your confirmation page (if you are a B2B ecommerce site).

Other advantages of using the Reddit pixel include:

• Ability to set up lookback windows between 1 and 90 days.
• Option to include and exclude pixel events to make sure you are not overlapping audiences
• Flexible conversion events ranging from pageviews and view content to lead and purchase.

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3. Find the right subreddits to target

Reddit is formed by communities called subreddits, typically denoted by a “r/” prefix preceding the category’s name. 

Subreddits can also be bucketed into larger topics, for example, gaming, crypto, or television, among many others.

You might be wondering how to find the best subreddits to place your ads.

This interactive tool allows users to map out subreddits and see how they connect to other related or more specific subreddits. 

For example, you can start by searching for the r/emailmarketing subreddit, and the tool will auto-generate a web of related subreddits, which you can then sort by category (i.e., new, hot, rising, and top). 

For marketers, this means easily finding niche audiences that fall under subreddits you may otherwise not have known existed.

On the map above, the starting category is marketing automation which is highly correlated to other big categories such as digital marketing, email marketing, content marketing, and growth hacking. 

But the map indicates that marketing automation can also be tied to more niche subreddits such as CRM, B2B SaaS, B2B marketing, and HubSpot, to name a few.

4. Content is king

While all the tactics we’ve reviewed are very helpful performance drivers, at the end of the day, a truly successful Reddit ad is contingent upon content quality.

Reddit users visit the platform to find “their people” – communities with a shared interest. 

These communities are the lifeblood of the platform and the source of the raw, honest information users seek. 

As marketers, we simply can’t use the same whitepaper or demo we might leverage on Google or LinkedIn Ads. 

This doesn’t mean advertising on Reddit or creating powerful content for Reddit has to cost you a lot of money. 

Rather, we need to shift our mindset to creating content that will be engaging and interactive, such as: 

• Free trials: The Reddit community is all about learning about new products or brands, so let them try you for free! No strings attached. This will boost conversion rates and puts you in a position to target niche communities and untapped audiences.
• Alphas or betas: Get honest feedback you can then upsell. This is magic content for B2B promotions via Reddit Ads. You can also set up a sales nurture track with your business development and product teams (it wins you points internally, too!) to automate follow-up time and get prospects on the phone engaged with the right stakeholders, which makes the prospect feel like a partner versus just another lead. Win-win! 

5. Control is key: Inventory types for sensitive B2B markets

Some industries are deemed sensitive within the B2B umbrella (i.e., healthcare, government, and pharmaceutical). 

Controlling where your content might appear is of the utmost importance if you’re part of one of these industries. 

To address this, Reddit released a feature called “inventory type” in 2020, which allows you to control your reach within the platform.

There are three inventory types on Reddit:

• Expanded inventory.
• Standard inventory.
• Limited inventory.

The limited inventory category, created in partnership with Oracle Data Cloud’s contextual intelligence, goes through Reddit rules and systems and third-party filtering, thanks to Oracle. This ensures advertisers can strengthen their brands through a regulated approach.

Many marketers have also expressed concerns about brand safety on Reddit, which often stem from a lack of understanding and the misconception that Reddit ads can appear almost anywhere and in any community. 

This isn’t true. Ads on Reddit can only appear in hand-picked communities, and you can even enable or disable comments on your ads. 

For even more control, marketers can include or exclude audiences so only the right people to see your ads.

Your target audience is very likely on Reddit! 

Sometimes an overlooked platform, Reddit is a great opportunity for B2B advertisers to reach niche communities while strategically diversifying media plans. 

Wondering if your audience is on the platform? Reddit is the fifth most visited website in the U.S., according to Semrush.

Follow the tactics outlined above and experiment with what’s possible on Reddit. It just may be the opportunity you’ve been looking for to fuel your marketing efforts.

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