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Microsoft announces Automotive Ads, Audience Network expansion, and 7 other updates

Written on August 3, 2022 at 1:48 am, by admin

Microsoft has just announced nine (9!) new updates on their blog. The updates include new Automotive Ads, vertical-based ads, and more. Let’s dive in. 

Automotive Ads

The new Automotive Ads are specific ad formats that are unique to the auto industry. The new ad format will display a photo of the vehicle for sale, the year, make, and model, condition, dealer website, price, and a short description. After a North American and Europe test, the ads will be rolled out to advertisers in the Asia Pacific and Latin American markets in the coming weeks.

Learn more about Automotive Ads and how to set them up here. 

Vertical-based ads

Vertical ads are created from dynamic feeds and appear in different formats depending on what the user is searching for. The ads use intent data and the user needs to create the ad. Microsoft AI uses the data feed to source the necessary information to display in the ad. Microsoft claims that the new ad format will minimize the time and resources required to set up and manage campaigns. 

Learn more about Automotive Ads and how to set them up here. 

Audience network updates

Market expansions 

The Microsoft Audience Network connects advertisers to MSN, Outlook, Microsoft Edge, and other publisher partners. Now Microsoft is expanding to 64 markets, with more coming later this year.  

New ad formats

Dynamic Remarketing will be expanded to verticals outside of just retail. You can now use Dynamic remarketing for travel, auto, and event ads. When the dynamic feed is set up, advertisers will have two options to set up Dynamic remarketing. 

1. Standard Universal Event Tracking (UET). Using the UET tag, you can send ads to users who have been on your website. The tag will not need to be updated if the product ID is presented. Microsoft will know if a visitor has been to the website if the product ID shows in the URL
2. UET with additional parameters. Updating your UET tag to pass back additional parameters will give advertisers access to more audiences. With those parameters, you can access:

• ​General visitors
• Product searchers
• Product viewers
• Cart abandoners
• Past buyers

Additional bidding solutions

For video ads, there are now three different bidding options. 

Additionally, a pilot for automated bidding has just been launched. You can use Enhanced CPC to help maximize conversions on audience campaigns. Microsoft says that more automated bidding solutions will be released soon. 

Customer data platform integrations for Customer Match

Last month Microsoft announced that they were expanding Customer Match to new markets. Today they announced that if you use a Customer Data Platform you can connect it to Microsoft Advertising to import your customer lists. Current integrations include Ampertiy and Adobe Ad Cloud for Search. More integrations will be available soon. 

Expanding audience targeting new markets

In-market Audiences are now available in:

Latin America: Aruba, Bahamas, Bolivia, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Montserrat, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.

Asia Pacific: Bangladesh, Brunei, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka.

Similar Audiences are now available in more markets

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hong Kong, Iceland, Japan, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, South Africa, Taiwan, and Turkey.

Smart Campaigns are expanding to new markets

Microsoft is now piloting new markets in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Reporting experience updates

There is a new drop-down menu that will help advertisers access all reports. Those reports can be found on the updated landing page grid. You can also filter the grid to quickly access the reports you need. 

RSA reminder!

Microsoft also added a reminder that August is the last month to migrate your Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) to Responsive Search Ads. Starting on August 29, RSAs will be the only search ad type that can be created or edited in standard search campaigns. Existing Expanded Text Ads will still serve, but you won’t be able to edit or add them.

You can read the entire announcement from Microsoft, with all of the updates here. 

Why we care. Microsoft continues to release numerous updates and products, which is giving Google a run for its money. Microsoft and their partner networks reach about 724 million users each month and these new features could be good news for advertisers looking for Google alternatives, or to expand their impression share.

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Webinar: Marketers’ secrets to overcoming challenges

Written on August 1, 2022 at 10:29 pm, by admin

MarTech recently surveyed nearly 300 marketers from brands across the U.S. to uncover their most significant challenges and strategies for overcoming them.

Join our panel to learn more about how marketers overcome their biggest challenges and the technology they adopt to drive results. Attendees will receive a copy of the report.

Register today for “What Marketers Must Know to Rise Above Economic and Buyer Uncertainty,” presented by Highspot.

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Tips for how to post effectively on LinkedIn from SEO Sara Taher

Written on August 1, 2022 at 10:29 pm, by admin

Whenever I visit LinkedIn lately, I almost always see an update from Sara Taher, the SEO Team Lead at Flywheel Digital.

And many of her posts tend to get a lot of engagement. Her updates regularly attract hundreds of reactions, comments and shares. 

So what’s her secret to posting effectively on LinkedIn and being so visible? Has she figured out the LinkedIn algorithm?

Taher was kind enough to give a little insight into her LinkedIn posting strategy. What follows are highlights of our Q&A. You may notice that much of the advice Taher shares aligns with LinkedIn’s advice for creators.

Pick your LinkedIn goal(s). Taher’s biggest goal on LinkedIn? To build her personal brand. 

• “My audience is SEO and digital marketers mainly, but I was able to attract some tech-savvy business owners and some marketing managers looking for SEO consultants,” Taher said.

Keys to a successful LinkedIn post. Taher said she doesn’t use a schedule. She writes based on inspiration. Very often, Taher said she gets an idea for a post from something she is actively working on.

So what formula works for Taher?

• “The formula is four things. Provide 1. relatable and 2. actionable information. 3. Be yourself and 4. be real.”
• “SEOs can understand my posts, I make sure it’s easy and simple to understand. They also find it relevant to everyday SEO tasks.”

This post is one example of her doing that, when she discussed content audits. 

Here’s another, in which she discussed optimizing the homepage:

In addition to sharing SEO insights and tips, Taher opens up about herself.

In this post, she noted how posting something about herself made her feel “seen” as a person for the first time.

And in this post, she discussed confidence, which she admitted she struggles with. 

Is there a “best time” to post on LinkedIn? I know, I know. Posting at mid-morning, midweek guarantees nothing in terms of visibility or engagement for your LinkedIn post. But I was curious if Taher had noticed any days or times that worked generally for her. Here’s what she said:

• “My audience is international with different time zones and even sometimes different weekend days (some countries take Friday and Saturday off as weekend). I just found that posting first thing in the morning my time, and generally posting on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, would get the most engagement.”

What to avoid. Taher also has some advice on what doesn’t work:

• “Definitely trying to be like someone else. Don’t try to imitate other people’s style,” Taher said.

Taher said she learned a lot by following other SEO experts on LinkedIn and connecting with them. But you can learn from others without copying them. 

Defining success. Success will depend on your goals. So how does Tahker measure “success” for her LinkedIn post? 

• “Success for me is when I get engagement on a post. And when I get positive feedback from followers.”

One final bit of advice. And this is something more people in our space need to hear:

• “Posting and becoming a public figure in the SEO community is a responsibility, as people actually follow your advice. So don’t post anything you are not 100% sure of.”

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You can change cookie expiration and update settings in GA4

Written on August 1, 2022 at 10:29 pm, by admin

Instead of using the Google Tag Manager or global site tag code for cookie expiration or settings, you can now update them in GA4.

Google announced last week that if you want to make changes to the default cookie settings, you can do so right in the GA4 property column section of your account.

Read the announcement and help guide. You can read the announcement and learn how to change these settings here.

Why we care. Making these changes can now be done faster and easier through GA4 instead of contacting your developer or making updates to the global site tag.

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Google begins testing FLEDGE API on AdSense

Written on August 1, 2022 at 10:29 pm, by admin

FLEDGE is a Privacy Sandbox proposal for remarketing and audiences. It’s designed so that it can’t be used by third parties to track user browsing behavior across websites. Google will begin testing the API on AsSense accounts on August 28. 

What is FLEDGE. The API uses interest groups to enable sites to display ads they believe are relevant to their users. According to Google, when a user visits a website that wants to advertise its products, an interest group owner (such as a DSP working for the site) can ask the user’s browser to add membership for the interest group. The group owner (in this example, the DSP) does this by calling the JavaScript function navigator.joinAdInterestGroup(). If the call is successful, the browser records:

• The name of the interest group: for example, ‘custom-bikes’.
• The owner of the interest group: for example, ‘https://dsp.example’.
• Interest group configuration information to enable the browser to access bidding code, ad code, and real-time data, if the group’s owner is invited to bid in an online ad auction. This information can be updated later by the interest group owner.

Later when a user visits a website that sells ad space, the seller for the website can use FLEGDE to run an ad auction to select the most appropriate ads to display to the users. Bidding is only run for the interest groups the user is a member of, and whose owners have been invited to bid.

Learn more about FLEDGE. You can learn more about the API here. 

AdSense testing. Testing for FLEDGE will begin on August 28 in AdSense. Google does not predict any revenue change or performance impacts “for now.” You can turn off access to FLEDGE on your Chrome browsers by following the instructions here. 

Why we care. Google announced last week that cookies will remain in Chrome until at least mid to late 2024. However, if the FLEDGE API test is successful, audiences and remarketing ads may become less specific and advertisers could have a tougher time converting. On the other hand, as users are added to interest groups like “running shoes” for example, they could possibly be served additional ads whose products are in the same category. If you’re an advertiser, learn how the FLEDGE API could categorize your product or service and how this may impact your remarketing ads.

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SEO webinar on getting quality backlinks

Written on July 29, 2022 at 1:22 pm, by admin

Getting backlinks is one of the most challenging and time-consuming tasks in SEO. So how do you get started on creating a successful outreach program that brings in quality links?

Join Purelinq’s Kevin Rowe, who will walk you through creating a scalable outreach program to create a natural link profile, meet minimum quality requirements and drive maximum impact.

Register today for “Everything You Should Know About Building Quality Links at Scale,” presented by Purelinq.

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8 steps to a successful entity-first strategy for SEO and content

Written on July 28, 2022 at 10:17 am, by admin

Entity search can be a massive competitive advantage. But you first need to build your entity-based strategy. 

This article will cover how to create a robust entity-first strategy to help our content and SEO efforts.

Most common challenges search and content marketers face

Relevant, topical content, discovery based on customer intent is still the biggest challenge we face as search marketers. 

Content relevancy, in my mind, means the content is personalized, must tell a story, should be scannable, readable, provides images, and the layout can be consumed on any device.

Here are five outcomes we aim to accomplish with content:

• Discovery: Ensure content is discoverable and available across various customer touchpoints. 
• Relevancy: Ensure content meets all the searchers’ needs and contains all topics and sub-topics that a searcher cares about, is easy to read and understand and tells a story.
• Measurability: Content aligned with overall SEO strategy and is scalable and measurable.
• Experience: Content delivers a great user experience and is scannable.
• Engagement: Helps drives engagement and guides the visitors to the desired goals – sign-ups, purchases, form fills, calls, etc.

The most common struggle we all face is determining what type of content to create or add. 

Aligning strategies with search engines 

Search engines are evolving and content marketing strategies need to align across all verticals from popularity and quality to the intent behind the query and the overall page experience. 

Search engine priorities, results, algorithms and needs have evolved over time.

Evolution of search engines and impact

As users search on screenless devices and spoken queries increase, search engines use artificial intelligence and machine learning to try and replicate how humans think, act and react. 

Search engines must decode a sentence (or paragraph) long query and serve results that best match it. This is where entities come in.

Entities are things search engines can understand without any ambiguity independent of language. Even when a website has a wealth of content, search engines need to understand the context behind it, identify the entities within the content, draw connections between them and map them to the query of the searcher.

Deploying schemas and marking up the entities within your content gives search engines the context and helps them understand your content better.

A convergence of technology and content

Content, where entities are not marked with schemas, tends to underperform.

Similarly, deploying schemas on content that does not contain all the relevant entities or does not provide all the information will also not have maximum impact.

Entity optimization uses advanced nested schemas deployed on content that meets the searchers’ needs and contains all the relevant topics and entities.

Let’s use a live project as an example and show what we accomplished for one of our clients. 

8 steps to developing an entity-first strategy 

We deployed the eight steps given below as an entity-first-strategy for one of our client in the health care vertical to help them get the best topical coverage and visibility. We started by identifying the most relevant schema in their industry followed by determining the gaps within their content for both schema and entities.  

Eight steps for an entity-first strategy

1. Identified schema vocabulary 

 We created a list of all applicable schemas in the healthcare industry. 

2. Determined the schema gaps 

We identified the schema gaps by comparing the current site content against the applicable schemas. 

3. Mapping schema 

Once we identified the schema gaps, we identified the most relevant pages to deploy the unused schemas.

4. Market opportunity and potential sizing 

We used in-depth keyword research and analysis of current content performance.

Map content based on informational, navigational and transactional content.

It is critical to see how your current branded and non-branded content is performing and what your focus should be based on business goals.  

Market opportunity and potential sizing

We identified the pages that could see the most impact and potential from topic, entity, and schema optimization.

5. Map topic gaps 

Once we identified the best potential pages, we cross-referenced the gaps in the content by analyzing the topics and entities covered by other ranking websites. 

6. Identify Content Opportunities

We enhanced the page architecture by adding relevant content elements, such as images, headings and lists. 

 Page layout showing schema and content opportunities 

Topic/entity gaps covered:

• care plan
• Treatment
• Treatment center
• ABA services
• Behavior technician
• Autism spectrum disorder
• BCBA
• ABA therapist
• ABA services

Schema gaps covered:

• Medical organization
• SiteNavigationElement
• Medical clinic
• availableService
• hasmap
• FAQ
• ItemList

7. Content enhancement 

Optimized the content by incorporating missing topics and entities

8. Create better than the best website page 

We then created the perfect in-depth page, rich with relevant topics the target audience is searching for.

Measuring entity strategy Impact

When we measured the impact of adding entities and schema into our strategy for this healthcare company, we saw a 66% lift in visibility and inclusions in rich results.

Overall impact of new page.

While the above image is just one example of the impact entities and schema can have, you can see below how many different industries benefit by deploying schema and entity coverage. 

Impact of schemas across various industries.

Key takeaways

Creating content is more than writing. It is robust when you add in all the elements from design, development, topical entity coverage and schema. All these elements need to align to give optimum results. 

Keeping organization in mind, cluster pages of relevant content and connect them through pillar pages, ensuring to take advantage of the interlinking opportunities.

Treat each page as the main category page with several relevant pages linked. Adding interlinking helps in discovery and relevancy.

Once you have an entity-first strategy for content, you need to think about how to scale the process of:

• Understanding the entity.
• Tagging schema.
• Pruning broken links or errors as they come.
• Continuing to add more meaningful content.   

Entity optimization frameworks for large enterprise sites 

In my next article, we will explore how you can deploy, measure and report performance, enhance where needed and scale your entity-first strategy.  

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Webinar: Unlock the power of TikTok for your social strategy

Written on July 28, 2022 at 10:17 am, by admin

With 800 million active users worldwide, TikTok is influencing a whole new generation of social media users and consumers.

This webinar will break down how content and influencers drive engagement and influence consumer behavior. Learn how to measure your competitive share of voice, engage consumers and drive revenue growth for your business.

Register today for “Unlock the Power of TikTok for Your Social Strategy” presented by NetBase Quid.

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GA4 now shows Performance Max and Smart Shopping data

Written on July 28, 2022 at 10:17 am, by admin

Everyones favorite new tool Google Analytics 4 is now showing performance data from Performance Max and Smart Shopping campaigns.

Where. To view PMax and SS campaigns, navigate to Acquisition > Traffic acquisition report, you’ll see that the data is organized by the Session default channel grouping dimension. (Click + to choose a secondary dimension.) Performance Max and Smart Shopping campaigns are under Cross Network.

Google announcement. This is one that Google may or may not have forgotten to publicly announce, but Charles Farina discovered and posted about it on Linkedin this week. You can review the GA4 default channel groupings help doc here.

Why we care. The rollout of GA4 has a lot of us less than enthused. Mix that in with the elusiveness of Performance Max and you have yourself some pretty PO’d advertisers. While the addition of this data gets us one step closer to full visibility, let’s just see how the information is reported and attributed.

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Google Merchant Center no longer disapproves login required and restricted purchase free product listings

Written on July 28, 2022 at 10:17 am, by admin

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

What changed. Google said previously, Google Merchant Center accounts with the “Login required” or the “Restricted purchase”  issue were automatically disapproved.

Now, free listings in Google Merchant Center accounts with this issue status are still active, but their products have limited visibility on Google. This only impacts free listings.

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

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

Why we care. If you have been juggling these policies on your e-commerce site with these login required and/or restricted purchase listings in Google Merchant Center, you now should know that the status won’t be disapproved. Instead, Google will show them as active but these free listings may not show so highly and often in Google Search and Google Shopping.

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