Just like you, all week we wait for Friday to come around so we can share the latest gossip making the rounds on the internet. We sift through countless articles until we finally hit the jackpot and find the most compelling piece of news to exhilarate you. We bet you’re aching to find out all the juicy tidbits, so let’s not make you wait any longer and let’s dive into it. This week it’s all about Google. The search engine giant is fighting back and targeting the shutdown of Private Blog Networks involved in duping Google to obtain a high rank in the search results.
NEWS
Google’s Solution: Estimated Cross-Device Conversions for Display Ads
Advertisers were running around looking for a solution to understand if their attempts at marketing their products and services through display ads and across different platforms were being notcied or falling upon deaf ears. However, their worries were shotlived when Google came to their rescue. Google introduced estimated cross-device conversions for display ads, an extension of the Estimated Total Conversions for search ads, to measure the conversions that took place on one device and ended on another. Now, advertisers – thanks to Google – can effectivly meaure the data, estimate it, and attritbute it to AdWords. Read more on Marketing Land.
Google Penalizes Private Blog Networks
What happens when Google’s rules aren’t taken seriously? Google goes on a massive hunt to shutdown sites tricking their search engine to generate links for SEO rankings. That’s exactly the fate of private blog networks (PBN) right now. Google on September 18 sent out a manual action notice to several PBN owners informing them their site fails to follow the rules and guidelines established in the Google Webmaster Tools. One person who was hit by this manual action claim was Spencer Haws, who promised to never use content or link spamming techniques to boost his site’s rankings. Read more on Search Engine Land.
Facebook Clarifies Custom Audiences TOS
The advent of Facebook gave advertisers an opportunity to target people on a wider scale. However, whether knowingly or unknowingly, advertisers broke some crucial rules stated in Facebook’s Custom Audiences TOS. Before Facebook clarified the rules, advertisers scraped UIDs and bought email addresses to target people not affiliated with them in any way. The people weren’t customers nor did they grant the advertiser the right to bombard them with advertisements. With the Custom Audiences TOCs revised, advertisers need to beware of how they’re building up their email list. Read more on Jon Loomer.
Facebook: ClickThrough Rate Soars to New Heights
Komfo reports that users are more likely to click on content they find interesting. Their 
study concludes that fan penetration for brand pages went down 55 percent with the clickthrough rate up 48 percent. What does this mean for brands marketing their products and services through Facebook? Marketers need to change the way they push content out to people. Instead of pushing generic updates about their brand, they need to engage the user, encouraging them to click on it and visit their page. Facebook, seeing where the interest of the user lies, also acknowledged the importance of engaging people through meaningful content. According to Facebook, posts that get the most likes, comments, click, and shares will get more exposure. However, this has led to a decrease in the reach metric, something that doesn’t sit well with the page admins. Read more on Inside Facebook.
Dynamic Remarketing: A Profitable Solution
Advertisers across all verticals rejoiced when dynamic remarketing became available. Now hotels, real estate, flights, jobs, auto, education, finance, and classifieds can take advantage of this platform. In fact, they already are. Stores such as Netshoes and Bebe have been churning in more profit from their remarketing campaigns than ever before. Stores have been busy launching campaigns through display ads for mobiles and attracting customers by showing them tailored ads of products they saw on a site or ads that match their interests. To read more about dynamic remarketing, visit Google Analytics.
Google’s Latest Panda Update Targets “Thin Content”
Google’s latest Panda update is ready to take down “thin content” for good. The update allows Google to push down “thin content” further down the search rankings by identifying them with the help of the user and webmaster. This update enables high quality content to remain on the top in search rankings. Additionally, the update also gives a second chance to people penalized before by Panda, but only if they corrected their wrongs. Therefore, be on the lookout for heavy traffic flooding your site, if it does, the update worked miracles for you, just don’t repeat the same mistake again. Read more on Search Engine Journal.
TIPS & TRICKS
Landing Page Mistakes to Avoid
Wondering where you’re going wrong with your site? If your site hasn’t seen an influx of traffic for a long time, there may be something wrong with the portrayal of your site’s landing page. Many factors deter users from visiting your site. They may not understand the layout, the site takes too long to load, the opt-in form confuses them, it doesn’t set itself apart from its competitors, or the call to action doesn’t engage them in thought. For examples and details, visit Unbounce.
Using Proper Marketing Channels Leads to Greater Profits
Revenue reporting is widely used for tracking the amount of money generated within a month. However, this is not its only purpose. Revenue reporting has many other purposes, they help you keep track of the ad campaign and see what types of customers generate the most money for the company. To get the most out of revenue reporting, invest in a channel that can get you the most revenue, has a wider reach, and then figure out the type of marketing channel that reels in the most customers. Read more on HubSpot.
Fixing Google Analytics Configuration Issues
Google data is vital for the success of a business. If the data is inaccurate, the business suffers, losing 12% revenue. Although Google Analytics has made it easier for companies to collect data, you need to teach it to collect data that is of the highest quality. Some issues that people run into include not tagging the website properly, if auto-tagging is disabled, dropped tags due to clicking through a third party to go on to your site, goal conversion halts because the URLS are not updated properly, and if a diagnostic user ignores a crucial message detecting a problem, it doesn’t show up again. For quick fixes to these issues, visit Google Analytics.
Eye-Catching Content from Unexciting Businesses
When you spot boring and unexciting content, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth and you leave the page instantly as it doesn’t do anything to attract your attention. What if the content was interesting and didn’t belong to big brands such as Red Bull, LEGO, and so on? Boring businesses can also liven up their content to attract users. Although it is a rare occurrence, but sometimes a boring business hits the jackpot and produces something that leaves everyone in awe. If you’re itching to see which brands made the cut, visit E-consultancy.
Tablets or iPhones: Are They the Same?
In your opinion, do you think that tablets are just larger versions of smartphones? Market researchers agree that it’s the same, but many disagree with their viewpoint. There has been a lot of debate on this issue with some deeming it controversial. For this reason, this issue has been left up to much debate. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said that iPad isn’t a mobile, but it’s a computer. While Richard Guest, president of US operations at Tribal Worldwide said that the tablet is the modern era’s advertising medium. On the other hand, Kevin Scholl, Red Roof Inn digital director, said that smartphones are the new laptops. With such stark viewpoints, the debate to what technology tablets replace is still up in the air. To gain a better insight on this debate, visit ADweek.
Your Website’s Design Needs to Tell a Story
The first thing that users come in contact with is the layout of the website. If the layout of the website is boring and dull, it won’t take long for users to switch to another one. Pictures, text, colors, and the overall design of the website needs to persuade users to come and browse the site. For some inspiration, check out these ten websites with spectacular website designs on E-Consultancy.
Google’s Sitelink Search Box is Your New Enemy
Google’s Sitelink search box has become a threat for website admins. What the sitelink search box does may surprise some. In a nice wrapped up package it provides your competitors with the branded traffic that you earned through hard work and effort. The good news is that you can stop it from doing so by implementing a specific markup. By implementing the markup, users will be able to go from your sitelinks search box to your site’s search results page instantly. Read more on Blind Five Year Old.
PRESENTATIONS AND VIDEOS
Don’t Miss a Chance to Promote Your Product even on a Holiday
Holidays are the best time to put your product out there. You can personalize your brand according to the holiday that the nation is currently celebrating. You can model your campaign around it to create a fun-filled promotion. In fact, depending on the holiday, you can create an ad campaign that touches people in some emotional and thought provoking way. So, choose your marketing channels carefully, measure its success to use it again in the future, and select your target market. Read more on Ecity Commerce.
Instagram: The New Platform Raking in Big Bucks for Advertisers
The users on Instagram are growing and so is the opportunity for advertisers. Advertisers can use this medium to attract a variety of customers and reach out to audiences on a much wider scale. With the majority of the website’s users between the ages of 21-24, advertisers have found a lucrative way to earn profit. Some fun facts are that 50% of users are in North America, 50 % are teens and active users, and 25% are in top income quartile. Read more on Allfacebook.
Google’s Finally Connecting the Dots
Shockwaves…
That’s what Google is aiming to send across the entire marketing landscape, again. Find out how the search engine is extending its obsession by giving us better search result by semantically connecting concepts and ideas to what brands are selling. Read on The Moz Blog.
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