You are here

Year: 2018

SEM 

2018 paid search benchmark report from Adthena — How do you compare?

news

Get data and insights from the industry’s biggest-ever analysis of paid search.   A challenge in the search industry is that typically advertisers only have access to a single data set (their own). Competitive insights allow advertisers to benchmark individual performance against industry or category averages. For senior decision-makers in digital, this intelligence can be used to refine, iterate and optimize search campaigns. This benchmark report from Adthena is a big-data study of over 100,000 advertisers. It seeks to bring a degree of transparency to category ad spend and performance…

Read More
SEO 

How to understand searcher intent and use it to boost SEO rankings

news

Understanding the intent behind the keywords you target simplifies the entire SEO process, says contributor Marcus Miller. Here is a look at how to understand and categorize keywords based on intent. Search engines exist to provide users with results that are relevant to the search query. Smart SEO campaigns are built on an understanding of how your audience searches around your industry, products and services. A key point here is understanding the intent behind a given keyword search. A user wants to find specific information, and search engines have advanced…

Read More
google 

Google testing AMP label in Search ads

news

The label is showing on some text ads with AMPed landing pages. Google has been running a test to serve AMP-enabled landing pages from mobile Search ads for just over a year. Now Google is experimenting with showing the AMP lightning icon next to the description in some of those text ads. Below is an example of the test, spotted by a reader, running on an ad for Event Tickets Center, which has been participating in the AMP test from the beginning.   This is just a test for now,…

Read More
Bing 

Bing will start banning more weapons-related ads starting July 1

news

Bing is updating its weapon policy. Bing is expanding the scope of its policy prohibiting certain weapons-related advertising. As of July 1, 2018, Bing will no longer allow ads for BB guns, paintball guns, air rifles or parts that can be attached to weapons, used to create ammunition or aid in the reloading of a weapon. This update expands on the existing ban on ads for firearms, integral weapon parts and ammunition. “Many of the recreational type guns like air rifles look like real guns and consumers may be led…

Read More
Bing 

Bing Merchant Center launches Google Merchant Center Import tool

news

Product feed imports can be scheduled to easily keep them current for Bing Shopping campaigns. Bing is making it easier to get started with Shopping campaigns on the platform. This week, Bing Ads launched the ability to import product feeds from Google Merchant Center into Bing Merchant Center. From the new Import tab in Bing Merchant Center (BMC), advertisers can sign into their Google Merchant Center accounts to pull in feeds directly. No more having to upload product feeds to two separate places.   To ensure the feeds are up…

Read More
Marketing 

Facebook ‘Weaponized’ User Data, Says Bikini Photo-Finding App Developer

news

Facebook is facing accusations of gathering more user data than disclosed. According to court filings, former start-up Six4Three claimed that the social media company conducted mass surveillance on its users and their friends alike. Based on the lawsuit documents, Facebook reportedly had access to its users’ text messages, photos, and microphones. It can even track their locations by remotely activating the Bluetooth on mobile devices without permission. All of these accusations were detailed in Six4Three’s fifth version of the complaint, initially filed in 2015. In response, Facebook refuted the claims…

Read More
Marketing 

Instagram Explains How Its Algorithm Works, Busts Common Myths

news

It might have taken them almost two years, but Instagram has finally explained the inner-workings of its algorithm-based feed. It was in July 2016 when the photo-sharing platform shifted to a machine-learning approach from reverse chronological order. A lot of users raised a ruckus over the announced change, but Instagram stood fast and opted instead to reveal how its algorithm ranking works. In an information session with reporters, Instagram pointed out that its machine learning depends on a user’s past behavior to generate a personalized feed. There are three primary…

Read More
Latest News 

What do Google and a toddler have in common? Both need to learn good listening skills.

news

At the Sixth International Conference on Learning Representations, Jannis Bulian and Neil Houlsby, researchers at Google AI, presented a paper that shed light on new methods they’re testing to improve search results. While publishing a paper certainly doesn’t mean the methods are being used, or even will be, it likely increases the odds when the results are highly successful. And when those methods also combine with other actions Google is taking, one can be almost certain. I believe this is happening, and the changes are significant for search engine optimization specialists (SEOs)…

Read More
Latest News 

Search and direct mobile navigation surpass Facebook as traffic referrers

news

Chartbeat is reporting that direct mobile traffic and traffic from Google search have both surpassed referrals from Facebook on mobile devices. This is at least partly attributable to Facebook News Feed algorithm changes that happened late last year and continued early this year. The change, in which Facebook prioritized friends and family posts over “public content,” resulted in traffic declines at many publisher sites that had been relying heavily on the social site for traffic. Chartbeat’s data shows that traffic to publisher sites and native apps has held steady. As Facebook referral traffic to publishers using…

Read More
Bing 

Bing Ads brand CPC taking the elevator — up

news

While this sudden reversal continues to be somewhat of a mystery, another brand cost-per-click trend continues to take hold on Google’s primary US-based competitor, Bing, where CPC growth has accelerated quickly over the past several months for unknown reasons. The rise of Bing Ads brand CPC Looking at year-to-year Bing Ads brand text ad growth for the median advertiser from a sample of long-standing Merkle (my employer) clients, we find growth started to accelerate in May 2017. Unfortunately for brands, this acceleration carried on into the new year, with February…

Read More