This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Instagram Updates
Instagram has rolled out an update that lets users upload up to 10 photos and videos to their stories at the same time. This can be used if you’re waiting for a stronger phone connection to upload all of your photos from that day. Instagram is also expanding their offensive comment filter to include comments containing attacks on a person’s appearance or character or that are threatening an individual’s well-being. This filter is enabled on all accounts by default, but can be turned off from the settings menu if you’d prefer to see all comments. Source: Search Engine Journal
Microsoft to Launch New Audience Network
Announced at the recent Bing Partner Summit, Microsoft revealed a new display network known as the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN). This new network combines a number of elements including Bing search-intent signals, Microsoft’s AI capabilities and the Microsoft audience graph. Using this network, Bing advertisers can extend their campaigns across various Microsoft and third-party properties via the new “Audience Ads Campaigns”. General Manager of Search Advertising at Microsoft Steve Sirich stated that what sets the MSAN apart from Google and Facebook is the quality of the MSAN itself and the fact that you can target millions of people you can’t reach on Google or Facebook. Source: Search Engine Land
New GMB Dashboard
Google launches new Google My Business API to manage multiple locations. This allows single organization accounts to manage all locations and is no longer limited to 100 places. User groups were added to manage internal teams and control access to the locations. The new interface also has easier access to offer posts and merchant descriptions and improved search functionality across locations. You can sign up for the agency partner program and have access to this new dashboard in the coming weeks. Source: Search Engine Land
Google Releases New AdWords Editor 12.3 Update
With the previous AdWords editor version update being 6 months ago, advertisers have been impatiently waiting for a new update. The wait is over with the release of AdWords Editor 12.3. This new version most notably adds Custom Intent audiences, interest categories for Search and Shopping campaigns, and Responsive search ads to the editor among other updates. To be able to access these features, all you need to do is update your AdWords editor version to 12.3. Source: Search Engine Roundtable
New Facebook Analytics
A new analytics feature has been added by Facebook to includes a tool that tracks customer journeys through multiple channels. This reporting can auto-detect sale funnels so marketers can see what users are doing before a conversion. This data is anonymously aggregated and not tied to any specific individual identities. Facebook also introduced a Analytics app for measuring performance of business pages that is available on iOS and Android. Alerts can be set up to receive notifications in the app when notable changes occur. Source: Marketing Land
Analysis
Understanding Yahoo Sponsored Mail Ads
While many advertisers have had experience with Google’s Sponsored Promotions, some may forget that mail ads are not exclusive to Google. Because of this, PPC Hero Shannon Glass helps us cover the basics of Yahoo’s very own Sponsored Mail Ads. Much like Google’s Sponsored Promotions, Yahoo Sponsored Mail Ads will show within a user’s Yahoo inbox with a similar appearance to a regular email. When the ad is clicked, it will expand into a larger format with a call-to-action. To set up a Yahoo Mail campaign, you will need to select “Open My Mail Ad” as an objective when creating a new campaign in Yahoo Gemini. Also similar to Gmail ads, this type of campaign will require image creative for both the thumbnail and the expanded image. When launched, Glass recommends a healthy mode of ad creative testing, bid adjustments and eCPC tests, and adjusting demographic targeting to continue to optimize your Sponsored Mail Ad campaign. Source: Shannon Glass, PPC Hero
How to fix a Drop in Traffic
Rodger Montti from Search Engine Journal explains what to do when your traffic dropped but your site rankings didn’t change. When a drop in ranking happens gradually over time, this can mean a change in user behavior. Use Google Trends to see whether your important search queries are trending upwards or holding steady. If a change in traffic happened overnight, this is likely a result of how the search engines are displaying results. Browsers are currently displaying alerts for sites that are not secure and Google’s switch to mobile-first indexing can affecting some sites positions. If new featured snippets are impacting your ranking, see what Google is using for the featured snippet and try to optimize your content around that. Source: Search Engine Journal