This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Google is Showing More Content in Sitelinks
Google may be rolling out a new feature in the search results that lets you see more content from a website without having to click on the site. The new sitelinks are listed under the main search results snippet with arrows down to expand the results, and you can get more results by clicking “show more.” This may change your click-through rates if Google shows more of your content directly in the search results. Source: Search Engine Land
Google Ads Begins Recording Some Calls Initiated by Call Extensions
Google Ads is now recording a “small percentage” of phone calls that are initiated by call-only ads or call extensions in the US. The company says calls are being monitored and recorded in an effort to improve call quality for users and advertisers.
When a user initiates a call from a call-only ad or call extension they will hear a short message informing them that the call may be recorded by Google for quality assurance. In addition to evaluating calls for the purpose of reducing spam and fraud, calls will also be evaluated for compliance with Google Ads policies.
If Google evaluates a call and finds that an advertiser is violating its policies, the ad or extension that initiated the call will be disapproved.Going forward, advertisers will have to opt-in to call monitoring and recording in order to utilize call-only ads or call extensions. Source: Search Engine Journal
Google’s Now Showing Ranking Positions in Search Results
Google Search Console stats have been showing up in Chrome search results when users looks up a query that their site ranks for. Below the paid positions is where Google is showing: average ranking position for the query, number of impressions and the number of clicks your site has received. These stats are pulled from the last 7 days and are only visible when you are logged in with the same account that is used to manage your Search Console properties. Source: Search Engine Journal
Facebook Introduces New Tool for Measuring Effectiveness of Facebook Ads
Facebook introduces a new tool for measuring the effectiveness of Facebook ads. The new tool, called “Creative Compass”, is designed to help measure the impact of Facebook ads. It will evaluate ads by looking at key elements and ranking them on a scale of low to high impact. Examples of aspects that will be evaluated include: noticeability, brand association, call-to-action, etc.
The Creative Compass tool will help businesses understand how likely it is that their target audience will take action after seeing their ad. Currently, the tool is only being tested with select partners. By 2019, Facebook plans to make it available to all marketing partners. Source: Search Engine Journal
Analysis
Sneaky Duplicate Content Issues
Syndicated content is content republished on a different site with the permission of the original piece’s author. Ideally, the publisher should use the canonical tag on the article to indicate that your site is the original source of content. Another option is to use a noindex tag on the syndicated content. You may have also switched your site to HTTPS but the HTTP version is still accessible if there are backlinks from other sites pointing to HTTP pages, or because some internal links on your site contain the old protocol and they are not redirecting. You should update your internal links to point directly to the secure version of your pages. Source: Link Assistant
PPC Testing: Your Key to Innovation
Mark Ferree tested the effects of text in ad images on Facebook vs. LinkedIn. For this test, they used 3 ad variations (Most text, mid, least text) on each platform. With no surprise, the heavier image text in Facebook ads, the lower CTR became.
LinkedIn results were much more surprising with CTR increasing as ad text became heavier. Not only was CTR increase, but engagement rate as well.
LinkedIn audiences are likely searching the feed for information that is relevant to their professional life, making them more receptive to information on the image itself.
The biggest takeaway here is never stop testing, even if it goes against best practice. Source: PPC Hero
