This Week’s Industry News
Compiled by the Rocket Clicks Team
Top Stories
Emojis Return to AdWords Ads
Advertisers have recently noticed that some emojis are still available in AdWords ad copy, which is surprising since emojis have been disabled in AdWords. But, a screenshot was recently posted of an ad containing a lightning bolt emoji by Sasa Kovacevic from the search agency obsidian.dk. This news follows the recent emoji ban in Shopping ads several weeks ago after advertisers were using them in their product listings. If you wish to test your own emojis use them at your own risk since they are against the rules. Source: The SEM Post
Google Reveals Top 3 Ranking Factors
In a recent Google Q&A, Search Quality Senior Strategist Andrey Lipattsev revealed that links, content, and RankBrain are the top three ranking factors for search. While this top three surprises exactly no one, it’s a rare move for Google to divulge information of this nature. Also, there is no official order to this list, but it is presumed that links and content are 1a and 1b on the list. Source: Search Engine Land
Landing Page Content Appearing in Bing Ads Description Lines
A new test in Bing has recently been drawing the concern of advertisers. It appears as though in some cases rather than using the advertiser’s ad copy, Bing seems to be pulling data from the landing pages being used and implementing them into the description line of the ad copy. Although this test seems to be specific desktop devices in the Firefox browser, this test has raised several red flags from advertisers since there’s no reason to believe these ads would perform better than the ones they create. Source: The SEM Post
“People Ask For” Showing Up More Frequently in Google
According to data recently published by Moz, there was a huge jump in the percentage of queries that returned a “People Also Ask” box. The percentage virtually doubled overnight from about 7.5% to just below 15% of search results. It appears the wider implementation of this feature is a sign that Google is happy with how testing has gone over the last few months. Source: The SEM Post
Bing Testing Social Media Extensions
Another test in the world of Bing Ads is the inclusion of Social Extensions, which allows advertisers to promote various social media pages. The extension appears underneath the ad copy and can provide links to a Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram account. This extension could be big for businesses that are active on social media, especially since this has been a growing area for customer service. You can reach out to your Bing rep now to be included in the beta. Source: Search Engine Land
Google Aiming to Eventually Add Video Compatibility and More for AMP
Since the launch of AMP about a month ago, it’s been widely discussed that news websites are the only ones truly seeing any benefit from AMP. However, according to the official blog for AMP the long-term goal is for “all published content, from news stories to videos and from blogs to photographs and GIFs, to work using Accelerated Mobile Pages.” Source: The SEM Post
Additional Commentary
Optimize Your PPC Campaigns With Feedback
Oliver Ewbank shares his insight on how you can better optimize your campaigns using customer feedback. Through working with a trusted review provider you can have gold star seller ratings in your ads, which can lead to a higher Click-Through-Rate based the favorability of the reviews. If you choose to promote the rating on the landing page as well, you can also see improvements in bounce rate. Ewbank also stresses the importance of avoiding fake reviews, since they are illegal and can harm your brand’s reputation. Analysis: Oliver Ewbank, PPC Hero
How to Create Content That Earns Engagement, Trust, and Loyalty for Your Brand
While many in the SEO community and beyond look to engagement metrics as the best way to measure whether or not content is successful, Ronell Smith argues that brand loyalty should be the top goal for businesses when writing content. Smith refers to the success that BuzzFeed has had to demonstrate that engagement is great, but what has made BuzzFeed a leader in content is the loyalty it has established with its readers. Analysis: Ronell Smith, Moz Blog