Digital Marketing Useful News, Resources, and Trends
December 2019
Google Quietly Rolls Out Combined Audience Targeting for Search Campaigns
Do you leverage Google as part of your paid programming? If so, then you may have noticed that the search engine and advertising platform recently enhanced search campaign features by adding combined audiences to your Google Ads accounts.
The update offers advertisers the ability to serve ads to even more targeted and specific audiences.
Snapchatters and the Path to Purchase: Shopping Behaviors on Snapchat
Today’s consumers are turning to their phones at every touch point of the purchase process. Smartphones are the most used tool for sharing and gathering information on the path to purchase.
Business owners can now create product catalogs directly in WhatsApp
Facebook-owned WhatsApp is taking the next steps towards monetization with a new option that will enable businesses on the platform to better showcase their products via the WhatsApp Business app.
Twitter’s new Topics feature may help new brands get exposure
Twitter is rolling out Topics, a way to follow subjects automatically in the timeline. They are starting with more than 300 subjects across sports, gaming, and entertainment
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/6/20948547/twitter-topics-launch-sports-gaming-entertainment-test
FTC clarifies guidelines for how influencers must disclose endorsements
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission issued updated and clarified “endorsement guides” that govern so-called influencer advertising on social media.
When most people think of social media influencers, world-famous celebrities, athletes, and models might jump to mind. While such figures are highly sought out by certain global brands, much influencer advertising is done with smaller names — and smaller budgets.
According to Hootsuite, “brands pay Instagram influencers [an average of] between $100 and $2,085 per post.”
With so much brand-influenced and sponsored content on various social media platforms, the FTC wants to make sure every day social media users can tell the difference between what’s a regular post and what’s a paid endorsement.
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/plain-language/1001a-influencer-guide-508_1.pdf
HubSpot report reveals buyers do most product research on social media
Throughout the past few years, social media channels have embraced their new role as product research platforms, devoting certain areas or features of their platforms to brands and products.
Where are most of your customers doing their product research? Social media.
Which social media platform is the most popular resource?
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-product-research
Google’s ‘.new’ domain extensions are coming: Marketers take note
Several companies are already using the .new domains, and public availability is coming soon. In the world of online sales and marketing, early adopters usually get the worm.
https://domainnamewire.com/2018/10/25/google-uses-new-tld-to-create-shortcuts-for-google-docs/
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https://www.free-invoice-generator.com/
Free Business and Project Name Generators
Domainr: Fast, free, domain name search, short URLs. https://domainr.com/
Hipster Business Name: Hipster business name generator. http://www.hipsterbusiness.name/
Impossibility: The best domain name generator ever. http://impossibility.org/
Lean Domain Search: Find a domain name for your website in seconds. https://leandomainsearch.com/
Naminum: Discover a perfect company name. http://www.naminum.com/
Short Domain Search: Find short, available single-word domain names. http://shortdomainsearch.com/
The Name App: Find an available name for your brilliant idea. https://thenameapp.com/
Wordoid: Pick a short and catchy name for your business. https://wordoid.com/
Tools for Writing and Blogging
Editorial Calendar: See all your posts, drag & drop to manage your blog. https://wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/
Egg Timer: Set a time and write until the timer goes off. http://e.ggtimer.com/
Grammarly: Finds & corrects mistakes of your writing. https://www.grammarly.com/
Headline Analyzer: Emotional marketing value headline analyzer. https://www.aminstitute.com/headline/
Hemingway: Hemingway App makes your writing bold and clear. http://www.hemingwayapp.com/
Medium: Everyone’s stories and ideas. https://medium.com/
Social Locker: Ask visitors “to pay” for your content with a tweet, etc. https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-locker/
Story Wars: Writing stories together. https://www.storywars.net/landing
WP Hide Post: Control the visibility of items on your blog. https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-hide-post/
ZenPen: The minimal writing tool of web. https://zenpen.io/
Trending Content Ideas
Use these resources to generate ideas and find out what’s hot right now.
Buzzsumo: Analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor. https://buzzsumo.com/
Google Trends: Explore what the world if watching. https://trends.google.com/trends/
Hubspot Blog Topic Generator: Custom blog ideas. https://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator
Portent: Content idea generator. https://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker
Quora: Questions and answers edited by Internet users. https://www.quora.com/
Reddit: Social news aggregation, web content rating and discussion website. https://www.reddit.com/
China’s New App is Spying on 100 Million Android Users
George Orwell was right.
Again.
An app released by the Chinese Communist Party earlier this year has been found to have virtually unlimited access to the data on a user’s Android smartphone—and the consequences are horrifying, reports the Washington Post.
The app, called “Study the Great Nation,” was released by the Chinese Communist Party back in January, and by April Chinese state media said it had become the most downloaded app in China, with over 100 million downloads.
The “Study the Great Nation” app has what’s known as “superuser” access on Android devices. As the Washington Post explains, such status is essentially a free-for-all backdoor for the app’s developers, in this case the Chinese Communist Party, to do and see anything they want to on the user’s phone.
Bill Gates’ “Greatest Mistake Ever”
Sure, you’ve made mistakes. We all have. But odds are you will never make a $400 billion mistake.
Bill Gates recently revealed what he says is his, “…greatest mistake ever.”
The mistake? Allowing Android to become the dominant non-Apple smartphone operating system instead of Windows Mobile.
During an interview at VC firm Village Global, Gates lamented:
“In the software world, particularly for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets. So, the greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is. That is, Android is the standard non-Apple phone platform. That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win. It really is winner take all. If you’re there with half as many apps or 90 percent as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom. There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system and what’s that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G to company M.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/90368222/this-is-bill-gates-greatest-mistake-ever
On a positive note, Microsoft just scored a huge upset over Amazon by winning the fierce battle over the $10 billion JEDI contract
Microsoft was officially awarded a $10 billion cloud contract with the Pentagon on October 26 — marking a surprise victory over Amazon Web Services, which was thought to be the frontrunner for the deal. Companies like IBM and Oracle also competed for the contract since the bidding process opened up in July.
https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-wins-10-billion-jedi-contract-with-the-pentagon-2019-10
Snapchat’s new Dynamic Ads feature will streamline ad creation
Late last week Snapchat introduced Dynamic Ads, which it claims is “one of the most impactful updates of the year for e-commerce.” The company explained that, over the past couple of years, it’s been focused heavily on creating smart solutions for marketers to really drive their business, and that this new addition will greatly increase what advertisers can accomplish on Snapchat.
https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/blog/introducing-dynamic-ads
Google: When indexing pages, status code comes first
Google can be tricky; we never know what it’s thinking or what changes it will make. Yet, as digital experts, we’re constantly trying to please the search engine.
https://moz.com/learn/seo/http-status-codes
Google’s Ads Data Hub to offer greater insight into YouTube ad performance
As we approach 15 years since YouTube launched on our screens, a big change is coming that will impact how we as marketers measure the value of advertising on YouTube. In an effort to offer greater accuracy in the analytics coming from YouTube ads, Google is putting its trust into its new Ads Data Hub.
https://www.blog.google/products/ads/investing-next-generation-measurement-youtube/
Google Ads now allows tracking of conversions by time
Google Ads now allows you to track your conversions as they happen, rather than by date. On Thursday, October 17th, six new columns were added to Google Ads conversion tracking.
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9549009
Is your marketing strategy ready for the holidays?
If not, don’t panic. Facebook has put together a helpful 2019 Holiday Marketing Guide, which is full of industry insights and statistics to help you develop and implement your business’ holiday marketing strategy.
Publishers turn to TikTok to grow their audience
TikTok, the social media app from China with over 500 million users, has fast become one of the most downloaded apps in the world, and publishers are taking notice. It isn’t simply the half a billion users that sparks publisher’s interest, though. It’s the additional statistics that make this app so appealing.
https://mediakix.com/blog/top-tik-tok-statistics-demographics/
Google update offers more insight into video performance
This week, Google rolled out an update to Search Console that allows access to two new reports focused on video in Search.
The update allows digital marketers to dig deeper into video performance in Search to pinpoint areas for improvements in video markup — the code that helps search engines read the content. This, in turn, can improve search rankings.
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/10/search-console-video-results-reports.html
New Facebook Report Highlights Rise of “Conversational Commerce”
Is the futurist within you always on the hunt for the next big thing? Well, it just might be that the next big thing is actually the convergence of two big things. Consider conversational commerce. As people increasingly embrace shopping via chat, conversational commerce is igniting a global movement that is only set to grow.
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/conversational-commerce
Facebook Invites People and Businesses to Play
People want to be included in your next big idea and are using new innovative ways to do it — less words, more GIFs, Lives, Reactions, emojis, face filters, and stickers. In turn, brands and people are becoming more intertwined and it’s changing digital advertising from a one-way push communication to an ongoing dialogue powered by creativity.
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/facebook-invites-people-and-businesses-to-play
Instagram Posts Scheduled in Advance Through Facebook
Instagram posts can be scheduled to publish at a later time through Facebook’s Creator Studio.
This functionality, reported by TechCrunch, is available to all business accounts and also extends to IGTV videos. Instagram posts and IGTV videos can both be scheduled up to six months in advance.
Come back next month for more digital marketing news to help your online business survive and grow!
