News and articles from the CLICKTRUST blog and from around the web that allow us to stay on top of our game. You might want to read them too.
CLICKTRUST Brainfood:
Smart bidding for Google ads: Complete guide 2020 – Part 2 : Choosing the right smart bidding strategy
– Julien Delbauve & Yannick Timmermans
“Now that we placed the context around smart bidding and explained the concept , let’s get to real actionable insights and use cases. We gathered years of experience in our team and hundreds of campaigns to draw a map around how and when to use smart bidding in Google ads. Which Smart bidding strategy to use in search campaigns and when to use it?”
Smart bidding for Google ads: Complete guide 2020 – Part 3: How to optimize a campaign running on Smart Bidding
– Julien Delbauve & Yannick Timmermans
“In Part 1 and Part 2 of this article series, we have given an introduction to smart bidding and we have given a way to choose the right smart bidding strategy for your campaigns. In the final part of the series, we will go in-depth on how to optimize campaigns that are using smart bidding.”
How to audit the placements of your Google Ads Display campaigns?
– Valentine Blondiau
“Controlling the placements where your display campaigns are shown is an important step you need to implement before the start of your campaigns, but is also a necessary optimization while your campaigns are running. The Google Display Network is so wide and diversified that you want to make sure you control where your ads are showing as much as possible. Being displayed on bad quality placements could lead to bad quality traffic or no traffic at all, unnecessary spend, putting your brand at risk by associating it with sensitive content, etc.”
General: Data, Privacy & more
How and where to fight for your marketing budget
– Search Engine Land
“While many businesses should consider reduced top-of-funnel ad spend, very few should abandon it altogether. Businesses ultimately need to spend money only where it makes sense, and while available budgets for testing and expansion may be scaled back in the months to come, there are probably a lot more places where it will make sense than what meets the eye. The time to start understanding that, and to start planning for the budgeting conversations down the line, is now.“
Top EU court blows up data transfer agreement relied on by Google, Facebook, Amazon
– Search Engine Land
“Any U.S. company doing business with EU citizens has to comply with GDPR in the ways they collect and process user data. But that’s not enough; it’s probably the case — absent some major change in U.S. law — that European user data can’t even be transferred to U.S. servers. Indeed, the CJEU is objecting to behavior of the U.S. government, not private companies.“
Chrome 84 Handles 3rd Party Cookies Differently – How it Affects Publishers
– Search Engine Journal
“Google Chrome 84 is rolling out restrictive third party cookie handling that can cause 3rd party cookies to not set. This can result in loss of income or website functions that break. This is what publishers should look out for.“
How technology is changing what it means to be an effective (search) marketer
– Search Engine Land
“The demands and expectations of marketers continue to evolve, and increasingly, they “will be a hybrid of marketers, technologists and data analysts,” says Stephen McDonagh, director of digital & growth marketing at 1-800-Flowers.com.”
Reducing Advertising Waste Requires Better Verification In These 3 Areas
– AdExchanger
“Is advertising waste being driven by lack of technology, incentives, capabilities or all of the above? To understand the root cause and find solutions, it’s helpful to dive into the primary actors in the media supply chain, as they all bear some responsibility for advertising waste.“
Google: Organic, Ads & Analytics
Google Opens Its Black Box And Shares Fees Across DV360, Google Ads And Google Ad Manager
– AdExchanger
“Google’s tech fees have long been a source of speculation in an ad industry where hidden fees are common. Google attempted to put to rest questions about its fees in a pair of blog posts Tuesday that shared the take rates for its buying portals, Google Ads and Display & Video 360, as well as its publisher tech, Google Ad Manager. It is the first time that Google, under scrutiny from regulators, has made these fees public.“
Product feed optimization: Here’s more reason to use those attributes
– Search Engine Land
“If you needed more reason to pay attention to all the attributes available for your products in your Google product feed, here’s one: Google is surfacing more attributes from merchants’ product feeds in Shopping Ads.“
Google Analytics Adds Predictive Features for Advertisers
– Search Engine Journal
“You can use these metrics to help drive growth for your business by reaching the people most likely to purchase and retaining the people who might not return to your app or site via Google Ads.“
How 9 major Google My Business updates in 2020 can help you rebound
– Search Engine Land
“In recent months, we’ve seen Google launch several features designed to help businesses react to the pandemic by updating their GMBs with relevant information that affects their operations. Let’s take a closer look at those features and how businesses should view them.“
Google Adds Increased Visual Options for Shoppers and Brands
– Search Engine Journal
“Google announced last week the latest additions for this push: Image Extensions, enhancements to their Smart Shopping campaigns, and some upgrades to visuals in display ads.”
Largest Contentful Paint: An Easy Explanation
– Search Engine Journal
“Largest Contentful Paint is a new Google user experience metric and soon to be a ranking factor. Learn what is and how to optimize for it.”
Smart Shopping campaigns get shipping annotations, ‘new customer’ bidding control
– Search Engine Land
“These updates for Smart Shopping indicate that machine learning-powered formats and campaign types are where everything is headed. Advertisers will have to understand how to leverage controls such as the new customer acquisition conversion value to further inform automation and make them more effective.“
Over 25% of People Click the First Google Search Result
– Search Engine Journal
“As can be clearly seen in the analyses, the SERP layout of the keyword must also be included in the evaluation – only the combination of search volume and SERP layout results in a realistic number of potential visitors.”
Social: Facebook, Instagram & others
Instagram Tests Replacing Activity Tab With Shopping Tab
– Search Engine Journal
“Instagram is replacing the Activity tab with a ‘Shop’ tab for select users as part of a global test. The traditional heart icon in Instagram’s navigation menu will be replaced with a shopping bag icon. Previously only available in the US, Instagram users around the world will now be able to access the Shop section.“
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