The CLICKTRUST monthly pick - August 2020

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:

Is Search Impression Share a reliable metric?

– Jean-Baptiste Brasseur & Houda Fettaka

“As a SEA campaign manager, you follow up closely on Search Impression Share on a regular basis in order to get insights on the evolution of searches and on the visibility of your ads. As we will see in this article, even if you reach 100% Search Impression Share in your campaigns you might be missing potential impressions as they were identified as not eligible by Google.”

What is ad fraud and how to counter it?

– Jochen Fostie

“In this blog post, we’ll discuss ad fraud, the problems it causes, and how to counter it in a somewhat proactive manner using tools. We’ll go over some types of ad fraud that we believe are the most common, but won’t go into too much detail considering the huge variety of ad fraud methods and how technical some of them can be.”

Measuring digital campaign performance properly

– Fabian Van De Wiele

“Recently, however, more and more critical voices have spoken out against the measurement methods that have been used for the last years, because of an ongoing decrease in the reliability of cookies.”

General: Data, Privacy & more

Apple’s move to make advertising harder on iOS 14 is part of a trend

– The Verge

“When does pro-privacy regulation overstep its bounds to become anticompetitive? It’s a question I found myself asking last year, when Apple canceled Facebook’s enterprise certificate temporarily following revelations that the company had been using those certificates to conduct market research. And it’s a question I’m thinking about today, as Apple intervenes to unilaterally reshape a market — in ways that once again put Facebook on the defensive.”

Calling BS In Ad Tech

– AdExchanger

“Ad tech has spawned so many different types of technologies over the years to accommodate the various environments, formats, and data sets, it’s become easy to overcomplicate and speak vaguely. Add to that a variety of different actors – consumers, publishers, advertisers, ad agencies, technology companies – with different motives, a wide range of value propositions, and the BS piles up quickly.”

Is Apple getting real about search and about to take on Google?

– Search Engine Land

“Part of Google’s mobile search success relies on the fact that it’s the default search engine for the iPhone. The company has paid billions for that privilege over the years. But there’s evidence that Apple might be building a search engine to take on Google – for real this time.“

Paid Social & Paid Search: How to Have A Happy Marriage

– Search Engine Journal

“As brands embrace the reality that paid search is a last-click platform, how will they achieve a true understanding of the customer’s journey? Learn how to use what you know about your paid social audience to further improve your paid search results – and vice versa.“

How two martech companies are taking on the cookieless world

– MarTech Today

“The broad coalition of affected parties, including advertising, agencies, tech vendors and publishers, have formed the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media to establish standards that take account both of the need to be able to advertise to defined audiences and the consumer’s concern for privacy. In the mean-time, individual vendors are looking for ways to track identities in a cookieless world.“

Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: Which Is Better?

– Search Engine Journal

“There are several ways to evaluate where your media budget should go between Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Here’s what to think about and calculate.“

Why machine learning and understanding searcher intent is so important to search

– Search Engine Land

“Write for the user, don’t get bogged down in keywords – it is all about searcher intent. Search is not simply about keyword density and the number of links to a specific page, it is much more complex now.“

How search data can inform larger online business decisions

– Search Engine Land

“As an SEO I’m constantly utilizing keyword search volume data to help make more informed decisions about clients’ online presence. But the reality is, this data has way more use cases than anyone gives it credit for. The role of a decision maker in any online business requires the ability to gather (or be presented with), understand, and forecast with all types of data.“

11 Tips for Optimizing Your Images on Amazon

– Search Engine Journal

“The quality of your images can impact your products’ visibility on Amazon. Follow these 11 image optimization tips for better Amazon rankings and sales.“

Google: Organic, Ads & Analytics

Server-side Tagging In Google Tag Manager

– Simo Ahava

“Google Tag Manager has now released Server-side tagging into public beta. In this lengthy article, we’ll take a look at what Server-side tagging is, how it should (and should not) be used, and what its implications are on the broader digital analytics community.“

2020 Google paid search trends that have nothing to do with the pandemic

– Search Engine Land

“Here I’d like to talk about the 2020 trends affecting paid search marketers that have nothing to do with the pandemic, and how to think about them moving forward.“

Google Ads Advertisers Can Now Capture Leads From YouTube

– Search Engine Journal

“Google is bringing lead form extensions to ads on YouTube, allowing advertisers to capture leads while people watch videos.“

SEO myth-busting: What is not a Google search ranking factor

– Search Engine Land

“SEOs and site owners love to talk about various Google ranking factors. While we know content and links are still important signals, there is always chatter about elements that Google has repeatedly stated don’t actually affect rankings.“

Take control of how data is used in Google Analytics

– Google

“Rising consumer expectations and changing industry regulations have set higher standards for user privacy and data protection. This has led many businesses to revisit how they are managing data in their Google Analytics accounts. To help, Analytics provides businesses with a variety of features to control how their data is used. Here is an updated overview of controls in Analytics that govern how data is collected, stored, and used–all of which can be adjusted at any time.“