Facebook has started testing search ads, as part of a new strategy to turn around its declining ad revenues. The social network is testing a new search advertising concept with a small number of advertisers in the automotive, ecommerce and retail sectors in the US and Canada. The concept involves inserting news feed ads into the search function of the site, although Facebook is being quiet on the specific details of how the model works. Facebook last trialled search ads in 2012, although the idea was shelved just a year later, and is looking for new advertising revenue sources as it faces competition from Google, Amazon and its other social media brand, Instagram.

Digital Minute – the latest digital marketing news and analysis

Is Facebook entering the search advertising market? – Digital Minute 08/01/19

After investing heavily in promoting search carousels, Google appears to be cutting down the time that these search features appear. Data from two independent search software provides suggests that the Google has reduced the number of occasions that image and video carousels appear in the search results by as much as 30%. The development could have a major impact on the traffic of brands that have used these features as a way to secure prominent placements in the search engine results.

Is Google cutting down video and image carousels? – Digital Minute 27/11/18

Could brands soon start being able to promote their YouTube content as a Google search ad? That’s the question that has been raised after Google was spotted trialling a new approach to promoted video in the search results. In what appears to be a test involving a small number of film studios, movie trailers have been seen appearing in a carousel ad unit in Google search results. These ads include content hosted by YouTube, raising questions over whether brands will soon be able to promote their own YouTube content in Google’s search results pages.

Are video ads coming to Google Search? - Digital Minute 13/11/18

Google issues new page speed warnings - Digital Minute 30/10/18

Some advertisers are moving more than half of their digital advertising spend into Amazon, according to a survey of leading advertising agency executives in the US. A survey by CNN found that many agencies were seeing clients move as much as 60% of their ad budgets away from mediums such as Google search, display and programmatic, and towards Amazon – lured by a more product-focused audience, better conversion rates and Amazon’s power as a “product search engine”.

Why brands are moving Google ad budgets to Amazon – Digital Minute 16/10/18

Google used its 20th birthday celebrations to announce a number of new search marketing features, with a much stronger focus on the user search journey and the way in which users consume content as part of that journey. The biggest of the announcements was a number of features that will essentially see Google pre-empt the user journey for what it considers to be “high consideration” search queries, where multiple sub-topics may play an important role in the overall search journey.

Google launches new content features at 20th birthday bash – Digital Minute 02/10/18

Google has announced it is rolling out responsive display ads as a default to all advertisers in the next few months. Customers will be able to upload up to 15 images, five headlines, five descriptions and five logos and then leave the rest to Google’s machine learning to deliver the most relevant, valuable ads across their inventory. Digital Minute takes a look at the new offering. Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9131153

Responsive display ads to be rolled out to all Google advertisers - Digital Minute 18/09/18

As Facebook continues its efforts to clean-up its platform, and lessen its capacity to be used in divisive and damaging ways, it has announced that around 5,000 of its advanced ad targeting options will be removed as it seeks to stamp out discriminatory ad targeting. The move comes after a series of scandals for Facebook, and follows specific complaints about certain advertisers using the platform to discriminate against certain audience segments. Digital Minute looks at what has changed, and what this could mean for social advertising strategy.

Why Facebook is scrapping 5,000 ad targeting options – Digital Minute 04/09/18

Google updated its search quality evaluator guidelines last month, placing a greater focus on the “E-A-T” principles of expertise, authority and trust. Those new policies have already had a major impact in some key search markets. With major brands in some key niches losing visibility, we analysed at what it means for your search strategy. Digital Minute looks at what has changed, and what this could mean for search and content marketing strategy.

Why brands have lost out to Google’s EAT guidelines update – Digital Minute 21/08/18

Google confirmed last week that it released a “broad core algorithm update”, after certain quarters of the search community noticed shifts in rankings and traffic earlier this morning. It follows similar updates in March and April and importantly, Google has advised website owners that there is no specific action that they can or should take to respond to the change. Instead, Google claims that this update is simply up-lifting sites and pages that were previously under-valued, and that focusing on core SEO best practice – content, and user experience – is the best way to respond to any changes as a result of this update.

Google confirms broad algorithm update – Digital Minute 07/08/18

Google has lifted a lid on some of the secrets behind parts of its search algorithm, including how RankBrain handles unseen queries, how it penalises certain content and how many algorithm experiments it performed in 2017. Speaking to a United States House Judiciary Committee on “Facebook, Google and Twitter: Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants”, a Google representative Juniper Downs revealed some insight into part of the search algorithm and how it determines search result rankings.

Google reveals algorithm insights to US Judiciary Committee - Digital Minute 24/07/18

Google hosted its Marketing Live Keynote on Tuesday and, amongst the key announcements, cross-device reporting is coming to Google Analytics. Advertisers will now be able to seamlessly attribute consumer spending and activity across mobile and desktop devices, allowing them to understand consumer behaviour and consumer value as they engage with the brand on multiple devices and platforms. Other key announcements include Responsive Search Ads, powered by machine learning to deliver the most relevant and contextual ads, the re-branding of Adwords and the introduction of a new and integrated Google Marketing Platform.

The big announcements from Google Marketing Live - Digital Minute 11/072018

Surveys from Marin and Zazzle reveal that advertisers’ biggest challenge around the world in 2018 is the successful integration of search and social channels. Marin Software’s latest ‘State of Digital Advertising’ report revealed that 48% of advertisers named it as one of their three biggest challenges in relation to paid social. Social is now the most popular channel, overtaking search. Elsewhere, Zazzle’s report reveals that marketers are having some trouble convincing decision makers about the worth of content marketing, with expectations and pressure leading to poor perceived performance.

The industry’s biggest challenge: fusing search and social - Digital Minute 26/06/18

Apple hosted it’s WWDC Developer Conference, and announced a number of developments that take direct aim at the likes of Facebook and Google. The biggest of these developments was the announcement that the new version of iOS and MacOS would not allow the likes of Facebook or Google to track the browsing habits of Apple users across other parts of the web – effectively meaning that they couldn’t use those browsing habits to inform future advertising.

Apple devices to block Facebook ad tracking - Digital Minute 12/06/18

Google and PayPal have announced new a integration strategy that will make it easier for users to complete a purchase through services such as Gmail and YouTube – potentially creating new content marketing opportunities for Ecommerce brands. The new partnership will allow users to connect their PayPal and Google Pay accounts and seamlessly make payments whilst they are using Google properties. For example, the deal could allow a user to watch an instructional “how to” video on YouTube and then easily, with just the click of the button, purchase the tools or materials that were featured in the video.

PayPal integrates with Google Pay – Digital Minute 30/05/2018

 From big announcements and algorithm changes through to emerging trends and tips, our bite-sized bulletins will keep you regularly up to date on the biggest developments in digital marketing. With every update, the experts from Stickyeyes will use their experience in SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media and PR to explain the impact that the big changes have on you and your brand. Find out more at http://www.stickyeyes.com/video

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