LinkedIn Is Making Collaborative Articles More Visible And Engaging

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LinkedIn is making Collaborative Articles more visible across its platform, including within search, feeds, and notifications. 

In an announcement today, the company said it plans to show more Collaborative Articles when users are looking for information about specific problems or topics. 

In addition to making Collaborative Articles more visible in these spaces, LinkedIn says it will also start showing your contributions to people outside your network and might even notify members “who would benefit” from your knowledge when you make a contribution. 

Other New Changes Coming To Collaborative Articles

LinkedIn announced several other big new changes coming to Collaborative Articles”

  • New “Top Contributors” section: If members found you to be one of the most noteworthy contributors in an article, you will now be featured at the top of the article.
  • Better browsing for readers: A better browsing experience for readers leads to more people seeing your contributions. The new design allows members to easily explore multiple contributions, and new cross-article hyperlinking allows members to easily jump from one article to the next. 
  • Better articles: LinkedIn says it is working closely with our editorial team to continuously improve the quality of the AI-powered article text and titles — you’ll start to see a lot more depth in the articles recommended to you.
  • Improved Top Community Voice badging: If you’re one of the most noteworthy contributors in a skill, your badge for that skill now shows up not only on your profile but also next to your contributions in the article. Badges will only remain active for members who continue to meet our selective criteria and provide noteworthy contributions within a specific skill.

For more, read the full announcement from LinkedIn here.

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Google’s New Demand Gen Campaigns Use AI To Reach Shifting Audiences

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Google is launching an exciting new ad format called Demand Gen Campaigns which uses the latest AI tools to create highly targeted video and image ads for YouTube, as well as Google’s other platforms. 

The new ad product is designed to motivate advertisers to invest more outside of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram – Google Ads’ biggest competitors. 

What Are Demand Gen Campaigns?

Demand Gen Campaigns are video ads up to 15 seconds long, primarily intended to run as pre- or mid-roll YouTube placements. However, the company says the ads will show in other places as well, including as image carousels on mobile and bumper ads.. 

Most importantly, Demand Gen includes a suite of creative tools to help deliver messages and ads that are tailored for your audience. 

The ad product also generates “lookalike” audiences filled with potential new customers who match your existing customers. 

As with most Google Ad formats, advertisers can manage a wide range of ad delivery and budget options, allowing you to deliver more clicks, traffic, and conversions. 

Demand Gen Helps Target Shifting Audiences

stats about Demand Gen Campaignss

Google says that Demand Gen Campaigns are intended to help businesses reach consumers during a time when shopping habits are quickly changing.

The company cites recent surveys that show viewers typically split their time on social media between traditional platforms like Facebook and Instagram with others like YouTube. 

Additionally, more than 90% of people said they had watched content from a specific creator or artist across multiple platforms and formats in the past year. 

These ads are designed to help pull users onto YouTube, which Google believes offers a more genuine connection with creators. 

The ads are intended to do this by using visually engaging ads that are highly tailored for specific audiences across the entire Google ecosystem.

Demand Gen Campaigns Will Replace Discovery Ads

Demand Gen ad campaigns started rolling out to advertisers worldwide earlier this week, and will be replacing Google’s current ad option for its Discovery feed. Discovery campaigns will be phased out sometime in early 2024.

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Microsoft Advertising Releases a Free Holiday Guide For Brands

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The holidays are approaching and Microsoft Advertising wants to help your brand prepare before the shopping season arrives.

Microsoft Advertising has released a new free guide called “Your Festive Season Marketing Playbook” which includes all the information you could need to prepare the most efficient and impactful ad strategies for the latest holiday trends and shopping behaviors. 

Below, we will share some highlights to help steer your ad strategies in the coming months.

Start Planning Early

The guide encourages brands to start planning their campaigns and budgets early, to avoid falling behind. Data from past years suggests that shopping for the holiday season may start as early as September, with a notable increase in both traffic and purchases between September and October throughout much of the world. 

October Clicks Matter In November and December

Another sign that holiday shopping begins earlier than expected is the discovery that approximately two-thirds of purchases in November and half of December purchases can be traced back to clicks in October. 

Now is when brands are able to plant the seeds in shoppers’ heads that turn into holiday purchases. Using remarketing, in-market audiences, and automated bidding strategies, you can develop these initial clicks into later sales.

Deal Seeking is Up

According to the guide, American consumers are spending much more time hunting for deals than in the past. Around two-thirds of shoppers are now devoting significantly increased time to looking for coupons, promotions, or other types of deals. Compared to other regions, shoppers in this area spend approximately 33% more time using search to find deals compared to the average shopper around the world. 

Desktop Drives Holiday Sales

According to the data collected from the Microsoft Advertising Network, just 28% of holiday ad clicks are made by mobile devices, which only account for 22% of total retail conversions around the holiday shopping season. 

This suggests that desktop devices are contributing to the bulk of holiday shopping activity despite the major rise in mobile shopping over the past few years. 

For more about these shopping trends, ad strategies, and holiday marketing recommendations, download the Festive Season Marketing Playbook for yourself here.

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X is Joining The Google Ads Display Network

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X (previously known as Twitter) is partnering with Google Ads in an attempt to make up for the declining ad revenue seen by the company since its takeover by Elon Musk. 

In the near future, X will be included as part of the Google Display Network, making it possible for many of the ads run by Google Ads to appear on the social network.

Why Is X Partnering With Google?

Since the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk last year, the company has seen an estimated 59% drop in ad revenue from the US. While numbers are not available globally, most analysts agree that this has dramatically hurt the social network’s profits 

Much of this reduction in ad revenue was sparked by Musk’s decisions to reduce moderation on the platform and to unban controversial accounts. Since then, advertisers have seen their ads appearing alongside increasingly objectionable content including hate speech, slurs, and nazi imagery. As you might expect, this has led many advertisers to completely stop advertising on the platform.

Can You Opt Out?

For brands concerned about potentially having ads shown alongside hateful or controversial media, it is important to know that you can choose to not have your ads shown on X or any other website. As a Google spokesperson told Ad Age:

“This is an opportunity for our advertisers to reach a broader audience, but as always they can choose what sites and apps their ads run on. Any publisher who participates in this type of partnership must abide by our publisher policies.”

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Lead Google Analyst Says Links Are No Longer a Top 3 Ranking Factor

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For years, backlinks have been considered one of the most important ranking factors for ranking on Google’s search engine. In 2016, the company even confirmed as much when a search quality senior strategist said that the top ranking factors were links, content, and RankBrain.

According to new comments from Google’s Gary Illyes, an analysis for Google Search, things have changed since then. 

What Was Said

During a panel at Pubcon Pro, Illyes was asked directly whether links are still one of the top three ranking factors. In response, here is what he said:

“I think they are important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links. I don’t agree it’s in the top three. It hasn’t been for some time.”

Illyes even went as far as to say there are cases where sites have absolutely 0 links (internal or external), but consistently ranked in the top spot because they provided excellent content. 

The Lead Up

Gary Illyes isn’t the first person from Google to suggest that links have lost the SEO weight they used to carry. Last year, Dan Nguyen from the search quality team stated that links had lost their impact during a Google SEO Office Hours session:

“First, backlinks as a signal has a lot less significant impact compared to when Google Search first started out many years ago. We have robust ranking signals, hundreds of them, to make sure that we are able to rank the most relevant and useful results for all queries.’

Other major figures at Google, including Matt Cutts and John Mueller, have predicted this would happen for years. As far back as 2014, Cutts (a leading figure at Google at the time) said:

“I think backlinks still have many, many years left in them. But inevitably, what we’re trying to do is figure out how an expert user would say, this particular page matched their information needs. And sometimes backlinks matter for that. It’s helpful to find out what the reputation of the site or a page is. But, for the most part, people care about the quality of the content on that particular page. So I think over time, backlinks will become a little less important.”

Ultimately, this shift was bound to happen because search has become so much more complex. With each search, Google considers the intent behind the search, the actual query, and personal information to help tailor the search results for each user. With so much in flux, we have reached a point where the most important ranking signals may even differ based on the specific site that is trying to rank.

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X Is Likely Going To Start Charging All Users For Access

X (formerly Twitter) is likely to do away with free accounts in the near future and shift to a strictly paid business model according to a recent statement from owner Elon Musk. 

Rumors had been swirling that Musk is considering moving away from free accounts, and the controversial business leader confirmed as much in a live-streamed interview with (similarly controversial) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week. 

In the discussion, Musk mentioned that he X is “moving to a small monthly payment” as a solution to problems on the platform. 

Specifically, Musk said this approach is “the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots. Because a bot casts a fraction of a penny – call it a tenth of a penny – but even if it has to pay … a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high.” 

How this paid model would prevent issues that have been seen on other platforms with a small entry fee is unclear. 

At the same time, it is hard to believe Musk isn’t also considering introducing a mandatory fee for users as a solution to continuously dwindling ad revenue. 

Since taking over Twitter, ad revenue has fallen throughout Musk’s ownership, largely due to reductions in moderation and increases in objectionable content including hate speech. The platform has had several high-profile incidents of advertisers being unwittingly shown alongside nazi imagery, slurs, and calls to violence.

Meanwhile, Musk argues these incidents are rare exceptions and blames organizations such as the Center for Countering Digital Hate saying they are “actively working to prevent free expression.”

Despite the series of controversies and questionable decisions, Musk touted several milestone achievements throughout the livestream, including saying that X has 550 million monthly users who post between 100 to 200 million times a day. 

For businesses continuing to include X as a part of their social media strategy, it is important to monitor these continued changes and assess whether the platform is worth paying for access.

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Amazon Launches New AI Tool To Generate In-Depth Product Listings From a Few Keywords

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Online retailers who hate trying to come up with compelling product listings for all your products can breathe a sigh of relief. Amazon is making it easier to develop engaging and attractive product listings with a new generative AI tool. 

As was revealed at the recent Amazon Accelerate event, the new AI tool can craft product listing details including product titles, bullet points, and descriptions using large language models (LLMs). 

Retailers only need to provide a short description (it can even just be a few keywords) and the AI system will generate in-depth product details. 

As Robert Tekiela, vice president of Amazon Selection and Catalog Systems, said in the announcement:

“With our new generative AI models, we can infer, improve, and enrich product knowledge at an unprecedented scale and with dramatic improvement in quality, performance, and efficiency.

Our models learn to infer product information through the diverse sources of information, latent knowledge, and logical reasoning that they learn.

For example, they can infer a table is round if specifications list a diameter or infer the collar style of a shirt from its image.”

While early feedback for the tool is reportedly very positive, brands are still encouraged to review their product descriptions before using them in product listings.

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TikTok Shop is Officially Here For US Brands

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TikTok is finally making its foray into e-commerce with the official launch of TikTok Shop for businesses and users in the United States. 

The new feature has been in beta since at least April, but now all US-based brands can set up their own shops within the app.

To make it easy to set up your own shop, TikTok Shop is integrated with the most widely-used e-commerce platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. 

Additionally, TikTok has made it possible to easily add apps like Zendesk, Printful, Yotpo, EasyShip, and more to expand the features already available in TikTok Shop. 

What Can TikTok Shop Do For Your Business?

TikTok has already proven it can be a highly influential platform for e-commerce brands hoping to be the next big thing. With a US user base of over 150 people, the app is well-positioned to connect brands with engaged consumers who are likely to spread the word of your brand even further. 

Now, the app is streamlining the process of discovering and purchasing a new brand or product by allowing brands to set up stores in a dedicated “Shop Tab” to promote and sell their products without leaving the app. 

Along with product listings, TikTok Shop also allows users to read and leave reviews to promote trust in your brand. 

Interestingly, the platform also includes options for affiliate sellers such as influencers or creators with over 5,000 followers to sell and promote TikTok Shop products. 

For more, read the full announcement from TikTok here.

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Reddit Introduces An Official Keyword Research Tool To Improve Ad Targeting

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Years after it introduced the ability to buy and target ads across the platform, Reddit is officially launching its first keyword research tool.

The new AI-powered tool allows you to better target the people who will see your ads and improve their performance – meaning you pay for fewer irrelevant impressions or clicks. 

Wise advertisers can also use the tool to brainstorm new ways to connect with their audience which may have been previously elusive. 

How Does It Work?

The Keyword Suggestions tool is being rolled out as a feature available in the Reddit Ads Manager – the platform’s self-service tool for creating and managing ads.

The tool uses machine learning and natural language processing to compile lists of relevant keywords and to filter out irrelevant keywords based on the original context of the keyword. 

Once done, the tool compiles these keyword options and sorts the list based on the number of monthly Reddit views each keyword has received. 

How This Differs From Other Tools

Third-party keyword research tools for Reddit have been available for some time, though all third-party tools will inevitably have gaps in the data they have to work with. Meanwhile, Reddit can theoretically use raw data to provide the most accurate keyword recommendations for users.

The tool is rolling out now for advertisers to put it to the test and see how its keyword recommendations compare and whether they can effectively drive more ad engagement.

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Google Business Profile Scams Are On The Rise, Here’s How To Spot Them

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Google Business Profiles are an incredibly powerful tool for helping customers discover your business. Unfortunately, they also make it possible for those with more malicious intentions to find you, as the rising number of Google Business Profile robocall scams shows.

Hiya, a company that tracks phone fraud and scams, recently published data showing that scams targeting those with Google Business Profile listings (and other Google-related phone scams) have been on the rise over the past year. 

Through July, Hiya documented more than 17,000 reports of Google Business Profile scams. That breaks down to more than 2,000 scams being reported each month. 

How To Spot The Scam

The easiest way to know if you’ve been targeted by a scam like this is simply having received a robocall claiming to be from Google or a Google partner. Google does not use robocalls to verify or otherwise contact businesses.

While the company found more than 100 variations of the scam, it shared two of the most common voice recordings people have been receiving from scammers claiming to be “Google partners”:

“Business owners, your Google Business Profile has not been registered with Google. Please press 1 to be transferred to a business listing specialist to assist you in registering your Google Business Profile, or press 2 to be placed on the do not call list.”

“Hello. We’re calling from Online Listing Group because your Google Business listing needs attention. If your listing is not showing up properly, customers will not be able to contact you or find your location. If you are the business owner, press 1 now to verify or update your business. Press 9 to opt out.”

To avoid the risk of being taken advantage of by scammers, Google and Tulsa Marketing Online both recommend only working with marketing agencies that have a long-established track record of using approved strategies to boost your presence on the search engine.

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