As part of its big Google Marketing Live event this week, the search engine announced a big makeover is coming to some shopping ads in the near future.
Initially limited to apparel-related shopping results, Google is revamping both online ads and organic listings to be more visually exciting and drive more engagement.
You can get a preview of what to expect below:
The revamp brings shopping ads more in-line with the more visual organic listings which have been rolling out since last year.
Google is accomplishing this using Search or Performance Max ad campaigns, though the images or graphics must be provided by advertisers.
As the company described the makeover:
“These will be clearly labeled as ads and will be eligible to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page. We’re also rolling out new ways to showcase multiple product images within Shopping ads in the U.S., along with information such as product descriptions, reviews, and product availability, with no further action required of advertisers.”
Though it is unclear when this revamp will be rolled out, advertisers should be excited by the more stylish and engaging presentation when it arrives.
Advertising has undergone a massive shift in recent years. Instead of the sleek, high-end style that many associates with ads, consumers (and a growing number of brands) are embracing a more lo-fi, “imperfect” approach to ads. According to new research from Meta, this is especially true when it comes to social media ads.
In a recent blog post, Meta suggests this is about more than a change in visual trends. It is a shift in cultural standards and expectations, or “culture codes.”
As the post explains, this is “being driven by something more fundamental, which is a shift we’re seeing away from perfection and polish, towards a culture that instead celebrates what’s unpolished and real.”
Though it is unclear just how long this shift has been happening, Meta first noticed it in a study of Instagram Stories ads conducted back in 2019.
The results of this study showed that ads that used a less-polished style performed far better in tests for both ad recall and content views compared to those with a more refined appearance.
This is particularly true for younger audiences who tend to spend a lot of time on social media. In a recent study from consumer behavior analysts YPulse, up to 84% of young consumers reported “I like it when content from brands is not perfect” and 79% said they are “tired of seeing perfect images in advertising.”
With this in mind, the researchers at Meta dug deeper to identify 6 specific codes that brands should follow if they want to continue connecting with online audiences:
Include Real People Telling Real Stories
Including real people – especially your actual employees or customers – helps to give your message authenticity. This is crucial for getting through to today’s savvy audiences.
Use “The Language of the Platform”
Obviously, we aren’t referring to the actual language you or other users speak, such as English, Spanish, Afrikaans, etc. In this case, speaking the language of the platform is all about proving you are “one of us” to other users by taking part in the latest trends, such as participating in “challenges”, putting a new spin on a popular dance, or using the hottest filters.
This helps establish your brand’s relatability to your audience.
Establish Relationships with Creators and Influencers
No matter what your feelings are about social media influencers, there is no denying the impact they can have on social media audiences.
According to Meta, even adults aren’t immune to the reach of influencers, with 63% of adults between 18-34 saying they trust a popular creator’s view of a brand.
This is considerably more than those who reported trusting brands themselves.
The power of influencers really comes down to the fact that they have established a relationship with their viewers and have an incomparable reach. This helps build your own credibility with a whole new audience you might have never reached before.
Go Behind The Scenes
When users say they don’t want to see “perfection” in ads, they don’t necessarily mean they want low-quality or poorly made ads. They just want to know your message is based in reality. This is why viewers tend to respond strongly to brands who are willing to take them behind the curtain.
Keep Your Video Lo-Fi
Today, it is easier than ever to get access to affordable editing and production tools that can make your ad look like a Hollywood movie. Don’t use them. Sticking with simpler, lo-fi editing and production techniques, such as the most popular editing apps for smartphones, keeps your ad feeling authentic and hand-crafted.
Use Humor to Connect With Audiences
Humor is consistently one of the most effective tools for getting audiences to lower their guard. It makes your brand more relatable and makes listeners want to hear what else you have to say. The obvious catch here is that brands must be careful because several brands have made tone-deaf jokes which missed the mark and hurt their reputation.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/279395181_531623858510636_7335997783345324588_n.jpg10801920Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-05-19 20:05:002022-05-16 20:06:21Meta Research Finds 6 Culture Codes Brands Need To Follow For Best Ad Impact
In a blog post from this week, LinkedIns Chief Product Officer Tomer Cohen shares updates about the latest improvements to the platform’s search engine, accessibility features, and the content brands can share in feeds.
Though these updates might seem scattered or disconnected, they are all united by one theme. LinkedIn is making it easier for users to find relevant and useful content, especially from brands on the platform.
Updates to LinkedIn Search
LinkedIn is expanding its search results to include news, topics, trends, and more from connections and relevant content from creators related to your search.
As Cohen explains in the blog post:
“If you’re interested in a particular topic when you search for it you’ll see the latest insights, expert opinions, and other breaking news. From finding the right people, communities, companies, jobs, or content, you can now make progress on any professional goal by simply searching for the topic you have in mind.”
The biggest change coming from this is the introduction of content from people outside your network, though the networking platform promises to only include “relevant creators.”
Additionally, the search engine is being improved to make it easier to “re-discover” posts you’ve already seen in your feed.
Now, you can find something you’ve seen before on your Feed by searching with just the creator’s name and keywords used in their post.
Share Reviews (If You’re a Service Provider)
Any business knows the power of reviews. Up to 95% of consumers look for reviews before making a purchase, according to some estimates. Reviews also make a greater impact than most other types of content because they are authentic.
This is why LinkedIn is making it possible for the 4 million service providers on the site to share recent reviews with other users.
In a similar vein, Cohen notes service providers can also hight examples of their work in the new Featured section of the page.
Customized Referral Links For Creators
To help entrepreneurs and creators boost their visibility, LinkedIn is introducing the ability to add a link to the top of a profile to make it easier to find out more about your business or upcoming events.
With this, you can direct people checking out your content to pages about your business, upcoming events or courses you are offering, or other pages for your products or services.
Though the feature is currently only accessible to those in creator mode, Cohen does note it will be rolled out more broadly soon.
Real-Time Captions for Audio Events
Audio events have been massively popular for LinkedIn, but there has been one glaring issue: they were completely inaccessible to those with hearing impairments, or those who weren’t in an environment that allowed for listening to content.
To fix this, the platform has made real-time captions available for English-language users. This way, your audio events can be open and relevant for all.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/LinkedIn3.png280640Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-05-16 18:11:502022-05-16 18:11:52LinkedIn Updates Its Search Engine and More
Despite Google being very clear about its feelings on paying for SEO links (hint: it is not a fan), I still regularly come across stories of brands spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on links that promise to increase their rankings.
Typically, these individuals have heard success stories from others who had recently bought a ton of SEO backlinks and saw their own site jump to the top of search results. Unfortunately, this is rarely the end of the story.
Today, I wanted to highlight a more complete example of what happens when you pay for links and why.
The Full Story of Someone Who Spent $5,000 on SEO Links
In this instance, I came across someone who had spent thousands of dollars on links for SEO purposes through Search Engine Journal’s “Ask an SEO” column. In the most recent edition of this weekly article, a person named Marlin lays out their situation.
“I paid over $5,000 for SEO link building.”
From the outset, it is unclear if Marlin knew exactly what they had gotten into. While it is possible they directly purchased links from a website, there is also the potential that Marlin and their company put their trust in a questionable marketing agency that purchased or generated spammy links to “boost” rankings.
This is important because it is very common for online SEO packages to include “link building services” which are actually accomplished through link farms that will inevitably be identified and shut down. This is why it is crucial to know that the people handling your link-building efforts use proven, Google-approved strategies rather than cutting corners.
“At first, traffic was boosted.”
As promised, the initial result of buying links is frequently a quick spike in your search engine rankings. Even better, this payoff seems to come much more quickly than the rankings boosts seen from traditional link-building efforts. In some cases, you might even get a huge boost to your rankings within a week or two of paying for the service!
However, the story isn’t over.
“We then lost our rankings on those keywords and our traffic is gone!”
Despite the initially promising results, this is the inevitable conclusion of every story about paying for links.
In the best-case scenario, Google simply ignores your newly acquired low-quality links – putting you right back where you started. In some cases, depending on how widespread the link scheme appears to be, you can wind up even worse than when you began.
If Google believes you have a persistent habit of trying to manipulate search rankings, your site may receive a penalty that significantly impairs your rankings. In the worst cases, your site can be removed from search results entirely.
Why Paid Links Inevitably Fail
There is a very simple reason this story followed a predictable pattern. Google explicitly forbids any sort of “unnatural links” or link schemes. Additionally, the search engine has invested huge amounts of time and resources to identify these artificial links.
At the same time, Google is locked into a game of whack-a-mole where new link sellers are popping up all the time – which is why their links may help your rankings for a very short time.
In SEO, shortcuts are rarely as great as they appear. If you’re looking for long-term, sustainable success, the only option is to roll up your sleeves and build links the old-fashioned way: by creating great content and building real relationships with other members of your industry.
It won’t be quick and it won’t be easy, but it will be worth it in the long run.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Buying-Links-Bad.png6751200Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-05-03 17:22:382022-05-03 17:22:39What Happens When You Pay For SEO Links?
Product pages may receive a temporary reduction in their visibility in Google search results if the product is listed as out of stock, according to Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller during the most recent Google Search Central SEO Office Hours session.
Surprisingly, though, this is not always the case.
As Mueller answered questions about how product stock affects rankings, he explained that Google has a few ways of handling out-of-stock product pages.
How Google Handles Out-of-Stock Products
Mueller says that, in most cases, Google treats out-of-stock listings as a soft redirect or unavailable page:
“Out of stock – it’s possible. That’s kind of simplified like that. I think there are multiple things that come into play when it comes to products themselves in that they can be shown as a normal search result.
They can also be shown as an organic shopping result as well. If something is out of stock, I believe the organic shopping result might not be shown – I’m not 100% sure.
And when it comes to the normal search results, it can happen that we when see that something is out of stock, we will assume it’s more like a soft 404 error, where we will drop that URL from the search results as well.
Theoretically, it could affect the visibility in search if something goes out of stock.”
In some situations, though, Google will essentially override this decision and continue to show a page if it is considered particularly relevant for users.
For example, if the product page also includes helpful information about the product in general, it may still be worth keeping in search results despite the lack of stock.
As Mueller explains”
“It doesn’t have to be the case. In particular, if you have a lot of information about that product anyway on those pages, then that page can still be quite relevant for people who are searching for a specific product. So it’s not necessarily that something goes out of stock, and that page disappears from search.”
Out-of-Stock Products Don’t Hurt Your Entire Site
While it is true that listing one product as unavailable can keep that specific page from appearing in search results, Mueller is sure to reassure you that this should not impact the rest of your website:
“The other thing that’s also important to note here is that even if one product goes out of stock, the rest of the site’s rankings are not affected by that.
So even if we were to drop that one specific product because we think it’s more like a soft 404 page, then people searching for other products on the site, we would still show those normally. It’s not that there would be any kind of negative effect that swaps over into the other parts of the site.”
You can watch the entire discussion with Google’s John Mueller in a recording of the SEO Office Hours session below:
Google is finally adding its coveted Trusted Store badge to free shopping listings in search results.
The badge has been available to reliable brands on the platform for nearly a decade at this point and has been proven to increase trust in online retailers by verifying your reputation.
Stores running paid shopping listings have been able to take advantage of this by showcasing their Trusted Store badge on their ads, however, this has not been an option for those whose free product listings get shown.
What Is The Google Trusted Store Badge?
The Google Trusted Store badge is a small icon representing that your business has been recognized by Google for delivering great products, fast shipping, and amazing customer service.
Though the badge is typically thought to represent pages with consistently high Google customer reviews, eligibility is actually determined by Shopping Experience Scorecard scores. These scores are determined by monitoring submitted data from online stores to assess the speed and quality of service.
If Google determines that you are an upstanding brand, you will then be notified that you are eligible to be a Google Trusted Store.
What Is The Benefit of Being a Google Trusted Store?
Beyond earning a badge that will now appear on both paid and free product listings, being a Trusted Store brings several benefits for brands, including increased product listing engagement, more prominently displayed product listings, and increased trust from potential customers.
Perhaps most notably, being a Trusted Store also gives brands the ability to offer free purchase protection for customers, up to a specific amount of money.
New Analytics Tools For Free Product Listings
Along with announcing that free product listings in Google search results may display the Trusted Store badge, the search engine launched a number of analytics tools for free listings.
These new reporting tools provide details across several metrics including:
Total traffic
Impressions
Conversion rates
Pricing competition
This marks the first time performance data has been available to merchants for free product listings.
The Big Picture
These upgrades to free product listings bring them more in line with paid shopping listings, making them potentially more attractive to online retailers. Thanks to the introduction of the new reporting tools, brands can also start refining their listings to improve click-through and conversion rates based on their recent performance and shopping trends.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BlogPostImage.max-1000x1000-1.jpg5631000Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-03-31 19:19:482022-03-31 19:19:50Google’s Trusted Store Badge Is Appearing On Free Product Listings
Google Business Profiles (previously known as Google My Business) are a crucial part of any brand’s online presence. Not only does it control how your company appears in local search results, but it also powers Google Maps listings.
So how does Google balance keeping these local listings easily accessible for business owners without leaving listings vulnerable to manipulation or outright fraud?
The search engine explained how it combined everything from its search algorithms and machine learning tools to human reviews to block more than 100 million abusive business profile updates last year.
Thanks to this approach, the company believes that less than 1% of the content viewed through Google Business Profiles and Google Maps was fraudulent or abusive in 2021.
How Google Fights Business Profiles Spam
Over the course of 2021, Google says it blocked over 100 million abusive or fraudulent edits to Google Business Profiles. This includes a wide range of activities, including creating fake business listings, fraudulent or abusive reviews, or attempts to hijack business listings.
Here’s the breakdown of the types of actions taken by Google to fight Google Business Profile abuse:
Removed over 7 million fake Business Profiles on Google Maps. Google said more than 630,000 of those Business Profiles were removed through user reports.
Prevented 12 million attempts to create fake Business Profiles on Google Maps.
Stopped 8 million fraudulent attempts to claim Business Profiles on Google Maps.
Disabled over 1 million accounts due to policy-violating activity, such as online vandalism or fraud.
Removed or blocked 95 million policy-violating reviews, over 60,000 of which were taken down due to COVID-related instances.
1 million reviews were taken down through user reports.
Blocked or removed 190 million photos and 5 million videos that were blurry, low quality, or violated Google’s content policies.
Can Google Make Up For Past Mistakes?
Historically, Google has struggled to prevent misuse or manipulative behavior across its local business listings. There are countless horror stories easily found online from businesses that had their listing stolen from them, vandalized by the competition, or brought down by fraudulent reviews.
Hopefully, with actions like these, the platform can continue to undo this legacy and provide a reliable platform for both users and the businesses included.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Google-Business-Profiles-Abuse-Prevention.png5581000Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-03-24 19:00:042022-03-24 19:00:06Google Business Profiles Blocked Over 100 Million Abusive Edits Last Year
If you’re a business owner or operator, you’ve probably been told 100 times by 100 different people that you just HAVE to invest in Search Engine Optimization. Unfortunately, you’ve also likely never really heard why SEO is so important beyond broad mentions of “being found online” or that “everyone uses Google.”
Marketers and salespeople have a bad habit of talking about the power and benefits of optimization without explaining what sets it apart from other types of online marketing, how it impacts your ability to reach new markets, and why many SEO packages don’t cut it.
So today, I wanted to do just that.
What Is Search Engine Optimization
Before we can talk about what makes SEO special, we have to talk a bit about what it is.
In the simplest terms, search engine optimization is the name for a wide range of strategies and techniques used to increase your visibility on search engines.
In the past, this could be boiled down to the phrase “making your website the top result on Google searches.” These days, search engines are much more complex and what might be the top result for one user might be completely different for another.
As such, SEO has evolved to focus more on overall visibility across Google’s many systems with the goal of attracting as many potential customers as possible to your site.
How SEO Works
For our purposes today, we aren’t going to go very in-depth discussing the numerous strategies or techniques used in SEO. Otherwise, we’d be here all day.
What matters for this discussion is understanding that these methods affect how Google sees and ranks your site.
While some strategies are dedicated to helping Google understand the content that is on your site, others are intended to boost the overall value of your site. Combined, these approaches help ensure Google picks your site for relevant searches and gives you the best chance to attract website traffic.
Why SEO Is Essential in 2022
Google Is The Most Visited Site In The World
Marketers always like to say “everyone uses Google” to emphasize the importance of SEO (and they aren’t necessarily wrong), but what does that really mean?
It means that Google is a massive part of daily life for practically everyone around the globe, and can massively influence what information we see, who we do business with, and what products people buy.
The most popular site in the world NOT owned by Google – Facebook – sees less than a quarter of the traffic seen by Google.com.
No matter how you try to spin it, Google acts as the central hub to the internet for the vast majority of people out there. If you don’t play by their rules, you risk being disconnected from this hub and any potential traffic you might get.
Organic Search is Still The Main Driver of Traffic
When considering where to invest their marketing budget, many businesses find themselves asking the same question: “Why should I spend money on SEO, which is complicated and not guaranteed to pay off, when I could instead run ads that are guaranteed to appear above those search results?”
Organic search results get underestimated because ranking highly is rarely a sure thing – even for the biggest companies. Meanwhile, paid search ads are built around driving results without uncertainty.
Despite this, there is actually a very simple reason you should invest in organic search optimization.
At the end of the day, the majority of search results still result in a user clicking an organic link from regular search results. So while it may seem riskier, investing in search engine optimization has the chance for much larger rewards.
Better SEO Means Better User Experience
Every brand wants its website to provide the best user experience possible. A positive user experience increases the likelihood of driving conversions, while negative user experiences can sour people on your company entirely.
So, it should come as good news that the majority of SEO practices are intended to improve user experience in a variety of ways including speeding up your site, making it easier to use, and improving accessibility.
By ensuring you are optimized for search engines, you are also investing in improving your site for the real potential customers who will soon be visiting.
SEO Is a Process That Is Always Changing
Companies looking to save some cash on SEO will have an easy time finding dozens of cheap SEO packages across the web. The problems with the packages are numerous, but the biggest red flag is the assumption that SEO is something you do once.
In reality, SEO is something that needs to be done regularly to have a real impact.
When left alone, Google assumes websites are becoming outdated or irrelevant. No matter what industry you are in, there are always new products coming out, new information that can benefit your customers, and new ways to improve your site.
Additionally, Google itself is always changing. The company releases new guidelines, algorithm updates, and features for webmasters seemingly every day. Any cheap package deal is unable to take these updates into account and help your company stay ahead of the rapidly changing search results.
SEO Results Amplify With Time
Unlike almost any other form of marketing, search engine optimization is one of the few investments which tends to build on itself for greater and greater results.
As you optimize your website and create quality content to improve your search rankings, you also provide a more robust presence online. Your website becomes an even greater resource to potential customers. You start getting linked to by others in your industry. People start sharing your brand around social media.
Ads may drive immediate results, but these tend to stabilize with time. Effective search engine optimization, on the other hand, pays increasing dividends the longer you invest in it.
The role search engines play in our lives will only continue to grow as people become more connected and expect information to always be at their fingertips. For all these reasons, it is imperative that companies invest in the best optimization practices possible if they want to continue reaching prospective customers in an increasingly digital world.
Due to the long-term impact of SEO, the best time to start optimizing your website was probably months or years ago. The second best time, however, is now.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/What-Is-Search-Engine-Optimization1.png6301120Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-03-17 18:39:372022-03-17 18:39:39What Is Search Engine Optimization and Why Do You Need It
Twitter is signaling its plans to let brands establish dedicated shops on the platform through a limited test.
The company revealed it is introducing dedicated shopping pages including up to 50 products to a handful of brands as an experiment ahead of plans to roll out the feature to more retailers later this year.
The feature allows a brand or business to add a simple “View shop” button to its profile page, which will link to a Twitter-hosted e-commerce page. When clicked, the button will then take users to your actual online store or website, where the transaction can be completed.
“People are already talking about products on Twitter. We want Twitter Shops to be the home for merchants on Twitter where they can intentionally curate a catalog of products for their Twitter audience and build upon the product discussions already happening on our service by giving shoppers a point of action where a conversation can become a purchase.”
Only Available to a Select Few
As Twitter Shops are currently considered a beta test, the feature is only available to a small number of brands in the U.S. Specifically, the announcement only mentioned five brands that have utilized the feature so far – Verizon, Arden Cover, the Latinx In Power podcast, Gay Pride Apparel, and All I Do Is Cook.
Additionally, only iPhone users are currently able to view or interact with the shops, though the company plans to roll the feature out to other devices in the future.
Social Stores Are Becoming The Norm
The new feature underscores the increasingly blurry line between social media and online shopping. Several other platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram have rolled out their own shopping tools to brands on their platform, though the most obvious comparison is Pinterest’s current shopping system where users can discover brands and shop their products on the platform before finalizing their purchase through retailer’s own sites.
It is no secret that the past few years have wildly shaken up the world – especially when it comes to doing business. Coronavirus, international shipping delays, and rising prices have drastically reshaped customer needs and expectations in virtually every market – as a new report from Google makes particularly clear.
Using a comparison of search trends from 2021 to 2022, Google’s data reveals what customers are looking for as we settle into a “new normal” and brace for even more new challenges in the future.
What Customers Want
More than anything, the search trends from Google reveal that customers are looking for brands that can provide the goods and services they are looking for when they need them. This is reflected by significant increases in searches extended hours and quick service.
For example, the report shows these search phrases saw major increases over the past year:
“Late night shopping”: Up 100% year-over-year
“24/7 customer service”: Up 500% year-over-year
“Next day flower delivery”: Up 800% year-over-year
Return to In-Person Events
Google search data makes it very clear that consumers are itching to get back out and enjoy in-person events again, now that the coronavirus pandemic appears to be winding down. This has led to growth in searches for phrases like:
“Cinema near me”: Up 300% year-over-year
“Seating chart”: Up 600% year-over-year
“Spring break”: Up 100% year-over-year
“Unique things to do in”: Up 100% year-over-year
Some Pandemic Trends Linger
While shoppers are eager to ditch some aspects of the pandemic, Google pinpoints a few trends which popped up during quarantines and appear to be sticking around. These “sticky” trends include:
“Makeup game”: Up 700% year-over-year
“Best movies to stream right now”: Up 300% year-over-year
