Digital Marketing Mondays

In last week's episode, we asked whether SEO was still relevant in 2022. The short answer was yes. As promised at the end of last week's podcast, we have continued the discussion.

SEO strategies and trends are often dictated by the current state of Google search, and Google has changed greatly over the years. These changes have been driven partially by weeding out spam content, but also by the emergence of new devices and competitors. Competition fuels Google's need to maintain its status as the best resource for finding anything online. To be the best resource, they need to understand search intent and get the most useful information in front of its users as quickly as possible. With this general philosophy, we've seen Google Search evolve to include shopping carousels, maps, videos, and rich snippets like FAQs.

Google advertising initiatives also play into changes to SEO strategy. Google's ongoing efforts to increase the number of sponsored results with organic results have influenced layout changes within search engine results pages (SERPs). This in turn affects SEO. Organic results have slowly moved down the SERPs, with more ads appearing at the top of the page.

Google's goals can be summarized as increasing ad revenue while maintaining its reputation as the best resource online. Nefarious SEO tactics that used to work, like excessive backlinking and content scraping, not only don't work anymore but actually hurt your rankings in 2022. The amount of spam created through bad practices made for a bad user experience. This, if not corrected, would have cost Google many users. In general, anything that negatively impacts user experience is now penalized, including technical issues such as site speed and lackluster hosting. Google maximizes the visibility of accessible and helpful content.

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays, Hans and Devin discuss SEO strategies that work in 2022 and old techniques that should be left in the past.

Resources:

https://gtmetrix.com/

SEO was the biggest topic in the early days of digital marketing. It existed before Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) was first introduced and co-existed with PPC for many years. As is true with everything, we can expect continuous changes in regard to SEO, and much has changed since the nineties. The types of devices people are searching on have grown to include everything from phones to TVs. Search is becoming local to devices, meaning people have access to native search features directly as we see with various Apple devices. With native search, there is no need to go to a search engine to try to find information. The users of search engines are also becoming more educated on how to find the results they want, with the current trend being to end search queries with "Reddit" to find more authentic content. Google search result pages have also been populated with an increasing number of ad placements over the years. What does all of this change mean for SEO's relevance?

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays Hans and Devin discuss the factors affecting SEO in 2022 and if SEO should play into your marketing strategies in today's marketing landscape.

There is no longer talk of a pending recession - the recession has arrived. With its arrival, it brought about hiring freezes, layoffs, rising interest rates, and companies attempting to minimize their overhead. As more and more companies become reactive to the situation, it is clear this will have an impact on the marketing industry and the marketers that make it up. As companies lay off talent, hiring would become easier if it were not for the economic raincloud over the country. Companies are still advertising but doing so with great caution and consideration in regard to their ad budgets. Eventually, we may see a change in the cost per click (CPC) due to potential changes caused by this recession. As with any disruption, companies and marketers alike will need to pivot and implement strategies that will allow for success in difficult times.

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays, Hans and Devin discuss how digital marketing is being affected by the recession, speculate on what the next few months may look like for the marketing industry, and discuss strategies for navigating what's to come.

There is an evergreen rule in SEO: Content is king. With Google's Helpful Content algorithm update, this is truer than ever. In the early days of search engines, the exploitation of simple algorithms was the driving factor behind spammy results. These dark times were ended by Google's commitment to making sure the most useful content would be returned to those searching on its platform. The 2012 Penguin algorithm update was a turning point in the battle against black hat SEO tactics. It incentivized marketers, content creators, and business owners to create quality web content and punished poor backlink practices, which in turn improved user experience. The benefits to its users have a clear overlap with its earnings. The more frequently people use and trust Google for getting the information they seek, the more they earn through advertising. The Helpful Content update continues the trend of increasing quality content that is easily accessible online. While it's unlikely this update will increase Google's revenue in any meaningful way, it should enhance Google's dominance in the search market by further distancing itself from its competitors. By maintaining its reputation as the number 1 search engine, Google is protecting its future. With all of this said, the question remains: How will the Helpful Content Update affect site rankings?

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays, Hans and Devin discuss Google's latest core search algorithm update and who should be concerned with the potential of their sites dropping out of top positions in SERP.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (S.673) aims to create a model of monetization for publishers for when their content is taken by search engines. Recently, the Amy Klobuchar sponsored senate bill has been making headlines again after recent revisions. While the bill covers print, broadcast, and digital news companies, as a digital marketing agency we have our attention on how this will affect search results and digital advertising. Google and other search engines, as well as some of the big platforms like Facebook, all aggregate news. This gives them a nearly endless source of great content that they can monetize through advertising. In recent years Google has made changes that aims to keep you on their platform rather than taking you to a publisher's web site. While this is great for Google, and is arguably a better user experience, many search queries that would have driven advertising dollars to smaller publishers have been lost to rich results and other Google search features. Bill S.673 would make sure smaller publishers are getting paid too. If this bill passes, don't expect the effects to stop with Google. Facebook and TikTok have also implemented nefarious tactics to keep users on their platforms.  It is said that they hired psychologists to figure out how they can hack the brain. Their goal was allegedly to elicit more dopamine release in order to keep people on their platforms longer. This has also made headlines and would likely get a similar treatment. This could be the start of long overdue change that will create a level playing field online. 

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays Hans and Devin explain the potential effects the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (S.673) will have on advertising and Google.

Aside from on its App Store, Apple has not offered advertising on its platforms and products. This could change: leading up to Apple's big event on September 7th, rumors have leaked indicating Apple is about to launch advertising within their other applications. Intentional or not, their fight against third-party data has had significant impacts on advertising and analytics platforms including Facebook and Google. Apple has hired some of the top search and advertising platform talent recently, including a high-level exec from the Google Ads team. This move was shrouded in mystery at the time, but their motives are becoming clearer as the rumor mill has begun to run in overdrive. It's expected that Apple Podcasts, Apple Books, Apple Maps, and Apple TV will begin to allow ad placements. All of this will be achieved using first-party data only to not violate their own tracking policies.

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays, Devin discusses the rumors surrounding the future of Apple ads and how this will affect the digital marketing landscape.

RFP or "Request for Proposal" is a process where companies or organizations open requests for bids to complete a project. This practice is not new, and like many old ideas, the RFP process may not work for everyone. When a project has a finite result, like the construction of a new building, using an RFP process makes perfect sense. However, an RFP will do little to qualify potential candidates when your project requires or could benefit from creative and critical thinking. This begs the question: how should you go about selecting the best digital marketing agency to work with for your projects? In marketing, clients do not have the same goals and needs. Your campaigns, content, and reporting should be tailored by your agency to your unique needs. Your agency should also offer opportunities for continuous improvement. The RFP process can highlight skill and cost, but it will likely fail at doing much more.

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays, Hans and Devin dive into why the RFP process alone will not help you find the right agency to partner with and what you should do to find the best match.

In last week's episode, we discussed how digital advertising platforms such as Google Ads are already implementing and relying on machine learning. The reach of AI in digital marketing does not stop with ads. As companies reluctantly become less dependent on third-party data, they are turning to machine learning to fill the data void. AI can help us perceive visitor behaviors and interests clearer without breaching privacy expectations. Pioneering uncharted frontiers has historically brought great rewards. Equally so, it has brought great risks and dangers. This can be observed in the digital marketing industry when large tech platforms create new ways for businesses to target and engage their customers. Meta (formerly known as Facebook) is being sued in a class action lawsuit for Meta Pixel's role in helping marketers target visitors of medical sites. Meta has also released a new chat AI they call "BlenderBot 3." This chatbot can discuss almost any topic. The more users engage with Meta's latest AI the better the model will be trained. BenderBot appears to have views we think its creators would disagree with, including its view on Mark Zuckerberg. At this point, nearly all marketing companies are implementing and experimenting with machine learning in some capacity, including Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, LinkedIn, and HubSpot. With much uncertainty on where this will all lead, a few things are certain: more lawsuits, increased reliance on AI, and the realization that it is becoming increasingly challenging to control how your ads and messaging are presented in the public light.

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays, Hans and Devin discuss the growing role AI will have in the marketing industry and what you need to understand to make sure you have the most control over where and how your ads are being displayed.

The Matrix, The Terminator, and Google Ads have one thing in common: AI that can both help and harm you depending on the situation. Many advertising platforms in recent years have become more aggressive regarding automatic recommendations powered by machine learning. These suggestions ideally should help your campaigns, but in most instances they don't. Smaller suggestions can be effective: platforms might tell you to remove an underperforming keyword or remove a negative keyword that prevents ads from showing for your main keywords. Despite our experience with invasive suggestions being useless at best, they should not be completely ignored. The ultimate goal of the machine learning behind these recommendations is to produce better results. Though infrequent, on occasion automated suggestions do find optimization opportunities. In many ways, platform representatives are not so different. Most of the time they echo the AI auto-recommendations, though this is not true with all reps. It is important to know how to distinguish good advice from bad advice while navigating the potential social pressures that may make you want to agree with a rep regardless of the story your data tells. Unlike auto recommendations, there are several unique benefits that reps provide, including access to inside information. It's important to remember your goals and the goals of the advertising platforms may not align. You (or your digital advertising agency) are ultimately responsible for getting the most return on your ad budget.

In this week's Digital Marketing Mondays, Hans and Devin discuss how to navigate recommendations from advertising platform AI and representatives to best optimize your campaigns.

Google is indisputably one of the best options for online advertising. With billions of monthly searches, it is an invaluable tool in our arsenal to help clients reach their potential customers. The amount of marketing data they currently have (and continue to collect) allows for fantastic targeting. While search ads work well for most, they're not the correct choice for every scenario. Despite how well Google works for advertisers, for many years we’ve wished competition would emerge.

Our wish may have just been granted. While many new ads platforms have surfaced in recent years, Microsoft stands out as one of Google’s most fearsome competitors. In Q1 of 2022, Microsoft acquired Xandr, a move that is beginning to bear fruit. Xandr is a digital advertising platform developed by AT&T for the sole purpose of ad placements in streaming media. Netflix recently partnered with Microsoft over Google and Comcast to deliver ads on their platform. They have recently had a declining customer base, and a free account tier funded by Microsoft ads may be the life raft they need. Microsoft isn’t the only company gunning for Google. With new platforms available, it is important to consider first-party vs third-party data, potential issues with attribution, and how your business plans to adapt to deliver new ad formats such as video.

In this week’s Digital Marketing Mondays, Hans and Devin discuss why Microsoft partnering with Netflix is a big deal and what you need to consider when exploring competitors of Google Ads.