This Week in Digital Marketing - September 16, 2022

This week in digital marketing, Instagram revealed intentions to limit the number of purchase options it offers, while Microsoft unveiled a new platform that allows advertisers to execute their campaigns across Instagram, Facebook, and Google.

Google Helpful Content Update Is Now Done Rolling Out
Google has stated that the rollout of the helpful content upgrade is now complete. The update was released over the course of 15 days, from August 25 to September 9 of 2022. Today, September 9, Google posted the finished product.

Reminder: The Google update to its informative content counts as a site-wide signal. It targets websites with a disproportionately large volume of unsatisfactory or useless material that is written with search engines in mind first.

In other words, did you create that piece of content to help users or to rank on Google?

TikTok Adds Additional Regional Trend Insights
More insights, nations, industries, holidays, and other significant market trends have been introduced to TikTok's insights tool.

Although the tool has some potential to assist advertisers in planning campaigns, it is not yet as capable as it could be. The tool doesn't display as much information as one may anticipate from a site with one billion members due to the lack of data.

YouTube Is Testing New Search And Engagement Insights For Creator Studio
New analytics features that YouTube has made available for Creator Studio provide you with more information about your audience's interests based on search and engagement activities as well as how those users are interacting with various topics on the app.

Advertisers can design and strategize campaigns around what appeals to their target consumers with the use of data analytics. Verifiable data will provide users with more knowledge they require to make informed decisions regarding what they are advertising, who is engaging, and what topics they are interested in.

Google Prohibits Incentivizing Customers To Remove Or Modify Negative Reviews
The fraudulent and phony engagement criteria for Google Maps reviews have been modified to forbid asking for the revision or removal of a bad review in exchange for discounts, freebies, or other inducements.

Therefore, you are not permitted to offer incentives to someone who writes you a poor review in order to convince them to change it.

Many companies would provide customers some kind of reward in exchange for updating their negative or indifferent evaluations. The revised Google Maps user-contributed content policy forbids that. This is in addition to paying for, rewarding, or promoting the publication of content that does not accurately reflect the experience, or rewarding positive evaluations in return for discounts, freebies, and/or other goods and/or services.

Microsoft Has Just Introduced Multimedia Ads
New ad formats that will appear at the top of search results in Bing Search, Windows 11, and Microsoft Start have just been released by Microsoft. The "infographic-inspired" new video and picture formats aim to "innovate and disrupt web search."

Regardless of whether you are currently running ads on Microsoft, Multimedia Ads are worthwhile. On a platform that is mostly unused, brands may differentiate themselves by developing more captivating and appealing experiences. Microsoft may be a good fit for those trying to reach new audiences or choose a less expensive approach.

The new ad formats resemble Pinterest quite a bit, but they may enhance click and interaction rates for brands. The cost of competition for the new formats, however, will be high.

Google Has Introduced Bundled Ad Recommendations
To provide marketers more flexibility and control over how recommendations are used, Google has launched a "Manage" option.

In spite of Google's claims to the contrary, it appears that these new bundled recommendations restrict the freedom of advertisers. Although you can select and deselect the options you wish, they are general in nature and offer no explanation of the changes being made. The aspect of control is lost if you don't know exactly what adjustments are being made, and Google gains the upper hand in terms of how "flexible" they can actually be.

Walmart Is Expanding Their Self-Service Marketplace Platform
Walmart Connect, the retailer's marketplace media platform, is growing and providing self-service to make it simpler for advertisers and businesses to promote their goods.

By pushing marketed products to the top of search results, Search Brand Amplifier increases the visibility of products featured in the Walmart marketplace. According to Walmart, this is advantageous for more recent and smaller firms who haven't yet attained high organic listings on the Walmart marketplace.

On the one hand, having the option for any vendor to establish an account and sell through Walmart is a terrific resource, particularly in advance of the holiday shopping season. However, it will be intriguing to watch how the platform differs from Amazon, what its market share is, and how many marketers are on either one or both platforms. Giving Chinese sellers access to the marketplace may also lead to problems with customer service and credibility.

New Apple Ad Spots Are Coming By The End Of The Year
Apple intends to start rolling out new ad locations over the current holiday season.

With only one unit in the Search tab and one unit on the search results page, Apple's current ad inventory concentrates on the App Store. There is currently no information available regarding the new ad placements, however we recently reported that Apple intended to place advertisements in the Suggested, Today, and You Might Also Like sections.

Developers and marketers will have more options to market their brands as the inventory of app ad placements is increased. More placements might result in reduced prices, increased competition, and a move away from conventional platforms like Meta.

Instagram Is Testing A “Gifts” Monetization Feature For Creators
Internally, Instagram is exploring "Gifts," a new mechanism for creators to monetize their work.

Instagram is not the first website to experiment with tips. In fact, tipping mechanisms are already in place on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok allowing creators to further monetise their platforms.

It's advantageous for both the creator and the brands they promote that there are more options for creators to make money. If creators are aware that they may receive additional compensation outside of the original deal, they may feel more motivated to promote businesses on their live streams.

Some of this information will be useful to your company, while some will not. This is where we can help you. We can sort through these updates and determine which ones are most significant to you and your company. Contact us for a consultation!