Industry News Content Google penalties targets bloggers, digital ad spend soars & the latest social developments Jul 13th, 2017 Click Consult reviews the latest search marketing developments serves them to you in bite sized chunks… Google ads Google is testing two new ad styles. Firstly, a green label on text ads on the SERPs, that matches the URL display colour. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land: “This is a small test, and we’re always exploring ways to label ads clearly on Google across mobile and desktop.” Noticed a change in how our #GoogleAdWords ads are looking this morning in the SERP @adwords #SEO #SEM pic.twitter.com/BQ78wvVAf9 — Mark Weller (@MarkWellerSEM) April 14, 2016 Then, in Google Maps, a purple ‘Ad’ label in Maps that matches the purple pin noting the location of the advertiser on the map itself: Latest research UK advertisers spent a record £8.61bn on digital advertising last year – up 14% YoY, with ad spend on mobile devices driving the majority of this growth, according to a recent IAB/PwC study. Separate research has shown that 50% of businesses consider social media and SEO the most difficult digital marketing tactics as they’re time-intensive and require specific skillsets. The State of Digital Marketing 2016 report also found that marketing automation is experiencing unprecedented growth, with more than half of B2B companies adopting automated techniques such as programmatic display ad buying. Recent social media news Facebook allows sharing of branded content Facebook has changed its ad policy to allow publishers, brands and celebrities to sell third party ads. this includes text, photos, videos, Instant Articles and links that specifically mention or features a third party product, brand, or sponsor, meaning verified publishers can now monetise their content on the social network. Chat bots for Facebook Messenger The social media giant has released a suite of tools that allow developers to build chat bots for Messenger and the internet. Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the functions and procedures at the F8 developer conference. Chat bots combine artificial intelligence and human interaction to simulate conversations and can be used by businesses for functions such as commerce and customer support. Pinterest launches Promoted Pins Businesses in the UK can now buy ads on Pinterest so to target audiences in relevant search results, category feeds and home feeds, targeting pinners in the UK, US and Canada. The online image sharing and curation site positions itself as a platform for online search as much as social networking, where visitors seek ideas and inspiration, which arguably makes it more likely you’ll attract qualified clicks and engagement than on other social networks. Promoted Pins take the same format as organic content, in that their success visually-led and rely on creativity, and are signposted as paid-for. Why not sign up to our monthly newsletter to receive the latest search marketing updates straight to your inbox? Just pop your email address into the little box on the left-hand side of this page.