LIVE updates: This month in search marketing [April 2024]

Friday 12th April 2024

The launch of MetaBanners

MetaBanners is a recently launched, groundbreaking digital advertising platform powered by Ads-Chain technology. MetaBanners integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics to revolutionize digital marketing strategies. The new platform promises unparalleled personalisation and relevance in advertising, enhancing engagement, brand recall, and conversions. Through real-time analysis of user behavior, MetaBanners delivers highly targeted ads, setting a new standard for advertising effectiveness.

The platform seamlessly integrates with existing advertising channels, streamlining campaign management and data collection.

Tuesday 16th April 2024

Are linguistic nuances the future of SEO?

Linguistic nuances, subtle variations in language indicative of authentic expressions, provide valuable insights into audience preferences, sentiments, and trends. By leveraging search and social listening tools, marketers can craft content that aligns organically with audience preferences, navigate trending topics, and shape positive narratives. This approach not only enhances organic search visibility and boosts engagement but also maximises the ROI of PPC and paid social campaigns.

Wednesday 17th April 2024

How should businesses adapt their strategies to accommodate Google’s SGE?

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is prompting local businesses to reassess their SEO strategies to adapt to this evolving search landscape. Powered by advanced AI technologies, SGE aims to provide information directly within search results, potentially reducing the need for users to click through to websites. Local businesses should:

• Optimise their Google Business Profiles
• Leverage structured data
• Prioritise mobile optimisation

These are crucial strategies to enhance visibility in SGE results. Additionally, focusing on providing helpful, relevant content, demonstrating expertise, and building local authority are essential for success in this new search paradigm.

While SGE presents challenges, it also offers opportunities for businesses to better serve their customers and thrive in the evolving search engine environment by embracing a customer-centric approach and leveraging technology effectively.

Thursday 18th April 2024

What impact does the shift from “conversions” to “key events” in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) mean?

The transition from “conversions” to “key events” in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a pivotal shift for digital marketers, particularly SEO professionals. Understanding key events in GA4 involves recognising their significance in measuring critical interactions essential to businesses, such as purchases or newsletter subscriptions. This offers an opportunity to measure contributions to business success more accurately.

By aligning reporting with key business objectives and assigning monetary value to key events, marketers can effectively communicate their impact on brand awareness, lead generation, or online sales.

Adopting key events as key performance indicators (KPIs) extends beyond SEO, offering innovative ways to measure digital PR and social media marketing success.

Friday 19th April 2024

First Google Core Update of 2024 rollout complete

The first core update of 2024 was a long one, taking almost a month and a half from launch to rollout completion. This core update marked a significant shift in Google’s approach, incorporating changes to multiple core systems and ending the standalone helpful content update. The update aimed to reduce low-quality and unoriginal content in search results, ultimately achieving a 45% reduction instead of the initially expected 40%.

With overlapping updates, including spam updates and changes to core web vitals, pinpointing specific impacts on site performance has become challenging.

Monday 22nd April 2024

Marketing focus seeing a shift in the eCommerce industry

The ecommerce landscape is witnessing a shift away from traditional performance-only marketing towards a focus on sophisticated brand building, according to a report by Nest Commerce.

Their analysis highlights the importance of a “full funnel performance” approach, especially on video-first platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Google. Brands that integrated awareness and traffic campaigns alongside performance campaigns experienced a significant 31% year-on-year boost in Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) in Q1 2024, contrasting with a 32% decline for brands solely relying on performance.

The report emphasises the necessity of long-term investment in brand awareness to drive future demand and immediate sales. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels are highlighted as crucial for establishing brand presence, with TikTok showing a 37% higher Conversion Rate (CVR) quarter-on-quarter.

The growing trend of Social SEO

Combining Social Media and SEO strategies is becoming a critical digital marketing strategy to help businesses to remain competitive, as platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok become key channels for engaging younger audiences. Social Media is growing as an influence for shaping information gathering and decision making processes for modern consumers, and as search engines evolve to include more social media content in the SERPs – social SEO becomes increasingly important.

Wednesday 24th April 2024

Joe Biden signs law which threatens TikTok ban

TikTok is one step closer to becoming banned in the US under a new law that requires its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell it within nine months. President Joe Biden approved the law, following concerns over user data sharing with the Chinese government. The US government is moving forward with the ban, citing national security risks associated with foreign ownership, despite TikTok’s assurances to the contrary.

IAB/PwC Digital Adspend Report

The 2023 IAB/PwC Digital Adspend report reveals a significant surge in spending on connected TV (CTV; +21%), podcast ads (+23%), and social video (+20%), outperforming the overall digital ad market.

Advertisers are capitalising on these formats to engage with audiences in the online entertainment sphere, especially amid impending changes to third-party cookies; these channels are perceived as more resistant to cookie changes, driving advertisers towards them.

Some of the more interesting statistics in the report are highlighted below:

• The digital ad market has seen a significant growth, reaching £29.6 billion
• Mobile advertising accelerated by 15% in 2023 to £16.7bn
• Search remains dominant, accounting for 50% of the market at £14.7bn
• Display advertising grew by 12% to £11.3bn, propelled by video.

Saturday 27th April 2024

Google updates guidance on debugging ranking drops

Google recently updated its guidance on debugging ranking drops, introducing five notable changes. The revisions aim to provide more precise advice for webmasters experiencing both minor and significant ranking declines. Here’s a breakdown of the key alterations:

• Downplaying Traffic Drop Fixes: The updated guidance offers less hope for reversing algorithmic traffic drops, emphasizing the complexity of understanding the causes.
• Security or Spam Issues: Google refined the traffic graph illustrations to align more accurately with the causes of traffic decline, particularly emphasizing site-wide security or spam issues.
• Technical Issues: Graph labels were adjusted to better reflect site-wide technical issues or changing interests, offering a broader scope than the previous “market disruption” label.
• New Guidance for Algorithmic Changes: The most substantial change introduces a new section focusing solely on algorithmic updates, providing separate guidance for small and large drops in search position.
• Trivial Changes: Miscellaneous adjustments were made throughout the documentation to enhance precision, such as refining headings.

While the updated guidance represents an improvement, some experts argue that recommendations for addressing large algorithmic drops may not apply universally.

Digital advertising market revenue growth in Q1 of 2024

Meta, Snap, and Google have all reported positive first-quarter results for digital advertising, surpassing analysts’ expectations with revenue growth rates not seen in years. Meta’s revenue surged by 27%, marking its strongest expansion since 2021. Below are some more statistics around ad revenue growth for the first quarter of 2024:

• Alphabet’s ad revenue increased by 13%
• YouTube saw a notable 21% growth
• Snap reported a remarkable 21% revenue increase

Despite this positive momentum, we are still awaiting upcoming earnings reports from Pinterest, Amazon, and Reddit for further insights into the digital advertising market.