Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, and welcome back.

I hope my US friends had a good holiday yesterday. Labor Day was created as a tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. Essentially: y’all do great work; here’s a day off. 

In that vein, a Labor Day break feels especially needed after the past year and a half of lockdown, at-home school, and constant vigilance. Plus, as search marketers, this past summer was relentless in terms of algorithm updates, big SERP changes, and automation announcements. Now we’re in the final stretch before the holiday season ramps up. 

Take what’s left in September to take stock, count your wins, make your lists, and gird your loins for the final push before we can chill. (I hope I didn’t just jinx 2022).

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content

Bing’s content submission API is now available to everyone

Microsoft has opened up its Bing content submission API after over two and half years of it being in a private beta. The content submission API is different from the Bing URL submission API, in that the content submission API lets you submit not just your URLs but also your content, images, HTML and more directly to Bing’s index. “The API provides the ability for webmasters to notify Bing directly about the changes in their site content in real-time,” Microsoft said.

Why we care. This solution not only helps expedite indexing for your new or updated URLs like the Content Submission API offered, but it also bypasses the crawling of that content and lets you submit content directly to the search engine. This solution might be something you want to test out on your sites or client sites and see if it makes a big difference on indexing and your server resources.

Read more here.

ETA and RSA Q&A

Last week in our newsletter we included Twitter conversations about pinning in RSAs to mimic ETAs after Google Ads sunsets the latter. On Friday, Brad Geddes continued the conversation by asking Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin, “Since Google recommends 2 ETAs & 1 RSA and has never recommended more than 1 RSA per ad group. Will the number of ads per ad group become restricted with this change? Will we be allowed to run 2-3 RSAs in an ad group?”

“It’s recommended to have at least one responsive search ad in every ad group in your Search campaigns by June 30, 2022. There’s a limit of 3 enabled responsive search ads per ad group,” Marvin replied. She added that there won’t be plans to restrict the number of RSAs to only one per ad group upon clarification by Geddes.

Later Geddes tweeted screenshots of reporting showing why advertisers want more control with RSAs (a callback to the pinning tweets last week). “This is an RSA with ‘excellent’ ad strength. When it was paused, this ad group’s conversions almost doubled due to G serving the highest CTR ad the most and not the one that converts the best. I have 1000s of these examples,” he wrote.

“Sooo important. I open quite a few accounts these days where the only ad that’s in there is a single Responsive Search Ad. There are so many holes in that approach. Just because Google is ‘testing’ your ad assets for you, it doesn’t mean you should only run one ad,” added Andrew Lolk, founder of Savvy Revenue. 

Why we care. The conversations that Ads experts are continuing to have present thoughtful questions (and answers) to how advertisers will have to change and adjust. We’ll have to think outside the box in some aspects of the shift away from ETAs, and these are all things PPC marketers can test in the coming months to prepare their clients for the major change that’s headed our way.

Search Shorts: Skip the ads on Bing, turn off personalized ads on iOS

Bing Search tests a “Skip To Web Results” button. Microsoft Bing is testing a feature to let searchers skip down to the web results, past the ads, past the knowledge panels and direct answers and people also ask boxes and just see those web results.

Apple has launched a new pop-up in iOS 15 to allow users to turn on or off personalized ads within the App Store and other Apple apps. “Personalized ads in Apple apps such as the App Store and Apple News help you discover apps, products, and services that are relevant to you,” says the pop up. “We protect your privacy by using device-generated identifiers and not linking advertising information to your Apple ID.”

MarTech Replacement Survey finds marketing transformation is accelerating 

This year’s edition of the MarTech Replacement Survey is free to download and requires no registration. 

The first MarTech Replacement Survey in 2019 showed just how frequently marketing organizations replaced technology. The survey found homegrown platforms were often displaced by commercial, out-of-the-box applications. This had a direct effect on hiring, as most respondents said they had recruited new teams to run the platforms they were installing.

Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has gripped the world, forcing us more closely to embrace digital operations. We know that many digital-first businesses thrived during the pandemic, but questions remained about how the disruption of the past year-and-a-half affected marketing technology decisions.

This year’s report, the result of a survey fielded through April and May of 2021, answers several of those questions.

Of the 374 marketers who answered our survey, 252 told us they replaced a marketing technology application in the past year, representing 67% of respondents. For the most part, organizations were upgrading from one commercial solution to another — and the upgraded solutions were exactly the kinds of technologies you’d expect given how digital transformation picked up during the pandemic.

Read more here.

What We’re Reading: When your biggest clients don’t heed your warnings

Banksy’s web administrators were warned about a security issue in the site — and then a few days later hackers scammed a buyer out of $336,000. 

“On Tuesday a piece of art was advertised on Banksy’s official website as the world-renowned graffiti artist’s first NFT (non-fungible token). A British collector won the auction to buy it, before realising it was a fake. A cyber-security expert warned Banksy that the website could be hacked, but was ignored,” said Joe Tidy for the BBC.

This seems to be an age-old issue with development and marketing. Marketers make critical recommendations to our clients and stakeholders. We tell them what could happen if they do nothing. Only some (or none!) of the recommendations are implemented. And what we said would happen… happens.

The hope is that they take heed before something bad happens, but if not, that we can get them on board and help them fix it afterward, at a minimum. But if you’re feeling frustrated, just know that even Banksy doesn’t take every recommendation.

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Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, and what is “next?”

The semantics have been on my mind as the SMX team has been programming SMX Next, but also as I’m seeing lots of career shifting in the search marketing community. Companies are hiring a ton. Marketers are quitting their jobs, starting new ones, or founding their own businesses. People are saying, “Thank U, next” to in-office work, low salaries, and inflexible schedules.

At the same time, automation is a big “what’s next” for our industry (as well as what’s now). NLP is an existing technology that will take our industry to the “next” level. All of us are learning to do more with less data (a trend that will likely only continue).

And these all play into the career aspect too. We have to learn how to navigate our excelling careers with all these next-level technologies. It’s a lot, but search marketers are pros at coping with (and conquering) what’s next.

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content

Google page experience update is now rolled out

Google confirmed that it completed the page experience update rollout yesterday. This includes the updates to the Top Stories carousel on mobile search but the Google News app changes won’t be done for a week.

Google began rolling out the page experience update on June 15th and told us it would be completed by the end of August. It technically was not finished before the end of August and has about a week more to go, but it is essentially done rolling out, say Google reps.

Read more here.

Why are in-house SEOs looking for new jobs?

Eli Schwartz, author of Product-Led SEO, tweeted about some contacts looking for new in-house SEO jobs. Mark Preston, Head of Digital at The Hakim Group, asked in response, “Why are so many great in-house SEOs looking for a new job?” Here are some of the top reasons Schwartz listed:

1. In WAY too many companies there are limited vertical opportunities for growth within SEO. For someone that loves SEO the only way to keep doing SEO is to move on.
2. There is not enough value placed on SEO so therefore salaries are arbitrarily capped. The SEO manager that knows they are contributing significantly to the bottom line will eventually get frustrated at not getting great raises and will move on to a company that is willing to pay $$$ precisely b/c they have to pay to hire.
3. Companies are making employees go back to the office after a year or more of remote work. Those companies are going to end up losing their highly skilled SEOs and won’t know how hard they will be to replace until it’s too late.

Why we care.  It’s food for thought for in-house marketing departments on how to keep their SEOs feeling heard, fulfilled, and like they’re growing in their roles. Even if your SEO manager doesn’t want to move into a management position, there should be practitioner options for growth within your organization. No one wants to stay stagnant, especially with all the great job opportunities out there in today’s fiery market.

What to do now that ETAs are going away

What happens when ETAs sunset and those in regulated industries still have to get ad coy and variations approved? “ETAs might be going away, but your ability to control ads is not. All you need to do is use ‘pinning’ at scale and you still have full control over your ad messaging. This is going to be essential for regulated industries and those who see poor RSA performance (*many* people),” tweeted Brad Geddes, Co-Founder of Adalysis. 

Data from our own contributors has found that pinning ad components can hurt performance: “In our analysis, we looked at ads with at least one pinned component and compared them to ads with no pinned components. Ads without pinning did better on CTR, conversion rate, CPC and CPA. But the opposite was true for ROAS where ads with a pinned component did better,” said Frederick Vallaeys, CEO at Optmyzr.

So what happens if you have to pin? “My opinion is that pinning headlines will be necessary for many ad groups.  Yes, it hobbles the algorithm somewhat, but so be it. I doubt Ad Strength measurement has any predictive value for low volume ad groups,” predicted Matt Van Wagner, President of Find Me Faster.

Why we care. While the PPC community knew it was coming, the phase-out of ETAs is making many start brainstorming new strategy ideas. With the advanced notice (ETAs won’t disappear until late June 2022), now’s the time to start testing, adjusting, and migrating your ad strategy to accommodate the changes. Those tests should probably include pinning, just to see how it goes.

Jobs: On the hunt for something new in 2021? Here are the latest career opportunities in search

SEO Specialist @ EmberTribe (USA, remote)

• Salary: $55k-70k/yr
• Audit client and prospect digital portfolios to identify improvement opportunities, and deliver these findings both verbally and in writing in such a way that supports new business acquisition.
• Track and report on relevant KPIs for organic search, teaching and guiding clients on what metrics are relevant and applicable. Use this performance data to drive strategic updates and iterative tests aimed at increasing overall search performance.

Web Content Manager @ WorkMoney (USA, remote)

• Salary: $90k/yr
• Create content that drives traffic to our soon-to-be released website
• Work within the member value team in close coordination with teams focused on direct member outreach, advocacy and digital engagement to refine our overall tone and offerings

Paid Search Associate @ Velocity Global, LLC (USA, remote)

• Salary: $55k-65k/yr
• Assist in creation, launch, and management of paid search campaigns to bring in qualified leads resulting in pipeline growth
• Monitor, optimize, and report campaign performance on an on-going basis to ensure KPIS are met or exceeded

Demand Generation Manager/Senior Manager @ Clarify Health Solutions (USA, remote)

• Salary: $120k-132k/yr
• Lead, design, and execute demand generation strategy and campaigns
• Own the development of a content strategy and creation of content (white papers, case studies, e-books, webinars, videos, etc) that will drive demand and is aligned to the stages of the buyer’s journey.

Enter a job opening for an opportunity to be featured in this section.

Search Shorts: Google Ads location targeting, Sept. 1 algo update, and post-cookie measurement

Understanding & optimizing Google location targeting settings. If you choose to have your ads showing in the US, why do you see people from Germany, France, and Japan clicking on your ads? If you are only targeting Chicago, why do you have clicks from San Francisco? The real question is: Are those clicks converting, and if not, how can I stop them?

Was there another algo update on September 1? Barry dives into the chatter on SERoundtable: “There are not a huge number of complaints, but the tools are picking up on the fluctuations in the Google search results.”

Google analytics chief addresses critics and plans for measurement in post-cookie world. “With paradigm shifts you end up having a phase of ambiguity, where there’s a lot of education that has to go around before the industry as a whole can coalesce to a solution,” said Vidhya Srinivasan in the interview with AdAge.

Upcoming Events: MarTech is just 11 days away 

We’re featuring keynotes by Chief Martec himself Scott Brinker, author and email guru Kath Pay, rising marketing ops star Darrell Alfonso and our own Kim Davis. Those are included in over 70 sessions packed with actionable information to hone your stack and your strategy. It’s all yours. And it’s all free. Secure your pass now.

Don’t miss this opportunity to join thousands of senior-level marketers to learn how to make data-driven decisions that power organizational success.
Psst… Hungry for more? Expand your training with a live, deep-dive workshop on agile marketing, buying technology, customer experiences, CDPs, and attribution analysis — just $149 each. (Buy more than one to unlock 15% off registration!) The agenda and registration link are here.

The post Why are in-house SEOs looking for new jobs?; Friday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, and we knew it was coming but that doesn’t mean we like it.

That’s the gist of what I’m seeing from PPC advertisers in response to Google’s announcement that they’re eliminating ETAs in 2022. The tone is a sad acceptance that their jobs might be getting a little harder in a few years:

“RSAs underperform ETAs almost universally in my experience,” said Collin Slattery, Founder Taikun Digital. “RSAs almost always under-perform ETAs, across millions in spend and over a year of testing. It’s not close, either,” agreed Sam Tomlinson of EVP Warschawski.

Is anyone hopeful or optimistic? “Hoping we’ll get cool customization features, assuming we’ll get cool reporting features,” tweeted Tinuiti’s Head of Paid Search Aaron Levy in response. “I don’t mind losing ETAs as much as I wish there was better reporting on the different events of an RSA,” added Menachem Ani, Founder at JXTGroup.

The good (?) news is that advertisers have a decent amount of time to test and prepare. And Google has time to hear the feedback and improve their tools for PPC professionals.

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content

How to write ad copy that actually converts (plus 3 major mistakes to avoid)

When it comes to creating ads that convert searchers into customers, many advertisers dive into structure, testing, and more, and gloss over one of the most important elements of any campaign: copy. Your ad copy is the very basic building block of your advertising. Getting it right can be the difference between a milquetoast conversion rate and driving huge value for your clients and stakeholders. In her session at SMX Convert, Alyssa Altman did a deep dive into writing ad copy that actually converts including understanding search engines, funnels, intent and more. Here are the high points:

• Search engines are now answer engines. Your ads have to compete with Google’s own in-SERP features.
• Funnels are not linear and intent isn’t clear. Awareness and consideration searches happen throughout the funnel. Plus, conversion searches might happen on queries that we may not normally consider “bottom-of-the-funnel” type of searches.
• Test ad copy for both ambiguous and obvious intent. Testing intent vs. the winning messaging are two very different paths to go down. Clearly identifying what your end goal is will help to drive your upfront testing strategy.

Read Altman’s 3 ad copy mistakes to avoid.

Check out our other SMX coverage:

• How to plan SEO content that actually ranks
• Three PPC targeting tactics that power every stage of the funnel
• SERP trends of the rich and featured: Top tactics for content resilience in a dynamic search landscape

Search Engines: Decentralized search comes to Android in Europe

Starting yesterday, private, decentralized search engine Presearch will be listed by Google as a default search engine option on all new and factory-reset Android devices across the U.K. and Europe.

One of the latest Google competitors vying for market share, “Presearch is a 2017-founded, pro-privacy blockchain-based startup that’s using cryptocurrency tokens as an incentive to decentralize search — and thereby (it hopes) loosen Google’s grip on what Internet users find and experience,” wrote Natasha Lomas for TechCrunch.

In 2018, the European Commission fined Google 4.24 billion euro for unfairly using Android to solidify its search engine dominance. Google agreed to make changes to its default settings, and earlier this year announced it would increase the number of search providers on its default settings page. It also stopped requiring competing search engines to pay to be included. Presearch is now one of those options, but the only search choice that’s powered by the cryptocurrency market.

Why we care. We’ve covered Google’s troubles with the search choice debate many times before, and a new player on the market probably doesn’t even shake them enough to notice. But Presearch’s advertising model is something completely different than we’re used to. 

Called keyword staking, “Presearch token holders can ‘stake,’ or commit, tokens to specific words and phrases. The advertiser that stakes the most tokens to a term then has their advertisement displayed whenever someone searches for that term. As a result, they receive the traffic when users click on that ad link,” wrote Kyt Dotson for Silicon Angle.

“Keyword Staking is just one more way Presearch is transforming the current online search paradigm. We are using blockchain to align the interests of advertisers and users while pioneering an entirely new compensation model for advertising,” said Colin Pape, founder and chief executive of Presearch.

Read also: The case for advertising on search engines other than Google

Search Shorts: Local keyword research, title rewrites, and new Google Ads annotations

How to conquer local keyword research. Even if you’re familiar with keyword research for standard SEO, there are a lot of things specific to local businesses and local SEO that you might not be aware of, but that can take your localized organic performance to new heights. Check out the latest course from Claire Carlile and BrightLocal.

Want to check quickly if Google has rewritten the titles of a list of pages? But don’t have access to paid tools? Jason M at SEOwl made one for you that’s free.

Google Ads is introducing new annotations to highlight fast shipping, easy returns, and new business identity attributes for the holidays. 58% of U.S. holiday shoppers said they will shop online more this season than in previous years and 59% said they will shop earlier to avoid an item being out of stock. Get ahead of the game now with these new Google annotations.

What We’re Reading: Ask the expert – Your top FLoC questions answered

In his highly-rated SMX Advanced session, “FLoC and the future of audiences,” Frederick Vallaeys, Co-Founder & CEO at Optmyzr, dug in to the technology behind Google’s privacy initiatives FLoC, FLEDGE, and TURTLEDOVE. After the sessions, Vallaeys took questions from attendees who wanted to know more about how FLoC will work for B2B advertisers, how Google is testing FLoC cohorts, and how advertisers can have their voices heard by big tech in these privacy initiatives.

What does FLoC mean for B2B advertisers? The problem is that a cohort by nature is less precise than an individual. The unfortunate answer is, no, we’re not going to be able to do some of these things. We’re at this juncture here where I think we still have the old ways and, as imperfect as they may be, how much can we pull out of it and make that third party relationship, the first party relationship, because then we can actually do something meaningful with it.

How does Google test cohorts? Google said, we’re going to put people in these cohort buckets. In one part of the split test, they used third-party cookie data. So where we know you, as an individual, unique, one user who’s done all these things. In the other, we only know every browser is part of exactly one cohort. But then there are many cohorts that Google could say they were targeting. In that test, they saw that there was actually a very close performance in terms of cost per conversion.

How can advertisers have their voices heard in these proposals? Visit privacysandbox.com. Google is involved in all the W3C standards and goes to meetings related to ads. We as advertisers can give feedback in the forums related to that. So, understand what’s happening. Put your point of view in because a lot of the people attending these meetings are big players with big vested interests. So the small people amongst them, the small players, we have to put our voice out there too. And we can’t really do that unless we understand kind of what’s happening.

Want more? Check out the full Q&A here.

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