Google has revamped Search Ads 360, its enterprise campaign management platform, the company announced Tuesday. The update includes support for some newer Google Ads features (like Performance Max and Discovery campaigns), greater support for other search engines, a refreshed UI as well as workflow improvements.

The new experience will start rolling out over the next few months. Google will share migration timelines as the year goes on.

Support for most new features. The new Search Ads 360 was redesigned and rebuilt using the same technology that powers Google Ads. Having this common technology as the foundation enables support for most new Google Ads features, such as Performance Max and Discovery campaigns.

More support for other search engines. One of Search Ads 360’s main selling points is the ability to manage your ads across different channels, including other search engines. Search Ads 360’s updated infrastructure allows Google to add support for more features from other search engines.

For example, the updated platform now supports over 10 additional Microsoft Advertising features, including responsive search ads, call extensions, local inventory ads and additional Microsoft audience types like customer match. Support for Yahoo! Japan’s Dynamic Ads for Search and sitelink extension scheduling are also now available.

Google will continue to add more features and channel support in the coming quarters.

New advanced features for enterprises. In addition to support for existing features, Google is also rolling out completely new features for Search Ads 360.

“For instance, the new Search Ads 360 takes enterprise workflows to the next level by giving you new ways to centralize and scale your day-to-day tasks and key activities — like campaign management, automated rules and labels — and you’ll now be able to make these changes across multiple advertisers at the same time,” Google said in the announcement.

The company is also making upgrades to existing features: The “Performance Center,” which will become available later this year, is touted as an improved budget management planner with support for enterprise planning capabilities, like improved forecasting across search engines.

And, the existing inventory management and ad builder tools will be unified into one feature, which will be called “Templates.” Templates is also expected to become available later this year.

Refreshed UI. Google also updated Search Ads 360’s interface, borrowing elements from the Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising UIs. This may make navigation more efficient since advertisers may already be familiar with it.

Why we care. The updates Google has made to Search Ads 360 should help you get more work done in one place, which may also help you save time. Since more data and controls are centralized, this may present a more holistic view of your paid search campaigns across channels, which can facilitate better decision-making.

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Microsoft has moved the Bing News PubHub out of its own microsite and into the overall Bing Webmaster Tools console, the company announced this morning. This makes it easier for for publishers who have already verified their sites with Bing Webmaster Tools to access the Bing News PubHub features.

Bing News PubHub. Bing News PubHub first launched in June 2016 as a portal for news publishers to submit their sites, at pubhub.bing.com. While pubhub.bing.com is still live, it is now telling publishers “We have integrated with Bing Webmaster, please go to Bing Webmaster Tool.”

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of my site, the Search Engine Roundtable, waiting to for approval in Bing News. Note, you can access Bing News PubHub on the left side navigation in Bing Webmaster Tools:

How Bing evaluates news sites. Bing News uses the following criteria to help evaluate the news websites:

• Newsworthiness – Reporting on timely events and topics that are interesting to the people using our services. Content that does not focus on reporting, such as how-to articles, job postings, advice columns, product promotions, is not considered newsworthy. Similarly, content that consists strictly of information without including original reporting or analysis, such as stock data and weather forecasts, is not considered newsworthy.
• Originality – This includes unique facts or points of view. Faced with numerous sources frequently reporting similar or identical content, originality or uniqueness becomes a critical way to determine the value to a user of an individual story.
• Authority –News sites with authority maintain the highest level of trust and respect from our users. Submissions must identify sources, authors, and attribution of all content.
• Readability –Content containing correct grammar and spelling and that keeps site design easy for people to navigate. Advertising should never interfere with the site experience.

Why we care. If you are a publisher and want to see the status of your approval in Bing News, you can now login to Bing Webmaster Tools, click on the Bing News PubHub and check your status there. If you have not yet submitted your site for approval, you can within that tool as well. If you were previously rejected, you can resubmit the site for an additional review.

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“Any SEO tool will spit out 10s or 100s of ‘recommendations,’ most of those are going to be irrelevant to your site’s visibility in search. Finding the items that make sense to work on takes experience.”

–John Mueller, Google, Reddit Thread

There’s a difference between data and wisdom. That’s why relying only on the recommendations of your SEO software is an inefficient way to do SEO.

SEO tools make life easier for those of us doing SEO. But so many generate busy work that will not move the needle. 

The problem is that if you don’t understand the context behind the tool’s recommendations — if you cannot see the bigger picture on how things connect and you aren’t able to read between the lines when it comes to the data — you won’t be able to execute a successful SEO strategy. 

That isn’t the tool user’s fault. Most SEO software companies market to the masses in such a way that users think they can just follow the tool’s recommendations, and they are doing SEO. 

Even if the SEO software is simple to use, most require training to use it properly. If someone doesn’t do any training, the tool may be fairly useless. If they get the training but don’t have the SEO knowledge to question the data, that’s useless too. 

This is one of the reasons that for years, we’ve had our clients take our SEO training at the outset of their project. It helps them understand the big picture. 

Compounding the problem is that many of the tools out there are based on SEO “best practices.” 

These best practices often come from​​ data in large-scale SEO research studies, which look at a massive amount of search results across all niches and all types of keywords. In other words, generic data not customized to the business or website (think recommendations based on data like “optimal article length”).

Related: Why real-time and customized data matters

This generic data then becomes an SEO “truth” that trickles into every corner of the SEO industry, including practices and SEO software. 

Then, of course, you have to navigate the SEO software’s “branded” metrics, which the company making the tools invented. These metrics, if not understood, can confuse people and even steer them in the wrong direction. 

(See my article on “site authority” for more on why this metric is a false target).

So what ends up happening is that many businesses subscribe to SEO software and blindly follow its recommendations. 

A better way:

• Become educated on an SEO need and find the right tool to help. (Hint, it’s usually not just one SEO tool. See the top SEO software tools our experts use every day). 
• Take the recommendations with a grain of salt and discern which activities are worth the time.

Real SEO tools support the project rather than become the project. Use tools that provide you with the right answers without getting lost in unimportant detail, and focus on applying wisdom to implement successful SEO strategies.

The post The SEO tool you use shouldn’t become the SEO project appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google is testing “Buying Guides,” a new mobile search results feature that presents users with various drop-down menu options to learn more about the product they’re searching for, the company has confirmed to Search Engine Land.

Tip of the hat to Brian Freiesleben for bringing this to our attention.

Why we care. Editorial content — not e-commerce links — show up in the various drop-down options of the Buying Guide, which could be another place in the SERPs where your content marketing can appear.

“Brands” was one of the drop-down options in the Buying Guide I saw, so it’s safe to assume that the same Brand section will appear in many Buying Guides. Brands will want to ensure that they appear in the Buying Guides for as many of their products as possible — being omitted when your competitors are being shown to users puts you at a disadvantage.

How it works. A price range is shown at the top of the Buying Guide, right below the title of the search result feature. The drop-down menus within the Buying Guide cover several characteristics that might help shoppers narrow down their options. Tapping on a drop-down menu shows the user editorial content; Google did not say how it ranks content that appears in these sections.

The “Types” and “Brands” menus showed carousels that users could interact with to toggle the information shown (for example, users could select from “Composite,” “Aluminum,” “Hybrid” and “Wood” in the Types menu to find out more about bats of the selected material).

The rest of the drop-down menus were geared toward addressing a single question. For example, the “Size” drop-down provides a search listing and preview that answers the question “What is the average size for a bat?”

For the query I was able to trigger this test for (“baseball bats”), the Buying Guide appeared as the fifth organic, non-rich result listing, below 3 ads, a “Popular Baseball Bats” Shopping carousel and the People also ask box. 

Google’s statement. “This is an experiment that helps shoppers discover relevant characteristics of a product by surfacing attributes like price, brand and type,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land. “We’re always testing new ways to improve the shopping experience for our users but don’t have anything specific to announce right now.”

There are some kinks to work out. In terms of understanding a user’s query and matching it with relevant content, Google has made a lot of progress over the last few years, touting advancements such as BERT and MUM. However, it still gets things wrong from time to time.

I used the query “baseball bats” to trigger the Buying Guide feature and, while most of the baseball bat drop-down categories and results were relevant, the results for “Body” and “Age” pertained to bats, the flying mammal (as shown above).

Whether the irrelevant results are due to Google’s systems mistaking baseball bats for animal bats or because the Buying Guides are still in testing, it’s clear that this feature is not quite ready for a wider rollout.

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CallRail just released its 2022 Outlook for Digital Marketing Agencies. The good news: “2021 was a good year for agencies, and 2022 is looking even brighter,” said Mary Pat Donnellon, chief revenue officer at CallRail. 

“The report highlights the areas of success agencies saw last year and reveals what challenges they expect to face in 2022 and beyond. With client acquisition a key concern, agencies are utilizing — or plan to utilize in the near future — the latest marketing trends, like conversational marketing and artificial intelligence, to bring in new clients and keep their momentum going.” 

The study surveyed over 500 individuals employed full-time at U.S.-based marketing agencies to also determine how client expectations are projected to change in 2022 and which marketing trends agencies are currently implementing to bolster client acquisition. 

Key findings from the research include: 

2021 saw extensive growth for marketing agencies 

Marketing agencies made big gains in 2021. Respondents said their agencies experienced an average of 54% revenue growth in 2021, with 95% saying their agency met its 2021 revenue goals. 

Much of this success was due to accelerated client growth: 83% of respondents said their agency surpassed its 2021 goals for client growth. With more clients under their belts than ever before, agencies are feeling optimistic about what 2022 has in store for them. 

2022 will see even more growth – and new challenges

A whopping 99% of respondents said they expect their agency to grow in revenue in 2022, and CallRail’s data shows agencies project to experience an average of 68% revenue growth this year. 

Revenue won’t be the only thing getting a boost, however: 85% of respondents said they expect their agency to grow in size in 2022, with hiring new employees emerging as a top priority to keep up with the influx of new clients. 

But this growth doesn’t come without its challenges. Respondents expect hiring and client retention to be more difficult in 2022 than in 2021, but the biggest emergent challenge will be client acquisition. 82% of respondents said this will be more challenging in 2022 than in 2021. 

Why is client acquisition keeping agencies up at night, and what can they do to rise to the challenge? 

Agencies should adopt the latest marketing trends to meet changing expectations 

CallRail’s data reveals that client expectations when choosing an agency are changing. Over the next five years, 98% of respondents believe clients will want to see agencies offer more comprehensive services; 85% said clients will want to see more diverse clientele, and 82% said clients will want to see more specialization. 

To keep up with these new expectations, agencies must evolve with the times. Agencies have been quick to adopt the latest marketing trends and those who haven’t yet plan to do so in the future. Conversational marketing, artificial intelligence (AI), and zero-click searches have emerged as the latest and greatest ways for agencies to bring in new clients. 

The research found that 62% of responding agencies have already implemented conversational marketing. 44% of agencies have already implemented AI, and 39% have implemented zero-click searches. Of those who haven’t yet, 20% plan to utilize conversational marketing, 21% plan to introduce AI, and 30% plan to implement zero-click searches in the next year. 

Choosing not to take advantage of these trends appears to be a detriment to marketing agencies: those that did not meet their 2021 revenue goals were 27% less likely than average to have already implemented AI. Agencies that wish to succeed in 2022 and beyond must adapt and use every tool at their disposal to acquire new clients. 

Client relationships are changing too

Massive growth across the board will also change how agencies handle their client relationships. Right now, reporting is the name of the game. 86% of respondents said reporting is an essential part of client services, with agencies spending an average of 56 hours per week on reporting. 

CallRail’s data suggests reporting may be key to client growth, as those who didn’t meet their 2021 client growth goals were 15% less likely than average to say reporting is an essential part of their client services. 

But agencies that met and surpassed their client growth goals will have to adapt in order to accommodate their new client load. 95% of respondents said they believe how their agency handles client relationships will change in the next five years as they continue to grow. Of those, 89% said less time will be spent on reporting. 

“The marketplace is constantly changing, and so too are client expectations when choosing a marketing agency,” said Donnellon. 

“CallRail’s research shows that taking advantage of the latest marketing trends and rethinking how they approach client relationships will set agencies up for success in 2022 and the years to come.” 

To learn more about how CallRail’s platform can help marketing agencies and the clients they serve optimize their marketing spend, click here and try it free.

The post Secrets of marketing agency success appeared first on Search Engine Land.

We have a client with angry customers. Really angry customers. 

They are angry because they had unsubscribed from our client’s emails, and yet kept seeing our client in their Gmail inboxes. 

“Enough!” They cried. “Stop spamming us with emails!”

Our client email and customer support teams dug in. They investigated. They researched. They scratched their heads. What was going on? 

Finally, they connected with broader teams, and eventually this came to our desks. 

We’re the supporting agency for this particular client’s Shopping Ads, and immediately we suspected that this was due to a campaign type Google had created a couple of years prior: Smart Shopping Campaigns. 

After back and forth with Google (email from that correspondence shared below), we confirmed that this was indeed what was happening. 

Perhaps you’ve seen the same thing with your own customers? If that’s the case, and you’re using Discovery, Smart Shopping, or Performance Max campaigns, then you may have the same issue. 

The problem

What’s really happening here? Is Google Ads actually sending emails to customers?

Well, no (at least, I don’t believe so).

They’re Gmail ads, more than likely landing in the Promotions tab (based on the layout of your inbox), but the friction seems to come about when these ads fall into the inboxes of the non-techy people who are uninitiated into the complex cult of digital marketing nomenclature.

Here’s what I believe is happening: customers unsubscribe from a brand email account, and then wonder why they are still “seeing that brand” in their inbox. They don’t fully realize they are seeing ads instead of emails. (In their defense, those ads sure do put on a good act as an email.) 

In fact, I’ll even go out on a limb to say I’m a little surprised this isn’t a violation of some of the permissions and privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA – though I will more quickly note that I’m not a lawyer and just surmising there. 

To the normal non-marketer out in the world, is a business paid placement in the Sponsored Tabs really all that different from a business-sent email in the Sponsored Tabs (aside from one saying “Ad”)? 

In reality, customers don’t care. They’re seeing a brand they chose to no longer engage with – and are angry about it. 

Here enters the friction. Google is serving ads in a platform entirely different than the email marketing provider used to send or manage email customers – and yet the customer doesn’t care about those details.

After all, when you boil these two entities down to their simplest form, they are both business promotional efforts from a single brand.

The temporary, less-than-ideal, not-great fix

What can a business do about this to avoid showing Gmail ads to customers who have unsubscribed? 

Well, in the Discovery Campaign, a person could create and exclude a Customer Match audience list of the email addresses of those who have unsubscribed (noting the limits required to do so). However, this option is currently unavailable in Smart Shopping and Performance Max, so there is no way to exclude specific unsubscribers from seeing ads in these campaign types. 

Rather, the advertiser must rely on a more reactionary approach, waiting until someone has complained to them, and then instructing the CSR’s to reply with one of two options:

1. Help the customer find the “Stop Seeing This Ad” option on that ad. (To my knowledge, this doesn’t shut off all brand ads to that customer, only that specific ad. Let’s call this the Whack-A-Mole customer option. Spoiler: they’ll still hate your brand over this).
2. Get the customer to reply with their IP Address, and then exclude that IP address manually from each applicable campaign. This is not a viable long-term option because most IPs are dynamic, which means it will all change again at some point in the near future. 

The better solution*

I realize there are other things that come into play in these decisions, but the better option would likely be for Google to allow some sort of synchronization between email marketing solutions and Gmail-Serving campaigns, or to allow for the same exclusion Customer Match list in Smart Shopping and Performance Max as they allow in Discovery.

The trick here is that smaller lists will likely be limited in serving per Google support documentation here. 

In other words, they are potentially unusable by all of the smaller advertisers out there who don’t have enough subscribers to meet the list requirements! 

Rock, meet hard place!

Regardless, that’s my understanding of this complex issue. I’ve reached out to Google with my concerns and will update the article when I hear back.

If you have ever wondered what is going on with email complaints from customers, now you know!

The post Are you showing Gmail ads to customers who have unsubscribed? appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google is testing global site tags with automatic collection of user-provided data, which is one of the setup methods for enhanced conversions. Advertisers must select the automatic setup option (it is not turned on by default) and accept customer data terms before they can use it.

This feature is currently in beta testing and may not be available to all advertisers. Tip of the hat to Dario Zannoni for bringing this to our attention.

The global site tag and enhanced conversions. The global site tag is used to track conversions in Google Ads. It works together with another piece of code, such as an event snippet or phone snippet, that tells the global site tag when to track a conversion.

Enhanced conversions, introduced in May 2021, allow tags to use consented, first-party data to provide a more detailed view of how users convert after engaging with an ad. Enhanced conversions can be set up within Google Tag Manager (manually) or with the global site tag.

Why we care. This feature makes it easier for advertisers to leverage enhanced conversions. It may be particularly helpful for SMBs that may not have the experience to implement enhanced conversions manually.

Additionally, conversion measurement solutions like enhanced conversions may become increasingly valuable tools as we continue the slow march towards the deprecation of third-party cookies.

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