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, how do you feel about TikTok?

We’ve had the discussion internally with the Search Engine Land editorial team, and I’ve let everyone know I’m a fan. I absolutely love the platform and the creative that comes out of it. Other apps have tried to replicate it (see: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube), but none have captured the pizzazz of TikTok. Maybe it’s the demographic. Only we olds are stuck using Facebook and Instagram. 

The company recently announced that it surpassed one billion monthly users, so it’s a huge opportunity for advertisers, especially those targeting that younger audience. But it’s one that we have to get really right to succeed.

But sometimes TikTok creators are the leaders here and brands take the cue. I recently read an article in Esquire about how the “Fancy Like” TikTok trend was co-opted by Applebee’s marketers to become their latest TV commercial campaign. And it works!

Not only has TikTok helped surface Applebee’s but it’s helped the country artist Walker Hayes top the charts as well. This is just the latest trend. One TikTok designer “redesigned” many popular logos, and so many brands hopped on board. 

The lesson is sometimes the innovators are in nontraditional places and that UGC is still a huge opportunity for brands. Now pardon me, off to practice my next TikTok dance…

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content

Microsoft Advertising’s new Credit card ads continue its streak of vertical-specific products

Microsoft Advertising has introduced Credit card ads as an open beta, the company announced Tuesday. Credit card ads will appear on the right rail of Bing search results and run alongside mainline text ad placements. These ads can trigger for queries like brand names, card categories and credit levels. Credit card ads are dynamically generated based on advertisers’ data feeds and keywords are not required. They will become available this week to advertisers targeting customers in the U.S. and Canada.

Why we care. This format may be useful for credit card advertisers, like banks, brands and comparison sites, to showcase their promotions. They may also offer increased efficiency for this particular segment of advertisers: “In early flights of Credit card ads, advertisers so far have seen 70% lower cost per acquisition,” Microsoft said.

From an industry standpoint, Microsoft Advertising is on a streak of launching vertical-specific, feed-based products that are unique to the company — in addition to Credit card ads, the company has rolled out open betas for Tours and Activities ads and Automotive ads over the last six months. The platform’s strategy of appealing to advertisers with automated ad formats tailored specifically to their industry may help it achieve wider adoption and increase its market share.

Read more here.

More product and feature announcements from Google Ads this week

Along with the data-driven attribution announcement from Monday, Google Ads made a few other product and features announcements all at once this week. Here’s the latest to keep you in the loop:

• Engaged-view conversions for display: A more robust non-click conversion measurement. Engaged-view conversions allow you to measure conversions that take place after someone views 10 seconds or more of your ad, but doesn’t click, and then converts within a set amount of days.
• TrueView for action to become Video action campaigns: Starting early 2022, all existing TrueView for action campaigns will automatically upgrade to Video action campaigns. As a reminder, September 30, 2021 is the last day to create a new TrueView for action campaign and any existing TrueView for action ads will continue to run until early next year. Moving forward, advertisers can create Video action campaigns using the responsive ad group type during campaign set-up.
• Update to sexually explicit content policy: In December 2021, Google Ads sexually explicit content policy violations will be updated to egregious policy violations. Egregious policy violations result in account suspension upon detection and without prior warning. Google will begin enforcing the policy update on December 1, 2021, with full enforcement ramping up over approximately 4 weeks.
• Send non-personalized ad requests to third-party RTB buyers: Beginning on October 21, 2021, Google will start a phased rollout to enable publishers to begin sending bid requests for publishers’ non-personalized and restricted data processing ad requests to the third-party RTB (real-time bidding) buyers. To protect user privacy, RTB protocol fields that are designed to be used to share user identifiers (e.g., google_user_id) will not be populated in these bid requests. OThe high-level phased rollout plan can be viewed here. The phased rollout plan set out on that page will be updated from time to time, so please review this resource periodically.

Ecommerce SEO guide: Google’s latest documentation for SEOs and developers

With COVID forcing many retailers online, there are more ecommerce options than ever. Google Search Central recently released new guidelines for developers to help improve search visibility for ecommerce sites. 

“When you share your ecommerce data and site structure with Google, Google can more easily find and parse your content, which allows your content to show up in Google Search and other Google surfaces. This can help shoppers find your site and products,” said the guide.

The seven pages include information on the following:

1. Where ecommerce content can appear on Google
2. Share your product data with Google
3. Include structured data relevant to ecommerce
4. How to launch a new ecommerce website
5. Designing a URL structure for ecommerce sites
6. Help Google understand your ecommerce site structure
7. Pagination, incremental page loading, and their impact on Google Search

Why we care. With many businesses starting ecommerce websites for the first time in the past year or so, this guide can help ensure that they’re following the best practices to get their products seen in the varying search engines Google provides. It also gives SEOs who focus on ecommerce documentation to show their clients and stakeholders to help get their recommendations for better ecommerce SEO implemented. 

Read more here.

Search Shorts: Google hosts Search On virtual event today (and we’ve got your coverage), plus don’t forget to take our quick robots.txt survey

Don’t miss Google’s Search On today. Want to know what’s next for search? At this virtual event, Google will “share how we’re making Google more helpful for the trillions of questions we see every year, whether you’re looking for a simple answer, to explore a new topic or find the right product for you.” 

And, of course, stay tuned to Search Engine Land for the latest Search On coverage and what it means for you, the search marketer.

Don’t forget to take our robots.txt survey. Should robots.txt support a feature for no indexation? Take the survey. “I’d like to avoid adding more directives. I’m still not aware of common issues caused by this documented functionality,” said John Mueller.

What We’re Reading: We’ve curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader.

• How to do keyword research for YouTube – Yoast
• What Can You Update in Hotels Knowledge Panel – Online Ownership
• Reporting and the Journey to Advanced Analytics – ClickInsight
• Types of machine learning models – Think with Google
• 13 questions to ask your next PPC agency – Vertical Leap

The post Fancy like🕺… why brands should pay attention to TikTok appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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 are you thinking about 2022 yet?

As we’re inching closer to Q4, it only makes me realize how close we are to next year. Gulp. I saw a post on StreetFight about how digital advertising has seen a robust recovery from the dips of the initial pandemic panic. 

Most industries, including gaming, e-commerce, health and wellness, fintech, travel, and more, are seeing growth (though some slower than others). “Much of this recovery can be attributed to a general shift from the physical to the digital world as a result of global shutdowns,” wrote Jane Handel. 

But it makes me wonder what sort of fluctuations we’ll see in 2022. More people are venturing back out into public places, though often warily, and some have decided to remain mostly digital until pandemic outlooks are less dangerous to them.

How are you prepping for 2022? What predictions do you have? I’d love to know your thoughts, search marketers. Email me at clyden@thirddoormedia.com.

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content

Facebook is testing a new marketing tool called Ad Strategies

“Ad Strategies uses automation to help you build complete customer pipelines,” according to an email to advertisers. We first saw this in a tweet from Matt Navarra. The idea is to provide an easier-to-use advertising setup that doesn’t require as much effort for advertisers.

In the thread, Navarra shows screenshots of the step-by-step that social media managers would go through to set up Ad Strategies. It’s a five-step process that includes answering questions about your chosen ad strategy including what you’re selling, your sales cycle, whether you want to prioritize sales or leads, and what your budget is. From there, you can set locations, add creative and review the campaign before launch.

Why we care. Facebook has been saying it cares about small businesses for a while now, and this seems to be a step toward demonstrating that. Ad Strategies would make it a lot easier for SMBs to set up social media campaigns. But just like with Google and Microsoft Advertising’s automated tools, there’s potential for humans to lose the control that many advertisers like to maintain. The most common complaint about automation in ad tools is that it prioritizes impressions over conversions, and we’re interested to see if the Facebook Ad Strategies tool follows the same pattern.

Nominate a search marketer for the Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing

Search marketing has a diversity problem. Older data from the American Marketing Association shows that most marketing leadership is still majority white and male. It’s a topic we’ve covered multiple times at Search Engine Land:

• The onus of diversity should not fall to Black marketers
• What does commitment to diversity look like in an organization?
• How inclusion can lead to diversity in marketing and communications
• The business imperative behind inclusion and diversity

But it’s not one and done. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are ongoing efforts and something we need to commit to every day. This is why we’re excited to announce the second annual Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing to celebrate those individuals or organizations who are affecting real change. This year’s awards will include a guest judge, last year’s winner Areej AbuAli, a pillar in the SEO community and the founder of Women in Tech SEO.

You may nominate as many organizations or individuals as you feel deserve the recognition. We ask that you highlight specific initiatives conducted by the nominee and that in the nomination form you include the contact of someone who can “second” that nomination.

Nominate a person or organization now.

Consumers think brands should be responsible for removing fake goods from marketplaces

New data from brand protection company Red Points finds that holiday shoppers plan to start early (think now) and these same consumers believe online retailers should “fix it” if they mistakenly buy fake goods. “With a larger pool of online shoppers to prey on, scammers have even more reasons to take advantage of online shoppers and fool them into believing their discounts on fake items are part of legitimate sellers’ sale events,” said the report. 

“In fact, 56% of U.S. consumers acknowledge having been victims of purchasing a fake or counterfeit item online during previous holiday shopping seasons. It takes only minutes for a scammer to set up an illegitimate site, but the ramifications can be long-lasting for the brand they steal from.”

So who should fix it when consumers are tricked into buying fake stuff? 40% say the brand should be primarily responsible for removing fake items from online channels.

Why we care. With supply chain issues still a problem for many retailers, there’s a high chance that fake goods could infiltrate the e-commerce market. This can be a problem or an opportunity for advertisers. If your brand falls prey to scammers taking advantage of an online marketplace, your customers will feel like it’s your fault and your responsibility to fix it. However, if you’re advertising genuine and authentic products, there’s an opportunity to include that in your ad copy to ensure that customers know what they’re getting is real.

On the hunt for something new? Check out the latest jobs in search marketing

Senior Paid Search Specialist @ d50 Media (Boston or USA remote)

• Salary: $95k-105k/year
• Perform daily account management of pay per click accounts on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads
• Manage and optimize display platforms like Verizon Media, GDN, and MSAN

Paid Search Account Manager @ Croud (New York City)

• Salary: $70k-80k/year
• Focus on Google Ads with Search and Shopping, with some focus on YouTube, Discovery and Display 
• Own paid campaign processes from start to finish, including researching, planning, trafficking, troubleshooting, optimizing and reporting

Senior Manager, Content Strategy @ Cox Communications (Atlanta, GA)

• Salary: $125k-140k/yr
• Collaborate on the creative and optimization process for content and website pages working with our product, legal and web production teams to build messaging and imagery that resonate with our customers and drive our digital and company KPI’s
• Lead the strategy and execution for SEO digital content across digital platforms

Organic Search Manager @ GroupM (USA remote)

• Salary: $90k/yr
• Review and analyze competitor sites and understand their organic search approach
• Optimize campaigns accordingly to maximize client investment and to resolve performance issues

Want a chance to include your job listing in the Search Engine Land newsletter? Send along the details here.

What We’re Reading: How to drive the funnel through content marketing and link building

Businesses turn to content marketing because it can be an effective method for building brand awareness and guiding customers through their sales funnel. Yet, many have been unable to capitalize on their content marketing initiatives because they haven’t covered all aspects of the customer journey, didn’t keep track of their assets and wasted resources on duplicate content, failed to create unique content or were simply unsuccessful with their outreach efforts.

In her session at SMX Convert, Eve Sangenito, director at Perficient, shared her comprehensive content strategy to engage potential customers at every point in their journey and generate backlinks for greater discoverability and higher rankings.

Your content should exist to serve your brand by serving your audience — that should always be at the center of your planning and execution. “It isn’t so much about what you want to tell your audience; it’s what you understand they want to learn and what’s going to be helpful for them to learn more about your solutions and/or about your industry as a whole,” Sangenito said, adding “Just knowing where they’re coming from is one of the key elements you should be focused on.” Check out the full session coverage here.

The post New automation in Facebook Ads?; Monday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Twitter has launched Shop Modules, a dedicated section at the top of profiles where brands can showcase their products, as a pilot, the company announced Wednesday. The Shop Module pilot is currently rolling out with a handful of brands in the U.S., and only people in the U.S. who use Twitter in English on iOS devices are currently able to see the module.

Why we care

Twitter hopes that Shop Modules will be “a feature that allows us to explore how shoppable profiles can create a pathway from talking about and discovering products on Twitter to actually purchasing them.” If the pilot is successful, Shop Modules may become widely available, providing brands with a new way to help audiences discover their products.

The user bases of social media platforms vary by factors like age, gender and education level. This new feature may be especially useful for B2C or D2C brands whose target audiences are particularly active on Twitter.   

More on the announcement

• The Shop Module is a carousel of products. Tapping on a product takes the user to the associated product detail page (in an in-app browser, so they aren’t leaving Twitter), where they can learn more and/or complete the purchase.
• The Shop Module pilot is currently not open for businesses to sign-up.
• “We’re creating deeper partnerships with businesses that reflect whom we’re building for with a new Merchant Advisory Board,” the company said in its announcement. The board will consist of “best-in-class examples of merchants on Twitter” and the company hopes to utilize this advisory board to address the needs of businesses of various sizes and across verticals in its own product innovation.

The post Twitter’s Shop Module pilot adds a product carousel to profiles appeared first on Search Engine Land.