Google has rolled out an integration with BigCommerce, the company announced Thursday. Similar to Google’s integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, GoDaddy and Square, which were announced earlier this year, this partnership will enable BigCommerce merchants to show their products for free on Google, create ad campaigns and review performance metrics from their BigCommerce store.
Why we care
The new integration provides BigCommerce retailers with an easy way to make their listings more discoverable across Google properties, which can help drive traffic to their products. This may be especially helpful for merchants that can’t or aren’t able to dedicate extra staff or enlist the help of an agency.
For Google, all these integrations may mean more product listings it can show to users, which strengthens it as a shopping destination and helps it compete with other e-commerce platforms. If Google is able to generate value for merchants via these integrations, then merchants may also be inclined to try the platform’s advertising tools, which is also good for Google.
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Good morning, Marketers, and how much TV do you watch?
Since having my daughter over a year ago, I have only been able to make time for The Great British Bake Off on Friday nights. But as a millennial and a latchkey kid, I was raised on TV. I just saw that Project Runway, one of my college TV favorites, is now in its 19th season!
In case you’re not a reality TV buff, Project Runway is a show where aspiring fashion designers face weekly challenges to create a garment based on the theme. As someone who never learned to sew well (sorry, mom) the fact that they could come up with a look, design it, create it, and have it modeled all in one week was mind-blowing.
The best part was Tim Gunn, a mentor to the designers throughout the week who helped them course correct and encouraged them when they were on to something. His famous catchphrase was, “Make it work, designers.” I still say it now to myself and to others when things are getting weird and we just have to push through. Make it work!
Tim Gunn proves the importance having a guiding hand can be in helping up-and-comers achieve their goals. As the Search Engine Land mentorship program winds down, our group’s mentees have achieved AMAZING things (new jobs, promotions, new projects, and more). They likely would have achieved these things on their own (they are awesome, after all), but having a guiding hand to help you choose the right path for you is ALWAYS a professional benefit.
We’re lucky to have our mentors joining us for a panel at SMX Next to talk about how to be a mentor (which could be great for new managers too!), and how they balance what’d they’d do versus guiding someone along their own path.
If you’re looking to mentor or manage people, it’s a don’t-miss. Register here!
Carolyn Lyden, Director of Search Content
Podcast knowledge panels go live in Google Search
Google seems to be rolling out podcast-based knowledge panels in Google Search. When you search for your favorite podcast, you might see a new knowledge panel show up in the search results.
Why we care. If you or your clients run a podcast, check to see if you are noticing this new knowledge panel in the Google search results. If not, it might be related to the RSS feed your podcast is produced on. Sadly, there is no official documentation on how your podcast can show as a knowledge panel.
What does Google’s infinite scroll on mobile mean for advertisers?
Google’s announcement about infinite scroll has many advertisers wondering what will happen to their Google Ads on mobile devices. This change, which is rolling out over the next two weeks, “does not affect how the ad auction works or the way Ad Rank is calculated,” said Mohamed Farid, Product Manager at Google Ads. But there may be some changes in metrics.
How will my metrics change? You may see more mobile impressions and a lower CTR on Search, Shopping, and Local Ads. “We expect clicks, conversions, average CPC, and average CPA to remain flat,” added Farid in the Q&A document. “Search campaigns may see more impressions from top ads and fewer impressions from bottom ads.”
Why we care. This is an important change to communicate to clients and stakeholders who may be invested in the minutiae of campaign metrics. Google recommends reviewing your advertising goals and “monitoring your campaigns and continuing to optimize them based on your business objectives.” This change is only for U.S.-based queries right now but will roll out to additional countries and languages in 2022.
Create effective communications strategies that articulate Knoetic’s core benefits, and continually test, track, and report on results.Â
Consistently produce high-quality content (including articles, white papers, blogs, emails, case studies, etc.) that drive inbound interest in Knoetic’s offerings.
Lead day-to-day execution of organic search engine campaigns including keyword research, content gap analysis, strategic optimization of existing content, competitor analysis, on-page SEO factors and site architecture improvements.
Work with content leads to create SEO content strategies for each of the verticals and work on executing evergreen strategies for existing and new content.
What We’re Reading: We’re all hackers now: Journalist “decodes” HTML to find PII
A local Missouri media publication warned the state’s administrative officials that their website exposed the social security numbers of multiple teachers. The reporter did so as a courtesy before publishing the news, as the PII was publicly available for anyone to find.
The news went “viral” after Missouri Governor Mike Parsons posted a tweet thread saying the website was hacked:
“Through a multi-step process, an individual took the records of at least three educators, decoded the HTML source code, and viewed the SSN of those specific educators. We notified the Cole County prosecutor and the Highway Patrol’s Digital Forensic Unit will investigate.
Upon receiving this notice, DESE immediately contacted the Missouri Office of Administration ITSD, who programs and maintains the web application, to remove public access to the portal and update the code. This matter is serious. The state is committing to bring to justice anyone who hacked our system and anyone who aided or encouraged them to do so — in accordance with what Missouri law allows AND requires.”
Search marketers know, of course, that there’s no “decoding” source code. A quick right-click and “view source code” makes it available to all. The issue is actually that social security numbers were included in the HTML, to begin with. The Missouri administration believes it was hacked, though.
We hope the misunderstanding is cleared up and that the Governor’s office stops putting social security numbers in the HTML of their sites.
Google announced that mobile users will now have continuous scroll in search results. This means that instead of coming upon a “See More” button after about ten results, searchers will be able to continue scrolling through approximately four pages of search results before seeing the “See More” link.
This has many advertisers wondering what will happen to their Google Ads on mobile devices. This change, which is rolling out over the next two weeks, “does not affect how the ad auction works or the way Ad Rank is calculated,” said Mohamed Farid, Product Manager at Google Ads. But there may be some changes in metrics.
If the page is “infinite” what will happen to ads at the top and bottom? Because of the change to the way search results are now displayed on mobile devices, Google is “redistributing the number of text ads that can show between the top and bottom of pages for US-English mobile queries. Now, text ads can show at the top of the second page and beyond, while fewer text ads will show at the bottom of each page,” said Farid. Shopping and Local ads will remain the same.
Can ads show multiple times for a single query? In short, yes. Google says that this has always been the case, though. “Ads have always been eligible (based on Ad Rank) to show on a search results page and again on a subsequent page,” wrote Farid. Google Ad’s systems take into account if your ad was shown on a previous page when it calculates your Ad Rank for each page.
How will my metrics change? You may see more mobile impressions and a lower CTR on Search, Shopping, and Local Ads. “We expect clicks, conversions, average CPC, and average CPA to remain flat,” added Farid in the Q&A document. “Search campaigns may see more impressions from top ads and fewer impressions from bottom ads.”
Should I change anything? “To understand your performance based on where your text ads show on the search results page, consider segmenting your performance data by “Top vs. Other” and reviewing your prominence metrics.
Why we care. This is an important change to communicate to clients and stakeholders who may be invested in the minutiae of campaign metrics. Google recommends reviewing your advertising goals and “monitoring your campaigns and continuing to optimize them based on your business objectives.” This change is only for U.S.-based queries right now but will roll out to additional countries and languages in 2022.
Now that COVID vaccines are available to everyone 12 years of age and older, children may be more likely to return to school this fall, which means many retailers are preparing for back-to-school shopping. To highlight a few options that can help retailers optimize for both in-store and online back-to-school shoppers, Google has published a list of local ads solutions.
Get your local inventory online. Businesses that don’t yet have a local inventory feed can use Pointy from Google, a hardware device that attaches to a point-of-sale barcode scanner to pull its title, image and description to add it to Surfaces across Google. For eligible retailers in the U.S., Canada, UK and Ireland, Pointy is free until September 30.
Local inventory ads. Retailers can bring their brick-and-mortar store online with local inventory ads. Local inventory ads also enable stores to indicate whether products are available for immediate curbside pickup or pickup later.
Local inventory ads with pickup options. Image: Google.
Local promotions, which are available in beta to merchants participating in local inventory ads and promotions in Australia, France, Germany, the UK, Canada and the U.S., can also be used to show store-specific offers.
Promote your locations. According to Ipsos data commissioned by Google, 60% of back-to-school shoppers plan to do at least a portion of their shopping at a small business this year. Local campaigns, which measure and optimize specifically for store visits and local actions (calls and clicks to driving directions), can help businesses take advantage of this by enabling them to promote their locations across Google Maps, Search, YouTube, Gmail and the Google Display Network.
Optimize for online and in-store. Advertisers can include store visits in Smart Bidding to help them grow sales both in-store and online.Â
Why we care. More than half of North American back-to-school shoppers say they’ll check for in-store inventory online before going into a store and 48% will shop at stores that offer curbside pickup or contactless shipping, according to Ipsos data commissioned by Google. Promoting your in-store inventory, pickup options and locations can help retailers make the most of these consumer preferences and potentially sell more products.
As retailers prepare for the holiday shopping season, Google is launching new sections in its search results to showcase deals, rolling out tools to highlight promotions and expanding reporting capabilities in Google Merchant Center, the company announced Wednesday.
The new deals sections. The new “Deals related to your search” section shows discounted or competitively priced products from retailers across the web. This section is live now and can be found in the Shopping tab.
The “Deals related to your search” section in the Google Shopping tab. Image: Google.
Additionally, when users search for deals during major retail sales events, such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Google will show a new carousel that highlights relevant deals, alongside other related sales information. This new SERP feature will be available in October — right in time for the aforementioned shopping holidays.
The deals section that may appear when users search for major retail sales events. Image: Google.
Promotions and deals uploaded via Google Merchant Center are automatically shown to users on the Shopping tab, even if the retailer or manufacturer isn’t running ads on Google. “Offers are shown based on factors such as the discount itself, how popular a product is, how popular the site it’s listed on is and more,” Google said in the announcement.
New promotions tools. Google is rolling out two new ways for merchants to attract new customers and highlight their promotions:
Merchants can now indicate that a promotion is only available to first-time customers (for example, a “10% off for new customers” promotion). These promotions will still be shown to everyone, but only eligible shoppers will be able to access the promotional price.
Promotions can now be highlighted on free listings in the Shopping tab. To do so, navigate to the promotions tab in Google Merchant Center and select which promotions you want to have appear in free listings (or, alternatively, supported by ad spend).
Expanded best sellers report. Historical best seller data and relative demand data are coming to the best seller report in Google Merchant Center.
The best seller report in Google Merchant Center. Image: Google.
This report can be accessed once a merchant opts into market insights in Merchant Center or Google BigQuery.
Why we care. The new deals sections may present retailers with opportunities to showcase their competitively priced products. This may also help retailers attract new customers during their most important times of the year, major shopping holidays. Additionally, the deals carousel will appear on the main results page, so users are more likely to see those deals since they don’t have to move over to the Shopping tab first.
The new promotional tools can help merchants draw attention to their sales and attract first-time customers.
Historical best seller data can be used to inform decisions ahead of upcoming shopping holidays. And, relative demand data can help merchants compare demand between products in the same category and country, which may help them stock the right products.
