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What will you find in November’s edition?
SEO
Passage indexing
Google Podcast Manager
SEO takeaway tips
Paid Media
Facebook continues to expand shopping capabilities
Google releases promotions & pricing updates for the holiday season
PPC takeaway tips
Content Marketing
New content to get stuck into
Content takeaway tips
Welcome to a new starter
Getting creative & client wins: Stannah Lifts
No doubt the biggest and possibly the most important search story of October was Google’s announcement around ‘passage indexing’.
This is a drive from Google to be able to show ultra-relevant content for very specific keywords, rather than entire web pages. In Google’s words:
“[We] are now able to not just index web pages, but individual passages from the pages. By better understanding the relevancy of specific passages, not just the overall page, we can find that needle-in-a-haystack information you’re looking for.”
This is likely to be a more advanced iteration of the ‘featured snippets’ that Google currently show for some queries. Google has said that this will affect 7% of searches and for SEOs and Content Managers, it means a renewed focus on ensuring that target queries are served for each page in a satisfactory manner.
As a result of this change, it’s likely that broad, over-arching ‘guides’ to an in-depth topic won’t rank as well for specific long tail queries unless that query is specifically addressed within the content.
Google recently launched a new product for Podcasters; Google Podcast Manager which allows publishers to view and analyse the performance of their podcasts in Google Search. Looking at the screenshots, this will function in a very similar way to Search Console, offering metrics such as clicks and impressions that can be segmented and filtered in a variety of ways, but specifically for podcasts.
If podcasting is part of your marketing strategy then it pays to know how and where people are finding your podcast on Google, if at all.
SEO Tip #1: If you have, or are creating a piece of long form content, ensure that the query (or queries) you’re targeting is clearly answered within the content.
SEO Tip #2: If you run a podcast and want to generate more listens or subscribers via natural search, signing up to Podcasts Manager could give you some valuable insights.
Facebook is rolling out several new features for e-commerce marketers and brands in the run up to the festive period. We’ve summarised some of these below so you’re in the know:
Instagram ads with product tags – Instagram has been testing product tags on organic posts. These appear as white dots and display more information such as product name and price. Now these are available to use on Instagram ads, meaning that we can display more information about the products on display in our ads.
Shopping engagement custom audiences – This new type of audience targeting is aimed at helping marketers ‘reach people who’ve already shown interest in their product or brand by doing things like saving a product, viewing a shop or initiating a purchase’.
Shopping lookalike audiences – As the name suggests, advertisers can expand their reach by targeting “shoppers” with similar interests as their existing customers on Facebook and Instagram.
Koozai’s POV
The product tag update is one that will be seen a lot over the coming months as more advertisers
use it to drive sales over the festive period. It’s great for brands that display multiple products in a single image or video as users will be able to find out more information about each of the products advertised. It may also change the way we advertise, switching from single product images to more collection-based creative.
The additional audience segments are worth testing. The engagement audience will be great for efficiency and can help us reach users who have engaged with the brand. The lookalike audience is more for growth and can potentially help us reach new users who we would’ve previously missed.
Along with updates for merchants’ holiday shopping campaign efforts, on Thursday, Google announced consumer-facing updates in Shopping that retail marketers should pay attention to – particularly as it relates to the importance of pricing and promotions.
Retail advertisers will also have access to more reporting and performance insights for Shopping campaigns and new customer targeting for Smart Shopping is coming out of beta.
Consumer price comparisons, deal alerts – In addition to being able to compare prices across retailers in the Shopping tab, users can also now see whether an item’s price is high, low or typical compared to other prices from across the web and in nearby stores. Users can also enable ‘price tracking’ to get alerts either via email or in the Google app if they want to wait until a cheaper price becomes available.
Optimise for new customers in Smart Shopping – The new customer acquisition goal in Smart Shopping campaigns is now out of beta and allows advertisers to set a separate conversion value for new customers, informing the automated bidding strategy. We can also start to target store visits and not rely on sales to inform the bidding strategy.
Koozai’s POV
More updates for advertising during the festive period – we doubt these will be the last. The price comparison update is going to keep brands on their toes as users will now have the power to compare prices and set alerts on the lowest price.
PPC Tip #1: Test using the product tags on your ads and see the impact on CTR. It’s also worth thinking about the images used and how product tags can fit in with them. For example, a furniture store may choose to have multiple pieces of furniture in one image, all with individual product tags.
PPC Tip#2: If you run Smart Shopping campaigns, test a new conversion value for new customers. These new customer acquisitions will be more valuable when working out lifetime value, so be sure to give yourself the best chance of winning the sale through your Smart Shopping campaigns.
We’ve always got some new blog content to cast your eyes over. Our Koozians have been busy putting blog content together so you have a great source of information for any SEO, Paid, Content or PR queries and questions. We’ve recently published the following:
SEO copywriting: how to use keywords in your website copy
SEO competitor analysis
Understanding short tail and long tail keywords
Remember to keep checking back as multiple new posts go out each month.
Takeaway content tip: Conducting a content gap analysis using tools such as Ahrefs really helps you to understand where you could compete better. By showing you what keywords your organic competitors are ranking for and you’re not, gives the perfect insight into what content you need to add to your site.
We’re delighted to welcome a new starter this month. Ellie is joining our Paid Media team and brings with her nearly 3 years’ experience, previously working for south coast agencies RocketMill and Onefeed. Welcome to the team Ellie!
We were super excited to work with English heritage company Stannah Lifts, so when we achieved some great results for them, we were even more chuffed! We worked with Stannah to achieve a 274% increase in clicks and 333% increase in conversions! Read the full case study.
