Welcome to the March 2024 digital marketing updates and news blog! We’ve got the latest trends coming up from Search marketing, Martech advancements and some of the most outstanding updates from the social media world.
For this edition, we will be covering:
Search Marketing: We’ll explore Google’s latest algorithm designed to eliminate low-quality AI-generated content. Additionally, we’ll offer guidance to ensure your website aligns with the new Google standards to avoid removal from search results. Furthermore, we’ll discuss Microsoft’s competitive keyword targeting strategy to increase Bing’s searches via Google Ads.
Martech Field: In this section, we’ll explore Meta’s updates of Advantage+ and Shopping Ads, along with how marketers can leverage this new tools to stay on top of the latest AI trends. We’ll also highlight the Custom ChatGPT actions to enhance user experiences. Lastly, we’ll touch upon Google’s Carousel Rich Results, which offer marketers enhanced visibility.
Social Media Landscape: We’ll address one of the most polemic issues in social media: TikTok’s potential ban in the US, leaving 170 million users uncertain about the fate of their favourite platform. Also, we’ll discuss LinkedIn’s commitment to enhancing communication between users and businesses. Lastly, we’ll touch on Meta’s most recent app outage and provide alternative solutions for such situations.
About Frizbit: This month, Frizbit is thrilled to announce new updates of its latest engine, “product recommendation,” on one of everyone’s favourite personalised marketing channels: email. Additionally, we’re excited to introduce two new members to our sales team.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the latest digital marketing updates for March 2024
Search Marketing Updates
1. Google’s Updated Algorithm vs AI Content
Google’s March 2024 core algorithm update is becoming more aware of the quality AI-generated content offers. This new update will help Google to identify spammy AI content, and penalize it if it doesn’t meet the quality standards outlined from Google.
Are you not sure how to meet Google’s updated algorithm? Here’s a simple guide to help you excel in writing content.
Always Remember…
AI is a support tool, do not solely rely on it. Make sure to implement your own essence in your content and enhance the following components:
- Authorship and expertise
- Originality
- First-hand expertise
The March 2024 update, created an important shift in the SEO industry. Now is the time to revaluate AI’s role in content generation and explore more effective approaches to content creation that leverage the strengths of both AI and human expertise.
2. Google is Deindexing Websites: Quantity or Quality?
On March 5th, Google announced its mission to eradicate the presence of unhelpful, irrelevant, and low-quality content in search results.
>Over 800 websites were completely deindexed from Google’s search results in the early stages of this update.
“This clean-up drive promises to remove up to 40% of low-quality websites that provide useless information and poor user experience – pages created just to match specific search queries” Julia McCoy, 2024.
A study run by Originality.ai, investigated the prevalence of AI-generated content among the deindexed websites, showed the following results:
>100% of the affected sites showed signs of AI-generated content, with 50% having 90-100% of their posts generated by AI.
If you want to learn more about how Google is applying this new approach make sure to read Google’s indexing report.
Is Google going after small websites that use AI content?
No, Google is not against AI content. Instead, it aims to purge content lacking quality and relevance for surface visibility.
To avoid removal from Google’s search results, it’s important to consider:
- Enhance your E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
- Prioritize user experience over mere keyword optimization.
- Engage your audience effectively by integrating compelling calls-to-action (CTAs), optimizing page speed, and ensuring mobile-friendliness.
3. Microsoft Strategic Move: Buying ads on Google Search to Boost Bing Searches
Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, has been using a strategy known as competitive keyword targeting.
This new move of Microsoft has impacted the marketing audience making it a worthy topic to cover it in a New York Time publication, “Bing (Yes, Bing) Just Made Search Interesting Again”.
Inception for Search Engines -> Bing running Google Ads, driving users to Bing search results, which leads to affiliate content pic.twitter.com/oFXYYFC4O2
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 6, 2024
Glenn Gabe, SEO consultant, explained in a tweet that “Inception for Search Engines -> Bing running Google Ads, driving users to Bing search results, which leads to affiliate content.”
Here we can see how it looks…
The redirection from Google to Bing’s search results presents an opportunity for Bing to show its own advertising offerings, including Microsoft Advertising search ads and affiliate content, potentially creating a revenue stream that outweighs the cost of advertising on Google.
Martech Updates
1. Meta Latest Updates to Advantage+ and Shopping Ads
As AI video content in marketing is surging, Meta announced significant updates to Advantage+ and Shopping Ads.
Is this Good?
Yes, it boosts consumer confidence, drive conversions, and deliver personalized experiences.
What is new about it?
>Advantage+ now optimizes video ads for platforms like Reels and Instagram with a 9:16 aspect ratio, while also allowing for dynamic ad variations.
>Hero images in catalogue ads: Advertisers can upload a hero image and Meta will apply AI to dynamically show people the best products from their catalogue.
>Magento and Salesforce Commerce : Partnership ads for businesses to run collaborative campaigns with creators, brands, or other businesses.
>Reminder ads: Incorporate external links to new products or sales to encourage purchases. Furthermore, Meta plans to extend Reminder ads to Reels, to make it more interactive for customers.
>Promo codes: Introducing alphanumeric promo codes globally through Facebook and Instagram reaches more efficiently to their target audience.
>Product Tags will be introduced to the Facebook feed.
These updates will help you expand your reach, to enhance conversions, and provide relevant insights to effectively optimize your ads content.
2. Transition from ChatGPT Plugins to Custom GPT Actions
ChatGPT Plug-ins were an important tool to effectively do tasks. However, the emergence of custom GPTs —made plugin functionalities redundant.
Custom GPTs, is an improved tool. It has the ability to create actions and interact with APIs, offering a more streamlined solution. If you want to learn more about how to Migrate from ChatGPT Plugins to Actions: Solving OAuth Failures, make sure to visit this link from OpenAI.
As the plug-in store shuts down, users are encouraged to explore the growing array of custom GPTs that is already available to the public.
This evolution marks a significant shift in ChatGPT’s ecosystem, offering users more specialized and efficient tools for their tasks.
3. Elevate Your Content: Explore Google’s Carousel Rich Results for Enhanced Visibility
Google has exciting digital marketing updates! A carousel rich result designed for local businesses, products, and events.
This innovative addition showcases a scrolling horizontal carousel, presenting a comprehensive list of items in a visually appealing format.
What’s great is its versatility; it can even curate top things to do in a city, seamlessly combining hotels, restaurants, and events.
To be eligible for this rich result, publishers must implement ItemList structured data, ensuring that all information is readily available on the webpage itself.
It’s important to note that it’s still beta, so this structured data doesn’t guarantee immediate display as a rich result, it simply makes the content eligible for it.
For more details on implementing this new rich result type, check out the developer page for Structured Data Carousels (beta)
Social Media News and Updates
1. U.S. House Passes Bill That Could Ban TikTok due to national securities concerns
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that puts pressure on ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, to sell the platform within six months or face a nationwide ban, potentially impacting its 150 million U.S. users.
The bill stems from concerns over national security, as TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance, based in Beijing, raises questions about data privacy and China’s cybersecurity laws.
If the bill passes in the Senate and receives President Biden’s signature, tensions with China could escalate, as ByteDance would require China’s approval to sell TikTok, a move China opposes.
While opinions within Congress remain divided, leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee have welcomed the House vote, emphasizing concerns about TikTok’s potential influence and ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
What is TikTok saying about this?
TikTok argues that such legislation undermines the constitutional right to free expression for its 170 million American users and would have severe repercussions, including economic damage to businesses, loss of audience for artists, and jeopardizing the livelihoods of numerous creators nationwide.
If yo want to read more about what is happening with TikTok you can find more insights in New York Time publication, House Passes Bill to Force TikTok Sale From Chinese Owner or Ban the App.
2. Meta undergoes a major outage at Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads – Best practices to face these situations
Meta experienced a significant outage affecting Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, leaving over 500,000 users worldwide unable to access the platforms.
Meta was aware of the problem and the Head of Communications Andy Stone posted in his X account the following tweet.
We're aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) March 5, 2024
The outage commenced around 10:00 a.m. Eastern time and lasted about two hours, causing various functionalities, including ad creation and management, sharing content, and accessing inboxes.
In this case scenarios, are first-party providers an alternative solution?
First-party providers can serve as alternative solutions by offering similar functionalities to users. For instance, users can rely on email services, SMS, or phone calls for direct communication instead of messaging apps like WhatsApp or Messenger.
While first-party providers may not replicate the exact features of Meta’s platforms, they can offer efficient alternatives to maintain communication and connectivity with your audience.
If you want to learn more about first-party solutions, make sure to read our most recent blog “Google phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome: Leverage the cookieless future”
3. LinkedIn Expands Company Page Messaging
LinkedIn has announced the full rollout of Pages Messaging to all businesses. This new functionality adds a “Message” button to company profiles in the LinkedIn app, making it easier for visitors to reach out to businesses directly.
Additionally, admins can manage company page messaging through their inbox settings, allowing them to view messages sent to their pages alongside their personal inbox.
Moreover, LinkedIn is collaborating with third-party platforms to enhance company messaging capabilities through social management tools.
What LinkedIn aims by applying this new features is to make communication easier between users and business opportunities.
To learn more about the best practice on how to apply Messages for LinkedIn Pages, visit the link provided.
About Frizbit
1. Digital Marketing updates: Integration of our new AI product recommendation engine into our email channel
Last month, we launched our latest innovation at the MWC 2024: an AI-driven Product Recommendation engine that generates tailored suggestions to enhance user experience without third-party cookies.
Good News!
This month, we integrated our latest product recommendation engine into email marketing, representing a significant advancement in personalized marketing strategies.
With this innovative solution, businesses can expect to see:
- Revenue increase ranging from 7-15%
- Average Order Value (AOV) of over 20%
- Impressive Return on Investment (ROI) exceeding 20x
This integration represents a significant step forward in leveraging artificial intelligence to create meaningful and profitable interactions with customers.
2. Meet our new team memebers
Frizbit is dedicated to fostering growth and in line with this commitment. We are delighted to announce the addition of two new members to our Barcelona team: Joe and Joaquin.
Joe, has taken on the role of UK Digital Business Specialist, and he will be responsible for the expansion into English-speaking markets. Meanwhile, Joaquin, a student at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, will be our new sales intern.
We are thrilled to welcome Joe and Joaquin to Frizbit, as we are sure their contribution will enrich our company’s growth! We look forward to working with them and leveraging their talents to achieve our goals as a team.
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