A new month is here, and with it, our monthly newsletter has arrived as well. As we enter the last Q4 of the year, it is even more crucial to keep up to date with the latest digital marketing news and start adjusting our strategies.

So, if you are ready to dive into this new quarter of the year with the latest trends and updates, keep on reading to get the latest insights and advice from us. 

Just a quick announcement for those living in Barcelona, our next event (in Spanish) is scheduled on October 26th, 18.00h @Aticco Verdaguer. For those who can’t attend on-site, we will also have a live-streaming option.

Without further do, we wish you a happy reading!

Digital Marketing News and Updates from September 2022

CONTENT

Search Marketing Updates

• Mobile Search will experiment 5 new changes, according to Google.

• Google includes a new HTTPS Report in Search Console
  

Tech Marketing Updates

• iOS 16 has landed, and with it, the web push notifications for iOS (earlier than expected).

• Meet the new Flodesk Checkout

• Canva Create 2022 surprises with its new features

Social Media Updates

• Instagram announces that videos up to 60 seconds are available for stories

• TikTok is competing to become the leading search engine social media platform

• Snapchat provides voter registration tools ahead of the US Midterms

Updates from Frizbit

• Mark your calendars. A new Workshop about GA4 is scheduled.

• New software updates to the Frizbit dashboard

• It’s a wrap! The replay of the session and event recap for How to Do Retargeting in the Cookieless World are up.

Search Marketing Updates

• Mobile Search will experiment 5 new changes, according to Google

Search mobile experience is definitely getting an upgrade, according to the latest announcement from Google. The company has recently listed 5 upcoming changes worth learning to increase your search possibilities on mobile devices.

1. Say hello to Google Search Shortcuts:
   
   

   Source: Screenshot from Google Blog Post
   

   As we know, users can search on Google beyond typing their queries. However, although the possibility of this has always been there, few are fully aware of it. From searching through Google Lens uploading pictures to humming songs, the search experience is just so much richer nowadays.

   Well, Google has decided to amp up the experience and introduce more tappable solutions. For the moment, this update is only available for the Google app on iOS and is here to compete directly with the native Safari browser.
   
2. Predicted results are coming from the results in the search bar:
   

   Source: Screenshot from Google Blog Post

   This feature is expected to roll out in the upcoming months, but Google has shown that they are committed to improving the navigation for users. 

   The new feature aims to shorten the search time spent when doing a query by suggesting the most suitable solutions right away. This plays a significant role in SEO to match and guide the users in the right direction, working seamlessly with the algorithm.

    

3. Refined queries:
   

   Source: Screenshot from Google Blog Post

   
   Following the previous update, Google is enhancing the search for queries with recommended words to tap on. Again, we believe having a clear SEO strategy can boost your company to be associated with the most common related searches.

   While the user types his/her query, Google with start recommending associated and common words to that search to make it more relevant and specific.

    

4. Welcome to the Google Web Stories:
   

   Source: Screenshot from Google Blog Post

   This update aims to make the mobile searching experience a more pleasant one through the integration of visual layouts. However, this rollout also gives credit to content creators and positions them as a valuable source for content search. 

   As stated by the company:

   “So, we’re also making it easier to explore a subject by highlighting the most relevant and helpful information, including content from creators on the open web. For topics like cities, you may see visual stories and short videos from people who have visited, tips on how to explore the city, things to do, how to get there and other important aspects you might want to know about as you plan your travels.”

   This feature will be displayed as a widget in the search results, in which the users will be able to expand further, if interested.

5. Visual Search Feeds will be a reality:With the clear goal in mind of enhancing searchability navigation, Google aims to bring a visually harmonic experience by combining text, images, and video in mobile searches. The feed is expected to look like the following example:
   

   Source: Screenshot from Google Blog Post

   As aesthetic as it looks, the next big question is what happens with the traditional ranking system? This new search layout puts all media at the same level, so it will be safe to say that visuals and graphics will become as relevant as the main content for upcoming searches.

   Google has stated that creating aesthetic searches is going a step further into the mobile navigational experience:

   “We’re also reimagining the way we display results to better reflect the ways people explore topics. You’ll see the most relevant content, from a variety of sources, no matter what format the information comes in — whether that’s text, images or video.”

• Google includes a new HTTPS Report in Search Console

  

Source: Adobe Stock

 

Google has announced a new rollout to identify which sites are HTTPS and which ones aren’t, all accessible from Google Search Console. Unfortunately, the new integration will still need a few months to be completed, but it is undoubtedly a functionality that users have been requesting.

As the company stated in its blog: 

“One of the common requests we heard from you was to provide more information regarding the HTTPS status of the site and make it easier to understand which pages are not served over HTTPS, and why not,”

Why does this matter? How can it be useful?

Both marketers and SEO professionals can benefit from this new feature, given that it will help to map out which URLs from the same site are indexed as HTTPS or HTTP. 

HTTPS doesn’t only serve a secure navigation purpose, but also, as announced by Google in 2014, it is a recognised ranking signal. The report will also help to prevent common errors that prevent pages from being served as HTTPS by addressing the exact cause of failure. 

Lastly, this report will certainly come in handy as, according to the Core Web Vital from Google, using HTTPS increase the metrics ranking for UX. 

To recap, both in providing secure navigation to the users and for better ranking possibilities, this report is an outstanding addition to Google Search Console.

 

Marketing Tech

•  iOS 16 has landed, and with it, the web push notifications for iOS (earlier than expected)

Today as Safari 16.0 ships for iOS, macOS Monterey and Big Sur — lots of you are asking about Web Push.

Yes, real Web Push is coming to macOS Ventura in Oct. 100% web standard based. No Apple Developer Program membership required.

Read all the details:https://t.co/RYGjmoJUrQ

— Jen Simmons (@jensimmons) September 12, 2022

Earlier this year, we published an article highlighting what this rollout could actually mean for the ‘cookieless’ retargeting world. We finally have some dates to mark on our calendars for the release on MacOS Ventura in October 2022.

Let’s recap what web push notifications or browser notifications are: These are alert-messages types working on an efficient opt-in basis. Users get asked for permission to receive time-sensitive alerts without compromising their personal data.

What do we know so far about the update?

1. It will be available for all users, regardless if they have or not an Apple Developer Program membership.
2. Apple rolled out this update ahead of its original expected date, which was appointed to be in early 2023.
3. It will use the same Apple notification service powering Native Push on all iOS devices.

If you want to be ahead of time and prepare for when push notifications are ready to be used on iOS (iPhone), get in touch with us for a personalised demo

• Meet the new Flodesk Checkout

Source: Flodesk

Flodesk has slowly worked on its branding positioning as one of the most visually pleasant and straightforward email marketing platforms in recent years. By providing high-performance experiences to their users, they have partnered with Stripe to bring to live Flodesk Checkout.

What is it, and how can it benefit you?

It might be one of the simplest and most visually aesthetic ways to sell online. Their advantage is that you don’t need to create a fully operating website to sell.

With this rollout, you can:

1. Build a sales page
2. Build a checkout page
3. Build a delivery page
4. Publish a functional payment gateway page
5. Integrate payment methods with Stripe.

Of course, while keeping the great CRM and email marketing functionalities from Flodesk.

 

•  Canva Create 2022 surprises with its new features

Source: Canva

 

Canva Create 2022 came in with tons of new functionalities. It is positive to affirm that the platform is evolving and growing with its audience needs to become the new one-stop-shop for all visual needs. Yet, by remaining accessible to non-designers. 

From the Frizbit team, we have highlighted 3 of their recent updates:

 

1. Video Background remover:
   

   Source: Canva

   In the same way that removing the background from a picture was possible for non-designers with Canva, now the platform brings a whole new level to video editing. Video background removal is now possible, just under one click. This is an outstanding development, considering that not even professional tools can get done the same job with that ease.

    

2. Creating websites is now accessible to everyone:
   

   Source: Canva

   This rollout allows users to create responsive websites with both desktop and mobile previews. Again, everything under the same mission of making design accessible to everyone. Choosing from beautiful templates and customising it was never so easy to bring a website to life
   
   

3. Canva Docs (Beta Version coming soon):
   

   Source: Canva

   
   Canva announced their Canva Docs development, aiming to create visual docs in an entirely collaborative environment. The main standout characteristic is that these documents are meant to work on building richer media documents. As in opposite to the other existing text-based document with a difficult media integration option. The rollout already has a waiting list for when its Beta version becomes available.

   
   

 

 Social Media Marketing

• Instagram announces that videos up to 60 seconds are available for stories

Source: Instagram

The well-known video updates from Instagram continue their course over the last months. The newest announcement revealed that now videos of 60 seconds will no longer be split into 15-second segments in the app.

The new feature has already started rolling out in September by showing a pop-up notification to users. 

So, can this have an entirely positive experience for content creators?

• Pros: Content creation through stories for promotions, selling content or engaging could be easier for creators, easing the work to split the content.
  
• Cons: Users typically scroll through stories to get the information they are looking for as fast as they can, meaning that engagement might actually drop.

Instagram has confirmed the new Stories video expansion to TechCrunch, explaining that:

“We are always working on ways to improve the Stories experience. Now, you’ll be able to play and create Stories continuously for up to 60 seconds, instead of being automatically cut into 15-second clips.”

 

• TikTok is competing to become the leading search engine social media platform

Woah…! TikTok has increased video description character limit to 2,200 characters!

This is huge for creators and massive in terms of TikTok’s plans for becoming a search engine pic.twitter.com/kGhnL97uUM

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) September 23, 2022

The video platform is clearly evolving into a wider version of itself, leaving behind being considered only as an entertaining social media platform. 

According to Matt Navarra, TikTok has increased the maximum length of its captions from 300 characters to 2,200. Although the company describes the update as a space to express more details about creations, the truth is that it leads the platform to become more competitive as a search engine social media platform, especially for Gen Z.

This update allows content creators to include keywords that will improve the discoverability of their content in search. If we take into consideration that TikTok is already recognised for having one of the most accurate algorithms, then this entitles TikTok as a leading search engine social media platform.

 

•  Snapchat provides voter registration tools ahead of the US Midterms

Source: Snapchat

Snapchat has shown a history of educating its users and providing in-app tools to build youth engagement in political events. For instance, in 2020, the platform helped 1.2 million users to register to vote and play a part in what resulted in the largest youth turnaround in decades. 

The platform reaches 90% of the 13-24-year-olds, giving the opportunity to empower and educate the youth about the importance of participating in the democracy. 

2022 couldn’t be any different from previous elections periods aiming to build youth civic engagement, so they have developed some tools:

1. Allow Snapchatters to register to vote
2. Allowing 16- and 17-years-old Snapchatters to pre-register in selected states.
3. Community building to reach out to friends who haven’t registered yet
4. Creation of Voting 101 Hub: an in-app training on how to register to vote, becoming a poll worker, and so much more.
5. Curated Map stories 
6. Safeguards to review the content and prevent misinformation 

 

Updates from Frizbit

This monthly newsletter comes with some outstanding updates from the Frizbit team! 

We have a special invitation for those interested in evolving with Google Analytics 4, some product updates and past-events recap.

 

• Mark your calendars. A new Workshop about GA4 is scheduled.

  

 

In partnership with Jevnet, Aticco Workingspaces and the Barcelona Growth Marketing Group, we have designed a new workshop to skyrocket your digital marketing skills.

As some of you might already know, the traditional UA (Universal Analytics) platform is phasing out in less than 9 months, meaning that data and traditional measuring will come to an end.

So what solution do you have at your fingertips? The answer is short: migrating into Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible.

We have come to realise that there is still some hesitation and doubts around the new platform. Having this in mind, we’ve created this event in Spanish to equip marketers with all the relevant information about the new software.

Event details:

Date: October 26th 2022

Where: Aticco Workspaces Verdaguer for our friends based in Barcelona and streamed online for those who can’t attend live.

Time: 18.00h to 20.30h

Workshop Facilitator: Michele Sforza, Senior Account Manager at Jevnet

Language: Spanish

Book your spot here

•  New software updates to the Frizbit dashboard

In the last few months, we have been working on improving the experience and added value for our customers on the platform. Currently, our product could integrate different channels such as web push, email and SMS to provide seamless messaging strategies. However, in order to improve and reach a wider audience, we are developing the WhatsApp channel as a retargeting medium without ads.

The update is still under development, so elements such as images included in the message are not yet available. However, we have prepared an example as a preview of what is to come.

Among the hyper personalisation possibilities, you can have the following:

• User name
• Name of the specific product
• Price of the selected product
• CTA
• Product image (coming soon

From the Frizbit team, we are excited about this new launch as it will generate more possibilities to reach and bring back more users at different points of their customer journey.

If you’d like to know first-hand what these new software updates can mean for you and your business in bringing customers back, you can get in touch with us for a personalised demo.

•  It’s a wrap! The replay of the session and event recap for How to Do Retargeting in the Cookieless World are up

 

On the 22nd of September, we hosted our first event after the summer break, and we must admit it felt like a great way to come back to the routine. As usual at our events, we enjoyed -which was maybe – the last open terrace networking session of the year with some mandatory beers.

If you work in/with the digital marketing industry, you might be aware of the constant changes that we frequently face. During the event, our main goal was to demonstrate to our attendees that entering the cookieless is less scary than what we could imagine. There are alternative ways to do retargeting without ads or third-party cookies.

Also, in the way things are shifting, leaving third-party cookies behind is no longer an option or a choice, but rather a necessity. In our event, we teach you how to do it seamlessly.

Having said this, if you couldn’t join us at the event or simply would like to refresh what you’ve learnt, we have created two options for you:

? If you’d like to learn more about the right strategies, channels and have a deep understanding of the cookieless world, you can find all the necessary information here:

Read all the info from the blog here

?If, on the other hand, you are more of a visual learner and would like to learn first-hand, then the event session replay in Spanish is here for you:

Watch the replay of the event here (In Spanish)

We welcome September after a slower summer season with our monthly newsletter. During August, while most professionals enjoyed a well-deserved break or had a slower-business season (at least in Spain), the rapidly changing marketing landscape kept its usual pace.

Let’s start this back-to-school and back-to-business season with the most recent and relevant digital marketing news and updates.

Keep reading to find out the latest insights from the digital marketing world.

Digital Marketing News and Updates from August 2022

 

CONTENT

Search Marketing Updates

• Meet the new Helpful Content algorithm by Google

• Google sets the race for Local and Smart Shopping campaigns to shift into Performance Max campaigns

• Do you have an international SEO strategy in place? Google Search Console will remove its International Targeting report

   

Tech Marketing Updates

• Introducing Shopify Collabs: the new digital solution to connecting creators with Shopify businesses

• Canva gets one step closer to becoming the one-stop-shop for visual needs with Whiteboards

Social Media Updates

• LinkedIn introduces the ability to pin comments under posts

• Podcasts steps firmly into the YouTube platform

• Twitter is testing professional account options, which include shopping & link features

   

About Frizbit

• Save the date, a new workshop is coming up on September 22nd [Event held in Spanish]

   

Search Marketing Updates

• Meet the new Helpful Content algorithm by Google

 

As announced in the blog of the company, Google is rolling out a new algorithm for its search engines. While many eCommerce stores are still struggling with the recent Product Review Update, Google is determined to provide a more human approach to online navigation. And clearly, this update demonstrates so.

So far, there are many reactive opinions about this new update going around in the SEO industry. Most of them are implying that with this new update, the SEO era will come to an end. Some experts are arguing that the new algorithm will devalue the content written for SEO purposes. However, all that this update aims for is to favour the content written for people by people.

So, what can you expect from the new roll-out? Contrasting with the previous update, which only affected certain pages of a website, the new Helpful Content algorithm has the potential to impact all pages within a site. 

As Google describes it, this update aims to:

“Tackle content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”

What else do you need to know about the algorithm?

• A new signal ranking is coming out for both new and existing websites.
• It will start rolling out in September
• Google is prioritising expertise and added-value rather than simply summarising content from other posts.
• Undefined niche categories in publications might classify a site as unhelpful.
• If Google detects that users aren’t finding what they truly need, it might affect the ranking of the site.
• Writing about trends outside your niche or industry might get classified as an effort to classify higher in the rankings, rather than providing value.
• Removing unhelpful content will increase the possibility of ranking in a higher position

 

So what can we learn from this update?

First things first, the SEO era will not come to an end. It is definitely taking a new direction towards a more streamlined practice, connecting humans with humans. 

This new update isn’t either devaluing the SEO practices, but rather is an open invitation to content creators to incorporate conscious practices into creating content with people in mind.

 

Google sets the race for Local and Smart Shopping campaigns to shift into Performance Max campaigns

Earlier this year, Google announced that its Local and Smart Shopping campaigns would embrace changes and turn into Performance Max campaigns. In their announcement, Google provided clear deadlines for this placement, with it being September 2022. 

To understand the relevance of this update, let’s get back to the basics: what exactly are the benefits of the Performance Max campaigns?

Performance Max campaigns use Artificial Intelligence combined with automatisation to maximise the performance based on a specific conversion goal. 

So conversion, performance, AI, and automatisation are in one place? Yes! And the benefits don’t just stop right there. These campaigns encompass all Google properties such as YouTube, Gmail, maps, search discovery, and display. Ultimately, you are able to track the customer journey a client does when searching for a product or purchasing online.

Now that we’ve covered the basics and we are well aware of the tight deadlines Google is giving, let’s break down the official news.

In August, Google released a tool to self-upgrade both Local and Smart Shopping campaigns with just one click. The trick with this update is that although you can do it with a simple configuration setting, it won’t be available for all the merchants yet. 

So, how can you know if you’re eligible for the self-upgrade?

If your campaigns were compatible with the upgrade, it is likely you have received a notification with a link or that you are able to find the option through the Google Ads Dashboard. If, on the contrary, that wasn’t your case, your Local campaigns won’t update to Max Performance until 2023.

Now, the next big question is: What happens with the old campaigns?

We do recommend that you use the self-upgrade option as soon as you are eligible. The reason is that all the old self-upgraded campaigns will keep all the historical performance data and your chosen settings.  

Although having this option is great for analysis and reporting purposes, all old campaigns will be automatically set to “Removed” status. This means that no edits, nor reactivation, will be allowed.

 

• Do you have an international SEO strategy in place? Google Search Console will remove its International Targeting report

 

The International Targeting report has been deprecated, and will be removed from Search Console soon. We continue to support hreflang and our recommendations for managing multilingual and multiregional sites still stand. https://t.co/yz4lsHhXhO

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) August 24, 2022

If you own a multilingual or multi-regional website, stay tuned because Google has officially announced that its International Targeting report will be removed from Search Console by September 22nd.

Many are the questions that have arisen with this announcement, such as:

• Where will the hreflang-tags errors be found?
• Can you target a specific country manually with a .com domain?
• Will hreflang continue to be supported?

While Google hasn’t announced what will happen with the hreflang errors found in websites through the report, they have stated that hreflang tags will continue to be supported by Google Search Console. In fact, as they quoted in their tweet, Google will continue to support multilingual and multi-regional sites with their standard recommendations still. 

So, how can you help Google understand your site if you support different languages or locations?

1. If you are managing a multilingual or multi-regional site, you can optimise Google Search results directly from your website
   
2. If you manage multiple sites for different languages, make sure you are reporting and telling Google about each of these variations. By doing this, Google will appoint the corresponding variation to the right user.
3. If your website shows certain content based on the location or language of the user, Google might not be able to crawl, index or rank all the content for the specific locale.

With this update, certainly, manually targeting countries or the preference of the language from users might become a harder practice. We believe that by doing this, Google continues to strive in its fight against SEO-done content and keeps moving towards a more human navigation experience.

 

Marketing Tech

• Introducing Shopify Collabs: the new digital solution to connecting creators with Shopify businesses.

With creators and brand experiences in mind, Shopify has rolled out its Collabs. It’s a win-win for both creators that can sustain their activities with brands they love, and for brands that can reach new audiences.

Influential marketing has played a big part in the development of brands. In most cases, it helps to boost the awareness of a brand or increase the sales of a product or service. We can agree that nowadays, it is a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy.

This is a free initiative in which brands can:

• Communicate that they are open to collabs
• Detail the brief and description of the brand to match with the perfect creator
• Build stronger and real partnerships with creators
• Announce specific products to be promoted by collabs 
• Send gifts to creators
• Track reports and analytics by the performance of the influencer

Collabs will work on an application basis to ensure that brands connect with the right audience. 

As stated by Kabbara, its Director of Product, in the article of the company:

“For Shopify merchants, Collabs is a new way to find potential customers at a time when it’s never been more difficult or expensive,” Kabbara continued. “By giving merchants the ability to discover and partner with creators that align with their brand, they can tap into the power of community-driven commerce to reach consumers in new and meaningful ways.” 

For the time being, Shopify Collabs will be available only in the US and Canada.

 

 Canva gets one step closer to becoming the one-stop-shop for visual needs with Whiteboard

Canva is living up to its name with its newest product release. The online visual and creative platform surprised everyone with the brand-new feature Whiteboards.

This feature includes pre-made templates to brainstorm and express ideas visually by non-designers. It’s bringing creativity to the fingertips of the day-to-day user. 

One of the most loved features is the possibility of collaborating online with others. This property comes in handy nowadays that remote working is more common. 

From Kanban templates to all types of diagrams and mapping options, Canva is building limitless spaces to bring your ideas to life.

What are some of the best usages you can have with the new rollout?

• Create dynamic presentations that expand in a limitless space.

• Conduct workshops with experience and timing in mind.

• Create Customer Journey and general mind-maps while collaborating online with others.

As Canva states in their blog:

“Great things happen when people come together to bring their ideas to life. There’s truly no limit to what you can do with Canva Whiteboards, which is free for our global community and available on the web, desktop and mobile.”

 

 Social Media Marketing

• LinkedIn introduces the ability to pin comments under posts

LinkedIn has rolled out a new feature that enables all users, both company pages and personal profiles, to pin comments under a thread. To pin a response, simply access the three dots menu, and become ready to place the best responses on the top.

How can this update be useful to you?

With LinkedIn being a social media platform in which getting awareness and visibility tends to be easier than other channels, this new functionality has the potential to elevate the engagement of your publications and get seen by many others.

We firmly believe that this new update will boost interactions and can become a great tool to build personal branding in this social network.

 

Podcasts steps firmly into the YouTube platform

 

The long-format video platform is slowly introducing a dedicated section for podcasts. YouTube is updating itself to provide podcasts with its own dedicated section. 

YouTube has decided to make the best out of a common malpractice of users publishing static content on a dynamic and video-based platform (A.KA. Podcast videos on YouTube). Truth be told, most podcast producers would update their episodes despite sometimes displaying only a picture with the audio behind it. 

Although YouTube hasn’t formally announced the new platform changes, many users have found it while navigating within the platform. Some have even documented how to access the dedicated section.

To access the update, just go to the Explore tab, which will display the menu options, including the podcast. Then click the option of ‘Podcast’ and get ready to support your favourite content creators. 

 

Does this mean YouTube will also raise the fight for podcasts in the industry? 

What we know about this update is that it is slowly being tested and rolled out by countries. It is also known that podcasts are being displayed by subcategories to ease the navigation of the user.

There are 9 podcast categories to suit the need of the customers and help them explore the vast content. These categories are:

1. Popular episodes
2. Popular podcast playlists
3. Recommended (Based on your Subscriptions and History)
4. Popular podcast creators
5. Comedy
6. True Crime
7. Sports
8. Music
9. TV & Film

It does seem that this rollout is the start of something bigger than merely performing changes in the layout of the platform. YouTube knows its market advantage and has taken the first steps into the podcast industry.

 

• Twitter is testing professional account options, which includes shopping & link features

 

These sure are exciting times for professional accounts on Twitter. The platform has announced that a new set of features are being unlocked exclusively for professional accounts. 

Twitter is committed to helping businesses, brands, and creators to have a strong online presence and this new shopping and custom links functionality seems to be hitting off the ground.

 

? We’re going global! Now, any professional around the world can add a Location Spotlight to their profile to help customers find their biz location and get in touch faster. And☝️it has a new Google Maps integration to help customers with directions. pic.twitter.com/Uw5oLdJWXU

— Twitter Business (@TwitterBusiness) August 4, 2022

 

Let’s review what these two new profile spotlights are about. The first one would be the Location Spotlight has rolled out globally. This update aims to help any business owner to become visible to their customers with even a Google Maps integration for directions. 

 

But this isn’t all this new spotlight feature can do for your business. It also includes updates such as displaying business hours and direct contact methods to bring customers closer to businesses. Among the contact options, you can set up to be contacted by phone call, text message, direct Twitter message, and email.

 

 

Last but not least, the Shopping Spotlight is perhaps the most exciting update for professionals and their sales goals. Unlike the previous update, this functionality is available only to qualified accounts, mainly in the US. 

So what’s exciting about this update?

Those qualifying accounts will be entitled to a dedicated section at the top of their account profiles to display their products. The spotlight will act as a catalogue for easy access to purchase products without having to leave Twitter.

As Twitter describes this update:

“This is 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. “

The update doesn’t stop here. Twitter is actually developing a product management platform to create a seamless experience in showcasing products. This development will mainly assist business owners to create their own catalogues in-line with the right display in the app.

 

About Frizbit

• Save the date, a new workshop is coming up on September 22nd [Event held in Spanish]

 

We are delighted to announce that we are back with our offline events in Barcelona after a well-deserved summer break. In this event held in Spanish, we will review the strategies to perform retargeting without using third-party cookies.

Despite the delays from Google in fully implementing the cookieless era, we know the change and upcoming challenges are imminent. So, what better way than to actually get your hands on a theory-practical workshop to get ahead of the game?

If this event already sounds like you, keep reading to find out the details about this exciting workshop. 

During the event, you will learn what these types of alerts really are, and you will discover everything they can do for your e-Commerce to bring your customers back. 

In addition, you will explore this channel, which besides being innovative, is aligned with the new data privacy restrictions and third-party cookie limitations that will come into force by 2024.

Of course, after-work, and networking could not be missing in this workshop, so besides learning about best practices and tips to implement them, you will also be invited to enjoy some free beers on a nice terrace in Barcelona.

If you are not in Barcelona but still would love to attend the event, we got you covered! For those who can’t make it physically to the event, we will have a live broadcast for the workshop. To access the broadcast, register through the link below and choose “Watch Online – Remote”.  We will email you the live link on the day of the event.

The details:

When: September 22nd

Time: 18:30 (registration opens) until 21:00 

Where: Aticco Verdaguer, Barcelona

Workshop Facilitator:  Ata Gur, CEO & Co-founder of Frizbit

 

You can register for free here

Digital Marketing News and Updates | May 2022

The digital marketing industry as we know it is ever-evolving. And this month is no different. So the relevance of staying up to date is essential for any digital marketing professional.

 

Today, we want to present you with the latest news, trends and updates from May 2022. Let’s dive in!

 

Content:

1. Search Marketing Updates

   • Google enables users to delete their information from Google Search.

   • Google aims to conquer the eCommerce space. 

   • Google Search Console tracks new desktop features in its experience report.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

   • Meta rolls out Whatsapp Cloud: a monetisation strategy for Whatsapp. 

   • Stripe supports Bitcoin payments.

3. Social Media Updates
   

   • Instagram introduces a new Feed.

   • Twitter launches Twitter Circle. 
   • TikTok Pulse. 

4. About Frizbit

   • Frizbit at the datathon of @Reach Incubator

1. Search Marketing Updates
   

   • Google enables users to delete their information from Google Search.

      

Pexels/PhotoMIX Company

 

Nowadays, as users, navigating through the internet means having to share our personal data. Users are exposed to revealing their full name, email address, phone number and even more personal information such as banking details. We can say that maintaining one’s privacy gets more challenging by the day.

With the recent events regarding the privacy of users, it isn’t surprising that Google is making changes to protect its users. To tackle this issue, the search giant is expanding its options to enable users to be in control of their personal information.

If you do not wish for your information to appear on the google search page, there’s only one action you need to do. You must complete the request on this form, and after the corresponding approval, the platform will take down your personal information.

Now, what does this mean for marketers?

As we have perceived, getting closer to potential customers is getting tougher. As marketers, it is clear that relying on third-party cookies to reach users isn’t a streamlined solution anymore.

Having said this, we advise marketers to start looking out for different strategies. These new tactics should be aligned to the preferences of the users, and the better way is using first-party cookies. 

 

1. • Google aims to conquer the eCommerce space.

     

     Unsplash / Austin Distel

     
     As Bloomberg states, Google is putting efforts again to step strong in the eCommerce landscape. And this time, it seems that Google is willing to step up against its biggest competitor: Amazon.

     What is Google doing differently this time to overcome its competitor?

     While retailers at Amazon are required to pay the company for using the platform as a storefront, Google has started offering free shopping ads and product listings for its users.  

     With a 43% increase in search revenue in eCommerce advertising, statistics forecast success for this new initiative from Google.

     How can retailers prepare to position themselves in the upcoming eCommerce takeover successfully? 

     We suggest retailers start by being present at the Google Merchant Center. At this time, it won’t represent an extra cost for eCommerce businesses, presenting itself as a compelling opportunity. Then, we suggest setting up the product feed using the free product listing feature.

     Once the product feed is set up, the retailer will be able to display free shopping listings and run free shopping ads.

     Developing spaces and conditions that benefit online retailers is undoubtedly a leading step for Google to conquer this landscape.
     
     

   • Google Search Console tracks new desktop features in its experience report.
   • 
     

     Google Developers

     Google has announced that its Google Search Console will start tracking additional desktop features. As stated by the company:

     “Search Console now logs impressions in the Page Experience report for additional desktop features, such as Top Stories. As a result, you may see an increase in your desktop impressions in the Page Experience report and the Search and News performance reports when filtering by the “Good Page Experience” search appearance.”
     
     What does this mean for website owners?
     
     With the new log, you may see an increase in the desktop impressions on the experience report page. This change might also affect the performance reports when using the “Good Page Experience” filter.
     
     Possible spikes or increases should be visible after May 13th in your reports. Look out for any drastic changes and evaluate through the “Good Page Experience” if the rise shown is related to the new logging of the additional desktop features.

     2. Marketing Tech Updates

   • Meta rolls out Whatsapp Cloud: a monetisation strategy for Whatsapp.
     

     Pexels / Anton

      

     Whatsapp introduces its Cloud API to all businesses worldwide hosted in its parent company: Meta. This new feature becomes one of the key ways the app would finally start monetising itself.

      

     So, how does it work?

      

     Whatsapp Business Accounts will pay on a per-message basis. The rates will vary depending on the number of messages sent per month and your region.

      

     This new API targets smaller businesses and eases the third-party channel integrations process. This integration process usually would take up to weeks, and thanks to this tool, it would only take a few minutes.

      

     Through the Cloud API, businesses can have a better CRM experience. The tool will enable account owners to store private data through the app seamlessly. You will be able to integrate all tickets through one channel, increasing efficiency and productivity. This feature becomes relevant for larger businesses.

      

     The API is compatible with Zendesk and MessageBird, which truly facilitates communication operations for small and big businesses to connect with more people.

      

     Whastapp API Cloud isn’t the only change the platform will have. The regular Whatsapp Business app will also get an upgrade offering premium paid features.

      

     What’s included in the paid version?

      

     You will enjoy:

     • The ability to manage up to 10 chats across multiple devices.
     • Customised ‘Click-to-Chat’ links
     • Statistics

     More updates and features, as well as pricing information, will be available later during the year.
     This also enables online stores to send WhatsApp messages to their users who leave without completing a purchase via WhatsApp. If you have an e-commerce and are looking for a solution to run WhatsApp cart abandonment campaigns you can request a demo with Frizbit.

      

   • Stripe supports Bitcoin payments.
     

     Stripe
     

     Stripe is one of the largest online payment gateways in the world. It is known for revolutionising the eCommerce ecosystem, and this time it isn’t the exception. Now, the latest update the company wants to implement is partnering with Bitcoin and offering it as a payment method.

      

     The company valued above 100,000,000 USD has teamed up with the crypto startup OpenNode. This incursion into the cryptocurrency landscape will allow users to convert balances and payments directly into Bitcoin.

      

     What’s the impact on eCommerce owners?

      

     Thanks to millions of users, broadening the usage of cryptocurrencies can increase transactions. This is certainly a positive shift in the eCommerce landscape by easing the online purchase customer journey experience.

     3. Social Media Updates

   •  Instagram introduces a new Feed

     
     Instagram

   • As Adam Mosseri stated in his official publication, the video experience is taking more relevance in the future of Instagram. The ever-changing app has announced that it has started testing a more immersive layout in its visual feed.

     This change will take place for both images and videos with a 16:9 proportion. This new update makes the posts appear in a full-screen format on your device.

      

     In the light of creating immersive experiences, the app is elevating its reels consumption. The platform will start recommending more reels in its suggested section of the Home Page. This shift aligns with the so-desired trend of ranking video content at the front store of the app.

      

     How does this affect your content strategy?

      

     More and more, the platform is trying to stay upfront with its largest competitor: TikTok. They have been studying what makes TikTok so engaging, and this new shift comes as a consequence.

      

     Definitely, video content will keep being prioritised by the algorithm. Therefore, adapting your content to the Reels format is essential. Instagram has mentioned that the so-loved stories might start appearing in the home feed, similar to the current TikTok experience.

      

     Lastly, the platform has announced the option of pinning content to the feed to make the experience of the users smoother and more engaging.

   •  Twitter launches Twitter Circle.

     Twitter 

     Similar to the “Close Friends” Instagram feature, Twitter is rolling out its “Twitter Circle” feature to share exclusive content with a selected audience.

      

     This innovation allows users to select up to 150 profiles to interact with private content, whether they are followers or not. Twitter Circle is now in its beta phase. However, it will only be available for limited accounts worldwide when it is fully released.

      

     We will have to see how this new feature integrates with the app and its new owner Elon Musk, who didn’t include this in his new proposals for the platform.

   •   TikTok Pulse

     

     TikTok 

     TikTok has announced that they are launching a new programme called “Pulse” to bring brands closer to its customers through advertisement.

     Using the “For you” section, the platform plans to add advertisements that are relevant to the brands users consume the most. They have carefully designed the experience by placing the volume of advertisements in proportion to the usage of the app. The more time you spend in the app equals more relevant ads.

     TikTok Pulse allows advertisers to put their brand next to the main content of their feed. Specifically, TikTok highlights 4% of the posts to be shown in the ‘For you’ section. The advertising will be displayed within this range, becoming widely seen and relevant to users.

     “We are focused on developing monetisation solutions in available markets so that creators feel valued and rewarded on TikTok,” the company explained.

     The beta phase will begin with the participation of creators, public figures and media channels that should have at least 100,000 followers.

     4. About Frizbit

   • Frizbit at the datathon of @Reach Incubator

     
     Frizbit team

     The Frizbit team visited Paris earlier in May!

     Reach Incubator is a European incubator for startups specialising in AI & data management products and services.

     This year, the datathon took place at the École Polytechnique in Paris. For two days, more than 30 companies exposed their data management solutions. 

     Frizbit was selected to participate in the “Explore” phase of the program. 

2021 was for sure an eventful year and it went by really, really fast. We shared every step of the ways with you bringing you a sum up of the most important digital marketing news each month and here were are once more with the:

Digital Marketing News from December 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

• DuckDuck Go is Launching Desktop Version of Mobile App

The mobile search engine solution for a more private experience has announced the release of a desktop version. They claim their solution to be an “everyday browser that respects your privacy” and to be much faster than Google. 

This new release is not to be confused with their extension for Google Chrome. The DuckDuck Go private browsing app will be a standalone product. So far this is what we DuckDuck has said about it:

• Cleaner and simpler interface
• It will keep the “Fire” button from its mobile app
• Less clutter and offer more privacy than Chrome
• Faster than Google Chrome

This desktop version is currently being tested in a closed beta and the company hasn’t made it clear when it will be available for everyone. 

• Google Updates Local Search Results

An algorithm update began to roll out late November and Google has confirmed it concluded early December. Through their Google Search Central Twitter account they said:

Our November 2021 local search update has concluded. It began Nov 30 and ran through Dec 8. It involved a rebalancing of various factors we consider in generating local search results.

On Google’s support page you can find a list of the ranking factors and how to improve them:

• Relevance: how well a local Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.
• Distance: how far each potential search result is from the location term used in a search.
• Prominence: how well known a business is keeping in mind that some places are more prominent in the offline world. 

Even though Google has never been specific about how they rank search results, with these insights you can redirect your efforts towards the one that works best for you and your business. 

• Microsoft Bing’s Integration with Shopify is now Live

Back in October Microsoft Bing announced a new integration with Shopify to allow shoppers across Microsoft to get more diverse products, great prices, and improved discovery of deals.

That integration is now live!

If users head to Microsoft Bing right now and search for a product they have been looking for, they will receive results from millions of merchants thanks to the Shopify integration. After selecting a product and clicking on the “buy now” button, they will be instantly redirected to the shopping cart page to continue with their purchase. 

These products will also be available on Microsoft Start. We’re excited to launch our integration with Shopify to provide our shoppers a delightful experience with wider variety of products, better prices and convenience of “buy now”. – Microsoft Blog

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Adobe Announces Free Creative Cloud Express

Adobe is introducing a new suite of tools called Creative Cloud Express. It’s a web and mobile app created for anyone, from students to entrepreneurs, to create:

Creative Cloud Express draws on our decades of experience working with the creative community. It makes the core technology in our industry-leading products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro available with just a few clicks — and with no learning curve. And whether your goal is to make a flyer, edit an image, or produce marketing assets, you don’t have to start from scratch — Creative Cloud Express gives you access to thousands of beautiful templates, millions of images from Adobe Stock, thousands of fonts, and many more assets that you can personalize to tell your story. – Adobe Blog

This free tool is designed for everyone to use, even people with no previous experience with design software. This new suit of tools, Creative Cloud Express is available on the web, in Microsoft stores and on apps for iOS and Android.

It’s so easy to use thanks to many simple features called Quick Actions like removing an image background, trimming a video, or creating a GIF with just a few clicks. On top of that, the suite offers access to millions of resources like photos, fonts, templates, graphics and other. 

• WordPress delayed  5.9 version Release

WordPress has delayed the release of the 5.9 version to January 25th 2022. Originally, it was intended to be published in December 2021, but the project fell significantly behind schedule and core contributors raised their concerns about being able to meet deadlines. 

On their blog they informed that near the end of original alpha release cycle there were issues related to the new features planed for the 5.9 version:

• Full Site Editing (FSE), which is a collection of features, such as global styles interface, Navigation Block, block themes, template editors, and site editing flows.
• The Twenty Twenty-Two (TT2) theme, which depends on these FSE features.

The thing is that WordPress 5.9 version is a major one because of the full editing features it includes and they need to get it right. Adding up to that, the WordPress 6.0 version was scheduled to be released in April 2022 and they felt it was too long for the community to wait.

After revising the list of issues, the Core Editor team realized that these features could be included in the 5.9 version with the new schedule. They are focusing on a schedule that delivers full release and this is what they said:

5.9 is still in feature freeze. Work from here on is strictly to address the changes that get the release to a stable state. – WordPress Blog 

• Jotform adds 3 new Widgets

Jotform takes pride in the vast amount of (very specific) widgets they have to cover their users’ needs. This month they are introducing 3 new ones they feel are worth highlighting:

• Image Gallery
• WhatsApp Button
• OpenStreetMap

The Image Gallery widget allows users to add a photo gallery to their form. They feel this feature could be useful for order forms, for example, when a user needs to display a wide range of products. The widget it’s said to be very easy to use and customize with no coding required. 

The Whatsapp Button embed directly to the forms so anyone can access and message to Whatsapp. It’s a widget that allows users a seamless way to communicate. In Jotform’s blog they say: Use the WhatsApp Button to collect orders, receive feedback or contact information, or simply as a way for users to contact you with any urgent requests.

Last but not least, the OpenStreetMap widget allows users to display an interactive map on their form or app:

This can be especially useful for giving users a point of reference for specific destinations — whether it’s to show precisely where your business is located, how to find an event space, how to navigate to the nearest parking lot, or anything else. – Jotform Blog

3. Social Media Updates

• TikTok Users Can Make Money Through Tips & Gifts

Social media platform TikTok is introducing new ways for content creators to get paid with addition of tips and gifts. These new features are part of a suite of new monetization tools called Creator Next. 

• Tips: the new tipping feature allows users to send tips of $5, $10, $15, or custom tip amount to other users to show their appreciation for the content they create. When a user gets a tip, they receive 100% of it. These payments are facilitated by Stripe and users who are eligible to receive them will display a new icon on their profiles.

• Video Gifts: the new gifting feature allows users to send virtual gifts to other users on specific videos and the recipient can exchange them for money. You might have already seen a new gift box icon displayed on certain videos. 

To be eligible for receiving tips and gift a user must comply with the following:

• 18+ years of age
• At least 1,000 video views in past 30 days
• Have at least three posts in the past 30 days
• An account that’s in good standing with TikTok’s community guidelines
• Be based in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, or Spain
• Meet minimum follower requirements (which differs depending on region)

• Twitter Adds Auto Captions for All Video Uploads in Tweets

Twitter has announced a major new feature: all videos uploaded within tweets will have auto caption enabled. 

The new captions will be enabled for in-stream videos that are muted, on both iOS and Android, while desktop users will have the option to switch them on and off as they please. The captions are available in 37 languages and will show in the language of the device used to upload the video.

Translation and editing of the captions are still in development but this new feature allows Twitter users to access content in more formats. As this social media platform has always been text-focused the auto caption for videos opens the doors to give more prominence to videos. 

• Clubhouse Launches Saved Replays, Unveils New App Icon

Clubhouse, the popular social media platform that gave us so much to talk about early 2021, has announced one more update before the year ends. 

The new “Saved Replays” feature allows users to save the audio from a recorded Clubhouse chat to listen to later. Any user can access the option by clicking the three dots and then tapping the “Save Replay” button. 

This might be a feature users were expecting from the app since it seems to be very useful to be able to listen to audio chats later in time. 

The app also unveiled a new icon featuring streaming influencer Abraxas Higgins since they consider him a “quintessential Clubhouse success story”:

“A former Wall Street banker turned music marketing strategist turned audio influencer. In addition to being the host of Clubhouse’s beloved morning show 9AM in London, Abraxas is also the most followed person in the UK on Clubhouse and makes more money now from brand partners than he did as an investment strategist.” 

That ‘s for 2021!

2021 was for sure a year full of interesting events in all aspects. We hope you enjoyed our last digital marketing news article of the year and we will see you on the next ones! 

Happy 2022! 

With just one month left to 2021 and a major holiday season right ahead, it’s imperative that we take our time to checkout the most important: 

Digital Marketing News and Updates from November 2021

1. Search Marketing News

• Google Launches New Tools and Features to Support Local News

Over the past five years Google has reported an increase in queries on search like “news near me”, reaching a special high during COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. In response to this demand, Google is launching new features for local search results and new tools for journalists:

“At Google, we’re dedicated to finding new ways to help readers better connect with publishers and helping publishers more efficiently and creatively produce quality journalism their readers want.” Google Blog

a) New Features for Local Search Results

• Local News Carousel: readers will see a carousel of local news stories when there’s local news relevant to their query.

• Top Stories: Google is improving their system to show authoritative local news sources more often alongside national publications.

• Topic Understandment: Google is refining its ability to have a better understanding of general topics like “sports” to more specific ones like “tennis” to help readers get more relevant search results paired with location signals. 

• Local Tweets: results are now showing tweets by local sources, authors authorities and organizations relevant to the search query. 

b) New Tools for Reporters

• Census Mapper Project: an embeddable map tool aimed to help reporters sort out and visualize data in a more easy and appealing way. It displays Census data at the national, state and county level, as well as census tracts.

• Common Knowledge Project: is a data explorer and visual journalism project and Google is making improvements to integrate journalist feedback and new features including geographic comparisons, new charts and visuals.

 

• Google Ads App Updated With 3 New Features

Google is making marketers life’s a little bit easier by updating the Google Ads App adding new 3 features that allow them to make changes and monitor campaigns performance directly from mobile devices. 

• Improved Performance Insights: the update will provide information about campaign performance with a real time notification when a significant change occurs, an explanation of why it happened and, in some cases, a recommendation on how to fix the issue. There will also be insights on positive changes in performance to help marketers understand what worked and how to replicate it in the future. 

• Real-time Search Trends: Google added search trends to the mobile app to make it accessible from everywhere.
  “Let’s say you’re a grocery retailer looking to reach more customers. With Search trends, you may notice a rising trend for “cookie decorating kits” and “bread & pastry dough”. You can then act on these trends by creating new campaigns for these products, and even update your in-store and online merchandising as well. 

• Campaign Creation on the go: with just a few taps is now possible to create campaigns directly from the Google Ads mobile app. By simply tapping the “plus” button you can select your campaign type, where you’d like your ads to appear and other campaign settings. 

• Google Makes Improvements in Search Results for “Deals” Query

During Holiday season searches for deals and discounts peak. That’s why Google is introducing new ways for people to connect with businesses and find the “right deal at the right moment throughout the season.”

 

• Helping People Find the Right Deal: products with a deals badge will appear in a new feed in the Shopping Tab. People can access it by selecting the “Deals” menu or by doing a search that triggers for queries like “deals” or “Black Friday.” Any product with a deals badge is eligible and will be highlighted depending on how attractive the offer is.

• Measure Deals Performance: merchants will be able to see which of their products are eligible for a deals badge in the products tab within the Merchant Center. The dashboard now shows a detailed performance report with data on impressions, clicks and click-through rate.

  

• WooCommerce and Shopify Integration: both platforms businesses will be able to showcase their existing deals across Google by synching existing and new promotions to their products listed on Google directly within their store dashboard.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• HubSpot Launches New Payments Solution

The CRM platform has announced the launch of HubSpot Payments to Help Customers Deliver a Better Buying Experience. HubSpot Payments is an end-to-end payment solution built natively as part of the platform and allows companies to accept payments seamlessly with fewer tools. 

“For too long, B2B companies have suffered through painful sales processes that leave customers frustrated and lost revenue on the table. That’s why we’ve built HubSpot Payments to enhance the customer experience rather than slow it down” – Brad Greene, VP of commerce and payments at HubSpot.

With HubSpot Payments companies will be able to accept digital payments without the need of any type of development, since it’s integrated directly into the CRM. It also allows a more secure buying experience for customers being able to pay in just a few clicks using the payment method they prefer.

• Mailchimp and Shopify Launch Direct Integration

Mailchimp announced a partnership with Shopify for new and existing users of both platforms to connect their Mailchimp account with their Shopify storefront through a direct integration without needing third-party tools or manual data transfer. 

Mailchimp shared the news saying that “By connecting Mailchimp and Shopify directly, merchants will be able to combine the power of purchase data with marketing data and use those insights to help drive conversions, increase revenue, and reach more customers at the right point of their buying journey.”

This integration comes in time to help small businesses make the most out of the holiday season by making it easier for merchants to reach their customers. 

“The combined power of Mailchimp’s suite of marketing tools and Shopify’s robust commerce infrastructure will level the playing field and unlock even more opportunity for independent businesses to grow and succeed into the future.” – Fatima Yusuf, Director of Commercial, App Ecosystem, Shopify.

Mailchimp also acquired the ShopSync app, which has helped Mailchimp users connect their accounts to Shopify stores.

• Slack Introduces New Platform

With the purpose of empowering organizations by understanding that each one of them works with different flows, structures and specific requirements Slack has completely rebuilt and re-engineered the Slack platform. 

They want Slack to be companies’ Digital HQ to make work more productive and pleasant. With this update they are offering businesses a tailored solution that adapts and responds to their unique business needs. On their blog they say:

“From everyday business users like sales representatives, administrators and marketers to seasoned engineers, everyone can customize their Slack experience and digital HQ to fit how they work, now and in the future.”

Here’s what’s new:

• Workflow Builder: a feature that allows non-developers to create workflows by dragging and dropping pieces of existing apps and then customizing how they work together. 

• Slack Links (coming soon): with just one click, users will be able to sign in to their work apps using their Slack accounts. 

• Subscribe in Slack (coming soon): users will be able to set up Slack notifications from their other tools integrated into their Slack workspace. 

3. Social Media Updates

• YouTube Removes Dislike Counts On All Videos

Videos on YouTube will no longer show a public dislike count, while the dislike button remains. Early 2021 YouTube experimented with the dislike button making invisible the dislike vote count to help protect content creators against harassment where people worked to increase the number of dislikes from a certain video.  

“We want to create an inclusive and respectful environment where creators have the opportunity to succeed and feel safe to express themselves. This is just one of many steps we are taking to continue to protect creators from harassment. Our work is not done, and we’ll continue to invest here”. – YouTube Blog

The results from this experiment showed that, because the count wasn’t visible, viewers were less likely to hit the button trying to drive up the number of dislikes. Apparently this is a practice that affects small and new channels the most. 

Based on these results, YouTube has decided to make the dislike count private across the entire platform. Viewers will still have the option to hit the dislike button if they want to and creators will still be able to find the exact amount of dislikes from a video on YouTube Studio along other metrics. 

This change is rolling out gradually since early November 2021. 

• Instagram Launches Live Test of Longer Videos in Stories

Instagram has launched a live test for 60 seconds videos in stories. This means that longer videos won’t be split into 15 seconds clips anymore. This is what Instagram had to say when inquired about the subject by socialmediatoday: 

“The ability to create longer Stories posts comes highly requested by our community. We’re excited to be testing 60-second Stories so that people can create and view Stories with fewer interruptions.” 

This initiative comes from the desire of Instagram to simplify and consolidate ideas, since they launched a lot of features in the last year. The decision has also been influenced by social media platform TikTok which has become most popular between younger crowds and thrives with simplicity. 

The new feature is currently being tested with only a small group of users, but soon it will reach more and more people. 

• TikTok Tests New Option to Tag Other Profiles in Your Video Clips

With the objective of boosting engagement, TikTok is rolling out a feature that allows users to tag other profiles in their clips. This option comes as an addition to the already available @mention option within the post captions. 

This means that users can still alert other profiles about their clips, but keeping the caption text free of mentions. Functionality wise it doesn’t represent a major change, however it does provide a new way to link creators content. 

The new option to tag other profiles, is still being tested and there are no plans to roll it out to all users at the moment. 

Digital Marketing News From November 2021

So here are the most important news and digital marketing trends from November 2021. As always Google is constantly providing with more and better tools for marketers to do their jobs the easiest way possible, marketing platforms are keeping up with teams’ requirements and social media competition never ends.

Which update caught your attention the most?

If you are interested in reading more about digital marketing make sure to visit some of our other blog post:

• Digital Marketing Trends 2022
• 2021 Christmas Marketing Ideas and Strategies To Boost Your E-commerce Sales
• The Future of Digital Marketing Without 3rd Party Cookies

2021 has gone by extremely fast, we are already in the last quarter of the year and the most important dates for marketers are upon us: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas. That is why it is more important than ever to be informed about what’s new in the digital marketing world and use all tools available to carry out the best campaigns.

Here are the most relevant:

Digital Marketing News and Updates from October 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Shopify & Microsoft Team Up To Help Merchants Reach More Shoppers

Microsoft is aware of the significant increase in online shopping and the acceleration of e-commerce sites, that’s why they are looking for ways to help brands connect with consumers. With that in mind, they recently announced a partnership with Shopify. 

Shopify merchants can now reach more shoppers using the updated Microsoft Channel app available in their Shopify store. They will have access to more customers through the Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network. 

Merchants can connect to the Microsoft Channel app using their Microsoft Advertising accounts or by signing up in a few steps. They can create new ad campaigns, access real-time reports in their Shopify store and all merchants’ products are automatically able to be shown on the Microsoft Bing Shopping tab and the Microsoft Start Shopping tab free as Product Listings.

This new feature is currently available just for Shopify merchants in the United States and Canada.

Microsoft states that soon they will be rolling out a checkout option via the Buy button “to help consumers quickly bridge the gap from discovery to purchase”. 

• Google Mobile Search Updated With Continuous Scrolling

Mid October, Google announced to their blog The Keyword that Continuous scrolling is coming to Google Search on mobile devices. 

Google is always working towards helping people find what they are looking for easily and quickly. Making Search results browsing a seamless experience is a priority, and that is why they are introducing continuous scrolling on mobile devices.

Now, when users conduct a search from their mobile device and reach the bottom of a results page, the next set of results will automatically load to offer more information. The reason behind this update is to save people from having to click on the “See more” button and make their browsing experience more pleasant.

“While you can often find what you’re looking for in the first few results, sometimes you want to keep looking. In fact, most people who want additional information tend to browse up to four pages of search results.” – Google Blog

The new Search experience is starting to gradually roll out today for most English searches on mobile in the U.S.

• Google Rolls Out New Eco-Friendly Search Filters

Google’s rolling out new Search filters to help people make more environmentally-conscious decisions when looking for flights, hotels, routes or products. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a series of green initiatives from the company, and this new Search filter is one of them.  

• Google Flights Updates: an update to Google Flights will showcase information about carbon emissions in SERP. The information will be displayed next to the price and duration of the flight. 

• Hotel results: when looking for a hotel, users will now see information regarding their sustainability efforts such as waste reduction and water conservation measures, and whether they’re Green Key or EarthCheck certified.

• Environmentally Friendly Appliances: a Google Shopping update will help shoppers find the most environmentally friendly options when looking to buy appliances by displaying the most sustainable products. 

• Eco-friendly Routing in Google Maps: from now on in the U.S and in Europe from 2022, Google Maps will show you the most fuel efficient route to choose from. Google estimates that by doing this, they could help save over one million tons of carbon emissions per year.

Google says that all these efforts are aimed towards being more sustainable and helping contribute against climate change:

In all these efforts, our goal is to make the sustainable choice an easier choice. At the individual level, these choices may seem small, but when people have the tools to make them at scale, they equal big improvements. We’ll need nothing less to avert the worst consequences of climate change, and we’ll continue to find ways our products can help.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Free AI Content Optimization Tool by MarketMuse

MarketMuse is a platform built to accelerate the content research, creation, and optimization process using AI and they recently launched a free version of their software.

This tool is designed to help content creators plan and optimize their writing with helpful insights powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. The new free version is very similar to the paid one and contains the primary features of MarketMuse, the only difference is that, with the paid version, you can focus on more queries. 

The new version is thought out to help small sites with up to 35 queries a month and it offers the following features: 

• Optimize
• Connect
• Compete
• Research
• Questions

Many MarketMuse users have reported the tool to be a complete game changer for their content marketing strategy:

In my opinion, MarketMuse is useful for every business that is doing content marketing. Using MarketMuse, you can create in-depth content that is valued by readers and considered authoritative. I used MarketMuse as an experiment on one of my sites, and my organic traffic grew by 400% in less than 6 months. – Israel Gaudette, Full-time affiliate marketer and founder of the Link Tracker Pro rank tracker.

• Google For Creators Is Here To Help Publishers Get Found & Make Money

Google is introducing Google for Creators to offer personalized guidance, product recommendations and inspiration for creators. 

In a recent blog post Google announced the launch of a new tool to help content creators learn, grow and get inspired. The objective is to bring audiences closer to the content the like and enjoy, at the same time it helps creators reach and connect with more people. 

Google for Creators shows how the web can become part of your content mix. A quick quiz on the homepage provides personalized recommendations with topics most relevant to you. So if you’re just getting started, the quiz might recommend that you check out guides for finding a niche or creating a content strategy. Or if you’re a more seasoned creator, you might see recommendations for learning how to grow your audience and make more money. – Google Blog

The tool is promised to be useful for all types of content creators, new ones or more experienced ones. The quiz will offer relevant insights and recommendations on how to find a niche, planning a content strategy and how to grow your audience. 

Google will release more features in the coming months. 

• WordPress Releases Gutenberg 11.6 

Early October WordPress released Gutenberg 11.6 fixing bugs and making important changes and improvements. Gutenberg is a WordPress site builder with drag and drop functionality to design interfaces. 

Gutenberg is rolling out in a four phase development process and it’s currently in the second one. This builder is aimed to “to revolutionize the entire publishing experience as much as Gutenberg did the printed word”, according to the description in its plugin page. 

The 11.6 version includes:

• Site Logo cropping and rotating within the editor: users are now able to adjust their websites’ logos directly within WordPress. Before this update the image used as a logo had to be edited before loading it in the site. With the Site Logo block’s toolbar that won’t be necessary anymore. 

• Locking control at block level: this new feature allows designers to lock individual blocks to prevent them from moving or accidentally removing them. 

• Query Pagination uses Flex Layout: the new Gutenberg version improves the Query Pagination block to support the flex layout.

There are other notable improvements and changes with Gutenberg 11.6 such as basic support for child themes, enhancements to the writing flow and much more that you can check out in detail here. 

3. Social Media Updates

• Facebook Has New Communication Tools For Businesses

Facebook is rolling out changes and improvements targeted to small businesses. These updates are coming just in time for important marketing dates such as Black Friday and the holiday season which reportedly counts for 20% of annual revenue for small businesses.

Let’s sum up the new features:

• Video and Audio Calling on Messenger: Facebook is testing business audio and video calling with some businesses using Business Inbox in Messenger. This feature allows them to connect directly with their customers right from the platform in order to facilitate transactions.

• Live Audio Rooms: earlier this year Facebook launched Live Audio Rooms as their own version of ClubHouse appa. They are now making it available for small businesses to host live conversations on topics they consider relevant for their target audiences. 

• Expanding Appointment Booking Globally: the appointments feature on Facebook is an easy way for customers to book appointments with local service providers, and for businesses to manage their bookings. From now, Facebook is gradually making Appointment books available to all small businesses, globally.

• Personalized Ads: Facebook wants to let people know they are supporting a small business when they come across a small business ad, so they are testing the display of an informational message in the feed that lets people know they liked or loved a small business ad. According to Facebook “The message explains how engaging with an ad from a small business can help the business continue to find new customers and grow.”

 

• Instagram Adds More Demographic Insights For Businesses

Instagram is introducing new audience insights as a way to give content creators and professionals the tools they need to make more money doing what they love on the social media platform. They are rolling out: accounts engaged, engaged audience, reached audience and new transparency for creators who partner with brands.

• Accounts Engaged and Engaged Audience: the “accounts engaged” feature shows the number of people that interacted with your content in a specific period of time. Instagram is also adding demographic insights to help professionals have a better understanding of their audience. 

• Reached Audience: Instagram is adding new information about reached audiences also adding important demographic insights such as top cities, top countries, top age ranges and gender. 

• Transparency for Creators: Instagram is going to give more visibility to creators who partner with brands to create collaborative content. “When a brand promotes a creator’s post with the paid partnership label or creates an ad without a pre-existing post, that creator will now be able to see the performance of that ad including reach, likes, comments, saves and shares.”

• Instagram Tests new “Add Yours” Sticker for Stories

If you hang out a lot on Instagram you might have already come across the new “Add Yours” sticker in someones’ story. 

Instagram rolled out this new sticker as a way to create chains of content in the app. It works like this: a user uploads a story and inserts the “Add Yours” sticker of a certain topic. Then when another user sees it, they can click on it and their own input to the topic, thus creating a chain of content. 

For example, someone can create a prompt about their favorite Italian restaurant, share it, and then other users can add their own favorites. This is a great way for brands to connect and reach new audiences. 

Even though the sticker is limited to users in Japan and Indonesia, once a prompt has been created, anyone can participate. 

This are the most relevant Digital Marketing News and Updates from October 2021

There were many updates in search, tech and social media marketing this past month and certainly many interesting features to try for next big dates like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas. 

Did you have a favorite? Let us know in the comments!

You can also find useful:

• Top 2021 Black Friday Digital Marketing Strategies for Your E-commerce
• “Don’t Use Web Push Notifications!” Demystifying the Biggest Prejudices About Web Push Notifications
• SMS Marketing: 7 Tips for a Winning Strategy

There wasn’t much digital marketing news to report during summertime. However, September has arrived in full strength with many updates to note that might help us marketers strategize better for the last few months of 2021. 

Digital Marketing News, Insights and Updates from September 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Google is Working on New Search Feature to Index Instagram and TikTok Videos

Google has been reported to be working on new deals with Instagram and TikTok’s parent companies, Facebook and ByteDance, to get the data they need in order to index and rank videos from the social media platform in Search results. 

Users often go to Google to search for TikTok and Instagram videos everyone is talking about and have no luck finding them. The best result they get is a preview with lower qualities. Well, Google is trying to fix that and show users the exact video they want to see in Search, just like they do with tweets. 

A few years ago tweets didn’t show in SERP like they do now. Since Google reached an agreement with Twitter back in 2015, they now show in results and the same thing might happen if these new negotiations go well. We might start getting used to seeing these short social media videos in SERP sooner than later. 

Google is always aiming to make content easily discoverable by users. However, when asked about the new feature a spokesperson stated that sites “can choose how or whether their content appears in Search.”

To this point is just a matter of time and wait to see how the negotiations pan out. 

• Google is Giving Users More Transparency Into their Google Ads Experience

Google has been innovating with different features to help users have a better understanding about ads they get in Search and Display in different formats. Features such as “About this ad” and the advertisers identity verification program, enhance user experience by offering transparency and credibility with the ads shown to them.

Not stopping there, Google has announced now they are rolling out Advertiser Pages to offer users more information about the ads they get. Users can access these disclosures in the new “About this Ad” menu and check the ads said advertiser has run over the last 30 days. 

“For example, imagine you’re seeing an ad for a coat you’re interested in, but you don’t recognize the brand. With advertiser pages, you can learn more about that advertiser before visiting their site or making a purchase.”  Google Blog

 

Users will also be able to report an ad they feel is violating Google’s policies and if they see fit, a Google team member will delete it. As always, Google is aiming to offer users the best online experience as possible and taking their feedback is key to achieving that objective. 

Advertiser pages will launch in the coming months in the United States, and will roll out in phases to more countries in 2022.

• Microsoft Advertising Launches Open Beta for Credit Card Ads 

Microsoft Advertising has announced that, from this week, Credit Card Ads will be available for advertisers targeting customers in the U.S and Canada.

Credit Card Ads are intent-triggered ads dynamically generated with no keywords or site crawling required. They appear on the right side of the Bing Search Results Page alongside text ads.

“Credit card ads trigger for queries such as brand name, card category, credit level, and more. Bank issuers, comparison sites and brands can all take advantage of Credit card ads.” Microsoft Blog

On its blog, Microsoft states that, so far, advertisers have seen great results using Credit Card Ads:

• Up to 46% more conversions
• 70% lower cost per acquisition

Early results are sure promising for advertisers.  This new feature is rolling out as an open beta and anyone wishing to participate has to contact their Microsoft Advertising representative or sign up here.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Shopify Launches Shopify Markets to help Internationalize Stores

Up until now, if an ecommerce wanted to sell internationally, they’d have to use a third party marketplace or retailer to do so. With the launch of Shopify Markets that won’t be necessary anymore, since it allows merchants to sell directly to a global market all from one place.

Shopify Markets is a centralized hub with all the tools ecommerce sites need to sell directly outside of their home country. On the announcement of the new solution, Shopify stated that “Complexities like currency conversion, language localization, providing local payment methods, and duty and import taxes can all act as barriers to effectively selling internationally”. All of this is solved with Shopify Markets. 

By entering, merchants can: 

• Enter new markets easily
• Increase buyer trust and conversion with tailored experiences for each market
• Optimize cross-border operations with actionable insights and smart settings
• Save time with a central global management platform

Shopify Markets is already available in early access globally. 

• HubSpot Partners with Envato 

The CRM platform and Evanto, the world-leading online community for creative assets have partnered to launch over 250 high-quality templates specifically designed for HubSpot. 

“Designed by Envato’s internationally recognized community of professional theme developers, the new templates offer a wide variety of ways for businesses to customize their online presence, whether they use a multi-purpose theme or something more niche to their industry.” – HubSpot.com

Since both platforms, HubSpot and Envato, are aimed towards building engaging web experiences faster, Envato’s Chief Content Officer, Cameron Gough, said the partnership was a natural connection between both companies. He also added that:

“With these themes, we have an opportunity to provide the global creative community with the assets they need, while HubSpot can bring their CMS Hub product to life with the help of our talented author base”.

The have reported that the initial reactions from the community have been very positive with the creation of a huge variety of template themes. You can see the collection of CMS Hub themes on ThemeForest here: https://themeforest.net/lp/hubspot-cms-hub-themes/.

• Intuit Confirms Deal to Acquire Mailchimp

A few weeks ago, global technology platform Intuit, confirmed rumors about the acquisition of the popular mailing automation platform, Mailchimp for $12 billion.

Intuit is better known for its financial softwares TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint and Credit Karma, but with this new acquisition they aim to “advance their mission to power prosperity around the world for consumers and small businesses”.

They described the objective saying that they “will work to deliver on the vision of an innovative, end-to-end customer growth platform for small and mid-market businesses, allowing them to get their business online, market their business, manage customer relationships, benefit from insights and analytics, get paid, access capital, pay employees, optimize cash flow, be organized and stay compliant, and have experts at their fingertips.”

3. Social Media Updates

• Twitter Makes Tips Available to Everyone and Adds Bitcoin & GoFundMe As Tipping Options

Back in May Twitter rolled out a feature called tip jar, that allowed users to tip others. This feature was only available for a select group of English-speaking content creators. Now, Twitter is rolling out Tips for everyone and adding new payment alternatives. 

Tips make the payment much easier by providing one spot right in the user’s profile where they can link to their Cash App, Patreon, Venmo and other platforms. Before, users had to manually share links to their payment profiles in their bios and in their tweets.

In addition to that, Twitter is also including new payment services: GoFundMe, an online fundraising platform, and Bitcoin through Strike, a payment application built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network that offers instant and free payments globally.

This is what Twitter had to say:

We want everyone on Twitter to have access to pathways to get paid. Digital currencies that encourage more people to participate in the economy and help people send each other money across borders and with as little friction as possible – help us get there.

• Facebook Launches New Tools for Businesses

In order to help businesses connect with more people and generate more leads, Facebook is launching a set of new free and paid tools:

• Start conversations with ads that click to message: businesses can use ads to invite people to message them through the messaging platform they prefer: Messenger, Instagram Direct or WhatsApp.

• Start a WhatsApp chat from an Instagram Profile: for many small businesses Instagram is the main platform through which people discover them, and Whatsapp the platform to engage in conversations. With that in mind, Facebook is making it possible to add a click-to-chat button to their Instagram profiles and a button that takes users to Whatsapp directly from Instagram ads.

• Quote Request on Messenger: with this feature businesses can elect 4-5 questions to ask consumers prior to starting a conversation. Then, consumers are able to request a quote from a business by completing a questionnaire on Messenger. This feature is only currently available for select advertisers for testing. 
• Lead Generation on Instagram: Facebook will start testing paid and organic tools to help businesses find qualified leads on the social media platform in a more personal way and reducing costs.

Regarding all updated and new features, Facebook stated that “Today is just a step towards the future we’re building for and with businesses in this next era of personalization and we’ll share more on this as it progresses.

• YouTube Adds 5 Features for Creators

YouTube content creators will have access to more insights and more control over ads and chapters thanks to these five new features:

• Evergreen video insights: evergreen videos are those that have been popular for a long period of time. YouTube is giving content creators access to insights for these types of videos as a way of helping them improve their monthly channel performance analysis. 

• Trending hashtags: YouTube launched the trending hashtag feature in the explore section to help viewers find popular content, and creators to identify topics for their future videos. This feature is only available for U.S mobile users. 

• AdSense Blocking Controls: YouTube is making available the Adsense Blocking Controls to multi-channel affiliate networks (MCNs). Previously this feature that allows content creators to control what type of ads run on their channels, was only available to channels in the YouTube Partner Program.

• Bulk Edit Video Chapters: YouTube launched automatic chapters for newly uploaded videos and creators are automatically opted into it. And for those who don’t want the feature enabled on their channel, YouTube is making it easier to edit the chapters in bulk. 

• Appeal Yellow Icons on YouTube Studio Mobile: a yellow icon means a video is receiving little to no monetization. From now on, content creators will be able to appeal them via the Studio Mobile app, instead of solely via desktop.

Digital Marketing News from September 2021

There was a lot to choose from to sum up the most important digital marketing news and updates from September 2021. We gathered the news we believe you’ll find more interesting and useful to strategize next month. 

If you want to keep reading…

• Remarketing: Everything You Need to Know
• Web Push Notifications Performance: Key Metrics to Track!
• How can Marketing Automation Help you Sell More

Digital marketing never sleeps and neither do marketing professionals when it comes to keeping up with trends, news and updates. Between coming up with new and innovative ways to catch people’s attention and not missing any news from Google, finding time to shut an eye might seem impossible. 

So here we are, gathering and sharing with you the most important:

Digital Marketing News, Updates and Insights from June 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Google delays third-party cookie phaseout one more year

In a recent blog post, Google updated us about their progress on their intention to eliminate third-party cookies. They announced that, even with the considerable progress they’ve had with Project Sandbox, more time is required to get things right. 

The aim of this project is to protect people’s privacy online, while still offering companies the tools they need to do digital business. Google believes that the online community needs “to come together to develop a set of open standards to fundamentally enhance privacy on the web, giving people more transparency and greater control over how their data is used.”

To achieve this, they feel the need to move at a slower pace to be more responsible. Google wants that boths users and publishers are protected, by making sure that cookies are not replaced with any sort of individual tracking or fingerprinting, and that advertisers have enough time to migrate their service and preserve their business models. 

We must take time to evaluate the new technologies, gather feedback and iterate to ensure they meet our goals for both privacy and performance, and give all developers time to follow the best path for privacy. – Google Blog

They stated that key technologies will be deployed for Chrome late 2022 and start phasing-out third party cookies by mid 2023 ending late 2023. 

• Google ads new feature that helps businesses display their information

Google is constantly updating and creating new tools to help businesses show more accurate and detailed information in Search and Maps so owners can easily connect with potential customers.

You can add details, such as contact information and opening hours, and create Posts to share updates, like special offers or new offerings, right from Google Search. Starting next week, you’ll also be able to create Posts about upcoming events including when and where they’re happening. Google Blog

New features allow businesses to change and share information directly from Search and Maps. They include:

• Easily show your services: businesses can now use the Edit Profile menu on Search to display their services. It’s even possible to show specialties if you offer personal care services, for example. For restaurant owners that work with Reserve Google, they can enable online bookings through their Business Profile.

• Accept takeout and delivery orders: Google reported a 230% increase in food ordering since last year. To adapt to this demand, Order with Google allows businesses to accept takeout and delivery orders through their Business Profile. Restaurants can also update their menus directly on Search and Maps.

 

• Automatically update your inventory: Google Searches for “who has” + “in stock” have grown by more than 8,000% year over year, which shows that shoppers are searching for products online before they head to the stores. As a response to this, eligible retailers in the U.S will be able to “get all their in-store product inventory automatically added to their Business Profile by signing up for Pointy from Google right from Google Search”. With this tool you can scan your products and they are automatically added to your Business Profile.

• Brave search engine launches public beta

Creators of Brave, the browser that puts user’s privacy first, have launched Brave Search Engine in a global public beta. They have announced it as a “real alternative to Google” that’s private, transparent and doesn’t surveille users.

Brave’s search engine works completely independently from Google, it uses its own independent index of the web. It’s available for desktop and mobile devices in any browser at search.brave.com. 

This search engine doesn’t collect user data which makes it impossible to sell, share or lose. They also claim to offer real transparency by not using any type of “secret algorithms” to show search results: We rely on anonymous community contributions to refine results, and community-created alternative ranking models to ensure diversity. 

The engine was developed by the former Cliqz Team as the company announced back in March of this year. 

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• Google Integrates with WooCommerce for easy Product Uploads

WooCommerce has launched an extension that allows sellers to upload their products to Google for free. This means that online retailers will have the opportunity to get discovered by more shoppers through Search, Shopping, Images, and YouTube.

By connecting a WooCommerce store with Google Merchant Center, all products and their information will be listed on  search results on Google. All the product’s details will be automatically updated when any changes are made on WooCommerce. 

It’s completely free to list products in the Google Shopping tab, and retailers also have the option to pay for ads if they wish to have more visibility. 

Through the new Google extensions, sellers have total control of their products listing, performance and analytics without needing to leave the dashboard and the opportunity to reach more users without extra work. You can get the extension here!

• Google Announces New Ads Creative Studio

With the intention of offering designers, agencies and brands better ways to work and create ads, Google has announced the launch of Ads Creative Studio. A platform to unify all of Google’s creative advertising tools. 

The objective is to help creative teams increase productivity and to simplify the process of designing compelling ads. Google says on their blog that “Ads Creative Studio will bring together a number of creative tools previously found across products like YouTube, Display & Video 360 and Campaign Manager 360. “

Ads Creative Studio features include:

• Director Mix: this feature allows to create different versions of a YouTube video for different audiences with swappable elements.

• Dynamic display and HTML5 tools: they allow you to generate customized and interactive creatives for Display & Video 360 and Campaign Manager 360.

• Audio Mixer: that allows you to create tailored audio ads for Display & Video 360.

• Shopify rolls out Product Updates for Shopify Developers

This month Shopify announced a series of updates for developers:

• Subscriptions support for PayPal Express: the launch of this feature represents the first additional payment gateway support after Shopify Payments with the hopes of offering support to more sellers around the world. 

• Partner-initiated app refunds: before this update, partners had to contact Shopify Support to issue refunds. Now, they can handle them directly through the Partner Dashboard.

• VAT changes for ecommerce purchases made within the EU: in order to help merchants comply with changes made to tax regulations for ecommerce purchases made within the EU, Shopify is adding new options to the tax settings. 

3. Social Media Marketing Updates

• Twitter is adding Subscribe Button to profiles for Newsletter Signups

In January 2021 we shared the news about Twitter acquiring newsletter platform Revue to help content creators share and monetize their work. As it was to be expected now Twitter is adding a new Subscribe button to profiles so people can sign up to newsletters. 

The button will appear on the user’s profile next to the mutual followers section. When signing up, the subscriber will receive a message letting them know that their email address will be sent to the newsletter owner and have the chance to take a sneak peek at the content before finally agreeing to sign up. 

This new feature will be available to all users that have a Revue account. 

• Instagram Announces New Features for Creators to Make Money

Instagram has become a business platform for a lot of people. With this in mind, they have announced the launch of three major new features to help content creators make money: Creator Shops, affiliate commerce, and a “branded content marketplace.

• Creators Shop: creators shop is designed for those who want to sell products using their personal profiles. It can be done in two ways:

• Existing products can be linked to both personal and business accounts
• New shops can be set up through the Instagram app linking their account to one of Instagram’s merchandise partners: Bravado/UMG, Fanjoy, Represent, and Spring. This feature will be available for creators in the US at the end of the year.

• Affiliate Commerce: this program aims to help creators gain a commission payment within the app when they generate a sale for a brand through a post in their accounts. It will feature a label indicating users that they will support the creator with their purchase.

• Branded Content Marketplace: this feature is designed to help brands connect with content creators and influencers that match and align their work. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri said “We should be able to help brands find creators that are uniquely aligned with the work they’re trying to do and vice versa. If we can help with matchmaking, we can help drive more dollars to the smaller creators who can do amazing work for brands.” 

• Facebook Launches 4 New E-commerce Features 

Facebook is introducing new features to help online shops reach more people, get their products discovered and increase sales:

• Facebook Shops in More Places: online shops can now choose Marketplace as an additional channel to Shop tabs on Instagram and Facebook to sell their products. 

• Customer reviews: customer ratings will be expanded to products in Shops on Instagram with photos and videos from the community.

 

• Personalized shop ads: Facebook is launching new ads to personalize customer’s shopping experience and send them to curated collections based on their shopping history where they are most likely to make a purchase. 

• Expanded Access to AR Try-On Feature: Facebook is developing APIs to help more brands have access to augmented reality features that bring the “in-shop” experience to users online. They are also adding AR to some types of ads to encourage people to try on suggested products. 

Which digital marketing news from June 2021 surprised or interested you the most?

Make sure to also read: 

• How can Marketing Automation Help you Sell More
• Hyper-Personalization: What is it and How it Differs from Personalization
• 6 Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies for B2B

April was an eventful month for digital marketing. As always Google launched a number of interesting features for Search, Maps and Web Stories while social media platforms continue to keep us on our toes with new updates to compete with ClubHouse app.

We’ve summed up the most important:

Digital Marketing News, Insights and Updates from April 2021

1. Search Marketing News

• Microsoft rolls out new price comparison beta

Microsoft has announced a number of new features for Microsoft Advertising. One of the most interesting ones is the price comparison that allows sites that use Microsoft shopping features to be eligible to show in the flyout panel that delivers discount codes. 

The price comparison will appear within the toolbar of the panel when users browse and save a product on Edge or Collection. They would have to click on it to view the price comparison results. 

This new feature by Microsoft is so interesting for retailers because they can offer relevant information to their target audience while they browse other retailers’ sites and with no extra effort from their part. The listing will grab the information from existing catalogs from Microsoft Merchant Center which means no additional work is required from businesses that already have created shopping campaigns. 

The cherry on top is that, since this new feature is in beta testing, Microsoft won’t charge advertisers for the clicks they obtain through price comparison! Right now it’s only available on desktops in the US on Edge browser. 

• Google adds 3 new travel-oriented features to search results

Google is very well-known from listening and adapting to users’ needs. That’s why due to a recent increase in travel related queries, they have announced to add 3 new features to search results in the intent of helping people plan their next vacation during pandemic times. Google stated: 

As vaccines become more available, many people are eager to start planning vacations again. We’re seeing more searches for travel-related destination information — like travel restrictions by country and where to travel, which both recently hit all-time highs. 

When looking for travel information like hotels, flights or things to do, Search will show results regarding Covid-19 related advisories on destination. Additionally, they’re adding more detailed information regarding if you need to comply with quarantine requirements or show test results proof.

If users are logged in their Google accounts, they can choose to receive email notifications about restrictions updates from their selected destination by toggling “Receive an email if this guidance changes.”. These updates are country specific and will include information regarding any change on lifted or reduced restrictions. 

• Google lets users talk directly to them to fix indexing issues

As we said earlier about Google: they always have users in mind. That’s why they created a new feature that allows webmasters to communicate with them to solve indexing issues they can’t figure out by themselves.

Webmasters can now get directly in touch with Google’s search team to report any indexing problem they can’t find an answer to in the “community forums and support documentation.” The new feature is accessible in the footer of the URL inspection help document and indexing coverage report document,  as a pilot only in the US.

Webmasters that want to access the reporting issue form need to have a verified Search Console account. Once there, they’ll need to answer a series of questions that try to help the user fix the issue by himself step by step before submitting to Google.

This solution is aimed to help SEOs fix indexing issues that aren’t related to quality or technical issues within the website, but rather with Google Search. 

2. Marketing Tech Updates

• WordPress plugin for Google Web Stories Updated

Even though there’s still some debate on whether web stories are worthy of our time and effort or not, new features keep coming and Google has updated their official Google Web Stories WordPress plugin with a feature that allows to embed content on webpages.

The plugin had many options available for content creators, but the ability to embed web stories was still missing until now. The new feature allows to do this very easily and also offers the possibility to embed web stories from other sites.

The process is very simple:

• Insert a Web Stories block

• Select the type of Web Stories you want to to embed:
  • Latest Stories: display the most recent stories. The list will update automatically as new stories are published.
  • Selected Stories: display a list of handpicked stories.
  • Single Story: embed one single story by URL.

• Choose if you want to to display the Web Stories as a carousel, a grid, or a list.

• WordPress wants to block Google FLoC

Google’s FLoC (Federal Learning of Cohorts) solution for a cookieless internet has been raising some eyebrows. Even though Google has stated that this new tracking system is safe and much less privacy-invasive than 3rd party cookies, some don’t agree. 

Recently WordPress made their opinion very clear and proposed to block Google’s FLoC by default on all websites created with the platform. WordPress considers Google’s alternative for third party cookies a security concern:

Why is this bad? As the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains in their post “Google’s FLoC is a terrible idea“, placing people in groups based on their browsing habits is likely to facilitate employment, housing and other types of discrimination, as well as predatory targeting of unsophisticated consumers.

This is in addition to the privacy concerns of tracking people and sharing their data, seemingly without informed consent – and making it more difficult for legislators and regulators to protect people.

This is a proposal from a WordPress developer and website admins who do want to allow FLoC on their site, can override the code. Google said that they appreciate the community taking part on this initial test of their proposal and that they will adjust accordingly to all the comments received. 

• HubSpot acquires media company The Hustle and expands their CRM Platform with the launch of Operations Hub

The giant CRM platform announced they signed an agreement to acquire The Hustle, a media company that produces newsletter, podcast, and premium research content. Their objective is to keep offering their community very valuable and relevant content through a more diverse set of media:

For many customers, their first introduction to HubSpot is through our educational blog, Academy, and YouTube content, not our software (…) By acquiring The Hustle, we’ll be able to better meet the needs of these scaling companies by delivering educational, business, and tech trend content in their preferred formats.

With this move they show they’re listening to their audience and giving them what they want. HubSpot is betting for content marketing as their main strategy to reach out and get in touch with their target: entrepreneurs, startups, and scaling companies.

Keeping up with this in mind, they also announced they are expanding its suite with the launch of Operations Hub. The objective is to make companies’ lives a little easier by automating processes, unifying data and aligning teams’ purposes. 

With Operations Hub, users can unify customer data in a connected CRM platform, automate a host of time-consuming tasks, maintain a clean database with ease, and ultimately, play an active role in shaping their company’s strategy. 

 With the Operations Hub they want to include operations teams to the heart of the platform and help companies have seamless inner interactions. Hubspot believes that companies have to run better on the inside in order to offer a great customer experience, and the way to do so is for team members to work together in a unified CRM.

Operations Hub joins CMS Hub, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub as part of the HubSpot CRM platform.

3. Social Media Marketing Updates

• Facebook and Instagram let business schedule stories

Last September Facebook introduced Facebook Business Suite. It’s an all-in-one platform designed for businesses to manage their social media activity from Instagram, Messenger and Facebook. Since the launch new features are being added constantly.

More recently a new capability was added in which businesses are now able to schedule stories on both Instagram and Facebook. Scheduling posts has always been a desired feature for any social media manager, since it helps plan ahead, save lots of time and maintain community engagement.

By going to “Create Story” on Home, or by navigating to the “Posts & Stories” tab on the Business Suite app on iOS,Android or desktop, businesses can create and schedule stories very easily. 

It doesn’t end here. Facebook also added a feature that allows users to edit scheduled posts. If users wish to, they can access the “Scheduled Posts”section, select the post they wish to edit, choose “Edit Post” , make the changes and save it. In some time, they will also add a feature to Create and Manage Albums and Save Posts in Drafts. 

• Reddit announces Clubhouse competitor Reddit Talk

Clubhouse appearance has shocked the social media world and now almost all platforms are preparing to launch their own version of the audio-only chat rooms wonder. We already talked about Facebook’s option, Twitter Spaces and now it’s Reddit’s turn with Reddit Talk. 

Reddit announced the intention to join the only-audio social media hype with their own version. It seems to be in very early stages of testing periods but the platform has invited moderators to join a waiting list, which indicates that they are moving pretty fast on the subject.

The moderators will be able to start talking immediately and they can invite redditors to participate as listeners. It will be available for both Android and iOS devices unlike Clubhouse which is only available for iOS with many interesting features:

We’re testing ways for hosts to customize the look and feel of Reddit Talk through emojis and background colors. Redditors can change their avatar’s appearance to fit the talk as well. We’re also exploring features to support AMAs and other types of conversations.

Moderators will have complete control over the rooms, being able to invite, remove and mute listeners. Reddit is really focusing on creating a complete experience for each room. 

• Twitter launches test of a new profile type called Professional Profiles

The new Professional Profiles will provide businesses a new way to present themselves on the social media platform:

Professional Profiles are a new tool that will allow businesses, non-profits, publishers, and creators – anyone who uses Twitter for work – to display specific information about their business directly on their profile. We’re starting with a small pool of businesses in the U.S. and will give more accounts access to Professional Profiles in the coming months.

This new layout for professionals shows different information than regular profiles. It includes address and contact information and other elements like products displays, image galleries and business categories are being developed for the future. 

They’re starting to test with only a handful of businesses while taking notes to make the new Professional Profiles exactly what Twitter users expect them to be. 

To sum up!

It seems to be like digital marketing news from April 2021 are all tied together by the common thread of complying with users expectations and improving user experience. Google, HubSpot, Twitter and Facebook updates are all aiming into pleasing people’s needs with features that help them improve their working processes. 

Which new feature or update caught your attention the most? 

Make sure you check out:

• Private Shopping Sites: Web Push Notifications Strategies
• SMS Marketing: 7 Tips for a Winning Strategy
• Marketing Funnel Explained: Optimize your Full Funnel Strategy

Digital marketing news from March 2021 cover updates from Google Search to important social media new features. It’s amazing to witness how, every month, marketing technology changes and takes a step forward into making marketers jobs easier with new features added to existing platforms and new tech being developed.  

As we do it every month, we have gathered the most relevant marketing news and information worth revising for search marketing, tech marketing and social media marketing. you never know which new feature of technology will help you improve your digital marketing strategy. So keep on reading for the:

Digital Marketing News, Insights and Updates from March 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

Google puts to the test displaying a cost estimate for local search queries

Google has announced that the company will be testing a new feature to show cost estimates in local search results. The feature is inspired by an alliance between Google and Homewyse, a site that provides contractors a system to calculate accurate quotes for their clients. They provide cost and pricing estimates for common houseworks, such as maintenance, repairs or remodelings. 

The new costs feature will show an estimate of the price range. Google says “The price information provided should be used as a guide only. The actual cost of service may vary widely based on the provider you choose and the specific details of your job.”

 

The results will show a price range for the service the users search for in the local area near their homes. According to Google, “Knowing the typical prices for a service in your ZIP code can help you estimate the cost of your job before booking it with a Local Services provider.” This feature is limited to the U.S. for the moment.

Google brings Full Coverage news to search results

Another marketing news by Google is that they’re bringing the Full Coverage feature to show on search results. This feature was already available for Google News since 2018, but the company has decided to now add it to Search Results as well with an announcement on their blog last March 8th.  

According to Google, the reasoning behind this decision is that “People are hungry for context that helps them break down and understand (…) complicated stories from multiple perspectives.” This decision has been inspired because of how important and ongoing news and stories, such as Covid-19 or the U.S. elections are “consumed” by people. 

The “Full Coverage” page will show next to the carousel of articles that appear at the top of the Search results page when users introduce a query. If users want to dig a little deeper on any big developing news, they just have to click Full Coverage.

With this launch, we’re introducing new technology that is able to detect long-running news stories that span many days, like the Super Bowl, to many weeks or months like the COVID-19 pandemic. We then organize the Full Coverage page to help people easily find top news along with additional content like explainers and local coverage that are helpful to understanding these complex stories.

Right now the Full Coverage feature is only available for mobile devices in English and limited to U.S. users. Google says they intend to roll it out to more countries and languages in the upcoming months. 

Microsoft Bing updates search results interface

There are several updates coming up for Microsoft Bing interface. Recipe results, carousels, infographics and local answers are getting a revamp with the purpose of making the search experience more “visually immersive” for users. 

• Infographic-like search panel experience: one of the first changes is a new, knowledge panel design. The objective was to make it more visually appealing and “provide both style and substance”. 

 

• Local answers with more information: when users search for anything on local answer, they’ll get more information. Microsoft Bing added more than just a single images carousel, they added more to Bing Maps, top images and reviews.

 

• Expandable search carousels: they also added a feature with expandable carousels that show high-level information results in order to avoid a crowded results page. A user can hover an specific result and it will expand showcasing more detailed information.

• Similar looking items feature: when users make a search on Microsoft Bing Image Search, they can now click on it and use the “similar looking items” feature to highlight a portion of said image and get more results of images similar to that specific portion and can even directly go to a retailer’s site to purchase an item if that the case. 

• Recipes result with more information: when looking for a recipe, users will get a list and have the option to expand them to see more. The information can go from nutritional information to, users reviews and ingredients list and possible substitutions. 

2. Marketing Tech Updates

Google Chrome can now caption audio and video

Google rolled out the Live Caption Feature for Chrome. This allows users to automatically generate real-time captions for media on their browsers. The feature works for social media, podcasts, radio, personal video libraries, embedded video players and most web-based video and chat services. 

Captions make online content more accessible. If you’re in a noisy environment, trying to keep the volume down, or are part of the 466 million people in the world who are deaf or hard of hearing, having captions lets you follow along to whatever content you are watching — whether it’s viral feta pasta videos, breaking news or a scientist discussing their latest research. – Google Blog

One of the most interesting features of the new Live Caption, is that the captions are generated on real-time. This means that they appear as content plays and they work offline as well. 

To turn on the Live Caption Feature, users just need to go to Chrome Settings, click on Advanced and then go to Accessibility. The captions currently only support English and are available worldwide on the latest update of Chrome on Windows, Mac and Linux. 

Google My Business report shows how people found your business

If there’s an important piece of information for every business, is definitely how people found them. Google’s aware of this and has rolled out an update for Google My Business that shows how users got to you. 

The new performance report insights upgrade shows a section of people who viewed your business and how they found it, whether through desktop, mobile or either Search Results or Google Maps.

Businesses can access these new reports by logging to their My Business accounts and selecting the Insights tab. From there, go to the top of the page to access the new performance reports and scroll down to the section that shows “how people discovered you”. 

The reports breakdown the information by device and type of search. This feature has been available as a beta since late January and Google pointed out a few details:

• The metric represents the number of unique users so it might be lower than the number of views found on Google My Business and in email notifications. 
• The metric focuses on views of the Business Profile, not overall views of the Business in Google. 

Hootsuite adds new “best time to publish” feature

The social media management web platform has rolled out a new feature that shows you the best time to publish on your different social media channels. These suggestions are completely personalised based on your own publishing history of the last 30 days. 

The new feature aims into helping content creators “build awareness, boost engagement and drive traffic”. Knowing when to post is so important to reach as many people as possible on social media, and this feature has the objective of helping with that. 

This month, Hoostsuite also included an update that allows you to add Magento into your dashboard. This will allow you to:

• Add streams of your products to Hootsuite
• Share to multiple networks, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
• Schedule when posts are sent
• Respond to users on Twitter with product information
• Use templates for frequently used posts/replies

3. Social Media Marketing Updates

Instagram is testing new auto-caption feature in stories

Instagram is testing a new auto-caption feature for stories. It’s called “Closed Captions” and shown in the stickers tab. A social media consultant shared a video showcasing how it works and it seems the captions are really accurate.

After recording a video with voice, you just have to open the stickers tab and select the Caption one and the app will automatically generate a transcription. There are different options for styling the captions, very similar to the ones available for the transcription of lyrics from the music sticker. 

The feature is just under test by Instagram and not available to the public yet. However, we can expect it to be launched very soon. 

Twitter is testing new e-commerce features

Twitter is testing a new feature that links to e-commerce product pages. It displays the tweet with a different card format design that includes a big “Shop” button and showcases details about the product directly into the tweet.

The information displayed on these new tweets format for e-commerce show:

• Product name
• Shop name
• Product price
• Shop button

Twitter confirmed that these new e-commerce tweets are an example of a new “organic” type of tweet. The social media platform is aiming into helping content creators monetize their work with many new features. Joining forces with newsletter platform Revue a few months ago and a new Super Follow feature that will allow creators to charge followers for “exclusive content” , are definitely aiming in that direction. 

Facebook looking to launch audio-only rooms

All the world has been on a hype since the popularisation of the new audio-only social media Clubhouse. Other social media platforms don’t want to be left behind and Facebook has started working on its own version of audio-only chat rooms. 

In May last year, Facebook rolled out a feature called Rooms that allowed users to create private video chats others can join. So, creating a new one that’s audio-based only wouldn’t be a major work or effort for Facebook.

The new feature will allow users to create public or private audio group rooms. It’s basically the same thing as Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. Maybe this would suppose a threat to Clubhouse since the app still works just for iOS and it’s based on invites only. 

We can expect Facebook to roll out the new feature very soon, since the amount of work behind it is basically ready. 

Summary

This is it for the most important digital marketing news from November covering everything from search marketing, tech marketing and social media marketing. Which news caught your attention more?

Bonus Material

We’ve recently created the Digital Marketing & E-commerce Experts group on Linkedin for all of you marketing professionals and enthusiasts. Here you’ll find all sorts of content related to digital marketing and e-commerce, you can share your own experiences, questions and just rub shoulders with other marketers on a daily basis.

Since you’re already here, you might want to check out:

• Cart Abandonment Recovery Strategies for E-commerce – Recover Lost Sales
• How to Orchestrate your Marketing Strategy on Multi-Channel?
• Troubleshooting Web Push Notifications: Why I’m I not Getting Notifications