Happy summer, everyone! July is finally here and (and least us) couldn’t be happier. Summertime is usually a slow work season, but that hasn’t stopped the digital marketing world and there is a lot to cover this month. 

We have summed up the most important:

Digital Marketing News, Insights and Updates from July 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

• Google Launches Free Deals Listings in Search Results

As we always do, let’s begin with some updates from Google. This month Google is rolling out a new feature that gives online retailers in the US more ways to reach customers who are seeking discounts and special offers.

 

Google reported a 50% increase in searches for “discount codes” since the previous year. This means that customers are looking even more for ways to save money and shop at discounted prices. 

In response, Google is launching new features that allow e-commerce sites a new way to list deals in search results: 

• Competitive prices are highlighted in the shopping tab of search results
• Google Search will showcase the most important offers for sales such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday (in October)
• Google will showcase offers based on information regarding the discount, product popularity, site’s popularity and other factors. 
• An upcoming update will make it possible for deals to show on the main results page whether retailers pay or not for advertising. 
• Retailers are now able to customize their offers and indicate specifics, suchs as if a deal is only available for certain customers. 
• Sellers reports are updated with “Historical Best Seller Data” and “Relative Product Demand”

• Google Share 5 Insights Into Appearing in Google News

As you know, Google is always on top of users and site owner’s need to help them have the best online experience possible. So, this time Google is answering the most common questions and doubts about how news are shown in News and Search, giving valuable insights to help site owners have a better understanding on the subject. 

The 5 most common questions are: 

a) Where does news appear on Google

Google says that news content can appear on Google News, Google Search, Google Assistant, YouTube and Discover. Google News includes two ways information can be displayed: the “For You” feed that contains specific stories based on user interests, and “Headlines” which show stories for all users from a particular region.

There is also Google Search that includes the “Top Stories” carousel highlighting relevant news on timely topics, and the “News” tab that narrows the results to focus on specific queries. 

b) How do I know if my site is eligible to appear in Google News?

Google states that all sites are automatically eligible for Google news in Search without any application requirement. They emphasize that the important thing is for sites to produce relevant content with high levels of expertise, authority and trustworthiness, with a history of producing original news and that complies with Google’s News Policies. 

c) How can I check if my site is appearing?

The best way to know if your site is appearing, is to look at the performance reports on Search Console by filtering for Google News and Google Search. These insights will indicate if your site is getting traffic from boths sources. 

d) Can I do something to improve my visibility?

The ranking of sites is automatically determined by different factors such as relevance of the content, freshness, location and language. Publishers can access the Publisher Center to define certain aspects about their site that can help Google to Index it. 

However, eligibility is always determined by an automated process, which means that being approved and submitting content does not directly mean that it will appear in Search Results, Google News or News surfaces. 

e) If I follow everything Google says, why am I still not appearing?

According to Google one of the keys is to constantly produce relevant, original content that can be automatically detected by their systems and become more eligible if the site has risen to meet their criteria. 

• Google Launches Free Tools for Travel Marketers

We have mentioned in previous articles that global searches related to travel information, like “where to travel”, “can I travel” and “covid travel restrictions” are at a peak for some time now. 

Travel Insights with Google is being launched in the US as an effort to answer the travel industry needs and help businesses with free tools they can use to improve their marketing efforts and overall service. It includes:

• Destination Insights: provides information regarding the top demands per destination. It allows travel marketers to view demand data related to specific countries on specific dates.

• Hotel Insights: analyzes search trends that identifies where users are coming from and allows marketers to create stronger digital presences segmented to fit said information. 

• Focusing Facts: this information is nested within the Destination Insights and displays data related to queries suchs as “fastest growing destinations globally” gathering previous 84 days of data. 

• Demand Sizing: also a part of Destination Insights. It allows filters to compare interests amongst various countries. 

2. Marketing Tech News

• Vimeo partners with TikTok

The video software company has joined as a TikTok Marketing Partner. The social media platform users can now access Vimeo’s suite of video creation tools and still benefit from its broad user base. 

Both companies ran tests previous to the release of the partnership and saw that participants were able to highly increase the number of videos they create and reach a 50% higher click through rate of their campaigns. 

The main objective of this partnership is to help small and medium businesses create more content with better tools. Melissa Yang, head of ecosystem partnerships at TikTok said:

 “As small businesses recover and rebuild after a challenging year, TikTok is working on ways to make it easier to reach their community and grow their business. Our partnership with Vimeo provides small businesses with simple, effective video tools that rival what the biggest brands in the world have access to — and they drive real results.”

Vimeo and TikTok also invited some small businesses to try out a new AI-driven video production tool called Vimeo Create. A tool designed to advertise on TikTok and help brands produce creative content that adjusts to the platform without needing to rely on a production studio. 

Brands have reported great results and say they plan to keep running additional campaigns on TikTok. 

• Hubspot Reports an Increase on Marketing Automation  Techniques

Marketing automation keeps gaining ground as chatbot usage has more than doubled in the UK as a valid option to engage with customers since 2020. Hubspot has reported so on their Not Another State of Marketing Report 2021. 

One of the main reasons marketers are betting more and more for automated solutions, are the market shifts provoqued by the Covid-19 pandemic and the need to offer customers the most tailored virtual experience possible. 

“The different types of automation, across various industries, can provide marketers with a range of skills to improve their return figures and therefore a number of AI tools must be used, as opposed to one.” – Scott Brinker. VP of platform at HubSpot

The same way, live video is also becoming more popular with an increase of 40% marketing tactics using it in 2021, compared to 17% last year. Pandemic and consequential lockdowns have forced a shift on content production to be designed for virtual audiences, along with an increase on the time consumers are spending watching videos.

These changes are forcing marketers to adapt and shift the way they create content and how they engage and communicate with their audiences. Implementing automation strategies provide solutions to adjust marketing techniques to the times we are facing and to what customers are expecting from brands. 

• Google partners with GoDaddy

Google has announced a new partnership with GoDaddy with the purpose of helping e-commerce sites gain more online visibility. Google wants to help businesses get discovered easier and to connect better with shoppers by making e-commerce more open online.

With the new partnership, GoDaddy online stores are able to integrate their product inventory across Google with no additional costs. GoDaddy sites can now be discovered through Search, Shopping, Image Search and YouTube. 

Merchants can upload products directly to Google, create listings and ads all within the GoDaddy’s Online Store. By partnering with e-commerce platforms, Google aims to help more businesses to engage with shoppers that want to discover new products and brands online. 

3. Social Media Updates

• TikTok Launches 8 new Features for Livestreams

TikTok users who livestream have doubled during the past year. Taking note of this, the platform is rolling out eight new features to improve live streaming experience for both broadcasters and viewers:

• Schedule: users can now schedule, manage and promote livestreams in advance. 

• Picture-in-picture: this new feature allows users to pinn the livestream to a corner of their screen while they freely navigate. 

• Go live with a friend: a new feature called “Live Together” allows two users to broadcast live on the same stream. 

• Live Q&A: this feature allows creators to engage with their audience by answering questions live in real time.

 

• Top streams: TikTok wants to make it easier for users to find and tune into live streams from the “For You” and “Following” pages. Live sessions will also be discoverable through Chat, Gaming, Talents, Fashion and Daily Life. 

• Moderators: before livestream, users can assign a person to help them moderate the session by going to Settings on the right side of the stream launch screen. Features like muting viewers and removing disrespectful comments will be added in the upcoming weeks.

 

• Keyword filters: streamers can now mute words they choose during live streams by going to settings. They can also turn off or add limits to the comments. 

• Harmful comments alert: before posting a comment that TikTok detects as disrespectful, users will be prompted to reconsider their language and how they will be received by the streamer. 

• Pinterest adds Feature for Users to Make Money With Affiliate Links

Pinterest wants to help content creators to earn money through the platform by making it possible to get commissions with affiliate links. When a user tags a product on a pin idea and another user clicks on the link, the one who posted it will receive a commission. 

The platform has reported that “users are 89% more likely to exhibit shopping intent on products tagged in idea pins than on standalone product pins.” The same way that engagement with idea pins is much higher than standard pins. 

By simply tagging products on their idea pins, Pinterest creators can control the shoppability of their content. This feature will be available to business accounts in the United States and will continue rolling out to other countries in the next few months. 

• Twitter Tests Voting on Tweets

Twitter is constantly adding or trying out new features, and this time they are experimenting with an option that allows users to “down vote” or “up vote” a reply within a Twitter conversation.

The same as other social media platforms offer multiple icons for users to express how they feel about a post or a comment, Twitter has announced they want to try out a voting feature only available for Tweets replies. 

Twitter says that, for the meantime, this is only a feature destined for research, that doesn’t qualify as a dislike button and only the owner of the down vote will be able to see it. Twitter also clarified that this experiment, as they call it, has the intent to inform the platform about the relevancy of the conversations.

This feature will only be available for iOs. 

If you liked this summary of the most important Digital Marketing News, Insights and Updates from July 2021, we got more for you to read!

• 6 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your E-commerce Website
• 7 Tips to Increase Web Push Notifications Click Through Rate
• Hyper-Personalization: What is it and How it Differs from Personalization

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

Time is going by so fast it’s almost impossible to keep up with all digital marketing news and updates for every month. Google always keeps us on our tiptoes with constant updates, changes and new features for all of its products, new marketing tech is being developed every day and social media is a complete universe on its own. 

But don’t despair! As every month, we are to gather and sum up for you the most relevant:

Digital Marketing News, Insights and Updates from May 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

Google previews MUM

The biggest news from Google this month is the preview of MUM. It stands for Multitask Unified Model and this new tech was showcased mid May by Google’s Prabhakar Raghavan at Google I/O. 

Since 2019 Google’s search algorithm to understand queries has been powered by BERT, an extension of Natural Language Processing. This algorithm helps searches deliver accurate results by asking questions more similar to the way we talk naturally, instead of trying to think what type of keyword or phrase will actually give us the answer we’re looking for. 

Google has now announced the preview of MUM: a new tech 1,000 times more powerful than BERT. The biggest and most important difference is that MUM can multitask to help deliver more information: it’s trained in 75 languages and it’s multimodal, meaning it can understand information across text and images. 

According to Google, they have discovered that it takes an average of eight searches for users to get the information they want and complete a complex task. With the development of MUM they aim to solve this issue and help users get things done with fewer searches. Google says:

Imagine a question like: “I’ve hiked Mt. Adams and now want to hike Mt. Fuji next fall, what should I do differently to prepare?” This would stump search engines today, but in the future, MUM could understand this complex task and generate a response, pointing to highly relevant results to dive deeper. 

Google’s mission has always been to make information more accessible to everyone. They have already started running internal pilots with MUM and says to be very excited about how this new search technology can improve Google products and user experience. 

Google’s launching new features for smart bidding

Google is rolling out new features for Smart Bidding to make marketers life much easier, better manage their bidding strategies and improve campaign performance. 

• Top signals for Target ROAS and Maximize conversion: Top signals highlight some of the dimensions in which the bid strategy is automatically optimizing the bids depending on likelihood of users converting (device type, location, day of week, time of day, keywords). They currently report for campaigns that use Target CPA and Maximize conversions, with the launch of the new features, they’ll be available for search campaigns using Target ROAS and Maximize conversion value.

• Seasonality adjustments at manager account level: Smart Bidding takes into account seasonality to improve the performance of the campaigns. However, for specific times such as big sales or product launches, the adjustments had to be made manually for each individual account. With new features Google makes it possible to set them at the manager account level. 

• Maximize conversions with recommendations: Google will be showing new opportunities to opt into maximize conversions on the Recommendations Page: “These recommendations will show for eligible Search campaigns and can help you get more conversion value within your budget.”

• Target Impression Share simulators to predict performance: up until now Simulators to help understand how target bid and budget changes could affect campaign performance, were only available for conversion and click-based bid strategies. With the roll-out of new features they are expanding to Search campaigns using Target Impression Share.

New ad formats for local campaigns on Google

At its annual Google Marketing Livestream, they announced the launch of new formats for local ads campaigns: 

• Auto suggest ads: one of the new formats is called Auto Suggest Ads, which show ads based on the user’s location. When a user searches for a product or service in Google Maps, the auto suggest will show an ad of a nearby advertiser.

• Navigational ads: these new types of ads will be shown on the user’s screen when using Google Maps driving directions. So when a user is driving towards a destination, an ad of a nearby local business will appear on the screen and the user will have the option to add the destination to the route.

• Similar destination ads: another new ad format is Similar Destination Ads. They will show when a user searches for a local business and it’s closed at the time of the search. Google will then show a similar business with the tag “Similar and Open”. 

All new three ad formats will be available for local ad campaigns globally in the second quarter of this year.

2. Marketing Tech Updates

Microsoft Advertising announces Unified Smart

Acknowledging the importance of having a strong online presence for any business and how challenging it can be to manage it successfully, Microsoft has launched Unified Smart campaigns: a unified solution to manage social media presence and search advertising. 

With Unified Smart campaigns platform you can:

• Run ads: this new solution allows you to run ads on both search engines with Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads, as well as social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. 

• Manage social media: Unified Smart allows to publish, like and reply comments on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

 

• Reporting: additionally to being able to manage campaigns across channels in one single place, publishers can also see reports of search and social media in one place.

• Automate and optimize with AI: you can create ads, let them run for a while and then watch how AI creates additional ones for you, optimizing your campaign results. The same way you budget will be distributed by AI across channels to help you get the best ROI. 

The most interesting thing about the new Microsoft solution is that it is free to use. There are no charges, service fees or commissions. You only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad. That’s what makes Unified Smart campaigns so interesting for new and small businesses that wish to handle their campaigns all in one platform. 

Google expands its shopping integrations

Google is always considering its users needs and is now rolling out shopping integrations with WooCommerce, GoDaddy and Square. During the Google I/O they announced that they want to help retailers and consumers connect and build lasting relationships, hence the new integrations.

This open ecosystem approach means that retailers will have even more ways to get discovered across Google, and shoppers will have even more choice.

Retailers that use any of these e-commerce platforms will now be able to show their products for free across Google. A few days earlier Google announced the Shopify integration and has now revealed the expansion to the other platforms.

The aim is to help people discover new and easier ways to shop, and to offer retailers more options to connect with their customers. Google says that “As this generational shift to e-commerce accelerates, having a digital presence is just the minimum — it’s now imperative for you as a retailer to stand out and speak directly to your customers.“

Zoom announces all-in-one events platform

The popular video conferencing platform Zoom has announced the launch of Zoom Events, an all-in-one solution for digital events. It is scheduled to be launched this summer and it will combine features from Zoom meetings, chat, and webinars.

One of the interesting features is that you will be able to produce ticketed, live events for audiences of all sizes. All the process of organizing, managing and billing the event can be done in the platform, as well as keeping track of registration and attendance. 

The possibilities Zoom Events present are endless. You can host internal and external events for companies and businesses of all sizes. Conferences, classes, product launches and pretty much anything that has a space in the virtual world. 

This initiative finds its roots thanks to the on-going growth of virtual meetings during Covid-19 pandemic times. Zoom understands that digital events have found their way into our daily lives and it’s trying to make it as easy as possible for big and small businesses to adapt to this new reality and offer customers the best experiences they can. 

 3. Social Media Marketing Updates

Snapchat launches Public Profiles for Businesses

Snapchat had already launched Public Profiles for Creators, Shows, and Snapchatters and has now opened the doors for Business with Public Profiles: “Public Profiles for Businesses has launched on Snapchat, giving brands of all sizes a free, permanent home for all of their unique Snapchat content.”

Public Profiles for businesses offer brands the opportunity to house all of their unique content in one discoverable place. Some of the most important features include:

• Native store: you can link your Shopify ecommerce store to your Snapchat profile so users can browse products and even buy through the “Shop” feature. 

• Highlights: you can permanently showcase some of your content on your profile so that new users that visit for the first time get to know your business. 

• AR lenses: you can now publish lenses to your Public Profile so that snapchatters can discover them and engage continuously with them. 

• Public stories: so you can share any type of content of what’s happening behind the scenes of your business. 

With this new feature Snapchat is looking to catch up with businesses’ needs on social media nowadays by offering tools that allow them to engage and connect with their audience. 

New messaging features for Facebook and Instagram

New features are coming to Facebook and Instagram DMs to give users the opportunity to express themselves better with additions that go from new themes to the ability to reply to messages with photos or videos.

Facebook messenger new features

• Chat archives: users can now clear their inbox without deleting chats for good. With a swift “swipe to archive” option it’s possible to keep everything tidy and then access inactive chats in the future if need be. 

• Tap to record: for all those audio-lovers out  it’s now possible to record voice notes hands-free. With just one tap is sufficient to begin recording, and one tap to finish. This feature will be available also for Instagram in the future.

• New themes: new themes to customize chat screens are now available for both Messenger and Instagram DMs.

Instagram DMs new features

• Visual replies: Instagram has made it possible for users to answer direct messages with a photo or video they can take in the moment or choose from their camera roll. At the moment this feature is only available for iOS.

• Inbox seen states: users can now see from their inbox when someone has already read their message. This was only possible before when opening the chat. 

Twitter acquires Scroll

Scroll is a subscription based service that removes ads from new sites. From some time now Twitter has been focusing on offering content creators means to grow and monetize their content on the social media platform. 

With this in mind, most recently they acquired Scroll, a platform that removes ads from new websites for a monthly fee. The service will be integrated with Twitter into a subscription service they plan to launch in the future. 

Twitter’s VP of Product said, “As a Twitter subscriber, picture getting access to premium features where you can easily read articles from your favorite news outlet or a writer’s newsletter from Revue, with a portion of your subscription going to the publishers and writers creating the content.”

It seems that Twitter aims by this new acquisition is to offer users a subscription model to access an ad-free timeline by sharing revenue with content creators. 

Digital marketing news from May 2021

There was a lot to note and learn from the digital marketing world during the month of May. It was eventful and filled with very interesting updates to keep an eye out. 

What did you find most interesting?

If you wish to read something else, check out:

• Real Estate Marketing: Boost your Business with Web Push Notifications
• How to choose the right Web Push Notification Service
• Are Cart Abandonment Emails GDPR Compliant?

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

February is a very short month. With only 28 days, there seems not to be enough time for things to change in the digital marketing world. However, there are some remarkable events to take note of and we have gathered the most important digital marketing insights and updates from February 2021 just for you. 

Digital Marketing Insights and Updates from February 2021

1. Search Marketing Updates

Responsive search ads now the default in Google ads

Responsive search ads are ads adaptable to show more text and relevant information to customers. When creating one, you can enter multiple descriptions and headlines that Google will automatically test with different combinations and, in time, learn which ones perform better. The goal is to discover what type of messages adapts better to customer’s searches and ultimately improve the performance of your paid search ad campaigns. 

Google recommends to have at least one responsive search ad per ad group. Very recently, they announced that they’re making responsive search ads now the default in Google ads, based on how promising result are:

Using machine learning, responsive search ads automatically identify the best combination of headlines and descriptions to deliver the right ad to the right person. In fact, we’ve seen advertisers that add responsive search ads in their ad groups achieve up to 10% more clicks and conversions. – Sylvanus Bent, Product Manager, Google Ads

Google claims that Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way consumers conduct online searches, thus accelerating the need to change how those results are presented to them. According to Google responsive search ads (RSAs) are the answer to that need and they can offer much better results for businesses.

They have shared a list of best practices to optimise RSAs as much as possible:

• Use Ad strength when writing headlines and descriptions to understand the effectiveness of your ads. 
• Take advantage of location insertion and countdown customizers to show ads that are relevant and meaningful.
• Use Smart Bidding and broad match keywords.
• Review cross-campaign asset reporting to understand which creative assets resonate most with your customers.

New association functionality added to Search Console

Google also announced they’ve added a new association functionality to Search Console that will allow to connect a Search Console property with another Google property such as Analytics, a Youtube channel or a Google Chrome Web Store. 

This new feature allows sites to access and unlock other functions:

• Google Analytics: View your Search Console data, such as organic search queries, in your Google Analytics property. 
• Google Ads account: View the paid and organic report in Google Ads.
• YouTube channel: Link your videos to your associated website.
• Play Console app: Use App Indexing.
• Actions Console project: Verify your brand and enable cross-platform functionality.
• Chrome Web Store account: Publish apps and extensions to the Chrome Web Store on behalf of your site.

The association features depend on the association type and you can access them through the Association Page via the settings menu in your Search Console account. 

2. Marketing Tech Updates 

Microsoft announced limited access to neural text speech AI

The Microsoft Custom Neural Voice text-to-speech AI allows developers to create custom synthetic voices. The recently announced limited access to this technology.

The Custom Neural Voice is a Text-to-Speech (TTS) feature of Speech in Azure Cognitive Services that allows users to create a one-of-a-kind customized synthetic voice for their brand.  – Azure Microsoft

The neural speech AI has many possible applications for different brands and industries that can benefit both customers and businesses. Chatbots, voice assistants, audio books, online learning and translations can take advantage of this technology and improve customer experience by customising their synthetic voices. 

The technology consists of three main components that improve results: text analyser, neural acoustic model, and neural vocoder. These three elements work together to reduce by 50% pronunciation errors and optimise workflow. 

Interested brands must apply and be approved by Microsoft to access it. “Alternatively, developers can add text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities to their apps quickly by creating an Azure Speech instance and selecting from a rich choice of over 200 voices” stated de Microsoft announcement.

Magento released Magento Commerce 2.4.2 for Digital E-commerce Growth

Magento recognizes the importance of digital businesses, especially since 2020 and the migration of many stores to a digital environment. That’s why they keep focusing on offering their customers the best service and experience possible. 

Early this month Magento released Magento Commerce 2.4.2 along with security-only patches 2.3.6-p1 and 2.4.1-p1 that focus on enhancing performance and increasing security. 

Magento Commerce 2.4.2 assists merchants in maximizing their opportunities with enhancements to B2B purchase approvals, expanded PWA and GraphQL support, and improvements to the Page Builder and Media Gallery performance and developer experience.  

The update includes improvements to:

• B2B capabilities for purchase approvals
• Image optimisation
• Faster time to market
• In-product guidance
• Several enhancements to platform quality

3. Social Media Updates

Twitter develops “Spaces” a competitor for Clubhouse app

If by now you don’t know what Clubhouse is, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re living under a rock. The popular only-voice based app has been causing a bit of a stir in the social media world. It’s gaining popularity and subscribers by the second and everyone wants to get invited.

No wonder competitors are starting to raise and Twitter has rolled out Spaces. This new feature allows Twitter users to create audio-only chat rooms with up to 10 speakers at a time with no limit on number of participants. To create a Space, the users has to long press the compose icon and tap a new Spaces button that will show on the far left. 

The user that creates the room gets to decide who has permission to speak, choosing from everyone, people you follow or specific individuals. Spaces requires users’ permission to access the microphone and it will activate automatically as soon as the “Start your Space” button is clicked. 

To this moment, this new feature is only available for a small group of iOS users while Twitter gathers feedback from users. They claim that soon, Spaces will be available for more people and for Android devices as well. 

LinkedIn is developing a new freelance marketplace

As an effort to help professionals face the working crisis created by Covid-19 pandemic, LinkedIn is rolling out a new Freelancers Marketplace. The objective is to help professional freelancers and businesses to find each other, connect and work together. 

LinkedIn’s network counts with over 740 million users and the new Freelancers Marketplace will compete with similar websites like Upwork, Freelancer of Fiverr. It will count with a digital wallet through which businesses can pay professionals, facilitating the transactions and offering some type of insurance to all parties. 

The general opinion is that this is a very smart move from LinkedIn as it will revalue the platform for many professionals. Due to the pandemic, this new feature could open the door to professional freelancers to work from home to any part of the world and for businesses to find the perfect candidate for the job anywhere around the globe. 

Instagram to launch multi-participant live stream 

Digital meetings and e-gatherings have never been so popular (and necessary) as they have since last year. The appearance of softwares that allows groups of people to join video chats is on the rise and, so far, Instagram has been a little behind on the run, until now.

Earlier February, Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri, revealed that the popular social media platform was working on a multi-participant live stream feature to be launched at the end of the month. 

“We have been working on live groups – finally. […] We’re releasing the ability to go live with more than one other person, so with up to four other people, in the next couple of weeks, which we’re really excited about.”

Instagram has been working on this feature for a while now. Since last December they rolled out a version in India as an attempt to capitalize on the ban on TikTok. They had very promising results with a rise of 60% of views. 

While there’s still no official date for the new multi-participant live stream release on Instagram, from what we’ve read, it doesn’t seem like we will have to wait much longer. 

If you’re interested in digital marketing trends, tips and updates keep track of our blog: 

• Web Push Notifications: A Complete Guide for all Levels
• How to Conduct Successful A/B Testing: Go from Beginner to Pro
• The Future of Digital Marketing Without 3rd Party Cookies

It’s hard to believe that December is over. Even though 2020 was a very strange and difficult year due to Covid-19 pandemic, time flew by and the end of the year is upon us. As we do it every month, we have kept track of everything that happens in the digital marketing world and we have gathered the most important and relevant marketing updates and events for you. Here you have the:

Digital Marketing Insights from December 2020:

1. Search Marketing Updates December 2020

Google tests interactive search results

As the ever-improvement platform they are, Google has been experimenting with interactive search results pages. The newest tests add a very discrete and small icon next to the search results that, when hovered by users, show images from the respective site. 

This new feature is promising in terms of enriching user experience when browsing online. Offering the opportunity to have a preview of the content, will help users know if that site is actually relevant for them before clicking on it.

Digital marketers have their doubts and concerns about how it will affect click-through rates. The interactive search result feature can have a major impact on sites that offer very descriptive images about their content against those that don’t. 

Even though Google hasn’t offered any official documentation so far, marketers should start thinking about their content strategy and how to adapt to this new feature. Carefully selecting descriptive images that show what the site’s about and help users know what type of content they´ll find there will be key. 

The feature even allows search results to show more than one image when hovering over the small icon. Google’s testing will provide information and insights about how images can offer more relevant and accurate information to users about the content of a page.

Google Maps searches incorporate 4 new features

Google definitely knows how to keep us on our toes every month adding new features to all of their services and platforms (this article might as well be a “Google Updates from December” one). 

Let’s talk about the 4 new changes to Google Maps: 

1. Messaging from Maps and Search

The first and most exciting feature is the new messaging service. Google is bringing messaging capabilities into Maps and Search with the purpose of facilitating communication between local businesses and their customers. 

Every business with a verified profile can now message directly with clients from the Google Maps app. The messages will show in a “messages section” in business the updates tab.

This new feature is only available in-app at the moment, but Google plans on bringing it to desktop as well. The messaging option can be turned on or off in the setting panels of Google Maps and Google My Business apps. 

2. New Performance Insights

Google is also adding new metrics to help local businesses track their performance by measuring the number of customers engaged via Maps and Search. The update includes insights that show queries clients are using to find their business in Maps and Search. 

The information provided will cover:

• Amount of searches that triggered the business listing
• Performance comparison from previous year
• Search terms customers used to find the profile of the business
• Time of each search term triggered the profile

With all this new data added to their performance insights, businesses will be able to know exactly how customers reached them. This is very valuable information that can help them adapt their marketing strategy and make the most out of the use of Google Maps.

4. Community feed

Google is adding a community feature to Google Maps Explore tab. Here, users will find the latest reviews, photos and posts added to Maps by other community members they follow and local experts.

This update gives local businesses more reason to keep their information up to date. With regular posting, they’ll have the chance to show up in people’s feed and engage with customers. 

4. Street View photos added by users

The Street View feature is getting a very exciting update in which users will be able to upload their own photos to the platform using their phones. Using the app, contributors can take and record a series of photos while they move through a street and upload them to Street View.

Google will take care of rotating, connecting and creating the sequence of images. 

2. Marketing Tech Updates December 2020

Whatsapp introduces in-app shopping 

Whatsapp introduced a new shopping cart feature to their platform. Now users have the possibility to buy products from business through direct messages. With a small shopping button, customers can access a store’s catalog directly from their chat screen.

 

Users can browse the entire range of products, select multiple options and place their order as one unique message. Customers can access information about their order details by tapping the “View Cart” button on the chat and keep track of the process. 

This new Whatsapp shopping feature is aimed at helping out small businesses. Making the purchasing experience as seamlessly as possible, for both shoppers and businesses, is a direct bet on supporting small commerce. 

Google launches ads for Web Stories

We’ve talked about Web stories before on our Digital Marketing Updates from November 2020. They’re rapidly becoming a must to include in any digital marketing strategy. They present a conveying format to communicate and engage users. Just until now, publishers didn’t really have means to monetize web stories, other than sold ads or affiliate links.

Google is about to change that by launching a programmatic ads solution for web stories. The new added feature opens the door for content creators, publishers and marketers to easily earn money from their web stories. 

Story ads are available for everyone that uses Ad Manager and AdSense. The ad will show in between Web Story content to optimize user experience:

“The frequency and position of Story ads in the context of your Web Story is dynamically determined to optimize both user experience and monetization potential.” – AMP

3. Social Media Marketing Updates December 2020

Pinterest boards upgraded with 3 new features

The mothership of inspiration is getting 3 new features to help you keep that creativity flowing. Pinterest boards are getting upgraded with new options to help users make a more productive use of their time in the platform. 

1. Notes to self feature

Pinterest has added a new section where users can create private notes for themselves. When saving a new pin, they can add a short comment with reminders about why they saved said pin or any type of information they want.

2. New board toolbar

A new toolbar has been added with the purpose of making a more simpler navigation experience. It’s located at the top of the screen and it shows all the actions that can be taken on a board:

• Exploring related pin ideas
• Organizing existing pins
• To-do lists
• Viewing notes

This new feature will surely be thanked for by Pinterest users that save an average of 150 pins in one board. 

3. Board favorites

Pinterest is adding a function that allows users to mark pins as favorites. Given the number of pins a board can have, this feature might be long overdue. 

Once a user has created a board, they can mark some of those pins with a star making them a favorite. This feature makes it so easy to revisit and find the best pins on each board without having to lose lots of time browsing through hundreds of pins. 

LinkedIn launches Product Pages

LinkedIn announced the rollout of Product Pages: a tab dedicated to showcasing company’s products. The aim here is to “help companies build conversation and community around their products”, according to LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. 

 

They state that 70% of customers do an online research of the products they want before purchasing. Visibility and easy- to-access information is key in the decision making process of customers: your product needs to be within users’ reach. 

The new LinkedIn Product Pages promise to help businesses create awareness around their solutions, generating more valuable leads and contributing to overall company growth. The new feature allows brands to spotlight product endorsements, share testimonials and gather user feedback.

We hope our digital marketing updates from December 2020 shade some light on to what’s new in the industry. Make sure you check out our latest blog posts and Happy New Year!

Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2021

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