September Search Marketing Industry Updates

We are back, summarizing the need-to-know updates and changes in the search engine marketing world. September and October have been all about making marketing easier for SEOs and SEMs. Google has provided access to new, free tools, advancements in cross-device targeting, and new success measures to enhance targeting. Meanwhile Apple and Facebook are also enhancing their search capabilities with new products and features.

Google Launches Free Version of Optimize 360

At SMX East in New York, Google made several announcements around analytics, including a free beta version of Optimize 360, new reporting templates in Data Studio 360, and a new Session Quality Score metric that will help segment consumer data.

Why This Matters to Marketers?

Through the Analytics 360 suite, marketers now have access to a free landing page testing product with Google Optimize 360 and can create integrated reports more easily using Data Studio. Google is also making it easier to segment high-value visitors with the new session quality score, which will predict the likelihood of a visitor making a transaction on your site. Use these new segments to enhance your remarketing efforts.

Google Closing the Loop to Omni-channel

Google has launched a sophisticated place-mapping approach to accurately understand where devices are in real-time. It then maps ad exposures to store visits. Google also announced cross-device re-targeting for the Google Display Network and DoubleClick Bid Manager to reach people across platforms and apps.

Why This Matters to Marketers?

Advancements in cross-device re-targeting and location measurement will change the way brick and mortar marketers measure campaign effectiveness. We can now evaluate success based on the online-to-offline impact.

Apples Rolls out Search Ads for the App Store

In early October Apple opened up Search Ads for the App Store to all publishers and developers. Ads allow for bidding on the iPhone or iPad individually. There’s a keyword suggestion tool, audience targeting features, including customer type (e.g., has not downloaded), gender, age and location. And of course there are analytics.

Why This Matters to Marketers?

If you are a marketer trying to get your app discovered, this is the way to do it. The majority of apps are discovered through App Store search and these Search Ads require little to no ad creation, as Apple will generate the ad images and copy from the app metadata supplied by the publisher or developer.  Apple is offering a $100 credit towards your first campaign.

Facebook Rolling Our new Measurement Tools

Facebook is rolling out new measurement products to help marketers measure the effectiveness of cross-channel campaigns in terms of online and offline return on investment.

Why This Matters to Marketers?

As companies like Facebook and Google continue to provide attribution solutions cross-channel and cross-device, marketers can make smarter decisions on how to allocate media spend.

Penguin Updates Now Operating in Real Time

Google announced a Penguin update is rolling out and that Penguin is now operating in real-time. Moz accounted for a few issues with 1) local SEOs seeing major shifts around September 1-2 and 2) on September 13-14 seeing a massive drop in SERPs with image results.

Why This Matters to Marketers?

With this change, Penguin’s data is refreshed in real-time, therefore spammy sites will be penalized in near real-time and will be able to recover from a penalty much quicker.

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