COMING AT YOU THE WEEK OF 8.23.22
This week’s most important Marketing News
GOOGLE’S HELPFUL CONTENT UPDATE SHOULD LAUNCH THIS WEEK
This update is likely to bring significant changes to search results and shake up rankings. Google tweeted that this is “part of a broad effort to show more unique, authentic info in results.”
Google’s overwhelming message about this update is: you must create content for people by people. The warning is: if you focus on pleasing the search engine and not on meeting your audience’s needs, you will fail.
We don’t get amazing transparency around how updates determine if the content is useful (aka meets user needs). But to be successful they encourage:
- Identifying an audience for your site and content
- Including first-hand expertise and depth of knowledge in content
- Avoiding a lot of automation to write content on a bunch of different topics
This is not just a page signal, it’s a site signal. So if enough of your content is deemed unhelpful by Google, your site can be classified as such. According to Google Search Central, that means, “Any content — not just unhelpful content — on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that’s better to display.”
With the emphasis I’m hearing on originality, authenticity, and unique value around this update, I see this moment encouraging us to go from satisfactory content to above-and-beyond content. If someone can find all your page’s information from another source, then how is your content uniquely helpful? It’s a tough ask for all your content to out-do the rest of the world’s every time. And I don’t think that has to be the case. But if you don’t have enough content with true originality and unique value, then your site will be classified as “unhelpful” by this new signal. And then you’re in trouble.
IN A WORLD OF NEW USER PRIVACY PRACTICES, META GIVES US THIS DECK OF AD TIPS
Many wonder how to keep their Meta ads high-functioning as user privacy regulations become more sophisticated and access to user data becomes more limited. I was pleasantly surprised at the deck’s value.
TIKTOK HAS THREE NEW SHOPPING AD FEATURES
A month ago, it was reported that their test of shopping ads in the UK failed and wouldn’t be perused anymore. And yet…here we are with shopping ads announced. We’ve got Video Shopping Ads, Catalog Listing Ads, and Live Shopping Ads (in some countries) to try out now.
According to Google, “Video buyers often use Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings as the system of record to understand how many unique viewers they reached within their core audiences and prove campaign impact across digital media platforms.”
So, Google is launching Nielsen audience guarantees in Display and Video 360 to bring more ease to campaign planning and measuring.
They also said, “When setting up your guaranteed deal, you can now choose a specific age and gender demographic, like adults ages 18 to 49, and pay only for the ad impressions that reach your target audience as measured by Nielsen DAR.”
WATCH OUT FOR A GOOGLE PRODUCT REVIEW UPDATE
We’ve been promised an update on product reviews this month and there’s not much longer left in August. So constant vigilance!
YOU CAN NOW CREATE AND SCHEDULE FACEBOOK REELS ON DESKTOP
It’s the little things.
USEFUL LINKS
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7 Cognitive Biases That Make Us Suck at Time Management
Apparently people are irrational. Luckily, we are predictably irrational, according to Dan Ariely. And this article 👆 explains some of our predictable irrationality around time management with tips on improving it.
6 Things I Love About Zapier’s SEO Strategy: A Case Study
This is a nice Ahrefs read to give you some thoughts on what makes good SEO.
Here’s a deck with a nice web3 overview
This seems like the kind of deck I might have in my back pocket to share with people who want a web3 basics rundown. But it’s also got 12 examples of companies’ web3 strategies.
The HUMAN Touch
It’s not what you know or who you know, it’s how you make people feel! Ana Bolerjack, a Marketing Manager at Divvy, has discovered that human touch and purpose can get to the heart faster than facts and figures can wind through the brain.
It’s all about the human touch
Ana believes that too much of our narrative is focused on data and facts, and there needs to be more storytelling. Ana helps create “Case Studies” by bringing her customers together and asking them to tell their stories and explain how Divvy is part of that story. As they tell their success stories, they indirectly sell Divvy as a company. Case studies require much more qualitative information than quantitative facts. Ana prefers to focus on the human side and not let her readers get lost in the minutia but get carried along by the story. Ana said, “I try to focus on the human side of the story to get to know them, and that usually makes them feel comfortable in my interview process.” When she focuses on making real conversation, her case studies have the human element that resonates with the reader. It makes the company feel authentic and stand out against other companies instead of spewing quantitative data everywhere.
Find purpose in what you do
Readers must find the human touch in the stories Ana creates, and for this to happen her customers must have passion and purpose in their work. Purpose in life and work makes the stories powerful and meaningful. For example, Ana is into film, and because of this, she decided to create Divvy’s case studies via video instead of writing them. She flew out to Oklahoma City with a production crew to film the case study of a customer who utilized Divvy for his trucking company. His family had owned the company since the mid-70s. Ana said, “He got teary-eyed. He got emotional because he was proud of his work. He’s so proud of his family that helps run it.” Everyone was excited about the project, which created a safe space for everyone to embrace each other. Ana’s passion for film, and the owner’s passion for his work, allowed them to capture this experience in a way other methods couldn’t. Finding satisfaction in what we do allows us to “never work a day of our lives” and will enable us to tell a great story.
Lean into the uncomfortable
Ana’s advice to new marketers is to say yes to every opportunity that arises. If you are in a great company, employers don’t expect you to excel in every project you take on, which gives you room to grow. Ana got to where she is by trying new things and taking on projects outside her comfort zone. Ana said, “The beautiful thing about marketing is you can wear many different hats. Put yourself in those conversations and learn to wear many different hats. Because in the future, if someone you know is looking for help or needs someone to work on a special project, you’ll be the first person they think of.” Always remember to have boundaries but speak up for a project if you want to be a part of it.
INTERESTING STUFF
📺 Streaming Viewership Has Surpassed Cable TV Tune-In For The First Time, Per Nielsen – Deadline
🤫 What is ‘quiet quitting,’ and how it may be a misnomer for setting boundaries at work
🚙 DoorDash partners with Meta to test delivery of Facebook Marketplace items
🖥 An interactive walk down Google’s memory lane