While Google Ads has built-in bidding algorithms and optimization features, some PPC marketers and advertisers still rely on Googleâs Search Ads 360 (SA360) for managing complex campaigns. This article discusses three key best practices and integrations that can help maximize the value of using SA360:
What is Search Ads 360 (SA360)?Search Ads 360 is a Google-owned search management platform helping agencies and marketers manage large search marketing campaigns across multiple engines and media channels. You can use Search Ads 360 to create, manage and report on search campaigns on:
SA360 is for complex accounts and brands, especially retailers who have product feeds with ongoing inventory updates. Below are best practices to help you get the maximum value from SA360. 1. Leverage data integrations with Google Analytics and BigQueryBidirectional data syncing ensures everything stays consistent. Using Google Analytics conversions to feed bid models establishes a single source of truth across platforms. Feeding the data into BigQuery makes analysis more robust. A few use cases include: Seasonal trend analysis
Cross-channel performance
Lead quality analysis
2. Take advantage of advanced bid optimization featuresValue-based bidding helps advertisers focus not just on one conversion event but also on a variety of events (email sign-up, conversion, finding a location, etc.). Setting up the various values of each event helps the algorithm have a broader set of data and actions to optimize against. In addition, you can create weighting across these various conversion events in SA360 to help create the optimal mix of these events. There is also the ability to set up custom variables through the floodlight tags. These include products, location, loyalty programs and other custom variables, which can be very important to businesses. Variances that are isolated might not seem like they mean a lot, but when stacked up on top of one another, you can see meaningful differences. Take, for example, the profit margin by product. Say you sell a $200 printer and a $200 digital camera. While revenue is $200 in both scenarios, the profit margin of the printer might be 30% and the digital camera only 10%. Therefore, the $200 for the printer is the preferred sale since it drove $60 of profit, while the digital camera only drove $20. Other items that have meaningful businesses could be shipping costs that might vary based on the productâs weight or products that generate subscription revenue vs. one-time purchases. These are the types of sophisticated updates and rules you can help set in SA360 that can really make all the difference. This includes getting sophisticated help for brand-new campaigns, referred to as a âcold start.â Such campaigns try to balance learning mode with not overreaching for a high position and wasteful spend. While it still takes up to two weeks to get enough data out of this mode, this âcold startâ mode does a much better job of getting campaigns started. Google specifically states that it overrides the bid strategyâs primary goal, such as CPA, ERS, ROAS, position and any monthly spend amount set for the bid strategy. However, it does not override minimum/maximum bids or campaign budgets. Dig deeper: How each Google Ads bid strategy influences campaign success 3. Use templates and feed automation to streamline ad creationThere are many businesses beyond just retailers who have a variety of campaigns, products and variations that would save a lot of time and effort by being automated and converted into templates. The below example for an airline helps show how these variations can be used to create dynamic ads for the consumer. When setting these up, you can maximize their use by optimizing the feed. Remember, âgarbage in, garbage out.â You must ensure the foundation is solid to fully utilize these automated features. These templates can be found under the shared library in SA360. The below example shows how the feed should be set up. Leveraging SA360 for advanced PPC campaignsSearch Ads 360 is a potent tool accessible only through a certified third-party seller. Skilled search marketers can leverage its advantages effectively. However, like any tool, it requires expertise for maximum value. Just as you wouldnât buy a high-priced laptop solely for web browsing, you must understand your business deeply to utilize this tool effectively. Custom variables, templates and data integrations are crucial for success, particularly in competitive markets. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/OPk7bIn
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Migrating a website is a complex undertaking, but when it involves transitioning global sites across multiple markets, the challenges are exponentially greater. This article provides a comprehensive guide to maximizing success with global site migrations while protecting organic search traffic. From the initial planning stages to post-launch monitoring, it covers key actions organizations should take to deeply integrate SEO best practices, preserve URL and content value and streamline the process across international markets. Site migrations vs. global site migrationsMigration is any significant domain, content or URL changes that typically happen during a website rebuild, consolidation, domain change or move to a new content management system (CMS). There is enough to go wrong with a single site migration, but it can be disastrous when implemented globally without careful consideration. Often, multinational companies will deploy the new platform in a smaller single market or region to work out the bugs using beta users or allow a small percentage of users to access the website to stress and function test it. Before the migrationYour actions during the initial discovery and planning phases can significantly impact the project. The more you can illuminate and integrate global search requirements into the process during this early phase, the less you will have to fix them later. 1. Consider the breadth and timing of deploymentEarly on, you should size up how big of a deployment this will be. Will you deploy across all markets (common with a CMS “lift and shift” and simple branding), or will this be a major technology update and a complete architecture or content refresh? Many experienced managers will deploy the new platform in a smaller single market or region to work out the bugs using beta users or a small percentage of users on the website to stress and function test it. For a multimarket deployment, timing is very important. Ensure you review the holiday and other seasonal schedules in the impacted markets, as they may differ from the home market. It is never wise to plan a launch close to yearend or during the summer as many employees have vacation or the entire office shuts down for a week or even a month, negatively impacting resource availability. 2. Ensure SEO best practices are integratedExpect eye rolls and visible signs of anxiety from teams when SEO integration is mentioned in migration meetings. Despite their frustration, emphasizing the benefits of integrating search-friendly factors during the design phase is much easier than adapting later on. Instead of just sharing the latest SEO checklist or random articles with the team, provide specific tasks that need your expertise. This includes:
This way, your reviews and insights can be seamlessly integrated into the planning process. We can’t assume developers will make the site fast and mobile-friendly. Even before mockups have been created, work to enforce code, performance and platform adaptability requirements and the requisite QA acceptance testing. Not every market has super-fast internet or uses desktops, so this foundational performance must be required for the website. Remind them that many local markets do not have the resources for reviews and functional tests. Hence, the more that can be integrated natively into the deployment, the more it can cascade easily into all markets. Dig deeper: International SEO: How to avoid common translation and localization pitfalls 3. Identify content edits or new functionalityThis is the best time to make sure your wish list for new or modified content for each market is integrated into the workflow. Share the output of your market-specific keyword research or entity mapping exercises that identified new content or adaptations so the localization and content teams can use them during their editing process. During a “lift and shift,” when you move content to a new design, check if any content is too long or too short for the new layout. You might need to add more content or trim unnecessary parts accordingly. If you need new functionality like hreflang or schema, you must make it known during the planning process so any necessary coding or template adjustments can be made. 4. Ensure internationalization readinessPreparing the new site and templates for internationalization is vital, even though it’s not typically an SEO task. This ensures compatibility with localized content, covering issues like text fitting and handling special characters. The inability to accommodate this critical set of actions will negatively impact user experience and SEO. The following are some of the key considerations to ensure internationalization:
Migration development processAfter developing the plan for the plan, the real work starts with the development of technology and content. During this time, the global search team will take a few key actions. 5. Document URLs and contentA common mistake during migration is removing or combining webpages and valuable content, which can hurt rankings and traffic. This often happens when streamlining content and workflows. The SEO team needs to create a plan to minimize this impact:
6. Develop an SEO preservation roadmapCreating a detailed project roadmap for each language or market version is crucial. Integrate these plans into the main roadmap so everyone understands how optimization fits their workflow. Document each action, including time, for verification. Dig deeper: 5 international SEO tips that don’t include hreflang Prelaunch reviewThe prelaunch review happens in the days leading up to the actual launch. Some companies call all hands on deck to review the entire site, which circles back to the resource issues we mentioned earlier. In the local markets, there may only be time to spot check, requiring the teams to focus on areas with the greatest impact. 7. Check parent-child relationshipsEven simple “lift and shift” migrations can break the parent-child relationships between the main site and localized pages. This breakage or a delay in the localization process may prevent pages from being available. It also often creates pages that don’t exist or have not been localized, which will cause duplication or indexing problems in the markets. This is why a detailed URL list and UVS are essential to prevent the loss of critical child-only pages. 8. Preserve and transfer authority and equityThis is a fancy way to ensure all the redirects are implemented correctly. Most post-launch triages by SEOs identify incorrect or missing redirects as the main cause of traffic drops. If you have built equity to a page over the years, it must be passed on to the new page for that content. Post-launch monitoringYou would follow all the standard steps for post-launch checks, but they need to be done on all language and market websites, adding to both the workload and complexity of the verification process. Despite exhaustive prelaunch checks, there is a high probability something changed during the launch, especially with localized versions of the website. Often, templates, entire sections or language versions are changed in the hours before launch that need to be identified and fixed. Below are key elements to monitor:
Set up your global site migration for successGlobal migration is never easy, especially for a resource-challenged organization. If you can do nothing else, deeply integrating SEO into the workflow early into the process allows it to flow into other markets. Monitoring redirects and reindexing high-value pages for all markets allows you to detect problems early so they can be fixed. The preservation and enhancement of those elements that drive performance should be emphasized to align with development, content and localization teams. Dig deeper: How you can deal with decentralization in international SEO via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/KXhlsSL Amazon must now share details about the ads it serves in the European Union through a public library. The retail giant is being forced to provide more transparency about its ad operations under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) after losing an appeal in the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) for a temporary suspension. Why we care. The creation of an Amazon ads library will offer marketers valuable insights into how the retail giant showcases and profits from campaigns. This will empower them to optimize their ads more effectively for better performance on the platform. What is the Digital Markets Act (DMA)? The DMA is a piece of legislation introduced in 2022 designed to ensure that large online platforms, called “gatekeepers”, behave in a fair way online to create a fair and open environment for online businesses. Only six gatekeepers have obligations under the DMA:
All six companies, none of which are based in the EU, were required to ensure they fully complied with DMA obligations and submit compliance reports by March 7. DMA violation penalties. The consequences of non-compliance with the DMA includes:
Amazon contests DSA requirements. Amazon challenged the requirement to follow the ads transparency rule in the DSA in September last year. As a result, the EU General Court temporarily halted the ads library until the issue is resolved. Decision reversal. This week, the CJEU overturned the decision to temporarily suspend Amazon’s requirement to comply with the ads transparency provision. The court ruled that Amazon must now adhere to publishing an ads library. While the court recognized Amazon’s concerns about compliance, they emphasized the importance of upholding the intentions of EU lawmakers in passing the law. Delaying compliance could undermine the objectives of the DSA, potentially for several years. What the CJEU is saying. The CJEU said in a statement:
What Amazon is saying. An Amazon spokesperson told Tech Crunch:
Deep dive. Read the CJEU’s statement on its decision in full for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/8JI5HqF Google updated its definition of top ads in its Help Center to better reflect how ads can appear in Google Search A spokesperson told Search Engine Land that this just a “definitional change” and that it would not affect how performance metrics are calculated. What are top ads? Top ads are ads that appear above the organic result, and also below organic results for certain queries. Why now. Google changed its definition of top ads after testing ads between search results back in October. Patrick Stox, Ahrefs product advisor, technical SEO and brand ambassador, noticed sponsored posts were appearing where the third and fifth organic positions normally run and shared a screenshot on X: Why we care. This update could indicate that Google is progressing with its idea to insert ads between organic search results, as seen in trials last year. This change could potentially result in more clicks for advertisers in areas of Google Search that have traditionally been reserved for organic content. Deep dive. Read Google’s top ads guide for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/JCjSaMq Google has confirmed an issue with the real-time analytics reports within Google Analytics, GA4. Many profiles show zero real-time traffic being reported since early this morning; some are seeing a fraction of their normal real-time traffic being reported, and some are seeing normal traffic. Google working on a fix. Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liaison, responded on X saying, “Thanks for flagging. This is a bug and the team is working on it. Apologies for the inconvenience!” Here is that post:
What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of GA4 reporting zero real-time traffic: Why we care. If you are noticing zero or a lot less real-time visitors via Google Analytics, you are not alone. This is a bug with Google and Google hopes to resolve the issue soon. I know a lot of site owners woke up in a panic to these reports but again, this is just a bug. Fixed now. At around 11:35pm ET, it seems like it is now resolving and was resolved by 12pm ET.
via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/0GDkYoz Google’s 2023 Ads Safety Report revealed that it blocked or removed 12.7 million advertiser accounts last year – nearly double the previous 12 months. Additionally, the search engine blocked or removed 5.5 billion ads for violating its policies – slightly up from the prior year. Why we care. Cracking down on fraudulent accounts is critical for brand safety and also helps to ensure a safer space for consumers so that they can confidently make online transactions. However, there’s also a potential risk associated with AI, as it may mistakenly suspend genuine advertisers and ads. The report findings. In the 2023 Google Ads Safety Report, Google found:
Updates. Google claimed that scams and fraud across all platforms were on the rise in 2023. To counter these threats, it deployed 31 updates to its Ads and Publisher policies, such as:
AI. In the report, Google highlighted how AI is playing a crucial role in its efforts to combat bad actors. By using AI, Google claims it can identify and suspend fraudulent accounts before they even get onto its platforms, or remove them as soon as they’re detected. Moving forward. Google did not share exact details on what future updates we can expect we move further into 2024, however, the search engine confirmed it would continue to investment in policy, detection and enforcement. Appeals. If you disagree with Google’s decisions and do not believe your ad violated its policies, you can appeal any enforcement action. Google will review your appeal, and if it determines that it made an incorrect decision, it will use these instances to enhance its systems. What Google is saying. Duncan Lennox, VP & GM of Ads Privacy and Safety, said in a statement:
Deep dive. Read Google’s 2023 Ads Safety Report in full for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/tCom7Y5 Meridian, Google’s new open-source Marketing Mix Model (MMM), has entered the rapidly evolving market for advanced marketing analytics and forecasting tools. This article explores Meridian’s key features, capabilities and limitations, comparing it with Meta’s MMM called Robyn. It delves into how Meridian leverages advanced techniques like hierarchical geo-level modeling, Bayesian methods and scenario analysis to offer actionable insights for cross-channel budget optimization and marketing strategy development. Understanding marketing mix modelsThe marketing mix model empowers marketers to analyze how various marketing strategies influence sales and forecast future results. In essence, MMMs split the drivers of sales into factors (e.g., price, product attributes, distribution, promotional actions) and external issues (e.g., economic state or competitive moves). By analyzing historical data, these models assign numerical values to each component of the marketing mix in relation to total sales, requiring statistical methods to assess individual marketing activities and external factors. Consequently, this knowledge allows marketers to optimize strategies, allocate budgets more wisely and forecast how a change in one element will affect future sales. MMMs employ regression analysis or similar statistical techniques on large quantities of data related to sales and marketing to identify patterns and causality relationships, among others. This enables companies to make data-driven decisions, optimizing resource allocation across key activities like product pricing and improving brand loyalty through enhanced consumer understanding. In navigating a complex market, the precision and insights marketing mix models provide are essential for strategic planning. Dig deeper: How to win with PPC in a dataless world How does Meridian fit into the MMM landscape and what does it offer?Meridian is an open-source MMM that aims to support teams in developing models that provide deeper insights into marketing outcomes and decision-making. It strongly emphasizes privacy, advanced measurement and accessibility for marketers. Meridian brings forth innovations that offer more precise and actionable insights, according to Google. It includes features like calibration with incrementality experiments, incorporation of reach and frequency and specialized guidance on measuring search across all media channels. What makes Meridian stand out is its transparency, allowing users to customize the code and parameters to meet their specific requirements. This makes it a highly effective tool for enhancing measurement strategies. Additionally, it provides actionable data inputs and modeling guidance for optimizing cross-channel budgets. It also offers comprehensive educational resources and support for implementation. As companies increasingly recognize the value of MMMs in achieving revenue goals, Meridian provides a solution that combines innovation, transparency and practicality. Based on the press release, it seems Meridian does not differ from other MMM tools. Reputable MMM tools prioritize privacy, employ Bayesian methods and offer a wide selection of control variables and customizable settings. The documentation reveals that Google’s Meridian employs a more advanced approach than other solutions. While Google’s documentation is extensive, it’s essential not to underestimate the complexity of implementing and handling data. Technical and analytical support for modeling work is highly recommended. Implementing MMMs can be challenging even without prior experience, as it requires selecting the right data, training the model and adjusting various parameters. Meridian’s capabilities and limitationsLocal vs. national-level modelingMeridian is a powerful tool that takes your marketing data to the next level. Unlike the traditional, national-level models, Meridian lets you zoom into your marketing efforts on a local or regional scale using hierarchical geo-level modeling. This approach gives you more detailed insights and often results in more reliable figures on how effective your marketing strategies are, particularly in terms of ROI. With Meridian, you’re not limited to just a few data points. It can handle over 50 geographical locations and 2-3 years of weekly data, making it a beast at crunching numbers. Thanks to its use of advanced tech like Tensorflow Probability and the XLA compiler and the option to use GPU hardware through tools like Google Colab Pro+, Meridian works fast, keeping pace with your needs. For those times when you don’t have local data, Meridian still supports the traditional national-level approach. However, one of its standout features is that it lets you bring what you already know into the equation. Incorporating past knowledge for Bayesian modelingUsing Bayesian models, you can add your past knowledge about how your media performs into Meridian. This includes insights from previous experiments, other marketing mix models, industry know-how or benchmarks. This way, you’re not starting from scratch but building on what you already know. Meridian intelligently models the waning effectiveness of marketing strategies over time and their spread of impact, enhancing prediction accuracy. Additionally, it delves into the influence of unique viewers and ad frequency on marketing, offering deeper insights into strategy effectiveness. It doesn’t stop there. Meridian is also about making wise decisions, especially with online channels like paid search, using data like Google Query Volume. This helps you see the real impact of your strategies. When spending your marketing budget wisely, Meridian shines by helping you figure out the best way to spread your budget across different channels or suggesting the best total budget to meet your goals. With Meridian, you can also play around with “what-if” scenarios to see how different strategies could have played out. Finally, it gives you a clear report on how well it fits your data, helping you decide which strategies work best. Limitations in analyzing marketing performanceMeridian has significant limitations, notably its lack of upper vs. lower funnel support, a common issue with most MMMs. This makes it challenging to separate and analyze these components independently. However, if Meridian had this feature, it could stand out more compared to competitors. Another limitation is that Meridian doesn’t account for fluctuations in performance within the analyzed time frame. In real-world marketing, events can significantly impact the performance of individual channels. As a result, Meridian’s failure to consider this could lead to inaccurate forecasts and analysis, particularly when dealing with longer timeframes. Google’s Meridian vs. Meta’s RobynMeta’s MMM Robyn appears more advanced, putting pressure on Google to deliver a competitive tool as the leading global advertising platform. Despite Robyn’s compact presentation, it shares many features with Google’s Meridian. Meta has published case studies for Robyn, whereas Google is still in the process of building theirs, with limited access via application. Robyn is accessible to all via GitHub, fostering community support. The effectiveness of Meridian and Robyn will be determined as more advertisers use them, revealing their strengths. These MMM tools also serve as crucial marketing opportunities for advertising platforms. Meridian may boost paid search traffic, while Robyn might favor impression-heavy ads on Meta’s platforms, though this will become clearer with continued usage. As of now, Meridian is a nice early-access project to play around with. It will have to show if implementation and analysis with real data can benefit advertisers. Dig deeper: The role of paid search in attribution via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/lp0bPRG This guide offers a curated collection of prompts tailored to various marketing roles, from social media to SEO. Learn best practices for interacting with AI and discover how to effectively leverage tools like ChatGPT to boost productivity, creativity, and strategic thinking. Each prompt comes with a detailed explanation and practical example, making it easy to apply AI to your everyday marketing tasks and challenges. Whether you’re looking to craft engaging content, analyze data, or manage potential crises, this guide will help you harness the potential of AI to take your marketing efforts to the next level. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download 10 ChatGPT Prompts for Digital Marketers by MoreVisibility and start optimizing your digital marketing strategy with the power of AI! via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/pMHTWLn In B2B marketing, the traditional approach of casting a wide net is increasingly being challenged by a more targeted and personalized strategy: account-based marketing (ABM). This method focuses on identifying and engaging with specific high-value accounts, treating each as its own distinct market. But is ABM the right approach for your business? This article explores the potential benefits and challenges of implementing an ABM strategy, along with key factors to consider when evaluating its suitability for your organization. Understanding account-based marketingAt its core, ABM is a strategic approach that focuses on targeting high-value accounts with personalized and relevant marketing efforts. Unlike traditional marketing methods that typically cast a wide net, ABM is laser-focused, treating individual accounts as unique markets in themselves. The upside: Benefits of ABM
The downside: Challenges of ABMWhile the benefits of ABM are significant, it’s essential to also consider the challenges that come with implementing this type of strategy:
A contrarian approach to ABMThe LinkedIn B2B Institute’s “2030 B2B Trends” tackles contrarian ideas for the next decade. Below are key takeaways to think about from the 43-page report:
Dig deeper: 6 areas to address before increasing B2B paid media investment So, is ABM right for you?The key to identifying whether you are ready for ABM comes down to this. Unless you can seamlessly pass account information from the top of the funnel to the bottom and then automate the transfer of this information to the sales/business development team, you can’t execute ABM correctly, period. Ultimately, you must have the capability to exclude or update accounts from all targeting based on their status with the sales team in order to provide the desired experience to the client. The following notes are also important when considering ABM:
Where to start?The best place to start is LinkedIn. It is the go-to platform for B2B marketers. LinkedIn easily integrates with your marketing automation, CDP or CRM platform, allowing seamless back-and-forth sharing of audiences. These audiences can include email addresses (both business and personal) and account names. While you can manually upload audiences using a CSV file, doing so may hinder the effectiveness of your ABM efforts. You can technically add email addresses to all major ad platforms (such as Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, X, Reddit, etc.), but none offer the match rates you can find on LinkedIn, where they typically exceed 70%. If your company leverages tools like 6Sense, Terminus or DemandBase, you can also target specific decision-makers or influencers across diverse placements and platforms they use daily. Dig deeper: 7 LinkedIn advertising pitfalls: Where your B2B ads setup might stumble Deciding on ABMWhile ABM offers a potent strategy for B2B marketers, its success ultimately depends on carefully considering resource availability, target account characteristics and a commitment to personalization. These are simply necessary for success. Furthermore, the LinkedIn B2B Institute’s report sheds additional light on key considerations, including the challenges of third-party data and the need for a balanced approach, considering the dynamic nature of buying committees. With this information, you are set up to make an informed decision. Leveraging the benefits and challenges discussed, use strategic evaluation to determine whether ABM aligns with your digital marketing objectives – then reconsider the question, “Is ABM right for you?” Dig deeper: 2024 B2B trends: 6 key areas for marketing success via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2SwbEq3 LinkedIn is launching a new solution for monitoring campaign performance without third-party cookies. Dynamic UTMs, which will be available to all users globally by the end of March, simplify adding custom tracking elements to campaign URLs, improving tracking accuracy. Previously, marketers had to manually create UTM parameters for their campaigns, but with Dynamic UTMs, this process is automated. What are UTMs? UTM parameters, short for Urchin Tracking Module parameters, are small pieces of text added to the end of your ad’s destination URL that can help you track information about the source of an ad click. For example, you can add tracking parameters to help measure how many clicks to your website were from a specific campaign or placement. Why we care. UTMs are essential for marketers to grasp a campaign’s performance, especially in a privacy-focused landscape, as they don’t rely on third-party cookies or IP addresses for ad measurement. However, creating them manually can be time-consuming, inefficient and prone to errors. This solution looks address these challenges. Supported URL tracking parameters. You can add both static and dynamic URL parameters to your campaigns (see the screenshot below). When adding a URL parameter, you’ll need to add both the parameter key and value. Deep dive. Read LinkedIn’s announcement in full for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/nGQtagF |
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