Digital Minute – the latest digital marketing news and analysis

Is Facebook entering the search advertising market? – Digital Minute 08/01/19

Facebook has started testing search ads, as part of a new strategy to turn around its declining ad revenues. The social network is testing a new search advertising concept with a small number of advertisers in the automotive, ecommerce and retail sectors in the US and Canada. The concept involves inserting news feed ads into the search function of the site, although Facebook is being quiet on the specific details of how the model works. Facebook last trialled search ads in 2012, although ...

Is Google cutting down video and image carousels? – Digital Minute 27/11/18

After investing heavily in promoting search carousels, Google appears to be cutting down the time that these search features appear. Data from two independent search software provides suggests that the Google has reduced the number of occasions that image and video carousels appear in the search results by as much as 30%. The development could have a major impact on the traffic of brands that have used these features as a way to secure prominent placements in the search engine results.

Are video ads coming to Google Search? - Digital Minute 13/11/18

Could brands soon start being able to promote their YouTube content as a Google search ad? That’s the question that has been raised after Google was spotted trialling a new approach to promoted video in the search results. In what appears to be a test involving a small number of film studios, movie trailers have been seen appearing in a carousel ad unit in Google search results. These ads include content hosted by YouTube, raising questions over whether brands will soon be able to promote ...

Google issues new page speed warnings - Digital Minute 30/10/18

Why brands are moving Google ad budgets to Amazon – Digital Minute 16/10/18

Some advertisers are moving more than half of their digital advertising spend into Amazon, according to a survey of leading advertising agency executives in the US. A survey by CNN found that many agencies were seeing clients move as much as 60% of their ad budgets away from mediums such as Google search, display and programmatic, and towards Amazon – lured by a more product-focused audience, better conversion rates and Amazon’s power as a “product search engine”.

Google launches new content features at 20th birthday bash – Digital Minute 02/10/18

Google used its 20th birthday celebrations to announce a number of new search marketing features, with a much stronger focus on the user search journey and the way in which users consume content as part of that journey. The biggest of the announcements was a number of features that will essentially see Google pre-empt the user journey for what it considers to be “high consideration” search queries, where multiple sub-topics may play an important role in the overall search journey.

Responsive display ads to be rolled out to all Google advertisers - Digital Minute 18/09/18

Google has announced it is rolling out responsive display ads as a default to all advertisers in the next few months. Customers will be able to upload up to 15 images, five headlines, five descriptions and five logos and then leave the rest to Google’s machine learning to deliver the most relevant, valuable ads across their inventory. Digital Minute takes a look at the new offering. Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9131153

Why Facebook is scrapping 5,000 ad targeting options – Digital Minute 04/09/18

As Facebook continues its efforts to clean-up its platform, and lessen its capacity to be used in divisive and damaging ways, it has announced that around 5,000 of its advanced ad targeting options will be removed as it seeks to stamp out discriminatory ad targeting. The move comes after a series of scandals for Facebook, and follows specific complaints about certain advertisers using the platform to discriminate against certain audience segments. Digital Minute looks at what has changed,...

Why brands have lost out to Google’s EAT guidelines update – Digital Minute 21/08/18

Google updated its search quality evaluator guidelines last month, placing a greater focus on the “E-A-T” principles of expertise, authority and trust. Those new policies have already had a major impact in some key search markets. With major brands in some key niches losing visibility, we analysed at what it means for your search strategy. Digital Minute looks at what has changed, and what this could mean for search and content marketing strategy.

Google confirms broad algorithm update – Digital Minute 07/08/18

Google confirmed last week that it released a “broad core algorithm update”, after certain quarters of the search community noticed shifts in rankings and traffic earlier this morning. It follows similar updates in March and April and importantly, Google has advised website owners that there is no specific action that they can or should take to respond to the change. Instead, Google claims that this update is simply up-lifting sites and pages that were previously under-valued, and that foc...

Google reveals algorithm insights to US Judiciary Committee - Digital Minute 24/07/18

Google has lifted a lid on some of the secrets behind parts of its search algorithm, including how RankBrain handles unseen queries, how it penalises certain content and how many algorithm experiments it performed in 2017. Speaking to a United States House Judiciary Committee on “Facebook, Google and Twitter: Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants”, a Google representative Juniper Downs revealed some insight into part of the search algorithm and how it determines ...

The big announcements from Google Marketing Live - Digital Minute 11/072018

Google hosted its Marketing Live Keynote on Tuesday and, amongst the key announcements, cross-device reporting is coming to Google Analytics. Advertisers will now be able to seamlessly attribute consumer spending and activity across mobile and desktop devices, allowing them to understand consumer behaviour and consumer value as they engage with the brand on multiple devices and platforms. Other key announcements include Responsive Search Ads, powered by machine learning to deliver the mos...

The industry’s biggest challenge: fusing search and social - Digital Minute 26/06/18

Surveys from Marin and Zazzle reveal that advertisers’ biggest challenge around the world in 2018 is the successful integration of search and social channels. Marin Software’s latest ‘State of Digital Advertising’ report revealed that 48% of advertisers named it as one of their three biggest challenges in relation to paid social. Social is now the most popular channel, overtaking search. Elsewhere, Zazzle’s report reveals that marketers are having some trouble convincing decision makers abo...

Apple devices to block Facebook ad tracking - Digital Minute 12/06/18

Apple hosted it’s WWDC Developer Conference, and announced a number of developments that take direct aim at the likes of Facebook and Google. The biggest of these developments was the announcement that the new version of iOS and MacOS would not allow the likes of Facebook or Google to track the browsing habits of Apple users across other parts of the web – effectively meaning that they couldn’t use those browsing habits to inform future advertising.

PayPal integrates with Google Pay – Digital Minute 30/05/2018

Google and PayPal have announced new a integration strategy that will make it easier for users to complete a purchase through services such as Gmail and YouTube – potentially creating new content marketing opportunities for Ecommerce brands. The new partnership will allow users to connect their PayPal and Google Pay accounts and seamlessly make payments whilst they are using Google properties. For example, the deal could allow a user to watch an instructional “how to” video on YouTube and...

Artificial Intelligence the headline act at Google I/O 2018 - Digital Minute 15/05/18

Google held its I/O Conference last week, and artificial intelligence was the big theme. Amongst the headlines from the event was the introduction of Google Duplex, which will be able to automatically make phone calls to book restaurant tables and salon appointments, as well as the new version of Google’s Android OS – Android P. With updates also coming to Google Mail, News and new voice search devices, there is plenty for developers and digital marketers to get their teeth into from Goog...

Google updates PageRank Patent – Digital Minute 01/05/18

Google updated a patent behind its PageRank algorithm, which is a key component of the Google ranking algorithm. SEO blogger Bill Slawski published an article noting that Google updated a patent related to PageRank, which is an algorithm within Google that influences how sites are ranked. The changes seem to focus on how links are judged by trying to determine the distance of a link between the site that it links to and the most authoritative site within a given niche.

100 episodes of Digital Minute

Digital Minute is 100 episodes old. Over that time, we've picked up a lot about video marketing, but how can you apply our experience of 100 episodes and apply it you your video marketing strategy?  When you produce 100 episodes of a video series, you inevitably come up against some challenges and some successes along the way. So as we celebrate a century of Digital Minutes, we wanted to share some of our learnings over the course of this series, and how you can apply them to your video ma...

More sites migrating to “mobile first” index – Digital Minute 04/04/18

Google has announced that it is rolling out the next stage of its mobile first index, with more sites being moved onto the new ranking algorithm. This rollout is only for sites that “follow the best practices for mobile-first indexing”, but will see those sites ranked in organic search based on how they perform on mobile devices, rather than desktop. Google’s long-awaited mobile first index is now expected to go live later this summer.

Social influencers face big ad clampdown - Digital Minute 20/03/18

Social media influencers could face an advertising clampdown after the Advertising Standards Authority announced that it would be launching an investigation into the relationship between them and brands. The ASA wants to investigate whether the average social media user can tell if a post or video is an advert, and to look at some of the loopholes that influencers may be exploiting to mask the fact that their content is a paid-for ad. The regulator is concerned that some publishers are ta...

Multifaceted Featured Snippets coming to Google Search - Digital Minute 06/03/18

Google is updating search results with a new type of featured snippet which is designed for queries that have multiple interpretations. The new snippet is designed to deliver relevant answers to questions that may have more than one user intent, ensuring that each user can get the answer that they are looking for within the snippet. The development is the latest update to Google’s featured snippets project, which is playing a big role in its push to develop voice search.

Automatic ad blocking comes to Google Chrome - Digital Minute 20/02/18

Google has announced that the latest edition of its Chrome internet browser is going to include ad blocking automatically – although only certain types of ads will be affected. Chromes ad blocker will automatically start blocking ads that it, along with the Coalition for Better Ads group, considers annoying or intrusive. The announcement will naturally have many publishers concerned, whilst advertisers will also be prompted to rethink their approach to digital advertising, but Google argu...

Google unveils changes by reintroducing featured snippets - Digital Minute

Google took the step of ‘reintroducing’ its featured snippets last week, as it announced a couple of big changes to the way in which answers are displayed in Google search results. With rich snippets playing a big role in projects such as voice search, Google is developing them to provide more detailed and more customisable answers. The new features will provide more information in the search result and, in cases where there may be more than one answer to a query, will allow users to refi...

A closer look at Google’s Ad Clampdown – Digital Minute

As Google looks to clear up YouTube’s image after yet another brand reputation crisis, it has introduced new rules to the way in which content creators can monetize their videos and channels. But in the wake of the Logan Paul scandal, Google’s proposed changes have caused concern amongst high profile content creators, who will lose out from the new policy, and from brands who are now facing fewer advertising opportunities and potentially higher costs in order to reach audiences on YouTube....

Unpicking Google’s Voice Search Guidelines - Digital Minute

Google gave digital marketers something of an early Christmas present, releasing the first documented guidelines on how it will be assessing and ranking the quality of answers for voice search queries. The guidelines, which will be followed by Google’s “search quality raters” highlight how Google will be assessing the suitability of an answer for a voice query, and how they will be judging factors such as information relevance, quality, length, grammar and elocution. Whilst the guidelines...

Google introduces extended search snippets & other new features – Digital Minute 12/12/17

Google has announced that search snippets are getting longer, with snippets now growing to as much as 230 characters, depending on the search query. Google will dynamically increase the search snippet depending on the search result to from the current maximum of 160 characters, to as much as 230 characters. The change is designed to try and answer the user query within the search results – something that is good for users, but potentially a problem to website owners, who could see traffic...

Google clamps down on fake AMP pages - Digital Minute 28/11/17

Google will start penalising websites that use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) as teaser pages, where only a small portion of the content is served to users via an AMP page. From 1 February, Google will penalise any AMP page where the content on that page does not contain the same level of information as the equivalent desktop page. When AMP technology was introduced two years ago, the goal was always to give searches access to full-length content at lightning fast speeds. Some publishers ...

Salesforce & Google tie-up brings big opportunities

Google and Salesforce have strengthened their ties in the last week, and it promises to open up some valuable data for marketers using the Salesforce platform. As part of the partnership, Google data and Salesforce CRM data will now integrate, meaning that marketers using Salesforce can start to see Google data against their own data, allowing them to determine what a sales prospect may be searching for online, what pages they are visiting and other pieces of key Google insight. The news ...

The Facebook feed experiment that has brands worried – Digital Minute 31/10/17

Facebook has been caught testing a new version of its News Feed, and brands are getting understandably worried. The new feed, spotted in six ‘test’ markets, appears to remove branded page content from the main news feed, and hide it away on a secondary “explore” feed – making it easier for users to avoid content from brands and publishers that haven’t paid for promoted posts. So what is Facebook doing with the feed, and should brands be worried? Sian Hall takes a look in Digital Minute.

Context cards bring big opportunities for brands on Snapchat - Digital Minute 17/10/2017

Snapchat is rolling out its latest feature, context cards, as it looks to increase its ecommerce functionality and broaden its appeal to advertisers. Context cards allow users to access additional content within the app that provides with more details on the issue, help them book a ticket or Uber to an event, or book a table at a restaurant. The concept is powered by what Snapchat describes as “trusted content partners” at the moment, but expect it to be opened to other brands in the near...

YouTube promises advertisers better targeting – Digital Minute 03/10/17

YouTube has announced a number of new features as it attempts to attract advertisers to the platform – and to overcome a difficult period for its advertising services. Speaking at Advertising Week New York, YouTube’s Tara Walpert Levy, announced a series of new tools and features that it believes will make it easier for brands to reach more targeted audiences, and deliver more personalised content to those audiences. The features include tools that will make it easier to measure the impac...

Google gives warning on AMP AdWords landing pages

Google has announced that AMP landing pages for AdWords are on the way, with advertisers around the world able to take advantage of AMP pages as their landing pages. Up to now, AMP landing pages have only been a beta option for advertisers but, with AMP landing pages showing improved conversion rates, Google is rolling the platform out to all advertisers in the coming week. But with Google now rolling out AMP landing pages across the network, advertisers need to ensure that they adapt to ...

MarTech boost to Google AdTech AI plans?

Does Google see Marketing Tech and automation as a key part of its plans to introduce more machine learning and artificial intelligence to its advertising platforms. Last week Google strengthened its relationship with the marketing automation platform Marketo, announcing that Marketo’s services will now be hosted by Google’s Cloud platform, and allowing the Marketo’s users to leverage Google services such as Gmail, Sheets and Hangout Chats for faster marketing content development and deepe...

Facebook fixes ‘fat finger’ advertiser frustrations – Digital Minute | 22/08/17

Facebook has responded to criticism from advertisers about its mobile ads, by introducing a new policy to address the issue of ‘fat fingered’ ad clicks - with research suggesting that as many as 60% of all ad clicks on mobile are made in error.

Facebook focused on video analytics to attract advertisers - Digital Minute 08/08/17

Facebook has been investing heavily in video content, believing that it holds the key to help advertisers get their message to hard-to-reach audiences.

Amazon takes control of social communities with Spark - Digital Minute 26/07/17

Is Amazon taking back control of it's digital communities? The ecommerce giant is investing in it's own social network, called Spark, and we look at whether this could be the start of ecommerce brands moving away from the established social networks.

Google tweaking its mobile search results - Digital Minute 11/07/17

A new mobile search results page has been spotted – at the same time that Google has clarified its position on the forthcoming mobile-first index.

Google for Jobs takes on the recruiters - Digital Minute 27/06/17

Google is taking on the likes of LinkedIn and Monster in the recruitment business, and it could change the way in which brands recruit new talent – and how you might find your next role.

The big stories from Apple WWDC - Digital Minute 13/06/17

Apple lifted the lid on their latest innovations at its World Wide Developer Conference in San Jose last week – and there are some notable developments that brands ought to keep an eye on.

Image search comes to e-commerce - Digital Minute 30/05/17

Amazon and the online furniture retailer Wayfair has rolled out image search across their mobile platforms, representing the first real application of the technology to e-commerce. Digital Minute takes a closer look at the what and the why, explaining what this means for retail brands who aren't thinking about their "camera strategy".

Net Neutrality debate reignited - Digital Minute 16/05/17

The issue of net neutrality is back in the news, with regulators in the United States set to vote on whether to allow internet service providers to start discriminating internet data.

Google Launch: YouTube TV - Digital Minute 02/05/17

Google Keyword Update: Exact Match - Digital Minute 18/04/17

When is ‘exact’ not exact? Well, that’s the question that Google has raised recently after announcing that it is changing the way that it handles ‘exact match’ keywords in Adwords. Sarah Barker, PPC Lead at Stickyeyes takes a closer look. https://www.stickyeyes.com/2017/04/07/ok-google-define-exact-match/

'Stories': The future of social media? - Digital Minute 04/04/17

A year ago, 'Stories' was a feature that would only relate to the multimedia mobile application, Snapchat. Fast-forward to April 2017 and Stories are now prevalent across the majority of social platforms, but what is a 'Story' exactly? This week on Digital Minute, Harry Smith, Account Executive at Stickyeyes takes a look at the rise of 'Stories', "the future of the newsfeed".

Brands pull the plug on Google ads - Digital Minute 21/03/17

Google has been in the news over the past few days, but for all the wrong reasons. A number of advertisers have pulled ad campaigns from the Google Display Network after brand messages were associated with extremist content and material. Our Brand Communications Director, Lisa Wisniowski takes a closer look.

Google AdWords Update: Price Extensions Come to Desktop - Digital Minute 07/03/17

Google has announced that AdWords Price Extensions will now be live across both desktop and mobile, allowing your brand to showcase your services, products and prices. James Pierechod, Multimedia Designer at Stickyeyes takes a closer look.

Google Algorithm Update: 'Phantom 5' - Digital Minute 21/02/17

It's all fairly quiet over at Google HQ, however our team of experts have been keeping a close eye on the recent developments in the world of SEO. Katie Fincham, Head of Earned Marketing Communications at Stickyeyes takes a look. Check out our Video Hub: http://www.stickyeyes.com/video Subscribe to our YouTube channel videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/stickyeyesTV. To get email updates of our latest video blogs, insights and intelligence, sign up to our email updates: http://www.sticky...

Facebook takes on TV advertising - Digital Minute 07/02/17

Facebook is making some big changes to its ad platform, with the company claiming that it wants to help brands to see the true value of their ads. In fact, Facebook wants to show advertisers how effective their ads are, compared to established offline channels – including TV. Want to see more videos from Stickyeyes? Check out our Video Hub: http://www.stickyeyes.com/video Subscribe to our YouTube channel videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/stickyeyesTV. To get email updates of our lates...

Google Rich Snippets - What you need to know - Digital Minute 24/01/17

If Google search results pages were a theatre, you would want your content to be taking centre stage – hogging the spotlight and standing out head and shoulders above the other performers. This week on Digital Minute, Phoebe Dixon, PR & Social Manager at Stickyeyes will discuss how you can use Rich Snippets to gain that all important visibility. Want to see more videos from Stickyeyes? Check out our Video Hub: http://www.stickyeyes.com/video Subscribe to our YouTube channel videos: http:...

Facebook Live: The Benefits of Live Video - Digital Minute 10/01/2017

With the average human attention span at an all-time low of a measly 8 seconds, it’s certainly becoming more and more difficult to attract new audiences. What better way to answer queries than in real time, from a real person? Want to see more videos from Stickyeyes? Check out our Video Hub: http://www.stickyeyes.com/video Subscribe to our YouTube channel videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/stickyeyesTV. To get email updates of our latest video blogs, insights and intelligence, sign up t...