Digital Marketing Updates- March 2018

Digital Marketing

By DSIM Team / 02/04/2018

Last updated on May 9th, 2018 at 12:59 pm

Digital Marketing industry moves rapidly and so, it becomes important to keep an eye on the news that really matters.

See this detailed article covering Major Digital Marketing News & Updates from March 2018.

1) Google’s Search app for iOS has been updated

Google’s Search app for iOS got updated with three new features. One of which is an iMessage extension that allows users to search the web without leaving the chat window.

Second, Google is now more deeply integrated with the Safari browser, allowing users discover content which is related to the content they’re currently viewing.

With iOS 11, Apple introduced a new feature that’s exclusive to iPads; drag and drop. This allows users to drag content from one app to another while using two apps in split-screen mode.

2) Google Developing Web Standards for Instant Loading Non-AMP Content

Google is developing web standards that will allow non-AMP content to load instantly. Through an announcement, Google said that its goal is to extend support in features like the Top Stories carousel to AMP-like content that meets a set of performance and user experience criteria and implements a set of new web standards. Some of the proposed standards in the critical path are Feature Policy, Web Packaging, iframe promotion, Performance Timeline, and Paint Timing.

3) Google Adds Title Tags to Image Search Results

Google adds captions to thumbnails in image search results. Captions comprise the page title where the image is published, which means captions can be optimized by modifying title tags. The feature has been rolled out to assist searchers by adding more context to what an image is about.

4) Google AdWords Has New Performance Insights for Click-to-Message Ads

Google AdWords introduces a new set of performance insights specifically for click-to-message ads. Now, AdWords is rolling out Message Reporting over the next few weeks to help advertisers in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Brazil and Australia analyze and improve the performance of their click-to-message ads.

5) Google’s Broad Core Algorithm Update Examined

Google has confirmed a core algo update happened last week. Google’s Danny Sullivan stated that Google was not targeting low-quality websites. He explicitly confirmed that there is nothing wrong to fix in sites that lose rankings. This announcement is important because it squashes the usual Phantom Update speculation. Google is not targeting “low quality” signals.

6) Google AdWords Bans Ads for Cryptocurrency

In January, Facebook banned ads about cryptocurrency on its products, also in China crypto-related ads aren’t allowed online.

Now, Google will ban all cryptocurrency-related AdWords ads starting in June 2018. This contains ICOs, exchanges and even pages offering information about trading.

Scott Spencer, director of sustainable ads for Google, stated:

”We don’t have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we’ve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it’s an area that we want to approach with extreme caution.”

7) Google Advertisers Can Soon Retarget Searchers With YouTube Ads

Google advertisers will soon be able to reach YouTube viewers who have previously searched for related products and services.

For example, if a person recently searched for “best wireless headphones,” they may then be shown ads from headphone manufacturers the next time they visit YouTube.

Google is calling this ‘custom intent audiences.’ To be eligible to display ads to custom intent audiences, all an advertiser has to do is create a keyword list for their video campaign.

8) Pinterest Brings Shopping Ads to More Businesses

Pinterest is expanding shopping ads to hundreds of more businesses, a significant increase from the couple dozen retailers the ads were previously available too.

Shopping ads allow businesses to turn their online product catalog into shop-able pins. Since the ads are automatically generated, it’s absolutely necessary that advertisers have an existing product feed to pull from.

Pinterest is working on new ad designs that are currently in testing. The changes are said to be more effective at guiding users toward making a purchase.

9) Google My Business Update Now Rolling Out to More Users

Google has announced rolling out an updated version of “My Business” more widely, which was first introduced in last November. When Google first revealed the updated GMB interface, designed for users to manage multiple listings, it was released to a limited number of businesses. Now, it’s being made available to more users in the US. Previously, it was most common for European users to report being moved over to the new interface. The new interface is said to be easier to navigate, with added abilities.

10) Google Updates Search Console Reports

Google has rolled out several visual updates to Search Console that is designed to provide more context to data included in the reports.

The visual updates include:

• Annotation cards: Hover over bullet points in the error report to learn more about the issue detected on that particular date.
• Difference column: See how data has changed over a period of time
• Filter/Compare: Redesigned with a new look and pre-populated values
• Overall improvements to the date picker and a comparison view

11)  LinkedIn Makes it Easier to Ask for Referrals

LinkedIn is streamlining the process of asking for and receiving referrals from contacts. Applicants are 4 times more likely to hear back from a recruiter after getting a referral, LinkedIn says. Now it’s going to become easier to identify individuals in your network who can connect you to jobs with other companies. Called ‘Ask for a Referral,’ the new feature allows users to do just that with the click of a button.

12) Google AdWords to Deactivate Accounts with No Ad Spend

Google will be automatically deactivating AdWords accounts next week with no spend in the past 15 months.

Google said this will help ‘speed up’ the AdWords experience. When the account is canceled, advertisers will receive an email notification.

13) YouTube Rolls Out Easy Desktop Live Streaming

YouTube is a winning social media platform that allows watching videos. Users are enabled to showcase live videos to their audiences.

Now, YouTube is bringing good news for its users with updated live streaming version. The current live streaming through YouTube is a way difficult when compared to its to-be-launched live stream from a desktop computer version. Earlier YouTube live streaming includes multiple processes, but the new procedure will be ever simpler and that will start with one click.

14) Instagram Adds Support for Hashtags & Profile Links in Bios

Instagram users can now add a link to hashtags and other profiles in their bio.

The practices of hashtag and profiles inclusion were already in practice in Instagram bio activity, but these always appeared as “plain text”.

Now, when you’ll add “#” or “@” in your Instagram bio, it’ll become clickable. The procedure is same as adding hashtag or profile to Instagram stories or posts.

15)  Instagram to Show More Recent Posts First

Instagram is moving away from its algorithmic feed and will start showing newer posts near the top.

The company isn’t fully bringing back the chronological feed, though it will make a better effort to show users the timeliest posts. In addition, Instagram will stop automatically refreshing the feed and bumping users back up to the top. A “New Posts” button will let users choose when they want to refresh, otherwise, the feed will stay where they last left off.

16) Bing to Increase Ad Coverage on Bottom of Search Results Pages

Bing is expanding ad coverage at the bottom of search results pages, increasing the total number of ad units from 3 ads to 4 ads. In addition, Bing has also removed sidebar text ads from search engine results pages in the United States. Product ads will still continue to be served on the sidebar.

17) Google Lets Businesses Post Offers to Organic Search Results

Google has been marked testing a new feature and it allows “Google My Business pages” to publish offers directly to search results.

This feature is built into Google Posts, which has been available to all businesses with a verified GMB profile since last summer. Google Posts lets businesses publish short messages, which appear in Maps and search results when the business name is searched for.

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