Google’s New Advertising Page Will Show Brand’s Recent Ad History
Google announced new changes to its online ads with a focus on transparency. The new advertising page will offer an overview of what an advertiser has run on Google’s platform in the past 30 days. It will disclose more information that allows web searchers to know more about the advertisers, why the ad is served, and other ads the advertiser has run on Google platforms like YouTube.
Insight Into The Advertisers Page
The ad catalog will give a comprehensive insight to consumers and advertisers at the ad creative for large to small local brands. The ad catalog also called ‘advertiser pages’ will be accessible through the ‘about this ad’ tab on YouTube and Search. For example, imagine you’re seeing an ad for a coat you’re interested in, but you don’t recognize the brand. With advertiser pages, you can learn more about that advertiser before visiting their site or making a purchase.
In addition to this, the search giant presents it as a useful tool from a consumer perspective to report any ad that violates the policies. On the blog, the Product Manager for Ads Privacy and Safety, Mojdeh Tomsich explains that the Advertiser Pages are based on a verification program. The program requires Google advertisers to verify information about their businesses, where they operate from, and what they’re selling or promoting. So far, Google has verified advertisers in over 90 countries to identify them as credible sources.
Interesting Read: Google Plans To Turn YouTube Into A E-commerce Giant
Transparency Is The Buzzword
The changes are a part of the search giant’s broader revamp in the face of increased regulatory scrutiny. Google’s approach to online advertising has been shifting and is focusing on transparency and consumer privacy. Google shared that over 30 million users interact with ad transparency and control menus every day.
Users engage with our ads transparency and control tools on YouTube more than any other Google product. To help our users make informed decisions online — no matter where they engage — we will roll out the “About this ad” feature to YouTube and Search in the coming months.
The feature will initially be rolled out in the USA in the coming months and then in other countries in 2022.
Today, we’re introducing advertiser pages as part of our ongoing efforts to give users more information about the ads they see. From “About this ad,” users will be able to see the ads that verified advertisers have run over the past 30 days and more. https://t.co/lunm0YUnu5 1/2
— AdsLiaison Is Away This Week – Back 3/18 (@adsliaison) September 22, 2021
A Major Shift In Internet Ad Companies Data Sharing Strategy
In recent years, internet ad companies have been disclosing more information about how their ad targeting works, the data used for targeting, and the creativity behind the ads. The walled garden ‘Google and Facebook’ share in-depth information on political and issue-based ads. Facebook ads library is a searchable archive that provides all current campaigns including non-political ads. It provides a glimpse into the kind of marketing done across their apps.
Google’s advertising page is not a searchable archive and will appear only when a user is served an ad from any brand. If a user sees any particular brand ad then it will have access to that brand’s 30-day advertising history. These types of tools help in promoting more transparency. It aids consumers to procure more information about the entities in the case of any fraudulent too.
Also Read: Here, There, Everywhere, It Is Cross-Screen Advertising!
A Panoramic Perspective Of Amazon’s Advertising Business!
In the last five years, Amazon’s advertising business has boomed. It now has a DSP footprint that matches Google’s, and its SSP is the second most popular. In just the last year, the online retailer made more than $22 billion in ad income. Even for advertisers who spend a lot of money on the tech giant, Amazon’s advertising strategy and business remain inexplicable.
If we just take the case of Amazon’s video advertising, it is notable that the company built Fire TV, its most ambitious video project, and also controls Twitch, which began testing direct programmatic partnerships last year; and also owns IMDb TV, a free streaming platform. The Amazon DSP provides programmatic video advertising across the web, and in-feed video spots appear in Amazon searches to evaluate or explain products.
Video isn’t the only kind of advertising that’s growing in popularity. A rising number of brands use the DSP even though they don’t sell on Amazon or even have an e-commerce presence. They simply want to use Amazon shopping data to target customers throughout the web.
If you pick instances from your life, you will notice that Amazon knows about everything you shop for, the brand you use, your spending bracket, and which products are you most likely to use. Advertisers use this information tactfully to get you to buy their product.
Amazon has grown to become the third-largest digital ad market in the United States, and a rising competitor to challenge Google and Facebook’s digital ad duopoly.
While it is a bit perplexing to untangle Amazon’s colossal advertising business, we have to go in-depth into its fabric to comprehend its adtech behavior. Keep reading below to get a bird’s eye view of Amazon’s advertising business model!
How Big Is Amazon’s Advertising Business?
From Amazon DSP to Sponsored Display, there is an eclectic range of advertising solutions that Amazon offers to people. Want to know how far spread is Amazon’s ad business? Check these out:
- Amazon Live – Allowing real-time brand interaction, Amazon Live offers the opportunity of contacting shoppers in real-time and engage in interactive shopping experiences.
- Amazon Attribution (Beta) – This solution provides marketers with an understanding of how their non-Amazon marketing portals impact shopping and sales activities on Amazon through search, social services, video, display and e-mails.
- Amazon DSP – Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP) allows users to reach customers throughout the web, including on Amazon sites and applications, as well as through publishing partners and third-party exchanges.
- Sponsored Display – Amazon advertising platform offers this solution to help you target the perfect audience for your business both on and off Amazon with display ads that you can develop in no time.
- Sizmek Ad Suite – From creation to distribution, this ad server on Amazon will help you disseminate your campaign across a variety of screens.
- Sponsored Brands – With personalized ads that display in Amazon shopping results, you can increase brand recognition and product discovery for your brand and product portfolio.
- Post (Beta) – Posts in beta tell your brand’s narrative to relevant Amazon shoppers as they browse your categories. Shoppers may explore your brand’s feed by clicking through Posts and discovering product pages directly from your feed
- Custom Advertising Solutions – If you want to increase your brand awareness and conversation, Amazon’s Custom Advertising team will collaborate to create campaigns that engage customers at all phases of the marketing funnel.
- Audio Ads – Extend your brand’s reach beyond the screen with audio adverts. These ads are seen during commercial breaks while listening to Amazon Music’s free tier on Alexa-enabled devices, such as Echo and Fire TV, as well as on mobile and desktop.
- Stores – With a self-service store, you can create and design a unique brand destination on Amazon for no extra charge.
- OTT ( Over-The-Top) And Online Video Ads – This solution helps you reach a wider audience and engage them on Amazon-affiliated sites like IMDb.com and Twitch, as well as devices like the Fire TV and the web.
- Sponsored Products – With advertising that appears in shopping results and on product pages, you can help people discover and buy the things you sell on Amazon. There is no requirement for prior advertising experience.
Amazon Ad Business Growth
During the pandemic, ad spending saw a significant cut by marketers and we saw the rise of e-commerce advertising. As more and more people shopped from home, Amazon embraced this e-commerce advertising like no other company.
According to EMarketer, Amazon controlled 10.3 per cent of the US digital ad market in 2020, up from 7.8 per cent in 2019, putting it in direct competition with Google and Facebook for ad dollars. Walmart, Instacart, Walgreens, and other businesses have also joined Amazon.
Amazon made $21.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2020, up from $9.3 billion the previous year. While advertising accounts for a small portion of Amazon’s revenue from retail sales and Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, it is one of the company’s fastest-growing segments. Advertisers’ search spending, which is primarily directed to Google, are continuing to be slashed by the internet giant.
All of Amazon’s advertising strategy is well thought out and will contribute to a booming ad business growth in 2021 as well.
What Is Amazon Advertising Business
Advertisers and sellers frequently cite a lack of data and tools as obstacles to advertising on Amazon, which has spawned a cottage industry of companies dedicated to assisting marketing on the platform. Meanwhile, Amazon’s OTT division, which sells adverts in select Amazon Fire TV apps, has pushed further into programmatic advertising.
The four key areas where Amazon’s advertising business model skyrockets include video, non-endemic advertisers, conquesting, and polished targeting and measurement. Let’s have a look at these areas:
Video
Amazon’s advertising business is not just about Prime Video, but also Fire TV, where Amazon sells around a third of the inventory. Fire TV has a footprint of around 50 million US households and is the only platform where TV-style video commercials may be directly linked to sales.
The only way one can get their hands on the Fire TV inventory is the Amazon DSP. Advertisers can still get on Fire TV without having to go via Amazon because programmers keep 70% of the inventory to sell themselves. However, only the Amazon DSP can use logged-in Amazon data to boost those purchases or attribute ads to online sales.
Although adding video to static sponsored product listings can be costly, Amazon finds it easier to sell because those units are offered per click, exactly like sponsored search.
In comparison to the programmatic video, where companies pay per impression and views are counted at the second mark, the pay-per-click approach can appear to be a good deal.
Because Amazon is selective with its sponsored videos, only showing in-depth product videos on highly relevant searches and for reputable brands, sponsored video listings are becoming a key signal of brand reputation.
Conquesting
Conquesting is actually a really intelligent way for the Amazon advertising platform to accommodate sponsored ads. When you do a product search on Amazon, there are sponsored products that show up. Here, advertisers bid on certain terms, and advertisements with greater bids have a better chance of being seen.
What happens on Amazon is that, because of this bidding, when you search for a product by a specific company, the products of a rival brand pops up first. This is what advertisers call, conquesting, or the buying of terms against search terms for rival products.
Advertisers can also purchase “sponsored brands” listings, which display in search results to assist consumers in finding a specific brand.
Furthermore, because Amazon’s purchasing data is so thorough, marketers may save money by not advertising to consumers who have just purchased a product and will not be purchasing it again very soon.
Non-Endemic Business
Beyond its base of e-commerce marketers, Amazon is also looking for expansion. The Amazon DSP created a dedicated ad sales team for non-endemic brands. What this means is that hotels or resorts can use Amazon to target audiences on search terms such as “ travel stationery” or “ mini travel kits”.
Targeting And Measurement
With a cloud-based data clean room in beta, Amazon is fine-tuning its targeting and measurement. Amazon’s cleanroom expands the possibilities for leveraging Amazon’s buying data.
The Amazon DSP, for example, has a 14-day attribution window. Advertisers can test longer attribution windows using Amazon’s marketing cloud.
Amazon has a plethora of data about how consumers shop and has made additional information available to advertising to help them buy and target adverts. Advertisers, on the other hand, claim that Amazon’s data is restricted and that they are constantly looking for new ways to measure ads.
Amazon Ad Business Revenue
According to Loop Capital, Amazon’s advertising unit currently contributes 2.4 times as much revenue as Snap, Roku, Twitter and Pinterest combined, and it is growing at 1.7 times the rate.
According to Amazon, in the first quarter of 2021, its unit which is mostly made up of advertising but also includes sales connected to other service offerings, increased revenue by 77 per cent year over year to more than $6.9 billion.
According to Loop, Amazon made $22.4 billion in ad income in the last 12 months, growing 65 per cent year over year. That was 2.4 times the combined income of middle-cap ad platforms Snap, Twitter, Roku, and Pinterest, which increased by 38% over the same time period to $9.3 billion.
Amazon Business Marketing Strategy
When it comes to Amazon advertising strategy for 2021, it is evident that the company has well thought of all the challenges and advantages of the same. Here are 4 such strategies:
Optimized SEO
When buyers search for relevant search terms, optimizing your products for Amazon SEO will help them find them. Well-described product searches are prioritized by Amazon’s search engine and pinned to the top of the recommended searches.
PPC Advertising
Your business will receive more visitors to your product listings if you use Amazon advertisements. You can ensure that these ads create sales by delivering them to the most appropriate shoppers, thanks to Amazon’s extensive targeting choices.
If you decide to use PPC (Pay-Per-Click) in your Amazon marketing strategy, you’ll be able to choose from a variety of ad types such as Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Products, and Sponsored Display.
Third-Party Advertising
Even if you sell on Amazon, your advertising doesn’t have to be limited to the platform. Increased clickthrough and conversion rates can be aided by third-party advertising. Make sure you use data to optimize your advertising at all times. This is greatly aided by automated data reporting.
Affiliate Marketing
Amazon has an affiliate programme that allows website owners to promote Amazon products on their own sites. A commission is earned when users click on these links and purchase a product. This is an effective Amazon marketing tactic because it brings in new customers to your Amazon website. Putting your products on other websites can bring in a whole new set of customers that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
Advertising: Amazon Vs Google Vs Facebook
When it comes to paid search advertising, Google Ads has been the standard for years. However, as its advertising powers develop, Amazon and Facebook are swiftly becoming a formidable force within their own right.
If you’re a digital marketer, marketing manager, or business owner, you’ll almost certainly be using Google for advertising or all of these platforms at some time in your career. But each time, there will be an inextinguishable dilemma as to which one suits your needs the best. So, we have curated something that will help you decide – keep reading!
Google Ads
Retailers who sell a wide variety of products prefer Google Ads. The greater the number of products you have, the wider the net you can throw in Google. That’s a roundabout way of suggesting that you may bid low on a variety of keywords and yet get a lot of traffic.
Amazon Ads
Unlike the other shops, Amazon has made its platform available to third-party resellers, which means you won’t have to wait for a Target (or Amazon) customer to locate you. All you have to do is upload your products to Amazon and you’re set to go.
Facebook Ads
The Facebook Ads algorithm is fantastic at displaying the correct ads to the right individuals. This makes Facebook Ads ideal for startups with a specific product. It’s almost as if the fewer products you have, the better.
Another significant benefit of Facebook Ads is the level of inventiveness available. 15–30 second videos, media-rich photos, comments, text, and more are all included.
Is Google Advertising Worth It?
Google advertisements, which are paid for by businesses, can be an exceptionally successful means of sending relevant, qualified visitors to your website at precisely the right time when people are searching for the items or services your company provides.
If you are using Google for advertising, then you can use various types of ads such as Search Ads, Shopping Ads, Display Ads, And Video Ads (YouTube).
There are a plethora of Google advertising benefits for small businesses such as the ability to reach motivated and targeted audiences, as well as a pay-for-performance pricing mechanism and an easy-to-follow ROI.
If your budget is an issue, you can dodge contending larger organizations by utilizing more longtail and local keywords, which will lower the cost of bidding on keywords that everyone wants. These keywords may not be as popular as the others, but they will still help you drive more high-converting traffic to your website.
While talking about the Google advertising business model, it is also important to talk about the cost.
Google Advertising costs vary depending on a variety of criteria, including the competitiveness of your keywords and industry, your geographic region, the quality of your advertising campaigns, and more. The average cost per click for Google search advertisements in the United States is $2.32 across all industries. The average cost of Google Ads in other countries is frequently substantially lower.
Facebook Advertising: Policies And Strategies
Facebook advertising is available in a variety of formats. You can advertise your Page, its content, user behaviors, or your website as a whole. Despite Facebook’s increased focus on native ads and keeping customers on the platform, you may still drive traffic to your website.
Facebook advertisements used to be more like display ads than search ads, but newer versions, such as product ads, allow advertisers to sell things directly to users.
One of the major Facebook advertising benefits is that you can directly target users by using these components – location, age, gender, interests, connections, relationship status, languages, education, and workplace.
Facebook also allows for detailed interest targeting. Users can be targeted using Detailed Interest Targeting based on information in their profile, such as “listed likes and interests, Pages they like, apps they use, and other profile (timeline) content they’ve provided” (according to Facebook). With Detailed Interest Targeting, you’ll get the best return on your investment.
Is Facebook Advertising Better Than Google?
To answer this age-old question, we have to assess the strengths of both Google and Facebook advertising. Let’s get started.
Advantages Of Google Ads
- A wider audience – One of the biggest benefits of using Google as a platform for advertising is its massive reach. Google processes around 40,000 search requests each second, for a total of over 1.2 trillion web searches per year. It’s simple to see why AdWords is the most popular and frequently utilized PPC platform in the world, thanks to Google’s more accurate search results.
- A vast range of ad formats – Advertisers can employ ad extensions, site links, social proofing like user reviews, location targeting, Shopping advertisements, and a variety of other capabilities, giving them an unrivalled level of personalization and control. Google has even created ad formats that are suited to the specific demands of different types of businesses.
Advantages Of Facebook Ads
- A powerful visual medium – The greatest Facebook advertisements mix in perfectly with the videos, photographs, and other visual content in users’ News Feeds, allowing advertisers to take advantage of not only the visual ads’ strong persuasive capabilities but also the aspirational language that makes high-quality ads so appealing.
- Unmatched ROI – One aspect of Facebook Ads that frequently surprises newcomers is the potential return on investment that advertising on the network provides, as well as how far skilled advertisers can stretch a small ad spend.
So, to answer the question of which is better – Facebook or Google – the answer is both. Both the platforms serve differently to different businesses.
Furthermore, many businesses are combining the benefits of Google Ads and Facebook Ads to gain maximum visibility, improve leads and sales, and attract new consumers, using diverse techniques that align with the functionality of each platform and generating impressive returns on their advertising expenditure.
Conclusion
Having seen a panoramic perspective on Amazon’s advertising business along with Google Ads and Facebook Ads, it is safe to say that Amazon is right in leading the other two in this area. Here’s how –
- Amazon is distinct from Google and Facebook in that it is primarily focused on a bottom-of-funnel audience, whereas Facebook and Google are more directed toward the top
- Amazon advertising has a higher CPC, conversion rate, and average rate of return than Google or Facebook advertising. Amazon is your greatest option if you want to maximize your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
With Amazon’s growing popularity, it is likely that it will shine as the best advertising business platform soon.
Innovation In Google During The Tough Times Of COVID
While most of the brands are struggling to survive during the tough times of pandemic, Google has set its goals right for the whole year. It is innovating itself without any trouble. Every month Google targets to enhance itself, according to the growing demand of the society. Google makes sure, that it fulfills the need of its users by providing them with exactly what they desire.
Recently, Google introduced two new features for its search portals. One of the features is designed, and dedicated to the Black community. The feature will help in the upliftment of the community in society and will aim to end the injustice against them.
Due to the rise of anger in the community against the centuries-long injustice experienced by the community, several brands came forward to show their support towards the community. Google was amongst them.
#BlackLivesMatter!
To fulfill his promise, the CEO at Google, Sundar Pichai recently added a feature to the map and Google search listing.
This feature is launched to empower the Black community. The feature will highlight businesses owned by the Black community helping them grow. However, only those members can avail of the benefit whose business has verified profiles in the US. Also, the business must be owned by a member of the black community.
Those businesses highlighted under this feature will be marked by an image(as shown below). The symbol will signify that the business is owned by a member of the Black community.
It is said that the step was taken to provide a financial boost to the community. It is a foreseen step to finally end the orthodox discrimination towards the community. Google is also partnering with U.S. Black Chambers, inc. To provide better features like Analytics helping the businesses groom and blossom.
In a statement regarding this following statement was issued by Google:
“As part of our $300 million commitment to support under-represented entrepreneurs, we’re integrating the attribute into the digital skills training programs we offer Black business owners through Grow with Google Digital Coaches. And through Google for Startups Accelerator for Black Founders, we’re starting our work with the first cohort of 12 startups.”
Google is keen to develop the feature even more and is seeking ideas internally. According to the management, they have already received more than 500 creative ideas to get this model to develop more brilliantly.
The company is also working on better and much strict “Policies against hate and harassment”
“About this ad”- More power to the user!
With a more transparent approach towards their users, Google has launched a new feature popularly known as “About this ad”.
To implement this feature Google will be launching new tools. It will help the users gain information about the advertisement they are receiving. It will help enhance security and will increase user privacy on the digital platform.
According to Google spokesperson, the vision is designed for a “thriving internet where people around the world can continue to access ad-supported content, while also feeling confident that their data is protected”.
“But in order to get there, we must increase transparency into how digital advertising works, offer users additional controls, and ensure that people’s choices about the use of their data are respected not worked around or ignored.”
Read More: Google Ends All Gossips: Revealed Fee Structure For Advertisement Tools
For a long time now, tech giants like Google are have faced a lot of criticism. Most of those were linked to their explicit behavior when it comes to money and user privacy. After being criticized and called upon several times by different government authorities for blind approach in the business during the usage of advertisers’ money, Google has finally decided to be more transparent with its business policies and proposals.
Therefore, Google shared a list of pricing for its tools used by advertisers for the advertisement. It was a huge step by Google, since before this release, advertisers were kept in the dark about the spent of their share of the money, and the profit earned by Google.
The tools for which Google revealed the prices include, DV360, Google Ads, ad manager, and its publisher tech.
The revealed prices are as follows:
These prices were revealed by Google in a series of articles and blog posts.
The prices are in the ratio of percentage for a $1 amount spent by an advertiser on an advertisement, divided between the publisher and Google.
- Google tech: Publishers – 69%, Google – 31%
- DV360: Publisher – 87%, Google – 13%
- Ad Manager: Publisher – 82%, Google – 18%
- Google Ads: Publisher – 86%, Google – 14%
- Ad sense by Google: 68% share taken by Google of the total spent by the advertiser.
Google has never been so transparent in regards to its prices, the sources say that this new transparent face of Google is due to the ongoing legal hearing conducted by the state attorney general and the Department of Justice.
Read More: Google Updated Its Demand-Side Platform With DV360!
Innovation has always been the motto of the company. To make sure that the advertisers at Google are equipped with the best tools available in the market, it recently launched its new self-service toolkit known as Display & Video 360.
The tool is launched to change the landscape of the advertisement. Display &Video 360 is a gift to its advertisers by Google.
Earlier, advertisers used the tools to make a hypothetical projection while running an online marketing campaign. The most crucial question that bothered the advertisers was the amount of audience that they will reach with the campaign. To make sure it’s no more a hit and try show for the advertisers, Google launched DV360.
With the DV360, the advertisers can now create a new campaign and check its reach to the audience as the tool provides a duplicate view of the campaign. The duplicate view will help the advertisers view the exact or say a more accurate number of audiences that they will reach with the campaign. Hence, no more blind bets!
The tool has better forecasting capabilities, giving the advertisers a glimpse of the future for their campaign. It is also a better solution for the media planners as it provides them with a large proportion of benefits as better access to the tool as they always have a larger role to play.
The most crucial answer answered with the tool is, “how many unique people can I expect to reach with my overall campaign across any open auction display and video inventory as well as YouTube?”
According to Anudeep Pedditi, Programmatic Manager, OMD NZ:
“Once we commit to a reach objective, neither underachieving nor overachieving is an option. Display & Video 360 gives media planners the accuracy they need to effectively plan across all our programmatic campaigns.”
The Tools main aim is to provide the following features to its advertisers:
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Focus
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Options For Buying
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Optimization And Reporting
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Security
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Conclusion
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Read More: How Google’s Page Experience Will Change the Face of SEO in 2021
Google will launch a new algorithm for its page experience and design. The new model will be based on user experience.
The new algorithm will surely affect SEO and web traffic. Therefore, to make sure that the advertisers are not affected by the changes, Google has announced that they will apply the changes in 2021. They have promised to inform upfront, at least six months beforehand.
An early reminder will help advertisers to prepare themselves for the changes.
However, Google made it clear that the new algorithm will be even stricter in ranking the web pages. If the user experience of a web-page is poor, Google will not rank the page on to the top list.
Google has also published a detailed document dedicated to the page experience criteria.
The new algorithm will consist of some core vital features. This feature includes the following:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the loading performance of your webpage.
- First Input Delay(FID): Measures the user interaction with the page.
- Cumulative layout Shift: Checks the stability factors of your webpage.
The Accelerated Mobile version (AMP) will also play a major role in the ranking of your page, as will be a metrics for the page experience.
Also, good content will always play a lead role in the page ranking.
As per a statement:
“While all of the components of page experience are important, we will prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar.
A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.”
Hence, entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses should be well prepared for the new changes.
Read More: Every 2020 Google SERP Feature Explained: A Visual Guide
Have you ever imagine the amount of traffic Google experience in a minute, month, or year?
Well, here are some fun facts, every second there is an approximate of 63,000 search queries entered on Google search.
Also, near to 2 trillion searches are conducted every year!
Isn’t it amazing? However, you might ask, why does it matter?
Let us understand!
Google holds an approximate 72% market share of search engines. To make sure that your webpage is listed on the top of the list of Google search results you must have an understanding of Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
What is SERP? And, what all it provides to the advertisers on Google?
The Search Engine Result Page of Google has gone through a lot of changes according to the user view. It has become much more dynamic, relevant, personalized, and helpful.
Now the search engine of Google is equipped with several enhancements that use structured data. The search page consists of visual enhancement, better index, and optimization for the website. You must be aware of all these changes if you are planning for a better organic ranking for your website.
Here is the new enhancement for the search page of Google:
- Direct answer Box
- Rich Snippet
- Rich cards
- Knowledge Graphs
- Knowledge Panels
- Local Pack
- People also ask
- Image Pack
- Site Links
- Newsbox
You must be equipped with the knowledge of these for better results in organic ranking.
Read More: Rejoice Small Retailers: Selling Products is Now Free On Google Shopping
MSME’s got adversely affected due to the widespread of COVID-19. Several small and medium scale businesses have lost their source of income due to the sudden breakthrough of this epidemic.
Therefore to make sure that these businesses sustain the effects of the crisis, Google is allowing small retailers to list their products for free on Google Shopping.
Explaining this decision, Bill Ready, President of Commerce at Google cites the fact that it is difficult for struggling businesses to pay for Google shopping listings at this time.
“And as consumers increasingly shop online, they’re searching not just for essentials but also things like toys, apparel, and home goods.
While this presents an opportunity for struggling businesses to reconnect with consumers, many cannot afford to do so at scale.”
Earlier, Google charged its customers as Pay per click (PPC). It can also be seen as a tactic by Google to compete with Amazon in the market of e-commerce.
Read More: Privacy Sandbox By Google Shows Backdoor To The Third-Party Cookies.
Two years ago, Google announced that it will discontinue the usage of third-party cookies in its browser, which is Google Chrome. Since the announcement, several speculations surfaced, to understand its effects on internet traffic and advertisement. However, Google seems determined about the elimination, and this year Google announced “Privacy Sandbox” a step towards the replacement of third-party cookies.
It is developed to provide a secure browsing experience to its user.
According to a spoke person from Google, “This is an early-stage concept, and we don’t have more details to share right now, We plan to publish updates and progress in GitHub as part of the process.”
The concept uses a new algorithm designed by performing “Bit Request Signal Experiment”.
Privacy Sandbox was launched in August. The idea was to innovate ad recurrence and behavioral advertising. It aimed to help them work on the web without using third-party cookies. A mega event was organized, 163 giant tech organizations like Apple, Facebook, Axel Springer, The Washington Post, Criteo, The Trade Desk, and even Google participated. All are requested to share their views via. World Wide Web Consortium or GitHub to help the project succeed.
However, according to the Google developers, it is still in its initial stage and there is a lot of work that is needed to be done in this field.
Read More: Google pledges $800 million to coronavirus relief, including Ad credits
Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained:
“As the coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen around the world, it’s taking a devastating toll on lives and communities. To help address some of these challenges, today we’re announcing a new $800+ million commitment to support small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), health organizations and governments, and health workers on the frontline of this global pandemic.”
The commitment includes:
- WHO and other health organizations will get $250 million for advertisement.
- MSME’s and NGO’s will get $200 million.
- An additional $15 million in cash will be granted by Google.org to non-profits to bridge the gap between SMB’s.
- Those small businesses that are already active for a year with Google advertisement will get the help of a total of $340 million in Google ad. They will receive the credit in their accounts and can spend it by the end of 2020.
- The academic and research institutions in the field of COVID research will get $20 million.
- Financial support will be provided to the organizations to increase the production capacity for life-saving equipment.
However, not everything went great for Google during this tough time of COVID:
Read More: Google Cuts Marketing Budgets by 50%, Freezes Hiring.
Key Points
- Budget cuts and hiring freezes across marketing and across Google.
- For the second half of 2020, Google is cutting its marketing budget to 50%.
- The cut is due to the reduced expenditure on advertisement by the brands during the time of the crisis.
- The development comes in less than a week from where Google is scheduled to discuss Q1 2020 results on 28th April.
According to a statement released by email:
“There are budget cuts and hiring freezes happening across marketing and across Google…We, along with the rest of marketing, have been asked to cut our budget by about half for H2.”
A company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CNBC,
“As we outlined last week, we are re-evaluating the pace of our investment plans for the remainder of 2020 and will focus on a select number of important marketing efforts….We continue to have a robust marketing budget, particularly in digital, in many business areas.”
…we continue to invest, but will be recalibrating the focus and pace of our investments in areas like data centers and machines, and non-business essential marketing and travel.”
Read More: Google Withhold Programmatic Data, Advertisers Pulls Back Ad Spend
As quoted by Digiday, the Head of Display at the U.S based retailer said,
“Google’s ad exchange didn’t make the list primarily because they’re not willing to give us any transparency or data around not only their take rates on our media sped but also anything we could already pull from our demand-side platform.”
“We’re seeing Google’s ad exchange become slightly less of the total pie,” said Jay Friedman, president at programmatic agency Goodway Group to DigiDay.
”I don’t have a percentage but it’s less but not significant.”, he further added.
The advertisers registered their doubts and raised concerns regarding the non-transparent behavior of Google. However, this must have been resolved after the release of the price list for its advertising tools by Google.
YouTube Tests New Shoppable Video Ads Tools
Amid a pandemic that created havoc around the world that resulted in prolonged store closures. This has led brands to advertise their products online to drive sales as more people are online now. To make things easier for them, YouTube has introduced new direct response solutions that make video ads more shoppable, drive conversion, and automate content delivery across the platform.
The idea is to make video ads the new ‘storefront’ for the brands as an increasing number of brands are using video ads that connect them directly to customers. YouTube Ads director and product manager Nicky Rettke wrote in the blog post, “Last year, the number of active advertisers using TrueView for action grew over 260 percent.”
Increase in sales with Shoppable TrueView for action
In the new test, the eCommerce advertisers can show their products in their TrueView for action ads. When the user clicks on the expansion arrow, browsable product imagery appears below the video.
The advertisers are required to sync their Google Merchant Center feed to the video ads, expand their call-to-action button, and drive traffic to a specific product page. However, Facebook recently released “Shops” creates on platform storefronts but keep the users and transactions within Facebook.
Retailer Aerie used Shoppable TrueView for action to increase awareness and sales for its 2020 Spring campaign and saw a 25% higher return on ad spend than the previous year and nine times more conversions compared to their traditional media mix. Rettke said in the post that 70% of people bought a brand after seeing it on YouTube.
Video Campaigns drive conversions
The next tool announced is ‘Video campaigns’, a cost-effective way to drive conversions, boost web traffic, or generate leads across the platform. It automatically brings video ads to the YouTube home feed, watch pages, and Google video partners in one campaign as well as include any future inventory that becomes available like the What to Watch Next feed.
YouTube tested the video ad campaign with a start-up Mos to help students raise funds for college to avoid debts. Rettke said in the blog post that it saw 30% more purchases at one-third of the cost of its previous ad spend.
Lead Generation to a Video campaign
The third tool is adding lead forms to a brand’s video ad campaign. Lead forms help advertisers reduce costs and obtain potential costumers. It appears below the video ad and asks the viewers to fill the form while the ad is running.
Automobile giant Jeep tested this approach with its Korea branch and saw a 13-times increase in completed leads at an 84% lower cost per lead as well as generated more leads.
Finally, Google has included YouTube in the Google Ads attribution report that will help advertisers identify the maximum impact across YouTube, Search, and Shopping campaigns.
Shoppable Ads, a new focus for social media platforms
Shoppable ads also considered as direct-response ads have become a major focus of all social media platforms in the pandemic when ad sales went down. Facebook introduced shoppable ads on its platform and Instagram. Snapchat has in-app shopping whereas buy groceries without leaving Pinterest. Shoppable ads are also seen on Tik Tok.
DR ads have helped Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat to maintain profits, and CPM’s. As per Adexchanger reports, YouTube sales VP Adam Stewart said,
“YouTube storefront isn’t a traditional DR advertising product.YouTube has a bustling DR business, because it’s popular for app-install campaigns, especially with mobile gaming companies.”
Direct response advertising features will be the focus of YouTube’s NewFronts presentation to advertisers. As a part of YouTube’s pitch, Stewart said the storefront isn’t meant to rival Facebook-Instagram or Snapchat commerce offerings but its natural counterpart is television.
Every 2020 Google SERP Feature Explained: A Visual Guide
How many searches would happen to Google every minute, month, or year? Have you wondered? Finally, the company has released updated data.
Every second, Google processes 63,000 search queries.
Every year, Google has 2 trillion searches.
A caveat, Keep ‘at least’ in mind while reading the figures.
This shows we are so obligated to the power of Google search behemoth and its mystical computing. Google holds nearly 72% market share of search engines.
Why it matters
Companies spend time and effort to develop fantastic content, great titles, meta descriptions, and permalink to rank high on the search and drive conversions. However, a key strategy is often missed- to capitalize and enhance their entry on Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
Incorporate the rich snippets into your online stores, websites, blogs, and more
SERP is the way
Google Search engine pages are now accurate, personalized, relevant, dynamic, and helpful. Using structured data, there are many visual enhancements made to the search engine result page which helps you to find the required information. It is essential to know the enhancements as indexability and site optimization has an impact on organic rankings.
Take a look at the enhancements and characteristics of each one:
- Direct Answer Box with short, rapid answers, lists, tables, or carousels may have an image to enhance it.
- Rich Snippet is the additional line of context below traditional SERP and is provided by the websites with price, ratings, etc to enhance the search engine result page.
- Rich Cards for mobile users.
- Knowledge Graphs shows up on the right of a SERP displaying curated images and information about the search.
- Knowledge Panels shows up to on the right of a SERP displaying curated images, information, directions specific to a brand or business.
- Local Pack is an integral part of the local search results with business information, reviews, and location and plays a key role in customer’s decision making.
- People also ask provides related questions and answers to the original query.
- Image Pack is a horizontal carousel of queries related to images or photos.
- Site Links is an expanded pack of links within popular sites. It may also include a site search field that is particular to the internal search mechanism.
- Twitter displays a carousel of tweets with clickable images and links.
- Newsbox: is a carousel of trending, top stories, or breaking news related to the query.
Why Use Rich snippets
By structuring the data and following Schema standards, you can utilize rich snippets and improve your overall visibility on the search engine as it educates the algorithms on the information within the page.
If your company or marketing team is not taking advantage of rich snippets then time to change strategy and develop a new solution. Rich snippets help you enhance your search, increase click-through rates, and engagement. If your company or marketing team is not taking advantage of rich snippets then time to change strategy and develop a new solution. Rich snippets help you enhance your search, increase click-through rates, and engagement.
The Big Picture
This infographic from Brafton, A Visual Guide to Every Google SERP Feature: Snippets, Panels, Paid Ads and More, provides insight on how rich snippets and structured data look like on a search engine results page and why it appears.