Latest digital marketing news

Google came out swinging this past month with a pair of updates rolling out at the same time (core algorithm and page experience), and the company’s not slowing down just yet. This month brought a “link spam update” and a change to the SERPs (in the U.S. only, so far), as well as new Google Ads features. Plus, we have a great look at how digital marketing has changed in a post-pandemic world.

You can read these stories and more—including our latest Insights articles—in this month’s Digital Roundup.

SEO stories

Google rolling out ‘link spam update’

Did your site or your client’s see some ranking dips toward the end of July and the beginning of August (as we’re writing this)? Those changes may be related to a “link spam update” from Google. Duy Nguyen, a search quality update at the company, wrote about the update and stated that it’s “even more effective at identifying and nullifying link spam more broadly, across multiple languages.” Nguyen also provided some best practices for avoiding being penalized by this type of update, and you can read them at Google Search Central.

Google expands ‘About This Result’ with new info

Google expanded the “About This Result” portion of the SERPs with more information about why the result was served to the user. While the info is certainly useful for users—they can perhaps get a better feel for why they want to visit certain sites over other ones—it’s even more interesting for SEOs and marketers. It allows you to dig a bit deeper into the SERPs (and the whys and hows behind them), though it’s only available in the U.S. at the time of this writing. Want to know more? Head over to Search Engine Journal.

Paid media stories

Google introduce new Ads features for seasonal shopping

There are some new features coming to Google Ads that coincide with the upcoming series of seasonal shopping spikes (back to school, Black Friday, etc.). It all starts with a new prompt of “Deals related to your search,” which users will see when scrolling through the Shopping tab. And in October, users in the U.S. will be able to access a new “Deals” section specifically highlighting sales related to events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s more to it, but the overall goal, according to Google, is to make it easier for advertisers to get their best deals in front of more eyes and gain more insights throughout the process. You can get the full rundown in the Google Ads post.

Google rolling out “optimised targeting”

While it’s not widely available just yet, Google’s rollout of “optimised targeting” for Ads users is imminent. As noted by Business2Community, this new feature aims to help advertisers simplify audience targeting and optimisation while offering more opportunities for expanding a campaign’s reach. It does this by providing key data (impressions, clicks, and conversions) within your data of users you’re not targeting. You can learn more about this new feature in the Google Ads post, which also explains how it differs from “audience expansion.” A keynote for anyone in the weeds—this setting is snuck in at Ad Group level, so make sure you’re looking out for it!

Digital analytics stories

Changes coming to Android privacy and app tracking

Google is making some changes to privacy settings, including app tracking, on Android devices in the coming months (the update rollout depends on the device). For example, users will be able to blank their device’s advertising ID, as noted by The Register’s Tim Anderson, who points out that there are critics about how successful this will be for privacy. You can compare this to how Apple requires users to opt into ad tracking, which we covered last year and this past May. Stay tuned for more updates.

5 digital marketing trends and tips for post-pandemic strategies

In addition to being an outright terrible year on many levels, 2020 brought with it plenty of lessons for digital marketers. And over at Business2Community, Marcel Casella put together a list of the top five trends and tips you may be able to use in post-COVID strategies. From shipping fees to the importance of retention, there’s a lot to digest in this piece. Be sure to check out the full article at Business2Community.

Ayima news

In addition to our latest piece of blog content, we wanted to remind you about the launch of Ayima Insights Club. You can learn more about Insights Club and sign up today to get free, personalised news and tools tailored to your specific interests.

Blog articles

Here’s what we published in July 2021.

• Bidding on competitor keywords on Google Ads: Client Growth Manager Richard Ingilby provides a step-by-step action plan on how to bid on competitor keywords, from picking your competitors wisely to testing as much as you can.