TechShu Marketing Digest: March 2021

This curated list includes important digital marketing updates and insights from the month of March. To stay updated on the latest updates from the digital landscape, read our Digital Marketing Apple Page.

Digital Advertisement 

  • Once third-party cookies are phased out, Google will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will they use them in the products. Read more
  • Google announces the global availability of property promotion ads. The announcement read

Today, we’re announcing the global availability of property promotion ads, an ad format that helps advertisers reach users who have not yet identified the exact hotel they would like to book. They show prominently in search results for geographical locations, allowing advertisers to position specific hotels in a particular place. Previous to this launch, direct participation in property promotion ads was done through an allowlist. Now, advertisers will be able to set specific bids for property promotion ads through the Google Ads interface, API and bulk upload system.   

  • In 2020, Google blocked or removed approximately 3.1 billion ads for violating their policies: Google's Annual Ads Safety Report. Read more
  • Static headlines for Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are now available in all markets announces Microsoft Advertising. Read more
  • Microsoft Advertising announces an open beta for a new Automotive Ad format. Read more
  • Microsoft Advertising blocks 1.6 billion ads in 2020. Read more
  • Custom and performance insights notifications have been added to the Google Ads mobile app. Read more
  • 54% of consumers surveyed said they do not feel fully culturally represented in online advertising and 71% expect brands to promote diversity and inclusion in their online advertising: Facebook Study. Read more
  • Facebook announces that creators will now be able to earn money from videos as short as one minute long, plus other monetization options for creators. The announcement read

Video creators can now earn money from videos as short as one minute long, with a minimally interruptive ad running at 30 seconds. For videos three minutes or longer, an ad can be shown 45 seconds in. Previously only three-minute or longer videos could monetize with in-stream ads, with an ad shown no earlier than 1 minute.

Search 

  • Google My Business rolls out new tool to help you manage your reviews. Read more
  • Google is using AI to make Maps work better for you with a number of updates coming this year. The announcement read

Thanks to new advancements that help us understand the precise altitude and placement of objects inside a building, we’re now able to bring Live View to some of the trickiest-to-navigate places indoors: airports, transit stations and malls. 

With the new weather layer, you can quickly see current and forecasted temperature and weather conditions in an area — so you’ll never get caught in the rain without an umbrella. And the new air quality layer shows you how healthy (or unhealthy) the air is.

Soon, Google Maps will default to the route with the lowest carbon footprint when it has approximately the same ETA as the fastest route.

  • Core Web Vitals & Page Experience FAQs (Updated: March 2021). Read more
  • Google makes it free for hotels and travel companies around the world to appear in hotel booking links. Read more
  • Google provides details to help educational sites implement structured data on their practice problem and math solver pages. Read more
  • Google tests displaying cost estimates in local search results. Read more
  • Google My Business rolls out new performance reporting. The announcement read

We start with interactions to let you know how often people have contacted you. More metrics will follow over the next months and will include detailed reports about searches and the number of people who saw the profile.

After metrics are added to Performance reporting, the older versions of those metrics will eventually be removed from the Google My Business web and app platforms.

Performance reporting is currently available on Search and will soon be available on Maps.

  • Yet another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update. Read more
  • Microsoft Bing delivers more visually immersive experiences. Read more
  • Google brings Full Coverage in Search on mobile devices. Read more
  • Google makes two changes to the rich results report in Google Search Console. The update read

March 11, 2021
Job posting
Search Console has changed the requirements for the Education, Experience, and ExperienceInPlaceOfEducation properties of job posting markup. Therefore you may see an increase in warnings for Job Posting instances on your property. See more details about the updated requirements in the Job Posting documentation.

March 2, 2021
Q&A and FAQ
Search Console now checks the validity of FAQ and Q&A structured data that is below the root entity level. Previously, we only checked entities at the root level. Therefore, you may see an increase in valid/warning/invalid FAQ and Q&A items to reflect an accurate count of root and nested entities that we found on your site.

Social Media 

  • YouTube rolls out YouTube Shorts to the U.S. Read more
  • Instructional headlines drove the most Facebook engagement : Survey analyzing 100 million headlines. Read more
  • YouTube is experimenting with a new feature that displays a list of products detected in some videos, as well as related products. Read more
  • Facebook rolls out a new tool to give users more control over what they share to News Feed by managing who can comment on their public posts. Read more
  • LinkedIn is introducing a slew of new tools to help the users create a more expressive and inclusive Profile. The announcement read

This starts with a video Cover Story, a new tool that lets you personalize your first “hello,” so you can engage your audience and reach recruiters.

With creator mode, you can add hashtags to indicate what topics you post about the most -- for example, #design or #mentorship. It will move your Featured and Activity sections to the top of your Profile to more prominently display your content,  and change the “Connect” button to “Follow,” to help you engage your community and build a following. 

  • Twitter is testing a new way for users to watch YouTube videos on Twitter. Read more
  • LinkedIn is developing its own audio rooms product. Read more
  • Instagram officially launches its new Remix option for Reels

 

  • Instagram says Stories Drafts coming soon. 
  • Instagram is testing a ‘Captions’ sticker for Stories. 
Category
Digital Marketing