Digital Marketing Industry Updates – September

Google Changes How it Generates Titles for Search Results

Google has confirmed that it recently changed the way it creates titles for its search result listings. Before the change, search results snippets and titles were often generated based on the query that the searcher entered. With the change, Google will be using a new system to generate these titles which will make use of the main title or headline on a page, or the content that site owners usually place under <H1> tags and other header tags. According to Google, the title changes don’t impact rankings, but it would be a good idea to continue optimising all your site’s titles and headers so that users are inclined to click through.

 

Display Ads Given More Automation Options

To help advertisers maximise results on their ad campaigns, Google is looking to implement more automated options for its Display ads process. With this new Display campaign experience, advertisers will still have the best reach and performance that they’re accustomed to, all while allowing them to choose the level of automation they prefer in bidding, creatives, and audiences. Also coming to Google’s Display campaigns are optimised targeting, which adds additional automatic targeting options that were previously only available in Smart Display Campaigns. Google says that over time, these automated targeting systems are getting smarter and smarter, providing better results than ad campaigns that are set up and defined manually.

 

Facebook to Counter Apple’s ATT Update with More Automated Ad Targeting

Facebook is also stepping up automation as a way for them to counter the data lost following Apple’s app tracking update. The update included a pop-up that appears for every app that asks iOS users whether they would choose to allow activity tracking through the app. While the impact it’s having is still within turbulent waters, advertisers and marketers are choosing to go with the more automated audience targeting options, with Facebook, in particular, encouraging the use of their machine learning tools to continue to drive engagement and responses.

 

Instagram to Build a New “Favourites” Feature

Instagram is currently developing a new feature that would now let its users choose to “Favourite” the accounts that they would like to see appear higher on their feed. Facebook has had a similar feature for their News Feed algorithm, allowing its users to select up to 30 friends or Facebook Pages whose content they want to see more often. Adding this new feature to Instagram could potentially help influencers and businesses increase their visibility and engagement as long as they continue to put out interesting and engaging content

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