- Google removes sidebar ads
In a move that made people think the sky is falling, Google removed the ads from the right side of the search engine result pages that people are accustomed to.
Some people speculate that this will cause PPC prices to go up and make it so that running paid search requires a specialized team and not just one expert.
Organic results are pushed lower down the page which could either diminish organic success or people will simply get used to scrolling because so many people would rather look at organic results rather than just paid ads.
In early January 2016, Bruce Clay predicted Google pushing more ads above the fold and said:
“The web ceases to be a gold rush, evolving into a pay-to-play space. The few sites gaining true organic rankings and holding them will be gold. The rest will buy ads.”
SEO rankings may be harder than ever but they are worth their weight in gold.
- The rise of social selling
Check out this infographic about social selling to learn more about how sales and marketing are aligning and combining great content in the selling process.
Gone are the days when salespeople were largely about cold calling. If that’s all your sales people are doing you are in for a world of hurt. It’s much more efficient to have them connecting with potential customers by sharing great content from your experts and connecting on social media, as part of the engagement process, rather than just pounding them with calls.
- Facebook reaches 1.59 billion monthly active users
If Facebook were a country it would be the largest in the world. Check out the stats here.
As an old school SEO expert, it took me a while to get on board with fully embracing Facebook as a serious business marketing platform. I still have a long way to go but with ever growing stats like these you just can’t ignore the fact that many of your customers are there.
One simple way to get started is simply running Facebook ads for things such as promoting e-books and content – to get people to sign up to your newsletter and sell them later. Facebook ads are reasonably priced right now and I expect them to get more expensive and as even more people catch on.
- LinkedIn Account Targeting launches
LinkedIn describes account targeting as follows:
“This exciting new functionality makes it possible for marketers to tailor their Sponsored Updates or Sponsored InMail campaigns to a priority list of accounts. This ability, combined with LinkedIn’s profile targeting, will allow our clients to market products and generate opportunities to the right personas within the accounts that matter most to them. Our goal is to give them a platform that accurately targets influencers, and empowers them to deliver relevant content that translates into meaningful results.”
And here is a graphic of how it works:
- Google Scholar
Google Scholar which debuted in 2004 isn’t exactly new but it’s something I have recently gotten more excited about. In-depth research is required for creating quality content and Google scholar can help you dig in more deeply on certain topics.
Scientific data, statistics, scholarly journals and studies are a treasure trove for creating content that has depth.
Conclusion
This week’s digital marketing news theme has a lot of information around running ads but keep in mind that those ads can often be geared toward promoting content that positions you as an expert.
In the race to keep shareholders happy, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and all of the Internet age companies are under pressure to generate revenue.
This rat race will never end and the important thing is to pull your head out of the digital sand, learn about how these advertising opportunities work and use them to your advantage, while building your brand and positioning yourself as an expert.
