August 2020 – SEO and Marketing News

0
Aug 21, 2020 / by
August 2020 – SEO and Marketing News

We’re heading into a heatwave as I type this sentence and the online marketing world is moving at a decidedly slow pace, possibly in part due to the sweltering weather. Chances are, however, that it’s more to do with the lingering effects of COVID-19.

However, we trudge on regardless with our monthly online marketing and SEO news roundup – putting the latest goings-on under the microscope and examining exactly what the rest of the world is up to. It’s going to be a long and hot one, so strap yourselves in!

Ad industry groups launch effort to push for addressable media standards

Privacy regulations and changes to the ways browsers and operating systems handle ad targeting and tracking are causing upheaval across the digital ad ecosystem. To address these challenges, and push back on Google and Apple, leading ad industry associations and companies have launched a new standards initiative Tuesday.

Dubbed the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media, the group said it was created to “advance and protect critical functionalities like customisation and analytics for digital media and advertising, while safeguarding privacy and improving the consumer experience.”

The governing partners include:

  • Trade bodies: 4A’s, Association of National Advertisers/ANA, Interactive Advertising Bureau, IAB Tech Lab, Network Advertising             Initiative, World Federation of Advertisers.
  • Advertisers: Ford, General Motors, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Unilever.
  • Agencies: UM (an IPG Mediabrands company), Publicis Media.
  • Publishers: NBC Universal.
  • Ad Tech/Martech: Adobe, MediaMath, The Trade Desk.

Bill Tucker, who is Group EVP leading the Data, Technology, and Measurement Practices at the ANA will serve as the Partnership’s executive director.

Microsoft and Pepsi announce five-year partnership to enhance agility and operations

Microsoft and PepsiCo have entered into a five-year partnership agreement to establish Microsoft as PepsiCo’s preferred provider of cloud computing, in order to expedite PepsiCo’s infrastructure, ERP and data estate consolidation and modernisation.

“Through our partnership with Microsoft, we aim to improve service delivery capabilities to meet rising demand for essential goods while driving innovations to make our operations and workforce stronger and more resilient for the future,” said PepsiCo CIO Seth Cohen.

All of PepsiCo’s 270,000 employees will be on the Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams platforms, and they will use Microsoft Azure to increase agility and consumer data analysis to improve product innovations and sustainability efforts.

Adobe Target rolls out AI-powered enhanced analytics

To boost personalisation and optimised digital experiences, Adobe Target customers now have access to reporting featuring Adobe Analytics with three AI-powered testing and personalisation capabilities, all of which utilise Adobe Sensei AI:

  • Auto-Allocate for testing in low traffic areas or to quickly identify the best journey in time-sensitive campaigns;
  • Auto-Target to dynamically rank the most qualified offers or creative to show to individual customers at the next visit;
  • Recommendations, which provides a wide variety of customisable algorithms to generate personalised options based on browsing history.

Google ‘gamifies’ its search results

Google has added games to its search results from the Google Arts and Cultures games section. It’s a game where you are asked a multiple choice question related to your query and Google tells you if you got the answer correct. You can try it yourself on mobile search by searching for Ansel Adams and looking for the box sectioned off in the “Games” category named “Arts and Culture Game.”

Cardlytics finalises partnership with Wells Fargo

Cardlytics may not be the best-known name in digital advertising, but with their reach boosted to 150 million monthly active users, it says it has become the fourth-largest player in the US digital ad space, just behind Google, Facebook and Amazon.

The reason Cardlytics’ reach just increased is the launch of its long-anticipated partnership with Wells Fargo, adding another major bank to a list that includes Bank of America and Chase. Cardlytics delivers native ads to customers within the banks’ digital channels. It allows brands to reach customers in secure environments, and to reach them with relevant offers based on transaction data. Cardlytics claims visibility into half the card swipes in the US.

Google extends lead forms to YouTube, Discovery campaigns

There are more contact fields, questions by vertical and new ways to automate customer data imports into Google Ads. Google has been testing lead form ad extensions in Search campaigns since last fall. Now, advertisers can use the lead form extensions in YouTube and Discovery campaign ads as well. The company also announced new initiatives to automate data imports into Google Ads. Lead form ad extensions will be available in Display campaigns later this year, Google noted in its announcement earlier this month.

Google has expanded the field options available for collection since it initially started testing lead forms. Now in addition to name, email, phone number, and postal code, advertisers can opt to collect city, state, country as well as business contact information, including company name, job title, work email, work phone. Then there is the option to add questions to your form based on pre-set questions by vertical. For example, under Real Estate, an advertiser could opt to add “What price range are you looking for” to the lead form.

Based on this rollout to other ad campaigns, it looks safe to say that Google has finally cracked lead forms in ads — it tested contact form extensions in 2010 and cost-per-lead-ads in 2011. All of these solutions are aimed at helping small businesses, in particular, capture and act on more leads from their digital campaigns.