Is it more “visual, snackable, personal, and human?” Yes.

But, for now, you can only gain access to Google’s new search generative experience (SGE) through a Google Labs waitlist — which means you may be waiting weeks before you can play with it directly.

Don’t worry. We’ve got your first look and a deep dive into the new Google Search generative AI experience.

What the new Google Search Generative Experience looks like

The interface. SGE may display an AI-generated answer above the search results listings. Google clearly labels the answer as Generative AI is experimental, which is then followed by an answer to your query.

The answer is boxed in. Google cites the websites it used to generate the answer. Those sites can be clicked on to dig deeper. Or you can follow up with an additional question or even click the toggle button at the top right to dive deeper.

• “You’ll see an AI-powered snapshot of key information to consider, with links to dig deeper,” Google said.

When you click the expand button to toggle to show a deeper response, you are given additional responses from the generative AI.

Here is a GIF of it in action:

Throughout the answers generated by AI, Google gives you websites in these clickable boxes with images, so you can click over to the website to learn more.

The color of the generative AI answer box will change to “reflect specific journey types and the query intent itself,” Google said.

Vertical search with AI. This also works for vertical search experiences, such as Google Shopping results. Google’s SGE can pull in 35 billion product listings from the Google Shopping Graph, which has 1.8 billion updates every hour, Google told us. The generative AI needs to update fast, almost in real-time, to provide some answers.

Google can give you a good answer for which products to consider when searching for specific types of products, such as [bluetooth speaker for a pool party]:

Conversations. You can also follow up with your query by adding more details or additional prompts to the Ask a follow up box. Google will then generate a follow-up answer.

• “Context will be carried over from question to question, to help you more naturally continue your exploration. You’ll also find helpful jumping-off points to web content and a range of perspectives that you can dig into,” Google explained.

Conversational mode is especially useful for follow-up questions, as well as more complex or evolving information journeys, Google explained.

• “It uses AI to understand when a person is searching for something that is related to a previous question. It carries over context from previous questions to reformulate the query to better reflect the intent,” Google added.

Why we care. Most of us use Google search an awful lot of the time. It’s been clear that generative AI would change the search experience, but it wasn’t easy to guess how. We now have a better idea.

For marketers there will be some relief that Google isn’t using generated text to simply replace search results (that wouldn’t make much sense for Google’s business model, of course). Publishers will be relieved that there are plenty of links to websites. All of us, as users, should be pleased that we get a generous glimpse of what the information in the answers is based on.

How it works

Technology. Google said SGE uses a “variety of LLMs,” including but not limited to MUM and PaLM2.

This search experience was “purposefully trained to carry out tasks specific to Search, including identifying high-quality web results that corroborate the information presented in the output,” Google said.

Where Google won’t give answers. Google won’t give you answers for everything you might ask it, Liz Reid, VP of Search at Google, told us. Google is trying to be careful with this new version of Google Search, which will show answers for safer queries.

For example, Google won’t show an answer to a question about giving a child Tylenol because it is in the medical space. Google may also not show answers to questions in the financial space.

Sound familiar? Yes, Google is playing it safe in YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) categories. Google is expanding YMYL to include civic information.

• “Just as our ranking systems are designed not to unexpectedly shock or offend people with potentially harmful, hateful, or explicit content, SGE is designed not to show such content in its responses,” Google explained.

Google added that they hold this new search experience “to an even higher standard when it comes to generating responses about certain queries where information quality is critically important.”

This new search experience “places even more emphasis on producing informative responses that are corroborated by reliable sources,” Google told us.

When it comes to “data voids” or “information gaps” – where Google’s systems have lower confidence in its responses, Google “aims to not generate an AI-powered snapshot,” they said.

Plus, for explicit or dangerous topics, Google will stay away from generating a response.

Google’s approach. Google has a five-point approach to generative AI in search:

1. Information needs: How can Google reduce the number of steps it takes for the searcher to accomplish a task or complete a goal and how can Google make the experience more fluid and seamless?
2. Information quality: The information Google responds with needs to be quality, and the way the AI responds needs to be high level. So should Google answer health or financial-related queries?
3. Safety constraints: Should Google provide first-person responses? Should Google provide fluid answers that users would trust to be 100% accurate, when Google might not be able to verify the accuracy of all the answers?
4. Ecosystem: Google wants to provide traffic and credits to the source of the content. Google wants to design an experience that encourages the users and searcher to dig deeper into those sources.
5. Ads: Can ads be relevant and provide additional information to the user and how is it best to show the ads to the user in this experience.

Citations and links

When Google launched Bard, we were all taken aback by the lack of citations and links to publishers. It was rare to see links from Google Bard to publisher websites.

However, in SGE, we see a healthier way of linking to publishers and supporting the ecosystem.

Not only are the explicit answers generated in this search experience made up of specific websites, but those websites that make up those answers are also prominently displayed in the answer with a thumbnail image, title, and URL, all that is clickable to the publisher’s website.

Google, however, will not directly cite or attribute a particular page. Google’s AI model synthesizes information from a variety of sources.

In fact, Google looks for factual corroboration across sources to build the answers and then show the citations. These are generally from high-quality online sources. Google is using many of the signals Google has had in place for decades to understand information quality.

Links to publisher sites. Here is a screenshot showing those websites in the answer:

Toggle deeper. You can then click at the top right, on that toggle button to do a deeper dive into more sources, where the generative AI shows more answers with more sources that you can click on. The arrow in this image is pointing to the toggle, directly above the website links:

With search results below. Plus, you can continue to scroll down and access classic search results, in a more “snackable” format. You can see some of the links to search results, in a more boxed-in format here:

Dig deeper: Why we care about search marketing

Taking AI seriously

Google also spoke about its AI principles and emphasized they take all these AI technologies seriously.

“We’re taking a responsible and deliberate approach to bringing new generative AI capabilities to Search,” Google said.

This is not Bard, Bard was designed to showcase what the LLM models can do. This experience is specifically designed for search and works differently, as showcased above.

Google has deployed its search quality raters to do some early testing over the next few weeks before launching it to the first set of public users.

You will be able to signup for the waitlist today with the first wave of approvals to try out this new search experience in the coming weeks.

A version of this story first appeared on Search Engine Land. Additional reporting by Kim Davis.

The post Here’s what Google’s new AI Search Generative Experience will look like appeared first on MarTech.

“Exciting news, Moz fans! We are thrilled to announce that Moz has been acquired by iContact Marketing Corp!” Bird wrote.

iContact was founded in 2003 and is based in Morrisville, North Carolina with about 300 employees. It is focused on email marketing and offers email tools through its brands Campaigner, SMTP and Kickbox. Moz was founded in 2004 and is based in Seattle. Bird took over as CEO in 2014 after Rand Fishkin, the co-founder of Moz stepped down from that role. In 2016, Moz did some downsizing after some possible missteps. In 2018, Fishkin stepped down from Moz to start a new startup, SparkToro.

This news comes after Semrush, a competing SEO toolset provider, went public a couple of months ago.

The acquisition price and deal terms were not disclosed, and a Moz contact told us “we will not be disclosing financial details of the acquisition.”

What’s next? The company’s announcment said ”Moz remains committed to continuing to improve the company’s all-in-one SEO toolset and maintaining the accuracy of the data upon which it is built.”

“Since the beginning, Moz has elevated SEO as a critical strategy for growth and brand recognition. With this news, our mission remains the same. Moz should only innovate faster and more effectively for our customers,” said Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz. “The shared focus on delivering powerful digital marketing solutions is a perfect fit for our brand, staff and community. We are excited to begin collaborating on new solutions for our collective customers.”

Why we care. Moz is one of the more reputable toolsets in the industry, so we hope this sale helps fund new features, tools and support options for customers. Organic search and email marketing are some of the most powerful marketing channels brands have, so it will be interesting to see how Moz and iContact’s tools integrate, if they ever do.

The post Moz acquired by iContact appeared first on MarTech.

The numbers. The Form S-1 statement shows the numbers behind the SEO tool platform. In 2020 the company had just under $125 million in revenues, which was up from $92 million in 2019. The gross profit was just under $95 million in 2020, compared to just under $70 million in 2019. Semrush spends a lot on marketing, spending $54.5 million in 2020 and $41.7 million in 2019. This led to a $7 million net loss in 2020 and a $10 million net loss in 2019.

About half of its revenue comes from U.S. customers.

The company did take in funding of $40M in 2018.

Customers. Semrush said it had 67,000 paying customers in 2020, up from over 54,000 in 2019. Keep in mind, in 2010 the company had just surpassed 1,000 customers, and in 2015 it broke the 15,000 customer mark. On the other hand, the company said it had 404,312 active free customers in 2020.

The company also said it has served over 300,000 students and has issued over 130,000 certificates all-time through its Semrush Academy, an online learning platform.

Here is a chart in the filings that shows annual subscription revenue by cohort:

Concerns. The company listed its risks factors, here are some of what they listed:

• “Our business and operating results will be harmed if our paying customers do not upgrade their premium subscriptions or if they fail to purchase additional products.”
• “If we fail to attract new potential customers through unpaid and paid marketing efforts, register them for trials, and convert them into paying customers, our operating results would be harmed.”
• “The market in which we operate is intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our ability to attract and retain free and paying customers could be harmed, which would negatively impact our business and operating results.”
• “Our products depend on publicly available and paid third-party data sources, and, if we lose access to data provided by such data sources or the terms and conditions on which we obtain such access become less favorable, our business could suffer.”
• “Changes by search engines, social networking sites, and other third-party services to their underlying technology configurations or policies regarding the use of their platforms and/or technologies for commercial purposes, including anti-spam policies, may limit the efficacy of certain of our products, tools, and add-ons and as a result, our business may suffer.”

Other products. The company said it has more than 50 tools in its ecosystem and that it intends to continue adding to its portfolio through acquisitions. The company most recently bought Prowly, a PR service, in September.

Competitive insight. Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz and former CEO who left the company in 2018, shared his thoughts on this news. There are few who know the space like him. He said it is “really impressive what they’ve done the last 6 years. SEMRush went from 3rd/4th place in SEO software, to a clear #1 in revenue & growth rate. Ahrefs is #2 at ~$55-75M, with Moz in 3rd (~$45M)* at a slower growth rate (after leading for years prior).” He did note these are guesses at the other company numbers but his guesses would be better than most.

Why we care. Many of our readers use Semrush in their day-to-day profession. This gives us a look under the hood at the company and lets us see how the platform has expanded over the years and any risks to future growth. If you are a marketer using its free tools, this also shows how important it is for Semrush to convert you into a paid subscriber. Lastly, the growth in 2020 is also an indicator of the extent that marketers have embraced search marketing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article first appeared on Search Engine Land.

The post Semrush plans to go public after posting big 2020 growth appeared first on MarTech.

11:45 a.m EST: Ecommerce platform Shopify has also removed online stores and sites affiliated with President Trump after Wednesday’s violence.

Yesterday America went through surreal times when a large group of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol after the President posted numerous social media posts on Twitter and Facebook inciting action from those supporters.

Facebook has just blocked President Donald Trump from posting on its platform for the remainder of his term as President of the United States. Twitter, as of now, still has its 12-hour temporary action of blocking Trump from posting on its platform with a warning that the company may permanently disable his account.

The announcements. Here is Twitter’s post about the temporary ban and warning of future action:

Facebook initially put a 24 hour ban in for Trump but then minutes ago decided to block Trump through his term. Here is the statement from Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

Advertisers pausing accounts. Some advertisers are reportedly pausing their advertising campaigns with Facebook and Twitter during these times. Jonathan Kagan, VP of Search, Cogniscient Media|9Rooftops, told us, “We advised our clients that there was so much coverage of the situation, running into a brand safety scenario, or coming off as tone deaf/insensitive to the situation in DC would be inevitable. To avoid possible brand association, we recommend they temporarily cease paid social ads.”

Lisa Barone from Overit said that most brands should pause their campaigns. She wrote on Twitter:

While another digital marketer named Joe Youngblood said they did the opposite and promoted positive non-political content on the networks.

Why we care. When advertising on these social networks, it is important to ensure your brand does not get tied up in the negative association with current events. We have seen the short-term impact current events can have on brands. Be careful and stay current on the news and what is trending on social media to protect your brands.

This article first appeared on Search Engine Land

The post Facebook blocks Trump for remainder of term while Twitter sets temporary ban appeared first on MarTech.

Rolling out. BERT started rolling out this week and will be fully live shortly. It is rolling out for English language queries now and will expand to other languages in the future.

Featured Snippets. This will also impact featured snippets. Google said BERT is being used globally, in all languages, on featured snippets.

What is BERT? It is Google’s neural network-based technique for natural language processing (NLP) pre-training. BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers.

It was opened-sourced last year and written about in more detail on the Google AI blog. In short, BERT can help computers understand language a bit more like humans do.

When is BERT used? Google said BERT helps better understand the nuances and context of words in searches and better match those queries with more relevant results. It is also used for featured snippets, as described above.

In one example, Google said, with a search for “2019 brazil traveler to usa need a visa,” the word “to” and its relationship to the other words in query are important for understanding the meaning. Previously, Google wouldn’t understand the importance of this connection and would return results about U.S. citizens traveling to Brazil. “With BERT, Search is able to grasp this nuance and know that the very common word “to” actually matters a lot here, and we can provide a much more relevant result for this query,” Google explained.

Note: The examples below are for illustrative purposes and may not work in the live search results.

In another example, a search for “do estheticians stand a lot at work, Google Said it previously would have matched the term “stand-alone” with the word “stand” used in the query. Google’s BERT models can “understand that ‘stand’ is related to the concept of the physical demands of a job, and displays a more useful response,” Google said.

In the example below, Google can understand a query more like a human to show a more relevant result on a search for “Can you get medicine for someone pharmacy.”

Featured snippet example. Here is an example of Google showing a more relevant featured snippet for the query “Parking on a hill with no curb”. In the past, a query like this would confuse Google’s systems. Google said, “We placed too much importance on the word “curb” and ignored the word “no”, not understanding how critical that word was to appropriately responding to this query. So we’d return results for parking on a hill with a curb.”

RankBrain is not dead. RankBrain was Google’s first artificial intelligence method for understanding queries in 2015. It looks at both queries and the content of web pages in Google’s index to better understand what the meanings of the words are. BERT does not replace RankBrain, it is an additional method for understanding content and queries. It’s additive to Google’s ranking system. RankBrain can and will still be used for some queries. But when Google thinks a query can be better understood with the help of BERT, Google will use that. In fact, a single query can use multiple methods, including BERT, for understanding query.

How so? Google explained that there are a lot of ways that it can understand what the language in your query means and how it relates to content on the web. For example, if you misspell something, Google’s spelling systems can help find the right word to get you what you need. And/or if you use a word that’s a synonym for the actual word that it’s in relevant documents, Google can match those. BERT is another signal Google uses to understands language. Depending on what you search for, any one or combination of these signals could be more used to understand your query and provide a relevant result.

Can you optimize for BERT? It is unlikely. Google has told us SEOs can’t really optimize for RankBrain. But it does mean Google is getting better at understanding natural language. Just write content for users, like you always do. This is Google’s efforts at better understand the searcher’s query and matching it better to more relevant results.

Why we care. We care, not only because Google said this change is “representing the biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search.”

But also because 10% of all queries have been impacted by this update. That is a big change. We did see unconfirmed reports of algorithm updates mid-week and earlier this week, which may be related to this change.

We’d recommend you check to see your search traffic changes sometime next week and see how much your site was impacted by this change. If it was, drill deeper into which landing pages were impacted and for which queries. You may notice that those pages didn’t convert and the search traffic Google sent those pages didn’t end up actually being useful.

We will be watching this closely and you can expect more content from us on BERT in the future.

The post Welcome BERT: Google’s latest search algorithm to better understand natural language appeared first on MarTech.

Here’s our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on MarTech and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

• For many marketers, platform integration is a ‘must have’ for new tools
  Nov 28, 2018 by Barry LevineWhat is often hidden in organizations’ software choices is that many marketers will only select from the application ecosystems of Salesforce, HubSpot or other major platforms.

• Teach yourself about machine learning and artificial intelligence
  Nov 28, 2018 by Pamela ParkerShifting to data-driven marketing requires hiring or training staffers familiar with the latest technologies. Bolster your staff development with these free educational resources.

• Compare 15 top marketing automation platforms
  Nov 28, 2018 by Digital Marketing DepotRegardless of your company’s size and marketing sophistication, marketing automation tools can provide the following benefits to the organization: Increased marketing efficiency. Enhanced ability to generate more and better-qualified leads. A multichannel view of prospect behavior. Better alignment of sales and marketing goals. Improved lead conversion and ROI. MarTech Today’s “B2B Marketing Automation Platforms: A […]

• 165 million people shopped online and in stores over Black Friday weekend
  Nov 28, 2018 by Greg SterlingThere were just under 90 million multichannel shoppers who spent on average $93 more than online or in-store only buyers.

• Quora unveils new Promoted Answers ad unit
  Nov 28, 2018 by Robin KurzerThe Promoted Answers unit has the same targeting options as the platform’s other ad formats.

• Data privacy: Will the industry emerge stronger following the Facebook fallout?
  Nov 28, 2018 by Adam CoreyNew regulation will push transparency to be normalized so advertisers must communicate simply and openly about how audience data is used.

• Why Disney, Microsoft and Home Shopping Network attend SMX West
  Nov 27, 2018 by Marketing LandFor more than 10 years, marketers have attended Search Marketing Expo – SMX® West for a variety of reasons. Here’s what a few of them had to say about the experience: “… changes in search marketing are impacting the variety of stakeholders in the industry. It is too easy to get stuck in one’s own perspective alone, and SMX […]

• Cheetah mobile and another Chinese firm accused of mobile ad download fraud
  Nov 27, 2018 by Greg SterlingA Q1 report from AppsFlyer said that mobile ad fraud is costing brands $700-$800 million globally on a quarterly basis.

• Forrester decides to buy SiriusDecisions
  Nov 27, 2018 by Barry LevineThis latest expansion by the Cambridge-based research firm adds marketing, sales and product operational methodology, as well as the SiriusDecisions’ “Demand Waterfall.”

Recent Headlines From MarTech Today, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Marketing Technology:

• For many marketers, platform integration is a ‘must have’ for new tools
  Nov 28, 2018 by Barry LevineWhat is often hidden in organizations’ software choices is that many marketers will only select from the application ecosystems of Salesforce, HubSpot or other major platforms.

• Teach yourself about machine learning and artificial intelligence
  Nov 28, 2018 by Pamela ParkerShifting to data-driven marketing requires hiring or training staffers familiar with the latest technologies. Bolster your staff development with these free educational resources.

• MarTech Today: Forrester buys SiriusDecisions, foldable screens and five essential strategies for B2B marketers
  Nov 28, 2018 by Barry LevineHere’s our daily recap of what happened in marketing technology, as reported on MarTech Today, Marketing Land and other places across the web. From MarTech Today: Forrester decides to buy SiriusDecisions Nov 27, 2018 by Barry Levine This latest expansion by the Cambridge-based research firm adds marketing, sales and product operational methodology, as well as the […]

• Redefine your marketing’s capabilities. Learn the new, new rules of marketing, only at MarTech
  Nov 27, 2018 by Scott Brinker“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald Successful marketers routinely hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time… and function spectacularly. Exhibit A may very well be the new, […]

• Forrester decides to buy SiriusDecisions
  Nov 27, 2018 by Barry LevineThis latest expansion by the Cambridge-based research firm adds marketing, sales and product operational methodology, as well as the SiriusDecisions’ “Demand Waterfall.”

Online Marketing News From Around The Web:

• A Business With No End, New York Times
• Amazon gets most of its ad revenue from its virtual store, Quartz
• Connecting People to Local News and Their Communities, Facebook Newsroom
• Instagram is now using AI to describe photos for users with visual impairments, The Verge
• Social Media Marketing: How To Master The Art Of Going Live, Forbes
• Steemit is laying off close to 70% of team to cut operating costs as cryptocurrency prices drop, The Block
• YouTube launches ‘Pods’: Skippable back-back video ads, Netimperative

The post Marketing Day: Black Friday shoppers, Forrester buys SiriusDecisions & mobile ad fraud appeared first on MarTech.

Here’s our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on MarTech and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

• Facebook extends Watch Party to Pages and personal profiles, adds features
  Nov 27, 2018 by Robin Kurzer

  Its new Live Commentating feature lets a host moderate a Watch Party as videos play.

• From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, consumers spend more than $4 billion on mobile
  Nov 27, 2018 by Greg Sterling

  More retail traffic came from mobile devices than the desktop and some are reporting that mobile sales beat the PC as well.

• Foldable screens: No big deal for marketers or potential game changer?
  Nov 27, 2018 by Barry Levine

  Android now natively supports foldable screens, and Samsung is coming out with a foldable-screen Galaxy. What does this mean for marketing?

• Cyber Monday shopping shatters sales records, beats expectations
  Nov 27, 2018 by Robin Kurzer

  It’s good news for brands and marketers as the 2018 holiday season kicks off with a bang.

• EU consumer groups accuse Google of violating GDPR with location history
  Nov 27, 2018 by Greg Sterling

  The groups argue Google doesn’t sufficiently disclose how location data is being used and has not obtained consumer consent.

• 8 best online reputation management tools for your brand
  Nov 27, 2018 by Sponsored Content: Awario

  If your brand has an online presence at all, you can’t not worry about its reputation. Today, online reputation management (or ORM for short) is not only applicable to every business; ignoring it can cost you customers and money. Here’re just some of the reasons why ORM should be an integral part of your strategy: […]

• WPP merges agencies to form ‘data-driven’ Wunderman Thompson
  Nov 26, 2018 by Pamela Parker

  The new agency aims to offer “inspiration that is rooted in data-driven insight.”

• Virgin Holidays powers travel recommendations with social posts
  Nov 26, 2018 by Barry Levine

  Marketers have yet another reason to promote and track their offerings on social media.

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Marketing Technology:

• MarTech Today: Virgin Holiday’s social-powered travel recommendations, using dynamic content & more
  Nov 27, 2018 by Barry Levine

  Here’s our daily recap of what happened in marketing technology, as reported on MarTech Today, Marketing Land and other places across the web. From MarTech Today: Virgin Holidays powers travel recommendations with social posts Nov 26, 2018 by Barry Levine Marketers have yet another reason to promote and track their offerings on social media. 7 ways […]

• 8 best online reputation management tools for your brand
  Nov 27, 2018 by Sponsored Content: Awario

  If your brand has an online presence at all, you can’t not worry about its reputation. Today, online reputation management (or ORM for short) is not only applicable to every business; ignoring it can cost you customers and money. Here’re just some of the reasons why ORM should be an integral part of your strategy: […]

• Foldable screens: No big deal for marketers or potential game changer?
  Nov 27, 2018 by Barry Levine

  Android now natively supports foldable screens, and Samsung is coming out with a foldable-screen Galaxy. What does this mean for marketing?

• 5 essential strategies B2B marketers must master in 2019
  Nov 27, 2018 by Scott Vaughan

  With a solid foundation, the innovative strategies, tactics, programs and tech we deploy will be more impactful.

• WPP merges agencies to form ‘data-driven’ Wunderman Thompson
  Nov 26, 2018 by Pamela Parker

  The new agency aims to offer “inspiration that is rooted in data-driven insight.”

Online Marketing News From Around The Web:

• Facebook confirms years-old messages are randomly coming back to haunt users, The Verge
• Can Opt-In Video Marketing Really Work?, Forbes
• Disney and Google Ink Broad, Multiyear Digital Advertising Deal, Variety
• Facebook Dominance in Social and Ads Raises Antitrust Issue, Bloomberg
• Some Google AdSense November Payments Delayed & Still Pending, Search Engine Roundtable
• The best ad targeting strategy isn’t always the obvious one, VentureBeat
• Useful changes to your billing statement reports, Bing Ads Blog
• YouTube annotations will disappear for good in January, The Verge

The post Marketing Day: Facebook Watch Party, foldable screens & Google GDPR concerns appeared first on MarTech.

Here’s our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

• Consumers spent a record $6.22 billion online on Black Friday
  Nov 26, 2018 by Robin KurzerShoppers are no longer waiting for Black Friday and they’re purchasing on smartphones more than ever this year.

• With so many choices, which SEO tool is right for you?
  Nov 26, 2018 by Digital Marketing DepotCompiled from the latest research, this 55-page report is your source for the latest trends, opportunities and challenges facing the market for SEO software tools as seen by industry leaders, vendors and their customers. In this report you will learn: Who the leading players are in enterprise SEO platforms. What you should look for in an SEO […]

• The new world of marketing
  Nov 26, 2018 by Sponsored Content: Provided By IBM With Insider StudiosMachine learning is reinventing marketing — and a growing number of marketers know it. According to recent research from the IBM Institute for Business Value, 91 percent of marketers at companies that outperform their competitors believe artificial intelligence is important to the future of their organizations. At the same time, only about a quarter of […]

• Using data responsibly doesn’t have to weaken marketing strategies
  Nov 23, 2018 by Gladys KongIn today’s diverse marketplace, businesses need data solutions that empower them to anticipate and respond to many circumstances and challenges.

• Janrain launches its new Identity Central solution
  Nov 21, 2018 by Barry LevineThe identity management provider says this new version of its platform is the first one supporting the new OpenID protocol that is fully cloud-based.

• Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals for marketers: Software, supplies and more
  Nov 21, 2018 by Barry LevineAdobe suite, cloud software among choice deals we found for marketers.

Recent Headlines From MarTech Today, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Marketing Technology:

• Virgin Holidays powers travel recommendations with social posts
  Nov 26, 2018 by Barry LevineMarketers have yet another reason to promote and track their offerings on social media.

• 7 ways to use dynamic content and multiply your conversions
  Nov 26, 2018 by Digital Marketing DepotFive years ago, people were awed when Amazon could recommend a product they’d love. Today, users expect that Netflix will recommend to them another binge-worthy series based on their tastes. So, how does a marketer meet this high demand for personalized communications? The answer is in understanding the power of dynamic content and how it […]

• MarTech Today: Janrain launches Identity Central, Cyber Monday deals for marketers & Zappi partners with Survata
  Nov 26, 2018 by Barry LevineHere’s our daily recap of what happened in marketing technology, as reported on MarTech Today, Marketing Land and other places across the web. From MarTech Today: Janrain launches its new Identity Central solution Nov 21, 2018 by Barry Levine The identity management provider says this new version of its platform is the first one supporting the […]

• The new world of marketing
  Nov 26, 2018 by Sponsored Content: Provided By IBM With Insider StudiosMachine learning is reinventing marketing — and a growing number of marketers know it. According to recent research from the IBM Institute for Business Value, 91 percent of marketers at companies that outperform their competitors believe artificial intelligence is important to the future of their organizations. At the same time, only about a quarter of […]

• Using data responsibly doesn’t have to weaken marketing strategies
  Nov 23, 2018 by Gladys KongIn today’s diverse marketplace, businesses need data solutions that empower them to anticipate and respond to many circumstances and challenges.

• Janrain launches its new Identity Central solution
  Nov 21, 2018 by Barry LevineThe identity management provider says this new version of its platform is the first one supporting the new OpenID protocol that is fully cloud-based.

Online Marketing News From Around The Web:

• Amazon takeaways axed after two years following fierce competition from Deliveroo, London Evening Standard
• Facebook shutters crisis ‘War Room’; Sandberg under fire, Seeking Alpha
• Facebook Watch pivoting older audiences, teens tuning out, CNBC
• From Nano Influencers To Instagram Entrepreneurs: 3 Hot Trends In Influencer Marketing, Forbes
• LinkedIn processed 18 million email addresses of non-users for targeted advertising, Irish Times
• Opinion | Lean Out – The New York Times, New York Times
• Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers, The Guardian

The post Marketing Day: Black Friday / Cyber Monday, Janrain ID & holiday sales appeared first on MarTech.

YouTube quietly announced in its help forums that it has begun cracking down on YouTube channels that take already-produced videos and reuploading them to their channels. YouTube said it has seen a serious issue with some channels producing “duplicative content” and is thus removed these types of channels, allowing them to reapply in 30 days if they want to rejoin the video platform.

YouTube said posting duplicate content on the platform is against the YouTube Partner Program polices.

If you have seen your channel removed because of this, YouTube said it means that it is not just about copyright issues. YouTube explained:

The spirit of this YPP policy is to make sure we’re only allowing channels into the program when the content adds value, and is original and relevant. If you upload content from multiple sources or repurpose existing content, you may still be eligible for YPP so long as you’re contributing to the value of that content in some way. For example, if you add significant original commentary, educational value, narrative, or high quality editing, then your channel may be fine to monetize. Check out this Help Center article for more information on Content Quality Guidelines related to YPP.

Examples of duplicate content on YouTube: YouTube shared a bulleted list of the types of content that may be removed from YouTube because of duplication. They include:

• Appears to be automatically generated.
• Pulled from third party sources with no content or narrative added by the creator.
• Uploaded many times by multiple users and you’re not the original uploader.
• Uploaded in a way that is trying to get around our copyright tools.

My channel was removed, what do I do? Google said that you can remove or update content to comply with its policies and reapply for YouTube Partner Program in 30 days. Then, YouTube said, it “will carefully review your application and channel again.”

Best practices to get reincluded: YouTube shared these best practices to help you get reincluded in the YouTube Partner Program:

• Add commentary or show your presence in your videos (voice or on screen).
• Link back to your YouTube channel from your website.
• Provide more context about your work in your video and channel descriptions.
• Make sure the content on your channel aligns with its policies. You can review: Community Guidelines, AdSense Policies, and YouTube Partner Program policies.

For more details, check out this help thread.

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Google announced that it has updated how it counts impression metrics within Google AdSense. Google did say that although the metrics for impressions may look different, publishers should not expect earnings to be “impacted by this change.”

Google AdSense is going from served impressions to downloaded impressions for measuring when to count an impression. Google states:

• Served impressions are counted at the point that we find an ad for an ad request on the server.
• Downloaded impressions are counted for each ad request once at least one of the returned ads has begun to load on the user’s device.

Google said this move will “improve viewability rates, consistency across measurement providers, and aligns the impression metric better with advertiser value.”

For example, if an ad failed to download or if the user closed the tab before it arrived, it will no longer be counted as an impression. As a result, some AdSense users might see decreases in their impression counts, and corresponding improvements in their impression RPM, CTR, and other impression-based metrics.

For more details, see the Google help documents.

The post Google AdSense updates impression metrics, but earnings should not be impacted appeared first on MarTech.