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Trends in paid search to watch in 2024 by Cynthia Ramsaran

Home Business

The digital marketing landscape continues to evolve rapidly as new technologies and platforms emerge, allowing marketers to innovate and adapt their strategies to meet the changing demands of consumers. Amid this shift, marketers rely heavily on search engine marketing to become efficient and drive higher ROI.

So, what is 2024 shaping up to be, and what top trends in paid search advertising are expected to gain traction?

Learn more by registering and attending “Trends in Paid Search: Navigating the Digital Landscape in 2024,” presented by iQuanti.


Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.

The post Trends in paid search to watch in 2024 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/trends-in-paid-search-to-watch-in-2024-432388

Microsoft signs deal to serve sponsored links in Snapchat’s My AI

Snapchat’s My AI is going to start serving sponsored links using Microsoft’s Chat Ads API.

The social app posted a screenshot demonstrating how the “highly relevant” ads will be displayed when users interact with its chatbot for relevant queries under the tech giants’ partnership:

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Why we care. Snapchat’s My AI has a global community of more than 750 million monthly users, making it one of the most widely used consumer chatbots available. The ability to advertise on this platform through Sponsored Links is a huge opportunity in terms of reach, ROI and connecting with its core audience, Gen Z.

Getting started. Advertisers simply need to maximize the mobile coverage within their Microsoft Advertising campaigns. Then, in your Device targeting settings, check to make sure you’re prioritizing mobile traffic by having positive mobile bid modifiers across all your ad groups.

Measuring performance. To measure the impact of Snap traffic to your campaign, use the Microsoft Advertising publisher report. This can be found under the “Microsoft sites and select traffic” category. This traffic has Microsoft properties as the benchmark.

Results so far. Advertisers reported seeing a significant year-on-year increase in mobile traffic across the Microsoft network during the testing phase. On average, they saw over 15% more mobile impressions from Microsoft sites.

What’s next? Microsoft is hoping to roll out its latest advertising feature to more partners soon. The tech giant is encouraging companies interested parties to complete a partnership application form for assistance with either “algorithmic organic results and ads monetization” or “ads monetization”.


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What has Snapchat said? A spokesperson for Snapchat said in a statement:

  • “Powered by Microsoft’s Advertising’s Ads for Chat API, Sponsored Links connect our community with partners relevant to their conversation, while helping partners reach Snapchatters at the moment they have indicated potential interest in their offering.”
  • “Microsoft Advertising’s clients in the U.S. and select markets can now engage with Snapchatters through My AI to seamlessly deliver links that are relevant to the conversation. “

Deep dive. Read Snapchat’s official Sponsored Links announcement in full for more information.

The post Microsoft signs deal to serve sponsored links in Snapchat’s My AI appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-sponsored-links-snapchat-my-ai-432424

8 Surprising Ways Petri Dishes Have Shaped Science and Medicine

Home Business Magazine Online

The Petri dish, named after the German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri, was invented in the late 19th century. Prior to its invention, scientists faced difficulty isolating and growing microbes. The introduction of this simple, shallow, circular dish transformed microbiology, offering a sterile environment for bacterial cultures to thrive.

Bread Mold to Penicillin

In 1928, Alexander Fleming made a groundbreaking discovery thanks to a Petri dish. Observing a mold called Penicillium notatum inhibiting bacterial growth, he gave birth to the world’s first antibiotic, Penicillin. Without this dish, Fleming might have missed this life-saving observation.

Unlocking Genetics

Petri dishes play a pivotal role in genetics. Scientists like Thomas Hunt Morgan used them to study fruit flies, leading to foundational discoveries about heredity, mutations, and genetic principles. They’ve enabled controlled studies on generations of organisms, unlocking the mysteries of DNA.

Battling Infectious Diseases

In the field of epidemiology, Petri dishes have been instrumental in studying pathogens. By isolating and studying bacteria and viruses, they’ve led to better treatments and vaccines. Think of the eradication efforts for diseases like smallpox; without these dishes, understanding the enemy would have been significantly harder.

Assisting IVF

In vitro fertilization (IVF) owes much to the Petri dish. Fertilizing human eggs outside the body, embryologists observe and select the healthiest embryos for implantation. Countless families have been created, and it all starts with this modest dish.

Food Safety and Agriculture

Today’s agricultural successes are tied to studies in petri dishes. They help identify plant diseases and enable the creation of hardier crops. Moreover, in food safety, they’re crucial in detecting bacterial contamination and ensuring what we consume is safe.

From Labs to Art

Beyond science, the Petri dish has ventured into art. Agar art, a medium where scientists and artists use colored microbes to paint on agar-filled dishes, has gained popularity. It’s a beautiful fusion of science and creativity, proving the dish’s versatility.

Sourcing Petri Dishes

For those inspired to embark on scientific endeavors, sourcing quality Petri dishes is essential. There are many trusted lab equipment suppliers that offer a range of dishes suitable for diverse experiments. Always choose dishes based on the intended study to ensure accurate and reliable results.

Future Innovations

The potential for Petri dishes doesn’t stop with what we know today. Researchers are continuously innovating, finding new ways to utilize them. From tissue engineering to studying the effects of microgravity on cells, the horizons of Petri dish applications seem limitless.

It highlights the brilliance of the Petri dish that, even over a century later, it remains indispensable in labs worldwide. Whether battling diseases or making art, this simple tool has undoubtedly etched its mark in history. The next time you see one, take a moment to appreciate its profound impact.

The post 8 Surprising Ways Petri Dishes Have Shaped Science and Medicine appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/businesses/equipment/8-surprising-ways-petri-dishes-shaped-science-medicine/

Microsoft unveils new AI tools as it looks to ‘transform search and advertising’

Microsoft Advertising has unveiled a series of new generative AI tools for advertisers.

The new features, Conversational Ad experiences, Ads for Chat API, and Copilot, are part of the tech giant’s mission to transform search and advertising with generative AI.

Here’s a recap of the big announcements to come from Microsoft’s Surface and Copilot event in New York…

1. Compare and Decide Ads

Microsoft is rolling out a series of fresh ad formats tailored specifically to the Bing Chat experience, starting with its newest ad product, Compare and Decide Ads.

The new format will allow online shoppers to compare different products using criteria they find most valuable.

Compare and Decide Ads will run across all verticals that have relevant feed data, including retail, travel and auto.

Microsoft is planning to launch Compare and Decide Ads in close beta in early 2024.

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2. Ads for Chat API

Microsoft has announced the first partners fir its new product, Ads for Chat API; Snapchat and Axel Springer.

Snapchat’s My AI chatbot, which has been used by more than 150 million people worldwide, leverages the tech to serve Sponsored Links in relevant content and experiences that “feel natural to the content flow”.

Meanwhile, Axel Springer’s Hey_ product on BILD.de, powered by Microsoft Azure Open AI Services and supported by Microsoft Advertising’s Ads for Chat API, helps advertisers connect with up to 17 million daily BILD.de users.

Microsoft has said it will continue evolving its API offering based on the feedback of its advertisers and partners. Looking to the future, the tech giant is planning to welcome more partners and support their chat experience needs.

internet marketing

3. Copilot for Microsoft Ads

Specifically designed for advertisers and agencies, Copilot is a new tool that leverages AI to generate recommendations for product images, headlines, and descriptions.

To use it, simply describe the content you need, like an image, and Copilot will generate suggestions based on your description.

Microsoft is currently testing the new tool on a handful of advertisers but plans to bring it to open beta in the next few months.


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Why we care. It’s important to keep up-to-date with new ad products and targeting tools to ensure you are delivering the best possible user experience and reaching high-value customers.

What has Microsoft said? Kya Sainsbury-Carter, VP Global Partner & Retail Media, Microsoft Advertising, said in a statement:

  • “With Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform, Compare & Decide Ads, and new Chat Ads partners, we are making progress in this new era of generative AI.”
  • “Over the coming months we will share more functionality for Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform and new Conversational Ad formats, as well as continuing to identify ways to democratize this incredible technology to transform the advertising industry.”
  • “Generative AI represents a massive opportunity for all. It creates new value with real purpose. It creates opportunities for advertisers, drives traffic for publishers, and delights consumers. The era of AI is here, and we’re just getting started.”

Deep dive. Read Microsoft’s Transforming Search and Advertising with Generative AI announcement in full for more information.

The post Microsoft unveils new AI tools as it looks to ‘transform search and advertising’ appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-unveils-new-ai-tools-as-it-looks-to-transform-search-and-advertising-432312

8 Surprising Ways Petri Dishes Have Shaped Science and Medicine

Home Business Magazine Online

The Petri dish, named after the German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri, was invented in the late 19th century. Prior to its invention, scientists faced difficulty isolating and growing microbes. The introduction of this simple, shallow, circular dish transformed microbiology, offering a sterile environment for bacterial cultures to thrive.

Bread Mold to Penicillin

In 1928, Alexander Fleming made a groundbreaking discovery thanks to a Petri dish. Observing a mold called Penicillium notatum inhibiting bacterial growth, he gave birth to the world’s first antibiotic, Penicillin. Without this dish, Fleming might have missed this life-saving observation.

Unlocking Genetics

Petri dishes play a pivotal role in genetics. Scientists like Thomas Hunt Morgan used them to study fruit flies, leading to foundational discoveries about heredity, mutations, and genetic principles. They’ve enabled controlled studies on generations of organisms, unlocking the mysteries of DNA.

Battling Infectious Diseases

In the field of epidemiology, Petri dishes have been instrumental in studying pathogens. By isolating and studying bacteria and viruses, they’ve led to better treatments and vaccines. Think of the eradication efforts for diseases like smallpox; without these dishes, understanding the enemy would have been significantly harder.

Assisting IVF

In vitro fertilization (IVF) owes much to the Petri dish. Fertilizing human eggs outside the body, embryologists observe and select the healthiest embryos for implantation. Countless families have been created, and it all starts with this modest dish.

Food Safety and Agriculture

Today’s agricultural successes are tied to studies in petri dishes. They help identify plant diseases and enable the creation of hardier crops. Moreover, in food safety, they’re crucial in detecting bacterial contamination and ensuring what we consume is safe.

From Labs to Art

Beyond science, the Petri dish has ventured into art. Agar art, a medium where scientists and artists use colored microbes to paint on agar-filled dishes, has gained popularity. It’s a beautiful fusion of science and creativity, proving the dish’s versatility.

Sourcing Petri Dishes

For those inspired to embark on scientific endeavors, sourcing quality Petri dishes is essential. There are many trusted lab equipment suppliers that offer a range of dishes suitable for diverse experiments. Always choose dishes based on the intended study to ensure accurate and reliable results.

Future Innovations

The potential for Petri dishes doesn’t stop with what we know today. Researchers are continuously innovating, finding new ways to utilize them. From tissue engineering to studying the effects of microgravity on cells, the horizons of Petri dish applications seem limitless.

It highlights the brilliance of the Petri dish that, even over a century later, it remains indispensable in labs worldwide. Whether battling diseases or making art, this simple tool has undoubtedly etched its mark in history. The next time you see one, take a moment to appreciate its profound impact.

The post 8 Surprising Ways Petri Dishes Have Shaped Science and Medicine appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/businesses/equipment/8-surprising-ways-petri-dishes-shaped-science-medicine/

How to optimize your ecommerce ad spend and budget for the best ROI

As advertisers, we want to maximize our PPC budgets for our clients

But how do we do that?

This article identifies eight areas where you can focus your optimization efforts to improve ROI.

If you aren’t already doing these things – there’s time to start testing before we get into the throes of holiday planning and execution.

1. Invest in upper-funnel tactics

Many advertisers get too focused on last-click conversion and revenue metrics and opt for bottom-of-the-funnel tactics. Don’t. 

We saw a more than 50% decline in overall efficiency for an apparel brand when we decreased our investment in more awareness tactics. That was immediately reversed when we returned spend. 

Ads Manager

That said, there will be a point where you reach diminishing returns, so it is important to make smaller incremental increases so you can measure the overall impact.

2. Run on a variety of campaign types 

It’s easy to get blinded by the latest and greatest from Google, but like with your 401K, diversifying your investments is a must.

There may be claims that certain campaigns are all-inclusive and can replace many of your current campaign types while complementing keyword campaigns, especially Performance Max and Shopping.

However, always take the time to test things for yourself. Google rolls out new campaigns gradually, and advertisers should follow suit by gradually adopting these new campaign types.

For instance, we’ve tested running Performance Max only vs. running Performance Max while keeping Shopping live and found that when Shopping is fully paused, Performance Max does not pick up all that volume.

Clicks fell off by 20% compared to the previous period when we paused shopping. When we reactivated Shopping, traffic rebounded almost instantly.

Advertising

Running on the historical campaign types helps us maintain some control and insights, which we all want in work and life. 

3. Have an audience strategy for your business and goals

Segmentation of at least new and returning customers – as long as there is sufficient volume – helps increase overall performance in my experience. 

This is beneficial in allowing you to divert the budget to areas with higher performers and, if using automated bid strategies, enable you to set separate targets on areas that will typically perform differently. For example, stronger ROAS from returning customers and a lower one from new.


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4. Keep your segments in place

Similarly to audiences, when Google tells us to consolidate campaigns (which you should listen to an extent), there is still value in having some level of segmentation. 

For example, if you sell other brands and bid on those terms, those can be more expensive keywords and could eat your budget if grouped with other non-brand terms. 

Find a way to segment that works for you – be it profit margin, product type, price, etc. It will allow for faster analysis (work smarter, not harder!) and the ability to “lean in” where it makes sense (especially if budgets are tight). 

One thing that has worked well for us is segmenting our Shopping and Performance Max campaigns by product type (which inadvertently is also by the client’s profitability).

We have a set of top products that the client earns excellent margins on in one campaign and all other subcategories of products in their own respective campaigns. 

When budgets are slimmer, this allows us to push money where the return is best for the client and optimize toward different ROAS targets based on the products’ profit margins.

5. Lean in on automation

This may sound contradictory, but go ahead and adopt automation. Sure, we as marketers want to control what we can when we can, but automation is here to stay and will only become more prevalent. 

Adopt automation and learn how to make it work for you so that when Google inevitably forces it upon us entirely, you’re already ahead of the curve. If you still need to start using bid strategies, do it.

A big perk I’ve observed is that in every test I have ever run, automated bid strategies consistently outperform Enhanced CPC (which will be sunset from Shopping campaigns later this year).

Give Performance Max a try, especially if your audience strategy focuses on new customers. On average, we drive 50% more new customers with Performance than traditional Shopping campaigns.

6. Consider data-driven attribution

If you haven’t, it’s time to look into data-driven attribution (DDA). Switching attribution settings is a big, scary change, like quitting your job as an ads manager to become a stand-up comic. 

But like automation and Google’s propensity to force changes, it is a matter of time before Google moves solely to this or something similar, as seen with them discontinuing first-click, linear, time decay and position-based attribution models.

DDA will be particularly helpful for high-consideration purchases where users may spend more time shopping around. It will give advertisers a better understanding of the impact of more of their top-of-funnel initiatives.

7. Get specific with your creative

Success is more than how you set up your campaigns and targeting. Creative can play an important role, and moving to more consolidated campaigns can make this a bit more challenging to figure out.

Creative ideally should be as specific as possible.

Although, getting super-tailored ad copy and images has proven more difficult in recent years. You can still do it, though! 

I have found that keeping ad groups thematic, using RSAs, and incorporating different products or product types help. 

Then, you can let Google’s AI serve the most relevant combination of headlines and descriptions for a search. So don’t be afraid to have an RSA peddling boots and sneakers in the same ad.

Regarding display, focus on seasonally updating creatives that utilize best-selling and regularly in-stock products and show them in use. 

Lifestyle-type images work great. There is nothing worse as a shopper than seeing a display ad with something you want only to click through, and it’s sold out on the site. This also results in wasted funds for the marketer.

None of this matters if you are not being as efficient as possible and pushing budget where it most benefits the overall business. Cut those inefficient products, times and people out of your campaigns (and your life if you’re feeling extra ambitious). 

8. Trim the fat where you can

There is no denying that we are facing some economic uncertainty and tighter marketing budgets. This is the time to find the areas that don’t perform as strongly and lean in more to those that do. 

We are seeing lower-cost products move and sales doing better than ever. People want to shop but want to do it in a more money-conscious way. 

Plus, sale products have driven some of the best new customer acquisition numbers for programs we manage. Hook them on the discount so they come back for full-priced items. 

Now’s also a great time to ensure your targets align with business goals. Look at lifetime value (LTV) and cost of goods (COGs) and make sure the return on ad spend (ROAS) or customer acquisition cost (CAC) targets you have still mean profitability. 

Adapting your PPC strategy for maximum budget performance

Overall, the key is finding a nice balance between a structure that supports your business goals and what Google tells us are best practices. 

It may take some trial and error, but if you can do that using the above insights and recommendations, you can improve your efficiency and grow your business.

The post How to optimize your ecommerce ad spend and budget for the best ROI appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/optimize-ecommerce-ad-spend-budget-best-roi-430993

What is the best generative AI tool for writing PR content?

Ever wondered which is the best generative AI tool for writing PR content?

I have just finished conducting a series of tests to determine just that and found that the post generated by Bard produced: 

  • Slightly better results than a post I had written from scratch.
  • Significantly better results than the post by ChatGPT.
  • Dramatically better results than Claude 2.

This article reveals more details about the tests and the result we weren’t expecting but upstaged the three industry-leading chatbots.

Testing the best generative AI tool for PR content

In August, Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO of Paine Publishing, and I uploaded four posts on successive Fridays to a blog, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Each post was about our new course designed for PR and communications professionals who need to improve their metrics and want to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to show their value.

I wrote the first post from scratch without help from an AI chatbot. Then, I reviewed and made edits to posts on the same topic generated by:

  • GPT-3.5, an AI-powered language model developed by OpenAI.
  • Bard, a collaborative AI tool developed by Google.
  • Claude 2, a next-generation AI assistant based on Anthropic’s research.

We used Google’s free Campaign URL Builder tool to add campaign parameters to the URLs in the call to action at the end of each post. 

This enabled us to objectively measure our custom campaign in GA4 by tracking which PR content generated more new users to a landing page on Paine Publishing’s website.

But while we were analyzing the results of our tests in GA4, we also stumbled across a much bigger surprise that is over 15 times more valuable to PR and communications professionals.


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One human-written narrative, three AI-generated posts

Before diving into the results, let’s look at how the posts used in the test were generated.

The baseline: Human-written content

First, I decided that our test needed a baseline. So, I wrote a 1,150-word chronological narrative from scratch entitled, “Why do Digital PR people need to learn about Digital Analytics?”

The body of this post includes four award-winning case studies:

  • In 2005, SEO-PR and Southwest Airlines linked $2.5 million in ticket sales to four optimized press releases.
  • In 2010, SEO-PR and SES Conference & Expo “put butts in seats” at a series of events during the Great Recession.
  • In 2013, SEO-PR and Get City Dealz drove an 85% increase in referral traffic in February over January.
  • In 2019, SEO-PR and Rutgers generated 27% of the leads for a new online master’s degree program.

Then, I published this post on my blog on a Friday afternoon and reposted it to my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts on successive Friday afternoons.

GPT-3.5 via ChatGPT

Next, I used ChatGPT powered by the GPT-3.5 model to draft a post on the same topic entitled, “Elevate Your PR Game with Google Analytics 4 (GA4).”

When I reviewed the first draft, I thought it was too chirpy. The lead read:

  • “Hey fellow PR and communications enthusiasts! Are you ready to take your campaigns and programs to the next level? Say hello to your new secret weapon: Google Analytics 4 (GA4)!”

So, I revised my prompt and ChatGPT generated a 500-word listicle that provided five reasons why GA4 was “a game-changing tool.” And it produced these snappy subheads:

  • Precision meets insight.
  • Short-term wins, long-term growth.
  • 360-degree attribution.
  • Data privacy, front and center.
  • A skill that sets you apart. 

Now, ChatGPT had created a listicle when I had initially asked it to:

  • “Write a Facebook post that explains why PR and communications professionals would benefit from learning how to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to measure the results of their short-term campaigns and ongoing programs.”

Even after I revised my prompt to ask the AI-powered language model developed by OpenAI to “write a LinkedIn post,” it had generated another listicle.

This may reflect what its language model was trained to produce and optimized to deliver using Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF).

Then, I published this post on my LinkedIn account on a Friday afternoon and reposted it to my Facebook account and blog on successive Friday afternoons.

Bard

Then, I used Bard to draft a post on the same topic, entitled, “Why should PR and communications professionals learn GA4?”

When I reviewed the draft, I was surprised it used a spiral approach to generate 550 words of helpful content. 

The spiral approach is a teaching method that involves revisiting a subject or skill area at intervals, each time at a more sophisticated level.

The spiral approach used the inverted pyramid structure to place the most fundamental information in the lead paragraphs of the post:

  • GA4 is the future of Google Analytics.
  • GA4 is more powerful than UA.
  • GA4 is more privacy-focused.

Further details were then introduced in the following paragraphs:

  • GA4 can help you track the impact of your earned media. 
  • GA4 can help you identify your target audience. 
  • GA4 can help you track the success of your campaigns over time.

This indicates that Bard’s training reflects some of the new guidance that has just been incorporated in Google’s latest algorithm update, which Barry Schwartz wrote about in Google September 2023 helpful content system update rolling out.

Before this month’s update, the previous guidance had emphasized:

“Google Search’s helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.”

The updated guidance for creating helpful, reliable, people-first content has deleted the phrase “written by people.”

The updated guidance has also revised one of the questions that Google says creators can use to “gauge if the content you’re making is helpful and reliable.”

Google added “or reviewed” to the question: “Is this content written or reviewed by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?”

I added a closing paragraph and used Google’s Campaign URL Builder to add campaign parameters to the URL.

I published it on my Facebook account on a Friday afternoon and reposted it to my blog and LinkedIn account on successive Friday afternoons to compare the results.

Claude 2

Finally, I used Claude 2 to draft a post on the same topic, entitled, “Why Should PR & Comms Pros Use Google Analytics 4?”

The next-generation AI assistant, which is based on Anthropic’s research “into training helpful, honest, and harmless AI systems,” initially failed when I asked it to: 

  • “Write an article that’s 1,000 to 2,000 words long about why PR and communication professionals should use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to measure the results of their campaigns and programs.” 

It wrote an article that was 497 words long.

After I pointed this out, Claude 2 generated “an expanded 1,193-word version of the article.” However, it was about 550 words long.

At that point, I shifted gears and asked Claude to:

  • “Write a social media post about why PR and communication professionals should use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to measure their campaigns and programs. Use a question and answer (Q&A) format.”

The next-generation AI assistant generated a Q&A that was only 325 words long with five questions and five short answers. For example:

Q: What key metrics can I track with GA4 for PR?

A: Website traffic, referrals, backlinks, social media engagement, email open/click rates, lead generation, content engagement, brand awareness surveys and more. GA4 connects data across marketing channels.

Now, I know that Google had reduced the visibility of content featuring Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in early August. But I wanted to see if Claude 2 was up to the challenge. 

Like the previous two posts, I added a closing paragraph and used Google’s Campaign URL Builder to add campaign parameters to the URL.

But unlike the previous three posts, I had specified the type of content I’d asked Claude 2 to generate, and I published this post on my blog and to my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts on the final Friday afternoon in August. 

So, this may have produced apples-to-oranges results.

Analyzing the results

When we analyzed the landing page report in GA4, we found what we were looking for:

  • The 550-word spiral post drafted with help from Bard had generated eight new users.
  • The 1,150-word chronological story written from scratch had generated seven new users.
  • The 500-word listicle drafted with help from ChatGPT had generated five new users.
  • The 325-word Q&A drafted with help from Claude 2 had generated one new user.

But we also noticed that direct traffic had generated 122 new users and three conversions.

I did a Google search for “link:https://painepublishing.com/training-education/ga4-for-pr-and-comms-course/” – which is an old SEO technique to find a sampling of links to any site. 

I was astounded to discover that the second listing – after the landing page on Paine’s website – was a LinkedIn page titled “Katie Delahaye Paine’s Post.”

AI assistant

When I clicked on the image at the bottom of the short post, it took me directly to the landing page.

In other words, the content that was over 15 times more valuable than even the post generated by Bard was an image that Paine had made into a clickable link. 

Now, there are various ways to add a link to an image. In Word, right-click the image and select “Link”. Then, type or paste the hyperlink address into the “Address” field. 

But you should use Google’s Campaign URL Builder tool to add campaign parameters to the URL so you can use GA4 to show your contribution to the bottom line.

You may discover that a picture is worth a thousand words – even if those words are generated by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well or three of the best generative AI tools for writing PR content.

The post What is the best generative AI tool for writing PR content? appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/best-generative-ai-tool-writing-pr-content-432261

AMA with Google’s Gary Illyes: 15 quick SEO takeaways

Google’s Gary Illyes fielded several questions during an AMA at Pubcon Pro in Austin this afternoon from moderator Jennifer Slegg. Here are some of the highlights of the interview.

1. Does Google use user click data in ranking?

“Technically, yes,” Illyes said. This is because historical search data is part of RankBrain. 

2. Unlaunches happen ‘a lot’

Things change a lot (emphasis his) in search ranking at Google, Illyes said. What is true for ranking today could be wrong in two weeks. 

Google is known for experimenting with Search – and noted that it’s very hard to keep track of launches and “unlaunches,” adding that these unlaunches happen “a lot.” 

This makes sense when you consider Google rolled out 5,000 changes to Search in 2021 and ran a total of 800,000 experiments. 

3. Factors vs. signals vs. systems

The main difference between factors and signals is just language, Illyes said. At one point, they wanted people to differentiate between them. 

Ranking systems are more complex – this is when Google takes multiple signals (e.g., from crawling and indexing data) and ranks them. Ranking systems are also more “stable than signals,” Illyes said. 

4. Why Google doesn’t index everything

In short, the Internet is “insanely big,” Illyes said. There are probably hundreds of trillions of webpages that Google has sight of – but there are even more than that Google can’t access (e.g., content behind a login page).

  • “There is virtually no storage you can use to index all of them. It’s not possible to index it in a way you can serve it,” Illyes said. 

5. You don’t have to label AI content for Google

Labeling AI content is not necessary for Google search – “I don’t think we care” – Illyes said. But he suggested labeling it if your users would appreciate it. 

Humans can cause more trouble than AI on certain topics, Illyes noted. He reiterated once again that Google doesn’t care how content is created – by AI, human or both.

“As long as I will learn from it, learn correct information, why would it matter?” Illyes said. 

6. AI content = no typos

One thing Illyes noticed while analyzing the output of ChatGPT and generative AI tools is that it doesn’t have typos.

  • “Computers don’t make mistakes unless they were instructed to,” he said.

7. Why niche sites were impacted by helpful content update

When it comes to helpful content, niche sites often don’t fall into a category Google is looking to promote. To be clear, here Illyes was not referring to all types of niche sites, he was mostly talking about affiliate-type of niche sites that are heavily money-driven.

8. You can see gains between core updates

If your site is impacted by a Google core update, you should start working on things that could help your site improve and get pushed back up in Search results.

  • “Maybe the next core update will help you more. Don’t think of updates in isolation. We’re using hundreds of signals to rank pages,” Illyes said.

He said waiting and holding your breath between core updates would be bad for your website’s health. 

9. Comments could signal that a site has an active community

While many websites removed comment sections and forums in the past 10 years, Illyes said that comments can be good. 

  • “Especially if I know the site has a strict rule about how users can behave on the site, then I would trust info from those users more,” Illyes said.

Illyes didn’t say comments are a ranking signal. He was more saying this from his own perspective. And it was an interesting insights, especially considering how moderated user-generated sites like Reddit and Quora have seen gains following recent Google updates.

10. Google will keep launching updates in December

Google will continue to release updates during the holidays – Google used to avoid doing this, but Illyes called that an “old thing.” 

  • “The problem is around that time, everyone tries to manipulate search results. With these updates we’re trying to course correct. I don’t think we should stop releasing updates in that period of time. Honestly I would hope that the updates will actually help you rank better if you were not trying do manipulate search results.”

11. Core Web Vitals = low priority

Short but sweet: 

  • “If you don’t have anything better to do on your site, go do Core Web Vitals. Most sites won’t see benefit playing around with it,” Illyes said.

12. No voice data in GSC

Illyes said it was too difficult to get voice search data and doesn’t see a reason to add it to Google Search Console. He said it would take a “considerable amount of engineering time” to expose that data. 

13. Expired domain signals are not inherited

If a domain expires, and somebody buys that domain, any signals the site had accumulated will not be transferred to the new domain owner. Google knows when a domain expires. 

So if you bought an expired domain and tried to rebuild it (e.g., by getting all the content from Wayback Machine), you would be building the site from scratch, as if it were a new domain. 

14. Use H tags for accessibility

From Google’s perspective, it would be “pretty stupid” to rely on H1-6 tags for understanding order and hierarchy of content, Illyes said. 

He suggested using a screen reader on your site to make sure the content doesn’t “read wrong.” Use H tags where you need to use them, where it makes sense, Illyes said.

Links are not a “top 3” ranking signal and hasn’t been “for some time,” Illyes said, adding that there really isn’t a universal top 3. 

It’s absolutely possible to rank without links, Illyes said, citing an example of a page with zero internal or external links that he knew of that was ranking Position 1 on Porsche cars – and Google had only found the page via a sitemap.

Content continues to be the number one ranking signal.

  • “Without content it literally is not possible to rank. If you don’t have words on page you’re not going to rank for it. Every site will have something different as the top 2 or 3 ranking factors,” Illyes said.

The post AMA with Google’s Gary Illyes: 15 quick SEO takeaways appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/ama-google-gary-illyes-seo-takeaways-432325

How to increase LTV with PPC

Lifetime value, or LTV, averages the total revenue generated by a customer during the entirety of your relationship.

While the KPI often sounds cool and dandy, it can be difficult to improve. Doing so requires long term thinking, commitment and a deep understanding of your customer database.

This article will dive into concrete ways PPC marketers can improve LTV using four levers. 

Why is LTV important?

Customer lifetime value is an essential metric for businesses across various industries for several reasons,

LTV evaluates your potential

Even before starting any business, LTV has value. It allows you to understand your average customer in greater depth, which can basically be translated into your growth potential.

For example, let’s say you want to start a business. And you hesitate between a real estate agency and selling coffee machines. (It’s quite a split but that’s just to make my point.) 

You could assume that the LTV of a customer for a real estate agency is significantly higher than that of a coffee machine seller. 

But let’s say your average client buys one coffee machine for 50 employees, each taking two coffees a day (at $0.20 per coffee because you price them that low). Say that such clients last for 30 years (with 228 working days per year). That means your LTV is close to $137,000. Not bad right?

Unfortunately, for real estate agencies, clients “only” buy a primary residence once in a lifetime (on average). And since real estate agent commissions are not extravagant enough, you can bet you will not exceed $137,000.

Bottom line: LTV just helped you gauge two different markets’ value.

LTV paves the way for growth

LTV basically helps you steer away from transaction-based thinking to the long-term value of repeat customers.

Higher LTV = higher profits (in the medium and long term). A higher customer value directly impacts the bottom line. 

But it also means peaceful, long-lasting business relationships. And those are less costly for tons of departments (HR, finance, logistics, customer support, etc.).

At an audience level, you can use LTV to identify structural weaknesses.

For example, if customer type A churns faster than customer type B, it’s likely that your service (or product) is not competitive/good enough for type A. Why is that?

Conversely, LTV can also help you find your best customers, which can translate into your best services/products. Is there any best practice to take away from this insight?

Finally, LTV helps determine your target customer acquisition cost (tCAC). If you know how much revenue you will generate with an average client, you can easily derive that into a target CAC. You “only” need to subtract the cost of goods sold (COGS) and so on. 

How to calculate LTV

If you Google “LTV formula”, you’ll probably see something related to customer lifetime. 

This makes sense but is harder to find in a marketer’s usual datasets (analytics, CRM, etc.). 

So let’s start with basic KPIs we all understand:

Lifetime value (LTV) = average order value x total transactions / unique customers

As you can see, it’s fairly simple to start with. (It’s also worth looking up “LTV enhancements” as they provide interesting additional value.)

‘LTB’: Benefits instead of revenue

LTV is interesting. But if you ask CFOs, they will tell you that benefits trump revenue any day. 

With benefits, you can understand the “real” value of each new customer, product line, etc. 

Here is the formula to turn LTV into what I call LTB, or lifetime benefits (not a real KPI name, just my take on it):

Lifetime benefits (LTB) = LTV – CAC – COGS

With CAC being your average cost to acquire one net new customer. And COGS being your cost of goods sold.

Define customer relationship length

You may be asking yourself how to define “lifetime.”

In other words, when do you stop counting “total transactions”? When can you confidently consider a customer churned? 

Just like for churn rate, you have several options:

  • If you’ve been around long enough: Use historical data and remove those outliers. That will give you the average lifetime of an average customer.
  • If you haven’t been around long enough or you lack the data: Use scenarios based on whatever you have. It’s a bit rough, but at least it’s a starting point.

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4 levers PPC pros can use to improve LTV

You can now use your LTV formula to come up with creative ways PPCs can improve overall business performance. Let’s break those formulas into four elements:

  • Average order value (AOV)
  • Total transactions per unique customer
  • Lifetime
  • Costs (CAC and COGS)

By pulling and pushing those levers, you can improve your LTV. So let’s explore them one by one:

1. Improve AOV

Too many marketers want to slash prices, thinking it will improve conversion rates and revenue. 

It can be true in some cases, but often, it simply decreases AOV, which hurts businesses’ bottom line. Remember: benefits trump revenue every single day.

How can you know if you could make improvements here? 

One way to do so is to use your historical data to map sales periods (lower AOV) with conversion rates. 

In some extreme cases, I observed flat conversion rates and lower AOVs, which should make you question sales’ relevance. 

If that’s your case, you have all the data you need to make CMOs and CFOs understand they need to switch strategies.

Reviewing account basics

Another operational alternative is to review media spend with an AOV lens:

  • How does performance look for search terms containing “bargain,” “discount,” “cheap” and so on?
  • Are low-cost products cannibalizing your Shopping budget?
  • Does your copy include pricing terms? If so, how does it perform against other copies?
  • Could you AB test landing pages? Single product against bundles, for example.
  • Is your purchase value tracking taking into account discounts and taxes? Or are you inflating your results?

About price increases

Another very obvious way to increase AOV is to increase prices. Don’t go all out at once; a 5% increase will probably go unnoticed by your customers. At the very least, you want to align your prices with inflation.

And if you don’t control prices, try removing those Shopping SKUs priced slightly lower than similar products so you can focus your budget only on the slightly more expensive ones.

Ultimately, don’t think that low-priced items don’t have their place in your product mix. But make sure they don’t steal higher-priced items’ thunder.

2. Improve conversion rate

Upselling existing customers

PPC marketers often skim customer retention because their management pushes them to acquire new customers. Forgetting that existing customers are often much easier to sell to.

To fix this, you can target existing customers using a Customer List in Google Ads, Meta Ads, etc. and provide additional value to them:

  • A different ad copy that highlights deeper features
  • A different landing page that makes them convert faster
  • Maybe a different product, one that features extra accessories they haven’t purchased yet

Here, be creative: you have so much more transactional data it simply can be a goldmine for PPC marketers.

Cross-selling to warm prospects

Use similar tactics with cart abandoners. For example, are you using dynamic retargeting campaigns?

You know, those campaigns basically use your shopping feeds to display the exact products people added to cart.

It’s an interesting feature for sure but it provides very little value to your customers other than staying top of mind. 

Instead, try cross-selling and advertise additional products that fit the product category your prospects visited or added to cart.

3. Review your customer journey

Another tactic is to review your purchasing journey and spot if you could shorten it. 

Are you sending your PPC traffic to the best landing pages for example? 

Could you send those same people to a page further down the funnel or more specific to your keywords / audiences / products / etc.?

In the end, there are plenty of ways to improve conversion rate. Here are other Search Engine Land articles to dig deeper:

Make clients come back

I’ve written a short guide on retention so make sure to check it out. In more general terms, retention directly correlates with your product (or service) and its perceived quality.

One very operational thing you can do is to review the churn rate per product line. 

If most of your media spend is directed at high-churn product lines, you might want to adjust your campaign structure or product feed to redirect more of your budget toward higher revenue in the long term.

Another tactic you can use is ensuring that extensive PPC data flows through to your CRM (or your ERP if you can).

That way, you can identify what product, audience, copy or landing page generates repeat customers and fuel those insights into your operational strategies.

Ultimately, this is about identifying your best customers and your worst ones. You want to steer away from the latter and find more people who enjoy doing business with you.

4. Lower your costs

Here, you improve LTV by reducing CAC. There are several options, but the easiest and most impactful is probably to review your media mix.

I have onboarded many clients who used costly channels without measuring incrementality. 

In a nutshell, it means they didn’t “really” measure their marketing’s impact. Since it’s quite a topic, here are additional resources to get you going with incrementality measurement:

Simply put, you want to review acquisition sources and reduce or even cut budgets that have a negative impact and fuel more budget to top-performing channels obviously.

Another straightforward tactic I recommend is to review Quality Score (and its equivalent in Meta Ads: Ad Relevance). The higher those metrics, the lower your CPC (and CAC).

Here are further articles to dig further:

I’m not talking about COGS since it’s a much wider topic than just PPC. But it naturally fits in the discussion.

Maximize customer lifetime value and drive profitability with PPC

LTV is a moving target but is critical for any business. If you want to gauge the skill level of a marketing team, ask them about their LTV. 

If they talk to you about OLED displays and 4K screens, you’ll know where you stand! 😉

I strongly recommend setting up a dedicated LTV dashboard with its various factors: average order value, transactions per customer, retention, and CAC. 

This way, you can easily prioritize your efforts and make LTV improvement a recurring theme for your marketing team.

The post How to increase LTV with PPC appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/increase-ltv-ppc-432257

Bing adds controls for webmasters to disallow their content in Bing Chat

Bing has announced a set of new controls to allow webmasters and site owners to block Bing Chat from using its content for AI training and Microsoft’s generative AI models. “While we are actively collaborating with the industry on establishing future AI standards, we also wanted to provide more immediate support for publishers,” Fabrice Canel from Microsoft told us.

The controls. Here are the options you can implement to control how Bing uses or does not use your content for Bing Chat or other Microsoft generative AI models:

  • No action is needed to remain in Bing Chat. Content without NOCACHE tag and without NOARCHIVE tag may be included in Bing Chat answers and will benefit from AI’s ability to generate more helpful answers and to increase your ranking opportunities in Bing Chat; site content may be used in training our generative AI foundation models.
  • Content with the NOCACHE tag may be included in Bing Chat answers. Bing will only display URL/Snippet/Title in the answer; Going forward, for content in our Bing Index that is labeled NOCACHE, only URLs, Titles and Snippets may be used in training Microsoft’s generative AI foundation models.
  • • Content tagged NOARCHIVE will not be included in Bing Chat answers, not be linked to in the answers. Going forward, for content in our Bing Index that is labeled NOARCHIVE, Bing will not use the content for training Microsoft’s generative AI foundation models.
  • If content has both NOCACHE and NOARCHIVE tags, we will treat it as NOCACHE.

Bing added that content with the NOCACHE tag or NOARCHIVE tag will still appear in the Bing search results.

To help Bing Chat users find paywall articles, Bing said it recommends adding the NOCACHE value to the NOARCHIVE value.

Bing has more details on how this works within its meta tags help documentation.

Bigger initiatives. Google announced it was working with the AI community on an alternative to the robots.txt protocol for AI models. But clearly Bing didn’t want this to drag out too long and not give site owners controls now, while AI is growing so fast. So Bing decided to leverage what is there now to give us options on how Bing Chat and Microsoft can use our content for its AI ventures.

The post Bing adds controls for webmasters to disallow their content in Bing Chat appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/bing-adds-controls-for-webmasters-to-disallow-their-content-in-bing-chat-432174

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