Welcome to ‘What Happened in Search’.
Packed full of the week’s search marketing news each Friday, this week we’re talking about what Apple’s 2015 event means for marketers, Instagram’s ad roll-out and a potential Panda 4.2 reversal.
THE BIG APPLE
Yesterday saw Apple’s hotly anticipated annual event take place. As expected, the tech giant launched the latest versions of its iPhone (the 6s and 6s Plus), with a host of updates including 3D touch. Also announced were the giant iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
Most interesting to the digital marketing industry is the launch of the new Apple TV, with the introduction of apps. Demonstrating its potential for online shopping companies, a presentation from Gilt Groupe CEO, Michelle Peluso, displayed the new Gilt app, which has been specifically designed for the Apple TV. 80% of Gilt Groupe’s mobile sales are made on iOS devices and the vision is clear: Replace the second screen for TV viewers.
Apple believes that “the future of TV is apps”, and we imagine it’s only a matter of time before we find out how advertising fits into that equation.
BACKING UP?
As most will remember, Google Panda 4.2 began rolling out in July this year.
The original refresh was a slow roll out, due to have site-wide impact. As addmustard reported at the time, the update was an opportunity for sites to recover from penalties suffered as a result of Panda 4.1.
The search marketing community has now begun to speculate that Panda 4.2 has been reversed, or significantly changed as of August. The gains and improvements websites had begun to see as a result of penalty recovery appear to have been eliminated.
Nothing’s confirmed currently, as Google has declined to comment.
ALL INCLUSIVE
According to eMarketer’s Instagram advertising spend forecast, the Facebook-owned platform is due to generate $595m in mobile advertising revenues this year, with revenues set to hit over $2.8m globally in 2017. This means that it will overtake Google and Twitter for US mobile display revenues in two years’ time.
In line with the app’s monetisation, at the end of this month Instagram ads will be available to all advertisers and over 30 new markets, including Italy, Spain and India.
Also being introduced for marketers are landscape image and video formats, as well as 30 second videos to replace the current 15 second limit.
ONE IN A MILLION
Buzzsumo has partnered with Moz to produce insights into shares and links of content. The mammoth study analysed more than one million articles across the web to identify any correlation between shares and links.
One of the study’s key findings was that the majority of content goes unrecognised: Over 75% of a sample of 100,000 articles has no external links. This led to the assumption that either the quality was poor, or publishers aren’t making enough effort to amplify it.
Rochelle Snow, addmustard’s Content & Project Manager, said of the study, “The data goes to show just how much hard work is put into producing great content that gets results. The fact that research-backed content achieves more shares and links speaks volumes.”
TRENDS REPORT
Adobe’s recent report, ‘7 Trends Impacting How We Use Digital Assets’ provides key considerations for content marketers during the creation, management, delivery and optimisation processes.
The trends highlighted include multiple screens, where marketers not only have to navigate the world of mobile, but also wearable tech and digital interaction in-store.
Read the full report to find out what other trends are impacting our use of digital assets.
