Semrush buys Kompyte so it can upsell competitive intelligence tools

SEO tool provider Semrush has announced plans to acquire competitive intelligence and sales enablement platform Kompyte.

Why we care. Semrush is a major player in the SEO tool space, and this announcement, along with its recent acquisition of Backlinko, shows that the company is serious about expanding both its audience and capabilities for search marketing as well as sales teams. 

The acquisition may also provide Semrush with a path to increasing the business it’s already doing with existing users: “Kompyte is the perfect product to upsell to our existing customers who already use our competitive intelligence features,” Eugene Levin, chief strategy and corporate development officer at Semrush, said in the announcement. “With an average ARR [annual recurring revenue] per customer of about $20,000, there’s a great opportunity for us to elevate our customers to the next level.”

More anecdotally, demand for SEO professionals has risen over recent years, especially since the outset of the pandemic. That may make SEO tools a more common part of MarTech stacks, fueling growth for tool providers.

What Kompyte does. Based in Austin, TX, Kompyte offers competitive analysis tools that help marketers track changes on a competitor’s site, ad copy, social media and more. It’s products are designed primarily for marketing, product development, and sales and enablement teams.

Why Semrush wants Kompyte. Semrush’s goal with this acquisition is to diversify its offerings from search marketing-specific tools to products for a wider audience of professionals. “We were always looking for a MarTech product that uses market data to bring other teams to the table,” Levin said.

“The acquisition will expand Semrush’s ability to help its customers beyond their marketing departments, especially considering 88% of Kompyte’s total user base falls within sales organizations,” the announcement said.

In addition, Kompyte’s technology will be used to expand on. Trends, Semrush’s existing competitive intelligence feature.

Source: Semrush buys Kompyte so it can upsell competitive intelligence tools

Google may require double verification for some business profiles

Google has updated its document on how to verify your business in Google Business Profiles to add that you Google “may require you to verify by more than one method.” This might be related to some fraudulent business profiles being created using one of the verification methods.

Verification methods. Google currently offers several methods to verify a business listing with Google Business Profiles. When this first launched, Google had only the postcard method, where Google would mail the business address a postcard and pin. But Google has added numerous options since, including:

• Phone or text
• Email
• Video recording
• Live video call
• Postcard

Double verify. Now, Google may request that some businesses use not just one verification method, but two. Here is a screenshot of the updated document:

Stefan Somborac who spotted this said on Twitter that maybe this will lead to “a stricter verification process” and thus possibly “reduce fake locations on Google Maps.”

Source: Google may require double verification for some business profiles

Google Search Trends Show How Customer Expectations Are Changing

A new report from Google contains data on how customer expectations are changing, and reveals what people want from businesses this year.

Based on a comparison of search volume from 2021 to 2022, trends indicate that customers want things both sooner and later.

If customers are out shopping in person then they want the ability to do it late at night, and if they’re shopping online they want items to arrive as soon as tomorrow.

They also want new experiences from businesses, such as the ability to bring their pet out for dinner.

Data in the report is compiled by the Google Ads Research and Insights team from an analysis of billions of recent search queries.

Staying informed about consumers’ changing expectations can help your business meet their needs better, ensuring they continue to choose you over competitors.

The report provides insight into how customers are phrasing their needs when looking for information in Google Search.

You can meet customers where they are in Google by emphasizing some of these key phrases on your website or business listing.

Here are the top insights from Google’s report on the latest developments in consumer behavior and market trends.

Rising Consumer Expectations

Consumer expectations for new experiences, services, and ways to shop are on the rise, with growing searches for:

• “Late night shopping”: Up 100% year over year.
• “24/7 customer service”: Up 500% year over year.
• “Dog friendly restaurants”: Up 100% year over year.
• “Next day flower delivery”: Up 800% year over year.

These trends highlight the immediacy with which consumers expect to have products in hand.

In-Person Events Are Back

Consumers are eager to get out of their home and enjoy some in-person events again.

Searches are on the rise for:

• “Cinema near me”: Up 300% year over year.
• “Seating chart”: Up 600% year over year.
• “Spring break”: Up 100% year over year.
• “Unique things to do in”: Up 100% year over year.

These trends indicate that consumers are comfortable with attending events in-person this year, which is a good sign if you’re planning on hosting one.

Pandemic Trends That Stuck

Several of what Google calls “pandemic-related trends” continue to stick.

Searches are still on the rise for:

• “Makeup game”: up 700% year over year.
• “Best movies to stream right now”: Up 300% year over year.
• “Nursery plants near me”: Up 100% year over year.
• “Hair trends female”: Up 800% year over year.

Source: Google Search Trends Show How Customer Expectations Are Changing

New content analytics coming soon to LinkedIn

Better Post analytics is coming to LinkedIn. This is great news for content creators who want better insights into which types of content are performing best on the network. 

While LinkedIn was a bit light on details, we know you will soon have more details on the people who read and engage with your content, such as:

• Job titles.
• Industries.
• Locations
• Engagement patterns.

Here’s a screenshot of what it will look like:

What LinkedIn is saying. “We know it’s important to understand what content is resonating with your audience and our team has been hard at work building new analytics for our creators. Soon, creators will be able to get analytics on their individual posts and overall performance, across content & audience.”

Source: New content analytics coming soon to LinkedIn

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3 ways to optimize internal linking

Rank Math Integrates IndexNow for WordPress Sites

Lookback: Google launched the Panda algorithm update 11 years ago

3 ways to optimize internal linking

Links are one of the primary ways Google and other search engines understand and rank websites. Crawlers and bots follow links from external sites to your web property and then trace the internal links on your site, measuring the “flow” of ranking signals and attributing them to sites accordingly.

“Link flow goes by many names,” said Jonathan Epstein, CEO of Brewco, at SMX Next. “Some people call it link juice. Some people call it PageRank. In the broadest terms, link flows are a measurement of how important your pages are relative to other pages out there on the Internet.”

According to Epstein, two main signals go into calculating PageRank: the types of sites linking to your property and what your internal link structure looks like.

“The first is: What are the other sites that are linking to each of your pages?” he said. “How many are there? How big are they? How authoritative are they? And then secondly, it looks at how are you linking your pages to each other.”

Optimize distribution of link flow

“How do you stop pushing link flow to less important pages and push it to the more important ones?” Epstein asked. “Start by removing extraneous links that don’t need to be there.”

These extraneous links are often copied on multiple pages and featured near the top of pages, such as job openings, report downloads, or company mission statements. While these are important pieces of information for visitors on the site, there’s a good chance they won’t be the most SEO-friendly pages.

Reduce link flow loss

While optimizing link flow is important, marketers need to simultaneously review instances of ranking loss through links. This occurs most often when sites link to pages that aren’t search-friendly, such as internal search result pages or old tag pages that don’t receive traffic.

Eliminate penalty factors

“Penalty factors are things that your pages do that might make them look like spam pages,” Epstein said.

One of the most common penalty factors related to page ranking is duplicate content. It tells search engines that your site has poor content quality. Too many internal links to content with potential penalty factors could end up harming your site rankings.

Source: 3 ways to optimize internal linking

Etsy sellers to pay 30% higher transaction fees beginning in April

Etsy will raise its seller fees from 5% to 6.5% (a 30% increase), the company announced during its Q4 2021 earnings report. The new seller transaction fee will take effect starting on April 11.

Why we care. In many cases, Etsy’s seller fees are still lower than eBay’s and Amazon’s, but the margin is getting thinner, which may also erode some of the benefits of selling on Etsy. 

Etsy last increased its transaction fees in 2018, raising them from 3.5% to the current 5% rate. This latest increase may be a bitter pill to swallow for Etsy merchants, especially when other marketplaces may offer access to more customers or more sophisticated tools for sellers.

However, some of the additional revenue from the fee increase will be reinvested (more on that below), which may offset the impact on sellers by improving the customer experience, potentially increasing customer lifetime value.

Read more: Etsy sellers to pay 30% higher transaction fees beginning in April

New business openings nearly match pre-pandemic levels, Yelp says

New business openings in year two of the pandemic were only 1% down from the year before the pandemic (2019), according to Yelp’s COVID-19 Second Anniversary Report. Demand for socially distant/outdoor options also remains above pre-pandemic levels for dining and other activities.

New business openings are nearly at pre-pandemic levels. In year two of the pandemic, new business openings reached 521,926, up 14% from the first year of the pandemic. This brings new business openings roughly in line (down by just 1%) with the levels Yelp reported in 2019 (the year before the pandemic).

But, business openings in major cities varied. While new business openings rose nationally, the Delta and Omicron variants resulted in decreased business openings in nearly all of the largest metropolitan areas across the country, Yelp said.

Read more: New business openings nearly match pre-pandemic levels, Yelp says

Google Search local pack’s map is now interactive

Google Search has updated the map in the local pack within the web search results from a static map to an interactive map. The new interactive map allows you to zoom, pan, hover, and click to see more details on the map. Previously, clicking on the map just took you into the Google Maps interface.

What is new. When you do a search in Google Search and the local pack comes up showing you nearby businesses that match your query, you can now hover your mouse over the map and see the businesses, their reviews, zoom in and out of the map, drag the map around to see more places or click on a listing directly in the map interface.

Read more: Google Search local pack’s map is now interactive

IndexNow integrations grow as Bing says ‘millions’ of sites are using it

Microsoft made a few announcements this week on the Bing webmaster blog around more software providers adding support for IndexNow leading to millions of sites using IndexNow since its launch in October 2021. Part of these announcements has that Duda, All in One WordPress SEO plugin, and Rank Math SEO plugin all added IndexNow integration into their systems.

What is IndexNow? IndexNow provides a method for websites owners to instantly inform search engines about the latest content changes on their website. IndexNow is a simple ping protocol so that search engines know that a URL and its content has been added, updated, or deleted, allowing search engines to quickly reflect this change in their search results. The co-sharing of IndexNow went fully live last month in January 2022.

Read more: IndexNow integrations grow as Bing says ‘millions’ of sites are using it

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Rank Math Integrates IndexNow for WordPress Sites

Popular WordPress plugin Rank Math now supports IndexNow for faster website indexing and ranking.

Website owners and SEO experts spend time and money in creating content, product descriptions, and other changes to websites only to wait weeks or longer for changes to be seen on Bing, Google, Yandex, and other search engines.

Integration of IndexNow into Rank Math for WordPress allows users to quickly inform search engines of changes such as new content, deleted content, and redirects. This leads to faster indexing, traffic, and conversions.

Now, over a million WordPress sites using Rank Math can utilize IndexNow to immediately ping search engines about changes.

Importance of Fast Indexing

There are ways to notify the search engines, but they are time consuming, especially for a website that makes thousands of changes.

WordPress users now have an easy and automatic way to ping search engines of any changes to their websites thanks to the Rank Math integration.

Rank Math and IndexNow

Rank Math is an SEO plugin for WordPress designed to easily configure and implement various SEO features for a website. It has a user interface that features previews of rich snippets and how posts look on social media.

It uses artificial intelligence to generate SEO suggestions many website owners overlook and provides Google Analytics integration.

IndexNow allows website owners to manually notify search engines of changes using code, but integration with Rank Math automates the process.

When websites utilize Rank Math, the plugin generates the host the API key for the IndexNow protocol.

When changes are made, everything is submitted to search engines in the background. There is nothing the user needs to do. Users also have control of the types of URLs submitted.

It takes the wait time for search engines to reindex pages from weeks or months to days.

Source: Rank Math Integrates IndexNow for WordPress Sites

Google Search local pack’s map is now interactive

Google Search has updated the map in the local pack within the web search results from a static map to an interactive map. The new interactive map allows you to zoom, pan, hover and click to see more details on the map. Previously, clicking on the map just took you into the Google Maps interface.

What is new. When you do a search in Google Search and the local pack comes up showing you nearby businesses that match your query, you can now hover your mouse over the map and see the businesses, their reviews, zoom in and out of the map, drag the map around to see more places or click on a listing directly in the map interface.

Here is a GIF I made of this in action:

Note, this may also appear on the right hand side of the three local listings.

How does this impact local search? Allie Margeson, who first spotted this change, said “businesses that aren’t ranking in the top 3 positions may still have a pin on the map, and now a searcher can hover over that pin and see the business’s review stats at a glance.” This is why, she said, reviews may now be even more important than before – because those customers can quickly see those reviews and decide to click or not click on your listing.

Source: Google Search local pack’s map is now interactive

YouTube Adding More Analytics Data About Views & Revenue

YouTube is working on ways to give creators more data about video performance, including detailed reports about the sources of views and revenue.

In addition, YouTube plans to actively assist creators with generating new video ideas by adding reports on trending.

These features are previewed in a new video on YouTube’s Creator Insider channel, which offers a “sneak peak” at what the reports might look like when they’re available.

Some of the reports are actively being worked on, while others are in the idea stage.

Here’s more about the analytics data YouTube plans to roll out later this year.

Video Views Broken Down By Type

YouTube creators want more information about where their video views are coming from.

If you publish regular videos, post Shorts, and host livestreams, all the views are counted as a single metric in analytics reports.

YouTube is working on new reports showing an overview of different video formats and views generated by each type.

You’ll be able to see data on how many hours of video you uploaded, how many hours you streamed, how many views you received for each format, and more.

Revenue Broken Down By Source

For creators eligible to monetize their videos, YouTube plans to add more data about the individual sources of revenue.

Revenue data will be broken down by type of video, and how the revenue was generated.

You’ll be able to see directly how much money you made from regular videos, versus shorts, versus livestreams.

In addition, YouTube is planning to add more data about the methods of monetization it offers.

The new revenue report will offer a more detailed look at memberships, tagged products, SuperChats, and all the different ways to make money on YouTube.

Helping Creators Find New Video Ideas

Another type of report YouTube is working on will provide data intended to help generate new video ideas.

YouTube recently launched an experimental tool showing the popularity of certain search terms and which video topics have a lack of content.

That tool will be expanded to show which topics are trending on YouTube and which videos are starting to grow in popularity with your audience.

Source: YouTube Adding More Analytics Data About Views & Revenue

LinkedIn launches podcast network aimed at professional audiences

LinkedIn is piloting its own podcast offering, known as the LinkedIn Podcast Network. The pilot program will include shows about topics such as technology, recruiting and mental health, from external experts as well as its own in-house news team.

There is a growing number of podcasts aimed at professional audiences — this is especially true in the search marketing industry. Hosting your podcast on LinkedIn may help your brand — particularly if it’s a B2B brand — get closer to professional audiences than they might on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, for example. 

While the LinkedIn Podcast Network isn’t open for all brands to join, there is a lead form for those that are interested in learning how to join it, so that may be a possibility down the road.

Source: LinkedIn launches podcast network aimed at professional audiences

5 Creative Ways To Use The Facebook Ad Library To Your Advantage

The Facebook Ad Library is still stirring up the digital marketing ecosystem.

This tool gives marketers free access to “spy” on the ad imagery, headlines, copy, formatting, how long it has been live, A/B testing, and more.

It also gives you a line of sight into the landing pages of any ad that is currently live on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.

Considering that Facebook has captured one of the largest advertising audiences on the world wide web (an estimated 2.91 billion people) for an astonishingly competitive cost per click of $0.43, it is no wonder that marketers are spending their dollars in this digital channel.

Why Facebook Gave Us The Facebook Ad Library

Initially, Facebook created the ad library to ramp up transparency on political ads in a bid to reduce claims of election interference.

Other Ways To Unlock The Benefits Of The Facebook Ad Library

1. Expose Yourself To Other Industries

Viewing competitor ads is a great benefit, and there are so many other industries and brands worth looking at that have amazing ideas.

Why not search for a brand that you love or that is a complementary industry to yours?

Look at their competitor’s ads and see what they are doing well, what they have in common, what strategies they use, and what you’d like to emulate.

2. Spot The Difference With A/B Testing

A/B testing – like many other aspects of digital marketing like email marketing, landing pages, etc. – is so important for Facebook campaign success.

Much like those quizzes you did as a child where you had to spot the difference, your task will be to identify the elements being tested.

3. See Trends And Longevity

If you spend a bit of time browsing the Facebook Ad Library, you’ll eventually pick up on trends in design, layout, offers, and more.

Are other brands using video ads, carousel ads, image ads, slideshow ads, etc.?

This could be a great guide on where the target audience network is favorably leaning towards.

You’ll also be able to see what ads have been live for a long time – which means they are working!

4. Get The Jump On Competitors With Timing Cues

Take a cue from successful advertisers in your space when it comes to timing and adapt it for your own campaigns.

This is particularly useful when getting the jump on big-budget events in your marketing calendar like Back to School, Valentine’s Day, or Black Friday.

Make use of historical data on the Facebook Ad Library to exactly time your next campaign.

5. Funnel Mapping

Ads are not an end to themselves – they are typically built with a customer journey or funnel in mind.

The ad drives traffic to a destination; usually, a landing page that has been finely crafted to extract an action from the visitor.

Not only does the Facebook Ad Library allow you to see what ads are running, but you are also able to follow your competitors’ funnel by clicking through.

Do it – click and go down the rabbit hole.

Source: 5 Creative Ways To Use The Facebook Ad Library To Your Advantage

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Lookback: Google launched the Panda algorithm update 11 years ago

It was 11 years ago today that Google announced an algorithm update that had a massive and far-reaching impact on SEO for years to come.

Here’s a complete history of the Google Panda algorithm update.

What was the Google Panda update?

Google Panda was a major algorithm update that impacted search rankings for 11.8% of queries in the U.S. Google said Panda was designed to reduce the rankings for low-quality sites (“sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful”) and reward better rankings to high-quality sites (“sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on”).

The algorithm officially started rolling out on Feb. 23, but it wasn’t until Feb. 24 that we learned about it.

Panda didn’t only impact content farms. Websites of all sizes, across industries, felt the wrath of Panda. There were multiple reports of companies going out of business because they had relied on Google traffic for years. Once that traffic was gone, so was their business.

After its initial launch, Google announced several refreshes and updates to Panda on a near-monthly basis for the next two years (9 in 2011 and 14 in 2012). You will find a complete timeline and our coverage of those updates at the bottom of this guide.

Why was Google Panda launched?

In 2011, Google was trying to find a solution for its content farm problem. In case you’re not familiar with the term, a “content farm” was a website that paid freelance writers (typically poorly) to pump out as much content as fast as possible. The sole goal for these companies was to rank extremely well in Google’s search results for high-traffic keywords. Article quality was typically low.

Read more: Lookback: Google launched the Panda algorithm update 11 years ago

Shoppers may soon be able to message merchants via Google Shopping

Google is testing a new messaging feature that would allow customers to send messages to the customer service email address provided in their Google Merchant Center account. Google has invited select merchants to participate in this pilot via email.

We’ve reached out to Google and will update this article as more details become available. Tip of the hat to Kirk Williams for bringing this to our attention.

Why we care. Providing potential customers with a way to contact retailers via Google Shopping may increase the value of the platform for both merchants and customers. Winning over more shoppers and retailers will also help strengthen Google as a shopping destination, helping it compete with the likes of Amazon, eBay and other marketplaces.

The company has not announced when (or whether) this feature will become widely available.

What Google said in the email. “We’re excited to announce a new messaging pilot to help you connect with customers and improve your sales through Google Shopping,” Google wrote in the email. “This optional feature will allow customers to send messages to the customer service email address you’ve provided in your Merchant Center account.”

Read more: Shoppers may soon be able to message merchants via Google Shopping

Buy on Google gets rid of order caps and automatic suspensions

Google has updated its Buy on Google Retailer Standards policies. The changes include removing: order caps, automatic suspension via the Retailer Standards program and the “Defects” tab within the Merchant Center dashboard.

Tip of the hat to Lawrence Chasse for bringing this to our attention.

Order caps were previously imposed on merchants that were performing poorly (according to Google’s Retailer Standards score); the same was true for automatic suspensions. Order capping could also slow down sales for new merchants until they complete onboarding by requesting a review of their store. 

Now that these two penalties are gone, merchants have fewer potential bottlenecks when it comes to selling via Buy on Google.

However, these policies were designed to protect customers (as well as Google’s reputation as a shopping platform) from disreputable merchants. Google has yet to reveal what new safeguards it’ll put in place (if any) to ensure a consistent, positive Buy on Google experience.

Read more: Buy on Google gets rid of order caps and automatic suspensions

Google makes offline conversion tracking easier with Enhanced Conversions for Leads

Google Ads has rolled out Enhanced Conversions for Leads. Spotted as a beta test earlier this month, this option offers an alternative to the existing Google Click ID-based offline conversion tracking method.

Since this can be configured from your Google Ads account (instead of your CRM), it may be easier to adopt, enabling more advertisers to track their offline conversions. Using that data, Google’s systems may be able to make better auction decisions, which could mean more efficient campaigns and better conversions.

For those using the existing Google Click ID-based upload method, this option is still supported.

How it works. When a potential customer fills out a lead form on your site, you’ll likely receive first-party data including their email address, name, home address, and/or phone number. That data can be captured in your conversion tracking tags, hashed, and then sent to Google.

When a lead converts, you upload your hashed lead information and Google matches that information to the ad that drove the lead, providing the platform with a more complete picture of the customer’s full journey.

The issue with the existing offline conversion tracking method. Offline conversion tracking can help Google get a better idea of the value of different leads, which can help it prioritize more valuable leads via the Maximize Conversion Value bid strategy, for example. Despite this potential advantage, offline conversion tracking has not been widely adopted due to the difficulty of implementing it.

“Advertisers are used to being able to control most elements of their campaigns through self-service tools,” Frederick Vallaeys, co-founder and CEO at Optmyzr said, adding, “But those same marketers usually don’t control the CRM systems where this valuable offline conversion data lives inside their organization. This dependency on other teams and sometimes even engineering significantly reduces the adoption of OCI [offline conversion tracking].”

Read more: Google makes offline conversion tracking easier with Enhanced Conversions for Leads

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Monetize Facebook Reels With Overlay Ads

Facebook is starting to monetize its reels platform with overlay ads, which gives users another way to monetize their content.

Reels monetization will roll out gradually. By mid-March, overlay ads will be available to almost all countries that currently have in-stream ad programs.

Let’s dive into the specifics.

Overlay Ads In Reels, Explained

This is a completely new ad format to Facebook that they are testing. The overlay ads will be available in two formats:

• Banner ads
• Sticker ads

Both ad formats will layer on top of Facebook reels in a transparent format. This means that viewers will be able to watch their favorite content creators uninterrupted, while subtly being introduced to relevant ads to them.

Eligibility For Monetizing Facebook Reels With Overlay Ads

This new ad format test is not available to everyone yet.

If you are currently part of the in-stream ads monetization program for Facebook, you are automatically eligible to start using Overlay ads. There is no need to opt into this feature.

If you are unsure of your eligibility for in-stream monetization, Facebook has a page to check for eligibility and to sign up.

How To Get Started With Overlay Ads

Based on your eligibility of the in-stream ads monetization program, you’ll be automatically opted into the banner ad format. However, this does not mean that every single reel will contain an ad.

The ability to show banner ads in your reels will depend on numerous factors, such as:

• Advertiser targeting settings
• Value of the ad for the viewers

You do have the ability to opt-out of banner ads in your reels by going to the Meta Creator Studio.

To add sticker ads to your reels, there are certain steps that need to be followed.

1. Tap “Stickers” on the right-hand side of the menu panel (after adding your creative to the reel)
2. Tap “Ad” below the Stickers tab
3. Tap “Add Sticker Ad”
4. Move the positioning of the sticker ad frame to wherever fits best in your reel

Why Overlay Ads?

Facebook is dedicated to investing $1 billion in content creators. By adding tools such as overlay ads to reels, it allows you to create a sustainable business on Facebook.

Creating content takes time and money. Being part of the ad monetization program gives back portions of ad revenue to you, allowing you to spend more time creating quality content for the Meta platform.

Source: Monetize Facebook Reels With Overlay Ads

Google AdSense separates YouTube earnings into its own payments account

Google AdSense will separate YouTube earnings into its own AdSense for YouTube homepage and payments account, the company announced Wednesday. The change will begin in March and roll out over the following months.

YouTube publishers were first made aware of this change in an email sent by Google in January.

Separate payment thresholds. YouTube earnings will be bucketed into its own payments account, meaning that YouTube and AdSense payments accounts will have separate payment thresholds. This could affect payment timing for some as it may take more time to reach the payment threshold.

Source: Google AdSense separates YouTube earnings into its own payments account

Google Rolls Out Short Titles For Product Ads

Advertisers are now able to optimize their product titles even further in Google Merchant Center.

Google recently added a new optional attribute to Merchant Center called “short title”. This update allows you to be more concise and to the point with your products.

Where Will The Short Title Attribute Be Shown?

In comparison to the “title” attribute, which is required, the short title attribute is optional.

The main difference between the title and short title attribute are as follows:

• Title attribute: More accurately matches the product landing page, as well as a customer’s search.
• Short title attribute: A brief and concise identification of your product

What Are The Minimum Requirements For Short Title?

The current character limits for this attribute are 1-150 characters. However, Google recommends keeping the character count between 5-65 characters.

Google warns that if you do not follow the minimum requirements, they will disapprove your product. Some of the main requirements include:

• Use professional and grammatically correct language.
• Do not use foreign language words, unless they are well understood.
  • More specifically, do not use foreign characters for attractive purposes.
• Do not include promotions in your short title.
• Avoid excessive capitalization.

Best Practices For Short Title Attribute Usage

There are multiple ways to optimize your short titles in your product feed. The main recommendations for short title optimization include:

• Staying under 65 characters
• List the most important details first
• Add the brand name (if it’s a differentiating factor)

The character limit is extremely important in more browsy contexts contexts. Because users are more likely to scroll in these contexts (such as Discovery and Gmail ads), keeping your short title to a minimum is better. After 65 characters, your title may be truncated, making the user experience less appealing.

Source: Google Rolls Out Short Titles For Product Ads

BrightEdge acquires Oncrawl in enterprise SEO shakeup

BrightEdge, an enterprise SEO platform, has acquired technical SEO platform Oncrawl. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Oncrawl will continue to run as its own company. Both customer bases will soon have access to additional technology without an accompanying price hike. 

What it means for BrightEdge. This acquisition mirrors the merging of SEO and data science. It will allow BrightEdge to perform sophisticated data scientist tasks in their website analysis to complement the work they are already doing on the platform, BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu said. He added that this acquisition is good news for digital marketers who want to scale campaigns with speed and precision.

SEO is creating more data than ever – too much for anyone to process without the right marketing technology, Yu said. Data analysis for SEO is complex – and most SEOs aren’t data scientists. So this acquisition means that BrightEdge users can combine Oncrawl’s “zero-code” data science with BrightEdge’s enterprise data and automation. 

“We saw a big opportunity to help SEOs be more effective at driving performance with data, without having to become data scientists,” Yu said.

Oncrawl is the third acquisition for BrightEdge, which was founded in 2007 and has more than 2,000 customers. In 2019, BrightEdge acquired Trilibis, which was crucial in developing their Autopilot offering. 

What it means for Oncrawl. Oncrawl will still run independently but under the BrightEdge umbrella, Yu said. Typically, when there is a merger, one company absorbs the other, and its customers and employees can suffer in the aftermath. Yu said that would not be the case here.

Oncrawl users will soon be able to start benefiting from BrightEdge’s advanced automation and data visualization technology. 

Oncrawl, founded in 2013, has 50 employees, more than 1,000 clients, and raised more than $4 million in funding since 2013.

Source: BrightEdge acquires Oncrawl in enterprise SEO shakeup

Nine WordPress Plugins Expose Over 1.3 Million Sites To Exploits

The United States Government Vulnerability Database and WordPress security researchers published alerts of WordPress plugin vulnerabilities. Among those plugins, nine of the most popular plugins affect over 1.3 million websites.

Vulnerabilities in Nine WordPress Plugins

While there were many more plugins found vulnerable, the nine most popular plugins affected well over 1.3 million websites. The vulnerabilities were rated

The following are on the list of nine vulnerable plugins:

1. Header Footer Code Manager 300,000+ installations
2. Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 200,000+ installations
3. Popup Builder WordPress plugin 200,000+ installations
4. Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall 200,000+ installations
5. WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100,000+ installations
6. Database Backup for WordPress 100,000+ installations
7. GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100,000+ installations
8. Download Manager 100,000+ installations
9. Advanced Database Cleaner WordPress plugin 80,000+ installations

Header Footer Code Manager WordPress Plugin

The Header Footer Code Manager WordPress Plugin was discovered by Wordfence security researchers to have a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability.

The vulnerability requires the hacker to trick an administrator into clicking a link or other action in order to make it vulnerable to a full site take over.

The researchers noted that because this plugin affects a sensitive area of WordPress sites in that it’s for adding code to websites, the variety of malicious actions could extend to adding backdoors and attacking site visitors.

Publishers are recommended by Wordfence to update their installations to at least version 1.1.17.

Source: Nine WordPress Plugins Expose Over 1.3 Million Sites To Exploits

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Google’s Pirate Update can cause 89% drop in search traffic for offending site

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Google’s Pirate Update can cause an 89% drop in search traffic for the offending site

On February 8, 2022, Google released a document to the U.S. Copyright Office saying “when a site is demoted [by the Pirate update], the traffic Google Search sends it drops, on average, by 89% on average.” This is a statement about Google’s efforts to remove sites that “received a large number of valid removal notices” over DMCA requirements, hence the Google Pirate update from 2012.

The Pirate update. The Pirate update, which Google originally called the DMCA update, looked at if a site had a large number of DMCA takedown requests, and if so, it demoted the site. Google officially only confirmed updating this algorithm once after its launch in 2012, that was in 2014. It is without a question that Google runs this algorithm update periodically to catch new sites that may be copying copyrighted content from others. But Google clearly does not announce each time the search company runs this update.

Google said in the new PDF document “we have developed a “demotion signal” for Google Search that causes sites for which we have received a large number of valid removal notices to appear much lower in search results.”

89% demotion. This PDF document written by Google states that when sites are demoted by this algorithm, the sites hit on average see 89% less Google Search traffic as a result. The document states “When a site is demoted, the traffic Google Search sends it drops, on average, by 89% on average.”

Redirect tricks. Google also said that it has a flag named “still-in-theaters/prerelease” that will pick up on when a site hit by this update redirects to a new domain without that flag. Google said, “we have also made it much harder for infringing sites to evade demotion by redirecting people to a new domain.” Google added “we have added a “still-in-theaters/prerelease” flag for DMCA notices involving this category of content to enhance the Search demotion signal.”

This report comes via TorretFreak, a publication that tracks the latest news about copyright, privacy, and related topics. Also, a hat tip to @GlennGabe for notifying me of this.

Read more: Google’s Pirate Update can cause an 89% drop in search traffic for the offending site

Microsoft Advertising rolls out dynamic descriptions for DSAs, which will become the default starting in April

Microsoft Advertising has launched dynamic descriptions for Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), the company announced Tuesday. Advertisers can opt for dynamic descriptions beginning today, but starting in April, all existing DSA campaigns will be forced over to dynamic descriptions and it will also become the default option for new DSA campaigns.

Dynamic descriptions for DSAs are available in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

Why we care. Microsoft Advertising DSA campaigns can now dynamically generate both headlines and descriptions. However, this change also means that advertisers will lose control over their DSA descriptions starting in April.

Interestingly, the company added the ability to use static headlines for DSAs in March 2021. Those that are using static headlines in their DSAs will not be able to run them with dynamic descriptions, Microsoft said in the announcement.

Advertisers in sensitive verticals to remain opted out. Advertisers identified as belonging to sensitive verticals (such as pharmaceuticals, for example) will remain opted out of this change for existing campaigns.

How to start with dynamic descriptions. In your DSA campaign settings, there should be a new checkbox labeled “Enable dynamic search ad text.” Once enabled, the platform should begin generating dynamic descriptions based on the site content you’ve designated.

Top-performing dynamic descriptions can be found in your DSA Search Terms report in the new Descriptions column.

Read more: Microsoft Advertising rolls out dynamic descriptions for DSAs, which will become the default starting in April

How to improve E-A-T for YMYL pages

Google uses the phrase “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) to describe topics or pages that could potentially impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability or safety if presented inaccurately.

The stakes are high for this type of content. That’s why Google’s algorithms hold these pages to a higher standard.

You need to know whether the topics you cover are considered YMYL. When publishing YMYL topics, also pay attention to what Google values in terms of E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) in your vertical.

This in-depth article will discuss what type of content Google considers to be YMYL and how you can use this information to determine what you should be focusing on to improve E-A-T for those pages. 

Google tells the raters that if a page is likely to significantly impact a user’s life, it needs to be considered high quality. It needs to be created with a high level of expertise and authority. 

Google later reiterated the importance of good E-A-T for YMYL pages in official public documentation. From Google’s guide on how Google fights disinformation:

Read more: How to improve E-A-T for YMYL pages

Core web vitals vs. page experience: How they are different

The phrases “page experience” and “core web vitals” are often used interchangeably, but they actually refer to two separate sets of website metrics.

“Core web vitals is a set of three metrics that are part of the overall page experience search signals that went live in 2021,” Diane Kulseth, senior SEO consultant at Siteimprove, said at SMX Next. “The page experience search signals in the past have focused on a safe and user-friendly browsing experience for visitors, focusing on things such as mobile-friendliness of your website, having your HTTPS setup in place, and making sure that the visitor’s experience isn’t interrupted by intrusive interstitials.”

Google uses all of these page experience signals (shown above) to rank websites, but not all are weighted equally. It categorizes three “core” signals into their own group: largest contentful paint, first input delay, and cumulative layout shift. These are the most important page experience metrics Google evaluates.

Read more: Core web vitals vs. page experience: How they are different

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LinkedIn’s Service Pages for freelancers adds features to showcase credibility

LinkedIn has added the ability to include LinkedIn Page (your organization’s page) info and media to Service Pages, according to an email shared by Matt Navarra.

Services Pages (shown above) appear in LinkedIn’s Service Marketplace, a Fiverr and Upwork competitor where SEO and PPC freelancers can market their services.

Display your LinkedIn Page details on your Service Page. This enables freelancers that work at an SMB to highlight that connection, potentially bringing more visibility for the organization while vouching for their own expertise.

“[This feature] is specifically focused on small operators,” Andrew Hutchinson wrote for SocialMediaToday, adding, “The page linking feature is only available for single-admin LinkedIn Company Pages, and is available via the desktop version of the site only at this stage.”

Add media to spotlight your portfolio. “Use this section to give prospective clients a preview of what you can do by highlighting your favorite projects or press related to your services,” LinkedIn wrote in the email. Freelancers can use this to showcase their thought leadership, case studies and more.

Source: LinkedIn’s Service Pages for freelancers adds features to showcase credibility

UpdraftPlus 1.22.3 Patches Severe Vulnerability Through Forced Security Update from WordPress.org

UpdraftPlus, a plugin that allows users to backup to various cloud providers, has patched a severe security vulnerability that would allow logged-in users to download a site’s latest backups. The patched version (1.22.3) was sent out via a forced auto-update, a measure reserved for severe vulnerabilities that affect a large number of users. UpdraftPlus is active on more than 3 million WordPress sites.

The vulnerability was discovered by Jetpack Scan Security researcher Marc Montpas during an internal audit. UpdraftPlus explained the vulnerability to users in an advisory after the update went out:

“This defect allows any logged-in user on a WordPress installation with UpdraftPlus active to exercise the privilege of downloading an existing backup, a privilege which should have been restricted to administrative users only. This was possible because of a missing permissions check on code related to checking current backup status. This allowed the obtaining of an internal identifier which was otherwise unknown, and could then be used to pass a check upon permission to download.”

The issue affects both the paid and free versions of the plugin. A fix was pushed to paid customers within an hour of receiving the report. Every version of the free plugin between 1.16.7 and 1.22.3 is vulnerable. UpdraftPlus claims the majority of sites have been updated. WordPress.org stats show that ~35% of Updraft users have not updated to the latest, which leaves more than a million installations still vulnerable.

Source: UpdraftPlus 1.22.3 Patches Severe Vulnerability Through Forced Security Update from WordPress.org

Google testing questions and answers in the Google Maps interface

Google is testing displaying the questions and answers feature in the Google Maps interface that it initially launched in 2017 for local panels in Google Search. Now some are able to see the questions and answers box in Google Maps local listings for businesses, although I cannot personally replicate this.

What it looks like. Allie Margeson posted a screenshot of this on Twitter:

Previously. Google only launched this officially in desktop search, on mobile search, or on Android Google Maps. This was not available in the Google Maps interface on desktop. Here is what it looks like in on desktop search:

Source: Google testing questions and answers in the Google Maps interface

TrickBot malware has been taken over by this notorious criminal gang

After evading law enforcement’s takedown attempts over the past four years, TrickBot’s days are now numbered as it will soon be replaced by the BazarBackdoor malware.

The reason being is that the top members of TrickBot have joined the Conti ransomware syndicate according to a new report from the cybercrime and adversarial disruption firm Advanced Intelligence (AdvIntel).

For those unfamiliar, TrickBot is a Windows malware platform that utilizes multiple modules to conduct a variety of malicious activities such as information and password stealing, infiltrating Windows domains, gaining access to corporate networks and delivering malware. The developers of TrickBot have partnered with ransomware gangs to take over and infect millions of devices around the world since 2016.

While the Ryuk ransomware gang first partnered with TrickBot to gain access to its technology, the group was replaced by the Conti ransomware gang which has been using its malware over the course of the past year to gain access to corporate networks. According to AdvIntel, the group that managed the various TrickBot campaigns is an elite division of cybercriminals known as Overdose which has brought in at least $200m from its nefarious activities online.

Source: TrickBot malware has been taken over by this notorious criminal gang

Snapchat launches a real-time location sharing feature

Snapchat on Friday announced a buddy system-like feature that allows its users to share their real-time location with friends for a period of time.The safety feature is being rolled out as more people are returning to school campuses, traveling, going out on dates and otherwise resuming what they did before the pandemic, the company said. The feature, which is similar to Apple (AAPL)’s Find My app, allows users to share their real-time locations with a friend for 15 minutes, one hour or up to eight hours.Snapchat partnered with It’s On Us, a nonprofit founded in 2014 to combat sexual assault on campuses, in creating the feature.

Since 2017, Snapchat has allowed users to share their locations with friends on its Snap Map feature, which updates a location only when the user has the app open. The company said 250 million users utilize Snap Map each month.

Last May, Snapchat said it reached 500 million monthly active users. According to a survey conducted by the company, 78% of its US app users wouldn’t hesitate to share their locations on Snap Map, and most do it as a safe way to connect to others.

Source: Snapchat launches a real-time location sharing feature

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Google confirms Standard Shopping campaigns will remain available

Standard Shopping campaigns will be supported for the foreseeable future, Ginny Marvin, ads product liaison at Google, confirmed during PPC Chat (on February 17) and via Twitter. 

Here is a table comparing Smart Shopping and Standard Shopping campaigns.

Standard Shopping campaigns offer a set of capabilities, controls, and data that many advertisers rely on, and knowing that they’ll continue to be available will come as a relief, especially since Google has been taking away manual controls in so many areas.

In a sense, Smart Shopping campaigns are going away — they’ll be transitioned into Performance Max campaigns sometime between July and September. The continued availability of Standard Shopping campaigns means advertisers will still have this shopping-specific campaign type, even after Smart Shopping goes away.

Performance Max to absorb Smart Shopping and Local campaigns. As mentioned above, Performance Max is set to absorb Smart Shopping campaigns this summer. Local campaigns will also be rolled into Performance Max sometime between August and September. Once that occurs, advertisers will no longer be able to create new Smart Shopping or Local campaigns.

To facilitate the transition, Google Ads will offer a self-service tool for advertisers that want to move their campaigns over to Performance Max ahead of the transition window, which could give them more time for testing. The tool will be available for Smart Shopping campaigns starting in April, with support for Local campaigns starting in June.

Read more: Google confirms Standard Shopping campaigns will remain available

Google dropping follow and welcome offers in local listings

Google quietly announced in the local business forums that it will soon be deprecating the follow and welcome offers features for local business listings. Kara from Google said, “soon, customers will no longer be able to follow businesses on Google Search or the Google Maps app.”

What is going away? It is not clear when “soon” is exactly but the following feature launched in 2018, allowing searchers to follow businesses through Google Search and Google Maps. When a searcher followed a business, the business would be able to send updates from the business to the user’s “For You” tab. Then the following year, Google added welcome offers to searchers who followed those businesses for businesses to give them special offers.

Read more: Google dropping follow and welcome offers in local listings

How to avoid international SEO mistakes

International SEO has long been a hot topic for enterprise-level brands and global companies. But, the increased ease of connecting with people around the world means these tactics are becoming vital for a growing number of businesses.

International search experts Clayton Warwick and Gary Reilly of Wordbank and Jeramie Heflin of Safeguard Global recently presented a webinar that highlighted some of the most common pitfalls, and their solutions, when it comes to optimizing for searchers who live in different countries or speak different languages.

Here are three important tactics from the panel about how marketers can prevent international SEO mistakes.

Put together a persona-based international strategy

Most of these new customers are not ready to purchase from the get-go, so marketers need to guide them through relevant content and experiences before pushing for conversions. To help with this process, Heflin recommends leveraging customer personas when reaching out to international markets. This can help marketers better understand their new audience’s needs.

However, to ensure these personas accurately reflect audiences, marketers need to pay attention to international search data to quantify the market opportunity for their brands.

Optimize the international user experience

Beyond that, Reilly says marketers need to focus on optimizing for desired actions among their international audience: “For low-funnel content or conversion content, it’s a good idea to be testing a range of cultural UX considerations on key landing pages, especially when it’s a new market and you’re not 100% sure of the best type of design elements that you should use based on the target audience.”

Paying attention to the text styles, color palettes, types of images and the languages used on your landing pages can help ensure your content resonates with these new audience groups.

Ensure the technical elements are aligned

Marketers should work closely with developers when optimizing their content for international audiences as overlooked technical issues can often derail campaigns.

“Start combing through your site to see areas where you could improve your technical setup,” said Warwick. “Fill that list for your developers so they can start knocking the items out.”

To get more specific, he pointed to the importance of in-market page load speed: “We all know how important page speed is to both SEO and paid efforts. We’re not going to want to waste media dollars sending someone to a site where they’ll inevitably bounce.”

Tools such as PageSpeed Insights (shown below) can help marketers gauge their site’s performance based on Google’s Core Web Vitals and recommended loading times.

Read more: How to avoid international SEO mistakes

Amazon and Visa come to a truce over fee increases

https://searchengineland.com/amazon-will-stop-accepting-visa-payments-in-the-uk-starting-in-january-376189Amazon and Visa have come to an agreement allowing customers to continue to use Visa credit cards at Amazon websites and stores, according to Reuters. In November 2021, Amazon announced that it would no longer accept UK-issued Visa payments on Amazon.co.uk., citing high transaction fees.

Amazon customers in the UK can keep using Visa credit cards as a payment method, which means one less factor that can negatively impact sales for merchants. 

Ending this feud in the UK may also be a positive indication that this battle may not occur in other markets.

Amazon reportedly considered switching its co-branded rewards credit card from Visa to Mastercard, but now that an agreement has been reached, that’s unlikely to happen. Customers that have Amazon’s co-branded Visa can continue to accumulate rewards with it, without having to open up a new line of credit, which may also help Amazon maintain its base of Prime subscribers.

Brexit-related fee increases. The European Union imposes fee limits on credit card issuers, but those restrictions no longer apply to the UK, enabling issuers to freely raise fees.

In October 2021, Visa raised its fee from 0.3% to 1.5% for online credit card payments between the UK and EU. It also increased its debit card fee from 0.2% to 1.15%. Mastercard raised its fees from 0.3% to 1.5% as well, according to BBC. “Average credit card processing fees across the industry range between 1.5% and 3.5%, according to analysts,” Shivani Tanna and Mrinmay Dey wrote for Reuters. 

Last month, British lawmakers announced plans to scrutinize Visa and Mastercard’s fee hikes after the country’s payments regulator found no justification for the increases.

Read more: Amazon and Visa come to a truce over fee increases

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TikTok’s brand safety center consolidates transparency updates, announcements and partnerships

The brand safety center includes TikTok’s mission statement, the latest brand safety announcements, information about its partnerships and certifications, the platform’s transparency updates and case studies.

Transparency and brand safety are table stakes. Ever since the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal, social media platforms have been under increased scrutiny. Users want to be reassured that their personal data isn’t being used without their permission, regulatory bodies seek to enforce election laws and anti-collusion regulations, and advertisers want to ensure that they’re staying compliant while avoiding unwanted ad placements.

As a result, transparency and brand safety initiatives such as this have become ubiquitous for social media platforms: Facebook introduced its transparency center in May 2021. LinkedIn has transparency reports. Twitter also has a transparency center.

The future of brand safety on TikTok. Over the next year, the platform expects to work with entities within the industry to set definitions and standards for brand safety issues, like misinformation and ad adjacency.

Source: TikTok’s brand safety center consolidates transparency updates, announcements and partnerships

YouTube Rolls Out New Metadata For Educational Videos

YouTube creators can now optimize educational videos with additional metadata that will be displayed in search results in the future.

This update was announced during YouTube’s weekly news roundup that includes a number of smaller changes for creators that are worth knowing about.

Here’s a recap of the latest news for YouTube creators, starting with the metadata update.

New YouTube Metadata For Educational Videos

The new metadata fields include:

• Type of video
• Academic system
• Education level
• Exam, course or standard

Each of these fields are optional. You can utilize some, all, or none of them during the upload process.

Other Updates For YouTube Creators

Custom Thumbnails On Mobile

YouTube is giving creators the ability to add custom thumbnails when uploading videos using the mobile app.

Dedicated Shorts Shelf On Desktop

YouTube channel pages on desktop will now have a dedicated section for all the creator’s Shorts videos.

Source: YouTube Rolls Out New Metadata For Educational Videos

Google releases Data Studio Dashboard for Web Stories

Google has created a Data Studio sample template called the Web Stories Insights Dashboard. It provides an overview of how your Google Web Stories are performing. 

Web Stories are visual, tappable full-screen mobile stories that can be found via Google Search and Discover.

Metrics you can view in Web Stories Insights Dashboard. There are two main tabs: Overview and Story Level. Among the metrics you can view on this dashboard:

• Key Metrics: Story starts, page views, time spent and completion rate (number of story completions divided by story starts).
• Audience Metrics: Age, gender and device.
• Top Stories: Your top 10 stories during a selected time period, sorted by Story Starts.
• Traffic Channels: An overview of how users have found and read your Web Stories – organic search, direct (which includes Discover), referral, social, email, or custom.
• Story Level Performance: Key metrics and a breakdown of pageviews for a specific story.

For this template to work, you’ll first need to set up tracking for your Web Stories in Google Analytics (or another analytics provider). For whatever editor you use to create Web Stories, you’ll need to provide your UA Tracking ID. After you’ve done this, you can view performance metrics by navigating to Behavior > Events > Overview.

Then you’ll be able to see metrics including story starts, time spent, story pages viewed and story completions:

What the Web Stories Insights Dashboard looks like. This:

How to get the dashboard. You can access the dashboard here.

Once you get there, simply select your analytics account from the dropdown to see your data. Also, you can copy the template and customize it to your liking. 

Source: Google releases Data Studio Dashboard for Web Stories

Google Ads Announces Top 3 Priorities for 2022

As buyer behavior continues to shift throughout the pandemic, Google Ads has committed to a better experience for its users.

Google Ads announced its top three priorities for 2022: automation, measurement, and privacy.

Now, these aren’t new priorities, per say, but more so shifting how they’re focusing on each one. Let’s take a further look.

As buyer behavior continues to shift throughout the pandemic, Google Ads has committed to a better experience for its users.

Google Ads announced its top three priorities for 2022: automation, measurement, and privacy.

Now, these aren’t new priorities, per say, but more so shifting how they’re focusing on each one. Let’s take a further look.

New Opportunities With Automation

Under the Automation pillar, Google is emphasizing the use of Performance Max and Discovery campaign types.

Both campaign types focus on reaching users at scale from a single campaign. Google touts the benefits of these campaigns to include:

• More simplicity in management (less campaigns)
• Multi-channel reach
• Greater ad inventory
• Incremental conversions

The Future Of Measurement

It’s no secret that measurement has been a challenging topic for most advertisers. With the iOS 14 update, the future removal of third-party cookies, and more – new approaches to measurement will be critical for success.

Without meaningful results and data to back up your marketing efforts, it’s going to be harder to prove the value of marketing.

Google is rolling out new solutions to privacy and measurement including:

• Enhanced conversions
• Consent mode
• Conversion modeling
• Data-driven attribution

Delivering Expectations For Digital Privacy

Google has updated their privacy playbook to capture these needs both from the advertiser and user perspective. The three main highlights of this playbook include:

• Building direct relationships with customers
• Ensuring measurement remains accurate and actionable
• Keep your ads relevant

Source: Google Ads Announces Top 3 Priorities for 2022

Facebook is still underreporting iOS web conversions, but not as much as before

Facebook estimates that, in aggregate, it is now underreporting iOS web conversions by approximately 8%, down from the 15% in September 2021. The company cited increased adoption of best practices as the main reason for this improvement.

Why Facebook is underreporting. The social media company has cited Apple’s iOS privacy changes as one reason for its diminished reporting capabilities. App Tracking Transparency enables iOS users to request that apps not track their activity, which limits Facebook’s (and other apps’)  ability to track users for advertising purposes.

Facebook has been very vocal about its opposition to Apple’s privacy measures and has even ran full-page newspaper ads against the changes.

Recommendations for better web conversion campaign reporting. For more accurate conversion reporting, Facebook recommends that advertisers running web conversion campaigns:

• Integrate with the Conversions API – This can create a direct connection between your marketing data (from your server, website platform or CRM) and Facebook.
• Verify all domains – This can be especially important for conversions across multiple domains (i.e., websites that use redirectors or geo-redirects).
• Allow enough time before analyzing campaign performance – Due to the nature of delayed data and modeled reporting, Facebook recommends waiting at least 72 hours (or the full length of the optimization window you’ve selected) before evaluating performance.
• Align conversion events with campaign priorities – The order of your events in Event Manager should reflect your priorities (e.g., if purchases are your most valuable goal, ensure that purchases are in the number one position).

Recommendations for better app conversion campaign reporting. For those running app conversion campaigns, Facebook recommends:

• Using a 24-hour conversion window – This helps Facebook’s systems optimize for faster and more predictable feedback cycles.
• Optimizing for your business objective – Miscategorizing your objective can make it more difficult for Facebook to optimize for that objective.

Source: Facebook is still underreporting iOS web conversions, but not as much as before

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