Good morning search marketers, happy 10th birthday to Bing!
Microsoft's search engine turns 10 today. We'll take a look back — and forward — on Search Engine Land today. For a fun throwback, here's our coverage of Bing's launch.
Over the weekend, you likely started seeing Google's new look for mobile search results with favicons next to organic listings and black ad labels formatted in similar fashion. With most searches now occurring on mobile devices, any changes Google makes to the SERP can make big waves for paid and organic traffic. Now that I've had time to play around with it, I feel even more strongly that text ads have never looked more native. I'd love to hear your thoughts and — as we all start to gather data — early take on the impact: gmarvin@thirddoormedia.com or @ginnymarvin.
"Get out of the weeds." That's search marketing veteran Elizabeth Marsten's advice for advertisers in the age of automation. We're in the midst of a "search remix," Elizabeth said in a conversation I had with her last week. "Amazon Ads, Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, etc. — think bigger and get out of the weeds. The old ways of campaign management aren't sustainable workflows," says Elizabeth.
She and Steve Hammer are going to be talking about what's new and crucial in SEM at SMX Advanced in Seattle next week, and I got some early thoughts from them. Steve says a testing mentality is going to be even more important. "I'd advise everyone to get super comfortable with filters, scripts and the like, because it's a self-selected version of what's to come."
Google struggled with indexing issues last week, which means you may have faced organic visibility issues. Here's wishing you a bug-free week.
Lots more below including a Pro Tip on remarketing opportunities, Search Shorts and more.
Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief