Good morning, search marketers, are you ready for more markup?
On day two of Google I/O, the company announced support for more structured data in search results with new How-to and FAQ markup. If you're having a deja vu moment, it's not you. Google introduced both of those at I/O last year. They are now both live. What is immediately clear is that when using this new markup, Google basically turns your FAQ and How-to content into rich, well structured, multi-part direct answer cards right in the search results. It's yet another case of having to weigh prominent search visibility with the prospect of losing out on clicks to your site.
Google Ads' reporting issue has gone on for more than a week now. Reporting data for May 1 and the early hours of May 2 was still not correct at the time of this writing. I've also heard from people about incorrect store visits conversion reporting. We're following up on that. Shoot me an email (gmarvin@thirddoormedia.com) or reach me on Twitter @ginnymarvin if you've seen this issue as well.
While I was attending the Microsoft Advertising Summit in Seattle last week, I learned more about some new features still in beta at a Q&A lunch with folks on the engineering team. Here are a couple I'll call attention to: Video extensions will expand within the search results page when a user clicks to watch. Soon, we learned, there will be the option to add a call-to-action link on those videos. These extensions had just been serving on mobile, but are now on desktop. If you've got video assets, that could be something to look into. Product audiences allow Shopping advertisers to retarget specific products or categories on Bing search and MSAN inventory. The engineers said they're looking for beta testers, so reach out to your rep if you're interested.
Lots more below including a Pro Tip on YouTube Analytics and Soapbox thoughts on the prospect of paying for GMB.
Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief
