All Script And Tols For Free: 🔍 Ad testing still matters

Jul 08, 2020

Good morning Search Marketer, do you have a testing routine?

Mike Henderson, CMO of SuretyBonds.com, sets aside time each Friday morning to work on PPC ad testing. That's a key element of the simple, but effective text ads testing framework he's been using for the past five years and shared during SMX Next.

Once you get into an ad testing rhythm, there is a "flywheel effect in which you build off of successes to continue seeing better and better results," he says. Mike explains how he makes the most of labels in the Google Ads UI to make reporting and iterating much easier and how pinning helps turn RSA performance around. And if you don't have time or resources for a weekly routine, Google Ads' variation tool might be a solution. Check out Mike's full presentation here.

Google's Rich Results Test tool is now officially out of the beta pen — almost three years after launching at the end of 2017. That means the Structured Data Testing Tool will eventually be sunset. The Rich Results Test tool has some advantages such as showing which Search feature enhancements are valid for the markup you're using and more. For more on structured data and schema, see our library of articles.

Keep reading for the latest on the Facebook Ads boycott and more.

Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief

Search Shorts

Lighthouse SEO scores

Lighthouse SEO scores. Here's a fun tweet from Gary Illyes from Google: "I don't know whose bubble I'm gonna burst with this, but "achieving a SEO score 100" in Lighthouse just means that you can follow a handful of directions, not that you're great at SEO. But good job!"

Your content on other sites. John Mueller from Google said, "if you host your content on other people's websites, it's possible that their websites rank for the content instead, of or above, yours."

One business profile on GMB. Google made it crystal clear that only one business profile per business is allowed in Google My Business. The new guidelines state, "There should only be one profile per business, as this can cause problems with how your information displays on Google Maps and Search." Hat tip to Joy Hawkins.

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Social Short

Facebook vs. #StopHateForProfit: The latest

"We're not gonna change our policies or approach on anything because of a threat to a small percent of our revenue, or to any percent of our revenue," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees last week, referring to the advertiser boycott, The Information reported.

The company bumped up the release of the findings of a two-year independent civil rights audit by a day and plans to release it today, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a post published yesterday ahead of Wednesday's scheduled meeting with the civil rights organizers of the Stop Hate for Profit advertiser boycott, which nearly 1,000 advertisers have joined. "While we won't be making every change they call for, we will put more of their proposals into practice soon."

"We are making changes – not for financial reasons or advertiser pressure, but because it is the right thing to do," she added.

Organizers say the report's release smacks of PR opportunism. "This timing is a transparent effort to change the narrative. That Zuckerberg believes he is so powerful that he can ignore calls from major advertisers, multiple coalitions and a growing public puts our democracy and communities around the world at risk," Rashad Robinson of Color of Change tweeted Tuesday.

The meeting is slated to take place virtually today.

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