Good morning, Search Marketer, 2020 has been all about change, but we're confident this is going to be a good one. Why wait for the new year to start making improvements, am I right? To that end, the Search Engine Land newsletter is getting something of a makeover: Instead of summarizing all the must-know news for you in this intro, we've reformatted the newsletter to give you more details, context, and a bit more room for us to convey why you should care. Instead of bragging more about it, I'll let you see for yourself — just keep scrolling. We hope you like it! George Nguyen,
Editor | | | | | Platforms | | | | | A world without Google services...for 33 minutes | | | | Yesterday morning around 6:55am ET, a slew of Google services went offline, including Google Ads, Google AdSense, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google My Business, YouTube and more. Search, however, remained in operation during that time. The downtime was short, but a quick look at the #googledown hashtag on Twitter shows just what kind of panic (and humor) the downtime caused. Of course, downtimes happen. But Google isn't DuckDuckGo. Read more here. | | | | | | | The bright 2021 outlook for digital marketing agencies Sponsored by CallRail | | While 2021 still holds economic uncertainty, digital marketing leaders indicate that their agencies have been remarkably resilient, according to CallRail's fall survey of 167 global marketing leaders who use its services. The findings show that most agencies will finish 2020 with higher annual revenues than in 2019. Overall, agency leaders reported satisfaction across many different business areas, such as their talent and expertise, customer service and positioning. When asked about their ability to attain key growth metrics — like generating new client leads and closing new business — the majority of agencies also exhibited strong confidence that they can. While CallRail's 2021 Outlook Report takes a much deeper dive into agency business practices, this article highlights some of the most interesting aspects of the research. Read More » | | | | | | E-Commerce | | | | | Mobile is no longer just top of funnel | | In the nine days following this year's Cyber Monday, mobile accounted for 39% of consumers' online spending, up 57% year-over-year, and a far, far cry from the days when nine out of ten conversion journeys ended on desktop. Interestingly, the average value of orders on mobile are still lower than on desktop — which is in line with my own purchasing habits — but that just might mean that there are still unexplored opportunities on mobile. Overall, online shopping in the U.S. is up 48.8% YoY, and a myriad of factors have contributed to that growth, including the pandemic, improvements in site speeds, and streamlined checkout processes. With the Page Experience update rolling out next year, retailers may have to invest in their mobile web and app experiences as mobile commerce continues to grow. Read more here. | | | | | | | Starting Today: Expert-led SMX workshops! | | Google Ads, Advanced SEO, Technical SEO, In-House SEO… which SMX workshop will you choose? There's still time to secure your spot! Book now for just $249 and unlock two days of interactive, expert-led training today and tomorrow, Dec. 15-16! Register now » | | | | | | Paid | | | | | RSAs vs ETAs: How, when and why PPC experts use them | | For PPC marketers, the writing has been on the wall for some time: Google wants to automate your advertising. The company even experimented with making RSAs the default option over the summer. As is the case with anything relatively new, and anything that promises to automate your marketing for you, questions need to be asked — mainly, are RSAs better than ETAs? In this match-up, Optmyzr's Frederick Vallaeys advocates for RSAs, explaining that they beat ETAs on the main Google Ads metrics and that they can perform well when advertisers spend time making them more relevant and including text relevant to the keywords and search terms for the ad group. Frederick also goes over when to pin ad components, and why RSAs are best thought of as a tool that combines machine learning and the cleverness of PPC practitioners — not a magic wand. Read more here. | | | | | | Local | | | | | As local media lose budgets, Field Day offers 'last mile activation' for brands | | Traditional media spending, including local TV, print, radio, out-of-home and direct mail, will be down between 15% and nearly 50% this year, depending on the medium. Some advertisers will never return, having shifted spending entirely to digital channels. The decline of traditional, local media spending, however, doesn't eliminate the need for a local marketing presence. Indeed, in some ways, the need for the trust and credibility that local media and marketing confer may be even greater now than in the recent past. Enter Field Day, which offers "last mile activation" and local field marketing to brands at scale. According to CEO Alex Nocifera, Field Day is an "end to end solution for local sales and marketing activations" for multi-location brands. While one might expect the demand for local field marketing to have radically diminished during COVID, Nocifera told Search Engine Land that he's seen increased demand because many of his customers "weren't seeing conversions on digital; the time to market on TV and radio takes too long and 'good OOH inventory' wasn't available." Read more here. | | | | | | | Investing in an SEO tool? Here's everything you need to ask. | | With SEO being the key element in your site's ranking, choosing an SEO tool is a major decision for any organization. But with a dizzying number of SEO tools to choose from, it's not surprising that many marketers feel overwhelmed by the selection process. Download this eBook to discover everything you need to know to make a well-informed decision. Download now » | | | | |
