Good morning, Search Marketer, it's my day to hop into your inbox and I have opinions. A week ago I spoke to several professionals in the publishing sector for a deep dive into Australia's showdown with Google (read it after this newsletter for context). Now, the European Union may be looking to follow Australia's lead as it seeks to force Google and Facebook to pay to link to news publishers, the Financial Times reported (there's a link in today's What We're Reading). There seems to be a consensus that Google should subsidize journalism; the News Showcase initiative is a soft resignation on Google's part to do just that. While the exact details for the EU's new regulation are still unknown, it's unreasonable to expect Google to pay to link to publishers on the main search results page, as Australia is trying to strong-arm it into doing. Here's why, in a nutshell: - If Google is made to pay news outlets for SERP links, the argument can be made by other industries that Google should pay them, too. How could any search engine afford to pay for even a fraction of the search results it provides?
- Right now, Australia is focused on Google and Facebook, but if Google shuts down search in Australia (like it has threatened to), not only will publishers not get compensated, they'll lose out on traffic, which means less ad revenue.
- Providing publishers with advance notice of algorithm updates is inherently unfair to other sites.
- If Google has to pay and it can't find a way to recoup revenue elsewhere, it's just going to shut down search in those regions and fall back on Alphabet's other products, like YouTube. There will be collateral damage — smaller businesses that depend on organic traffic from Google will lose a lifeline as their audiences recalibrate and get accustomed to alternative search engines. And, those businesses will have to do the same; without searching it, do you even know what Bing's version of Google My Business is called?
I'm not one to defend tech giants every chance I get, but these proposed regulations may have very real consequences for other businesses. I don't know what the right solution is, but I'm certain that there's a better one than this. What are your thoughts? DM me @geochingu on Twitter or email me at gnguyen@thirddoormedia.com. George Nguyen,
Editor | | | | | Google Ads | | | | | Google's updated phrase match simplifies keywords and worries advertisers | | "I saw this coming" was a common reaction to Google's announcement last week about including broad match modifier (BMM) traffic in its updated phrase match treatment. That's because the announcement is in line with the years-long series of changes the company has made to emphasize machine learning and automation over manual controls from advertisers. "The thing advertisers are gaining is a match type solution that better mimics how match types currently work," Kirk Williams, owner of ZATO Marketing, told us. However, phrase match keywords are losing out on word order in some circumstances, and those that were reliant on BMM can expect to see fewer clicks and conversions. Google, though, seems to be gaining more control over the auction as transparency and data have dwindled down over the years. To prepare for the new treatment, advertisers should export their data and look at how phrase match and BMM are currently performing. "What we'll be doing is basically trimming out all broad match modified terms as soon as we can," Matt Van Wagner, president of Find Me Faster said. "Because the more searches that are still going to broad match modified (versus phrase, versus regular broader or exact), the less we'll be able to analyze what Google really means by these changes." And, for those more reliant on phrase match, be sure to keep an eye on your keywords as the change occurs since additional queries will be eligible to match, and make use of negative keywords to ensure that your budget is being used effectively. Read more here. | | | | | | | How data science can change the way you look at SEO | | Have you ever looked at SERPs, keyword trends, and behavior on your website, and wondered if you could predict how adding new pages would impact how often organic visitors from your website are converted to leads? Or wondered if you could pick up on industry trends in SERPs before your competitors? These questions are all part of data SEO. Data SEO is the rising field that brings data science methods of analysis to SEO. Learn how it can evaluate, predict, automate, or even influence different tasks or phenomena in SEO. Learn more » | | | | | | Microsoft Ads | | | | | Microsoft Advertising to replace Manual CPC with Enhanced CPC by end of April | | | | Microsoft will soon transition all search, shopping and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns that don't have automated bidding strategies over to Enhanced CPC (eCPC). The transition will begin in March, with new campaigns no longer having the option to use manual CPC in early April, and all campaigns are expected to be migrated over to eCPC by the end of April. And, all ad groups and keywords will inherit bidding from their parent campaign. If you're already using an automated strategy (like target ROAS, max clicks or target CPA), there'll be no change. "Advertisers using eCPC achieve 5-10% more conversions while maintaining their cost per acquisition (CPA)," the company said in its announcement. But, don't just take their word for it, begin testing now so that you can avoid any wasted spend. To help you determine which strategy is right for your campaigns, Microsoft provided the decision tree above. Read more here. | | | | |
