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SEO on Facebook, is this a thing?
Have you ever thought of Facebook as a search engine? Well, it seems that Facebook already is one.
And it’s proven by the ads that started to appear in its search results. Though, they’re not exactly keyword based.
But besides this, data talks: Facebook sees over 1.5B searches every day and over 600M of these searchers visit business pages. And the numbers are still growing!
Considering the 3.5B searches per day on Google, it’s still a considerably huge figure!
So, how can it be leveraged?
According to Search Engine Watch, this is more a chance for local businesses. A huge one, given that 74% of buying journeys start with search engines during the consideration stage.
So, is Facebook SEO going to be a thing?
We can’t be sure yet. However, the Social Giant has caught up with typical search engines and started implementing keywords in their algorithm and databases. Bundle that with the 1.5B searches per day, and a whole new world is born.
For now, Facebook looks to be more secretive than Google and there aren’t any ranking signals in the Graph Search.
Rather, it relies heavily on posts and pages based on user engagement. But it doesn’t mean other ranking factors aren’t involved.
Moreover, Facebook started to test Search Ads in 2019. There is probably something in the pot.
What does this mean for advertisers? Given the volume of searches happening on Facebook, it would be wise to start optimizing a business page to test and see if it appears any higher in the search results. The question is: HOW?
Facebook search is still an undefined thing, but surely something to keep an eye on! 1.5B searches per day can’t be unnoticed. And the fact that Facebook has started to monetize it with Search Ads are two signals that make us curious.
We’ll keep you posted on this!
Go Live on LinkedIn
Video content is the fastest-growing format on LinkedIn. And surfing this wave, the social media platform is releasing LinkedIn Live.
The feature will give professionals and organizations the ability to host live video. To selected groups or to the whole LinkedIn audience.
Well, this isn’t surprising, given that LinkedIn takes inspiration from Facebook for most of their updates. Yet, they are a bit late to release the Live feature, considering their competitors.
Well, better late than never.
According to TechCrunch, this update was released with a specific monetization goal in mind. Video Advertising.
However, live videos can be useful for agencies looking to generate those hot leads. They give the prospects the chance to interact with you. And they are more engaging than normal videos.
So, if you are an agency owner, and you are already using LinkedIn to generate leads and acquire customers, this could be a nice feature for you!
PPC
Text Ads evaluation toolkit
Over the last several months, Text Ads on Google saw a lot of variations and the introduction of new tools: Legacy ads, Expanded ads, Newly Expanded Ads and Responsive Search Ads.
So, which ones should you consider and how can you make them work for your campaigns?
Each tool serves a unique purpose. And with the help of Google’s machine learning and artificial intelligence, they allow you to personalize your ad communication to users.
During Search Marketing Expo 2018, Sean Murphy and Mark Irvine discussed some of these tools. And how to use them to meet your objectives.
Expanded Text Ads
These are best suited for:
- Time-sensitive ads.
- Location-specific ads.
- Call-only ads.
- Multiple price point products/services.
- Brand-heavy ads.
Additional pointers:
- Sean advises testing a lot of variations to find the ones that resonate the best with your audience.
- These ads see a higher click conversion when paired with smart bidding.
Responsive Search Ads
These are best suited for:
- Showcasing product details.
- Building brand trust.
- Adding your customer reviews.
- Listing discounts and sales.
- Adding competitive ratings.
- Adding CTAs.
Additional pointers:
- Go broad with RSAs.
- Use unique landing pages for each RSA.
- Review your ad strength and suggestions.
- Move highest serving headlines into expanded text ads.
Ad Extensions
These compliment your text ads by allowing you to add: Sitelinks, locations, Structured snippets, Phone number, Messaging, Callouts, Price, Promotions etc.
Additional pointers:
- Use them flexibly and don’t be redundant.
- Make sure they don’t contradict with the main message in your ad.
Ad Variations
Best suited for testing:
- Small textual variations within your ads. They can be used across several campaigns under your account.
- Various innovative CTAs.
- Rephrased versions of your key product features.
- Adjectives in your ad copy.
Additional tips on writing great ad copies:
- Focus on elements that matter most. For eg, the second description and third headline may not show often. Avoid using key messaging in these elements. Instead, use them only to offer complimentary value props, extra keyword variety, differentiation from competitors etc.
- Make sure you cover the key communication in the first and second headline.
- Newly expanded Text Ads can get shortened at times. Hence, avoid hanging endings in your second headline or first description.
- Write your ads for who is going to see them the most. A third headline and second description are not written for mobile as they get truncated. Instead, write these new expanded Text Ads fields for desktop only.
- Use new, longer ads to offer more to Google and to users. Don’t use them for keyword stuffing and repetitive messaging.
PS: Using the above text tools, it is possible to test and optimize over 43,000 different variations of messaging. This would not be possible if done manually.
However, make sure that these combinations make sense and work well together. There might be an initial CTR drop. But as Google machine learning generates more data, you will see an improvement in CTR. Don’t give up too early and keep testing responsive search ads.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Monitoring your brand on social media
What are your customers saying about your brand? What are your competitors doing? How to find relevant advocates/influencers for your brand?
These questions can be answered using social media listening tools.
There are millions of discussions happening online. And filtering through so much content can be a daunting task.
Using social media monitoring tools with Boolean capabilities can be a great way to accomplish this.
Tools like Sprout Social, TweetDeck, Awario etc., allow you to play around with Boolean. But these come with a subscription cost.
So, here’s how learning Boolean search can be helpful in monitoring your brand on social media without spending a penny.
- Have a common business name which has got various meanings like Apple, Uber? It helps you filter mentions and content relevant for your brand.
- It allows you to combine groups of keywords and find people who are not only leisurely looking for your products/services but are already interested in it.
- It allows you to create queries which exclude mentions that already have links to a particular website.
- It’s also a great way to check for plagiarism to find out if someone’s using your work without permission.
Here are some of the common Boolean search operators:
OR: This operator uses “either-or” logic to search the listed keywords.
AND: This searches for a specific keyword or a group of keywords together.
AND NOT: This is used to add negative keywords to your search.
Parentheses: To group a couple of keywords, you can list them in brackets.
Country, lang, and FROM: You can also filter your results by country, language, or social media platform with the help of ‘country’, ‘lang’, and ‘FROM’ respectively. The first two can be used together with the ‘AND’ operator, while ‘FROM’ is used independently.
near/n: This operator specifies the closeness of your keywords to each other – this means that your search app will pull in mentions where keywords appear within a number of words away from each other.
UNION: It helps in combining multiple Boolean expressions into one. This makes sense if you want to merge a couple of search expressions with completely different parameters and different sources into one expression, to get all results into one feed.
These are just the basic operators and they can all be clubbed into various ways to pull relevant information from tons of raw content available out there. If you are interested to learn Boolean search in detail, here’s a guide to learn about more Boolean search operators.
Instagram Brings IGTV Videos into the Feed
Starting from Thursday, 1-minute previews of the IGTV videos from your followed accounts will show up in your Instagram Newsfeed. And by tapping on the IGTV icon, you’ll be redirected to the whole video on IGTV.
It looks like the IGTV bet didn’t go as they expected at Menlo Park. And they want to push it harder. Will this be the right move?
VIDEO
Video marketing recipe
If content is king, then videos are the crown and the sceptre.
More and more consumers are turning to video for learning about brands and even for purchasing.
And following this belief, here is a video marketing strategy shared by Emma Email, to help you build your video marketing recipe.
Let’s jump to the 6 steps to implement.
Identify your audience.
This is the first step in every marketing campaign. However, when talking about videos, it’s even more important.
Before strategizing, do some more research about your audience. Learn what content they regularly absorb. Find out what it is about your brand that really stimulates them. And build on this information.
Outline your video marketing goal.
It’s important to set a goal you’re trying to achieve with your video content. So, you have to decide what your goals are before creating a video and deciding what it should look like. And this leads us to the next step.
Strategize what content works best for your brand.
Are you driving brand awareness or visitors to your website? Are you encouraging people to buy a product or simplifying your brand offerings? Depending on how you answer these questions, you’ll create a different type of video. Demos, how-tos, social videos, motion graphics, interviews, and more.
Develop a video outline and produce the video.
At this point, you should start creating your video. If you hire a video production company, make sure to clearly communicate your objectives, and the message your videos must convey.
Decide what platform suits your video strategy best.
So once a video is produced, you need to do some additional research to learn where your new video will find its best home. This will depend on your target and your objective.
Promote across all social and digital channels.
Obviously social networks are the best channels to reach your audience. To accompany this video on social platforms, you need to roll out a comprehensive social media marketing campaign.
Videos are an important piece of every marketing armoury. They have the ability to reach new audiences, simplify complex concepts, and bridge the gap between brand and consumers.
Plus, videos give more credibility than simple images. And if you are looking to start taking advantage of them, this basic strategy could be the right spot to start!
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Dear spoilers, shut up!
What drives you angrier than a ROI-negative campaign? A bug in the FB Ads Manager?
Ehm… there is something still worse: spoilers! They are the plague of the Twenty-First Century.
Since social media bloomed, not a single day passes without tripping over spoilers for whatever TV show, video game, or movie is the hot topic of the moment.
Tweets and Facebook posts about how an episode ends and even spoiler-ish hashtags. They spread around the web killing our fun. But how to avoid them?
Quitting all social platforms when the end of a season is around?
Fortunately, the TheNextWeb crew suggested a less extreme solution to shut them off on Facebook and Twitter. The platform where they tend to hang out more! Have a look!
Well, the weekend is far, so it’s still time to crush some campaigns! However, good Netflix and chill!
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