Digital Marketing News and Trends: 11/10/17

Every week we’re collecting a host of links, videos, and assorted analysis on the ever-changing world of digital marketing. We invite you to skim, share, analyze, argue, and refute – just so long as you don’t get embarrassed at the water cooler again. Here are the latest digital marketing news and trends for the week of November 10, 2017.

Mobile Sponsored Content Is Read More Often, Longer

Laurie Sullivan gave us a quick analysis of a study released from Pressboard on Monday. one of the biggest takeaways from the study, which gathered data from 1,336 pieces of content created by Pressboard partners, is that people reading branded content now spend more time (79 seconds on average) reading than those reading on desktop. This is the first time that mobile reading time has surpassed desktop.

Facebook continues to be a major force in delivering branded content at 67.3 percent of primary source traffic. Direct traffic to sites ranks second at just 13.9 percent. For further analysis, Sullivan’s post can be found here.

Twitter Doubles Character Limit to 280

Despite negative feedback from many of its most active users, Twitter has expanded its character limit to 280 from 140. The expansion comes after weeks of testing showed longer tweets received more engagement. An overlooked factor in the change is this is only for English-speaking countries, due to a “cramming” issue in which 9 percent of tweets in English used all 140 characters.

For those lamenting the bloating of their timelines, it should be noted that Twitter says that during testing, 95 percent of tweets remained 140 characters or shorter. That is to say just because users have the ability to lengthen their tweets, they still tend to stick to the original parameters. Only 1 percent of tweets during testing reached 280 characters.

79% of Consumers Believe They’ve Seen Fake Reviews

BrightLocal released the results of a local consumer survey focused on local business reviews. Greg Sterling of Search Engine Land did us the service of deciphering the results of the survey. His takeaways:

• Consumers were mostly concerned with average star ratings and the quantity of reviews
• Instead of going to the business website, consumers were more likely than in previous years to seek additional reviews to validate the initial review
• 30 percent of participants said that two to three positive reviews were enough to “trust the business”
• Nearly 80 percent of participants believed they encountered fake reviews

Publishers To Have Dedicated Knowledge Panels

Google announced on Tuesday a new Knowledge Panel designed specifically for publishers. The Knowledge Panel is traditionally on the right side of Google’s search results and includes relevant business information. The new publisher Knowledge Panel will fill the entire above-the-fold section of search results.

This new feature will only be present when the publisher is searched for by name. Google says the feature is designed to give users more information and context on the publisher’s background, tone, and focus. I’m sensing it’s a tool to help users in the Fake News era.

Bing Ads Now Showing Exact Match Impression Share

Bing announced on Tuesday that exact match impression share (EM IS) is now available on the Big Ads online Reports page and in the Reporting API. “Existing impression share metrics measure the percentage of eligible impressions you received for all searches,” according to Bing. This will allow advertisers to gain clarity about the reach and potential of their exact match types. For more details, including Bing’s insight on how to use exact match impression share, the release can be read here.