Monthly Industry Roundup: March 2016

Location3 Media News: After months of planning and hard work, we made the move just a few blocks down the street to our new office at 820 16th Street, Denver. We left behind plenty of great memories at 1515 Arapahoe, but it was a welcome change as we continue to move upward on onward as a leader in digital marketing.

In other news, Location3 President Alex Porter made the trip to beautiful San Francisco for MarTech 2016, a conference designed for “senior-level, hybrid professionals who are both marketing- and tech-savvy.” Check out his blog post for details on the big ideas coming from the emerging industry.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SEARCH?

Google AdWords to Receive Makeover 

To serve advertisers better, Google is rolling out a UI change that simplifies campaign management but still retains all the complexities that go into the day-to-day. A lot has changed in the digital world over the last 15 years, and much more is to come. With the design overhaul, AdWords will cater to recent trends in mobile, video and display — as well as bolstering it’s core search product.

Introduction to Google Analytics 360 Suite

Marketing without measurement is a lost cause, and while advertisers have had great tools in the past, a lack of understanding the complete customer experience has prevented good campaigns from being great. 360 Suite attempts to solve these problems by processing complex data sets, providing simple meaningful insights that translate to action.

A Primer for Mobile Design : Taking Advantage of Micro-Moments

A continuation of the Think Google series, developers consider the most important factors that should be considered when building or redesigning mobile apps and sites

Geek Out with Microsoft and Excel for PPC

Marketers that are true to the game recognize the importance Excel plays in campaign management. Watch this video to get a glimpse of the science and daily routine of PPC pros.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN DISPLAY?

Webrooming a Growing Problem for Retailers

We’ve all heard of showrooming and the challenges it presents for retailers, but now they also have to deal with webrooming. This is basically the opposite of showrooming. Customers research the product online then purchase in the store. We know as consumers, you need to have both a web and a brick-and-mortar presence. Even Amazon is moving that direction, so tailoring your efforts to one or the other really isn’t an option. This article lists two main things for retailers to focus on to make both showrooming and webrooming work for them.

1. Be smarter with your data.
2. Focus on customer experience.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN VIDEO?

Study Answers Questions on Video Length

The most effective length for a video is always a big topic of discussion when considering video advertising. Recently YuMe and IPG conducted a study on the matter. Some of the results were surprising, and others were expected. For micro-ads, anything shorter than 15 seconds, didn’t provide much value in terms of conversion or producing action. They did, however, provide value for specific messaging. Fifteen seconds or more is needed to produce action. Interestingly enough, we saw this play out with one of our clients last quarter. We ran a 15-second video and a 30-second video, and while the completion rate was higher on the 15-second video, we saw a stronger conversion rate from the 30-second video.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOCIAL?

Facebook Expands Lead-Gen Tool

At the end of last year, Facebook launched their lead-gen tool (they pull data from your profile to automatically complete a form). At the time of launch, this only included the standard in-feed ads. They have now expanded the offering and are including video ads in the mix. The product is still very focused on a limited number of industries (automotive, insurance) and is still limited on the types of the fields that can be auto-populated. The information has to be provided to Facebook in advance, and the user has to opt-in to allow Facebook to auto-populate the fields. So even though the creative types have expanded, it is still a very limited advertising option.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN CONTENT?

Instagram Changes Algorithm

Your brand’s organic reach on Instagram just took a hit. The Instagram algorithm has been updated to sort posts based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, versus chronological order. This is in line with parent company Facebook’s algo changes that really reduced unpaid visibility for brands in the news feed. The upswing is that if Instagram also gets Instant Articles and Canvas (rich media ads) in the future, there will be some great opportunities for paid visual content campaigns on the popular site. Read more about the shift at TechCrunch.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN CREATIVE?

Excedrin Takes Family Members into The Migraine Experience

If you’ve ever suffered a migraine, you know it’s not just a bad headache. Excedrin recently launched a multi-channel campaign called “The Migraine Experience” that uses virtual reality to simulate the light sensitivity, blurred vision and sound distortion that a migraine can cause. Migraine sufferers had friends and family go through the virtual reality to better understand why a migraine can take them right out of the game. The resulting stories and videos (running on paid digital, social and TV) show the new empathy people have for their loved ones’ pain. It’s emotional, it’s visceral and it’s a great example of using technology to drive human emotion.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN LOCAL?

How to Audit Google’s Splintered Local Listing Properties for Intel

Local business information can now be found scattered across eight different Google properties, so here is a post-divorce analysis of what is left, noting how brands and SEOs can utilize each remaining property.

Google Posts is Now Experimenting with Business Cards in Search Results

Google is testing with a handful of small businesses, allowing local businesses to promote content directly in the “card carousel.” The test cards take up the vast majority of the SERP, limiting the visibility of other results, which produces a poor user experience when conducting a non-branded search – they may have to go back to the drawing board on this one.

How to Attract Tourists to Your Restaurant

It’s no surprise that restaurants benefit from the travel industry, but according to restaurant.org, “Across all dining segments, about one in every four dollars spent at restaurants comes as a direct result of travel and tourism”. That’s right, approximately 25% of all revenue in the restaurant industry comes from travelers!

Yelp: Buy or Sell?

Whether Yelp succeeds or fails will depend on how agile they can be in expanding beyond their existing features and their “reviews” identity.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SEO?

Are Keywords Really Dead?

As Google becomes more effective at understanding language, it’s come under consideration that topics may be more important than keywords. SEO analyst Sam Nemzer decided to test this theory by conducting an experiment. Nemzer put together 10 groups of 10 keywords with each keyword in the group representing the same concept or topic. After gathering the top ten organic results for each keyword, Nemzer anticlimactically concluded that both topics and keywords should be a focus and that keyword research will always be “essential.” Here are more details on the experiment and the results.

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