This month in search marketing [May 2023]

May 2023 has been a busy month for the field of digital and search marketing; as search engines change and evolve to keep up with the times, organic search and PPC are being impacted. Below are the things digital marketers need to be aware of, in order to adapt to the changes…

Monday 01st May 2023

Google’s “helpful content” update

While this update has been around for a short while now, Google is continually changing, updating, and improving its algorithm; with its search ranking system changing an average of 12 times per day, digital marketers are constantly kept on their toes. Organic search is likely to be impacted by this changing algorithm, so digital marketers need to be continuously reviewing their strategies, as well as being aware of which elements of AI might negatively impact SEO.

Wednesday 17th May 2023

The State of Generative AI, Hubspot’s new report:

Hubspot conducted some new research on generative AI and its use in marketing, and the findings were insightful. Some of the more interesting key findings are as follows:

• 67% of marketers use AI to write content faster, on average saving 3 hours and 10 minutes for a single piece of content
• 85% of marketers that use AI, will use it to boost the personalisation in their content
• 26% of marketers worry that using generative AI in their content puts them at risk of plagiarism

Friday 19th May 2023

What does a Cookie-less future look like for digital marketing?

Digital marketers rely on cookies for their remarketing or retargeting campaigns; but as privacy concerns around cookies arise – and discussions on a cookie-less future are growing, digital marketers need to think about how this might impact their campaigns, and how they can adapt to become more privacy-centric.

Marketers need to use their natural creativity to find innovative ways to engage customers, without relying on cookie tracking. Some of the methods markets can use to minimise the impact are:

• First party data collection
• Contextual advertising
• Using CRM tools
• Machine learning and AI

Guide for YouTube SEO

With talk about changing search engines, and increasing competition from other platforms in this area – discussions on the impact of organic search are at an all time high. Keeping up-to-date with these changes is a monumental task for digital marketers, especially when search engines are now becoming, more often than not, image and video based as opposed to traditional.

Hubspot has written a helpful guide to help you navigate SEO on the most popular video search platform, YouTube.

Sunday 21st May 2023

Can generative AI put digital marketers at risk of copyright infringement?

Although AI is starting to be used more frequently to speed up digital marketing processes, new discussions are cropping up around copyright infringement, and whether AI is in breach of it. In particular, in relation to image generation, due to its nature to closely resemble existing artwork; while text can be altered, fact checked, and expanded – imagery cannot be changed in the same way.

Once again, digital marketers need to take this into consideration when using AI for digital marketing processes; making this a priority now is likely to save them a lot of hassle in the long-term.

Monday 22nd May 2023

Ad blindness & how to combat it

In the world of digital media, people are seeing several advertisements on a daily basis – so much so that many have become accustomed to ignoring them completely, rendering them ineffective. This is referred to as ‘ad blindness’ and has been discussed recently in the field of digital and search marketing.

There have been some discussions this month on how digital marketers can combat this, including:

• Using machine learning technology
• Making messaging simple and actionable
• Storytelling

Keeping digital advertisers up-to-date with Meta’s ever-changing platforms

The world of digital marketing is always evolving – moving forward to keep up to date with current industry trends, tech, and news; Meta, the advertising giant, is no different. Forbes have written this insightful article which is an updated list of the algorithms you need to know to keep on top of your understanding of Meta’s evolving ad ecosystem.

Less spend on paid media…?

New research has found that approximately 20% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMO’s) are planning to spend less on paid media. Marketing budgets are dropping across the board – and ad platforms are starting to charge more for placements…adding a reduction in spend on digital advertising to this is likely to have an impact on the industry as a whole.

Tuesday 23rd May 2023

Auditing your Amazon PPC campaigns

Although PPC campaigns on Amazon help digital marketers to reach the most relevant customers, it can be difficult to keep up with trends and updates, as well as stay ahead of the competition. In order to make the most of these campaigns, you need to audit them on a regular basis.

This article from World List Mania tells you everything you need to know about auditing your Amazon PPC campaigns.

The future of SEO

With all the changes to the world of search, and updates to the search engine platforms that are going on recently, the impact on SEO has been scattered throughout discussions recently. The major changes that are likely to have an impact on SEO, and need to be monitored by digital marketing are:

• The adoption of voice search on search engines
• The changing wants/needs of users – including a more personalised and visual experience when conducting research
• The increase in people consuming the majority of their content on mobile devices, and adjusting content to be more mobile-friendly in the near future

‘Conversational AI’ and its impact on digital advertising

As search engines begin to adjust their platforms to adapt to this idea of ‘conversational search’, it is worthy for digital advertisers to note how this might impact their ad placements in the future. AI generated ‘conversational search’ results could redefine how a SERP appears following a query – which could significantly impact the amount of attention both paid and organic search listings will receive.

Thursday 25th May 2023

AI in marketing technology updates

As AI is adopted across the field of digital marketing, widely used marketing tech are starting to update their systems to include AI elements. From using AI in customer management platforms, AI powered chrome extensions, or using AI for video placements – AI has nestled itself across all areas of digital marketing. This helpful article by MarTech takes you through some of the marketing technology updates in May.

Google Live – updates seen in May

Google is constantly working to improve and update their systems; following their core update in March we have seen several renovations on their platform – and May has been no stranger to these improvements:

• Using their conversational AI, marketers are able to reduce some of the more time-consuming elements of campaign launching.
• PMax uses your brand and vision to create text and imagery marketing assets with generative AI.
• Google will start targeting search queries with AI powered assets, which should mean an increase in the ability to deliver relevant ads.
• An update was launched to build upon the Search Generative Experience (SGE) update and integrate it with Google Shopping ads.
• New campaign types to be added to Google ads, video views, and demand generation campaigns

Friday 26th May 2023

AI & augmented reality in digital and search marketing

While AI is a topic that has been discussed at length within our 2023 Month In Search series, we have not yet breached the topic of augmented reality, and its uses in digital and search marketing. With a creative imagination, there are endless possibilities for the use of AI and augmented reality within digital marketing; this article by Forbes discusses the topic.

Moving forward, it will be interesting to keep an eye on how these technological developments impact the field, and how digital marketers can incorporate this technology in their strategies.

Monday 29th May 2023

Microsoft Ads to collect more data through Universal Event Tracking (UET) Tag

In preparation for their new UET insights tab in June, Microsoft ads are starting to collect more website data. Real-time data will be available on this dashboard, and will include metrics such as session count, popular pages, device and country breakdown, average active time, and more.

The new dashboard is due to launch on the 29th June.

Finding a focus amongst the noise of AI

AI is rapidly becoming a key tool in a digital marketer’s belt, but with so many uses for AI it is difficult to know where it can be used to drive the best results. This helpful article by Search Engine Journal discusses how to focus on what matters, in regard to AI and its relation to SEO.

Tuesday 30th May 2023

AI changing the search landscape

AI has been a hot topic in 2023, and discussions on its impact on digital and search marketing continue into May. By incorporating AI in their platforms, it is likely that search engines are going to appear more ‘conversational’ than traditional search, aptly referred to as ‘conversational search’; on such a platform, answers to queries will appear in a more conversational manner compared to how results are displayed on traditional search engines.

There are also discussions around how ‘conversational search’ is likely to start providing a more personalised experience than traditional search engines. Considering the increasing popularity of TikTok as a ‘social search engine’ – partially due to its intelligent algorithm that allows for a personal experience – this is no surprise.

June & beyond…

We are getting closer to the mid-point of 2023, and search marketing has seen some fundamental changes so far. As the year goes on, the field will continue to evolve, and digital marketers will need to adapt to keep up with the ever-changing landscape.