November Online Marketing Roundup

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you're having a good time with friends and family!

What's better than celebrate this day that enjoying your spare time by reading the most important news of the Month.

Let's see what the guys from Google, Facebook and Twitter have been doing! Are you ready for our Online Marketing Roundup? Then let's go!

Google Announces New Store Visit Metrics in AdWords

The new metrics will give advertisers more insight into store visits, with the ability to view visits at a keyword or Ad Group level.

Advertisers will also be able to view visits by day, week or month to give them greater insight into what works and when. This is particularly timely on the run up to Thanksgiving, here you can see the busiest times for Black Friday footfall.

What Are Store Visits?

For the uninitiated, it's a way for retailers to measure offline ROI from online data.

The store visits metric tells advertisers which products featured in adverts are driving visits to their physical stores.

According to Google's own data, advertisers are finding four times as many conversions overall and 10 times as many on mobiles by incorporating this data into ad performance stats.

How Does it Work? 

Well, you'll have seen data like this in Google searches, showing data on popular times for stores, restaurants and more.  Well, so many of us are logged into Google accounts, through Gmail, Docs, analytics and more. Even Google+. On desktop and mobile.

We tend to stay logged in too, for the sake of convenience.  This means that Google can track a click on a search ad, and then see if that logged-in user later visits the store.

Google, of course, has mapping technology which enables it to know the locations of the stores, and even the geography of the store itself. It can then use GPS location signals and WiFi to determine that a customer has visited a store, and even which part of the store they headed to.

The data is anonymized, and is only transmitted by those users who have turned Location History on. If you don't like the sound of this, best change your settings. It's also backed up by surveys which help to check and validate the data generated by Google.

Google tells us that, for the moment, this works better for larger store chains and businesses with multiple locations. These businesses have more clicks, more in-store customers, and can therefore generate more data for Google.

However, I'd expect to see this rolled out for more and more advertisers as the ability to measure this data improves.

Twitter Kills Share Counts

A couple of months ago, Twitter revealed that it was going to release new-look ‘tweet’ buttons. Nothing seismic about that, until you read the bit about it removing the number of shares from its buttons.

It described the move in typically obfuscated terms: “We are simplifying the Tweet button by removing the share counter alongside the button.” Ah, but what if you don’t want it to be simplified?

There is a solution. Twitter goes on to say that:

“Full-archive search counts are available from Gnip.” That’s shorthand for “pay up, you swine” (Gnip is Twitter’s data business. It bought the company last year).

How much does it cost? It won’t say. You need to contact Gnip to find out.  One app developer did precisely that. Coverage Book’s Gary Preston came to the conclusion that he would be “forced to raise prices considerably” if he went down the Gnip route.

How This Pays Off for Twitter

Jay Baer doesn’t think Twitter can convince bloggers to pay for sharing data directly. But what if Twitter announces that sharing counts are only available on the Twitter Analytics dashboard?

In truth, the data available there is already pretty sweet, and if Twitter put sharing data exclusively in that dashboard, what will happen? A LOT MORE people will log on to that dashboard, slavishly scanning the numbers for their daily dose of social proof.

How does that scenario help Twitter? Well, guess what else is featured on the analytics dashboard? If you guessed “Twitter ad options” you win!

Now imagine Twitter has the ability to educate you and promote those ad options to you every time you log in to see the share count data they stripped away.

Here’s how Twitter wins!

Introducing Notify: A Notifications App from Facebook

Last November 11th Facebook announced their new app: Notify. These new app delivers timely notifications about the things that matter to you, from the sources you love, all in one place.

Notifications are becoming one of the primary ways people first learn about things, wherever they are. Notify gives people a central place to discover and receive relevant updates from diverse sources—across sports, celebrities, news, movies, music, and shopping—right on the lock screen.

Facebook thinks that Notify creates an exciting opportunity for them and partners to explore an emerging medium and develop a new platform that connects people to the information they care about the most.

Capture More Holiday Traffic With Click Share for Google Shopping

More shoppers are turning to online shopping with each holiday season, increasing the opportunity for you to attract shoppers to your online store.

Last week Google launched click share to better help you identify when you’re missing out on traffic.

Click share is a new metric that shows the percentage of total possible clicks received by your Shopping ads.

There is more you can do to ensure holiday success. In addition to driving traffic, you’ll want to fine-tune your campaigns to reach new shoppers and drive sales. Google have created two holiday checklists to help you manage your campaigns over the coming weeks and through the new year:

• Holiday Readiness Checklist: Get your Shopping campaigns Black Friday-ready to connect with shoppers at the moments that matter and convert them into customers
• Holiday Survival Checklist: Follow this checklist to make mid-flight changes to your campaigns and learn how to adjust bids for new trending products

By taking these lists and checking them twice, and tuning your campaigns based on click share insights, you can increase sales this season...and have a happier holiday!

Introducing the New Google+

Last week Google introduced a fully redesigned Google+ that puts Communities and Collections front and center.

Now focused around interests, the new Google+ is much simpler. And it’s more mobile-friendly—we’ve rebuilt it across web, Android and iOS so that you’ll have a fast and consistent experience whether you are on a big screen or small one.

You’ll need to opt-in to this new version of Google+ on the web to see the changes—check out their Google+ post for more on how to give it a try.