October Online Marketing Roundup

The best part of the month is here, our Online Marketing Roundup. Let’s start preparing for Halloween by reading the most important news of October. This time let’s take a look to a study from guys at Socialbakers, the new updates from Google, some predictions for the Holiday season and the new Search from Facebook.

Study: Marketers Increasingly Opting for Facebook Video Over YouTube

Facebook has been doing all it can to give marketers more of a reward for posting videos to the site.

According to a study published recently by Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer Socialbakers, the number of videos Facebook admins directly upload to the site could soon surpass videos linked from YouTube.

Socialbakers analyzed more than 180,000 Facebook video posts from 20,000 Facebook pages, taking into account content uploaded to Facebook, as well as links to clips from YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo and others.

The results show that Facebook has been quickly gaining ground on YouTube as the dominant video format.

While YouTube has been the dominant source of video content for a while, Facebook has traditionally been the most engaging. The study also notes that Facebook is soundly beating out links from YouTube in terms of interactions.

By adding deeper analytics, Facebook has been trying to become more top-of-mind for Facebook marketers when they’re looking to publish video. The stats show that this is clearly working.

Google Releases Penguin 3.0 — First Penguin Update In Over A Year

Google has confirmed to Search Engine Land that it updated its Penguin filter on Friday. Penguin targets sites deemed to be spammy, especially those found in violation of Google’s guidelines about linking.

Some noticed major changes in Google search results beginning late Friday night US time and speculated that this was due to the long-awaited Penguin Update that Google had said to expect this month.

Google hasn’t yet given more details on the percentage of search results the latest version of Penguin has impacted or if there were any major changes made to it since the last release.

41 Percent of Shoppers Plan to Spend More Online this Holiday Season

They say there are two sides to every story and when we’re trying to predict what consumers will do it’s oh, so very true.

Last week, the National Retail Federation predicted a 4.1% increase in holiday buying this year. This week, PwC and Strategy& released their holiday predictions and it’s not nearly as rosy.

According to the “2014 Holiday Outlook: Top trends, consumer behaviors and implications for retailers” report, average household spend will drop from $735 in 2013 to $684 in 2014.

The problem is that darned, old economy. 72% believe that the economy is the same or worse than it was a year ago so conversely, they plan to spend the same or less than last year. That doesn’t mean they plan to buy fewer items, it just means they need to find better deals on the items they need.

In order to stretch the budget, more shoppers than ever will be using the omnichannel approach to create a shopping plan.

It all begins in early November as shoppers start searching, showrooming and making notes before all heck breaks loose on November 27. Black Friday used to be the day the flood gates opened but in 2014, 49% of consumers said they plan to head out Thanksgiving morning to begin their holiday shopping odyssey.

21% of all holiday spending will happen between now and Cyber Monday.

Of course, buying will continue through December with dollars rising as we get closer to Christmas. PcW says we can expect the largest wave of spending between the 15th and the 25th.

Families making under $50,000 a year will spend an average $184 during this period. Those with incomes over $50,000 will drop $489 in those same ten days.

Google Analytics Rolls Out New Tag Manager Tools

Google has announced some improvements to Google Tag Manager that will make both marketing and IT teams happy:

• New APIs that tailor the power of Google Tag Manager to your unique needs
• A new intuitive interface to help you launch and edit tags even faster
• More 3rd-party templates to make tagging easier

Many large enterprises use Google Tag Manager to streamline and simplify website and mobile app tagging. It helps marketers control the end-to-end process of adding website tags, while IT departments save time they can spend on more strategic projects.

Let's look at the new features:

Introducing Google Tag Manager API

The new full-featured Google Tag Manager API lets you customize the infrastructure to suit your needs, whether that means building your own tools or better integrations with your existing workflow.

From creating and managing users to previewing and publishing containers and tags, the API provides all the power of the web interface.

More Coverage For 3rd-Party Tags

Starting in the next few weeks, you'll see more 3rd-party templates in the tag creation flow. They have made it easier for marketers to add tags and minimize errors while doing so.

When adding a new tag of your own, you'll select from a list of 3rd-party providers and be underway in just a few clicks. Google now offer support for tags from AdRoll, Marin, Comscore, Bizo, Clicktale, Neustar, Distillery, Turn, Mediaplex, VisualDNA, quantcast, Criteo and many more to come soon.

Don't see the tag you need? No problem: you can add it immediately as a custom HTML tag. You can also ask to have a new tag template included in future releases, as Tag Manager will continue to add new tag templates. You'll find the full list of tag templates in Google’s help center.

A More Intuitive Interface

Google thinks tag management should be easy even for non-technical users. Even if you're new to Google Tag Manager, you'll be using the improved interface within minutes. Tasks are intuitive and structured much the same way as in AdWords and Google Analytics. Our new updates include:

• A default workflow that's simpler and clearer
• Instant search and autocomplete that can help you find anything in your Google Tag Manager containers
• New keyboard shortcuts to simplify life for power users

The goal: enable marketing managers to easily add and update tags.

Search FYI: Find What the World is Saying With Facebook Search

With over 1.5 billion searches per day and over 2 trillion posts in our index, search is an important, long-term effort at Facebook.

Facebook is updating its Search so that in addition to friends and family, you can find out what the world is saying about topics that matter to you:

• Better search suggestions: When you tap into the search box and start typing, Facebook will now offer timely, personalized search suggestions. As you type, Facebook willl highlight things that are happening right now so you can follow popular stories as they unfold.
• Search results with public posts and posts from friends: When you search, you’ll now see the most recent, relevant public posts along with posts from your friends. Search results are organized to help you cut through the noise and quickly understand what the world is saying about a topic in the moment. You also can pull-to-refresh and see the latest public posts.
• Find public conversations with search: When a link gets shared widely on Facebook, it often anchors an interesting public conversation. Now there’s a new way to quickly dive into that discussion. With one tap, you can find public posts about a link, see popular quotes and phrases mentioned in these posts, and check out an aggregate overview of sentiment. This feature is a first step—we look forward to people using it and giving us feedback so we can make it even better.