Valerie Levin says, “For any company hoping to get into the influencer marketing game, there are some important considerations to keep in mind. Knowing the rules, bending those rules and avoiding the less effective side of this type of marketing can help develop a successful influencer campaign and generate more conversions. This guide provides the advice for getting started and using this strategy to your advantage. From Word-of-Mouth to Social Buzz Word-of-mouth marketing is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions. This type of marketing also generates more... [...]

Barry Levine says, “Google is upping its pushback against header bidding. Today, the tech giant announced on its DoubleClick Publisher Blog that it is testing exchange bidding in Dynamic Allocation, and it is making First Look available to all of its clients: Exchange bidding in Dynamic Allocation will allow publishers to invite trusted third-party exchanges and SSPs to submit real-time prices using industry-standard RTB calls. These prices will be considered along with bids from the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and the publisher’s reservation campaigns to pick the highest-paying ad. Exchange... [...]

Tony Edward says, “As Google continues to expand and roll out more Knowledge Graph results, we are now seeing opportunities to enhance the information within the Knowledge Graph panels. In February, Google started to allow official site representatives to edit/suggest changes to their Knowledge Graph panels. Recently, I was able to help one of my clients enhance their existing Knowledge Graph by adding more information to their Wikidata profile. When we inserted more information to their Wikidata profile, such as the year the company was founded, it started to display in their Knowledge Graph... [...]

Shane Barker says, “With the ever-rising popularity of social media, Instagram influencer marketing has become one of the most effective tools for marketers in every niche. Consumers now look to fellow consumers and their favorite Instagram personalities for making their purchase decisions. They are strongly influenced by social media posts and comments, especially on Instagram. This has opened up a new channel for businesses to promote their brand through influential individuals. What is Instagram Influencer Marketing? Instagram influencer marketing is the process of marketing products,... [...]

Joy Hawkins says, “I used to think that locksmithing was the industry with the highest percentage of fake local listings on Google. I’m starting to think I was wrong. It all started a few weeks ago, when I was talking to Dev Basu at Powered By Search. He was asking me why businesses in Mississauga were showing up in the 3-pack when you did a search for “Toronto SEO.” After all, there are tons of great, well-known SEO companies in Toronto (including his and the one I work for), and shouldn’t these have priority over ones that aren’t even in the same city that was searched? Why were... [...]

Daniel Faggella says, “Since the inception of Google, everyone seems to be chasing the same dream: Wake up in the morning, open your laptop, and watch the sales roll in from the night before. The internet has certainly changed our landscape of communication. It has provided ample opportunity for entrepreneurs to pursue a life of autonomy and abundance. But more importantly, it has given everyone a chance at bat. Good marketers know that building a sustainable web presence is no longer an option — it’s a requirement. For the vast majority of people, affiliate marketing is how they get... [...]

Kristine Schachinger says, “There appears to be a trend in Google’s actions towards publishers and the digital marketing industry that has me a bit concerned. It seems the company has become less and less transparent with publishers over the last couple years — and frankly, it has me a bit uneasy. Google transparency Now, there have always been bones of contention between Google and the SEO community; some believe that Google hates SEOs, while others believe that Google actually needs us. I was always in the camp that thought Google knew they needed the SEO community because they cannot... [...]

Frederick Vallaeys says, “After a quiet start to the year with few notable changes in AdWords, the last month has seen a lot of interesting things happening, most notably the change to the layout of ads on the search results pages. I’ve shared my initial thoughts about this change on my company blog; but now that it’s been live for a few weeks, I wanted to weigh in with ways to optimize accounts that are impacted, including using bid to position rules and Quality Score optimization. What changed to ads on Google The week of February 19, Google began removing right-hand side (RHS) ads,... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google announced they will be increasing “the effect of the ranking signal” for the mobile friendly ranking update. Google said this boost will happen at the beginning of May and will roll out gradually over time. It is not expected that this update will be as significant as the initial update on April 21, 2015. Klemen Kloboves, a Google Software Engineer, wrote: Today we’re announcing that beginning in May, we’ll start rolling out an update to mobile search results that increases the effect of the ranking signal to help our users find even more pages that are... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “Google has unveiled Analytics 360 Suite, “a complete measurement platform” targeted at enterprise marketers. According to Google VP of Analytics, Display and Video Products, Paul Muret, Google Analytics 360 Suite is designed to give marketers “a complete view of the consumer journey and then make sense of it all.” Once they have insight, Google aims to help marketers drive results. To do all of this, the search giant has combined six products into a single platform: – Audience Center 360, a data management platform (DMP). – Optimize... [...]