A monthly update on overall marketing trends, PPC search and social, SEO, and development trends.

November is here, and we have another Digital Marketing Industry Insights for you all! We ship these newsletters to our team and clients on the first of every month.

With the digital marketing landscape moving so quickly, we truly believe that keeping everyone one step ahead is crucial, and we’re committed to getting new and helpful information circulating within our circle. And so, without further ado!

Overall Marketing Trends

• Upcoming Election Impact
  • Every election we experience a mass amount of distraction in November which came to a peak back in 2020. Assuming this year is anything like that time, we can expect to see a lag in sales from 10/21 all the way to 11/12. Google Trends graph
  • However, despite the election, it’s important to note the following:
    • People still need to buy gifts
    • There’s 7 more days spaced between the election and BF/CM to let the distraction die off
    • People will have clarity post election which bodes well for buying
• Consumer Confidence is Looking Great
  • The October consumer confidence shows a significant rebound, driven by improved perceptions of current business and labor market conditions, as well as a more optimistic outlook for future business and job availability. This was the strongest monthly gain in the consumer confidence survey since March 2021, supporting more positive signs heading into holiday.
• Semrush Acquires Search Engine Land
  • Semrush has acquired Third Door Media, including its properties like Search Engine Land, MarTech, and SMX, enhancing Semrush’s educational and content offerings for digital marketers. The acquisition aims to expand resources and insights available to marketers while keeping Third Door Media’s brands operating independently.

Paid Search

• 5 Big New Features From Google Ads
  • Going into Q4, Google is launching a ton of highly-requested features from advertisers surrounding PMax & Demand Gen. This should allow us to not only get better reporting, but have a lot more control!
• Google Ads Overhauls Shopping Auction
  • Ahead of holiday season, Google has changed their shopping auction algorithm to focus more on higher-quality ads. Google is tired of losing customers to other platforms, and are therefore focusing more and more on making sure the auction is better incentivized to show the best possible matches.
• Google Releases AI-Powered Video Tools
  • Google knows that creating product videos is hard and time-intensive, so they’re releasing tools that allow you to quickly create them with only images. Time will tell how they look and perform, but it’s something we’re actively testing with our portfolio.

Amazon

• Amazon Introduced 5 New Visual Search Features
  • Amazon has launched five new visual search features to improve the shopping experience. These include visual suggestions as you type, the ability to add text to image searches, a “More Like This” option for discovering similar products, videos that now show up in search results, and customers can utilize the “Circle to Search” feature to focus on specific items within images.
• New FBA Reimbursement Policy
  • Beginning November 1, 2024, Amazon will automatically issue reimbursements for lost FBA items, making it easier for sellers! Say goodbye to manual claims—simply review your Reimbursements Report in Seller Central.
• AI-Powered Content For A+ Content 
  • Brands can now simplify the creation of their A+ Content by leveraging new generative AI features. This allows them to enhance product detail pages, craft more engaging and informative listings, and produce striking, authentic lifestyle images that showcase their products effectively.
• Event-Based Bid Rules For Sponsored Product Campaigns 
  • Amazon introduced event-based bid rules in the advertising console, enabling advertisers to raise bids during peak shopping times, such as deal events and holidays. This feature allows for predefined bid increases when higher traffic is anticipated.
• Prime Day 2024 Recap
  • Some sellers experienced 42% year-over-year growth during October 2024’s Prime Big Deal Days, slightly outperforming previous events. However, overall U.S. online retail sales declined by 5% compared to the prior year.
• Amazon Extends 2024 Holiday Return Window 
  • Amazon is expanding its standard returns period for the 2024 holiday season to benefit early shoppers. Items bought between November 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, can be returned until January 31, 2025.

Paid Social

• Meta Expands Brand Safety & Suitability Tool 
  • In a new roll out of brand safety tools Meta is testing the ability for businesses to turn off comments on ads entirely, adding a new content block list, and an overview tab with a summary of brand safety settings. 
• Meta Defaults To ‘Automatic Adjustments’
  • Meta quietly changed its “Rules for Recommendations” to “Automatic Adjustments”. These adjustments don’t require Advertiser approval to make changes in the account and were in some cases defaulted on. The unauthorized changes caused issues for many advertisers. Digital Position did a sweep of all of our Meta accounts after finding this issue to make sure that no unauthorized changes were taking place in accounts we manage. While the majority of the automatic changes give reason for pause, others, like adjusting placements based on performance, could prove to be an advantage adjustment.
• TikTok Presents Conversion Lift Studies 
  • We’ve found that measuring the impact of TikTok ads can be more difficult than other channels because it is often a more upperfunnel tactic than Meta. The latest development from TikTok could crush those concerns allowing businesses to conduct Conversion Lift Studies. A TransUnion study found that 52% of TikTok led incremental conversions came from users exclusive to TikTok. A better understanding of the impact TikTok ad spend has on a brands marketing funnel can drastically shift our budget allocation recommendations and improve performance long term.  

SEO

• Google Discontinues Sitelinks Search Box
  • ​Google will be removing the Sitelinks Search Box visual element starting November 21, 2024. “This doesn’t affect rankings or the other sitelinks visual element, and won’t be listed in the Search status dashboard”.
• Google Search Has A New Boss: Prabhakar Raghavan Steps Down
  • ​Google replaces Search chief Raghavan with Nick Fox amid restructuring. Move follows criticism of ad-driven decisions affecting search quality.
• ​Semrush Acquired Search Engine Land, SMX & Third Door Media (Industry Reaction)
  • ​Semrush has acquired Third Door Media and all its properties, including Search Engine Land, SMX, MarTech, and Digital Marketing Depot.
• Google’s Mueller Dismisses Core Web Vitals Impact On Rankings
  • Google clarifies Core Web Vitals’ role: while a ranking factor, it doesn’t significantly impact search rankings compared to content quality.
• Google Rolls Out AI-Organized Search Results Pages
  • ​Google 1) Has introduced more capabilities to Lens to make it even easier to search the world around you 2) Is rolling out search results pages organized with AI in the U.S. — beginning with recipes and meal inspiration on mobile.

Development & Conversion Tracking

• Get new insights on your strategy with DataPulse
  • DataPulse is your pocket virtual CMO. Authorize it to pull from your accounts and DataPulse will automatically pull your data and create dashboards for you that cover every facet of your marketing strategy. It’s free, fast & beginner friendly.
• SearchGPT gives brands 4x more referral traffic than established generative engines
  • Outperforming Perplexity & Claude despite still being in beta
  • SearchGPT will be integrated into ChatGPT by end of 2024
• Google Ads API v18 launched
  • New features like budget suggestions for Performance Max and Search campaigns, placement-specific data insights, and flexible search settings provide more granular control
  • Release update from Google
  • v16 will be deprecated on June 5, 2024
• Google Ads AI Report Generator
  • Ask a question like “How are my campaigns doing this week?” and Google will generate a report using AI

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That wraps up our Digital Marketing Industry Insights for this month! Keep an eye out for these updates every month, and if you have any questions, email us at info@digitalposition.com.