This Week: Google, Twitter, TikTok, Microsoft, And More!

Happy Tuesday!

It's clear that internet marketing is as critical for the growth of your business now, and exponentially more so in months and years to come. With all the tricks and updates, it can be challenging to identify short-term wins from powerful long-term strategies, which is why it is essential to stay updated with all the changes happening in and around internet marketing.

Darwin was right: if you don’t adapt, you’ll be left behind. So, let's have a look at the updates that happened in this week of internet marketing:

Google Recommends Permanent URLs for Black Friday Pages

Google suggests adopting permanent URLs for Black Friday pages, pointing to this as a more effective strategy than building new URLs for each annual sale. Google offered this advice in a set of best practices for Cyber Monday pages and Black Friday, along with five other suggestions.

Whats more, Google has offered a variety of URL solutions for the upcoming shopping event(s). So why does Google support recurring URLs?

Recurring URLs enable websites to increase link equity. Link equity indicates the SEO value of a link, which is sensitive to cumulative traffic over time. URLs strengthen link equity when additional pages link to them. The longer the period of time a URL is on the web, the higher the potential to earn more link equity. Additionally, he more link equity a page owns, the higher it's potential is to rank in search results. An older URL with a fair value of link equity has a much higher chance of ranking over a recently published page with no link equity, as it simply has not had the time to accumulate traffic.

As Google suggests, rather than building new pages for Black Friday every year, it's best to continue utilizing the same URL -- and rather change how your business directs traffic to this URL.

8 Tips For Better Conversion Rate With Use Of Images

There is no doubt that we are increasingly becoming visually-oriented as a society. We evaluate visual appealing information much faster than other content, like plain text.

This blog from TechWyse will provide several tips on selecting and producing more engaging images to improve conversions.

1. Stop Using Unnatural Stock Photos

The lighting and people should look natural. Most importantly, it should look relatable and not stale or dated.

2. Leverage the 'Hero Image'

A hero image is usually placed under the headline's main menu and provides an overall feel to the page and establishes the theme.

3. Point the Visitors in the Right Direction

It would be great to get the audience notice a distinct area wherever the call to action is. It has been frequently proven that we tend to look in the direction of the image we are looking at.

4. Make it Personal

If you want to make your page intimate and resonate with your audience on an individual level, you should use faces (but of course, avoid using stock faces).

It may be just your profile photo, photos of the team, or a photo of a customer representative. Like using the author's photo at the top of this blog post, it's builds familiarity.

5. Use Customer Photos

Testimonials of your customers are great; it is even better when you have an opportunity to place a customer's photo on your website.

6. Focus the Attention of Visitors

An image creates an opportunity to add a statement or a CTA on it. The image is there to support your page, not to overwhelm it.

7. In e-Commerce, Go for Big Pictures

Websites are not like a tangible product, there is not way to develop a physical sense of familiarity with your user-base. Using high-quality and strategically placed photos in your website's real estate, can build a sense of ease and familiarity with returning users and leads -- as they are not bombarded with text information on each visit.

Most of these tips can also be implemented in your social media marketing and ad campaigns.

Twitter Releases Events Calendar for November to Assist with Strategic Planning

While 2020 hasn't worked out as anybody would have liked, the possibilities for seasonal and event tie-ins that can further support your promotions, are just around the corner in the last two months of the year.

And while Twitter's monthly event calendars are appearing a little less crowded as a consequence of COVID-19, they are, however, worth taking notice of. These calendars could highlight potential tie-ins for your promotions that you hadn't thought of, or serve as a reminder as to how near specific dates and events are getting.

This month, we have Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Diwali, along with World Kindness Day, to inspire new and interesting campaigns for your business which could help shift the focus of users in a more positive direction for the remainder of the year.

Here's Twitter's revised November events calendar to put you on the road. Now's the opportunity to arrange the final details of your campaigns in place.

TikTok Tests New 'Learn' Feed to Boost Educational Content on the Platform

In what seems to be a development of its #LearnOnTikTok program, which got first declared back in May, TikTok's now experimenting with a new -- dedicated 'Learn' stream of videos within the app.

'Learn' feed is getting backed by TikTok's $50 million creative learning fund, which it declared earlier this year as part of its more massive $250 million commitment to help with the consequences of COVID-19.

Initially, the purpose was to produce a pathway to learning resources for the millions of students held at home due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Given that most TikTok audiences are in their teens, giving a link to such learning material could justify being hugely helpful - and with many European nations declaring new, nationwide lockdowns this week, the brand-new Learn feed could be arriving at just the appropriate time.

In a more prominent, perceptual sense, the Learn feed could be another step for TikTok to ingratiate itself with the broader community better and showcase its social good and the advantages it can render, aside from the multiple controversies associated with the app.

Indeed, TikTok has previously faced temporary bans in several nations due to 'indecent' content. Simultaneously, the app has also been under scrutiny over its connections to the Chinese Government and the possible sharing of communist propaganda.

Microsoft Advertising promotion extensions available in time for the holidays

Promotion extensions are now available for Microsoft Advertising accounts in the U.S. These accounts are comparable to Google Ads promotion extensions, including the accessibility to choose from a list of events or occasions such as Christmas, Black Friday or Cyber Monday. The promotional features and dates will also display in Microsoft Advertising text ads.

You can place promotion extensions at the campaign account or ad group level. Remember that your advertisements' landing page must incorporate the promotion details, so be sure that's in point before your promotion starts.

Merchant promotions in Shopping ads: Promotion extensions aren't to be involved with merchant promotions. Merchant promotions show on Shopping ads. Google and Microsoft both recommend merchant promotions in their particular Merchant Centers.

The merchant promotions display in Shopping Ads differs. Sometimes they say "Special offer" or the price with promotion shows ("$74.99 with code") at the base of the ad, for example. You can fix them up in your product feeds or your Merchant Center accounts.

Promotional offers can assist your ads and campaigns in how to stand out from your competitors. The new promotion extensions in Microsoft Advertising suggests you can now sync up your promotions over your Microsoft and Google campaigns for uniformity -- which of course allows for better recognition of a given campaign or ad across various platforms. Microsoft Advertising also started a retail hub with holiday insights and supplies for retailers.

Wrapping up!

So far, we’ve come across many features and updates that can aid you to develop your marketing awareness and strategies.

We understood why Google suggests adopting permanent URLs for Black Friday pages, rather than generating new URLs for each annual sale. We learnt several tips on selecting and producing more engaging images to improve conversions. We saw Twitter's revised November events calendar to help you get ready with your campaigns.

TikToks new 'Learn' feed to produce a pathway to learning resources for the millions of students held at home due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.

The availability of promotion extensions in Microsoft Advertising suggests you can now have improved conversions during this holiday season.

Want to learn more updates on the world of digital marketing and expand your knowledge? Take the time to check out our latest blogs and stay safe!