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Google is launching automated call extensions in mobile ads on February 6

Call extensions will automatically pull phone numbers featured on landing pages. his article has been update with more information about automatic call extensions. In the second update in a week on how phone numbers display in ads, Google has begun alerting some advertisers that call extensions will start generating automatically as of February 6, 2017. The notice, emailed to advertisers that use “landing pages prominently featuring a phone number,” started going out on Monday evening. A copy of the full email is below. Though you wouldn’t know it from reading this email, call extensions are already set up with the phone number on the landing pages used in this specific account. From what I can tell, the change shouldn’t affect much for this account, though it sounds as if impression volume for call extensions generally will likely go up come February 6. Reporting for automatic call extensions will be available at the campaign or ad group level. They will not be...

Google AdWords Tests Capitalizing First Letter In Display URL?

Gordon Campbell posted images on Twitter of Google testing making the first letter of the display URL in the AdWords ad results capital. He said that in the AdWords backend, ad management area, the display URL is completely lowercase. In fact, he saw this across many different ad units and clients. Here are screen shots showing the before and after: He said it did go back to normal eventually. I wonder if this is more of a bug fix than a Google test to see if capitalizing the display URL would matter or not. source

Content Relevance Becomes Key Factor For Ranking in Google

Searchmetrics has conducted a study on Google ranking factors which shows that content relevance and user intent are the prime focus and backlinks are losing importance. Also technical factors have become the prerequisite to achieve top position in Google rankings. Here are the key highlights of the study: The URLs with the highest content relevance are those on position 3 to 6. Almost half of webpages in the top 10 now make use of HTTPS encryption. Factors such as loading time, file size, HTTPS encryption (for shops), internal links, page architecture and mobile-friendliness are elementary pieces of this puzzle. The pages occupying positions 1-3 have an average CTR of 36%. Internal links are one of the most important ranking factors, helping search engines and users alike to understand the page and to find relevant URLs. The increasing prominence of apps and app rankings in organic search is also contributing to the decline of backlinks’ importance. Depending on the top...

New Google My Business Insights

As of December 15, insights are now available for photos in Google My Business. Insights are not only available for photos in your own business listing, you can compare the performance of your photos against those of similar businesses. This change was documented in the Google My Business changelog, and there’s also a new section dedicated to insights for photos in this help center document. Photo insights can be easily found by navigating to your Google My Business listing and clicking on the Insights tab on the top navigation bar. At the very bottom of the insights screen you’ll see a line graph that looks like this Data can be segmented by the past 90 days, past 30 days, and past 7 days. As you can see, the insights are vague about the businesses you’re being compared to, but the competitive analysis can still be used to help you improve your GMB listing. Source

Facebook Announces More Metrics Fixes

Facebook announced more metrics updates Friday, this time affecting estimated reach, Reactions counts on posts and a discrepancy involving its like and share buttons. The social network said it is changing the methodology it uses to calculate the estimated reach of their ad campaigns, and advertisers should see changes of less than 10 percent either way in the audience sizes generated by the tool, adding in a Facebook for Business post: To help advertisers get a better view of the number of people they can expect to reach with ads, this week we are updating how we calculate the numbers that appear in our estimated reach tool–found when creating an ad. When an advertiser begins creating a campaign, the tool provides them with an estimate of both the potential overall reach and the estimated daily reach of their ad campaign. Note that this tool does not reflect reach for campaigns that have already run, nor does it affect any other reach metrics. We’re improving our methodology for sa...

Tips for Improving Online Sales Using Social Media

Want to improve your online sales process? Looking for tips to connect with prospects and customers on your social channels? With the right plan, you can enhance people’s social media experience and generate more sales. In this article, you’ll discover seven tips to improve your ecommerce using social media. #1: Provide Sales Support With Native Chat Native chatting (or “conversational ecommerce”) is using the messaging services within each social network to automate, customize, and personalize your communication. With higher retention and engagement rates, these apps have quickly become the go-to choices for customers who want to connect more directly with businesses. In other words, if you’re not using chat apps to automate confirmations (and yes, even to sell), you’re missing a huge social ecommerce opportunity. However, approach automated chat apps (like Facebook Messenger Bots) with caution. It’s too easy to cross over from the human to the inhuman side of conversatio...

YouTube has added support for 4K live video.

YouTube enabled support for 4K video on its site back in 2010, and today it’s bringing that same capability to live streaming. Both standard videos and 360 videos will be able to be live streamed in 4K, the company announced this morning. One of the first live streams to feature the new 4K support is the Game Awards, which kicks off tomorrow at 6 PM Eastern on YouTube. Delivering higher-quality video is something that can give YouTube an edge in the growing market for live streaming, where rivals like Facebook and Twitter (via Periscope) also compete. Facebook Live publishers can stream up to 720p at 30 fps, for example. And while Periscope is generally used from your smartphone, its pro software Periscope Producer also allows for 720p at 30 fps. YouTube on the other hand, supports 4K video at up to 60 fps – something it began experimenting with last year. As the company explains in its announcement, 4K video is big l...