Tag: Google

Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s new knowledge panel, Twitter’s 280-character limit, PayPal’s official launch in India and more..
1. Google adds new knowledge panel to provide information about news publishers
Google has announced a new knowledge graph card for news publishers in which searchers can learn more about a specific news publication directly in the search results. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Twitter officially enables 280-character limit for all accounts, including brands
Less than two months after testing extending tweets’ maximum length to 280 characters, Twitter is enabling the new length for all users. The new maximum will apply to tweets in all languages except Chinese, Japanese and Korean, in which space is less of an issue. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Facebook’s Adding a New Option to Help Advertisers Maximize their Ad Budgets
Facebook’s providing a new way for advertisers to better optimize their ad spend by automatically allocating more of their ad budget to their highest performing ads. Called ‘Campaign Budget Optimization’, the new option is aimed at smaller businesses who need to more closely monitor their ad spend, but are also looking to run multiple ad sets. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. PayPal formally launches India operations
Under its services, PayPal India will offer global Indians a single account for their domestic and cross-border transactions. [Source: MoneyControl]
1. Facebook Messenger can now power chat on brand sites
Messenger is rolling out a chat plugin for companies to use Facebook’s messaging service to power the chat features on their own sites. Called Customer Chat, the tool is currently in testing with a limited number of companies, but businesses can apply to be added to the waitlist. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Salesforce announces data integrations with Google Analytics 360
To help customers gain more insights into their marketing campaigns’ impact on the customer journey, Salesforce and Google have announced an arrangement to integrate CRM data with digital analytics and ad campaign data. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Google adds wait times to local results in search and maps
Wait times for some local listings, such as restaurants, are Google’s latest addition to its local search results, appearing when people view those listings in web search. Eventually, this information will appear on Google Maps, as well. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Instagram opens sponsor-tagging tool to more creators, adds monitoring system
In June, Instagram began testing a tool for creators to label when an organic post or Story has been paid for by a brand, similar to the one its parent company, Facebook, debuted in April 2016. Now the photo-and-video app is making the branded-content tool available to more creators, in particular those that receive high levels of engagement on their posts and account for a lot of the branded content on Instagram. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Twitter opens up $99 a month subscription ad program to more accounts
Over the summer, Twitter began testing a subscription-based ad-buying program through which brands could opt to pay Twitter $99 a month and have the company promote their accounts and tweets for them. Now the company is opening up the program to all accounts in the US and United Kingdom, including businesses and individuals. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Instagram Now Lets You Post Any Content to Stories, Even if it’s Older than 24 Hours
Instagram has rolled out a new change for Instagram Stories which enables users to upload any photo or video content from their camera roll for their Story, even if that content is older than the previous 24 hour limit. [Source: Social Media Today]

Expert Opinion:
1. Marketing Attribution is the need of the hour for new-age marketers
There has been a rise in the usage of marketing attribution lately suggesting an increase in the recognition of this technology as a helpful tool for brands to grow their businesses. The State of Marketing Attribution 2017 Report by Econsultancy suggests that the proportion of companies that carry out attribution on all or most of their marketing activities has significantly increased from 31% in 2016 to 39% this year.

In spite of this positive boost in the usage of the technology and growing awareness about this useful tool, a lot of marketers are still hesitant or lack the required confidence for using attribution technology for their marketing activities. Also, a lot of businesses find it difficult to apply the findings of the insights received through attribution tools to enhance their marketing activities.

There are multiple types of attribution models that can be used by businesses to gain better returns from their activities. However, most companies still use simplistic attribution models with last-click and first-click being the most popular ones. This limits the efficiency and effectiveness that this technology can offer for the growth of business.

Brands that wish to really make an impact and boost the success of their companies need to buckle up and take a holistic and nuanced approach to attribution, understand the contribution & impact of every touch-point and plan the future activities considering every minute detail to achieve enhanced results.

Some of the ways to better utilize the attribution technology for your business include:

– Use a good mix of automated softwares as well as the good old spreadsheets, etc to achieve the required flexibility

– Understand the online customer journey well and work on the relevant problem areas to provide a seamless experience to the users

– Keep yourself well aware about any developments and updates and incorporate them at every step applicable to keep your processes/ activities updated

– Create a culture of measurement and accuracy across the organization so that every individual works towards doing the best and improving the activities on an on-going basis

Attribution is an impressive tool that can profoundly help your business grow and sustain. A lot of marketers are already focusing on this technology and have adapted to various attribution techniques. In the age where things change every moment and the customers are shifting towards online channels, attribution can act as a gateway to understand the efficiency of your marketing activities and plan the future activities in order to reach out to the correct audiences and eventually gain positive results. If you are still not using this technology, it is high time to start incorporating attribution models in your marketing plans to move up in the advertising space.

– Gautam Shelar, Business Head, MoneyControl
November 10, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s new mobile search results interface, Facebook’s dynamic creative, Snapchat’s Snap Pixel and more..
1. Google rolling out new curved mobile search results interface
It appears that Google is now rolling out the new curved mobile design that they have been testing for several months. This would be the first major redesign to the Google search results since 2013 saw the unified card design released. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook Adds Split Testing, Improved Ad Analysis Options Within Ads Manager
In order to provide advertisers with more insights into what’s working – and what’s not – with their ad efforts, Facebook’s rolling out two new testing options which will enable more accountable, traceable experimentation with various creative aspects. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. eMarketer Releases New Worldwide Ad Spending Estimates
Spending on paid media worldwide will reach $584.14 billion by the end of this year and approach $757.44 billion in 2021, eMarketer estimates, driven largely by advertiser investments in mobile formats. Ad spending growth rates will range between 4.9% and 8.3% over the forecast period. [Source: eMarketer]
1. Snapchat Adds ‘Snap Pixel’ to Track Ad Response, Showcases New Lens Option
Snapchat has announced that they’re now looking to roll out a new ‘Snap Pixel’, a conversion tracking tool which will enable advertisers to measure the traffic being driven to their sites via Snapchat ads. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Microsoft folds LinkedIn contact info into Outlook to boost business communications
Commercial Office 365 users can now see the LinkedIn profiles of their contacts within the email provider. The feature lets business users see LinkedIn profile information, including connections and work history, within Outlook.com, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business. [Source: TechRepublic]
1. Facebook’s dynamic creative can generate up to 6,250 versions of an ad
Facebook is rolling out a way for brands to automatically create thousands of different versions of an ad that will vary in content based on who they are shown to and where they appear. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Google searches now correspond to user location instead of domain
Google announced today that it is changing the way it labels country services on the mobile web, Google app for iOS and desktop Search and Maps. To make search results more relevant, Google says the country of service will no longer be indicated by the country code top level domain name (ccTLD) such as “google.co.uk” for the UK or “google.com.br” for Brazil, but instead will default to the country where the user is performing the search. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. With 217 million Indian users, Facebook to help businesses drive growth
Facebook with over 217 million monthly active users in India is closely working with marketers and advertisers to discuss how the social media giant can help businesses drive growth. [Source: The Economic Times]
1. Content Analytics launches retailers’ Scorecards for brands’ product pages
The San Francisco-based company, Content Analytics, is adding another resource to its toolbox. Called VendorSCOR, it automatically generates Vendor Scorecards about a product page that an online retailer could send to its brands. Content Analytics says this is the first solution for generating these kinds of report cards. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Facebook Provides New Ways for Travel-Based Businesses to Reach Interested Users
As we head towards the holiday season, Facebook has announced an update for their Dynamic Ads for Travel, which help travel brands hone their ads on the most receptive audience. [Source: Social Media Today]

Expert Opinion:
1. Making email marketing more relevant and effective
Email marketing has been a highly favoured marketing tool used across sectors, primarily due to the probability of high ROI. While we always pay attention to the look and feel, the open rates, click rates, etc; it is important to focus on making the inbox experience more engaging by offering relatable content and through user-friendly designs.

Some of the ways of making email campaigns more effective are:
- Creative use of behavioural triggers: Behavioral email is the practice of sending automated, targeted emails to the contacts in your database based on their interactions with your company across multiple channels: social media, email, your website and beyond. It is the actions of your site visitors that dictate what emails they receive. This method has proven to be effective to address ‘abandoned cart’ issue.
- Greater use of dynamic elements: Dynamic emails allow marketers to replace key pieces of the message to reflect a subscriber’s profile attributes, interests and previous activity. E.g. If an online pet product store is running an email campaign to inform its existing customers about new discounts. Instead of sending a standard mail to all recipients, it could customize each mail by mentioning the brand of products the customer has purchased earlier.
- Use of automation: This can also be called trigger based email marketing. A mail is sent to the user when they perform a certain action. For e.g.: A mail that explains how a site’s features can be used as soon as the user signs up on the website in order to get them started.
- Mobile-optimised customer journey: While the practice of creating mobile friendly email content has been on rise, it is essential to see it through till the end of a user’s journey. For e.g. in case of a ‘Call to Action’ mail campaign, even the subsequent transaction page should be mobile friendly in order to ensure smooth start to end customer experience.
- Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve performance: Email marketers can let AI determine what kind of content recipients are most likely to respond to. Machine learning allows these platforms to learn what resonates best with a specific marketer’s audience. These platforms then use natural language technology to create subject lines, body copy and calls-to-action that not only sound like they were written by a human, but are consistent with the language typically used by the brand.
- Embedding personalised videos in emails: Another trend that is rapidly catching up is embedding personalised and customized videos in emails. The content of the video dynamically changes as per the details of every recipient. These videos can be made interactive to make the experience further engaging.
– Sohel I S, CEO, HDFC RED
November 3, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s Poynter partnership, Twitter’s advertising transparency, Whatsapp’s Group Voice & Video Calls and more..
1. Google announces new Poynter partnership to train more news fact checkers globally
Google is announcing a partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which was launched by The Poynter Institute in 2015. The nonpartisan entity seeks to promote fact-checking best practices, which other organizations adopt and abide by. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook tests removing organic Page posts from News Feed
Facebook’s News Feed has been largely pay-to-play for Pages for years. Now the social network is exploring whether to make it completely so. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Twitter will make its ads more transparent to brands, everyone else
Twitter plans to open an Advertising Transparency Center so that anyone can see all of the ad campaigns currently running on the social network, including those that didn’t originally appear as regular tweets. Additionally, the company has agreed to have the independent Media Rating Council (MRC) audit its ad measurements so that brands can be assured of what they are buying. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. WhatsApp Group Voice, Video Calls Coming Soon, Suggests iPhone Beta Code: Report
WhatsApp group calling is on its way, going by the code spotted in the latest beta version for the iPhone app. [Source: NDTV Gadgets 360]
1. Businesses can now sign up to add booking buttons to their Google local results
Google added booking buttons to some local panel results. Now, Google is opening that up to more local businesses by integrating with their “scheduling partners” directly from the Google My Business console. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Instagram Rolls Out Live Guests Option to All Users
After launching a test of their live guest option with a small group of users back in August, Instagram has now announced that the functionality will be rolled out to everyone. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. LinkedIn boosts its messaging with smart replies, pre-written, AI based interactions
LinkedIn has been in the middle of a long-term makeover of its social tools, as it looks to drive more usage. Now comes the latest chapter in that story: the site is unveiling a new smart reply feature in its messaging app, which gives users prompts with different phrases to use while they are chatting to keep the conversation flowing. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. Google announces new online-to-offline features on the cusp of the holiday shopping season
Google’s focus on local search the past couple of years has some expecting local search traffic to play a heightened role for brick-and-mortar retailers this coming holiday. Google is now teeing up some new shopping features and reporting capabilities ahead of the holiday shopping season. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook finally adapts to 4K video
After some super HD videos started popping up on the social network, Facebook now confirms that it’s testing 4K video uploads and viewing using the 2160p UHD-1 Ultra-High-Definition Television standard. Some Pages and profiles can now post 4K videos to Facebook, as well as watch them. [Source: Techcrunch]
1. Google’s mobile-first index has rolled out for some sites & will be implemented very slowly
The mobile-first index has started to slowly roll out, at least for a “few sites”. There is no reason to panic about the rollout because Google is still testing it and will be rolling it out incredibly slowly. [Source: Search Engine Land]

Expert Opinion:
1. Build Consumer empathy – to truly impact the overall customer experience
A study by Bain & Co., discovered that (all things being equal) companies which excel at customer experience grow revenues 4-8% above their own competition.

But you already knew that… & so did your competing brand!

Needless to say, in today’s disruptive times, your experience online is enhanced & interrupted by the various digital channels you interact with. For ordinary customers who do not possess your keen sense of technology, that experience can make or break their belief in the brand & the platform. Hence, improving customer experience in this disruptive world has become very important to sustain and gain customer loyalty in today’s competitive environment.

Customer journey is a complex process involving various touchpoints and interactions. All Marketers strive to provide superior services to the consumers in order to offer a delightful experience. With all the brands trying their best to improve their customer experience and looking at ways to provide best of the best services seamlessly, the new age marketers need to adopt a complete, holistic view of the customer journey and work on providing exceptional experiences to their users.

While as an individual, you might possess empathy as a value, it is necessary to translate it into your digital processes – in order to give scale to your differentiator. Some ways of doing this are:
- Solve for the entire journey
Understand and study the common journey paths. Identify the problem areas and work collaboratively with teams to solve the issues
- Study your customer’s behavior
You need to believe that if the customer has chosen to give you disproportionate time & attention, there is something on your platform, that can be developed into an inherent strength area. Study the various triggers across the customer journey that encourage the users to take a specific action. Re-evaluate the journey from customer’s perspective and make any changes required to offer a seamless experience
- Check all ‘handover’ points
Collaborate across teams and align every process keeping in mind the overall customer experience. This way brands can create consistent and high-quality interactions with customers across all channels and also continue improving the process whenever and wherever required
- Wear the Customer’s hat
Study customer data across all touchpoints and make it accessible to all the relevant departments. A detailed analysis of this data can provide useful insights to work on, sometimes helping build just one new differentiator, eventually enhancing the overall customer experience

By 2020, Customer Experience will overtake price & product as the key brand differentiator (Ref. The Walker Study)

Digital penetration is also creating a lot of standardization of technology as well as proliferation of business attributes like product specs, prices etc. A lot of leading brands are following a holistic approach to dramatically improve the customer experience. Brands should understand their current performance, identify key problem areas and make improvements in the processes wherever required on an on-going basis. Through this, marketers can surely gain a competitive advantage and succeed by providing superior customer experience. Try & recall the last time you made someone feel special or were able to make someone’s task seem easier than it really was. That is the sort of technological & emotional involvement that needs to go into building your customer experience ecosystem.

Brands which do this well, will gain disproportionately over the next 2-3 years. The others will simply watch their market shares erode away. The choice – as always – remains with us!

– Aditya Save, Co-Founder, Agilio
October 27, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s new Daydream headsets, Twitter’s Video Website Card ad format, Adobe Advertising Cloud mobile app and more..
1. Google’s new Daydream View: Another step on the long road toward VR adoption
Google’s Cardboard VR and the new Daydream View headsets offer very affordable options. The new Oculus Go announced by Facebook last week, which doesn’t require a PC or smartphone, will cost $199. The Daydream View, however, is $99 and comes in three colors. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Facebook Adds ‘Explore Feed’ to Desktop, Which Could Provide Reach Benefits
Facebook has been working on new ways to expose users to more content, showing them more of what they like to keep them on platform longer, while also diversifying their content sources. One of their more recent attempts on this front was the addition of an ‘Explore’ feed for some users, which is essentially a secondary News Feed populated by content which is similar to that which you’ve previously interacted with. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google Posts can now be automated with new API support
Google has updated the Google My Business API to add some support for creating and editing Google Posts. Google Posts is a feature that allows people and businesses to create content directly on Google that can appear highly ranked in Google search results for their names. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook is now testing paywalls and subscriptions for Instant Articles
Facebook has started testing subscription support for instant articles. Facebook will start with two paywalled options for publishers to choose from. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. Twitter’s new Video Website Card ad format uses video to push link clicks
Twitter’s rolling out a way for advertisers to use video to get people to visit their websites. The company unveiled the Video Website Card, a new ad format that pairs an autoplay video with a website link. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Instagram’s Changing the Look of Their Ad CTAs to Better Merge with User Feeds
Instagram has announced an update to their call to action buttons on promoted posts, which will see Instagram ads become a little more subtle – a change that may help them push more ads into user feeds. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Adobe Advertising Cloud introduces mobile app for cross-channel advertising
In a bid to address the challenges faced by advertisers due to non-availability of sufficient digital technology for advertising, Adobe announced the release of the Adobe Advertising Cloud Mobile App, the industry’s first mobile app for cross-channel advertising campaign management to provide marketers with the tools they need to ensure performance and delivery wherever they are. [Source: ET Brand Equity]
1. Google AdWords to roll out ‘parallel tracking’ to speed up mobile landing page delivery
Google’s been working to speed up mobile web experiences on several fronts, AMP being the most visible of these efforts. The company announced a change to the way it will handle tracking parameters appended to AdWords landing page URLs. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook is testing a resume feature to take on LinkedIn
It looks like Facebook is considering barging in on LinkedIn’s turf. Facebook is currently trialing a resume feature, according to screenshots posted on social media – a move that would put it in direct competition with professional social network LinkedIn. [Source: Business Insider]
1. Pinterest Adds Search Ads to Their Self-Serve Platform, Providing New Opportunities
After adding search ads to their platform earlier this year, Pinterest is now making the option available to all businesses by adding search to their self-serve ad platform. [Source: Social Media Today]

Expert Opinion:
1. Focus on customer success and retention strategies to stay ahead of the competition
Customer acquisition has been the primary focus of most companies for corporate expansion and growth for a long time. Lately, brands have started realizing the importance of customer success for improved retention and longevity of the business. A lot of brands have shifted their focus towards customer success and retention strategies to achieve maximum shareholder value and grow their businesses. According to a research conducted by Walker, the number of companies that decided to introduce dedicated customer success units went from less than 40% to almost 90% in the past year. Also, 90% of marketers in 2017 seem to agree on the fact that designing a successful customer journey and working at close quarters with customer success represents their top priority.

Leading brands are designing marketing strategies by leveraging big data to improve the overall customer relationship. According to a Bain & Co. study, great customer success programs combined with key account management can increase profitability substantially. It is imperative for brands to define customer retention strategies in order to flourish in today’s competitive world.

– Nidhi Hola, Sr. Director-Marketing, GoDaddy
October 20, 2017
Major Changes to How Google Spends Your Budget
Out of the blue came the news last week that Google has doubled the ad spend amount a company can use per day for its advertising campaigns on AdWords. While the announcement was not publicised across the digital media, the fact remains that this update can have plenty of significant implications for brands. While some people would see it as an effort by Google to increase its revenues, some brands would like to think it as Google milking them dry. The answer lies somewhere between both the extreme spectrums.

The new update has been in force since October 4 when this announcement came. In simple words, if your budget is $500, Google can decide to spend twice the amount. It’s not a loot from Google but helping you to reach your goals efficiently with the help of Big Data.

Some advantages of the AdWords policy changes:

1) Companies will be able to reach their advertising goals faster.

2) In the long run, a company’s effective marketing spend on Google AdWords will not increase as Big Data deploys the ads depending on the traffic on that particular day. For example, if the traffic on a day is very high, Adwords will present more ads; and if the traffic is less, it will show fewer ads.

3) There is nothing to panic, and the process is nothing more than an over-reach where Google tries to reach as many prospective customers as possible.

Major disadvantages of the new rule:
- You will never come again under your monthly advertising budgets.
- On days when the traffic is high, your costs could swell up to 100% from the previous 20%.
- By increasing the budget limit cap from 20% to 100%, it is possible that a full month’s advertising budget can get over within fifteen days.
Agencies which do daily tracking of their advertisement’s performance will be disappointed to see some sporadic numbers in the tracking month. As fluctuations will go in both the directions, it is prudent to inform your management and clients beforehand. While the money spent will be a little more than before, the increased clicks would more than compensate. As the policy applies for a full month (30.4 days), experts believe it will lead to a minor loss for those companies which do not advertise for the whole month.

The daily budget changes by this rule but there are three other changes which will reset the monthly budget.

    By changing the last date of the campaign.

    By changing the mode of ad delivery.

    By choosing a time zone different from the current one in an AdWords account.

While companies will spend a little more than their average monthly balance, they will be happy with the fact that it has translated into more clicks and eyeballs. With a definite increase in revenue, brands won’t be hesitant in advertising on AdWords. Lastly, there is no losing party in this game, as it is a win-win for both Google and the Brands.
October 20, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: AdWords’ new interface, Facebook’s Image-Based Search, Microsoft’s LinkedIn integration and more..
1. AdWords rolls out new interface to all advertisers
Google has announced that the new AdWords interface is now available to all advertisers. Along with new features for data visualization, the overhaul enhances load speed of account data up to 20 percent. New reports and controls built into the updated experience have also been highlighted periodically by AdWords on their blog over the past several months. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook Is Testing Out Image-Based Search for Related Products
It appears that Facebook’s testing a new tool which would enable users to search objects in Facebook’s Marketplace via an image. The option makes a lot of sense, and it clearly aligns with Facebook’s ongoing development of their image-recognition technology. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. LinkedIn connects sales, marketing tools for B2B advertisers to target leads, accounts
LinkedIn is linking together its sales and marketing products for the first time. As a result, B2B marketers will be able to more easily target their ads on the Microsoft-owned, business-centric social network to new leads and existing accounts. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Snapchat’s Context Cards turn Snaps into location-based search queries
Snapchat continues to flip location-based search on its head. Snapchat rolled out a feature called Context Cards that enables people to access information about a venue tagged in a photo or video posted to the app. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Twitter launches in stream ads in India with Amazon, Maruti and Motorola
Twitter announced on Thursday that it has launched in-stream video ads to marketers in India. The company said with in-stream video ads, brands in India can align with videos from Twitter’s premium content partners across sports, news and entertainment globally. [Source: The Economic Times]
1. Twitter Is Adding a ‘Happening Now’ Module to Highlight Real-Time Discussion
Twitter’s adding another way to highlight happening news events and real-time discussion within the app, by pushing out a new ‘Happening Now’ notification which will appear on user home screens, focusing on live events. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Microsoft’s LinkedIn integration, AI and what it means for marketers
The recent Microsoft Ignite event told us a lot about the direction technology is going — and specifically how it will impact marketers. Microsoft emphasized two trends that will have a significant effect on marketers. The first is an effort to make artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning available to the masses. The second is heavier integration between Microsoft and LinkedIn. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Facebook opens up Stories to Pages so that someone will use the feature
Facebook announced that over the next month Pages will be able to post Stories through its iOS and Android apps. Unlike normal people, however, Pages will not be able to cross-post Stories simultaneously to Facebook and Instagram. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Twitter Is Adding a New ‘Bookmarks’ Feature to Help Keep Track of Tweets
Twitter’s working on a new bookmark feature which will help users keep track of tweets they want to come back to, without having to ‘Like’ them to keep tabs. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. LinkedIn launches autoplay mobile video ads
LinkedIn has announced a closed beta for testing video ad units as Sponsored Content. This comes just two months after enabling native videos in the LinkedIn Feed. The video ads will autoplay, and appear as a standalone unit with a “Promoted” label to distinguish them as paid content. [Source: Marketing Land]

Expert Opinion:
1. Shifting from ‘Mobile strategy’ to ‘engagement strategy’ is the way forward for marketers
Mobile has become an important part of every person’s life these days. It is also an essential medium through which the modern customer experience takes place. It is the easiest device accessed by every individual and has become a gateway for brands to showcase their products and service offerings to the users.

With the rising awareness about the importance of mobile as an impactful medium for marketing and considering the increasing trend of mobile marketing strategies followed by various brands, it is important for the new-age marketers to focus on creating compelling engagement strategies for consumers.

While designing any campaigns for mobile, marketers need to consider the unique capabilities of mobile. Also, the strategy should not just focus on the mobile experience. Activities across various channels need to be in sync. The new-age customers do not recognize your brand differently through different channels and expect a seamless experience from one brand across multiple channels.

One of the best ways to stand out through your mobile experience strategy is to deliver relevant content to the users whenever and wherever they are highly likely to make a purchase decision. Data can be extremely useful in this regard. Analysing the data available about the user behavior and how they react to the marketing activities (like app behavior, email opens and clicks, web behavior) can be of great assistance to devise impactful mobile campaign strategies that can provide higher returns.

The devices on which customers engage and interact with brands are growing at a rapid rate. For marketers to make an impact and achieve better returns from their marketing campaigns, it is vital to integrate the technologies, processes, teams and internal systems in such a way that the customers’ online and offline behavior is in sync and provides useful insights to create meaningful strategies.

For brands to succeed, it is essential to understand all the platforms (old as well as emerging), consider the pros and cons of every platform and determine ways to use them effectively in a way that can help the business to sustain in the constantly changing digital environment. This way marketers can create experiences that add value to the customer’s day which in turn will help their business to flourish.

– John Mathew, Head – Digital & Multi-Channel Marketing, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals
October 13, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s AMP Project updates, Instagram’s New Polls feature in Stories, LinkedIn’s Talent Insights and more..
1. Google releases a variety of Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP) updates: scrolling animations, video analytics, fluid ad support
Google announced several Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP), technical updates. These included scrolling animations, an improved responsive-navigation sidebar, support for video analytics, fluid ad support and other features to improve ad targeting. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. LinkedIn Adds New ‘Talent Insights’ to Help Employers Improve Hiring and Recruitment Efforts
While Facebook’s also trying to muscle in on LinkedIn’s turf by introducing job listings on Pages, LinkedIn’s data gives them a big advantage. The latest development on this front is LinkedIn’s new ‘Talent Insights’. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Mobile ads will make up 62% of digital ad spends in India by 2021: Report
Although television still remains the biggest advertising platform in India, growing demand for smartphones, cheap 4G handsets and falling data prices are expected to increase mobile ad spending significantly, according to marketing research firm eMarketer. [Source: Mint]
1. Google test surfaces user data in DoubleClick for Publishers as part of new Insights Engine Project
Google is laying the groundwork for turning the love-hate relationship many publishers have with the company into a love-love relationship. Among the recent announcements by the company was the launch of a new effort to share user data with publishers and introduce more machine learning into Google’s publisher products. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Instagram’s Adding New Shopify Tags to Enable In-Stream Purchases
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything more on Instagram’s shopping tags, their coming eCommerce addition which would enable businesses to add information and price tags to products featured in their posts. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google: First Click Free is over, being replaced by Flexible Sampling
Most online news publications are not able to support themselves with advertising these days. For this reason, among others, Google is yielding to publisher requests and replacing its much-debated “First Click Free” program with what it calls “Flexible Sampling.” [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Google intends to beat Amazon and Apple with the combination of ‘hardware, software and AI’
Google believes it has found a winning formula in its smartphone war with Apple and in its smart home war with Amazon. Eight new or updated devices are being introduced, from new Pixel smartphones to a Google Home Mini, a new laptop and a new smart camera. All or nearly all of them feature the Google Assistant and are designed to integrate with other Google devices and work seamlessly together. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. LinkedIn’s Adding Snapchat-Like Geofilters for Conferences and Events
Yes, LinkedIn is also copying Snapchat – though their use-case is a little different, and does make a lot of sense. As part of their new native video tools, LinkedIn’s giving conference attendees the opportunity to add dedicated event frames to the videos they create while attending such functions. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google announces AdWords daily budgets can overspend by 2x, automatically
Google AdWords notified advertisers in their accounts and on Twitter that a change had already happened to the way budgets get handled on a daily basis. It is not going over well. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Instagram Adds Polls in Stories, New Creative Tools
Instagram’s adding a new method for conducting polls, with a sticker option that lets you pose a question within your Instagram Story and see the results from your followers as they participate. [Source: Social Media Today]

Expert Opinion:
1. Marketing for the new age hyperconnected consumers
Digitalization has changed the way we consume and process information. With the deluge of information, the customer’s attention span is shrinking and the interactions are becoming evanescent. This changing customer behavior is compelling the digital marketers to think creatively about the new strategies to remain relevant to the fast-evolving customer behaviors.

With the rising use of smartphones and insatiable appetite for data, the new age consumers are now getting ‘hyper-connected’- Perpetually and with increasing frequency. As per the recent study done by Gfk, there are around 41 million hyperconnected consumers in India and the internet users in India will burgeon to more than 450 million by June 2018. This naturally is increasing the frequency with which these consumers are engaging with different brands showing a substantial level of engagement with at least one brand on social media.

Considering these facts, it’s becoming imperative for brands to focus on the hyper-connected consumers with hyper personalisation. The user experience across the touch points needs to be coherent and intelligent to communicate the ‘right product’ with the ‘right price’ to the ‘right customer’ at the ‘right time’ through the ‘right channel’. In order to get this entire experience ‘right’, requires a thorough redesign of the processes, data crunching and redefining communication message. There is clearly a need for digital professionals to evolve into Techno-marketers who understand the new age customers, their needs and have the requisite technology skills to provide a seamless customer experience. When the customer experiences are value accretive at every touch point, organizations will start winning loyal customers and naturally create winning brands.

– Gaurav Hazrati, Senior Vice President and Head, Digital Banking-Consumer Banking, IndusInd Bank
October 6, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s New Smart Screen Competitor To Amazon’s Echo Show, Twitter’s doubling the length of tweets, Snapchat’s Sponsored 3D World Lenses and more..
1. Google is building a smart screen competitor to Amazon’s Echo Show
Google is building a tabletop smart screen for video calling and more that will compete with Amazon’s Echo Show. The device could help Google keep up in the race for the smart home market after Amazon just revealed a slew of new Echos and as Facebook continues to work on its codename “Aloha” video calling screen. [Source: TechCrunch]
1. MailChimp adds Google Ads as it becomes a multichannel platform
MailChimp took another step toward becoming a multichannel marketing platform, announcing that users can now create and deploy Google Remarketing Ads within its dashboard. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Facebook and Twitter Continue to Expand their TV-Like Video Efforts, Add New Opportunities
Both Twitter and Facebook have continued their push into TV-like content this week, with new announcements on programming which will further expand their efforts. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Twitter tests doubling the length of tweets to 280 characters
Twitter’s defining feature — the tweet’s 140-character limit — may soon go the way of Instagram’s square posts and Vine’s, well, everything. If Twitter does opt to officially adopt 280 characters as the new maximum length, it would mark the biggest change to the social network since its founding in 2006 and the biggest big bet yet by the company to increase its user base. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Instagram Adds New Comment Control Options to Help Improve User Safety
Instagram, which has traditionally focused on images as opposed to exchanges, has worked to stay ahead of the curve, introducing advanced reporting tools and features to give users more control over what they see on the platform. And now, Instagram’s adding in some new tools to help, with three updates to help improve community safety. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. YouTube unveils new tools to create custom ads at scale, sequence videos & more
Designed to help advertisers reach their audiences with relevant messaging, at scale, the new features touch on improved targeting options, creative offerings and measurement tools. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Bing Ads rolling out offline conversion imports to capture impact of ads on offline sales
Advertisers that run Bing Ads campaigns to generate leads can now upload offline conversion data back into the platform to get a more complete picture of campaign impact on actual sales. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Pinterest Introduces Taste Graph For Better Ad Targeting
Pinterest announced the unlocking of more than 5000 varied ‘interests’ that digital advertisers can target against a ‘Taste Graph’. This means a much better precision-based targeting will be made available for digital ad marketers, which in turn, is expected to boost the conversion from Pinterest substantially. [Source: Logicserve Digital]
1. Facebook’s Adding a New Messages Ad Objective to Drive Messenger Business
Facebook’s introducing a new messages objective for ads which will help businesses raise awareness of their Messenger presence (and bots) and directly connect more users to the option. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Snapchat rolls out Sponsored 3D World Lenses, bringing its AR format to advertisers
Snapchat debuted its latest augmented-reality ad format on Thursday. Advertisers can now create their own branded versions of Snapchat’s 3D World Lenses that allow people to augment videos shot with their phones’ rear-facing cameras with animated three-dimensional objects, like Snapchat’s famous dancing hot dog, that can be moved and resized to fit the scene. [Source: Marketing Land]

Expert Opinion:

1. How do you think Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) deals will work in India?

Ad tech is constantly evolving. We keep hearing about so many new technologies and platforms that offer a host of benefits for online advertisers and publishers.

Programmatic Guaranteed is one of the latest technologies provided by Google which eliminates lot of the back and forth that happens between buyers and sellers during a direct deal setup. With PG, a buyer can pre-negotiate the terms of a deal and lock-in their ad spends, delivery or volume commitment with an end publisher using Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad server. For advertisers, PG is about securing pre-negotiated rates against an audience that is otherwise hard to find.

Programmatic Guaranteed efficiently automates traditional reservation buys, enabling publishers and advertisers to negotiate and execute one-to-one deals in a secure digital setting. It is rapidly seen as a way to assure media buyers as well as sellers against concerns about the miss-delivery of various ads using such technologies, and also the potential loss of inventory prices via auction-based selling using real-time bidding (RTB) technologies.

Programmatic Guaranteed is a great way for hesitant buyers to test the programmatic technology. Buyers who are uncertain about programmatic are using the method to experience the benefits of programmatic buying, without the ambiguity that comes while bidding for a price and not knowing if the required inventory will be secured by them.

Publishers across every category and continent are seen to be offering larger inventory through programmatic deals. PG is expected to evolve rapidly in the coming years. Some of the key factors shaping the evolution of programmatic guaranteed include:

– Many publishers are pushing agencies to use PG with some publishers becoming PG only

– Advertisers are drawn towards the security and brand safety features of PG

– Multinational brands are driving buy side adoption

Programmatic Guaranteed is creating new opportunities for advertisers and publishers to connect. Programmatic guaranteed penetration is expected to grow 6 -10 times in India by 2020. Programmatic platforms are predicted to connect every piece of the advertising ecosystem in the future. By harnessing the power of data, inventory and audience discovery will become seamless, and it will be easier for buyers and sellers to find each other and their target audience. Building new relationships will become faster and simpler with the use of PG.

PG is indeed changing the ad tech space in India with many publishers and advertisers moving towards a future with the highest touch deals taking place in a programmatic environment.

– Prabhvir Sahmey, Head of Media Buying & Analytics Solutions, India (DoubleClick & Google Analytics 360), Google
September 29, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google AdWords’ testing automated ad suggestions, WhatsApp’s new business tools, LinkedIn’s new ad network and more..
1. Google My Business now lets businesses edit their listings directly in search results
Google has announced they are now fully launching the ability for businesses to quickly edit their Google My Business local listing directly in the Google search results. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Facebook Tests a New Option to Cross-Post Instagram Stories to Facebook
While Facebook has seen major success with Instagram Stories, which is now at 250 million daily users, they’ve yet to report any official user numbers on Facebook Stories. Facebook Stories could still become a more significant element, if they just made a few tweaks. And now, they’re trying out their latest ‘tweak’, with some users seeing an option to share their Instagram Story direct to Facebook. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google Data Studio adds third-party data connectors from Supermetrics and others
Google introduced a beta for third-party connectors. Supermetrics is among the launch partners. Users will find the new options in the Data Studio Community Connectors Gallery. The native connection enables data from the 20-plus marketing platforms Supermetrics connects with, such as Bing Ads, DoubleClick, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Twitter Ads and Yahoo Gemini, to be brought into Data Studio seamlessly. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Google AdWords’ automated ad suggestions test is getting a reboot
Earlier this year, Google launched a beta test that automatically launched machine-generated ads in a small set of AdWords accounts. The lack of control in that test wasn’t particularly well-received. Now, Google is giving it another shot, with some adjustments aimed at addressing advertiser concerns. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. WhatsApp Announces New Business Tools, Paid Enterprise Options
WhatsApp is taking its next steps towards monetization, with the hugely popular messaging app announcing a range of new features designed to better facilitate business use. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. LinkedIn opens new ad network to sell Sponsored Content ads on others’ apps, sites
The company is rolling out a new ad network called LinkedIn Audience Network. Unlike the old, fairly traditional ad network, however, the new one centers around LinkedIn’s flagship Sponsored Content ad format and skews towards syndicating that native ad primarily across mobile apps. It also resembles Facebook’s ad network, from carrying the same name to needing to address advertiser concerns over transparency and control. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Google rolling out support for AMP landing page in AdWords search campaigns globally
In May, Google announced it was running a beta test with advertisers to test driving traffic from mobile search ads to AMP landing pages. On Thursday, the company said all advertisers will be able to point mobile search ads to AMP landing pages beginning in two weeks. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. YouTube Broadens Access to Live-Streaming, Adds New Streaming Tools
YouTube’s upping their live-stream game again, adding a range of new features, most of which are geared towards gamers and gaming content, but which offer more general utility either way. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Instagram starts testing Facebook’s app-like Canvas ads within Stories feed
Facebook is bringing its most creative ad format to its most creative app. Over a year after Facebook said it would extend its Canvas ad format to Instagram, the photo-and-video app has started testing Canvas ads within people’s Stories feeds. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Google Analytics adds feature to unify users to Google AMP Cache pages & non-AMP pages
Google’s new AMP Client ID API, coupled with Google Analytics, allows pages that are partially served on Google platforms like search and partially on site owner domains to communicate with each other. Google Analytics can understand if a user on your non-AMP pages had ever visited an AMP page displayed by Google. When true, Google Analytics can help you understand user behavior across these two page types as a single cohesive experience. [Source: Search Engine Land]

Expert Opinion:

1. Automation of marketing campaigns for the new-age customers

Automation is no longer a fancy buzzword and has become an important part of the new-age marketers’ life. Automation can be utilised for creating impactful marketing campaigns that provide higher conversions and engagement with the consumers. Automation of campaigns allows marketers to set up various paths for connecting and following up with quality leads basis their actions and behaviour. It can help marketers save a lot of time and focus on developing robust strategies for the growth of the business. As per Marketing Automation Usage Statistics, on an average, 49% of companies are presently using marketing automation, with more than half of B2B companies (55%) adopting the technology for their marketing needs. Also, 91% of the most successful users believe that automation is very important for the overall success of their marketing across channels.

While automation of campaigns has proven to generate enhanced returns and revenues for a lot of companies, there are a lot of other key benefits provided by automation of marketing campaigns including:

– Reduced lead time

– Enhanced campaign effectiveness

– Expanded reach to a wider audience

– Better understanding of the potential customers

– Personalised interactions with the consumers

If marketers take into account the evolving needs of prospective customers, their behaviour and interactions across different channels and challenges faced by them at various touch points, they can design relevant and efficient strategies for their automated campaigns and grow their revenues substantially. As per the Benchmarking Report on Marketing automation by B2Bmarketing.net and Circle Research, post one year of automation usage, 32% marketers claimed to see increased revenues. Those using the technology for more than two years saw 40% growth in the revenues.

The ultimate goal for every marketer is personalization and the ability to have one-one conversation with their users. Automation is the only way to have the right conversation with your users at the right time. It can be a valuable tool to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing campaigns and stay ahead of the competition.

– Jaswant Singh, Country Managing Director – ad:tech, iMedia and Mobile Media Summits.
September 8, 2017
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google Adsense’s User First beta program, change in AdWords ad rotation settings, YouTube’s redesigned app and more..
1. Google local pack tests displaying website mentions matching your query
Google is testing displaying in the local pack results if the local website returns the keywords you searched for on their website. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Adobe adds email features in Campaign, releases survey vouching for the channel’s robust health
The marketing tech giant is out with a new survey showing email’s enduring appeal across generations, as well as some updated features to email in its Marketing Cloud’s Campaign tool. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Google launches AdSense User First beta to test if fewer ads & better targeting can make more money for publishers
The goal at this stage is to test new ways for publishers to make more revenue with fewer, hopefully more effective, ads and reward publishers who prioritize the user experience. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. AdWords ad rotation settings to get trimmed: Optimize or don’t
Google announced a slight change to the ad rotation settings in AdWords. There will soon be just two options: “Optimize: Prefer best performing ads” and the not-so-subtly named “Do not optimize: Rotate ads indefinitely.” [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. YouTube Announces App Redesign, New Logo
After first announcing a test of their new desktop layout and features back in May, YouTube’s now rolling the changes out to all users, while also updating their mobile app to better align with the new desktop experience. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Google debuts giant new look for Local Inventory Ad product search in Knowledge Panels
Last May, Google introduced the ability to find out if a local retailer had specific products in stock right from the knowledge panel listing for the retailer. Now, it’s dedicating a whole lot more real estate to the feature. [Source: Search Engine Land]
1. Instagram starts putting Stories, but not Story ads, on its website
The majority of people who use Instagram’s app every day check out its Stories feed. Now the Facebook-owned photo-and-video-sharing service is extending its Snapchat clone to its online audience. [Source: Marketing Land]
1. Instagram Adds Variable Format Support to Multi-Image Posts
Instagram has announced that users can now choose landscape and portrait formats when sharing multiple photos and videos in one post. [Source: Social Media Today]
1. Twitter’s MoPub adds third-party viewability measurement thru Moat, Integral Ad Science
Brands increasingly want to know that the ads they paid for had a chance to be seen, even on the small screen. So Twitter-owned mobile ad exchange MoPub is joining the roster of ad sellers enabling brands to independently measure their ads’ viewability. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
1. Google Shopping gets top spot impression share & product diagnostics reporting
Each year, Google rolls out several new features ahead of the holidays for retail advertisers. This year’s updates have started coming out. The company introduced a new metric and new reporting for Shopping campaign advertisers — only in the new AdWords interface. [Source: Search Engine Land]

Expert Opinion:

– Digital Transformation is the key to sustained growth and brand relevance among consumers

Digital as a medium, channel is evolving fast and impacting the business of brands, products and services across industries. It is bringing about a paradigm shift in the traditional value chain and compelling brands to rethink their strategy.

Brand owners and CEOs around the world are focusing on integrating digital in main stream business processes besides just only communication and marketing. Innovation is critical here to have competitive advantage, continue attracting new customers and retain existing ones. Digital transformation, while a technology initiative, is showing potential to change ways of doing business and is considered as the fuel for economic growth. Businesses can look at a range of benefits from this transformation including enhanced brand/customer experience & engagement, creating efficiency in existing business processes & operations, accelerated product development, all of which leading to better growth, sustenance and profitability.

As per IDC CIO Agenda 2017 Predictions, by 2018, 45% of CIOs will shift primary focus from physical to digital and move away from BPM and optimization to deliver scale, predictability and speed. Also, two-thirds of the CEOs of Global 2000 companies are expected to have digital transformation at the core of their corporate strategy by the end of 2017.

– Alokedeep Singh, Head of Ecommerce and Digital, Titan Company Limited
September 1, 2017

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