June – SEO and marketing news

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Jul 27, 2018 / by
June – SEO and marketing news

GFacebook tests ‘subscription Groups’ that charge for exclusive content

Facebook will be testing a new feature (largely in parenting, cooking, and home organization groups) where admins can charge users between $4.99 – $29.99 per month for access to special ‘sub-groups’ containing exclusive content and posts. Facebook will not be taking a cut, but since this test is being billed by iOS and Android those operating systems will be receiving 30 percent of a user’s first year of subscription. Besides ad revenue and revenue gained through users having to pay for their pages to become more visible (a decision that has essentially killed organic reach on the site), Facebook hasn’t tapped into the 1 billion user strong Groups feature for profit yet.

FacebookThe idea to charge money for exclusive content originally came from the group admins who want to fund offline activities and content. “It’s not so much about making money as it is investing in their community,” says Facebook Groups product manager Alex Deve. “The fact that there will be funds coming out of the activity helps them create higher-quality content.”

Regardless of why, the test is to see what admins will create and what users would find useful now that money is involved. Back in 2016, Facebook briefly tested running ads in Groups to generate revenue, but the plan never rolled out. With group admins being able to generate revenue, we may see creators (or cons) flourish in this new environment in the future.

Uberall Turns Mobile Searches into Sales with Enhanced Locator + Pages

Over in Berlin, the location marketing solutions company Uberall announced new updates to its Locator products. With Locator + Pages, business will be getting complete, user friendly maps to their physical location. The updated Pages feature ensures a relevant, per-location landing page that boosts SEO and customer physically reaching storefronts.

“Uberall helps convert mobile searches into sales through location marketing,” said Daniel Mathew, Vice President, UK of uberall GmbH. “Three-quarters of all smartphone owners turn to mobile search first to find products and services, with nearly 40 percent trying to buy that same day. They are searching locally and are qualified customers. Using a powerful online location finder, plus local pages, optimises local SEO and maximises impact. This increases footfall and – most importantly – grows revenue per location.”

Uberall has bridged the gap between online search and instore purchases bringing a much needed tool to brick-and-mortar companies.

Study: Many publishers’ EU sites are faster and ad-free under GDPR

In confirmation of our fears that the GDPR would bring less targeted ads, users are finding faster load times of publishers’ sites due to lack of features running in the background such as Google Analytics and targeted ads. Google is looking at the bright side of this saying that at least they can get user consent faster than smaller ad servers are able to serve ads on other sites. Other publishers, however, have decided simply not to monetise their sites with ads, which due to 2016 study by Google confirms that this does lead to a better user experience with faster load times, but being unable to make money from a site makes the project useless to a publisher.

On the US end of things, publications such as the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times have simply blocked access for European users, not wanting to risk the 4% fine of all global revenue if GDPR rulings are not complied with. The use of Google DoubleClick could also be a risk, with many of its users accusing Google of trying to impose a “one size fits all” approach on publishers to comply with the new laws. Some companies are pushing back; German media company Axel Springer, owner of Business Insider, is letting other publishers use their GDPR consent tool they built for free so they aren’t confined to just following Google’s approach.

Facebook Has New Requirements for Custom Audience Ad Targeting

As of publication, Facebook’s new rules for custom targeted ads will have gone into effect. The reason for the new requirements is to ensure targeting is done responsibly and that users understand why they are being targeted. ‘Custom Audiences’ is a targeting method that allows advertisers to reach users they already have a relationship with. Individuals who are part of a custom audience may not understand why they are being targeted, so Facebook would like to clarify things.

The new rules are as follows:

Showing people the origin of the audience information: you will be required to show the origin of peoples information when uploading a new custom audience.

Modifications to audience-sharing requirements: when user information is acquired by an advertising agency, both parties involved must establish an audience-sharing relationship through Business Manager and agree to Facebook’s new terms.

Accept all terms on ad accounts: once just required by admins, all users of an ad account will have to accept new terms and conditions along side frequent reminders to uphold privacy when uploading targeted ads.

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