March 2019 – SEO and marketing news

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Mar 15, 2019 / by
March 2019 – SEO and marketing news

Although March 2019 may go down in UK history as “the month of Brexit,” we thought we’d instead cast our eyes over the more positive stories affecting the SEO and marketing world. In this month’s post, we check on the latest from Google, cover a consultancy marathon, analyse the highest paid jobs in digital marketing and more.

Google Images to Introduce More ‘shoppable ads’

At the Shoptalk conference in Las Vegas this week, Google announced Shoppable Ads for Google Images – sponsored images that operate in a similar fashion to ad unit on Instagram. Google first debuted the Shoppable AdWords format on YouTube back in 2015. And last year it piloted an earlier version of Shoppable Ads for third-party sites and in Google search. Google is currently testing these new units “with select retailers” for broad, top-of-funnel queries. The tech giant aims to allow retailers to reach shoppers in the “inspiration phase” of shopping. Google also explained that it would be rolling out these units across more categories in the coming months.

The company also announced that Showcase Shopping ads are coming to Google Images, allowing a richer product presentation for brand marketers. Merchant Center feeds and content will also be available that go ‘beyond advertising’. They explain: “Retailers can provide product data to Google, free of charge so that we can start showing more of your product information to potential shoppers.”

Facebook Crack Down on Fake Likes

Perhaps one of the most contentious issues regarding Facebook is the fact that so many businesses and brands are still allowed to pay for likes, followers and more. This could soon be changing as Facebook is actively going after companies that promote the sale of ‘fake’ accounts, likes and followers.

On Friday last week, a lawsuit was filed in US federal court by Facebook against four companies and three people based in China. The companies were selling fake accounts, likes, and followers on various social media platforms, including Facebook. If Facebook wins the lawsuits it will certainly set a legal precedent with respect to the selling of fake likes, followers, and accounts.

SEO Travel Run Free Consultancy Marathon

Travel marketing agency SEO Travel is attempting a 12-hour consultancy marathon to help small travel businesses with their digital marketing and raising money for charity at the same time. The “Charity Travel Marketingathon Bonanza 2019” will allow small digital travel companies to enjoy the kind of services they wouldn’t usually be able to afford by booking in for a free 30-minute session between 8am and 8pm on Thursday, March 21st. As well as helping small businesses, the event is also being used as an opportunity to raise money for charity, with SEO Travel making a donation to Care with a View for each person that signs up, as well as asking businesses taking part to make a small donation of £10 themselves.

It will be SEO Travel’s founder Tom Mcloughlin who will be carrying out the full 12-hour consultancy marathon, bringing more than 10 year’s experience to the table. He says:

There is so much marketing information on the internet about what works and what doesn’t that you can waste time and money on the wrong approaches that bear no fruit or, even worse, actually harm you. With the Marketingathon Bonanza, we want to take away the part of not knowing so these businesses can go away with clear, actionable tactics that will help grow their business.

instagram iconInstagram Working on Ad Unit for Sponsored Posts

Instagram is looking set to roll out a new ad format for sponsored posts published by influencers. These “branded content ads” are part of a strategy to build more formal partnerships between brands and creators, with brands able to sponsor Instagram users. Sponsored posts will appear with the tag “Paid partnership”.

The limitation of these posts is that they only reach people following the influencers in question. Branded content ads will be similar to other ads on Instagram where advertisers can promote the posts to appear throughout the network.

The Top 10 Digital Marketing Jobs with Salaries of $175K or More in 2019

Mondo has reported the results of its annual Tech and Digital Marketing Salary Guide with 10 Digital Marketing jobs garnering salaries of $175,000 or more for 2019. The Mondo Salary Guide also revealed that the Digital Marketing skills in highest demand are MarTech, UX Specialist/Information Architects, and Google analytics experts. Mondo, an Addison Group Company, is a national staffing agency that specialises in tech and digital marketing talent.

The 10 highest-paid Digital Marketing jobs for 2019 include:

  • CMO ($165,000 – $250,000)
  • VP of MarTech Solutions ($135,000 – $205,000)
  • VP of Digital Marketing ($135,00 – $200,000)
  • Marketing Automation Architect ($155,000 – $180,000)
  • VP of Interactive ($135,000 – $180,000)
  • VP of eCommerce ($125,000 – $180,000)
  • Director of UX/UI ($125,000 – $175,000)
  • Director of Interactive ($110,000 – $175,000)
  • Director of Web Analytics ($110,000 – $175,000)
  • UX Specialist/Information Architect ($110,000 – $175,000)

Tim Johnson, CEO of Mondo, explained:

For 2019, we’re seeing increased demand for Digital Marketing professionals with proven experience using the hottest MarTech solutions, such as Salesforce, Eloqua, WordPress, Adobe, and more. In addition, SEO and SEM skill set segmentation continues as employers look to hire specialised experts.

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