Category: In the News

Curated Performance Marketing News – Consumer and Industry Trends-Affiliate Networks, Business Insights and more.

Cheat Sheet: Social platforms and publishers retook the NewFronts stage on the event’s third day

The third day of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s four-day NewFronts this year returned the event to its digital and social video roots. After connected TV and cookieless targeting respectively dominated the first two days, creator-driven short-form shows shared on social platforms took the spotlight on May 5. Platforms and publishers also seized the opportunity to highlight the importance of diversity and inclusion — and, of course, to talk about cookieless targeting, too.

The key details:

BuzzFeed returned to the NewFronts, bigger and more diversified than the last time it presented in 2016.Snap announced the launch of a Creator Marketplace to connect brands directly with its creators.Vice doubled down on contextual targeting, calling demographic targeting “shallow and diminishing,” and announced an expanded partnership with Google Web Stories.Twitter ran through a long list of content partnerships with publishers and sports leagues.

Snap

Peter Naylor, Snap’s vp of sales for the Americas, nailed down the buzzword of the NewFronts (in air quotes): “incremental.” Snap — as well as the other platforms and publishers that presented — emphasized that digital media companies can get advertisers to reach incremental audiences via online video content and CTV that they can’t reach via linear TV. Citing Nielsen data, Snap claimed that nearly 60% of Snapchat’s audience over 18-years-old watch less TV or no TV compared to non-Snapchat users.

During its presentation, Snap announced the launch of the Creator Marketplace, which allows brands to connect with top talent on the platform. The Creator Marketplace will open later this month to all brands, which can work with a select group of AR Creators through 2021 (200 million Snapchat users engage with augmented reality daily, according to the company). In early 2022, it will expand to an open marketplace that includes all Snap creators.

Snap also introduced a slate of nine new original shows. Vanessa Guthrie, head of Snap Originals, name-dropped celebrities who have shows on the platform like Jaden Smith, Kevin Hart and Ryan Reynolds, as well as Snapchat stars like Loren Gray, Nikita Dragun and Swae Lee. A new show called “The Me and You Show” lets Snapchats users use AR to take part in their own sketch comedy show with friends. Rapper Megan Thee Stallion will be a part of a new show about pets. A few new docu-series were also called out, like “Meme Mom” and “Lago Vista,” about a new mom, and the life of seven Texas high school seniors and recent grads, respectively. Unscripted series like “Coming Out” and “Charli vs. Dixie,” and scripted series that touch on social issues, mental health and climate change were also mentioned.

According to the presentation, Snap has 280 million users every day, an increase of 51 million, or 22%, year-over-year. In the first quarter of 2021, Snap grew revenue 66% year-over-year to $770 million, with over 50% of revenue from direct response advertising. Sean Mills, head of original content at Snap, said that over 400 million people watched shows on Snapchat last year, including over 90% of the Gen Z population in the US. 

Vice Media Group

Demographic ad targeting is a “shallow and diminishing way to group human beings,” Vice Media Group’s chief people officer, Daisy Auger-Dominguez, said during Vice’s presentation. It was a strong message for the NewFronts: “end data discrimination.” Auger-Dominguez argued that advertisers should define audiences the way they would define themselves, “through values and passions, not age, ethnicity or sexual identity.”

With the cookie crumbling, Vice took the opportunity to announce a new contextual targeting solution as well, arguing that contextual data helped clients make more return on ad-supported goals by 289%. Advertisers can reach audiences with the solution based on sub-topics, sentiment, emotion and predictive models.

Vice also announced it will bring Google’s Web Stories product to all of VMG’s platforms, so that vertical, tappable video stories format will be featured across Vice, Vice News, Refinery29 and i-D’s web platforms. Publishers can decide where and how long content lives via Web Stories (an upgrade of Google’s AMP Stories format) and are in control of monetization: Advertisers can buy directly for a full screen custom format, programmatically or with branded content, according to Cory Haik, chief digital officer at VMG.

A focus for VMG this year is on Black and emerging creators, according to the presentation, which ran through a slew of programming on topics such as music, travel, food and relationships. Refinery29 will relaunch a sex education initiative for young people and invest more into the site Unbothered, aimed at Black millennial women.

Vice is also looking ahead to bring back in-person events. The theme for R29’s popular 29Rooms event franchise this year is “Make Contact.” It’ll be a party, with a “strategically shorter run time,” and performances and programming, according to Monica Herman, creative director at VMG. Unbothered will also host a gathering of young Black women. Music brand Noisey announced “Noisey Residency,” a fan experience that will include intimate live performances, and digital audience reach via video, merchandise and collaborations across Noisey’s channels. 

VMG also launched its new brand identity — with a circular logo — alongside its new tagline, “What Happens Now.”

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed returned to the NewFronts this year, its first time back since 2016. But this time, along with its robust verticals BuzzFeed News, Tasty and HuffPost, the publisher sported a diversified business that spans commerce, affiliate, products, licensing and a branded content studio to show off to advertisers. 

CEO Jonah Peretti opened the short, 10-minute presentation by announcing that BuzzFeed is “looking at digital media acquisitions,” after buying HuffPost last November. As young consumers begin to re-emerge into the real world with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, BuzzFeed can serve as “a guide” and “an inspiration engine for the modern consumer,” Peretti said.

BuzzFeed touted its first-party data suite Lighthouse, which launched in March, as a solution to the upcoming cookieless future, as well as the myriad data signals across its portfolio that can connect brands to its 104 million monthly users (and 3.2 billion monthly content views in the U.S.) via strategic segmentation, targeting and ad distribution. For example, the company determined from its data that someone reading food content is five times more likely to also search for parenting content. BuzzFeed emphasized its audience of shoppers — people who click on wishlists and shop certain categories of content that match their interests.

BuzzFeed also put a spotlight on its cast of BuzzFeed creators as well as verticals created for people’s hobbies and identities, such as Black-focused Cocoa Butter and Latinx-focused Pero Like. The presentation ended with a sizzle video, showing a couple engaging with BuzzFeed’s content in real life, from looking up recipes, taking on a DIY project, watching a suggested TV show and planning a road trip. 

Twitter

Twitter ran through a number of new and expanded content partnerships across a variety verticals like music and sports. Partners included Billboard, Genius, Refinery29, Tastemade, MLB, NBCUniversal, NHL and the WNBA. A deal with Tastemade, for example, will produce a new franchise called “Holiday Hotline,” where food influencers will answer Twitter users’ questions and issues around holiday meals in real time.

Linda Yaccarino, chairman of global advertising & partnerships at ‎NBCUniversal, made an appearance during Twitter’s presentation to discuss the two companies’ partnership; a big part of it will revolve around the Tokyo Olympics this July. Exclusive coverage, live highlights and a daily live show called “Talking Tokyo” (hosted by former Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon) will all be distributed on the platform.

Jen Prince, head of global partnerships at Twitter, spotlighted Twitter Amplify (which serves ads around free videos on Twitter) and Twitter ArtHouse (which provides brands with resources to help them produce content for the platform).

Twitter also announced a new real-time chart created in partnership with Billboard, called “The Billboard Hot Trending powered by Twitter.” It will track music trends and songs talked about on the platform and will inform a daily video series highlighting those trends. Advertisers can sponsor the chart or content created around it.

The post Cheat Sheet: Social platforms and publishers retook the NewFronts stage on the event’s third day appeared first on Digiday.

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Voice Search SEO: How to Optimize your Affiliate Site

Voice search is on track to overtake text-based search as the number one online search method. That is inevitably changing the way affiliates and other site owners should approach SEO.

The two primary trends that are playing a significant role in the emergence of voice search are:

The percentage of the population using mobile devices is continuing to increase.

In 2020, global smartphone users reached 3.6 billion for the first time. 31% of those people conduct at least one voice search a week on their device using built-in virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri.

Smart speakers like Google Home and Amazon Alexa have become household staples. Their popularity has only increased as people spend more time at home due to pandemic-related restrictions. (Global smart speaker sales surpassed 150 units in Q4 2020 alone.)

This shift in how people search for info, products, and services means affiliate marketers also need to make a shift.

Affiliates who rely on SEO and organic traffic coming from search engines like Google now need to know how to to specifically improve their voice search SEO.

Before we discuss what actions affiliates should take, let’s first look at the differences between the two types of search.    

The Difference Between Voice Search and Text Search

The way we search using our voices differs significantly from the way we do so with our fingers.

Text searches are:

Shorter in lengthKeyword focusedSearching for non-urgent information

Voice searches are:

ConversationalLonger in lengthUrgent QueriesStructured as questions seeking an answer

The biggest difference is that text-based searches tend to focus on just a few important keywords. We type in relevant words to what we are trying to find and let the algorithms do the rest.

Voice searches on the other hand are typically more conversational. Since we are talking to someone (or something), we tend to structure our queries as questions.

For example, let’s say you are looking for the info we provided above.

If you were to use type-based search, you might type “voice search vs type search” or “voice search differences” into the search bar.

However, if you were using voice search, you are more likely to ask “Hey Google. What are the differences between voice search and type search?” or “How does voice search differ from type-based searches?”

Since the two types of searches are structurally different, so are their corresponding results.  

For this reason, SEO strategies that aim to get pages ranked at the top of traditional text-based searches are not as effective at doing so for voice search.

How to Optimize for Voice Search

The goal here is not to completely abandon traditional SEO strategies that can help you page rank well for text-based searches. Instead, this is an alternative approach that can improve your SEO if you think your page(s) is missing out on voice search users.

Keep in mind that the content of your pages is also going to play a role in whether it is better to optimize for text or voice search. Typically, pages that contain information that users need urgently perform better when optimized for voice.

It sounds obvious, but the best way to get these users to your page is getting it ranked in the top position, also known as ‘position zero’.

This is displayed as a ‘featured snippet’ that provides users a direct, focused answer to their query.

Snippets pair perfectly with the question-like structure of most voice searches. If your content is ranked there, you can expect to receive a ton of organic traffic.

In addition to knowing the differences we mentioned above, here are some voise search SEO actions you can take to improve your site’s page ranking.

Include Longer Phrases/Long-Tail Keywords

Competition makes it nearly impossible to rank at the top of searches for common keywords. However, you can work around that by targeting more specific keyword phrases, also known as long-tail keywords.

Users who include long-tail keywords in their searches are also closer to booking a reservation, signing up to a service, or purchasing a product than those using common keywords.

For example, someone searching “fitness equipment” is not as close to taking their credit card out as someone who is searching “What are the most affordable exercise bikes in 2021”.

By focusing on longer phrases and more specific key words, you are more likely to target an untapped audience looking to take action.

Make your Content Easy to Read

Labyrinthine passages are infrequently discovered at the pinnacle of online explorations. In other words, overly-wordy content is rarely found at the top of search rankings.

In fact, the average ‘position zero’ Google search result is written at a 9th grade reading level.

Ask your own virtual assistant or smart speaker a question right now. The answer you receive is likely to be straight forward and simply-worded.

Although there is no concrete proof that search engines neglect verbose content, the evidence is there that ditching the thesaurus can give you a leg up.

Include Question Words

Since most voice searches are commonly structured as questions, you will want to include the fundamental question words within your content.

By adding who, what, when, where, how, and why into your page’s copy, your content will instantly become more parallel with voice searches.

Try to think of your content as targeted responses to potential questions. Keeping that theme in mind when you are writing will ensure you have less optimization to do after the fact.

Create Locally-Targeted Pages

People using voice search often have an urgent question they need answered. Those urgent questions are also more likely to be related to where they live. (eg. “What’s the best Italian restaurant in Springville? “What gym in Springville has the cheapest membership fee?”)

This provides an opportunity to create pages that specifically target local areas.

For instance, if you monetize a cycling site, you could design a page based around “The best cycling paths in West Philadelphia.” You can then scale that content by creating a series of similar pages for multiple GEOs.

Increase Your Site’s Speed

This is something that will improve your SEO for any type of search method.

A page’s loading speed has been a staple of Google’s page ranking alrogithm since 2010. In 2018 they increased its importance even further.

The first thing you should do is analyze your site’s speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights. This will give you an understanding of what areas of your site are slowing it down.

From there, you can do the following to instantly increase the speed of your page or site:

Optimize/Compress Site Images

Use plugins/tools like Smush(WordPress) or Mass Image Compressor to reduce the size of your images without sacrificing quality.

Upgrade Your Hosting Package

Sharing a server with a large amount of other sites will limit your page’s speed. If you can afford it, upgrade to premium host or dedicated server for an immediate speed increase.

Clean Up your Code

If you know your way around code, tidying up your site’s HTML, JavaScript, or CSS can noticeably improve your site’s loading speed.

Allow Browser Caching

Browser Caching will not increase your site’s speed for first-time visitors but it will do so for those returning. That is still quite useful.

You can activate it in your .htaccess file or select from several plugins that will do it for if your site is hosted on WordPress.

The post Voice Search SEO: How to Optimize your Affiliate Site appeared first on MaxBounty Blog.

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