Digital Marketing Updates: October 2024

Welcome to October! This month, we report on two ways Google is emphasizing the value of authenticity in organic results, the introduction of search ads on TikTok, and Google Ads’ not-always-improved automated ad improvements.

SEO

Google Acknowledges Content Creators on SERPs

Google has started explicitly identifying content creators in its search results, assigning labels such as “Content Creator (Medicine)” or “Content Creator (Travel)” in Knowledge Panels. This recognition reflects Google’s growing emphasis on authoritative content creators, linking them to specific topics as part of its E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) guidelines.

By linking person entities with the content they produce, Google enhances their visibility in search results and in AI-powered assistants. Optimizing both content creators and publishers will help maximize credibility, establish clear relationships between the creator and reference pages, build credibility through content association, and expand the creator’s digital presence. Reference pages to review and optimize include the About page, author pages, social profiles, the creator’s personal website, and third-party sources like Wikidata.

This trend is critical for SEO, as Google’s algorithms increasingly prioritize trustworthy, identifiable content creators. Ongoing maintenance of these relationships is essential, as Google’s Knowledge Graph and associated algorithms continually evolve, potentially affecting how entities are displayed and recognized over time. SEOs must focus on these relationships to improve rankings and maintain topical authority.

Google Is Emphasizing User-Generated Content

In a recent interview, Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan discussed the growing role of user-generated content (UGC) in search results, emphasizing the increasing demand for authentic perspectives. Sullivan noted that Google is focusing more on UGC because users seek firsthand experiences, partly as a response to the rise of low-quality, marketing-driven content.

Over the past year, forums, Reddit threads, and other UGC platforms have appeared more frequently in search results, sometimes even outranking established brands. Sullivan explained that users appreciate content that offers real-life experiences and that Google aims to surface such content when it’s deemed relevant and high-quality.

However, there are challenges to this approach, as assessing the quality and relevance of UGC on a large scale can be difficult. Despite the imperfections, Sullivan acknowledged that UGC often provides valuable insights, especially in niche areas.

Google continues to refine its algorithms and signals to better evaluate UGC, with the goal of surfacing the most relevant and helpful content, whether it comes from large or small sources. As Google evolves in this area, it’s increasingly important to encourage the cultivation of communities to foster discussions that enhance UGC.

Paid Media

TikTok Search Ads

TikTok has a new way for advertisers to leverage its highly engaged search toggle, with its new campaign type that uses keyword intent. With these new ads, advertisers can target TikTok’s search results page delivering ads that are what TikTok users have come to expect on the platform, but with new capabilities and features for advertisers.

The main benefit of keyword targeted search ads is being able to convert customers when they are the most curious, while they are exploring relevant content in decision-making moments. It’s designed to fit into the buyer journey with expanded reach to high-intent audiences.

Google Adds Video Enhancement for Performance Max

If you’ve become more concerned about Google Ads automatically opting campaigns into new AI-driven optimizations, you’re not alone. Recently, we’ve noticed an uptick of instances where Google Ads has used its own smart automations to “improve ad quality” across different campaign types without advertiser permission. 

The latest is the Enhanced Video feature for Performance Max which enables Google to adjust video formats to fit the user’s screen. The goal with this is to improve video performance, but could come at a cost when that level of control is turned over. While having the option to resize ads for better placements sounds like a great idea in theory, in practice it can lead to awkward presentations that don’t reflect well on brands.

We recommend checking your Performance Max campaigns to see if this feature has been enabled and proceeding with caution when it comes to new auto-optimizations and enhancements encouraged by Google. Remember that testing is always an option!