Digital Marketing Weekly Round Up (06/04/18)

We took a cheeky day off last week to allow more time for dairy-free chocolate eggs, but we’re back in action now, so let’s hop to it…

1. Facebook shuts down Partner Categories

Behind the scenes at Facebook, there are different ways to target your audiences. The most basic is based on what users do within Facebook – if you target “dog lovers”, for example, they’re users who have liked other pages about dogs. However, Facebook also allows you to target based on third party data, such as from Experian. A lot of this data relates to purchases and buying history, for example, luxury purchasers, or charitable donors. Seedling works in this sector, and “gives to charity” is a useful, albeit intrusive, targeting technique to find new audiences. Facebook has made the move to try to regain some ground after trust in their privacy and consumer data hit an all time low. These options will be “winding down over the next six months“.

2. AdWords updates Keyword Planner

In line with the new version of AdWords, Google has now updated Keyword Planner. Visually, it feels a bit like Google Trends, which isn’t a bad thing. One benefit is that getting that top level forecast is quicker and easier, but there are mixed reviews – you can no longer download data on a month-by-month level. This a really useful feature I’ve used before when building forecast models. So, like the new AdWords itself, reactions are mixed. More info at SEORoundtable.

3. Business Descriptions in Google My Business

Standing out in local search is still a source of frustration for many local businesses. Now you can add “business descriptions” in your Google Business profile to help. For now, any keywords appearing in this description don’t appear to help you be discovered for generic queries though. Google suggests your descriptions should focus on your business’ history, and what sets you apart from competitors. I’m using it to list features and services. Info at Google.

Missed the last weekly round up? Find it here.