Ep178 - Google Announces September 2023 Helpful Content System Update

Episode 178 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Sep 11-15, 2023.1. TikTok Shop Launches in the US - With inspiring hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, TikTok now aims to revolutionize online shopping culture. TikTok Shop is now officially available in the US, allowing US businesses to sell their products directly on the TikTok platform. TikTok Shop is a social commerce platform that allows users to discover and purchase products directly from their favorite creators and brands. TikTok Shop adds shoppable videos and LIVE streams directly into the “For You” feeds for its 150 million American users. TikTok Shop extends beyond in-feed videos and LIVE streams. Users can discover new products via the search bar inside the TikTok app, filtering results to Shop. Businesses and brands get a dedicated “Shop Tab” to display products and promotions. This incorporates a product showcase where users can read reviews and purchase directly from your brand’s profile. In addition, sellers can take advantage of “Fulfilled by TikTok” – a new logistics solution where TikTok manages storage, picking, packing, and shipping. The platform even includes an affiliate program, letting popular influencers and creators earn commissions by promoting TikTok Shop products. To get started, go to your TikTok app, visit your profile and, using the menu, navigate to Creator Tools. There, you will see the options to sign up for TikTok Shop as a seller or creator to earn brand commissions. Creators must have at least 5,000 followers and be 18 years old to be eligible for the TikTok Shop Affiliate program. TikTok Shop is integrated with well-known ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This should make it easier for existing ecommece sellers to start selling on TikTok without creating a new store from scratch. In addition, TikTok has partnered with several multi-channel platforms like Channel Advisor and Feedonomics to support omni-channel businesses. Sellers can utilize apps from Zendesk, Printful, Yotpo, EasyShip, and more to add more functionality and features to TikTok Shops.2. Amazon Launches New AI Tool to Help Sellers Create Listing Content - Creating compelling product titles, bullet points, and descriptions has traditionally been a cumbersome task for sellers. Amazon has taken a significant step forward in simplifying the lives of its sellers by employing generative artificial intelligence (AI) to generate listing content. The process is remarkably straightforward. Sellers only need to supply a brief description or a few keywords about the product. Amazon’s AI generates high-quality, detailed content for the seller’s review. If satisfied, sellers can directly upload this content to their product listings. Robert Tekiela, vice president of Amazon Selection and Catalog Systems, expressed excitement about the developments in the announcement post. “With our new generative AI models, we can infer, improve, and enrich product knowledge at an unprecedented scale and with dramatic improvement in quality, performance, and efficiency. Our models learn to infer product information through the diverse sources of information, latent knowledge, and logical reasoning that they learn. For example, they can infer a table is round if specifications list a diameter or infer the collar style of a shirt from its image.”3. Suspended Google Advertisers Needs To Complete Verification Before Appeal - Google wrote, "In October 2023, selected advertisers whose accounts were suspended due to a violation of our Google Ads policies must complete Advertiser verification first to be able to appeal their account suspension."Google said that those advertisers on monthly invoicing are not required to complete Advertiser verification. If they do get suspended, Google said they may directly appeal their account suspension.Google will be rolling out this process on October 10, 2023, with full enforcement ramping up over approximately four weeks.Advertisers may be required to provide the following information for advertiser verification for the account suspension appeals process:D-U-N-S number if the advertiser is an organizationUS Social Security Number or phone number if the advertiser is an individual4. Struggling To Get Results From Your YouTube Ads? Google Ads Creative Guidance Can Help! - Google Ads Creative Guidance is a new tool that helps advertisers improve the performance of their YouTube ads. It provides feedback and recommendations on key creative attributes, such as brand logo, video duration, voice-over, and aspect ratio.To access Creative Guidance, advertisers simply need to go to their Google Ads account and click on the "Videos" tab. Then, they can select the video ad they want to analyze and click on the "Creative Guidance" button.Creative Guidance will then provide feedback on the following creative attributes:Brand logo: Is the brand logo displayed prominently in the first 5 seconds of the ad?Video duration: Is the video ad the recommended length for its marketing objective?Voice-over: Does the video ad use a high-quality, human voice-over?Aspect ratio: Does the video ad group include all three video orientations: horizontal 16:9, vertical 9:16, and square 1:1?Creative Guidance will also provide recommendations for how to improve the performance of the video ad. For example, if the brand logo is not displayed prominently in the first 5 seconds of the ad, Creative Guidance will recommend adding a logo overlay to the video.Creative Guidance can be a valuable tool for advertisers who want to improve the performance of their YouTube ads. By following the feedback and recommendations from Creative Guidance, advertisers can create video ads that are more likely to capture the attention of viewers and drive results. While this tool seems promising, advertisers must remember that the AI can only provide recommendations based on historical data and existing best practices. Therefore, its suggestions may not align with every brand’s style and strategy.To access Creative guidance in Google Ads, follow these instructions: In your Google Ads account, Click the Campaigns icon Campaigns Icon. Click the Assets drop down in the section menu. Click “Videos”. Click the “Analytics” tab next to “Videos”. Select your video ad in the drop down menu. In the “Ideas to try” section below the retention curves, you’ll find the creative attributes you’re missing with recommendations on how to take action. The steps listed above are part of a new Google Ads user experience that is set to launch for all advertisers in 2024. A spokesperson for Google Ads said in a statement:"We’ll let you know if your video is missing a best practice. If we have a recommendation or tool to implement a suggestion such as adding a voiceover, we’ll direct you to it.""Voiceover has a big impact on YouTube. Thanks to the power of AI, quality voice overs in 15 languages are accessible directly in Google Ads (both in the asset library and built into the video creation to...