SEO Wash-up Monday 10th January 22

Google Update

Google My Business Crowd Attributes For LGBTQ+ Friendly & Transgender Safespace – Google My Business have added a new business attribute that is named “crowd.” So now you can mark your business as being LGBTQ+ friendly and a transgender safe-space.

Microsoft Advertising Partners with Shopify & Google Ads Partners with BigCommerce – Microsoft and Google have mentioned a new partnership deal on the ad side. Microsoft Advertising has now partnered up with Shopify to integrate products on Shopify with your ads on Bing Search. Microsoft says that Shopify merchants will be able to easily reach shoppers on the Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network with just a few clicks. The on-boarding is simple, allowing merchants to quickly connect with shopping offerings that showcase their products using free and paid listings.

Whereas, Google Ads has partnered up with BigCommerce to list your products for free on Google, create ad campaigns and review performance metrics directly in their BigCommerce store.

Google Ads App Campaigns Don’t Require Deep Linking – The search giant has announced that your app campaigns within Google Ads no longer require manual deep linking. So you can now select the option to direct users to the app homepage even if your app does not have deep links implemented.

Bing Update

Microsoft advertising launches health insurance ads – Microsoft Advertising has rolled out a new ad format for Bing search named health insurance ads. Microsoft said advertisers are already seeing a 4X increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) and lower costs per acquisition (CPAs) with this new format.

Microsoft mentions that the advertising Health insurance ads are “intent-triggered rich placements that provide real-time information to consumers and inspire action, all with no keywords required. These are positioned on the right rail of the Bing search engine results page running alongside mainline text ads, you can showcase your healthcare plans more prominently than ever.

The health insurance ads are dynamically generated that is based on the data you specify in your feed file, such as your plan type, the organisation category and URLs. The more details you provide in the feed file, the more information Microsoft can include in your ads.

These ads give you:

• Customised ads – Submit and schedule your feed, and based on the attributes you provide, Microsoft will create relevant, personalised ads.
• Improved ROAS – See more volume, increased click-through rates (CTR), and lower cost-per-click (CPC) rates.
• Time-saving automation – With no keywords required, the ads are created by feed files that use Microsoft AI automation and are fully equipped for bulk upload.

In order to sign up for the beta for Health insurance ads, you first need to reach out to your Microsoft Advertising rep or contact the Microsoft support team. Once you are in the beta, you will need to provide a feed. A comprehensive feed with rich attributes such as image URLs and contextual keywords is critical for your success with Health insurance ads.