Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from McCauley Marketing Services
It is difficult to believe that another year has come and gone already. As we emphasize to all our clients and assist them with each year, it is important to make use of the past by using it to inform us and prepare for the future. In other words, as we look back at 2019, it can give us a leg up on 2020 by helping us strategize.
With that in mind, there have been plenty of changes and trends throughout 2019 that have emerged and have made it a busy year at McCauley Marketing Services.
Changes to Google Ads and Google Algorithms
One of the reasons that search engine optimization is such a challenge is because it is constantly changing. SEO comes down to making your website match what Google is looking for, and Google changes their criteria hundreds of times per year. While most of these changes are minor, there are always a few larger and more impactful changes throughout the year such as Google’s medical update in 2018, and 2019 was no exception to more major changes.
In addition to keeping up with Google’s algorithm changes, we were also faced with an important change to the Google Ads policy. Google Ads is Google’s pay-per-click ad service. This year, Google determined that they would no longer allow ads from websites that included information about specific medical treatments and terms. In order to make sure our clients could continue reaping the benefits of their Google Ads, our team was challenged with the task of finding ways to avoid the language and terminology that Google had blocked while keeping the content high-quality, accurate, and informative with strong search engine optimization.
More Creativity in Social Media Ads
Social media continues to be a cornerstone of digital marketing. After all, the time consumers spend on social media continues to increase year after year, and every business wants to use that time to spread their message. The downside to this is that it means social media marketing is becoming more competitive because it is a more crowded marketplace.
As this happens, it has required us to be more creative with our clients’ ads. We are placing more focus on eye-catching images that capture consumers’ attention and pull them in, while also making the ads informative and valuable so consumers are happy to see the ads appear in their feeds and they want to click on them to learn more.
An Emphasis on Privacy
You do not have to be an insider in social media marketing to see that people are concerned about online privacy today. It has been a frequent topic of conversation, especially in news stories and legal proceedings about who can access your data and how they can use it.
It is not surprising, then, that people are asking more questions about their privacy online. This is particularly common when it comes to social media. As a business, this means that you need to be prepared to answer questions about who you are targeting with your ads and why. In fact, Facebook has already added a “Why am I seeing this?” button on ads so users can see why they were included in the targeting for a particular ad. Filters like this make it even more challenging for the inexperienced to get the best return on their ad budget.
For our team at McCauley Marketing Services, what we love about marketing is the same thing that makes it so challenging. Marketing strategies, best practices, and new techniques are always evolving, and we thrive on finding innovative ways to keep our clients on the cutting edge and deliver results for their businesses. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you, all of our followers and friends, for your support throughout 2019 and we look forward to sharing another year of insights and experiences with you all. Don’t forget to keep up with our latest content by following McCauley Marketing Services on Facebook and Twitter. Wishing you happy holidays and a fantastic new year in 2020!