Note From Melissa: You are going to love this epic marketing guest blog by Bryant Garvin of Bryant Garvin Consulting. Let’s jump right in!
It all started with a tweet.
Of 10K SERps, almost 6K had top ads. Breakdown:
1 ad – 36%
2 ads – 17%
3 ads – 28%
4 ads – 19%— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) February 19, 2016
Things were shaking up, and the whole entire universe – well at least the online marketing universe – was thrown into complete and utter chaos. The number of hours (and combined brain power) wasted invested in speculation, and worry about the changes coming down from The OG (Google), could have easily figured out any number of national (or international) crises.
Google had done the unthinkable… they actually changed the layout of their desktop SERP and the position of ads. What the hell were they thinking? Didn’t they know this would upset the fragile balance (and sanity) of the online marketing ecosystem.
What would those who focused on organic results (read SEO) have to say about their search results being pushed even further down the page?
What did this mean to all of the precious bidding algorithms so many data scientists and PPC practitioners has slaved over for hours on end?
Would the POTUS intervene and issue an executive order to stop the insanity? How could life go on if he didn’t?
I am sure many of these thoughts ran through the OCD laden minds of many search practitioners on Friday, February 19th, 2016. OK, so I am sure most except for the last two, although a variation of the last question may have still be silently whispered by many.
Why the hell am I bringing this up? Well because we need to stop the insanity. Every.
Freaking.
Time.
Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo or a host of other companies decide to make changes to day to day operations, or algorithms.
It’s time to wake up!
The one constant in marketing, (as well as life), is change! If you don’t agree with that statement, guess what? Change doesn’t give a damn whether you agree or not, it just keeps on doing it’s thing… changing… everything!
Now I will be the first to admit, I don’t always like some of the changes – or the rationale behind them (it’s for the users) – but it doesn’t change the fact that it is inevitable. Change is honestly a big part of the reason all of us ADHD ridden people are drawn to digital marketing. What was normal 2 years ago, is laughed at when suggested as a best practice today.
Guess what? That’s ok!
In just the last month these are just a few of the “changes” which have happened.
Google Allows Emojis in Shopping Ads
Google Stops Allowing Emojis in Shopping Ads
Google Is No Longer Showing Right Hand Side Ads
Yahoo is Pulling Back on Its Native Ad Units
Google Testing New Layout for Shopping Ads on Yahoo
Yahoo is Officially up For Sale
Microsoft has Quietly Put the Nail in the Yahoo|Bing Network Coffin
Facebook Said To Be Bringing Ads to Facebook Messenger
Facebook to Begin Auto-Captioning Video Advertising
The pace of changes…isn’t going to slow down
As the online ecosystem continues to “mature” don’t expect for changes to come less frequently. In fact if you don’t begin expecting for changes to happen, you will soon be left behind, much like the Alta Vistas of yesterday.
Mobile as a percentage of all online activities is going to increase. The IoT (internet of things), is going to drastically shake up how much data is at our disposal, and how we can advertise against it in the near future.
Google, Bing, Facebook and others will continue to push changes which increase their revenues. Organic traffic needs to be invested in, but with the understanding that what was “given freely”, can and will be easily taken away.
Remember all of these companies – we rely on daily to inform us and connect us with family, friends, clients & more – are for profit companies whose primary marching order is to increase value for share holders. Once again, that’s OK!
Again, I am not saying I love all of the changes that are happening or that will in the future occur. In all honesty some of them I absolutely hate, (I’m looking at you Google and your lack of Tablet Bid Modifiers).
However, I am saying that if you like your career, if you want to still be involved in this awesome digital marketing ecosystem 5 or even 10 years down the road, you need to learn to “roll with the punches.” You need to figure out new ways to work within the confines of the new “rules of engagement.”
Do you agree with me, or should we all just keep whining and complaining about things we can’t influence or change?
Bryant has nearly a decade of SEM experience under his belt, and his keen insight on harnessing the power of paid search have seen him tagged #PPCDictator amongst his peers. Bryant is Chief Consultant at Bryant Garvin Consulting – where he works with companies to improve ROI from their marketing activities. His focus on mobile user experience and conversion rate optimization makes him uniquely suited to help companies focus on the future.
When he isn’t helping companies improve their bottom-line he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, & watching awesome movies.
“Google Allows Emojis in Shopping Ads”
THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING
“Google Stops Allowing Emojis in Shopping Ads”
Oops, nevermind.
LOL right? We all, myself included, need to stop overreacting to Google’s every move.
I’m the first to admit I have been ticked by changes Google has made in the past, but that’s part of being more “mature” and “growing up” is learning to roll with the punches 😉
Cause yeah I’m mature now
I totally agree with this article – having nearly 10 years experience in PPC myself – and my sense was less that people were freaking out about the change itself (although some of that happened) but more the lack of notice given. Google gave a load of notice for things like enhanced campaigns and so such a global change would have been good to know about earlier.
That said, I can totally understand why they didn’t because they didn’t want advertisers anticipating the date and bidding up, thus distorting the effect of the change.
My article on how things change and how these changes can represent an opportunity is just some evidence of how much I agree with you on this, though: http://www.thesempost.com/ppc-true-may-not-true-now/
Excellent article Steve! Even more evidence of just how much and how fast things change in this industry. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Melissa! It’s a subject that’s helpful to discuss, I think. 🙂
great article Steve! I completely agree that change can be a good thing. If nothing else it allows a “reset” of our mindset or paradigms… that is if we allow it to.
It does suck that they announce some things with HUGE events, and then never actually deliver, and yet big changes like this, were left to be found out after the fact.
I was not fully aware of the SERPs layout changes until a client asked me about it. I miss the side ads on the right. My client agreed and suggested that this was done to reduce clicks on lower paying ads. Ouch! Well, that makes sense since we know that making a buck is at least as important to google if not more important than user experience, IMOBOME.
I’ve been doing SEO and SEM since 1999 and the only time I freaked out over a google change is when they closed my AdSense account for no good reason (IMO).
While the rest of the world has obsessed and fretted over H tags, links, sociopathetic (sic) signs, Page Rank, and whatnot we have continued to focus on the basics and things directly related to what people actually search with. If they had search back in my father’s day it would have been good enough for him, and that’s good enough for me.
Great information Steve! You have called it right about the major search engines. What has all this taught us about what to expect in the future from the serps? Always be looking forward to the next changes, that nothing stays the same and nothing is off limits. After Google’s Panda any webmaster or SEO knows to keep things simple and stick to the guidelines or you take a risk for your sites as well as those of your clients. it seems if you provide quality content and web visitor experience your sites may have a chance. Then again there are no guarantees in the organic traffic sector these days!