Microsoft Ads to Replace Manual with Enhanced CPC & This Week’s Digital Marketing News [PODCAST]

On this week’s episode of Marketing O’Clock, hosts Greg Finn, Jess Budde & Mark Saltarelli break down the biggest digital marketing news of the week.

If you are unable to listen on Spotify, check out the video version of this week’s episode on the Search Engine Journal YouTube channel.

Microsoft Advertising Plans to Replace Manual CPC with Enhanced CPC

Microsoft Advertising will begin their process of replacing Manual CPC with Enhanced CPC in March with plans of full replacement by early April.

This change will push advertisers towards automated bidding strategies, which takes more of the control out of their hands.

According to Microsoft, this change will increase campaign performance and bring in 5-10% more conversions while maintaining a lower CPA.

Google Expands Manual Action Penalties to News & Discover With 12 New Penalty Types

Google’s 12 new manual action penalties now include penalties specifically for Google News and Google Discover.

This is the first time that these actions expand beyond Google Search.

The team breaks down all of the 12 types of penalties including which may cause the most strife for webmasters.

Shop Pay is Now Available on Instagram and Facebook

Shop Pay is no longer just for Shopify!

This secure way to pay can now be integrated with Instagram and Facebook, which both have in-app shopping capabilities.

Merchants selling on Instagram and Facebook can use Shop Pay to ensure that any transactions that their customers make are secure and efficient, and have order tracking available.

Plus, carbon emissions created by deliveries are offset.

Take of the Week

In this week’s take of the week segment, it’s an old fashioned Take-Off!

Twitter’s PPC Chat discusses Google Ads’ recent keyword type change, it’s future trajectory, and some more appropriate names for the consolidated and remaining match types, and we pit the following takes against each other to see who wins the week:

Why is Google is using such a terrible example of BMM (+moving +services +NYC +to +Boston) to make their point? That keyword goes against all best practices for BMM. Oh, wait. I see what they’re doing here. One step closer to a single match type. https://t.co/bHKivakf3Y

— Kyle Munson (@kylewmunson) February 5, 2021

A2: I'm still not happy, because I'd actually prefer it to be BMM that was retained over phrase. It's going to be hard to explain to newbies because phrase isn't phrase. Exact isn't exact. Words mean nothing. (1/2)
#ppcchat

— Steve Hammer (@armondhammer) February 9, 2021

New match type name change request for @GoogleAds:

Broad Match -> Aggressive Match
Phrase Match -> Expanded Match
Exact Match -> Conservative Match

I would feel much better if the names adequately represented the matching.#ppcchat

— Greg Finn (@gregfinn) February 5, 2021

I will be interested to see how hard the push to use plain old Broad Match is after this is in full effect.

Cause I feel like that is coming.#ppcchat

— Julie F Bacchini (@NeptuneMoon) February 9, 2021

In a joke that writes itself, Google matched the exact keyword [seo] to the search term “website” as a “close variant.”

— Mark Irvine (@MarkIrvine89) February 9, 2021

ICYMI

Next, in our ICYMI segment, Andrea Cruz found a clever (but manual) way to target your competitor’s audience on LinkedIn.

Trying to guess the target audience of your competitors on LinkedIn Ads? 🧐
Go the their ads and see the job titles/function/bios and skills of the people who have engage with the ad 👀
Manual process but worth it when clueless about skills/groups to target 🎉

— Andrea Cruz (@andreacruz92) February 9, 2021

Then we answer your burning digital marketing questions during our lightning round segment:

• Who knew Pinterest had such a huge user base?
• What is Google doing with “Good Page Experience” in their code?
• Where can I buy my next hot lewk? Could it be TikTok?
• When is Pinterest’s first-ever advertising summit being held?
• Why is Snapchat having a comeback?
• How does Instagram feel about people making Reels of TikToks?

Check out the Marketing O’Clock site to subscribe to the show (and our newsletter!) and read all the articles featured on this week’s show!

Image Credit: Samantha Hanson