Today in Digital Marketing - 126: Is Google’s Secret Algorithm About to be Revealed?

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Monday, April 6th, 2020. Happy International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Today, will a court case expose Google's highly confidential search algorithm? We have a new marketing platform and already millions of eyes are on it. Why campaign seasonality adjustment should not be used during a pandemic? What is tiered influencer marketing? And how's a rideshare company using it? Here's what you missed today in digital marketing

Starting point is 00:00:31 brought to you by the Personal Revolution podcast. As long as social algorithms have existed, filthy digital marketers, that's you and me, friend, have been trying to poke, hack, or otherwise infiltrate the algorithm's secrets. What exactly makes something like, say, Google, rank you higher than your competitor? Understandably, these platforms have kept the exact scoring system that runs every algorithm under tight wraps, lest you and I exploit it for our own uses. But that may change soon.

Starting point is 00:01:00 We might all have in our hands the exact method that Google uses to decide how high up the results page you land. How did we get here? Let me take you on a journey back in time. Nearly 15 years ago, a company called Foundum was getting ready to launch a search engine of its own of sorts. It was an index specifically for finding the lowest prices from online retailers. And while it was still developing its website, it let a handful of users in, basically as a testing group. But it wasn't a closed beta.

Starting point is 00:01:31 Their website was publicly available. And so Google found it, added it to the index, and actually ranked it quite high, often on the first page of results. Then Fandom launched their website publicly, and a funny thing happened. Suddenly, Fandom found themselves buried in Google. And I mean buried. They went from the first page to sometimes hundreds of pages in,

Starting point is 00:01:53 which, of course, nobody gets to. They were, for all intents and purposes, effectively removed from Google. But they noticed something else that was weird. When they checked their rankings in other search engines, they hadn't lost any ground. They were in the same position as before, and in the same position on other engines, even after on Google they virtually disappeared. And that led Fandom to think, uh, is Google deranking us because we compete with their shopping portal? And in 2012, Fandom filed a lawsuit against the search giant seeking damages for the loss of business it incurred

Starting point is 00:02:29 because people could no longer find them. And that brings us back to today. The lawsuit, which is happening in the UK, is a bit of a legal stalemate. The UK courts have told Google that they either have to withdraw their evidence or, and here's the point to all this, disclose the

Starting point is 00:02:45 details of its search algorithm. Quoting Search Engine Journal, for obvious reasons, Google doesn't want to give up its algorithm secrets. However, Google also doesn't want to withdraw evidence, which is vital in helping the company win the lawsuit. The only other choice would be to settle the lawsuit, which would reportedly it gets really interesting. Fountain has told the courts that it thinks the algorithm details are too complicated for lawyers to understand, so they want to bring in an SEO expert to interpret the algorithm code for the court. And the court has said, if Google won't withdraw some of their evidence, and if they won't provide the algorithm details to this expert,

Starting point is 00:03:38 the court will just give the algorithm code to the expert itself. Which, in a public trial, essentially means giving all of us access. I will follow this closely, of course, and keep you updated, though I'm sure if the algorithm does get out, you will see a million and one blog posts about it. The coronavirus, it seems, has created a new digital marketing platform, and it's one being used by millions around the world right now. Brands are realizing that the money they had allocated for outdoor ads like billboards and transit ads

Starting point is 00:04:07 aren't going to be seen by anyone, so they are shifting their budgets to where the eyeballs are. And that is largely on Zoom these days. And so we're starting to see Zoom being used as a brand awareness channel. Take Chipotle, for example. Last month, the American restaurant chain launched a daily show on Zoom called Chipotle Together.

Starting point is 00:04:26 It's basically a 3,000-person Zoom meeting with celebrity guests like Colton Underwood from The Bachelor. They've also had workouts with former NFL stars and other celebrity guests. Since their first one on March 16th, the Chipotle Together campaign, if we can call it that, has generated 500 million impressions and 100 earned media stories. I guess 101 now, if they include this one. There's a great piece in Marketing Dive today called Brands Recalibrate to Community Building During Quarantine. Highly recommended reading. Link in the description. This episode is sponsored by Personal Revolution Podcast. Have you been stuck inside, wondering how to take charge of your life?

Starting point is 00:05:05 Is there something you want to do but haven't been able to do yet? In Personal Revolution, bestselling author and life coach Alison Task helps you take control of your life with inspiration and humor so that you move from where you are now to where you want to be and have fun doing it. It's like having a personal coach whispering in your ear. This three-month podcast course, along with bonus episodes each month, Thank you. and build the network that will help you create your future. The Personal Revolution podcast comes with a personal workbook and real-time access to a community of other changemakers working toward their goals with positivity, possibility, and momentum.

Starting point is 00:05:56 And for a limited time, all of this is available to you for free. Download the Himalaya app in your app store, look up Personal Revolution, and enter promo code REVOLUTION at checkout to get your first month absolutely free. If you're ready to go after a better life, you are ready for Personal Revolution. Those of you familiar with the Google Ads feature called Seasonality Adjustment might be tempted to deploy those campaign changes in this season of a global pandemic. But that would be a mistake, according to ads pro Jenny Marvin.

Starting point is 00:06:30 Writing today for Search Engine Land, she said, don't be tempted. That's not the tool to turn to. These adjustments are used as a kind of signal to the auction that there are routine and predictable changes in your conversion rate. Things like special promotions, product launches and so on. Tools really only meant for a period of up to about a week at most. So, for instance, if you're planning a two-day sale and you expect a 40% jump in sales, you can set the seasonality adjustment to cover those days. But, quoting her piece, coronavirus is not a short-term event. Seasonality adjustments are not meant for longer periods of conversion rate fluctuation.

Starting point is 00:07:05 You wouldn't use it for back to school or holiday shopping seasons, for example. In this context, the coronavirus outbreak, unfortunately, is not a short-term event. As you may have heard over the past few weeks, both Google and Facebook have shared their consumer tracking data with various authorities around the world. The idea being that if these government groups like health departments can better understand the flow of where people are going, they can plan for containment. So far, the data they've provided has been pretty high level. No individual person's information is sent. And over the weekend, Google released a new set of data publicly called Mobility Reports.

Starting point is 00:07:42 And it might give you some information for your own brand's planning. I was able to download a PDF of my country and my province's overall movement trends in industries like retail, recreation, grocery, pharmacy, and so on. But some people are concerned about what may follow all of this COVID-19 stuff. Quoting the New York Times, ratcheting up surveillance to combat the pandemic now could permanently open the doors to more invasive forms of snooping later. It is a lesson Americans learned after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, civil liberties experts say. Nearly two decades later, law enforcement agencies have access to higher-powered surveillance systems like fine-grained location tracking and facial recognition, technologies that may be repurposed to further political agendas like anti-immigration policies, unquote. But on the marketing side, access to this data can help.

Starting point is 00:08:33 Already there's a lot of data available that you could use, even to get intelligence on your own competition. For instance, Google will show you how busy a shopping mall is throughout the week and the day, perhaps identifying areas where you want to bulk up your own offerings. It will certainly be interesting to see what we end up with in terms of marketing data once this is all over. It's not often we get an inside look at the strategy behind a large influencer campaign, but we have one now from Lyft, the American rideshare company. They've been wanting to make sure that when people hear their name, they think of more than just rideshare. And one way they've found is through social influencers. Social Media Today spoke with their Director of Influencer Marketing, that's a title I haven't heard before,

Starting point is 00:09:14 and she mapped out the key pillars behind their strategy. The first, social impact. In one campaign, they partnered with the charity of a pro football player to provide reliable bike share in disenfranchised communities. They've also offered free scooter rentals for health care workers in those areas. The main influencer marketing leg there is that football player doing voiceover and then sharing it all on his social media channels. Second, something they called tiered influencer marketing. Quoting the Social Media Today piece, instead of just partnering with one celebrity influencer, they also partnered with other influencers, such as a professional BMX bicyclist who is a content creator on YouTube

Starting point is 00:09:49 and Instagram. This is a key strategy. From huge stars to micro-influencers, Lyft creates a top-down approach that's proven very effective for their brand. And finding passionate influencers. To continue this tiered approach, they sought out micro-influencers who are still churning out content for this campaign right now. They asked these micro-influencers to tell a story of how a bike changed their life, unquote.

Starting point is 00:10:14 Anyway, it's a great piece and link, as always, is in the description. As we all shift our content strategy to recognize the new rules in place with the pandemic, you might be looking for a kind of cheat sheet on how to make sure your brand is on brand and on tone. Snapchat has made that cheat sheet, sort of, in the form of a blog post.

Starting point is 00:10:34 It contains some obvious advice, like making sure you're not using the crisis to directly promote your brand. But among the tips, highlight new ways for people to connect with their community. There's been a surge of online gaming, with many turning to their mobile devices to play while at home. Gamifying your brand messaging could help entertain and engage Snapchatters at length. You can use your brand equity to provide fact-based news and information. For instance, spreading awareness of local causes, urging people to support their local restaurants by ordering from them,

Starting point is 00:11:02 show appreciation for your brand's fans by thanking them for doing their part and following government-mandated protocol. And interact with people throughout the day as they establish their new normal. DIY, the article says, has never been more alive than it is right now. You could create your own craft projects or give tips on how to maneuver their new work environments and routines. That's it for today. Don't forget to check out the Personal Revolution podcast. There's a link in this episode's description. I hope you're well. I hope you're healthy.

Starting point is 00:11:32 I hope your people are well. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - 126: Is Google’s Secret Algorithm About to be Revealed?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.