Monthly Media Update: Holiday Shopping Season Starts Now

October 11, 2022 | Article | by REQ Media Team | Advertising, Search Engine Optimization

Industry-Wide

Holiday Shopping Season Starting Earlier Than Ever - 25% of shoppers started holiday shopping in August or September, with another 25% planning to start in October. Consumers want to begin buying gifts before inflation causes prices to rise even higher. Digital marketing campaigns should capitalize on early promotions to attract these early shoppers.

Google’s Helpful Content Update is a Continuing Effort - Danny Sullivan from Google stated that the Google update isn't done and is part of a continuing effort so it is something that will be refined over time.
Google September Core Update Announced - Curious if the core algorithm update will amplify helpful content update stated above? “Maybe” - says Danny Sullivan on Twitter. This has fully rolled on as of Sep 26, 2022.
Google Adds New Eligibility for Product Listings & Adds Search Console Reports - Google expanded eligibility for products to appear in snippets & shopping carousels with Merchant Center account no longer necessary for product listings to appear. This increases the importance of using product schema for ecommerce sites & provides us with better insights into SERP visibility & performance.
Google Unleashes Fifth Product Reviews Update Before Core Update Is Done - Launched September 20, 2022 4AM ET. It will take about two weeks to fully roll out. Here’s a basic rule to avoid confusion: If your site was affected recently, if you have product reviews, it may be due to the product review update. If not, then it's because of the core update.

Helpful Content Signal Might Become Stronger in Future Core Updates and Have a Larger Impact Over Time - Building off the Core Updates mentioned above, we see this becoming stronger in future updates to help improve user experience. It might not have as immediate of an impact as previous core updates, however the content signal will steadily grow and place an even larger emphasis on the need to produce high-quality, helpful content to help improve site rankings.
Adults Currently Spend as Much Time on TikTok as They Do on YouTube - If they haven't already, it's time for brands to re-think their social strategy and lead with a focus on video. This could include leveraging video on existing channels, but also may suggest adopting newer platforms like TikTok.
New Discover Feed on LinkedIn - Discover Feed creates new ways for our clients' content to get discovered on LinkedIn, while providing new ways of researching competitor/peer/industry content.

Update to How Your Assets Are Optimized in Performance Max - Starting on October 1, 2022, Google will begin customizing descriptions and other assets within the ad when they’re predicted to improve campaign performance. This will only impact campaigns when Final URL expansion is on within Performance Max campaigns.
Microsoft Ads Unveils New Smart Campaign Features - Microsoft's Smart Campaign is able to show ads across Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Instagram. This could be very impactful for smaller businesses that want to take a full funnel approach, but that don't have the budgets to do that traditionally with multiple teams.
YouTube Taps Machine Learning to Convert Landscape Videos to Square, Vertical Formats - YouTube is making it easier for advertisers to add in vertical and square creative without needing extra resources to reformat the creative manually. This is especially helpful since vertical formats are generating higher engagement and better conversion metrics.

Introducing Hosted Checkout on Pinterest - Users can now complete an in-app checkout with just three touch points instead of six that we're all used to seeing. Hosted Checkout will be beneficial to all e-commerce businesses running through Shopify as it will yield higher conversion rates.
Meta Introduces Collaborative Ads for Local Delivery - Collaborative Ads for local delivery only shows products in stock and includes up to date pricing so users know exactly what's available with accurate pricing. Most applicable to grocery store chains, restaurants, and consumer packaged goods brands.
Meta's Commitment to Protecting Elections - There will be a restriction period for ads about social issues, elections and politics beginning November 1-8 when publishing new ads about social issues, elections, or politics is prohibited and edits to existing ads are limited. Therefore, those businesses should get started early with ad authorization and ad creation before 11/1 to ensure optimal delivery.

Criteo’s New Commerce Max Solution - Criteo has unveiled a new DSP called Commerce Max which is aimed to be a one-stop shop for enterprise marketers to run on programmatic inventory. They currently have the Commerce Growth, but Commerce Max is their newest development of 2022.