Weekly Digital Marketing Roundup

September 11, 2017 - By Aaron Hockel

Here are the biggest announcements, product updates, and news stories impacting the digital marketing industry last week:

Google Addresses Apple's Safari Update

Apple's newest version of Safari, out this fall, will limit cross-site browsing data by automatically purging cookie data after 24 hours in what it calls Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP). The graphic below shows how ITP will handle cookie based data. In response to this update that could be extremely disruptive to conversion tracking, Google is launching a new Google Analytics cookie. The new cookie will conform with ITP guidance and is reshaping how AdWords will capture and report conversions. For a deeper explanation, click here to read Ginny Marvin's coverage on Search Engine Land.    

Global Rollout of AMP Landing Pages

Google announced all advertisers can begin pointing mobile search text ads to AMP pages beginning in two weeks. This follows a beta test that launched in May. This is a major win for advertisers as AMP landing pages load almost instantaneously. Click here for more coverage on this and to see how an AMP ad loads versus a mobile site.  

Suspected "Hawk" Update to Google's Local Algorithm

It appears a local search algorithm update occurred on August 22, 2017 that made proximity filters stricter for local search results. Previously Google was filtering out similar businesses that were very close to one another and/or in the same building. It seems now businesses that are very close can both be ranked, while businesses in the same building (think two doctor's offices) are still being filtered out. Click here to read a full breakdown of the update by local SEO expert Joy Hawkins.

Instagram Testing New Ad Format

Select advertisers can now attach canvas style ads to Instagram story ads. Canvas ads, which are available to all advertisers on Facebook, are the highly customizable ads that can include videos, photos, panoramic images, text, and links. While the test is only available to a select group of advertisers right now, it is highly likely this ad format rollouts out to everyone in the near future. Click here for more on this story.

Missed last week's roundup? Click here for the biggest digital marketing stories from last week!

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