Allo, Allo, Allo, what marketing implications do we have here then?

Importance: [rating=4] Recommended Source: Allo.Google.com Google announcement this week of the launch of its new messenger app has got marketers excited. And no, it's not because of the new emojis. It's because it follows the industry-wide trend for integrating AI-powered digital assistants into messaging apps. The announcement comes hot of the heels of Facebook's announcement earlier this month which hailed the introduction of 'Messanger version 1.2', which would include facilities to let chatbots handle payments within the app. The chat app has lots of nifty little features to tempt users, which aren't all that important to marketers. These are things like being able to enlarge or shrink text, send auto-generated responses, doodle on images or send an impressive range of stupid emojis. The key feature from a marketing perspective is the fact the app contains a personal assistant that utilises 'Google Now', which uses a natural language interface…

After teasing us for many months, Google has finally confirmed Penguin is running again. But this time, as part of the core algorithm.

Importance: [rating=5] For all webmaster and SEO's. Recommended Link: Google Webmaster Central Blog || SEO Guide

What is Penguin?

First announced way back in April 2012, the update was introduced as a way of tackling black-hat SEO techniques that were being used to artificially boost the rankings of a page. It particularly looked to target companies and agencies who were buying and obtaining links through link networks. It impacted approximately 3.1% of search queries in English, and resulted in some high profile sites falling down the search engine results page (SERPs), some even dropping off completely.

What's the difference this time around?

This is the seventh incarnation of Penguin and the first in 2 years and it's quite a big one. Whereas…

In-app purchasing functionality and new 'web view' feature transforms Messenger into a powerful tool for making mobile sales.

Importance: [rating=5] (For ecommerce businesses) Recommended source: Facebook Developers Blog Yesterday Facebook introduced changes to its Facebook Messenger app, the most important of which for marketers is the introduction of a 'buy' button which will let users buy products via bots that exist within Messenger. There will be no need for the customer to leave the Messenger APP, the bot will be able the handle the whole transaction without having to re-direct to external pages. To see how it'll work, just take a quick look at the short clip below: Users can give Messenger their card details so it can handle payments for them (something many have already done for sending money to friends via the app), this reduces friction and saves having to fill in fiddly forms on mobile devices. Businesses will then…

Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages are set to appear in all mobile SERPs, rather than just the news carousel.

Google's AMPs are designed to make mobile browsing a more frictionless experience. Rather than taking sites designed for desktop and making them responsive to mobile, AMPs are mobile first and only. It will mean clean, non-cluttered pages which will load far faster on mobile devices than your average responsive site. Earlier this year we reported that Google has started rolling out Accelerated mobile pages to certain mobile search results- specifically results in the news carousel that appears at the top of certain SERPs with the distinctive lightning bolt. The big news from Google is that AMPs are now to be rolled out to all mobile SERPs. In a blog post on August 2nd, the company announced an early preview of the new…

With GDPR on hold because of Brexit, new UK legislation is set to come into force

With the UK's Brexit vote, the adoption and implementation of the proposed European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is now seeming less likely. In this briefing, I will cover the latest announcements and explain about new legislation that UK marketers will need to be aware of that will influence future rules governing the use of consumer data.

Parliament has now approved the first reading of the Digital Economy Bill that will instruct the Information Commissioner to prepare a code of practice on direct marketing with a clear instruction that relevant parties from within the direct marketing industry must be consulted.

In addition, Minister of State at the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, Baroness Neville Rolfe, has called for contributions in shaping the future of regulation by declaring…

As we head towards some of the busiest months of the year, Google has decided to roll out some new Adwords features.

Value: [rating=3] Recommended  links: Paid Search Strategy On Tuesday 12th July 2016, Google posted about a whole host of updates for their shopping ads and their Travel search ads.

Shopping ads

These new additions to Google are across three sectors Product Listing Ads (PLA's), YouTube and International Shopping

Product Listing Ads

In previous instances with broad terms queries such as "women's athletic clothing", Google has shown less defined and sometimes irrelevant items in the PLA's. An example used in the post was a broad term search for "living room furniture", which may show a teal sofa, and this may not be the most useful experience for the person who isn't sure what they want to buy. The new feature introduced with the aim to provide more relevant and engaging options is "Showcase Shopping Ads". The…

Gnip's API let you see the demographic breakdown and interests of your Twitter community

Importance: [rating=4] (For Any brand using Twitter) Yesterday Twitter opened up the API of Gnip, a data platform which it owns. Why should you care? Because Gnip handles all of Twitter's audience data, and given that Twitter knows it's users gender, language, city, and favourite shows, products and music, this data is marketing gold dust. Twitter opened up the API to let brands see demographic information about people that see their Tweets, and then also from people viewing their site when you have Twitter's tailored audience tag set up. Before you start thinking that this is a horrific breach of privacy, don't worry, brands won't be able see demographic details or interests for individual users. Marketers won't be able to see that Jo Bloggs, 22 from Peterborough likes swimming and patterned drapes. What they will get is anonymised demographic data for…

Our review of Twitter dashboard - the new web app that will let you schedule Tweets and review analytics all in one place

Importance: [rating=4] (For Small Businesses) Source: Twitter blog This week Twitter announced the launch of its latest offering to help attract and retain small businesses yesterday. It's called Twitter dashboard and it's been designed to help smaller companies get more out of Twitter, by providing scheduling and analytics all in one package. We hooked up our account took Twitter dashboard for a test drive so we could let you know if it was worth using for your business. Our initial thoughts from evaluating it are: It's cleanly designed and easy to use. Everything is intuitive and extremely simple, so it's perfect for those just starting out who haven't already mastered slightly more complex scheduling and analytics packages. The analytics are well presented, but the…

EU data law hasn't gone away just because of the referendum result

The decision to leave the EU has created the impression that it means UK digital marketers have heard the last about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or EU data law, that comes into force in May, 2018. But it is nowhere near as straightforward as that. There is strong speculation that the law may still come into force domestically. Knowing whether to prepare is important because there is a considerable amount of time, money and effort needed by companies to prepare for it, and the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has been given heavyweight powers and sanctions to enforce it should the data law come into effect.

UK will need Data Act if there is no GDPR

The ICO itself…

3 new features make Facebook ads a tempting prospect for bricks and mortar retailers

Importance: [rating=3] (For bricks and mortar retailers) Recommended Source: Facebook blog 9 out of 10 retail sales still take place in-store, despite everything you hear about shopping moving online. Mobile is a great facilitator of in-store purchasing, with people using their phones to research purchases and locate stores. Now Facebook are launching new features to help retail businesses take advantage of the growth of mobile, to both target ads more effectively and help track the effectiveness of their campaigns. Here's a breakdown of the new features just announced:

Native Shop locator

Facebook already has an ad format that lets stores with multiple locations serve ads that dynamically display the location of the nearest store to that person. But now to remove friction on the buyer journey Facebook is launching a shop locator, that lets people find the route to the nearest…