For Google parent company Alphabet Inc., Q2 2020 marked the first-ever revenue decline since going public. Revenues dipped (by 2% Y-O-Y), but still exceeded street expectations. As the COVID-19 crisis continues to pummel the advertising sector, Google has felt the impact even as the bulk of advertising spend across industries have been directed to digital, at the expense of broadcast and print media.

Jump to key sections:

KEY TAKEAWAYS
KEY TRENDS FROM Q2 2020: WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW
1. USER TRENDS
2. EMERGING PRODUCT FEATURES & SERVICES
3. CORE SEARCH
4. YOUTUBE
THE FINAL WORD

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Alphabet announced its Q2 2020 results by the end of July 2020, reporting $38.3 billion in revenues in the quarter, down 2% Y-O-Y. For comparison, Alphabet had reported $41.16 billion in revenues in Q1 2020.

Here are the key takeaways for performance marketers:

• As user trends show a clear shift to ‘online’, advertisers are slowly coming back but there is a clear ‘flight-to-safety’ behavior being observed.
• There is an opportunity for performance marketers to be opportunistic and spend on areas that others have shied away from. Clearly the pandemic has affected a few sectors, who need to be careful based on their business drivers.
• For e-commerce advertisers, it is a perfect time to invest in digital advertising; however, it is important to be aware of the competition in the ‘rising retail’ category.
• YouTube performance continues to be valued, while YouTube brand advertising has taken a hit this quarter. Google Cloud (including GCP and G Suite) continues to drive revenues with a 43% Y-O-Y growth.
• With products, Google’s focus has been on investing in and improving upon products that have a direct impact on the end-users in the current social and economic scenario. From an advertising perspective, the focus has been on Shopping this quarter.

 

KEY TRENDS FROM Q2 2020: WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW

At $29.9 billion, a little over 78% of Alphabet’s total quarterly revenues came from Google advertising, once again underscoring the company’s dependence on ad revenues, even in the current struggling global economic environment.

Google advertising made up 78% of Alphabet’s total revenues for Q2 2020.

 

“We’re working to help people, businesses and communities in these uncertain times.
As people increasingly turn to online services, our platforms — from Cloud to Google Play
to YouTube — are helping our partners provide important services and support their businesses.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? – Sundar Pichai (CEO, Alphabet & Google)

Even as Google’s core search and ad revenues saw a Y-O-Y decline of 8%, sales from Google Cloud and YouTube saw commendable growth. The growth in revenues from Cloud and YouTube can be looked upon as a clear indicator of growing versatility in the company’s overall product line.

YouTube ad revenues grew 6%, to $3.8 billion from $3.6 billion a year ago, while Google Cloud sales was one of the brightest spots for Google, seeing a 43% YOY boost.

Here are the key performance marketing trends we see emerging:

 

1. USER TRENDS

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai pointed out that “the shift to online has been profound, with people engaging a lot, doing newer things than they did before.”

Google saw early signs of stabilization as users returned to commercial activity online. This was true across most of advertising verticals and geographies; however, Google continues to remind performance marketers that the economic climate remains fragile.

The key areas of users’ interest in Search have been Healthcare, Shopping, Education, and local information for the SMBs.

In Q2 2020, Google also announced the ‘Google for India Digitization Fund’, making a major investment (of $10 billion over the next 5-7 years) to accelerate and participate in India’s emerging digital economy, enabling information in local languages, and applying technology & AI to sectors like health, education, and agriculture.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
As we had pointed out in our Q1 Google Earnings analysis report, search marketers should be aware of and adapt to new user behaviors and needs and the opportunities that emerge based on understanding the newer search terms.

There is a strong opportunity for performance marketers to understand different user journeys and the depth for each based on experience and potential long-term implications.

 

2. EMERGING PRODUCT FEATURES & SERVICES

Google spoke at length about the various products and services specifically geared towards the shopping business and with an eye towards the coming Q4 2020 holiday season. This started with the Google Shopping search results being opened up to unpaid, organic listings last quarter and continues with new product features introduced this quarter.

Read more in our blog post on Google’s Organic Shopping Update here.

• Google has Integrated with third-party providers (PayPal & Shopify), making it easier for the sellers to choose their payment options.
• As more and more businesses are shifting to online to offset physical store closures, new visual features for retailers like Smart Shopping Campaigns, high-quality images, and YouTube videos are offering more ways for advertisers to reach online shoppers.
• Smaller and local advertisers are using Smart campaigns to reach new online audiences and using Promoted Pins on Google Maps to let customers know that their businesses are open.
• Google has created a new feature called the ‘Rising Retail Categories’ tool, which exposes fast-growing product searches and helps businesses understand what people are searching for during the pandemic.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
Google sees value in continuously investing in understanding what its users are searching for and engaging with online and turning over this value to the merchants – thus improving the shopping experience for both search users and the merchants. This is an area where Google will continue to focus on.

 

3. CORE SEARCH

With the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down economic growth, advertisers continued to pull back spending during the quarter. Google had ended March at a mid-teens percentage decline in Y-O-Y growth, as reported in our last quarterly report. In Q2 2020, Google saw a gradual return in user search activity to more commercial topics, which is heartening.

• The decline in Search revenues has put significant pressure on Google’s profitability, which was further impacted by its ongoing investments for long-term growth.
• The increase in user activity has led to an increase in spending by advertisers, which resulted in a gradual improvement in Y-O-Y revenue trends in the second quarter leading to a flat quarter from a revenue growth perspective.
• Ruth Porat (CFO, Alphabet & Google) cautioned that it is hard to gauge whether those trends will continue given the “obvious uncertainty of the global macro environment.”

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
For verticals that have been doing well, the move to online is an important opportunity for the performance teams to cash in. As Google states, the query trend driven by macro-economic trends is what performance marketers should be watching out for.

For an in-depth analysis of COVID-19’s impact on Banking and Financial Services in the US, click here.

 

4. YOUTUBE

YouTube has proved to be a powerful information dissemination engine in response to COVID-19 queries in over 90 countries. Timely, user need-focused features/services like Camp YouTube (a virtual summer camp for kids) and YouTube Premium Music have led to strong subscription growth and the platform has garnered strong engagement and watch-time over the quarter.

YouTube advertising revenues in Q2 2020 were $3.8 billion, up 6% Y-O-Y. However, similar to Q1 2020, monetization was driven primarily through direct response but offset by a continued decline in brand advertising, which then moderated in June/July timeframe, which is encouraging for performance marketers.

YouTube TV and Subs is seen as an opportunity to get more scale, with new channels being added to the emerging product. This product competes directly with the TV in the US advertising market, which is a new area for Google. Google has been growing revenues not only from cord-cutters but also from the music industry, which has been strong in the past year.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
YouTube continues to be a strong player for performance marketers. YouTube direct response continues its strong growth and with a focus on performance, this is an area of opportunity, like we mentioned in our last
report.

Also, YouTube TV is a promising opportunity that can link the performance strength of YouTube with the scale of television and is an area that marketers must watch closely.

THE FINAL WORD

The Q2 2020 earnings call drew attention to Google’s four key areas of focus for 2020:

• Creating the most helpful products for everyone
• Providing the most trusted experiences for users
• Executing at scale, and
• Creating sustainable value.

As Google, and performance marketing teams the world over, are navigating economic slowdowns and uncertain times, Google has reiterated its commitment to continuing on the path to investing in and growing new businesses, and taking all necessary steps to build long-term value with these opportunities.

Alphabet has expressed confidence in their business while acknowledging that it is “premature to gauge the durability of recent trends” due to the global macro environment, given the strong correlation between macro-economic performance and ad spends.

Monetization metrics for Google are clearly being skipped in the earnings report over the last three quarters. Given the move towards Automation and Declining CPCs that we have been seeing, our team is working on a deep-dive analysis to understand these metrics better.

We would continue to observe the space closely and bring you the latest performance marketing trends as we navigate these uncertain times.

Have questions? Reach out to our Digital Solutions team today to start a conversation!

Some of our key findings from the report:

• We are seeing a hike in checking account search trends, though most of the interest is IRS linking related. When next stimulus packages get announced, we might see similar trends. Banks need to distinguish between actual rise in interest for product vs. customers looking to link their bank accounts with IRS.
• With the personal savings rate at an all-time high, we are seeing a higher demand for savings accounts, despite the low interest rates. However, the drop in interest rates for Certificate of Deposits had a more dire impact on its demand.
• During these volatile times, investors are increasing their cash position, and much of these cash positions find their way to the safety of FDIC-backed Money Market Accounts.

This report reflects our perspective as of early-July 2020.

Some of our key findings from the report:

This report takes a closer, detailed look at how the lending search trends have been changing – across loan needs, personal loans, student loans, business loans and mortgage.

1. With the uncertainty around the pandemic, new stimulus packages / relief programs by the government, and overall dynamic rate environment, the current environment is very volatile. This is driving the search behavior with consumers searching for stimulus packages for different loans, as well as inquiring about the rates for different lending products.
2. With people’s behavior shifting from spending to saving, and the stimulus checks providing some relief, the need for borrowing has not increased sharply during the pandemic. However, we are beginning to see a slight uptick in May.
3. Overall, the pandemic has not massively shifted any of the markets yet. The college enrollments remain stable right now. The home buying demand is also coming back to normal levels after a brief slump. Demand for home improvement has been trending up. However, the rising unemployment and uncertainty around the US economy could have a significant and sustained impact on consumers’ financial needs and behaviors in the coming months.
4. Personal Loans
   After a temporary spike in March due to ‘rates’ related searches, the search demand for personal loans has been lower than pre-COVID-19 levels. This is due to a lower demand for debt consolidation. However, we are beginning to see an uptick from the beginning of May 2020.
5. Student Loans
   There was a big spike in ‘stimulus’, ‘rates’ and ‘refinance’ related searches in March; the demand has gone back to pre-COVID-19 levels since then. There wasn’t a corresponding spike for most of the lender searches in March.
6. Business Loans
   Business loans demand saw some huge spikes in March 2020 around the CARES Act bill. The demand continues to be significantly higher than pre-COVID-19 levels as the business are struggling with cash flows. Business owners are using new terms in their searches – ‘coronavirus business loans’, ‘covid business loans’, ‘cares act business loans’, ‘ppp business loans’, etc.
7. Mortgage

• We are seeing two spikes in March across most mortgage categories – one driven by historic low rates and the other driven by the Fed announcement of slashing rates.
• Home purchase demand is rising again after a slight slump in March and April.
• ‘Refinance’ related searches remain high in the low rate environment. ‘Cash-out refinance’ demand has been rising in the past few weeks.
• The demand for home equity loan and second mortgage keywords is also seeing a rise over the past few weeks, in-line with the increasing demand for ‘home improvement’, as the lockdown eases.

This report reflects our perspective as of early-June 2020.

It is an interesting time to be a social media marketer. What started as a fruitful and promising year at the outset of January turned sour by March, likely permanently.

However, despite the advent of COVID-19, advertising revenue on social media in Q1 continued to trend upwards Y-O-Y. This is most likely due to the late-quarter onset of the pandemic, the effects of which will be more seen in Q2 earnings results. Below, we dive into the Q1 2020 earnings of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, with a focus on the coming attractions for advertisers on the platforms, and what marketers can take from platform developments in the age of COVID-19 crisis.

Jump to key sections:

Q1 2020 EARNINGS: A LOOK AT THE KEY NUMBERS
? ? ? – POTENTIAL IMPACT
SURGE IN TIME SPENT & ENGAGEMENT
? ? ? – POTENTIAL IMPACT
PRODUCT INNOVATIONS
? ? ? – POTENTIAL IMPACT
FUTURE FOCUS
? ? ? – POTENTIAL IMPACT
THE FINAL WORD

Q1 2020 EARNINGS: A LOOK AT THE KEY NUMBERS

All the major social players continued to present revenue growth in Q1 2020 when compared to Q1 2019, despite late-quarter factors. It is yet to be determined how this will change for Q2 2020 earnings.

FACEBOOK:
Q1 total ad revenue from the Facebook family totaled $17.7 billion, an increase of 18% or 19% on a constant currency basis. This increase in ad revenue coincided with an increase by 11% in daily active users to 1.73 billion. Monthly active users increased by 10% year over year.

TWITTER:
Twitter’s ad revenue growth was considerably smaller, showing only a 3% increase since 2019. However, the users growth on the platform was substantial—monetizable daily active users increased by 24%.

LINKEDIN:
LinkedIn revenue increased by 21%? on a constant currency basis. LinkedIn now also boasts a record of 690 million professionals on the platform.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:

Over the years, the user-strength of social media has continued to grow each year, presenting more opportunities for savvy brands and businesses to reach and engage their target audiences.

However, with COVID-19 impacting consumer spending in adverse ways, marketers will likely need to pivot their strategies in the interim, turning traditionally acquisition- and direct- response-focused initiatives into retention and engagement plays.

Focusing on sound content strategies that demonstrate added value even beyond the end transaction should prove fruitful in keeping your brand top of mind when an economical correction takes place.

SURGE IN TIME SPENT & ENGAGEMENT

Social media usage between 2019 and 2020 is displaying a near 10% increase in time spent. Naturally, with the increase in downtime provided by COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders, users are showing an increased propensity to spend time on their social networks of choice.

Users are leveraging social media to stay abreast of information, keep virtually connected with family and friends, and fill the laytime by spending more hours immersed in content consumption.

FACEBOOK:
Looking at the Facebook suite of apps, some regions are recording as much as a 70% increase in time spent. The increased engagement is manifesting first in communication formats, with WhatsApp and Messenger seeing a 2x increase in voice and video calls, and the message volume increasing 50%. Live video is also seeing a significant surge in users, growing more important particularly during the initial few weeks of COVID-19. According to Facebook, more than 800 million users are tuning in to live workouts, concerts, and other events on the platform on a daily basis.

TWITTER:
Twitter presents a similar story. Twitter’s chief focus for advertisers has been making campaign construction as simple as possible and presenting clear cut areas to which to attribute a campaign’s success or failure. The platform’s timely work on ad format resonance and messaging relevance is paying off, reporting ad engagements in the form of click-through rates up 25% Y-O-Y.

LINKEDIN:
LinkedIn has also reported record levels of user engagement. The platform, whose engagement market share is routinely a fraction of that of Facebook and Twitter, saw a 50% increase in content consumption between March and February, netting 4 million hours of content watched. This, along with a 158% increase in streams of LinkedIn Live, show that the platform is benefitting from heightened time spent online.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:

An increase in overall time spent with social media presents multiple new opportunities for businesses to reach users. However, this also presents an opportunity to over-index on your exposure and inundate users with your brand or product.

With ad costs trending lower—?Facebook CPMs fell by as much as 50% in March —it is also less expensive than ever to deliver your message to users.

Marketers should be reassessing their campaign CPMs, reach, and frequency, making the requisite budget changes to ensure they are not contributing to creative fatigue and continually surprising and delighting their audience.

Marketers should also employ social listening strategies and focus on actively?mining social data for rich, actionable insights. Click here to download iQuanti’s Thinkpiece on?developing an impactful and real-time social listening plan in times of the COVID-19 crisis.

PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Q1 2020 also presented some avenues for social media titans to action new product developments, both big and small.

FACEBOOK:
On Facebook’s part, the chief focus remained on enhancing the video experience. In Q1 2020, the social giant announced a series of product developments improving the use of video calling, video rooms, and live video.

TWITTER:
Twitter is finally joining the trend of ephemeral content and the recently introduced Fleets is its answer to Snapchat and Instagram Stories. Fleets are user uploaded pieces of content that disappear within 24 hours, allowing for a real-time, unfiltered view of a creator’s thoughts. As was the case with Instagram stories, we should expect user engagement with Fleets to prove richer and more meaningful. Twitter is creating an environment for users to speak directly with their most ardent followers.

LINKEDIN:
LinkedIn has enhanced the 1:1 user experience in its signature in-mail ad feature. With “conversation ads”, marketers are able to produce a kind of ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ automated conversation path, further personalizing the experience of interacting with users through this ad format.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:

While both Facebook and Instagram’s platform advancements may speak more directly to the user’s experience, there are some learnings to be gleaned from the renewed focus on these specific enhancements.

Video is not going anywhere. With more users seeking immersive and rich content, both platforms are seeing an opportunity to invest in optimizing video adoption. Marketers can take a cue from this and re-evaluate the types of content they are producing and promoting. Lean into authenticity and spontaneity.

Test rich-media of varying lengths for different goals and audiences and take advantage of the algorithm’s prioritization of video content in feeds.

FUTURE FOCUS

With the global economic climate as it is, it is increasingly difficult to make a final sale or drive a conversion, particularly from users who are otherwise uninitiated. For many, social media advertising presented an easy and scalable way to attract new customers and grow their business.

FACEBOOK:
Small businesses rely heavily on Facebook advertising to reach and convert users, as it has struck the best balance between encouraging private discussion (i.e. interaction with family and friends) and brand conversion. As such, Facebook has presented plans to continue supporting small businesses during this time. In a recent development, the platform has partnered with JioMart, a small business initiative aimed at connecting shops in India with WhatsApp to create a user-forward digital shopping experience. Facebook has also launched a Business Resource Hub, providing virtual training sessions and information to empower business owners to use the network to increase online sales.

TWITTER:
For users on Twitter, the primary use case of the platform has historically been to stay informed of news events and join ongoing discussions; not to discover and purchase products. Twitter, for its part, recognizes its challenges in being a substantial direct response enabler. With advertising spend projected to decrease from Q2 onwards, its business focus is on creating ad units that inspire conversion and increasing their addressable market for ad dollars that are spent on DR tactics versus branding or engagement.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:

It is important to make commerce easy. The first step in doing so is to create a digital storefront to complement the physical storefront. Setting up an online presence on relevant social channels separate from your e-commerce site is crucial in placing yourselves where users can find and access you easily.

Keeping that digital storefront flush with impactful content and brand messaging will serve to improve customer affinity and drive conversions down the funnel. Businesses will also need to make use of native tools associated with selling on social. These include developing a product feed for organic and paid product ads and leveraging this feed in rich media formats such as collection ads and video. Reduce the friction from inspiration to conversion by making product discovery simple.

THE FINAL WORD

With COVID-19 impacting our lives and businesses in unprecedented ways, social media continues to be a great democratizer for marketers who want to speak directly to consumers. For brands able to sustain a strong presence online, they will be met with decreased costs to advertise as inventory opens up and users are online at unforeseen levels.

We will continue to observe this space and bring you performance marketing insights.

Have questions? Reach out to our Digital Solutions team today to start a conversation!

One of the key aspects of SEO is image optimization. A thorough SEO plan should include curating images that are relevant to your topic as well as which resonate with your target audience.

A Moz study showed that image searches account for 26.79% of all searches in the U.S.

Even Google acknowledges the centrality of images in SEO and it has spelled out helpful tips and best practices for image publishing.

Why do SEO marketers need image optimization?

Image optimization for SEO improves user experience, speed ups page load times, and bolsters your search engine ranking.?If you are creating content or uploading images to your site without the necessary image optimization, you’re wasting a key SEO asset and an opportunity to leverage keyword optimization of your content.

Here are our top 7 SEO image optimization tips:

1. Customize titles, captions, filenames, geo-location, and text for images
2. Add descriptive Alt text
3. Have a good balance between image quality and size
4. Include images in the Page Structured Data
5. Add images to your XML sitemaps
6. Use relevant and original images
7. Make images mobile-friendly.

Let’s look at these in some detail:

1. Customize titles, captions, filenames, geo-location, and text for images

The first step of image SEO is creating keyword rich and descriptive titles, captions, filenames, geo-location, and text for your images.

The names you use in your image file alerts search engine crawlers about your images’ subject matter.?File names typically look like “IMG_663027”. Maintaining this default name does not help Google understand your image.

Customizing this text to more a relevant name helps the search engines to make sense of your image, and this reinforces its SEO value. Let’s look at an example to help understand this better.

For instance, renaming the above image “person-holding-phone-and-credit-card” will enable search engines and users who can’t view it to decipher the image.

Pro-tip:

In addition to naming the image with the inclusion of relevant keywords, the file name should have ‘hyphens’ as separators instead of “spaces, underscores” as separators. Hyphens allow crawlers to identify each word in the file name as a unique word.
For example: If the file name of the image above is “Person holding phone and credit card” (separated by spaces) or “Person_holding_phone_and_credit_card” (separated by underscores), the crawler reads the file name as “Personholdingcreditcard”

Elements of Image Optimization

The elements of image optimization along with their tags are included below:

Click here to download and print the above table on Elements of Image Optimization SEO.

2. Add descriptive Alt text

Alternative text describes your image to users who can’t view the image. Creating descriptive alt text makes it possible for the blind, and those who work with the physically challenged to use the images.

Filling alt text accurately also helps web crawlers and users to digest and understand your content.

When choosing alt text, focus on creating useful, information-rich content with the appropriate use of keywords mapped to the intent of the page.

Pro-tip:

Alt-texts are about helping users and web crawlers understand your image easily and better. Avoid keyword stuffing in alt attributes as it results in poor user experience and negatively impacts your domain.

Best practices for including alt attributes:

Bad:

Missing alt text: <img src=”/content/dam/amex/us/foreign-exchange/articles/images/cargo-insurance-to-protect-against-losses-when-shipping-internationally.jpg”/>

Bad:

Keyword Stuffing:? <img src=”/content/dam/amex/us/foreign-exchange/articles/images/cargo-insurance-to-protect-against-losses-when-shipping-internationally.jpg”/> alt=”cargo insurance for businesses, business insurance for cargo safety of cargo”/>

Better:

<img src=”/content/dam/amex/us/foreign-exchange/articles/images/cargo-insurance-to-protect-against-losses-when-shipping-internationally.jpg”/> alt=”cargo insurance”/>

Recommended best approach:

<img class=”imgDimes” src=”/content/dam/amex/us/foreign-exchange/articles/images/cargo-insurance-to-protect-against-losses-when-shipping-internationally.jpg” alt=”Businesses may wish to understand how cargo insurance can help manage import-export risk and protect against losses if goods are damaged, lost, or stolen.” title=”How Cargo Insurance Can Manage International Shipping Risks”>

3. Have a good balance between image quality and size

Increasing your page speed is a key aspect of SEO optimization. A 2011 study revealed that a seemingly short three-second delay leads to users abandoning the page. Besides, Amazon has determined that even a second of delay costs them leading to losses of sales amounting to $1.6 billion annually.

You can maximize your page load times by scaling down your imagery to the smallest size you possibly can while maintaining the optimum image quality. Tools like Adobe photoshop, JPEGmini, ImageOptim, and PunyPNG can help you compress images and remove frivolous stuff.

Read our article on Page Speed Optimization: Significance & Best Practices here

Moreover, tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights, Chrome’s Developer Console, Firefox’s Web Console, and Internet Explorer’s Tools console can help you zero in on unoptimized images and assets that are slowing your page speed.

4. Include images in Page Structured Data

When you include images in the structured data of a given page, Google can display your images as rich results. Rich imagery comes with a badge that shows users that your website’s content is relevant.

Rich results thus highlight your expertise and help you drive clicks and traffic.

In the example below, the highlighted code in yellow shows a structured data markup for the image on the webpage.

Schema Code Example (highlighted text shows image elements)

<script type=”application/ld+json”> {“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”WebPage”,”name”:”7 Best Ways to Help Build Your Credit”,”url”:”https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/credit-cards/credit-intel/ways-to-build-credit/”,”description”:”Learn about the different ways to build your credit, like the benefits of removing late payments, managing credit utilization, and having a clean credit report.”,”image”:”https://www.americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/us/credit-cards/features-benefits/content-hub/images/credit-articles/ways-to-build-credit.jpg”,”keywords”:”Best ways to build credit”} </script>.”,”image”:”https://www.americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/us/credit-cards/features-benefits/content-hub/images/credit-articles/ways-to-build-credit.jpg”,”keywords”:”Best ways to build credit”} </script>

5. Add images to your XML sitemaps

Adding your images to a sitemap increases the possibility of search engine crawlers finding and listing your images which leads to more traffic.

Image from google support?indicating?how to add images to a sitemap.

6. Use relevant and original images

You should strive to use relevant and original pictures instead of generic stock photos. Your website should host the pictures of your real team instead of random stock photo models.

Your images should also match your subject. An image should serve an illustrative purpose or reflect your topic of discussion. Keep the images close to the relevant text. If you have a key image that you want to rank, keep it close to the top if possible.

Pro-tip:

You should also be aware of copyright. If a stock photo provider like Shutterstock or Getty owns an image and you are not licensed to use it, do not risk a lawsuit by using that image.

7. Make images mobile-friendly

When done poorly, mobile SEO can lead to low conversions and a soaring bounce rate. But, when well executed, it can increase user engagement and bolster your ranking power.

So, how do you optimize your images for mobile? Well, use responsive images – your pictures should change size based on the devices (mobile or desktop). Responsive pictures adjust to the size of your users’ devices.

Final Word

Image optimization can be what differentiates you from your competitors and takes you to the next level.?Images not only play a key role in user experience and SEO, but they also affect your conversion rate.?Climbing search result rankings take hard work, but the efforts are worth it once you start enjoying the benefits of high-value organic traffic.?To sum up the above SEO optimization tips, you should use relevant images and alternate text. Besides, you should provide as much context as possible.

Have questions? Reach out to our SEO experts today!

Google results for Q1 2020 are a “tale of two quarters”, as described by Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google). Alphabet, Inc. saw strong results for January and February, followed by an abrupt decline in March in their advertising revenues driven by COVID-19. The impact was not as severe as the street had expected which is positive news coming from the industry bellwether.

Jump to key sections:

KEY TAKEAWAYS
KEY TRENDS FROM Q1 2020: WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW
1. ADVERTISING & SEARCH PERFORMANCE
2. SHIFT IN USER BEHAVIORS
3. POST COVID-19 IMPLICATIONS
4. ORGANIC SHOPPING
5. YOUTUBE CONTINUES TO GROW
THE FINAL WORD

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Continuing the trends we saw in Q3 2019, Google’s total advertising revenues saw an uptick and hit $37.93 billion in Q4, compared to $33.91 billion in Q3 2019 and $32.63 billion in Q4 of last year.

Here are the key takeaways for performance marketers:

• Overall, the advertising business took a hit, driven by the slowdown in ad spend by advertisers and highly correlated to country/sector lockdowns due to COVID-19.
• Considerable shifts in user behaviors towards non-commercial queries in Search and higher engagement in YouTube and Apps are harbingers of a digital-first medium.
• Post COVID-19 implications for Google will be driven by macro-economic recovery, however,?Q2 is expected to be bleak.
  
• Organic Shopping is an opportunistic launch from Google as e-commerce takes center stage and is a good platform for advertisers to leverage the organic shopping format.
• YouTube continues to grow in viewership, however, brand advertising has slowed while performance still shows strong results.

KEY TRENDS FROM Q1 2020: WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW

Alphabet announced its Q1 2020 results in late April 2020, bringing in a 13% Y-O-Y growth at $41.2 billion in revenues. The quarter, however, also marks a slower growth rate compared to last quarter which recorded a 17% Y-O-Y growth.

At $33.8 billion, Google advertising made up 82% of Alphabet’s total revenues for the quarter.

Alphabet, Inc. saw strong results in January and February for the Search, Network and YouTube businesses, followed by an abrupt decline in March in their advertising revenues driven by the COVID-19 crisis.

YouTube advertising revenues were $4.04 billion, up 33% Y-O-Y. Significant YouTube revenue growth persisted until late in the first quarter, with different performance trajectories for the brand and direct response components.

Macroeconomic performance is expected to be still slow in Q2, and given its high correlation with the advertising spend, Google ad revenue will be challenged in Q2 as well.

Sundar Pichai refers to two key aspects of Google’s business that gives the company confidence about the future.

“First, as we saw after 2008, one of the strongest features of Search Ads is they are cost-effective and can be adjusted quickly, so it’s comparatively easy to turn them off and then back on. ?

Second, our business is more diversified than it was in 2008, and we are excited about the momentum in areas like YouTube, Cloud, Google Play, and our computing efforts.”
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? – Sundar Pichai (CEO, Alphabet & Google)

Google is confident that its diversified businesses will help them through this current situation. The diversification of Google stems from their sizable Cloud business, helping clients across different sectors (education, government, retail, telecom, banking) etc.

Here are the key performance marketing trends we see emerging:

1. ADVERTISING & SEARCH PERFORMANCE

Google advertising business kicked off 2020 well and had a good, strong first two months of the quarter. However, in March, driven by the evolving COVID-19 crisis, most businesses slowed their ad spend, resulting in a slowdown of Google revenues.

The slowdown in spend is directly correlated to the locations and sectors heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and the related shutdown orders.

While the revenues have slowed, Google is bullish about its ad business
given the efficiency of its platform.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
At iQuanti, we have observed similar trends in query shifts for some of the segments that we have analyzed. Performance marketers are finding pockets of opportunity for getting cheaper traffic, as more and more users are moving digital.

 

2. SHIFT IN USER BEHAVIORS

From a user perspective, Google mentions that they have seen query traffic move to “non-commercial queries” (information, learning, education, entertainment). According to Google, the Coronavirus-related search activity, at its peak, was four times greater than during the peak of the Super Bowl. Although users’ search activity increased, their interests shifted
to less commercial topics.

Considerable shifts were observed in user consumption on Apps (+30% from February 2020 to March 2020) and a hefty uptick in YouTube views.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
Two key themes emerge for performance marketers to be aware of and adapt to here:

• Newer search terms provide an opportunity to understand what users are interested in and develop more mid-funnel content.
• Look beyond search onto other channels, even beyond Google.

 

3. POST COVID-19 IMPLICATIONS

As expected, the recovery of Google ad spend will depend on a return to economic activity. But, based on our learnings from 2008, we expect the?return to ad spend to be driven in Search as it can be adjusted quickly. Marketers see it as highly cost-effective and ROI-based.

There is an acknowledgment of a deeper shift to digital, across all marketing. Advertisers who have been hesitant to shift budgets to digital are introspecting the efficacy of its marketing mix and trying to improve on it.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
In our discussions with marketers across industries, we have seen a steady move towards ‘digital-first marketing’. However, the roadmap and spend shifts will be driven by macro-economic changes and business realities. Marketers should look at their spend-mix and introspect the real value of all the channels.

For an in-depth analysis of COVID-19’s impact on Banking and Financial Services in the US, click here.

 

4. ORGANIC SHOPPING

Google rolled out its Shopping product for organic search for free. This is a smart, quick reaction from Google as users in various stages of lockdown are turning to e-commerce and are moving towards shopping-first platforms like Amazon.

Google Shopping will help counter some of the shifts of e-commerce users and provide advertisers a new format in Google. According to Google, the new feature has been widely rolled out in the US in April and will be soon rolled out globally and is seeing very positive responses.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
Similar to organic search, Google Shopping will now provide a more integrated shopping experience and use similar signals as organic search. This means more products from more stores are now discoverable through the Google Shopping tab. E-commerce advertisers need to ensure that their merchant center feeds are optimized to leverage this new format.

Read more in our blog post on Google’s latest Organic Shopping Update here.

 

5. YOUTUBE CONTINUES TO GROW

Google has seen continued growth with YouTube. Sundar commented that “people are turning to YouTube. Our watch time has increased across the board. People are also looking for authoritative news content. Viewership on YouTube has increased significantly compared to last year, too.”

While brand advertising grew in the first two months of the quarter, it began to slow down mid-March. On the other hand, YouTube direct response continued to grow throughout the entire quarter. This is in-line with our discussion with our clients as well, as we are seeing a flight towards performance.

A quick note here: YouTube for performance works for CPA driven advertisers through a few approaches:

• Custom intent audiences
• Clickable ‘call-to-action’ button
• Location extension and
• Shoppable videos.

POTENTIAL IMPACT:
YouTube Performance, as we discussed in the previous few earnings commentaries,?has been a hidden opportunity for performance marketers looking for efficiency ROI on ad spend.

THE FINAL WORD

The Q1 2020 earnings call made it very clear that the company’s focus is currently on helping its users during the COVID-19 crisis. As Sundar stated, “people are relying on Google’s services more than ever” and Google is marshaling resources and product development to meet these needs, focusing more on long-term opportunities.

In-line with the focus on COVID-19, the earnings call and commentary did not provide insights into user experience, new product launches and GCP related to performance marketing.

We will observe the space closely and bring you the latest performance marketing trends as we navigate these uncertain times.

Have questions? Reach out to our Digital Solutions team today to start a conversation!

Good news for Retailers – It is now free to sell on Google!

Google made news waves in late April with its decision to open up?its Shopping search results to unpaid, organic listings.?The company announced on 21^st April 2020, that the Google Shopping tab results “will now consist primarily of free product listings, helping merchants better connect with consumers, regardless of whether they advertise on Google.”.

The move comes amid the coronavirus crisis in which many brick and mortar retailers who have had to close their doors are shifting focus online to drive sales. Merchants would be able to sell products at no charge, unlike before where only shopping ads were being listed here and Google was charging on pay-per-click.

“In light of these challenges, we’re advancing our plans to make it free for merchants to sell on Google,” announced Bill Ready, President, Commerce at Google. “With hundreds of millions of shopping searches on Google each day, we know that many retailers have the items people need in stock and ready to ship but are less discoverable online.”

The approach is now live in the US and is expected to expand globally before the end of the year. For retailers, this is great news indeed – in the current challenging times, this means that they do not have to advertise to feature in Google Shopping results.

Many industry experts see this as a move from Google to compete with Amazon & eBay. As more shoppers head for digital marketplaces and online shopping during the corona pandemic, this sets the stage for Google to magnify its scope and expand the reach of its own marketplace.

Where would the placements be?

As you can see below, the organic listings would be appearing below paid listings in the Google shopping tab on both desktop and mobile.

What does this update mean for retailers & shoppers?

This change means Retailers now have an opportunity for free exposure to millions of people who come to Google every day for their shopping needs.

Retailers can rejoice the fact that this update would lead to more eyeballs to their products. With only paid listings earlier, not all products were being promoted, mostly lower-priced products or ones with low margin were being left out as marketing teams were not able to justify the ROI given the advertising costs and competitiveness on Google shopping.

This move would open up a whole lot of opportunities for brands to bring in their entire product portfolio in front of consumers without worrying about the cost. This would be a blessing for SMBs who are finding it difficult to continue advertising with the current situation can list their products and continue driving sales.

For shoppers, this means more products from more stores are now discoverable through the Google Shopping tab. They would be able to discover more merchants in their vicinity as earlier most of these merchants found it expensive to list their products with paid ads given the tough competition from big brands.

Based on the study from eMarketer, 49% of users start their digitally shopping journey through Amazon.?It would be interesting to see how these numbers change with this update from Google and the major shift of offline shoppers to online with the current COVID-19 crisis.

How should Retail marketers and agencies react?

For advertisers or agencies, this means that paid campaigns can now be augmented with free listings. This will call for a holistic approach?and marketers now need to look at ROI holistically.

With organic product listings showing under regular shopping ads, we expect user click behavior to change with click volume splitting between paid and organic results. For marketing teams who have been running shopping ads, it would not be surprising if you are seeing a drop in Clicks & CTR with this update.

Budgeting & bidding decisions will change significantly in the future and a lot of focus for brands would shift to make their product feeds SEO friendly.

With the dominance of shopping ads and paid search ads, there is a very limited real estate and brands find it difficult to improve organic ranking in search results, however, with this new addition in Shopping section, there will be new opportunities for such brands. Nothing better than driving online sales organically without paying for ads.

How do you enroll to get listed and featured in the organic listings?

For existing Google Merchant Center and Shopping Ads users, it is easier to enroll in the program and reap the benefits.

• Visit the Merchant Center and make sure you have opted in.
• Click on the left panel options.
• Select “Growth” and then “Manage programs” in the left navigation menu.
• Select the “surfaces across Google” program card.

That’s it. You should be ready to go!

For new users of Merchant Center who are interested in joining this program, it’s open and does not require Google Ads.

You can opt into surfaces across Google during the Merchant Center sign up process and start creating your product feed. Google will streamline the onboarding process for new Merchant Center users over the next few months. Google is working closely with many existing shopping platform partners, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Furthermore, Google is also launching a new partnership with PayPal to let merchants link their accounts, in order to speed up onboarding and improve search quality.

HAVE QUESTIONS?

Reach out to our digital solutions team today for insights and assistance!

 

Some of our key findings from the report:?

 

• Search demand for various credit card products has dropped through the COVID-19 crisis. However, we are seeing early signals of a marginal uptick in April.
• Search trends by categories vary. Travel and rewards cards have seen a significant slowdown, whereas the Balance Transfer category has not been affected as much.
• Credit card demand and usage is showing signs of slowing down as consumers’ saving/spending mix changes, similar to what we saw in 2008.
• iQuanti recommends credit card issuers must:
  • Evaluate if their product positioning and value proposition remains relevant, through a better understanding of the changing user needs.
  • Tighten targeting levers, and identify key categories (transactors/revolvers) that you want to focus on.
  • Focus on existing bank customers to gain incremental creditworthy customers through analytics led qualification.

This report reflects our perspective as of late April 2020.

The pandemic has caused a significant shift in consumer behavior, affecting both macro- and micro-economic trends. These market changes, along with business responses to these changes have either been met with negative or positive sentiments. The data on these sentiments can be found buried amidst the millions of comments on public boards and the massive conversational worlds of Twitter and Reddit. All this data can be mined for rich, actionable insights.

Download iQuanti’s report to find out how Banking & Financial Services enterprises can activate Social Listening data to gain significant competitive advantage and navigate these changing times with efficacy and efficiency.

It is prudent for business leaders and marketers to understand the implications of these uncertain times on their business and move cautiously and responsibly while responding to the crisis.

This article reflects our perspective as of 29th March, 2020.

We are closely monitoring the outbreak and its evolving impact on the US Banking and Financial sector. We will continue to update our analysis and add deep-dive insights on specific segments/products in the following weeks.

Download iQuanti’s Think Piece to understand more about the changing user needs in the U.S. market and Financial marketer’s can respond to them effectively in the wake of the evolving Coronavirus crisis.