“In an age when marketing success can hinge on a business’s ability to quickly react to and pivot strategy around trends in real-time, the COVID-19 outbreak is changing consumer behavior,” explains Kimberly Dutcher of Merkle. “Here are some initial precautions SEM teams can take to ward off any unwarranted increases in search traffic.”

• Set up automated reporting dashboards to review traffic and spend at a glance.
• Add “coronavirus,” “virus” and “covid-19” as phrase-match negatives to your accounts.
• Google is blocking ads capitalizing on the coronavirus, so the negative keywords shouldn’t be necessary but are a safeguard nonetheless.
• Consider applying negative bid modifiers to heavily affected geographies, depending on product or service availability.
• Monitor search query reports closely, especially for broad and phrase match keywords.

Learn more »

Email is the most common method to communicate with your prospects and customers. But email is also highly prone to spoofing and cyberattacks. In fact, 91% of all cyberattacks start with email and 83% of them use brand impersonation to initiate the attack. Join our email experts as they show you how to lock down your domain from spoofers, protect your brand from abuse, and significantly increase deliverability and open rates at the same time.

RSVP now »

Instagram tests ads on IGTV. Instagram is gearing up to sell ads on IGTV – its long-form video counterpart to Instagram – in an attempt to strengthen its IGTV monetization efforts and compete with YouTube. Why we care: Unlike YouTube, Instagram doesn’t currently offer a rev-share program for creators – but that’s about to change. With more creators on the platform to monetize content, it will bring more opportunities for advertisers (and more inventory to take advantage of). Source: Bloomberg

YouTube gets rid of Trending tab on mobile, replaces it with Explore. YouTube has officially phased out its Trending tab for a new ‘Explore’ section on the mobile app. The Trending tab isn’t going away altogether and will retain its own button within the Explore page. Why we care: YouTube is leaning into more personalization and customized feeds with the new Explore feed, which could set the stage for deeper, more niche targeting insights for advertisers. Source: The Verge

Don’t miss the brand-new SEO for Developers track coming to Seattle June 8-10, featuring highly-technical sessions — many in live-coding format — focused on using code libraries and architecture models to develop applications that improve SEO.

Learn more »

What Should Marketers Measure? – Forbes

TikTok Says It’ll No Longer Moderate Overseas Content With China-Based Staff: Report – Gizmodo

The Biggest Business Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic – eMarketer

Apps will drive 25% of e-commerce traffic by 2020 holidays, study says – Mobile Marketer

IAB Tech Lab President Dennis Buchheim On Preparing For The End Of The Third-Party Cookie – AdExchanger

Where’s the Zoom of VR? – TechCrunch