Ep169 - LLMs for SEO: A Recipe for Disaster?

#TWIMshow - This Week in Marketing

Episode 169 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of July 10 - 14, 2023.

1. ByteDance's CapCut Plugin Uses AI to Automate Video Creation - ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has released a new plugin for ChatGPT that allows users to create videos with AI. The new plugin leverages generative AI to create everything you need for publishing video content on TikTok and other social channels. It only takes a one-sentence prompt to describe the video’s theme, topic, or purpose. But for higher-quality results, the more specific and detailed your prompt is, the better.

2. Microsoft Advertising Announces New Features and Updates to Help Advertisers Get More Results -

• Microsoft Advertising has announced a number of new features and updates in July, including:
• Predictive Targeting - Microsoft Advertising introduced Predictive Targeting, an AI-based advertising tool that uses machine learning to automatically identify and target new audiences for increased conversions, which could save advertisers’ time and boost campaign efficiency. While it offers flexible application with existing strategies, potential downsides include losing control over target audiences and possibly wasted ad spend or brand damage if incorrect audiences are exposed to ads.
• Generative AI And RSA - Microsoft integrated generative AI into creating and editing responsive search ads (RSA), providing AI-generated headlines and descriptions based on the advertiser’s final URL. The updated experience reportedly offers neatly categorized, high-quality, and diverse recommendations in 35 detected languages, enabling advertisers to select multiple suggestions in a single click. You can also opt-in to auto-generation of assets, which dynamically creates assets when serving ads, enabling greater scalability and relevancy.
• RSA IF Functions - IF functions for RSAs could offer sophisticated targeting and ad customization based on device and audience. This would reduce the need for separate campaigns and enables customized messages for specific user devices or audience segments.
• Automated multimedia ads within Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) groups will reportedly utilize AI to automatically generate rich, visually engaging ads optimized for performance using your website’s content. Combining users’ assets with machine learning technology, these ads will be displayed on the right side of the search results page and exclusive, with only one multimedia ad appearing per page per advertiser.
• Property Promotion Ads For Vacation Rentals Microsoft extended its Property Promotion Ads, which are highly visual ads designed to inspire potential travelers, including vacation rentals and hotels. It allows travel advertisers to display more property offerings on Microsoft platforms. Offering a rich, engaging experience with complete control over images and callouts, these ads could drive increased bookings with premium placements and automated management via familiar ad management workflows in the Microsoft Hotel Center, saving advertisers’ time.
• Enhancements To Universal Event Tracking Microsoft Advertising has enhanced its Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag dashboard, troubleshooting and monitoring UET events in real-time for more efficient testing and quality assurance. Additionally, the UET overview tab now provides an expanded lookback period to review the performance of your tag across various dimensions, such as events, parameters, and event types.
• Data-driven attribution (DDA) reporting became generally available, using advanced machine learning to calculate the actual contribution of each ad interaction on conversion, differing from the traditional Last Click Attribution (LCA) model. This model comparison report, accessible through Reports > Default Reports > Performance > Conversion Model Compare, should allow for thorough analysis with a wide range of metrics at the ‘Keyword’ grain.

• Deprecation Of Keyword Planner Legacy Features Microsoft Advertising is deprecating several legacy features in Keyword Planner, including various service operations and the Product Category feature, due to their outdated nature and incompatibility with the system, effective August 21, 2023.

3. YouTube's New Video Title Suggestions: A Must-Try for Creators - YouTube is rolling out a new feature that will suggest video titles for creators based on the video's transcript and description. This new feature is designed to help creators create more effective titles that will attract more viewers.

The title suggestions are generated by an AI model that analyzes the video's transcript and description. The model takes into account factors such as the most common words and phrases in the video, as well as the keywords that are likely to be searched for by viewers.

The title suggestions are optional, but creators can choose to use them if they want. The suggestions are also updated over time as the AI model learns more about the video.

4. Google Ads Policy Update: Repeated Violations Could Result in Account Suspension - Google Ads is updating its Circumventing Systems policy this month to clarify that the policy prohibits repeated and simultaneous policy violations across any of your accounts, including using two or more accounts to post ads that violate any Google Ads policy.

The update also clarifies that the policy applies to both manual and automated violations. This means that if you are caught using automated software to circumvent Google's systems, your account could be suspended.

Google takes violations of this policy very seriously and considers them egregious. If they find violations of this policy, they will suspend your Google Ads accounts upon detection and without prior warning, and you will not be allowed to advertise with Google Ads again.

To avoid violating the Circumventing Systems policy, it is important to understand what is considered a violation.

• Cloaking (showing different content to certain users, including Google, than to other users) that aims at or results in interference with Google’s review systems, or hides or attempts to hide non-compliance with Google Ads policies, such as:
  • Redirection to non-compliant content
  • Using dynamic DNS to switch page or ad content
  • Manipulating site content or restricting access to so many of your landing pages that it makes it difficult to meaningfully review your ad, site, or account
  • Using click trackers to redirect users to malicious sites
• Whether repeated or simultaneous, policy violations across any of your accounts, including using 2 or more accounts to post ads that violate this or any other Google Ads policy. For example, creating new domains or accounts to post ads that are similar to ads that have been disapproved for this or any other Google Ads policy.
• Bypassing enforcement mechanisms and detection by creating variations of ads, domains or content that have been disapproved (for this or any Google Ads policy) or using techniques in text, images, or videos to obfuscate sexually explicit content
• After a previous suspension decision, attempting to use the Google Ads system again by creating new accounts in order to re enter the system
• Abusing Google Ads product features in order to show policy non-compliant content to users and/or gain additional traffic
• Submitting false information as part of our verification programs

As an FYI, Google Search (organic results, not paid) also has a circumvention...