After 6 months, Google has released a broad core update and it's already complete! The word on the street is that it's a huge update so make sure you're being extra vigilant about your keyword rankings and traffic. For more information and other juicy search updates, have a swipe!

1. March 2023
SEARCH MARKETING UPDATES

2. GOOGLE RELEASE MARCH 2023
BROAD CORE UPDATE
Although Google doesn’t provide information on core updates, the main
message within the community is that this was a huge update.
Google data tracking providers Semrush and RankRanger have identi
fi
ed that
there has been some volatility in keyword rankings and tra
ffi
c.
What should you do?
Monitor your keyword rankings and tra
ffi
c very closely over the coming weeks.
If you’ve been a
ff
ected by the update, isolate the speci
fi
c keywords and create a strategy to
improve content revolving around those terms and look at the technical elements of those
pages to identify any standout technical issues that need attention.
If you’re unsure on how to proceed, get in contact
with an SEO specialist for support asap.
The rollout completed on 28th March.

3. DEPRECATION OF ‘SEARCH INTEREST’
LOCATION TARGETING
Including the removal of the ‘Search Interest’
targeting option and the ‘presence or interest’
exclusion.
Why the change?
Google stated the ‘Search interest: People searching
for your target locations’ had low adoption rates as
well as being used ine
ff
ectively. But advertisers will still
be able to target ‘presence or interest’ or ‘presence’
options which align better with most campaign goals.
The ability to exclude ‘Presence or interest’ will also be
eliminated by Google this month due to it causing
confusion for advertisers and ultimately not having
much impact on the performance on the campaign.
With this new update, the targeting process will be
more streamlined and advertisers will experience a
simpli
fi
ed process. The creation of campaigns will be
made easier, helping you to achieve your goals.
Google Ads has made changes to location targeting settings.

4. VERIFICATION BADGES BEING TESTED
FOR GOOGLE ADS
Veri
fi
cation badges are widely used across social media platforms, and it seems
that Google are starting to test out this feature on their ads for veri
fi
ed advertisers.
As part of Google’s ongoing advertiser veri
fi
cation program, Google
have started to test the feature of using small blue checkmarks for
veri
fi
ed advertisers.
A twitter user noticed this new feature
Bene
fi
ts of this new feature:
• Increase the credibility of your brand.
• Appear more trustworthy to customers.
• Increased customer con
fi
dence when
purchasing through a veri
fi
ed advertiser.
• Allows you to stand out compared to other
advertisers - potential to increase click-
through rate.

5. ENHANCED CPC TO REPLACE
MANUAL CPC ON MICROSOFT ADS
This shift will begin on April 24th, from then on no new
campaigns will have the option for manual bidding. From this
date, existing campaigns will be upgraded to eCPC, with this
full transition due to be complete on April 28th.
So what does this mean?
Microsoft have set up some best practises so you can fully optimise and
ensure you’re ready for success.
• Set up conversion tracking - make sure your Universal Event Tag is
present and ensure conversion goals are set up properly.
• Upload o
ffl
ine conversion data daily - Simply achieve this by scheduling
a recurring import. This is only needed if your strategy is based on
o
ffl
ine conversions.
• Change conversion goal attribution to ‘last touch’ - Optimise automated
bidding based on two factors, click-bases & view-through, by making
this adjustment.
With this new change you’ll see Microsoft automatically adjust
your bids in order to capture extra conversions.

6. NEW GOOGLE DISCOVERY AD FEATURES
Google report brands seeing a 94% increase in sales from
prospecting customer plus 28% YoY rise on ROAS after update.
1. Product feeds
New, engaging product feed layouts give advertisers the
ability to display products based on customer intent and
interests, plus deliver relevant ads by using lifestyle
images and text from GMC.
2. Updated measurement & reporting
Product-level reporting is here to show you which
products have the highest interest. This will allow for a
granular understanding of your campaign performance
through data-driven attribution (DDA).
3. Conversion Lift experiments
Introduced last year, conversion lift experiments are now
available for discovery ads. This recent solution allows
advertisers to determine conversions based on both users
or/and geography.

7. NON-TARGETING SOLUTION
ANNOUNCED BY MICROSOFT
Category-based targeting will target shoppers based on
categories they are browsing while simultaneously using
keywords as a ‘booster’ for campaign bids.
This combination means advertisers can understand and
take advantage of the audiences behaviour, which will in
turn help with performance.
Key Bene
fi
ts:
Users will be able to boost bids with keywords when
customers are searching for speci
fi
c items, increasing how
likely it is to convert. Advertisers will only need to keep high-
performing keywords, instead of a long list of keywords which
is usual for the tradition keyword targeting.
Early results show a 320% high CTR when using this new
targeting solution.
As a solution to traditional keyword targeting, Microsoft has
introduced Category-based targeting.

8. MICROSOFT CHANGES HOW BMM
KEYWORDS ARE SERVED
Since the retirement of BMM keywords, any existing keywords
using this match type have functioned as phrase match.
However, this is set to change and advertisers can expect to
see these keywords now function as broad match keywords.
Why the switch?
Microsoft have been working to improve the performance of
broad match, and are now con
fi
dent this match type can deliver
strong results.
Advertisers who have tested this have stated they have spotted
an improvement in the volume of conversions while also being
able to maintain the CPA.
What to do with your accounts
This will be an automatic change and nothing will need to be done
on the advertisers behalf.
Depending on your own campaign goals and budgets, it’s worth
checking out whether this will apply to any of your keywords so
you can be on top of performance.
Broad match modi
fi
er will now function as broad match on bing Ads.

9. NEW BUSINESS TYPES ADDED TO
LOCAL SERVICE ADS
Google have now expanded this type of ad by adding more than 70
new genres of business.
Local services ads (LSA’s) allow businesses to easily show their
services at the top of the Googles search results page.
From here, you give customers the option to easily call, message,
and even make an appointment. You can also monitor leads and
check on their performance.
LSA’s allow you to easily manage your listing, for example you
can update the hours of your store and the service areas.
This makes interacting with your business super easy, as they can
read reviews, call you, and book an appointment at the touch of
a button.
New business types
Five new categories have been added including education,
people care, pet care, wellness, and health care.

10. This new feature will create ads in multiple formats to be served
automatically across Search, Youtube and Maps.
So what’s new?
• PMax for travel goals assists hotels in creating ads in di
ff
erent
formats, allowing them to reach travellers across Search, Display,
Youtube, Gmail, Maps and Discover.
• Hotel ads is coming later this year, and this will be added to
Performance Max for travel goals.
• You’re able to track campaign performance for the di
ff
erent
locations separately so you’re able to clearly see what’s working.
You can also see demand for each hotel property by viewing the
tra
ffi
c.
Early testing results
This has accelerated the campaign creation process as making an
individual campaign for each property is very time consuming.
This new platform also provided recommendations for budget
optimisation. In one case study they found this recommendation
reduce the CPA by 51%, increased ROAS BY 76% as well as bookings
seeing an increase of 86%.
PMAX FOR TRAVEL GOALS

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