How Mobile Search Connects Consumers to Stores

If your business has a physical location, you know by now that mobile search is the new front door to your store. In fact, every month people visit 1.5 billion destinations related to what they searched for on Google. Below, we share new insights on how mobile search helps people connect with nearby stores.

PEOPLE RELY ON MOBILE MORE THAN EVER
When people want to know, do, go, or buy, they turn to their smartphones.
There are more searches on mobile than on desktop.
More than half of all web traffic now comes from smartphones & tablets.

MOBILE IS THE NEW LOCAL GUIDE
Whether it's finding the closest hardware store or hunting down a late-night eatery, mobile instantly connects people with the world around them.
30% of all mobile searches are related to location.
2.1X increase in mobile searches for “stores open now” or “food open now” in the past year.
1.3X increase in mobile searches for “where to buy/find/get” in the past year.

MOBILE’S OFFLINE INFLUENCE
Timely and useful mobile experiences don't just lead to mobile purchases. They bring people to your front door.
76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day...
28% of those searches for something nearby result in a purchase.

Important information about LinkedIn accounts

Notice of Data Breach

You may have heard reports recently about a security issue involving LinkedIn. LinkedIn would like to make sure you have the facts about what happened, what information was involved, and the steps they are taking to help protect their users.

What Happened?

On May 17, 2016, LinkedIn became aware that data stolen from LinkedIn in 2012 was being made available online. This was not a new security breach or hack. LinkedIn took immediate steps to invalidate the passwords of all LinkedIn accounts that they believed might be at risk. These were accounts created prior to the 2012 breach that had not reset their passwords since that breach.

What Information Was Involved?

Member email addresses, hashed passwords, and LinkedIn member IDs (an internal identifier LinkedIn assigns to each member profile) from 2012.

What LinkedIn Are Doing

LinkedIn invalidated passwords of all LinkedIn accounts created prior to the 2012 breach that had not reset their passwords since that breach. In addition, they are using automated tools to attempt to identify and block any suspicious activity that might occur on LinkedIn accounts. LinkedIn are also actively engaging with law enforcement authorities.

LinkedIn has taken significant steps to strengthen account security since 2012. For example, LinkedIn now use salted hashes to store passwords and enable additional account security by offering their members the option to use two-step verification.

What You Can Do

LinkedIn have several dedicated teams working diligently to ensure that the information members entrust to LinkedIn remains secure. LinkedIn always suggest that their members visit the Safety Center to learn about enabling two-step verification, and implementing strong passwords in order to keep their accounts as safe as possible. LinkedIn recommend that you regularly change your LinkedIn password and if you use the same or similar passwords on other online services, we recommend you set new passwords on those accounts as well.

Tie your sites together with property sets in Search Console

Mobile app, mobile website, desktop website -- how do you track their combined visibility in search? Until now, you've had to track all of these statistics separately. Search Console is introducing the concept of "property sets," which let you combine multiple properties (both apps and sites) into a single group to monitor the overall clicks and impressions in search within a single report.
It's easy to get started:

1. Create a property set
2. Add the properties you're interested in
3. The data will start being collected within a few days
4. Profit from the new insights in Search Analytics!

Property Sets will treat all URIs from the properties included as a single presence in the Search Analytics feature. This means that Search Analytics metrics aggregated by host will be aggregated across all properties included in the set. For example, at a glance you'll get the clicks and impressions of any of the sites in the set for all queries.
This feature will work for any kind of property in Search Console. Use it to gain an overview of your international websites, of mixed HTTP / HTTPS sites, of different departments or brands that run separate websites, or monitor the Search Analytics of all your apps together: all of that's possible with this feature.
Don't just listen to us, here's what we heard from one of the beta-testers:

It was one of my most important demands since the beginning of Webmaster Tools / Search Console. And I love the way it is given to us. I see that the remarks of beta-testers have also been understood by Google engineers. So thank you so much! -- Olivier Andrieu (Abondance)

We'll be rolling this out over the next couple of days. If you have multiple properties verified in Search Console, we hope this feature makes it easier for you to keep track. If you have any questions, feedback, or ideas, please come and visit us in the webmaster help forum, or read the help documentation for this new feature!
Posted by Ofir Roval, Search Console Team

Facebook 3 Steps to Building Your Brand on Mobile

From planning a campaign to measuring the results, Facebook can help you build your brand in a mobile world. Use these steps as a guideline to help you make an impact with your brand across devices.

1. Reach more people within your target

More accurately plan reach, frequency and cost of your brand campaign while showing your ads to people who are more likely to pay attention to them

2. Capture attention with creative

Tell your brand story with engaging ad formats like videos and slideshows that are built for mobile

3. Measure your branding efforts

Use our brand measurement tools to understand how your campaigns influence brand metrics such as ad recall, awareness and message association

1. Reach more audiences across devices

We have solutions to help build your brand by reaching more audiences where they are. You can now deliver campaigns that are optimized to maximize ad recall. You can also more accurately plan and predict the reach, frequency and cost of your brand campaigns on Facebook.

• Brand Awareness Objective - Select this new advertising objective to increase brand awareness by showing ads to people who are more likely to pay attention to them. This objective optimizes for maximum brand awareness by balancing reach and attention.
• Reach and Frequency - This buying tool lets you more accurately plan and predict how many people see your brand campaign, the number of times they see it and the cost of your campaign, just like on traditional media. You can also set a sequence to deliver your ads so that they are viewed in the order in which they were intended to be consumed. Note that to use the tool, you will need to target a minimum of 200,000 people.

2. Capture attention with eye-catching creative formats

Tell your brand’s story and help build lasting awareness with engaging ad formats that help educate, inspire and build loyalty to your business.

• Video ads - Capture attention with video. With 100 million hours of video watched daily on Facebook¹, video ads are a powerful way to put your brand at the center of personal connection and discovery of people. Video ads can start playing as soon they appear in a viewer’s News Feed so they catch the eye of your audience.
• Slideshows - Create engaging slideshows with your photos in just a few minutes. Capture your audience’s attention with motion. Slideshows give you the power of video without the cost and time associated with production. They also consume less data than video so these ads are displayed even on low-bandwidth devices.

3. Measure the results and resonance of your campaign

Facebook and our measurement partners offer solutions to assess the marketing impact of your brand campaigns, including awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase consideration.

• Estimated Ad Recall Lift (people) - This new reporting metric gives you an estimate of how many people are likely to remember your ad after having seen it. It is mainly calculated based on the number of people you reach and the time they spend looking at your ads.
• Facebook Brand Lift - This study polls consumers about their reactions to your ad, including if they remember seeing it and whether they would consider making a purchase, all directly on Facebook. You get detailed results by audience segment. We’ve also partnered with Nielsen and Millward Brown Digital to give you third-party insights.

Gain New Insights with Google Analytics User Explorer

Testing with a Rapid Optimization Plan Having a Rapid Optimization Plan (ROP) can have a tremendous impact on the overall business strategy when you are launching a new website. If things don't go quite as you'd hoped, the plan can give your organization a light to look towards. This post from Googler Krista Seiden will have your team optimizing at full speed. LEARN MORE

Taking your Analytics Practice to the Next Level Data has become everyone's domain, in all aspects of your marketing and business. Most companies do a good job at collecting and reporting data and have a basic process in place. But many are stuck as to what to do next to elevate value of data in their company. Googler Adam Singer and a panel of industry experts offer guidance on ClickZ. LEARN MORE

Data Enthusiasts Gathering At Superweek Couldn't make it to Superweek in Hungary? No problem. Googler Daniel Waisberg shares a wrap up of the conference, where some of the presenters talk about the industry challenges, opportunities and ways to use your data better. LEARN MORE

Announcing Firebase and Firebase Analytics Firebase, Google's free and unlimited platform for mobile app developers, is here! And it comes with Firebase Analytics, Google's most comprehensive app analytics solution. We encourage you to check it out to see if Firebase is right for you. Never fear though, mobile app measurement in Google Analytics will continue to be available and supported by our product team, so feel free to keep your existing implementation. LEARN MORE Gain New Insights with Google Analytics User Explorer Reporting A new set of reports in Google Analytics lets you perform analysis of anonymized individual interactions with your websites and apps. User Explorer utilizes existing anonymous Google Analytics data to deliver incremental insights that marketers need to improve and optimize their sites and apps. The feature is now available in the Audience section of Google Analytics. LEARN MORE Spotlight on Attribution 360, part of the Google Analytics 360 Suite Looking at marketing performance one channel at a time no longer makes sense. In today's complex, micro-moment, cross-screen landscape, the lines between marketing efforts are blurred. Traditional marketing and digital marketing overlap, with investments online delivering results offline, and vice versa. LEARN MORE

Google Best Practices: Optimize Your Remarketing Campaign Settings

Reach and timing matter in remarketing. The more people you reach, the more chances you get to reconnect with past site visitors. This also means more opportunities for your ads to appear during time-sensitive moments when your potential customers are most likely to convert.

Watch this 3-minute video guide to learn how to optimize your remarketing campaign settings by removing restrictions and automating your frequency caps.

Facebook Tips for lead ads, Here are 4 ways businesses get the most from their lead ads

1. Create a lookalike audience

To collect high quality leads, use a lookalike audience to reach people who are similar to your best customers.

Success Story

The news and information site, theSkimm, used lead ads to attract new subscribers to its daily newsletter and saw a 22% increase in lead quality. One of its key targeting tactics was creating a lookalike audience based on the demographics of its most active readers and targeting those people with lead ads. By creating an audience based off its most active users, instead of people who completed the lead ads form, theSkimm was able reach the people who provide the most value to its business.

2. Entice and inform with your creative

Use engaging visuals and provide direct and accurate information in your ad. This can help you grab the attention of the right people, yielding better quality leads and higher conversion rates.

Success Story

Teach for America, the educational non-profit, used lead ads to create awareness of its work and inspire people to join its corps of teachers and saw a 2X increase in online leads. Their lead ads succinctly informed potential recruits that “Teach For America finds, trains and places outstanding people as teachers in 52 regions,” and featured images to inspire people to picture themselves in a classroom. For example, women saw images of female Teach For America teachers, while men saw male Teach For America teachers.

3. Keep your form short and simple

Ask for only the information that you really need. Additional questions increase chances of people abandoning your form.

Success Story

The online meeting service, Cisco WebEx, used lead ads to increase sign ups for WebEx product demos and saw a 75% lower cost per conversion than link ads. The Cisco WebEx team monitored ad response and conversion rates during their campaign, testing and tweaking its approach to optimize results. The team discovered that reducing the number of fields on the lead form increased the number of conversions and decreased the cost per lead.

4. Take action on your leads quickly

Immediately following up on your leads can drive the best conversion rates and ensure your budget is spent efficiently. You can access your leads by downloading them from your Page, integrating with the Facebook API or one of our supported CRM providers, like Constant Contact or MailChimp. Learn more about how to retrieve your leads here.

Success Story

CDI College, a Canadian career training institution, saw a 15-20% increase in return on ad spend using lead ads. One key to their success was syncing their lead ads directly to its customer relationship management system in real time, so it could work to convert the leads quickly and efficiently.