In the latest WDA Marketing Pit Stop, we look at the most important digital marketing news and updates from the last week, 12th October – 18th, including the launch of Google Podcasts Manager, updates to Google Search, Facebook and Instagram to stop WordPress embed support, Snapchat Sounds and more.

Let’s take a pit stop and get into it.

Google Launches Podcasts Manager

Podcasts Manager is a new tool that provides podcasters with new audience insights to get more from your podcast performance. It gives a thorough analysis into each episode to see at what point listeners begin listening and when they stop. It will also give insights into Google Search impressions, clicks, and the queries used to find your podcast. If your automotive business has a podcast, then this is definitely something worth setting up.

Facebook and Instagram To Stop Supporting WordPress Embeds

From the 24th of this month, WordPress embeds from Facebook and Instagram will no longer be supported, which will cause them to break and stop showing the content. This is going to affect an enormous amount of websites but fortunately, oEmbed Plus, a new plugin, can fix the issue. If your automotive website is built in WordPress, then check if your site is using Facebook or Instagram embeds. If you’re not sure, ask your web company.

Google Search Updates

Several Search updates have been announced by Google with the first regarding Google BERT. Last year, BERT impacted roughly 10% of queries but following the update, it will now impact almost all search queries.

Secondly, passage-based indexing will roll out later this year, affecting 7% of queries. It’s designed to show more relevant results to search queries by displaying specific passages from a page in the SERP.

Third and finally, they announced a spelling algorithm that will enable them to understand misspelled terms better.

YouTube Comes to Google Ads Attribution Reporting

Cross-network YouTube and Search campaign reports are now available in Google Ads Attribution Reporting as an open beta with the plan to add Display campaigns in the future.

Snapchat Sounds Launched

Snapchat joins Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts by aiming to compete with TikTok with Sounds. Snapchat Sounds enables users to add music tracks to their Snaps and is now available on iOS. If your automotive business targets the Gen-Z demographic, then this is something to explore alongside the alternatives as a way of showing the fun side to your brand.

WordPress New Twitter Blog Post Feature

WordPress blogs can now be uploaded as a Twitter thread straight from WordPress in a couple of clicks. Every word from the blog post you tweet will be posted with accompanying images and videos. A great feature to capitalise on for your automotive business if you have a blog on WordPress and a decent Twitter following.

Google Test Ads in Maps

Google has been testing local ads in the auto-suggest search results when searching for local businesses in Maps. There are no further updates at this time as to whether they will roll this out or not; Google has stated it’s just an experiment.

Bing Site Explorer Revamped

Bing has revamped its Site Explorer tool completely from the previous version. The new Site Explorer is cleaner and easier to use. It’s a useful tool for automotive brands wanting to further improve their organic search visibility outside of Google.

That wraps up the latest Marketing Pit Stop. Subscribe to our blog and follow us on social media so you don’t miss the next one!

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