10 New Insights B2B Marketers Need To Know About LinkedIn In 2021
What has changed at the world’s largest professional social media platform during the pandemic, and how will it shift for B2B marketers in the post-pandemic landscape?
LinkedIn* has already rolled out an impressive assortment of new features in 2021, and we’ve got 10 insights that B2B marketers need to know about them.
Over the course of the pandemic, LinkedIn ads have been among the marketing channels that have grown the most in importance according to report data examining B2B technology marketing strategies, as we covered in a recent edition of the TopRank Marketing news.
LinkedIn also saw a revenue increase of 23 percent during the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, according to earnings release information from parent company Microsoft, led in part by strong advertising performance.
What has lead to this growth?
Let’s jump right in an look at 10 new LinkedIn insights for B2B marketers.
1 — An Inspiring Array Of New Features For Company Pages
LinkedIn has added an inspiring array of new features for company pages on the platform, including several aimed at helping businesses involve their employees in finding and sharing its various types of content.
A new “My Community” tab added to company pages allows businesses to make sharing content from the company or other curated sources simpler, while also providing reach and engagement data to measure the effectiveness of employee advocacy.
Company page administrators have been given new tools for recommending content to employees, along with a unique feature that suggests ways employees can turn what they share into distinctive content.
Employees are 14 times as likely to share their own organization’s page content compared to other brands, according to research from LinkedIn that also shows co-workers are some 60 percent more likely to engage with posts from their teammates.
The LinkedIn company page additions, announced in February, work to strengthen a brand’s community on the platform, with other new features including an expansion of LinkedIn Stories that lets brands utilize destination links for swipe-up interactions.
Other new additions have included increased lead generation functionality within LinkedIn’s product pages.
By making it easy for company employees to share brand content, LinkedIn has made strides in overcoming the notion that nobody looks at company pages — a place where content goes to die.
Each new feature rolled out by LinkedIn offers B2B marketers new opportunities for connection and engagement. If you’ve missed other new LinkedIn additions and are looking for helpful ways to increase engagement by using them, our content marketing manager Nick Nelson explores a variety of options in a helpful article on boosting B2B marketing engagement on LinkedIn.
[bctt tweet=”“If your company’s approach to LinkedIn has been an autopilot, the time is right to buckle down and take advantage of the many opportunities afforded to B2B marketers by the world’s largest professional social network.” @NickNelsonMN” username=”toprank”]2 — LinkedIn Live Bolsters Brand Video Engagement
The importance of video has skyrocketed during the pandemic, and LinkedIn has accordingly seen sizable increases in utilization of its LinkedIn Live functionality.
Usage statistics show that the professional social network’s LinkedIn Live video streams have increased by 89 percent since March, 2020, along with strong levels of member engagement.
While use of audio social platform Clubhouse has risen, the majority of B2B brands have so far taken a wait-and-see approach. Our informal poll data showed that 52 percent of B2B marketers view Clubhouse as not important in their 2021 marketing strategy, with 28 percent having said that the jury was still out on its importance in their marketing efforts.
What do B2B brands need to ask themselves before utilizing Clubhouse and other trending new platforms? Our CEO and co-founder Lee Odden offers up a sound strategy and shows how partnering with influencers can be key now more than ever in his recent “How B2B Brands Can Boost Confidence in Livestream Video, Podcast and Clubhouse Marketing.”
While most B2B marketers wait for Clubhouse’s impact on business marketing to play out, LinkedIn Live has seen steadily growing implementation among major brands.
LinkedIn Live is being used by more major firms all the time, such as the 5 B2B brands I wrote about that are rocking their LinkedIn Live game, in “Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Rocking LinkedIn Live,” featuring JPMorgan Chase, CompTIA, Microsoft, NASA, and SAP*.
As more brands have embraced LinkedIn Live, marketers have shared information on how to utilize its numerous features, such as “How to schedule livestreams to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.”
[bctt tweet=”“Content Marketers can boost the success of their marketing investment when they optimize content for discovery wherever buyers are looking, subscribing and influenced.” — Lee Odden @LeeOdden” username=”toprank”]3 — Planning For “The Big Long’’ Requires Patience
LinkedIn has taken a long-term look at B2B marketing trends, in the form of a robust collection of some 30 marketing trends it has researched over the past five years, available in report form in “2030 B2B Trends: Contrarian Ideas For The Next Decade.”
Putting all this data into perspective for use today can be a daunting challenge. Thankfully, however, Ty Heath, director of market engagement at The B2B Institute at LinkedIn recently took the time to share her wealth of knowledge on the report and its most important trends, which I covered in “LinkedIn’s Ty Heath: 3 Enduring B2B Marketing Trends #MPB2B.”
Ty shared the importance of B2B marketers being able to strike just the right balance of short-term activation versus long term branding, and pointed out that one of brand-building’s truest strengths is its effect on long term sales.
Recently LinkedIn’s Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo shared their views on the 2030 marketing trends report, looking at why brand investment is key for providing business value, in Marketing Week’s “Why B2B marketers need to bet big on ‘The Big Long’.”
“Brand building requires patience,” Weinberg and Lombardo noted. “Brands are built over decades, not quarters, by constantly investing in repeatable and distinctive creative concepts,” they added.
Another resource LinkedIn has made available for B2B marketers is “5 Principles Of Growth In B2B Marketing,” which examines the art of balancing the long-term brand-building goals with short-term sales activation concerns.
[bctt tweet=”“We can look forward to more memorable B2B marketing messages that connect brand to demand. If you are a creative B2B marketer, that’s something you can get excited about.” — Ty Heath @tyrona” username=”toprank”]4 — Influence’s Increasing Strengths Well-Showcased Via LinkedIn
The success of LinkedIn Live has come in part due to its ability to drive brand awareness, and a growing number of recent studies have shown that industry subject matter experts and influencers have embraced live-streaming more than ever during the pandemic.
Live-stream content produced by influencers has seen sustained interest during the global health crisis, according to survey data, and B2B influencers in particular have found increased engagement through LinkedIn.
Digging in to some of the details of this type of engagement on LinkedIn, we’ve presented five helpful case study examples in, “5 Case Studies on How to Optimize B2B Influencer Engagement on LinkedIn.”
The natural kinship between influence in B2B marketing and the LinkedIn platform offers brand marketers a number of particularly powerful opportunities, and we recently took a look at them in an in-depth video interview with Garnor Morantes, group marketing manager at LinkedIn, who sat down with Lee in the second episode of our Inside B2B Influence Marketing show.
“Inside Influence 2: Garnor Morantes from LinkedIn on the Power of Always-On Influence” explores what always-on influencer marketing is and how LinkedIn has developed an influencer community using an always-on approach, along with numerous other insights.
Garnor was also among the many major brand contributors to our groundbreaking 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report.
5 — Successfully Working With Changes To Apple’s Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) System
The digital marketing industry has had to take steps to adjust to major changes in how marketers implement ad tracking and targeting, as both Google and Apple have begun shifting away from traditional web browser cookie-tracking technology.
LinkedIn announced in March’s “Sharing an update on our plans for IDFA” that it would no longer collect Apple’s Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) data from its Apple iOS apps, in a change that — although affecting the LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN), conversion tracking and matched audiences features — is expected to have only limited campaign impact.
Using first-party data instead, LinkedIn will offer similar functionality to help marketers reach relevant buyer audiences, a change savvy B2B marketers will want to keep tabs on as further information is released in the coming months.
[bctt tweet=”“The natural kinship between influence in B2B marketing and the LinkedIn platform offers brand marketers a number of particularly powerful opportunities.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis” username=”toprank”]6 — Free Best-Practice Guides Help Point The Way For B2B Content Engagement
LinkedIn has also upped its best-practice and guide publication game during the pandemic, providing a wealth of information for digital marketers looking to achieve the highest levels of success using the platform.
One of the newest offerings comes in the form of advertising campaign planning worksheets and templates, together in a 38-page guide, with the launch of “A Template for Better LinkedIn Campaign Planning,” providing useful resources for a variety of traditional, carousel, video, and other LinkedIn ad types.
LinkedIn has also released a 17-page guide offering B2B marketers tips, statistics and a variety of insight and examples surrounding the production of successful B2B creative assets on its platform, in the helpful “[Pocket Guide] 3 Traits of Engaging B2B Creative.”
Another recent resource for B2B marketers looking to grow engagement on LinkedIn is the platform’s “Return to Grown 2021 Magazine,” featuring case studies, interviews, tips and more.
Some of the guides LinkedIn has published are tailored to specific industries, such as “Why consumer mindset matters in financial services marketing,” yet also offer universal insight of interest to all B2B marketers, including detailed study data showing that LinkedIn members are more likely to have positive feelings after visiting the platform.
A final example of LinkedIn’s helpful guides is a recent examination of take-aways marketers can glean from the pandemic, in “2020 was a creative experiment of two halves – here’s what we learned,” which looks at subjects including how brand distinctiveness drives creative thinking, and creativity’s longstanding bias against overt branding — among numerous other marketing-related topics.
7 — From Black History Month To A Year Of Change
During February’s Black History Month, LinkedIn highlighted an impressive array of initiatives aimed at focusing on and helping to removing barriers to success, including the release of an ongoing series called “Conversations For Change.”
At TopRank Marketing we also published content centered around Black History Month, including a look at “10 Marketing and Communications Leaders to Inspire You in 2021,” featuring a stellar group of women of color, including LinkedIn’s own Ty Heath and others.
8 — Moving Towards Facilitating Freelance Connections And More
Another area B2B marketers may want to keep tabs on is LinkedIn’s possible move towards offering features that would facilitate freelance connections — an area that has seen significant growth during the pandemic, and a feature that could prove helpful for certain LinkedIn users.
In “LinkedIn’s new Marketplaces will help freelancers find work,” Fortune’s Andrew Marquardt looks into several ways such a LinkedIn feature might work, and the potential such a move would have in providing alternatives to similar functionality provided by existing third-party services Upwork and Fiverr.
As the world’s largest business-oriented social platform, such functionality could enhance LinkedIn in a new area, however marketers will need to wait and see how LinkedIn Marketplace is set to play out during the rest of 2021.
9 — Rising Poll Opportunities
LinkedIn launched the return of its highly-anticipated poll feature in 2020, offering marketers a new platform besides Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for gathering community sentiment using polls — one that may be the most natural fit for many B2B brands.
Polls offer a unique two-for-one value for B2B marketers, providing quality feedback on what customers want while also offering brands a helpful interactive social media content marketing element.
Since the re-launch of polls on the platform, it has become more common to see polls among the content posted on LinkedIn.
We examined some of the brands that took advantage of LinkedIn’s polling features, in “Social Media Polls For Marketers: 6 B2B Brands Winning With LinkedIn Polls,” which shows examples of some of the ways that brands are innovating through the use of polls.
[bctt tweet=”“Poll data shows what marketers are thinking about when it comes to a variety of important subjects, ranging from everyday tasks to far-reaching future trends.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis” username=”toprank”]10 — Eye-Raising Statistics Point To Useful LinkedIn Marketing Trends
Each of the nine areas we’ve looked at so far combine to tell a fascinating story about the rise of LinkedIn for B2B marketers during the pandemic — and point to continuing opportunities for post-pandemic marketing.
Helping to highlight specific details about what’s happening with LinkedIn, here are just a few additional statistics that can help inform your own LinkedIn marketing strategy in 2021 and beyond.
- 45 percent of those who read articles on LinkedIn are high-level decision makers, and the social platform generates 80 percent of overall B2B social media leads (Source: SalesIntel / Hootsuite)
- Each week LinkedIn’s feeds get some 9 billion content impressions. (Source: Inc.)
- A user who follows a company on LinkedIn is 81 percent more likely to open an InMail from that brand than a non-follower. (Source: TechJury)
Bring New Focus to Your LinkedIn B2B Marketing
By incorporating the new LinkedIn features and insight we’ve examined here, you’ll have a sizable head start in bringing new focus to your own B2B marketing efforts on the platform.
Creating trustworthy and award-winning B2B marketing takes significant effort, which leads many firms to choose working with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Contact us today and let us know how we can help, as we’ve done for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others.
*LinkedIn and SAP are TopRank Marketing clients.
The post 10 New Insights B2B Marketers Need To Know About LinkedIn In 2021 appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
eFootball PES 2021: iniziate le qualificazioni a UEFA eEURO 2021
Sono iniziate le qualificazioni per la fase finale del torneo eSport di eEURO 2021 di luglio, giocato esclusivamente con il videogioco di Konami eFootball PES 2021. Le partite di qualificazione, che vedranno impegnate 55 squadre in rappresentanza delle rispettive federazioni affiliate alla European Football Associations, verranno trasmesse in diretta sul canale YouTube ufficiale della UEFA. Il vincitore della competizione verrà decretato il 10 luglio, ovvero un giorno primo della finale di UEFA EURO 2020 che si disputerà allo stadio di Wembley.
Il nostro Ads Safety Report annuale
In Google, quando prendiamo decisioni sugli annunci pubblicitari che le persone vedono online e sui contenuti che possono essere monetizzati sulle nostre piattaforme, agiamo continuamente per garantire alle persone un’esperienza sicura online. Sviluppare policy in questi ambiti e applicarle costantemente è uno dei principali metodi con cui proteggiamo le persone e preserviamo la fiducia nell’ecosistema degli annunci pubblicitari.
Con questa edizione, il nostro Ads Safety Report compie 10 anni. Nel rapporto sottolineiamo il lavoro che svolgiamo per prevenire un utilizzo dannoso delle nostre piattaforme pubblicitarie. Dare visibilità ai modi con i quali preveniamo le violazioni delle norme nell’ecosistema degli annunci pubblicitari è da tempo una priorità per noi e quest’anno siamo felici di condividere il numero di informazioni maggiore di sempre.
Il nostro Ads Safety Report è solamente uno dei tanti modi con cui forniamo alle persone trasparenza su come funzionano le pubblicità sulle nostre piattaforme. Lo scorso anno abbiamo anche introdotto il nostro programma di verifica dell’identità degli inserzionisti. Al momento stiamo verificando inserzionisti in più di 20 paesi e abbiamo iniziato a condividere il nome e la posizione dell’inserzionista nella nostra funzione About this ad, per fare in modo che le persone sappiano chi c’è dietro a un annuncio specifico e possano prendere decisioni più consapevoli.
Applicazione su larga scala
Nel 2020, le nostre policy e la loro applicazione sono state messe a dura prova. Il mondo stava attraversando contemporaneamente una pandemia globale – che sta attraversando ancora oggi – diverse elezioni politiche in molti Paesi ed era in corso una continua lotta per contrastare i malintenzionati alla ricerca di nuovi metodi per approfittarsi delle persone online. Migliaia di persone hanno lavorato 24 ore su 24 per offrire un’esperienza sicura a utenti, creator, publisher e inserzionisti. Abbiamo aggiunto o aggiornato più di 40 policy per inserzionisti e publisher. Abbiamo anche bloccato o rimosso circa 3,1 miliardi di annunci per violazione delle nostre norme e limitato altri 6,4 miliardi di annunci.
Il nostro impegno non varia a seconda dei diversi casi, e questo è il primo anno in cui condividiamo informazioni sulle limitazioni degli annunci, una parte fondamentale della nostra strategia complessiva. Limitare gli annunci ci consente di definire il nostro approccio in base alla posizione geografica, alle leggi locali e ai nostri programmi di certificazione, in modo tale che gli annunci approvati vengano mostrati solo laddove appropriato, regolamentato e legale. Ad esempio, richiediamo alle farmacie online di completare un programma di certificazione e, una volta ottenuta la certificazione, mostriamo i loro annunci solo in paesi specifici dove è consentita la vendita online di farmaci con prescrizione. Negli ultimi anni, in alcuni Paesi abbiamo assistito a un incremento delle normative sugli annunci e la limitazione delle inserzioni pubblicitarie ci consente di aiutare gli inserzionisti a seguire questi requisiti a livello locale con un impatto minimo sulle loro campagne più ampie.
Abbiamo inoltre continuato a investire nella nostra tecnologia di rilevamento automatizzato per eseguire una scansione efficace del web circa le policy di conformità dei publisher su larga scala. Grazie a questo investimento, insieme a diverse nuove policy, abbiamo incrementato notevolmente il nostro impegno e rimosso annunci da 1,3 miliardi di pagine di publisher nel 2020, rispetto ai 21 milioni del 2019. Abbiamo anche smesso di pubblicare annunci su oltre 1,6 milioni di siti contenenti violazioni diffuse o evidenti.
Farsi trovare pronti di fronte a nuove minacce
A fronte dell’aumento del numero di casi di coronavirus in tutto il mondo dallo scorso gennaio, abbiamo rafforzato la nostra policy sugli eventi sensibili per prevenire comportamenti come l’incremento dei prezzi su prodotti molto richiesti – come disinfettante per le mani, mascherine – o annunci che promuovono false cure e rimedi. Man mano che che le organizzazioni sanitarie emettevano nuove linee guida e imparavamo di più sul virus, abbiamo anche evoluto la nostra strategia, affinché operatori e organizzazioni sanitarie, governi locali e aziende affidabili potessero far risaltare aggiornamenti critici e contenuti autorevoli, prevenendo così abusi di tipo opportunistico. Inoltre, poiché le affermazioni e le cospirazioni sull’origine e la diffusione del coronavirus o su altre emergenze sanitarie globali che contraddicono il consenso scientifico sono state diffuse online, abbiamo introdotto una nuova policy per impedire che annunci di quel tipo venissero monetizzati.
In totale, abbiamo bloccato oltre 99 milioni di annunci legati al Covid durante tutto l’anno, inclusi quelli che pubblicizzano presunte cure miracolose, mascherine N95 a causa della scarsità di forniture e, più recentemente, dosi di vaccini falsi. Continuiamo a rimanere vigili, monitorando il comportamento dei soggetti malintenzionati e continuando a imparare da questo lavoro. In questo modo siamo in grado di prepararci al meglio per future frodi e reclami che potrebbero sorgere.
Continuare a combattere le forme più recenti di frodi e truffe
Spesso, quando assistiamo a un evento su scala globale come la recente pandemia, i soggetti malintenzionati cercano modi per approfittarsi degli utenti online. L’anno scorso abbiamo assistito a un aumento della pubblicità opportunistica e dei comportamenti fraudolenti da parte di individui che cercavano di fuorviare gli utenti. Li abbiamo visti sempre più utilizzare il cloaking per eludere il nostro rilevamento, promuovere attività virtuali inesistenti o pubblicare annunci truffa specifici per i telefoni, per nascondersi o per attirare consumatori ignari al di fuori delle nostre piattaforme con l’obiettivo di ingannarli.
Nel 2020 abbiamo contrastato questi comportamenti fraudolenti attraverso alcune azioni chiave:
- Abbiamo introdotto diverse nuove policy e programmi incluso il programma di verifica dell’identità dell’inserzionista e il programma di verifica delle operazioni di business.
- Abbiamo investito in tecnologia per migliorare il rilevamento di comportamenti fraudolenti coordinati, che ci permettesse di collegare i punti tra gli account e sospendere più soggetti fraudolenti contemporaneamente.
- Abbiamo migliorato la nostra tecnologia di rilevamento automatizzato e il processo di revisione umano, basati su segnali di rete, attività precedenti dell’account, modelli di comportamento e feedback degli utenti.
Il numero di account pubblicitari che abbiamo disattivato per violazioni delle policy è aumentato del 70%, da 1 milione a oltre 1,7 milioni. Abbiamo anche bloccato o rimosso oltre 867 milioni di annunci per aver tentato di eludere i nostri sistemi di rilevamento, incluso il cloaking, e altri 101 milioni di annunci per aver violato le nostre policy in materia di rappresentazioni ingannevoli. Si tratta di un totale di oltre 968 milioni di annunci.
Proteggere le elezioni in tutto il mondo
In vista delle elezioni politiche nei vari Paesi, gli annunci aiutano gli elettori ad accedere a informazioni autorevoli sui candidati e sui processi di voto. Negli ultimi anni, abbiamo introdotto policy e restrizioni rigorose su chi può pubblicare annunci relativi alle elezioni sulla nostra piattaforma e sui modi in cui possono indirizzare gli annunci; abbiamo lanciato raccolte complete di annunci politici in tutta l’Unione Europea, nel Regno Unito, negli Stati Uniti, in India, Israele, Taiwan, Australia e Nuova Zelanda; e abbiamo lavorato attentamente con i nostri team in tutto il mondo per proteggere le nostre piattaforme dagli abusi. A livello globale, abbiamo continuato a espandere il nostro programma di verifica, verificando oltre 5.400 inserzionisti elettorali in più solamente nel 2020. Negli Stati Uniti, da quando divenne chiaro che il risultato delle elezioni presidenziali non si sarebbe immediatamente delineato, abbiamo determinato che l’appuntamento elettorale rientrasse nella sfera della nostra policy sugli eventi sensibili e deciso di stabilire una pausa degli annunci politici riguardanti le elezioni statunitensi a partire dalla chiusura delle urne e fino all’inizio di dicembre. Durante questo periodo, abbiamo messo temporaneamente in pausa più di 5 milioni di annunci e bloccato gli annunci su oltre 3 miliardi di query di ricerca che facevano riferimento alle elezioni, ai candidati o al loro esito. Abbiamo preso questa decisione per limitare che gli annunci potessero potenzialmente amplificare la confusione nel periodo post elettorale.
Demonetizzare odio e violenza
L’anno scorso i publisher hanno svolto un ruolo fondamentale nel mantenere le persone informate, preparate e al sicuro. Siamo orgogliosi che la pubblicità digitale, inclusi gli strumenti che offriamo per mettere in contatto inserzionisti e publisher, supportino questi contenuti. Abbiamo policy per proteggere sia i brand che gli utenti.
Nel 2017, abbiamo sviluppato metodi più granulari per esaminare i siti a livello di pagina, inclusi i commenti generati dagli utenti, per consentire ai publisher di continuare a gestire il loro sito in modo più ampio, proteggendo gli inserzionisti da posizionamenti negativi, bloccando le violazioni persistenti. Negli anni trascorsi dall’introduzione dell’azione a livello di pagina, abbiamo continuato a investire sulla nostra tecnologia automatizzata, che è stata fondamentale in un anno in cui abbiamo assistito a un significativo aumento dell’incitamento all’odio e degli appelli alla violenza online. Questo investimento ci ha aiutato a impedire la monetizzazione di contenuti web dannosi. Abbiamo agito su quasi 168 milioni di pagine in base alla nostra policy sulle attività pericolose e dispregiative.
Il lavoro continua nel 2021
Sappiamo che quando prendiamo decisioni pensando alla sicurezza degli utenti, l’intero ecosistema ne trae vantaggio. Preservare la fiducia di inserzionisti e publisher aiuta le loro attività ad avere successo sul lungo termine. Nel prossimo anno continueremo a investire su nuove policy, sul nostro team di esperti e sulla tecnologia di applicazione delle policy per stare al passo con la nascita di nuove potenziali minacce. Continueremo inoltre sul nostro percorso al fine di allargare i nostri programmi di verifica in tutto il mondo per aumentare la trasparenza e rendere universalmente disponibili più informazioni riguardanti l’esperienza delle inserzioni pubblicitarie.
Scritto da: Scott Spencer, Vice President, Ads Privacy & Safety
Our annual Ads Safety Report
At Google, we actively look for ways to ensure a safe user experience when making decisions about the ads people see and the content that can be monetized on our platforms. Developing policies in these areas and consistently enforcing them is one of the primary ways we keep people safe and preserve trust in the ads ecosystem.
2021 marks one decade of releasing our annual Ads Safety Report, which highlights the work we do to prevent malicious use of our ads platforms. Providing visibility on the ways we’re preventing policy violations in the ads ecosystem has long been a priority — and this year we’re sharing more data than ever before.
Our Ads Safety Report is just one way we provide transparency to people about how advertising works on our platforms. Last spring, we also introduced ouradvertiser identity verification program. We are currently verifying advertisers in more than 20 countries and have started to share the advertiser name and location in our About this ad feature, so that people know who is behind a specific ad and can make more informed decisions.
Enforcement at scale
In 2020, our policies and enforcement were put to the test as we collectively navigated a global pandemic, multiple elections around the world and the continued fight against bad actors looking for new ways to take advantage of people online. Thousands of Googlers worked around the clock to deliver a safe experience for users, creators, publishers and advertisers. We added or updated more than 40 policies for advertisers and publishers. We also blocked or removed approximately 3.1 billion ads for violating our policies and restricted an additional 6.4 billion ads.
Our enforcement is not one-size-fits-all, and this is the first year we’re sharing information on ad restrictions, a core part of our overall strategy. Restricting ads allows us to tailor our approach based on geography, local laws and our certification programs, so that approved ads only show where appropriate, regulated and legal. For example, we require online pharmacies to complete a certification program, and once certified, we only show their ads in specific countries where the online sale of prescription drugs is allowed. Over the past several years, we’ve seen an increase in country-specific ad regulations, and restricting ads allows us to help advertisers follow these requirements regionally with minimal impact on their broader campaigns.
We also continued to invest in our automated detection technology to effectively scan the web for publisher policy compliance at scale. Due to this investment, along with several new policies, we vastly increased our enforcement and removed ads from 1.3 billion publisher pages in 2020, up from 21 million in 2019. We also stopped ads from serving on over 1.6 million publisher sites with pervasive or egregious violations.
Remaining nimble when faced with new threats
As the number of COVID-19 cases rose around the world last January, we enforced our sensitive events policy to prevent behavior like price-gouging on in-demand products like hand sanitizer, masks and paper goods, or ads promoting false cures. As we learned more about the virus and health organizations issued new guidance, we evolved our enforcement strategy to start allowing medical providers, health organizations, local governments and trusted businesses to surface critical updates and authoritative content, while still preventing opportunistic abuse. Additionally, as claims and conspiracies about the coronavirus’s origin and spread were circulated online, we launched a new policy to prohibit both ads and monetized content about COVID-19 or other global health emergencies that contradict scientific consensus.
In total, we blocked over 99 million Covid-related ads from serving throughout the year, including those for miracle cures, N95 masks due to supply shortages, and most recently, fake vaccine doses. We continue to be nimble, tracking bad actors’ behavior and learning from it. In doing so, we’re able to better prepare for future scams and claims that may arise.
Fighting the newest forms of fraud and scams
Often when we experience a major event like the pandemic, bad actors look for ways to to take advantage of people online. We saw an uptick in opportunistic advertising and fraudulent behavior from actors looking to mislead users last year. Increasingly, we’ve seen them use cloaking to hide from our detection, promote non-existent virtual businesses or run ads for phone-based scams to either hide from detection or lure unsuspecting consumers off our platforms with an aim to defraud them.
In 2020 we tackled this adversarial behavior in a few key ways:
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Introduced multiple new policies and programs including our advertiser identity verification program and business operations verification program.
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Invested in technology to better detect coordinated adversarial behavior, allowing us to connect the dots across accounts and suspend multiple bad actors at once.
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Improved our automated detection technology and human review processes based on network signals, previous account activity, behavior patterns and user feedback.
The number of ad accounts we disabled for policy violations increased by 70% from 1 million to over 1.7 million. We also blocked or removed over 867 million ads for attempting to evade our detection systems, including cloaking, and an additional 101 million ads for violating our misrepresentation policies. That’s a total of over 968 million ads.
Protecting elections around the world
When it comes to elections around the world, ads help voters access authoritative information about the candidates and voting processes. Over the past few years, we introduced strict policies and restrictions around who can run election-related advertising on our platform and the ways they can target ads; we launched comprehensive political ad libraries in the U.S., the U.K., the European Union, India, Israel, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand; and we worked diligently with our enforcement teams around the world to protect our platforms from abuse. Globally, we continue to expand our verification program and verified more than 5,400 additional election advertisers in 2020. In the U.S, as it became clear the outcome of the presidential election would not be determined immediately, we determined that the U.S election fell under our sensitive events policy, and enforced a U.S. political ads pause starting after the polls closed and continuing through early December. During that time, we temporarily paused more than five million ads and blocked ads on over three billion Search queries referencing the election, the candidates or its outcome. We made this decision to limit the potential for ads to amplify confusion in the post-election period.
Demonetizing hate and violence
Last year, news publishers played a critical role in keeping people informed, prepared and safe. We’re proud that digital advertising, including the tools we offer to connect advertisers and publishers, supports this content. We have policies in place to protect both brands and users.
In 2017, we developed more granular means of reviewing sites at the page level, including user-generated comments, to allow publishers to continue to operate their broader sites while protecting advertisers from negative placements by stopping persistent violations. In the years since introducing page-level action, we’ve continued to invest in our automated technology, and it was crucial in a year in which we saw an increase in hate speech and calls to violence online. This investment helped us to prevent harmful web content from monetizing. We took action on nearly 168 million pages under our dangerous and derogatory policy.
Continuing this work in 2021
We know that when we make decisions through the lens of user safety, it will benefit the broader ecosystem. Preserving trust for advertisers and publishers helps their businesses succeed in the long term. In the upcoming year, we will continue to invest in policies, our team of experts and enforcement technology to stay ahead of potential threats. We also remain steadfast on our path to scale our verification programs around the world in order to increase transparency and make more information about the ad experience universally available.
Anche Aruba ha la sua fibra: ecco costi e servizi
Aruba, la società italiana che offre servizi di data center, web hosting, e-mail e registrazione di nomi di dominio, entra nel mondo dell’Internet provider grazie a una partnership con Open Fiber, che continua a occuparsi della realizzazione dell’infrastruttura in fibra ottica in Italia. O meglio, “ritorna” a occupare un ruolo di fornitore di servizi Internet, come ha spiegato Stefano Cecconi, amministratore delegato di Aruba:
Google Elimina La Fee Ai Booking Link Per Gli Hotel
RIAVVIA MI, iniziativa sociale promossa da Lenovo
Comune di Milano. Con RIAVVIA MI una nuova vita per i device ricondizionati di Lenovo Saranno donati alle ragazze e ai ragazzi in difficoltà segnalati dal Comune Sostenere le ragazze e i ragazzi più in difficoltà e avviare un percorso virtuoso di economia circolare. È questo l’obiettivo di RIAVVIA MI, iniziativa sociale promossa da Lenovo in collaborazione con il Comune di Milano, la Città Metropolitana e l’Associazione Energie Sociali Jesurum per aiutare le famiglie bisognose…
L’articolo RIAVVIA MI, iniziativa sociale promossa da Lenovo scritto da REDAZIONE TRENDIEST proviene da Assodigitale.
Cagliari. Efficientamento Energetico 2021. T Hotel, venerdì 19 Marzo dalle ore 10
Crea Casa Luxury Living, importante general contractor del settore, in collaborazione con Igea Digital Bank S.p.A., chiarisce tutti i punti salienti del Decreto Rilancio – – di Greta V. Galimberti – Trendiest News – — Il Decreto Rilancio n. 34 del 19 maggio 2020, che presentava i grandi vantaggi costituiti dai “bonus” per i privati proprietari di casa e per i condomini, ha lasciato talvolta dei dubbi interpretativi e soprattutto ha creato delle difficoltà organizzative, che fortunatamente…
L’articolo Cagliari. Efficientamento Energetico 2021. T Hotel, venerdì 19 Marzo dalle ore 10 scritto da REDAZIONE TRENDIEST proviene da Assodigitale.
Security.txt: uno standard per le informazioni di sicurezza di un sito web
Core 11000: tutti i dettagli su Rocket Lake, la risposta di Intel ai Ryzen 5000
NOW TV cambia nome e sbarca sui dispositivi Fire TV di Amazon
NOW TV cambia nome. Sky ha svelato oggi la nuova brand identity del proprio servizio di streaming che diventa semplicemente NOW e porta con sé un nuovo luogo e un nuovo posizionamento. E, particolare non da meno, sbarca ufficialmente sui dispositivi Fire TV di Amazon in quello che è a tutti gli effetti una nuova partnership tra Sky e il colosso dell’e-commerce e dello streaming.
The 2012 FTC staff papers
A recent D.C. parlor game has been to second-guess the Federal Trade Commission’s 2012 decision to close its antitrust investigation into Google. (That investigation looked at search design, similar to the case filed last year by various state attorneys general.) In response to recent speculation in the press about the FTC’s decision, we wanted to set the record straight.
In a unanimous, bipartisan decision, all five FTC Commissioners concluded that the evolution of Google Search was designed to “improve the quality” of search results and “likely benefited consumers.”
Now, the staff papers and memos that helped inform this decision have been made public.
These documents show why, after a comprehensive review, the Federal Trade Commissioners all voted to close their investigation nearly a decade ago. The memos conclusively confirm that the decision to not bring an antitrust case against the design of Google’s search engine was supported by clear and unambiguous recommendations by all sections of the FTC who reviewed it, including the Bureau of Competition, the Bureau of Consumer Protection, the Bureau of Economics and the Office of the General Counsel.
It’s also clear from the papers how actively Microsoft and other rivals were encouraging these complaints. The FTC put consumers’ interests in higher-quality search results over the interests of a powerful commercial rival, which has since grown even further, to become the second-biggest company in the U.S. by market capitalization.
The memos also show that the FTC and its staff looked in detail at our Android and Apple distribution agreements (the subject of the Department of Justice’s current case) and, after uncovering evidence that people can readily choose alternatives but “overwhelmingly” prefer Google, declined to challenge them.
Some highlights:
People choose to use Google.
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One click away:“The argument that competition is just ‘one click away’ is a compelling one.” (Bureau of Competition staff memo)
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Users prefer Google: “Like the wireless carriers, Apple states [Google] is the overwhelming preference of its customers.” (Bureau of Competition staff memo)
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Partners prefer Google:“The companies have made it apparent to Staff that they have no interest in being released from their current contracts, and little interest in pursuing negotiations with alternative search providers.” (Bureau of Competition staff memo)
Google Search benefits users.
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Universal Search was indisputably a product improvement:“First, I endorse the staff’s recommendation not to bring a case on search preferencing. To bring such a case would intrude deeply into product design, an area into which courts have been extremely reluctant to go unless the design feature in question has no legitimate justification. … Universal Search was indisputably a product improvement…”(General Counsel memo)
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Universal Search benefits users: “Google’s documents show that Universal Search was a procompetitive response to pressure from vertical sites and general search sites and an improvement for users.”(Bureau of Economics staff memo)
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Substantial benefit for users:“Universal Search is a ‘product improvement’ that has resulted in substantial benefit to its users…Google’s organization and aggregation of content from other websites adds value to the product for consumers.”(Bureau of Competition staff memo)
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Google’s search practices benefit users:“Google can legitimately claim that at least part of the conduct at issue improves its product and benefits users.”(Bureau of Competition staff memo)
Google’s distribution agreements
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Our search distribution agreements with web browsers, like Apple’s Safari browser, aren’t exclusive: “[W]e find strong reasons for doubting that … default status on web browsers (both desktop and mobile) can be properly viewed as ‘exclusives’ in the sense that users are unable, with relatively low cost, to access rival search engines.” (Bureau of Economics staff memo)
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Our Android agreements aren’t exclusive:“As an initial matter, recall that Google’s agreements with smartphone manufacturers do not actually require exclusivity. Rather, they are contracts that require Google search to be the initially installed default search engine. Consumers are free to switch to other search engines, or even to replace Google as their default search engine, should they wish to do so.”(Bureau of Economics staff memo)
Google faces competition from specialized search engines.
- Search and vertical search compete:“[S]ubstantial documentary evidence that Google competes against specialized search engines for certain types of queries. Google’s competition with specialized search engines is similar to a supermarket’s competition with a convenience store.” (Lead staff economists)
Google’s Apple agreement
Lead staff economists on the Google investigation:
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Apple chooses Google because it’s the “best”:“Apple stated… ‘Apple’s focus is offering its customers the best products out of the box while allowing them to make choices after purchase. In many countries, Google offers the best product or service.’”
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The agreement is not exclusive: “Additionally, similar to the desktop Safari agreement, both Microsoft and Yahoo are preloaded alternatives to Google in mobile Safari. According to Apple, to change the default, go to “Settings> Safari > Search Engine.”
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Switching search engines is trivial:“[C]hanging the default search option on mobile browsers involves a few taps and downloading other search apps can be achieved in a few seconds. These are trivial switching costs.”
Overall conclusion
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No antitrust violation:“[I]n my judgment at least, the weight of the available evidence…indicates that Google’s conduct has not risen to the level of an antitrust violation.” (Deputy Director in the Bureau of Economics)
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Consensus:“I agree with both [Bureau of Competition] and [Bureau of Economics] staff recommendations that the Commission not issue a complaint or pursue remedies for discriminatory ‘search preferencing’ by Google.”(Head of the Bureau of Economics)
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Staff raise doubts about the case: “We have identified throughout this memorandum the many substantial risks associated with bringing a case against Google. On a global level, the record will permit Google to show substantial innovation, intense competition from Microsoft and others, and speculative long-run harm.“ (Bureau of Competition staff memo)
Make tech work for the whole family
As the first generation of parents raising children surrounded by technology, you’ve told us that you need resources to help make it work — from setting up their first device, to learning about popular apps and services.
Our goal has always been to help families foster a healthy relationship with technology. We’ve given parents a way to help their kids have a safer online experience with Family Link’s parental controls. We’ve also made it easier to find quality content with teacher-approved apps in Google Play, a kids’ tablet experience with Google Kids Space and kids profiles on Google TV.
And today, we’re sharing more resources, tools and content. First, we’re introducing families.google, a website with resources for your family as your kids begin using technology. We’re also sharing a few Family Link updates and launching a content series with Headspace for practicing mindfulness together.
A resource for your family’s tech journey
Over the last year, we’ve listened to your feedback as well as key learnings from commissioned research and what’s trending in Google Search. With families.google, you’ll have a one-stop technology resource.
The website has detailed guides that spell out how to approach your kids’ technology use from organizations like Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, Family Online Safety Institute, Headspace, PBS KIDS and Sesame Workshop. Alongside overviews of our kids and families products, you can also catch up on the latest apps and services and find helpful information on parental controls across the web. You’ll also see tips on how to manage online safety and digital wellbeing as well as fun online activities for families and tools for the classroom.
New to Family Link
Our parental controls have always helped you manage how your children spend time on their Android and Chromebook devices, with functions like screen time limits, the ability to hide apps and more. But parents are increasingly focused on how kids use devices and less on how much, so we’re adding some of your most requested features to Family Link.
You can now encourage your kids to spend more time with apps you approve of by designating them as “always allowed,” even when their screen time limit is up. For example, if your child needs certain apps for remote learning, they can be marked as “always allowed” so they won’t be counted toward their daily screen time limit.
Plus, you can now see added details to daily, weekly and monthly activity reports. This gives you an overview of how your child is spending their time in apps, how it changes over a week or month and what portion of time was spent in “always allowed” apps.
If you’re using the Family Link Android app, the teacher-recommended app card now has suggestions from a catalog of thousands of teacher-approved Google Play apps for kids under 13 in the U.S. You can select an app and download it directly to your child’s device. And to make sure their Android phone doesn’t run out of juice, the Family Link Android app helps you see their device’s battery life.
Finally, we’ve heard that sometimes it’s easier to manage parental controls directly on your child’s device rather than from your own. In the Android Settings for parental controls, you can now set screen time limits right from your child’s device.
Practicing mindfulness together
This last year, 3 in 5 parents allowed increased screen time for their kids, and we also saw Google searches like “fun at home activities for kids” and “mindfulness for kids” skyrocket. That’s why we’re working with Headspace to create content that helps families practice mindfulness and wellbeing. Over the next month, an episode from the new Headspace Breathers series will debut weekly on YouTube and YouTube Kids.
Parents tell us how they’re approaching family tech use
Last year, parents were forced to quickly adapt when schools, daycares and eventually summer camps closed. Almost immediately, many kids turned to online services for education and entertainment.
We want to provide a new website with helpful resources for families raising kids in a digital world during this challenging moment. So we decided to look at last year’s top Google Search trends related to digital parenting, and also surveyed more than 2,000 parents with kids under 13 in the U.S. Here’s what we found:
Ecco come tirarvi fuori da un incontro su Zoom
Siamo tornati in zona rossa. O meglio, 43 milioni di italiani sono di nuovo in zona rossa e tra lo smart working tornato con prepotenza e l’impossibilità di vedere amici e parenti, le videochiamate sono tornate a far parte della nostra quotidianità, che ci piaccia o meno. Spesso, soprattutto se per motivi di lavoro, non è facilissimo defilarsi da un incontro su Zoom e, con la scusa che siamo chiusi in casa, anche le scuse da inventare sono sempre meno. Oggi, però, vi vogliamo presentare uno strumento gratuito che vi permetterà di sabotare i vostri incontri su Zoom e tirarvene fuori senza dover inventare scuse.