New privacy protections could actually be a hindrance to competition, according to Adam Solomon, CMO of Lotame, a marketing technology platform. Facebook—and Google under similar pressures—could wind up controlling all the data connections to consumers, with publishers and marketers on the outside looking in. “It’s actually concentrating power and market leverage within the walled garden, because they have certain advantages, direct relations with consumers,” Solomon said. “With the latest wave, with the DOJ and FTC looking at Google, Facebook and others, maybe they can look at leveling the playing field.”

“The ads platform business of Google is a central focus of investigation,” said an executive from an ad tech platform that is a rival to Google, speaking on condition of anonymity. The executive says that a number of competitors already expect to talk with federal regulators in this case, addressing how Google Marketing Platform and Google Ad Manager dominate the online marketplace. “It’s a huge advantage to having this full stack,” the exec says. “The ad-serving platform and the ad demand are all locked up in one company. Then add search data to it, it’s a perfect cocktail.”

A few months ago we released a beta version of a new Search Console experience to a limited number of users. We are now starting to release this beta version to all users of Search Console, so that everyone can explore this simplified process of optimizing a website's presence on Google Search. The functionality will include Search performance, Index Coverage, AMP status, and Job posting reports. We will send a message once your site is ready in the new Search Console.

We started by adding some of the most popular functionality in the new Search Console (which can now be used in your day-to-day flow of addressing these topics). We are not done yet, so over the course of the year the new Search Console (beta) will continue to add functionality from the classic Search Console. Until the new Search Console is complete, both versions will live side-by-side and will be easily interconnected via links in the navigation bar, so you can use both.

The new Search Console was rebuilt from the ground up by surfacing the most actionable insights and creating an interaction model which guides you through the process of fixing any pending issues. We’ve also added ability to share reports within your own organization in order to simplify internal collaboration.

A couple of weeks ago, I met with Stuart Williams and Seth Ulinski, analysts at TBR, who shared some of their latest digital marketing technology research with me. Many fascinating findings — including the stat that I shared at MarTech in Boston, that over 75% of enterprises now have an executive explicitly responsible for leading …

On Monday, Salesforce and Google announced they are pooling data and cloud resources together, letting marketers view stats from both platforms within Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Google Analytics dashboards.

According to Google, this is the first time Analytics have been deeply integrated into a CRM solution and a deal between the two companies. One strong component hints at Saleforce’s move into advertising: Customers will be able to purchase Google ads based on how consumers respond to email, SMS and push notification campaigns.

Up until now, marketers have been using workarounds to see both sets of data at the same time; the partnership will likely ameliorate this issue, particularly for smaller brands that have less resources.

Google and Salesforce announced a massive strategic partnership today that’s aimed at driving value across their mutual customers.

As part of the deal, Salesforce plans to use Google Cloud Platform infrastructure as a preferred partner to power the tech titan’s international expansion. Google, for its part, will use Salesforce as its preferred CRM provider for selling its cloud services.

In addition, Salesforce is working to integrate its data with Google’s G Suite productivity service, so joint customers will be able to more easily access Salesforce information within Gmail, Google Sheets and other products. Joint customers will also be able to connect Salesforce’s sales and marketing software with Google Analytics 360, the paid version of the popular analytics service.

Google reveals its 'secret formula' to how they plan, manage and optimize In August Google launched re:Work, an initiative to share their management tools. Marketing topic(s):Capability and performance review. Advice by Carolanne Mangles.

Marketo’s new partnership with Google Cloud will not only improve the scalability and reliability of the marketing automation and engagement platform, it could also give the martech landscape a shake-up, analysts claim.

Last week, Marketo announced a multi-year collaboration agreement with Google Cloud that will see the vendor shift its infrastructure into the search giant’s public cloud offering. As a result, all running of Marketo’s products, end-to-end, will be delivered out of a third-party cloud.

The two companies are also planning to work together to create integrated solutions for marketers, uniting Marketo’s Engagement Platform with Google’s G Suite and data analytics offerings, and bringing more of Google’s machine learning smarts into the former’s platform.

But in addition to the back-end benefits for Marketo, IDC marketing and sales technology research director, Gerry Murray, foresaw a potential shake-up of the martech hierarchy long-term. He saw the partnership improving and extending Google’s enterprise marketing technology offering by bringing in the missing engagement platform piece.

Google got a much-needed win today when Marketo, the marketing automation platform, chose Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to migrate its entire on-prem operation.

The partnership will extend beyond hosting with Google also providing deeper integration with GSuite. Google says that should enable Marketo customers to generate content and communicate with customers directly from the Marketo platform using Google tools like Gmail, Sheets and Hangouts Chat.

In addition, Marketo plans to use Google BigQuery for advanced analytics and Google’s machine learning APIs with the goal of providing better marketing insights for its customers.

Let’s take a look at the threatening factors.

The Google Knowledge Graph

Instant Functionality

Google is also attempting to capitalize on instant functions within its search engine, turning itself into a tool for other functions as much as it is a general-purpose search engine.

Digital Assistants

The Rise of Apps

Google has made a number of recent updates increasing the visibility and priority of apps over traditional websites. 

Google has announced a tool that will let small to medium businesses recruit more quality candidates efficiently. ‘Hire‘ is not to be confused with ‘Google for Jobs’ which Google announced last month which helps people find jobs via search easier. Instead ‘Hire’ works directly with Google’s G Suite (Gmail). 

‘Hire’ is a smart play by Google. Not only will the tool get more small businesses using G-suite (a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Office) but it also makes the whole Google product set more alluring to those wavering. LinkedIn looks almost clunky next to Hire and isn’t half as friendly as Google to small and medium sized businesses looking to save time and money. While clearly belonging to Google, small businesses get a sense of ownership they are unlikely to get with LinkedIn. 

Earlier in 2017, Google released a search algorithm update that's been dubbed Fred. What it means for search marketers is not straightforward. Here's an infographic with what you should know.

Google is putting out a new free marketing tool to help businesses and marketers process more data more easily, with the help of automation.

Called Google Attribution, the tool can help companies better target groups of consumers with content that appeals to them.

Instead of a marketer having to look separately at data from Google Analytics and advertising tools AdWords and DoubleClick, they can use Google Attribution to look at data from those tools together.

Analysis of that data is also automated, the goal being to show users more useful insights into why ads and marketing efforts are effective or not.

1. The problem of landing page form creep (too many fields)
2. Where did you put that phone number?
3. How expensive is too expensive?
4. Consider alternative approaches
That said, there are some B2B businesses where the Google Search Network may not make sense.

All you need to know about advanced search query operators but didn't know you needed to know

The path of least resistance is to do nothing, because Google will happily replace Google Site Search with Google Custom Search Experience (CSE). When that happens, if you made some custom changes to your experience, they might go away, but the “good enough” search results will still be there. And it’s free! Such a deal!

Except for one thing. Google will be showing paid search ads on your website search page. The great majority of the companies that I have spoken to basically say, “Over my dead body will ads be shown on my website.”

Amazon search moves customers along the customer life cycle. Google has long dominated the discover stage of the the customer life cycle. But Amazon is playing an increasingly large role in how customers find products. 

Search marketers can apply most of their best practices in Google for Amazon search. Marketing efforts on Amazon should be put in the hands of your search marketing team because their skillsets will be easily transferable. 

Amazon will look to take over the advertising industry. There has been no shortage of media speculation on Amazon eyeing the ad industry as another segment of its business. Advertisers are not only able to promote their products in Amazon, but also advertise across the web.

AddSearch

Algolia

Amazon CloudSearch

Apache Solr

Cludo

Swiftype

• EMarketer believes Google will command 40.7% of U.S. digital ad revenues this year, more than doubling the share of its closest competitor, Facebook, per the research company.
• Google’s dominance in search will increase 16.1% to $28.55 billion accounting for around 78% of U.S. search ad revenues in 2017.
• Where Facebook is beginning to shine is in display advertising, where it is expected to reach $16.33 billion for a 39.1% share. With a growth rate of 32.1% in display, Facebook will take display revenue from Google, Yahoo and Twitter. Google’s display revenue is expected to hit $5.24 billion, but its market share will decrease to 12.5%.

Google’s domination of the US search ad market isn’t letting up. Thanks to mobile in particular, Google will take 77.8 percent of US search ad revenues this year. By next year, for every dollar spent on search advertising in the US, an even eight dimes will go to Google. The remaining 20 cents will be split up among Microsoft, Yahoo, Yelp, Amazon, Ask and AOL, according to eMarketer’s latest report on the US digital ad market.

Overall, search spending in the US is expected to increase 24 percent over the next three years, from $36.69 billion in 2017 to $45.63 billion in 2019.

While established players like Adobe, Salesforce, and Marketo are rarely mentioned in the same breath as tech’s “Frightful Five“—Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft—there is increasing evidence that tech’s giants are eyeing martech. And they’re bringing superior talent, vertical advantages, and astronomical budgets with them.

Look at it this way: the dynamic is already widespread on Google. Because of Google’s monopolistic control over the search engine space, SEO and martech tools are beholden to Google’s whims. Ultimately, Google controls the flow of data. If it wanted to cut off a company like Moz and build its own tool, it could. The push into martech has already begun. Amazon offers a marketing stack under the Alexa banner, while Amazon Web Services dominates cloud-computing. 

According to Brinker, there’s an even bigger disruptive force coming from tech giants: new client interfaces like Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Google Home, VR and AR, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Voice-enabled computing and other new client interface technologies could disrupt the entire customer journey. Rather than visit a homepage or a company Facebook page, potential customers could simply tell their Alexa devices to buy a product. Amazon becomes the only player in that experience, leaving martech vendors on the outside looking in. Eventually, marketers may have to use software provided by these major platforms just to survive.