March InveHits

March this year is an exceptionally critical month. The coronavirus has hit the online world too, but we are certainly not messengers of bad news, so here is what happened over the past month.

Social

Stories on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is finally joining the platforms following the trend set by FB, Snapchat and Instagram and bringing stories into its formats. LinkedIn is currently testing the new format internally and has confirmed it will bring a beta version to market in the coming months. We are already looking forward to testing it.

Creator Studio has its own app

Creator Studio serves as a helper for managing content on Facebook. Besides that it allows the performance of individual posts to be tracked and various statistics to be viewed. The app, which until recently worked only in a web version, now lets every user of iOS and Android use its features from a mobile phone. Besides creating posts, scheduling their publication and tracking statistics, the app also lets you view the latest notifications and messages.

The Trending button is no longer on YouTube

You may have noticed that the icon named Trending has vanished from YouTube. It is one of the most popular features on the platform, since it took us straight to the currently most popular videos. The button has not disappeared, though, merely been replaced by another. Explore lets us see popular categories as well as trending videos.

PPC

Google Ads extends portfolio bid strategies

Google Ads is introducing new ways of using new strategies in portfolios, which will be compatible with more kinds of smart bidding. Portfolio strategies are automated bidding strategies aimed at reaching set goals that span several campaigns. Until now portfolio strategies were available only for tCPA, tROAS, max. clicks and target impression share. From now on they will be available for portfolio strategies and for the max. conversions and max. conversion value strategies as well.

Automatic image improvements in Google Merchant

Google has announced a new image improvement feature in Google Merchant Center. With it you can automatically improve the images you upload, make sure they meet the requirements and raise their overall impression. The feature has to be enabled in the settings.

SEO

Make use of free courses

If you are hungry for know-how and want to learn, Ahrefs and Moz have a splendid opportunity to take courses free of charge that would otherwise cost you a good few hundred dollars. If you work with Ahrefs, HERE is their Blogging For Business course, normally around USD 700. If you work with Moz, they have something similar with the code "wegotthis". The link is HERE.

Development

WooCommerce 4.0 is out

The long-awaited release of WooCommerce 4.0 is now available. The fourth version brings a new version of WooCommerce Admin with it. As in earlier updates, more JavaScript is added, moving us once again towards more modern e-shops.

Do not forget that 4.0 is a "major" release, so it need not be fully compatible with earlier versions of WooCommerce or with the plugins you use. Before an update this large we certainly recommend making a test copy of your e-shop and trying the update there first.

Europe's internet troubles

Now that we are all sitting at home, whether on sick leave or working remotely, Netflix, YouTube and the popular Pornhub are seeing an enormous peak. Following Netflix's lead, YouTube has now also moved to reduce video quality slightly for the European market. The changes are temporary, though — for the time being we are talking about a period of one month. Facebook and Instagram have joined the reduction in video quality too. Pornhub, as tradition dictates, is going the other way. In Italy it unlocked Pornhub Premium for everyone, which means Full HD, 4K and a heap of VR videos. The good news is that they are offering a free week to us Slovaks too :).