TechShu Marketing Digest: October 2019

This curated list includes important digital marketing updates and insights from the month of October. To stay updated on the latest updates from the digital landscape, read our Digital Marketing Apple Page.

Digital Advertisement 

  • Facebook opens search ads to all advertisers. All new ad campaigns using Automatic Placements will automatically include the Facebook Search Results placement. The announcement read

The ads are designed to fit the experience on the given search results surface (Marketplace search or general search). They look similar to News Feed ads and have the same transparency and controls, including a “Sponsored” label so it’s clearly marked as paid placement. 

  • Snapchat rolls out Dynamic Ads. The announcement read

Some benefits of Dynamic Ads include: 

High quality creative: Easily choose from templates designed to showcase products visually, making your ads look beautiful and native to the platform, without the need for any design skills.

Improved return on effort: Cutting out the time spent on manually creating ads means more time spent focusing on growing your business.

Increased ad relevance: Simply sync a product catalog, select an audience for prospecting or re-engagement, and let Snap’s system deliver the ad in real-time. As changes to products occur (i.e. price or availability), the ads will adjust accordingly so you can run ‘always-on’ campaigns, to continuously tailor the shopping experience to Snapchatters’ preferred interests.

  • Advertisers can join a test drive of the redesigned Microsoft Advertising. The updates include. 

There will be a new global menu bar that appears on the top of every page. 

The main menu on the far left will allow quick-and-easy access to your campaigns. 

Read more here

  • LinkedIn adds enhanced targeting tools to help you reach more right audience. The announcement read 

We’ve improved the campaign forecasting panel in Campaign Manager, so you can now see the make-up of your target audience right from the dashboard.

Now, with Boolean targeting, you can use a single campaign to reach people who are Directors at any job function, as well as people in Finance roles of any seniority. This gives you greater flexibility to determine the kinds of professionals who see your ads. 

  • New customizable templates for stories ads across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger are rolled out. The announcement read

Customizable stories templates provide you with the flexibility to customize your existing assets for stories with minimal effort. After uploading your existing assets to Ads Manager, you can choose from a variety of layouts, and then use the editing capabilities to select from different background colors, text options, and cropping options.

  • Paid Social ad spending grew 37% over the second quarter of 2018, driven by mobile and video ads:Kenshoo. Read the report here
  • Amazon’s search ads market share in the US forecasted to cut into Google's market share: Report. Read more here
  • Social media overtakes print for 1st time in global ad spending: Report. Read more here
  • TikTok bans political ads. Read more here 
  • Twitter bans political ads. 
  • Google Ads officially launches rollout of lead form extensions. Read more here

Lead form extensions on Search simplify the form fill process to generate quality leads for your business.

Lead form extensions capture interest when potential customers are searching for your company, products, or services on Google. A fast, mobile-optimized experience makes form submission easy and eliminates the extra step of navigating to your mobile site lead form.

  • Google rolls out two new tools for responsive search ads. The announcement read 

The Performance column helps identify which of your creative assets are driving results in high volume ad groups. Replace “Low” rated assets with new ad copy to improve performance over time. Keep “Good” performing assets and use “Best” performing assets as inspiration for new ad creative.
Ad variations now supports responsive search ads, allowing you to run your own ad copy tests and see how different variations of your ads perform.

  • YouTube's AR Beauty feature Try On is available to brands globally in a beta with Masthead and TrueView video discovery ads. The announcement read 

Using this new AR feature, beauty brands will be able to offer realistic, virtual product samples that work on a full range of skin tones, to YouTube’s 2 billion monthly active users, delivered via the YouTube Masthead or TrueView Video Discovery video ads across IOS and Android, and measure their engagement.

Search 

  • Google rolls out BERT to improve its search results. The announcement read 

Well, by applying BERT models to both ranking and featured snippets in Search, we’re able to do a much better job  helping you find useful information. In fact, when it comes to ranking results, BERT will help Search better understand one in 10 searches in the U.S. in English, and we’ll bring this to more languages and locales over time.

  • Google to stop indexing flash content. Read more here
  • 3.7 Google My Business rating stars delivers highest conversion boost: Study. Download here

Social Media

  •  Facebook and Instagram ban 'sexual' emoji including peach, eggplant, and sweat drip. Read more here
  •  Facebook rolls out three new features for Messenger designed to help businesses communicate with their customers on the platform. The announcement read

We are making it easier for brands that have multiple apps connected to the Messenger platform to easily select the app that they want to use for their click to Messenger ads.

Brands can now set icebreakers on their Messenger profile via the API. Icebreakers help businesses reduce friction in starting a conversation by surfacing common questions or topics of interest.

Now, businesses can see people’s reaction to messages from businesses and build a deeper connecting with their customers. Message replies adds context to a conversation. Businesses can see which message the user is responding to.

  •  Facebook rolls out Threads from Instagram, a new camera-first messaging app that helps you stay connected to your close friends. The announcement read

Threads is a standalone app designed with privacy, speed, and your close connections in mind. You can share photos, videos, messages, Stories, and more with your Instagram close friends list. You are in control of who can reach you on Threads, and you can customize the experience around the people who matter most. 

  • LinkedIn Pages introduces new features to help employees share their company’s key updates or highlight their incredible work. The announcement read

With Employee Notifications, Page Admins can now alert employees of important posts, which employees can then engage with or share to their LinkedIn network.

With Kudos and Team Moments, Page Admins can leverage a custom content format built specifically to welcome new team members, spotlight outstanding work, and recognize the people behind an organization’s pivotal moments.

  • Facebook is changing how it calculates organic impressions. 
Category
Digital Marketing