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

Digital Advertisement 

• Snap Ads can run for three-minutes long. Previously, the maximum duration for Snap Ads was ten-seconds. The up-to-three-minute-long commercials are skippable, too. Read more here
• Reddit introduces mobile landing pages + more updates. The announcement read

To improve the video ads experience for both users and advertisers, we are enabling a new landing page on mobile that combines a seamless viewing experience with additional branding and product information that directs to the advertiser’s website. With this update, Reddit users who click an in-feed video ad will be taken to a website that will continue playing the video, uninterrupted, alongside other branding and marketing from the advertiser. 

We are introducing additional aspect ratios to our video ads product, enabling advertisers to increase engagement and save time by utilizing their video assets across platforms. With the rollout of our video ads improvement bundle, we now support 1:1 square and 4:5 vertical video in addition to 16:9 and 4:3 video formats. 

• Pinterest rolls out Shop the Look ads in a new collections format for mobile. The announcement read

Today we're announcing Shop the Look ads in a new collections format for mobile. It's the easiest way for retailers to feature multiple products in a single ad so Pinners can discover great products in the context of a Pin’s image and click to checkout on the retailer’s site.

• YouTube video ads: Rather than managing separate campaigns for 6-second bumper ads, skippable in-stream ads, and non-skippable in-stream ads, now you can upload multiple video creatives into a single campaign. Read more here
• Facebook announces new ad solutions ( new video poll ad format and the expansion of AR Ads ) that encourage a playful experience between people and businesses, and deliver results. Read more here
• Facebook confirms Pixel outage may have impacted conversion, Custom Audience, Dynamic Ads reports. Read more here
• Instagram tests shopping posts as ads. The announcement read

we'll be testing the ability for shopping businesses to run their existing shopping posts as ads in Ads Manager. Starting today, a few selected businesses will be able to test this experience in feed. Running these shopping posts as ads provides the same experience people already know and love. Shoppers that tap on these ads will be taken to a product description page within Instagram and can proceed to purchase from the business' mobile site.

• Facebook tests two new ad features: in-app checkout for Facebook ads. Read more here
• Google adds new TrueView ads in the YouTube Home feed. Read more here

Social Media 

• Instagram tests reminders for product launches on Instagram shopping. The announcement read

Today we’re testing a new way to set reminders about upcoming product launches so people can buy your products the moment they’re available, right on Instagram. From checkout to shopping from creators, this is part of our ongoing investment to make it easier for people to shop.

• 80% of Instagram users name ‘How-to videos’ as their favorite type of Instagram video content: Report. Download the report here
• Facebook app marketers: All apps must be set to Live Mode for production use. The announcement read

Starting October 23, 2019, all apps must be set to Live Mode for production use. Apps that stay in Development (Dev) Mode will not be able to manage any assets (for example: Pages or ad accounts) that aren’t owned by their own business or access the data of any users who aren’t associated with the app.

• Pinterest upgrades Lens for more online to offline inspiration. The announcement read

A new Lens design makes it easier and faster to take a photo or quickly upload a photo from your camera roll. You can also now save photos from Lens, turn them into a Pin and save them to one of your Boards so you can come back to it anytime. 

• Facebook rolls out updates for Video Creators & Publishers: Live, Watch Party and Creator Studio. The announcement read

The features we’re announcing today were built based on feedback from our community of video creators and publishers. These updates include:
Live: Rehearsals, trimming, extended duration, simulcasting via the Live API, and global availability of Live on Facebook Lite.
Watch Party: Scheduling, replay, new metrics, branded content, and global availability of Live Commentating.
Creator Studio: A new visualization in Loyalty Insights, a new Distribution metric, 13 new languages for auto-captioning, and the ability to publish and schedule content for Instagram Feed and IGTV.

• Facebook considers removing “Like” counts. Read more here
• Facebook gives creators new ways to build audiences. The announcement read

To help public figures reach new audiences, we’re testing the ability for multiple public figures to contribute to the same Facebook Story during an event, as well as a new feature in News Feed to help people discover public figures to follow.
We’re adding more tools to make it easier for public figures to engage directly with their communities, including a new Fan Reply Sticker for Facebook Stories.
We’re building out ways for public figures to make money and grow their businesses on Facebook, including more ways to sell directly to fans and expanding Facebook Stars.
We’re committed to protecting public figures from abuse on our platforms, so we’re sharing new ways to help ensure interactions between people and public figures are safe and authentic.

• Twitter rolls out new playbook on effective brand tweeting strategies. Read more here
• Why conversation is the future of commerce: Facebook study. Read more here

• Instagram shares tips on leveraging Instagram Stories from Vice Media. Read more here
• Facebook removes its Group Stories option. Read more here
• Gen Z is down to do their own digging, but user opinion makes a big difference in a few key categories: Snapchat research on GenZ. Read more here
• Facebook publishes a new guide to digital brand building. Read more here

Search

• Google rolls out new snippet settings to allow webmasters to control how Google search displays their listings, Read more here
• Organic search responsible for 53% of all site traffic, paid 15% [Study]. Read more here
• Google rolls out a new feature - calls it key moments in videos. The announcement read

Starting today you can find key moments within videos and get to the information you’re looking for faster, with help from content creators. When you search for things like how-to videos that have multiple steps, or long videos like speeches or a documentary, Search will provide links to key moments within the video, based on timestamps provided by content creators. You’ll be able to easily scan to see whether a video has what you’re looking for, and find the relevant section of the content.

• Google rolls out two new link attributes that provide webmasters with additional ways to identify to Google Search the nature of particular links. The announcement read

rel="sponsored": Use the sponsored attribute to identify links on your site that were created as part of advertisements, sponsorships or other compensation agreements.
rel="ugc": UGC stands for User Generated Content, and the ugc attribute value is recommended for links within user generated content, such as comments and forum posts.
rel="nofollow": Use this attribute for cases where you want to link to a page but don’t want to imply any type of endorsement, including passing along ranking credit to another page.