Daily Minute Master Series – September 30, 2019

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Social Media

Instagram Adds Branded Content Tags for IGTV

While Instagram’s Branded Content Tags are still not available to all users, for those that can access them, they are now also being expanded to longer-form IGTV content. Business and creator accounts in regions where the tag is available can now set them up for IGTV. When applied, they will ad a ‘Paid Partnership with…’ note in the header of the video post. While IGTV hasn’t yet become a key destination for video consumption, viewership has been growing, particularly since the addition of previews of IGTV videos within the main Instagram feed, which the platform rolled out back in February. The capacity to utilize branded content tags within IGTV videos will be of particular relevance to brands seeking to work with influencers to promote their products, an area which Instagram has been working to better facilitate.

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Instagram in-stream video ads driving more purchases than Story Ads: Report

Advertisers wanting to drive more purchases on Instagram may want to focus on in-stream video ads over Story Ads, according to a recent report from Wibbitz. The online video editing platform surveyed 1,000 consumers in the U.S., UK and France to get a broad overview of user behavior on the platform.  Of the 73% of respondents who said they were Instagram users, 31% said they had purchased a product directly after watching a video on the platform. When digging into the types of video ads that resulted in a purchase, 27% of the respondents reported they bought something directly after watching an in-feed video ad, while only 12% said they had done the same after watching a video ad within an Instagram Story. Of the 73% of survey respondents that said they use Instagram, 69% said they spend most of their time on the platform watching videos. In other words, brands seeking more organic engagement on Instagram should be investing in more video content and sharing later in the evening when users are more likely to be scrolling through their feed. 

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Marketing

Google Sept. 2019 Core Update ‘weaker’ than June core update

A Google core update is when Google adjusts its core search ranking algorithm with the goal of returning more relevant and useful search results to the searcher. Google does these updates every quarter or so, and for the past few updates, Google has confirmed them. We have data from various SEO toolset providers. In aggregate, the data show that this September update was not as strong or impactful as the June core update, which we had data on as well. Overall, the September core update appears to have had a stronger impact on the YMYL, your money – your life, category. With any Google update, a core update, quality update or even some user interface updates, the search results change. Some result in sites ranking higher for their prime keywords, others may see a drop in their positions, while others may see no change. Also, click-through rates may be impacted by updates, and you may notice more or less traffic after any of these updates. The rollout may be finishing up very soon, but this is all early data and things may still change over the next couple of days. So far, it appears this update was not as big as the previous update. So keep an eye on your traffic, keep making your web site better, and keep working on driving traffic and conversions on your site.

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In response to Google change, Yoast SEO will opt users into all snippet features by default

On September 24, Google announced new snippet settings to provide site owners with options to limit the content included in their search listings. These new settings are part of Google’s response to the first implementation of the European Copyright Directive by France, which was in part aimed at getting Google and other internet giants to pay for use of publishers’ content in its results. Google says it won’t pay publishers in France (or other EU countries that follow France’s lead), and they must opt-in to have their snippets presented in Google results. Yoast SEO users will be opted into all of its snippet features by default, the WordPress plugin developer announced Thursday. The update containing this change, version 12.2, will be released on October 1.

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Daily Minute Master Series – September 27, 2019

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Social Media

Facebook Begins Hiding Total Like Counts on Facebook Posts in Australia

Facebook has confirmed that it is beginning a test of hiding total Like counts on Facebook, with TechCrunch reporting that the new test will begin with Australian users this week. That’ll certainly rattle the cages of a lot of Facebook users, who rely on their Like counts as a type of validation – which is exactly what the broader initiative is designed to reduce. The removal of public like counts, according to Mosseri, could reduce social comparison, and its associated negative impacts. Being based in Australia, where Instagram Likes have been hidden for the past few months, it has been interesting to read the coverage, and some of the misconceptions about the test. First off, you can still see the full Like listing on any Instagram post – your own or from others – you just can’t see the total number. As an experiment, it’ll be interesting to see what the actual impacts are, and if Facebook and Instagram are able to quantify any positive benefits of the change. Some influencers and industry analysts in regions where the change has been implemented have suggested that it is already having significant negative impacts, but it’s hard to know without hard data, and without seeing what the platforms themselves are using as their metrics for success.

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Marketing

Keywords Everywhere tool goes paid on Oct 1

On October 1, keyword research browser add-on Keywords Everywhere will move from a free to a pay-as-you-go model, the developer announced on September 25. The move to a paid model was necessitated by an increase in bot activity. Kevin said the deluge of bots forced him to disable the Import Keywords and Analyze Page features as well as “constantly upgrade hardware in order to keep the software functional for our real users.” Keywords Everywhere said it will use the funds to add support for other countries, build additional features and reintroduce features blocked due to bot-related activity. On October 1, the browser add-on will stop retrieving volume, CPC and competition data for all keywords; however, “related” keywords and “people also ask for” keywords will still be shown. Users will have to purchase account credit to gain access to volume, CPC and competition data.

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Google My Business Lets Restaurants Opt-Out of Online Ordering

Google My Business is letting restaurant listings remove links to online ordering. In order to remove links to third-party ordering systems, businesses have to fill out a form. Google’s new form gives restaurants the ability to remove links to online ordering via third-party partners. A restaurant might want to do this if they accept orders directly through their website. Third-party ordering systems – such as DoorDash, Postmates, and the like – charge fees to restaurants for utilizing their service. In theory, if a restaurant removes links to third-party food delivery partners, then they could funnel more orders through their website and pay out less money in fees. Of course, many restaurants rely on third-parties as their only means of fulfilling delivery orders. In cases such as those it likely wouldn’t be in the restaurant’s best interest to opt-out of displaying online ordering links on their Google My Business listing. Though they still could if they want to.

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Google Ads Changes the Design of Call-Only Ads

Google is rolling out a new look for call-only ads which is said to help drive higher quality leads. The updated layout for call-only ads displays the business’s phone number at the top, while business name and headline is now placed below the phone number in smaller text. Google says that, in testing, the new call-only ad design has had a positive impact on phone calls and conversions while keeping costs down for advertisers. Call-only ads that are already in place will be automatically switched over to the new design this week. There is no additional action needed on the part of advertisers.

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Daily Minute Master Series – September 26, 2019

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Social Media

Twitter’s Testing a New Way to Easily Locate Content That’s Been Shared in DMs

Twitter is working on a new option which would enable you to more easily locate any content – including tweets, images and links – that’s been shared within your direct message conversations. It could be a handy way to keep track of discussions, or find that thing you were talking about with your friend a few days back. And given the rise in messaging on every social platform, it makes sense for Twitter to add in another way to better manage your private discussions – in fact, this is just the latest in a line of more recent Twitter DM updates, underlining the platform’s efforts to facilitate more direct conversation within the app. The emphasis would suggest that Twitter is seeing increasing DM usage, which could also lead to more messaging options and tools coming in the near future. There’s no word on any official launch date for this new feature, or for DM search function, but with Twitter looking to focus on DM improvements, you can likely expect to see them ‘in the wild’ sometime soon. 

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Reddit rolls out mobile landing pages, standard sizes, optional referral URLs for video ads

Reddit announced three new video ad updates on Wednesday, launching a new mobile landing page experience, adding two more aspect ratios for ad sizes and offering optional referral URLs for CPV (cost per view) campaigns. After launching an entirely overhauled site last year, Reddit, reports an increase in page views and time spent on its website and app, along with user engagement growth. With the redesign complete, Reddit now has a platform on which it can build out more comprehensive ad offerings, something it has been steadily accomplishing over the past year. In addition to giving brands more video ad options this time, Reddit also reported it is forming its first video engineering team to test and improve its video ad products.

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Marketing

Google won’t pay French publishers copyright fees, will limit content in search results instead

Last year, after an extended public debate, the European Parliament passed a controversial and sweeping new Copyright Directive. In part, it was intended to harmonize and modernize EU copyright law. However, it was also intended to generate licensing revenue for authors and publishers from big internet companies such as Google and Facebook. France was the first country in the EU to implement the new rules domestically. Google now says it will not pay French publishers the expected copyright licensing fees. Google News VP Richard Gingras said, “[W]e don’t accept payment from anyone to be included in search results. We sell ads, not search results, and every ad on Google is clearly marked. That’s also why we don’t pay publishers when people click on their links in a search result.” He added, “To operate in any other way would reduce the choice and relevance to our users—and would ultimately result in the loss of their trust in our services.” Google will giving publishers the ability to explicitly opt-in to have more content presented on the SERP. It has created a set of webmaster guidelines that French and ultimately all European publishers can use to communicate how much of their news content to show in the SERP. This will effectively function as a waiver of their licensing rights under the Copyright Directive.

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Sidecar launches Amazon Advertising campaign management solution

E-commerce marketing technology firm Sidecar has launched a new solution for managing Amazon Advertising campaigns. Through a mix of managed service and technology, Sidecar for Amazon aims to streamline management of sponsored products, sponsored brands and product display ads and provide optimization and reporting features currently lacking in the Amazon Advertising platform. Amazon’s advertising products have advanced, but the platform is still relatively nascent. Technology solutions are popping up to help advertisers manage their campaigns with more sophisticated features. Sidecar for Amazon is one of the few to support all three of Amazon Advertising’s e-commerce ad formats.

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Daily Minute Master Series – September 25, 2019

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Social Media

Facebook Takes Next Steps into Mind Control with Acquisition CTRL-Labs

According to reports, Facebook has acquired a start-up called CTRL-Labs, a company’s which is working on software that would enable people to control a digital avatar, using only their thoughts. Facebook is reportedly paying between $500 million and $1 billion for CTRL-Labs, which it will bring into its experimental research teams to continue its work on the next phase of digital connection. Which could be connecting Facebook directly into your brain – which doesn’t sound like a particularly great idea. Of course, there are benefits to such a system. Facebook has noted that such innovation would help people with severe paralysis, similar to how its automated image recognition technology helps the visually impaired. Facebook has shown time and time again that it’s not particularly good at thinking through the full range of potential implications of its tools – whether that’s how people’s personal data can be misused, how political operatives can manipulate users through its ad system, how that ad system itself can be used for discriminatory targeting. Facebook is very ambitious, and rightfully so, but it’s repeatedly demonstrated that it doesn’t put enough weight or consideration into the potential negatives of its functions. 

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Snapchat Expands Ad Length Limits, Announces New Ad Formats

Snapchat has this week announced a range of new ad and content updates designed to maximize audience attention, and provide advanced options for marketers. According to AdAge, Snapchat is now looking to allow ads of up to three minutes in length in selected formats, up from the 10-second limit which has been the core threshold on the platform. The extended Snap ads will be skippable, but will enable expanded brand messaging for those who are able to engage Snap’s audience for longer period. Up till now, advertisers have only been able to utilize longer video messaging by prompting Snap viewers to ‘swipe up’ to see more, so longer ads have, essentially, been possible, though not hosted direct on Snap’s platform, and not up front, intruding viewer behavior. The ads will be attached to Snap’s expanding selection of Snap Original programming, short, TV-show style video series’, hosted within the app, which have been slowly gaining ground, and boosting appeal with younger consumers.  According to AdAge, Snap is also adding in a new, interactive option for its unskippable six-second video ads, with a “swipe up” option to better drive viewer response (you can see an example of this in the far right screenshot at the top of the post). That seems like a lesser addition here, but the potential to drive more direct response will help Snap advertisers get a better understanding of ad performance, and return on ad spend.

For the full article click here 

Marketing

Google’s new snippet settings give webmasters control over their search listings display

Google has released new snippet settings to allow webmasters to control how Google search displays your listings, the company announced on the Google webmaster blog These settings work either through a set of robots meta tags and an HTML attribute. As far as we know, Bing and other search engines do not currently support any of these new snippet settings. Google just came out with support for these new settings. There is no real way to preview how these new snippet settings will work in live Google search. So you just need to implement it and wait for Google to show them. You can use the URL inspection tool to expedite crawling and once Google crawls it, you should be able to see the revised snippet in the live search results. One of the bigger requests SEOs, webmasters and site owners have wanted was more control over what Google shows for their listings in the Google search results. These new settings give you more flexibility in terms of what you do and do not want to show in your search result snippet on Google.

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Nextdoor in new deals with directories to monetize local search

Nextdoor is probably the most interesting company in local search that isn’t named Google, Facebook or Yelp. It’s not really on the mainstream local SEO to-do list at this point but it’s definitely a massive site with lots of traffic and engagement.The site announced deals home services directories Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor and Handy (owned by HomeAdvisor), which will present small business contractors in local search results as sponsored listings. Thumbtack says that in addition to appearing in sponsored search results, contractors will also be featured on Nextdoor business pages, which are very similar to Facebook local business pages and present relevant member conversations about the business. Nextdoor is likely moving toward a public offering and needs to grow revenues. Direct ad sales to SMBs are extremely challenging and would require a significant investment of time and personnel. This is an easier way forward in the near term for the company. Nextdoor has an opportunity to become a top-tier local search destination in a way that many others, including Thumbtack do not. It has developed a member culture of local contractor referrals and could drive considerable search volume and leads provided it makes the right moves and conditions users to utilize its search box. And in one version of the future it could also challenge Facebook as a local search destination and SMB ad platform.

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Daily Minute Master Series – September 24, 2019

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Social Media

Pinterest Announces New Business Profile Format, Shop the Look Collection Ads

This week, Pinterest has added some new considerations into the mix, with the addition of Shop the Look collection ads, along with an updated profile format which enables users to include video as their cover image. First off, on Shop the Look collections – Pinterest is expanding its shoppable post format into paid ads, enabling businesses to showcase multiple, buyable items within each Pin. Shop the Look collections will essentially expand into product catalogs, with the capacity to display a range of products. Advertisers will be able to tag up to 25 items in a Pin image, while a preview showcase of four items will be shown along the bottom of the Pin. The addition of these expanded Shop the Look ad options will provide more ways for brands to drive direct purchases from Pinterest, which could help maximize shopping potential among browsing consumers. Pinterest says that the new Shop the Look ads will be rolling out in the U.S. “over the coming months”. The addition of these expanded Shop the Look ad options will provide more ways for brands to drive direct purchases from Pinterest, which could help maximize shopping potential among browsing consumers. Pinterest says that the new Shop the Look ads will be rolling out in the U.S. “over the coming months”. 

For the full article click here 

Twitter Launches Lists as Alternate, Swipeable Timelines on iOS

After first announcing its experiment with adding lists as alternate, swipeable tweet feeds back in June, Twitter is now rolling the option out to all users on iOS. Users will now be able to pin up to five selected lists from their ‘Lists’ settings and have them appear as swipeable feeds from the home timeline. This will give users more ways to access specific discussions on the platform, which may make it a more engaging, interactive experience. Twitter lists have long been considered an underrated feature – something Twitter itself has even acknowledged in the past – with many ‘power’ users exclusively utilizing lists to curate their on-platform experience. Given this, it makes a lot of sense for Twitter to provide more options on this front, while the capacity to be able to separate tweet discussions by topic will also make it easier to maintain context within each discussion, and may improve engagement as a result. Overall, this seems like a good update for Twitter, and it’ll be interesting to see how if and how users take up the swipeable streams option.

For the full article click here 

Marketing

Google September 2019 core update to roll-out later today

Google announced this morning on Twitter that it is releasing the September 2019 core update later today. Core updates impact how Google ranks web sites and how Google determines what is the most relevant web page for a specific query.  Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms it means that your site can do better or worse in the search results. Knowing when Google does these updates gives us something to point to in order to understand if it was something you changed on your web site or something Google changed with its ranking algorithm. Today we know Google will be releasing a core ranking update.

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Advertising

Google Adds New Video Campaign Options, Including Home Screen Ads on YouTube

Google is launching some new options to help marketers better manage their video ad campaigns, and reach consumers where they’re most active. First off, Google’s adding new TrueView ads in the YouTube Home feed, “a tremendous opportunity for any advertiser looking to drive more, high-value conversions”. In addition to these new YouTube ad formats, Google is also adding ‘Video Reach Campaigns’, which will enable brands to upload a range of video assets and have Google’s systems determine their placement. It’s essentially automated placement for video ads – while traditionally, marketers have maintained control over each element, by utilizing Google’s machine learning processes, it may be possible to optimize your video ad delivery for better results. As we head into the holiday period, you can expect almost every digital ad platform to be offering new tools and processes, and these video ad tools definitely provide a lot of potential, particularly the new opportunities to gain exposure in YouTube’s main feed.

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Daily Minute Master Series – September 23, 2019

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Social Media

Facebook is Removing its Group Stories Option as of September 26th

After recently announcing a new multi-contributor Stories option for public figures, Facebook has followed that up with the removal of its similar ‘Group Stories’ functionality, which enables Facebook group members to contribute to a single, collaborative Story within that group. Facebook launched the first iteration of group Stories to selected users in November 2017, before expanding the functionality to all groups last December. But while group Stories added a new consideration for group engagement, it also added extra moderation workload for group admins. Facebook says that archived group Stories will remain viewable, but users will not be able to re-share them. Facebook also notes that any pending Stories admins have queued will also be deleted next week. 

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YouTube reworks verification requirements, displays verified checkmark more consistently across platform

YouTube has updated eligibility verification requirements for creator and branded channels and has rolled out a new “look” for the program, displaying verified checkmark icons more consistently across YouTube channel pages, in search, and in comments. The goal of the new program is to eliminate confusion around what a verification checkmark represents: “Through our research, we found that viewers often associated the checkmark with an endorsement of content, not identity.” YouTube’s new eligibility rules impact marketers managing branded channels and those tasked with evaluating influencers on the platform. For marketers in charge of their company’s YouTube presence, YouTube says channels with large audiences owned by a brand or person widely recognized outside of YouTube and have a strong presence — or have a name that can be confused with another channel on YouTube — are typically verified. The new verification program could help marketers charged with identifying and building relationships with influencers. A verification checkmark is meant to be seen as an indicator of authenticity rather than simply a high subscriber count. YouTube said the new verification program applies to all channels and that channel owners will not have to apply: “We will automatically apply the new verified treatment.”

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Pinterest Enhances Group Boards With New Collaboration Tools

Pinterest is enhancing users’ ability to collaborate on group boards with the roll out of three new features. The new collaboration tools include more reactions for feedback, the ability to sort pins, and a central hub for communicating with group members. New reactions allow users to provide quick feedback on pins which can be seen by other group members. Pinterest is creating a redesigned space for group members to communicate with each other. This will be rolling out in the coming weeks. These updates will be rolling out to all Pinterest users worldwide on all platforms. The new reactions and sorting feature are available now by updating the Pinterest app.

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Marketing

TripAdvisor says it blocked or removed nearly 1.5 million fake reviews in 2018

The powerful influence of reviews on purchase behavior has spawned a cottage industry of fake-reviews, a problem that is growing on major sites such as Amazon, Google and Yelp, among other places. TripAdvisor is one of those other places, where reviews form the core of the company’s content and the principle reason consumers visit. In its inaugural TripAdvisor Transparency Report the company says that 2.1% of all reviews submitted to the site in 2018 were fake. Given the volume of review submissions TripAdvisor receives – more than 66 million in 2018 – that translates into roughly 1.4 million fake reviews. TripAdvisor says that 73% of those fake reviews were blocked before being posted, while the remainder of fake reviews were later removed. TripAdvisor defines “fake review” as one “written by someone who is trying to unfairly manipulate a business’ average rating or traveler ranking, such as a staff member or a business’ competitor. The company uses a mix of machine detection, human moderation and community flagging to catch fraudulent reviews. Consumer trust is eroding online. It’s incumbent upon major consumer destinations sites to police their reviews aggressively and prevent unscrupulous merchants from deceiving consumers. Yelp has been widely criticized for its “review filter” but credit the company for its long-standing efforts to protect the integrity of its content.

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Daily Minute Master Series – September 20, 2019

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Social Media

Facebook is Expanding its Playable and AR Ad options Ahead of the Holiday Season

Facebook has this week announced the expansion of its interactive ad options, including playable games, and AR tools which let you ‘try on’ make-up. First off, Facebook’s bringing video poll ads to your News Feed, an engaging, interactive way to grab user attention. Video poll ads already grab attention through movement, but users can then also interact with them, and when they do, they’re shown additional information about the brand and/or product. Facebook’s also expanding its AR ad tools, which its been testing with selected make-up brands in the US. Facebook’s now planning to open these ad tools up to more advertisers via its beta program this fall. And finally, Facebook’s also expanding its playable ad format, which enables Facebook users to play a game in order to drive downloads, conversations and other brand objectives. Interactive tools like these can be a great way to maximize campaign performance, and are definitely worth considering, either for current or future campaigns.

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Twitter Provides Option to Hide Replies to Users in the US and Japan

After launching the initial test of its option to hide tweet replies to Canadian users back in June, Twitter has now announced that the experiment is being broadened to users in Japan and the US, a significant expansion of its test pool. The process enables you to hide any reply from your tweet responses, giving you more control over how your conversations are presented. And as per the last frame, users are still able to see any hidden replies, they’ll just have to tap into the options to do so. It’s an interesting experiment, and as noted in the results thus far, it does appear to be having the desired effect, prompting users to reconsider how they respond and engage on the platform. If it works to make Twitter a more civil, welcoming place, or even if it just helps some users feel more comfortable about their interactions, it’s likely worth it, while the capacity to be able to view what’s been hidden should minimize potential misuse.

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Advertising

Store visits now available for Google Ads smart bidding optimization

Advertisers who have store visits measurement in their Google Ads accounts can now incorporate store visits data in their smart bidding strategies. The update allows stores with physical locations to optimize with and for foot traffic in addition to online conversions with smart bidding. Smart bidding strategies use machine learning aimed at predicting when a conversion action is most likely and adjust bids at the time of auction accordingly. Store visits in smart bidding is now available to all advertisers in Search and Shopping campaigns.

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Search Ads 360 rolls out auction-time bidding for Google Search campaigns

Google Search Ads 360, the enterprise-level search management piece of Google Marketing Platform that enables advertisers and agencies to manage campaigns across multiple search engines, has added auction-bidding for bids on Google Search. For Search Ads 360 users, this brings the Smart Bidding capabilities offered in Google Ads to your Google Search campaigns. Smart bidding uses machine learning to make real-time bids based on a number of signals such as device, location and time of day. Auction-time bidding analyzes your account history, conversions registered by Floodlight, Google Marketing Platform’s conversion tracking system, and other signals to predict when a conversion is likely to occur from an ad click. In contrast, a Search Ads 360 bid strategy analyzes campaign performance approximately every 6 hours to set keyword bids and set or recommend bid adjustments.

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Daily Minute Master Series – September 19, 2019

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Social Media

Instagram Implements New Restrictions on Diet and Cosmetic Surgery Ads

After consulting with various experts on mental health and wellbeing, Instagram has announced that it will implement new restrictions on posts related to diet products and cosmetic surgery. Various groups have raised concerns about the impact of such advertising, particularly on younger, more impressionable users. This comes in the wake of Instagram also testing the removal of total Like counts on posts in some regions, and removing graphic images of self-harm, a decision it announced back in February. In combination, these efforts seek to reduce the harmful impacts of social media, and the pressure it can place on users. In addition to the new restriction on diet and cosmetic surgery ads, Instagram has also said that any content which makes a “miraculous” claim about a diet or weight-loss product will now also be removed from the platform.

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YouTube Adds New ‘Masthead’ Ad Option for TV-Connected Viewers

This week, YouTube has announced that it’s adding TV screen-specific targeting to its prominent Masthead ads, which will show up first thing when a user opens their YouTube TV app. The Masthead ads will take up prime TV real estate – likely the closest thing to traditional TV ads on offer from a digital platform as yet. And while users can, of course, scroll past these ads, you’ll notice that there’s no skip option. That could hold more appeal for certain advertisers looking to maximize their coverage. The option, currently in beta testing, will enable marketers to purchase Masthead ads on TV screens on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis, with the usual custom audience targeting options available for YouTube ads. In some ways, it feels a bit ‘back to the future’, that more and more people are now connecting their YouTube and digital platform video content into their home TV sets, which is shifting us back to the traditional advertising experience.

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Facebook Announces New Portal Devices, Including TV-Connected Camera/Streaming Service

Almost a year after its initial launch, Facebook is rolling out three new versions of its Portal video calling device, including one which connects to your home TV set, which could be a major step for the device itself, and for Facebook’s broader video ambitions. The TV connected device clips onto the top of your home TV set, enabling you to make the largest screen in your home a digitally connected platform, both for video calling and video streaming. It won’t give you full Facebook functionality on your TV screen as yet, but it will give you video calling, the capacity to watch video content with friends, while connected via Facebook, and the ability to stream content from selected partners – including, of course, Facebook Watch. In addition, Facebook’s also bringing WhatsApp video calling to Portal, along with Messenger calls, which, Facebook also notes, will be end-to-end encrypted. While the device itself seems solid, seems functional, and there’s a lot like about the latest Portal updates, what seems to be holding the device back from becoming a more significant consideration is privacy, and Facebook’s various data security and misuse issues. Facebook has sought to alleviate these concerns by reiterating the privacy features of Portal. Each version of the device comes with a cover that slides over the camera, and there are indicator lights which show when it’s recording. Facebook also notes that its Smart Camera and Smart Sound tools utilize AI technology “that runs locally on Portal, not on Facebook servers”.

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Advertising

Microsoft Advertising’s product, similar audiences now available to more advertisers

Microsoft Advertising is continuing to invest in audience targeting products. Two audience solutions are now in open beta, the company announced Wednesday. Product audiences is aimed at converting past site visitors, while similar audiences can help advertisers reach more new customers. Product audiences are retargeting lists for specific products in your shopping campaigns. Triggered via product IDs, users can be retargeted with products they’ve previously engaged with on your site. This is similar to Google Ads’ shopping retargeting lists. Microsoft says early testing has shown up to 40% lower acquisition costs and 100% higher conversion rates from these audiences. These two initiatives bring parity with Google Ads offerings. Microsoft is well aware of its position in the market and the need to reduce friction for advertisers to get campaigns up and running and the importance of having parity with Google when it makes sense.

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Daily Minute Master Series – September 18, 2019

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Social Media

Pinterest brings Shoppable Pins to visual searches for fashion, home products

Pinterest announced on Tuesday it has advanced its Lens capabilities, making it possible for the visual search tool to now identify more than 2.5 billion fashion and home products. With this latest advancement, the company is adding fashion and home related Shoppable Pins to visual search results. Users will also now be able to save photos from their Lens searches and turn them into a Pin that they can save to a board. Pinterest will then use the “Lens’ed” photos to power future recommendations for the user. Pinterest’s visual platform is a natural fit for home and fashion marketers, and the company’s push to wed its visual search technology with shoppable pins makes it even more so. By bringing shoppable pins to Lens search results and recommendations, the company is giving branded Pins more exposure and helping to shorten the customer journey by bridging the gap between product discovery and purchase.

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LinkedIn Adds New ‘Skill Assessments’ Option to Beef Up Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is adding a new way for users to display their professional competencies, with a new ‘Skill Assessments’ option that will test your knowledge, and provide you with a badge to demonstrate your proven understanding. The option will facilitate expanded capacity to show your competencies, beyond Recommendations and Endorsements. It’s a good option for LinkedIn, which further integrates its LinkedIn Learning platform into the main app. The actual results are kept private to users, and if you don’t pass, you’ll have complete control over the visibility of the results. LinkedIn will also recommend Learning courses you can take to improve your skills, and pass the test at a later stage. And given LinkedIn’s unmatched insights into professional skills and competencies, no one is better placed to keep you updated on the latest in-demand skills, and help you display your capacity in the same.

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Marketing

Snapchat Launches Political Ads Library for Increased Transparency

As reported by CNN, Snapchat has now added a new Political Ads Library, which anyone can view as a downloadable spreadsheet via Snap’s website. And while it’s not as advanced as similar options available on other platforms, the listing includes all the political and issue-based ads on Snapchat, facilitating further research by third-parties. The listings can actually serve two purposes – first and foremost, they’re about transparency, and ensuring political groups are not using digital platforms to manipulate voters. But from a marketing perspective, it’s interesting to also see how, exactly, political groups are using Snap as they seek to connect with younger voters. As noted, it’s not as advanced as similar options on Facebook and Twitter, but given Snapchat’s unique allure with younger audience groups, there’s a lot that can be gleaned from the resource.

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Facebook Outlines Evolving Efforts to Detect and Remove Hate Speech and Extremist Content

This week, The Social Network has provided an update on its ongoing efforts to detect and remove hate speech from its platforms – and in particular, how its focus for such content has expanded beyond known, foreign terrorist groups in order to incorporate more local threats.  Facebook notes that its definition for such content is “based on their behavior, not their ideologies”, which has enabled Facebook to take a more general approach to what can be defined as terror-related material. Facebook is also looking to help people leave hate groups by providing links to specialized assistance, while it also has a team of more than 350 people, “with expertise ranging from law enforcement and national security, to counterterrorism intelligence and academic studies in radicalization”, who are working to develop its policies and enforcement actions. Now that we’ve seen the full impacts of such, and the direct links between online activity and real-life acts, it’s important that the platforms take action, and address such wherever they can.

For the full article click here 

 

Daily Minute Master Series – September 17, 2019

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Social Media

Facebook video marketers get new tools, metrics for Live, Watch Parties, Creator Studio

Facebook is releasing new features and metrics for its Live API, Watch Parties and within its Creator Studio, all of which can be used by marketers to advance their video efforts. Video creators on the platform are also getting a new trimming tool for Live video, allowing them to trim the beginning or end of a Live video. Facebook is also extending the maximum duration for Live broadcasts via the Live API from four hours to eight hours. Facebook is making it possible for video creators to publish and schedule video content on Instagram and Instagram’s long-form video app IGTV. Page admins will be able to schedule video content on the Instagram platforms up to six months in advance via the Creator Studio, and Facebook reports it is working on new drafting and editing features for videos published to the Instagram Feed and IGTV which will be available in the coming months. Facebook’s video tools and metrics help marketers fine tune their efforts, offering more ways to connect with users and more insights into the content that is delivering engagement. Being able to do small things — like rehearse a Live broadcast or schedule content six months out — not only expands a video marketers took kit, but gives brands more flexibility and control in terms of the video content they’re producing on the platform. 

 For the full article click here  

YouTube’s Testing a New Option to Display Each Users’ Comment History in Channels

YouTube is working on a new profile card option which would display a full listing of any users’ comment history, within a specific channel, when that users’ name is tapped/clicked. As you can see here, the new listing would display the users’ full comment history on that channel – not their entire comment history across the platform overall. that might come as a relief to those who have a penchant for composing pithy, yet potentially offensive, YouTube comments. And as noted by TechCrunch, it can also help in assessing people who should become “approved users”, who’s comments get published automatically, without requiring approval. The feature is now in testing, along with a new test of a personalized message option for users who are likely to become subscribers, in order to see if that added personal touch helps increase subscriber counts.

For the full article click here

Marketing

Google Search Console adds Datasets to enhancement reports section

Google has added a new report to Google Search Console to let you see how your datasets are performing in Google Search. The new report can be found in the enhancements section under “Datasets” if, and only if, you use Datasets markup on your web pages. Google in 2018 launched Google Dataset Search, a search service to find data from sciences, government, some news organizations. Google also launched new schema that developers can use to markup your web page content, when applicable, with dataset schema. This schema makes it possible for searchers to better visualize data represented on a web page directly in Google’s search results. Having more information from Google about the health of our pages in search is a good thing. If you have implemented datasets schema, this new report should be able to help you find potential issues and debug them going forward.

For the full article click here 

Google tests “in this video” search feature

Google often shows video results in its search results, in fact, Google has a feature to show suggested clips, a method to jump you to the portion of the video that answers your specific query. Now, it appears, Google is testing showing “in this video” – a timeline that shows you what sections of the video talks about sub-topics. The “in this video” section shows up under a video snippet in the Google search results. It will show you sub-sections of the video in a timeline format, letting you click to jump ahead to that specific portion of the video. Clearly, between the suggested clip and this feature, Google knows what content is within the video. Google is able to jump over irrelevant portions of your video and send people directly to the section the searcher wants to see and hear. Structuring your video content in a clear and understandable way so that humans and robots can easily breakdown the format of the video may become more important in your video SEO strategy.

For the full article click here

 

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