Social Media
Instagram Updates its Stories Camera with New ‘Create’ Mode to Highlight Creative options
Instagram’s now rolling out a new format for its Stories Camera, which will make the app’s various Stories tools – including GIFs, Countdown Stickers and Polls – easier to access and apply, direct from the main function bar. The biggest change is the addition of a new ‘Create’ mode, which replaces the existing ‘Type’ option. In ‘Create’, you’ll be able to find all the various creative tools available, as opposed to having to add them through Stickers or other forms. By making these options easier to locate, and grouping them together in this way, it could encourage more use, while it may also enable Instagram to better highlight the app’s most popular creative features. Feature-wise, this format update doesn’t add anything new, but it does, as noted, make it a little easier to get a better idea of how your Story frame is going to look, and it makes the various creative tools easier to locate.
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Pinterest Launches ‘Pinterest Academy’ Education Resource for Marketers
Pinterest has this week launched a new set of platform education course for marketers, under the umbrella of the ‘Pinterest Academy’. The new Pinterest Academy offers a range of education courses, and links to various other tools and reference studies, in order to help you get a better handle on how to utilize Pins for your business. At launch, Pinterest is offering five courses, with four more coming later this month. These cover the essential elements of building your brand presence, and utilizing Pinterest for marketing and selling. And while some of the courses do feel quite entry-level, Pinterest does need to cater to all kinds of users, and regardless, there are valuable tips in each one, even if you do have to go over a few things you already know.
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Marketing
Google to address ad frequency with machine learning when cookies aren’t available
Google will be rolling out an approach to ad frequency control that doesn’t rely on cookies in Display & Video 360 over the coming weeks. The feature uses machine learning to analyze traffic patterns when third-party cookies are available and builds models to predict patterns when a cookie isn’t present. “This allows us to estimate how likely it is for users to visit different publishers who are serving the same ads through Google Ad Manager. Then, when there is no third-party cookie present, we’re able to optimize how often those ads should be shown to users,” said Rahul Srinivasan, product manager for ads privacy at Google, in the announcement. Google is increasingly relying on models to inform how ads are delivered when it doesn’t have access to data it could once count on. Google is in an enviable position, however: the massive volume of data it’s still able to collect combined with significant investments in machine learning means it can make do with less.
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Influencer Marketing
How To Evaluate Influencer Marketing Platforms That Use AI Technology
What actually constitutes artificial intelligence in influencer marketing? As providers rapidly innovate their solutions, marketers should become familiar with the intricacies (and buzzwords) of influencer marketing tech. In influencer marketing technology, a single process like influencer identification may combine simple statistics (such as engagement metrics), machine learning applications (to identify whether the profile is a person or a company page based on image recognition, for example) and some AI algorithms (to decide whether or not that profile is influential based on posting style, performance history and the sentiments expressed in followers’ comments). To get the most from recommendation technology, you can ask how a provider’s platform determines influence on a general basis, how it “grades” them (sorts them within the platform) and, finally, how it adapts the results based on your selections (not just your search history). The size of the database will also have an impact on the quality of the data — ultimately, the ability to scale larger sets provides richer results. AI has many possible applications within influencer marketing. Some exciting opportunities include the ability to suggest prices and even the content to post. AI also comes with its own set of challenges, however. To create an intelligent program, you need to first annotate the data. As influencer marketing is still largely a negotiation economy, it can be complicated to supervise the machine learning — teaching a machine to identify a human face versus a dog face is much easier than teaching it how to appropriately price an influencer. This underlines the complexity of a creative economy rooted in the web. There will always be an overlap that requires both artificial and natural intelligence.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – October 9, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram Updates its Stories Camera with New ‘Create’ Mode to Highlight Creative options
Instagram’s now rolling out a new format for its Stories Camera, which will make the app’s various Stories tools – including GIFs, Countdown Stickers and Polls – easier to access and apply, direct from the main function bar. The biggest change is the addition of a new ‘Create’ mode, which replaces the existing ‘Type’ option. In ‘Create’, you’ll be able to find all the various creative tools available, as opposed to having to add them through Stickers or other forms. By making these options easier to locate, and grouping them together in this way, it could encourage more use, while it may also enable Instagram to better highlight the app’s most popular creative features. Feature-wise, this format update doesn’t add anything new, but it does, as noted, make it a little easier to get a better idea of how your Story frame is going to look, and it makes the various creative tools easier to locate.
For the full article click here
Pinterest Launches ‘Pinterest Academy’ Education Resource for Marketers
Pinterest has this week launched a new set of platform education course for marketers, under the umbrella of the ‘Pinterest Academy’. The new Pinterest Academy offers a range of education courses, and links to various other tools and reference studies, in order to help you get a better handle on how to utilize Pins for your business. At launch, Pinterest is offering five courses, with four more coming later this month. These cover the essential elements of building your brand presence, and utilizing Pinterest for marketing and selling. And while some of the courses do feel quite entry-level, Pinterest does need to cater to all kinds of users, and regardless, there are valuable tips in each one, even if you do have to go over a few things you already know.
For the full article click here
Marketing
Google to address ad frequency with machine learning when cookies aren’t available
Google will be rolling out an approach to ad frequency control that doesn’t rely on cookies in Display & Video 360 over the coming weeks. The feature uses machine learning to analyze traffic patterns when third-party cookies are available and builds models to predict patterns when a cookie isn’t present. “This allows us to estimate how likely it is for users to visit different publishers who are serving the same ads through Google Ad Manager. Then, when there is no third-party cookie present, we’re able to optimize how often those ads should be shown to users,” said Rahul Srinivasan, product manager for ads privacy at Google, in the announcement. Google is increasingly relying on models to inform how ads are delivered when it doesn’t have access to data it could once count on. Google is in an enviable position, however: the massive volume of data it’s still able to collect combined with significant investments in machine learning means it can make do with less.
For the full article click here
Influencer Marketing
How To Evaluate Influencer Marketing Platforms That Use AI Technology
What actually constitutes artificial intelligence in influencer marketing? As providers rapidly innovate their solutions, marketers should become familiar with the intricacies (and buzzwords) of influencer marketing tech. In influencer marketing technology, a single process like influencer identification may combine simple statistics (such as engagement metrics), machine learning applications (to identify whether the profile is a person or a company page based on image recognition, for example) and some AI algorithms (to decide whether or not that profile is influential based on posting style, performance history and the sentiments expressed in followers’ comments). To get the most from recommendation technology, you can ask how a provider’s platform determines influence on a general basis, how it “grades” them (sorts them within the platform) and, finally, how it adapts the results based on your selections (not just your search history). The size of the database will also have an impact on the quality of the data — ultimately, the ability to scale larger sets provides richer results. AI has many possible applications within influencer marketing. Some exciting opportunities include the ability to suggest prices and even the content to post. AI also comes with its own set of challenges, however. To create an intelligent program, you need to first annotate the data. As influencer marketing is still largely a negotiation economy, it can be complicated to supervise the machine learning — teaching a machine to identify a human face versus a dog face is much easier than teaching it how to appropriately price an influencer. This underlines the complexity of a creative economy rooted in the web. There will always be an overlap that requires both artificial and natural intelligence.
For the full article click here
Daily Minute Master Series – October 8, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram Adds New ‘Emails from Instagram’ Security Confirmation Listing
Instagram has added a new, anti-phishing element, with a listing of any and all official emails which Instagram has sent to you now available in-app. The new listing includes two elements – ‘Security’ emails, and ‘Other’, for official communications sent to you. Now, if you get an email prompting you to take action in relation to your Instagram account, and it seems a little fishy, you can check this listing to confirm whether or not it is, indeed, a legit notification from Instagram. It’s a simple and effective way to thwart phishing scams, providing an extra level of clarification for users who have suspicions about emails they’ve been sent.
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TikTok’s Turning User-Submitted Content into Ads, Without User Knowledge
As reported by AdAge, TikTok has been using popular videos submitted to its platform as part of its ongoing, external promotional campaign. The problem is, the creators of these videos have not been told their content is being used in these ads – and they most definitely have not been compensated for such. As AdAge notes, TikTok’s usage guidelines do allow it to take user-submitted content and, essentially, use it however they want, using the same stipulations which are in place on most social platforms. But while it’s not breaking any laws, it could be damaging its relationship with creators, which TikTok will eventually find that it cannot do if it wants to maintain and grow its platform. TikTok desperately needs to maintain connection with its top stars. Taking their work and using it in promotional campaigns, without compensation, is not the way to do that.
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Marketing
Microsoft betas for account hierarchies, sharing UET tags and remarketing lists across accounts now open to all
Manager accounts let you manage multiple accounts and share data through a single sign-on. Microsoft Advertising announced several updates for manager accounts on Monday. Starting today, new users will automatically have a manager account when they sign up for Microsoft Advertising, whether they plan to manage more than one account or not. No more need to set up a separate manager account. Single account and multi-account managers will have the same user experience. Hierarchies can be used to make connections between accounts and manager accounts. This is now in open beta and available to all advertisers. These features offer new levels of flexibility for agencies and businesses managing multiple clients, brands or lines of business. The ability to share tags and remarketing lists across accounts opens up new capabilities for cross-marketing, upselling and other options. Hierarchies also allow you to consolidate separate manager accounts into a single parent manager account, which is particularly helpful for agencies that take on new clients that already have their own manager accounts. Hierarchies don’t conflict with the multi-user access and multi-linking sign-in options.
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Google Search Console adds Video Enhancement, Video Appearances Performance reports
Google has announced two new reports within Google Search Console. These reports help you understand how well your videos are performing in Google search and help you fix issues with your videos displaying in Google Search. Content will show in this report if you are using VideoObject structured data or if Google uses other signals to detect that there is a video on the page. Videos are a big way to get content into Google Search and Google Discover. Many publishers and site owners use video to help their web site visitors learn more about the topic the page or site is about. Making sure your videos perform well in search can lead to an increase in traffic and conversions for your business.
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Daily Minute Master Series – October 7, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram Launches a New Messaging App for Close Friends Called ‘Threads’
Instagram’s ‘Threads’ is rolling out to all users on iOS and Android. Threads is another messaging app, with all the regular messaging features users have come to expect. Threads opens to the camera – like Snapchat – and provides quick, easy options for sending text, photo and video updates to a selected group of friends. Your contacts in Threads are defined by your Instagram ‘close friends’ list, meaning that the people you’re connected with in Threads are only those within your inner circle. But where Threads looks to differentiate from other messaging apps is in its Status and Auto Status tools. Status enables users to manually set an emoji as an away message, giving their friends a visual representation of what they’re up to at any given time. Auto Status, meanwhile, will allocate an emoji status without manual input, making an assumption based on your location, your movement, your phone’s battery level, etc. Facebook-owned app will now automatically track your everyday movements, and report them, in order to keep people updated on your activity.
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Google’s new take on Shopping goes live in U.S.
Google’s new personalized shopping “destination” is now live in the U.S., the company announced Thursday. One thing you’ll notice immediately is the prominence of the colorful shopping cart icons and calls to “Buy on Google”. This is Google’s cost cost-per-action program for retailers, currently called Google Shopping Actions. It enables users to buy via Google’s checkout with the payment information stored in their Google accounts. This is a significant piece of Google’s strategy to push back on Amazon is to establish partnerships with retailers and provide universal checkout. Google described the new Google Shopping as the “merger of the best of Google Express with Google Shopping.” A price-tracking feature lets users tag products they’re looking for to receive notifications when the prices on those items drop. Users will also be able to buy online or locally with buy online/pick up in-store, if that’s supported by the retailer. Google says it has mapped more than 2 billion products to local retailers. This is a significant initiative by Google to remain relevant in the retail sector. Now that this new experience is live, it’s even more clear that merchants will need to adopt Shopping Actions if they want to get prominent visibility in Google Shopping. That will be the key going forward to retail advertising on Google and its various properties. As it does with Amazon, revenue share for Shopping Actions varies by category.
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Marketing
WordPress 5.3 Adopts Rel UGC Nofollow Link Attribute
WordPress announced that WordPress 5.3, coming next month will support Google’s UGC Nofollow attribute by default. Starting November 12, 2019, all links in the comments section will automatically use the UGC nofollow link attribute. The UGC nofollow link attribute is a code announced by Google on September 10, 2019 that tells Google that a link is in the context of user generated content and should not be trusted. The WordPress announcement did not specify if plugins using the old code would break the site or simply gracefully degrade. There is no ranking benefit to the publisher for using the UGC nofollow attribute. The UGC nofollow attribute benefits Google because it helps Google understand that a link was created by someone outside of the publisher’s control and that the link should not be trusted.
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Advertising
Microsoft Advertising will also deprecate accelerated delivery
Starting November 1, all Microsoft Advertising Search, Dynamic Search Ads and Shopping campaigns will automatically start serving with standard delivery. Accelerated delivery was designed to serve ads as early and often as possible throughout the day. It was never a good idea to use it if your campaign budget was restrained, but both Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising point out how inefficient it is for budget-constrained campaigns, so perhaps advertisers weren’t using it correctly. Ad delivery will be determined by machine learning in both platforms. Parity between the two platforms with this setting makes sense for Microsoft Advertising and the advertisers who import campaigns from Google.
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Daily Minute Master Series – October 4, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Twitter’s Testing a New Option to ‘Stream’ Tweets in Real-Time
Twitter is testing out a new option which would enable users to ‘stream tweets’, meaning that their timeline would be updated as tweets happen. Functionally, the option doesn’t appear to add anything new – while the other option listed in the new pop-up window is the ‘Top Tweets First’ algorithm feed, you can already opt-out of the Top Tweets feed and switch back to the latest tweets first via the existing toggle, which itself was updated with the new star icon in the top right of the feed back in December. But it would provide the capacity to switch to a more active, real-time update mode, which would keep your tweets flowing through, without any manual intervention. The option is currently in testing with a small group of users, with prompts like these set to become a part of the broader tweet discovery process.
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Instagram’s Now Testing New AR ‘Try On’ Ads with Selected Advertisers
As Instagram shifts further into eCommerce, it’s also looking to provide more advanced ad options, in order to help retailers maximize engagement and response. Instagram has now launched a new test of AR ‘try on’ ads with selected brands, through which users will be able to actively engage with the advertised product virtually and see how it looks. The feature is essentially an extension of Facebook’s version of the same, which The Social Network also launched with selected brands last year. The new AR try on tools will be available via selected ads from the noted partners, and users will be able to share these experiences via Instagram Stories, helping to spread the word. It’s an interesting addition, particularly on Instagram, given the audience’s interest in Stories and associated advanced visual tools. That could make it a great option for Instagram campaigns. It will require additional platform expertize to create such experiences, but you can imagine that they will prove popular, expanding your Instagram ad potential.
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Advertising
Google Takes Aim at Pinterest with ‘Style Ideas’ and Improved Google Shopping
It seems that Google is indeed keeping tabs on Pinterest’s growth, as this week, it’s launched a new tool which replicates Pinterest’s ‘Shop the Look’ Pins, offering relevant product matches based on an image captured through Google Lens, or via screenshot sample. In addition to getting similar product matches via Google listings, you’ll also see a new ‘Style Inspiration’ selection, which highlights how other people have added that item into their outfit. Pinterest is still developing its Complete the Look recommendations, so in some ways, Google’s looking to get ahead of the platform with the tools that it has been leading the way on. But it’s not just through Google Lens that it’s looking to hit Pinterest. In addition to style recommendations, Google has also announced a redesign of Google Shopping, via Google search, which will boost Google’s eCommerce potential.
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Marketing
Google to update GoogleBot’s user agent
Google announced that starting in December Google will update Google’s user agent to represent the version of Chrome that GoogleBot is running. It is important to update any code you may have that may look at the user agent of GoogleBot to support this change going forward. . If you have any user agent detection scripts that are hard coded for GoogleBot, you need to make sure to support this new user agent pattern. Google said, “We’ve run an evaluation, so are confident that most websites will not be affected by the change.” “If your site looks for a specific user agent, it may be affected. You should use feature detection instead of user agent sniffing. If you cannot use feature detection and need to detect Googlebot via the user agent, then look for “Googlebot” within the user agent,” Google added. GoogleBot is getting a new user agent, and that is exciting. But it can impact your site if you had any user agent detection methods for GoogleBot. Make sure to test your site to see if it supports the new user agent. Most sites probably do not need to worry about this but you have done any advice GoogleBot detection, you may need to take steps to update those scripts.
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Daily Minute Master Series – October 3, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram Adds New ‘Restrict’ Option to Limit the Exposure of Trolls and Cyberbullies
Late last year, Facebook began testing a new keyword alerts feature for groups, which would provide another way for Facebook group admins to stay on top of relevant discussions within group interactions. Late last year, Facebook began testing a new keyword alerts feature for groups, which would provide another way for Facebook group admins to stay on top of relevant discussions within group interactions. Admins will be able to add in all the relevant discussion terms they want to monitor within their group, then get alerted, in a separate tab, to any posts which include those chosen terms. Admins will then have the immediate option (below the post) to delete it or let it go through to the community. The feature could be particularly handy for businesses who are looking to use groups to stay in touch with potential customers and opportunities, especially those within larger groups. There’s no word as yet on a full roll out of the option, but given the progress in its development, it looks set to be launched sometime soon.
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Instagram Adds New ‘Restrict’ Option to Limit the Exposure of Trolls and Cyberbullies
A key aim for Instagram is to create a platform where all users feel safe to express whatever they want, without the fear of criticism, negative comments, or indeed, cyberbullying. This week, Instagram is rolling out a new option called ‘Restrict’, which will enable users to limit the exposure of certain users when the comment on their posts. You can shut down any commenter you chose, without that person knowing, which means they can go on thinking they’re reaching you, and your followers, but they won’t be. Restrict’ goes a little further, in that no one can see it other than the poster, but the idea is the same – it dilutes the potential insult of being blocked entirely by masking the action, reducing conflict and cleaning up feeds.
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Advertising
Google Ads’ switch to standard delivery starts Oct. 7 for Search, Shopping campaigns, shared budgets
Google Ads announced that it would be removing the accelerated ad delivery option for Search and Shopping campaigns as well as shared budgets. On Tuesday, Google issued a reminder along with updated error codes that will be returned for API and scripts users. Starting October 7, Search and Shopping campaigns and shared budgets using accelerated delivery will be automatically migrated to standard delivery. The company said standard delivery has been updated to better optimize ad delivery based on an advertiser’s goals and query contextual signals. While accelerated delivery was meant to be used to ensure your ads were served as often as possible throughout the day, Google indicated that many were using it with restricted budgets, which meant their ads were getting shut off during the day.
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Marketing
Google Announces New Ways to Hide Personal Activity, Including Incognito Mode in Maps
Google has announced three new ways for users to hide their personal activity while using Maps, YouTube, and Assistant. These features were announced to mark the occasion of October being Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Users can now control their privacy is ways they couldn’t before while using Google’s services. Incognito mode will allow people to utilize Google Maps without their activity being saved in their Google account. Google is giving users the option to automatically delete their YouTube history. Auto-delete was first introduced earlier this year for users’ location history as well as web & app activity. Google is giving users the option to automatically delete their YouTube history. Auto-delete was first introduced earlier this year for users’ location history as well as web & app activity. These features will be automatically available when Google Assistant is updated next week.
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Daily Minute Master Series – October 2nd, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook Adds ‘Click to Messenger’ CTA for Stories Ads
The Social Network is this week rolling out an expansion of its ‘Click to Message’ CTA to include Stories ads across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. The option will enable businesses to drive direct conversations from their Stories ads with a ‘Swipe up’ prompt that will take them through to a Messenger conversation, without the user having to leave the app they’re in.The expansion of the same to Stories seems like a logical progression, especially, as noted, given the growth of both Stories and messaging usage across Facebook’s family of apps. The option also aligns with Facebook’s ‘C-Commerce’ – or ‘conversational commerce’ – push, which underlines the rising value of messaging as a connective platform between brands and consumers. With more people looking to get a more personal brand experience via messaging, it makes sense to consider your options to link people through to your business.
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Twitter Rolls Out New DM Search Option to iOS Users
After testing it out over the last month or so, Twitter has now confirmed that its new DM search option is being rolled out to all iOS users. The option will enable you to search your DMs by name. That will then bring up any and all DMs from users with that name in their profile, including any group messages they’ve been included in. The functionality is fairly limited, in that you can’t search by message content – but then again, in combination with another Twitter DM search test currently underway, which would enable you to locate any content, including tweets, images and links, that’s been shared within your direct message conversations, it could end up being fairly valuable. These new additions are not specifically aimed at brands, but they definitely do have value from a brand usage perspective. Having the capacity to more easily sort through your DMs by customer name, or by content shared, will make it a much more appealing option for customer care. The ‘Shared Content’ option hasn’t been rolled out just yet, but it is worth keeping tabs on such developments, and considering where Twitter’s messaging tools might fit into your broader platform strategy moving forward.
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Marketing
Google Assistant in Chrome testing Duplex to help users buy movie tickets
Duplex, Google’s automated concierge feature, has made its way to Chrome browsers. The company has confirmed that the test is currently being applied to movie ticket booking sites as part of Google Assistant in Chrome. Google is already testing ads in Assistant, but handling transactions looks to be a key part of its monetization strategy for the virtual assistant. The ability to book movie tickets, and presumably eventually other things such as car rentals, may get more people to engage with the Assistant, bringing more users into Google’s ecosystem and presenting the company with more revenue opportunities. This technology may also play into Google’s broader e-commerce strategy. By streamlining shopping on Assistant-enabled devices, the company may be able to make more headway in the retail sector.
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Shopify Marketing now integrates with Microsoft Advertising
Shopify Marketing, launched last year to enable merchants to set up marketing campaigns across various ads platforms, announced an integration with Microsoft Advertising this week. Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) powers search advertising on Bing, Yahoo and AOL as well as a network of partner sites. Shopify already supports Google Smart Shopping campaigns, carousel and dynamic advertising on Facebook and Story Ads on Snapchat. Shopify Marketing aims to offer merchants an all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Shopify is not alone in pursuing an all-inclusive sales and marketing hub approach to help merchants simplify workflows and entrench customers in the platform. BigCommerce has integrations with Amazon, Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest among others, for example.
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Daily Minute Master Series – October 1st, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Instagram Launches Product Launch Reminder Stickers and Tags to Capitalize on Audience Interest
This week, Instagram has launched a beta test of a new product launch sticker in Instagram Stories, and a product launch tag option in the main feed. The two options will enable users to set reminders for the item launch date, preview the product details in-stream, and then make a subsequent purchase as soon as a product becomes available – all without leaving Instagram. Brands will be able to add a sticker noting the date of the product launch, which users can then tap on to set a reminder. If they choose that option, a push notification will be sent to their phone (dependent on their device settings), letting them know the moment that the product they were interested is released. Instagram hasn’t provided details of a full rollout, but it’s another option which will add to the platform’s increasing slate of eCommerce tools, and eventually facilitate a whole new option for those looking to sell their products online.
For the full article click here
Instagram Launches New @Creators Account to Provide Tips and Advice for Influencers
In order for Instagram to maintain its current engagement levels, and keep pushing platform growth, it needs to maintain connection with prominent creators, and ensure that they’re able to get all they want out of the platform’s tools. That’s where Instagram’s latest initiative comes in – introducing the new @Creators Instagram account. The new account will share tips, tricks and tutorials from platform experts, as well as official Instagram updates and data insights. In addition to helping creators, these notes may also prove valuable for brands looking to improve their Instagram presence, both from a content creation perspective, and through understanding what influencers are looking for, which may enable you to form better influencer partnerships
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Advertising
Google Ads enables reporting across accounts in Report Editor
Google Ads announced the availability of cross-account analysis for Manager accounts in Report Editor Monday. Available for Manager accounts, which allow you to access and manage multiple accounts using one manager login, the cross-account reporting will allow you to analyze performance data across accounts within the Google Ads UI on desktop.“For example, let’s say that you manage three accounts in different regions and want to look at global performance over time,” said Google. Before this update, you’d have to export reports from each account and build your own report to compare the data.
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LinkedIn Campaign Manager adds audience targeting logic, demographic forecasts
LinkedIn is adding audience forecasting information directly to the Campaign Manager dashboard and introducing new Boolean targeting logic for building audiences — both available globally Tuesday. The platform is also introducing new demographic reporting metrics that will begin rolling out to all advertisers over the next two weeks. LinkedIn has added audience forecasting insights in the Campaign Manager dashboard, giving advertisers quick access to the make-up of their target audiences. Advertisers will now be able to create targeting queries using Boolean logic terms (and/or) which will allow them to build larger audiences for campaigns as they can target multiple profile facets, such as job function, seniority and titles. LinkedIn has been focused on building out its Campaign Manager to attract advertisers managing high volume campaigns for more than a year now. By expanding its audience forecasting features, adding Boolean logic to targeting queries and ramping up metrics, LinkedIn is giving advertisers with sizeable budgets the type of tools they expect when creating and managing social campaigns.
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Daily Minute Master Series – September 30, 2019
/by Corey PadveenSocial 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
/by Corey PadveenSocial 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
/by Corey PadveenSocial 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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