Stay informed in 60 words !!
Go over everything that happened in Marketing , Advertising – right from your favorite blogs over the month. In just sixty words each. No clutter. Just gist.
Read the full articles for shorts that interest you.
1. Twitter Ads : Loophole for relaxed character limit
What ? : Twitter announced it was beginning to officially roll out some big changes to loosen its 140-character limits. Same doesn’t apply to Twitter Ads.
What No Longer Counts Toward Twitter’s 140-Character Limit ? :
- Media Attachments – Videos , GIFs , Images
- Quote Tweets & Retweeting Yourself
- @names would no longer be counted in replies
What Isn’t Changing ? : Here’s what will still count toward your tweet character limit:
- Your text copy.
- Links (these will continue to eat up 23 characters).
- Hashtags
- Emojis
What about Twitter Ads ? : Any photos, videos, polls and quoted tweets included Promoted Tweets created using Twitter’s ad dashboard will still count against the 140-character limit, but there is a loophole: if a brand posts a tweet organically first and then runs it as a Promoted Tweet, those media attachments won’t count, giving the brand more room for text in its ad.
Takeaway : This means you now have more room to add relevant context, more flexibility with what you can add alongside the images and videos you share.
Read – Twitter’s relaxed character limit doesn’t apply to ads, but there’s a workaround
2. Facebook Ads : New Options Focused on Driving In-Store Actions
What ? : Facebook’s introduced some new tools to help brands better integrate their online ad efforts with in-store actions, with a new option called “Dynamic Ads for Retail”.
What’s the change ? : The new ads feature an availability indicator – an “in-store” note above each image and a CTA button for the user to get directions, along with a map included within the carousel, helping to drive in-store visits.
How ? : To ensure that product availability information is accurate, Facebook is requiring participating retailers to update their store-specific inventory catalogs at least once every 24 hours
Takeaway : Facebook’s new Dynamic Ad for Retail highlights available inventory at nearby stores and can be targeted to people most likely to visit.
Read – Facebook’s new retail ads show in-store product availability, can be aimed at likely visitors
3. Google AdWords accounts : One email address to log in to multiple accounts
What ? : Google has made a change to the AdWords Managing accounts crisis – Now you can connect up to five AdWords accounts to one email.
Why ? : For managers of multiple Google AdWords accounts, logging in and out of each account is a productivity killer.
How can this be accessed ? :
- The option to add additional accounts can be accessed through the “Manage AdWords accounts” screen in the main menu.
- Also , when a user is added to an account, they can start accessing it right away without the email verification
- From the account switcher, within the “Add Account” screen, you can easily link the email addresses associated with each account.
Takeaway : Google is improving the flexibility of AdWords account management by encouraging users to get everything done in one place with security and privacy being the top of minds.
Read – Google AdWords Now Allows One Email for Multiple Accounts
4. Google extends Expanded Text Ads deadline to January 31 , 2017
What ? : Google will continue to accept new traditional text ads through January 31, 2017, not October 26 as announced in July with the general release of the new ad format.
What next ? : After January 31, existing standard text ads will continue to run with expanded text ads, but advertisers will not be able to edit or create standard ads.
Anything else ? : Along with this announcement , Google also issued a set of dos and do not’s for testing expanding text ads.
Takeaway : This extension of transition period will help advertisers to figure out how to optimize expanded text ads.
Read – Expanded text ads: more time to test and iterate
Watch – Using Expanded Text Ads in AdWords
5. Update in the Ad preview tool for Expanded Text Ads
What ? : The new Ad preview tool has separate views for desktop and mobile and also has a separate section to view sample ads.
Why ? : To address the concerns of the advertisers – About few of their ads being truncated. Also, this new preview tool will help advertisers adapt to Expanded Text Ads easily.
What is the use ? : The new version tells you when the headline has crossed it’s character limit with a preview. So you will know when your text or headlines will potentially be cut off on the desktop or on mobile.
Takeaway : The sole purpose of this update is to enable advertisers to write effective ads and to make more out of the Expanded Text Ads.
Read – Google has updated the AdWords ad preview tool for expanded text ads
6. Facebook Messenger gets ‘Buy Now ‘ button and in-stream payments
What’s new ? : Facebook messenger made it easier for buyers to buy products from a bot without needing to leave Messenger and a way for brands to direct people from their Facebook ads to their Messenger bots with it’s new ‘Buy’ button.
Why ? : Facebook is placing new tools in the hands of messenger bots to increase sales through Messenger.
How ? :
- People can have Messenger automatically plug in the credit card and address information attached to their Messenger profiles
- Companies have to use either Stripe or PayPal to process these payments, according to Facebook Messenger’s developer documentation.
How can this help ? : Advertisers can use this option to promote a Messenger-only sale and show the discount code in the Facebook ad, as well as on the welcome screen when someone clicks to open a conversation thread with the bot.
Anything else ? :
- Bots can now present people with button-only, keyboard-hiding prompts to make it easier for someone to send a bot their location, pick a color for an item they’re looking at or choose a particular product from a row of images.
- People can share individual messages, or “message bubbles,” with their friends on Messenger.
Takeaway : Facebook Messenger bots can now serve as standalone storefronts.Messenger business is evolving, and their Bot platform is advancing.
Read – Facebook Updates Messenger Platform with New Features, Including In-Stream Payments
7. Instagram : A new Marketing guide for Fashion Brands
What ? : Instagram releases a “Feed Fashion” report to provide insights for marketers on how to improve on platform performance
What is in this report ?
- While 50% of the Instagrammers follow a brand , 45% of Instagrammers in Europeans follow a fashion brand with an intent to buy.
- In Europe , Fashionistas are active on the platform every day, checking their feeds, on average, 15 times every 24 hours.
- Almost half of all Instagram posts now contain emoji characters.
- Photos on Instagram are perceived as being 2.8X more imaginative and 2X more creative than on other platforms.
- People interested in fashion tend to be more engaged around the weekend.
What is the summary ? : Everything is made open to some level of personal interpretation.
But three major tips –
- Be on Brand
- Be Concept driven
- Be well crafted
What are the important tips to be noted ? :
- Fashion brands need to be investing time on their Instagram presence
- Research target hashtags using resources like TopHashtags.com or Hashtagify – or Instagram’s own search function
- Fashion brands need to produce content(image quality and composition) that makes people stop and take notice.
- Timing is crucial – Find the best time to post using Analytics (Instagram’s own)
- But like all creative promotions -most of all Fashion Brands : This is not a rule book of any sorts.Nothing wrong with trying your own voice and style.
Takeaway : Though this guide is a precursor for Fashion brands on the soon-to-start London and Paris Fashion Weeks , many of the principles and guidelines outlined here can be applied to any business looking to maximize their Instagram performance and response.
Read – The complete “Feed Fashion” report
8. Feature roll out : Campaign Groups in AdWords
What’s new ? : Release of Campaign Groups, which lets advertisers group campaigns with common targets to monitor performance against those goals.
Why ? : To make it easier for advertisers to track and forecast the performance of the campaigns against your advertising goals
How can this help ? : You can now package AdWords campaigns (including Video, Display, Search, and Shopping campaigns) into a single campaign group.
Takeaway : This feature is for evaluating whether or not your campaigns are working together toward your broader goals.
Read – Track your goals with campaign groups
9. LinkedIn : New blogging platform and Conversion Tracking
What’s new ? : LinkedIn has brought two great news
- LinkedIn has rolled out a new version of LinkedIn Publishing. Its intention is to enable its posters to reach and better engage with their audience.
- LinkedIn is rolling out a way for advertisers to track when their ads lead people to do things on the brand’s site
What’s different in conversion tracking ? : Advertisers using LinkedIn’s conversion tracking will be able to see audience breakdowns by different segmentations such as what industries people work in, how senior their positions are, what their job functions are and the size of their companies.
For now, LinkedIn’s conversion tracking only works for its Sponsored Content ads and Text ads
What about LinkedIn Publishing ?
Its new interface focuses on the design, with a nice looking UI and more text formatting and font options.This is, for now, available only in the US.
Takeaway : LinkedIn wants to be able to tell advertisers how much actual revenue their ads generated.There will be many more moves and developments in this Microsoft bought platform.
Read – LinkedIn’s new conversion tracking & LinkedIn Publishing
10. Problem: Google Universal Analytics Vs. Google Classic Analytics
What is the problem ?
Inaccurate organic search referrals since the upgrade to Universal Analytics.
Why ? :
>Google has now upgraded every site to Universal Analytics.(some automatically)
>Difference is session tracking:After the default 30 min session time-out.Classic Analytics do not trigger a new session when the session arrived from a referral.
>With Universal Analytics when a session times out after 30 minutes if the visitor resumes activity on your website,your own domain appears as the referral source.
How to fix it ? – Very Simple !!!
Under the referral excluding list , add your own domain.
Takeaway : Analytics data may be somewhat unreliable due to the difference in session tracking.But the fixes and solutions are available.
Read – When is a Session not a Session?
Watch – How To Fix Self-Referrals In Google Analytics
11. Facebook pressures advertisers to cut page load time on Mobile
What ? : Facebook says advertisers with slow landing pages could see ad reach reduced.
When ? : August 31, 2016
Why ? : To build a better mobile experience that helps businesses form a better connection with interested people
While slow loading links not only hurt Facebook’s lucrative objectives but they also –
- often lead people to abandon the site even before third party site analytics could register a page visit
- make it harder to track andoptimize advert performance
How does Facebook reduce site load time ?
It would start pre-fetching pages that a mobile ad links to when it predicts someone is likely to click on the ad.This can shorten mobile site load time by 29 % or 8.5 seconds.
Takeaway : Facebook plans to start deciding whether to show an ad to someone by considering how long it takes a link , which brands include in their ads to load.
Read – Facebook pressures advertisers to cut mobile page load speeds or it’ll cut their reach
Watch – Speed Up Your Website
12. Feature roll out : Adwords welcomes account-level site links
What’s new ? : You will be able to set site links at account level
Why ? : Many advertisers will find the ability to set the site-links at account level very helpful rather than at ad group or campaign level.
What next ? : When adding or editing a new site link extension from the Ad extensions tab, there will be an option to choose Account instead of just Campaign.
Takeaway : Advertisers that want to streamline offers and other messaging in site links across an account will no longer have to remember to associate those extensions with every campaign.
Read – Account-level site link extensions coming to AdWords
Watch – AdWords Changes and new Extensions
13. No more YouTube ads on non-advertiser-friendly sites
What ? : YouTube is now notifying publishers when removing monetization from videos that are not advertiser-friendly
Why ? : Because YouTube cares. YouTube is protecting its advertisers from potentially being associated with the controversial content.
What might be non-advertiser-friendly videos ?
- Sexually suggestive content
- Related to violent extremism or display of injury
- Inappropriate language – vulgarity , harassment
- Promotion of drugs – use and abuse of such items
- Controversial or sensitive subject and event
Takeaway : Back in 2012 , YouTube never told the creators about their videos being demonetized .Now to be on the same page publishers are being notified to improve transparency.
Read – YouTube “Demonetization” Sparks Creator Backlash
Watch – The Truth Behind YouTube’s Demonetization
14. Google adds a second ad slot in Play Store search results
What ? : Google opens up a second ad slot on PlayStore for marketer’s to bid . Also Google is no longer going to duplicate app ads above organic listings
Why ? : To stand by their commitment to increase user experience as well as advertiser performance
How does this increase the PlayStore experience ?
Advertisers will no longer end up paying for clicks that were likely coming their way organically anyway. And users won’t have to look at identical listings.
Takeaway : Google , since releasing ads on PlayStore in July 2015 has always tested ads for making their user experience positive.
Read – Google is adding a second ad slot in Play Store search results
Watch – Google Play Store gets ads
15. Blockmetry Report : Impact of Ad blocking on global page views
What ? : Worldwide ad blocking page views now stands at 32.4 percent, while analytics blocking is 5.2 percent.
What is the summary of this report ?
- Mobile traffic sees 3X the blocking rate of the desktop.
- The highest percentage of ad blocked page views is South Asia.
- Poland and Norway now are seeing 50 percent of page views subjected to ad blocking
- Of the mobile segment, 62.9 of those page views were impacted by ad blocking.
- Opera Desktop is the highest desktop type that has 43.3 pageviews blocking ads.
Takeaway : While Ad blocking is dismissed by some and some have been alarmed in the industry , the growth of Ad blocking have to be acknowledged.
Read – The whole Blockmetry report
Watch – Ad-blocking development to impact marketing
That was all that happened over the week .We will keep you updated with more Flash Bytes .
