It’s been another big month for digital marketing with Microsoft announcing a single management solution for multi-channel paid advertising and social media as well as audience ads now available in ANZ and Tours and Activities ads. Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram are expanding their eCommerce capabilities and Spotify has expanded its Audience Network to Australia.
ICYMI, here’s what happened in digital marketing this month.
- Microsoft Announces Single Management Solution for Multi-Channel Paid Advertising and Social Media
- Import Your Facebook Ads to Microsoft Audience Network
- Twitter Testing Ads in Fleets
- Microsoft Audience Ads Now Fully Available in ANZ
- Updates to Branded Content Tools in Instagram
- Facebook Rolls Out Messenger API for Instagram
- Pinterest Expands its Ecommerce Tools
- Instagram Testing Native Affiliate Tool
- All Facebook and Google Merchants Can Accept Payment Via Shopify
- Facebook Adds New Admin Tools for Groups
- Facebook Tests VR In-headset Ads
- Instagram Rolls Out Reels Ads Globally
- Microsoft Announces Tours and Activities Ads
- Facebook Adds Transparency Around Social Issue Ads in Aus
- Turn Live Talks into Podcasts with Spotify Greenroom
- You Can Now Edit Your Robots.txt File for Your Shopify Site
- Facebook Reveals Plans for Expanded Shopping Experiences
- Facebook Includes “Optimize Text Per Person” in Ads
- Twitter Adds 15 Second Views to Video Ad Campaigns
- Spotify Expands Audience Network to Australia
Microsoft Announces Single Management Solution for Multi-Channel Paid Advertising and Social Media
Microsoft Advertising has announced a pilot program for a single management solution to manage all your advertising campaigns, across the Microsoft Search Network and Google. Along with your search ads, you can create image and video ads for Facebook and Instagram.
You will also be able to see reporting for all your search and social media advertising campaigns in one place. You can also manage your organic social engagement in the same place, across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, which includes organic social media reporting.
Import Your Facebook Ads to Microsoft Audience Network
Microsoft Advertising has unveiled the new Facebook Import which seamlessly brings over your campaign from the Facebook Audience Network into the Microsoft Audience Network. Facebook Import is now rolling out to all advertisers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany.
Twitter Testing Ads in Fleets
Twitter is testing ads within Fleets, its take on the Stories format. The ads will be inserted between Fleets as users tap through. If it rolls out more widely it will be the first time Twitter provides full-screen, vertical format ads within the app.
Microsoft Audience Ads Now Fully Available in ANZ
Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Audience Ads is now fully available to all customers in Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany. Last year, the platform became available as an extension of Microsoft Advertising search campaigns. Now you can also leverage the Microsoft Audience Network with separate audience campaigns.
Updates to Branded Content Tools in Instagram
Instagram has announced updates to its Branded Content tools. Instagram will enable creators to tag up to two brands in a single piece of Branded Content for more cross-promotion campaigns.
IG will also allow creators to post branded content prior to brand approval (without the brand name pending response). Creators will be able to request approval from brand partners in the Settings and giving brands further content Insights, with Reels, IG Live response data set to be made available to brand partners from June 7.
Facebook Rolls Out Messenger API for Instagram
To help businesses manage Instagram messaging at scale, Facebook has launched the Messenger API for Instagram.
“Businesses can streamline the workflow for customer communication by using the same engagement platform they use for other channels to respond to people on Instagram. Businesses can also connect Instagram messaging to existing tools and systems, such as CRM, inventory management, or Analytics.”
Pinterest Expands its Ecommerce Tools
Pinterest has announced an expansion of its shopping features in Australia, Canada, France and Germany. Users can now shop right from pins, on boards and from search results. The expansion also includes broader availability of Pinterest’s ‘blue checkmark’ Verified Merchant Program, plus new merchant storefronts on profiles and new product tagging options.
Pinterest is also adding a new Shopping List feature enabling Pinners to save product Pins to a collection. Pinterest will also send you an alert for price drops on items saved. Shopping Lists will first be available in the US and UK before expanding to Australia, Canada, France and Germany later in the year.
Instagram Testing Native Affiliate Tool
In the coming months, Instagram will begin testing a native affiliate tool where creators can discover new products and share them with their followers while earning commissions for the purchases they drive.
First, Instagram will test with a small group of US-based creators and businesses before expanding to more partners in the future. Plus for creators who want to sell their own products, they can now add an existing shop or open a new shop on their Instagram profile.
All Facebook and Google Merchants Can Accept Payment Via Shopify
All Facebook, Instagram and Google merchants can now accept payment via Shopify, even if they don’t have a Shopify store. Shop Pay, a one-click checkout solution for online retailers will become the first Shopify product available to retailers who don’t have a Shopify store.
Facebook Adds New Admin Tools for Groups
Facebook has announced new admin tools for Facebook Groups, with an improved comment moderation process, ‘Conflict Alerts’ to help moderators detect potentially problematic comments, plus an updated overview dashboard that highlights group tasks that require attention.
Facebook Tests VR In-headset Ads
Last month, Facebook announced they were beginning to test ads in the Oculus mobile app where developers could showcase their VR applications. Now, Facebook is testing in-headset ads.
The experiment is beginning with Blaston from Resolution Games plus a couple of other developers that will be rolling out over the coming weeks. Facebook says they are exploring new ways for developers to generate revenue.
Instagram Rolls Out Reels Ads Globally
Instagram is launching Reels ads to the world after a successful test in select countries. “Reels is the best place on Instagram to reach people who don’t follow you and a growing global stage where brands and creators can be discovered by anyone.”
Reels ads are full screen and vertical, similar to ads in Stories and appear between individual Reels. The ads loop and can be up to 30 seconds. Users have the ability to comment, like, view, save and share Reels ads.
Microsoft Announces Tours and Activities Ads
Microsoft Advertising has launched a unique ad format, called Tours and Activities Ads. They are intent-driven, feed-based ad types for visually engaging premium placements, triggered when users are looking for activities of a particular type in a certain location.
“Due to their contextual relevancy, they’ve proven to be highly effective in increasing awareness for advertisers and driving bookings.”
Tours and Activities Ads are currently available to advertisers in the US and UK.
Facebook Adds Transparency Around Social Issue Ads in Aus
Facebook has announced the expansion of initiatives focusing on increasing transparency and controls around social issues ads in Australia.
Last year, advertisers in Australia running political ads were required to go through an authorisation process using government-issued photo ID and place “Paid for by” disclaimers in their ads, now this is also required for all social issues ads (ads that seek to influence opinion, discussion, debate or advocacy around important topics, such as civil and social rights, crime, environmental politics, education or immigration).
Australian Facebook users now also have the option to see fewer of these ads and posts with their Ad Preferences.
Turn Live Talks into Podcasts with Spotify Greenroom
Spotify has launched Greenroom, a social audio app that turns your live talks into podcasts.
The app offers the same key features as other social audio platforms, including Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and Facebook’s Live Audio Rooms. The podcasts created can be listened to on-demand on Spotify at any time. There’s also a live text chat that users can participate in while listening.
You Can Now Edit Your Robots.txt File for Your Shopify Site
Shopify is enabling stores to edit their robots.txt file to allow for greater control over how search engines crawl your site. This feature should now be rolled out fully.
All Shopify stores begin with the same robots.txt which works for most sites, but now you can edit the file through the robots.txt.liquid theme template. Now, store owners can allow or disallow certain URLs from being crawled, add crawl-delay rules for certain crawlers, add extra sitemap URLs and block certain crawlers.
Facebook Reveals Plans for Expanded Shopping Experiences
Facebook has detailed new innovations and experiences for shoppers, with new ways to shop across apps and investing in technology that will shape the “shopping experiences of tomorrow”.
The updates include businesses in select countries to showcase Shops on WhatsApp and new ads on Shop that will bring a “shopping experience that is as personalised as your News Feed.” Facebook is also bringing visual search to Instagram using AR and AI.
Facebook Includes “Optimize Text Per Person” in Ads
Facebook is rolling out a new feature in the ad setup process called ‘Optimize Text Per Person‘, which chooses whether to highlight the primary caption, headline or description text to each user, based on what Facebook determines that viewer will best respond to.
“When it is likely to improve performance, allow text to swap between fields, such as showing your headline as primary text”.
Twitter Adds 15 Second Views to Video Ad Campaigns
Twitter has now added a new 15-second views option as a new objective for video ad campaigns. The new 15-second view bid unit prioritises reach to users who are more likely to consume video content.
“This new bid unit is built to optimize for delivering 15-second or completed views, whichever comes first, and early testing has shown that it drives Twitter’s highest video completion rates yet.”
Spotify Expands Audience Network to Australia
Spotify has expanded its Audience Network for marketers to Australia. Advertisers are now able to reach hundreds of millions of listeners at scale, both on and off Spotify using the Spotify Audience Network. The network provides advertisers with audience-based targeting, including demographic, geographic and audience segment targeting.
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