A lot happened in the digital marketing world in November, SEMrush’s new free competitor tracking, updates in Microsoft Advertising and new Microsoft Bing Page Insights, Twitter’s newly launched Live Shopping feature, plus a bill making social media platforms liable for defamation by ‘online trolls’.
ICYMI, here’s what happened in digital marketing in November.
- Pinterest Launches Pinterest TV
- Smart Shopping Campaigns in Microsoft Advertising
- Updates in Microsoft Advertising
- Instagram Launches Live-Stream Shopping Events
- Snapchat Showcases AR Try-On Tools
- New Shopping Tabs in Bing
- Facebook Removes Certain Ad Targeting Options
- Microsoft Advertising Gets Stricter with Ad Categories
- Microsoft Audience Network Opens to More Countries
- Facebook Expands News Feed Controls for Businesses
- Snapchat Launches Multi-Format Ad Placements
- Updated Tweet Analytics Card
- Microsoft Releases List of Bingbot IP Addresses
- Yelp Launches 2 New Ad Types
- Free Competitor Tracking in Semrush
- L’Oreal, Kayo Sports, and Macca’s Successful TikTok Engagement
- Bing Page Insights Now Live
- Social Media Platforms defamation bill
- Live Shopping on Twitter
Pinterest Launches Pinterest TV
Pinterest is launching Pinterest TV, leaning into the rising live-stream commerce trend. “Today we’re announcing Pinterest TV, a series of live, original and shoppable episodes featuring creators right on Pinterest. Pinterest TV episodes are refreshed each weekday and will be recorded and available for Pinners to view on-demand, and save and rewatch later.” The new series will begin on November 8 and will give Pinners the opportunity to take up exclusive deals in the app.
Smart Shopping Campaigns in Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising is releasing smart shopping campaigns to all markets where shopping campaigns are available. Smart shopping campaigns are a combination of traditional shopping campaigns, automated bidding, Universal Event Tracking (UET) and remarketing. Enabling these automation tools for smart shopping, helps to serve ads to the right user at the right time.
Updates in Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft have announced a number of new updates including new ways to increase your brand reach with the Microsoft Audience Network with expanded targeting, Cost Per Click (CPC) or Cost Per Mille (CPM) pricing and video ad and import capabilities. You can now also future-proof your campaigns with automated Universal Event Tracking (UET) across your website with the new automated integration with Google Tag Manager. Microsoft Advertising has also made Dynamic Search Ads now available to Latin America and across APAC this month.
Instagram Launches Live-Stream Shopping Events
Instagram (like everyone else it seems) is leaning further into live-stream commerce with the launch of a new series of shopping events with exclusive product launches and influencer recommendations. “On Fridays in November, (November 5, 12, 19) look out for the #BuyBlack Live Shopping series to discover brands from talented Black creators. From December 5 – 15, we’re hosting a Holiday Pop-Up Shop LIVE series. Picture the magic and charm of a holiday market, but from the comfort of your couch.” Instagram is also looking to help retailers maximise holiday sales with 20% off a users’ first purchase in the app, plus free shipping on eligible items. Facebook is showing merchants that they can apply for $15 in shopping credits on purchases, which will then be reimbursed at the payout stage.
Snapchat Showcases AR Try-On Tools
Snapchat has showcased its evolving AR Try-On tools via a new integration for ComplexCon. The tools enable Snap users to virtually try on branded shirts and hoodies to view how they look in the app. It’s not perfect, but it does show Snap’s advances in body-mapping which will eventually enable users to try on all types of clothing aligned to their personal size options and other customisations, streamlining in-app purchases. Snapchat does already offer some AR Try-On options for ad campaigns, including make-up, glasses, jewellery, shoes and purses.
#ComplexCon drops are now in AR. Shop exclusive items from home with this Gift Shop Lens, just…
📱 Open your Snapchat
🤳 Scan the Snap code
✅ Choose your apparel or accessory
👕 Try-on virtually
🔥 Cop the dropTry it athttps://t.co/89yDJkPk4P pic.twitter.com/CMztpyfUMG
— Snapchat (@Snapchat) November 6, 2021
New Shopping Tabs in Bing
Microsoft Bing has introduced new shopping tabs in time for the holiday season providing more useful ways to search. Shoppers can browse by Department with over 1000 categories including Home Furnishings and Electronics. Shoppers who know what store they want to shop with can use the hover menu for the Stores tab to find what they’re looking for. There’s also an Editor’s Pick section that provides recommendations for product and categories to narrow down choices. Bing also has a Deal tab to bring forward great deals, coupons, cashback and more offers. There are also Trending Products and Price Drop tabs.
Facebook Removes Certain Ad Targeting Options
Facebook is removing certain ad targeting options. Starting January 19, 2022 Facebook will remove Detailed Targeting options that relate to sensitive topics, such as options referencing causes, organisation, or public figures that relate to health, race or ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, or sexual orientation. Early next year, Facebook will also be adding more control for users over more types of ad content, including gambling and weight loss, among others.
Microsoft Advertising Gets Stricter with Ad Categories
Advertising for certain products and services will no longer be allowed on the Microsoft Audience Network or on native advertising served by partners on Microsoft owned and operated properties. The ad categories no longer allowed, include lawsuit advertising, end-of-life products and services, health supplements and vitamins and gambling ads.
Microsoft Audience Network Opens to More Countries
The Microsoft Audience Network is now available in more countries. Audience Ads are now available to all customers in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Venezuela, in addition to existing markets in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Germany.
Facebook Expands News Feed Controls for Businesses
Facebook is expanding the Topic Exclusion controls for News Feed test to a limited number of advertisers. The topic exclusion control allows advertisers to select a topic to help define how Facebook will display an ad. Advertisers can select three topics – News and Politics, Social Issues, and Crime & Tragedy. When an advertiser selects one or more topics, their ad will not be delivered to people recently engaging with those topics in their News Feed. Early testing has found that excluding the categories enabled advertisers to avoid the category adjacency 94%-99% of the time.
Snapchat Launches Multi-Format Ad Placements
Snapchat will begin enabling advertisers to incorporate multiple video ad formats within a single ad set, with a new “Multiple Formats” delivery option. “Multi-Format delivery will offer brands buying on Snap the opportunity to purchase multiple advertising formats in one cohesive ad set, optimizing towards clients central goal or objective. The product launch will include all of Snap’s video ad formats including Snap Ads, Story Ads, Collection Ads and Commercials and will feature Snap’s camera offerings (augmented reality) by Q2 of 2022.”
Updated Tweet Analytics Card
Twitter has launched an updated tweet analytics card, available on each tweet to provide more specific performance insights. The updated tweet analytics display includes insight on replies, retweets and likes as well as additional data on where your tweet impressions have come from.
Microsoft Releases List of Bingbot IP Addresses
Recently, Google released a list of GoogleBot IP Addresses, now Microsoft is following suit, releasing its own list of Bingbot IP addresses. Bingbot is Microsoft Bing’s web crawler, used to crawl your website. Fabrice Canel from Microsoft said “to help all webmasters, we also published Bingbot IP ranges.“
Yelp Launches 2 New Ad Types
Yelp has launched two new ad types to connect national advertisers to local users. The new ads will appear on Yelp’s iOS app homepage. Sponsored Collections ads enable brands to promote local businesses that may be selling or serving their products. Seasonal Spotlight ads can drive in-store traffic for multi-location brands by highlighting seasonal deals, promotions and new products.
Free Competitor Tracking in Semrush
Semrush has announced that its EyeOn tool, which helps you keep an eye on your competitors is now in open beta and free to all Semrush users. With access to historical data, EyeOn detects shifting trends in competitor activity so you can take a deeper look at their efforts when you see any unusual spikes in their content or advertising.
L’Oreal, Kayo Sports, and Macca’s Successful TikTok Engagement
During TikTok for Business Australian event, McDonalds, L’Oreal and Kayo Sports shared how they’re using the social media platform TikTok as part of their wider marketing strategy and what it means for brand engagement.
Bing Page Insights Now Live
Microsoft Bing has launched Page insights in the search results. You will notice a lightbulb icon on the right side of the results that shows more details about the search result. The new insights “helps you verify that the source is relevant to your needs, helps you get caught up to speed at a glance on top factoids you didn’t know about, and lets you jump straight to the relevant section of the page when you click ‘Read more’ for a specific question.”
Social Media Platforms defamation bill
In an effort that risks exposing tech companies to future lawsuits, the new legislation would create a defense for social-media companies that disclose details of users when a complaint is made against their comments.
Live Shopping on Twitter
Twitter officially launches its shopping feature inside live streams. The feature is called Live Shopping, allowing people to take several actions that make the shopping experience on Twitter seamless, such as:
- Check out the Shoppable Banner and Shop Tab on the Live event’s page.
- Toggle back and forth between the Latest Tab and the Shop Tab throughout the live stream, allowing them to be a part of the conversation as they check out products.
- Continue to watch the live stream on the merchant’s website within an in-app browser, so they don’t miss a thing while making a purchase.
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