Another week, another round of social media updates. This past week Facebook and Instagram both unveiled new features that will be particularly beneficial for digital advertisers. Take a look at what you can expect:
Paid Social:
Over the past several installations of Made for Paid, we’ve seen Facebook consistently unveil new updates for advertisers, and this week is no exception. Facebook is now providing more advertising placement options for video ads. Facebook video advertisers may choose to buy placements on the Facebook Audience Network, the Facebook platform itself, or both at the same time. Previously, video advertisers were required to buy both placement options. This new update will allow advertisers to capture more revenue from the most profitable placements.
While Facebook has not officially confirmed, the social network seems to be testing two new custom audience targeting options according to a screenshot from Tim Peterson from Marketing Land: store visits and engagements. The engagement feature allows advertisers to target people who have previously engaged on their Facebook business page or Instagram account. The store visit feature targets people who have visited the business’s physical location. Once these features are fully rolled out, advertisers will be able to execute retargeting strategies at a new level.
Struggling to gain views on your product carousel posts on Instagram? We’ve got some good news for you: Instagram is now allowing business accounts to promote carousel posts. Business account users can find the promote button below posts on Instagram’s mobile platform. Users can then zero in on their promotion goals: either website/profile visits or location-specific reach. This new feature will open more doors for advertisers to achieve their marketing goals.
SEM:
After introducing mobile sitelink display in carousel format last month, Google announced last Saturday that AdWords mobile ad display will undergo a big format makeover in late August. Moving forward, callout extensions and structured snippets will be merged into one paragraph. Google believes the new format will increase user’s interaction rate and allow more callout extensions and structured snippets to be shown at once. While these changes do not affect how advertisers upload their ads, it might be worthwhile to consider creating extension copy that is visually appealing in paragraph form.
That’s a wrap on your weekly dose of digital marketing news. We’ll be back with more updates next week!
