Social media advertising: News and notes
Much like the content that users produce on the platforms themselves, social media advertising is rarely stagnant. Changes, tweaks, announcements and updates are as common as memes, viral videos, birthday posts and friend requests. As it is such a fluid landscape, here’s the latest news for a variety of social media platforms over the past week or so:
A few weeks back, we wrote about the growth of online shopping. Pinterest and the growth of their in-app purchasing feature made up the majority of that post. Pinterest users were encouraged to get in touch with the social media platform who would then get back to them with a tailored advertising strategy. Users may have to wait a little longer than expected, though. It was announced yesterday that Pinterest’s head of ad products, Jon Alferness, is leaving the company.
Another topic on our blog of late was Facebook’s fumble of data possession. It appears the ramifications of this topic are continuing to surface. According to Marketing Land, “Facebook announced it will be removing access to data provided by third-party data brokers within its advertising system.” This means that social media marketers using the platform may see some changes, most of which were also summed up by Marketing Land.
Social media advertising on this platform will be getting a little boost. Instagram announced this week that their Ads Manager software will automatically make uploaded images compatible with Instagram Stories. Since photo dimensions differ between Stories and Instagram Feeds, users would have to take that into account when developing ad creative. “With this expansion of full screen support for all Instagram Feed dimensions in stories, it’s never been easier to get started with Instagram Stories.”
Social media advertising is all about targeting. It’s vital to know your audience and show the right ads to the right people. Twitter has really taken this to heart, going so far as to allow their ad managers to target users based on their emoji preferences. The social media platform has allowed for targeting in this capacity since 2016, but as Marketing Land explains it’s still uncharted waters for many brands.
Snapchat
This focus on targeting was shared by Snapchat. The social media platform recently announced that a pair of targeting options were coming to the ads manager. The first of which is Location Categories, affording social media marketers the option to “reach Snapchatters by the type of location they’re in, like Universities or beaches.” The second option is Radius targeting: “Reach Snapchatters within a radius of any address, pin, city, or location of interest.”
YouTube
TechCrunch reports that YouTube “says advertisers have learned how to best use to raise brand awareness, despite having only a few seconds to tell their story.” So, YouTube is rewarding advertisers with more options. This is known as TrueView Reach, an expansion of the TrueView (skippable) ads. Rather than only having the TrueView for Views goal, two new options are available: TrueView for Reach or TrueView for Action.
You can file this news regarding social media advertising on LinkedIn under “stay tuned.” It’s been a few months since the social media platform began beta testing video as sponsored content. AdWeek is reporting that it has moved past beta and become available to all business over the next few weeks. This is good news. Organic video, introduced on LinkedIn last August, ‘was being shared 20 times more than other types of content’ that month.