July 2018 – What’s Trending from Society @ ME
Instagram welcomes IGTV, Facebook tightens its custom audience data requirements, and Snapchat expands their AR products. Here’s what’s new in social.
Product Catalog Updates. Brands can now add items manually to product catalogues (recommended for inventory of 50 or fewer). In addition, Facebook has made it easier to hide or exclude items featured in the catalog from appearing in ads, eliminating the need to update data feeds manually to remove items. Already available for eCommerce catalogs, these new features will be available to additional catalog types later this year. Learn more.
All apps connected to Facebooks APIs must go under review. By August 1, 2018 all new and existing apps must be approved by Facebook in order to maintain approved status for the Pages, Groups, Events, Business Manager, Instagram Graph, and Messenger Platforms APIs, as well as for Facebook Login. This follows the Cambridge Analytica data scandal where Facebook promised to review the information apps can use when people connect to Facebook. Learn more.
The new custom audience upload flow will require anyone who is creating or sharing a custom audience to comply with Facebook’s terms of use and data origin requirements. Audiences shared between different Business Managers will need to set up an audience sharing relationship before any list data is shared. To be more transparent with users, Facebook will let users know what information was used to reach them and the source. Learn more.
Instagram launched IGTV, a new standalone mobile app within Instagram for watching long-form, fast-loading vertical videos from digital creators around the world. Built into the Instagram app, users can follow their favourite accounts to see more of their content and share videos with friends. Video starts playing as soon as you open the app. Though ads are not currently part of IGTV, Instagram will be testing ways to help creators monetize their content. Learn more here.
Don’t have vertical video but want to advertise on Instagram Stories? Instagram has rolled out a new feature where it will resize Instagram Feed posts for Instagram Stories. Simply select the Instagram Feed and Instagram Stories placements to get started. Learn more.
Snapchat
Reach and Frequency buying on Snapchat is now open for whitelisting to Canadian advertisers! Learn more.
AR Lenses will soon be available through the self-serve platform via the reach and frequency tool. The AR Lenses will have the same demographic targeting capabilities as Snapchat’s other products. Rollout is expected to begin in mid Q3/Q4. Learn more.
Advertisers can soon sponsor Snapchat’s two-player AR selfie games. Called “Sponsored Snappables,” the brand logo will appear in the game. Snappables are multiplayer games designed around an AR Filter that can be played with friends on Snapchat. The sponsorship can only be bought direct with a Snap representative. Learn more.
In a push to increase their e-commerce offerings, Snapchat is building conversion events into their pixel to leverage direct-response objectives such as purchases and sign-ups. Advertisers can see the total number of purchases, the total value of purchases, and the ROAS. Conversion lift metrics will become available in the next few months. Rollout is expected in Q4. Learn more here.
The carousel format is now open to all advertisers on LinkedIn. Similar to carousels on Facebook, brands can utilize attention-grabbing images to tell a brand story and command attention from an audience of professionals. Available for Sponsored Content and Lead Generation objectives. Learn more.
Twitter’s in-stream video ads are now available to all advertisers in Canada through the self-serve platform. There are over 200 video publishers partnered with Twitter to support brand-safe videos for millions of Twitter users to consume. Learn more here.
Pinterest’s promoted video format is expanding to take up more of your screen. Tests are underway with a small group of advertisers to try on the 16:9 and 1:1 aspect ratio formats. Pinterest knows that their users resonate well with video and has carried Promoted Video to drive brand favourability and purchase intent. Look out for the expanded format to come to all advertisers later this year. Learn more.