March 2018 – What’s trending from Society @ ME
Snapchat’s Promoted Stories are here, Instagram wants to tell more stories with advertisers, and Facebook washes onto shore with a colossal wave of updates. Here’s what’s new in March.
Product Updates – Facebook
Facebook is making it’s ad metrics much clearer.
Starting in July, Facebook will eliminate redundant, rarely used, and outdated metrics.The platform will also be more transparent with real-time results, labelling metrics as “estimated” or “in development”. To help grasp these measurement methodologies, Facebook’s “Measure What Matters” program rolling out in March, will provide research and analysis across channels for brand awareness objectives and direct response objectives. To learn more about the changes visit the Facebook Business Blog. To see the full list of metrics being removed, visit the Help Center.
More accuracy to organic reach metrics on Page Insights.
Organic reach will now be measured the same way reach is measured for paid ads, allowing for greater accuracy and comparison between paid and organic. – Learn more
Campaign Budget Optimization.
Set a campaign level budget and allow your campaign to optimize to the winning ad set. This means greater flexibility with your budget, while getting the most results possible and simplifying campaign set up. – Read more
Test & Learn and Lift Reports Auto-Sharing.
Rolling out to advertisers in early 2018, Test & Learn helps advertisers select a business question and test different strategies to learn what works best. This simplified experience in Ads Manager then leverages the Facebook Conversion Lift infrastructure. You can compare two campaigns to learn which drives the lowest cost per conversion or test how much your ad account lifts sales for your business. Learn more about the Campaign Comparison Test and the Ad Account Test.
Pre-campaign publisher lists for Facebook In-Stream.
Currently rolling out on Ads Manager, the feature will provide advertisers the ability to view a list of publishers and placements where their ads could run on in-stream. – Learn more
Click-to-WhatsApp.
The new feature allows people to start a conversation with a business in WhatsApp by clicking a call to action button in a Facebook post. For now, it will only be available via boosted organic posts on a Facebook Page. – Read more
Product Updates – Snapchat
Snapchat’s introducing new ways to target user with Location Targeting and Point-Radius targeting.
Location targeting allows you to hyper-target people by the type of place they’re in, like theatres, beaches, and more. Point-Radius targeting allows you to reach customers who are most relevant to your business or offer’s location by targeting people who are currently in a range of 2 to 75 km of a specified location, or multiple locations. Check out the Snapchat Blog to learn more about these new features.
Promoted Stories.
Launching in April, the high-reach takeover format allows you to publish amongst leaders in content. You can now drive significant awareness and reach with a branded tile which once tapped, can open into a collection of 3 to 10 Snaps that will tell a story for your brand. – Read more
Product Updates – Instagram
Instagram is introducing Carousel Ads to Stories for advertisers.
Soon you’ll be able to include up to three consecutive pieces of vertical videos or images in your ads to expand your Stories in new and creative ways. Users will be able to play with brand Stories the same way they can with their friends: pausing content or swiping back and forth. The rollout for this new format on the self-serve platform is tentatively set for April 2018. Learn more about the announcement on the Instagram blog and see how the Gap used the new Stories for their campaign. – Read more
See. Tap. Shop. Make your organic Instagram posts shoppable.
Already a feature in the US, the shoppable posts are being rolled out to 8 more countries, including Canada. Now businesses can tag their organic posts with pricing and product information, turning the Instagram feed into a “visual storefront”. Check out the Instagram Business page to learn how you can get started. – Read more
#noteworthy
SOCIETY @ ME nabbed two nominations at this year’s Shorty Awards! WestJet’s 12 Flights of Christmas landed nominations in Facebook, Branded Content and Facebook Partnership, while Jameson Whiskey was nominated for best Live Streaming Video for their Facebook Live collaboration with the Arkells.
#POV
The fallout from the Facebook – Cambridge Analytica incident has been swift, as users worry about personal data breaches on their preferred platform. But what does this mean for brands? Joaquin Murillo, Managing Director of Society @ ME, breaks down what this means for advertisers in Society’s latest POV.
#inspo
PyeongChang Winter Olympics sponsor Toyota created an Instagram account for Para Alpine Skier Menna Fitzpatrick, with 360 videos conveying what it’s like to race downhill with only 3 percent vision using a visual impairment “filter”. Learn more about the thought-provoking concept here.