Hello Click-Through-Readers! I interrupt your stress eating while watching election results to bring you the news. There are some big updates to Instagram Live Streaming, Google Ads productivity tools (need this to make up for lost time refreshing Twitter), new Google integrations between Ads and Sheets, and new Bing Promotion Extensions (just in time for the holiday sales). Here is your quick roundup for the week!
Instagram Extends Length Limit for Instagram Live Broadcasts, Add Live-Stream Archive
Instagram launched two updates to their Live Broadcasts. The first is extending the time limit for live streams from the current 60 minutes to four hours. The update applies to all users. In the announcement Instagram said, "This could help people such as instructors (yoga, fitness, schoolteachers etc.) who had to pivot to virtual classes, budding musicians, artists, or activists hosting discussions with fellow peers engage with their audience with no interruption from a 60 min time limit." In addition to the longer live-streams, Instagram is also launching a new option that will enable users to archive their IG Live broadcasts for up to 30 days. To help boost live content discovery, Instagram updated the “Live Now” section to make it more accessible.
Google Ads Introduces Improvements for Productivity
Google is making it easier to know your campaigns are being set up correctly as you’re building them
Receive Real Time Alerts - If the campaign your building has issues, you’ll know right away.
Pick Up Where You Left Off - You’ll be able to leave your draft, return later and pick up where you left off.
Easily create campaigns, and view disapproved ads - For a quicker build, create a campaign from the Overview page and see if your ad is approved or disapproved on that page.
Currently only available for Search campaigns.
Google Rolls Out Google Ads & Google Sheets Integration
If you’ve ever tried to utilize Google sheets to analyze and present Google Ads data, you know the manual effort it takes to maintain the data. In response to this common feedback Google built a Google Sheets add-on that allows you to build custom reports using Google Ads data.
Google Ads Report Editor Introduces a New Look
Google Ads has introduced a new look for Report Editor in the last few weeks. In this update, Report Editor UI is set up similar to Data Studio- showing dimension and metrics on the right hand side. Google has added in new features such as conditional formatting and the ability to filter and sort data with dropdowns for each field.
Promotion Extensions Now Available on Microsoft Advertising
Right in time for holiday deals, Microsoft Advertising is now offering the ability to add Promotion Extensions to ads. Advertisers can highlight the promotion’s occasion, the type and item, details and promotion’s date range, bringing more attention to limited time deals.
Promotion Extensions are currently only available to deliver within the US,
