Hello Click-Through-Readers! One of our top stories this week could impact some ecommerce brands who found success with Showcase Shopping Ads. Google announced they are discontinuing this ad format after over three years of offering it. Next we will cover a big move by Snapchat with a recent acquisition of a Berlin-based retail tech startup. Other news stories this week include the new TikTok Ad Library, new Facebook targeting updates, a potential new acquisition by Microsoft, and an article that suggests reviews are trending to be more unreliable.
Starting April 1st, 2021 - Google will discontinue Showcase Shopping Ads. Showcase shopping ads were originally launched in 2017 and they helped shoppers explore products and brands. Think of it as a swipeable carousel for shopping. During the initial launch, Google found that shoppers who engaged with the ads were more likely to consider the brand as they narrowed down their search.
Snapchat recently acquired Fit Analytics, a Berlin-based retail tech startup. This purchase gives insight to Snaps future as being more than just a camera app. Fit Analytics’ technology lets people enter their own measurements into a tool that uses machine learning to help them find the right-sized apparel and footwear. They also developed a wider set of personalization tools and other analytics to help retailers figure out how to sell more overall. Around 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds in the US are on Snapchat. They bring with them $323B in direct buying power. This acquisition will allow Snapchat to diversify their revenue beyond ads.
TikTok recently launched an Ad Library called Top Ads that allows advertisers to discover the best performing auction ads on TikTok. Unlike other platform ad libraries the tool does not allow you to see what specific advertisers are running. Top Ads enables you to search by region and industry. This showcase is designed to help drive inspiration and provide visibility into the top performing ads, users can sort by CTR, impressions and 6 second view rate.
Clicking on an ad allows you to see more details about it:
Over the next few months, Facebook will propagate new restrictions to limit the reach of problematic groups and members who continuously violate their rules and community standards. Facebook’s focus is to inhibit the spread of harmful content, such as hate speech and misinformation.
New Restrictions on Groups
The goal of these restrictions is to increase difficulty in finding groups that violate community standards. Among these new measures:
New Restrictions on Individuals
Facebook is initiating a tiered level of restrictions against individuals that post harmful or misleading content. When an individual has repeated violations in groups, they will be:
Restrictions will get more severe as individuals accrue more violations. Serious harmful activities from an individual will result in an immediate removal.
In January, Facebook stopped recommending civic and political groups to members in the United States: This mandate will roll out globally to provide less divisive content to members worldwide.
You can read more information on these changes from this article published on Facebook Newsroom.
Discord is a voice-chat and messaging app that has boomed in popularity during the pandemic, and Microsoft is looking to purchase it for more than $10 billion. There are talks with other potential buyers as well as rumors about Discord going public instead of selling themselves. Discord offers audio, video and text chat on Mac, PC, iPhone, and Android and launched in 2015 specifically for the gamer community but has since grown to a larger audience. It now has around 140 million active users per month.
When you’re about to eat somewhere or purchase something, how often do you tend to look at the reviews of others? Personally, I always read reviews -- if someone has already had an experience with something I’m interested in, I want to know what to expect.
Reviews are crucial to businesses nowadays - they can oftentimes make or break a sale. With that said, it’s important to stay updated about how reviews are affecting businesses. Here are 4 reviews trends industries are seeing:
As a digital marketing agency, we know reviews play a powerful role in SEO, and a good customer support team can assist in the success of paid ads. With these trends, businesses should focus on creating a review solicitation strategy in order to stay ahead of the game.