Tag Archive for: advertising

Pinterest Ads Open, Facebook Reach Grows

Pinterest ads now open for your business

This week Pinterest finally opened up its Ads Manager to everyone interested in scheduled Promoted Pins. Up until now Pinterest ads were only in the beta phase.

Along with this opening up, Pinterest unveiled more detailed ad targeting tools to enable advertisers to more accurately promote pins. These targeting tools include some items similar to those seen on the Facebook Ads Manager, like interest and customer database targeting. Pinterest has one different type of targeting that may work in advertisers favor though: keyword targeting, which allows the serving of ads up to people exploring the platform using certain keywords.Pinterest Ads

Time will tell how successful these ads are, but Pinterest says people who saw Promoted Pins had a 40% greater awareness of new products and had a 50% higher purchase intent.

While this is great for individual advertisers with one client, Pinterest currently lacks the ability to switch between multiple ad accounts. This means that agencies with multiple clients will need to set up accounts and switch between them for different clients.

Facebook Reach reportedly still surging

Facebook post reach continues to rise, despite recent algorithm changes many expected to take a bite out of reach. Locowise reports the average reach for posts in February was up 5.33% from January.

Locowise also reported an increase in post engagements from January to February, but it will be interesting to see what happens to engagements rates once a full month of Reactions are able to be recorded.

Social Engagement Custom Audiences and Likes vs Favorites

 

Custom audiences by social engagement on posts?

Social Engagement Custom AudiencesFacebook Marketing Strategist Jon Loomer discovered what could be a new targeting tool for Facebook advertisers: the ability to create custom audiences based on social engagement.

Loomer posted his discovery in a blog post noting that when he went to create a custom audience he had more than the regular 3 option types for creating a custom audience. He had one additional option: people who have engaged with your content! This new targeting option does not appear to be an available for the majority of advertisers yet, but opens up some interesting possibilities. Loomer notes that he’s only able to create custom audiences off of people engaging with videos, but it appears the function is built for multiple types of content. Imagine how dialed in a custom audience list could be by targeting people who had already engaged with your content previously!

While Twitter recently introduced a similar feature, something like this has been a long time coming for Facebook. Time will tell when it rolls out for the rest of us and in what capacity.

We heart the Heart more than the Star

Likes over FavoritesMany people bemoaned Twitter’s decision to kill off the Favorite button and replace that with a Like button similar to Facebook. However, the move appears to be paying off for the social network. Locowise reports Twitter has seen a nearly 29% increase in people liking tweets vs favoriting them. The study included 1,500 Twitter accounts over a three month period with more than 2.2 million tweets.

Locowise noted that a big reason for the increase is due to the favorite button being used to archive material for later compared to the like button. That’s in comparison to a like which provides an immediate representation of your approval of something. While Twitter has been struggling in recent months, positive news like this is promising for the social network.

Facebook Launches Canvas Ads and Reactions

Facebook introduces Canvas

Canvas AdsFacebook advertisers now have access to a new immersive type of ad called “Canvas“. While previously available to certain advertisers, the new ad works to open up a full screen experience once an ad is clicked by a user.

This full screen experience is said to load ten times faster than traditional ads. Canvases provide advanced functions for ads like animations, carousels, product catalogs, tilt-to-view images, and videos.

The user-friendly feature is available through Power Editor for all advertisers. Facebook says it wanted to provide everyone with the means to make great looking ads while also elevating the ad content being served to users – from Fortune 500 companies to mom and pop coffee shops.

According to Facebook, 53% of users that open a Canvas view at least half of it, and the average view time is 31 seconds. The top Canvas ads can see more than 70 seconds of view time per user. Read more

Longer Video Ads, Algorithm Tweaks and Air Travel Demand

Instagram rolls out 60 second video ads, multiple account switching

Instagram Video AdsWhile there are several reports indicating our attention spans are getting shorter, Instagram is doubling down on video ads by unveiling 60 second ads that will soon be widely available.

A statement from Instagram said the longer video ads would allow advertisers to tell unique stories that better tell their brand message.

Although only a handful of advertisers would have access to these longer video ads (just in time for a certain big game this weekend…) the wider advertiser base would have access at a later date.

Additionally, some iOS users can now switch between multiple Instagram accounts without repeatedly signing out and signing back in. The feature is already available to Android users, but appears to be a slower rollout (for now) on iOS.

Facebook tweaks the news feed algorithm…again

Supposedly Facebook’s new algorithm tweak to newsfeeds may help increase engagement due to qualitative feedback being used to deliver more relevant content to users. To help with this adjustment Facebook is utilizing a team of tens of thousands of users it calls its Feed Quality Panel to rate experiences every day to help improve what kinds of content is served up and cut down posts we don’t care to see.

Two Facebook software engineers explained that this update should not impact reach or referral traffic for most pages. Declines in referral traffic may occur if “the rate at which their stories are clicked on does not match how much people report wanting to see those stories near the top of their News Feed. This update helps rebalance those two factors, so people are seeing relevant stories to them.”

In short, avoid posting and encouraging actions on your posts which may deliver a short term increase in engagement because “temporary spikes in metrics might then be rebalanced by feed’s ranking over time.”

Global demand for air travel surges

Air travel demandThe dark days of the global recession appear to be only memories for the airline industry. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released the 2015 global passenger traffic results and the numbers are good. The numbers show demand rose 6.5% last year compared to 2014. This marked the best year since the supposed Financial Crisis rebound of 2010.

These numbers were aided by an increase in capacity and all regions experiencing positive traffic growth, but carriers in the Asia-Pacific region accounted for one-third of the total increase.

 

Facebook Advertising Doesn’t have to be Hard

Facebook AdvertisingBy Grant Kenney, TwoSix Digital Senior Digital Strategist

The time to advertise on Facebook is now. The social network has increasingly moved to stifle organic reach and made it difficult for brands and pages to reach fans without spending any money (they are a publicly traded company now, after all). That’s not to say that everyone needs to dump all of their marketing budgets into Facebook advertising (we are still big fans of a well-integrated campaign), but it’s becoming more and more important to use some of the money earmarked for marketing or advertising into the social network.

Despite what you may think, you don’t need to spend millions or even thousands to advertise on Facebook. In fact, it’s never been easier (or less expensive) to get your company, destination or brand message in front of more people than those who like your page. Simply put: Facebook advertising doesn’t have to be hard.

If you’re reading this post you may be wondering exactly how easy it is if you’ve never run an ad on Facebook before. The answer: very easy.

Do I have to spend a lot on Facebook ads to see any results?

No! If you have $5 in your pocket and want to advertise on Facebook you can do it. Granted, that’s just one ad but it’s a great way to get your feet wet and test out Facebook advertising.

If you’re feeling a bit behind or lost about advertising on Facebook the best thing you can do is experiment a little by boosting your posts with small amounts of money. Fortunately, Facebook has made it very easy to not blow a ton of money on an ad – making the entry into advertising on the platform very affordable.

Facebook advertising sounds really complicated…but it doesn’t have to be

Facebook advertising is as complicated as you want it to be. The caveat here is that you need to determine what your objective is and then select the ad type that  works for you. For this example we’re going to focus on boosted posts, the easiest kind of ad you can run on Facebook.

Read more

Facebook Mobile Ad Format and Instagram isn’t Square

Facebook Mobile Ad Format and Instagram isn’t Square

Another type of mobile ad?

Facebook looks to be exploring a new format for mobile ads. These ads will first appear as normal Facebook posts, but will open into a full screen representation of a brand’s website.

According to reports, users can scroll through multiple pages of videos, images and text, most of which is hosted on Facebook.

The new ads are being tested with a small group of brands right now. No word yet on if and when this new ad type

Instagram

Credit: @Aashleyyuki

No longer hip to be square

Instagram users are no longer stuck using square photos! The social network’s new changes allow for portrait and landscape imagery to be uploaded by users. As you scroll through your feed you will instantly see new formats from pictures that will be seamlessly integrated.

This will, undoubtedly be, good news for all of us who struggle to get a photo to appear just right for our personal pages and have to continually go through photo banks to look for the appropriate photo that won’t be awkwardly cropped for our business or brand pages.

Speaking of Instagram for business and brands, we came across this great article showcasing 10 Instagram tools and applications marketers can use.

Instagram on Hootsuite and Google Hotel Finder

Instagram on Hootsuite and Google Hotel Finder

Welcome to Hootsuite, Instagram!

Social media managers rejoice! Photo-sharing, social media behemoth Instagram is now integrated with Hootsuite. This means Hootsuite users can now schedule those pesky weekend and evening Instagram posts without having to set constant reminders on their phones and alarm clocks.

Hootsuite users will also be able to interact and engage with their audience while also being able to schedule and simultaneously push out Instagram posts onto other platforms, like Facebook and Twitter. You can check out the short video on the integration below.

Google Quietly Launches Hotel Finder

Google Hotel FinderSearch giant, Google, may be setting its sights on the travel industry. Google recently (very quietly) launched a new feature allowing users to book hotel rooms directly through the search engine. Called “Google Hotel Finder,” the tool can use Google Wallet to make the transaction quite easy and quick.

At this time, the options are reportedly a bit limited, which may not result in the best deals for consumers.

Changes Coming to Facebook Ads

Changes Coming to Facebook Ads

Some interesting new upgrades and changes are coming to Facebook ads! The social network made the announcement this week in order to prepare ad managers for what to expect. Facebook says the plan is to work harder for ad managers so they don’t have to work quite so hard (yay!) Here is a short breakdown of what to expect:

Ads Manager

A new layout will streamline the look in Ads Manager and provide more information on ads’ performance.

The new data will display performance, audience and placement results. Doing so will provide managers a view of the performance of an ad when making necessary edits instead of memorizing details or having a second window open. This information can even be filtered and selected by date. Reports can also be set to send out at intervals to provide updates as needed, meaning updates can be provided easily and frequently to show progress.

Power Editor

While the changes in Power Editor may not be as drastic, the new and improved Power Editor will boast a larger display and an edit pane. This will provide more room and a quicker way to edit ads. Ads may also be searched by name or ID and be filtered.

Overall, Facebook says these changes are designed to help ad managers speed up and enhance the ad creation, editing and reporting process. The changes will roll out to all ad accounts in the coming months with no set date announced yet

Most Popular City, Google Maps Everywhere, Instagram Ads

Most Popular City, Google Maps Everywhere, Instagram Ads

Credit: Mastercard

Top Cities Listed

London is the most popular city in the world. That’s according to Mastercard‘s latest Global Destination Cities Index, ranking 132 destination cities around the world in terms of total international overnight visitor arrivals and cross-border spending. This is the second year in a row London has topped the list. The city is expected to receive more than 18.8 million visitors this year.

While Bangkok came in second in anticipated overnight stays, New York was number two when it came to visitor spending, while London remained at number one.

Google Maps and Nav – Even when Offline!

A major announcement from Google this week: the search giant will begin offering maps and navigation even when a user is offline. This should prove especially helpful for people when they need it most, like traveling internationally where data rates are higher  – or when signal is especially weak and you’re lost (you know, when you need it most!).

This will, undoubtedly, make the decision to use Google much easier for people in developing parts of the world where signal and coverage are unreliable. The function is expected to roll out later this year.

Instagram Buttons up the Ante

A new feature from Instagram will allow a direct response button to be placed on ads. These four different calls to action will allow advertisers and marketers to better reach the audiences they may have previously had difficulty reaching.

The button will appear under and image and be clickable. The function will begin rolling out in limited number in the coming days, but should quickly find promise among those longing for a clickable option for advertisements on the Facebook-owned platform. You can check out what the buttons will look like below.

Instagram Direct Response Buttons

Credit: Instagram

Social Ad Spending, Amazon Destinations and Facebook Algorithm Changes

Facebook Advertising

Credit: Chalk & Ward

Global Facebook Ad Spend

You’ve heard it before: social media is becoming pay-to-play, and a new report seems to indicate that statement really is on the money. A new report from eMarketer estimates global spending on social media advertising will total $23.68 billion. That’s “billion” with a “b”.

Most of the money will be spent on Facebook, roughly 65.5% of it. However, Twitter is gaining share and is expected to bring in about 7.1% more revenue this year, bringing it to about $2.09 billion. While still nothing to brush off, LinkedIn is expected to earn $900 million in ad revenue in 2015 – a dip from 2014.

Amazon Destinations Debuts

Amazon seems to be getting in on the travel and tourism game with the launch of its new hotel product and brand, Amazon Destinations. Destinations works directly with hoteliers and mainly operates to help with weekend getaways or road trips near major metropolitan areas, meaning you won’t see flight options or deals.

Skift reports the focus is to help people looking for that weekend away and to boost local travel. Destinations differs from Amazon Local by favoring published rates and working with hotels for an ongoing basis and not just when rooms need to be filled. The service is still in its infancy and reviews are minimal compared to the 200 million currently on TripAdvisor, though some do appear.

Facebook Plays with its Algorithm…Again

A change to Facebook’s algorithm will increase the updates from friends seen and decrease what’s seen about their activity on Facebook. What does this mean? You’re less likely to see content your friends like or comment on in your Facebook newsfeed, meaning brand pages that rely on audience activity for virality may go down. While Facebook says the move was done to give more relevant content to users one can’t help but wonder about inevitable step closer toward the play-to-pay model for brands to get content seen.