Q3 has officially begun! With that, we bring you the July edition of the Social Media Water Cooler. As always, we’re covering new social media trends and features that are most relevant to the digital marketing industry in 2019. This month’s edition features new capabilities from Snapchat, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Snapchat Set to Release New App Features
After a lull in updates, Snapchat is back with three new product features for its app. The first is a “Multi-Snap” option that allows users to compose a string of messages to post all at once. This feature simplifies the process for planning a sequence of Snaps and allows for easy customization of content.
The second feature integrates Bitmoji stickers in replies to Stories, similar to what is currently available in iMessage and other messaging tools. The last feature allows users to create events within Snapchat and share details like location or time with their Snapchat friends. Users can respond to the invite and participate in group messaging for the event all within the app.
The plan for rolling out these updates has not yet been announced.
Dynamic Ads Now Available for Stories Placements
Facebook’s newest feature will show dynamic carousel ads in Stories placements, expanding placement opportunities for dynamic remarketing and dynamic prospecting campaigns. By ensuring your ads are opted into all Stories placements, the popular dynamic carousel ad format will display as cards for people to tap or swipe through, pulling product information directly from your Product Catalog.
Facebook is still gaining information on user behavior and experiences, and is expecting updates for the feature based upon feedback. This product has been rolled out 100% to all advertisers as of mid-May and requires manual opt-in for each account within the conversions, catalog sales, traffic, lead generation, and app install objectives.
New Facebook Features Add More Control Over Brand Safety
Facebook is expanding its brand safety tools with a new Inventory Filter that allows advertisers to control ad content appearing near controversial content on the Audience Network, In-Stream Video, and Instant Article placements. Examples of such could include content related to strong language, dating, or political issues.
The filter includes three options:
1. Limited Inventory, the maximum protection
2. Standard Inventory, the moderate protection and default choice
3. Full Inventory, the minimal protection which allows ads to be delivered to all eligible content
Control Over Data Privacy Could Impact Facebook Ad Targeting
After announcing its initial development in fall 2018, Facebook’s tool for reviewing and managing off-Facebook activity will roll out in the coming months as part of its renewed focus on transparency and protecting user data privacy. Facebook says this tool will ultimately improve the way people feel about online ads by helping them understand how advertisers use Facebook’s business tools.
This update will allow a user to clear data captured via third-party business tools (i.e. Facebook Pixel, SDK, or API) from a list of apps and websites a user has visited. In turn, this could impact the sizes of custom audiences created from this data, such as site visitors or recent purchasers.
Facebook does ensure this tool will not impact reporting and measurement while still protecting user privacy. Once the tool is fully rolled out, capturing and utilizing first-party data will be more important than ever for ad targeting.
New Pinterest Campaigns Allow Brands to Drive Higher Conversions
Along with the new Shopping campaign objective, Pinterest expanded its focus to actions rather than simply product discovery and exploration. With the new Conversions campaign, brands can set their desired outcome – whether that is purchase, lead, or add-to-cart – and Pinterest will target people most likely to take that action.
This new campaign objective supports video, image, and carousel pins, allowing brands to set a clear call-to-action and send traffic to a supporting landing page. One company that added this new campaign type to its Pinterest advertising strategy saw four times the conversions. The company’s director of growth marketing said, “Conversion optimization really focused our ad spend where it did the most good.”
Looking for more social media news and insights? Check out our previous editions of the social media water cooler:
June 2019, Q1 2019, Q4 2018, Q3 2018
