Digital Advertising Roundup September 2019

Monday 30 September 2019 - Advertising

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Digital Advertising Roundup September 2019

The month of September is crammed full of updates in digital advertising. In this roundup, let Adwise lead you through the interesting updates from Google, Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Amazon.

Amazon makes display advertising more accessible with Sponsored Display

Amazon makes display advertising more accessible with Sponsored Display, a beta solution available to professional sellers and agencies and currently being tested in the United States. Advertisers can use Sponsored Display to retarget users who viewed the product or similar products. It can also reach users that showed an interest in certain category pages. You indicate who you wish to reach with which products and Amazon generates automated display advertisements. These ads are shown in Amazon and externally, on a desktop, mobile or tablet.

Advertising Roundup 2019

Snapchat expands advertising options to include videos of up to 3 minutes long

Advertisers on Snapchat are no longer limited to 10-second advertisement videos. The platform now offers a Snap Ads option of 180 seconds, so three minutes. This gives you, the advertiser, more flexibility to use tools and resources that vary in length, according to Snapchat. As the length of the ads is increasing, Snapchat has introduced a new bidding strategy able to optimise on the basis of 15-second video views. The new, expanded 3-minute Snap Ads can be utilised in any bidding strategy.

Advertising Roundup 2019

Google Ads bids farewell to average position

In the week of 30 September, Google will wave goodbye to the metric ‘average position’, as already announced in the February Digital Advertising Roundup. Until the date above, Google will display a yellow warming sign by the average position, preparing advertisers for the exit.

As the average position is now a departing metric, no longer a controllable focus, recommendation is to use ‘top impression share data’ and ‘absolute top impression data’. These statistics reflect the true placement of the ad on the page, instead of the position of the ad compared to other advertisements.

Automatic bid strategy available for Store Visits

Advertisers measuring store visits in their Google Ads account can now use data from store visits for automatic bidding strategies. To include store visits data in your bidding strategy, you must check the ‘Include in conversion’ box below the ‘Store visits’ conversion. Unlike other conversions, the attribution model cannot yet be amended here.

We also advise you allocate a value to a store visit. But bear in mind that this value is static, not dynamic. Advertisers may choose to set this as the average amount that is spent in the physical shop.

Would you like to find out more? Contact us for no-obligation advice!

Seasonal changes to Google Ads

The smart bidding seasonality adjustments, or seasonal changes, sees Google take future activities into account. This could include an event that would most likely mean a higher conversion yield. Google then optimises your biddings during this period and brings these back to the old level after the adjusted period.

The results of this seasonal bidding are separated from the regular smart bidding strategy, so that it does not affect your current campaign once the enhanced activity is over.

Create streamlined advertisements after the LinkedIn Objective-Based Advertising update

LinkedIn has implemented an update in the Objective-Based Advertising experience within the Campaign Maker. LinkedIn says it streamlined the campaign format, in line with one of the seven campaign goals advertisers can select from the advertisement management section. The new Objective-Based Advertising experience has the following advantages:

Creating advertisements is easier. LinkedIn only displays the best performing ad formats that suit the selected campaign goal. So, if you have a branding goal, LinkedIn will not actively recommend linking this to a conversion goal.
Goal-based optimisation. Based on the campaign goal, LinkedIn is able to optimise towards the desired campaign results. In addition, the platform can target higher quality clicks in campaigns for website visits and website conversions.

Faster results. In reports, LinkedIn shows the campaign results that matter and are aligned with the campaign goal. LinkedIn calls these statistics Key Results.

Facebook tests in-app checkout and ramps up Instagram Shopping tests

Facebook is in the process of testing a native checkout function for a limited number of advertisers. This functionality enables product purchases within the Facebook app. The in-app checkout is currently only available for dynamic product advertisements in the news feed. Facebook had previously tested an in-app checkout on Instagram. Facebook is has now increased Instagram Shopping tests on this channel and now allows advertisers to convert organic shopping ads into Instagram advertisements.

Advertising Roundup 2019

Google is also aiming for a similar checkout functionality. In the May Advertising Roundup we already announced that Google wants to introduce direct purchases within the Google Shopping environment as soon as this year.

Responsive Search Ads now also available in Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft Advertising has rolled out Responsive Search Ads to all advertisers. This follows the earlier introduction of this advertising format by Google. Advertisers can add a maximum of 15 headers and 4 description rules to a Responsive Search Ad. The potential customer is then shown the best combination. Furthermore, Microsoft Advertising displays the strength of the advertisement based on headers, descriptions and uniqueness. The Responsive Search Ads can be created and managed via the Editor, interface, bulk API and Google Ads-import.

Advertising Roundup 2019