Weekly Insights: PPC Industry News and Updates - 23/10/23

YouTube, which experiences daily engagement from billions of viewers, has announced new AI-powered advertising solutions to help brands capitalise on key cultural moments. YouTube is introducing 'Spotlight Moments', an AI-driven package that identifies the most popular and relevant videos around major events, enhancing ad placement opportunities.

 

This feature allows brands to have a high share of voice across video content during global cultural moments, with all content housed on a dedicated YouTube hub branded with the advertiser's logo. The AI technology identifies YouTube videos related to a specific cultural moment, such as Halloween, and enables the advertiser to serve ads across related content. This content is then curated into dynamic playlists that live on the sponsored hub, automatically aligning brands with the most relevant content.

 

Advertisers can further extend their reach with additional ad solutions, including First Position, YouTube Masthead, Google TV Masthead, and In-Feed Displays. 'Spotlight Moments' joins other AI-powered solutions, such as Video Reach Campaigns and Video View Campaigns. Advertisers using Video Reach Campaigns with in-stream, in-feed and Shorts saw a 54% increase in reach and a 42% lower CPM compared to in-stream only. Video View Campaigns also delivered promising results, with 40% more views and a 30% lower cost-per-view than in-stream only. These campaigns are now generally available to all advertisers.[1]

 

 

Snapchat is introducing a suite of products, dubbed 'Creator Collab Campaigns', to fortify the relationship between its thriving creator community and advertisers. This initiative includes the 'Creator Discovery API', 'Creator Midroll Placement for Brands', and the 'Paid Partnership Tag'.

 

The Creator Discovery API offers third-party partners access to Snapchat's extensive creator roster, providing statistics such as name, username, bio, follower count, and age breakdown. Creators can opt to share further metrics, giving partners more in-depth insights. Several industry-leading API partners are already lined up to integrate creator data into their platforms.

The Creator Midroll Placement allows advertisers to position branded content within creator-driven Stories, taking advantage of Snapchat's growing viewer engagement rates.

The Paid Partnership Tag helps public creators label their branded content as paid promotions. In the near future, verified creators will be able to tag an Official Business when posting their content, with brands able to approve the partnership and gain access to analytics in the Ads Manager.

 

Snapchat is also developing features that will allow Snapchatters, creators, and businesses to promote their content, in addition to tools for brands to discover and promote relevant organic creator content. [2]

 

Snapchat claims to stand out in the social media landscape, offering a more intimate platform for interactions with close friends. This focus allows users to foster real relationships, a key factor in the app's sustained growth, even in the face of competition from Meta. For marketers, Snapchat's unique audience could offer distinct advantages for their platform marketing strategies.

 

A recent analysis in collaboration with GWI revealed that 43% of daily Snapchat users aged 16+ in the U.S. do not use TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter every day. The cross-platform loyalty to Snapchat is especially strong, with 32% of Snapchat users not as active on Instagram. Among 16-24-year-olds, the numbers are even more striking, with nearly 50% not using YouTube, 63% not using Facebook, and over 70% not on Twitter daily.

 

These figures highlight the potential of Snapchat as a communications platform, with the majority of users showing strong loyalty to the app. This has contributed to Snapchat+ becoming the most successful social platform subscription offering so far. Snapchat emphasises authentic communication, happiness, and self-expression, which could be valuable aspects to consider in your Snapchat marketing strategies. [3]

Google is enhancing its Google Analytics 4 (GA4) platform by introducing new features specifically for 360 customers. These include customised reporting, BigQuery reports, and links and integrations, offering more tailored capabilities to fit different teams and business needs. The new features will be rolled out over the coming weeks and later this year.

 

The customised reporting feature allows enterprises and agencies to create reports based on the specific needs of their teams, providing faster access to insights. BigQuery reports will be improved with a more comprehensive daily export feature, ensuring consistent data delivery. The links and integrations feature allows advertisers to connect their subproperties and roll-up properties to various advertising tools.

 

Google is encouraging advertisers still using Universal Analytics 360 to switch to GA4 to take advantage of these new features. Universal Analytics will no longer be available after 30 June 2024, and Google recommends completing the transition to GA4 by March 2024. These changes are part of Google's ongoing investment in GA4 to provide a more effective and performant analytics solution in the changing privacy landscape. [4]

[1] Google

[2] Snapchat

[3] Social Media Today

[4] Search Engine Land