Kicking off January with a return of the Newsroom!

As we say goodbye to 2021, there’s already plenty to talk about as the media giants get ready to battle to put their best digital foot forward. Google, TikTok, Twitter, we’ve got you’ve covered with our latest Newsroom round up.

PPC NEWS

All eyes on Google

The every expanding Google reveals more detail on audio ads. In short, the workflow generally aligns with video trafficking and has a similar implementation stream, but a different inventory. Watch this space for more on audio ads, or give it a try for yourself here.

First introduced in 2020 as a new way to buy Google ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign. P-Max are now open to all advertisers. But, most importantly, they will replace Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, which will both upgrade to Performance Max this year.

Thanks to Google’s new ‘Workspace’ option, you can pre-set a filter group to allow you to easily navigate between different views (e.g. brand only, shopping + generics, display + generics).

Responsive search ads deadline is in 6 months time – users need to have at least one RSA in each ad group!

SOCIAL NEWS

Tik Tok tops the charts

Tik Tok became the most used platform globally, surpassing Google from 10th August 2021 onwards, with the highest traffic on most days, including Black Friday. Covid-19 acted as a catalyst for the platforms growth as people turned to it during lockdowns. It is on track to reaching 1.5 billion users in 2022.

Tik Tok are currently testing  a ‘repost’ feature – similar to Twitter’s retweet. Its intention is to encourage passive users of the platform to participate more instead of having to create their own content. It also allows more engagement as users can endorse brands by sharing their videos and vice versa.

Nando’s has used humorous and relatable social media in their marketing campaigns to great success for a long time #cheeky

Twitter misses the mark?

Twitter aims to achieve a 50% growth in the next two years (Tik Tok has x7 the amount of current followers), the drive towards more visual content influenced by the success of Tik Tok, the changing ways people interact with content and wanting to capture a new audience.

The edit photo tool was launched as test in September and is now being rolled out to most users. It allows people to add stickers to their photos and looks similar to Instagram stories. Again, the intention to appeal to a younger audience and the opportunity to jazz up content.

But does Twitter really understand it’s user’s needs? Many top tweeters think otherwise… ​

More UX tweaks from Instagram

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri recently announced the format of the new Instagram feeds. Home – following an algorithm as it does currently, Following – chronological order of the people you follow and Favourites – people you personally select to see their content, e.g. favourite brands, celebrities, friends etc. This is to ensure that users don’t miss out on content they might want to see.

He also announced that 2022 will focus on improving Instagram reels and less so on photo content. It will also give creators more opportunity to monetise off Instagram.

In December Instagram launched a feature which will prompt users to log off if they’ve been on the app for too long. Introduced to help under 18s manage the affects of social media on their mental health, this feature is also available for everyone.

It comes at a time where there are increased discussions around ‘doomscrolling’, the act of continuously scrolling on social media with a negative impact on a person’s wellbeing, particularly with news outlets. Algorithms contribute to this as users are continuously served related content.

Thanks for reading. Keep an eye on our LinkedIn page & blog home for bi-weekly updates from the Newsroom!