TikTok Gets More Visual, Launches ‘Interactive Add Ons’ For In-Feed Ads
Earlier this week, TikTok announced it now offers interactive add-ons for in-feed ads to brands globally to help them make more engaging ads. The short-form video platform is adding a range of new ways to encourage engagement with the in-stream ads.
Interactive Add-Ons Categories
There are two types of interactive add-ons available for brands: standard and premium.
Standard Interactive Add-Ons: These add-ons are excellent for achieving lower-funnel marketing goals, such as generating clicks and conversations. It includes:
Display Card: Highlight important messages, share exclusive offers, and drive traffic to your website or app.
Gift Code Sticker.: Viewers can click for an exclusive promotional code and copy it before heading to purchase.
Voting Sticker: This allows companies to poll, quiz, or collect user feedback to encourage audience participation.
Countdown Sticker: Add a timer to your video ad to catch your audience’s attention for upcoming releases or important dates.
Premium Interactive Add-Ons: These add-ons can be used to achieve higher-funnel marketing goals such as brand awareness and community building.
Pop-out Showcase: This image element will lay over the ad with the ability to spotlight products through a pop-out element to drive clicks.
Gesture: A user can interact with the ‘Gesture reward card’ by tapping or swiping to obtain reward credits.
Super Like 2.0: This will be available soon, but it will allow for even more visuals after a user likes an ad.
These creative new ad enhancers are unique and exciting to add interactivity for more ad engagement. TikTok stated in their blog,
“Our research shows that 57% of viewers are more likely to search for brand information online when they connect with businesses on TikTok. Acting as an extension of your creative idea, Interactive Add-Ons offer flexible formats that encourage consumers to join in the fun when they see your ad.”
Interesting Read: Instagram Shuts Down IGTV For Longer Videos, TikTok Expands Video Length
Meta Makes Instant Messaging Fun, Launches New Features On Instagram
Meta introduced seven new messaging features to Instagram. The social media giant aims to make more investments in messaging to help users connect in a seamless way. In the new update, Meta is focused on Direct Messages and has rolled out only in select countries. It will make it available globally later.
Interesting Read: Instagram Rolls Out Ad Feature To The Shops Tab Globally
New Instagram Features can help users browse and chat at the right time. It also customizes message threads.
Browse and reply: Received a direct message (DM) while browsing? Tap the in-app notification to bring up the Reply text box. IT allows you to compose a reply and send it without having to navigate to the Inbox. This feature only seems to support text responses at present.
Quick DM’s: Reshare Instagram interesting content which can be a meme, video, or photo instantly just by tapping and holding the share button.
Who’s online: Bored and wondering who to chat with? Look no further than Instagram! Newly added to your Inbox is a horizontal list of all your online friends.
Song Preview: Can’t the song out of your head? Share it with your connections. The latest feature is enabled by integrations with Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Spotify. You can send a 30-second song preview to your friends to listen directly in the DM.
Silent Messages: Send messages without disturbing friends during the night or when they’re busy by adding “@silent” to your message. It’ll not notify them but just sit there patiently waiting for them to eventually check their Inbox.
Lo-Fi: The new lo-fi chat theme makes your conversations feel more personal and chill.
Group Polls: Deciding on a meal plan or meet-up with friends? The new chat feature on Instagram allows creating a poll directly in your group chat.
Instagram is steadily becoming a more reliable Instant Messaging (IM) platform with these new features and additions. As Meta already supports cross-messaging between Facebook and Instagram, it only makes sense that something of the former should be added to the latter. This can only unify the two and smooth out the irregularities that cause them to be uniquely distinct.
Interesting Read: Meta Taps Zefr For Brand Suitability And Improve Advertising Safety Tools
Meta Consolidates Automated Ad Products Under Meta Advantage Portfolio
Meta is consolidating all of its automated products under the ‘Meta Advantage’ umbrella. The new suite is the home to Meta’s existing automated tools such as Detailed Targeting Expansion, Automatic Placements or Automated App Ads as well as future automated products in the works.
The new suite, Meta Advantage will help advertisers to easily identify and benefit from Meta’s ad offerings. Goksu Nebol-Perlman, VP of Product Marketing, Ads & Business Products Meta said in a blog post that 77% of advertisers testing its automated products saved several hours per week by using them. She further added,
“Automated ad products help to improve the performance of your ads by relying more on machine learning, such as automatically finding the most relevant audiences or ad placements. They also allow you to further simplify optimizing campaigns, so you can worry less about managing campaigns and get back to running your business.”
Interesting Read: Meta Taps Zefr For Brand Suitability And Improve Advertising Safety Tools
Still reticent and reluctant!
Despite Facebook, and now Meta, pushing advertisers to embrace automation (Google has also been doing so), there has been reluctance from advertisers along the way. The platform claims that machine-learning-powered ad products reduce manual work and yield better results at lower prices. However, some buyers are turned off by the lack of control and transparency.
Regardless, the trend toward greater automation is clear, and it’s best to go with it.
What’s new in Meta Advantage?
There are 2 kinds of Advantage products in the suite. First, those features marked “Advantage” help advertisers to enhance a specific aspect of manual campaign setup, such as the selected detailed targeting options within your target audience. Second, those products marked “Advantage+” allow automating an entire campaign flow or an entire core step of manual campaign setups, such as placements or creative.
Meta Advantage aims to provide three key benefits to advertisers- Optimization, Personalization, and Efficiency.
Features under the Meta Advantage umbrella include:
- Advantage Lookalikes: (currently known as Lookalike Expansion) It allows Meta to automatically reach a broader set of people beyond the set parameters in the advertiser’s lookalike audience. Meta studies show when using Advantage Lookalikes, Website or Mobile Custom Audience seeds saw a 17.3% decrease in median CPA. On the other hand, Customer List Custom audience seeds saw a 10.1% decrease.
- Advantage Detailed Targeting: (currently known as Detailed Targeting Expansion) It uses the advertiser’s targeting preferences: demographics, interests, and behaviors as a guide to finding better performance opportunities outside of a defined audience.
- Advantage+ App Campaigns: (currently known as Automated App Ads) This product uses machine learning to deliver creative variations to the most appropriate audiences and placements based on Meta’s ad systems.
- Advantage+ Placements: (currently known as Automatic Placements) Meta algorithms find the most effective placement for a given ad in order to maximize performance. Showing ads across 6 or more Placements— such as Facebook Marketplace, Instagram Stories, Reels—gives Meta’s system more flexibility to control costs and provide better results.
- Advantage+ Creative: (currently known as Dynamic Experiences) It automatically bundles a set of creative optimizations into a single entry that can improve ad performance.
- Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns: (currently known as Automated Shopping Ads) Meta plans to add it to the suite by end of the year. It optimizes across multiple campaign levers- creative, targeting, placement, budget, and other campaign levers to find the best opportunities to drive conversions with minimal efforts.
The product is in the beta phase now. Goksu Nebol-Perlman concluded,
“Wherever you see the name Advantage, you can be sure you’re getting our most advanced automation and machine learning technology designed to help you create and deliver your most efficient campaigns. As we progress through 2022, we will continue to update you on how to increase your performance on our platforms and ensure that you’re able to build and grow your business.”
Interesting Read: The Ultimate A-Z Glossary Of Digital Advertising!
Facebook On TikTok With Verified Account
Social platforms setting up shop on other social platforms and the latest example is Facebook is on TikTok. Astonished? Is this your next thought – what’s Facebook doing on TikTok? Buying ads or just another social account on TikTok?
We’ll know soon enough because the social networking company has set up its own TikTok account. The account is verified and had roughly more than 15,000 followers at the time of this post, but it had not shared any videos or other content, save for a link to the Facebook application on Google Play.
A Meta spokesperson said,
“Brands leverage a variety of channels, including some of our social media platforms, to reach and engage with the people using their products and services every day. “Our intent with establishing a brand presence and cultivating community on platforms like TikTok or others is no different.”
Don’t be surprised!
The different social platforms often have accounts on each other’s sites and apps. For example, Meta on Twitter provides regular news and updates. A Pinterest account on Facebook promotes its ads in several languages. Well, TikTok also has an Instagram account with 26million followers to promote the content.
Likewise, Facebook may be looking to boost its Gen Z user base by leveraging TikTok (or its ad platform) after recently reporting flat growth in monthly active users in its last quarter. With the decline in Facebook’s popularity, they might be building a content strategy, especially for the younger generation.
Another likely factor is Facebook…Errr…Meta is delving deep into the metaverse, and the Roblox user base is primarily 25 and under, with a sizable proportion of people aged nine to sixteen. The fact that large brands utilize various channels for marketing and communication makes it a little amusing to see Facebook pop up on TikTok. However, TikTok gives Meta a way to connect with younger users that aren’t on Facebook or Instagram today.
It will be interesting to witness the content of Facebook on TikTok. Well, isn’t it Meta now?
Pinterest Adds New Checkout Feature To Drive More Brand Sales
Pinterest forays deeper into eCommerce with new shopping features at its annual advertising summit. The image-sharing site introduced direct in-app checkout and a new personalized recommendations feature.
Read more: Pinterest TV : Another Pinterest Attempt To Monetize Creators’ Efforts
Pinterest Check out- The in-app checkout feature is presently in beta. It provides users the ability to purchase within the Pinterest app. This is available only to some Shopify sellers in the U.S. However, Pinterest plans to provide access to the other U.S based Shopify retailers this year.
Additionally, Pinterest plans to introduce a new application programming interface (API) for shopping. It will make the uploading of product catalogs and listing easier for the retailers.
Your Shop- It is termed as a “personal shopping concierge, powered by a taste-driven algorithm”. The newly announced “Your Shop” feature is a recommendations engine that provides users personalized shopping pages, It suggests products, brands, and creators to users based on their activities and preferences.
Your Shop is also currently in beta, with plans to launch to the U.S pinners later this year with other extra nations.
Pinterest Trends- A Pinterest tool for analysis and insights. It helps businesses to understand real-time search data, more trend types, more granular audience tools, and personalized trend recommendations. The feature is available to businesses in the U.S, the U.K, and Canada, with plans to launch globally.
Earlier this year, Pinterest added the augmented reality feature “Try on For Home Decor”. It allows users to evaluate and check home decor options virtually before buying them.
Read More: Pinterest Rolls Out Suite Of Commerce-Friendly Features For Advertisers
What to know: Eventually, Pinterest users will be able to complete transactions without leaving the app, which can speed up the conversion process and lower friction. With Your Shop feature, Pinterest is competing with Instagram’s shopping tab. Pinterest can become a more compelling shopping destination with these retail-oriented features, giving merchants more ways to reach customers
Twitter Shops: Tests In-App Shops For Brands
The social networking site is rolling out a beta version of Twitter Shops, which lets sellers set up a virtual storefront for customers to browse. In fact, the Twitter Shops won’t actually let you purchase anything directly – instead, you’ll be linked out to a company’s website in an in-app browser to make your actual purchase.
PUT YOUR STORE ON TWITTER
Twitter Shops extends the “shop module” that was launched last summer. Unlike the shop module, which displays just a handful of products on the profile page, the new update allows stores to have a dedicated space to display up to 50 items. The feature, which is currently deployed to a few businesses, has already been enabled for the shops. According to Twitter, the features are currently available to brands such as @Verizon, @ArdenCove, @LatinxInPower, @GayPrideApp, and @AllIDoIsCookUS. The shops are only viewable to “select merchants and managed partners in the US” and are free to use. People who use Twitter in English on iPhones in the US will see the shops for now.
Shops are Twitter’s latest attempt to reach out to shoppers, following the launch of the Shop Module. Twitter describes the feature as an “experiment,” but it has hinted at much larger plans in the space. Additionally, shopping ties into Twitter’s recent efforts to provide creators with monetization tools, where the company has been piloting shopping features in live streams.
E-Commerce Expansion And Challenges
Twitter sees e-commerce as a major opportunity. A period of rapid development followed the e-commerce expansion, during which the micro was rolling out features at a ridiculously fast pace. In any case, the challenge Twitter faces in e-commerce is how users perceive its platform. Given Twitter’s still text-heavy nature, it’s not clear how many users see it as a place to discover products. (Periscope, Twitter’s live video tool, and Vine, a TikTok forerunner, were both shut down over the years)
Meanwhile, today’s online shoppers prefer to shop on social media via Instagram photos and videos, and increasingly through TikTok videos. TikTok’s viral trends, in particular, have the potential to drive more spontaneous purchases. Statistics show 37% of TikTok users immediately purchased a product after they saw it on the platform, and 67% bought it even when they weren’t looking to shop.
There’s no doubt that Twitter wants a piece of that action, too. But competitors like TikTok don’t just add a feature tacked on; rather, it makes online shopping part of its core functionality through its immersive video and personalized home feed.
Twitter Unveiled A Creator Dashboard – A Way To Manage Earnings
Microblogging site Twitter has introduced a new tool for its creators called the “Creator Dashboard“ that will analyze their revenue on the platform. According to the company, the new tool is designed to help creators analyze how they make money on Twitter and how much they are earning from monetization features – Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces. The firm said in a statement,
“Introducing the Creator Dashboard a new way to help you view your earnings & track your Super Follow subscriptions over time, for now, we are testing with some creators on iOS — can’t wait to hear what you think.”
The Creator Dashboard is available to all U.S. creators on iOS who have at least 10,000 followers and use Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces. It can be accessed through the Monetization tab of the app. Twitter’s latest monetization tool is part of its growing set of tools, which has become a stronger focus over the past year, enabling it to provide new income streams for creators and keep popular users tweeting more often.
New Additions On Twitter
Over the past year, Twitter has added:
Professional Profiles for businesses and creators, which provide more opportunities to promote your business and offerings in the app.
Profiles for Super Follows, which enables creators to choose add-on options and exclusive content for a monthly fee (up to $9.99).
Ticketed Spaces for broadcasters, with 97% of any revenue generated going back to the creator
On-profile tipping, which it recently expanded allows users to make more payment options, which will enable users in more regions to accept payments
So far, none of these elements have become a significant revenue stream for the app. It’s early days, but if Twitter can develop a self-sustaining creator ecosystem, that will fuel engagement. Twitter’s also seeking to make sure it’s competitive on this front, at least to an extent. If creators can earn a greater income from one platform or another, that will eventually be where their focus will be. The consequence of that shift will be that other platforms are relegated to the broader ‘creator economy’, which will lower their overall audience share.
Interesting Read: AppLovin Closes Acquisition of Twitter’s MoPub Business For $1.05 Billion
Instagram Shuts Down IGTV For Longer Videos, TikTok Expands Video Length
Instagram announced the shutdown of its longer format video ‘IGTV’. The company explained in a blog post they intend to make video content “as simple as possible to discover and create”. Thus, in-stream video ads will also be discontinued. Creators that actively monetize with in-stream video ads will receive a temporary monthly payment based on their recent earnings.
The Meta-owned company is increasingly becoming video-focused and wants to integrate all video content into its main app. It is in the process of designing a ‘new ad experience’ that will allow Instagram users to earn ad revenue on Reels. Earlier this year, Instagram announced that it would “double down” on video content in 2022. Instagram reports that Reels contributes to engagement growth by pushing short videos both in the feed and with a dedicated button in the navigation menu. The initial limit for reels was 30 seconds, but that limit was extended to 60 seconds in 2021.
Meanwhile, major social media platforms continue to introduce shorter video content tools, Instagram competitor TikTok is doing the opposite.
Interesting Read: The New World Of TikTok Marketing, Everything You Need To Know!
TikTok Videos Triple In Length
In a bid to challenge rival YouTube, TikTok now lets users upload videos as long as 10 minutes. However, YouTube is promoting its short-form content “Shorts” feature. Even though this news is a big deal in the competitive world of social media, as it extends TikTok’s previous July extension to three-minute-long videos by three times, it comes at a peculiar time. An official from TikTok says the goal is to bring value to the community and enrich the user experience.
“Today, we’re excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.”
Creators will have more time and flexibility to film things like cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational videos, comedic sketches, and more. Globally, TikTok will release the option to film longer videos in the coming weeks. Users using the latest version will be notified of the update.
Interesting Read: 5 Ad Industry Trends That Are Likely To Unveil in 2022!
Antitrust Complaint Filed Against Google in the EU!
Another antitrust case filed in the European Union by a group of publishers has challenged Google’s domination of the internet ad business.
The European Publishers Council (EPC), whose members include the CEOs of News UK, Condé Nast, The New York Times, Axel Springer, and The Guardian, among others, is claiming that, since its 2008 acquisition of ad tech firm DoubleClick, Google has used plenty “unlawful tactics” to preclude any competition in the ad tech space, allowing Google to obtain a “stranglehold” over press publishers.
The EPC seems to be attempting to exert pressure on the European Commission, which has been investigating Google’s ad tech since last summer, but which also waived through Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, allowing the search giant to become a force in online advertising.
Interesting Read: Google Fined by The French Competition Authority!
EPC chairman Christian Van Thillo writes the following about its complaint to EU competition regulators:
“It is high time for the European Commission to impose measures on Google that actually change, not just challenge, its behavior — behaviour that has caused and continues to cause considerable harm, not just to Europe’s press publishers but to all advertisers and eventually consumers in the form of higher prices (including ad tech fees), less choice, less transparency and less innovation.
He further added –
“This Complaint presents a unique opportunity for the European Commission to rectify the problems that have arisen as a direct result of its 2008 clearance of the Google/DoubleClick merger, by imposing effective remedies that will restore competition in ad tech, for the benefit of European press publishers, marketers, and consumers.”
Interesting Read: Anthony Nakache Appointed as the New Managing Director of Google MENA
Pinterest Q3 Earnings Increases, Monthly User Base Declines
Pinterest reported higher Q3 earnings and revenue, but monthly active users fell for the second consecutive quarter.
Why It Matters?
The search-and-discovery platform reported sales increased 43% in line with the estimates due to increased demand from large retail advertisers, shopping, and growth in its international business. Meanwhile, Pinterest’s monthly active users (MAU) fell 2% from the 454 million the company reported in July.
Interesting Read: Pinterest TV: Another Pinterest Attempt To Monetize Creators’ Efforts
By The Numbers
Adjusted earnings per share: 28 cents vs. 23 cents expected by Refinitiv
Revenue: $633 million vs. $630.9 million expected by Refinitiv
Monthly active users: 444 million vs. 460 million expected by StreetAccount
Average revenue per user: $1.41 vs. $1.38 forecast by StreetAccount
Interesting Read: Pinterest Idea Pins Opens New Business Opportunities For Creators!
Pinterest Takeaways
-A high revenue per user generated strong revenue and profit numbers for the company. The average revenue per user for Pinterest has increased 37% since last year.
-However, lower demand in advertising for consumer packaged goods due to supply chain disruptions and pandemic-related issues caused revenue to slip a few percentage points.
-Unlike other social media giants, Pinterest said that Apple Inc.’s changes to ad tracking didn’t have a material impact on its business in the third quarter. This is due primarily to the fact that the service uses a lot of its own data to target ads.
-Pinterest initially benefited from global lockdowns driven by the Covid-19 pandemic as people stayed at home looking for activities around the house, like decorating, gardening and cooking. In the first quarter of 2019, Pinterest’s global user base reached 483 million users — up almost 43% over the last five quarters. However, Pinterest’s monthly active users (MAU) grew just 1 percent to 444 million this quarter. This represents a drop of 10 million users compared to the prior three-month period.
-The smaller user base is the result of the pandemic unwind as people are now venturing out and returning to school or work. This means fewer people are using the app to explore ideas on topics such as home decor or gardening. Chief Financial Officer Todd Morgenfeld said,
“We believe the slowdown was due to the pandemic unwind.”
-Pinterest predicts that user engagement, growth, and retention rates will continue to decline as pandemic restrictions wane.
Interesting Read: Pinterest Rolls Out Suite Of Commerce-Friendly Features For Advertisers
Q4 Outlook
The company provided a Q4 revenue growth estimate that will be in the “high-teens” percentage range on a Y-o-Y basis. This is far short of the analysts’ estimate of 26% sales growth. It will continue to focus on Pinner product, ad product, and measurement investments.
“Our key strategic priorities for 2021 remain anchored in content, Pinner experience, advertiser success, and shopping. We plan to continue investing in these this year.”
Interesting Read: The Ultimate A-Z Glossary Of Digital Advertising!