[Ep59/1Jun21] - Microsoft Advertising Updates & other Digital Marketing updates from the week of Jun 1, 2021

#TWIMshow - This Week in Marketing

1. Meet Twitter Blue - Twitter’s First-Ever Subscription Offering - Twitter on 3rd June 21, officially launched its first-ever subscription service, Twitter Blue, initially in Australia and Canada. The subscription will allow Twitter users to access premium features, including tools to organize bookmarks, read threads in a clutter-free format and take advantage of an “Undo Tweet” feature — which is the closest thing Twitter will have to the long-requested “Edit” button.

2. Twitter Launches Birdwatch Tool - Twitter's realized that there is so much they can do to curb misinformation when they are catering to millions of active and opinionated individuals. So Twitter is trying something different and has Birdwatch that will rely on community-based crowdsourcing. Essentially, Birdwatch will allow users to attach notes to tweets that carry misleading information. The notes will serve to provide further context, either clearing up the author's intention, or simply falsifying their information.

3. Twitter Pauses & Unpauses Verification Requests - The long-awaited return of Twitter’s verification application process is in a timeout after the social network was overrun with requests. And then 4 days later they have resumed taking in application for verifications again. Twitter have said that users will start seeing a blue tick if their verification was approved and if not users can apply again 30 days after they have received a response from the tech giant.

Though anyone can apply for verification the tech giant verifies users from six distinct categories which are government, companies and organizations; news organizations and journalists; sports and gaming; companies, entertainment; activists, companies, organizers, influential individuals, though they plan on expanding the categories in the future.

4. YouTube Paid Out $4+ Billion In Royalties - On June 2, 2021, Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music wrote that YouTube has paid over $4 billion to the music industry in the last 12 months alone (30% is from user-generated content (UGC).) And they have added more paid members in Q1 ’21 than in any other quarter since launch.

Through their ad-supported free tier in 180 countries and subscription tiers in 96 countries, they give users the choice to pay with their attention or their wallets. YouTube is the world’s largest stage, and advertisers are eager to tap into the deep music engagement that the platform enables. With over 2 billion users watching music videos monthly, YouTube allows advertisers to reach audiences they can’t find anywhere else.

5. 5 Updates To YouTube Analytics - YouTube is rolling out 5 new things to YouTube Studio to give Creators data on how users engage with their channel’s content. The new features are:

• More data about channel memberships - Membership metrics will now report on which videos helped a channel gain (or lose) more members than usual.
• More data on mobile (which was previously exclusive to desktop) - Now creators can view ‘other channels your audience watches’ and ‘other videos your audience watches’ cards on mobile.
• Clearer information about video performance - An update to the video overview page in YouTube Analytics on desktop provides a clearer, more visible explanation of video performance.
• Insight into revenue changes - If revenue goes up or down due to a channel’s audience shifting to a higher or lower CPM country, YouTube will now call that out. This is helpful information when diagnosing when revenue has changed from one month to another. If a channel’s revenue goes down because more of its audience is coming from a lower CPM country, at least the creator knows they’re not necessarily producing worse content.
• Engagement metrics for YouTube posts - Engagement metrics for YouTube posts, which were announced and previewed back in May, are now live. Now a card on the channel’s engagement tab shows votes and likes on the creator’s top posts over the last 28 days. This card can be filtered by post type.

6. Facebook Will Allow Users To Post Anonymously In FB Groups - Matt Navarra, a social media consultant and known to unleash upcoming features on applications posted about this feature in a tweet on June 2nd, 21. There he posted a screenshot on which he mentioned that Facebook is now rolling out a feature called Anonymous postings. This feature will allow users to keep their identity hidden and publish a post on any group they want. Previously though this feature was available on only two groups categories which were parenting and health related but the tech giant has now expanded its list.

7. Cryptocurrency Exchanges & Wallets Can Now Use Google Ads - Beginning August 3, advertisers offering Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Wallets targeting the United States may advertise those products and services when they meet the requirements and are certified by Google. To be certified by Google, advertisers will need to:

• Be duly registered with
  • (a) FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money transmitter; or
  • (b) a federal or state chartered bank entity.
• Comply with relevant legal requirements, including any local legal requirements, whether at a state or federal level.
• Ensure their ads and landing pages comply with all Google Ads policies

The following is not allowed:

Ads for initial coin offerings, DeFi trading protocols, or otherwise promoting the purchase, sale, or trade of cryptocurrencies or related products.
Examples (non-exhaustive): ICO pre-sales or public offerings, cryptocurrency loans, initial DEX offerings, token liquidity pools, celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements, unhosted wallets, unregulated DApps

Ad destinations that aggregate or compare issuers of cryptocurrencies or related products.

Examples (non-exhaustive): Cryptocurrency trading signals, cryptocurrency investment advice, aggregators or affiliate sites containing related content or broker reviews

8. Embed Facebook Videos At Any Given Time On Your Blogs & Website - Facebook recently updated its video embed settings through which users can share already uploaded Facebook videos at any chosen time, on other websites and blogs

9. Microsoft Advertising Announces June Updates & Feature Rollouts - New PPC features & updates are scheduled to roll out in June. Here’s what you need to know to ensure your accounts are up to speed.

• Shopping Campaign Import Enhancements - Allowing advertisers to import their Google Merchant Center (GMC) store along with their Shopping Campaigns.
• Smart Shopping Integration for Shopify Users - Adding “Smart Shopping” to their Shopify app, which is designed to simplify shopping campaign creation. Through the app, advertisers are also automatically opted in to show your products for free on the Bing Shopping Tab
• Microsoft Audience Network Expands - As of this month, Audience Ads can now run in France and Germany, expanding global footprint to seven markets worldwide: US, CA-EN, UK, AU, FR, DE, and NZ.
• New In-Market Audiences in the UK, France & Germany - New audience segments in the UK, France, and Germany for both search campaigns and audience campaigns. Advertisers can download the In-market segment list to see what’s new.
• Phrase Match Updates Set to Roll Out in June - In May, Microsoft announced that phrase match would begin to match more similarly to modified broad match, copying Google’s recent change. That change is set to...