PPC News in July 2020

Our roundup of the most important PPC news this month.

Amazon Ads

Amazon sales soar in Q2 as pandemic fuels online shopping
(31 Jul 2020)  —  Double digit revenue growth trounced earnings expectations, with revenue topping $88 bln and earnings at $10.30 per share.

Amazon Influencer Program opens to live streamers
(15 Jul 2020) — Amazon’s Influencer Program allows social media influencers to earn money by pointing fans to their favorite Amazon products through posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Seller names, addresses to be made public
(8 Jul 2020)  —  Starting Sept. 1st business names and addresses on Amazon will no longer be private in order to combat counterfeit products and unauthorized resellers.

Facebook Ads

Q2 report shows ad boycott has little effect on Facebook
(31 Jul 2020)  —  Facebook reported its slowest revenue growth since its 2012 IPO, but still managed to grow 11% amid a pandemic and advertiser boycott. The stock jumped in trading afterwards.

Like button may disappear for FB pages
(23 Jul 2020) — Facebook is testing pages that strictly use the ‘Follow’ feature.

Music videos are officially coming to FB
(15 Jul 2020) — A new music video feature will be making its way to the platform that aims to draw music video audiences away from YouTube.

Google Ads

Core Web Vitals update may soon affect your website
(27 Jul 2020) — The three factors to pay attention to are 1) how fast your website loads 2) how visually stable your website is 3) how long does your site take to process something a user clicks on.

AI recommendations to personalize Google eCommerce offering
(23 Jul 2020)  —  Google has unveiled the public beta of AI recommendations that could help drive CTR and conversions by serving more relevant product recommendations to users.

Google My Business subscription services coming soon
(22 Jul 2020)  —  The Google Guaranteed certification will cost $50 per month for an upgraded profile and official badge on your GMB page.

Mobile-first indexing pushed back until March 2021
(21 Jul 2020) — The date when mobile-first indexing goes live for Google’s SERP has been pushed back from September 2020 to March 2021.

Google creates Instagram, TikTok rival
(16 Jul 2020) — Shoploop is Google’s answer to Instagram and TikTok, providing visual shopping options for users and influencers.

New features available for Smart Shopping campaigns(15 Jul 2020) —  Responsive search ads and Smart Shopping campaigns got a few much needed updates, including ad copy recommendations, cross campaign asset management and better location info.

No more surveillance products on Google
(13 Jul 2020) — Surveillance products like GPS trackers and nanny cams are joining a long list of products banned from Google Ads and Shopping.

Instagram Ads

Instagram rolls out new fundraising feature
(21 Jul 2020) — Users and small businesses will be able to raise money and set fundraiser goals similar to Kickstarter.

Global launch of Instagram Reels coming soon
(16 Jul 2020) — In an answer to TikTok, Facebook plans on launching Instagram Reels in the USA and 50 other countries at the end of the month.

Instagram Shop is here
(16 Jul 2020) — Instagram officially rolled out a new shopping feature called Explore this month allowing users to scroll through relevant brands and product listings.

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn revenue up 10%, sessions up 27% in latest performance metrics
(22 Jul 2020) — Microsoft’s Q2 earnings report came out this month, and even with a worldwide pandemic, the platform grew revenue by 10% and user sessions by 27%.

Microsoft Ads

Microsoft Q2 report sends stock down
(22 Jul 2020) — Microsoft reported 13% revenue growth in Q2 but Azure cloud sales grew less than 50% for first time ever, stock dropped 2% in trading afterwards.

Pinterest Ads

Pinterest sheds light on current user trends
(21 Jul 2020) — Pinterest released a new report on the biggest browsing trends in 2020 on its platform. Searches for stress relief activities are up, DIY or at-home projects and meditation products are trending.

Pinterest publishes comprehensive advertising guide for 2020
(15 Jul 2020) - In a separate report Pinterest provided a comprehensive guide for how to advertise on its platform with plenty of actionable advice and insights.

New updates to feed algorithm favor video content
(10 Jul 2020)  —  Pinterest updated its Feed algorithm to put more focus on videos and new types of content, different than those users usually engage with.

Snapchat Ads

Snap beats Q2 revenue expectations but falls short on user growth
(21 Jul 2020)  —  Revenue increased 17% annually to $454 mln, beating estimates but giving way to slowing growth. DAU are up 17% to 238 mln. Overall Snap’s stock is up 200% since March and nearing 2017 highs.

Snap releases Minis, bite-sized third-party apps in Snapchat
(20 Jul 2020)  —  Snap Minis are lightweight, simplified versions of apps that live within Snap’s Chat section. Built with HTML, Minis are designed to improve engagement among users by enabling them to perform a range of additional tasks without leaving the Snap app.

Brand profiles get a test on Snapchat
(15 Jul 2020)  —  Snapchat said it is beta testing Brand Profiles, a feature that will create a permanent content hub and a profile page for brands.

TikTok Ads

Microsoft might offer deal to acquire TikTok
(2 Aug 2020)  —  The deal will be finalized by September 15th and could avoid the app from being banned in the United States.

Trump may ban TikTok from USA
(31 Jul 2020)  —  An executive order by Trump could see the Chinese-owned music video app banned from operating in the United States.

Facebook offers money to reel in TikTok creators
(28 Jul 2020)  —  Instagram is making lucrative offers to popular TikTok users to join its new competing service.

US bans TikTok on all govt-issued devices
(21 Jul 2020)  —  The US House of Representatives voted to have the app banned from all government issued devices on concerns around data collection and spying from China.

TikTok offers $100 mln to SMBs to advertise on platform
(10 Jul 2020)  —  TikTok is offering some significant advertising incentives to businesses in their “Back to Business” program. A total of $100M is up for grabs by SMB advertisers.

Self-serve ads platform rolls out globally
(8 Jul 2020)  —  Creative tools, flexible budgets, performance targeting and business accounts are available now on TikTok.

Twitter Ads

Twitter may soon display retweets, quote tweets in separate counts
(28 Jul 2020)  —  Rather than pulling all of your retweet variations together, the new display would make it easier to see each separately.

Twitter trends are changing in June-July
(27 Jul 2020)  —  Emoji use is changing, online education is gaining popularity and people are looking to go outdoors, camping, kayaking and hiking.

Thousands of Twitter employees had access to tools that hackers could exploit
(24 Jul 2020)  —  As news about the Twitter hack comes out, it has surfaced that more than 1,000 Twitter employees had access to the tools necessary for the hack.

Twitter ad revenue down 23% in Q2, despite strong user growth
(23 Jul 2020)  —  Monetizable daily active users rose to 186 million versus 172 million which were expected by consensus estimates.

Twitter suffers biggest hack in years(
(16 Jul 2020)  —  The accounts of big name figures like Elon Musk and Barrack Obama were accessed by hackers using internal tools of employees.

Twitter likely moving to a subscription-based platform
(8 Jul 2020)  —  Twitter may transform itself into a subscription-based platform, according to a job post listed recently, and which caused the stock to jump 8%.

YouTube Ads

Full-screen descriptions could be coming to YouTube
(23 Jul 2020) -  A full-screen option for video descriptions is being tested on Android, possibly to encourage creators to write longer descriptions.

Now 8-minute videos will be eligible for mid-roll ads
(8 Jul 2020)  —  Starting from late July, even eight-minute videos will be eligible for mid-roll ads. The previous limit was 10 minutes.

Other Platforms

BuzzFeed starts selling products directly to consumers
(30 Jul 2020)  —  The publisher has ramped up its commerce division, introduces BuzzFeed Shopping.

Walmart releases omnichannel analytics for ad platform
(30 Jul 2020)  —  With access to real data performance, Walmart is taking an important step to create a full-fledged self serve ad platform that could compete with Amazon.

New report shows we are spending more time on our phones than ever before
(27 Jul 2020)  —  In 2019 people spent an average of 3.1 hours a day on apps, up from 2.1 hours in 2015.

Lead generation forms come to Quora
(22 Jul 2020)  —  This month Quora upped its advertising game by offering lead generation forms, something that might finally get a few new advertisers to try the platform.

Spotify launches video podcasts worldwide
(21 Jul 2020)  —  Video ads could be coming soon to Spotify as the music-streaming platform aims to make video a central part of its platform.

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