The Funnel

Our roundup of the most important PPC news this month.

Each month we do the hard work for you and gather news related to Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other ad platforms that could affect your advertising strategies.

We cover the following ad platforms:

• Amazon Ads
• Facebook Ads
• Google Ads
• Instagram Ads
• Microsoft Ads
• Pinterest Ads
• Reddit Ads
• Snapchat Ads
• TikTok Ads
• Twitter Ads
• YouTube Ads

We hope this will help keep you up to date with the latest trends in the wider PPC world.

Here is everything you may have missed in November.

Enjoy!

Amazon Ads

Amazon says this year’s holiday shopping period has been the biggest in its history
(30 Nov 2020) - More consumers are doing their holiday shopping from their couch due to the pandemic. Amazon is widely expected to be one of the biggest winners this holiday season, with one Wall Street firm estimating it could capture 42 cents of every dollar spent during the busy shopping period.

Amazon launches Sponsored Display Audiences
(22 Nov 2020) - Sponsored Display audiences gives brands access to placements both on and off Amazon, including highly visible placements on the Amazon home page.

Amazon Ads have 20% higher ROI than average brand marketing
(10 Nov 2020) - Nearly half (48%) of paid Amazon display advertising impacted non-Amazon sales, while only 29% of paid Amazon search advertising impacted such sales.

Facebook Ads

Facebook’s latest error shakes advertisers’ confidence
(25 Nov 2020) - The company quietly told advertisers earlier this month that its ‘conversion lift’ tool, used to measure outcomes, overestimated some campaign results.

Facebook ads could be reaching saturation point
(23 Nov 2020) - Spending big money to make big money in the ad business may no longer be on the table inside Facebook’s network

Google Ads

Google Ads’ Smart Bidding enhances predictions & insights
(19 Nov 2020) - Google Ads has announced enhancements in reporting for their Smart Bidding, focused on more insights to performance drivers and predictive features.

Google Ads recommends you switch to Broad Match with Smart Bidding
(17 Nov 2020) - Google says that using broad match and Smart Bidding together can help you reach more relevant queries that meet your performance objectives.

Small businesses blame Google for favoring big marketing budgets
(10 Nov 2020) - Monopoly or not, small business owners’ biggest complaint about Google is that its advertising policies favor companies with big marketing budgets.

Significant drop in Google-reported search terms seen across devices, ad formats
(6 Nov 2020) - The share of desktop text ads attributed to search queries, for example, fell 24 points from 98% to 74% from August to September. No device-ad format combination had more than 76% of spend attributed in search terms reports in September.

Instagram Ads

Instagram is letting advertisers create posts with users’ accounts
(25 Nov 2020) - Instagram is making changes to branded content ads, which includes letting advertisers create sponsored posts on users’ behalf.

Instagram’s Reels changes how branded content ads work
(20 Nov 2020) - Instagram's short-video service gets a new branded content tag and streamlined ad creation.

Microsoft Ads

How Microsoft benefits from Google’s sprawling advertising business
(23 Nov 2020) - Smaller search engines are able to monetize their results with Google’s advertiser base to reach searchers on those properties with as few obstacles as possible.

Microsoft re-launches advertising community & forum
(19 Nov 2020) - Microsoft is launching, again, a community forum for the search ad side of its business. It is called the Microsoft Advertising Community and will be available within the larger Microsoft Community Portal.

Pinterest Ads

Facebook's latest challenge is a gift for Pinterest
(3 Dec 2020) - Small businesses are increasingly frustrated with the social media giant Facebook and flocking to Pinterest.

Why Pinterest may be the perfect social media site for advertisers
(21 Nov 2020) - Facebook's dominance in attracting social media advertising spend may have a challenger.

Reddit Ads

Reddit plots path to $1B in ad sales, but brands need convincing
(4 Dec 2020) - The cult-like site forum reveals last year's ad revenue of $100 million, and plans to catch up with rivals like Twitter and Snapchat.

Reddit reveals 52 mln daily users, revealing key figure for social media platforms
(1 Dec 2020) - The disclosure comes as the tech company pursues new advertisers. This compares to 1.82 billion daily active users for Facebook and 187 million daily users for Twitter.

How does Reddit make money? A closer look at the company’s finances
(18 Nov 2020) - Reddit’s current business model generates money in two different ways – a premium membership plan and selling advertising space.

Snapchat Ads

Snapchat rolls out new ad options for app marketers
(20 Nov 2020) - The new ad options via Creative Kit and Login Kit enable marketers to cross-link their app features within the platform.

Snap is launching a competitor to TikTok and Instagram Reels
(23 Nov 2020) - Spotlight will show users the top snaps that have been submitted for consideration by the app’s more than 249 million daily users in a feed that they can swipe or tap through.

TikTok Ads

TikTok is reportedly testing longer, three-minute videos
(2 Dec 2020) - The three-minute length inches TikTok closer to YouTube.

Is TikTok a harmless app or threat to US security?
(15 Nov 2020) - A CBS documentary explores how much of a threat TikTok might pose to other countries given its connections to China.

Twitter Ads

Frequency capping now available for all ad campaign types
(3 Dec 2020) - Frequency capping enables you to set a limit on how many times each user is shown your ad within a given time frame.

Twitter debuts carousel ads with up to 6 images or videos
(16 Nov 2020) - Twitter is rolling out carousel ads which contain 2 to 6 horizontally swipe-able images or videos.

YouTube Ads

YouTube launches audio ads to reach music & podcast listeners
(19 Nov 2020) - YouTube is introducing audio ads to keep up with the different ways users are engaging with the platform.

YouTube will run ads on some creator videos, but it won’t give them any of the revenue
(18 Nov 2020) - YouTube will begin running ads on some creators’ videos, but it won’t give them a portion of the ad revenue because they’re not big enough to be enrolled in its Partner Program.

Try Aori

Using any of these platforms for your advertising? Contact us and try out our array of advertising tools to optimize your campaigns.