The Funnel

Our roundup of the most important PPC news this week.

PPC News Roundup is a weekly roundup of all news related to the major PPC and digital advertising platforms. Published on Fridays, “PPC News Roundup” will help you stay up-to-date on all the important PPC ads news you need to know.

Using any of these platforms for your advertising? Check out our smart advertising solutions to see how they can help.

Facebook Ads News

Report shows millennials, Gen Z still use Facebook

It's become popular in the industry to claim Facebook is dead for young people. But recent reports show that generation Z is still on the platform. Ofcom in the UK surveyed 2,300 British parents and children aged 5-15. Nearly 70% of those aged 12-15 said they used Facebook. 68% said they use Snapchat and 66% said they use Instagram.

Facebook to shut down mobile web arm of audience network

Facebook confirmed this week it will close the Audience Network's mobile web arm to focus resources in other formats across mobile apps, which has been demanded by partners. The move follows Facebook's decision to close the Audience Network's connected television service in 2019.

Facebook ad spending up 15% in Q4

According to Merkle's Q4 Digital Marketing Report, Facebook ad spending is up despite ad impressions falling 5% year-over-year. Mobile devices and tablets produced 95% of Facebook ad clicks in Q4.

Google Ads News

Reach more costumers with shopping campaigns, starting March

Google just announced new placements for Product Shopping and Showcase Shopping Ads. Beginning in March, these ads will be shown on Gmail, YouTube and the Discover Feed. Until now, running Shopping campaigns was the only way to get shopping ads on Gmail.

Instagram Ads News

Instagram brings in 25% of Facebook's revenue - Bloomberg

Facebook acquired Instagram for $715 million in 2012. In 2019 it brought in $20 billion in advertising revenue for Facebook, according to Bloomberg sources. That would mean it generates more ad revenue than Google's YouTube, which raked in $15 billion in 2019.

LinkedIn Ads News

LinkedIn used by 50% of companies for marketing purposes

According to a new eMarketer report, 50.3% of companies plan to use LinkedIn for marketing by 2021. For 2020 the figure stands at 49.6% of companies with 100 or more employees. Recently LinkedIn surpassed 675 million users and more and more companies are beginning to rely on LinkedIn for their marketing efforts. eMarketer's report excludes companies that only post jobs to LinkedIn. Advertising on LinkedIn continues to have a heavy B2B focus.

LinkedIn reaches 675 mln users, claims 'record engagement levels'

Microsoft reported last week that LinkedIn had reached record levels of engagement in Q4 2019, while user growth had tipped over the 675 million mark. In November LinkedIn claimed to have reached 660 million users, which means that in just three months the platform has added 15 million more total members. Linked used the metric 'total members' rather than 'active users' which can somehwat skew the numbers, because what matters most is how many users are active on the platform. The company also reported increased engagement levels, however this has also come amidst criticism that they are allowing people to post less professionally related content in order to give the illusion of engagement. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn back in 2016, and since then has provided less details on engagement metrics on the platform.

Pinterest Ads News

Pinterest tops 335 mln active users, $1 bln in revenue in 2019

Pinterest's 26% user growth rate has outpaced that of Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Moreover, Pinterest brought in $400 million in revenue in Q4 2019, up 46% compared to $273 million in Q4 2018. The platform is slowing cementing itself as a go-to marketing platform for eCommerce brands.

Snapchat Ads News

Tinder for Snapchat a hit with teens, reaches 2.5 mln downloads in one week

Snapchat's developer toolkit Snap Kit launched Hoop a week ago, a Tinder-like swipe app for teens to meet new friends who live close by, and in one week it was downloaded 2.5 million times. Hoop will give users more reasons to keep using Snapchat, ensuring user growth. Hoop is currently the number 2 spot on the overall iOS charts. Hoop's monetization strategy includes a 10-limit chat request for users. When they run out of in-app 'diamonds' they have to invite more users.

Snapchat revenue jumps 44% in Q4, stock tumbles

Snapchat closed out Q4 2019 with $561 million in revenue, slightly missing analyst expectations. The stock was hit hard the next day, dropping more than 10%, before recovering the day after by 5%. Snapchat's efforts to grow in international markets have yielded few results. User growth totaled 17% year-on-year, with 2 million more daily active users in North America and Europe and 3 million in the rest of the world.

Twitter Ads News

Twitter's revenue exceeds 1 bln for first time, stock surges

On the back of a 12% year-on-year jump in ad revenue sales, Twitter's revenue has finally surpassed the one billion mark. Although net income is down along with earnings per share, the Q4 report is an improvement from Q3 when the company missed revenue targets. The stock jumped 15% in trading.

Twitter launches conversation threads in iOS

Following six months of beta testing, Twitter has finally launched conversation threads in iOS. The hope is the new look will lead to increased engagement with tweets. One of the main changes is that when people you follow comment on a tweet, their answers will appear first in a conversation thread. The hope is this will make it easier to see when important people you follow respond to different threads.

YouTube Ads News

Google reports YouTube ad revenue of $15 Billion

According to Google's year-end report, YouTube's revenue grew 36% to $15.1 billion year-on-year. YouTube's revenues beat eMarketer's prediction for the same period, which put revenue growth at just 20% in 2019. Google's total ad revenue grew 17% in Q4, behind Facebook (25%) and Amazon (41%).

Other Ads News

Byte gets 1.3 million downloads in debut week

Dubbed the successor to Vine, Byte launched on January 24 and saw downloads top 1 million in its first week. The downloads were mostly concentrated in the United States at 900,000. The heyday for Vine was 2013, but with the influencer landscape shifting toward Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram, it will be interesting to see whether Byte can compete with these platforms in 2020.

PDFs This Week

Merkle's Q4 Digital Marketing Report

Nearly 60 charts analyzing the major digital platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram and Amazon, along with paid search, SEO and display. Google search ads grew 16% in Q4 while Instagram and Facebook have also seen strong growth.

PPC Infographics This Week

Social Media Use Among Millennials

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