The Funnel

Our roundup of the top PPC news headlines this week.

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

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Amazon Ads News

Amazon to boost advertising business with Sizmek acquisition, expands ad tech assets

Amazon has acquired parts of global ad tech company Sizmek to bolster its rapidly growing advertising business. Sizmek's Ad Server and its Dynamic Creative Optimization tool helps personalize ads using data.

Amazon faces biggest threat in years as Walmart enters digital ad game

Walmart is becoming more like Amazon by launching an advertising platform, as Amazon becomes more like Walmart by opening stores and trying to sell more groceries. Both companies are trying to hold their own in the industry.

Amazon ad prices could soar next year

A lot of Amazon's ad revenue growth has come as a result of opening new ad inventory to capitalize on the huge amounts of traffic on its online marketplace. But as demand has caught up with supply, Amazon's next best path to revenue growth is increased prices. Facebook, notably, saw significant increases in average ad prices when its ad inventory became more restricted a couple years ago. Amazon may be about to experience a similar result as more advertisers move to optimize their spending on the website.

Apple Ads News

Apple launches 'Sign In With Apple' feature, could complicate life for advertisers

Apple will now allow users to sign in with Apple instead of just Facebook or Google. The feature aims to prevent apps from sharing user data to third parties. Advertisers that rely on such data to track online activity and display targeted ads could be affected.

Apple may not be as private as it claims

Apple's motto is 'what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone'. But a Washington Post privacy experiment showed 5,400 hidden app trackers guzzling data in a single week.

WTF is Apple’s ad attribution tool?

Apple recognizes that companies need to be able to tie ads to business results, like someone purchasing a product on an advertiser’s site after clicking on an ad on a publisher’s site. But it’s not wild about companies using ad attribution methods to track people around the web. So it has come up with its own ad attribution tool that tries to strike a balance between the two by recording when someone clicks on an ad and then converts on the advertiser’s site but without letting companies trace that conversion to a particular person.

Facebook Ads News

Facebook is bringing in-app ads to WhatsApp

The ads are expected to launch in 2020. The full screen ads will pop up within WhatsApp statuses, much like Instagram Stories. Users swipe up to learn more about the ad where they are redirected through an embedded link.

Facebook brings 'playable' ads to Audience Network

Facebook has announced the launch of playable, interactive video ads on its Audience Network. The ad format offers users the chance to interact with a scaled-down version of a game or app before making a purchase.

How Facebook shares its advertising data

Facebook added API to its Ad Archive in March, but despite this, the social network has failed to counter accusations against it that it is restricting access to its data to researchers.

Facebook’s Notifications Are Out of Control. Here’s How to Tame Them

Facebook already has you hooked, but now it wants to keep you engaged with dozens of notifications each day. Here’s how to get a little peace and quiet.

Facebook's lawyer argues there is no privacy for users on Facebook

In recent months Mark Zuckerberg has been saying 'the future is private', but a lawyer for Facebook has argued that users had no expectation of privacy when using the social network. Critics say the company's slogan of a privacy-focused future is fundamentally at odds with its ad business and the way it makes money.

Google Ads News

Google is expanding when it shows ads to ‘people in targeted locations’

Google is changing the 'People in your targeted locations' option to 'People in or regularly in your targeted locations.' With this change, instead of showing ads to people only when they are physically located in your targeted locations at the time of their search, it will also include people who regularly commute or travel to your targeted locations even when they aren't physically there when they perform the search.

Google Ads is Removing Two Bidding Strategies in June

Google is planning to remove the ‘Target Search Page Location’ and ‘Target Outranking Share’ bid strategies in late June. With the capabilities of Target Impression Share, introduced last November, Google has decided to no longer offer the above-mentioned bid strategies. Target Impression Share is a smart bidding strategy which automatically sets bids according to where the ad will show up.

Google to No Longer Display Text-Only AdSense Ads

In an effort to modernize its advertising products, Google is retiring the text-only AdSense ad unit. Google AdSense will automatically rename existing “Text ads only” and “Display ads only” to simply “Display ads.”

Google Ads Restrictions Are Impacting Third-Party Tech Support Providers

After restricting ads for third-party tech support services to “legitimate” providers, Google hasn’t delivered on its promise of a verification program. As a result, third-party tech support providers are still not able to run ads.

Instagram Ads News

Stories Ads still performing better on Instagram than Facebook

Facebook introduced ads for Stories last September but the consensus among ad agencies is that that ads on stories offer a better ROI.

Influencers you don't follow will soon be in your Instagram feed

Instagram is rolling out 'branded content ads' which allow brands to make influencers' sponsored content posts appear as ads so a bigger audience sees them. Businesses will be able to place these ads in the Instagram feed in the coming weeks and in Stories in the next few months. When branded content ads appear, they'll look similar to regular ads, but users will see the words "paid partnership" and the brand's name on the bottom.

Microsoft Ads News

Bing’s Not the Laughingstock of Technology Anymore

Bing (now Microsoft Advertising) still pales in comparison to Google, but it generates nearly three times the advertising revenue of Twitter.

5 ways to maximize campaign ROI with native ads on Microsoft Audience Network

In an official blog post, Microsoft has outlined five ways advertisers can take advantage of Microsoft Audience Ads to maximize campaign ROI.

Microsoft's LinkedIn inks deal to acquire identify platform Drawbridge

Drawbridge specializes in identifying consumers. The deal should help LinkedIn improve returns on ad campaigns across desktop and mobile.

Reddit Ads News

How to Target Your Best Audience with Reddit Advertising

Redditt offers hyper-focused communities that are ideal for advertising, and yet, not many marketers are taking advantage of Reddit Ads. Here is a basic, easy-to-read breakdown of how to get started with advertising on Reddit.

Snapchat Ads News

DTC brands abandoning Instagram and flocking to Snapchat

While Instagram still has more DTC brands advertising with it than any other social platform, its dominance has led to saturation and higher ad prices. Many DTC brands now view Snapchat as the more viable advertising opportunity.

Snap stock has doubled this year on back of ad business

A combination of stronger than expected daily active user growth in Q1, expanding ARPUs and narrower operating losses have caused Snap's stock to double in 2019.

Twitter Ads News

Twitter Is Showing More Ads, And People Are Seeing Lots Of Weird Crap As A Result

Twitter is running a test that has increased the number of promoted tweets showing up in people’s timelines — and it has resulted in a range of user complaints about their new prevalence, clickbait-style ads, and at least one malicious campaign.

YouTube Ads News

YouTube Will Debut Augmented Reality Ads That Let Users Virtually Try On Lipsticks

YouTube's first shoppable augmented reality ads will take aim at the platform's massive beauty audience.

The video algorithm: Facebook vs. YouTube

Facebook is starting to emphasize library content suggestions to keep users engaged for longer periods and increasing their ability to monetize that time through ads.

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