Once again, welcome to our newest edition of Marketing Updates with Motion Ave. Much of the news this week focused on shopping through online social media platforms, as well as some new Twitter and Instagram features. Read on to learn more about how such adjustments could affect your business and social media strategies!
Google Will Make Shopping Ads Free Worldwide
Google will expand free shopping ads to countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America in mid-October, following its April 2020 rollout in the US. This allows retailers to run free listings in the Shopping Tab. The decision was made due to the effects of the pandemic, as free shopping ads benefit both merchants and consumers. They’re a great opportunity for sellers to connect with customers, as more people move to online shopping. Yet there are still advantages to paid shopping ads; they’ll continue to appear in ad slots above the free listings in the Shopping Tab.
Learn more about the benefits of Google’s free shopping ads and how to get set up at:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-makes-shopping-ads-free-worldwide/382665/
Twitter Expands Access to Voice Tweets
In June, Twitter added the option to integrate audio clips into tweets but the decision lost momentum because 1) audio clips don’t seemingly add value, and 2) it could cut deaf or hard-of-hearing Twitter users out of the conversation. Given this feedback, audio tweets are currently available to more iOS users. The company also reaffirmed its commitment to add auto-captions for voice tweets, increasing accessibility and expanding context and understanding across the app. Audio messages in DMs are currently being tested in Brazil.
Would audio tweets add value to your Twitter approach from a marketing perspective? It is an option to consider if you want to incorporate new and unique strategies into your outreach plan.
To discover more, read the entire article:
Instagram Brings Shopping to IGTV and Reels
As e-commerce grows, Instagram has expanded its global shopping capabilities on IGTV, its live streaming service, and will be testing the strategy on Reels later this year. IGTV viewers can purchase items directly through Instagram or via the seller’s website. With the holiday season quickly approaching, this decision could allow IG’s parent company Facebook to seize virtual opportunities and better compete against platforms like TikTok. Increased e-commerce is also important for Instagram, as it could easily become an essential feature. The platform’s main risk is deprecating the user experience in favor of more services for advertisers.
Interested in additional information? Click here:
Instagram Adds New Features to Celebrate Turning 10!
To celebrate its first decade, Instagram incorporated a few new elements into its platform. The Stories Map provides a private look at where you’ve posted your past three years of Stories as long as they had a location sticker. IG also added the option of variable icons, made popular by the iOS-14-inspired trend of customized home-screens. Users can choose from a range of icons that better suit their custom theme. In addition, IGTV’s shopping features were updated and Reels video clips are competing with TikTok’s immense success. Other interesting stats include:
- 900 million emoji reactions are sent within the app each day;
- KPOP is the #1 most-discussed music genre among IG users; and,
- The average user sends 3 times more DMs than comments.
How will Instagram evolve over the next decade? One thing’s for sure – IG and other social media platforms have changed how we interact, so it’ll be interesting to see where it takes us!
Read all about it here:
This week’s news included some major changes, some of which might impact your business in the near future! We hope that you’ve found this information interesting and relevant! We’ll return after a short break with more cutting-edge marketing news in our next edition of Marketing Updates with Motion Ave. See you soon!
