The Latest in #DigitalMarketing & #SocialMediaMarketing – June 15, 2016

Here is our take on the most notable stories in Digital and Social Media Marketing from last week.

Last week, Twitter began testing an ad unit that may, or may not, be influenced by a popular Facebook ad type, Pinterest partnered with Oracle to help figure out how their ads are impacting in-store purchases, and the IAB announced that $16 billion was spent on digital marketing in the first quarter of this year, alone.

Twitter’s Testing its Own Form of Carousel Ads

Social Media Today | June 4, 2016

Twitter is taking a play out of Facebook’s playbook and testing their own version of the carousel ad. The ‘Promoted Tweet Carousel’ gives advertisers the ability to tell a story by compiling multiple tweets in this new, swipeable ad format. Advertisers can use their own regular tweets, tweets with videos and images, and tweets from other users (as long as they get permission from the user, of course).

The Tweet Carousel will allow for up to 20 tweets, but Twitter suggests using only five to seven.

Our Take

The Promoted Tweet Carousel is definitely an interesting concept. While it is still in testing, we can see this quickly becoming one of Twitter’s most used ad types. Twitter, maybe more than any other social media platform, is driven by sharing and
by influencers. This ad type will allow brands to combine their great, tweeted content with tweets from major influencers that highlight their brand/product(s) in a positive light.

Pinterest Partners with Oracle to Measure Connection to In-Store Sales

Social Media Today | June 8, 2016

Pinterest has partnered up with Oracle to measure the connection between Pinterest’s digital ads and in-store purchases. According to Oracle’s findings, users who saw an ad on Pinterest were five times more likely to purchase the product in-store. Additionally,
CPG brands were able to reach their customers three times better than the national average.

Not surprisingly, Oracle also reported that individuals are more likely to engage with a brand when they have purchased from that brand in the past.

Our Take

Even though Pinterest has a relatively new advertising platform, it is becoming obvious that if you’re a marketer hoping to capture the attention of female consumers, Pinterest is definitely worth consideration. To further the case for Pinterest, a study conducted
by Millward Brown revealed that 93% of active ‘Pinners’ use the platform to plan their purchases, and 87% have made a purchase after seeing a product on Pinterest. Here is the full demographic breakdown for Pinterest users, according to Pew Research:

IAB Reports Record-Setting Q1 Revenue of Nearly $16 Billion

Media Post | June 9, 2016

The Interactive Advertising Bureau [IAB] has reported that digital advertising revenue hit $15.9 billion in the first quarter of 2016. As a comparision, in the same quarter last year “only” $13.2 billion in ad revenue was seen. The executive vice president of the
IAB stated that this year could be the biggest year in digital ad spending, ever.

Our Take

It’s quite amazing that even with all the news around ad fraud, ad blocking, and viewability, there seems to be no slowing down the digital ad industry. From our estimation, the combination of ease, the potential for reach, its relative inexpensiveness,
and the fact that marketers don’t want to be left behind as the world becomes ever-more digital is what will fuel this industry despite these aforementioned issues.

As the industry matures, publishers who address these issues the best will be championed by marketers. Right now, we are seeing such a shift to Facebook because of their ability to handle these issues. Their “Walled Garden” environment deters ad fraud
and ad blocking, while their stance on viewability is up to IAB’s highest standards.

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