We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #369

Mashup
ross.mctaggart
Facebook and Google account for 63.1% of US digital ad revenues
The latest figures from eMarketer show that Facebook and Google combined will account for 63.1% of all digital ad spend revenues in the United States in 2017. This will also be the first year that Facebook has captured one in five of every ad dollar spent.



UK digital ad spend growing as marketers chase mobile users
Digital advertising growth is being driven by advertisers’ desire to reach consumers who are increasingly wedded to mobile devices for media access. Time spent on mobile is set to increase from around 30% currently to over 50% by 2019. Digital ad spend share will rise from 63.9% to 68% by 2019 as investment in TV, print and radio continues to fall.



Facebook’s M is getting more GIFs and adding cinema push
Facebook Messenger’s virtual assistant M is getting smarter. The AI assistant now automatically suggests text replies and GIF responses based on messages you receive from friends, making it quicker and easier to reply in the chat. It has also added a new function which detects when you’re talking about movies and prompts you to buy tickets using the Fandango chat extension.

Facebook automated ad targeting to receive more human oversight
Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg has promised more human oversight on the social network’s automated ad targeting platform, after it was found that its algorithm allowed advertisers to target people who had expressed an interest in antisemitic topics. Keyword targeting was pulled altogether while it investigated the issue but common keywords have now been added back in following an in-depth manual review.

Facebook adds two new tools for comparing social with TV
Facebook has introduced two new tools for advertisers which help them gain a better understanding of cross-platform ad performance. The first tool, Facebook Cross-Platform Brand Lift, uses TV viewing data to assess brand sentiment across Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Audience Network. The second tool will allow advertisers to determine if someone watching a TV ad also saw a social ad.



Facebook now lets advertisers match their best ads with the right audience
A new update to Power Editor called Dynamic Creative, automatically generates creative variants and finds the best-performing combination for the target audience. Advertisers simply create different variations of elements of an ad – photos, title, CTA etc, without having to manually produce complete ad variants.

Facebook improves tools for advertisers to target offline shoppers with online ads
Facebook has created a revised set of advertising tools which allow advertisers to target consumers who have made offline purchases, or go one step further and create lookalike audiences to help discover new potential shoppers with similar characteristics.

YouTube launches new custom targeting tools and an AI-powered content creator
YouTube has announced some very cool new tools that are going to delight advertisers on the video sharing platform. The first new toy is a tweak to its Custom Affinity Audiences tool, which will allow brands to target users based on recent app downloads as well as places they’ve visited. The second new tool, known as Director Mix, allows advertisers to upload several video templates which the platform then spins into tens, hundreds or even thousands of shortened custom clips. Machine learning functionality will then help determine which of these micro edits are performing best.

Twitter rolls out Popular Articles feature
Twitter has finally launched its Popular Articles feature for both iOS and Android. The feature, which can be found in the Explore tab, serves up stories being shared in your network and in your local area.



Pinterest celebrates 200m milestone, expands Tastes Graph, launches self-serve platform
Pinterest announced last week that it now has 200m monthly users visiting the site. To make it easier for advertisers to track users’ niche hobbies, it has launched 5000 interests that can be targeted using its ‘Taste graph’. The platform has also introduced a new self-serve service which allows brands to quickly turnaround ad content with the network’s range of influencers.



Burger King and Sainsbury’s launch first-ever ads shot on Spectacles
Burger King and Sainsbury’s are some of the first brands to roll out Snap ads that were shot exclusively on the platform’s Spectacles. Snap has created its own ads with the glasses but this is the first time brands have tried the format.

John Lewis is the first UK retailer to trial 360 Collection ads
John Lewis is the first UK retailer to experiment with Facebook’s 360 Collections format which allows users to click on content from all angles and then be directed to the website for purchase.