Find out all the details in this month’s digital marketing round-up!
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Facebook launches video marketing tool
In an effort to help brands and businesses on Facebook connect, partner up, and make deals with creative content producers, the service is launching a tool called Brand Collabs.
The tool is currently only available in the US but is expected to roll out further very soon. It allows brands to search for creators on the service – even digging down to creatives who are already fans of the brand in question – and makes it really easy for them to reach out and connect.
Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter partner for ambitious new data project
Last month, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter joined to announce a new standards initiative called the Data Transfer Project, designed as a new way to move data between platforms. In a blog post, Google described the project as letting users “transfer data directly from one service to another, without needing to download and re-upload it.”
Google Ads arrives. So long, AdWords
Starting July 21, paid search managers were greeted with Google’s new branding for its ads platform, known as AdWords since its debut in 2000.
The new Google Ads logo appears at the top of the platform’s web interface on the initial welcome page, and the Google AdWords Twitter account has been replaced by a Google Ads account. Followers were automatically transferred.
YouTube’s new ‘Explore’ tab helps users discover videos based on viewing activity
YouTube is testing a new tab in the iPhone app that is designed to help users find videos they may not have discovered on their own. The new ‘Explore’ tab surfaces videos based on a user’s viewing activity.
However, since YouTube emphasizes users would not have otherwise encountered the content, it’s unlikely the videos will be from previously viewed channels. In other words — the Explore tab will help expose YouTube viewers to new creators.
Bing Ads rolls out Target CPA & Maximize Conversions bidding strategies
Bing Ads announced in late July that automated bidding strategies Target CPA and Maximize Conversions are now generally available for campaigns targeting Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom or the United States. Both strategies have been in testing for more than a year.
Maximize Conversions aims to generate as many conversions as possible within a campaign’s budget. There is also an option to set a maximum CPC (cost per click) at the campaign level, but advertisers don’t set individual ad group or keyword bids.
Twitter getting help from Academics to improve its ‘health’
Twitter’s taking another step in its bid to weed out bad behavior on its online messaging service.
The company said late last month that it’s enlisting help from several academic researchers to study how users behave when sending each other tweets or commenting on political topics.
YouTube’s website now supports vertical videos without black bars
YouTube will now display vertical videos on desktop without black bars on the side. It rolled out an update to its desktop player on Friday to automatically adjust the video’s aspect ratio to suit a computer’s screen size. It’s a feature that had already come to mobile on iOS and Android by removing black bars on small videos in favor of white space or an expanded video if possible.
YouTube’s dark theme has started gradually rolling out to Android
A dark theme option for YouTube users on Android is in the early stages of rolling out to end users, Google confirmed to TechCrunch, following a number of reports and sightings of the dark mode showing up for users in the app’s settings. The feature has taken a bit longer to launch than expected – YouTube first announced a dark mode for its mobile app back in March, when it launched on iOS. At the time, the company said the dark theme for Android was coming “soon.” Five months later, well, here it is.
Google is making it easier to reschedule meetings in Calendar
Google is making it easier to reschedule meetings on Calendar — and avoid all that unnecessary Slack chatter — with a new feature that lets participants propose alternative times from within the app itself. The organizer of the meeting is then given the option to review and accept the new time or reject it. All attendees’ availability windows, if their calendars are shared with co-workers, will also now be displayed in a side-by-side view, so it’s easier to propose times that work with everyone’s schedules.
