April 2022 Digital Marketing News Updates: IG Product Tags, Pinterest In-App Purchases, GA4 News

Facebook News Updates

• New Study Finds Facebook’s Interest Targeting is Inaccurate Around 30% of the Time – A team from North Carolina State University recently conducted a new study that examined the specific performance of Facebook’s interest tracking, and how it allocates behaviors and topics to each user. They found that around 30% of Facebook’s inferred interests are inaccurate or irrelevant, which could have significant implications for ad spend. This was a small sample size but still something to consider. There’s not much you can do as an advertiser. But you can improve accuracy by using lookalike audiences. The best thing to do is track your ad performance and test and learn.

Instagram News Updates

• Instagram Updates Reels Editing Tools to Make it Easier to Re-Order and Edit Clips – Instagram recently updated the editing process within Reels to make it easier to trim and re-arrange your video clips within the Reels composer. It is a simple update that will help people looking to create short video clips and more customized creation, as well as help people create more interesting engaging Reels.
• Instagram Will Enable All Users to Tag Products in Feed Posts – Instagram will now allow all users to tag products in their IG posts, starting with users in the US. This is a free boost for brands as users can tag their products. Brands can also control if they are being tagged, to protect against negative tagging. IG is trying to encourage more e-commerce on the site so this is a great opportunity for them to keep people engaged in the feed.

LinkedIn News Updates

• LinkedIn Adds New Tools for Creators – New tools include: improved content analytics, new profile video tools, newsletter showcase options, a subscriber bell for update notifications.
  new Creator Mode stats will provide a more in-depth overview of content performance so you know what’s working and not. LinkedIn will now display new prompts to help inspire users on what to share in their Profile Video, along with these updated view metrics. A new ‘Profile Video ring’ will now also be displayed in feed and search, so that people will be aware that you have a profile video active on your page, where they can learn more about you and your experience. LinkedIn’s also adding a ‘Subscribe Bell’, which will enable a creator’s audience get alerts whenever they share something new. Also incorporating the capacity for creators to showcase their Newsletter in the ‘Featured’ section of their profile helping people to more easily discover and subscribe to their content.
• LinkedIn Adds Newsletters for Company Pages, Updated Campaign Manager Navigation – You can now create a newsletter on your company page and alert followers of updates. To create a newsletter on your Company Page, click ‘Write an article’ at the top of your home page, which will then take you to the publishing tool. If you have access, you’ll see the ‘Create a newsletter’ option here.

Pinterest

• Pinterest adds in-app checkout and personalized shopping recommendations – The features may help improve Pinterest as a marketing channel for retailers as well as a shopping destination for users. Pinterest is expanding on its shopping capabilities with in-app checkout and a new personalized recommendations feature. Soon, Pinterest users will be able to complete transactions without leaving the app, which can decrease friction and potentially bring in more conversions for eligible retailers. The Your Shop feature may help Pinterest compete with Instagram, which added its own shopping tab last year. If you sell products online, consider looking into adding Pinterest to your channels.
• Pinterest Shares New Insights into How Women are Seeking Out Health Advice in the App – Why this is important: for marketers, if you have any content that aligns with womens’ health issues and the advice they are seeking, this is a great opportunity. It’s worth considering for a variety of topics as well as this could be a new opportunity to connect with your audience.

Twitter

• Twitter is working on an edit button – Not much more to say than that! Elon Musk as new shareholder and board member is creating attention asking in a poll if users want to see an edit button. But Twitter said yes, they confirmed they are working on this feature but Musk had nothing to do with it. The article goes on to say that similar to other feature updates, it will be interesting until it’s not and we’ve moved on to the next big thing. So, look for the test in the coming months. It will be interesting but not likely anything that would significantly impact your overall strategy.
• Twitter’s Professional Accounts are Now Open to All Users – All users are now able to convert their account to a Professional Profile within their settings. Last month we talked about the qualifications: you must have no history of violating terms, have a complete profile and an authentic identity. If you’re a business, go to your settings to update.
• Twitter Travel Trends Infographic – If you’re in the travel industry, you’ll find this interesting. People are traveling again and Twitter summarizes the conversation.

YouTube

• YouTube is Moving into Podcasts – Youtube leaked a pitch deck recently that showed their plans to incorporate podcasts into their experience. If you are a podcast creator, you’ll want to keep an eye on this story as it develops.

Social News Updates

• Meta Launches ‘Share to Reels’ Option for Third-Party Developers to Help Fuel Reels Usage – Developers can now add a share to reels option for their apps. This will make it easy for people to share short-form videos directly to Reels on FB and Insta. Reels is FB’s fastest-growing content format so this is a great opportunity to encourage sharing content to Reels. Adding more integration options will boost Reels usage.  
• Meta Announces New Crackdown on Misleading ‘Watchbait’ Video Titles and Descriptions – Video marketers will want to hear this. If you are using watchbait tactics, your page reach may decline. Meta says don’t post watchbait. Here are a few examples:
  • Withholding – Omitting key information to create an arbitrary curiosity gap to entice users to watch the video to understand the full context
  • Sensationalizing – Using exaggeration and extreme language to entice users to watch the video
  • Misleading – Creating misleading expectations or deceiving viewers about the video content or “payoff”
  • His Reaction Was Priceless!!
  • THIS IS THE WORST WAY TO WAKE UP!!
  • And then his GF did this!!

Search News Updates

• Google launches new “highly cited” label in search and improved “about results” for rapidly evolving topics This is to help searchers better understand if they should trust the search results displayed by Google. – The highly cited label will help searchers identify stories that have been frequently cited by other news organizations  About this result for rapidly evolving topics. Google is also using the about this result feature to help communicate to searchers about the potential issues with search results related to a topic or breaking news story that is rapidly evolving. Google will show the notice that the search results for a query may be changing because the topic itself is rapidly evolving. This adds to the about this result feature for rapidly evolving topics where Google would show a notice that reads “it looks like these results are changing quickly.” Google then shows information on how to check the source of the result and also asks the searcher if they might want to come back later in a few hours as Google figures out what is best to rank for those queries
• Google to sunset Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023, in favor of Google Analytics 4 – It’s time to switch to GA4 by July 1 2023 – Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on July 1, 2023, and Universal Analytics 360 properties will stop processing hits on October 1, 2023. Why you should care: you need to setup GA4. You have over a year, but it’s time to start tracking now so you have historical data.
• Google Docs can write your meta descriptions – If you struggle to write compelling meta descriptions (or excerpts or summaries) for your website content, simply hit the + button next to Summary in Google Docs. Those auto-generated summaries aren’t perfect, but it is generally a great “rough draft” that can help you write a compelling meta description. If you find that the tool doesn’t help, maybe it’s a signal that your content needs work!
• Google Search adds booking and appointment availability for healthcare providers – Google announced it will now show you some healthcare providers appointment availability and give you the ability to book an appointment directly through Google Search. This currently only works in the US and it seems to be limited to one pilot private, MinuteClinic at CVS, but Google hopes to expand this to additional providers in the future.
• Google releases March 2022 product reviews update with additional ranking criteria – Google has begun the rollout of the third version of the products reviews update, a search ranking algorithm update targeted at ranking product review related content on the web that is most helpful and useful to searchers. If your website offers product review content, you will want to check your rankings to see if you were impacted. Did your Google organic traffic improve, decline or stay the same?