Google is testing a new lightweight version of their search app in Indonesia and maybe India, to see how they can speed up their search services in locations where internet speeds are on the slower side. [Source: Search Engine Land]
With influencer marketing on the rise, Facebook’s adding some new tools to make it easier for businesses to get the most out of their influencer collaboration efforts – while also providing transparency in the process. [Source: Social Media Today]
Facebook’s news feed algorithm will start penalizing photo posts that mimic video thumbnails — play button and all — as well as video posts that solely feature a static image. [Source: Marketing Land]
The company is moving all app-install ads under the umbrella of UAC. Google said that as of October 16, all app-install campaigns will run as UAC ads. All current app-install campaigns will stop running on November 15; so developers and publishers need to convert their campaigns accordingly. [Source: Search Engine Land]
Proximity and beacon data platform Unacast has released its Q2 Proximity.Directory report. The report goes beyond marketing use cases to look at how proximity sensors are being deployed for “asset tracking” (people and places) across industries such as healthcare, logistics, manufacturing and others (marijuana is one of the featured categories). [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
Facebook has announced an update to their News Feed layout which will help cater to common user concerns and make the Facebook process easier and more clear-cut. [Source: Social Media Today]
Bing Ads’ testing of Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) is expanding to and now available to US advertisers. [Source: Search Engine Land]
As Pinterest works to evolve its visual search options, they’re also looking to put more emphasis on their search tools and functions, in line with user demand. Their latest advances on this front see them introducing pinch to zoom, already a common function on many other sites, and moving the visual search button to make it more prominent. [Source: Social Media Today]
Facebook has started selling video ads that will only appear in videos that people watch on its social network or across its ad network of third-party sites and apps. In other words, video-hungry advertisers can finally buy video ads from Facebook that will only run in the same context as the ads they buy from YouTube, Hulu and TV networks — in-stream video ads that people will be more likely to watch, and watch with the sound on. [Source: Marketing Land]
Google has launched a new feature for businesses within Google Maps to answer commonly asked questions from prospects and customers directly over their Android devices. [Source: Search Engine Land]
Expert Opinion:
- How will brands benefit from micro-influencers?
Influencer marketing is one of the widely used marketing strategies by brands worldwide. However, rather than using celebrities and influential personalities, a lot of brands are shifting the focus towards micro-influencers. At Videocon, we have had a lot of success in boosting sales with micro-influencers.
Micro-influencers, who are local people with smaller but relevant and loyal set of audience, prove to be a better medium to reach the correct set of target audience while achieving better results for brands. Also, since micro-influencers have a more valued and trusted set of followers, the brands can achieve long-term results. Studies suggest that 94% of consumers consider micro-influencers highly knowledgeable and 82% consumers follow a micro-influencer’s recommendation.
Contrary to the higher costs involved for campaigns with celebrities and influential personalities, micro-influencers also lower the overall costs of the marketing campaigns and provide the flexibility to engage with multiple influencers for a single campaign. It is observed that the users with 1000-4000 followers showcase 4.5% engagement while the ones with more followers showcase lesser engagement.
With so many benefits and better engagement, micro-influencers should be an important part of your digital marketing strategy.
– Shikher Gupta, Head – Brand and Digital Marketing, Videocon.
