Digital Marketing Industry Updates – June

Instagram releases new analytics: Live Videos, Reels & Likes

Instagram has announced that it is releasing new native data for its reel and live video features for digital marketers to assess their performance and make more informed decisions. Reels will now report on plays, accounts reached, likes, comments, saves, and shares. Additionally, metrics rolled out across live videos will include accounts reached, peak concurrent viewers, comments, and shares. In their press release earlier this month, Instagram stated that these new analytic features would ensure “creators and businesses understand how their content is performing”. These additional insights are currently only available to Business and Creator accounts. To view, select the ‘insights’ button from the account profile page to view up to 30 days of analytics.

Additionally, Instagram released a new feature that enables users to choose if they want to view or to hide likes after they were removed in Australia in 2019. They were removed in a bid to make the social platform a safer internet space however pose obvious limitations for brands and influences in measuring popular trends and engagement rates sparking the rollout of the opt-in feature. You can opt to hide your likes in your privacy settings of your account however you can still view like counts through the analytics account.

Apple’s iOS 14.5 Update

One of 2021’s largest industry changes is finally here. Primarily surrounding privacy changes, this new update amongst other changes will have a major impact on e-commerce businesses. The update has rolled out an opt-in prompt on each app that will allow customers to choose whether to consent to sites such as Facebook tracking their online data. This explicit permission to collect and share data will largely impact e-commerce businesses and digital marketers who reply on this tracking to be able to effectively target consumers within specific segments. The largest impact of this update will include reduced or greatly delayed tracking capabilities which will result in reduced personalisation of advertisements for users. The effect this privacy initiative will have on digital marketers can not be underestimated with early feedback showing the percentage of iPhone users sharing their data for advertising purposes will drop from 70% to 10% – hugely limiting targeting potential.

Google launches new ad formats for local campaigns

Late last month Google announced a number of new ad formats aimed specifically at local campaigns including Auto-Suggest Ads, Navigational Ads, Similar Place Ads, and Pickup Later ads. Named ‘Auto Suggest Ads’ these are based on the searcher’s location so that when a searcher is nearby to a related product or service in Google Maps, the ad will auto-suggest the advertiser. In addition, Navigational Ads were launched for local businesses. These ads are shown while using Google Maps driving directions and can be displayed with a user is en route to a destination. Additionally, Similar Place Ads will show a similar business on the map to the search if the specific business searched is closed potentially capturing additional traffic from competitors. These features will help local businesses and advertisers continue to reach local customers in the surrounding areas by using local-specific results to tailor the best user experience.