Facebook's New ‘Info and Ads’ Section for Pages | ‘Google Ads’ Rebrand | Snap’s ‘Commerce for Creators’ [Subject-to-Change]

July 3, 2018: Happy 4th! Here’s to hoping you’re reading this en route to some swank Independence Day destination celebration. If not, we’re right here with you. Facebook’s new “Info and Ads” section for Pages brings all advertiser’s ads to light, Amazon’s plans for ad domination includes a Google Ads Manager (fka DoubleClick) integration, Google Ads rebrand consolidates its offerings to three platforms, AT&T bets big on programmatic TV ads, and Snap ~~copies~~ launches its own in-app commerce capes for creators.

Here’s what’s worth knowing this week:

Table of Contents

Facebook Brings New Competitive Intel to Light

In its latest of all the transparency and privacy updates, Facebook announced new capabilities to give users insight into ads and Pages, with the ability to see what ads any organization or creator are running – even if those ads aren’t targeting that user. As well, its new Keyword Snooze feature not only gives users the ability to mute all the GoT #spoilers and unwanted poli ads – but also the ability to mute #ad and #sponsored posts for 30 days at time.

What It Means IRL: Those dark posts aren’t so dark anymore. The ‘Info and Ads’ tab within Pages allows users to view all active ads and applies to every advertiser on Facebook, with a new ‘Page Information’ section that shares details like when the Page was created and any recent pages. The new section also enables a user to see active ads from related Pages, as well as a banner notification on whether or not that Page has run ads with ‘political content’, which can be viewed in Facebook’s political ads archive with access to the ad’s performance data (spend, audience gender and location). Of note – political ads (or ads aligned with the following 20 issues) without the ‘Paid for By’ disclosure are pulled from distribution.

Similar to its ‘Snooze’ people/pages/groups option, the new Keyword Snooze feature lets users choose to ‘snooze’ a keyword, so they won’t see posts in their News Feed that contains that exact word or phrase from any person, Page or Group. ‘Snooze’ are currently not available

Make it Work: With user controls only expanding, the pressure continues on marketers to provide a personalized, relevant, curated experience that enhances the feed, rather than prompts them to #OptOut. The new benefit is all in the insights – if a competitor was sponsoring ‘dark posts’ to a target audience, marketers had zero visibility. But now, it’s all on the table with a new level of competitive intel – especially if it’s available via API for social analytics platforms to search more efficiently. Even without API access, marketers can now easily keep tabs on competitors’ ads through the ‘Pages to Watch’ section via Page Insights.

For Your Coworker Who Is Supes Excited for Prime Day

Amazon’s quest for ad dominance is just beginning. Over the next year, the company plans to work with media companies, ad-tech companies and digital agencies to expand its infrastructure in hopes that more brands will purchase ads on its massive family of websites and through its ad platform. Like Microsoft Bing and Yahoo, Amazon search ads will also be supported by Google DoubleClick.

eMarketer estimates that Amazon’s share of ad dollars will grow to 4.5% from 2.7% in this year alone. It’s banking on what no other platform can currently offer – a view of the buyer’s journey from start to finish. Per Colin Coburn at Forrester Research “Amazon is richer than any other player out there in terms of behavioral and purchase data.” And while it continues to work the kinks out of its programmatic business, it’s confident enough to phase out its CPM ads product.

FYI, our fave Amazon holiday, Prime Day is July 16. #ChristmasInJuly

Google’s Advertising Glow Up

As the adage goes, keep it simple. But as Google’s ad products expanded outside of the core functions of AdWords, it got way complicated. Google’s big rebrand of its ad solutions consolidates and streamlines its offerings into three platforms: Google Ads (fka AdWords); Google Marketing Platform (merging DoubleClick + the Analytics 360 Suite); and Google Ad Manager (merging DC for Publishers + Ad Exchange). What we’re excited for: Display & Video 360, which is the ultimate mash-up of DC Bid Manager, Campaign Manager, Studio and Audience Center that will allow creative, agency and media teams to execute ad campaigns in one place (not to mention way easier for us to test & repurpose all that influencer-generated content).

While the new products won’t be very different from earlier iterations, it will make it significantly better for marketers to connect ads and analytics for optimization, with improved collaboration across teams and agencies. As we’re seeing with Amazon and Facebook, convergence and transparency is all the rage. Its new Ad Settings and ‘Why Am I Seeing This Ad?’ prompts will also be expanded across every ad unit.

All the deets will be shared at Google Marketing Live on 7/10.

AT&T’s Big Bet on Programmatic OTT TV

If AT&T is tired of Comcast, Facebook and Google taking the lead in over-the-top (OTT) TV advertising, its recent acquisition of ad-tech firm AppNexus is its chance to catch up. Should AT&T be able to adapt AppNexus’ programmatic capes, it could set the foundation for the next stage of programmatic TV ad maturity.

The shift of audiences to OTT TV viewing has been trending for years, the industry – not so much. With spend on traditional TV making up less than a third of marketers’ budgets, the opportunity remains for the platform and provider who can successfully evolve its TV ad creative and buying practice for digital – especially when it comes to leveraging the wealth of consumer data that companies like AT&T have available. As programmatic TV becomes more & more a reality – it opens up the opportunity for the next wave of creative talent. There’s only so many ad directors and million dollar budgets to go around.

Snapchat Plays Follow-the-Leader With Insta’s eCommerce Features

After Instagram’s launch of Shoppable Stories last week, Snapchat made its own moves to close the commerce loop. Through the “swipe up” feature, Snapchat users will be able to enter credit card and shipping information to add products to a cart all without leaving the app. Snap Inc’s top content creators will be the first able to take advantage of this feature. Amongst the top creators to first to use the comm feature is Kylie Jenner, who as you may recall caused quite the stock drop when she panned Snap’s inital rebrand.

Social platforms are big on in-app commerce – particularly when it comes to the creator community. It’s not a coincidence that these two things are each on Snapchat’s radar at the same time as it continues to pursue creators’ preference and marketers’ dollars. This new feature in Snapchat will also provide marketers with conversion lift data.