In the latest WDA Marketing Pit Stop, we take a look at the most important digital marketing news and updates from the last two weeks, 21st September – 4th October, including Free Google Shopping listings expanding, Facebook Ad updates, Pinterest new features, Reddit Ads inventory options and more.

Let’s take a pit stop and get into it.

Free Google Shopping Listings Expanded Soon

You may recall from one of our previous articles back in April that Google opened up free shopping listings to US merchants. They’ve now announced that these listings will be opened up to Europe, Asia and Latin America from the middle of this month. If your automotive business sells products online then this is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of and start increasing product visibility and hopefully sales – for free!

Microsoft Advertising Partners with IAS

The partnership with Integral Ad Science adds to Microsoft’s brand safety for native ads on its Audience Network. The new integration is built into the Ads platform and automatically applied. It will roll out in the U.S. first. A great move on Microsoft’s part with brand safety a rising concern for advertisers and a priority for many of our automotive clients.

Facebook Ad Updates

Facebook has made a couple of updates to Ads. Firstly, it has now officially removed the 20% text rule on image ads, giving advertisers more creative license for testing. Secondly, from October 12th, Ad Accounts will revert to 7-day attribution modelling as the default due to the 28-day model being removed. Facebook has stated that any existing historical data can be downloaded before the 12th so if there’s anything you feel you need or can benefit from then make sure you download it before then.

Facebook Cross-App Communication Introduced

Facebook will begin introducing cross-app communication between Messenger and Instagram. As well as this, Instagram’s inbox will be getting an upgrade with some Messenger-style features.

Pinterest Rolling Out New Tools and Features

Pinterest’s latest additions include Story Pins and analytics tools. Firstly, the launch of Pinterest Story Pins gives creators on the platform another way to tell visual stories. They can be saved to a profile permanently.

Secondly, the updated analytics tools will enable users to track performance over time, giving a more detailed view of content performance.

Thirdly, they’ve added more ad slots (Pinterest Lens matches, the Shop tab and also shopping matches on pins) that enable businesses to reach their audience when they’re actively researching products.

Finally, Pinterest’s personalised shopping recommendations are being expanded, again in the US and UK initially. Pinterest is great for automotive e-commerce brands with a US audience but is worth testing in the UK.

Shipping Details Schema

New schema markup for product results, shippingDetails, is now supported by Google. This new markup can be used to add cost and delivery time details around shipping options for individual products.

Local Ads Enhancements

Google continues to invest in building bridges between the digital and physical worlds with some new enhancements coming to Local Ads. The new enhancements include Service attributes for local campaigns, “pick up later” for Local inventory ads and smart bidding optimisation for in-store sales.

Reddit Ads Inventory Options

Reddit has launched Inventory Types for ad accounts, giving advertisers greater control over where their ads show. Here’s what their COO had to say…

“Brand Safety has become a broader and more ubiquitous issue in recent months, and with good reason. With the sheer volume of content that appears across UGC platforms, it’s understandable that some advertisers desire enhanced control, while others are more comfortable with this environment.”

Would you ever consider using Reddit Ads for your automotive brand or do you feel they need to do more with regards to Brand Safety?

LinkedIn’s Partner Program Updates and Redesign

LinkedIn’s partner program is being updated with new specialty categories to make it easier for businesses to find LinkedIn experts. Here’s what LinkedIn had to say:

“Today we’re announcing updates to specialties – how you work with our partners – which will make it easier for you to find the right solutions for your marketing on LinkedIn. Whether you’re looking to create content, grow your brand, convert leads, or measure the impact of your investments, our LinkedIn marketing partners are here for you.”

As well as this, LinkedIn is rolling out a fresh new look along with some additional features that include search results improvements, the Global rollout in the coming weeks of LinkedIn Stories and updates to Messaging. The rollout of the updates has started so stay tuned!

That wraps up the latest Marketing Pit Stop. Subscribe to our blog and follow us on social media so you don’t miss the next one!

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