In the latest WDA Marketing Pit Stop, we take a look at the most important automotive digital marketing news and updates from the last two weeks, 25th Jan – 7th Feb. News includes – Google getting stricter with Merchant Feed price inaccuracies, Analytics to stop collecting data from YouTube, YouTube Clips and much more.

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

Google Getting Stricter With Inaccuracies on Merchant Feed Pricing

Google is going to start taking stricter actions against automotive advertisers that have inaccuracies with pricing in their product data feeds. If a price in your feed is different to the one at checkout then you’ll get a warning and have 28 days to rectify the problem. If the issue isn’t resolved, your account will be suspended. This increased enforcement starts on the 6th of April.

Recently Deleted Folder on Instagram

Instagram has added a folder for users to access items that have been deleted recently. This includes feed posts, stories, messages and reels. Items within the folder except stories will remain for 30 days unless permanently deleted. Stories will only stay in the folder for up to 24hrs after first publishing. Content within the recently deleted folder can also be reviewed and reinstated if needed.

YouTube Clips

YouTube is finally introducing Live Stream clips – enabling viewers to create clips out of their favourite creator’s video streams. It’s a feature that has been on the live-streaming platform, Twitch, and is a standard feature across live streaming. Surprisingly, YouTube is only introducing this now. Clips can be taken between 5 seconds to one minute in length and then shared. It’s a test at the moment but we fully expect it to be rolled out.

Twitter has Acquired Revue

Twitter has made yet another business acquisition. This time they’ve acquired the newsletter publishing start up – Revue. They plan on utilising it to integrate with Twitter, making it easier for readers to discover and subscribe to the newsletters they love. According to Twitter…

“Twitter is where people go to see and talk about what’s happening in the world. It’s where writers, experts and curators – from individual creators to journalists to publishers themselves – go to share their written work, spark meaningful conversations and build a loyal following. …it’s critical we offer new ways for them to create and share their content, and importantly, help them grow and better connect with their audience.”

Analytics to Stop Collecting YouTube Data

Google continues to increase the separation between YouTube and Google Analytics. With the latest update, Google Analytics will stop collecting new data from YouTube channels but historic data that has been collected will remain in your account.

Microsoft Ads Filter Link Extensions

Microsoft Advertising have expanded their ad extension offerings to include Filter Links.

The official announcement states… “Advertisers can present many different features under categorized headers so that users can quickly navigate to their key products and offerings.”

This is something you’ll want to test if your automotive business utilises Microsoft Advertising. If not, then Google Ads can easily be imported in and is worth testing out for potential increased reach, traffic and conversions.

Google Search Console Discover Report Update

Google is constantly making changes to Search Console and the latest update is to the Discover report within the Performance section of your dashboard. Previously, the Discover report only showed data from the Google mobile app but it has been expanded to include data from the Chrome browser.

Google Ads Match Type Change

Google Ads match types are going to be updated over the next couple of weeks. Broad match modified keywords will be phased out and rolled into phrase match terms. The updated phrase match will continue to respect word order when it’s important to the meaning. If you’re heavily reliant on broad modified keywords then don’t worry too much because your ads will still trigger for most of the same queries with the updated phrase match. However, it’s still worth keeping a close eye on keyword performance.

Facebook Look to Increase Reels Exposure

Facebook is looking to increase the exposure of Instagram Reels with its latest test. In the test, creators can choose to let their Reel be recommended by Facebook in the News Feed and Watch with your Instagram username. The Reels won’t be linked to a Facebook account and the feature can be toggled on or off for each Reel.

Instagram to Replicate TikTok-Style Feed for Stories

TikTok continues to have an exceptional impact on the entire social media landscape with many platforms adopting TikTok like features. The latest comes from Instagram and according to reports, they’re testing Vertical Stories internally. This would let users browse Stories from people they follow by swiping up or down, similarly to how you browse content on TikTok.

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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