Welcome to our latest round-up of marketing news from the last two weeks, including updates to Bing Product Ads, a new campaign management tool from Microsoft, Google’s Pinterest competitor, Twitter audio tweets and more.

Let’s take a Pit Stop and get into it…

Visual Search Comes to Bing Product Ads

Bing has introduced new visual search features to its product ads. The features enable users to click on the visual search icon and browse products that look similar to the one they were viewing. The feature is only available for clothing and shoes currently but is set to expand to home decor shortly….no news on automotive products yet!

Google’s Enterprise Messaging Gets An Upgrade

The new features available in Maps and Search include smart replies, visual product carousels and customised welcome messages. The business categories that currently have access to Google Messaging are also being increased.

Microsoft Launches Digital Marketing Center

Digital Marketing Center has just been launched by Microsoft. It’s a free platform that allows users to manage search and social campaigns across Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The beta is open to the US market only at this moment in time.

Google Launches Keen

Google has launched Keen, a personalised search and social discovery website similar to Pinterest. When you visit Keen for the first time you are presented with a grid of topics to explore, these can then be saved or new ones can be created. There’s some potential to the app but it will need to be differentiated more from Pinterest to succeed and have a solid marketing strategy behind it.

YouTube TrueView for Action Products

YouTube continues to make its ads more shoppable by bringing product selection to TrueView for Action ads. TrueView for Action ads are designed for what it says on the tin, calls-to-action. In this new test, e-commerce advertisers have the option of showing products in these ads. Merchant Center will need to be set up and linked to your Google Ads account to access the feature.

New Google Features Aimed at Local Businesses

As local businesses begin to reopen, Google has announced multiple new features that will help them to bounce back. The most important updates include:

• Local store details appearing in the Shopping tab.
• Free promoted map pins for Smart campaigns.
• In-ad booking from Local Services ads (you’ll need to work with one of Google’s booking partners to enable this).

Instagram’s TikTok competitor ‘Reels’ expanded to new markets

Instagram Reels launched last year in Brazil and is now rolling out across France and Germany. The feature is a very similar concept to TikTok, allowing users to record 15-second clips with music or other audio and edit using a suite of tools.

Audio Tweets Come to Twitter

Twitter has started rolling out audio tweets for some iOS users, with all iOS users getting access over the next few weeks. The new audio tweets enable Twitter users to share their thoughts in up to 140 seconds of audio. There’s no news on when this will roll out to Android devices or web.

That wraps up your latest news from the world of marketing and social media. Stay tuned for more updates by subscribing to our blog or podcast.

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