Twitter’s ad business has shrunk, but ad buyers say it’s stabilized
Unfavorable competition with Facebook and Google -- and the commodification of its own inventory -- has led advertisers to slow their spend on Twitter.
Tim Peterson, Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter, has been covering the digital marketing industry since 2011. He has reported for Advertising Age, Adweek and Direct Marketing News. A born-and-raised Angeleno who graduated from New York University, he currently lives in Los Angeles. He has broken stories on Snapchat's ad plans, Hulu founding CEO Jason Kilar's attempt to take on YouTube and the assemblage of Amazon's ad-tech stack; analyzed YouTube's programming strategy, Facebook's ad-tech ambitions and ad blocking's rise; and documented digital video's biggest annual event VidCon, BuzzFeed's branded video production process and Snapchat Discover's ad load six months after launch. He has also developed tools to monitor brands' early adoption of live-streaming apps, compare Yahoo's and Google's search designs and examine the NFL's YouTube and Facebook video strategies.
Pinterest rolls out chatbot, native features for Facebook’s Messenger
People will be able to search for and share pins from Pinterest without leaving Facebook’s messaging service.
Instagram now lets brands feature Stories Highlights on their profile pages
Instagram will also now automatically save Story posts, which can later be added to a Story Highlights collection.
Facebook’s pre-roll ad test will only run in Watch, not News Feed
Facebook plans to test running pre-roll ads, but it is expected to be limited to Facebook’s Watch tab.
Pinterest ad boss Tim Kendall is leaving the company
Jon Alferness, a former Google ad exec Pinterest poached in July, will replace Kendall as the head of Pinterest’s ad business.
Instagram’s business profiles are being used by more than 25 million marketers
Since July, at least 10 million businesses have adopted Instagram’s version of Facebook’s Pages.
Facebook halts advertisers from using targeting to exclude racial groups
ProPublica revealed last week that Facebook’s ad-targeting options could still be used to discriminate against ethnic groups and violate federal law.
What Snapchat’s major redesign and algorithmic feed means for marketers
In a major overhaul, Snapchat will divide the app with friends on one side and everyone else, including brands’ organic Stories, on the other.
Facebook tests tool to make it easier for businesses to send message blasts on Messenger
Messenger Broadcast appears to be the self-serve version of Messenger’s Broadcast API that enables businesses to message multiple accounts.
Tumblr founder David Karp steps down as CEO, COO Jeff D’Onofrio takes over
The microblogging platform’s business has struggled since selling to Yahoo in 2013.
Facebook outlines its advertising principles to show it has them
After being criticized for the ways its ad platform can be misused, Facebook has responded by listing the principles governing its use.
Reddit is ready for advertisers, but are advertisers ready for Reddit?
Reddit has been working to make its platform safer for brands, but brands don’t seem to be widely aware of that work.
Snapchat’s new Promoted Stories format gives advertisers their own slot in the app’s Stories tab
Promoted Stories combines Snapchat’s regular Stories and Snap Ads into the app’s latest version of a home page takeover.
Marketers don’t see much value in being verified on Twitter
Being verified doesn’t bring any quantifiable benefits to brands or lead to brands being more active on Twitter, according to four agency execs.
Facebook debuts web-based VR experiences within standard News Feed
Sony’s film, “Jumanji,” and British museum The National Gallery have posted early examples of “360 experiences” on Facebook.
Facebook officially launches mobile app, educational site for video creators
With a channel management app and an educational site, Facebook is following YouTube’s playbook in hopes of winning over creators.
Facebook rolls out dynamic ads for auto, updates lead ads for appointments
Facebook is tailoring its retargeting ads to auto brands and adding new features to its lead ads to make them more actionable for all advertisers.
Facebook will tell publishers, creators the top Pages that shared their videos
With Highlighted Shares, Facebook aims to encourage Pages to collaborate to grow their audiences, borrowing from YouTube’s playbook.
Facebook makes it easier for advertisers to reach people internationally
Facebook has rolled out four new tools for brands to find and advertise to people around the world.
Snapchat sells new audience-targeted Filters through revamped self-serve ads tool
Snapchat's new Audience Filters can be aimed at specific audiences regardless of their location and bought through Ads Manager.