This week in social media news, LinkedIn’s new guide offers tips boosting your long-term brand marketing strategy, Snapchat launches a new section for self-serve scientific campaign experimentation called Campaign Lab, major brands reimagine their iconic ad campaigns with creators under TikTok’s Re:Make program, Facebook posts $29 billion in revenue in Q2, LinkedIn exceeds $10 billion in annual revenue for the first time and more.
LinkedIn Launches Guide To Balancing Long And Short-Term Brand Marketing
According to a new LinkedIn guide, marketers previously invested about 45 percent of budget into brand marketing; today, the recommended split is 60/40 in favor of the brand. In its new guide, ‘Brand to Demand: Harmonizing Long-term Brand Strategy with Short-term Activation Tactics,’ LinkedIn offers tips on balancing long-term marketing investment with short-term demand objectives.
Why it matters: The pandemic has forced marketers to be nimble and quickly shift their messaging, as LinkedIn shows 96 percent of marketers wait no longer than three months before attempting to measure the impact of their brand campaigns. Yet research from Binet and Field found that marketers should allow their campaigns to run for more than six months before seeing an impact.
The details: First up, LinkedIn suggests considering two heuristics when improving your brand’s future position — the availability heuristic and affect heuristic. The former points to how readily available a brand is in a consumer’s mind when they’re ready to move. The latter states that if a consumer likes a brand, their views of the brand’s solutions and benefits will be positively impacted.
Next, LinkedIn found that 69 percent of marketers don’t believe that broad targeting is more effective than hyper-targeting. The key takeaway here is to balance narrowly focused and broader targeting for branding efforts.
In addition, LinkedIn’s research highlights the importance of balancing the usage of rational and emotional ads to build growth over time. It found that marketers are 2x more likely to produce rational ads vs. emotional ads, regardless of objective.
Lastly, brands should execute brand and demand strategies in conjunction as LinkedIn’s research also found audiences exposed to both brand and acquisition messages on LinkedIn are 6x more likely to convert.
Snapchat Rolls Out New Campaign Lab To Enable Self-Serve Scientific Experimentation
Snapchat has announced a new section within Ads Manager called Campaign Lab, where advertisers can set up and act on scientific campaign experimentation in a self-serve way.
Why it matters: Snap first launched Split Tests in Ads Manager in 2020 to help advertisers run scientific experiments on their marketing campaigns. Now, with Campaign Lab, advertisers will get access to actions, insights and learning agendas to inform their campaign strategy.
The details: Advertisers can access Campaign Lab in their Ads Manager navigation bar. In the Experiments tab, they can create new Split Tests and get customized recommendations in the Learning Center. Campaign Lab will also include detailed reports and show scheduled, ongoing and previously run split tests all in one place.
Facebook Adds 30 Million More Daily Active Users In Q2 To 1.91 Billion
According to Facebook’s second-quarter earnings results, the company brought in $29 billion, a new record high, and 30 million additional daily active users (DAUs) — taking it to 1.91 billion on average.
Why it matters: Though Facebook added a considerable number of new users in the Asia Pacific region in Q2, DAUs stalled in the US and declined in Europe.
The details: Facebook’s ad revenue reached $28 billion, namely 98 percent of its overall $29 billion revenue. The company said ad revenue growth was driven by a 47 percent year-over-year increase in the average price per ad and a 6 percent increase in the number of ads delivered.
TikTok’s New Re:Make Program Reimagines Past Iconic Ad Campaigns With Creators
TikTok has launched a new program called Re:Make that involves brands such as Skittles, Snickers and Old Spice resurrecting their previous popular advertising campaigns with help from TikTok creators.
Why it matters: TikTok is encouraging users to join the Re:Make challenge by creating renditions of their favorite ads under the #TikTokReMake hashtag, which will provide brands with ideas on how to enhance their own ads and understand where influencers fit in the mix.
The details: As part of TikTok’s Re:Make program, Mars partnered with creator @rosssmith and his grandmother to recreate Snickers’ 2010 ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ Super Bowl ad featuring Betty White.
Mars’ Skittles teamed up with creator/animator @maddiwinter and science creator @nickuhas to recreate its ‘Touch’ campaign.
Lastly, Old Spice reimagined its ‘The man your man could smell like’ ad — which has garnered 37 Cannes Lion since its 2010 release — by partnering with @munyachawawa and @niall.gray, who were tasked with incorporating UK references and British humor.
Snapchat Debuts New ‘Open Your Snapchat’ Global Advertising Campaign
Snapchat is launching a new global ad campaign called ‘Open Your Snapchat’ to encourage users and advertisers to take advantage of its augmented reality (AR) features, reports Social Media Today.
The campaign will extend to out-of-home and digital placements, which will include Snapcodes leading to custom creative and AR Lenses specific to major cities in the US, UK and Mexico, and eventually India.
Why it matters: According to Snap, about 200 million users engage with AR daily on the app while AR creators have made over 1.5 million AR Lenses.
The details: Snap’s new campaign will highlight its AR features via blanket billboards, buses, websites and more. Custom AR-driven experiences will appear in the following major cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Minneapolis, Mumbai, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Orlando and Tampa.
LinkedIn Surpasses $10 Billion In Annual Revenue For The First Time
According to parent company Microsoft’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report, LinkedIn has exceeded $10 billion in annual revenue for the first time. LinkedIn’s revenue grew 46 percent for the quarter to nearly $3 billion.
Why it matters: As per Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella:
“In the past five years since our acquisition, revenue has nearly tripled and growth has accelerated.LinkedIn has become a leader across multiple secular growth areas spanning B2B advertising, professional hiring, corporate learning and sales intelligence.”
The details: LinkedIn’s quarterly ad revenue surpassed $1 billion for the first time in the recent quarter, representing a 97 percent increase.
In addition, LinkedIn now boasts 774 million members, and user sessions were up 30 percent in the quarter compared with a year ago.
Pinterest Reports Losing 24 Million Users In Q2
According to Pinterest’s Q2 2021 Letter to Shareholders, despite reporting revenue growth of 125 percent YoY to $613 million, and monthly active user (MAU) growth of 9 percent YoY, the social media platform lost roughly 24 million users in the last three months.
Why it matters: As COVID-related restrictions ease and people spend more time outside of the house, Pinterest is no longer experiencing the “disproportionate” benefits it enjoyed during pandemic lockdowns. In essence, it couldn’t keep up with last year’s atypical growth.
The details: Pinterest reports that fewer MAUs ventured to Pinterest during Q2 than expected. Nevertheless, it maintains 454 million users after hitting 367 million in Q1 2020 and 416 million in Q2 2020, with MAUs on the mobile app having grown in the US and internationally YoY. International MAUs increased by 13 percent YoY while US MAUs decreased by 5 percent YoY.
While Pinterest may not have as many users as projected, overall the users that remain continue to show their value as purchases made through the app and overall engagement remain solid.
Additionally, Pinterest said the number of Idea Pins — introduced in Q2 in 22 markets — created daily has grown by more than 7x since the beginning of 2021, and daily impressions from Idea Pins have grown more than 10x in the same period.
Facebook Restricts Ad Targeting Of Users Under 18
Facebook decided to prohibit advertisers from targeting users under 18 years of age based on their interests or activity on other apps or sites. Starting sometime this month, advertisers can target users under 18 only based on their age, gender and location. The change applies globally to Facebook, Messenger and Instagram, and includes more protections for young users than just ad targeting restrictions.
Why it matters: Because young people may not be prepared or knowledgeable enough to make decisions on how to avoid targeted ads based on their interests or activities — for example through ad setting controls or use of third party tracking blockers — Facebook has taken it upon itself to err on the side of caution and limit how advertisers reach younger demographics.
This new stance is a welcome reprieve after the backlash Facebook received over its Instagram platform solely for children under 13 – something other platforms have already created, for example, Facebook’s Messenger Kids and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube Kids.
The details: Youth advocates have succeeded in convincing Facebook to take a precautionary stance on the issue of youth ad targeting. New Instagram users under 16 will automatically have their accounts set to private, with the option to switch to public, in order to prevent contact from predators. Pavni Diwanji, Facebook’s head of youth products, said that Facebook is also using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve age verification and removal of underage accounts.
