Snapchat and Facebook create new tools to improve advertising ROI while Instagram is testing a new engagement strategy. The are the social media stories in the news this week.
Instagram is Testing the Ability to Follow #HashTags in Addition to People
Users who are looking for their daily dose of a single topic can now follow that hashtag on Instagram. The number of results can be overwhelming for some of the more popular hashtags (imagine 1.4 million posts about dogs clogging up your feed), so they are limiting it to “top posts” and “recent stories.”
While Instagram hasn’t offered up an official date for a rollout or if they plan to cancel this test, this feature could prove to be very valuable. Instagram seems to be becoming more “Facebook-like” in its look and feel by letting users interact with each other in multiple ways.
Snapchat Adds “Audience Filters” Allowing Businesses to Target Ads Better
While ads can already be targeted according to location (geofilter), the new “audience filter” allows companies to target based on interests, time of day, age, gender and other details.
This is the 2nd improvement to the Snapchat advertising platform after only recently launching an advertising tracking pixel. Tracking pixels are integral in lead conversion tracking. These improvements still keep it far behind Google and Facebook in terms of advertising platforms that advertisers currently prefer.
With Just 1 Facebook “Like” Advertisers are able to Target Ads Based on Behavior
In a recent study, researchers who targeted ads based on behavior-boosted clicks on those ads by 40%, while sales increased 50%. Share on XIn a recent study, researchers who targeted ads based on behavior-boosted clicks on those ads by 40%, while sales increased 50%. For instance, they found that when someone liked the celebrity, Lady Gaga, that person was more likely to be extroverted and possessing the characteristics of being outgoing and confident. On the other hand, someone who had liked any Science Fiction television series was introverted and possessed shy and reserved behavior characteristics. By targeting ads that were specifically designed to attract either extroverted or introverted people not only did clicks improve but sales did as well.
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