The three juggernauts of the social video scene are doubling down on advertising technology to keep advertising monies flowing through their respective platforms. This week, both Facebook and Snapchat announced they’re beefing up advertising solutions; and their announcements follow one made last week by Google to do the same.
The social video platforms are looking to cash in on declining linear TV viewership, which has left marketers looking for new platforms upon which they can engage viewers and reach audiences, and the surge in mobile video usage. In the mobile world, Facebook (and Instagram), YouTube and Snapchat rule.
Facebook said it wants to give marketers more precise data about advertising on its platform, and has expanded partnerships with three ad tech firms to make good on that promise. The ad measurement update comes a few months after Facebook revealed it had been unintentionally inflating video metrics for years. “We want to help advertisers effectively measure business value and outcomes, so they can purchase ads with confidence,” the company said in a post this week.
But there’s more to it: Facebook also wants to give marketers something of a cross-channel performance metric that’ll help marketers track some of the big-picture results, such as brand affinity and sales lift, instead of focusing on just ad impressions.
And Facebook is keen for marketers to compare how its ads perform compared to traditional TV. “We’re introducing the marketing mix modeling (MMM) portal where measurement partners can gather information directly from Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network on behalf of their clients,” the company said. “Advertisers will now be able to compare which ads — TV, digital and print — are driving their desired outcomes.”
Google, meanwhile, announced last week that it’s making search data available to its YouTube advertisers. That means advertisers will now be able to target users based on past Google searches. YouTube claims that its new tools “allow advertisers and agencies to better measure their campaigns and reach their audience on YouTube across screens, while continuing to offer users control over their advertising experience on YouTube,” said Diya Jolly, YouTube’s director of product management.
The potential here is both incredible and dangerous – dangerous because consumers hate it when, after just one ill-disciplined Amazon search, a product hauntingly follows him or her all around the Internet. Google claims it’s solved this problem by allowing users to “mute” certain advertisers, and now viewers can mute video advertisers, too.
Conversely, the added use of search and Google account data can spell huge opportunity for advertisers, if done properly – imagine matching winter clothing sales with consumers who are actually searching for coats on Google.
And like Facebook, Google is eager to give its marketers performance data, particularly around mobile. YouTube said it’s working on a cloud-based measurement solution that’ll give advertisers access to data about how their ads perform across devices. “With this new solution, advertisers will have access to more detailed insights from their YouTube campaigns across devices, so they can better understand the impact of their campaigns on their highest-value customers,” Jolly said.
YouTube is also re-focusing its advertising tools to support a mobile-first advertiser mindset. “By investing more in the mobile first solutions we’re announcing today, users will have more choice and transparency over how they experience ads on Google and YouTube, and advertisers will have more opportunities to be present and relevant in the moments their audience chooses to watch,” Jolly said. That’s an important consideration for advertisers on YouTube, as over 50% of YouTube video views now occur on a mobile device.
Google and Facebook account for the vast majority of digital ad dollars. According to a report from the trade group Digital Content Next, Google and Facebook accounted for all the growth witnessed during the first half of 2016 in the US digital advertising space. These advertising announcements are especially important in light of both Google’s and Facebook’s aspirations for the TV set. Facebook – as part of its new video-first modus operandi – is working on a video app for net-top boxes that’ll bring Facebook adverts to the home’s largest screen. And YouTube is putting together an Internet TV bundle that is expected to rival streaming TV bundles like Dish’s Sling TV and AT&T’s DirecTV Now.
Snapchat, the precocious new kid on the block, is getting ready to unveil its advertising API to a much wider pool of advertisers. With over 150 million daily active users, and 71% of those users being Millennials, Snapchat’s entrance into a mobile advertising world dominated by Facebook and Google is significant. The platform already commands significant ad dollars: Snapchat is charging $3 million a pop for its marketing filters ahead of the US’s biggest sporting event, the Super Bowl.
Snapchat launched an advertising API in beta last fall, with an elite group of 100 advertisers who could use the automated advertising toolkit. This week, Snapchat decided to launch the API fully – though marketers will have to work with Snapchat’s team of 15 ad tech partners to buy inventory. The news comes just in time for an IPO bid, rumored to be in the works for this week.
Snapchat API offers advertisers the ability to purchase ad inventory at scale, with a suite of features such as A/B testing, real-time analytics, and a targeting tool Snapchat has named “goal-based bidding.” And last week, Snapchat announced a new partnership with Nielsen for its digital ad ratings (DAR), which will help marketers purchase audience guarantees in the more TV-friendly terms such as age and gender.
The move puts Snapchat firmly in the same league as digital veterans Facebook and Google. And it gives marketers more confidence in shifting more dollars to the app – widely considered the latest and greatest platform to reach those pesky demographics that have left the TV set. Snapchat is reportedly in talks with some of the largest ad agencies, including WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, and Interpublic, in hopes of securing TV-like multi-million dollar commitments for 2017.
One caveat here is that Snapchat ads – ranging from short spots to filters and “lenses” – aren’t exactly traditional formats. And it’s unclear if Snapchat’s advertising spots actually work. A recent filter sponsored by Gatorade, for example, was viewed 165 million times. We’re not sure if that translated into an increase in Gatorade sales, but it’s certainly an impressive engagement metric for a sports drink ad.