Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup
Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup
Bonded Bitesize – Bringing you your midweek roundup of the latest in digital and media.
Stay connected with recent updates from Google, Meta, Twitter & many more!
Musk claims Twitter will start sharing ad revenue with creators for ads shown within reply threads
Musk has announced a new revenue stream for creators - stating that Twitter will soon begin sharing advertising revenue for ads shown within reply threads with creators of the original Tweet. Eligible users must of course be signed up to Twitter’s premium tier, Twitter Blue (starting at $8 a month) meaning this is likely another incentive to push the take up of this tier, Some have expressed concern however that this change could clog the platform with sponsored content and invite even more reply spam.
Meta coding suggests the platform is exploring paid blue checkmarks on Facebook and Instagram
Although Twitter's controversial decision to make users pay for verification hasn’t proved very popular on Twitter, it looks like Meta may be following suit. The phrase ‘PAID_BLUE_BADGE’ has been found within the codebase of both Facebook and Instagram, which appears to refer to a subscription service similar to Twitters. Although Meta has not yet confirmed it, it does appear they are considering offering checkmarks as a paid option.
TikTok has added new Video Insight analytics to help creators and brands understand their video performance
TikTok has a new Video Insights analytics element now available within the Reporting section of TikTok’s Ads Manager. The new addition helps creators explore broader performance trends in their video library and compare against any industry benchmarks for each metric. The tool provides users with deeper insights, including frame-by-frame engagement, ad spending over time, audience breakdown and event comment analysis by sentiment theme. TikTok states that the new insights will provide more guidance on potential angles for your content and updates that you can test to improve performance.
Netflix’s new partnership with General Motors will see the streaming service show more electric vehicles within its popular shows
In an unlikely partnership, Netflix and General Motors have announced that they are joining forces on a campaign to push electric vehicles as part of GM’s campaign ‘Everybody In’. Under this new partnership, Netflix has promised to increase the presence of electric vehicles in Netflix-produced TV shows and movies over the next year, whilst also taking steps to improve the sustainability of its productions. To showcase their new alliance, the two companies will feature on a Super Bowl advert starring Will Ferrell.
Twitter is cutting off free access to its API meaning that hundreds of apps and tools will cease to function
Twitter has announced that, as of February 9th, the platform is cutting of free access to its API - a chaotic move for the many, many apps, management tools, schedulers and automated updates that rely upon it. It is not yet known how much access to the API will cost, but it is unlikely a lot of the smaller/free services that use it will pay for access. Bigger business apps like Sprout Social that already pay for full API access will likely be unaffected by the change, but other apps may have to move to other platforms to escape the charge - much to Twitters detriment.
LinkedIn has added new Newsletter showcase tools to help users tap into Newsletter growth
Newsletters are an increasingly popular feature on LinkedIn, with the platform recently reporting a 10x year-over-year increase on newsletter creation. To promote these newsletters, LinkedIn is rolling out one-click subscribe URLS and embeddable buttons, making it easier to guide people to newsletter and subscription pages within the platform. This link can be shared on socials, emails and on websites to help drive traffic from different areas. In addition, LinkedIn will also now display newsletters in search results under the creators name as well as in the ‘Featured’ placement of a profile to help raise awareness.
Microsoft has confirmed that its new Bingbot is now live and will be used for crawling 100% of sites
After a few years of testing, Microsoft has officially stopped using its old Bingbot user-agent in favour of its newer model. The new Bingbot will be used for crawling 100% of sites - though the Principal Product Manager, Fabrice Canel, did add that they would fallback to the previous user-agents where appropriate.
Twitter is testing a new quick boost option for Tweets, letting accounts promote their Tweets without having to launch a full ad campaign
Twitter appears to be testing a new feature that will allow accounts to quickly and easily promote their Tweets. Similar to its ‘Quick Promote’ option, the Quick Boost option is reportedly more streamlined, with a new UI that lets uses adjust the budget, goal, duration and audience. Having fired all but one of their Comms department, Twitter has not confirmed if this is just a test, or if the feature will be rolled out to all users - we’ll just have to wait and see.
Google has updated its Search Console Video indexing report to include daily video impressions and a sitemap filter feature
Google has rolled out an update to its Search Console Video indexing report that is aimed at providing publishers and content creators with more comprehensive insights into how their videos perform in search results. The updated report includes daily video impressions - grouped by page - as well as a new sitemap feature to focus on the most important video pages. These updates are part of Google’s ongoing efforts to help creators understand and improve the visibility of their videos ins search results.
Netflix’s ad-supported tier is reportedly reaching 600’000 monthly active users as uptake rises
Netflix’s new ‘Basic with Ads’ tier launched in November now reportedly has 600’000 monthly active users. When it first launched the ad-supported tier had limited uptake, accounting for only 9% of new Netflix sign ups in the US. Following this slow launch, the streaming service had to give back cash to initial advertisers due to its inability to find enough ad inventory for the high demand. These more recent figures suggest a more optimistic future for the tier, with one media agency executive telling Television News Daily that Netflix are delivering all their deals at or near 100% now.
AI content tool ChatGPT has announced a new paid subscription tier, giving members multiple benefits
ChatGPT, the new AI content tool by OpenAI is switching to a paid tier system priced at $20 per month. According to OpenAI, subscribers will receive general access to ChatGPT (even during peak times), faster response times, as well as priority access to new features and improvement. A version will remain free for users that do not want to pay, but may be subject to delays at peak times. ChatGPT can generate custom text outputs based on specific prompts, making it a hugely valuable tool for marketers, looking to maximise SEO performance at lower costs.
Twitter is expanding access to its premium tier to more countries, and offering new incentives to push uptake
In an effort to increase the number of users paying for Twitter’s premium tier, Twitter Blue, the platform has expanded access to Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. To further incentivise the tier, Twitter is also offering revenue share to creators for ads shown in reply threads as well as exclusive access to an improved spaces/podcast experience. Meanwhile, reports suggest twitter is offering the gold check mark for businesses for the steep price of $1000 per month. Musk also confirmed that legacy verifications will sunset in a few months.
Microsoft has revised its multi-channel advertising strategy and discontinued bid modifiers for audience ads
Having piloted the new multi-channel approach over the past year, Microsoft states that following strong beta results they will be rolling out the experience to all advertisers by February 21st. Accounts already using this management have seen 14% higher conversion rates at 21% lower cost per acquisition. In addition, the audience bid modifier will no longer be visible in campaign settings. Microsoft explains, “Instead of using positive or negative bid modifiers to manually adjust participation in the audience network, all you need to do is define your goals, and Microsoft Advertising will fully optimise your campaigns across channels”. According to Microfoft this will help advertisers manage campaigns more easily and find the best users in every auction to drive a strong ROI.
TikTok has launched a new strikes-based penalty system for repeat offenders
Facing rising pressure to protect its younger users, TikTok has announced that it is rolling out a new striked-based system for account suspensions and penalties to crack down on repeat offenders. According to TikTok, if an account meets the threshold of strikes within a product feature or policy, it will be permanently banned - and that policies will vary depending on the harm imposed to community members. The platform also stated that strikes will expire from account records after 90 days, and will be able to be viewed in the new Account Status element within the Safety Centre.
Snapchat has added 12 million users in Q4, and subscriptions of Snapchat+ continue to rise, however revenue lower than expected
Despite seemingly growing Snapchat has failed to meet the market estimated level of revenue. The social media app added 12 million more active users in its Q4 results, taking it up to 375 million daily active users. However figures for North America and Europe are relatively similar, the increase is mainly in other parts of the world such as India, which is currently seeing a surge in uptake helping to boost the overall numbers, Unfortunately though this is not echoes in the companies revenues - data shows that Snapchat’s revenue per user is declining year-on-year which could be problematic for the future of the platform, especially amid its struggles to build its ad business.
