In this post, we’ll look over the latest news in marketing including Tik Tok’s latest controversy, Instagram reels, a Google Ads update and whether Facebook is removing the ‘likes’ feature for good.
Trump Threatens to Ban Tik Tok
US President Donald Trump has caused controversy with his campaign against video-sharing app Tik Tok allegedly due to data concerns over the app’s ties with China. Tik Tok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance who are said to be currently discussing a potential deal with Microsoft in the near future however Trump has said that if no deal is reached, he will ban the app on 15th September. It’s unclear what will happen next to Tik Tok, however with the recent launch of Instagram Reels (more on that next), we can’t be certain what will become of the viral video-sharing app.
Instagram Launches Instagram Reels
Recently, Instagram launched Instagram Reels, a Tik Tok style video sharing feature where users can create 15 second videos using a wide variety of editing tools and sounds to provide a comprehensive user experience. The video creation tool for Instagram Reels is accessible from the existing Instagram camera which users are already accustomed to or there is the option to upload existing content direct from the camera roll. Although Instagram Reels in theory seem similar to the Tik Tok model, it could be difficult for Instagram to grow the loyal audience that Tik Tok has experienced since its launch. This was evident when Facebook previously introduced an app which was also very similar to Tik Tok called ‘Lasso’, however the app didn’t gain popularity as expected and so Facebook shut the app down in early July this year.
Google Ads Manager Accounts Update
Google has recently launched an update to manager accounts in Google Ads, allowing advertisers to view multiple account optimisation scores as well as recommendations for each account. This makes it so much easier to make impactful changes on a larger scale across multiple PPC accounts as well as making it easier to identify opportunities for development and productivity. It’s important to note however that this change doesn’t affect the existing optimisation score and recommendations section on an individual account level, the new update just makes this easier to apply and analyse across multiple accounts if needed.
Is Facebook Removing Likes?
Lately, Facebook has been testing a more simplified view of profile pages on the mobile app. Currently only being tested with a “small percentage of public figures”, Facebook appears to have removed the ‘like’ button from the pages of certain profiles, as well as the number of likes that page has. Instead, Facebook is trialling only displaying how many ‘followers’ the page has. Sometimes, the number of likes vs followers a page has can be vastly different due to people previously ‘liking’ the page but choosing to unfollow the page at a later date to avoid seeing that page’s posts on their news feed. In regard to whether Facebook will choose to launch this as an official feature rather than just a trial, we’ll have to wait and see.
Are any of July’s marketing stories going to have an impact on you or your business? Are you excited to try Instagram Reels? Let us know your highlights from July and we look forward to seeing you again in our August review! In the meantime, if you need help with anything SEO or PPC related, drop us an email or call us on 01642 955370 for a chat.
