1. Snap Introduces Multi-Format Delivery - Snapchat will enable advertisers to incorporate multiple video ad formats within a single ad set, with its new ‘Multiple Formats’ delivery option.
As explained by Snap:

“Multi-Format delivery will offer brands buying on Snap the opportunity to purchase multiple advertising formats in one cohesive ad set, optimizing towards clients central goal or objective. The product launch will include all of Snap’s video ad formats including Snap Ads, Story Ads, Collection Ads, and Commercials and will feature Snap’s camera offerings (augmented reality) by Q2 of 2022.”

You’ll soon see a new ‘Multiple Formats Ad Set’ option within your Snap Ads set up, which will then enable you to bundle various creative options for placement across Snap’s suite.

That will better enable Snap’s automated placement tools to help maximize ad response, while also streamlining management of your Snap campaigns by keeping your creative elements in a single ad set.

Of course, that will also reduce some control and insight into specific elements, while it also puts the increased onus on Snap’s automated placements. But it could provide more options for efficiency - and it may well drive better results based on broader placement and capacity for exposure, especially for brand awareness campaigns.


2. YouTube Video Discovery Ads Are Now In-feed Video Ads - YouTube Video discovery ads place your brand, product, or service alongside YouTube content that is likely to be viewed by your audience. The ads can appear in the YouTube Home feed, Watch feed, and Search feed. Now, YouTube is updating the name of ‘YouTube Video discovery ads’ to ‘In-feed video ads’.

This change will not affect campaign features or functionality, and there’s no action required for existing campaigns. You’ll start to see the new name in Google Ads over the next weeks.


3. Microsoft Bing Releases List Of Bingbot IP Addresses - Microsoft has published its list of IP addresses that Bingbot, the Microsoft Bing crawler, users when crawling your website. Fabrice Canel from Microsoft said, “to help all webmasters, we also published Bingbot IP ranges.” 

Knowing which bot is really from Microsoft Bing and which is not can help you decide which rogue bots to block from your site. 

4. Learning Lab, Microsoft Advertising’s Hub Has Been Updated With New Resources - Learning Lab, Microsoft Advertising’s hub for all things learning, has been updated with new resources to help you grow your Microsoft Advertising knowledge and optimize your campaign success.

The new resources include 13 foundation-level search product and feature courses on topics including UET and conversion tracking, Microsoft Advertising Editor, Google Import, bidding and budgets, and more.

They’ve also added three new learning paths to help you organize and focus your learning. Interested in learning more about search or studying to become a Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional (MACP)? Check out the Search Advertising learning path. If you’re interested in learning more about display advertising, use the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) learning path. Preparing for the upcoming holiday season? Try the Microsoft Shopping learning path to learn about setting up your merchant store and shopping campaigns.
 
A link to the announcement can be found here.

5. Instagram Adds A Bunch Of New Features To Its Interface - Badges, And Editing Carousels - First, IG Badges in Live to All Eligible Creators in the U.S. For now, creators will need to meet the following criteria to be eligible to apply to use badges in Live:

Creators who meet the eligibility criteria will need to update to the latest app version and will be able to apply by going to “Profile” and tapping “Professional Dashboard”. If they’re approved for monetization, they’ll see a button to “Set Up Badges.” Supporters can purchase badges, available in increments of $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99, that give them additional visibility in Lives.

Promoting lives: Creators can use the Countdown Sticker in Stories to promote upcoming Lives that feature badges, reminding followers to subscribe to receive notifications when the Live begins.

Practice before going live with Practice Mode: Creators can meet with their live guests in a private space to adjust their staging, rehearse, experiment with new content, or simply practice if going live for the first time so they can feel more comfortable when going live with badges.

Recognizing supporters: Creators can encourage the purchase of multiple badges, which helps them earn more, and gives Live viewers more ways to support and be recognized. Creators get reminders from Instagram during the Live to thank supporters, and supporters who buy multiple badges will stand out with a glowing avatar.

Thank supporters with a Thank You sticker: Creators can say thank you with the Thank You Stories sticker, which tags and notifies supporters from a specific Live.

Meta aka Facebook will not collect any fees on badges purchases until at least 2023.

Instagram has also announced the addition of a much-requested option – the capability to delete individual posts from within a previously uploaded carousel.


6. Google Launches New Local Search Features - Google is rolling out new features for local search, as well as new tools to assist journalists with producing locally-relevant stories. As more searchers look up the query “news near me” than ever before, Google is launching new features for local search results and new tools for journalists.

Google reports that searches for “news near me” have tripled over the past five years, reaching an all-time high in May 2020.


7. Google Ads Insights Page Updated With New Features - Google is adding some new predictive elements to Google Ads insights, which will utilize both machine learning and historical data to predict likely consumer trends in your niche.

First off, Google’s testing demand forecasts, which will provide estimations of likely search interest for your products over the coming six months, by combining machine learning with past seasonal search trends.

Google’s also testing a new consumer interest insight element, which will aggregate the top-performing search query themes that are driving performance in your campaigns.

Lastly, Google’s also testing audience insights, which aims to provide more info about the interests of your customers, including what creative they’re responding to.

Google says that these elements will be launched in Google Ads over the coming weeks, while you can check out the Insights page on Google Ads now to view the latest trends for your business.


8. Google Ads Customer Match Is Now Widely Available And Easier To Use - Google announced that Customer Match is now "widely available" and also a new preview tool to help you figure out errors or issues with using the tool. Google is opening Customer Match to "all policy-compliant advertisers" with more than $50,000 lifetime spend.

Customer Match lets you use first-party data to share the unique insights you have about your customers beyond Google's understanding by bringing in your own data into it. Customer Match helps you reach custom segments of your existing customers and deliver a tailored message when it's most relevant to them by uploading first-party customer data, which Google uses to match against Google users.

Google recently opened Customer Match to more advertisers in May but now is opening it up more widely to:
All policy-compliant accounts1 can use Customer Match and similar audiences for Customer Match to observe performance and exclude audiences from your campaigns.

If you have 90 days of policy-compliant history in Google Ads and more than $50,000 lifetime spend, you can use Customer Match and similar audiences for Customer Match to observe performance, reach and engage with audiences, change the bids for your audiences, and exclude audiences from your campaigns.