Weekly Digital Marketing Roundup

June 11, 2017 - By Aaron Hockel

Here are the biggest announcements, product updates, and news stories impacting the digital marketing industry last week:

Facebook Announces New Ad Placements

Last week Facebook announced advertisers can start placing ads inside the instant articles feed. The ads are similar to news feed ads, featuring photos and links, but they appear directly inside the feed of instant article links. Click here to read coverage from TechCrunch and checkout this picture of how the new ad placements appear: Facebook Instant article ads

Instagram Adds Direct Response Story Ads to Self Serve Platform

Anyone can start using Instagram story ads to generate website traffic and mobile installs with direct response ads. Video ads running in between stories can be swiped up to send users to mobile landing pages of the app store. The ads had been in testing for weeks, but are now available to everyone through the self serve ad platform. The ads feature a simple "swipe up" at the bottom. For more coverage, checkout Tim Peterson's article on Marketing Land. Example of Instagram Direct Response Ads

Chartbeat Releases "The New Speed of Mobile Engagement"

In a study released last week, Chartbeat announced new findings on Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles. The study concluded that publishers are seeing significantly higher engagement, by as much as 35%, when taking advantages of the publishing formats and both formats blow typical mobile page load speeds out of the water. To download the full study, click here.

Google Posts Moving to Google My Business

Businesses participating in the Google Posts beta test, should take notice that the posting function has moved to Google My Business. This feature allows businesses to create content directly on Google that ranks very highly for searches of their name. Google Posts, pictured below, is a beta program that is rolling out to businesses. Anyone can apply by clicking here.