Download on digital marketing: September 2018

Instagram introduced two new ways for users to shop on the platform
Instagram has been making shopping within the platform a key focus lately. Brands are now able to add shopping tags to products in their stories, allowing users to purchase the products shown in video. Additionally, users can try out the Shopping Channel function in Explore to view products and videos personalized to their interests.

Dynamic Ads were made available in LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager
This new option allows marketers to create personalized ad experiences for their audiences. Dynamic ads utilize public information available on LinkedIn in order to personally address the user in-stream.

Adobe announced their acquisition of Marketo
At a price of 4.75 billion, Marketo is being acquired by Adobe. By adding Marketo’s leading engagement platform to Adobe’s Experience Cloud set of solutions, Adobe hopes to increase their lead in B2B and B2C markets across all industries.

Salesforce brought the power of voice to users with Einstein Voice
With voice-enabled technology on the rise, Salesforce introduced a conversational CRM platform service.  Einstein Voice will allow users to talk directly to Salesforce with the ultimate goal of reaching greater productivity and changing the way they interact with the platform.

Twitter confirmed their plan to bring back the chronological timeline
After years of living the algorithm life, Twitter wanted to make it easier for people to control their own timelines. Twitter users will soon be able to to opt in to viewing their tweets in a pure chronological order.

Apple’s new iOS 12 release proved to have benefits to both marketers and users
The new update proved to have implications on ways that marketers can use the new features to interact with users. Security enhancements in Safari will block the ability to collect device data, while new notification options, AR capabilities, and other fun features will create new opportunities.

Facebook rolls out more options for video advertisers
Going forward, select advertisers will have an additional two ways to deliver video ads on Facebook: In-Stream Reserve and ThruPlay. The first allows advertisers to reach people watching videos from a selection of publishers and creators. The latter, allows them to pay for only those ads that are watched to completion or for at least 15 seconds.

Pinterest opened up their content marketing API
Brands will now be able to track important metrics and connect with influencers who can help them drive engagement long term.