This week on The PPC Show , Paul and JD break down the top 9 headlines and trends in ad tech and digital marketing.

Episode Shownotes

1) Facebook News Feed Update: Taking Action Against Video Click-Bait
We are announcing today two updates that will limit the spread of stories in News Feed that feature either fake video play buttons embedded in their imagery or videos of only a static image.

2) Teens Favoring Snapchat and Instagram Over Facebook
Facebook is losing appeal among teens and young adults which is contributing to generally slowing growth for the platform, according to the latest projections.

3) Bing’s Dynamic Search Ads Now Available to All US Advertisers
Dynamic search ads provide a streamlined, low-touch way to make sure customers searching on the Bing Network find your products or services.

4) Walmart Signs Ecommerce Deal with Google to Fight Amazon
The world's largest retailer announced that it is teaming up with the world's largest search engine. Walmart will make hundreds of thousands of the products it sells available for purchase through Google Express, the search giant's shopping service. Google is also making its Express delivery service free with purchase minimums.

Previously, Google Express was either $10 per month or $95 per year with additional per-order delivery fees. Whole Foods is currently available on Google Express, but it seems unlikely that will continue to be the case for very long.

The two companies said Google would start offering Walmart products to people who shop on Google Express, the company’s online shopping mall. It’s the first time the world’s biggest retailer has made its products available online in the United States outside of its own website. If Amazon is a department store with just about everything inside, then Google Express is a shopping mall populated by different retailers. There are more than 50 retailers on Google Express, including Target and Costco.

5) Amazon’s social media ‘Influencers’ program opens up to YouTube stars
Amazon’s Influencer Program, a service that allows social media personalities to earn commissions on the Amazon products they promote, is now accepting sign-ups from YouTube influencers who want to participate. Last Thursday, Amazon quietly enabled a self-service tool for YouTube stars that lets them request to join the highly-vetted program
The idea with the program is to allow Amazon to better tap into social media’s power to drive sales.

6) LinkedIn Officially Rolls Out Native Video
Like other social networks, LinkedIn videos will autoplay without sound. Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn will break down videos’ audiences.

LinkedIn isn’t yet opening up native video uploading to company pages or restarting its video ad business, which the company shut down three years ago. But LinkedIn Senior Product Manager Peter Roybal didn’t rule out either possibility and described both as a “natural evolution” of what the company is currently rolling out to individuals.

7) Snapchat lets advertisers control the types of content their ads appear next to
Brands can limit their Snap Ads to display only within Snapchat’s curated content or between users’ Stories and can also exclude certain content categories.

Additionally, brands can now opt to exclude their ads from appearing adjacent to certain types of content, which can help to maintain contextual relevance and/or to avoid any brand-safety issues.

8) Google AdWords Searches Card Helps Spot Search Trends
Quickly act on rising search trends with the new Searches card. See which words your customers are using to search for you on Google.com, and refine your keywords for better performance.
For example, create a new ad group and add keywords based on rising trends, or add negative keywords to exclude irrelevant searches. The Searches card is available on the Overview page in the new AdWords experience.

9) 57% of Search Traffic is Now Mobile, According to Recent Study
According to a new report from BrightEdge, 57% of search traffic is now coming from smartphones and tablets. 79% of all keywords rank different on desktop compared to mobile.