The world of social video changes fast — but marketers who stay up to date on the frequent developments will have a leg up on the competition.
Here are the latest updates from the major social video platforms that every advertiser needs to know:
YouTube. Google recently acquired FameBit, a platform that connects content creators with brands for sponsorship and paid promotions. This acquisition makes influencer marketing an explicit part of YouTube’s monetization strategy, and gives brands and creators a clearer path to partnership for sponsored posts — and clearly signals that YouTube is moving toward greater transparency in the influencer and MCN ecosystem. Pixability’s technology has proven effective at identifying the highest-performing influencers for advertisers to target their videos against. Have you seen our Creator Scorecards?
Facebook. Facebook has begun testing ads in Groups, its popular feature with more than 1B users worldwide, which presents a huge opportunity for Facebook to serve more ads without overloading the news feed. The social network also recently launched a new retail ad format that displays in-store availability, and allows retailers to target these ads at users who are likely to visit their store.
Instagram. Instagram has doubled the amount of advertisers on its platform since Feb. 2016, now numbering more than 500K. Instagram’s newly overhauled call-to-action button appears after users have watched an ad for more than 4 seconds; and when users unmute a video, they’ll be taken to a destination URL while the video continues to play at the top of the screen. The new feature promises to boost click-through rates, app installs, and conversions; Instagram’s preliminary results indicate a performance increase of more than 45%.
Twitter. Twitter rolled out a Website Conversions objective. This campaign type is designed to target users who are likely to perform an action on an advertiser’s site, such as purchasing a product. According to Twitter, advertisers that use this conversion-only objective average 2.5X more conversions versus using the Website Clicks or Conversions objective (which has now been renamed the Website Visits objective).
Snapchat. Snap, Inc. has been updating at a rapid pace, and fine-tuning its core offering to fend off increased competition from Instagram Stories. Most recently, Snapchat replaced the unpopular auto-advance feature in Stories with a Playlist feature, and moved Discover — where publishers like Vice and Cosmopolitan deliver original content — below friends’ recent Stories. Snap also announced it will begin selling its first hardware product — connected sunglasses that record 10-second videos — called Spectacles this fall. I plan on buying the connected sunglasses in blue.
Pinterest. In Aug. 2016, Pinterest entered the world of social video advertising with the release of its first video ad units. Pinterest’s user base recently passed 150M monthly active users, up from 100M MAUs last year. While it’s is still a newcomer to the social video world, we’ll see if Pinterest can capitalize on its momentum with a sophisticated ad platform.
It won’t be long before each social video platform rolls out a new feature, however. Check back soon for the latest updates and developments from the world of social video.

Contact us to learn more about how Pixability can help you and your clients  find advertising success across social video platforms.