It may have been Valentine’s Day this week, but have brands been feeling the love? Check out the biggest marketing news stories of the week below.
Google Turns On Its Much-Anticipated Chrome Ad-Blocker
Yesterday Google turned on its ad-blocker in Chrome – something it has been warning about since the summer.
This ad-block function will turn off ‘bad ads’ that have a ‘failing’ status on Google’s Ad Experience report for more than 30 days. Although these ads do not meet standards, once blocked and issues are remedied, site owners can submit their pages for review and possibly reverse the barring.
Typical traits of ads that will be blocked include autoplaying inline video ads with sound, pop up ads without countdowns, and prestitial ads with countdowns.
Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages Story Format Announced
Originally designed to improve the performance of mobile web pages, Google’s AMP is now extending with its new story format. AMP stories will help publishers engage readers better on mobiles by encouraging the use of mobile-friendly elements in articles, such as videos and images.
Expect to tap through stories, rather than scroll, and to have the ability to search within articles.
Gen Z Engages With 10 Hours Of Online Content A Day
According to a study by Adobe which surveyed 1,000 Brits, millennials spend 8.5 hours a day reading, watching and engaging with content on their devices each day. This is above the UK average of 6.9 hours. However, Generation Z tops the user list spending an average 10.6 hours engaging with online content each day.
To be more specific, 5.2 hours a day of millennials’ time is spent consuming content on their phones, whereas gen z spend 5.9. Furthermore, 54 per cent of people said they use multiple devices at any one time, with the average number of devices being 1.8.
Snapchat Has Revealed Its Advertising API
For over a year now, Snap has offered approved developers access to its API, however it is now making it available to all.
This API will enable advertisers to develop their own software to automate buying and targeting of Snapchat ads and filters.
Snap’s Director of Revenue Programs, James Borow, said in an emailed statement:
“We’ve been listening closely to third-party developers as we transition Snapchat ad products onto our self-serve platform. Today we’re opening up our Marketing API to give every developer tools to build the Snapchat ad solutions that perform best for them and their customers,”
YouTube Will See 40.4m People A Month In 2018
This week projections revealed that YouTube will see 6 out of 10 people (40.4million) watch a video on its app or website per month in 2018. Furthermore, 90 per cent of UK video viewers regularly visit YouTube, something that may not come as a surprise when you learn two thirds of the UK population now watch some form of digital video content.
That’s all for this week. For more news updates, guides and opinion pieces, take a look at a few more of our articles.