Welcome to our monthly review of major happenings in the digital space. Here are a few significant updates that might interest you;

• Google Ads API v10.1 is now available

Google has just released version 10.1 of the Google Ads API, after releasing the previous version 10.0 just three months ago. The new 10.1 version brings support for discover campaigns, campaign groups, local service campaigns and more. Here is a list of what is new in version 10.1:

• Added support for Discovery campaigns. Now, users can create and update the campaigns using CampaignService and retrieve their attributes and performance metrics using GoogleAdsService.Search and GoogleAdsService.SearchStream.
• Added support for campaign groups. Can create and update the campaigns using CampaignGroupService and retrieve their attributes and performance metrics using GoogleAdsService.Search and GoogleAdsService.SearchStream.
• Local Services campaigns are now in general availability.
• Users can now segment SKAdNetwork conversions by attribution credit (if available in the postback sent by Apple).
• Added support for removing batch jobs in the PENDING state.

For more information about this update, click here.

• Google lets users limit three more types of ads on YouTube and GDN

Google is giving users the option to see three types of ads less often: Pregnancy and parenting, dating and weight loss. The company announced a global expansion of user controls that were introduced in 2020, which limited alcohol and gambling ads. Before now, users could only limit alcohol and gambling ads on YouTube but with today’s announcement, users can now also limit these ads also on Display Ads. Users can also choose to limit the three new ad categories on both YouTube and Display Ads. Given the sensitive nature of these categories, there may be additional restrictions, depending on your country. For more information, click here. 

• Meta Announces Research To Create Human-Level AI

Facebook parent company Meta has announced they are launching a long-term research project to build a next-generation AI that can learn and process speech and text in the same way the human brain does. To create this, Meta is partnering with a neuroimaging company, NeuroSpin, which images the human brain and with a software company Inria, to study how the human brain processes speech and text and then compare that with how AI language models. The Meta research teams are using thousands of scans of human brain activity to see which regions of the brain are activated during tasks. For more information, click here. 

• Twitter Board Agrees to $44 Billion Sale to Elon Musk

Following a Board meeting on Sunday, within which Twitter re-assessed Elon Musk’s $44 billion dollar offer to purchase the company, Twitter has now confirmed that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Elon Musk. Musk’s plan is to take Twitter private once he acquires the company. This is to reduce Twitter’s reliance on ads, thereby enabling it to be more open to free speech. For more information, click here. 

• Google Ads Implements 3-Strike Policy Rule

Google Ads is updating its violation policies for accounts with a new three-strike rule that is being implemented in June 2022. To be clear, strikes are not issued for every policy. The policies that will have the strike system enabled are: Compensated sexual acts, mail-order brides, clickbait, misleading ad design, bail bond services, call Directories, forwarding services, credit repair services, binary options and personal loans. For the certain policies involved in the enforcement, your Google Ads account will get a maximum of three strikes. Google mentioned that with each strike applied, the penalties will progressively increase.

On your account’s first and second strikes, your account will be put on a temporary hold. The first strike will get a 3-day temporary hold, the second strike will get a 7-day temporary hold and on the third strike, the account will be suspended. The strikes will be on an individual account level, not a Manager account level. For more information, click here. 

• WooCommerce Partners with Pinterest

Pinterest has partnered with WooCommerce to allow merchants to create shoppable pins. The goal is to make it easier for merchants to build audiences and drive sales. This integration will connect more than 3 million WooCommerce sellers with 400 million monthly Pinterest users. With just a few clicks from their WordPress Dashboard Plugins page, merchants who want to start using Pinterest for WooCommerce in their online shops can add the extension. Once it is activated, it uploads the entire product catalogue to Pinterest. The extension also includes shopping features like tag deployment and logs customer interactions so merchants can track best-sellers and most saved items.

This move is the latest expansion of Pinterest’s commerce features, which included similar integration with Shopify in April 2021. For more information, click here.

• Instagram Expands Live Testing of 90 Second Reels

Some Instagram users are now seeing the option to create Reels of up to a minute and a half long, giving an extra 30 seconds on top of the current 60-second limit. Instagram started testing longer Reels in February, with various users seeing the option appear in the app ever since. This expansion is only in testing, with no official plan for a broader expansion just yet. Instagram hasn’t shared any info about this next stage, but that seems like it will be a big change for the app. For more information, click here.

• LinkedIn Adds New Profile Links and Newsletter Promotion Options

LinkedIn is introducing an option to showcase a link on a user profile, along with new analytics tools for group posts, a video trimming feature on mobile, and new newsletter display options. With a showcase link, users can now add in a website link that will be displayed below a user name and description. In addition to this, LinkedIn also added new analytics for group posts, which enable users to view engagement data for their group shares from their posts. There is also a new video trimming option in the mobile app, providing another way to customize and improve video content on the platform. Finally, LinkedIn users will now be able to share their newsletter links in the ‘Featured’ section of their profile, which will include a ‘Subscribe’ button, providing another way to attract sign-ups. For more information about these updates, click here. 

Thank you for reading. See you next month for more news and interesting reads in the digital space.