Mobile Video Monthly #36 – June 2023
App News
July 3, 2023
Summer break isn’t here yet for the mobile world. From TikTok’s new AI advertising tools to YouTube’s thumbnail A/B testing, check out what happened in the industry this month!
New Apple Search Ads look for the Today tab
The Today tab’s Apple Search Ads are getting a new look. They will now only feature the icon, title, and subtitle and will be visible without needing to scroll down. Before, ASA on the Today tab included visuals as well.
This new format will launch in July and existing campaigns on the Today tab will be automatically converted to the new format.
Source: Apple
Apple argued that this reduced format should streamline the review process for campaigns. It will only run on iOS 16.4 and later, and only on iPhones (iPads are not concerned by this change). These ads will still require a custom product page to serve as the tap destination (a custom product page can only be used for one ad per ad group).
TikTok’s new tools
TikTok introduced new tools for advertisers. Lately, the short-video platform has been investing in their advertising side, offering more and more options to drive advertisers to one of the biggest social media.
The first new asset is called The Creative Challenge and allows creators to submit video ads to brand challenges. Brand will be able to post open briefs (which includes information on the reward pool, the rules and conditions). Up to 30 videos can be submitted to each brief, and the brand has to approve the video before the creator can get any reward and the video becomes an ad.
TikTok also joined the AI craze and launched an Ad Script Generator Tool in its Creative Center. With it, brands will be able to ask AI to create a video ad script for them directly on the platform. This tool only provides a script example, the video will still need to be produced by the brand.
Source: Social Media Today
Finally, TikTok also launched interactive add-one to add on top of video ads to drive engagement. There will be both standard add-ons (to reach low-funnel marketing goals like conversions and clicks) and premium add-ons to build brand awareness and foster community building according to TikTok.
Source: Social Media Today
Standard add-ons include:
- Display card
- Gift code sticker
- Voting sticker
- Countdown sticker
Whereas premium add-ons will be:
- Pop-out showcase
- Gesture (to invite participation)
- Super Like 2.0
EU regulators are coming after Google
The European Commission is investigating Google for abuse of its dominant position in the industry, according to them it has been occurring since at least 2014. In an official statement, it suggested the Mountain View firm should break up its advertising business. The Commission’s preliminary findings show that Google has been:
- Favouring its own ad exchange AdX in the ad selection auction run by its dominant publisher ad server DFP by, for example, informing AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors which it had to beat to win the auction.
- Favouring its ad exchange AdX in the way its ad buying tools Google Ads and DV360 place bids on ad exchanges. For example, Google Ads was avoiding competing ad exchanges and mainly placing bids on AdX, thus making it the most attractive ad exchange.
79% of Google’s revenue comes from its ad business. In 2022, ad sales amounted to $225 billion.
Google launches Thumbnail A/B testing in YouTube
Google launched live testing of YouTube’s lasted thumbnail A/B testing. Bound to be very useful for both brands and creators, this new tool should help figure out which thumbnail drives more conversions and views.
Source: Social Media Today
Available as a beta for a selected amount of creators so far, this new tool can be found in the YouTube Studio options. It enables creators to compare the performance of up to 3 thumbnails against each other. The metric used is “Watch Time”. YouTube is planning on rolling out the beta to more creators in the coming months.
That’s not the only new thing coming to YouTube, Google is also testing playables accessible directly on the video platform. However, nothing has been announced officially on this topic.
Numbers of the month
- Snapchat+ hits 4 million paid subscribers
- Apple says App Store ‘ecosystem’ crossed $1 trillion in 2022
- Third-party Twitter apps historically accounted for 17% of all engagement, former exec says
- Fitness app adoption hit its worst quarter but sessions remained consistent at 1% rise
- Niantic lays off 230 employees, cancels NBA and Marvel games
- Midcore gamers almost twice as expensive as casual gamers at average CPI of $2
- Attention grabbers: in-game ads score 98% for viewability
- 79% of gamers play on mobile apps and 50% discover new brands in-game
- Twitter Rolls Out 25k Character Tweets for Twitter Blue Subscribers
- Twitter’s US ad revenue drops 59%
- TikTok seeks up to $20B in e-commerce business in 2023
- Chinese game companies contributing 47% of mobile gaming revenues
- Out with influencers, in with consumers: 90% prefer real content
- Voodoo To Launch Just 4 Games per Year After Hard Hybridcasual Pivot
- TikTok surpasses $1 billion in consumer spending in a single quarter
- Music publishers sue Twitter for $250M over copyright infringement
- 77% of players make in-app purchases within the first two weeks of downloading a game
- Australia cracks down on Elon Musk, demands Twitter explain surge in harmful posts—or face fines of nearly $500,000 per day
WeChat’s mini-games attract 400 million users a month
- Mobile Video Monthly #38 – November 2023 - 5 December 2023
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- The Power of Holiday Marketing in Boosting Mobile Game Engagement - 21 November 2023
