by Tod Maffin (LinkedIn • social media)
Table of Contents
GOOGLE • Another “Ads Carousel” Coming?
LINKEDIN • Adds Connected TV to Ads Manager
VIDEO • All Facebook Videos Will Be Vertical Now
THREADS • Content Rewards Plan Launches
M&A • Google Thinking of Buying Hubspot?
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GOOGLE • Another “Ads Carousel” Coming?
Google is testing taking your ad — you know, the one that runs at the top of search results — and dumping it into a carousel slider with a whole bunch of other ads.
Marketer Alexander Hatala spotted this in the wild and posted about it on social media. The screenshot shows sponsored listings in a slider, which appear to be for review/discussion type sites.
Before you dust the pitchforks and torches off, a few things for context.
First, this isn’t actually a new use of a sponsored carousel. Google has displayed shopping ads in carousels before, and tested others.
Plus, nobody will lose money if this launches. Our Google ads correspondent Jyll Saskin Gales¹, who spent six years working in the Google Ads division, reminded me:
No official reply from Google about it. I’ll bet I know what they’ll say, though:
Something about they’re always testing things, many of which never make it live (which is true)
And something about how their AI will put the most relevant ads at the front of the carousel for each person (which probably will be true some of the time)
We’ll update this story if we learn more.
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LINKEDIN • Adds Connected TV to Ads Manager
Speaking of new ad formats, LinkedIn today staked its flag into the Connected TV space.
Advertisers can now add CTV to their LinkedIn campaigns. The ads will be delivered through LinkedIn’s partners like Paramount, Roku and Samsung.
This is going to be found inside the self-service Campaign Manager but if you prefer to go with a more bespoke setup, they will set you up with a managed offering run by NBCUniversal.
Image: LinkedIn.
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VIDEO • All Facebook Videos Will Be Vertical Now
Facebook is getting a big makeover for its video player, taking a page out of TikTok's playbook, of course.
All videos on Facebook will soon sport a vertical, full-screen look. Yes, all videos — including Stories to traditional longform videos to livestreams.
It will roll out first in the US and Canada on both iOS and Android platforms in the coming weeks, with a global launch planned in the months ahead.
This marks a significant shift from the past, where Facebook juggled multiple video formats, including traditional horizontal videos and those playing in the app’s feed. With the update, videos will automatically present in vertical format, though there's an option to watch horizontal videos in full screen by flipping your phone.
For many marketers, this could mean putting vertical video production on a higher priority, especially considering even your landscape videos will come out vertical on Facebook.
THREADS • Content Rewards Plan Launches
Threads might soon start to see more content, and maybe better content — Meta is launching a content reward program which, like we’ve seen on other apps, will pay creators for their content, based on view-count.
TikTok has had a couple variations of these programs, as have LinkedIn and Instagram and others.
For now, creators are being invited to the program individually, and can earn money on any video that gets more than 2,500 views — which seems to be an awfully low bar to me. And Meta says details of the bonus program “may vary by participant,” which sounds like they’re cutting different payout deals with different creators.
Also, that invitation will actually show up in your attached Instagram account in the Professional Dashboard. That’s because Threads used Instagram’s codebase to get off the ground quickly.
M&A • Google Thinking of Buying Hubspot?
And finally, reports are circulating today that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is thinking about buying HubSpot, the large CRM platform.
HubSpot is public, and has a market valuation of around $32 billion.
Alphabet execs have apparently met with bankers to flesh out what a deal would look like. Nobody is talking on the record, of course, and analysts are skeptical.
We’ll keep you updated if there’s a development there.
