The Latest Social Video News: YouTube Measurement Program, Facebook Household Targeting, and More

Social video platforms continue to refine their ad products and user experience — and at Pixability, we keep a close eye on the platform updates that our customers need to know about. Here’s the latest that you need to get up to speed on:

YouTube: New YouTube Measurement Program

YouTube launched a new Measurement Program (YTMP) to ensure that companies using the YouTube API Services provide consistently verified YouTube measurement data. Pixability was selected as one of only six partners globally, which confirms that our reporting carries the highest quality methodology, accuracy in calculations, and clarity in metric definitions.

In addition to YTMP, at VidCon, YouTube announced that more than 1.5B logged-in users visit the platform each month, and that mobile viewers spend about an hour per day on the platform. This means roughly one in five people on the planet! YouTube continues to be a major channel for marketers to reach an engaged audience at scale.

Facebook: Household Targeting

This holiday season, Facebook will allow marketers to create custom audiences in order to target not only a specific user, but members of that user’s household. This feature will be particularly useful for increasing purchase consideration among family members looking for holiday gifts.

Instagram: Stories Reaches 250M

Instagram announced that its ephemeral Stories feature now has over 250M daily active users, outpacing Snapchat’s 166M users. In less than a year, Instagram Stories has attracted a massive audience, mirroring the explosive growth of Instagram’s 700M user base. In addition, Instagram highlighted that more than one million advertisers are using the platform to connect with their audience — and more than one third of the most-viewed Stories are brand-owned.

Twitter: App Redesign

Twitter unveiled a new look and feel across its suite of apps and dashboards. The redesign changes some of the iconography and makes its buttons more intuitive to use, part of the platform’s effort to sustain its recent spike in user growth.

Snapchat: Brand Safety Partnerships

To upgrade its brand safety capabilities, Snapchat is now partnering with DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, and Moat. This new Snapchat Brand Safety Coalition is intended to prevent advertising from appearing against undesirable user content. Independent reviews by both IAS and DoubleVerify confirmed that Snapchat was taking appropriate steps to ensure brand safety on its platform; the coalition will continue to work to keep Snapchat safe for brand advertisers.

Pinterest: Lens Virtual Search Updates

Pinterest’s camera search tool has received a redesign and several new features. Users can now zoom in, out, and focus on the products they’re searching for. By making the Lens Virtual Search function more like a traditional camera app, Pinterest is betting more users will start to use the innovative search product.

Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about how Pixability’s technology can help you or your clients achieve advertising success across social video platforms.