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  • Is This The Beginning Of The Facebook AdSense?

    The industry has been waiting for Facebook’s version of AdSense for years now, and now, as a public company looking to increase revenue, we may be getting closer to seeing this come to fruition.

    In June, InsideFacebook reported on a possible hint at such a network on Zynga’s site, which was displaying Facebook ads and sponsored stories. At the time, Facebook said, “We have had a close relationship with Zynga for a number of years and we think we can deliver value to Zynga and to the people playing their games by showing the same ads that they see on Facebook. We will not be showing ads on other sites at this time.”

    Now, reports are coming out that Facebook is testing a mobile ad network. Marketing Land shares a comment from the company, which says, “We are working on a small test in which we’ll be showing mobile ads in apps off of Facebook. We’ve been showing web ads off of Facebook on Zynga.com for a few months now and we think that showing mobile ads outside of Facebook is another great way for people to see relevant ads and discover new apps.”

    Yep, that sounds like the beginning of something much bigger. While it’s only a test at this point, only on mobile, and only in apps, it’s easy to imagine that this will expand to not only apps but websites across the web on both mobile and desktop. I mean, why not? Facebook is already integrated into sites all over the web.

    According to Pamela Parker at Marketing Land, the company is working with a small number of undisclosed ad exchanges to serve ads on iOS and Android.

    TechCrunch reports that the ads are targeted based on users’ biographical and social data within non-Facebook mobile iOS and Android apps, as well as mobile sites where you’ve authenticated Facebook.

  • Bing Ads Launches Keyword Suggestions

    Bing Ads Launches Keyword Suggestions

    Bing announced the launch of a new keyword suggestions feature for Bing Ads (formerly adCenter). Advertisers can now apply suggested keywords customized, based on the ads and keywords they’re already using.

    “On the Bing Ads Opportunities page, we now provide you with exact match keyword suggestions that we think are relevant to your campaigns and will help your ads serve more often,” says Microsoft’s Manu Aery. “The suggestions are based on the keywords and ads you’re already using in each ad group.”

    Bing provides an estimate of how many monthly searches you could reach by using the recommended keyword, a suggested first page bid, a recommended ad group and campaign, an “easy” accept option to apply the suggested keyword, and an option to add unique destination URLs and parameters.

    To access the feature, go to the Opportunities tab, and then the Keyword Suggestions tab.

    Microsoft notes that API users will call the GetKeywordOpportunities API to get the list of keyword suggestions that are relevant to the specified ad group.

  • Facebook Page Admins Can Now Promote Posts on Mobile

    Good news, page mangers who want their posts to reach the maximum amount of people: Facebook has just updated its free Pages Manager app and one particular enhancement makes it easy to reach your target audience on the go.

    Now, pages admins can choose to promote a post directly from the app.

    Version 1.4 of the Pages Manager app also allows admins to schedule posts for a later time and improves the display to a two-column format on the iPad. But it’s the “promote recent posts to reach a bigger audience” part that should delight page admins.

    Facebook unveiled Promoted Posts back in May, and they allow page owners to pay to promote statuses, photos, videos, offers and questions to a larger proportion of their total audience. Only a small percentage of any page’s fans ever see their posts, so Facebook says that Promoted Posts is a way to increase your page audience.

    To promoted a post from the Pages Manager app, admins will need to have already promoted a post via desktop.

    [h/t CNET]

  • Google Launches Audience Extension in Doubleclick For Publishers

    Google announced the launch of the Audience Extension feature in DoubleClick for Publishers

    “Audience extension enables you to reach your audience across other publishers, bundle these impressions with your own inventory, and resell those packages to your direct advertisers at a premium,” explains business product manager Sean Harvey in a blog post. “Audience extension inventory comes from the vast pool of brand safe inventory via publishers on DoubleClick Ad Exchange. Audience Extension can be used without leaving DFP; flight dates, targeting and bid parameters are set directly within your core ad server.”

    “Audience extension is best suited to publishers with high value content channels within their owned and operated inventory that are consistently sold out, or who have defined audiences onsite that have a value to advertisers that transcends the context of their own site,” explains Harvey. “It’s also used by publishers looking to reach a critical mass of users from a given geo-location.”

    Among the key benefits to the Audience Extension, Google says, are having a single place to manage, execute and optimize buying across owned/operated and external inventory, bid management capabilities integrated in the core ad server, integrated data management, cross-inventory performance reporting and complexity hidden from the sales team and ad operations.

    The feature was announced at the London ATS Trading Summit today.

  • Google Launches Shared Budgets In AdWords

    Google Launches Shared Budgets In AdWords

    Google announced a new Shared Budgets feature for AdWords today, which lets advertisers establish a single daily budget shared by multiple campaigns, within one account.

    According to Google, the feature makes it easier to match AdWords spending with how businesses allocate their marketing budgets.

    “Say you’re an outdoor furniture seller with a single line of products. You’re currently running three campaigns: a desktop search campaign, a mobile search campaign, [and] a remarketing campaign to reach people who have visited your site but didn’t convert,” explains Google Ads engineer Vidya Iyer. “Your overall marketing plan allows you to spend $100 per day across your three campaigns. Without shared budgets, you’d next have to decide how to allocate the $100 daily AdWords budget across each of your three campaigns. Say you set a $60 daily budget for your desktop campaign, a $20 daily budget for your mobile campaign, and $20 to your remarketing campaign.”

    Shared Budgets

    “On most days, each campaign hits its daily budget and you’re satisfied with the ROI of each campaign,” continues Iyer. “But on some days, your desktop search campaign sees fewer impressions and clicks than other days. So you only spend $90. On these days, your overall campaign results could be stronger if you were able to put an additional $10 into your mobile search campaign or remarketing campaign.”

    The point is, with the shared budget feature, there is less monitoring needed.

    To use the feature, go to “Shared library,” and select “Budgets.” It will walk you through it from there.

  • Analysts Think A Facebook AdSense Is Inevitable

    Analysts expect Facebook to eventually launch an external ad network – some Facebook-powered version of AdSense.

    A blog post from Hunch co-founder/CEO Chris Dixon made its way to Techmeme, sharing a section from a recent Goldman Sachs analyst report, saying, “We believe there are three obvious opportunities that the company could leverage its platform to capitalize on.” These include developing an external ad network, monetizing paid search, and entering China.

    “Of the three options, search is clearly the most interesting,” says Dixon. “An external ad network is inevitable. Google proved this model with Adsense. With an already huge base of advertisers bidding on CPCs, it is impossible for most other ad networks to compete on publisher payouts. But Facebook’s traffic is so great now that an external ad network might increase their revenues by 2x or so. The same goes for entering China. They might get another half a billion users who monetize at lower ad rates than US users. Neither move would put them in Google’s revenue range. They need a better business model for that. The only (known) models that deliver RPMs high enough to compete with Google are search, payments, and e-commerce.”

    We’ve been talking about both a Facebook search engine and a Facebook AdSense-like offering for years. CEO Mark Zuckerberg essentially confirmed last week that at least one of those is happening. At the TechCrunch disrupt event on Tuesday, he’s quoted as saying, “We’re basically doing 1 billion queries a day and we’re not even trying…Facebook is pretty uniquely positioned to answer the questions people have. At some point we’ll do it. We have a team working on it.”

    Will the other happen? If you ask me, it’s kind of shocking that it hasn’t already. The scenario came back into Blogosphere discussion with Facebook’s IPO as investors and analysts contemplated how Facebook might increase its revenue substantially.

    TechCrunch’s Josh Constine speculated about it in May, saying, “Facebook’s ad network [would] essentially turn ad real estate on any website into places to serve the campaigns that advertisers buy for display on Facebook.com. Anyone currently logged into Facebook who visits one of these sites would be shown ads targeted by their Facebook information, such as age, gender, location, work and education history, interests, app usage, and friends. Facebook and the site hosting an ad would then split the money made on clicks or impressions.”

    I said at the time that it seems even more likely that this would happen than Facebook getting into search, yet here we are with Facebook apparently getting into search, so I’ll ask again, how can Facebook possibly not launch some kind of external ad network?

    As Constine pointed out, Facebook revised its privacy policy to expand its ability to serve ads to its users while they’re outside of Facebook.com.

  • Real Estate Site Zillow Runs Its First-Ever TV Ad

    Online real estate marketplace Zillow officially launched in 2006, and in the past six years has grown to include data on over 100 million houses across the U.S. In 2011, the company went public with a $20 per share IPO, and they currently have apps for iOS, Android, and Blackberry.

    But one thing Zillow has never done is air a television ad. Today, that changes.

    Today at Zillow we are very excited to launch our first-ever TV commercial, titled ‘Find Your Way Home,’” saus Zillow in a blog post. “It’s airing nationwide this fall on channels such as HGTV, CNN, ABC Family and Travel Channel.”

    “You’re not just looking for a house. You’re looking for a place for your life to happen,” says the ad. Check it out below:

    Earlier this year, Zillow and Yahoo renewed an advertising partnership that was first inked out in 2011. In July, Zillow and Yahoo expanded that partnership to integrate into Yahoo Homes rental listings.

    Just last week, we learned that Zillow is suing rival Trulia for patent infringement. They claim that Trulia’s “Trulia Estimates” product is a copycat of their older “Zestimates” feature.

  • Google Affiliate Ads For Blogger Launches In UK

    Google announced today that it has launched the Google Affiliate Ads For Blogger gadget in the UK. The offering was launched in the US earlier this year.

    “When people share words, thoughts and photos on their blogs, they’re sharing their passions with the world,” said product manager Ali Pasha at the time. “Here at Google Affiliate Network, we see that many of our publishers use Blogger, and often times they’re passionate about brands or products that they believe in.”

    Bloggers can go to the “Earnings” tab in Blogger and sign up for AdSense, and access the Google Affiliate Ads for Blogger gadget when they write a new post. From that point, just select a relevant affiliate ad from the “Advertise Products” gadget, and publish your post. When someone clicks on the ad, you can earn a commission.

    Bestbathrooms.com, Cheapsuites.co.uk, Crooked Tongues, Diamond Manufacturers, eFlorist, Hudsonreed.com, Perfume Click and The Snugg are among the advertisers participating.

  • Google Makes Changes To AdWords Policies

    Google Makes Changes To AdWords Policies

    Google announced today that it has updated its AdWords policies on software principles, arbitrage, advertiser claims and relevance, clarity and accuracy. The changes will go into effect on October 15.

    Google has added specific examples of the kinds of advertiser behavior “typically associated with arbitrage”. These include:

    • Websites designed for the sole or primary purpose of showing ads
    • Websites with interstitial ads (unexpected pages that appear when navigating from one page to the next)
    • Websites with scraped content from other sites
    • Websites with gibberish content that makes no sense or seems auto-generated
    • Templated or pre-generated websites that provide duplicate content to users
    • Websites with deceptive navigation, where users can’t find an advertised product or service
    • Websites with indistinguishable ads, where you can’t tell ads from the rest of that site’s content
    • Websites that are malicious or frustrating, where any click on the site results in clicking an ad
    • Ads that are targeted with keywords unrelated to the topic and/or business model of the website
    • Ad text that is unrelated to the topic or business model of the website

    “We’ve made it even clearer how advertisers must be fully transparent in their ads when describing the experiences on their landing pages,” says Google’s Global Advertising Policy Lead, Mansi Goel. “We’ve beefed up our rules about the use of keyword insertion in ads.”

    “We’ve reworked our AdWords policy governing Software Principles to ensure that users are given important information before downloading software on their computers and that the software is not harmful or hard-to-uninstall,” Goel adds.

    This page shows a big list of specific changes.

  • Facebook Exchange Is Now Out Of Beta

    Facebook Exchange Is Now Out Of Beta

    Facebook announced that its Facebook Exchange ad exchange is now out of beta. The company announced the offering back in June.

    The Facebook Exchange enables advertisers and agencies to use cookie-based targeting through Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) to reach their audiences on Facebook with what Facebook says are more timely and relevant messages.

    Product Marketing Manager Scott Shapiro says, “Facebook Exchange allows marketers to use their own real-time consumer insight data to reach an audience on Facebook. Facebook represents a large portion of display ad inventory on the web—more than 25% according to a recent ComScore study—so this is a significant opportunity for advertisers using DSPs to extend the same strategies that are working for them on other display exchanges to Facebook. The only ad format available on Facebook Exchange is our Facebook Standard Ad, so you can really think of this as display.”

    “Start with your objective and the type of targeting that is best to achieve that objective—a deep understanding of those two things will lead you the type of ad product and buying channel that is best for your goals,” says Shapiro. “For example, say I’m an e-commerce company looking to drive purchases on my site. In this case, people browsing on my website or searching for products that I sell on a search engine are expressing meaningful intent. Facebook Exchange would be a great fit because it enables me to use those signals to remarket to this valuable audience on Facebook, and at the right time.”

    “For many advertisers in industries like retail, travel, auto and financial services, Facebook Exchange is a great way to drive conversions from Facebook based off consumer insight data,” he adds. “Advertisers can extend these same performance-driving techniques they do on other exchanges to Facebook.”

    He does note that there are situations where the Facebook Ad Exchange may not be such a great fit, such as when the objective is to drive awareness through a photo posted to a brand’s page. The reasoning is that fans can drive viral distribution value through the news feed in such a case. Sponsored Stories and Page Post Ads, he says, can help fuel that.

    Basically, according to Shapiro, the Facebook Exchange is best when the objective is a conversion outside Facebook, and the data exists outside Facebook.

  • Bing Ads Get Editorial Exceptions (And Accompanying API)

    Microsoft announced today that it is releasing Editorial Exceptions and the Exceptions API to all Yahoo Bing Network advertisers.

    The feature will let advertisers request exceptions to resolve editorial disputes, monitor progress of ad and keyword reviews, and easily filter editorial disapprovals and submit a request for exception within the advertiser’s Bing Ads account, Microsoft says.

    “If you’re using the Bing Ads API, you’ll have full access to this feature, including proactive and re-active appeals submissions in bulk,” says Microsoft’s Tina Kelleher. “To learn more about managing Editorial through the API, visit this page on MSDN (scroll down to the “Appeal Editorial Rejections” header). In the coming releases, you’ll see more support for Editorial Exceptions in Bing Ads Editor, stay tuned to the blog for updates as they become available.”

    Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the rebranding of adCenter to Bing Ads, and the rebranding of the Search Alliance to the Yahoo Bing Network.

    According to a new report from comScore, Microsoft sites and Yahoo sites are both up in U.S. unique visitors, while Google is down. Likewise, Bing’s search market share is up, while Google’s is down.

  • Twitter Expands Geo-Targeting Options for Promoted Tweets

    Back in July, Twitter began to allow promoted tweets to be targeted by location. The geo-specific ads were dubbed ‘targeted tweets” by Twitter, and allowed brands to reach specific audiences without first sending a tweets to every single one of their followers. The feature was first tested with big name advertisers like Coca-Cola and Wendy’s but is now currently available to anyone who would have reason to promote a tweets (or an account).

    Today, Twitter is expanding geo-targeted tweets to reach specific markets in the UK and Japan. Now, advertisers will have a few more options when they want to get location specific.

    The new areas include UK regions and major metropolitan areas, Japanese locations like the Tokyo region, Osaka, and Nagoya, as well as a few more U.S. states.

    Here’s what targeted tweets product manager April Underwood had to say on the Twitter ad blog:

    You will be able to make use of these new geo-targeting options in conjunction with targeted Tweets. This combination will enable you to deliver Promoted Tweets tailored to regional audiences. For example, retailers can use Promoted Tweets to promote distinct offers to users in Manchester and London, or a US statewide political campaign could focus its Promoted Accounts campaigns precisely where a candidate is running for office.

    In short, as marketers, you will reach the users you’re seeking more easily, in real time, and users will see more relevant, useful Promoted Tweets and Accounts in their Twitter web and mobile apps.

    As Twitter expands their local targeting options, it just proves how committed they are to their advertising strategy. They’ve also been making some tweaks to their self-service ad platform, like the recent addition of account reporting and the ability for marketers to manually choose which tweets to promote.

  • Google Shopping Gets More Merchant-Friendly

    Google announced some changes it has made for merchants in Google Shopping.

    For one, Google Trusted Stores annotations now appear on product pages within Google Shopping. Google says this provides merchants with “greater ability to attract new customers” and helps shoppers make more informed decisions.

    Annotations

    Google has added a new sign-up flow in Merchant Center for merchants who aren’t familiar with AdWords. Google says it makes participation easier.

    There are some new AdWords Editor updates that reduce the time it takes to optimize a product listing ads campaign, “from hours to minutes, in many cases,” according to Google.

    Finally, there are campaign tracking URL templates that decrease the number of steps required to set up tracking in AdWords.

    Google says tens of thousands of merchants have started using Google Shopping since the transition began.

  • iPhone 5 “Commercial” Pops Up on YouTube

    Is this the official ad for the iPhone 5 that Apple will run following their big announcement tomorrow afternoon? Not likely. But it is a pretty well produced video that outlines many of the possible (probable) specs of the new device.

    “All New Design,” it touts. It then goes on to give an incredibly detailed look into the various specs of Apple’s much-anticipated phone: “Unibody construction, 9mm taller, 22% thinner, 4″ 16:9 widescreen display, next generation LTE wireless communication” and so on and so forth.

    All the while a bouncy song graces the background, one which I can say doesn’t sound too far off something that Apple would throw into an advert. The YouTube description reads that it is the “official video leaked by an anonymous Apple employee.” It’s currently making the rounds on Twitter, although nobody could ever accuse the Twitterverse of much skepticism.

    Check it out for yourself:

    Although it would be a first for Apple to produce a nearly three-minute commercial, it does look like something that they may show as a press companion for their announcement event (maybe, kind of stretching it a bit). We’re still pretty skeptical about it’s legitimacy, however.

    But if you’re looking for a decent rumor roundup that hits a lot of the bases, it’s pretty solid. We’re pretty convinced that the iPhone 5 will include that bigger screen, mini dock connector, and LTE.

    Of course, all will be revealed tomorrow during the official event. We’ll be covering it as it happens, so check back with us tomorrow at 1 pm ET. If you’re still craving iPhone 5 rumors, this is the place to go.

  • Yahoo And Microsoft Introduce The Yahoo Bing Network, adCenter Becomes Bing Ads

    Microsoft and Yahoo have announced the Yahoo Bing Network as the official name for their combined search marketplace, which came about as the result of the companies’ “Search Alliance” partnership. Likewise, Microsoft adCenter has become simply Bing Ads.

    “Bing Ads is not only a new name, but an improved experience with new features to help you better manage your campaigns and complete tasks faster,” says Microsoft’s Tina Kelleher. “Recent improvements include: a new web interface, improved ad rotation controls, and agency enablement tools that make it easier for agencies to manage multiple accounts.”

    David Pann outlines the changes as:

    Historic Quality Score helps advertisers closely monitor their campaign performance trend and proactively respond to the competition.

    Negative Keywords Conflicts Report allows advertisers to identify negative keywords conflicts in scale with ease. As a result, advertisers will receive more targeted traffic and increase their ROI.

    Share of Voice reporting quantifies missed impressions and classifies them in detailed buckets, allowing advertisers to take precise action to regain lost share.

    Ad delivery status and ad preview tools enable advertisers to more quickly identify issues hindering ad serving at the campaign, ad group and keyword levels.

    With ongoing enhancements to the Bing Ads Desktop tool, advertisers have an additional resource for tracking performance and identifying growth opportunities.

    The Bing Ads Intelligence tool provides access to customizable marketplace level information that allows advertisers to make proactive decisions regarding their campaign management.

    Pann also notes that there is a new Import Campaign feature (for importing from AdWords), and a new Editorial Exceptions feature for resolving editorial disapprovals during and after the ad submission process.

    Additional updates are on the way, Kelleher says.

    Microsoft and Yahoo say that the network (in the U.S.), consisting of Yahoo and Microsoft’s core search sites, accounts for 30% of the search share, and reaches 151 million searchers who are likely to spend 124% more than the average searcher, and 5% more than Google searchers. The companies say advertisers can reach 46 million unique searchers in the U.S. who aren’t using Google.

    “A similar result holds true worldwide, with 489 million unique searchers, 92 million of whom do not use Google; and worldwide the Yahoo! Bing Network represents an audience who is likely to spend 124% more than the average searcher and 78% more than Google searchers worldwide,” the companies say.

    “In addition to Yahoo! and Microsoft Core Search sites, the Yahoo! Bing Network represents partner sites like Facebook, Amazon, Monster, WebMD, CNBC, and Viacom, plus networks like The Wall Street Journal Digital Network,” the companies add.

    Advertisers would do well to note that Bing has been revealed as the default search on Amazon’s new line of Kindle Fire devices.

  • Twitter Adds Manually Promoted Tweets, Reporting to Self-Service Ad Platform

    Today, Twitter is announcing two new features to their self-service advertising platform for small businesses – one focuses on functionality and the other on analytics.

    First, Twitter now lets businesses have more control over which tweets you promote. Before, they only had the option to automatically promote their newest, most engaging tweets. Now, Twitter has put the decision in their hands with a manual selection option.

    From the Twitter Advertising blog:

    Many advertisers have requested more control over which Tweets are promoted in order to be able to market a specific product, promotion or event. That’s why we’re now offering manual selection of Tweets in addition to automatic selection of your most engaging Tweets. If you choose the manual option, you can select a few Tweets for promotion or even tweet from within the interface. Remember to add new Tweets every couple of days to keep users engaged with fresh content.

    That’s a pretty good update for small businesses. It allows for more precise targeting of products, exactly when the marketer wants it.

    The second new feature is promoted account reporting. Part of Twitter’s self-service advertising platform allows for the promotion of entire accounts in order for businesses to get their names out there. Now, they can see exactly how it’s working. The new chart will track paid and unpaid followers side by side:

  • Google Finally Launches Demographic Targeting Options For Display Network

    Two years ago, Google launched demographic targeting in beta for the Google Display Network, and finally, the company is expanding it to more advertisers.

    The feature simply lets you show ads based on certain demographic categories like age and gender. It’s kind of hard to believe advertisers have had to wait so long.

    “Since 2011, we’ve been hard at work making this available to more advertisers,” says product manager Jon Krafcik. “Marketers have been getting great results. For example, Blue Nile used demographics in a campaign to reach potential engagement ring buyers and saw a click through rate of 10x higher than the U.S. national average for online display campaigns.”

    “Demographic categories complement other AdWords targeting features, such as interest categories, remarketing and keyword contextual targeting,” says Krafcik. “The ultimate goal is to help you better refine your marketing message and reach the right audience with the right ad. For example, if you sell yoga gear and know that your core audience tends to be women between the ages of 25 and 34, you can set your campaign to show mostly to that audience, rather than showing your ads to people less likely to be interested in the product.”

    The feature is now available in 39 countries within AdWords. It appears in the Display Network Tab as Age and Gender targeting, if it’s available in your area.

  • Google Turns Off The TV Ads In Favor Of Other Ad Products

    Google is shutting down Google TV Ads. The company announced as much in a blog post Thursday night.

    “Our goal is to provide all our customers with the best digital marketing opportunities,” said Google’s Shishir Mehrotra. “In 2007, we launched Google TV Ads in AdWords to bring digital buying and measurement technologies to traditional TV advertising. Since then, lots of our clients have bought traditional TV advertising for the first time.”

    “However, video is increasingly going digital and users are now watching across numerous devices,” added Mehrotra. “So we’ve made the hard decision to close our TV Ads product over the next few months and move the team to other areas at Google. We’ll be doubling down on video solutions for our clients (like YouTube, AdWords for Video, and ad serving tools for web video publishers). We also see opportunities to help users access web content on their TV screens, through products like Google TV.

    And let’s not forget Google’s’ ambitious service provider project Google Fiber. Google still has ways of getting into your living room, for sure.

    Google will continue to support its TV Ads partners and clients’ campaigns as it shuts the product down.

    Perhaps the whole thing is a statement from Google that traditional TV is soon to be a thing of the past.

  • Twitter Launches New Interest-Based Ad Targeting

    Twitter announced the launch of some new interest-based targeting for advertisers today. Those using Twitter’s Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts can start targeting campaigns based on interests of their choosing.

    There are over 350 interest categories available to advertisers. They came in a two-level hierarchy. For example, under the first-level category Movies and Television, you can find sub-categories like Action and Adventure, Horror, Comedy, etc.

    Twitter interest targeting

    “By targeting people’s topical interests, you will be able to connect with a greater number of users and deliver tailored messages to people who are more likely to engage with your Tweets,” says Twitter product management director Kevin Weil. “When people discover offers and messages about the things they care about on Twitter, it’s good for both marketers and users.”

    Advertisers can also specify certain usernames that are relevant to the campaign.

    “Custom segments let you reach users with similar interests to that @​username’s followers; they do not let you specifically target the followers of that @​username,” explains Weil. “If you’re promoting your indie band’s next tour, you can create a custom audience by adding @​usernames of related bands, thus targeting users with the same taste in music. This new feature will help you reach beyond your followers and users with similar interests, and target the most relevant audience for your campaign.”

    Twitter says that in testing, it has seen significantly increased audience reach for advertisers, and they’re seeing high engagement rates “across the board”.

    In addition to the new targeting features, Twitter also announced that ti is lowering the minimum bid for all auctions to just a penny.

    This ad news is the second major business-oriented announcement we’ve seen from Twitter this week. On Wednesday, the company announced the launch of the Certified Product Program.

  • Australia Really Knows How to Make Beer Ads [VIDEO]

    Carlton & United Beverages is an Australian brewery that produces Carlton Draught, a popular 4.6% abv pale lager. They also produce freaking amazing commercials for said beer.

    The premise is simple. Four mates stop in to a local pub for a pint. They order Carlton Draught. Little do we know that they’re also carrying a duffel bag full of cash. And little do they know, the pub is crawling with cops.

    What happens next is an epic chase, one unlike anything you’re ever seen. Part beer ad, part funny anti-drunk driving ad, check out the best commercial you’re likely to see all week – Beer Chase.

  • Interactive Old Spice Ad Lets You Rock Out With Terry Crews’ Muscles

    FLAME SAX!

    Although this new ad from Old Spice may look and feel like many of the ads featuring the perpetually intense Terry Crews, it’s much different in one important way. Sure, it’s fun to see Crews make beautiful music using the power of his muscles, but the real fun begins after the video is over.

    When you’re done watching the ad, the ad becomes interactive. Using your keyboard, you’re given the chance to make your own song, utilizing the various items in the room. Of course, everything it powered, in some way, by Terry Crews’ muscles and/or voice. Each letter key triggers a different sound. Do yourself a favor and cycle through until you find the one that has to do with sausages.

    Plus, you can record your own track when ready.

    Check it out below: