As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is being felt across the world, digital marketing and social media platforms are responding. From new programs to free tools to best practice guides, there were a ton of releases and important news updates in the last month which could help many businesses in their response to the pandemic.

To find out more about everything that has been going on in the digital world, check out this month’s round-up below.

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Best times to post on Social Media right now

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to disrupt everyday life, the times people are active on social media are drastically shifting. With that being the case, all previous recommendations regarding the best times to post on social media are out the window. Sprout Social has reviewed recent data to revise its recommendations for 2020, taking into account how peoples’ usage of social media has changed.

YouTube to show creators what time of day their audience is online

YouTube is expanding its analytics capabilities by showing video creators when their audience is most likely to be online. This upcoming feature was previewed in the latest video on YouTube’s Creator Insider channel.

Introducing new tools and resources for creators on Pinterest

People are turning to Pinterest more than ever in search of inspirational content to help them adjust to the “new normal” way of life during the coronavirus pandemic. In support of Pinterest creators, Pinterest has announced new creative specialty partners, introducing new creators branding, and sharing new resources for creators and small-to-medium-sized businesses.

How to use Instagram Shopping to make it easier for people to shop

With Instagram Shopping, businesses can make it easier for people to shop during this time. Businesses can direct customers to products that are relevant right now, show them different ways to shop and co-create by inviting people to post about their favorite products.

Facebook introduces Messenger Rooms 

Lately Facebook has felt the demand for real-time video. Between WhatsApp and Messenger, more than 700 million accounts participate in calls every day. In many countries, video calling on Messenger and WhatsApp more than doubled, and views of Facebook Live and Instagram Live videos increased significantly in March. But there’s more to do to make real-time feel real.

Spending time with each other should be spontaneous, not strained. So to help people feel like they’re together, even when they are — or have to be — physically apart, Facebook is announcing features across its products that make video chat and live video easier and more natural.

Facebook lets businesses show temporary service changes on their Facebook pages

Businesses making temporary changes to their usual services can now prominently display those changes on their Facebook page. If a customer visits the Facebook page of their favorite restaurant, for example, they can quickly see if it’s still offering delivery and/or pickup service. If a business is simply closed for the time being, with no services being offered, that can be indicated as well.

TikTok opens Ads API to Sprinklr

As TikTok’s growth skyrockets, many media buyers scratched their heads last year over the delay in making advertising accessible quickly. After starting in beta, the self-serve platform was released last year, and now they have green lit their first API connection with Sprinklr.

Sprinklr already integrates paid media platforms into one usable space for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and LinkedIn.

YouTube launches free YouTube Video Builder tool to help businesses with video content

For businesses who don’t have resources to create videos from scratch, Video Builder can help. It’s a free beta tool that animates static assets—images, text and logos—with music from YouTube’s library. You can choose from a variety of layouts based on your message and goals, customize colors and font and quickly generate a short YouTube video (6 seconds or 15 seconds).

Because businesses of all sizes are strapped for time and resources and in-person video shoots are no longer practical in many countries, YouTube is accelerating the next stage of Video Builder availability. With this tool, any business who needs a video can create one that helps connect with their customers and keep them informed—whether through an advertising campaign, website or email.

Snap launches first commercial option on Snapchat Shows

Snapchat is adding a new option for advertisers called “First Commercial.” This offering lets advertisers specify being the first ad a user sees that day in their first Snap show session. It will only be available in the US initially.

Google Meet premium video meetings are now free for everyone

Google Meet has been made free for everyone, but Google will be be gradually expanding its availability to more and more people over the following weeks. This means you might not be able to create meetings at meet.google.com right away, but you can sign up to be notified when it’s available.

It’s now free to sell on Google

Beginning this week, search results on the Google Shopping tab will consist primarily of free listings, helping merchants better connect with consumers, regardless of whether they advertise on Google. With hundreds of millions of shopping searches on Google each day, we know that many retailers have the items people need in stock and ready to ship, but are less discoverable online.

Google My Business impressions down 59%

A study from Reputation.com of over 80,000 US listings finds that impressions are down an average of 59% across all verticals. However, there are signs that performance will turn around sooner than many might expect.

Google delays launch of new Partners Program

As the circumstances around COVID-19 continue to evolve, Google has decided to delay the launch of the new Google Partners program until 2021.

Google cutting up to 50% of marketing budget

An internal email reveals that Google is cutting up to 50% of it’s marketing budget for the second half of 2020. The cuts to the marketing budget may be a way to contain the wildfire of reduced advertising earnings due caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Google Ads are increasing transparency through advertiser identity verification

As part of this initiative, advertisers will be required to complete a verification program in order to buy ads on Google’s network. Advertisers will need to submit personal identification, business incorporation documents or other information that proves who they are and the country in which they operate. Beginning this summer, users will start to see disclosures that list this information about the advertiser behind the ads they see.

Google Call Only Ads now include link option

Google Ads has announced their Call Only ads now offers advertisers the option to include a link to their website. This announcement also coincides with a renaming of the offering from “Call Only Ads” to simply “Call Ads.” The “visit website” option will make the ad unit slightly larger, with the main headline of the ad still resulting in a phone call.

Google Search Console adds copy URL button

Google’s official Webmasters Twitter account announced a small improvement to Google Search Console. Users can now hover over a URL and click an tool-tip style icon to copy the URL to the clipboard.

Bing announces new options for webmasters to control their snippets

The webmasters owning sites have had some control over these text snippets; for example, if they think the information they’re providing might be fragmented or confusing when condensed into a snippet, they may ask search engines to show no snippet at all so users click through to the site and see the information in its full context. Now, with these new features, webmasters will have more control than ever before to determine how their site is represented on the Bing search results page.

Microsoft Advertising rolls out cookie-based experiments

Cookie-based experiments on Microsoft Advertising now is an option available where customers, when they conduct a query, are shown ads from either a test or an original campaign. In the Experiments tab, marketers will see a way to chose the campaign and name the experiment. Start by choosing the campaign to test, the name of the experiment, a start and end date, and then an experiment split. The focus supports testing creative and ad-copy.

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Thanks for checking out April’s Digital Marketing Round-up.

Stay safe and healthy and we’ll see you next month!

Photo Source: Danil Aksenov on Unsplash