Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google Search Console’s Consolidated View, Instagram’s New IGTV Promotions, YouTube’s New ‘Explore’ Tool and More…

1. Google Search Console Goes Live With New Consolidated View

Google made a preview of the consolidated data view live early, go check it out now. There is another option to ‘Switch to the old view.’ Google posted that the old view of the data will be available until April 10th. [Source: Search Engine Land]

2. Instagram Rolls Out New IGTV Promotions in the Main Feed

While Instagram’s IGTV hasn’t taken off as the platform would have liked, parent company – Facebook has said it does have a plan to encourage further IGTV usage. [Source: Social Media Today]

3. YouTube’s Expanding its Test of a New Content Discovery Tool

YouTube is looking to improve its on-platform content discovery with the expansion of its test of a new ‘Explore’ tool to showcase more videos similar to those you’ve already viewed, and others from popular platform creators. [Source: Social Media Today]

4. Google Plus Officially Shutting Down: Here’s how to Download, Save and Retrieve Your Data

Google states that there were several challenges in maintaining a platform that exceeds user expectations and due to low usage, the company has arrived at this decision to retire the social network from Google. [Source: Logicserve Digital]

5. Facebook introduces household income targeting based on U.S. ZIP code averages

Facebook has added a new layer of ad targeting with the introduction of household income by U.S. ZIP code. This new feature allows advertisers to target ads based on where a user’s household income falls percentage-wise (top 5%, top 10%, etc.). [Source: MARTECH TODAY]

6. Prepare to say goodbye to Facebook ad set budgets

All Facebook campaigns will run with campaign budget optimization as of September. This means Facebook advertisers will no longer be able to define budgets at the ad set level. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]

7. Facebook Introduces New Ways for Businesses to Communicate with Customers

Facebook will soon be rolling out two new ways for businesses to communicate with customers via messaging and groups, making it possible for businesses to receive and respond to customer messages using the same service. [Source: Search Engine Journal]

8. YouTube Introduces More Ways to Buy Masthead Ads

YouTube is now offering the option for advertisers to buy masthead ads on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis. In addition, advertisers can customize the audiences they want to showcase the ad to. [Source: Search Engine Journal]

9. Facebook will show users the agencies, partners involved in Custom Audience targeting

Facebook will begin showing users who are targeted with ads via Custom Audiences which companies had a hand in their seeing those ads. [Source: Marketing Land]

10. Reports: Instagram advertisers stay loyal, keep spending more

Stories ads are taking off, and incremental spend from long-term advertisers is driving Instagram’s growth. The Facebook-owned app saw a 120 percent increase in ad spend year-over-year during the fourth quarter of 2018. [Source: Marketing Land]