TikTok Notes launches in Australia and Canada
TikTok is diversifying its content tools with a new ‘Notes’ app designed specifically for publishing photos. Rumours of an imminent launch first surfaced online last week. On Wednesday, TikTok confirmed ‘TikTok Notes’ had gone live on iOS and Android in Australia and Canada. An official statement said: “Whether documenting adventures, expressing creativity, or simply sharing snapshots of one’s day, the TikTok Notes experience is designed for those who would like to share and engage through photo content.”
Paid search advertising hits new high
Growth may be slowing but paid search advertising revenues climbed to a record $88.8bn in 2023. The latest annual report from IAB showed a 5.2% rise in search ad spend. The 2024 outlook is also “promising” as advertisers continue to invest in digital channels despite the uncertainty created by generative AI and changing privacy regulations. Search accounted for the largest share of overall spend at 39.5%, ahead of ‘display’ and ‘video’.
Ads are coming to Threads too
IAB’s report also showed social media ad revenue surged 8.7% to almost $65bn last year. It makes sense then that Meta is readying ads for Threads. The megacorp recently informed ad executives that adverts will be available to purchase sometime in the second half of this year. There’s no official confirmation yet though. A spokesperson urged brands to continue experimenting with the platform as part of a targeted “organic social strategy” for now.
Volatility reigns as Google’s core update continues
Google’s March 2024 core update has been quite the ride for SEOs. Nearly 50 days in and it still hasn’t passed the finishing post. This week saw more volatility as fluctuations in search engine rankings continued. Recapping the changes so far, digital marketing veteran Glenn Gabe said there had been “huge surges, drops, reversals, and more” in a post on X.
Brave Search shoots its shot with AI
Brave enhanced its AI-powered options this week with a new feature that generates answers directly in search results. ‘Answer with AI’ delivers content synthesised from multiple sources at the top of pages, right above organic links. The latest development follows the rollout of an AI Summarizer feature in 2023.
However, Brave is aware that AI answers could negatively affect organic clicks.
In a statement, it added: “Consequently, we will be monitoring and quantifying the impact of AI-generated content on site visits, and eventually will address the disruptions that could be caused by the drop in traffic.”
Elon Musk hints at Vine revival
Would you be interested in the return of Vine? With TikTok’s dominance in the short-form video market, it’s unlikely to register much interest for most social media users in 2024. However, Elon Musk created a poll this week asking whether to “bring back Vine?”. With an hour left, 69.6% of the 2.2m voters had said “Yes” while 30.4% had responded with “No”. Twitter acquired Vine in 2012 before the service was eventually shut down in 2017.
