This week on The PPC Show , Paul Wicker and JD Prater break down the top nine headlines in ad tech and digital advertising for the week of Jan 29 - Feb 2th.

Tune in as they cover the latest on Facebook's News Feed, Google AdWords muting remarketing ads, and Instagram Stories carousel ads.

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PODCAST SHOW NOTES

Facebook Regulates Ads Amid Bitcoin Boom
On Tuesday, Facebook blocked ads related to cryptocurrencies. "We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception," said Rob Leathern, product management director at Facebook. The new policy will apply to all platforms including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram.

More Local News on Facebook
Facebook is updating News Feed to prioritize local news “so that you can see topics that have a direct impact on you and your community and discover what’s happening in your local area." The announcement is the latest in the series of significant changes to the News Feed since the beginning of 2018.

Instagram’s Carousel Ad Format is Coming to Instagram Stories
Today, Instagram is announcing plans to bring its Carousel Ads into Stories. That means the ads in Stories are no longer limited to one piece of media (which could be a photo or a video) — they can now include three.

For advertisers, these kinds of Stories ads aren’t just a way to incorporate multiple types of media. They also allow them to tell more a little bit more of a (small-s) story in their ads, rather than forcing them to squeeze their message into one image or video. And it gives them an opportunity to incorporate other Instagram features like drawing tools and the ability to pin stickers in videos.

From a user perspective, you can interact with these ads the way you would with any other Instagram Story, pausing or swiping backward when there’s something interesting, or swiping forward when you’re ready to move on.

It’s been less than a year since Instagram brought advertising to Instagram Stories — a format that its owner Facebook said in November has more than 300 million daily users.

Google Lets Users Mute Repetitive Remarketing Ads
Google will now let users mute ads they’ve seen too many times. The primary target of the update are remarketing ads. Users can now see who’s currently retargeting them with Google display ads in the “Your reminder ads” section within settings, and mute advertisers individually.

• When an advertiser is muted, the user will no longer see remarketing ads from them at all. It is not just a specific ad being muted in this case.
• Muting lasts for a limited time of 90 days
• Reminder ads can be blocked in apps and websites.
• In the coming months, Google will expand this to include YouTube, Search, and Gmail.
• When an ad is muted on a user’s phone, it will also be muted on their laptop.

Twitter Now Lets Advertisers Sponsor Publishers’ Moments
Twitter added a new sponsorship offering to its lineup, which allows businesses to add a branded cover image to “Sponsored Moments” -- series of tweets, often including videos and GIFs, from select publishers. The Moments can also be promoted and targeted towards a specific audience using Twitter’s advertising tools.

Twitter Salesforce Merger Rumors are Back
Adam Bain is gone for awhile. Maybe Jack too? COO Anthony Noto
One possible sign of that turnaround could be seen in reports that Twitter was working on a Snapchat-style system for easing media sharing in addition to text and tags

New Audience Targeting Options on Bing
Bing announced the launch of Audience Segmentation, the latest update which allows you to split your ad group performance data either by audience category or audience name, and see how your ad groups are performing with Remarketing in Paid Search, In-market Audiences or Custom audiences -- and compare the performance to non-targeted users.

Conversion Tracking Update on Bing Ads
Bing now allows advertisers to track conversion on the Safari browser using auto-tagging of the Microsoft Click ID. The option will be selected by default when creating new conversion goals, and will ensure that conversions continue to be reported accurately following the release of Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature.

Last year, Apple Inc. introduced a feature called Intelligent Tracking Prevention that impacts how conversion tracking works on the Safari browser. To help ensure that conversions continue to be reported accurately and in full across your Bing Ads campaigns, the auto-tagging of the Microsoft Click ID in ad URLs is now required.

Snapchat’s New Snap Store Teases In-App Commerce Potential
Snap Inc. just launched a merchandise store. The goal isn’t to make money yet, but it proves the potential for an in-app commerce platform for other brands.

Today the company opened the Snap Store, which lives in the Snapchat app’s Discover section and lets you buy Snapchat merchandise, like a $20 Dancing Hot Dog Plushie or a $30 Dog Lens T-Shirt. You can scan the Snap Code below with the Snapchat camera to open the store and buy exclusive items that will only be available for a limited time. Click here on mobile to open the in-app store.