Today in Digital Marketing - 155: Time to Revamp Your Pandemic-Themed Ads

Starting point is 00:00:00 Facebook aggressively jumps into the e-commerce space. YouTube rolls out a huge new ad platform update. A new discovery tool from Pinterest may be good news for fashion marketers. And it is time to change your pandemic messaging. It's Tuesday, May 19th. Happy National Devil's Food Cake Day. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here is what you missed today in digital marketing. When Facebook started really getting popular, one of the most common things you heard people say was, it won't be long before we're buying everything on Facebook.

Starting point is 00:00:33 And there was some truth to that, in a way. Product catalogs enabled e-commerce ads. Instagram added a nice discovery tool for products. But nothing really in the sense of buying stuff directly in the app. Well, amazing what a few pandemic stay-at-home orders will do. Facebook today launched Facebook Shops, a way for your customers to browse your products directly on your Facebook page or Instagram profile, and, here's the new part, buy those products right from within the app, never needing to land on your actual website.

Starting point is 00:01:07 Okay, okay, I know you've got a lot of questions. Let's try to get through them as far as I was able to ascertain. First, is this for real or just in testing? Kind of both, actually. This is technically a test, but there are already one million businesses signed up, so consider this a very public beta, or maybe even a gold candidate, as they'd say in the software business. Second, is this going to cost us anything to use? Yes and no. Will it cost you to create a Facebook shop on your page? No, not at all.

Starting point is 00:01:35 You just upload your catalog or link the one you already have in Business Manager and customize it with colors and a cover image. Yes, a cover image. We're talking fully branded shops within Facebook here. But Facebook will take a cut of your sales. How much a cut? I'm not sure we know yet. But Facebook will take a cut of your sales. How much a cut? I'm not sure we know yet. But expect them to make most of their money off whatever advertising you do to push your new shop. Third, is this everywhere in the world? That part's not particularly clear. My guess is no, and only because Facebook's announcement makes reference to needing checkout enabled in the US.

Starting point is 00:02:12 They say it's rolling out today and will be a bit more widely available in the coming months. That usually means the rest of the world will lag behind a bit. And finally, can we use our existing e-commerce platform with it? Yes, as long as you use one of these.

Starting point is 00:02:26 Shopify, BigCommerce, Woo, Cafe24, and a couple of smaller ones. The Shopify connection in particular looks to be particularly well integrated. So big announcement for sure, especially for those of you in the DTC e-commerce space. You can read the full details at the link in this episode's notes. YouTube also had some big news for digital marketers today, announcing a new content platform called YouTube Select. Not new, actually. This is more an upgrade and rebranding of existing ad tools like Google Preferred and Prime Packs. It's basically a catalog of monetized YouTube channels, but a catalog they say they are

Starting point is 00:03:02 confident of the quality. In other words, your brand won't get slapped up alongside some crazy dangerous stunt video or something like that. There's also now an option to get even more cautious by restricting your buy to only channels whose videos have been reviewed by an actual human at YouTube. Also, they're breaking out the previously wide content categories, which is fantastic if you are a beauty brand. Until now, you've only really had the wide beauty category. Now there will be breakouts like hairstyle tips and makeup tutorials to drill down a lot better.

Starting point is 00:03:31 They're also adding something in the U.S. called Emerging Lineups. This is a special catalog of up-and-coming or niche channels paired with the regular brand suitability controls. And they will have a dedicated streaming TV lineup as part of YouTube Select, which will put your ads on the part of YouTube Select, which will put your ads on the videos of popular creators, YouTube originals, live sports, and feature-length movies. Not to be outdone by YouTube or Facebook, Pinterest had its own news today, releasing something they call Shopping Spotlights. These are fashion recommendations from influencers and

Starting point is 00:04:03 brands. And more, quoting their announcement, in addition to editor's picks, you will be able to These are fashion recommendations from influencers and brands and more. Quoting their announcement, Recent trends like tie-dye, terracotta home accents, and intergalactic makeup are now fully shoppable on Pinterest through shopping spotlights. These spotlights will appear on the search tab within articles featuring product pins that link directly to in-stock retailer product pages where users can buy. Spotlights rolling out today on the web. They will be on Pinterest's mobile app in the coming days. Maybe you were one of the many, many brands

Starting point is 00:04:43 that shifted their messaging to something pandemic friendly. You know, we're here for you. We love frontline workers, that kind of thing. So many brands did this that we are continuing to see a bit of COVID-19 burnout among your advertising targets. A new analysis from Ace Metric has found that attention, watchability and desire scores for ads related to the pandemic are now the same as scores for ads that are not related to the pandemic. Starting back about a month ago is when they picked up a new trend that consumers are beginning to think of your COVID-19-themed ads as exploitative, including ads with a tribute or thank-you theme.

Starting point is 00:05:23 And that was a month ago. Quoting marketingdive.com, the research points to a few opportunities to break out and grab attention amid a growing sense of sameness, including the creative use of music. And while including a dose of humor and or quirkiness can be risky, given the serious nature of the health crisis. It can also help a brand connect with viewers when handled well, unquote. So back to the tables, copywriters. Which brings us to the lightning round. Google Ads has shortened the time you'll have to submit documentation for their brand verification program. You had 30 days before, now you'll have 21 days. And if you miss that, you get a seven-day warning and then your ads will just be turned off. Another day, another Google Search Console bug. This one dropped all data from performance reports for Discover traffic

Starting point is 00:06:14 from May 12th to May 15th. So if you're seeing a big gap there, that's why it is not clear if that data will come back or if it is just gone forever. Looks like there's also a bug in the Facebook ads manager. I know, shocker, am I right? Some ad campaigns are getting denied because the campaign reports that the URL you're using for click destinations is of low quality. Or maybe it's a PDF. Or maybe it's got spammy pop-up ads. Honestly, they're really not sure what's wrong, but ads manager is apparently barfing on a lot of perfectly normal links. If you are still running crappy resource-hungry ad banners around the web, Chrome will begin blocking those in August.

Starting point is 00:06:49 Your ads will have to be under 4 megabytes and not chew up a lot of CPU time. And the executive who oversaw Disney's launch of its enormously successful Disney Plus platform has a new job. CEO of TikTok. Well, if your agency or company is looking for a little extra help, whether it's weekend or evening coverage for engagement and moderation on your social media channels or content work or social ad campaigns, do check out our agency at engageq.com. There is a link to us in this episode's notes.

Starting point is 00:07:18 I'm Todd Maffin. See you tomorrow. It's the season for new styles and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A.

Today in Digital Marketing - 155: Time to Revamp Your Pandemic-Themed Ads

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