Today in Digital Marketing - 158: Ready Player One

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

Facebook’s special app just for digital marketers actually DOES something now… a new Reddit-based project aims to help people in the online advertising space… and Google phases out a popular ad format. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by engageQ.com. Can we help you with YOUR brand’s digital marketing and social media? Email [e-mail] or visit engageQ.com/contact Today’s episode is sponsored by MediaNegotiator.US Help Spread the Word! • Review this podcast at ratethispodcast.com/today • Click bit.ly/tweet-tidm to preview a tweet you can publish Advertising: Reach ~1,000 Digital Marketers • Classifieds ($20) — todayindigital.com/classifieds • Mid-Rolls — todayindigital.com/advertising TOD’S SOCIAL MEDIA: • Tod’s web site: TodMaffin.com • Tod’s agency: engageQ.com • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/todmaffin • Twitter: twitter.com/todmaffin • Instagram: instagram.com/todmaffin • Facebook: facebook.com/tmaffin • TikTok: tiktok.com/@todmaffin • Mixer: mixer.com/HappyRadioGuy • Xbox Gamertag: Radio#9573 SOURCES: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-adds-post-creation-capacity-to-creator-studio-app/578481/ https://www.radvertisingschool.com/ https://searchengineland.com/google-to-sunset-gallery-ads-beta-focus-on-image-extensions-334781 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/todayindigital/messageOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Facebook's special app for digital marketers actually does something now. A new Reddit-based project aims to help people in the online advertising space. Google faces out a popular ad format. And hey, guess who turns 40 today? Here's a hint. It's Friday, May 23rd. Happy Naval Glory Day, Chile. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital.

And here is what you missed today in digital marketing. A short episode today, only three things. Thing number one, Facebook is rolling out a big update to its mobile app named Clusterf*****, oh, I'm sorry, Creator Studio. The biggest new feature, the ability to create things. Yeah, until now you couldn't actually create anything with the ironically named Creator Studio app. No posts, no video uploads, no stories. It was basically a scaled down analytics dashboard with messaging, but creation is coming.

Some people already have it in the app. I do not. It works just like making a post on the desktop side of Creator Studio. You tap a button, select a post type, select a video or image if you want. You know the drill. And a couple of other new additions in there. You can add title and descriptions to your videos.

And you can select a thumbnail now from a list of video frames or upload one of your own. I still don't truly understand Facebook's strategy here. Digital marketers who are responsible for their brand's social presence already have the equally lousy Facebook Pages app, which also lets you see analytics and create posts. Why do we need two apps? Hell, for that matter, why aren't these page administration functions just baked into a single Facebook app? Kind of like how we can manage most of our page stuff on the regular Facebook.com desktop site. Weird. All right, thing number two.

If you'd like to take some of your spare quarantine time to bulk up on your skills on the advertising side, you might be interested in Reddit's new offering, an online advertising school program. It'll be led by industry professionals and run like a real online class, right down to submitting your work for peer review. Thank you. R advertising school dot com. That's the letter R and then advertising school dot com. To be clear, this is not an official Reddit thing, not the corporate Reddit site anyway. This is just the advertising subreddit folks that are putting this together. Even if you don't make it in, by the way, the lectures will be made publicly available on that subreddit's YouTube channel. And thing number three, and I'm a little late to reporting this since it was announced last week, but in case your work includes Google Ads and you missed this too, they will be phasing out gallery ads in August.

These were big, splashy image cards that they introduced last year, and while auto dealers seemed to like them, the format didn't really get a lot of traction from other verticals, so out they go. In their place, there are image extensions in beta that you can try if you have access. These are thumbnail images that sit to the right of your regular text ad block. SearchEngineLand.com says this is at least Google's third go at image extensions alone, with different tests in 2013 and again in 2016. Microsoft advertising image extensions have been available since 2015.

So you want to feel old for a bit? Pac-Man turns 40 years old today. 40. Yeah. I am getting this podcast out a little earlier than usual. Actually, a lot earlier. Why? Because I woke up at 3.30 in the morning for no apparent reason and could not get back to bed again.

So here is hoping that there is not some, you know, major acquisition or marketing news that happens this afternoon. I try really hard to make this podcast a good use of your time. Short, punchy, and no rambling. And if you find this format valuable,

I would really appreciate it if you'd take a minute to go rate and review this podcast. I have made it easier for you than you think. There is a link in this episode's I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful weekend, friends. I'll talk to you on Monday. Did you know if a traditional media outlet under delivers your advertising impressions, most will never tell you and that you will pay for what was not delivered. Get negotiation help with traditional radio or TV campaigns.

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