Today in Digital Marketing - Ad Buyers Rewind Budgets After YouTube Standards Snafu

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, July 11th. Today, the fallout from YouTube's standard snafu. Has the live game show hype been reincarnated on TikTok? Buying on Shopify using a TV remote? Finally, some good news for ad agency people. And on the ad-free premium podcast, which you can learn more about by tapping Go Premium in the show notes, Andrew Foxwell joins me to chat about how threads might shake up media buying on the meta platform. I'm Todd Mathen. That's ahead today in digital marketing. We recently reported about new research from analytics that found video ads placed by Google violate its own standards 80% of the time, leading some to accuse the company of misleading

Starting point is 00:00:43 advertisers. Now sources tell Adweek some media buyers are downscaling their use of the time, leading some to accuse the company of misleading advertisers. Now, sources tell Adweek some media buyers are downscaling their use of the placements. To recap, Google's Video Partner Program places ads on external sites that are supposed to meet high-quality standards. But the study revealed that these premium campaigns often fell short of Google's standards by serving ads in small, muted, automatically played videos on the side of the main content page, thus violating monetization standards and appearing on low-quality sites. Now, several ad buyers say they are limiting their exposure to Google Video Partner inventory. Some are redirecting their media and reviewing all YouTube purchases after

Starting point is 00:01:24 discovering that a substantial amount of their YouTube inventory was unknowingly spent on Video Partner. Others are auditing their clients' exposure to Video Partner inventory and working with Google to turn it off for specific campaigns. Amazon Prime Day kicked off today and this year as part of its marketing campaign, the e-commerce giant is turning to TikTok. In collaboration with the content production shop Tool, Amazon tonight is launching a TikTok game show called Dual for Deals, which combines shoppable content with an OG game show format. During the event, popular TikTok influencers will participate in the game show, while viewers work together in the comments to unlock special deals. The event takes place on Amazon's TikTok channel tonight, where consumers can access the deals without leaving the app. Well, as Prime Day is in full swing,

Starting point is 00:02:23 is it possible that Amazon is losing its dominance over the shopping holiday it created? Walmart and other retailers are looking to grab a share of the billions of dollars consumers are expected to spend. According to one study quoted by Business Insider today, they're starting to chip away at Amazon's market share during its critical sales period. Prime Day spans from today until tomorrow, but Walmart has launched its own event called Walmart Plus Week, which runs until Thursday of this week. The first 24 hours of Walmart's event were exclusive to Walmart Plus members yesterday, but all consumers can access the deals today. The retailer's strategy not only involves luring potential Amazon customers, but also enticing them to sign up for the Walmart Plus membership. Walmart isn't the only company competing with Amazon.

Starting point is 00:03:12 Target introduced Circle Week, exclusive to their members, running this week. Best Buy also jumped on the bandwagon with its Black Friday in July promotion. Last year, other retailers competing with Prime Day collectively earned $5 billion in sales during their alternative shopping events. Although Amazon exceeded that with $7.3 billion in sales, rivals do appear to be closing the gap. Business Insider's report found that Amazon's Prime Day market share will continue to slip, dropping from 62% share in 2018 to 60% this year. Even Tumblr is coming for Twitter now. The underdog of social media announced yesterday

Starting point is 00:03:55 that it's going to fix its core experience to attract new users that Twitter and Reddit might be losing. Tumblr said its main problem is that the platform is not so easy to use. The changes are grouped into several categories like expanding avenues for user discovery, fixing signups, as well as creating patterns that encourage users to return regularly. But The Verge points out that the move suggests the platform is looking to position itself as a stronger rival to mainstream social networks, particularly for content creators, as the platform wants to help creators get more engagement. It also plans to enhance algorithmic content ranking across all feeds.

Starting point is 00:04:33 Tumblr's current feeds include a home dashboard featuring accounts users follow, an explore tab with suggested posts, and a video service called Tumblr Live. One of the most noticeable changes for existing users will be updates to the reply and reblog system, as the current conversation structure can be confusing for newcomers. To address this, Tumblr plans to let users reply to specific additions within a reblog post, sort of similar to a quote tweet.

Starting point is 00:05:04 Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Roku announced a new ad option today that lets consumers buy products using their TV remote. The company's partnered with Shopify to let shoppers make purchases from merchants via Roku Action Ads. When viewers come across an ad for a Shopify merchant, they can press OK on their

Starting point is 00:05:46 Roku remote to get more information about the product and then buy it right from their TV. Customers can check out with its payment platform Roku Pay and return to streaming once they complete the purchase. These ads also provide Shopify advertisers with more customer data and insights into purchasing trends. Roku is currently testing the shoppable ads with select partners. Meanwhile, analysts predict a 10% decrease in ad spending for Hulu due to the current TV ad slowdown and content reductions. They do, though, anticipate 5% growth in the streamers ad business next year, another 5% in 2025. Subscription revenues for Hulu are expected to increase even faster, 12% rising this year, 10% next year. This growth

Starting point is 00:06:31 will be driven by adding more than 2 million new subscribers to the platform. And finally, a bit of good news for the industry today as employment in advertising, public relations and related services in the United States reached an all time high last month, rising by 2200 jobs, according to new data from Ad Age. This surge has driven employment ad agency employment to its highest level since 2001. So proud of my 80-year-old mother. Her monitor went on the fridge. She called Apple. No help. She called the monitor company. No help. Eventually she did what I had

Starting point is 00:07:11 been asking her every single time this happens, which is just swap out a cable and see if that works. And it worked. So proud of her. They grow up so fast, don't they? See you tomorrow. I'm barely five feet tall, but I'm taking the lead. And I can see you all thinking, how can this be? No, no, no, don't be surprised, honeybee, I'm the queen.

Starting point is 00:07:49 That's what I do. That's what I do. That's what I do.

Today in Digital Marketing - Ad Buyers Rewind Budgets After YouTube Standards Snafu

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