Today in Digital Marketing - Amazon Turns to Social Apps to Battle Popular Competitors

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, November 14th. Today, Meta and Snapchat decide it's better to make friends with the giant than poke it. TikTok ads are out of control, results are varied, so why are brands still bullish on the platform? A big YouTube reporting glitch is frustrating media buyers. And LinkedIn is not only killing off a content format, it's deleting anything you posted using that format. I'm Todd Maffin. That's Ahead, today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:31 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. Meta and Amazon have joined forces in an

Starting point is 00:00:59 interesting e-commerce collaboration. Users will now be able to link their Meta accounts to their Amazon accounts. This will let them buy items from Amazon's Facebook and Instagram ads, checking out on Amazon without ever leaving the social media apps. Quoting TechCrunch's coverage of this, quote, Meta will gain better targeting and optimization by using information from Amazon and stores that offer buy with Prime to show consumers ads. This will result in better conversion rates as well, as customers can check out more quickly. Plus, Meta will be able to tailor the ads messaging and product based on whether or not the user is a Prime member, then adjust other information like real-time pricing or shipping estimates as needed, unquote.

Starting point is 00:01:52 There's also a deal with Snapchat that will let users purchase Amazon products directly through ads within the app. Amazon clearly recognizes it needs to make its products more accessible outside its website. Integrating shopping ads into popular social media apps is probably the best option there is. It's not lost on many e-commerce analysts that this comes at a time when the big competitors like Sheen, Timu, and even TikTok are growing in share and attention. TikTok is indeed positioning itself as an Amazon competitor, but it hasn't been an easy path. Some industry media reports that advertisers are seeing mixed results with TikTok Shop. But Adweek says despite the lukewarm results, advertisers are increasingly investing in TikTok's commerce platform. Launched in the U.S. in September, TikTok Shop lets users purchase products directly within the app,

Starting point is 00:02:44 while some brands like cosmetics company BK Beauty have seen a substantial increase in September, TikTok Shop lets users purchase products directly within the app. While some brands like cosmetics company BK Beauty have seen a substantial increase in sales, others report only a minimal impact. Those often say the platform's requirement for frequent content creation is a challenging investment with potentially low returns. TikTok Shop is a direct click-to-buy system, so this is, of course, a key attraction for brands, reducing the friction typically associated with redirecting users to external websites. Adweek has a great piece about this on their site, and if you play in this space, it is definitely worth a read.

Starting point is 00:03:18 It's called Advertisers Are Investing in shops despite mostly tepid results. Perhaps one other issue keeping TikTok from truly breaking out is the volume of ads. Business Insider last week watched 1,000 TikTok videos back to back and found that about a third consisted of ads. This included traditional ads, influencer-sponsored content, and affiliate links, the latter having increased significantly now that content creators can act as affiliates for the new TikTok shop platform. Despite this high volume, the ads are so well integrated into the platform that they often go unnoticed by users. The platform's algorithm tailors the ad experience to individual users, making ads feel less intrusive and more relevant. TikTok did not respond to a request for details on how frequently ads are supposed to appear on the site,

Starting point is 00:04:15 but they did say ads should only make up a small portion of the content people see on their For You page. Buyers of YouTube's premium ad product, YouTube Select, are facing challenges verifying the channels where their ads are running because of what appears to be a widespread glitch. Links which were supposed to lead to the channels where the ads are shown instead direct to non-existent YouTube pages. This has been found in both YouTube Select and YouTube TV campaigns.

Starting point is 00:04:49 The problems raised concerns about transparency in YouTube's ad practices, especially since YouTube Select, introduced in 2020, promises ads on the platform's most popular channels for a higher price. Quoting Adweek.com, quote, one buyer found that over 60% of the impressions were reported to be on broken links for a one-week $17,000 campaign that ran earlier this year. Another buyer found that 98% of the links across multiple YouTube TV campaigns were broken in reports, equating to $3 million in spend, unquote. To be clear, as far as anyone

Starting point is 00:05:26 could tell, the ads still all ran fine on various YouTube channels. This was only a reporting issue, preventing media buyers from seeing which channels those were. 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.

Starting point is 00:06:04 And finally, a couple of social media platform updates. First, LinkedIn will remove all carousel posts and profile videos starting December 14th. This will also deactivate clickable links within images and videos. Carousel posts, these were introduced in July of last year, were popular for generating engagement, but apparently not enough engagement. LinkedIn says a lack of user interest was behind the decision to cut them. If you want to continue posting carousels, you'll need to upload PDFs as a workaround. Profile videos introduced in 2021 and clickable links and images added last August will also be removed. And over on Instagram, they are expanding the close friends feature to now include posts and reels. This lets users share content exclusively with a select group marked by a green star next to the user's names.

Starting point is 00:06:58 It was originally only available for stories and notes. To use this, select the audience option when sharing a post or reel and then choose close friends. Don't forget about our email newsletter. It's free. It comes out every day. It has everything you hear in the podcast and a lot more. You can sign up by tapping the link in the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Amazon Turns to Social Apps to Battle Popular Competitors

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