Today in Digital Marketing - And They Said Facebook Was Dead

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Thursday, October 26th. Today, ad revenue climbs, giving Meta a great quarter, but the war in Israel and Gaza might slow things down again. Also, Threads is now one-sixth the size of Twitter, Amazon's testing a new but buggy product image enhancer, and influencers' secret source of money? boomers on Facebook. I'm Todd Mappin. That is ahead today in digital marketing. But before we begin, every so often, we like to take the temperature in the room, as they say. So we would like to know how you feel about the length of this podcast. Do you think these episodes are too short, too long, or about right? You will find a link to vote in the show notes.

Starting point is 00:00:48 It literally is one tap. Or if you can't find it, just go to b.link slash podcheck. Thanks very much. Meta reported its Q3 earnings yesterday, and it was good news indeed for the company, which benefited from both a return of ad spend and a reduction in headcount. The company said revenue was up 23% and profit more than doubled. That tracks with results from Google and Snap, also reporting rising ad sales after revenue declined in the previous two quarters. And Meta's large-scale layoffs, cutting about a third of its workforce,

Starting point is 00:01:25 helped too. Expenses were down 7%. Quoting the New York Times, The results underscored Meta's resilience amid a tumultuous few years for Silicon Valley. The company saw record profit and user growth in the early days of the pandemic, as people were forced indoors and connected through their devices and apps. But the easing of the pandemic, combined with higher interest rates and global economic uncertainty, later hit meta, unquote. And the company did warn that it was seeing some softening in ad spend now, especially happening around the time of the attack in Israel.

Starting point is 00:02:01 They said the slump was similar to what they felt around the time of the Ukraine invasion. But overall, they expect more the time of the Ukraine invasion, but overall, they expect more increased spend in the months to come. Certainly one growing asset over at Meta is Threads. The app continues to grow at the expense of its arch nemesis X. And Meta is working fast to build more things into it. This morning, they added polls and GIFs, which you can add to posts now. But all of this might have been rolled out a little too fast. Polls, when viewed through the web, don't show up at all, which was a little embarrassing when Mark Zuckerberg himself posted a poll,

Starting point is 00:02:39 and the replies were like, Are you okay? This is blank. You can have up to four choices, and the polls last 24 hours. You have to vote to see the results, and if you do vote in one, you'll get a notification to see the results. The GIF integration is about what you think it is. A search on Jiffy right inside the app. The UI will also show what GIFs are trending. Still no word on when ads will start showing up, or more to the point point when we'll be able to book ads there or when an API will be in place so that posting on threads

Starting point is 00:03:09 can be added to marketers' existing organic content workflows. Meta says threads will be part of the wider Fediverse, allowing full connectivity to platforms like Mastodon and PixelFed. In its quarterly reports, it says the app now has just under 100 million

Starting point is 00:03:27 monthly active users. That is about one sixth the size of X now. Amazon is launching a new AI tool to help advertisers create more compelling backgrounds for their products. Currently in beta, the tool allows advertisers to upload a photo, type a description of the desired background, choose a theme, and click generate. It offers room for tweaking and testing multiple versions for better ad performance.

Starting point is 00:03:55 Amazon's example was an autumn-themed kitchen table setting featuring a toaster. It wasn't perfect, though. There was a random and kind of mutilated-looking fork in the image. The move is part of Amazon's broader push into generative AI to simplify the ad creation process. Major companies like Nestle and Unilever are already using similar tools like ChatGPT and DALE. Amazon

Starting point is 00:04:17 claims its internal numbers show that using this can boost click-through rates by up to 40%, up to being the key phrase there, of course. This follows other AI efforts by Amazon, including tools to help sellers write product descriptions and summarize consumer reviews. 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. as a feed placement, now they are expanding to stories as well. And this might be even bigger news. You can now create these in Ads Manager.

Starting point is 00:05:30 Previously, marketers had to kind of hack it together by posting it as organic content, then applying a boost budget to it afterwards. Reminder ads actually send people three reminders once on the day before, another 15 minutes prior to the start time, and the last one just before the event starts. And finally, Facebook might seem outdated to younger users, but for content creators, it's a treasure trove of untapped earnings. There's a great piece in businessinsider.com today about it, definitely worth a read. One food blogger quoted in the piece calls Facebook a cash cow. She's not alone.

Starting point is 00:06:10 Morgan Book, with 2.8 million TikTok followers, made $93,000 on Facebook in less than a year. Another quoted in the piece, more than $60,000 a month from the platform. One of the reasons Facebook is lucrative is because of its older user base, which is more willing to spend. Facebook's audience has more buying power, and that makes it ideal for people who make money through affiliate commissions. According to a Facebook executive, they are scaling their money-making tools, particularly those focused on reels. So while it might be tempting to write off Facebook as dead, for content creators, it is very much alive and kicking.

Starting point is 00:06:53 A reminder, please vote in our poll whether you think these episodes should be longer or shorter. Link in the show notes. See you tomorrow. We'll see you next time. 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.ca.

Today in Digital Marketing - And They Said Facebook Was Dead

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