Today in Digital Marketing - And You Thought Twitter Had a Bot Problem… 🤦🏻‍♂️

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, June 28th. Today, do Google's ad placements violate its own standards? Why your ad might be being dumped on an AI-generated spam site? LinkedIn wants to push your personal updates out of its feed. And the social app caught lying by its own board of directors. And on the ad-free premium podcast, which you can learn more about by tapping go premium in the show notes, a full deep dive into the upcoming removal of Google Universal Analytics and the last minute steps to make sure you are ready for this weekend's shutdown. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today, digital marketing. Well, this isn't good. The Wall Street Journal reports today that four out of five video ads placed by Google on third-party sites violate Google's own promised standards.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Google's YouTube runs ads on its own platform, but it places video ads on external sites through its Google Video Partners program. The company charges a premium for this service, promising that ads will be placed on high-quality sites before the page's main video content with sound on and that brands will only pay for ads that are not skipped. But research from Analytics found Google violates those standards 80% of the time. They say that while Google was charging advertisers for premium inventory, in fact, it was serving ads in small, muted, automatically played videos off to the side of a page's main content on sites that don't meet its monetization standards, among other violations. Ad placements appeared on low-quality sites that trafficked in misinformation, clickbait content, and even potentially pirated material. Some of the brands with those ads included Johnson & Johnson,

Starting point is 00:01:49 Disney Plus, and Sephora. The study also found that more than half of the ad budget allocated by brands in analytic samples was spent on non-YouTube properties. Now, some say they want compensation for ads that ran in the wrong places and the wrong formats. For its part, Google disputes the claims and says it has strict policies for the program that serves video ads on third-party sites. Another L for Google today is a new report from NewsGuard reveals that ads for major brands are appearing on AI-generated spam sites.

Starting point is 00:02:28 The study found that more than 140 brands ran ads on unreliable, artificial intelligence-generated news sites. These brands likely unaware that their ads were there. It also found that hundreds of these ads were placed through Google's programmatic advertising system, which automatically selects ad placements on sites. Consequently, these AI-generated sites profit from displaying ads alongside their low-quality content. On one website, medicaloutline.com, advertisers included Subaru, Citigroup, and GNC. The site promotes health misinformation like what are five natural

Starting point is 00:03:05 remedies for ADHD and how you can prevent cancer naturally. The company, of course, has rules regarding ad placements, including that sites may not place Google-served ads on pages that include, quote, spammy, automatically generated content, unquote. A spokesperson for Google told The Verge that when enforcing these policies, it focuses on the quality of the content rather than how it was created, and that it blocks or removes ads from serving if it detects violations. Google said it removed ads from many of the sites listed in the report, though ads remain on others. Still with Google for a moment, the company posted an update yesterday saying it plans to disapprove some ads for using third-party click tracking services that are not in its approved list. Starting August 28th, ad accounts using click trackers for the first time can only use certified click trackers in the tracking template feature,

Starting point is 00:04:07 or their ads may be disapproved. Advertisers who've been using click trackers prior to this date can continue to use the feature without limitations, at least for now. LinkedIn has changed its feed algorithm to reduce what it calls irrelevant and non-professional content flooding users' feeds. First, LinkedIn is deprioritizing personal content. The platform saw an influx of Facebook-style content during the pandemic when work and personal lives were merged. Due to its algorithm looking to amplify the most engaging posts, reposts of viral content from other platforms started to creep in, which it's now trying to correct. Also, content from first-degree connections will take more priority, so users will see more updates from direct connections. The platform also

Starting point is 00:04:56 wants to highlight expert knowledge and advice. When members within your niche engage with your posts, it signals that you're sharing relevant material. Meaningful comments and conversations can also improve your post reach. Finally, LinkedIn's system will try to reduce posts with opinions and advice. They didn't provide much in the way of details on this, but say that more professional posts will always win out. 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.

Starting point is 00:05:40 Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. business app with no Facebook account required. When consumers click on the ad, it will open a WhatsApp chat where they can ask questions, browse products, and make a purchase. The company is also adding new messaging options for brands. Starting soon, it will begin testing letting small businesses send personalized messages to their customers like appointment reminders, birthday greetings, and other updates. Brands can tailor these messages by including the customer's names and customizable call-to-action buttons. They can also target specific customer lists,

Starting point is 00:06:30 like VIP customers or new customers, and schedule message delivery at specific times. This option, though, comes with a fee, which has not been disclosed. Meta is pushing ahead with selling verification to anyone who pays. The company confirming yesterday it is expanding its verified subscription program to all regions. The program launched back in February for Australian and New Zealand users, and Meta has steadily expanded access to the option which gives paying users a verified blue checkmark on Facebook or Instagram, access to dedicated account support and some other features.

Starting point is 00:07:08 The program will be rolled out to Latin American users this week and to most markets globally in the coming months. One warning here, we tried this on my Instagram account the other day. It first took the money, then it collected the information to verify my identity, which in my case was my driver's license. Then it rejected my application, claimed it would refund me and did not. Support emails, as you might expect, have gone unanswered. And even Apple, which was the payment processor we used, did not offer that as one of its in-app purchase refund options.

Starting point is 00:07:42 I've had an OG blue check mark on my personal Facebook profile and brand page for several years now, and I've seen some rumors that maybe this trips up their system somehow. So your mileage may vary, but for what it's worth, it didn't work for us, and it kept our $20.

Starting point is 00:08:02 And finally, the social app IRL, short for In Real Life, is shutting down because most of its users are not IRL. They're fake. An internal investigation by the app's board of directors found that 95% of its reported 20 million users were bots. As a result, after raising more than $200 million in venture capital, IRL has shut down. In other words, fake it till you make $200 million. Day one of no coffee. So far, so good, actually. Not too bad. I don't feel any energy drain.

Starting point is 00:08:58 I don't feel any worse for wear. I'm using like a Rockstar strawberry mango. It actually tastes pretty good. But let me tell you, the caffeine is not what's going to kill me here. It's going to be the money. Because my coffee is like I don't know, what does it work out to?

Starting point is 00:09:17 50 cents a cup or something like that off of a big brewed pot of coffee. And this Rockstar is like I, $3.89 per can. So I have two of them. Anyway, I think that's where it's going to end up having me drop out

Starting point is 00:09:34 to be perfectly honest. It's not going to be the caffeine, because I'm actually kind of enjoying it, and because I'm not drinking the Starbucks creamer that I have to have in my coffee, because I hate black coffee, I'm saving like 160 calories a day, which is also good for me. So we'll see. My wife says that she's on jittery and irritability alert. Fair. I'll keep you updated. See you tomorrow. Wake up and greet the dawn and put that coffee on.

Starting point is 00:10:08 Put on that favorite suit. It is a brand new day with nothing in the way. Give all those gloomy thoughts the way.

Today in Digital Marketing - And You Thought Twitter Had a Bot Problem… 🤦🏻‍♂️

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