Today in Digital Marketing - Babe Wake Up, Snapchat Is Putting Ads in Chat

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, September 4th. Today, is Snapchat's latest scheme a media buyer's dream or a user's nightmare? The answer? Yes. Also good news for e-commerce spending, Google Ads gets an upgrade and Blue Sky gets a Brazilian bump. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in Digital Marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:23 Snapchat is turning its most popular feature into prime real estate for brands. The company announcing yesterday it will soon start experimenting with two new ad placements. The first, sponsored snaps from brands, will appear as unread messages in the app's main chat tab, placed above messages from real people until they're viewed. The company says sponsored snaps will show up in the chat inbox as a new snap without a push notification and opening the message is optional. It is unclear how easy it'll be to remove one of these sponsored snaps without opening it or if that's even possible.

Starting point is 00:01:02 Alongside sponsored snaps, Snapchat will also let advertisers promote locations in the map tab with promoted places where users typically view friends' locations. Snapchat also announced yesterday it is testing a simplified version of its app, raising hopes that history won't repeat itself. You may remember the app's failed redesign in 2018, which pissed off millions of users, including, famously, Kylie Jenner.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Snapchat's CEO tried to rally employees with a letter yesterday following a tough year for the company's stock price, which has plummeted nearly 50% this year. Spiegel said, As a result, the simplified version aims to improve the platform's accessibility and usability, which as TechCrunch points out, may be an attempt to lure older users who find the current interface confusing. Quoting TechCrunch, quote, Snapchat does a lot better at attracting younger audiences who seem to just get the app. But this isn't the first time Snapchat has tried to reconcile these issues. You might remember Snap's 2017 earnings call when the CEO admitted he'd heard that, Snapchat is difficult to understand or hard to use, unquote, for older folks.

Starting point is 00:02:14 Months later, Snap pushed out a major redesign to reclaim those users, jamming stories between private messages, among other changes that ended up infuriating more users than it attracted. While Snapchat works on its comeback to lure users, Blue Sky is riding high on a massive user surge. Following X's court-ordered shutdown in Brazil, the social networking startup Blue Sky has welcomed more than 2 million new users in just a few days, up from half a million it had last Friday.

Starting point is 00:02:49 The rapid growth caused some users to see occasional errors like not enough resources to handle requests as its engineers raced to keep the servers stable amid the flood of new signups. Blue Sky's rapid growth propelled it to the top of Brazil's app charts, surpassing Instagram threads over the weekend. App figures report that Blue Sky's total downloads skyrocketed by nearly 10,600% compared to the previous weekend. Downloads in Brazil alone surged by more than 1 million percent, while international downloads increased by just under 600 percent, with notable growth in countries like the US, UK, and Canada. New users have also actively engaged

Starting point is 00:03:32 on the platform, boosting other key metrics. A Blue Sky engineer reported that likes surged from 13 million to 105 million in just four days. Google Ads has rolled out an update to its performance planner, now featuring new advanced plans that cater specifically to YouTube campaigns. This update includes support for demand gen campaigns for both action and awareness goals. The new plans offer customizable options for budgeting, ad formats, buying methods, and

Starting point is 00:04:06 campaign objectives. Advertisers can choose to focus on either driving conversions or enhancing brand awareness. Some key features. First, action plans are designed to prioritize conversions with a mix of video reach, video view, and demand gen campaigns. Awareness plans focus on brand visibility through a mix of video reach and demand gen campaigns. Awareness plans focus on brand visibility through a mix of video reach and demand gen campaigns to capture conversions. Google is also testing a new promotions feature for app campaigns that lets advertisers create event-driven promotions tailored for mobile users. This includes options like occasion selection, promotion type, like a percent discount, an item name, or a pre-filled final URL for the app. Advanced options allow for tracking URLs and scheduling. Finally, a preview option lets

Starting point is 00:04:53 you see how ads will appear across search and display networks. The future of e-commerce looks promising despite the current economic dumpster fire. A new report from marketing automation platform Klaviyo has projected growth for brands and increased consumer spending. The report, though, reveals a mix of disconnects between brands and consumers. While brands see discounts and sales as key to driving conversions, consumers want more. Although 85% of consumers use loyalty programs and mobile apps, only half of brands offer these features. 80% of consumers read product reviews, but only 60% of brands post them. On the flip side, live stream shopping and AR VR features are offered by more than half of brands, yet only a fraction of consumers engage

Starting point is 00:05:45 with them. The report noted that brands need to be aware that they may be investing in social channels with minimal consumer influence. For instance, while a third of brands focus on paid and organic search, more than half of consumers consider it influential. Similarly, broadcast advertising and event marketing also show a significant influence on consumers despite lower brand investment. According to the survey, adapting to consumer preferences and offering discounts is not hurting profits. The survey found that more than half of brands increased discounts despite higher costs and generally saw improved profits and margins. And finally, as the mobile gaming ad landscape evolves,

Starting point is 00:06:36 a new study from Mintagirl has found a growing trend toward longer ad campaigns and the increased adoption of playable ads. In the U.S., mobile gaming ad spend saw a slight increase of about half a percentage point over the past year. Despite that modest growth, the proportion of new advertisers dropped by about 30 percent. In the first half of the year, the study found that campaign length increased in almost every gaming app category. Sports games led with an average campaign duration of 47 days, followed by social gaming apps and racing games, all of which saw substantial increases. Playable ads have also seen a notable rise, almost doubling from 4% to 7%. Video ads, though, continue to dominate, accounting for more than three quarters of ads in each category.

Starting point is 00:07:20 We have a link to the full report in today's email newsletter, which you can sign up to for free by tapping the link at the top of the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. That will do it for the day. I'm Todd Maffin. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. Today we are here to tell you about the greatest cooking invention since fire, microwave ovens. We think that microwaves are number one. Perhaps you have seen our microwave cooking column, Microscope, in the food section of your local newspaper. Olé! It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get 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.

Starting point is 00:08:12 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 dot C-A.

Today in Digital Marketing - Babe Wake Up, Snapchat Is Putting Ads in Chat

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.