Today in Digital Marketing - Big Seller in Small Clothing: Is Amazon’s Glitch Hurting Small Brands?

Starting point is 00:00:01 It's Tuesday, April 4th. Today, when big is small, is Amazon's confusing glitch hurting small sellers? A security hole in one of the world's most popular web frameworks? A long-awaited Twitter alternative launches? And Facebook finally, mercifully, retires the code generator? I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Amazon's small business badge has big seller energy. The badge was intended to help customers support small businesses in the U.S., but the information reports today that the e-commerce giant has been putting a U.S. small business label on items from big-time players like Johnson & Johnson and even foreign sellers. Some products have been categorized as coming from big-time players like Johnson & Johnson and even foreign sellers. Some products have been categorized as coming from black-owned small businesses that are

Starting point is 00:00:50 neither small nor black-owned. The rollout of small business badges coincided with the company's move to recruit sellers to fight proposed antitrust legislation in the U.S. last year, arguing that regulating its marketplace would harm American small businesses. Amazon says only U.S.-based small businesses that employ fewer than 100 people and earn less than $50 million in annual revenue are eligible for the badge. But the information found that the e-commerce giant has bestowed the badge on items from multinational corporations with thousands of employees, as well as items sold

Starting point is 00:01:25 by overseas merchants. The CEO of an Amazon seller consultancy quoted in the piece said the problem is if the company isn't managing its badge program, it's being negligent and unfairly benefiting companies that don't require assistance while disadvantaging genuine small businesses. The report notes it's difficult to determine the exact impact that receiving a small business badge or being featured on the Black-owned businesses page has on sales, but Amazon sellers agree that any badge or label can help items stand out on search results pages crowded with sponsored listings. Klaviyo, the marketing automation platform, is reportedly set to go public this year,

Starting point is 00:02:06 having raised more than $775 million. The platform lets businesses manage customer data and send targeted email campaigns. TechCrunch reported yesterday that the company has hired bankers to prepare an IPO, which could end a long drought for tech startups not wanting to go public in the current economic climate. In today's environment, investors are looking for operational discipline rather than growth, and Klaviyo has already initiated cost-cutting measures, including laying off 140 employees last month.

Starting point is 00:02:34 The company says that it generates almost $600 million in annual recurring revenue and is profitable. Well, some good news. It looks like we have a little more time before the robot overlords take all of our jobs. New research has found that chat GPT is far from revolutionizing the digital marketing industry after it answered only a third of questions about Google Analytics 4 correctly. In a study of 42 frequently asked questions about GA4, more than half of the AI powered chatbots answers were wrong. One in five answers provided were only semi-correct. In some cases, the bot misinterpreted the question and provided a correct answer to

Starting point is 00:03:16 an entirely different question, indicating issues with the bot's comprehension. In another instance, it provided a small amount of misinformation in an otherwise correct response, which is less likely to be recognized as incorrect and could lead to confusion. The bot currently uses data from 2021, which also means it's often outdated. The research suggests that generative AI, at least for the time being, is no replacement for marketing experts, at least not yet. A heads up to Elementor Pro users. WordPress security company Patchstack has warned that a severe vulnerability in the Elementor Pro plugin is being exploited to hack WordPress sites.

Starting point is 00:04:01 Elementor Pro is a popular WordPress page builder plugin that lets users build sites without knowing how to code. The flaw is this. If the site uses Elementor Pro with WooCommerce, an exploit can let any user change any WordPress setting they want. Specifically, it lets attackers set the default user role to administrator, letting them create a new user account with administrator privileges, which can be used to redirect the site to a malicious domain or inject malicious code. This vulnerability was fixed recently in Elementor Pro version 3.11.7, and users are advised to update to the latest version as soon as possible. Do you have business insurance?

Starting point is 00:04:47 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.

Starting point is 00:05:07 Be protected, be Zen. Microsoft Ads released its product updates for April today. First, professional service ads are now available globally. These are ads for sectors like insurance, real estate, doctors and clinics, and so on. Advertisers have also been notified of changes to broad match modifier, which was deprecated in 2021. As of now, and gradually over the next few weeks, all broad match modifier keywords for search ads will serve as broad match keywords instead of phrase match.

Starting point is 00:05:37 The company says no action is required from you and bidding strategies, as well as third party bidding, won't be impacted by the change. Microsoft has also added bulk operations in the asset library, letting advertisers bulk delete folders and assets, or move multiple items to target folders. And finally, the ability to view and edit the current target bid value within the campaign grid has been rolled out. This feature is available when using target CPA, target ROAS, or target impression share bid strategies. Another Twitter alternative has opened its doors to the public. The new social media platform Post gained popularity following Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter. But the startup says it has no intention

Starting point is 00:06:23 of just becoming another Twitter clone. Rather, Post lets individual users or large news publishers earn revenue through micropayments, with users paying to access individual posts. This could include articles from traditional media outlets that would usually be behind a paywall,

Starting point is 00:06:39 subscription newsletters, or even free content from other platforms. Post leaves it up to the publisher to determine the price for their content. As Post enters its public beta, TechCrunch notes that Twitter is facing criticism from publishers for removing their verified badges if they don't pay. In contrast, Post plans to pay them for their content, which could be a draw. You can find us at post.news. Our username is todayindigital. And that will bring us to the lightning round. Google Ads has added a notice to its appeal form warning advertisers that they may

Starting point is 00:07:15 face restrictions if policy violations aren't fixed before you submit an appeal. The notice says if you try to appeal too many ads that haven't been fixed, Google may limit how often you can appeal policy decisions. PayPal is adding Apple Pay at checkout, as well as the option for customers to save their cards for specific e-commerce sites and access to the Interchange Plus pricing model for businesses. Instagram is testing a joint feed of content that users share in common with a friend. This new discover content together option creates a separate feed that the two users have engaged with or from profiles they both follow. And finally, mercifully, Meta is pulling the plug

Starting point is 00:08:00 on its code generator tool. It's always been a bit of a mess. It's only available when you're logged on to another device, for example. The company has started alerting users who still use code generator that soon it will be sent to the graveyard and that they should switch to another form of two-factor authentication. It looks like it might be spring out. It might be walking weather. We'll see. I'm going to go try it out.

Starting point is 00:08:27 See you tomorrow. Get back, man. You don't know me. You know me. Shawty backing up like she old me. She don't even know me. Get back, man. You don't know me. Get back, man.

Starting point is 00:08:40 You don't know me. Get back, man. You don't know me.

Today in Digital Marketing - Big Seller in Small Clothing: Is Amazon’s Glitch Hurting Small Brands?

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