Today in Digital Marketing - Elon Musk Thinks He Invented Ad Targeting Now

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Thursday, October 27th. Today, it is D-Day at Twitter, and Elon Musk has a special message for digital marketers. Also, the disappointing numbers we expected from Meta are here. Amazon forges ahead with video ads. Reddit is building a marketing API. And Snapchat builds in some very TikTok-like tools. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. Elon Musk has a message for those of you that advertise on Twitter.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Please don't go. He attempted to reassure marketers that the platform will stay a safe place for brands in a tweet posted early this morning and addressed specifically to Twitter's advertisers. He said he was buying the company to create a platform, quote, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, unquote, and to stem polarization between the left and right. He also claimed he's buying it to, quote, help humanity, unquote. He also said, quote, I very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain, and inform you.

Starting point is 00:01:05 It can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed but is right for you. For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content. It's sort of a strange thing to say, like the most basic marketing 101 strategy.

Starting point is 00:01:25 Does he suddenly think we digital marketers will come to our senses and think, oh my God, he's right. I've been doing this wrong all along. I need to make my ads relevant to my audience. What Musk seems to have missed is that the path of the digital ad ecosystem has been moving toward less targeting, thanks to the cookiepocalypse and Apple and European laws, and heavy marketing of consumer VPNs, and just about everything else. I don't know, maybe he's

Starting point is 00:01:50 got some secret targeting tech he hasn't shared with any of us. Or, more likely, he doesn't know what he's talking about. It was only a couple of years ago when he tweeted, I hate advertising. Advertising is, of course, critical to Twitter's business, and his note suggests he wants to prevent advertisers from fleeing the platform after his acquisition. The purchase is expected to close tomorrow. Wometa announced its third quarter earnings results yesterday, with revenue declining for the second time in a row. The company also indicated the decline would not end anytime soon. In terms of usage, Facebook is now up to 2 billion daily active users, up 3% actually year over year, while monthly actives were up 4%. Meta's family

Starting point is 00:02:37 of apps reflected similar usage numbers. All right, let's talk money. Meta reported that revenue fell 4% in the third quarter. Net income was $4.4 billion, and that is down 50% from a year earlier. Spending soared by 20%. The company is still burning cash through the metaverse, with Reality Labs' revenue getting slashed in half in the third quarter compared to a year ago. Its loss widened more than a billion dollars year over year to $3.5 billion. So far this year, the company's metaverseverse division has lost nearly nine and a half billion. Doesn't look like it's going to get better. Meta says it anticipates that operating losses for that division will grow significantly year over year. The company is also forecasting

Starting point is 00:03:18 a third straight drop in the fourth quarter, saying it would be making, quote, significant changes across the board to operate more efficiently. Amazon announced some new video ad features yesterday ahead of its Q3 results, which is set to report after the market closed today. First, the company is bringing video to its self-service sponsored display program, which will let advertisers create video campaigns that run both on Amazon and other platforms with a focus on opening up options for small and medium-sized businesses. With the update, brands can create a variety of video ads like tutorials, demos, unboxings, testimonials, and so on. And with Sponsored Display Metrics, advertisers will be able to measure campaign performance. Amazon ads is also expanding a public beta program for its video builder,

Starting point is 00:04:08 which lets brands produce videos for their sponsored brands and sponsored display campaigns with customizable templates. Beyond video, the company said it would expand sponsored display capabilities in other ways. Soon, select brands will be able to add a shopping credit to their ads through a rewarded sponsored display option. The format will reward customers who click the ad and purchase the featured product. 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,

Starting point is 00:04:51 and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Over to a site that I spend way too much time on, Reddit, which is building a new ads API. And it announced its four partners for that API today. It said its partners will integrate into the API and help build the platform's campaign optimization solution. Those four alpha partners are VidMob, Sprinkler, AdMixed, and PMG. They did say, though, that the ads API will benefit both enterprise clients and self-serve advertisers. It is still in development. There's currently no release date. Reddit said they are looking to, quote, bring more strategic developers on board in the coming months.

Starting point is 00:05:40 The TikTokification of apps continues, but this time it's not Instagram or Facebook. Starting today, brands using Snapchat will have access to more advanced video editing tools with something they call Director Mode. Director Mode includes a handful of video editing features, most of which are already on other platforms. Things like green screen, dual camera, camera speed options, and quick edit, which will let you trim and splice multiple videos together. As The Verge points out, the emphasis on the new editing tools comes as Snap tries to make a case for Spotlight, its short-form video competitor. Meaning, you know all the brand videos you used to create for TikTok and Reels? Well, now you can create them on Snapchat too. tools. First, the platform is adding a new spotlight element for internal candidates in LinkedIn Recruiter. Employees will also be able to find open roles that align with their

Starting point is 00:06:49 skills through the LinkedIn Learning Hub. Now, when employees use LinkedIn Learning, it will highlight potential internal opportunities related to their interests. There will be a new role guides element in its learning platform, which will provide insights into the types of skills needed for internal advancement. The company also provided more insight into the new commitments section for company pages. This feature lets companies highlight the specific commitments they've made in six areas. Diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental sustainability, social impact, career growth and learning, and work-life balance. And finally, LinkedIn recently published its latest report on global talent trends,

Starting point is 00:07:30 which examines changes in the market like hiring trends, workplace confidence, what candidates are seeking in job listings, and so on. A link to that report is in today's premium newsletter, or just search for LinkedIn Global Talent Trends Report. And that'll bring us to the lightning round. Shopify reported a 22% increase in revenue to nearly $1.5 billion in its third quarter today, surpassing analysts' expectations of $1.3 billion. For the holiday quarter, the Canadian e-commerce company expects gross merchandise volume to outperform the broader U.S. retail market. Meta launched Advantage Plus shopping campaigns yesterday, which rely on, you guessed it, automation instead of manual targeting to find the right audience for your ads. According to Meta, the system will create up to 150 combinations based on your existing assets and then decide which variations will perform best across all placements, putting all your trust in Meta's AI for your targeting.

Starting point is 00:08:31 A follow-up on yesterday's story about Apple's gambling ad problem, the company confirming in a statement today that it has, quote, paused ads related to gambling and a few other categories on app store product pages, unquote, after several developers criticized the types of ads showing up in the app store. I'm not going to do a lot of talking here. I just got back from the dentist, so it kind of hurts to talk. Brush your teeth, kids. Floss. They weren't kidding when they said that. I'm Todd Maffin.

Starting point is 00:09:03 See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Elon Musk Thinks He Invented Ad Targeting Now

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