Today in Digital Marketing - Everybody Hates Tim (Cook)

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Today, Facebook tries to make up with marketers. Be protected. Be Zen. to say this, we have a Facebook group now. It's Friday, October 22nd, 2021. Happy National Nut Day, United States. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing, episode 489. You cannot deny that Amazon is doing crazy amounts of deliveries, especially as we get closer to Black Friday and the holiday season. Sometimes it seems like FedEx and UPS only do Amazon deliveries anymore. But there is a third delivery provider that Amazon reaches out to, its own private delivery service.

Starting point is 00:01:17 How big is that fleet? On the Friday Quiz, what percentage of Amazon's total deliveries are handled by its own delivery network, not relying on providers like FedEx and UPS? The answer, later in today's episode. And as for news, we start today with another finger being pointed at Apple. Snap, the company that owns Snapchat, reported Thursday that revenue expectations were not met for its third quarter. Snap's Q3 revenue is $1.07 billion, missing Wall Street's expectation of $1.1 billion. As for growth, the company drew 306 million daily active users in Q3. That's up from the 293 million it reported in Q2. While not skyrocketing, it is healthy for a platform that was almost irrelevant not

Starting point is 00:02:11 long ago. Who's to blame for the revenue miss? According to Snap's CEO, Apple's big iOS privacy change, which put new restrictions in place on apps seeking to track user behavior beyond their own borders and broader pandemic market trends. Quoting Spiegel, the company was caught off guard by how disruptive the impact on advertiser tools proved to be. Without the wide view that many advertisers were accustomed to, they had to adapt to new, more restrained ways of measuring user behavior, unquote. Although Snap's bottom line might be negatively affected by Apple's

Starting point is 00:02:45 decision to build more privacy into its mobile OS, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, unlike Facebook's leadership, has consistently supported Apple's decision. With Black Friday and the holiday shopping season approaching, Instagram is testing new options for creator monetization so its most prominent users can maximize their earnings. Creators will have access to three new tools being tested. First, a new partnerships messaging folder within Instagram DMs. This folder is a dedicated space to keep track of sponsored content. Messages will be filtered through from Facebook's brand collabs manager platform. All brands getting in touch with this folder will qualify for the new connection tools by having met partner monetization policies. Number two, a new digital storefront option for creators taking part in its affiliate program.

Starting point is 00:03:37 This provides another way for individual creators to promote sponsored products to their audience. Creators will be able to create their own shops of products they endorse. This, of course, creates more exposure for potential brands and more revenue share options for creators. This option currently being tested with American creators. And three, new branded content ads in Reels. This option looks very much like Instagram's branded content tags for Reels, only with a sponsored marker instead of just paid partnership. Branded content ads in Reels is another step toward monetizing short-form video, quoting Social Media Today. Though effective monetization of short-form video overall remains problematic because, unlike longer videos, you can't insert pre- or mid-roll ads into 30-second clips. That limits your capacity to attribute revenue share to specific uploads, which is why branded content formats like this are a key avenue for creator monetization, providing more incentive for popular Reels stars to keep posting. Unquote. Microsoft has announced a new partnership with Shopify that gives merchants there access to its search network and audience network in the Microsoft Channel app.

Starting point is 00:04:51 A representative with Microsoft Advertising explained, quote, To significantly expand the reach of their brands and products across Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network, merchants can create new ad campaigns and view their marketing performance through real-time reports in their Shopify store, unquote. So how does this Microsoft Channel app work? First, merchants connect to their Microsoft advertising account. They can then create new ad campaigns and view their marketing performance.

Starting point is 00:05:19 And products are automatically available on the Microsoft Bing Shopping tab and the Microsoft Start Shopping tab for free as product listings. To brand safety now and new updates Facebook is making to maintain the trust of marketers ahead of the holiday season. A new feature of its safety tools lets marketers search Instagram accounts and posts for content that infringes on their intellectual property. Marketing Dive reports, quote, As e-commerce continues to grow, digital sales are expected to hit between $210 and $218 billion this holiday season, up from $189 billion last year. Yet, despite this outlook, consumers still have reason to distrust Facebook's offerings.

Starting point is 00:06:09 To this end, the updates also seek to protect buyers from counterfeit products, which could help to strengthen trust in Facebook's merchants and its platforms. An especially important play this year as supply chain issues erode brand loyalty, unquote. By using this brand rights protection tool, brands can identify trademark violations, counterfeit products, and copyright infringement in the following. Facebook or Instagram ads, shops, marketplace, Instagram accounts, Instagram posts, and Facebook buy and sell groups. How does the tool work? Users can upload up to 10 images to their accounts, for which Facebook will scan Instagram and its core social network to identify unpermitted matches. Facebook is not the only company enhancing brand safety ahead of the holiday season. TikTok unveiled tools to help marketers find creators, better measure campaigns, and properly disclose ad content.

Starting point is 00:06:59 And Google adopted security email authentication protocol to combat phishing, which is a big problem in the holiday season. One of the most common refrains we hear from Google on its search algorithm is that the content should be trustworthy. And the author of the article, if named, should have some authority on the topic. But is the name of the author an actual ranking signal? Google says no. During a video hangout with Google's John Mueller, he explained that the author of an article is not a ranking factor. For instance, when asked if it matters if you have a recognized and authoritative doctor write or review your medical content when it comes to Google's EAT recommendations, that's expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, he said no. Quoting Mueller, there would be no quantifiable difference between using a doctor

Starting point is 00:07:49 who is well-known versus not well-known in terms of SEO or ranking. Purely from an SEO point of view, it probably doesn't matter either way to have a top doctor or lesser-known doctor write or review the content, unquote. Which is great and all, but in the past, Google has actually recommended having doctors review your medical content and having an expert write your content. At the very least, it can't hurt. 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.

Starting point is 00:08:28 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. Quoting the piece, first, mental management. Two-thirds of Americans say they developed at least one healthy habit during the pandemic that they plan to continue. And Reddit's overview looks specifically at the rising discussion around meditation and hobbies like knitting that people have taken up as a form of stress relief. Two, the romanticized life. The work-from-home shift has prompted many to reconsider their lifestyle and how they want to live, which has led to rising interest in things like gardening and nomadism, with more freedom to travel while they work. 3. Revitalized residences.

Starting point is 00:09:35 Similar to the previous trend, more time spent in the home has also led more people to reassessing their home setup, considering how they can improve their living conditions with communities like r slash carpentry and r slash home improvement, gaining traction among DIY enthusiasts. And four, cognizant consumption. People are increasingly aware of their environmental

Starting point is 00:09:58 impact with key trends relating to more thoughtful consumption and transport options. Unquote. It is a great piece, by the way. Definitely worth checking out socialmediatoday.com. And even if you don't use Reddit and don't see the benefit in Reddit marketing, the data may provide a glimpse of broader trends related to your brand, could help guide your strategic thinking. You can get a link to Reddit's first Reddit radar report in today's premium newsletter. And if Reddit marketing is something you'd like to try out, jump into our Slack community, where nearly 700 digital marketers just like you are chatting about all sorts of

Starting point is 00:10:27 platforms. Tap the link in today's episode notes or go to todayindigital.com slash Slack. Back to the Friday quiz. What percentage of Amazon's total deliveries are handled by its own delivery network, not relying on providers like FedEx and UPS? The answer, 72%. Yeah, that shocked the hell out of me too. Amazon now delivers 72% of its own packages. In 2019, it was about 46%. In fact, each year the company has had its own delivery service. It's grown by 50% year over year. Amazon now has more than 400,000 delivery drivers of its own around the world, 40,000 semi-trucks, 30,000 delivery vans. It even has its own airline with 73 planes.

Starting point is 00:11:28 Amazon now offers same-day delivery in 12 U.S. cities, including Chicago and Dallas. And finally, I saw a bunch of reports on Twitter today that there was, brace yourself, a bug on Facebook. This time, people were getting their ad campaigns rejected for being misleading and then, and then, told that their page was banned. Don't panic if this happened to you. This is a bug apparently going around today. Facebook says it's aware of it. It's fixing it.

Starting point is 00:11:51 One thing they're not doing, incidentally, sending the usual notifications of account action like this, so you may want to check your ad account just in case all right at the request of dozens of you and for the record against my better judgment we have started a facebook group for this community we'll be posting recaps of the show you're all welcome to chat about whatever in there so it's slack's not your jam or reddit or discord where you can find us as well. Now you have another option. We have a thread up now where you can even promote what you do. The group is at facebook.com slash groups slash today in Google. Tomorrow, a special treat in your feed, a deep dive into Google ads for this Black Friday season.

Starting point is 00:12:42 Jill Sask and Gail's joined me for a live taping of that episode earlier today. We covered a ton of ground, including process changes, targeting, creative bid strategy, budget, and a whole bunch more. Premium newsletter subscribers, you will be getting that, plus the full transcript,

Starting point is 00:12:58 plus a link to the video version, plus a kit of Google Ad resources. And if you are not a premium newsletter subscriber yet, you can try it out for 14 days completely free. It's at todayindigital.com slash newsletter. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Sunemu First Nation on beautiful Vancouver Island.

Starting point is 00:13:22 Scripting and production support by Steph Gunn. Podcast music licensing by Source Audio. And our theme composer, Mark Blevis, is that first cup of real coffee you have if you ditch the annual attempt

Starting point is 00:13:33 to go decaf. I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful weekend, friends. I'll see you in the feed tomorrow for our weekend edition and then on Monday.

Today in Digital Marketing - Everybody Hates Tim (Cook)

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