Today in Digital Marketing - Everything Everywhere All Ads at Once

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Here is your wrap-up of the last week in the digital marketing space..📰 Get our free daily newsletter🆘 Need help with your social media? Check us out: engageQ digital.UPGRADE YOUR SKILLSGoogle Ads for Beginners with Jyll Saskin GalesInside Google Ads: Advanced with Jyll Saskin GalesFoxwell Slack Group and Courses.Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. Associate producer: Steph Gunn.Some links in these show notes may provide affiliate revenue to us.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's Friday, May 9th. This week, Meta's muck baying of ad updates, how to lose 4,000 Google reviews in one night, while Google search slips in Safari for the first time in 22 years, and Meta's new AI app is giving cursed Pinterest. I'm Steph Gunn sitting in for Todd Mappin. Here is your wrap up of the week in digital marketing. We begin today with a cautionary tale from Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky about how one business tried to game Google and ended up in Google jail, losing every review and half of their rankings overnight. Because of one critical mistake.

Review gating. The company asked only happy customers for reviews and directed unhappy customers to a private feedback form. Google flagged the practice and wiped thousands of reviews across every location and cut their rankings in half. A year later, they still hadn't recovered. Before asking for reviews, Hawkins suggests making sure you're following Google's guidelines. Reviews heavily influence local pack rankings.

And recovery from penalties can take years. In other search news, for the first time in 22 years, Google searches in Safari are declining, and Apple is pointing the finger at AI. Apple's senior VP of services revealed the dip during Google's antitrust trial, attributing the drop to growing use of AI-powered tools. As users turn to apps like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot for quick answers, traditional search engines like Google may be losing its grip as the default gateway to the web. Google pays Apple around $20 billion annually to remain Safari's default search engine.

A decline in searches could put that revenue at risk. Meanwhile, Google maintains it's still seeing growth overall, but it also acknowledged that traffic to traditional websites is declining and there's no guarantees that will improve. As for other updates this week from Google's antitrust trial, Mozilla's CFO testified that Firefox could go out of business if the court enforces the Justice Department's proposals to break Google's search monopoly. The DOJ wants to stop Google from paying to be the default search engine in third-party browsers like Firefox.

Although Firefox competes with Chrome, it warns that losing these payments could threaten its survival. Firefox generates about 90% of Mozilla's revenue, with 85% coming from its deal with Google. Losing this revenue could force Mozilla to make significant cuts, putting both Firefox and its nonprofit projects at risk, including the Gekko browser engine, which is the only major browser engine not controlled by Big Tech.

Ironically, this could reinforce Google's dominance in the search market, which the court aims to break up. The US Department of Justice is also pushing Google to sell off key parts of its ad tech business, AdEx, and DoubleClick for publishers to address concerns of illegal monopoly behavior. In this week's court filing, the DOJ proposed an aggressive three-phase plan designed to increase competition in the digital ad ecosystem. If successful, the interventions could mark a major shift

in the ad tech industry. Phase one, Google would be required to share AdEx's real-time bidding data with competing ad servers via pre-bid. Phase 2. Google must make the auction logic behind DFP open source, letting third parties run the final auction. Phase 3. The full divestiture of AdEx and DFP with the process overseen by a court-appointed trustee and subject to DOJ approval.

Once complete, Google would be prohibited from operating any ad exchange for 10 years. Now for the advertising news that broke this week. Meta announced several new ad updates yesterday. Trending Reels ads. Instagram is testing ads placed alongside top-performing or category specific reels like beauty and sports, similar to TikTok's Pulse. Creator Marketplace trends display. New in-stream trend listing sortable by region, topic and time frame with links to relevant clips. Updated Creator metrics. Creator profiles will now show past brand collaboration stats

like hook rate and interaction rate. Meta also confirmed that it's testing a Creator Marketplace API, and it also announced an update to partnership ads that will let brands display their brand handle on partnership promotions. Facebook Live partnership ads will have the ability to boost Creator-led live streams, and it's also testing Threads video ads that will auto play when displayed in stream, expand when clicked and include a CTA button. Social media today reports one major takeaway from the latest social media earnings calls

is the looming impact of tariffs. While most execs avoided directly naming them, likely to dodge political backlash, Meta, LinkedIn and Snap all hinted that new fees from the Trump administration could hurt their bottom lines. And that has direct implications for marketers. Meta admitted the drop in ad spend from Asia-based ecommerce players like Tmoo and Shien is already baked into its revenue guidance. For marketers, the short-term upside is cheaper ad rates thanks to decreased competition in ad auctions. However, platforms may respond by cramming in more ads to make up for last revenue.

Research shows A-B tests on platforms like Facebook and Instagram aren't always comparing apples to apples. That's because Meta's algorithm shows each ad variation to different audiences, typically the ones most likely to convert. So the winning ad might have just been shown to a more responsive group, not because it's objectively better. This practice, called divergent delivery, skews results by optimizing performance, not accuracy. According to the study, A-B tests can be reliable when optimizing creative on the same platform with the same audience, but misleading for broader marketing decisions like messaging, pricing or product strategy across platforms. Don't assume the best performing meta-ad will

work on TikTok, YouTube or elsewhere. Google announced a complete overhaul of its search ad features with AI Max, set to roll out globally in beta later this month. AI Max aims to integrate advanced targeting and creative tools into search campaigns. Features include search term matching, the tech analyzes an advertiser's current keyword list, creative assets and URLs to identify relevant search queries, even if those exact keywords haven't been identified by the advertiser. This helps expand the reach of ads by matching them to potential searches that may have otherwise

been overlooked. Text Customization The new text customization feature generates headlines and descriptions based on user queries, adapting to changing intent. Final URL expansion. This sends users to the most relevant pages on the website. While advertisers can target users based on geographic intent at the ad group level and include or exclude specific brands.

There's also some updated reporting, which provides data into search terms, headline performance, and asset KPIs like spend and conversions. TikTok opened this year's new fronts with a message for marketers. We're not going anywhere. As U.S. lawmakers pushed for a potential ban, the platform leaned hard into stability, doubling down on safety with $2 billion in moderation investments, tens of thousands of safety staff, and rigorous oversight

of US data via Oracle and third-party inspectors. Despite regulatory pressure, TikTok is still booming, with 170 million monthly US users and projected ad revenue of $32.4 billion, up 25% year-over-year in 2025, if it avoids shutdown. TikTok also teased big plans for search, positioning it as the next frontier of social discovery and brand integration. While a new sponsorship solutions tool will let marketers build curated content around specific search terms, the platform is also eyeing live sports and other off-up content extensions, and generative AI is also entering the mix.

TikTok's new custom lineups tool, part of Pulse Core, helps surface relevant user-generated content by category, occasion, or holiday. And in honor of Small Business Month, and possibly survival, TikTok is dropping $1 million in ad credits to U.S. small businesses. Starting May 15th, it'll also host weekly webinars with campaign tips and launch educational and mentorship programs nationwide. AKA, please don't ban us. Now at Verizon, we're locking in low prices for three years guaranteed on my plan. And you can get a single line for just $45 a month

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may be temporarily slower than other traffic. Domestic data roaming at 2G speeds. Price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate. Additional terms and conditions apply. Over to social media. With video on the rise, uncertainty around TikTok, and ongoing brand safety issues on X, LinkedIn is becoming a prime destination

for creators and advertisers. DigiDate has a great piece up about how marketing agencies within the platform's ecosystem are seeing major growth. Creator Match made 80% of its lifetime revenue in just the past few months, paying out more than one million dollars to LinkedIn creators. The Wishly Group scaled from six to 30 creators since August of last year and tripled its monthly campaigns. Cherry Lane clients have grown their LinkedIn ad spend from tens to hundreds of thousands, while Creator Authority expects 3-400% year-over-year growth, though it wouldn't disclose its starting point.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn updated its post-embedding tools with a new video-only option, letting users share video content on their websites without embedding the full post. The update also includes a new design, a compact preview option, and clearer LinkedIn branding. Users on desktop can now choose from three embed styles, embed with less text, embed entire post, and embed video only. Only publicly shared posts are eligible for embedding, and posts with multiple images aren't supported.

Supported formats include text, articles, images, videos, live or recorded, and document posts. Reddit has announced updates to its free Reddit Pro suite of business tools. The platform will now generate suggested profile bios for businesses during Reddit Pro signup, using the business's website URL to create descriptions. Reddit also now lets brands reshare relevant community posts and comments on their profiles. Reddit Pro is available in all English-speaking regions where Reddit operates and is free. For now. Instagram has rolled out its lockable Reels feature, letting select creators share videos

that can only be viewed by those with a special access code. Once broadly available, it could offer a way for brands to engage with niche audiences, like rewarding consumers with exclusive content, providing customer-only discounts, or sharing region-specific updates with targeted clients. The feature is currently only being tested with select creators. Now for some streaming updates. More podcast listeners are watching, moving beyond earbuds and onto the living room screen. As connected TV becomes the main way people watch YouTube, podcasters are seeing a surge

in viewership via smart TVs. Amid the shift, DigiDay reports that many podcasters are responding with more visual content to keep audiences engaged. One podcaster with 46,000 YouTube subscribers reported that Connected TV now accounts for nearly 25% of views, up 10% year-over-year, while mobile viewership fell 15% from 70% to 55% over the same period. Media company Flight Story said 30% of its total YouTube views were from TV in 2024 and reported 12 million hours of TV podcast views so far in 2025. New data shows almost half of podcast viewers now watch on smart TVs.

YouTube's TV app saw 400 million podcast watch hours per month last year, with podcasters and production companies reporting that the trend is continuing to grow in 2025. And Netflix announced that it will be rolling out a new home page in the coming weeks. While the update doesn't immediately impact advertising, the company hinted that ad-related changes may be on the horizon. At launch, both ad-supported and ad-free users will have the same experience, including a cleaner homepage with updated navigation shortcuts and smarter recommendations, a global test of vertical video on mobile, mimicking TikTok's scrollable feed, viewers can tap to watch, save or share clips, and generative AI-powered

searches being tested on iOS, letting users search for shows using phrases like, I want something funny. Over to commerce. Tmoo has stopped shipping products directly from China to the US in response to tariffs. With tariffs now rising more than 100% on Chinese goods, the e-commerce company has shifted to a local fulfillment model, displaying only products available in the US warehouses. Items shipped from China are now listed as out of stock. A Tmoo spokesperson confirmed that the platform's pricing for US consumers remains the same

as it transitions to local sellers fulfilling orders within the US. The company is also recruiting more US sellers to join the platform. Meanwhile, Amazon is spending $4 billion to triple its American Rural Delivery Network by 2026, adding 200-plus delivery stations and reaching more than 13,000 ZIP codes, enabling a billion more package deliveries each year. And finally, if you've ever wanted Pinterest, threads, and generative AI slop to collide in a strange, uncomfy mess,

Meta's new AI app delivers just that. The app lets users share their AI chat bot results with the world, turning private prompts into public posts. While Meta is the first to introduce this concept, others like OpenAI are following suit. It's a bit like a social media version of a car crash. You know you shouldn't look, but you can't help it. My apologies about the dog barking earlier in the episode. That was just my dog.

He is a one year old pug named Cheeseburger and he can't stand when anyone walks past our house, which is quite frequently. So I'm sorry about that. Honestly, it was either that or you're going to hear my toddler scream at the top of her lungs, which isn't because she's upset. She's just learned that she can scream. So it's been a fun and very loud week in our house. I'm Steph Gunn. Thanks for listening. I

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