Today in Digital Marketing - Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Followers

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, April 18th. Today, the perfect influencer follower size for you to partner with. Exploring the decline of email conversions, Meta has stopped pitching advertisers on the metaverse, and mass disapprovals for Google Ads are back. I'm Todd Mathen. That's ahead today in digital marketing. So you've decided to hire a social media influencer to help market your product. How do you pick the right one? Of course, choosing the right influencer involves knowing what they can offer you in terms of how many people they can reach, how much they cost, and how engaged their followers are. And a recent study has now identified the best influencers to

Starting point is 00:00:39 choose if you're looking for maximum engagement. For the most cost-effective engagement, the study finds you should work with medium-sized influencers. The study found that campaigns with influencers that have between 100,000 and 500,000 followers had the highest engagement rates, including more shares, likes, and comments than larger or smaller influencers. According to the researchers,

Starting point is 00:01:04 consumers prefer mid-sized influencers because they feel closer to them. The closer and more connected an audience feels to the influencer, the more likely they are to follow their recommendation. But it's worth noting that this study only analyzed influencer marketing on Instagram. Other platforms like TikTok, Twitter, or LinkedIn

Starting point is 00:01:21 may of course have different dynamics. The study was published in the Journal of Marketing. It's called How Follower Count Drives Social Media Engagement. Incidentally, I spoke with one of the co-authors about this study. That interview is available exclusively on our premium podcast feed. If you are a subscriber, look for the episode titled The Role of Goldilocks Influencers in Marketing Campaigns. You can learn about the premium podcast

Starting point is 00:01:45 by tapping the link in the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash premium. The cookiepocalypse is expected to dawn on the ad industry next year as Google plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome, the world's most popular browser, by 2024. The move, of course, will eliminate one of the main methods through which we marketers track online activity.

Starting point is 00:02:10 To replace cookies, the company's developed a set of tools called the Privacy Sandbox, which allows tracking for targeting ads while hiding users' online activity. Google recently conducted a test comparing ad campaigns using third-party cookies with those using Privacy Sandbox tools, and today they published their findings. The study found that over five weeks, advertisers using Privacy Sandbox tools reduced their spend by 2-7% and conversions per dollar dropped by 1-3%. The number of clicks on ads remained similar to the status quo. In other words, Google's Privacy Sandbox tools only perform slightly worse than Chrome's browser cookies. Even if the new system is successful for advertisers, Gizmodo points out today that it would be discouraging for publishers, apps, and websites that make money through ads, as the test showed advertisers spent less. Google says further experiments will be conducted

Starting point is 00:03:06 to test other aspects of the privacy sandbox this year, and we will, of course, bring you those results. If you've noticed a decline in email conversion rates, your automation tools could be to blame. Insider Intelligence recently reported that e-commerce email conversion rates have dropped significantly since more marketers began using automated email marketing. Due to the boom in online shopping, more marketers are using automated email marketing, which has led to an increase in the number of emails being sent. This increase in volume has

Starting point is 00:03:42 displaced the use of scheduled campaigns with select cadences, and that is causing a drop in conversion rates. But while competition in the inbox has increased, well-targeted campaigns can still be effective. As emails become more automated, the report says that e-commerce marketers should consider click rate in addition to email conversion rate when determining if adding automated emails are performing at the same level as the benchmark. While click rates dropped by more than 10% year over year in 2022, order and shipping confirmation emails continue to have the highest clicks, indicating that consumers are looking for communication that offers reassurance that

Starting point is 00:04:20 their purchase is being fulfilled. The report also noted that consumers are increasingly comfortable receiving marketing messages via SMS and even web push notifications. 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 at $19 per month at zensurance.com.

Starting point is 00:04:58 Be protected. Be Zen. Meta has reportedly given up on pitching the metaverse to advertisers. This time last year, Mark Zuckerberg was all in on the metaverse, the very concept that inspired the entire rebrand of his company. But now, with it adopting cash-cutting measures and bleeding billions to bring the metaverse to life, Meta's excitement has dwindled. According to the website TheInformation.com, Meta is no longer pushing

Starting point is 00:05:25 the metaverse to advertisers in meetings. Instead, the company is incentivizing the use of its short-form video product Reels with discounts, as we reported yesterday, while highlighting new AI tools as well. As Meta prioritizes Reels and AI tools for advertisers, TikTok is shifting its focus toward performance marketing. Digiday reported today that the platform has been pushing more automated performance-based offerings, including smart performance campaigns. Although TikTok's future in the U.S. remains uncertain, the platform recently launched shopping capabilities, self-serve dashboards, and search ads, as well as AI-driven campaigns, as advised for more performance marketing ad dollars.

Starting point is 00:06:12 While it's not yet clear how much marketers are investing in performance marketing on the platform, marketers and agency executives said that TikTok's share of social ad spending has increased from about 15% of social ad budgets last year to a quarter of their budgets this year. But with the increasing adoption of automation among advertisers and media buyers, concerns about control are emerging. It remains to be seen how those questions will be answered. More AI is coming to Adobe products. The company today announcing its plans to add new generative AI tools to its video editing software. With the tools, video editors will be able to do things like change the lighting in a shot from midday to sunset by telling the system what to do with text prompts. These tools build on Adobe's Firefly, a new system for creating still images introduced last month. Other features include generating text

Starting point is 00:07:11 to color enhancements, background soundtracks and sound effects, fonts, text effects and logos, audio transcripts via text commands, and a bunch more. Adobe also launched new AI features for its photo application Lightroom today. The Select People tool now includes options that can automatically select a subject's clothing and facial hair, letting users quickly adjust color and texture. The update also includes three new adaptive presets for portraits, Darkened Beard, which is self-explanatory, polished portrait, which can smooth a subject's skin, refine their facial features, and improve lighting within the image, and enhanced clothing, which optimizes the appearance of outfits by increasing contrast,

Starting point is 00:07:57 saturation, and texture. And finally, if you've had any issues with your Google Ads being disapproved in the last couple of days, we may now know why. Google Ads and Merchant Center have experienced another wave of disapprovals, prompting an investigation by the Google Ads team. The company confirmed last night the teams were aware of the issue and looking into it. The cause of these disapprovals remains unclear, but Google said this morning the issue has been resolved. Seeing a whole bunch of new people showing up in the last week or two. Welcome. I have no idea where you're coming from, but welcome anyway. We also have a daily email newsletter too.

Starting point is 00:08:40 It is everything in the podcast. It has images, charts, related videos, links to dive deeper. Don't worry, there is a free tier as well. You will get an issue every Friday on the free tier. And the newsletter comes out about an hour before the podcast drops. Just go to todayindigital.com slash newsletter to sign up or tap the link in the show notes. I'm Todd Maffin. Thanks for listening.

Starting point is 00:09:02 See you tomorrow. We'll see you next time. shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. 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 - Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Followers

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