Today in Digital Marketing - FLoC Off.
Episode Date: January 26, 2022Google takes another whack at a replacement for the third-party cookie. The EU passes landmark legislation that you're not going to like. TikTok is poised to jump ahead of YouTube. The reason you&...#39;re suddenly seeing emoji in Google ads.Get 20% off now at Oribi — a 100% codeless analytics platform that helps you understand your visitors and turn their behavior into more conversions.Go Premium! No ads, more stories, and extended deep-dive weekend episodes — https://todayindigital.com/premiumADVERTISING as low as $20: https://todayindigital.com/ads JOIN OUR SLACK! https://todayindigital.com/slackFOLLOW US: https://todayindigital.com/socialmedia(TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit) ENJOYING THE SHOW?- Please tweet about us! https://b.link/pod-tweet- Rate and review us: https://todayindigital.com/rateus- Leave a voicemail: https://b.link/pod-voicemail FOLLOW TOD:- TikTok: https://b.link/pod-tiktok- Twitter: https://b.link/pod-twitter- LinkedIn: https://b.link/pod-linkedin Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin (https://b.link/pod-todsite) and produced by engageQ digital (https://b.link/pod-engageq). Subscribe at https://TodayInDigital.com or wherever you get your podcasts. (Theme music by Mark Blevis. All other music licensed by Source Audio.)Does your brand need a podcast? Let us help: https://engageQ.com/podcastsOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Today, Google takes another whack at a replacement for the third-party cookie.
The EU passes landmark legislation that you're probably not going to like.
TikTok is poised to jump ahead of YouTube.
The reason you're suddenly seeing emoji in Google Ads,
and on the premium podcast with more stories,
no ads, and exclusive Deep Dive Weekend episodes,
tap the link in the notes for info,
the questions to ask when you are scouting out
a new CRM provider.
It's Tuesday, January 25th, 2022.
Happy Robbie Burns Day, Scotland.
I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital.
Here's what you
missed today in Digital Marketing, episode 547. With Google's Chrome browser set to block third
party cookies sometime next year, the company's been working behind the scenes to find an
alternative, some way to let marketers target consumers without the strong tracking the pixels
give us. Last year, they floated an idea called FLOC,
which stands for Federated Learning of Cohorts.
The idea being that people would travel around the web with a kind of HelloMyNameIs name tag on,
only except for their actual name.
It would list the topics they seem to be interested in,
based on past browsing.
A kind of group resume that you'd be a part of.
But privacy advocates didn't like that much,
saying, what right does a landscaping website have knowing that I'm interested in LGBT topics?
And despite Google's attempt to make it an industry standard,
developers of other browsers, like Microsoft's Edge, Brave, and Firefox,
said they'd refuse to use Flock.
So Google retooled and today announced a new proposal.
Call it Flock 2.0, although Google is calling it the Topics API.
Quoting The Verge,
Topics works by pinpointing five of your interests,
like fitness or travel and transportation,
based on your web activity as measured by participating sites for one week.
Your browser will store these topics for three weeks before deleting them.
Google says that these categories are selected entirely on your device and don't involve any
external servers, including Google servers. When you visit a website, Topics will show the site
and its advertising partners just three of your interests, consisting of one topic from each of
the past three weeks. As noted on the Topics API GitHub page, there are currently about 350 available topics in its advertising taxonomy,
although Google plans on adding anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand eventually.
And if you're wondering, no categories like race or gender will not be part of that list.
Some analysts are calling this essentially a dumbed-down version of Flock.
Also, if users are using the Chrome browser, they'll be able to view their topics,
delete topics, or turn off the feature entirely,
meaning they'll arrive on websites as a blank slate.
Quoting Martech.org,
Google confirmed that unlike traditional contextual advertising,
users can be targeted by
topic even on sites that have nothing to do with the topic. In other words, someone that had showed
interest in camping equipment in the previous three weeks might be targeted with ads for tents
on, say, a sports website, unquote. The next steps are to send the tech to developers.
No timeline for that. Google has said third-party cookies will stop being supported in Chrome,
probably in the third quarter of next year.
The European Parliament has made history by approving the first draft of the Digital Services Act,
which will prevent platforms like Google, Amazon, and Meta from using sensitive data for targeted advertising.
530 lawmakers approved the draft, 78 opposed, and 80 abstained.
The approved proposal...
The approved proposal...
You know what, that's just so funny, I'm going to leave it in.
The approved proposal requires services to give users easy opt-out capabilities
and pressures platforms to remove illegal content and products online,
such as hate speech or counterfeit goods.
It also includes two rules that the Parliament agreed on last month,
a ban on targeted ads for minors,
and a ban on the use of dark pattern UI.
Violation of these policies could result in fines
of up to 6% of an offending
company's global revenue. YouTube has long been a popular site for influencer marketing and is
still one of the biggest players in the industry, but new marketing forecasts suggest its relevance
is declining as more marketers are choosing a different platform.
New data shows that last year, TikTok overtook YouTube as the third most popular influencer marketing platform among U.S. marketers.
It's estimated that 45% of marketers from companies with 100 or more employees will use TikTok for influencer marketing this year, as opposed to 42% who will use YouTube.
In terms of daily time spent on the app, YouTube remains undefeated there.
Last year, users spent 45 minutes on the platform per day
and are expected to spend 46 minutes this year.
TikTok users, on the other hand, spent 40 minutes on the app on average last year,
and that will actually drop to 38 minutes this year
as the pandemic-driven
consumption of social media recedes. As for the user base, YouTube is still well ahead of social
media's golden child, but TikTok will reach another major milestone this year. It's estimated
they will have more US users than Snapchat and Pinterest. In 2022, TikTok's user base will increase 5% to reach 90 million users,
which will make it the third most popular social app in the country.
The forecast provided by Insider Intelligence.
Speaking of TikTok, a few other updates to get you up to speed on.
First, the platform is experimenting with a new avatar feature,
similar to Snapchat's Bitmoji and Apple's Memoji,
in which users can create a digital character based on a selfie.
The difference between TikTok's avatar and the others
is that you'll be able to customize your expressions
based on your actual face.
For marketers, this could provide a new way
to engage with users and respond in the app.
Also, TikTok is testing keyword filtering for feeds.
With the keyword filter, the app will no longer show you videos
containing that word in a video's description or stickers,
and that'll apply to your For You page and following feeds.
And finally, Platform is reportedly bringing the most chaotic feature
of LinkedIn to the app and testing the option to see
who has viewed your profile. Upon opting in, users will be able to view who and when someone has
viewed their profile. TikTok used to offer this feature as a way to increase connections on the
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Every so often, we like to look at the best practices around marketing-specific areas, at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. customers to switch to you and relies on four forces that influence brand switching. First,
pushes away from your competitor. Clients who don't believe your rival's solution works as well
as it could or among your best prospects. They recommend you analyze online reviews to identify
negative perceptions and complaints, target those complaints and demonstrate your superiority,
and ask clients who switched from a competitor to you for quotes to support your claims.
Second, pulling toward your solution.
Your business may be new to your competitors' customers.
Perhaps you offer features and services they haven't previously experienced.
Show them how happy their lives will be once they become your client
and position your company as a solution to their problems.
Three, anxieties around your solution.
Even in B2B, prospects experience social and emotional concerns
that prevent them from switching.
So research your current customers.
Find out about their decision-making journey
and what are their biggest objectives.
And then place social proof around calls to action
to minimize concerns about switching.
And finally, habits that are preventing them from making a switch.
There are times when prospects are stuck with certain beliefs, delusions, and routines that can get in the way of switching.
They recommend, show how you provide superior results for your clients versus your competitors,
and don't rely on surface-level arguments like cost savings.
Instead, weave in some emotion to further your point.
Google is testing a new way for your brand to stand out. The company has confirmed it's running a small experiment that displays fav icons. Fave icons. Have we figured
out how we're pronouncing this yet? Anyway, the little icons that show up in the browser tab.
I'm just going to say fav icons. Some search engines like Brave Search already do this. This was discovered after someone spotted a pizza emoji in an Uber Eats Google ad and tweeted Google saying,
wait, I thought we're not allowed to put emojis in ads like that. Turns out it wasn't an emoji.
Well, it was, but it was being used as a fav icon, which is a nice extra branding element that you
can use to catch the eyes of searchers. The feature is being tested as part of a series of experiments designed
to help users identify the brand advertiser associated with the search ads they see.
Here's what happens when a company embraces SEO a little too much.
A photo was posted to Twitter of a dentist's office with its company name,
Dentist Near Me.
Literally, go to my Twitter account if you don't believe me, at Todd Maffin.
That is the name that is physically on the front of their storefront.
All of you SEOs are thinking, oh, this dental office wants to rank for all the local dental queries.
Turns out, might not be the best strategy after all. Google search advocate John Mueller
tweeted, quote, I kind of wonder if it works against them because of how easily search engines
change near me into just a location, making it really hard for people to search for them by name.
For a local business, probably not a problem though. And the cute name likely helps with marketing, too.
And finally, straying away from marketing for just a moment,
in NFTs are a scam designed to part you from your money news,
hackers have exploited a loophole,
letting them buy NFTs from people well below their asking price, then immediately turning around and selling them for massive profit
to someone for the asking price.
This leaves the original seller out hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So far, we know of 12 flips like this, including from the coveted Bored Ape Yacht Club collection.
One attacker managed to massively discount seven NFTs, paying $133,000 for them, then quickly selling them for almost a million.
Five hours later, they concealed the purchase using a so-called mixing service.
NFTs, the Ponzi scheme of our generation.
Well, my thanks to Luke, who tweeted this to me last night.
I feel like there's so many ads now in Today in Digital Marketing.
I actually like a podcast ad because that's how I found your show.
But three to four ads in an eight-minute broadcast seems steep.
I agree, Luke.
We've got plans to work with our podcast platform to get those in check.
The issue is that it's a programmatic platform.
So in most cases, those roll out on their own.
There's like a position in pre and post,
two positions in mid-roll.
So we are aiming to get that
down to a single mid-roll
and probably drop the pre-roll slot.
We have also stopped accepting ads
on our own for the time being.
Also, good news is,
as of tomorrow,
the podcast will be a little longer.
We usually do about seven stories per show.
And from here in,
we will be aiming for around
eight to nine stories.
So not perfect, but hopefully that'll suffice until we get the ad stuff back in line.
The premium feed, of course, will have even more stories than that and no ads.
If you'd like to comment on what you've heard and have me read your tweet out, just include the hashtag TIDM
or leave a voicemail at todayindigital.com slash voicemail, or by tapping the link in the show notes.
Sadie, John, and David, those three marketers signed up for the premium feed today.
The premium feed has no ads, more stories,
full-length interviews with experts on the weekends,
and better pronunciation of difficult names.
And by popular demand, we have restored the annual plan,
which will save you $30.
Sign up by tapping the link in the episode notes
or go to todayindigital.com slash premium feed.
Talk to you tomorrow.
She said I would do well to remember my place
before some big ideas Develop in between my ears
That maybe we could be good friends
Now she said boys like me
Are always thinking romantically