Today in Digital Marketing - From Pixels to Paper: Retail’s Unexpected Full Circle

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, August 16th. Today, print is up, TV is down, Adobe comes after Canva, the Deez Nuts joke that could bring Google down, and on the ad-free premium podcast, how Google's change to demand gen ads will affect your campaigns. And a short programming note,

Starting point is 00:00:20 we have two exclusive weekly columns that normally only run on the premium podcast, but this week we are letting everyone hear an example of one of these exclusive segments. If you'd like to continue hearing these weekly deep dives, check out our premium podcast. It is on sale for 30% right now. Tap Go Premium in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash premium. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. This is a premium exclusive. Well, every Wednesday, we check in with our Google Ads correspondent, Jill Saskengales.

Starting point is 00:00:53 Jill spent six years at Google and today runs a respected Google Ads training program. We had some news this week about the demand gen campaign type, which we'll take over from Discovery campaigns. Jill, before we talk about what's changed here, what is a DemandGen campaign? Easiest way to think about it is buying a meta ads campaign on Google. This campaign type was designed, and this is quoting Google, it's built to help advertisers who buy on social platforms. So similar functionality, similar asset sizes, similar setup process, and ideally similar results. But it doesn't go to social media, does it? Like where do these placements go? That's what makes Discovery and now Dimension really unique. It doesn't go to social placements, but it goes to Google's most premium owned inventory. And that is the Gmail inbox, the Discover feed, which is like the news feed on your phone, and then YouTube. And what's

Starting point is 00:01:53 new, one of the things that's new with DemandGen versus Discovery is Discovery campaigns would put image ads on YouTube, but DemandGen campaigns are taking video assets, including YouTube shorts. So through a DemandGen campaign, you can now place video ads and image ads all in one place, including on that coveted YouTube shorts inventory. It's always strange to me that they kind of replace things with a new campaign at Google or a new campaign type, as opposed to just kind of like keeping the Discovery name and just adding stuff, adding shorts to Discovery and things like that. I mean, they're positioning this as an upgrade. But is it an upgrade or is it just like a quote, air quotes, upgrade the way that Google does it, which is actually, we're just taking away something that you love?

Starting point is 00:02:36 You know, usually when you see the word upgrade from Google, it's bad. But in this case, it's genuinely good. I've been concerned that Discovery campaigns were going away for a while now. We actually spoke about that two GMLs ago. But this is a better version of discovery, in my opinion, because there's a few key improvements. One I mentioned, you're able to add video as well as images in one campaign. It just makes it simpler not having to have multiple campaigns. Another great improvement is discovery campaigns

Starting point is 00:03:05 and performance max. You can only bid for conversions. So the bid strategy you have to use is conversions or conversion value. So if you want to drive an awareness campaign, or you're looking to drive engagement, you can't do that really with performance max. But now with demand gen, they're adding the ability to use the maximize clicks bid strategy so that's now going to let you use this to generate demand and maybe go after some new customers and not just always focusing on conversion conversion conversion another thing they're doing here which again really shows how much this is a meta ads copycat is they're adding in the ability to do lookalike audiences and even calling it lookalike oh are they oh but there's lookalikes and there's

Starting point is 00:03:54 a slider you can drag of what percentage of the target location population you want to target that's directly a meta ads feature that's been lifted that Google never had before. So they're really designing this to, as Discovery was initially designed to steal budgets from Facebook and other social platforms to make it as easy as possible to run those video and image audience-based targeting ads in a lot of places, either on a clicks or a conversion-focused objective. And that's good news for media buyers, right? I mean, if we're familiar with the model of one platform and it is working well and it's easy to communicate to our team, it just makes sense for us to use the same language on another platform. Exactly. And for those who are plugged into the industry, there's been a lot of grumbling, oh, meta ads has gotten so expensive, it doesn't perform the way you used to. So I think this rebranding of it from discovery to demand gen uh could potentially appeal to a lot more people who had no idea what a discovery

Starting point is 00:04:50 campaign is or what the discovery feed is now said the messaging is just and of course we know google ads is great for capturing demand you can use google ads to generate demand it's going to work exactly the way you're used to on other platforms come give it a try i guess we just wait for the day when they start calling it Advantage Plus Demand Gen, but maybe that won't go that far. Then we'll really know what they're up to. What kind of brand or what kind of company, the business that they're in or their vertical, like what type of organization would be best to use this?

Starting point is 00:05:21 I'd actually say everybody, which is not an answer I usually say. And the reason I say that is because demand gen sits on such premium Google owned inventory, unlike say a display campaign, which would be more like audience network, you know, showing on millions of websites and apps across the internet. I find that at least with the discovery iteration, the traffic quality is really high. So B2B advertisers who may not be willing to go into display or into YouTube, discovery has worked very well for them. E-commerce also works really well. You can add a product feed to a discovery campaign that's relatively new feature, and that will be available in demand gen as well. At smaller budget levels,

Starting point is 00:06:02 I've seen these things work well. And at hundreds of dollars a day, I've seen these things work well. So this is really something I do recommend that most businesses test, of course, if they have the budget and the assets to do so. Assets are key here, having really great video and image creative to entice people off of those feeds and onto your website. Whenever Google and I mean, I shouldn't just call out Google, all the platforms do this, they make a grand announcement and then buried at the bottom it says, select users have access to an early alpha release that most of us don't have access to.

Starting point is 00:06:34 So how out there is this? Is this something we could start using right now? Pretty out there, actually. While not everyone can use it right now, anyone can sign up for the beta. You can do that if you just look up Google Ads Demand Gen and go to the Google Ads Help Center. You can sign up to join this beta right now. But it's a very fast rollout. We're in mid-August 2023. Talking about this, October is when it will begin Discovery campaigns to DemandGen campaigns by January, I believe they said. So within the next six months at most, Discovery will be out, DemandGen will be in, and it should be available to everyone as soon as October.

Starting point is 00:07:16 And you are doing an in-depth dive of DemandGen in your Google Ads training program, is that right? That's right. I already have lessons in there about how to set up a discovery campaign, how to optimize a discovery campaign and how to have the best assets in your discovery campaign. And next week at my monthly live meeting with my members, we'll be diving into everything you need to know to take advantage of demand gen for your business. Good stuff. Thanks, Jill. See you next week. See you next week. Again, that is what you hear every Wednesday exclusively on the Premium Podcast. Jill updates us on the latest Google ad platform changes. And every Tuesday, our meta ads correspondent, Andrew Foxwell, does the same for that site.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Those you will only hear by signing up for the Premium Podcast. Again, tap the link in the show notes that reads Go Premium or go to todayindigital.com slash premium. It is on sale right now for 30% off, but that discount will disappear very soon. As for Jill's training program, it really is outstanding. And you can learn more about that at our affiliate link at b.link slash GA training. Should print be your next ad buy?

Starting point is 00:08:25 As the digital space becomes more crowded, top retail brands are starting to invest in print again. Digiday reported today that fashion retailer Nordstrom recently relaunched its anniversary sale catalog after phasing out the print publication a few years ago. Amazon-owned online retailer Zappos is also ramping up its print efforts by launching its first back-to-school catalog.

Starting point is 00:08:48 These aren't the only companies investing in the space. Amazon's been mailing a printed holiday toy catalog to customers since 2018. Lifestyle brand Mad Happy recently introduced a print magazine this month. Nordstrom's marketing strategy when it comes to print has seen a shift. Back in 2018, the fashion giant was sending up to 12 catalogs per year, but it scaled back as digital gained traction, fueled by the pandemic, before refocusing on print this year. Zappos began experimenting with print media in 2019. The online retailer currently uses QR codes to measure catalog engagement, purchases, and traffic. Future plans include a holiday catalog and a continued investment in print marketing.

Starting point is 00:09:32 Both companies declined to disclose specifics. Quoting Digiday, Over the last few years, digital marketing and ad spend has been steadily increasing, accounting for 60% of global ad spend. But with mounting data privacy challenges and an increasingly crowded digital marketplace, the glory days of quick and digital customer acquisition may soon be numbered, meaning retailers like Nordstrom and Zappos are getting serious about investing in other channels

Starting point is 00:09:59 like print marketing, not only to boost brand awareness, but also to reach offline shoppers, unquote. 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. Be protected. Be Zen.

Starting point is 00:10:34 Well, as print makes a comeback, Linear TV's viewership plummeted to a new low last month, dropping below 50% of total TV usage in the U.S. for the first time, while time spent streaming TV reached an all-time high. This new data coming from Nielsen. Streaming accounted for nearly 40% of total TV usage fueled by shows like Suits, children's programming like Bluey, and streaming YouTube videos on television screens. Streaming viewership increased by a quarter year over year.

Starting point is 00:11:06 Frontrunners among streaming platforms include YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu. Nielsen reported that time spent on broadcast TV and time spent on cable also represented record low shares of total TV usage. Broadcast viewing was down 5% and cable viewing was down 12% year over year. Quoting Marketing Brew, the data underscores the business challenges media companies face as U.S. viewers increasingly spend more time streaming and less time watching traditional television. TV titans are struggling to make money

Starting point is 00:11:38 from streaming platforms, which require considerable programming costs to offset losses from linear TV ratings declines and the continued erosion of the traditional cable bundle. Unquote. Adobe is coming for Canva. Express for desktop today, which now includes new AI features from its Firefly generative AI model, like its text-to-image and text effects tools that are safe for commercial use. Users can also generate custom images and text effects using text prompts in more than 100 languages. The update also brings video, Photoshop, Illustrator, PDF integration, real-time collaboration, and quick

Starting point is 00:12:23 actions like automatic background removal and using audio to create character animations to its all-in-one editor. Marketers can now access the free suite of content creation tools on desktop web with plans for a mobile version coming soon. Twitter competitor Blue Sky is taking steps to make the platform more brand safe by letting users self-tag their posts so they can be automatically filtered. With self-labeling, users can now tag posts with content warnings for NSFW categories like suggestive, nudity, or porn by tapping the shield icon in the composer window. The platform plans to add more self-tagging categories over time. Blue Sky has a detailed moderation settings page, which lets users control warnings and

Starting point is 00:13:13 visibility for explicit sexual content, nudity, spam, violence, and suggestive posts. While it already filters out some content automatically for users based on their settings, these new tags proactively add warnings or hide posts. Blue Sky is also adding a media tab to profiles, which lets visitors look at images and videos a user has posted. And as Blue Sky giveth, X, formerly Twitter, taketh away. X has now made X Pro, you probably know this as TweetDeck, a premium subscriber-only tool.

Starting point is 00:13:51 Several users reported that while accessing TweetDeck, they were shown a pop-up prompting them to buy a blue checkmark. The move comes 45 days after the company said that TweetDeck would only be available to verified users after 30 days. But, you know, who's keeping score? Yesterday, we reported about some early signs that X had been slowing down how long it takes to access links to several of its competitors. Those reports have now been confirmed, according to a New York Times analysis published yesterday. The company slowed down access to rival sites, including Substack, Facebook, Blue Sky, Instagram, Threads, and even the Reuters news agency. The delay in loading links was relatively minor, about four and a half seconds, but still noticeable. And according to some scientific studies, enough to have at least 50% of people who click on those links abandoned it. That delay

Starting point is 00:14:44 appeared to have lifted yesterday afternoon for some of those sites. This isn't the first time X has taken such actions. Last year, Musk briefly blocked Mastodon links and, more recently, temporarily banned users from sharing Substack links on the platform after the company said it planned to launch a Twitter competitor. And if throttling traffic to websites you don't like isn't an option, what about banishing someone from the platform? A marketing professor at NYU with more than a half million followers says

Starting point is 00:15:12 he's been locked out of his ex-account for more than two weeks following a dispute with Elon Musk. The prof who posted on Thread said, quote, A mutual friend reached out and said, Elon feels unfairly attacked by me and wants to meet. I declined, unquote. Two days later, he was locked out of his account. And at last report, he is still locked out.

Starting point is 00:15:40 And finally, caught an interesting post on Mastodon last night. It seems that Google searches increasing reliance on AI guesses to summarize web content is proving to be, well, kind of dumb. Several people yesterday posted screenshots of their Google search for this phrase. Country in Africa that starts with the letter K. The accurate answer, of course, is Kenya. There's only one that starts with a K, Kenya. But rather than give the accurate answer,

Starting point is 00:16:12 the top result was an AI-generated summary of a webpage showing an inaccurate chat GPT answer. That inaccurate answer reads, and please follow along closely because it's kind of a hilarious train of thought, quote, while there are 54 recognized countries in Africa, none of them begin with the letter K. The closest is Kenya, which starts with a K sound, but is actually spelled with a K sound. It's always interesting to learn new trivia facts like these.

Starting point is 00:16:45 Unquote. Again, top result on Google. Rod Hilton, the fellow who discovered this, believes it's happening because ChatGPT at some point ingested this popular joke. There are no countries in Africa that start with K. What about Kenya? Kenya suck these nuts? Top result on Google. I tested other search engines this afternoon.

Starting point is 00:17:11 Bing got it right. Brave search, DuckDuckGo, they all got it right. For me, Google actually did have the right answer, though it was in a kind of somewhat rambling summary. But four of the top 10 results in Google when I searched this afternoon claimed there were no African countries that started with a K. So I thought, well, let me just check to make sure ChatGPT has it right now. And here is ChatGPT's answer. There are four African countries that start with the letter K.

Starting point is 00:17:40 Kenya. Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, though it's not commonly referred to by the K in kingdom. Kiribati. Note, Kiribati is not in Africa. It's a Pacific island nation, including it here was an error. And Comoros. Note, Comoros doesn't start with a K, but with a C, including it here was an error. So the correct answer is Kenya and Kingdom of Eswatini, though it's not commonly referred to by the K in kingdom. I apologize for the oversight. The number of African countries that start with the letter K is one. Kenya. Unless you consider the kingdom in Kingdom of Eswatini, then it's two.

Starting point is 00:18:25 Unquote. Artificial intelligence, ladies and gentlemen, please don't rely on it. Or I guess Google anymore. Don't forget the premium podcast is on sale for 30% off. Exclusive columns, no ads. Tap go premium in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash premium. I'm Todd Mappin. See you tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:18:51 This is the real thing. This is the real thing. This is the real thing. This is the real thing This is the real thing Oh, oh

Today in Digital Marketing - From Pixels to Paper: Retail’s Unexpected Full Circle

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