Today in Digital Marketing - Frugal Festivities

Starting point is 00:00:01 It is Monday, September 9th. Today, frugal festivities. Consumers say they'll spend less and earlier this holiday season. Google sunsets another ad feature. A timeline for a possible Google breakup emerges. And handy emails for when your links break. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in Digital Marketing. More than a third of consumers plan to spend less on holiday shopping this year.

Starting point is 00:00:32 This according to a new study from Bankrate. High interest rates and inflation are the main reasons for the cutback. Only 24% of shoppers say they'll spend more. 43% will spend about the same as last year. Older generations are the most worried, with 34% of Gen X and 29% of Millennials feeling the pressure. Gen Z is less concerned, with only 21% saying holiday shopping will stress their budgets. Despite the stress, many shoppers are planning to start shopping early. Almost half of those surveyed say they'll start shopping by Halloween. Retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are already rolling out October sales events. Quoting Retail Dive, quote, e-commerce will be a key channel this season with 42% of respondents saying most

Starting point is 00:01:17 of their holiday purchases would be done online, compared to 23% of shoppers who intend to do most of their holiday shopping in stores. Recent surveys also suggest that more shoppers, most notably Gen Z, will make their holiday purchases using social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. And a report from Adobe Analytics predicts that more than half of online sales this holiday season will occur on mobile devices. Unquote. We have the full study in today's email newsletter, plus five detailed tips on marketing during a holiday downturn. That's in today's email newsletter, which is free to sign up to.

Starting point is 00:01:56 Just tap the link at the top of the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. Google Ads is getting rid of enhanced cost per click bidding. slash newsletter. next March. Then, all campaigns using enhanced CPC will switch to manual CPC bidding. Google says it's making this change because it has better bidding strategies. Now, smarter, they say, thanks to machine learning. Google suggests advertisers switch to maximize conversions or maximize conversion value. Now, if your campaign doesn't have any conversion goals, say, for instance, brand awareness, you can use maximize clicks instead. If advertisers don't make any changes, their campaigns will automatically switch to manual CPC bidding next March. The American Justice Department is taking Google to court this week over its ad tech business. If Google loses, it could be forced this week over its ad tech business. If Google loses,

Starting point is 00:03:06 it could be forced to sell its publisher ad tech business. This would be a huge change for the programmatic industry. I know it's a little hard to keep up with the Google versus America lawsuits. This is not the same one which found the company to be a monopoly. An update on that ruling in a moment. Quoting Adweek, quote, if Google is forced to sell its publisher ad tech business, it could eventually increase competition in the market. However, given the tangled nature of ad tech, disrupting the balance between Google's sell-side technology and publishers' business models could lead to some wild uncertainties, complications, and chaos in the short term, according to publishers, particularly around changing the level of demand and incurring publisher costs. Quote, even in short-term pain, there's still winners and losers, said Scott Messner, founder of consultancy Messner Media.

Starting point is 00:03:58 Quote, the winners are going to be those who have premium offerings and can command the attention of buyers, and the losers are going to be the long tail of the web with relatively undifferentiated supply and lower quality inventory, unquote. Google's ad server technology is currently bundled with its ad exchange. This makes it cheap for publishers to use. If Google is forced to sell its ad tech business, a new owner might not be able to offer such low prices. Other ad servers could emerge to help publishers manage their ad businesses, but they might be more expensive. So the previous court case, which ruled Google was a monopoly, an update there, a U.S. federal judge now says he expects to decide on a punishment by next August.

Starting point is 00:04:45 This is the next step in an antitrust case that could change the tech giant and competition on the Internet. The judge asked the Justice Department and states to submit a proposal by the end of this year. After that, he'll hold a new trial to hear evidence on how to proceed. This trial expected to take place in March or April. The judge says he will take into account the changing technology landscape, including new competition from artificially intelligent chatbots. Google and Microsoft have added AI to their search, and OpenAI's chatbot is being used for search. Proposed remedies could include restrictions on deals that feature Google's search engine on mobile devices, or even a breakup of the company.

Starting point is 00:05:25 The Department of Justice is weighing asking for a breakup of Google, separating search from businesses like its Chrome browser and Android operating system. Google is now emailing businesses when it detects a broken appointment link in their Google business profile. The email is called Fix Your Business Google Link, and it alerts owners to update the link to maintain customer confidence. This email, if you get it,

Starting point is 00:05:52 will explain that a broken appointment link can hurt your business's online presence and your ability to attract customers. It provides the specific link that's not working and includes a little update link button to make it easier to fix. For now, Google is only sending these emails for broken appointment links. It's not clear if the company plans to expand this feature to other links in Google business

Starting point is 00:06:12 profiles like website links. I am aware the shows are short of the last few episodes. That is mostly because I can't mention it. Was it Thursday I mentioned this? I'm switching meds and oh my god, it's just, it's not been fun. The med that I take is for insomnia and I'm switching them out. And I can get to sleep, which is great. And then I wake up at about 2.30 every morning. And man, to be fair, if it weren't unhealthy to only get four hours of sleep at night and if I had a hobby, this would not be an issue.

Starting point is 00:06:50 I don't mind getting up early if I had something to do. I don't even have any games I'm really playing all that much anymore. I kind of gave up on the ESO grind. So anyway, wish me luck. That's for sure. I have I've almost a couple of times recorded the show using an AI voice, but I'm really just not happy with the way AI voices sound. So, yeah, that's why that's why I might sound a little tired for the next few episodes. All right. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Frugal Festivities

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