Today in Digital Marketing - Google Thinks Their 'Bard AI' is Not Search. They're Wrong.

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, March 8th. Today, YouTube kills off its most visible ad placement. The real reason Facebook is bringing messaging back to the main app. LinkedIn accused of gouging recruiters. Is chat GPT for marketers overblown? And here's proof that Google has gotten drunk on AI and has completely lost touch with reality. I'm Todd Mathen. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Well, soon marketers will have one fewer ad option on YouTube. The platform will be retiring overlay ads next month. These are the OG banner ads that pop up at the bottom or the top of videos,

Starting point is 00:00:37 which can obstruct the view of whatever consumers are watching. The company confirmed the decision today, saying they're disruptive for viewers and that they are a legacy ad format that really only worked on desktop anyway. are watching. The company confirmed the decision today, saying they're disruptive for viewers and that they are a legacy ad format that really only worked on desktop anyway. The ads are officially being killed off on April 6th and after that will no longer appear on videos or as an available ad format when you turn on ads in YouTube Studio. As a result, the only ads available will be ads that can play before, in the middle, or after a video. YouTube says it expects to see limited impact for most creators as engagement shifts to the other formats. As Arts Technica pointed out today, creators sometimes only get paid if certain ad thresholds are met,

Starting point is 00:01:20 and overlay ads weren't necessarily enough for a creator to earn money, since advertisers could choose to only pay if a user clicked on the ad, meaning there's a chance nobody was actually getting paid from these pop-up ads. Hence, the decision favors the creator economy by giving them more opportunity to earn revenue from other brand formats, while brands and advertisers that rely on overlay ads will likely be affected by the move. While YouTube is preparing to send one of its products to the graveyard, Meta is bringing in-app messaging back from the dead.

Starting point is 00:01:59 The company is testing the ability to let users access their Messenger inbox within the Facebook app. You probably remember Facebook removed messaging capabilities from its app way back in 2016 to force people to the Facebook app. You probably remember Facebook removed messaging capabilities from its app way back in 2016 to force people to the Messenger app. Now, the company seems to be reversing its decision. Meta says it will integrate more messaging features into Facebook this year because they are just so devoted to making it easier for users to connect and share and blah, blah, blah. Of course, the real reason is that they're having their proverbial asses handed to them by TikTok, which has messaging inside the app itself.

Starting point is 00:02:28 And Meta is panic copying its biggest threat, like it always has, quoting TechCrunch. Given that Facebook has been focusing on being a discovery engine, it's not surprising that it's looking to bring back in-app messaging. By doing so, it can present itself as a place for users to directly discuss content after discovering it. Since TikTok surfaces new content to its users and also provides a place to discuss it via DMs, Facebook likely thinks it needs to do the same to compete with it. One thing we don't know is how this will affect the messenger placements in the ads manager. Are they tied to the app? Can they

Starting point is 00:03:05 be integrated into the blue app? Time will tell. Can't afford LinkedIn's recruiting services? You are not alone. Several recruiters are hating on the professional network over rising prices. The information reported today that the company is facing complaints that prices for its recruiting services have risen too much, prompting some to switch to cheaper options like Indeed and SeekOut, while some recruiters say that the quality of LinkedIn's product doesn't justify its price increases. The spokesperson for the company says that LinkedIn recruiter subscriptions range between $1,000 and $13,000 a year. To compare, Indeed.com subscription cost about $3,000,

Starting point is 00:03:50 while Seekout subscriptions cost about $6,000. Even the company's Talent Solutions sales team noticed a change in attitudes towards subscriptions when customers whose contracts were up for renewal increasingly opted for shorter contracts. Furthermore, some customers complain that LinkedIn's pricing policies are opaque and hard to understand, and that there are often large disparities between what various firms have paid. Current and former LinkedIn employees argue, however, that its recruiting services end up saving companies money by reducing the need to hire a recruiting firm. But even so, the report noted that many recruiters are finding ways to

Starting point is 00:04:25 spend less on LinkedIn. More ad automation is coming for you travel marketers. Google is rolling out Performance Max for Travel Goals globally over the next few weeks, which automates the ad creation process based on your existing hotel listings. Performance Max for Travel Goals is an AI tool that creates ads in multiple formats that will automatically serve across Google channels and inventory, including Maps, Search, YouTube, and later this year, hotel ads. During campaign setup, advertisers can select their hotel properties from a map using the Hotel Picker tool. It'll then pre-populate ads for your hotel, including creative elements like copy, images, and URLs. You can, of course, then edit these pre-populated assets

Starting point is 00:05:12 if you want or upload your own. Ad managers can maintain their performance max listings in Google Ads Manager, where they'll have oversight of each element. They can also measure and track campaign performance for each location in the Hotels tab. In other Google news, the tech giant refreshed its Google Trends site today. The updates include real-time trends now on the homepage. These trends are updated hourly, and the trends also provide links to relevant news articles.

Starting point is 00:05:42 While the robot overlords are still a ways from taking your job, Marketing Profs has an interesting piece up today about the do's and don'ts of using ChatGPT in marketing. The piece was written by an executive at Santa Commerce, an e-commerce platform for SAP. They tested it to see if it could improve their business. Here is what they found. First, they recommend don't use it to write copy from start to finish. Some pretty standard knowledge with this one, but the piece notes that while ChatGPT covered some convincing points, there's also a lot of repetition and even two conclusions.

Starting point is 00:06:12 It was able to provide information, but ultimately the AI functions best as a resource. Number two, do use it to ideate and research because ChatGPT provides ample information on demand. You can dig into the topics it provides, But don't use it for sensitive topics. If your brand uses AI to delegate sensitive information, your audience may perceive that your business didn't care enough to write or create something themselves. According to the piece, in moments when your goal is to make a human connection through writing, it's most important that you write it yourself.

Starting point is 00:06:43 And finally, do use it to challenge your team. The company created a marketing challenge where it asked GPT to create a LinkedIn post and then compared it with their copywriter's post. ChatGPT came up with a better headline. This is an area where they found success with the tech, generating engaging subject lines and openings. The piece suggests playing to its strengths. Ask it to summarize, list, ideate, and generate, but don't ask it to connect. That's your job.

Starting point is 00:07:13 For now. 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 00:07:42 Heads up, parents. Some very bad words ahead. Because YouTube is changing its policy on profanity. Be protected. Be Zen. profanity words won't get you demonetized in a video. And what are moderate profanity words? Here's a list. Bitch, douchebag, asshole, and shit. Words like hell or damn also get the green light in a thumbnail or title. You still can't say the F word. Stronger profanity is still unfriendly to advertisers. According to YouTube, you cannot say fuck in the first seven seconds or repeatedly throughout a video or else you will receive limited ads. And putting words like fuck into a title or thumbnail will result in no ad content. Videos with music in the background

Starting point is 00:08:39 are also affected by the changes. The company says any video with the use of moderate or strong profanity in background music are now eligible for full ad revenue. Finally, any videos that received demonetization stickers under the old policy will be re-reviewed this week. And finally, Google wants to be clear. BARD, its chat GPT competitor, is not search. As search engine land.com points out today, the rushed introduction of BARD has caused confusion within the search industry and marketing space. And Google is to blame for much of it, as it introduced BARD

Starting point is 00:09:18 at the same time as it teased AI powered features coming soon to search. Apparently, even Googlers seem to be unclear about the difference between search and BARD. One of the questions asked at the meeting was, quote, BARD and ChatGPT are large language models, not knowledge models. They're great at generating human-sounding text. They're not that good at ensuring their text is fact-based. Why do we think the first big application should be search, which at its heart is about finding true information, unquote. Bard's product lead responded by saying, quote, this product's magic is really about it being this creative companion,

Starting point is 00:09:56 helping you to spark your imagination, explore your curiosity, etc., unquote. And that's where Google executives have it wrong. Anytime you hear a PR person or senior executives speak in those kinds of tones, using those kinds of phrases, it's a sign there's bullshit ahead. Remember our story earlier about Facebook putting messaging back in the main app? They said it's because they just want to make it easier for users to connect and share. Bullshit. If that were the goal, they'd have never removed it from the blue app in the first place. They did it to add new ad placements and build out a massive everything app platform, which mostly failed.

Starting point is 00:10:35 Similarly, we hear Google talking about their chat AI being there because they just want to spark imagination and explore curiosity. And look, software engineers at these major tech platforms often get drunk on their own fermented dog food. And often it spills over into the public sphere like Google is doing here. I have no doubt these executives truly believe that chat AI is in search. I have no doubt they've got pages and pages of rationale, user profiles and speaking points. But they're missing one very important part. Consumers use it like search. Their competitor, Bing, has even built it right into the main search product.

Starting point is 00:11:15 I get that Google has a massive ad business to protect, but trying to convince marketers and consumers that BARD and search are two different things will keep their eye off the ball at best and lose them top market position at worst. Well, if you have news you think that our listeners should know about, something your company has launched or whatever, let us know on our news tips page today in digital.com slash tips or look for pitch us a story in the show notes. Or you can book a classified ad

Starting point is 00:11:45 where i'll read your copy at the end of a show link in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash classifieds see you tomorrow Outro Music

Today in Digital Marketing - Google Thinks Their 'Bard AI' is Not Search. They're Wrong.

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