Today in Digital Marketing - Googol Typos

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Thursday, June 27th. Today, typos are coming to your ad reports, and here's why you'll like that. TikTok tries to preempt Amazon's big sale, a verification tool used by major platforms left its users' government IDs practically unlocked, and Meta expands the content tool that keeps your fans quiet.

Starting point is 00:00:24 I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. In 1920, a mathematician named Edward Kasner decided the world needed words for big numbers, huge numbers, the kind you wouldn't be able to write out by hand. So he did what many of us do and we're in need for crazy ideas. He asked some kids. And his nine-year-old nephew Milton came up with a winner. For the number 10 to the power of 100, he proposed the word googol. That's spelled G-O-O-G-O-L. He then proposed another term, googolplex, which was to be defined as one, followed by writing zeros until you get tired. The Google we have today is actually a typo of the original word.

Starting point is 00:01:13 When the co-founders checked to see if the domain name was available, they spelled it wrong. But they decided they actually preferred the way they spelled it, and that's how we got the Google we know today. Well, this week, the company named after the mother of all typos has an ad solution for other people who misspell things when searching. Google this week announcing that misspellings will be grouped with their originally intended keywords in reports, and there are some changes to brand inclusions and exclusions. Quoting from a spokesperson, quote, misspelled queries are already matched

Starting point is 00:01:38 to their correctly spelled keywords in your campaigns, but many of those misspellings don't meet the privacy thresholds to show up in the search terms report. To help align with this existing matching behavior and surface more search terms, misspelled search terms will be reported in aggregate with their correct spelling. With this update, on average, 9% more search terms that had been reported under other are now visible. Also, negative keywords now block

Starting point is 00:02:06 misspellings. No more having to add all those misspellings to your negative keywords anymore either. Just add the correct spelling in your negative keywords and it will block all misspellings now too. Feel free to remove misspellings in your existing negatives to help streamline things in your account. And brand inclusions in broad match campaigns. This ensures your ads match only to queries related to your brand name in broad match campaigns. We've updated the name from brand restrictions based on helpful feedback that the old name was confusing. You may also now see recommendations to switch your brand focused campaigns to broad match and apply inclusions, unquote.

Starting point is 00:02:46 We have a very helpful table in today's email newsletter that'll help you understand how the negative keywords, the brand inclusions, the brand exclusions, how all those play out on various examples. Again, that's in the newsletter, which you can sign up to for free by tapping the link at the top of the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. TikTok is planning to rival Amazon's Prime Day with its own big sales event in July. The social network announcing today that TikTok shop will hold a Deals for You Days event in the US starting on July 9th. This news follows Amazon's announcement of Prime Day on July 16th and 17th. TikTok's event will feature deals on fashion, beauty products, backyard entertainment, decor, and books.

Starting point is 00:03:30 The sale will also include content challenges for short videos and live shopping events. During these events, brands and merchants can interact with their followers, showcasing and selling their products in real time with discounts. Many other retailers have started their own sales to compete with Prime Day. TikTok is hoping to get its revenue from the U.S. TikTok shop up to $17.5 billion this year. While this event targets Amazon, TikTok is also competing with Timu and Shein. Last year, TikTok's global gross merchandise value was expected to reach $20 billion with most sales in Southeast Asia. TikTok is now focused on achieving similar success in the US, if they're not banned first, that is.

Starting point is 00:04:15 Over the last few years, social media platforms have been increasingly demanding that marketers hand over their government-issued photo ID. Most commonly, this happens when your account is hacked and you need to prove you are who you say you are. But softer asks are there too, like LinkedIn, which promises increased reach for your personal organic posts if you send them a photo of your ID. These platforms usually outsource the collection and protection of these sensitive documents, but 404 Media this week reported that Autotix, an identity verification firm, exposed administrative login credentials online for more

Starting point is 00:04:52 than a year. This could have allowed anyone to view and download images of American driver's licenses, though the company says there's no evidence anyone actually tried to. Autotix provides verification services for platforms like LinkedIn, PayPal, TikTok, Uber, and X. 404 Media says the issue began when malware harvested an employee's login credentials. These credentials were later posted on a Telegram channel and let anyone who used them see user data, including names, dates of birth, nationalities, government ID numbers, and document images like driver's licenses.

Starting point is 00:05:31 Autotix, which is spelled A-U-1-0-T-I-X, confirmed the breach happened about 18 months ago, and that the compromised credentials were revoked after what they called a thorough investigation. But 404 Media says it found the credentials remained functional as of this month. Autotic said it is now decommissioning the affected system. Meta is expanding its broadcast channels feature. Now, any Facebook page with more than 10,000 followers can create a channel on Facebook or Messenger. The company first introduced broadcast channels for Facebook and Messenger in October of last year, following its success on Instagram, but it was more heavily restricted back then. It lets brands and influencers have a DM chat that any number of people can be a part of, but only the account holder can post to. A couple of updates also, channel messages can

Starting point is 00:06:25 now be automatically shared from Instagram to Facebook, and you can also post content to your channel before it goes live on your page. This might help you test a post with a smaller group before a broader release. Quoting Social Media Today, quote, creating a broadcast channel might be beneficial. As more conversations move to messaging, it offers a way to connect with your And finally, Google this afternoon added a new tag diagnostics tool to Google Analytics to help you find and fix issues with your website tags. You can access the tool from the Google Tag settings and on the landing page of Tag Manager when issues are detected. So many of you, at least those of you on the free feed, probably know by now that I made a bit of a mistake in yesterday's extra. Thanks to my friend and fellow streamer Webmeister Bud, he alerted me to the fact that I left in the credentials for our premium only hangout, which we do for premium members. What I do when I have messages for the free people and messages for the premium people is I record them separately and then I swap one in as I'm rendering out the show. Anyway, as has happened before, I forgot to swap it out.

Starting point is 00:07:50 See, this is why Steph needs to come back quick. We didn't have that many people, so we ended it a little bit early anyway. But still, it was nice to see those of you who showed up. Thank you for coming out, regardless of whether you are on the free feed or the premium feed. All right, that's it for today. Talk to you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Googol Typos

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