Today in Digital Marketing - Hey Fellow Kids… This New AI is Bussin’!

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, February 14th. Today, Meta finally kills off what was supposed to be the next big thing. One simple copy change could slash your product returns. Google's topics might favor large websites. YouTube's new audio feature is great for brands that operate multinationally. And the best use yet for AI. Understanding what the hell teens are talking about. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:28 Meta is officially calling it quits on live shopping. Instagram will shut down live shopping next month. The company killed its live shopping feature on Facebook back in October. So starting on March 16th, brands and businesses on Instagram will no longer be able to tag products while live streaming. Other live streaming features, though, will not be affected. Meta claims it is still invested in shopping, even though it is ending live commerce. Instead of that, the company plans to push advertising as one of the main ways consumers discover brands and shops on the app.

Starting point is 00:00:59 This includes the use of automated tools like Shop Ads and Advantage Plus shopping campaigns. Meta will also continue to invest in Checkout, which lets users purchase products in just a few taps from Instagram, Facebook, Stories, Feeds, or Reels. Despite these promises, TechCrunch pointed out today that Instagram recently demonstrated it intends to deprioritize shopping on its app. It was only last month that it removed the shop tab entirely and moved reels to the side in its pivot to video. The platform said brands and creators will still be able to go live on the app, invite guests to their streams, host Q&As, and so on. After live shopping is shut down, businesses will also still be able to set up an Instagram shop. Looking to reduce product returns? Research suggests a simple change in your promotion wording can significantly decrease returns. The study found framing a promotion as a free gift instead of a bundle can cut your product returns in half. For example, buy a speaker for

Starting point is 00:02:06 $49 and get free headphones instead of get a speaker and headphones for $49. Why? The study researchers found that it's because we perceive the value of both campaigns differently. When free gifts are involved, we don't just consider the monetary savings value of the gift, but we also enjoy the value of a fun freebie. So when consumers buy a gift promotion, they feel like they're getting more value out of it and are less likely to return it. The researchers noted, however, that this strategy only works with brands people are already familiar with. The method doesn't work when people aren't sure about the product's value, such as when buying from a new brand. The study also advised caution if you intend to sell the gift separately

Starting point is 00:02:50 in the future, since this type of marketing can make the item seem less valuable. The research was published in the Marketing and Psychology Journal. It's called Retail is Detail. Give consumers a gift rather than a bundle. And we ran across it via the RE Marketing Newsletter, which is free. And you can sign up at b.link slash marketing science. Google's recent updates to its Privacy Sandbox proposal, Topics, seems to be once again favoring large publishers, according to Adweek. The topics proposal suggests grouping users by interests based on browser history, such as auto or fitness created by the browser and shared with a site and its ad partners when a user visits. Google's January quarterly progress report, however, suggests assigning topics based on page level metadata. Topics are currently assigned per domain. For example, nytimes.com

Starting point is 00:03:47 would be assigned the broad topic of news. Sources told Adweek that assigning based on page-level metadata, which means larger publishers would receive topics like cooking to the relevant page rather than an umbrella topic like news to a domain is likely to benefit larger websites. A spokesperson for Google said it is continuing to develop topics based on feedback from the industry, prioritizing use cases across large and small publishers, and it is maintaining its current cookypocalypse deadline of 2024. TikTok is coming for boomers. Yesterday, the website The Information reported that the company is working on several new features to boost usage and expand its older audiences in the U.S.

Starting point is 00:04:34 One of the features being developed is a paywall, which would let TikTok creators set a price for their content and viewers would have to pay to watch their videos. Insert OnlyFans joke here. As The Verge points out, the idea of exclusive content for paying users is nothing new. Other platforms like Instagram let creators share subscriber-only content. TikTok is also testing an updated creator fund in France and Brazil, which could roll out in the U.S. next month. Some have criticized the current creator fund, suggesting it limits how much content creators can earn. The new fund aims to pay out creators more than the original version. TikTok is also considering using the new fund to reward creators

Starting point is 00:05:16 who post longer videos and raising the follower requirement to 100,000 from the current 10,000 follower requirement to be eligible for the fund. 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 today, Meta is launching a new version of its Why Am I Seeing This Ad tool. The company says the redesigned interface provides users with more information about how their online behavior on Facebook and other technologies influences its ad matching

Starting point is 00:06:11 software. The updated tool on Facebook will now include new examples and illustrations explaining how its machine learning models connect various topics to show you ads and more ways to find ads controls. Users will now be able to access ads preferences from additional pages in that tool. Social media today noted that the new explainers provide more plain language information as to how the platform targets users based on their activity and the various inputs it collects, which will give consumers more power to manage their options or at the least understand how the process works. A few updates from YouTube to report. First, the platform is testing a new option that will let brands and creators add multiple audio tracks in different languages to their videos. The platform,

Starting point is 00:06:59 of course, already has auto-translated captions as a similar option on this front, but the capacity to overdub your videos or create all new tracks for different regions could expand your global audience potential. YouTube said that on average, more than two-thirds of a creator's audience watch time comes from outside their home region. YouTube is also expanding its test of images in community poll posts on iOS, which will let creators add up to four images. And finally, YouTube is expanding its creator music option to all users in the US. Creator

Starting point is 00:07:32 music provides creators with a catalog of tracks that they can legally use in their long form videos with licensing on some available for a small fee. And finally, last week we told you about how Google's AI chatbot BARD flubbed an answer in its very own ad. Not so surprisingly, it's not just BARD that's messing things up. Business Insider reporting today that a tech researcher recently discovered that Bing's new AI chatbot also made some mistakes in its big reveal. During its demo, Bing's AI was asked to list the pros and cons of the three best-selling pet vacuums. The chatbot made a list for a Bissell vacuum with its cons, including its noise level and short cord. The problem? Well, when the researcher compared what the chatbot said to the article it linked to as a source, he noticed the review didn't actually mention the vacuum's noisiness at all.

Starting point is 00:08:30 Plus, it's cordless. He also said the chatbot fabricated numbers after it was asked about key takeaways from the GAPS Q3 2022 financial report. While the researcher told Insider that generative AI search engines can be quite transformative, he noted that releasing this kind of tech prematurely could lead to big problems in terms of spreading misinformation. Meanwhile, Microsoft's chief technical officer says he uses the new Bing AI chatbot to understand his teenage daughter's slang. Like bussin'. While it might not be able to provide reliable answers yet, it can help you decode Gen Z language. Well,

Starting point is 00:09:12 it's happened again. I uninstalled Overwatch for the 19th million time. This time I had a very good reason for it and do not skip because you are the people that I get this stuff off my chest to. Alright, listen. They've killed Mercy. Like, the best healer in the... Okay, well the easiest to play healer in the game. The one that I have a thousand off my chest too. All right, listen, they've killed Mercy. Like the best healer in the, okay, well, the easiest to play healer in the game.

Starting point is 00:09:27 The one that I have a thousand hours on and they just nerfed her into the ground. So I started playing Siege. Very different game, also multiplayer. Much more tactile, much more quiet, much more, well, let's just say it's skill-based. And you know, I'm okay, but let me just put it this way. My skill rating is currently Copper 4.

Starting point is 00:09:53 The bottom of the barrel is Copper 5. There are, like, 80 skill levels above that. I am in the bottom 1%. And I don't know how. I got, like, a new 4K monitor, and it's bigger. It's like 27 inches. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:10:12 So anyway, I'm killing time basically with City Skylines and Bejeweled and stuff until Atomic Hearts comes out, and then maybe Starfield, and my life will once again be worthwhile. That's my day. How's yours? See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Hey Fellow Kids… This New AI is Bussin’!

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