Today in Digital Marketing - Is iSearch Around the iCorner?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, a rumor from Apple that would change SEO. A buy-now-pay-later platform expands its offering to millions of businesses. Google upgrades its enterprise offering. How to target consumers when they're on vacation. And Gucci, you good, fam? It's Monday, May 31st. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. We begin the day with what could be a huge announcement from Apple coming for the marketing industry.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Tech blogger Robert Scoble posted what to expect from Apple's developer conference next week and dropped a bomb on marketers by tweeting, rather nonchalantly, quote, oh, and there's going to be a new search engine too, unquote. This isn't the first time we've heard this rumor, and if it's true, Google may finally have a serious competitor. But if that's the case, will the tech giant be able to take share away from Google? Apple receives a significant amount of revenue per year from Google. Last year, Google paid Apple $15 billion to be the default search engine on Safari. Getting a new search engine could mean several different things.

Starting point is 00:01:05 It could mean Siri is simply getting smarter. Or it could mean Apple will be crawling and indexing your brand's website. It could be a very different SEO landscape in just a week. E-commerce merchants using Stripe will be able to provide their consumers with a new way to pay. Today, Affirm announced its partnership with the digital payments processor to offer buy-now-pay-later services to users in the U.S. Now, businesses and platforms that use Stripe's payment technology can offer customers an option of paying in installments. This, of course, is a huge deal considering just how much Stripe is used by merchants. Consumers will then be able to use Affirm to divvy up the cost of purchases ranging from $50 to $30,000 with a credit limit of $17,500. The company noted there are no late fees and claims no surprises when it comes to interest charges. Affirm says businesses using its service at checkout

Starting point is 00:02:05 report an average order value that is 85% greater than when using other payment methods. The company has also recently partnered with Shopify, WooCommerce, and Verifone. Some good news for enterprise marketers. Google recently announced plans to upgrade its 360 suite tools. Those are the paid enterprise level version of a lot of its products. First, with new ad formats, including audio ad updates. Soon, Google will launch podcast targeting on YouTube and partner inventory, as well as the expansion of targeting. Number two, connected TV. The tech giant says it's extending its Google audiences to connected TV devices and said more broadcasters and publishers will be joining Google Display and Video 360 in the future.

Starting point is 00:02:52 And Unified Tools, a company launching a new co-viewing, planning, and measurement tool, and Campaign Manager 360 will enable advertisers to manage brand safety. Also, it's enhancing its platforms to offer more privacy-safe signals. You'll soon be able to use Google's new API sandbox with interest-based advertising. Another big update involves E-pids. Those are exchange-provided identifiers. These IDs are shared by exchanges or publishers with DV360, which are based on a domain or app, and then are used to build segments for advertisers. The last update added is the ability to match first-party data for marketing purposes.

Starting point is 00:03:30 Google will allow advertisers and publishers to share data directly. A hotel wants a piece of your media budget. Marriott International recently launched its own media network. The hotel chain is relying on its 164 million loyalty program members being receptive to things like food and transportation and entertainment promotions while on vacation. Marriott has teamed up with Yahoo to roll the network out with pilot advertisers this month. The company says the network will allow advertisers to target ads on premium inventory spanning its own channels once fully deployed, including display, mobile, video and email, and eventually on digital out-of-home screens like those in Marriott's lobbies, gyms, bars, rooms and so on. It will launch in the U.S. and Canada before expanding into other markets.

Starting point is 00:04:21 Marriott claims it is the first media network in the hospitality industry. 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. Is this your brand's sign to start taking Roblox seriously? Welcome to Gucci Town, the luxury designer's latest marketing campaign. Yes, Gucci has set up shop in the in-game portal where visitors can participate in branded competitions

Starting point is 00:05:07 and explore an exhibition space linked to the company's online concept store, Vault, where recent product drops and collaborations can be found. The virtual plaza also includes its online boutique, Gucci Shop, where customers can purchase digital items like the Blondie Tags and more. And yeah, Roblox? Like, I get that a lot of adults play Minecraft,

Starting point is 00:05:30 but I don't think I've heard a single adult talk about playing games on Roblox. Presumably they have access to better market research than I do. A few small items to wrap up for you. First, Google ad keywords under review will no longer trigger ads. So if you've been wondering why your Google ad campaign seems stuck, this is why.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Quoting Google, in June 2022, Google will update the serving behavior of keywords that are currently under review. Keywords won't be able to trigger ads until they've been reviewed. Google will begin implementing And if you're wondering what the deal is there, obviously Google and all the platforms take a look at creative first to see whether or not they want to approve it, and that ad only runs once it's been approved.

Starting point is 00:06:26 But this now we're talking about the keywords specifically. Next, TikTok is testing a new feature which may have an impact on your brand's video engagement and not in a good way. The platform confirming today it is testing clear mode that would allow for a distraction-free scrolling experience, which removes all of the on-screen engagement options, like comments, captions, share buttons, and more. And finally, here's your reminder to make sure you know when your brand's domain name registrations and SSL certificates expire, or you could suffer the fate Spotify suffered last night. Consumers were unable to access several of the platform's top podcasts for more than eight hours late last night and stretching into early this morning due to an outage on Megaphone. That's a podcast hosting platform owned by Spotify. The outage caused by Spotify's failure to renew Megaphone's security certificate.

Starting point is 00:07:22 You'd think they'd have an auto-renew service. A small programming note for you. This summer, I am aiming to take a little bit more time away from the podcast, only so that we can kind of upgrade what we're doing on the premium podcast and premium newsletter side. We have lots of plans for lots of big hopes, including expanded content, and I want to be working on that at least one day a week. So Wednesdays will be that day, which means that through the summer, our associate producer, the intrepid Steph Gunn, will be here in the hosting chair. You already know Steph. She guest hosts when I'm out of town. But I'm still in town just working on different stuff.

Starting point is 00:07:56 So Steph will see you tomorrow, and I will see you on Thursday.

Today in Digital Marketing - Is iSearch Around the iCorner?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.