Today in Digital Marketing - Meta-Economic Uncertainty

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

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Today, Meta's sales fall for the first time ever. Zuck says sorry not sorry about not making Instagram Instagram again. Why your Facebook ads might be showing up in the wrong country. The fate of the doomsday clock for the cookie apocalypse. And what to do if your brand ends up in a bad throuple. It's Thursday, July 28th. I'm Steph Gunn, filling in for Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing. How did your Q2 go? Hopefully better than Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg's. Meta reported its first

ever revenue decline yesterday, down 1% from last year's second quarter. The number of monthly active users across Meta's family of applications was up just 4% versus last year, and the number of daily active users was also up 4%. Growth didn't get much better on the Facebook app specifically. Daily active users increased only by 3% year over year. The number of monthly active users increased by just 1%. How did ads do? Good for us digital marketers, not great for Zuck. Across meta platforms, impressions rose 15% year over year, but the average price per ad was down 14%. On the company's earnings call, Zuckerberg said the economy appears to be entering a downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising

business. As a result, he said the company must do more with less. In spite of the difficulties, Facebook's outgoing operating chief remains optimistic about the company's future, the company that she's leaving. Quoting Sandberg, We're facing a cyclical downturn, but over the long run, the digital ad market will continue to grow. Advertisers will go where they get the highest return on investment and ability to drive their business. We believe we will continue to show up favorably compared to other advertising options." Meadows' earnings release indicated that Q3 revenue is expected to be between $26 and $28 billion, a decline from $29 billion in the third quarter of 2021.

Sorry Kylie Jenner, it looks like Meta doesn't have any plans on making Instagram Instagram again. Zuck said that by 2023, the company plans to double the Instagram and Facebook content that comes from recommended accounts. Your followers are likely to see less of your brand's content as a result. On yesterday's earnings call, Zuckerberg explained that right now, about 15% of people's Facebook feeds, and a little more than that on their Instagram feed, is recommended by AI, and that you can expect the algorithm to double that by the end of next year. Quoting Zuck, As our AI finds additional content that people find interesting, that increases engagement and the quality of our feeds.

He also elaborated on how the discovery engine the company is building is different from competitors. The new AI meta is developing doesn't just apply to videos, and it's certainly not just short form video. Instead, it will also recommend all the content people publicly share on its platforms, such as links, comments, and photos. Quoting Zuck again, I think we will end up producing a different experience on Facebook and Instagram compared to some of our other competitors that are just focused on one content format. I think in that sense, what we're doing is going to be pretty unique. From your content not being seen by your followers to your ads showing up in the wrong country

a marketing specialist posted a tweet this morning that said if you have a global structure of your meta for business facebook page one page for all countries there is a bug right now where your ads might be delivered to the wrong country they are are working on a fix. On top of that, Facebook users were unable to engage or see comments on popular pages yesterday. Several major media platforms and blogs in Kenya did not allow comments or discussions on page posts, leading many to accuse the affected platforms of censorship. Meta confirmed that a technical issue caused some people to have trouble viewing comments on verified Facebook pages, TechCrunch reports. The company said it resolved the issue, however, some users reported that they were still experiencing the problem.

But the big story today really is the continued delay of the cookiepocalypse. Google says it's pushing back the death of cookies again. The company announced yesterday it will delay its plans to eliminate third-party cookies until at least 2024. Previously, the tech giant planned to block third-party cookies in 2022, as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative. However, Google postponed the move until 2023. Now, it needs even more time for testing. Quoting the company, The most consistent feedback we've received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome.

This deliberate approach to transitioning from third-party cookies ensures that the web can continue to thrive without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques like fingerprinting, unquote. Google says Privacy Sandbox trials will be open to developers in early August and will expand to Chrome users globally through the year and into 2023. 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. Yesterday, Spotify announced its Q2 earnings, which suggests more people are listening to audio content. According to the report, monthly active users grew 20% year-over-year, premium subscribers grew 15%, and premium revenue increased 22% year-over-year. Ad-supported revenue growth increased by 30%,

which the company attributed to music and podcasting gains. Spotify said its podcast revenue grew by double digits, led by its audience ad network. The streaming giant also reported that by the end of Q2, it had 4.4 million podcasts on its platform, and its number of monthly active users engaged with podcasts grew in the double-digit range. That said, the platform remains unprofitable. Its net loss in the quarter totaled roughly $197 million. Couple influencers can mean viral views and engagement for your brand, but the problem with influencer couples is that they can break up. So what does your brand do when TikTok's favorite couple splits and your influencer marketing plans are ruined? There

was a great piece at Marketing Brew today about what marketers and influencers have done in the past, which can help your brand in case it ends up in an advertising throuple. The first solution, fake it till you make it. The article points out that it's a common move for influencer couples to finish brand deals they've already committed to before announcing their breakup. That said, if there is any bad blood, it's not a good idea to push ahead with the content. If it's not possible to remain professional, the piece suggests rearranging the partnership. As far as preventing fallout from influencer couple breakups, brands can't do much aside from being strategic when drafting their contracts.

As a final point, the VP of Talent at the media company Digital Brand Architects says most brands and agencies understand these situations and are usually willing to compromise. From the What Could Possibly Go Wrong files, Instagram announced today that it will start asking some users for their race and ethnicity. Select users will get a pop-up in the app that leads to a survey asking for the two very personal data points. The survey is optional, and Instagram says responses will not limit the experiences that you have on Instagram, including impacting your reach or how people engage with your content in any way. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri stated in a video today that collecting data will help

the platform look for ways to improve Instagram for users. And for the second time this week, Adam Mosseri is fighting for his life in the comment section. Todd is back tomorrow with a special episode. We take a deep dive into the up and coming social platform that has everyone talking. You know the one. It starts with a T. Yes, Tumblr. It's back and it wants your ad dollars. Tomorrow, Todd speaks with a researcher who walks us through what happened to Tumblr,

how it's trying to earn the trust of users and marketers back, what key obstacles it has to overcome, and much, much more. A special summer edition is coming to you tomorrow. And it's a long weekend, which means I'm heading up to my family's cottage for the weekend, and Monday is a stat, so there will be no show on Monday. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuk First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is me, Steph Gunn. Podcast music licensing by Source Audio. Ad coordination by Red Circle.

And a lot of people don't know this, but our theme composer, Mark Blevis, is an internationally recognized long stroke swimming competitor. But not this week. Poor guy has an inner ear infection. So he can dip his foot in the pool, but he can't have a swim. He can feel the punishment, but he can't commit the sin. Doctor says he's cured, but he still feels the pain. Aspirations in the clouds, but his hopes go down the drain.

I'm Steph Gunn. Todd is back tomorrow with that special episode. I hope you have a great weekend. Hey. Hey. Hey.