Today in Digital Marketing - Meta’s Muted Momentum
Episode Date: June 10, 2022Meta shuts down several projects to cut costs... Twitter gears up for its most ambitious quarter yet... The surge in second-hand shopping and how your brand can target eco-conscious consumers... and L...inkedIn expands ‘boost’ ad option to Events...Go Premium! No ads, weekend editions, story links, audio chapters, better audio quality, earlier release time, and more.Get each episode as a daily email newsletter (with images, videos, and links).HELPFUL LINKS:ADS: Reach thousands of marketers with our ad options.CLASSIFIED ADS: Only $20 — more infoMORE CONTENT: Email newsletter, expert interviews, and blog posts.HANG OUT: Join our Slack communityEnjoying the Show? Tweet about us • Rate and review • Send a voicemailFOLLOW US:The Show: LinkedIn • TikTok • FB Page • FB GroupTod: Twitter • LinkedIn • TikTok • TwitchDEALS:Jyll Saskin Gales — Inside Google Ads Andrew Foxwell — Foxwell Founders Membership • Scaling After iOS14 • All CoursesOthers — AppSumo lifetime marketing deals • Riverside.FM podcast recording siteCREDITS:Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. Our associate producer is Steph Gunn. Ad coordination by RedCircle. Production coordination by Sarah Guild. Theme music by Mark Blevis. All other music licensed by Source Audio.(If the links in the show notes do not work in your podcast app, visit https://todayindigital.com )Some links in these show notes may provide us with a commission.Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Today, Meta shuts down several projects to cut costs.
Twitter gears up for its most ambitious quarter yet.
The surge in second-hand shopping and how your brand can target eco-conscious consumers.
And LinkedIn expands its boost ad option to events.
It's Friday, June 10th. I'm Steph Gunn filling in for Todd Muffin.
Here's what you missed today in digital marketing.
Has Zuck been chasing the white whale when it comes to Meta's tech products?
Meta has reportedly made major changes to its product roadmap in order to cut costs.
According to various reports yesterday, the tech giant has either abandoned or delayed several hardware projects,
including seizing the development of its Apple Watch rival, stopping production of Portal,
its smart display device as a consumer product. Portal will still continue to be developed for business use, for now, and delaying the release of its upcoming AR glasses, which was initially
planned for 2024. Meta is apparently going to prioritize releasing
the second version of the glasses instead of what was supposed to be the first. The report also
suggests that the company may not release the glasses for several years. In response to the
reports, CTO Andrew Bosworth clarified the company's plans for these products in a tweet yesterday,
quoting Bosworth,
We're going to ship wrist wearables and AR glasses that bring
completely new tech like EMG to market. The path to groundbreaking products is not a straight line.
As is common in our industry, we iterate on multiple prototypes in parallel and shift
resources as we learn, unquote. So while Zach might not be having his Apple Watch moment,
Meta is still working on wrist wearables. It's just not a smartwatch,
it's wrist control for VR. And there's no launch date in sight.
Until then, the shelves at Meta's retail store may be a little empty.
While Elon Musk is threatening to walk away from the Twitter deal,
the company is gearing up for its biggest quarter of user growth yet, Reuters reports. According to an internal meeting, the platform
aims to grow its monetizable daily active users by 13 million this quarter. This is the highest
goal the team has ever set. However, Twitter's internal goal of 13 million exceeds Wall Street
expectations, as analysts expect a growth of 9 million new users.
That said, the company indicated that it is on track to meet its goal,
and has currently achieved 8.5 million in user growth.
The news comes after Musk warned Twitter that he might pull out of the $44 billion deal
if it failed to provide data to allow him to independently verify the proportion of spam
and fake accounts on the platform.
Twitter responded by providing him access to their complete database of live tweets,
which it calls the Firehose.
New research from eBay ads has found that more UK consumers are choosing to shop second-hand,
to make ends meet
as well as to minimize their environmental impact. According to the report, almost a third of
consumers are having to make more considered purchases to get better value for their money,
and a fifth are purchasing second-hand items to save money. On top of that, a quarter of consumers
said that they try to upcycle or repair belongings before buying new, and one in five said that they
frequently buy secondhand, upcycled, or refurbished items. The report found that on eBay searches for
the keywords upcycled and pre-owned rose almost 40%, while searches for secondhand rose almost 25%,
and repair kit over 20%. This study suggests second-hand shopping and upcycling are
also on the rise due to the increasing importance of sustainability, with almost a fifth of
consumers saying shopping sustainably is really important to them. In addition, 1 in 5 reported
they are conscious of throwing away items when they could be repaired, and 1 in 5 said that they
try to avoid fast fashion brands
or brands they consider unethical. eBay also indicates that shoppers are actively looking
for more environmentally friendly products, with searches for biodegradable rising almost 60%.
How can your brand market to climate-conscious consumers? According to the report,
the top factors sustainable shoppers
look for when they are buying a product include sustainable packaging, shopping locally,
the recyclability of a product, product lifespan, and a product's sustainable credentials.
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.
LinkedIn announced yesterday it will be expanding its boost ad option to events.
Similar to Facebook's boost process, this provides a quick way to amplify organic posts in the app.
To advertise your LinkedIn event, click the boost button on the events page,
select your target audience, and set your campaign schedule and budget.
The ad features dates, location, and information on how to join the event.
LinkedIn says it will also provide advertisers with insights into how many members clicked on
or saw your boosted event ad and or registered for your event.
There are several advantages of using a content delivery network for your website,
but apparently getting you to rank higher isn't one of them. Google search advocate John Mueller
was recently asked if there is any SEO benefit to hosting on a CDN. The short answer is no.
Mueller said hosting on a CDN does not add any benefit as long as your host is fast. He noted that if your crawl activity is slow,
speeding up your host or using a CDN can improve crawling and indexing,
which can indirectly impact your rankings and your SEO.
That said, it still might not have much of an impact.
Mueller said,
I don't think it would have a big effect on Google at all in regards to SEO.
The only effect that I can imagine that
something might happen is what users end up seeing. He added that it is not something that
matters in terms of SEO if your server is fast already. A couple of small updates to Google Ads
Manager from the Speak to Report. First, Google Analytics 4 integration with Google Ads Manager for web data is now in open beta.
To view reporting on Google Analytics metrics and dimensions,
you can use the analytics report type.
Finally, more granularity is being added to the bid rejection reason
in both reporting and data transfer.
Google says this is to account for
recently introduced pricing and floor features, and to be more specific about scenarios that
result in bid loss. Have you ever had a good deed go wrong? So the other night my husband and I were
walking to our car and there were three teenage girls next to our car panicking in the parking
lot because their car had died, their mom's BMW.
So we offered to give them a boost, but then we couldn't find their car battery. So I look it up
on YouTube, turns out it's in the trunk, but the trunk won't open because the car battery is dead
and they can't figure out if there's a manual option to get the trunk open. So my husband,
who is six foot five, had to crawl into their trunk and start rifling through their belongings to try and get into this trap door that has the battery under it.
It was chaos.
It took about 20 minutes for him to try to figure it out.
When along comes another stranger who happened to have one of those portable boosts and also
figured out how to open the trunk and get the car started in all of 20 seconds.
So it was a big, good deed to fail for us.
If you've got a marketing position you're trying to fill,
or maybe you're looking for that next great gig,
consider a classified ad right here.
It's just $20 and you can book it online.
Link in the show notes.
Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital
on the traditional territories of the SnuNamuk First Nation on Vancouver Island.
Our associate producer is me, Steph Gunn.
Podcast music licensing by Source Audio.
Ad coordination by Red Circle.
And our theme composer, Mark Levis, has a busy weekend ahead remodeling his house.
He's got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries.
He's got to move these refrigerators. He's got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries. He's got to move
these refrigerators. He's got to move these color TVs. Thanks for listening. Todd will be back on Monday.