Today in Digital Marketing - Meta’s Muted Momentum

Starting point is 00:00:00 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.

Starting point is 00:00:43 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,

Starting point is 00:01:22 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,

Starting point is 00:02:02 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

Starting point is 00:02:44 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

Starting point is 00:03:20 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

Starting point is 00:04:05 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?

Starting point is 00:04:48 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.

Starting point is 00:05:10 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

Starting point is 00:05:51 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

Starting point is 00:06:26 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

Starting point is 00:07:05 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.

Starting point is 00:07:49 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.

Starting point is 00:08:15 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.

Starting point is 00:08:40 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.

Today in Digital Marketing - Meta’s Muted Momentum

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