Today in Digital Marketing - Meta's New Ad Policy: Trust, But Don't Verify

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, November 8th. Today, more placements coming to Meta's Ads Manager. But how will consumers feel about ads in the one place they've been off-limits? Also, TikTok's API updates, new Instagram engagement options, and on the ad-free premium podcast, which you can learn more about by tapping Go Premium in the show notes. Google Ad Custom segments are disappearing, where CPCs and conversion rates are going into Black Friday, and Google's Chrome browser is about to expose your dirty pricing secrets. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today

Starting point is 00:00:39 in digital marketing. In the family of meta apps, WhatsApp, the messaging tool, is kind of the ugly stepchild. Meta bought it almost 10 years ago now for $19 billion. Since then, Meta's more or less left it up to its own devices, occasionally running in to dress it up in features nobody asked for, like stories, then running back to the golden children, Instagram and Facebook. Now, though, Mark Zuckerberg says he sees WhatsApp as the next chapter for the company. His comments come as Meta seeks new revenue streams with WhatsApp and Messenger still in the early stages of monetization. So how will they monetize the

Starting point is 00:01:17 messaging app that is outrageously popular outside of North America? Well, ads, of course. Meta's head of WhatsApp confirmed this week that ads are likely to appear in the app's status feature and possibly within the new channels feature, although the exact timeline remains unclear. The introduction of ads is a delicate balance for WhatsApp, which has traditionally prioritized a clean, ad-free interface.

Starting point is 00:01:42 But with the app's vast user base, Meta obviously sees the untapped opportunity for businesses to reach consumers directly. For marketers, that would mean new placements available in the ads manager, which for us is never a bad thing. A new engagement opportunity for brands that use a lot of Instagram,

Starting point is 00:02:03 you'll soon be able to highlight replies to your posts by sharing them directly in your stories. You've seen this before on reels and TikTok videos and the likes. The new thing here is you can fish comments out of your regular Instagram posts section. This is actually pretty great since regular posts tend to get a lot more comments and it's starting to roll out today. Instagram may also soon let us disable read receipts in direct messages. This was announced this week. It's currently in the testing phase. This is strictly at the consumer app level, though. Brands that use Instagram's APIs to read DMs currently don't trigger any read receipt notifications. But some marketers,

Starting point is 00:02:50 especially small ones, use the Instagram mobile app itself for checking and replying to DMs. So this would provide one nice layer of privacy for those. No word yet on if they plan to extend the same option to users of its Messenger app. TikTok has launched an updated events API, allowing advertisers to track ad campaign performance by connecting their internal data with TikTok systems. The updated API integrates three different endpoints, simplifying the data tracking process and helping marketers mitigate data losses due to the phasing out of cookies and other privacy measures. TikTok says this integration will lead to a 19% increase in event capture and a 15% improvement in cost per action for advertisers using TikTok Pixel and Events API together. In addition to the API update, TikTok has expanded its marketing partner program by adding local ad agencies. This expansion, tested in Asia and now rolling out

Starting point is 00:03:46 globally, lets brands collaborate with local experts, officially endorsed by TikTok for their platform expertise. These agencies have been trained and vetted to provide TikTok-first campaign strategies. Google this week released some new shopping features for both advertisers and consumers. The updates include a new deals hub, which aggregates discounts from various websites into one location. Google is also introducing new pricing capabilities. These include a dedicated deals page, a resume browsing card on Chrome that will remind shoppers of products that they viewed, and a new discount tag in the Chrome address bar that alerts users to available coupon codes. For merchants, these features are controllable from within the Merchant Center settings.

Starting point is 00:04:37 And in line with the holiday spirit, Google's annual Holiday 100 list is also making a comeback. This list provides insights into trending searches over the year, offering gift ideas across various categories like wellness, electronics, and toys. Walmart is running interactive shoppable ads on NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock. Starting with the popular show Below Deck Mediterranean, viewers are able to purchase items directly from their screens during the show. Here's how it works. As viewers watch certain episodes, and there are only three of them so far, they can use their remote to navigate a carousel

Starting point is 00:05:18 of products featured in the show. When they see something they like, a QR code appears on the screen. They scan that code with a smartphone. It will lead directly to Walmart's checkout. For instance, dishware that appears in a dinner scene in one of these episodes will pop up as being shoppable. There are other services that do this. Roku has a product called Action Ads, which Walmart also tried out a couple of years ago. efforts that result in fake leads. Check Essentials detects and blocks fake and fraudulent users in real time using thousands of cybersecurity tests on every user. Malicious bots, competitors, and spam, Check blocks them all, ensuring that every cent you spend reaches valid users who can convert and provide you with pure, clean data to rely

Starting point is 00:06:24 on for your decision making. Join over 15,000 companies that secure their ads and websites with Check. For today and digital marketing listeners, an exclusive 10% discount and a one month free trial is yours. Tap the link in the show notes or go to b.link slash go check. That's b dot link slash g o c h e q. And finally today, Meta has introduced a new policy that requires political advertisers to disclose when their ads are generated or significantly altered by artificial intelligence. This, of course, trying to get ahead of the American elections next year. Under the new guidelines, starting in January, advertisers on meta platforms must disclose if their ads depict events or statements that did not occur or were not made by the individuals portrayed. If an advertiser makes that disclosure, meta will mark the ad to indicate it was digitally created or altered.

Starting point is 00:07:24 But here's the problem. This relies entirely on the honor system. Meta is not detecting the use of AI and flagging it. They're relying on advertisers to mark it. They say if the ad picks up viral steam, well, then they'll have a look. Which, to be fair, might be meta's only option. Detection of generative AI is not simple, and things like watermarks or hidden identifiers haven't gotten widespread use.

Starting point is 00:07:52 That might work for large, established, respected brands, the ones that probably wouldn't do this anyway, but we've already seen some American political campaigns use generative AI to make stuff up, run it as if it's real, and not say anything about the fakery. Meta, by the way, also this week prohibited the use of its own generative AI tools for political ads, aligning its policy with similar measures taken by Google and YouTube. So I'm kind of an idiot. For the last several months, I've been telling you about our wide variety of social media channels and encouraging you to go to todayindigital.com slash social or tap the link in the show notes to get there.

Starting point is 00:08:43 But it turns out there was a bunch that I hadn't listed on that page. So here's where we are on social media. And again, I'll give you that link in a second where you can find now all of those links. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, Mastodon, Blue Sky, Post.News, Spoutable, Snapchat, and Pinterest. We're on all of them there. We are posting almost every day on each of those. And this time, there are links on this webpage. So again, just tap the link in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash social. Thanks for your patience and for listening. see you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Meta's New Ad Policy: Trust, But Don't Verify

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