Today in Digital Marketing - Missing the Mark

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, November 6th. Today, big name brands are missing the mark on social media, a popular TikTok video editor moves into retail, Meta shakes up ad displays, and an election ad blackout is extended to keep the peace post-polls. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in Digital Marketing. But before we begin, we might be revamping the podcast in the coming weeks, possibly some major changes ahead. And we want to get your thoughts on what we could do to get better.

Starting point is 00:00:32 We have a one question survey up at todayindigital.com slash question. That question is, if you could change one thing about the podcast, what would that be? This can be about the format or how many stories we do or what kind of stories we cover or what would make the premium podcast a more compelling offer or anything that you've ever thought while listening. I really wish that they would do this. We want to know what that this is. Again, the survey is at todayindigital.com slash question. There's also a link at the top of the show notes. I will not mention this again. So please don't expect a reminder. If you have your thoughts, please do send it in. Again, the link is at the top of the show notes or go to today in digital dot com slash question. And

Starting point is 00:01:15 one person who feels it out will be getting a one hundred dollar Amazon gift card. Heavy spending on social light users could be keeping your brand in the dark. A new study from the ad tech company Digital Turbine suggests ad buyers relying too much on social media may be missing key consumer segments. The study found that brands like Sony, Amazon and McDonald's aren't getting their full reach for their social ad spend. According to the study, this is because light social users, consumers who spend less time on social media than other apps, make up a significant portion of the audience that social ads often miss. Of the 44 million people who go to the cinema, one out of four were light social users and saw one-third fewer ads from Sony Pictures compared to those who were not light social users. 62 million retail

Starting point is 00:02:12 customers are light social users, and the study found that those consumers saw 30% fewer ads from Amazon. For quick service restaurants, 66 million light social users saw 40% fewer McDonald's ads. To avoid missing these consumers, the study suggests advertisers look beyond social media and YouTube. Mobile gaming, an area with high engagement and underutilized ad space, could help brands fill those gaps. CapCut, the video editing software created by TikTok owner ByteDance, is pushing further into retail content creation with its new Commerce Pro package. This package includes a range of TikTok-friendly commerce creation tools, including a feature that generates video clips from product URLs, as well as various means to include shoppable links in your clips. Access to TikTok's AI avatars for product demos and explainer videos and the likes,

Starting point is 00:03:12 letting you create and feature these digital characters in your promotions. A virtual try-on feature that lets customers select a model to try on products and generate photos showcasing them. CapCut also includes auto-publishing across multiple channels, performance insights, and even some seasonal templates for events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now, it's not free. Commerce Pro, it's called.

Starting point is 00:03:34 It uses a freemium model, offering the first 200 seconds of video you create in the app for free. But after that, you'll need to be in a paid plan, priced at $26 a month or $250 annually. As CapCut vies for your marketing dollars, TikTok's parent company ByteDance continues to drive revenue growth despite regulatory challenges in the U.S. The information reports today that ByteDance's international revenue jumped more than 60% to about $17 billion in the first half of this year. With TikTok driving much of this growth outside China, it suggests the app's continued strength in advertising and other

Starting point is 00:04:18 adventures, even amid the ongoing threat of a U.S. ban. ByteDance's total revenue in the first half of the year grew more than 35% to about $73 billion. While the majority of ByteDance's revenue comes from China, the latest numbers show that TikTok's contribution continues to rise. The company's international business accounted for about a quarter of its overall revenue, up from about 20% in the first half of last year. Advertising, of course, remains TikTok's largest revenue source, with additional income from e-commerce sales and virtual gifts during live streams. Quoting from the information,

Starting point is 00:04:55 The results suggest that ByteDance is on the verge of passing Facebook parent Meta in revenue. In the first half of this year, Meta reported 25% revenue growth to $75.5 billion. But ByteDance is growing faster than Meta, which reported 19% revenue growth in the third quarter last week, unquote. To keep those ad dollars flowing, Meta is rolling out a new ad option called Flexible Media as it looks to automate even more aspects of the campaign process. The Flexible Media option builds on Meta's existing Advantage Plus campaign tools, which already automate ad placement by choosing which of your ads to show different users. This new feature goes a step further by letting Metasystem automatically choose creative

Starting point is 00:05:46 variations tailored to specific ad placements. Advertisers provide the media and Meta decides the most effective delivery method. Quoting social media today, quote, this is different from flexible ads, which let you submit 10 images for an ad with with Meta's system then able to pick and choose which images to show to each users. Flexible media looks to be another variation on this, which would let Meta's system use different images for different placement groups. So essentially, you'd be giving Meta's system permission to use different images for different ad types as it sees fit, unquote. Meta has extended its political ad ban beyond yesterday's American election. The company announced that its blackout period for election-related ads will continue past the original end date of yesterday, lasting until an unspecified time later this week.

Starting point is 00:06:43 According to the company, ads about social issues, elections, or politics will remain restricted. Ads that ran before midnight on October 29th and served at least one impression will still be shown, though with limited editing options. And finally, Google Ads is now throwing shade at your competitors. The ad platform has an optimization scorecard that shows how well your account is set to perform. Now, it seems Google is testing a feature that explains if a change in your score is due to competitive pressure and might even name the competitor causing it. A user shared a screenshot on LinkedIn, which we have in today's email newsletter. It shows a message that says some of your campaigns lost impression share due to competitive pressure from Amazon.com.

Starting point is 00:07:38 Strange days indeed. Remember our one question survey, which is if you could change anything about the podcast, any one thing, what would it be? We are giving away a $100 Amazon gift card. All you have to do to answer this question is to tap the link at the top of the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash question. Now that'll do it for me. I am going out of the country until the 19th of the month. So a couple of weeks or so. Rest assured, we will not leave you hanging. Our associate producer, the intrepid Steph Gunn will be with you. We've also got a couple of surprises planned

Starting point is 00:08:14 along the way. So no change to the feed. Steph will see you tomorrow and through the next week and a half or so. I will be back with you after that. All right. Talk to you then.

Today in Digital Marketing - Missing the Mark

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