Today in Digital Marketing - No Twitter, That Was Not a Funny April Fools Joke

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Starting point is 00:00:28 Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A. 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. Today, nobody wants to work on a Friday, including, apparently, Google Ads.

Starting point is 00:01:06 Twitter has added three new ad products to entice your dollars. A nasty Facebook bug may have been causing your ads to run alongside Russian propaganda. More people might be sliding into your brand's DMs with these changes from Instagram. And on the Premium Podcast, with no ads, more stories, and deep dive weekend episodes, tap the link in the show notes for more, how one company was able to measure the ads which were most effective at driving conversions before the campaign even launched. It's Friday, April Fool's Day. God help us all. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. Since Meta's alleged smear campaign against TikTok was reported on by media two days ago, some news has emerged that karma might have been served. The Verge says Facebook has been showing harmful content,

Starting point is 00:01:54 including nudity, violence, and Russian propaganda to users over a period of six months. This all according to internal documents obtained by The Verge. The report says engineers discovered a massive ranking failure where, This all according to internal documents obtained by The Verge. The report says engineers discovered a massive ranking failure where, instead of suppressing posts that it typically downranks, the news feed was actually distributing them and spiking those views by as much as 30%. This, of course, is not great news for advertisers as your ads may have been running alongside potentially harmful content since October. Meta confirmed that the company detected inconsistencies, blaming it on a software bug, and that it resolved the ranking issue on March 11th. The company says the bug did not have, quote, any meaningful long-term impact on our metrics, unquote. Metrics? No. Reputation and trustworthiness?

Starting point is 00:02:47 That's another story. This might be your sign to quit working until Monday. If you're experiencing slow performance in the Google Ads console, it's not you, it's Google. The company confirming an issue where there is higher than normal latency during the ad review process for responsive search ads. Effective users are able to access Google ads but are seeing error messages, high latency and other unexpected behavior. Google says this is impacting a significant subset of users and it is working on resolving the issue. Twitter really wants a piece of that ad budget. The platform this week announcing it is testing three new interactive ad formats with select brands, interactive text, product explorer,

Starting point is 00:03:40 and collection ads. Here's what we are seeing in the pilot. First, interactive text ads will appear with a larger, bolder typeface than the standard font in the timeline. Advertisers can highlight up to three words in their copy that, when clicked, will drive consumers to the brand's landing page. Interestingly enough, brands can also choose from ten different highlight colors. Second, product explorer ads will allow advertisers to showcase their products in 3D. Consumers will be able to swipe and rotate a brand's products to see them from different angles.

Starting point is 00:04:14 Consumers will also be able to click directly on the ad's shop button and go to the website. And finally, with collection ads, brands can display a primary hero image with up to five smaller thumbnail visuals below. Each of the images displayed can drive consumers to a different website or product landing page. The three ad formats will be visible to people in the U.S. on the web as well as iOS and Android devices. While we're on the topic of Twitter, can I just extend a giant middle finger in their direction today on behalf of all social media content managers? Twitter today tweeted the following. We are

Starting point is 00:04:50 working on an edit button. Just as a reminder, this is April Fool's Day. Don't play with my emotions like that, Twitter. As part of a proposal for the upcoming WordPress 6.0, scheduled for release next month, all uploaded images would be automatically converted to WebP format by default. With WebP, images are displayed at a much smaller file size, meaning that many web pages will download faster, which could lead to a better user experience.

Starting point is 00:05:25 Sounds great, right? Well, the WordPress developer community has, for the most part, responded negatively to the proposal because they say it could cause a massive increase in disk space usage, up to 70% more. Why? Because to maximize compatibility, WordPress would keep backups of the older, larger image files just in case they're needed.

Starting point is 00:05:48 WordPress has responded by saying, Well, if you don't like the feature, you can turn it off with a few lines of code. But code isn't exactly something that most WordPress admins want to get into. To make matters more difficult, WordPress says it does not plan to provide an on-off switch because they don't want to overload users with choices. Quoting the company, the vast majority of users will benefit from this feature and do not need to understand nor need to make a choice about the technical details of turning specific image formats on or off. it took down in 2020. What contributed to the growth of takedowns? Advancements in machine learning, for one. Also, multilingual models helped out and, of course, human moderation. But Microsoft reported ongoing and rising threats,

Starting point is 00:06:54 including fake celebrity-endorsed ads and more sophisticated account takeover attempts. The company also suspended more than 270,000 accounts and 400,000 websites were banned from its network. Starting a marketing agency is a rewarding experience, but it can also be a challenging one. The fear of selling to prospects, the pressure of delivering top quality services to paying clients, and the scramble to invoice and collect so that the Thank you. digital platform designed to make your life as an agency owner easier. Used by over 60,000 agencies, Vendasta gives you all the tools you need to easily manage your leads and customer accounts

Starting point is 00:07:51 from one login. Plus, you get access to over 250 curated products to resell to local businesses. Go from a struggling agency to a superhero agency today. Learn more by booking a demo at vendasta.com slash superhero today. demo at vendasta.com slash superhero today. That's vendasta.com slash superhero. More consumers might be sliding into your brand's DMs. Instagram has announced seven new messaging features on the platform. Yes, seven. Here's a look at the changes coming to your inbox. First, reply while browsing. This will let users reply to new messages while browsing their feed without having to go to the inbox and lose their place. There will be quick sending, where users can tap and hold the share button to quickly reshare posts.

Starting point is 00:08:37 There'll be a new status at the top of the inbox. Users will be able to see who's available to chat. So this is similar to Facebook Messenger. There's also silent messages, where people can opt to send messages without having a notification bother the recipient. The update also includes a new chat theme option and the ability to share music as well as create polls within chat. Snapchat has added a new way for your brand to drive traffic to its YouTube videos through the platform. Snapchat announced a new sharing option, which allows users to share YouTube videos directly from the Snap camera. The feature is similar to sharing videos on other platforms.

Starting point is 00:09:16 Here's how it works. You'll open up the YouTube app, select a video to watch, and then tap share and the new Snapchat icon. From there, you'll just create a snap with the automated YouTube sticker. When someone receives a snap, all they need to do is tap the YouTube sticker to view the video. Following two years of avoiding April Fool's Day amid a global pandemic, today marketers woke up and chose chaos. Here are some notable examples from the day. Tormented by the Duolingo owl, you may be entitled to compensation. This is from the language website Duolingo, which released a video that mimicked a late-night TV lawyer commercial in which a lawsuit against the company's owl allegedly won them $900,000.

Starting point is 00:10:10 The new U by Kotex chocolate pads. The brand released images of a horrifying new product. Pads, you know, women, feminine pads made from dark chocolate with raspberry filling. And number three, Ipsy gives your pet the glow up they deserve. The Beauty Subscription Box Company promoted magnetic lashes for your furry friend. Not gonna lie, kind of want these for my cat.

Starting point is 00:10:41 So Wednesday, Thursday, I was away because my wife and I drove down to Victoria to get some equipment installed on our SUV. A cool thing called a speedy lift that will hoist her wheelchair up into the back for us. And we got there after, you know, like a $600 in two nights of hotel and a lot of gas money to drive down to Victoria. And to discover that they had the wrong part. And they couldn't do anything. And we have to come back again.

Starting point is 00:11:04 Luckily, I have a new video game. No, not Overwatch. That just stayed uninstalled, shockingly. But Cities Skylines, which I've played before and is actually amazing. It's kind of like SimCity, but SimCity gave up on itself a few years ago, and Cities Skylines has taken over. It is incredibly detailed. Like, yesterday, I spent a good two hours working on one bus line. So what happened is I created a high school. I put another high school next to it. Don't ask. I know.

Starting point is 00:11:30 Terrible time decision. And there was a bus stop there and they wouldn't use it. The kids would not use the bus. So I moved the bus stop. I created a metro station for them. I created a tram and a monorail. And they still insisted on walking across town. So do I sound upset?

Starting point is 00:11:47 I'm not. It's actually a really, really, really fun game. Today in digital marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Tsunamik First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is the intrepid Step Gun. Podcast music licensing by Source Audio. Ad coordination by Red Circle. Theme composer Mark Bluff has had some wonderful family news this week.

Starting point is 00:12:10 His best friend Harry has a brother Larry. In five days from now, he's going to marry. He's hoping you can make it there if you can, because in the ceremony, you'll be the best man. I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful weekend. I'll see you on Monday. I'm the fool who's got no pride

Starting point is 00:12:29 when you're with me I won't hide one night with me one sunrise maybe I'll change your life

Today in Digital Marketing - No Twitter, That Was Not a Funny April Fools Joke

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