Today in Digital Marketing - Payment with the (Literal) Blink of an Eye

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Friday, October 14th. I'm Todd Maffin. Today, YouTube pulls targeting options from conversion campaigns. Facebook kills off an ad placement. Netflix's ad tier details are finally out. Twitter's testing a way to keep you out of the feeds. And Apple wants your customers to be able to pay with a blink of an eye. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. We start today with a small but

Starting point is 00:00:26 important change to Google ads that a few eagle-eyed marketers have noticed. A setting that's no longer available when you're setting up a conversions campaign on YouTube. Until now, you could target based on audiences like remarketing lists or based on content like what videos people watched or what they searched for on YouTube. But now when you're setting up a conversions campaign, that content targeting option is gone. And you might be asking, God, why? Google's answer to that is really, we know best. Jill Sasking-Gales is one of the industry's top Google ads trainers. She spoke with me this morning. I was having some tech issues today, so my apologies for the crackly audio.

Starting point is 00:01:07 If you have both audiences and content targeting in a campaign, it treats those like an and relationship. So it really limits the places you can serve because the person must meet these audiences and also be consuming certain kinds of content. So by taking that content ability away, it allows Google to show your ads across many more videos that still fit your audience targeting, but may not fit the super specific content targeting you wanted as well. And so of course, Google believes that by doing so, you can drive more conversions. Wait a minute, have I had this backwards all this time? I thought and targeting was a good thing. Like isn't the whole point of marketing to be really refined in on your audience, right? Like if I want to reach British grandmothers over 80 who really like Chuck Norris, that is an audience and content and query. I like and queries as a marketer, don't I?

Starting point is 00:02:00 You can still use and queries. You can use your ands with multiple audiences. So people who are interested, I don't know, in knitting and interested in Chuck Norris, fine. But to also show on videos that have to do with Chuck Norris, that's the part that's being taken away. Now, I will note this is only for YouTube conversion campaigns, which aren't a campaign type I use often. If you're running a YouTube campaign optimizing for views, which is my preference for impressions, you can still use content targeting. It is just for the conversion-focused campaigns that this feature is taken away. And for those who run conversion campaigns,

Starting point is 00:02:35 this shouldn't come as a surprise. There are a lot of different YouTube settings that you aren't allowed to change for conversion campaigns. For example, you must opt into YouTube partner sites in a YouTube conversion campaign. So showing ads on other video playing websites, whereas for other kinds of YouTube campaigns, you can opt out of that. And I guess most people consider YouTube to be more of a top of funnel approach than conversions. Exactly. It can be mid funnel. I'm not going to say it can't drive conversions, but I prefer to use it as an audience building

Starting point is 00:03:06 tool. And then you can remarket to people on YouTube. And of course, remarketing is an audience. So you could have a YouTube remarketing campaign run on conversions. No problem, even with this change. I know I'm grumpy about this, but like it's it just seems like yet another push toward the black box that marketers don't know anything. Trust the artificial intelligence and machine learning,

Starting point is 00:03:25 it will control your ad campaign. It definitely fits that Google ethos, which I experienced when I worked at Google as well. There's just a belief there that given the time and the data, machine learning knows best. And just like Performance Max forces you onto inventory you may not have chosen, like the Display Network, similarly, a YouTube conversion campaign can now show across any inventory on YouTube or partner sites, not just limited to some super specific channels or topics the advertiser may have chosen.

Starting point is 00:03:56 And if I'm correct, generally, you're bullish on Performance Max campaigns, aren't you? For e-commerce, yes. For Legion, there are a lot of challenges. But for e-commerce, I'm definitely very bullish on Performance Max. I have heard that before, that B2B applications and Performance Max are not necessarily a good match. a lead, get partway down your funnel, but not complete the purchase. When you have a complete purchase, complete conversion tracking information, Performance Max can work wonders. But without it, there are a lot of spam problems. So because of that, I've seen a lot of B2B and lead gen advertisers have poor results with PMAX. You have a great Google Ads training program. Do you go into B2B marketing with Google Ads at all? We definitely do. And actually, our next monthly meet, which is happening in just over a week, the topic of that whole live session with me will be all about

Starting point is 00:04:48 B2B strategies in Google Ads. Jill Saskengale spent six years at Google helping some of the world's top brands. Today, her training program called Inside Google Ads is a great investment. If you're in that space, you can learn more about it at our affiliate link at b.link slash gatraining. Well, Google isn't the only one paring down options in their ads manager. You will notice one fewer ad placements on Meta's platform soon, Instant Articles. This is their take on the AMP format, a quick-loading mobile page that had your brand's content,

Starting point is 00:05:23 but it was hosted on Facebook servers. It was introduced back in 2015 to lure news publishers to the platform, originally built to solve slow loading times. It and its AMP cousin have fallen into favor recently. Google discontinued it a year or so ago. This is somewhat to do with privacy and somewhat about the fact that most websites are perfectly capable of displaying a mobile-friendly look now. Sources talking to Axiom say the tech giant will discontinue instant article support in mid-April of 2023. And why? According to a Meta spokesperson, the format is underutilized. Quote, currently less than 3% of what people around the world see in Facebook's feeds are posts with links to news articles. And as we said Quote, Well, it's finally happening.

Starting point is 00:06:21 After years of its anti-advertising stance, Netflix finally broke. Yesterday, the streaming giant officially announced its ad-supported tier will launch next month, cutting it very close to the holiday season. The new plan is called Basic with Ads. It will be available on November 3rd in 12 markets, including the U.S., and will cost $6.99. That's cheaper than Disney Plus and Hulu, whose ad tiers cost $7.99. That's cheaper than Disney Plus and Hulu, whose ad tiers cost $7.99 per month. The company detailed partnerships

Starting point is 00:06:50 to help brands track campaign metrics, including DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, and Nielsen. The Nielsen digital ad rating service will be used in the US sometime next year and eventually be reported through Nielsen One Ads. According to executives, the other tools should be available in the first quarter of 2023. At launch, ads will be 15 and 30 seconds and will play as pre- and mid-roll units.

Starting point is 00:07:15 The tier will serve on average four to five minutes of ads per hour, and in exchange for watching ads, consumers will have access to a variety of programming. A variety, but not everything. A limited number of movies and TV shows won't be available due to licensing restrictions. Another downfall, video quality at the ad tier is capped at 720 versus 1080. As for advertising controls for us marketers, Netflix will offer what they call, quote, broad targeting capabilities based on country and genre.

Starting point is 00:07:47 Signups for the ad supported tier, though, must provide their date of birth and gender. So hopefully we'll have some future targeting options. You'll also be able to prevent your ads from appearing on content that is inconsistent with your brand. Things like sex violence and nudity. If you're looking to incorporate Netflix into your media budget, get in line. The company says it is nearly sold out of ad inventory. Netflix's CPO noted that the platform is maintaining a light ad load along with tight frequency caps. Executives declined to share ad rates, though we have seen rumors of CPMs hitting $65. The executive suggested that the relatively

Starting point is 00:08:23 bare-bones features reflect the tier getting up and running in just six months. 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.

Starting point is 00:08:55 Be Zen. Twitter is working on a Don't At Me feature which lets you control who can mention your brand. The platform is currently testing two audience control options for your tweet. The first is a new allow others to mention you toggle that lets you stop people from mentioning your handle entirely. It is likely this toggle will deactivate any mention

Starting point is 00:09:15 similar to Twitter's new unmentioned feature. With unmentioned, your handle link is deactivated within a thread once you leave the conversation. The user can still mention your handle, but it will not link back to your profile and you will not be notified. Presumably, if you use the new toggle to prevent others from mentioning you entirely, users can still at your handle in tweets, but it would no longer be an active mention. The second one is an option that will let you limit mentions to only those who follow

Starting point is 00:09:42 your brand or business. First, it was Touch ID, then Face ID. Next up, Eyeball ID. Apple's AR headset will reportedly use iris scanning technology for logins and, notably, payments on e-commerce sites. In other words, consumers will be able to pay for your products in the blink of an eye, literally. The Verge reports from sources that say the eye scanning makes it easier for multiple people to use the headset with their own accounts. As The Verge pointed out, it would also help Apple differentiate itself from its main competitor, the MetaQuest Pro.

Starting point is 00:10:21 The Quest Pro features inward-facing cameras that track eye and face motion, though it doesn't use them for authentication, at least not yet. Apple is also reportedly planning to use downward-facing cameras to capture users' legs, something that Meta is struggling with. And for more on that, we head to the lightning round. Yesterday, we reported how proud Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was that his spanky new VR headset could show your legs. Now it seems that might have been a slight exaggeration. Okay, basically just a straight out lie.

Starting point is 00:10:51 A Meta spokesperson today confirmed the legs were not actually rendered in real time during the demo, but rather a pre-made preview that came from motion capture. It's not clear if Meta actually has a working demo of the feature, suggesting there is a lot of legwork to be done. Facebook appears to be working on a new invite collaborator reels option, which would let you invite another business or influencer to your brand's reel. Once posted, the video content would show up on both your brand's profile and the collaborator. This is a feature which is already available on Instagram. Cards Against Humanity's latest marketing stunt wants you to dig through a jar of Clamomaze.

Starting point is 00:11:33 That's clam-flavored mayonnaise exclusively sold at Target. This is apparently made with real clams. Contains 30 Cards Against Humanity cards, with a chance to win prizes like merch, pearls, a Toyota Camry, and more. Look, I'm from Canada where people voluntarily drink clam juice for brunch, so, actually, this doesn't sound so bad. If this podcast is on your daily must-listen list,

Starting point is 00:12:12 you might benefit from upgrading your listening experience by signing up for the premium podcast. You'll get this show, but with no ads. You'll get immediate access to more than 20 deep-dive, full-length episodes covering the latest in marketing science. Plus, you'll start getting new ones every other weekend or so. There are links to stories in the show notes. It comes out earlier than the free episode you're listening to now. There are even audio chapters that let you jump between stories.

Starting point is 00:12:33 Tap the link in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash premium feed. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Tsunamic First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is Steph Gunn. Production coordinator, Sarah Guild. Podcast music licensing by Source Audio. Ad coordination by Red Circle. And not many people know this, but our theme composer, Mark Blevis, has one of the world's largest collections of small primates, like baboons and orangutans.

Starting point is 00:13:10 And honestly, it is hard to even have a Zoom call with him. He's so distracted by these things. On our call this morning, I finally, I lost my temper, and I said, why can't you do it? Why can't you set your monkey free? Always giving in to it. Do you love the monkey, or do you love me? I'm Todd Maffin. Shockingly, there is no stat holiday here this weekend.

Starting point is 00:13:31 So uncharacteristically, I will see you Monday. Have a restful weekend, friends. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at Rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal.

Starting point is 00:14:32 Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A.

Today in Digital Marketing - Payment with the (Literal) Blink of an Eye

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