Today in Digital Marketing - Quick! Only 3 More Podcast Episode Plays Available!

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, November 7th. Today, scarcity sidelined. The marketing tactic we've used for generations is hurting your revenue. Also, Instagram takes a very big crown from Google. Microsoft plays catch up with its new bid strategies. And TikTok is shutting down one of its most maligned programs. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Today's episode is sponsored by Check Essentials, the top self-serve marketing security platform against ad fraud and invalid traffic. A recent study shows that over $100 billion

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Starting point is 00:01:19 Tap the link in the show notes or go to b.link slash go check. That's b.link slash G-O-C-H-E-Q. We've all done it. Been a little liberal with the use of marketing pressure tactics. All the advice says to emphasize scarcity. If there's only three left, say, there's only three left. And if there's actually a thousand in inventory, well, say, there's only three left. But if there's actually a thousand in inventory, well, say there's only three left.

Starting point is 00:01:47 But how well does this actually work? A large recent study says, not well. Researchers found that reassuring customers rather than pressuring them can lead to better sales outcomes. This came from a field experiment of nearly 6,000 customers of a large Asian e-commerce retailer, and it showed that while pressure tactics like scarcity and time limits can

Starting point is 00:02:12 increase sales, they also lead to a much higher rate of product returns. The study showed that reassurance, such as confirming that a product fits the customer's style or providing detailed product measurements, can decrease product returns by more than 69% compared to pressure tactics. This approach helps increase the buyer's confidence in their purchase, reducing the likelihood of buyer's remorse and subsequent returns. The study was published this year in the Journal of Marketing Research. It's called The Effects of Pressure and Self-Assurance Nudges on Product Purchases and Returns in Online Retailing.

Starting point is 00:02:52 We have a link to it in today's free email newsletter, which you can sign up to by tapping the link in the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. Instagram has emerged as the preferred marketing channel for brands and agencies, surpassing even Google now in budget allocation. This comes from a Digiday research survey released today of more than 400 marketing executives. It found that Instagram has seen a consistent increase in marketing spend. In 2023, 97% of brand and retailer professionals and 95% of agencies reported allocating at least a portion of their budget to Instagram. And that trend is upward.

Starting point is 00:03:39 Last year's figures were 90% for brands and retailers and 89% for agencies. TikTok and Amazon are also on the rise with 78% of brand and retailer pros investing in TikTok. That's up from 59% last year. And this year, 55% are investing in Amazon, up from last year's 41%. Conversely, investment in online display ads and TV has declined. Only 78% of brand and retailer pros invest in online display ads. That is a big drop from last year's 93%. And TV investments, even worse. Last year, over half reported they spent money there. This year, just 22%. The surveys also highlighted a significant decrease in marketing spending on other social platforms like Snapchat, Pinterest, and X, especially following Elon Musk's takeover. While Instagram is where a large portion of budgets are being spent, Google's share has decreased, potentially due to the impending phase-out of third-party cookies. Facebook also sees a downward trend with only 23% of both brand and retailer pros and agencies investing heavily, a decrease from previous years. Google today said it will start rolling out new generative AI features in performance max campaigns to all advertisers in the US.

Starting point is 00:05:10 The big one is image generation, which many marketers have been using for product shots to enhance the look, although using it on other platforms. Now it'll be integrated right into the Google Ads manager. So rather than having a bottle of perfume, you can have that bottle in a field of flowers, that kind of thing. This generative AI tool does the same. It will let you generate a number of images, then pick up to 20 for Performance Max to cycle through your campaigns. And depending on how much you trust Google's scraper, the tool can also generate all the assets you need for a campaign by giving it your product page URL or landing page, rather than manually creating all the text and image assets. Google claims it will never create two identical images, even if you're using the exact same prompt.

Starting point is 00:05:56 In its coverage of this today, Marketing Dive notes that Performance Max campaigns do have problems around transparency, reporting, and inventory quality. Quote, asked about these reports, Google executives stressed that Performance Max requires a new way of thinking since it is optimized towards delivering on advertisers' goals and outcomes differently than previous types of manual campaign construction. Microsoft Advertising today announced new bid strategies for audience ads. The update includes maximized conversions and target cost per acquisition strategies

Starting point is 00:06:34 now available in all markets where the Microsoft audience network is accessible. But, and as with all digital ads, of course, campaigns with fewer than 30 conversions per month may experience more volatility. Microsoft also says it's improved the automated bidding features across its ad platform, enhancing conversion prediction accuracy and performance during the learning phase of bidding strategies. And they've introduced new UET, that's universal event tracking testing functionality to help you troubleshoot problem tags. These, of course, are crucial for conversion campaigns.

Starting point is 00:07:12 As a reminder, Microsoft Advertising's version of Performance Max. Yes, they have one. Yes, they stole the name from Google. It's still in open beta, but is available for advertisers to test. And finally, TikTok is making a big change to its creator compensation. The social media giant has decided to shut down its $1 billion creator fund. This fund had faced criticism in the past for its low payouts to creators, some earning just a few dollars for videos that garnered millions of views. Starting December 16th, the creator Fund will be no more in the US, the UK, France, and Germany. Creators currently in it are being encouraged to transition to TikTok's newer Creativity Program.

Starting point is 00:07:55 This was introduced back in February and claims to offer higher average gross revenue for qualified video views. This Creativity Program differs from its predecessor by rewarding creators for longer content, specifically videos over one minute. To join, creators need to be 18 years or older, have a minimum 10,000 followers, and have amassed at least 100,000 views in the past 30 days. TikTok suggests that eligible creators could earn up to 20 times more than what the creator fund offered. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in so many nice comments, DMs, emails, Slack messages about our thousandth episode yesterday. Sometimes you forget there's actually people out there listening, so it's always nice to hear

Starting point is 00:08:48 from you. Follow us on social media. We are on Threads, Mastodon, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest. We are everywhere. Just tap the link in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash social. You can also follow me. A link to my

Starting point is 00:09:04 personal channels are there, but really all you're going to see is shit posting and cat videos. So there's that. I'm Todd Maffin. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. It's fun to dance and jump in puddles up the lane. Just children with no cares are splashing in the rain.

Starting point is 00:09:22 Running, enjoying, getting wet, being outdoors in the raind enjoying getting wet being outdoors in the raindrops flashing raindrops raindrops flashing

Starting point is 00:09:33 raindrops oh raindrops flashing

Today in Digital Marketing - Quick! Only 3 More Podcast Episode Plays Available!

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