Today in Digital Marketing - “Say Hello to My Little Friend!”

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, we're getting closer to that big change to iPhone apps that has Mark Zuckerberg fuming. How has the pandemic affected local search in Google Maps? Walmart is gunning for Amazon's ad revenue. And the bizarre Instagram hashtag contest that one brand is running right now. It's Thursday, January 28th, 2021. Happy National Film Day, Venezuela. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. And here's what you missed today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:29 And we start today with a quiz. In what year was the first use of the phrase SEO? Was it 2001, 1997, 1989, or 1962? I'll have the answer at the end of today's episode. Well, we have a better sense now of when Apple plans to make that huge change to IDFA, which will offer iPhone users the ability to easily turn ad tracking off in the apps they use. Facebook says this could cut revenue from audience network in half. All Apple said to date is sometime this year.

Starting point is 00:01:10 But now, in its latest quarterly report, we get a more narrow window. Early spring. So, reading the tea leaves here, if we assume early means the first third of spring, then we're looking at somewhere between March 20th and April 20th. Facebook has already made a bunch of changes to its ads platform in advance of this. Both John Loomer and Andrew Foxwell have excellent blog posts and training programs on this. A recent study from AppsFlyer found more than half of us digital marketers expect to see a negative effect from the IDFA changes. A couple of other interesting tidbits from Apple's report.

Starting point is 00:01:41 They had record revenue in Q1 2021. By the way, you might be wondering how they can even report Q1 2021 results when it's only the end of January. This is their fiscal Q1, actually, so it actually ended a month ago. And this one surprised me. Apple Pay, the company says, is now accepted in almost 90% of stores in the U.S. So while Apple's enjoying a solid quarter, friends offer a prayer for Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook's daily active users continues to drop in the U.S. and Canada. This is the second consecutive quarter of decline.

Starting point is 00:02:23 Quoting WeRSM.com, Facebook has a problem. Not one that will impact its business in the short term, but a growing concern for its future. There are serious signs of user fatigue in some of its core markets. An e-marketer analyst said the decline could be a reflection of increased competition from newer, shinier social platforms such as TikTok, unquote. To be fair, Facebook grew in the broad international markets in terms of daily active users. But yeah, TikTok, which has some of the highest time spent in app numbers. Again, to WeRSM.com, quote, user fatigue has been a recurring factor for Facebook.

Starting point is 00:03:01 The platform is seen as stagnant, with no real innovation brought to users in the last few years. Add to this an organic reach that continues to be annihilated, and many users and brands are now considering leaving the platform for good, unquote. Not directly related to marketing, but something I found interesting, Zuckerberg today said that they will be reducing the amount of political content that shows up on people's feeds in the future. Google has released some interesting year-over-year numbers about local businesses that appear in Google Maps.

Starting point is 00:03:38 As you'd expect with COVID around, searches for countries outside of someone's hometown was flat this month. Last January, searches for other countries increased by 65% over the previous month. Searches for local bed and breakfasts were up 20%. And the big winner, the socially distant friendly recreation, skiing. Well, skiing resorts, to be precise, up more than double the number of searches last year. Searches for wine shops and liquor stores went down about 10% from December's numbers. Declines in those categories happen every January because people make New Year's resolutions to drink less. But it should be noted that's not nearly the decline it usually is. Last January, searches for both queries were down almost 40%. Walmart has its eyes firmly set on Amazon's success as it repositions to try to get a piece of that.

Starting point is 00:04:34 First, their ads business will be renamed to Walmart Connect. It's just a brand change. But the big news, they've partnered with the Trade Desk, which works with brands and agencies to target audiences. Their chief customer officer says they're confident they'll be able to grow the ad business to become one of the top 10 advertising platforms in the U.S. over the next few years. Quoting that executive, if somebody sees an ad online and later buys that item in the store a day, a week later, we can connect them together, which historically advertisers haven't been able to get. We know enough about what cereals you've looked at, what cereals you've bought, and whether you've

Starting point is 00:05:10 been interested in oatmeal or not, to be able to place an oatmeal ad at the checkout counter, or even at the checkout screen for you. All that said, the ad business, today at least, for both Walmart and Amazon, is actually quite small compared to their overall revenue numbers. Funny side note, both companies lump ad revenue into those catch-all miscellaneous buckets in their financial reports. That's how small the ad revenue is. Amazon puts ad revenue in a bucket literally called other. And while most of what's in there is advertising money, that bucket doesn't even account for 6% of Amazon's total revenues. Funnier still, Walmart lumps its ad revenue numbers into a category called Fuel and Financial Services and Related Products.

Starting point is 00:05:57 And that bucket makes up less than 1% of its annual net sales. Interesting campaign underway now with the American coffee store chain Dunkin' Donuts. It's for New York State residents. They're asking them to post a photo on Instagram with the hashtag Dunkin' I Do contest. They will pick one winner who will get married at Dunkin' Donuts. Actually, in the drive-thru lane. If the winner is already married, they'll be able to renew their vows there. The idea came from a store employee who really did get married in a Dunkin' drive-thru last fall because that is where she first met her husband.

Starting point is 00:06:38 And one tiny thing to end off, Google now displays out-of-office information when you reply to someone or mention someone in Google Docs. Oh, and the answer to today's quiz. In what year was the first use of the phrase SEO? According to industry analyst Danny Sullivan, the phrase search engine optimization probably came into use in 1997. A full year before Google was developed. It wasn't until 10 years later that some jackass tried to trademark the term,

Starting point is 00:07:07 claiming that SEO was a process involving manipulation of keywords and not a marketing service. His application was denied. Well, my thanks to the 52 of you who have completed the brief listener survey so far. I'm hearing that you would like less of the bug reports. You seem to like the snark. Some of you want to play video games with me, so hit me up on Xbox. My gamer tag is Radio9573. Or if you want to just watch, the link to my Twitch channel is in this episode's notes.

Starting point is 00:07:39 Remember, I'm giving away three $50 gift certificates to Amazon. Or, you know, if you just want the cash via PayPal, I will do that too. So swipe over to this episode's notes in your podcast app right now and tap the link to the survey. Or go to todayindigital.com slash survey. That's todayindigital.com slash survey. It will only be up until the end of this weekend. All right, that's it for today. And now, here it is, your moment of digital marketing zen.

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Today in Digital Marketing - “Say Hello to My Little Friend!”

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