Today in Digital Marketing - Something Fishy is Happening with Messenger

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, Facebook is taking away a big chunk of Messenger for marketers who use third-party tools. Twitter's change to their ads platform may mean stronger mid-funnel results. There's yet another post type your content manager will need to create, and this one's a big one. And you didn't really need to create that Facebook Messenger ad campaign today, did you? It's Friday, December 4th, 2020.

Starting point is 00:00:22 Happy National Cookie Day! I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing. Some potentially big changes coming to Facebook Messenger. Not the app, but the API. Remember, the API is that backdoor that Facebook gives third-party tools to collect and send data so that those tools can display content for you, in this case, messages. The API change appears to be Facebook's response to European privacy legislation.

Starting point is 00:00:48 And so you know what that usually means for us, less data. Company says beginning December 16th, several Messenger APIs will be unavailable for developers and businesses in Europe and for people in Europe who connect with businesses globally. So it's kind of like how the California privacy legislation affects your dealing with California residents, regardless of where in the world you are.

Starting point is 00:01:13 Some developers are already seeing error messages from API changes, even developers in the US. Specifically, this will affect all messaging with Facebook pages that are based in Europe, or pages that have admins in Europe or are messaging with any users in Europe. Again, regardless of where your brand is headquartered. But how exactly will it affect things? Well, images and videos won't render in the message anymore, so that's cool. All you'll be able to do is post a link to the media.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Any message templates like purchase receipts or airline templates will fail. That the person is typing indicator won't be there. Oh, this is my favorite. Quote, user can send attachments, but will receive an error message letting them know the business may not have received the attachment. Thanks, I guess. The persistent menu will be gone. User info like their profile picture and name will be gone. What's also a little confusing about this is that this is just the API we're talking about here. So this will only affect developers and third-party tools like Sprout Social and Agorapulse and Hootsuite and stuff.

Starting point is 00:02:18 Presumably, you'll still be able to do all the messaging with customers you need on their native Facebook site without restrictions, even with this whole European privacy stuff. Which makes me wonder, how much of this is really about compliance with the legislation, and how much of it is about Facebook trying to force people back to its own platform for basic usability? Remember, Twitter did this. Twitter used to have a very robust ecosystem of third-party tools like TweetBot and Twitterific, and then one day they pulled a whack of things out of the API so that those tools couldn't let their users use them.

Starting point is 00:02:52 And those removed features were now only available on Twitter's own apps or site. I mean, call me crazy. A welcome new control option for media buyers who run campaigns on Twitter, frequency capping, now available for all campaign types. Frequency capping, of course, is the limit that you set for how many times each user is shown your ad within a given time frame. Quoting Twitter, marketers know one key component of campaign success is effective audience reach. That's why we are introducing frequency caps for ads on Twitter globally. Whether it's brand lift or offline sales impact, frequency caps allow advertisers to optimize campaigns to deliver efficient business outcomes through better control over impression delivery and audience reach over extended periods of time.

Starting point is 00:03:43 Unquote. delivery and audience reach over extended periods of time, unquote. Twitter says studies it's done have shown that for upper funnel brand metrics, that's the interest and awareness stage, up to 80% of brand awareness occurs during the first two exposures per week of a campaign. Let's pretend you're about to launch a campaign. It tested well. Your entire team is happy. Everything is going according to plan. Except for that one thought at the back of your head.

Starting point is 00:04:11 How do I ensure the people I want to target will be in the right mindset to receive my message? The answer? LinkedIn. Because when you market on LinkedIn, your message reaches people who are ready to do business. And the targeting is incredible. Thank you. professional network. So do business where business is done. Get a $100 advertising credit toward your first LinkedIn campaign. Visit linkedin.com slash digital. That's linkedin.com slash digital. Terms and conditions apply. Ah, the life of a social media content manager used to be so simple. There were Twitter posts and there were Facebook posts.

Starting point is 00:05:07 And that was about it. Today, there are those. Plus, fleets, stories, TikToks, Pinterest pins, YouTube videos. The list never seems to end. Well, I have some good news for you. Oh wait, I'm sorry, I read that wrong. Well, I have some bad news for you. One post type that you may have been blissfully ignoring,

Starting point is 00:05:24 Google My Business posts, are about to become even more important. Because their colleagues at Google Maps are introducing a new feature, the community feed. Think of it like a scaled down Facebook feed, but just of Google Maps contents, like reviews, photos posted by users, and, yes, brands own Google My Business posts. Here's how Google describes it. Quote, wondering if your favorite Mexican restaurant has added a new dish to the menu? If you follow them on Maps, you'll get their updates in your feed. For example, if you've marked an interest in healthy food or Greek cuisine in your Google Maps food and drink preferences,

Starting point is 00:06:02 you'll see more recommendations, photos, and business posts for that type of dining, unquote. So yeah, add Google My Business posts to your task lists, community manager. Side note, it's a little frustrating and peculiar to me how few third-party tools have actually integrated these post types into their platform. There is an API. I double-checked.

Starting point is 00:06:27 I looked it up this morning. It's literally called the Google My Business API. And you can create event posts and call-to-action posts and offer posts. You can edit posts. You can delete posts. It's pretty full function. So come on, Buffers, Sprout Social, the rest of you. It's time.

Starting point is 00:06:43 We don't want to be here, but here we are. The community feed is now rolling out globally on Android and iOS. Another GMB change to note, any support links that you may have added mid-pandemic, you know, the ones that let you sell gift cards and collect donations through your business page, those are being converted into posts. They will move from the overview tab to the updates tab on your profile. Google says you can always create new posts to share info and updates about fundraising so customers can still support your business.

Starting point is 00:07:16 It just won't be as prominent. And a couple of tidbits to wrap this week up. Multi-image extensions on Bing ads, sorry, Microsoft ads, are now rolling out in the UK, this after a successful US trial. And Facebook says it's resolved that bug that I told you about yesterday, the one affecting private messages, but they warn it may still impact some older messages. Well, good thing we've got all the Messenger bugs out of Facebook for the week. Oh, hey, update. There's a new bug today in Facebook Messenger. Oh, you're going to love this one. Facebook says it is investigating reports that creating ads where your placement

Starting point is 00:08:00 is Messenger is barfing back an error message. Honestly, some days it feels like the Facebook ads platform is held together with duct tape. Expired duct tape. And finally, a small correction. Earlier this week, I was whining about finding a new single app for our agency, and I said that Notion doesn't let you export a CSV. I was wrong about that. It will export a CSV of any table, just as long as it's only the table in the piece of content. I was trying to export a page that had a table and some other elements in it. It seemed like this week went, like, really quick for anyone else. I feel like yesterday was Tuesday or something.

Starting point is 00:08:46 Well, good thing the weekend is here, because I think I'm finally going to start the gaming commitment that is Assassin's Creed. My wife has been playing the new game, Valhalla, and seems to really be liking it. And I loved, I love, love, love, loved the previous game, Odyssey. I've been wanting to finish Watch Dogs Legion before committing to a new story, but...

Starting point is 00:09:04 I don't know, I've kind of run out of steam with Watch Dogs. Well, that's it for this week. Our production assistant is Sarah Guild. Our theme is by Mark Blevis. Music licensing by Source Audio. And this podcast is produced by our agency, EngageQ Digital. Find us at EngageQ.com and check out the other podcasts we produce for clients at EngageQ.com slash podcasts. Full transcripts to every episode are on our website, TodayInDigital.com. We'll see you next time. And I'm feeling so alive. And I'm feeling alive.

Starting point is 00:09:46 And I'm feeling so alive.

Today in Digital Marketing - Something Fishy is Happening with Messenger

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