Today in Digital Marketing - Talk to the Hand

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected, be Zen. It's Friday, October 11th. Today, Meta's new feature lets you pre-silence the haters. The only real question is, why did it take so long? Also, inside PayPal's plan to sell its buyers' data, Blue Sky tries to cozy up to dissatisfied Threads users, and Europe delivers bittersweet news to acts. I'm Steph Gunn, sitting in for Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in Digital Marketing. At long last, Meta is letting brands turn off comments on ads from the get-go. Advertisers on Facebook and Instagram can now publish ads with comments disabled

Starting point is 00:01:03 before the trolls arrive, something Reddit and TikTok marketers have been able to do for years. The company announced several new brand safety controls for advertisers yesterday. First, Meta launched a live test that lets brands deactivate comments on ads before publishing during ad setup. Previously, advertisers could only switch off comments on Facebook and Instagram campaigns after an ad was already running. However, the new feature comes with limited options. You can either turn off comments entirely or leave them open to everyone, with no option to restrict comments to specific groups like followers. And you can't play with

Starting point is 00:01:42 it just yet. Meta says the new feature is only available to a limited number of businesses, for now. Meta is also rolling out more ad placement controls. Now, brands can block specific profiles on Instagram, and soon Facebook, preventing ads from being placed there. These are ads that show up when scrolling the personal profiles of people, not brand pages, on mobile. So this is presumably meant for brands to keep their ads from being associated with controversial figures. Meta says businesses will be able to upload a list of any public profiles where they don't want their ads to show. Meta is also adding support for third-party block lists for brands working with Meta business partners to ensure ads don't appear in unsuitable content categories.

Starting point is 00:02:29 Finally, Meta is also updating its Brand Safety and Suitability Center, giving brands more tools to control where and how their ads appear with an updated interface. PayPal just jumped on the ad network train, joining the growing list of retailers cashing in on user data. The company launched PayPal Ads yesterday, its new ad platform that turns consumer shopping data into targeted ads for brands across the U.S. This new division, led by a former Uber and Amazon ad executive, will sell digital ads based on the shopping habits of its 400 million active users in the U.S. PayPal is currently selling display ads on its own properties, but plans to expand with video ads and self-serve options in the next year. It will also begin selling ad placements on merchants' websites next year. In one example, PayPal ads could include ads on

Starting point is 00:03:26 order confirmation pages after a purchase is made. In another example, PayPal says it will use its data to help brands that sell items at multiple stores, like fashion brands, grow their sales at specific retailers. This could include advising brands on where to spend their ad money and which groups of shoppers to target for better results. The company says it expects that performance advertisers will be among the first to use PayPal ads, with branding-focused campaigns likely following as the platform introduces more ad formats. Instagram is on the brink of rolling out a new WhatsApp sticker for Stories to hopefully spark DM conversations, which could help brands drive connection with users in the messaging app. The sticker will be available to businesses that have linked their WhatsApp business accounts to Instagram, letting them prompt users to chat via DM.

Starting point is 00:04:20 Quoting Social Media Today, That could be valuable because both WhatsApp and DM connection are on the rise in most regions. WhatsApp in particular has seen a big surge in the U.S. of late, as more people look to engage within private chats as opposed to posting their updates in public. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has noted several times that people now share a lot more in their DMs and stories than they do on the main feed. That's been a significant paradigm shift for online interaction, and now brands are working to find new ways to maximize connection in line with these trends.

Starting point is 00:04:55 Instagram is currently testing the new WhatsApp sticker with select users. As Meta tries to boost its DM game, Blue Sky is capitalizing on the growing frustration among Threads users. Blue Sky, the decentralized platform and Threads competitor, now lets users pin posts to the top of their profile, apply language filters, and customize fonts and text sizes. The platform announced these new features on the Threads account it created yesterday. The move comes as Threads users voice concerns over excessive engagement bait posts and reports of inaccurate moderation decisions, prompting many to seek alternatives. In response, Blue Sky, the company not owned by a billionaire,

Starting point is 00:05:43 is hoping to lure these frustrated Threads users to switch platforms. The update also includes some quality of life improvements like swiping to delete DM conversations, sharing videos directly from the camera roll, and muting specific words in notifications and search results. Version 1.92 of the Blue Sky app is rolling out now. You can follow us on Blue Sky at todayindigital at bsky.social. X is dodging a regulatory bullet. The European Commission ruled this week that X, formerly Twitter, isn't important enough to be considered a gatekeeper platform under the Digital Markets Act, sparing it from strict regulations. Under the European Digital Markets Act, platforms

Starting point is 00:06:32 designated as gatekeepers must let third-party systems interoperate with their services, let business users access their data, and provide ad performance info for independent verification. It's intended to promote fair competition in the market, preventing dominant platforms from and provide ad performance info for independent verification. It's intended to promote fair competition in the market, preventing dominant platforms from overshadowing smaller players. Following its investigation, the European Commission determined that X does not meet the criteria, necessary, or gatekeeper status. Quoting social media today, which is no doubt a relief to Elon and co. because of these additional obligations.

Starting point is 00:07:07 But still, that also means that the European officials have decided that X simply doesn't hold the impact on the internal market, provides an important gateway for business users to reach end users, and holds an entrenched and durable market position. X, according to European investigators, doesn't meet these thresholds, which means really that EU officials simply don't see X as being a key player in the European market, unquote. 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. Finally, as we head into the holiday

Starting point is 00:08:17 marketing season, TikTok has launched a new Fall Deals for You promotion this week to push more in-stream shopping. Throughout October, the platform will offer discounts on thousands of trending products from a range of big brands like Philips, Dyson, and Keurig on TikTok Shop. TikTok is also hosting several live shopping events where consumers can get discounts from popular brands. This campaign hopes to build momentum for TikTok's in-app shopping push, which remains a key part of its plan to boost revenue. This strategy has also already proven effective in China, where in-stream sales have become the primary revenue driver for the app.

Starting point is 00:08:59 My apologies for getting the podcast out a little later today. It has been a while since I sat in the hot seat. If you have absolutely no idea who I am, I'm Steph. I'm the associate producer for the podcast. I mostly work behind the scenes, but on the odd occasion that Todd needs me to fill in, I get to host the podcast. And for the past year, I've been away on mat leave. So it has been a while. Just a reminder that there will be no show on Monday because it is Canadian Thanksgiving, so it's a long weekend for us here. And Todd is away on Tuesday,

Starting point is 00:09:30 so I will be back to talk to you then. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Stunamuk First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is me, Steph Gunn. Our production coordinator is Sarah Gilt. Ad coordination by Red Circle. And Mark Blevis is that moment just before Basil smacks Manuel on the forehead with a spoon. I'm Steph Gunn. Thanks for listening.

Starting point is 00:09:58 I'll talk to you on Tuesday.

Today in Digital Marketing - Talk to the Hand

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