Today in Digital Marketing - The Ad Discounts Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, July 26th. Today, desperate times. Twitter slashes ad prices while threatening its shrinking advertiser base. Google's dynamic search ads get an upgrade that is making media buyers nervous. Shopify launches a credit card for its merchants. And on the ad-free premium podcast, which you can learn more about by tapping Go Premium in the show notes, Jill Saskin-Gales breaks down the news about Performance Max and how it will affect your ad campaigns. I'm Todd Maffin. That's Ahead. Today in digital marketing. Elon Musk's rebranded Twitter is now discounting ad prices

Starting point is 00:00:38 to try to recoup its lost flock of advertisers. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the social network X is now offering some marketers reduced prices on video ads that run alongside trending topics on its Explore tab. These ads give brands 24-hour placement on the site's trending topics list, and the company is offering 50% off any new ad buys until the end of the month. But along with the carrot came a very big stick. X also warned advertisers that starting August 7th, brands accounts will lose their verification status, a gold check mark, if they don't spend enough.

Starting point is 00:01:20 And hinted that they really won't do much to police brand impersonators that might come along as a result. Verification is important for many businesses on the platform because of the bad actors that impersonate and misrepresent brands, as we witnessed in the first few weeks of Musk's takeover. Now advertisers must spend at least $1,000 on ads in the previous 30 days or $6,000 on ads in the previous 180 days to keep the verification badge. And just in case you thought the platform was becoming a little more brand safe after the renaming, consider this. Elon this week speculated that a college basketball player's collapse from myocarditis

Starting point is 00:01:56 was because he got the COVID vaccine. Well, not just any player, mind you, the son of billionaire NBA legend LeBron James. Luckily, though, Twitter's crowdsourced fact-checking system called Community Notes applied a correction to the tweet, quoting sources like the Yale School of Medicine, that in fact the risk of myocarditis drops significantly after the vaccine. Yesterday, mysteriously, that correction had been deleted. Musk's inaccurate tweet, though, is still up. Google continues to push Performance Max campaigns. The self-upgrade tool for converting Google Ads to Performance Max campaigns is now available for Dynamic Search ads campaigns and Google display campaigns.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Performance Max comes with new features like inventory aware ad serving, which automatically takes into account product inventory to prevent out of stock pages from displaying with search ads. Google's AI and Performance Max will also use your campaign's creative assets to identify search queries with higher conversion potential. Google Ads will automatically upgrade accounts to performance max for local campaigns, with the process being gradually completed by September. Eligible advertisers can access the self-upgrade tool through the recommendations page. And on the premium podcast today, our Google Ads correspondent Jill Saskin-Gales weighs in with her thoughts on whether or not you should upgrade your campaigns.

Starting point is 00:03:27 You can learn more about the Premium Podcast at todayindigital.com slash premium or tap go premium in the show notes. Some big changes to Shopify revealed today. First, the company introduced Shopify Magic, a new suite of AI-powered products integrated across its platform. These tools include AI-driven email campaigns, which will let you generate tailored newsletters, announcements, and other content. It can also recommend times to send emails to drive higher click-through rates to a retailer's store. You might remember that earlier this month, Shopify unveiled its AI assistant for merchants called Sidekick,

Starting point is 00:04:07 which is designed to help merchants handle administrative tasks like responding to customer inquiries and making design changes to their online storefronts. In terms of supply and distribution expansion, the company introduced Marketplace Connect, a new central hub that lets merchants manage different marketplaces through the Shopify platform like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay. The e-commerce company is also adding

Starting point is 00:04:34 more dropshipping capabilities with its new Shopify Collective service, which will let businesses source products and fulfillment from third parties. But unlike typical dropshipping, Collective requires merchants to meet specific eligibility requirements. Each merchant must share a point of contact and approve any partnership prior to supplying or reselling another merchant's products. And finally, to support its merchants with funding, the company is launching a business credit card called Shopify Credit, which provides e-tailers with a credit line that grows with their business. Do you have business insurance?

Starting point is 00:05:15 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. Well, it's sunshine and rainbows for Alphabet today. Despite ad woes and AI competition, Google's parent company gained ground in its second quarter, according to financial results released yesterday. Alphabet posted $74.5 billion in quarterly sales.

Starting point is 00:05:54 That was up 7% from the same time last year. It also posted a profit of $18.5 billion, a 15% increase in the second quarter, and that beat Wall Street's expectations. Google says the result was driven by YouTube and its search engine, both of which saw a surge in higher ad spend among retailers. Revenue from Google's search engine increased 5% in Q2. Advertising sales on YouTube climbed 4%. Quoting the New York Times, It's difficult to determine if Alphabet's rebound indicates that the broader online ad market is regaining strength. Google's search engine tends to hold up well in both good and bad economic times. YouTube's modest recovery does suggest things are getting better, though the company's advertising technology division, which posts ads on websites across the web, lost ground on revenue. Unquote. Investors, though, welcomed the improved ad sales,

Starting point is 00:06:51 raising Alphabet's stock price by 6% in after-hours trading last night. Snapchat skies, on the other hand, aren't looking as bright as revenue continued to plummet for the second straight quarter. The company reported second quarter sales dropped by 4% compared to the previous year to $1.1 billion, following a 7% decline in first quarter revenue. Despite this, the net loss for the latest quarter narrowed by more than 10% to $377 million, and that actually surpassed analysts' expectations. Snapchat reported early signs of progress in its effort to improve its ad platform and boost user engagement. The company saw positive signs with a record number of active advertisers in the second quarter and 15% year-over-year growth in average daily active users, reaching 397 million. Its premium Snapchat Plus subscription service also gained more than 4 million subscribers.

Starting point is 00:07:52 But uncertainty persists about the app's future. Snapchat said that revenue for the current quarter could decline by 5% compared to the third quarter last year. And as a result, the company's shares dropped 20% in after-hours trading yesterday. Amazon today launched a Your Recalls and Product Safety Alerts page for consumers to view product recalls and safety information for items

Starting point is 00:08:21 they purchased on its platform. The new personalized alert page will notify customers if any items they've bought on the e-commerce platform are subject to recalls or pose potential safety risks like overheating USB cables. Buyers will receive a personalized email and an alert banner plastered on their Your Orders page regarding any recalls. Clicking on the alert directs them to Amazon's new dedicated page where they can learn about the issues and get information on refunds, returns, or repairs. And finally, yesterday we told you that the company formerly known as Twitter

Starting point is 00:08:58 had not even secured its new company's name on its own platform. The account named X did exist, and it was a bit of a mystery. But last night, some media found the owner. His name is Gene X Huang. His middle initial X is why he picked that account name. He is a photographer by trade. He told Mashable last night

Starting point is 00:09:19 that nobody from the company had reached out to him about transferring his username over to them. This morning, Gene no longer owns it. It is in the hands of the platform. Apparently, he got an email this morning from the company saying basically, Yeah, so we're going to take this now. He didn't expect any financial compensation for it, and he didn't get any. The company rep did say that they would transfer his old account to a new name and gave him the catchy username X12345678998765.

Starting point is 00:09:53 They also told him he could come down and meet management if he wanted. He says he has no plans to do that. Nothing to say here. I'm Todd Maffin. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. these rain drops on my head so just say nothing just say nothing and take my hand

Today in Digital Marketing - The Ad Discounts Will Continue Until Morale Improves

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