Today in Digital Marketing - The Campaign Where Getting Ignored Was the Point

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, why a clever ad campaign was designed to go unnoticed. Google previews its upcoming ad products. How will Facebook's removal of location tracking tools affect your ad campaigns? The latest platform testing the 9x16 feed. And TikTok collabs with Foursquare to bring foot traffic insights to advertisers. It's Monday, May 9th. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. And we start today with Google, which is giving advertisers a preview of the products it will be unveiling at Google Marketing Live on May 24th. And it appears that more automation

Starting point is 00:00:36 tools are headed to the platform. First responsive display ads will be getting an upgrade. Google says it's all new mobile first layouts can accommodate any portrait image or video asset. So that's new in terms of it being fully vertical, like a cell phone, and that it's automatically generated videos will be able to help you access full screen mobile ad inventory. What's happening there is that with responsive display ads, static creative that you upload can be automatically transformed into video. Google, like Meta and all the other platforms, are drunk on machine learning these days. They say that this will speed up the design process, and it will, but of course at the expense of control.

Starting point is 00:01:14 Quoting Google, simply put, upload a few images, videos, and headlines, and will automatically create and test visually striking ad combinations that fit millions of possible ad placements and most importantly, deliver results, unquote. Google claims that advertisers will see twice the conversions when adding a responsive display ad to an ad group with a static display ad. Machine learning will also be used to optimize ads, including image uncropping for product ads. This essentially will expand the image

Starting point is 00:01:45 to fill the available space so that your ad isn't left with white borders around it. And finally, Google has launched a new creative inspiration hub for marketers. The hub features examples of ads that worked for brands across different campaign types, including Discovery, Display, Apps, and YouTube. These are just a few of the products

Starting point is 00:02:02 the company will be rolling out, and you can register for the event at googlemarketinglive.com. Yeah, so as I mentioned, Google will be doing its annual huge Marketing Live Day. This is where they reveal new ad products and map out their marketing offerings for the next year. And my friend and Google Ads expert Jill Saskengales and I will be doing a live- streamed tailgate party, which you can join. We will be watching the event live, chatting about the new things, what they mean for advertisers, what new analytics and reporting tools are coming, and how your marketing campaigns

Starting point is 00:02:33 may need to change. Jill, if you don't know, spent six years at Google Ads helping brands with their marketing campaigns. She now runs Inside Google Ads, which is one of the most valuable training courses and membership programs out there. So be sure to put this event in your calendar. The unofficial Google Marketing Tailgate with Jill and Todd will be May 24th at 8 a.m. Pacific time. The event starts at 9 a.m., but we are getting in an hour early to chat things up. So the URL is going to be b.link slash Google Tailgate. That's b.link slash Google Tailgate. This will take you to Jill's YouTube event where you can get an event notification.

Starting point is 00:03:10 Premium members, earlier today, you will have gotten an after show event invitation exclusive to you. So check the feed and your email details for that. And if you want to be in the cool kids party too, you can start getting the premium podcast feed. It's 50% off your first month. Tap the link in the show notes

Starting point is 00:03:25 or go to todayindigital.com slash premium. More data, more problems for Meta. The social network says it will be removing a range of location tracking tools, including nearby friends, weather alerts, location history, and background location. Don't worry, that apparently will not have an effect on our ability to target people with ads based on their location. But these more consumer-facing things are indeed being shut down.

Starting point is 00:03:54 The company alerting users to this through emails and newsfeed notifications. They will be discontinued by the end of this month. After that, those features will no longer collect information. And by August 1st, the location history will be deleted. So until the deadline, you can view, delete, or download a copy of the information that Facebook collected if you want to know about your stuff. Facebook also noted, as I mentioned, it will continue to collect users' location information for other things across its platform. So things like personalizing ads, posts with check-ins, events, and so on.

Starting point is 00:04:28 Meta says it's retiring these tracking tools due to lack of use, the fact that online users are more cautious about sharing their location data with Zuck. Not exactly a surprise, but the deprecation could also be in line with evolving data regulations. Marketing awareness campaigns usually aim to get people's, well, awareness of a brand. But one clever agency designed a campaign to emphasize the consequences of being overlooked. The campaign was run by the UK charity Ovarian Cancer Actions for World Ovarian Cancer Day to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer. In April, the company began by creating four mysterious Twitter handles, each named after a symptom of ovarian cancer.

Starting point is 00:05:12 Those names were MyTummyHurts, FeelFullQuickly, INeedAWeAgain, and BloatedBelly. The accounts followed 7,500 people with ovaries, the same number of people diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year in the UK. The accounts tweeted regularly, but their posts were largely ignored, reflecting, says the agency, how these symptoms are often dismissed in real life. On May 6th, Ovarian Cancer Action revealed the accounts belonged to the charity. A video explains that although ignoring Twitter accounts won't kill anyone, ignoring the real symptoms of ovarian cancer will. The campaign encourages Twitter users to share the handles and spread awareness about the symptoms so they'll be more likely to

Starting point is 00:05:53 recognize them sooner. 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. Last week, we told you about how Instagram was testing a TikTok-inspired full-screen feed. Now, Twitter appears to be the latest platform to jump on the bandwagon.

Starting point is 00:06:31 Yes, Twitter is testing out a redesigned format for its Explore page that looks suspiciously familiar. There's even a page called For You. With the new layout, users can choose between personalized and top trends based on what's most popular at the time. With the 4U feed, however, users experience a full-screen, vertical scrolling display of tweets, most of which are videos. And so, as more and more platforms are pivoting to the 9x16 feed, it may also be worthwhile to repurpose your brand's video content on Twitter. So while platforms are working to look more like TikTok, TikTok is working on giving its advertisers more insights. The company announced today it is expanding its partnership with Foursquare to integrate Foursquare's attribution tech.

Starting point is 00:07:20 This helps brands measure how effective their campaigns are at driving traffic into their bricks and mortar stores. Quoting TikTok, this integration will focus on the metrics that are critical to advertisers with physical business locations. Advertisers will be able to understand how effective their media plan on TikTok has been and discover new insights to optimize campaigns, ultimately tying their TikTok investment back to realworld visits at their business locations, unquote. As a result, the platform says its advertisers will be able to get answers to key business questions like, how many incremental visitors does TikTok drive to my store? How much do I need to spend on TikTok to drive one more person to my real-world business?

Starting point is 00:08:01 And which audiences are driving the most value for my business? And finally, speaking of TikTok, social media's current golden child might actually be a wayward child. An article in the Wall Street Journal sheds light on what allegedly happens behind the scenes at TikTok. Former employees described unusually long work hours, stress, and a cultural disconnect between the company's U.S. and China branches.

Starting point is 00:08:31 This according to The Verge. Some employees report spending around 85 hours per week in meetings and needing to make more time to finish their work. And so the employees claim that this type of work environment negatively impacted their health and well-being. According to the article, employees in the U.S. also claimed they felt pressured to keep up with TikTok's China-based operations. One former employee tweeted he knew of 10 product managers who quit after one year because they were expected to follow the schedules of their Chinese colleagues. It is the day. Today is the day. Today is the day, I hope.

Starting point is 00:09:10 As I'm recording this, it is about quarter after one Pacific time. Within an hour, the hot tub is supposed to be delivered. I will, of course, be live streaming it on Twitter. I've already tested the live stream. I'm going to have my iPad in the car across the street. We do not know whether the electrician will be here at the same time so that may be a tomorrow thing sadly i have the hose wrapped around the house ready to go so i'm basically just waiting for what is going to

Starting point is 00:09:37 derail it do you know when this happens are you like this where it's like i've got everything lined up everything seems to be perfect the timing all the trades are within a day of each other. Something is going to go wrong. So, you know, we'll see. Tune in tomorrow to find out what that is, I guess. Hey, by the way, we do a live listener hangout every week now on Google Meet. So come join us. Put it in your calendar. It's every Wednesday at one o'clock Pacific time. That's 4 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. London time. The link is in the show notes or just go to todayindig time. That's 4 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. London time. The link is in the show notes. Or just go to todayindigital.com slash happy hour at that time.

Starting point is 00:10:11 Put it in your calendar every Wednesday at 1 o'clock Pacific, 4 o'clock Eastern. I'm out of here. Talk to you tomorrow. Now, Julian, I see you have your computer linked to the telephone line. Can you tell us how you did that? Yes, well, it's very simple, really. The telephone is connected to the telephone network with Can you tell us how you did that? Yes, well, it's very simple, really. The telephone is connected to the telephone network with a British telecom plug,

Starting point is 00:10:34 and I simply remove the telephone jack from the telecom socket and plug it into this box here, the modem. From Paris, France, London and Berlin All the way to Tokyo If you're the newbie on the wire, turn on your video. Let's dance. Dance. Dance.

Today in Digital Marketing - The Campaign Where Getting Ignored Was the Point

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