Today in Digital Marketing - The Doctor is In 🏥

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, why are the best performing ads on TikTok those where the subject's face is far away? A new Mac operating system is out? What does that mean for the marketing and design tools you use every day? Some excellent tips on how to use WhatsApp to sell more things? Why hashtag delete Facebook is trending again today? And the doctor is in! Your chance to get your burning digital marketing question answered by an expert. It's Friday, November 13th, 2020, which means it's both World Kindness Day and Friday the 13th.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Make of that what you will. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. Well, as a digital marketer, you are probably mourning the forthcoming loss of third-party cookies. I say forthcoming, but it's already happening. Mac's newest operating system released yesterday. We'll talk about that in a moment. And its Safari browser gleefully blocks all tracking and third-party cookies by default. So what to do? Here's what one company is doing. Literally selling their cookies. But no, there's not an actual market for random third-party cookies. This company is Mondelez, which you've probably never heard of before,

Starting point is 00:01:15 but I bet you heard of one of their products, Oreo cookies. In a new digital campaign, the company is offering customized cookies for sale. You can choose from eight colors of filling or order them dipped in fudge or coated in different sprinkle colors. You can add personalized messages like happy birthday on the cookie, all for the low, low price of $2.50 per cookie, minimum order 20. So sure, interesting campaign, but what's more interesting is the primary reason behind the campaign. Quoting MarketingDive.com, Oreo can now gather more data about customers who buy the personalized products and use the information to gain greater insights into their buying habits for future marketing, unquote.

Starting point is 00:01:58 So yeah, this is a play for first-party data, which we'll all have to do soon anyway, right? I mean, if your brand all have to do soon anyway, right? I mean, if your brand doesn't have an email list, you need to stop listening to this podcast and go start one. This isn't the first time Oreo has customized its cookies. They've done Rainbow Pride cookies before, for instance, but this is the first time that customization can be done at the per-cookie level.

Starting point is 00:02:25 Every so often, Facebook will report that you overpaid for ads, usually as a result of a miscalculation of the results you got, and that you've been refunded. The refund amount, given the small budgets of most advertisers, is more often than not laughably small, like literally two cents sometimes. And while that happens quite a bit at Facebook, it's pretty rare to see that kind of calculation error on other platforms. But today, LinkedIn

Starting point is 00:02:50 is refunding some of its brand advertisers after an error in its ads reporting caused some marketers to be overcharged for their campaigns over the past two years. We don't often learn exactly what causes errors like this, but some reports say this one happened on iOS devices when people rotated their phones to watch videos. Apparently, LinkedIn's code has been counting these as two separate video views, when of course it was really just one. In total, LinkedIn says this affected more than 418,000 customers over a two-plus-year period. More than 90% of those errors were under $25. LinkedIn is now rolling out those refunds as credit to advertisers.

Starting point is 00:03:42 A new study from VidMob, which analyzed more than 1,400 TikTok video ads from 34 American brands, has a number of findings you may want to factor into your next TikTok campaign, or I suppose for any similar vertical format ad like Snapchat. The ads in question ran from January to September of this year and got in total 5.4 billion impressions. So yeah, that's a decent sized data set. And here are some of their top findings. First, highlight exaggerated expressions. They say videos that opened with a big emotional moment like surprise got a 1.7 times higher six second view rate than neutral expressions. Also videos with only music as the audio. In other words, no actual voiceover or camera recorded sound. Those videos had more than 50% lift in six-second views.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Speaking of music, despite how popular certain tracks are on the platform at any given moment, VidMob's study found that ads that had custom audio also led to about a 50% lift. And the study found that close-ups aren't always the best. When the subject's face filled less than 20% of the frame, that led to a 31% increase in click-through rate. There's a bunch of other stuff in there too, like don't look directly into

Starting point is 00:04:51 the camera, use voice effects, open with your call to action. A link to the full study is in the transcript of today's show. Remember, we don't know how much of this is causation and how much is correlation. So as always, do your own testing. But if you're just getting started, this might give you a quick boost. Speaking of TikTok, very quickly to update the never ending will they stay or will they go nonsense. I reported yesterday they were in court trying to get a stay of execution

Starting point is 00:05:18 or at least some clarity on their situation. Now they have another 15 days to convince the Trump administration that its deal with Oracle and Walmart should be approved. Yesterday was originally the deadline for TikTok's Chinese-owned parent company to divest the popular app. Part of the confusion was that Trump's executive order didn't actually say that TikTok would be banned if it missed the deadline. Actually, it turns out his order didn't have any consequences specified at all.

Starting point is 00:05:44 But rather than needing a judge's order, at the last minute, the Trump administration came in and gave them that 15-day extension. Still ahead, a new operating system is out for your Mac, but danger ahead, the design tool you use every day may not be ready for it. Plus, using WhatsApp as a commerce vehicle, how a decision about a Facebook video is causing the platform some grief today, and how to get your biggest digital marketing problem solved by a real expert right here on the podcast.

Starting point is 00:06:14 That's in a moment when Today in Digital Marketing continues. Right now, the American unemployment rate is unprecedented. Yet there is a severe job shortage of three and a half million cybersecurity roles needed by next year. If you're looking to make a career shift, consider bulking up your resume with cybersecurity habits. Author George Finney's new book might help. It's called Well Aware, Master the Nine Cybersecurity Habits to Protect Your Future. Finney is the chief information security officer at Southern Methodist University, and his nine habits are drawn from his two decades of experience in cybersecurity

Starting point is 00:06:51 and using lessons learned from psychology, neuroscience, history, and economics. Order your copy of WellAware at retailers like Amazon or everywhere books are sold. Or visit wellawaresecurity.com to learn more. visual refinements, lots of privacy stuff in Safari, but a warning. Remember, this is a major update. And as with all operating system updates, sometimes apps don't always work right after install, especially apps which rely on system level drivers. For instance, I use a piece of software that enhances all the audio coming out of the computer. But as soon as I updated to the new OS, that stopped working. So if you use any mission-critical apps for your work, be sure to check their websites out first

Starting point is 00:07:51 to make sure that they are compatible. For what it's worth, almost everything else seems to work just fine. Slack, Twitter, Chrome, Word, Excel, and of course all of the Apple stuff. Also, Pixelmator Pro, which is an outstanding replacement to Photoshop, a replacement you pay for once, is releasing version 2.0 on November 19th.

Starting point is 00:08:09 It will be free to all current Pro users. And if you haven't checked out Pixelmator Pro, I highly, highly recommend it. Honestly, it's better than Photoshop. It's $30. One time. No monthly fees. Despite what Adobe would have you believe, you do not need to rent your software. Yesterday, I reported on some upgrades to the Facebook-owned WhatsApp, upgrades that make things easier for digital marketers. And in case you'd like to dive a little deeper into what WhatsApp has to offer for people like you and me, socialmediatoday.com

Starting point is 00:08:45 has a great piece up about it. It's actually an infographic, and I usually hate infographics as blog posts, but this one is actually pretty useful. Among the tips, it shows you how to share product information inside chats that your team may be having with your customers. You can pull things right out of your product catalog and pump them into those chats. Plus, information about keeping customers up to date on shipping details using the app, following up after purchase, and using lists of people that your brand has chatted with to push additional products. You will find a link in the transcript of today's show or just go to socialmediatoday.com. By the way, you may have seen hashtag delete Facebook trending again today.

Starting point is 00:09:26 In case you're curious, it's mostly because CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently told an all-staff meeting that Steve Bannon has not violated enough policies to be suspended from Facebook. Bannon, you might remember, is the guy who said the American FBI Director Christopher Wray and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci should be beheaded. Finally, I'd like to start a new thing with this podcast. Think of it like a call-in advice line, but instead of relationship advice, it's digital marketing advice. So if you've got a burning question

Starting point is 00:10:03 about why your page isn't ranking or your campaign isn't working or what to do about a low open rate on your emails or how to bring your cost per acquisition down on Facebook ad campaigns, just leave a voicemail. And if your call is selected, we will track down someone who can answer your question authoritatively. To leave a voicemail, just go to todayindigital.com slash voicemail. That's todayindigital.com slash voicemail

Starting point is 00:10:32 or tap the link in today's episode notes. Well, that's it for this week. Our production assistant is Sarah Guild. Our theme is by Mark Blefus. Music licensing by Source Audio and this podcast is produced

Starting point is 00:10:44 by our agency, EngageQ Digital. Find us at engageq.com. Full transcripts to every episode are on our website, todayindigital.com. I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful and safe weekend, friends. I'll talk to you on Monday. Oh, just let me down. I want it all now. I want it all. That turnaround won't ever come down, no. Oh, top of the world, competitive space. Dancing in the air, bright sun on my face.

Starting point is 00:11:19 I want to live and do it my way. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca.

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Today in Digital Marketing - The Doctor is In 🏥

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