Today in Digital Marketing - The Instagram “Taste Test”

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, May 31st. Today, the new Instagram test that ignores your current fan base, why your favorite marketing tool might stop working next week, link previews are now pay-for-size, and bad news for marketing departments as their share of corporate budget continues to fall. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Instagram is testing a feature called trial reels that lets brands and creators post reels without them being visible to their own followers. Why would you want to do this? Well, you could use

Starting point is 00:00:38 it to test different types of content without the pressure of public scrutiny. When a reel is posted using this feature, Instagram provides performance insights like plays, likes, comments, and shares. Based on this data, you can decide whether to make the reel public or just archive it. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's apparently the evolution

Starting point is 00:00:57 of a previous test called Experiment Mode, first spotted by reverse software engineers last month. It's not a complete block from your followers though. While yes, these reels will be hidden from your profile, non-followers who see them can still share them with others, including your followers. The trial is available globally right now to a handful of creators with professional accounts, regardless of follower count. Instagram is not confirmed when or if this feature will be widely released. Your favorite marketing tools might stop working next week if they are Google Chrome plugins.

Starting point is 00:01:35 Google is ending support for its older extension system, Manifest version 2, starting next week. This new version was announced five years ago and has faced multiple delays. The company says Manifest version 3 improves security, privacy, performance, and the trustworthiness of extensions. But critics, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, disagree. The EFF calling Manifest version 3 deceitful and threatening, arguing it limits extensions designed to monitor and modify web interactions, thus not enhancing security. It's a hot-button topic because most of this is seen as less about the overall technology's security and more a targeted attack on ad blockers. Specifically, Manifest version 3 has an impact on content filtering, which ad blockers and anti-tracking extensions use.

Starting point is 00:02:29 Google, which earns most of its revenue from ads, hasn't really explained why this new version restricts content filtering. And while ad blocking might be Google's actual target here, this is an update to the whole extension ecosystem, which means any Chrome plugin you use now could very well get degraded or stop working entirely, especially so for plugins which aren't actively maintained. LinkedIn has followed through on its plan to change the size of link previews posted to the newsfeed, and that size will depend on whether you're paying to put that post there. Organic link previews will soon have that horizontal format you're probably familiar with, the image thumbnail in the left third and the meta text in the right two thirds. But when an admin puts a budget behind that organic post, now the link preview will be that

Starting point is 00:03:22 large square format with the thumbnail taking up most of the post and the headline in the lower fifth. If someone then shares that ad, those shared posts will revert back to the small link preview. Not everyone is a fan. Quoting social media today, quote, the smaller preview images don't have the same click appeal

Starting point is 00:03:43 as the larger display, which as LinkedIn notes, is the intention in order to help members stay on the platform. But is that a better user experience? I don't know. It seems slightly problematic or maybe just annoying. But regardless, LinkedIn is pushing ahead with the update, unquote. More advertisers are now able to use Google's new enhancements for video ad campaigns. There are two enhancements in particular. First, cropping horizontal videos

Starting point is 00:04:15 to square and vertical formats and new shorter versions made by the AI picking what it thinks are the most important moments in your source video and making a new, shorter video out of it. Google says this will help marketers make video ads that will perform better on mobile without any extra editing work. Matching the ad format to the app layout could, of course, boost campaign performance.

Starting point is 00:04:39 A couple of warnings, though. First, Google says it will intelligently flip your original video format. There wasn't a lot of detail on this, so watch out for this, especially if you have text on screen or in the background that might get mirrored. And second, Google says they've turned this on for all new video ad campaigns. You can toggle them off if you want. You'll find that in campaign settings under additional settings, then video enhancements. TikTok is taking a page from Snapchat with its new DM streaks feature. This will create a trackable streak

Starting point is 00:05:15 when you've messaged each other for several days in a row. Then if you're getting to the end of the day and you haven't sent that person a message, it will prompt you to come back and do that or lose your streak. It's a little exploitative, yes, and it works. Young people on Snapchat bend over backwards to make sure they don't break a streak. It's so popular, in fact, Snapchat has a support form dedicated to manually

Starting point is 00:05:38 putting that streak icon back beside your BFF if you lose it somehow. What do you get for maintaining a long streak? Not much. A couple of unique emojis and bragging rights. Other apps like Messenger and Be Real have tried versions of this. One parenting blog advises parents, quote, to some, slacking off on a snap streak is seen as a major offense. A broken streak can be disappointing. In extreme cases, it can cause drama and lead to rifts in the friendship. When your favorite app is essentially keeping score of your friendships, it's easy to get caught up. Unquote. The amount spent on marketing budgets in the average company continues to fall. Marketing budgets have dropped to 7.7% of company revenue.

Starting point is 00:06:27 That's down from 9.1% just last year. This according to Gartner's 2024 CMO spend survey. Before the pandemic, average marketing budgets were 11% of revenue. The survey was conducted from February to March of this year and included almost 400 CMOs and marketing leaders from North America and Europe. And most of these companies were large. The median annual revenues were a little over $5 billion. Nearly two out of every three executives said they lack the budget to execute their 2024 strategies, but they do see generative AI as a way to extend their impact. While paid media investments rose to almost 28% of budgets in 2024, spending on technology, labor, and agencies decreased. Martech spending is now

Starting point is 00:07:16 at its lowest in a decade. As to where that spend goes, digital media now takes up 57% of paid media budgets, up from 55% last year. Top digital channels are search at just under 14%, social advertising just over 12%, and digital display advertising getting close to 11%. The top offline channels, event marketing at 17%, sponsorship at 16.5%, and TV at 16%. TikTok is disputing a Reuters report that claims the app is cloning its algorithm to offer a different version for US users which might degrade over time. The Reuters report, based on anonymous sources with direct knowledge, stated that this effort began late last year and involves separating millions of lines of code and requiring hundreds of engineers.

Starting point is 00:08:12 The project is seen as a way for ByteDance, TikTok's China-based owner, to comply with a U.S. law passed in April. The law demands TikTok sell its U.S. operations by January 19th or face a ban, but TikTok insists the qualified divestiture required by law is impossible. And so they are suing to block the U.S. law on First Amendment grounds. Arguments start in September, with a ruling expected by December 6th. Reuters says it stands by its reporting. And that will do it for the week. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital

Starting point is 00:08:47 on the traditional territories of the Stunamic First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our production coordinator is Sarah Guild. Our theme is by Mark Blevis. Ad coordination by Red Circle. I'm Todd Maffin.

Starting point is 00:08:59 Have a restful weekend, friends. I'll see you next week.

Today in Digital Marketing - The Instagram “Taste Test”

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