Today in Digital Marketing - The Newest Ad Placement is Actually Fraud

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

Ad fraudsters are targeting refrigerators… A major record label cancels a virtual AI rapper... TikTok tests a new feed to target locals… Tis’ the season to be saving — this year’s holiday shopping forecast… Why your Facebook Feed was broken…Links to stories we covered: This is a Premium exclusive feature. Go Premium! No ads, story links in show notes, deep-dive weekend editions, better quality, live event replays, audio chapters, earlier release time, exclusive marketing discounts, and more! Check out https://todayindigital.com/premiumfeedFor information on advertising, our social media, contact info, and everything else, please go to https://todayindigital.com/shownotes➡ Join our Slack at todayindigital.com/slack_____________Need to Upgrade Your Digital Marketing Skills?*Inside Google Ads with Jyll Saskin GalesFoxwell Founders Slack GroupFoxwell Digital CoursesMarketing Tools We Use and Recommend:*Sprout Social: Full-service social media managementAgorapulse: Full-service social media managementAppsumo: Lifetime deals and discounts on marketing toolsRiverside.FM: Studio-quality podcast interview recordingShor.by: Smart link-in-bio service with full analytics* Some links may provide affiliate revenue to usOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today, ad fraudsters are targeting refrigerators, a major record label cancels a virtual AI wrapper, TikTok tests a new feed to target locals, tis the season to be saving, this year's holiday shopping forecast, and why your Facebook feed was broken. It's Wednesday, August 24th, I'm Steph Gunn filling in for Todd Maffin. Here is what you missed today in digital marketing. Have you ever turned on automatic placements on a meta ad campaign, then discovered it dumped most of your ads in a placement you weren't thrilled with, like audience network? Now imagine that your video ad campaign ended up going to actual fridges

in kitchens around the country. The ad tech company DoubleVerify announced today that it has discovered a new advertising scheme where fraudsters impersonated devices like smart fridges to fake traffic that appeared to be coming from connected TVs. The new variant spoofs Internet of Things devices, including smart refrigerators and smartwatches, in an attempt to hide fraudulent behavior. But how? Quoting DoubleVerify, to spoof huge numbers of devices, fraudsters often use online device information sources where they download lists of devices. These sources are essentially websites that include lists of user agents. The websites themselves are not inherently fraudulent,

but the fraudsters use these lists to incorporate the device information inside their falsified ad requests. This makes it appear as their fraudulent traffic is coming from millions of different devices. The scheme is estimated to have cost unprotected advertisers $10 million this year. The company also noted that the fraud originates from a variety of untrustworthy supply sources, and in this case, the bad act where remains unknown. Here's an uncomfortable lesson on brand digital identity, avatars, and ethics. Capital Music Group dropped its AI rapper influencer FN Mecca yesterday due to problematic racial stereotypes not even two weeks after

signing the digital rapper. Earlier this month, Capital Records denounced it had signed FN Mecca a robot rapper powered by artificial intelligence with over 10 million followers on TikTok. The company hyped up the project as the world's first augmented reality artist to sign a major label and as just a preview of what's to come. Now Capital announced it has severed ties with FN Mecca after growing backlash of what viewers said amounted to digital blackface. Many had issues with the AI's or its creators' use of racist language and how the content seemed to trivialize incarceration and police brutality, the New York Times reports. Quoting Capitol Records,

We offer our deepest apologies to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it. We thank those who have reached out to us with constructive feedback in the past couple of days. Your input was invaluable as we came to the decision to end our association with the project. TikTok's algorithm, but make it local. Social media's current golden child has some good news for brands looking to target local customers. Yesterday, the platform confirmed it is testing a new nearby content feed that is designed to display local content to users. On the app's homepage, users in the test group are now seeing a new nearby feed tab

alongside the following and for you tabs. Creators can also add location tags, which a TikTok spokesperson said is gradually rolling out to more users. It's not clear if posts displayed in the nearby feed will be added automatically based on where a user is located, or if location tags must be included. Details are limited, as the test is only being conducted with a small group of users in Southeast Asia. YouTube has announced it's finally expanding the other videos your audience watched data feature to more brands and creators. This feature, which YouTube first launched back in 2020,

provides insight into your audience's viewing habits by showing you the videos they watched along with your content over a seven-day period. Previously, the feature was only available to channels that met certain traffic thresholds, but now YouTube is lowering those requirements to make it more accessible for even more accounts. As part of this feature, the platform also plans to add filtering by content type, including shorts, videos, and live. The platform is also testing new features for community posts, such as text filters and stickers for your channel updates. Finally, in its latest push to Shorts, YouTube will add a new chip in the mobile app

that lets users search within Shorts clips only. 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.

How are consumers feeling about this upcoming holiday shopping season? Spoiler alerts, not good. According to a new survey, 3 out of 4 shoppers expect price increases. 3 out of 4 also said they plan to buckle down and watch their spending more closely this year. And 3 out of 5 said they were stressed about purchasing holiday gifts. As a result, the majority of consumers said that they plan to buy gifts during big sales events like Labor Day and Black Friday, while a quarter plan to begin their holiday shopping soon in case inflation gets worse. In order to pay for gifts this year,

nearly half of respondents plan to cut down on other expenses, including dining out, activities such as movies or concerts, clothes, travel, and beauty appointments. They also intend to spend less. The average gift budget this year is $575 compared to $610 last year. While that's only about a $35 difference, 3 out of 5 plan to buy fewer gifts. Finally, almost half of consumers said spending full price is a deal-breaker this year. Data has been provided by Forover's survey of over 1,000 U.S. consumers. More inflation stress to report ahead of the upcoming holiday season,

this time from a major courier that delivers a whole lot from e-commerce stores. One of FedEx Ground's largest contractors warns the company it may stop making deliveries starting on all days, Black Friday, if the company doesn't improve contract terms for delivery providers to account for inflation and other operational charges. As of November 25th, Patent Logistics, which operates 225 ground routes in 10 states, will cease operating its delivery routes unless FedEx adjusts its contract terms, according to the company's president.

Patent Logistics wants FedEx to adjust the contract to reflect higher fuel, vehicle, and labor costs. In its statement, FedEx said it is applying feedback from contractors and it will communicate changes to its peak season incentives in the coming days. And finally, a bizarre but funny Facebook glitch earlier today spammed celebrity comments to users' feeds for hours. News feeds were flooded with posts sent to pages for Lady Gaga, Nirvana, and Billie Eilish, among others. Naturally, several users took advantage of the glitch, posting memes and prompting others to post on celebrity pages to add fuel to the fire. Others, however, took the opportunity to spam PayPal donation links

or advertise cryptocurrencies. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the bug on Twitter, blaming an unspecified configuration change, and said that the issue has been resolved. I'm having a pretty good day today because it's my name day at a local pizza joint. So every day they put up two names on social media and if it's your name, you get a free slice. So I'm expecting to meet every single Stephanie out for dinner. My husband, on the other hand, his name is Kiefer. So I have a feeling we're going to be waiting a little bit to get his free slice. Hey, listen, if you haven't joined our Slack community yet, I'm personally

calling you out. It's free to join. You'll get instant access to advice and help from over 900 marketers. You also get a sneak peek at what's coming up on each day's episode. Plus there's even a spot where you can promote yourself. It doesn't cost a thing. All you have to do is tap the link in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash slack. Thanks for listening. I'm Steph Gunn and Todd will be back to talk to you tomorrow. Don't know the face, but I know the name. Would you know the taste? Yeah. If we found it, I could feel it. Just throw your heart away.

I'm playing my car radio. I was searching for the words I just couldn't find. I was waiting for you to come. I was waiting for you to come.