Today in Digital Marketing - The Outage Heard Around the World

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Meta's platforms crash in the most terrifying way possible. TikTok engagement is dropping like a rock. Why you're probably pricing your bundles wrong. And is Google's announcement today, finally, mercifully, the end of AI spam in its search engine?📰 Get our free daily newsletter📈 Advertising: Reach Thousands of Marketing Decision-Makers🌍 Follow us on social media or contact usLinks to all of today’s stories hereListen to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast on your favorite podcast app. “Future You” will thank you. GO PREMIUM!Get these exclusive benefits when you upgrade:✅ Listen ad-free✅ Back catalog of 20+ marketing science interviews✅ Get the show earlier than the free version✅ “Skip to story” audio chapters✅ Member-only monthly livestreams with TodAnd a lot more! Check it out: todayindigital.com/premium✨ Already Premium? Update Credit Card • CancelMORE🆘 Need help with your social media? Check us out: engageQ digital📞 Need marketing advice? Leave us a voicemail and we’ll get an expert to help you free!🤝 Our Slack⭐ Review usUPGRADE YOUR SKILLSInside Google Ads with Jyll Saskin GalesGoogle Ads for Beginners with Jyll Saskin GalesFoxwell Slack Group and CoursesSome links in these show notes may provide affiliate revenue to us.Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada.Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Tuesday, March 5th. Today, Meta's platforms crash in the most terrifying way possible. TikTok engagement is dropping like a rock. Why, you're probably pricing your bundles wrong. And is Google's announcement today finally, mercifully, the end of AI spam in its search engine? I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. 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. Start shopping and get your

cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.ca. 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. The big news, at least this morning, was the widespread outage of some major social media platforms. About 10 o'clock this morning, Eastern Time, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger all went down.

And in the most terrifying way. Rather than it just not working, it logged people out. Then when they went to get back in, it told them their password was wrong. This is pretty much what would happen if you got your account hacked. So needless to say, many marketers this morning had a bit of a scare. 20 minutes after the problem started, the Down Detector website had logged more than a half million reports. Minda's other services, Threads and WhatsApp, were also affected, though not quite to the same level. The hiccup comes at a critical

time, just before a major regulatory deadline set by the European Union's Digital Markets Act, aimed at fostering competition in the digital sector. This legislation requires tech giants like Meta to make their platforms more accessible to smaller competitors. It's quite possible this was something deeper than just Meta's systems, as YouTube and Discord also both had issues for a brief time this morning. As of the time of this recording, things seem to be back in order. Socialmediatoday.com has analyzed several reports on TikTok engagement and found that engagement there is down for almost all brands. One study from Rival IQ found that TikTok's average engagement rate on brand content is now 2.6%.

A year ago, that was 5.6%. Also, data from Amplify found that TikTok's post interactions are also down 26% from its highest numbers at the start of 2022. And Social Insider found the average engagement rate for TikTok videos dropped by 35% over the past year. Quoting Social Media Today, today. Quote, it could be a reflection of platform maturity and brand adoption, i.e. as more brands come to the app, competition gets tougher and engagement necessarily declines. Or it could be that brands are producing less engaging content over time. Either way, it's interesting to note that TikTok, which had once been the shining light for brand engagement, is losing some of its sheen, which could also factor into your planning. If you've seen a decline in your TikTok engagement numbers of late, it may not be you, unquote.

We have links to RivalQ, Amplify, and Social Insiders reports in today's email newsletter, which you can subscribe to for free by tapping the link at the top of the show notes, or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. Slashing prices on multi-pack products might not be the golden ticket to boosting sales after all. Some new research reveals a curious consumer behavior. Shoppers are more inclined to purchase multi-packs with prices that are easily divisible by the number of items included, even if it means they'll pay a bit more. The insight comes from a collaboration between Michigan State University,

Baylor University, and Virginia Tech, where researchers conducted 15 experiments to understand the nuances of consumer purchasing decisions. Their findings? When the price per pack divides neatly, like, like say $18 for a six-pack, customers are 45% more likely to buy that compared to a slightly lower but harder to divide price, like $17. The study authors called this the price divisibility effect and suggested that when consumers can easily calculate the cost per item, they're more likely to see the value in buying in bulk. Interestingly, this effect diminishes when unit prices are displayed or when products

include information on how long they're expected to last, which is often the case in the European Union due to regulations. The research was primarily focused on fast-moving consumer goods like body wash and facial tissues, so this pricing strategy might not apply to durable goods like socks, which consumers prefer to last longer. Plus, the study highlighted that the price divisibility effect is less potent when multipacks consist of diverse products, like a set of hand creams with different scents. Retailers typically opt for precise pricing, often ending in 99 cents, to appear more affordable. But this study suggests

a shift toward divisible pricing could lead to higher sales for products that are consumed quickly. 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. I'm sure everyone's had this conversation before. Holy crap, Google's gotten bad lately. Like Google pretty much anything and you'll get 10 pages of results that are either cheaply written listicles or AI generated garbage. Google apparently has finally noticed too and this morning announced some changes to its ranking

algorithm, most notably a penalty on content that exists only to summarize other content. This has always been a cheap SEO tactic, but it's also something the AI bots have caught on to. Quoting The Verge, quote, for Google to announce the changes it's making

signals two things. First, that these are big changes that could meaningfully change your search experience. A Google spokesperson says that Google's measurements show a reduction in unhelpful content by up to 40%. And second, that Google is now sending a message to the web, your spammy, sketchy behavior ends now. So what exactly are they knocking back? First, sites that create hundreds or thousands of low-quality articles every day, whether that's through overseas contractors or AI. One example a Google executive mentioned was obituary spam. Second, something Google calls site reputation abuse. These are normally reputable websites,

big brands that you would know, which also carve out a part of their site for spammy content and affiliate marketing and the likes. Google says those sites have 60 days to knock it off before they start penalizing them. And expired domain abuse. This is when someone buys a domain name that's been abandoned and using its existing Google ranking to stuff it with cheap content. Again, quoting The Verge, quote, the job is not done, of course, the reckoning over AI generated content, what it means, who wants it, how it should rank is only just beginning and will cause Google plenty of internal headlines as it both tries to bring AI to everyone and tries to save the web from being overrun by it. Even Google's own search engine is increasingly an AI machine.

And there will always be new, sneakier ways to game your way to the top of the search results. This is a headache of Google's own making. Most of the chum on the web exists entirely to game Google. And so Google will always be one step behind. Unquote. Bit of a shorter episode today. I'm still feeling like hell. I don't think I've had a cold in a long time. So and it's a man cold as well. You know, this, by the way, can I just say the whole concept of a man cold is scientifically proven. Look it up. Men feel it harder. I know, I know, I know. It sounds dumb, but with any luck and with the help of medication,

I will see you tomorrow.