Today in Digital Marketing - The Q in Q3 Stands for "Quite Good, Thank You

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Starting point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. The numbers are out and all the platforms are doing just fine. Thank you very much. Also, the fight for young users on social media heats up.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Amazon adds a lot more placements for your ad campaigns. And some good news for people who market mobile apps. It's Tuesday, October 26th, 2021. Happy National Pumpkin Day, United States and UK. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. And here's what you missed today in digital marketing, episode 491. So a shortish episode today, I guess everyone's trying to make sense of the Q3 numbers

Starting point is 00:00:58 that we're dropping this week. And we start with Facebook, of course, which reported revenue of $29 billion in the quarter, but that's $580 million short of what investors expected it to be. So that's no good. And this week has been one of the roughest for the company in terms of its public image. So the stock must be crashing, right? Nope. It's down, but only about 3% so far today. And actually, in after hours trading, after they released the numbers, it was up. This lack of investor surprise could be attributed to the fact that Facebook's report comes after Snapchat's shortcomings,

Starting point is 00:01:32 which we reported on last week. Snapchat's shares fell after the company warned it expected a lower Q4 revenue than the market had expected, pointing the finger at, guess what, Apple and its big iOS privacy change. Oh, and also the pandemic, you know. So that's Q3. Back to Facebook.

Starting point is 00:01:50 Quote, We expect fourth quarter 2021 total revenue to be in a range of $31.5 billion to $34 billion. Our outlook reflects the significant uncertainty we face in the fourth quarter in light of continued headwinds from Apple's iOS 14 changes and macroeconomic and COVID-related factors. In addition, we expect non-ads revenue to be down year over year in the fourth quarter as we lap the strong launch of Quest 2 during last year's holiday shopping season, unquote. Additionally, Facebook released what it calls a new financial reporting segment structure in its quarterly investor report.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Starting with this quarter, they are releasing two groups of numbers. What it calls the family of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other services. And the new Facebook reality labs, which includes augmented and virtual reality related consumer hardware, software, and content. So, what can we digital marketers take from this? First, note that one breakout that is noticeably absent is the difference between each platform. How did Instagram do? We'll never know because it's all lumped together. Also, as we already knew, Zuckerberg is doubling down on AR and VR through his metaverse redefinition.

Starting point is 00:03:06 Could we start seeing some ad placements in the virtual universe soon? Facebook wasn't the only platform to report numbers at our deadline. Twitter earnings also came out. Revenue and user growth were pretty much spot on with expectations. Here's Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner on Twitter. Quote, interesting tidbit is that while Facebook and Snap said their businesses were heavily impacted by Apple's tracking changes, Twitter said its impact was modest and lower than expected. Making an assumption here, but I have to imagine the fact that Twitter is 95% brand ads versus direct response ads is playing a big role here. Twitter's reliance on brand advertising was always seen as a weakness, less valuable than the direct response stuff.

Starting point is 00:03:57 Now, it's protecting Twitter from this Apple stuff. Unquote. Also, Google's numbers came out, and they pulled in more money than ever before for the second quarter in a row. Revenue was up 41% year over year and profits up 69%. Thank you, pandemic recovery, quoting The Verge. Quote, proportionally, Google's businesses all seem to be doing roughly the same

Starting point is 00:04:20 as they were last quarter, just slightly better in each case, like 37.9 billion for Google's all-important search business this quarter compared to $35.8 billion last quarter. It's the jump year over year that boggles the mind. Search is pulling in $11 billion more this year than it did last year at this time. YouTube advertising revenue went up from $7 billion last quarter to $7.2 billion this quarter, despite some fears that Apple's iOS ad tracking transparency would have hit YouTube like it hit Snapchat, as users get the ability to easily opt out.

Starting point is 00:04:53 Unquote. Google is doing its earning call as I record this podcast, so if anything interesting comes out of that from a digital marketing perspective, we'll update you tomorrow. And LinkedIn also snuck in just under our deadline, reporting record levels of engagement. With user sessions up 19%, the platform's ad revenue also increased 42% year over year. Quoting social media today, LinkedIn is well-placed to capitalize on the resurgence in business activity as the COVID vaccine rollout continues. With more people seeking new jobs and businesses looking to reshape their processes, many to accommodate new approaches to hybrid participation, the platform will be a key connector, linking B2B organizations in particular to new opportunity. At last count, LinkedIn was up to the same as active users, and the

Starting point is 00:05:45 platform won't share the latter numbers, but it is clear that they are on the upswing in terms of usage. 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. Okay, back to Facebook for a moment. In the earnings call with investors, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his desire to refocus on young adults. According to a report by The Verge, he has redirected his teams within the company to make serving young adults their North Star.

Starting point is 00:06:37 It's no surprise after Facebook's concerns about declining usage among teens and young adults and very clearly a response to TikTok, which Zuckerberg referred to as, quote, one of the most effective competitors we've ever faced, unquote. So how does Zuckerberg plan to make the youth of the nation his guiding light? He hopes that, first, new changes made to the platform will slow the growth of Facebook usage among older users, leaning further into video and making reels a more central part of the experience. Other ideas to increase usage among younger users include revamped groups, job-finding tools, and more mood feeds. Zuckerberg says he expects

Starting point is 00:07:16 changes to take years, though we might see the most immediate changes on Instagram. And besides, it's always been a bit of a lie that Instagram was the young people's app. Sure, it skews younger, but with more than a billion users of its own, you can target anyone there. You want to reach British grannies who like Chuck Norris? They're there. Same with TikTok, by the way. I think we digital marketers sometimes fall into the trap of grouping platforms by their demographics. Pinterest? For women. TikTok TikTok for teens, that sort of thing. When really, shouldn't we be thinking of them in terms of their strength? Why does nobody refer to Instagram as the awareness platform and Facebook as the conversion

Starting point is 00:07:58 platform? New Amazon ad placements were announced at the company's third annual Unboxed conference. Quoting from the announcement, Amazon ads has unveiled the following. First, interactive video. Advertisers can include voice call to actions like add to cart directly with streaming TV ads in the IMDb TV app on Fire TV. Additionally, video ads will introduce a new shopping section called Send Me More Info to the interactive experience. There's also interactive audio ads with an Alexa-enabled device. Customers will be able to ask Alexa to remind me or send me more

Starting point is 00:08:36 information or add to cart, and Alexa will know which product is featured in the ad. Remember, we're talking here about ad placements. Also, Brand Metrics is a new self-service measurement solution that goes beyond ad-attributed actions and is based on shopping engagements that the company says can be predictive of actual sales on Amazon. Reporting is updated weekly and includes information like total number of shoppers who have considered a brand

Starting point is 00:09:02 based on product detail page views or brand searches, and the value of shopping engagements based on sales generated over a 12-month period. There's also a new brand follow placement that allows customers to follow a brand to receive notifications and updates, so I guess similar to a likes campaign on Facebook. And they've also added sponsored display ads, which can now be integrated with Twitch live streams. By the way, we are planning a special weekend episode. This weekend, we will have Amazon's Director of International Expansion with us to chat about the marketing opportunities they offer in case that's a platform you would like to try out. Some good news now for people who market mobile apps. Google today announced that with App Campaigns for Engagement, you can now drive Android users back into your app without requiring deep linking.

Starting point is 00:09:53 Quoting Google, App Campaigns for Engagement allow you to re-engage customers that already have your app installed through ads on Search, YouTube, Display, AdMob, and in the Play Store. For example, an ad could serve alongside a YouTube video that your customer is watching, encouraging them to take an in-app action. And with one click, the customer is brought directly back into your app. In the past, advertisers needed to implement deep linking in order to run these campaigns, but now we offer the option to create app campaigns for engagement with no deep linking

Starting point is 00:10:26 required, unquote. If you want to take advantage of this, just select the set to app homepage option when prompted to provide a deep link during ad group creation. Remember, more than 700 digital marketers just like you are in our Slack community. Inside, you'll find exclusive deep dive episodes. Jobs get posted there. People use it to get advice, all sorts of stuff. It's free to join.

Starting point is 00:10:53 Just tap the link in this episode's notes or go to todayindigital.com slash Slack. Talk to you tomorrow. Keep hating on me, I ain't worried about it Keep looking crazy, I ain't worried about it You keep talking behind my back You didn't think I'd hear it, but I heard it Now I ain't back to see you And you still hating, but I don't believe you That you gon' say it to my face, I don't think so If you copy that, if not, go to Kinko

Starting point is 00:11:23 And I'm gon' whoa Every time that you see me I be looking like a million

Today in Digital Marketing - The Q in Q3 Stands for "Quite Good, Thank You

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