Today in Digital Marketing - TikTok: Mo' Ad Reps, Mo' Problems

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

Twitter updates its pixel and plans for a future without it... Is Meta spending all your day's budget in an instant? You're not alone... Are we starting to see growing pains with TikTok's ad platform? Shopify has a new integrated influencer tool... and is it time you brush up your employee social media policy? A cautionary tale.THIS WEEK ONLY - 50% OFF PREMIUMGet the Premium Podcast for just $4.99 a month. This sale ends this weekend.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, Twitter updates its pixel and plans for a future without it. Is Meta spending all your day's budget in an instant? You're not alone. We are starting to see growing pains at TikTok's ad platform. Shopify has a new integrated influencer tool. And is it time you brush up your employee social media policy? A cautionary tale. It's Tuesday, August 16th.

I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. It's been a big day at Twitter, the company announcing three new performance ad tools today. First, they have updated the Twitter pixel. Pixels, of course, being that website tag you install on your site that tracks site actions or conversions.

So what does this upgraded pixel do? Better attribution. For one thing, advertisers can measure more actions than conversions. So what does this upgraded Pixel do? Better attribution. For one thing, advertisers can measure more actions than before. So things like when consumers add items to their online shopping carts. There's also some easier measurement setup and troubleshooting. The platform simplified the event creation process and updated the Pixel Helper Chrome extension to make it easier for marketers to understand if it is being implemented correctly. Now for the big news. There is a CAPI, a conversion API, at Twitter now.

This is a direct server-to-server integration that lets advertisers connect to Twitter's API endpoint and send conversion events to Twitter without the use of third-party cookies, which of course has their days limited. The API also lets advertisers measure conversions without using that Twitter pixel without having to place any tag on their site. Conversion API supports multiple data signals, including Twitter click ID and email addresses. Finally, the platform is introducing app purchase optimization.

This uses machine learning, of course, and advertisers can target ads to consumers that are most likely to install an app or to make a purchase. That tool is available now to all advertisers via Android and iOS is coming soon. Okay, I'll make this quick. We are doing something special this week

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Seeing lots of reports in various Slacks and on Twitter lately about some spending issues on Meta's platform, the issues seem to be around the pacing of spend. For instance, the platform will take your daily budget and spend it all in like two hours, which of course is suboptimal, shall we say. One of the DTC marketers that I watched very closely on Twitter is Rob Hladnik. He's from Flat Circle Ads. He reported today that Meta had spent 90% of his allocated budget before noon. However, this afternoon, he said he's spoken with his Meta app. Apparently, they are aware of this issue. It is both overspending and underspending. They say

they're working on a fix. If this is happening to you, honestly, it's still worth connecting with your Meta rep if you have one or chat support if you don't and tell them you're seeing this too, just that they understand the number of people that this is affecting. Plus, you know what they say about squeaky wheels. I razz meta a lot here for their ad reps because A, I'm immature and B, it's fun. Truth is, of course, it's not entirely Meta's fault. This is what happens when you become a huge company attracting the attention of a lot of advertisers. That lets new upstarts like TikTok sneak in, appearing to be so much better at support because they're smaller and don't have a lot to deal with.

That benefit starts chipping away, though, as the support department gets bigger, more staff are added, sometimes jammed into positions before all the training can happen. And some people say that's the phase that TikTok itself is entering right now. There's an interesting piece up on Digiday today about some digital marketers noticing a reduction in the quality of ad support at TikTok and many think that TikTok's rapid growth is to blame. Quoting the piece, while ad buyers said TikTok reps are generally pretty responsive and easy to work with, they will often get conflicting information, making it difficult to answer questions accurately

for clients and execute for campaigns. Ad buyers said they believe these issues stem from the company's quick growth, as TikTok's teams are likely not as connected as those of more established platforms, unquote. However, in spite of TikTok's representatives' attentiveness even more so than established platforms, they lack knowledge of the platform, according to this piece. One buyer said you'll often get different answers from different people. They're often not on the same page. Despite frustrations, the issues have not led to buyers recommending pulling back on ad spend. That said, the buyer that was quoted in Digiday's piece did question whether the platform could handle bigger campaigns due to the back and forth required to find accurate information. But even with rep issues, buyers

said TikTok's growth continues to attract marketers, and they do not expect that to slow down. Shopify has taken a big step into the creator economy. The e-commerce company today announcing Shopify Collabs, a new influencer marketing platform that connects merchants with creators who fit their brand for free. So here's how it works on the creator side. Once a creator signs up for a Shopify Collabs account, they will be able to search for Shopify merchants aligned with their target audience. Once a brand finds a creator they like, they can partner with them and curate a list of their products to share on social media using LinkPop, that is Shopify's link in bio tool, that is integrated directly with platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Google, YouTube, and so on. Shopify noted that creators receive payment once a customer purchases a product using the link that was shared. And for merchants on our side, once you install the Collabs app and make your store and products discoverable, creators will be able to apply to join your community.

Collabs can then be used to manage the relationship between yourself and creators. And because Collabs is built on Shopify, the process is managed centrally from the merchant's Shopify admin, which means inventory, order, customer information, and so on is kept up to date. Shopify Collabs will be available to all U.S. and Canadian merchants beginning today. 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. Back to TikTok for a moment. Perhaps a reminder to revisit your brand's social media policy. Apple has allegedly threatened to fire an employee over a TikTok video. The employee says she was told that her posting about Apple-related topics and identifying herself as an Apple employee violated company policy. This is according to The Verge. In the video, the employee Paris Campbell, who has more than 440,000 followers, shared some tips on what to do when your phone is stolen. I actually saw this video show up in my TikTok feed and thought it was really, really helpful.

Number one, do not remove the device. Here's what's happening. You lost your phone, right? It made its way to China. How it made its way to China is not important. But the only reason that these people are contacting you now is because your phone is A video quickly became viral with 7.8 million views and counting. According to The Verge, the employee received a call late last week from a manager telling her to remove the video or she would be subject to disciplinary action.

After she asked what would happen if she left the video up, the manager allegedly walked back the original comment and said he would get back to her. He hasn't yet. Over the weekend, she posted another video titled Dear Apple, where she revealed that she was an Apple employee and said she was waiting to hear if she was going to be fired. In this video, nothing that I said was not already public facing knowledge. I breached no form of confidentiality whatsoever. All I did was make an incredibly accurate video, which apparently resonated with millions of people. But Apple is claiming that I have breached company policy by identifying myself publicly as an Apple employee, which is apparently a conflict of interest. Funny thing is, though,

after reviewing the social media policies, there is no mention of that specifically. Nowhere does it say that I can't identify myself as an Apple employee publicly, just that I shouldn't do so in a way that makes the company look bad. I don't know, maybe I'm old school here. I feel like there's a saying that I'm just not bright enough to remember right now. Something like kicking the bear when it's down or waving your hands frantically at a swarm of bees, something like that. Anyway, we'll see what happens. Apple, for the record, did not respond to request for comment. All right, heads up e-commerce marketers. Google Merchant Center will no longer remove free listings missing return or refund policies or insufficient contact information.

The company updated its policy today, quoting Google. The enforcement type has changed for the free listing policies. However, the policies themselves have not changed. Previously, Merchant Center accounts with the insufficient contact information or the missing return and refund policy issue were automatically disapproved. Now, free listings accounts with these issue statuses will remain active, but their products will have limited visibility on Google.

Again, this policy change applies to free listings only. Okay, enough picking on Meta for the time being. They actually released a really helpful guide today that helps brands navigate Apple's ATT changes. They recommend that you focus on four key points. The first, of course, using the conversions API. This will let brands use their own marketing data for retargeting and measurement instead of relying on the decreasing amount of data that Meta can collect. Two, they recommend you use conversion optimization. This, of course, is only if you're looking for conversions. They say when you optimize your campaign, you help reduce the cost per purchase that is compared to link click optimization and provide better data regarding actions taken on a website. They recommend,

as they always have, is that you use automatic placements or, at the very least, show your ads across at least six placements or more, and testing new ad formats like, I know, shocker, Reels, and refreshing your creative to avoid ad fatigue. Last but not least, Meta recommends simplifying your campaigns and broadening targeting. All stuff we've heard in the past, all stuff that is becoming truisms in our industry. Rely more on the AI gods and they may choose to reward you. Anyway, still helpful to get that reminder from time to time. And finally, we are not done razzing meta just quite yet. DTC marketer David Herman noticed a small but telling change today on Meta's ad platform. DTC marketer David Herman noticed a small but telling change

today on Meta's ad platform. If you've been following this, you'll know they've been drunkenly removing interests by the thousands, most under the dubious claims of privacy or such and such. Here's what I mean. Our agency manages the social advertising for a major international candy brand. You would know the name. We used to target people who liked competing brands like Cadbury, Hershey's Kisses, M&M's, and so on. Our list had about 25 candy brands in it. Then one day, about 15 of them just went poof, but 10 stayed. Like, why did Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Ferrero Rocher get the axe, but M&M's and Kinder Eggs stay? Also, side note here, if you're going to cut any of them, why wouldn't you cut Kinder Eggs?

Aren't those illegal in the US? Anyway, one interest that many people have found helpful recently in trying to get the attention of the younger generation is the interest called, wait for it, TikTok. Well, guess what interest has suddenly, quietly disappeared from Meta's ad platform? On the show tomorrow, Pinterest has started rolling out a hosted checkout experience, and Meta upgrades its Reels products and actually throws in some better analytics. That's on the show tomorrow. It being Wednesday in the summer, you will be with Steph.

And don't forget, the premium version of this podcast is available this week only for $4.99. This is the first time we have ever put it on sale, and that sale expires this weekend. No ads. You get deep dive weekend episodes and a lot more. Tap the link in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash premium. Steph will be with you tomorrow. I'll see you on Thursday.