Today in Digital Marketing - TikTok’s Laughable Plan B Isn’t Going To…. Wait, It’s Actually Working?!

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, March 29th. Today, TikTok's owners initiate Plan B, and it's already a hit. Deepfake audio ads at scale. YouTube discovers a whole new pool of targeting data. Meta's Reels revamp, and Google releases an ad library. I'm Todd Math, and that's ahead today in digital marketing. When the government gives you lemons, make Lemon 8. Just as U.S. lawmakers push for a TikTok ban, ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, appears to be executing its backup plan, driving its social platform called Lemon 8, an Instagram rival, into the top charts of the app store. Prior to this week, the app had never ranked in the top 200 overall charts in the U.S. App Store, but since Monday, it's ranked in the top 10.

Starting point is 00:00:49 As TechCrunch reports, this is a big move for the little-known app, which suggests this surge is the result of some paid user acquisition on the publisher's part, maybe through paid discovery or app install ads. Data from app intelligence provider Apptopia estimates that Lemon 8 has gained 16 million global downloads since its launch in March 2020. It estimates the app currently has more than 4 million active users in the U.S. While it's not yet clear how the company's been promoting Lemon 8, TechCrunch suspects ByteDance has been leveraging its own channels to drive app installs, aka TikTok. Quoting the report, Over on TikTok, we noticed a number of creators recently began posting about Lemonade, with many new videos appearing in the past 24 hours.

Starting point is 00:01:38 A large number of them were positive reviews that push users to download the app. In fact, some creators even said they're getting the app in case TikTok gets banned. While it remains to be seen whether the app can serve as a reliable contingency plan in the event of a ban, the recent success of Lemon 8 suggests that brands might want to establish a presence on the app if they haven't done so already. Dynamic audio ads at scale have arrived. InStreamatic, an AI-powered marketing platform, launched a new tool today called Contextual Audio Ads, which uses AI to dynamically generate customized audio creative relevant to the listener's specific context and environment. Starting with a traditional audio ad, the tool then uses generative AI to create content targeted to the consumer hearing it. With the technology, contextual audio ads can synthesize the same actor's voice and generate

Starting point is 00:02:33 hundreds or thousands of variations of podcast ads across a single campaign. These ad creatives, which can then be stitched into an ad's existing audio soundtrack, can include the location, the time, the local weather, the name of the app listeners are using, and even the activity they're engaging in, like playing a game or listening to a podcast. YouTube is also expanding its audio ad offerings. The company is set to let advertisers target Gen Z based on trending music later this summer. With its latest ad offerings. The company is set to let advertisers target Gen Z based on trending music later this summer. With its latest ad offering, brands will be able to place ads alongside YouTube content related to the most popular songs among the demographic. Using AI, YouTube can identify the most popular song resonating with Gen Z across its content.

Starting point is 00:03:21 The platform will then group those tracks into packages, which YouTube calls lineups, for advertisers to buy across YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube Shorts. Those lineups may include music videos, shorts, or just audio on YouTube Music. Meta rolled out some new ad options for Reels yesterday. First, click-to-messenger ads are now available within Facebook Reels. The feature includes a large CTA button to drive contact via private chat. The move is, of course, in line with the increasing popularity of private messaging among users. Meta is also making WhatsApp conversion optimization available for Facebook Reels ads. This lets advertisers add a send message button

Starting point is 00:04:06 to their ads, which gives consumers an option to initiate a conversation directly from the WhatsApp ad. The tech giant is also making support for the ads on Facebook Reels post-engagement objective more widely available, which will let advertisers measure reactions, comments, and likes, and compare them to engagement from other ads or campaigns. Finally, as Meta continues to push short-form video, it is now retiring its in-stream reserve video ad offering. 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.

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Starting point is 00:05:27 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. Bad ads on Google Search, those that are spammy or linked to malware,

Starting point is 00:05:43 were a major problem for the company last year, but it still seems to be making progress against them. Yesterday, Google said it stopped more than 5 billion of these ads in 2022. That's nearly 2 billion more than in 2021. Data shows that potentially malicious ads are at the top of the list, and that number has grown significantly over the years. Google also said it suspended nearly 7 million advertiser accounts after identifying networks of bad actors deploying malicious ads. To combat its ad troll problem, the tech giant is also launching a new ad transparency center that will let users search for verified advertisers

Starting point is 00:06:19 and their campaigns across all of its platforms, including Search, Display, and YouTube. This new library lets users search for ads from a brand, as well as what region those ads were shown in, the last time they ran an ad campaign, and the format. Consumers can also like or block the ad, or even report it for violation of Google's ad policies. That center is starting to roll out today. Google also released version 2.3 of its ads editor this week.

Starting point is 00:06:45 With the new update, the tool gains new features and improvements, including file support for is starting to roll out today. Google also released version 2.3 of its ads editor this week. With the new update, the tool gains new features and improvements, including file support for image assets, performance max, text asset automation, location targeting, bid targeting, and a handful of other smaller updates. Birdseye, a startup that offers AI-powered marketing products for Shopify brands,

Starting point is 00:07:05 recently secured half a million dollars in pre-seed funding. Birdseye is a marketing automation tool that provides insights to help brands identify the most valuable products, ads, channels, and customer segments to focus on. The company says their platform eliminates the need for manual analysis, spreadsheets, or complex reporting by offering direct recommendations with implementation instructions. It also lets e-commerce businesses predict the sales results of each potential marketing initiative. And finally, the TikTok tiff continues. A gaggle of GOP politicians are itching to ban the app, but Senator Rand Paul this week noted something that may have been lost in all the discussion, that a ban could result in permanent electoral losses for the Republican Party.

Starting point is 00:07:53 Apparently someone in his office showed him the demographics of the app, or I don't know, maybe the volume of people who use it there, but something definitely has him worried. Please, nobody tell him about Lemonade. So we've reached that stage in the technology. AI now has become snobby. Here at the agency, we had a meeting, reviewed a couple of client things. One of the client documents got generated from AI.

Starting point is 00:08:20 It was essentially a brainstorming tool. And Scott on our team, who's one of our best tech nerds what uh what gpt engine did you use for that and i you know kind of looked around i checked the link that i had used for it and it's like oh it's a gpt 3.5 swear to god four people on the zoom kind of shriveled up their nose at me we're like oh 3.5 yeah i mean i guess it's okay so we're there now we're being shamed for the version numbers we use in ai i'm john maffin thanks for listening see you next time.

Today in Digital Marketing - TikTok’s Laughable Plan B Isn’t Going To…. Wait, It’s Actually Working?!

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