Today in Digital Marketing - Twitter’s “Fleets” Are Off to a Bad Start

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Starting point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Today, YouTube wants you to try its new ad placement. Be protected. Be Zen. It's Tuesday, November 17th, 2020. Happy International Day of the Student. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. The next platform to support vertical stories has finally launched its version of the popular mobile format. That platform being Twitter.

Starting point is 00:00:59 Although Twitter calls them fleets. It's very much like the Snapchat and Instagram implementations. The content disappears after 24 hours. After you install the mobile app, you might notice it's a little laggy and glitchy. TechCrunch reporting today that Fleets appears to be struggling under the load of users wanting to try it out. Some people say it's actually crashing the app. So if it looks like your phone is frozen while you're looking at Fleets, it's not your phone, it's the app. Interestingly, the company also hinted at some new features coming that were designed to create a friendlier platform.

Starting point is 00:01:32 There weren't any specifics, but could include reminders and nudges to suggest a friend reach out to another user when they see that something is wrong. From a digital marketing platform, obviously this is another placement for us. Obviously far too soon to know how the metrics like CPM and CTR compare. But more options are always better. And as a general rule, most platforms that offer ads will discount new placements to get brands to try them out. So what are Twitter's devs doing now that they've pushed out fleets? They are hard at work on the next big addition to the platform, an audio-only virtual meeting room.

Starting point is 00:02:10 This apparently will be part of the Fleets system. People can join an existing conference and participate or just listen in. It kind of looks like a Zoom meeting where nobody's using their camera. Some people say it's designed to look like Clubhouse, the controversial invite-only audio platform, which in the last year got quite popular among tech executives. Controversial because it's nearly impossible to moderate live discussions. Already on that platform, there's been harassment of a journalist in a chat that apparently became quite anti-Semitic. So their plan includes at first limiting its use to certain groups.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Groups that are, quoting the company, disproportionately impacted by abuse and harm on the platform, women and those from marginalized backgrounds, unquote. It's not really clear if there are any marketing opportunities for us all here. I doubt that people's live meetings are going to be paused while an audio ad runs, but given that it's apparently part of the fleet's system, I guess increased eyeballs there will indirectly benefit those of us trying to reach people. So while Twitter may not have a place for your audio ads, at least not yet,

Starting point is 00:03:20 one large platform does now. YouTube. I know, hold on. Some people actually don't use YouTube to watch videos at all. They use the YouTube music option, basically a Spotify competitor. So to reach those people, YouTube today launched, in beta, audio ads, their first such format. And to create easy-to-buy audience buckets, they will also have playlists across popular genres like hip-hop and K-pop, as well as interests like fitness. All that said, I have to say I found YouTube's attempt at convincing us to use this placement a little weak.

Starting point is 00:03:59 In a news release, they said more than half of logged-in viewers who consume music consume more than 10 minutes of music a day. 10 minutes? That's the size you chose to promote? What that tells me is that the average is probably 11 minutes, right? Because if the actual number was, say, an hour, they would absolutely have said more than an hour a day. So I think we can infer from this that people just aren't listening to music on YouTube that much. Plus, in testing,

Starting point is 00:04:22 YouTube says one of their advertisers, Shutterfly, got a 14% lift in recall and a 2% lift in favorability. Those are not great numbers. I mean, yeah, they're better than nothing, but not by much. It's kind of odd that they called out those results because in the same news release, they also said that more than 75% of measured audio ad campaigns drove a quote significant lift in brand awareness. And then highlighted a 14% ad recall lift. Also, ad recall is not the same as brand awareness. So anyway, weird numbers, not particularly

Starting point is 00:04:59 impressive, at least by the examples they've given. But if audio ads are something you'd like to try, reach out to your Google ad rep and ask to be in the YouTube audio ads beta. If your brand owns a bunch of media like images or videos that are frequently being used online without your permission, Facebook says it will make it easier to track those offenders down.

Starting point is 00:05:22 Yesterday, they showed off a feature that now allows page admins to upload their assets. Facebook will fingerprint them and add them to their database. You will also have a section devoted to issuing takedown requests in both Facebook and Instagram. Or like YouTube's version of this, you can choose to leave the offending video up, but redirect any revenue it makes to you. This is a big upgrade from their support for just copyrighted images that they added a couple of months ago. If you get hit by a takedown, Facebook says you can use their existing reporting forms to appeal it. But we all know how quickly Facebook gets around to reviewing appeals these days.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Quoting The Verge, Instagram is especially tricky territory for image takedowns. Accounts often reshare images they don't own, usually defaulting to tagging the account where the image seemingly originated. As more pages start claiming ownerships, takedowns might happen more frequently, altering how people use Instagram and the number of reshares that happen on that platform.

Starting point is 00:06:23 Let's pretend you're about to launch a campaign. It tested well. Your entire team is happy. Everything is going according to plan. Except for that one thought at the back of your head. How do I ensure the people I want to target will be in the right mindset to receive my message? The answer? LinkedIn.

Starting point is 00:06:40 Because when you market on LinkedIn, your message reaches people who are ready to do business. And the targeting is incredible. You basically tell LinkedIn who your ideal buyer is, what industry they're in, their job title, even how much seniority they have. Or target people who've been to your company's website or people you've contacted in the past. LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network.

Starting point is 00:07:03 So do business where business is done. Get a $100 advertising credit toward your first LinkedIn campaign. Visit linkedin.com slash digital. That's linkedin.com slash digital. Terms and conditions apply. 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.

Starting point is 00:07:39 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 dot C-A. 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. Somewhere on your brand's website is a page with your privacy policy on it.

Starting point is 00:08:25 If you're a big brand, you've had that forever. If you're a small business, you may have had to create one just in order to run ads somewhere. And one truism that's been around for eons is the understanding that nobody really reads those. So, some of us have a little fun with the document. The privacy policy on my own personal brand page includes, quote, Unless you manually fill in a form giving me personal information, I have no idea who you are. I don't know your age, your phone number, your street address, or why your mom calls you Bosso. One thing that does seem to be changing is that consumers appear to be paying more attention to how companies are using their data.

Starting point is 00:08:59 New research from Nielsen shows that 20% of consumers around the world say they have abandoned or reduced their use of a brand because of its data practices. And of the common digital marketer argument that personalized ads are better than generic ads, apparently 44% of consumers say they will gladly give up personalized content, including brand messages and offers, if it means they don't have to cough up their personal information. Those numbers are from the Global Survey, and when you drill down into just the U.S. numbers, that figure rises from 44% to 57%. This past February, the Interactive Advertising Bureau forecast that removing personalization tactics could cost digital media companies around $35 billion in ad revenue by 2025. A nice update to Google Ads.

Starting point is 00:09:59 The Auction Insights report is now available directly in the report editor at the account and manager account level. With this update, you can see cross-account auction insights and track metrics like impression share and overlap rate, as well as identify shifts in auction performance. You can also compare performance across retail product categories. You do that by segmenting the report. It's available now for both search and shopping campaigns. You will find it in the reports section. Under predefined reports, you're looking for the tab that says auction insights. Instagram is rolling out an update to its search function today. Users will now be able to search for specific keywords in Instagram captions. Until now, when you type something into that search box,

Starting point is 00:10:44 it only returned matches on account names, hashtags, and locations. This, of course, has some impact on the work of social media content managers, as maybe they'll need to drop important keywords into their captions to improve discovery. But don't spend a ton of time on this. Instagram says they'll be limiting searches

Starting point is 00:11:01 to only general topics and keywords. This, of course, a way to prevent nasty stuff from being easily found. Oh, and there will be an algorithm to this apparently as well. Search results will come back sorted on a number of factors, including the type of content and what the actual content reads and when it was posted. And being the Facebook platform, it will then further change up the sort order to try to be most relevant to that particular user doing that search. This update is rolling out starting today to all users in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.

Starting point is 00:11:41 Agora Pulse has updated their Power Reports add-on. They've added label distribution as another aggregated metric that you can add to a report, and it's a little easier now to schedule a report. Another nice touch, they've added support for Twitter direct messages. In the replies sent section, DMs are included in the total number of replies summary. In the team performance section, there's a new column that shows the number of DMs handled by each user on your plan. Like most social platforms these days, sadly, these enhanced reporting tools are an add-on product that costs more than the basic plan you're on. And finally, touching little Easter egg found on Google today. Now, if you search for the phrase Alex Trebek,

Starting point is 00:12:25 Google will reply, Did you mean, Who is Alex Trebek? The Canadian-born game show host was Jeopardy's frontman for 37 years, until his death from cancer earlier this month. Well, I have now liberated all of the boroughs in London. The DedSec can regain its foothold against the Albion security forces and the Zero Day Group. You're welcome, London. Last night, I also unplugged the life support of Sky Larson,

Starting point is 00:12:53 whose company, it was discovered, had a secret technology that could upload a person's neural functioning to the cloud and trap them forever inside a machine. Much work still to do. There's a gang called Clan Kelly that needs defeating. The head of Albion probably needs to die too. And here you thought I just hosted

Starting point is 00:13:11 a podcast. Talk to you tomorrow. on prep with the right game. Can never lose when you're riding on my lane. I approached her, said my hello. I'm a Cosby guy, you like Jell-O. Then she laughed and we went up out of way. But I swear that she really made my day. I must say. She's beautiful. She's wonderful. She's absolutely the girl that I love.

Today in Digital Marketing - Twitter’s “Fleets” Are Off to a Bad Start

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