Today in Digital Marketing - Under the Influence

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Thursday, August 3rd. Today, it's the new banner blindness, and it's what's behind the rush to use social media influencers. Also, how many are too many? At what point will Google penalize you for using too many keywords? How does the salary of your agency's salespeople compare to others? And Reels creators are steaming mad after being told they're not getting paid what they thought they'd be.

Starting point is 00:00:27 I'm Todd Maffin. That's Ahead. Today, Digital Marketing. When the web first started and ads showed up, they were banner ads, ugly, thin bars across the top of web pages. It didn't take long for consumers to just stop noticing them, something the industry called banner blindness. New studies are finding that search ads, too, are often being seen less often. It's not that they're not being served as much. It's that consumers' eyes are just scanning past them.

Starting point is 00:00:57 This might be why search engines are trying to have their ads blend in as much as possible. We recently reported on Bing's test, where the word ad is so tiny, you really don't even see it. So if consumers aren't seeing search ads, where should our media spend go? Influencers? Sure, that's been a thing for a while. But some signs indicate that traditional influencer content is also losing effectiveness. Which is why it's probably not surprising to see Adweek's report today that micro and nano influencers thrive due to their niche focus and dedicated, albeit smaller, following.

Starting point is 00:01:30 Shoppers are also more inclined to follow affiliate links endorsed by influencers they trust. Though lacking the broad reach of major stars, these content creators can connect with specific subsets of potential customers who may overlook traditional search ads. According to the report, the real strength of smaller influencers lies in how most are paid by brands. Quote, campaigns with mega influencers are most often billed per post, similar to a television ad which marketers pay just to air, while most micro influencer campaigns are measured for clicks and conversions. This minimizes the risk to the brand, since they only pay for engagement, and they're able to

Starting point is 00:02:11 effectively understand the value of the campaign. Channels like Search may still have a place in marketing budgets, particularly dependent on your key verticals, but as costs rise, marketers should consider where their campaign elements will get the most value and retool elements based on those needs. While search signals intent, influencers need to create interest around products and services, breaking through the search blindness barrier found with paid search listings, unquote. How much should you be paying your new biz dev hire? As the market evolves, more agencies are questioning how much they should be paying their top salespeople. A new report from NBZ Partner, a growth consultancy, revealed that about half of the new business professionals surveyed earned more than $200,000 per year and have at least 10 years experience in the industry.

Starting point is 00:03:02 The report also found that half of agency business development personnel receive commissions for the business they bring in. The study also found that commissions are not limited to a specific salary level, with at least one-third of respondents in each salary band exceeding $100,000 receiving commissions. But they become more prevalent as salaries increase. Two-thirds of those making $250, a year and half of those making $300K a year receive commissions. And holding companies are more inclined to offer commissions than independent agencies. From gifts to riches, the launch of Giphy's native advertising platform, set for release at end of the year will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Shutterstock's CEO, which owns the company. The company recently acquired Giphy from Meta in a $53 million deal following a ruling by a European market authority that deemed Meta's ownership anti-competitive. Shutterstock says

Starting point is 00:04:01 Giphy has about 1.7 billion daily active users with 14,000 API connections to major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft, and TikTok. Its library holds more than 100 million GIFs. Or JIFs. You know. Whatever. Is keyword stuffing an SEO urban legend? According to Google search advocate John Mueller, having the same keyword 10 or 20 times on a page

Starting point is 00:04:31 isn't really a concern. In a response to whether mentioning a product brand name 10 to 20 times on a page constitutes keyword stuffing, Mueller in a social media post said this, 10 to 20 times is amateur numbers when it comes to keyword stuffing. I don't want to play down the worry. It's just when I run across pages where I worry about keyword stuffing, it's usually on the order of 300 to 500 plus mentions on a page. I wouldn't worry about 10 to 20 mentions on a page just for SEO, but I would check if users

Starting point is 00:05:02 think it's okay, unquote. And so the Google advice seems to remain, focus on user experience, ensuring that your content resonates with your key audiences. Researchers recently detected a phishing campaign that uses new variants of the NodeStealer malware to completely take control of meta business accounts. Meta previously reported a threat from NodeStealer in May, which was written in JavaScript, and let hackers steal browser cookies to hijack meta accounts. Apart from the direct financial impact on meta business accounts, the malware also pilfers through browser credentials, paving the way for future attacks on other websites.

Starting point is 00:05:46 This all happened through phishing links, tricking victims into downloading files containing the malicious InfoStealer. Once activated, the malware scans for logged-in business accounts in the default browser and takes them. It collects information about the target, including follower count, user verification status, account credit balance, and even ad details. The second variant can also gain access to the victim's emails. Now, the good news is that most security researchers believe that these two new NodeStealer variants are not active anymore, but researchers warn it's always a bit of an arms race, and there may soon be more malware targeting your

Starting point is 00:06:25 meta-business account. 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. notifications for its music revenue sharing program promised them payouts of tens of thousands of dollars by mistake. The program lets creators earn a portion of in-stream ad revenue from their reels on Facebook that contain licensed music, but a display error resulted in notifications being sent to some users showing massive pending payout amounts. The company has sent out a notification addressing the mistake and reducing the payout significantly. Metis says only a small number of creators were affected

Starting point is 00:07:31 and all have been notified of the error. And that will bring us to the lightning round. More than 70% of American smart TV viewers use streaming apps for just three months or less. Apps with lower monthly usage have the shortest retention. This from a Samsung study that also found targeted advertising can reduce churn. Shopify reported a 31% year-over-year revenue increase to $1.7 billion for Q2 of 2023. Despite a $1.6 billion operating loss, its operating income was positive. Merchandise

Starting point is 00:08:06 volume rose by 17%. Pinterest's focus has shifted from creators to AI. In their most recent investor call, the term creator was mentioned just six times, a drop from 29 mentions in Q1 of 2022. Instagram is trying to curb spam by limiting non-followers to only one text DM request. The change is meant to prevent unsolicited media and message requests and move part of a broader safety initiative underway there. WPP and Spotify have a new partnership that gives the global agency access to Spotify's first party listening data for more effective campaigns. And Warner Brothers Discovery lost close to 2 million subscribers after the Max rebrand. The company now has about 96 million paying customers.

Starting point is 00:08:52 Overlapping accounts between Max and Discovery Plus could be a reason. And finally, you might remember that Twitter, excuse me, X, has for a few months now been selling the blue check marks. The badge used to be given to people who had a high risk of impersonation on the platform, but now anyone can get one for eight bucks. This sort of changed how people thought of those with the check marks. Before, it was a sign of authenticity, maybe even fame. But now, in some circles, notably the anti-Musk circles, it's treated more as a joke.

Starting point is 00:09:28 Memes abound on the site with people replying to blue-checked tweets with comments like, This MF paid for Twitter. There are even browser plugins that hide any tweet posted by a verified user. Ask me how I know. Well now, if you're feeling embarrassed by paying $8 a month to use the site, a new feature exists where you can hide that checkmark so nobody knows. Only, like a lot of things there, it's sort of broken. The fine print reads, the checkmark may still appear in some places.

Starting point is 00:10:00 And some features could reveal you have an active subscription, unquote. Oh, and it might also cripple your experience on the site, quote, some features may not be available while your checkmark is hidden, unquote. In other words, situation normal. The observant of you will have probably noticed that we have changed the little noise that we make between the stories in the lightning round. It used used to be this bell which is a real bell that i'm like physically holding but i don't know it's starting to sound weird especially with the compression that i was using so we have a new sound effect it's this i hope you like it if you really hate it let me know we'll find something different i am out of the country on business tomorrow. As usual, the intrepid Steph Gunn will be in my stead.

Starting point is 00:10:48 And Monday is a holiday in Canada. But don't worry. We have a special show lined up for you. Steph will give you all of that information tomorrow. That's it for me. I will see you Tuesday. Steph will see you tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

Starting point is 00:11:00 See you then. Whoa

Today in Digital Marketing - Under the Influence

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