Today in Digital Marketing - Wait, Links WORK Now On TikTok Videos?!

Starting point is 00:00:01 It is Wednesday, April 17th. Today, tappable links might finally be coming to TikTok videos. LinkedIn's new premium company pages have a creepy but probably very effective new feature. The digital ad industry didn't suck as much as you think it did last year. And Elon has a plan for ridding X of bots. Give him more money. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. 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,

Starting point is 00:00:47 data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Back in the good old days of the web, links worked. You would type in a web link, and when people clicked it, it would go somewhere. And then Instagram came along and realized that if they make links unclickable, that would increase the demand from advertisers who were willing to pay money to make those links work. To service those that weren't willing to pay, an entire new industry sprung up in the form of link-in-bio platforms.

Starting point is 00:01:28 I know that's a big generalization, but it's mostly true. Other platforms followed Instagram's lead, including TikTok, but that might be changing soon. Digiday is reporting that TikTok is testing clickable links in organic videos. Quoting their piece, quote, The test seemingly comes at an opportune time, given the decline in social referral traffic from platforms like Facebook and X, and the challenge of getting users from popular platforms like Instagram and TikTok to publishers' sites. However, it remains to be seen how much traffic TikTok can actually drive for publishers. TikTok declined to comment on the feature or its ongoing test,

Starting point is 00:02:05 unquote. In an off-the-record town hall between agency executives and TikTok executives, one attendee said the platform confirmed the test and that so far the results were decent. Again, from Digiday, quote, TikTok, like a lot of platforms, are designed for people to stay on the platform. And so even just the incentive for somebody to want to leave TikTok, like a lot of platforms, are designed for people to stay on the platform. And so even just the incentive for somebody to want to leave TikTok, it's pretty tough, a publishing executive said during the town hall. Unquote. LinkedIn is testing a potential new revenue stream aimed specifically at small and medium businesses. It comes in the form of a premium company page subscription that might cost up to $99 a month. As for what it covers, it's a little underwhelming.

Starting point is 00:02:54 A custom call to action button, a list of people who visited your page, a new badge, the ability to showcase testimonials, and the usual mumbo jumbo about AI-powered writing assistance. The only thing I spotted that did seem interesting was this, quote, without premium company page, you can only invite first-degree connections to follow your page. Save time with an exclusive invite-to-follow option that allows you to automatically invite people who have engaged with your content to follow your page regardless of their connection degree, unquote. The introduction of these premium features comes at a time when LinkedIn is eager to shed its reputation as a platform known mostly for self-promotion and cringy hot takes.

Starting point is 00:03:40 This premium company page was first mentioned on LinkedIn about a week ago and flew under the radar until TechCrunch spotted the update. A spokesperson at LinkedIn wouldn't comment, except for the usual, we're always exploring new ways to enhance our customers' experience, blah, blah, blah. But they did confirm the tool would be aimed at small and medium-sized brands. LinkedIn said it's seen substantial growth in its premium services, contributing significantly to its $15 billion in revenue last year. We have new numbers from the Interactive Advertising Bureau on the state of the digital

Starting point is 00:04:16 ad industry, and it shows last year wasn't nearly as bad as everyone thinks it was. In 2023, in fact, digital advertising soared, raking in $225 billion. That marked a 7.3% increase from the previous year, according to this report. Even amid economic uncertainties, the industry saw significant growth, particularly, of course, in the final quarter, where revenue surged to $64.5 billion, boosted largely by holiday shopping.

Starting point is 00:04:48 Different segments, of course, saw varied growth rates, with audio ads leading the way with an almost 19% increase. Retail media wasn't far behind, growing 16.3%, and video advertising, particularly connected TV and over-the-top platforms, grew 10.6%, making up 42% of the revenue in that segment. Despite a sluggish start in 2022, social media advertising rebounded with an 8.7% increase in 2023. This was driven by a vibrant creator economy and was particularly strong in the latter half of the year, which accounted for $4 billion of the $5 billion year-over-year increase. Looking ahead, the AIB report calls out generative AI and privacy-focused ad practices as the new issues to think about this year. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit?

Starting point is 00:05:53 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. 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.

Starting point is 00:06:16 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. 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.C-A. TikTok is branching out with a new app, TikTok Notes, launching in Australia and Canada today. This move marks its latest venture into the domain of photo and text sharing, challenging Meta's Instagram. I'm in Canada, so I tried it out. It feels a little bit like Be Real, but without the limitations on when you can post.

Starting point is 00:07:03 Visually, it looks sort of like a Pinterest Explore page or the Snapchat discover tab, if you're familiar with those. We have a screenshot in our email newsletter today. It's available on both Android and Apple, and it lets users log in using their existing TikTok credentials. TikTok had been asking some users if they were okay with their image posts being copied over to this app. I said okay to that and added a couple of image posts on my main TikTok account, but I couldn't find them on this new app. And yes, the main TikTok app does already support image and tech posts, but this new app presumably aims to refine and expand this

Starting point is 00:07:40 and move more firmly into Instagram's lucrative territory. And finally, sometimes Gizmodo really nails the lead. In a post this week, they wrote, quote, Elon Musk has a brilliant plan to stop the bots on his social media platform. Pay him more money, unquote. Yes, after months of ruminating on the idea, it seems Elon Musk has decided to charge people an annual fee to use the platform. And no, I don't mean to access the premium features. I mean to use it at all. Musk believes charging a $1 fee for new accounts will keep the bots away,

Starting point is 00:08:28 though he also thought the paid checkmarks would do that, and it didn't. The new policy is a little confusing. It was described as an annual fee, but is only required for the first three months of use. It will only apply to new accounts going forward, not existing ones. This isn't X's first attempt at using fees to deter bots. In October, the platform experimented with charging $1 for new accounts in New Zealand and the Philippines. I feel like a real game streamer now. I have a green screen set up. I lost my original green screen, I don't know, years ago. And my wife found a green blanket at a thrift store also a couple of years ago.

Starting point is 00:09:06 And today I put it behind the couch in the living room, kind of hanging from this big poster board thing that I've got. It's a little hard to describe. Anyway, suffice to say, it is a giant green wall in our living room. My wife is away for business. She hasn't seen it yet. So I don't know if it's going to stay. The good money is on no, it probably won't.

Starting point is 00:09:29 But it looks great on stream. If you're a gamer, you want to watch me die a lot, you can follow me on my Twitch channel, which is twitch.tv slash loweffortdad. I usually stream every night or so. All right, that's it for today. See you tomorrow. It's the season for new styles,

Starting point is 00:09:48 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. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash

Starting point is 00:10:13 back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.ca.

Today in Digital Marketing - Wait, Links WORK Now On TikTok Videos?!

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