Today in Digital Marketing - Welcome to the Wendyverse
Episode Date: March 31, 2022More brands are setting up shop in the metaverse... Ad topics are getting consolidated on Meta's platform... Yelp will add the hygiene standards of over 700,000 restaurants... And Google starts gl...obal tests of privacy-focused ad targeting...Go Premium! No ads, more stories, audio chapters, and extended weekend episodes — https://todayindigital.com/premiumGet each episode as a daily email newsletter (with images, videos, and links) — b.link/pod-newsletterADVERTISING as low as $20: https://todayindigital.com/ads JOIN OUR SLACK! https://todayindigital.com/slackFOLLOW US: https://todayindigital.com/socialmedia (TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit) ENJOYING THE SHOW?- Please tweet about us! https://b.link/pod-tweet- Rate and review us: https://todayindigital.com/rateus- Leave a voicemail: https://b.link/pod-voicemail FOLLOW TOD:- TikTok: https://b.link/pod-tiktok- Twitter: https://b.link/pod-twitter- LinkedIn: https://b.link/pod-linkedin- Twitch: https://twitch.tv/todmaffin Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin (https://b.link/pod-todsite) and produced by engageQ digital (https://b.link/pod-engageq). Subscribe at https://TodayInDigital.com or wherever you get your podcasts. (Theme music by Mark Blevis. All other music licensed by Source Audio.)Does your brand need a podcast? Let us help: https://engageQ.com/podcastsOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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Today, more brands are setting up shop in the metaverse.
Ad topics are getting consolidated on Meta's platform. Yelp will add the hygiene standards of over 700,000 restaurants. And Google starts global tests of privacy-focused ad targeting.
And on the premium podcast with no ads, more stories and deep dive weekend episodes,
tap the link in the show notes for more. How one company successfully made a television ad
for the blind. It's Thursday, March 31st. I'm Steph Gunn filling in for Todd Maffin.
Here is what you missed today in digital marketing.
It may be more challenging for your ads to reach new audiences as Meta is giving consumers more
control over the ads that they see. The company announced this week it will consolidate its ad
topics and interest category controls into a single ad topics control as of April 11th.
The platform said ad topics control will cover a more extensive set of ad topics
and people will be able to access it
on both Facebook and Instagram. With the update, people will be able to use a single control to
set preferences across ad topics that reflect interest targeting categories that advertisers
may use to reach them and the content they may see in ads. This preference setting has always
been more of a suggestion than a direct
on-off toggle. When people removed a particular interest, it's been thought that they stay
targetable, but just with less waiting. Now though, when users choose to see less of any ad topic,
they will be removed from that interest targeting option, and the platform will take steps to filter out ads related to those topics.
Do you do any marketing for restaurants? If so, you might want to consider checking the hygiene score of your business. Yelp today announced it is broadening its partnership with food tech firm
Hazel Analytics to expand health inspection data on its platform for over 700,000 restaurants
across the U.S. and Canada. Hazel Analytics now provides restaurant hygiene data on its platform for over 700,000 restaurants across the U.S. and Canada.
Hazel Analytics now provides restaurant hygiene data on Yelp pages and lists information about
health inspection jurisdictions representing almost 70% of the U.S. population. This feature
incorporates data from health care departments and for the first time will bring Canadian health
scores to Yelp with data on Toronto and Vancouver locations. The expansion bring Canadian health scores to Yelp, with data on Toronto and Vancouver
locations. The expansion of the health scores program comes as pandemic restrictions are easing
and more people are returning to indoor dining.
Anyone up for a JBC in the metaverse? Wendy's is the latest fast food brand to stake its claim
in Zuck's virtual
world. The company has unveiled Wendyverse, which consumers will be able to visit in just a couple
of days. Starting on April 2nd, those with a MetaQuest 2 headset can sign into Horizon World's
Meta's metaverse platform and explore a virtual Wendy's restaurant, play interactive games,
and shoot hoops using a virtual Baconator.
The virtual basketball court, called the Buck Biscuit Dome, will also be used to advertise
a real-life promotion offering customers a breakfast biscuit for only a dollar at its
restaurants. Another marketing strategy from the company includes Wendyverse.com
offering consumers free 10-piece nuggets IRL.
Wendy's partnered with Meta to build and operate the activation.
Google is starting the next stage of testing for the privacy sandbox ad targeting focused
on ads relevance and measurement. The company announced that starting today,
developers can begin testing globally the Topics, Fledge, and Attribution reporting APIs in Chrome.
These are meant to replace Flock, which was killed off in January. or first locally executed decision over groups experiment, calculates ad auction data in the
browser itself instead of at the server, and attribution reporting allows for better measurement
of the conversion from ad clicks or views. Google says together these ad technologies
are designed to help limit the use of personal data while ensuring reporting accuracy. While testing begins for Privacy Sandbox, the company has also
announced more Search Console insights have been added to Google Data Studio. Google says that as
of today, the Search Console connector will include data for Discover and Google News Traffic,
similar to the data recently added to the API. Google also shared a dashboard template you can use in Data Studio
to toggle between different search console properties,
data types, devices, and more to monitor search performance.
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The popular WordPress plugin All-in-One SEO has added integration with Microsoft Clarity.
Clarity is an analytics program that focuses on user behavior.
The tool lets publishers see how users are interacting with their website.
With the integration, publishers can track user behavior and get insight into data to
understand user intent, reduce bounce rates, improve conversion rates, and optimize user
experience. To activate Microsoft Clarity on your WordPress site, head to your General Settings,
then to Webmaster Tools Verification in the all-in-one SEO settings screen
where you'll find the Clarity integration.
A reminder for those Google Ads advertisers out there,
there are just three months left until expanded text ads disappear.
Starting July 1st, responsive search ads will be the only ad
type for search campaigns. Are you ready for the update? Here's how Google recommends you prepare.
First, repurpose high-performing content from your expanded text ads and focus on ad strength.
Check your account's recommendations page. These AI-generated suggestions can help you quickly
add or improve responsive search ads. That said, don't rely solely on their recommendations,
as they tend to be a little hit and miss. Also, pin headlines or descriptions to specific positions
in your responsive search ads. Use different ad variations. This can help you test different
versions of your assets at scale
and review their performance across multiple campaigns. And finally, evaluate the success
of your ads based on incremental impressions, clicks, and conversions your ad groups and
campaigns receive. YouTube is testing a new way for users to react to your brand's videos with emoji reactions.
The new feature called Timed Reactions will allow users to attach an emoji to a video
at a certain time in the clip, similar to the platform's Timed Comments feature.
Here's how it works.
First, tap Comments.
If you were part of the test group, you'll see a pop-up tab in the bottom right-hand
corner of a video on mobile.
Then tap it to see a set of reactions that you can then use to react to specific moments
of the video that you're watching.
YouTube is also working on adding new analytics to capture these responses, which could give
you a better understanding of what exactly your viewers want to see.
I've been really nervous about giving
my husband his birthday gift. I got him a guitar on eBay of all places, and it came from his little
shop in LA. So, you know, I was that consumer checking out this business's reviews on multiple
platforms the past few weeks. I also checked out all of their socials, and I did notice that a few
well-known artists follow the account so I
went for it and it turns out that the guitar belonged to Patrick Stump who is the lead singer
of Fall Out Boy. I guess this shop is selling a bunch of his guitars. The guy didn't message me
to tell me that though until after the fact so I guess it's not really a selling feature. Anyways,
it all worked out. Husband loves it.
And yes, it can play more than fallout boy tunes.
Thanks for listening.
Todd is back tomorrow.