Today in Digital Marketing - Welcome to the Wendyverse

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

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...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

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. 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. Starting a marketing agency is a rewarding experience, but it can also be a challenging one. The fear of selling to prospects,

the pressure of delivering top-quality services to paying clients, and the scramble to invoice and collect so that the revenue keeps coming in is a lot for one person to handle. What was meant to be a fulfilling venture is suddenly eating away your freedom and your profits, and you're probably not being paid enough for it either. If this sounds like you, you need Vendasta. Vendasta is your all-in-one digital platform designed to make your life as an agency owner easier. Used by over 60,000 agencies, Vendasta gives you all the tools you need to easily manage your leads and customer accounts from one login. Plus, you get access to over 250 curated products to resell to local businesses. Go from a struggling agency to a superhero agency today. Learn more by booking a demo at vendasta.com slash superhero today.

That's vendasta.com slash superhero. 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.