Today in Digital Marketing - What Your Copy 'Should' Be Doing

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

Should your ad copy stay or should it go? TikTok hits a wall in Canada, shutting down operations. Reddit's booming user growth is calling brands—but what’s the ad potential? And YouTube now lets Short Creators court brands..📝 Take the One-Question Survey.Today’s story links:You should use thisCanada forces TikTok to dissolve business operationsReddit’s growth presents opportunities for brandsYouTube enables Shorts creators to request brand partnershipsSnapchat adds ad placement verification from DoubleVerifyMicrosoft Advertising updates Shopping Audience Campaigns.📰 Get our free daily newsletter📈 Advertising: Reach Thousands of Marketing Decision-Makers🌍 Follow us on social media or contact us.GO PREMIUM!Get these exclusive benefits when you upgrade:✅ Listen ad-free✅ Back catalog of 20+ marketing science interviews✅ Get the show earlier than the free version✅ “Skip to story” audio chapters✅ Member-only monthly livestreams with TodAnd a lot more! Check it out: todayindigital.com/premium✨ Premium tools: Update Credit Card • Cancel.MORE🆘 Need help with your social media? Check us out: engageQ digital🌟 Rate and Review Us🤝 Our Slack.UPGRADE YOUR SKILLSGoogle Ads for Beginners with Jyll Saskin GalesInside Google Ads: Advanced with Jyll Saskin GalesFoxwell Slack Group and Courses.Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. Associate producer: Steph Gunn.Some links in these show notes may provide affiliate revenue to us.Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's Thursday, November 7th. Today, should your ad copy stay or should it go? TikTok hits a wall in Canada shutting down operations. Reddit's booming user growth is calling brands. But what's the ad potential? And YouTube now lets shorts creators court brands. I'm Steph Gunn sitting in for Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Your ad copy might be lacking words that could change everything. Research shows that using words that highlight gaps between the current state and an ideal one, such as should, could, and lacking can boost engagement by up to 20%. Imagine launching a service with a unique flat fee structure, unlike your competitors'

pay-per-use models. When crafting your tagline, a subtle change can make all the difference. For example, Acme Solutions, no need to worry about how much you use, versus Acme Solutions, you shouldn't have to worry about how much you use. Research suggests that the second option is likely the most effective at grabbing attention and driving engagement. According to the study, when people encounter words like should, want, wish, or desire, it highlights the gap between the way things currently are and the way they'd like them to be. These words trigger psychological reactions that drive actions, like engaging with an ad or social media post. However, how much someone engages depends on how personally

meaningful the message feels. For instance, when people feel a lack of control, they focus more on themselves and pay more attention to relatable content. Canada has officially banned TikTok's business operations. Yesterday, the Canadian government ordered that the Chinese-owned company wind up its business in the country due to national security concerns. This decision follows a multi-step national security review process, which revealed potential risks tied to TikTok's planned expansion in Canada. Based on these findings, the government advised blocking the company's operations. Unlike the U.S., which is pushing for a nationwide TikTok ban,

Canada's move stops the platform's expansion but lets users continue using the app. TikTok, however, is not backing down and said it will challenge the order in court. Reddit's recent spike in traffic is hard to ignore. As we reported last week, the platform has seen a 45% increase in daily active users, from 66 million to 97 million over the past year, outpacing every other social app's growth. But does that make it a better platform for advertising? Social Media Today reports that Reddit's deal with Google has boosted its visibility, with its content now showing up four times more in search results. This partnership has helped Reddit grow to 365 million weekly active users,

a more than 50% increase from last year. Unlike most social apps, Reddit's daily to weekly usage is much higher, suggesting that people use the app less consistently. Quoting social media today, While Reddit is getting a lot more people to the app, most of them are likely coming across from Google search, checking the response to their query, then moving on from the app. Over time, Reddit is seemingly converting more of these visitors into active users, but right now, Reddit's 97 million daily actives is significantly lower

than the other major social apps. As such, that could mean that Reddit provides less opportunity for ad exposure, and thus a more confined pathway to audience reach. YouTube is flipping the script when it comes to brand deals for Shorts creators. The platform has announced a new process that will let creators take the lead in securing brand partnerships to sponsor their content. Here's how it works. With the update, Shorts creators can post brand-related content and ask brands directly if they'd like to feature the video in their campaigns. Previously, creators could only accept video linking requests from advertisers through emails or YouTube Studio notifications.

Now, creators in YouTube's partner program with more than 4,000 subscribers have the ability to send these requests directly. YouTube will recommend creator-initiated tagged content to brands, and if they choose to run ads, these links will function like advertiser-initiated links. Creators don't get a cut for any ads that run using their content. In other news, YouTube is also rolling out an updated data story feature, which will provide an overview of your latest video's performance within the first 24 hours. And the platform is also testing a new most relevant comment filter, designed to highlight questions and other comment types that may invite responses. Snapchat has expanded its partnership with third-party verification provider DoubleVerify by adding ad placement verification. This integration lets advertisers check ad placements

and whether their ads are being displayed alongside harmful or inappropriate content. The tool lets advertisers align their brand promotion with suitable content based on the parameters that they've set. The update builds on Snapchat's partnership with DoubleVerify, which already provides ad viewability and fraud verification for Snap campaigns. And finally, Microsoft has made a couple of changes to shopping audience campaigns. First, the setup workflow for creating shopping audience campaigns has been simplified. You can also now create product groups, bringing shopping audience campaigns in line with regular shopping search campaigns.

If you're running an existing campaign, Microsoft said you can opt into this feature by visiting the product group page and selecting create first product group. Furthermore, product groups will automatically be created for any new shopping audience campaigns. This update is optional and won't impact the performance of current campaigns. Our dog is losing his manhood today. So we have a pug, his name is Cheeseburger, and he's actually getting neutered as we speak, which means in just a couple of hours, I'm going to have a pup running around with a cone on his head and a toddler. Should be super fun times. Tomorrow, we have a special edition inside Google Ads, a deep dive case study coming at you.

And then Monday is Remembrance Day in Canada, which is a holiday. So no show Monday. And then I will be back to talk to you on Tuesday. Until then, I'm Steph Gunn. Thanks for listening. And we'll talk to you soon.