Today in Digital Marketing - Why Did ROAS Drop During Amazon's Biggest Day?

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Starting point is 00:00:28 Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A. Today, Facebook adds both features and fees to its e-commerce platform. Yes, Twitter's ad platform changed a little yesterday. If Amazon's Prime Day was so successful, why was return on ad spend down? to its e-commerce platform. Yes, Twitter's ad platform changed a little yesterday. If Amazon's Prime Day was so successful, why was return on ad spend down? And a reminder, T-minus two days before Facebook and Instagram

Starting point is 00:00:54 may break your brand's website. It's Thursday, October 22nd, 2020. Happy International Caps Lock Day. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here is what you missed today in digital marketing. So you're selling things through influencers on Instagram. You've set up a Facebook shop. Well, Facebook has another way that they'd like you to sell your stuff.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Through WhatsApp. Facebook owns the WhatsApp Messenger, after all, and today they announced they'll let brands sell products directly from a WhatsApp chat session. Quoting TechCrunch, Today's move sounds like a new way for businesses in turn to use WhatsApp, both to link through to those Facebook native catalogs, as well as other products, and then purchase items while still staying in the chat. At the same time, Facebook will be making it possible for merchants to add buy buttons in other places that will take shoppers to WhatsApp chats to complete the purchase. Although Facebook is not calling this WhatsApp pay, it seems that this is the next step ahead

Starting point is 00:01:55 for the company's ambitions to bring payments into the chat flow of its messaging app, unquote. Facebook's news release was, and I know this will shock you, a little light on details. But at one point they do mention, we will charge business customers for some of the services we offer. But don't say how much, or for what, or for what types of customers. They're also apparently going to compete with e-commerce hosting platforms, but then again, they say this will be through partners, and there's no launch time or, you know, details. So who the hell really knows? You know, an organization is getting too

Starting point is 00:02:34 big when it needs its own Supreme Court. That's essentially what Facebook has started. They call it their oversight board and they are taking cases starting today. Facebook says the board is independent and its decisions are binding on Facebook that even senior executives can't even overturn decisions. We'll see how well that pans out. What kind of cases? Sadly, not the kind that digital marketers want decided. For now, they are only hearing cases where content is removed from Facebook or Instagram and you have exhausted your appeals. Everyone who's in that situation will get an ID code and can request this group to review it. So, of course, everyone is going to ask for a review.

Starting point is 00:03:14 Wouldn't you? Like the real Supreme Court, of course, it will pick and choose what it decides to hear, though Facebook says it will keep the right to push cases it wants a decision on. So, I guess it's okay. Doesn't really help us, though, since the rulings most digital marketers want appealed involve ad campaign takedowns, ad account bans, that sort of thing, none of which this new body will hear, at least for now. People in the e-commerce space often watch Amazon's Prime Day as a proxy to overall buying volume and trends,

Starting point is 00:03:49 and the data from this year's Prime Day is now in. First, sales jumped 45% over last year's event in July. Analysts say that means it made more than $10 billion during the Prime Day campaign alone. Also, ad spend on Amazon increased by nearly four times compared to the daily average of the 30 days leading up to the event. That tracks with the increase for the previous Prime Day. Conversions were up more than two and a half times. But it wasn't all good news. Quoting Marketingland,

Starting point is 00:04:20 the increased competition for online shoppers meant lower return on ad spend, as spend and the cost of bids rose in some categories. Despite a 187% increase in impressions, Home and Kitchen, for instance, saw ROAS drop by nearly 50% compared to last year, in part due to a nearly threefold increase in ad spend, unquote. Remember, friends, according to a Feedvisor survey, 33% of consumers plan to complete their holiday shopping much earlier this year compared to last year. All right, and four small items for you. First, some people have noticed that Facebook has added a new option to its news feed settings,

Starting point is 00:05:08 the ability to sort by most recent. But lest you think that Facebook is giving us back the reverse chronological feed, no, you're going to get exactly the same curated content that you normally would. It's just putting them in a different order. Second, a small but helpful update to the Twitter platform. They have a new tweet composer, which gives you a better preview of what your promoted tweet will look like. And the preview will dynamically change as you update each element of the content. You can also now duplicate your tweet easier using the new create another option at the top of the screen.

Starting point is 00:05:40 Third, a reminder that this Saturday, Facebook and Instagram will stop supporting embedded posts and tweets on WordPress sites. To be completely accurate, they'll stop working anywhere older versions of oEmbed are present, but there are a whole lot on WordPress and other websites. So if you have any Facebook or Instagram embeds on your pages, better track them down and remove them. Otherwise, they'll just break when someone tries to view them. And finally, Quibi, the innovative, maybe too much ahead of its time, mobile company, has folded. This was an app that broadcast shows in five to 10 minute chapters formatted to fit the dimensions of a smartphone. Analysts say the timing of the pandemic and a

Starting point is 00:06:22 patent lawsuit were contributing factors to the app's demise. Well, thanks to those of you who recommended some video games for me. A couple of you recommended Rogue Company, so I'm going to try that tonight. I'm generally not good at shooters where I need to, well, shoot things. That's why I play healers and support roles mostly. But I'll give it a shot. God knows I need a new game. In the next couple of weeks, two of my favorite franchises are releasing new games, Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs.

Starting point is 00:06:50 As Borat would say, I'm very excited. My thanks to the Fire Guy Show, who reviewed this podcast, saying, this podcast has been the guiding light at the end of a disorienting tunnel of digital marketing. I'm so happy. It's a daily dose of learning.

Starting point is 00:07:06 Thank you so much for that. And if you are getting value from this daily news podcast, please consider rating and reviewing us as well. You will find a link in this episode's description that makes that a simple one-click process. Okay, that's it for now. Talk to you tomorrow. You can try and hold me back But I'm moving to a whole other level Don't worry where we're at You can find me on

Today in Digital Marketing - Why Did ROAS Drop During Amazon's Biggest Day?

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