Today in Digital Marketing - Why Your Product Reviews Ranking Might Change

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

Meta loosens up a controversial ad policy, Google's new algorithm might affect your product reviews, why discounting during this holiday season may be a sign of poor brand health, a peek into trending creative on Facebook, AND MORE.Go Premium! No ads, more stories, and expert livestreams — https://todayindigital.com/premiumADVERTISING as low as $20: https://todayindigital.com/adsShowcase your marketing tool for free! Apply at https://todayindigital.com/showcase  JOIN OUR SLACK! https://todayindigital.com/slackFOLLOW US: https://todayindigital.com/socialmedia (TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, and more) 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 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, Meta loosens up a controversial ad policy, at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. And on the premium podcast with more stories, no ads and expert live streams, LinkedIn's plan to deliver first party data that you can rent. It's Thursday, December 2nd, 2021. Happy Computer Literacy Day, India. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. And here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing Episode 518.

Heads up, crypto nerds. It might not be too long before we see new crypto fanboy Matt Damon enter a realm of the metaverse. Meta has announced an update to its ad policies regarding crypto. The announcement comes as cryptocurrencies gain traction in line with Web 3.0. Quoting the company, We are updating our eligibility criteria for running ads about cryptocurrency on our platform by expanding the number of regulatory licenses we accept from 3 to 27. We are also making the list of eligible licenses publicly available on our policy page. Previously, advertisers could submit an application and include information such as any licenses they obtained,

whether they're traded on a public stock exchange and other relevant public background on their business. However, over the years, the cryptocurrency landscape has matured and stabilized and experienced an increase in government regulation, which has helped to set clearer responsibilities and expectations for the industry. Going forward, we will be moving away from using a variety of signals to confirm eligibility and instead requiring one of these 27 licenses. This is actually somewhat unusual for Facebook, sorry, Meta, to relax ad policies. Is this the start of a trend? No, probably not. A new Google search algorithm is coming for product reviews.

And if you have deja vu, it's because this is actually the second one this year. The company has announced the second update named the December 2021 product reviews update. Thanks, Google. The first one rolled out in April. To be clear here, this is to help people who review products rank their reviews higher. So think like Amazon affiliates, for instance, or influencers. Now, this does have a direct effect on our work as digital marketers, though, since we want good reviews of our products to rank higher. So if you're working with an influencer or a reviewer on a regular basis,

maybe share this with them to help you both out. Okay, quoting Google's announcement here. Back in April 2021, we shared a product reviews update that was designed to promote high-quality product reviews. We are now rolling out a new update, the first major update since April, that may change how your product reviews rank in search results. We are introducing two new best practices for product reviews. First, provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review. And two, and you know, maybe not pass this particular one along to your influencer or reviewer,

Google says include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice, unquote. So apparently in this new update, though, having multiple sellers may move up the ranking of both your store and I guess the multiple sellers as well. This update will take about three weeks to roll out. Social media marketers are also getting an early Christmas gift, and it's the best kind of gift, more data. This comes in the form of some new analytics. Facebook is rolling out a new Inspiration Hub element within Creator Studio, and this change will provide marketers with more content insights, says the company.

You'll be able to see trending content and hashtags within categories related to your business page. And search and filter top posts on Instagram, which may help you with your content strategy. Here are some new features you'll see in the hub. Trending hashtags and videos posted by pages similar to yours in the last 24 hours. You'll also be able to search trending hashtags within your chosen time frame. And as I mentioned, the ability to filter trending content by page category. You'll also be able to do it by content type and region among some other filters. No official rollout date. However, once it is available to you, you'll be able to find it

in the Inspiration Hub, which will be in the Home tab of Creator Studio. 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. Retail marketers, if you're not already, you might want to seriously consider getting your brand on a buy now, pay later platform. Afterpay today released insights that confirm,

despite the first ever decline in online sales on Black Friday, the holiday season is back and bigger than ever for their platform. Again, they do a buy now, pay later system. Quoting the company, spending on buy now, pay later in the US has increased 230% in the last year and continues to surge through the busy holiday shopping period as consumers return to in-store and shop online. Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Afterpay found 11% more Gen Z consumers shopping year-over-year through its platform to purchase items. After a year of accelerated digital adoption, e-commerce is still maintaining a stronghold

with a 30% increase year-over-year of Afterpay users spending online, unquote. The report also found that fashion and fitness categories were the most popular categories, up 26% and 46% year over year. The most popular items purchased using buy now, pay later payments among Gen Z and millennials were clogs, weekender bags, trucker hats, and shoes. Weird data point. Okay.

Merchant partners also saw an 8% increase in basket size when people used the Afterpay system on Cyber Monday. We told you earlier this week that the average discount on American Thanksgiving Day was 27%, and that was down 7% from last year. An interesting piece in Retail Dive today explains why it's a bad sign if retailers are offering any major discounts this season. According to the piece, big brands that have cut back on their discounts this year include Adidas, UGG, Timberland, and more. And if your brand is offering big price cuts, this piece posits that it may be a sign

that your brand is in trouble. The piece also suggests that fewer retailers are offering free shipping. A lack of Cyber Monday and Black Friday deals may also explain why sales were down this year. It is unclear how long retailers will be able to maintain their pricing power, but one thing is for sure, it could be gone in the blink of an eye once supply ports are unloaded. And three small items to wrap up here. First, Square is changing its company name to separate Square the company from Square the product. The new company name is Meta.

Oh, I'm sorry. No, the new company name is Block and is said to be a reference to the blockchain. Second, YouTube shared its top videos and creative stars of 2021. If you're looking for inspiration from the top trends for your branding strategy, here are a few ideas from the top videos. Get buried alive, play Minecraft, and catch a scammer with a glitter bomb.

And the third and final item, you can now edit and publish your posts all in one place on Buffer. The new editing functionalities include crop, rotate, and more. On the show tomorrow, God help us all, but pastels are coming back. A look at the color and design trends that will shape the most effective online ads next year. That's tomorrow. I'll talk to you then. Well, I never knew we could get this far. That's tomorrow. I'll talk to you then. 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. 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 dot C-A. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A.