Today in Digital Marketing - You Won't Believe What Will Happen to Clickbait! 😱

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, December 20th. This week, how faking discounts is getting some marketers in hot water, the truth about disavowing toxic backlinks, why you should slow down your shipping, and LinkedIn rolls out the single most helpful set of metrics, and it has nothing to do with ads. I'm Todd Mathen. That's ahead for our Friday wrap-up of the week in digital marketing. We start as usual with changes to the advertising space, and be careful about the pricing that you are advertising. An increasing number of lawsuits are being filed against merchants who are faking

Starting point is 00:00:40 discounts. In one case, the charge reads, quote, Unquote. So watch your pricing. Oddly, Google confirmed this week it is testing double serving ads. This allows the display of the same ad from the same advertiser to appear on the same search results page. This contradicts its longstanding policy of displaying only one ad per account for a given keyword. Instagram this year, for the first time ever, will make up more than half of Meta's U.S. ad revenue. eMarketer says the app should haul in about $32 billion in U.S. ad revenue next year. That's 25% up from this year. And a looming TikTok ban, of course, could supercharge this growth. Analysts expect Instagram would snag more than 20% of TikTok's

Starting point is 00:01:45 ad spend. Reels, no surprise on Instagram, are leading the charge, steadily eating into feed and stories ad revenue. A driver of Instagram's success lies in its ability to out-earn other platforms on a per-user basis. Instagram now brings in $223 per U.S. user, outpacing Facebook's $191 and TikTok's $109. Double Verify has launched Gen AI Protection, a new tool that says we'll keep brands' ads away from low-quality AI-generated content. It will identify numerous long-tail websites that leverage AI tools to churn out crappy content, often rife with errors, editorial inconsistencies, plagiarisms, and so on. I have to admit, I was kind of amused that we now have AI protecting us against AI. All right, to the social media changes in the past five days, the influencer platform Creator IQ says Instagram this year remained the most active platform for influencer marketing. But TikTok is quickly coming in behind with 72% more unique posts and 63% more creators participating on TikTok this year as per last.

Starting point is 00:03:02 LinkedIn is testing a new feature that will let users pay to boost their personal posts. This will be available for text, image, article, video, and newsletter posts. It's being tested with a small group of premium business subscribers in the U.S. So get ready for even more, I didn't tip my barista and here's what it taught me about resilience kinds of posts. Threads has hit 100 million daily active users. That is a big milestone for sure. Not just for the number, but it's actually the first time that Meta has shared daily active user data. Threads is also going to get some in-app post scheduling. So you'll be able to schedule a post directly from the composer. You'll find it under the three dot menu, which

Starting point is 00:03:43 has a name, which I keep forgetting. Anyway, Threads is also rolling out the ability to reshare media while automatically crediting the original creator. Meta has updated how affiliate links are displayed in Facebook posts. This should make them more prominent across reels, videos, photos, and even text posts. Previously, affiliate links were limited to being shown as URLs in captions. LinkedIn is testing a new larger video display in the main feed, kind of similar to TikTok's For You page. Video posts will appear in bigger panels between regular updates and tapping on any video will take you to a TikTok-style immersive video feed. They tried this, I don't know, a couple of years ago and pulled out.

Starting point is 00:04:25 So maybe they are seeing the TikTok writing on the wall. Speaking of TikTok, the U.S. Supreme Court said this week it will hear arguments on TikTok's fate after all. This hearing will happen January 10th. That is just days before a potential U.S. ban could kick in. The case hinges on whether banning the app under some new legislation violates the American First Amendment protecting free speech. The American Justice Department says the law is essential for national security. The Supreme Court's decision will actually consolidate

Starting point is 00:04:55 two cases against the law, one from TikTok and the other from creators. Each side will be given two hours to make their case. Turning to SEO and search, Google late this week dropped a new search spam update. This is the seventh Google search algorithm update of 2024. It is global. It covers all languages. It might take up to a week to fully roll out. As usual, we don't know exactly what's going to be in it. Same went for the core update that happened just before that, which was just called the December update. It triggered widespread volatility in search engine results. Some tracking platforms like Moz and SEMrush showed unusually high fluctuations for that update. We knew this was coming though. Google is said to be working on an AI mode for its search engine, which would

Starting point is 00:05:45 look just like its Gemini AI chatbot. This would, at least for now, appear alongside existing taps like all and images and videos. But in this AI mode, users would receive conversational answers accompanied by relevant web page links and a search bar for follow up questions. Google's John Mueller dropped a bit of a truth bomb this week. He said SEOs and site owners should not spend time disavowing toxic links. He called it a billable waste of time to use SEO tools for that task. And if you're wondering why your brand's reviews are disappearing on Google Business Profile, a new study shed some light on that. Some key findings, including inauthentic activity. So these are reviews

Starting point is 00:06:30 that are flagged as fake or promotional, especially, by the way, in five-star ratings. Those appear to be more likely to be removed. Repetitive or generic terms might also trigger deletions. And extreme ratings, so those are the things like very, very positive or very, very negative might face closer scrutiny. All right, a brief look at what changed in the DTC and e-commerce world in the past week. A report from RBC says PayPal will increase the amount it charges for its buy now, pay later service.

Starting point is 00:07:04 The rate will move from 3.49% of the transaction, plus 45 cents, to 4.99% of the transaction, plus 45 cents. This is said to start January 13th. Yes, it is a 1.5% increase, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that cuts even more margin from sellers. Remember, this is the buy now, pay later service fees. Maybe some merchants might just stop offering that. And fast deliveries. It might seem like a win for you, but new research shows that e-commerce orders arriving earlier than

Starting point is 00:07:37 expected can backfire, especially for new customers. When orders arrive too quickly, customers are more likely to question their purchase decision, increasing the chance of returns. To avoid that, researchers of the study suggest providing a more accurate delivery range, offering slower, cheaper, or eco-friendly options, and reminding customers why they made the purchase. While faster deliveries can trigger doubts about the purchase, longer delivery times give customers more time to rationalize and accept their decision. And yes, it is beginning to look like a Timu Christmas. Almost half of Gen Z shoppers are

Starting point is 00:08:19 buying holiday gifts from Chinese marketplaces. Timu leads the pack for 25% of U.S. shoppers, followed by Shein, TikTok Shop, and AliExpress. 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 Ate. YouTube has started first tackling clickbait videos in India. They are looking for misleading titles and thumbnails

Starting point is 00:09:11 that over-promise but under-deliver. The new policy focuses on content in current events and breaking news, but this could come to marketing videos at some point as well. Indian creators will see enforcement in the coming months, serving as a trial for a potential worldwide rollout. YouTube says violations won't lead to account strikes, but they might take the video down. YouTube is also giving brands and creators some say in whether their content trains AI with a new third-party training toggle in YouTube Studio. By default, content is opted out, but users can

Starting point is 00:09:46 choose to opt in. Creators can give all AI developers access to their content for training or select specific customers from an 18-name list, including Meta, Apple, and Amazon. YouTube said it can't determine whether the new toggle will lead to any retroactive enforcement for training that has already occurred. So while it's a step forward, don't expect peace between creators and AI developers anytime soon. YouTube says its new technology will soon be able to find AI copies of celebrities and creators. The company is partnering with the Creative Artists Agency to help creators identify and remove content featuring their AI replicas. This will start with celebrities and athletes expanding to top influencers next year. And finally, a few other interesting tidbits that didn't fit anywhere else.

Starting point is 00:10:39 So back to WordPress's sort of chaotic CEO, Matt Mullenweg. This week, he threatened to stop WordPress.org services like plugin and theme submissions. In an announcement detailing a holiday pause of those services, Mullenweg said, restarting the services after the holiday depends on if he can find the, quote, time, energy, and money, unquote, in 2025. And finally, finally, some metrics we want.

Starting point is 00:11:09 LinkedIn is now offering users a performance summary for its puzzle games, showing which games you've played the most, when you've played, and how you rank against other players. The platform says 80% of users return to the site daily. So those were the top digital marketing stories over the last five days. By the way, a big thank you to those of you who left some feedback about the changes that we have made to the show. I think it's running about 60% of people who like the new schedule of a deep dive episode on Tuesdays and a news wrap up on Fridays. 40% of you hated it. And I feel you. I don't like it either. But unfortunately,

Starting point is 00:11:52 between our agency workload and the state of the podcast ad market, that's where we are. But remember, we are still doing a daily report of the news in our space. You just have to sign up to our email newsletter, which is completely free. It is at todayindigital.com slash newsletter. The good news is that most of you, about 90%, liked the format of this Friday wrap-up.

Starting point is 00:12:14 So I'm glad. The winners of the three Amazon gift cards have been emailed, so check your spam folder. One of the winners, by the way, turned out to work at Meta, which was not a bribe, incidentally.

Starting point is 00:12:28 But, you know, if you could reverse the ad ban on our podcast page... I mean, you don't have to. I'm just saying. Forget I said anything. Next week, we are on holidays, so barring any breaking digital marketing news, you will hear from me next in two weeks for the Friday wrap-up show then. In the meantime, I will be playing Dragon Age Veilguard, so if you want to watch and hang out in the chat room while I live stream it, you can find me at twitch.tv slash loweffortdad. I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful holiday. Thanks for listening. We'll see you in the new year.

Today in Digital Marketing - You Won't Believe What Will Happen to Clickbait! 😱

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