How Facebook's Ad Review Process Actually Works

Today In Digital Marketing is a daily podcast showcasing the latest in marketing trends and updates. This week, Tod touches on:

• How Facebook's Ad Review Process Actually Works
• How TikTok Does Brand Safety
• How to Use the Be.Live Platform with No Monthly Fees
• Snapchat Brand Profiles Are Here (Almost)
• Is Google Giving Up on AMP?
• Twitter Spaces Can Be Scheduled Now

Below is the transcription from this weeks topics

How Facebook's Ad Review Process Actually Works

I think it's fair to say that Facebook's had a bumpy ride with digital marketers. Our ad campaigns get denied for seemingly no reason, and there's never really been transparency about how their review process works. Do I get one appeal? Is a human reading that or a bot? How many campaigns are denied by AI?

Today, Facebook finally did something we've all been asking for for years — they've detailed exactly how their Ad Campaign Review process works.

How TikTok Does Brand Safety

So that's how Facebook ensures it's protected, but how do you ensure your brand is protected?

That's the role of Brand Safety inside these platforms. Often, like in the case of YouTube, they hand-pick some advertiser friendly channels and content, and if your brand is a little gunshy, you can run ads alongside that smaller but vetted collection of videos.

TikTok has a similar thing, and today we learned a bit more about how it works. Turns out, they outsource this to a company called OpenSlate.

OpenSlate puts thousands of TikTok videos in front of human reviewers — people who work for the company. Those people then give each video a thumbs up or thumbs down, in terms of brand suitability.

Then, only those videos which have been given the greenlight are placed before and after your TikTok ad, thus ensuring that the content near your ad isn't sensational or offensive.

How to Use the Be.Live Platform with No Monthly Fees

One of the most popular livestreaming tools used by digital marketers today has a surprisingly good deal on right now.

Be.Live — which everybody I know who livestreams uses — now has a limited-time lifetime deal available.

Be.Live lets you livestream to Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn all at the same time. You can have up to four guests on. Unlimited viewers. Unlimited number of livestream events. Full brand customization.

Anyway, usually they charge between $40 and $60 a month, and you pay that whether you use it that month or not.

This week, though, they've created a one-time payment option of $60. Like literally you pay that once, then use it forever. You never pay a monthly fee. It comes with a 60-day no-questions-asked refund policy.

Snapchat Brand Profiles Are Here (Almost)

Digital marketers are indeed jumping deeply into the vertical video format — but it's not just TikTok. The granddaddy — Snapchat — is more than holding its own.

This week, finally announcing the rollout of Brand Profiles. They're calling them "Public Profiles for Businesses." There are like Pages on Facebook, or Company Pages on LinkedIn — an account that's more reflective of its status as a company. That includes some e-commerce blocks like a product catalog.

These actually first launched last summer, but it was only in beta and only to a small handful of selected test accounts. Snapchat says you'll be able to use their management tools through the Snapchat Business Manager, and they plan to give a discoverability lift to these account types.

Is Google Giving Up on AMP?

Here's one of those stories that seems at first like a small technical thing, but may in fact have broader ramifications.

First, the technical thing: Google says it will no longer require sites that publish news stories to have their pages available in AMP format in order to appear in Google's Top Stories section.

AMP — that's Accelerated Mobile Pages. Those are the mobile-only, very light-weight web pages that preload, so when you tap them they're nearly instantly on screen. Facebook uses something similar they call the Instant Experience.

In the past, Google would only put your news story in that highly trafficked part of search results if that story came in AMP format. But once the new Page Experience Update rolls out to Google Search in about a month, that won't be a requirement.

So what does this mean more broadly? Is it possible Google is giving up on the format? Maybe they think they've pushed enough of the web to be mobile-friendly that they feel they don't need it? We just don't know yet.

Twitter Spaces Can Be Scheduled Now

Twitter keeps building out its Clubhouse clone, which it calls Spaces — now, users can schedule a Space in advance.

Hosts will get two reminders of their scheduled event - one 30 minutes before it starts, then a final one at start-time. Users can get reminders of upcoming Spaces they're interested in — there'll be a new 'Set Reminder' button on the Space's card. But as solid as Spaces is, it's still missing one huge chunk.

Incidentally, Clubhouse downloads ticked up a tiny bit this week, probably owing to the availability of Android devices, but the trajectory still points downward, and many industry analysts are putting that app on deathwatch.

Credit to Tod Maffin and the Today In Digital Marketing podcast, Produced by engageQ.com.