No Twitter, That Was Not a Funny April Fools Joke

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

• Real-Time Ad Testing
• Facebook Bug Distributes Harmful Content
• Incident Affecting Google Ads
• Twitter’s New Ad Formats
• WordPress Proposal Backlash
• Vendasta (sponsored post)
• Microsoft Removed 3B Ads
• Instagram Upgrades DMs
• Snap Adds YouTube Sticker
• April Fools’ Day

Below is the transcription from this weeks topics

Real-Time Ad Testing

Images: Eye Square

What if there were a way to analyze the effectiveness of your ads in real-time to determine which types are most effective at driving conversions BEFORE launching your campaign?

Colgate was able to do just that with the launch of its new toothbrush, and they used a new tool from Eye Square called Ad2cart.

MarketingDive has a great case study up on it today.

Here’s how it works.

The tool displays ads across top platforms including Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and asks users to simulate a purchase based on the ad they saw, followed by a questionnaire to measure the effectiveness of the ad.

Images: Eye Square

The study said the real-time insights allowed Colgate to make adjustments to its campaign based on consumer data and how they were responding to the ads they saw online.

Images: Eye Square

EyeSquare says its Ad2cart testing platform gives advertisers:

• Complete control over the test environment
• The opportunity to experiment before roll-out
• Clear metrics with A/B testing on conversion / click through rates
• The ability to choose audiences based on their age, gender, habits, and more

Eye Square claims it is currently the only company offering the ability to test ads in the context of live e-commerce websites and social media platforms.

Facebook Bug Distributes Harmful Content

Since Meta's alleged smear campaign against TikTok was reported on two days ago, some news has emerged that karma might have been served.

The Verge says Facebook has been showing harmful content, including nudity, violence, and Russian propaganda to users over a period of six months. This is all according to internal documents obtained by The Verge.

The report says engineers discovered a "massive ranking failure" where instead of suppressing posts that it typically downranks, the News Feed was actually distributing them, spiking views by as much as 30%.

This, of course, is not great news for advertisers, as your ads may have been running alongside potentially harmful content since October.

Meta confirmed that the company detected inconsistencies, blaming it on a software bug and that it resolved the ranking issue on March 11th. The company says that the bug did not have “any meaningful, long-term impact on our metrics.”

Metrics, no. Reputation? That's another story.

Incident Affecting Google Ads

This might be your sign to quit working until Monday. If you are experiencing slow performance in the Google Ads console, it's not you... it's Google. 

The company has confirmed an issue where there is “higher than normal latency” during the ad review process for Responsive Search Ads (RSAs). Affected users are able to access Google Ads, but are seeing error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behaviour.

Google says this is impacting a “significant subset of users,” and it is working on resolving the issue.

Image: Google

Twitter’s New Ad Formats

Image: Twitter

Twitter really wants a piece of your ad budget. The platform this week announced it is testing three new interactive ad formats with select brands.

1. Interactive Text
2. Product Explorer, and
3. Collection Ads

Here's a look at what you can expect from the pilot.

First, Interactive Text Ads will appear with a larger, bolder typeface than the standard font in the timeline.

• Advertisers can highlight up to three words in their copy that, when clicked, will drive consumers to the brand’s landing page.
• Brands can also choose from 10 different highlight colours.

Image: Twitter

Second, Product Explorer Ads will allow advertisers to showcase their products in 3D.

• Consumers will be able to swipe and rotate a brand’s products to see them from different angles.
• Consumers can click directly on the ad’s Shop button and go to the website.

Image: Twitter

And finally, with Collection Ads, brands can display a primary hero image with up to five smaller thumbnail visuals below.

• Each of the images displayed can drive consumers to a different website or product landing page.

Image: Twitter

The three ad formats will be visible to people in the U.S. on the Web, as well as on iOS, and Android devices.

While we're on the topic of Twitter, can I just extend a giant middle finger in their direction today on behalf of all social media content managers?

Twitter today tweeted the following: "We are working on an edit button."

Just as a reminder, this is April Fools Day.

Don't play with my emotions like that, Twitter.

WordPress Proposal Backlash

As part of a proposal for the upcoming WordPress 6.0, scheduled for release next month, all uploaded images would be automatically converted to WebP format by default.

With WebP, images are displayed at a much smaller file size, meaning that many web pages will download faster, which could lead to a better user experience.

Sounds good, right? Well, the WordPress developer community has responded negatively to the proposal as it could cause a massive increase in disk space usage of up to 70%.

Why? Because to maximize compatibility, Wordpress would keep backups of the older, larger image files, just in case they're needed.

WordPress said that those who don't like the new feature can turn it off with a few lines of code. However, that's not something a WordPress beginner can easily do.

To make matters more difficult, the platform does not plan to provide an on/off switch because they don't want users to be overwhelmed with choices.

Quoting the company:

The vast majority of users will benefit from this feature and do not need to understand or need to make a choice about the technical details of turning specific image formats on or off.

Microsoft Removed 3B Ads

Earlier, I mentioned a giant bug at Meta spreading harmful content — now, to another platform's efforts to remove bad ads.

Microsoft this week announced it removed more than 3 billion bad ads last year, almost doubling the amount it took down in 2020.

What contributed to the growth of takedowns?

• Advancements in machine learning
• Multilingual models, and
• Human moderation

However, Microsoft reported ongoing and rising threats, including fake celebrity-endorsed ads and more sophisticated account takeover attempts.

The company also suspended more than 270,000 accounts, and 400,000 web sites were banned from its network.

Instagram Upgrades DMs

Images: Instagram

More consumers might be sliding into your brand's DMs. Instagram has announced seven new messaging features on the platform.

Here's a look at the changes coming to your inbox.

Reply while browsing: This will allow users to reply to new messages while browsing their Feed, without having to go to the inbox and lose their place.

Quick sending: Users can now tap and hold the share button to quickly reshare posts.

Status: At the top of the inbox, users can see who's available to chat, similar to Messenger.

Silent messages: Users can opt to send messages without bothering the recipient.

The update also includes a new chat theme option, and the ability to share music, as well as create polls within chat.

Snap Adds YouTube Sticker

Snapchat has added a new way for your brand to drive traffic to its YouTube videos through the platform.

Snapchat announced a new sharing option, which allows users to share YouTube videos directly from the Snap camera.

The feature is similar to sharing videos on other platforms.

Here's how it works.

1. Open the YouTube app and select a video to watch
2. Tap "Share," and then tap the "Snapchat" icon
3. From there, create a Snap with the automated YouTube sticker

When someone receives the snap, all they need to do is tap the YouTube Sticker to view the video.

April Fools’ Day

Following two years of avoiding April Fool's Day amid a global pandemic, today… marketers woke up and chose chaos.

Here are some notable examples.

• Tormented by the Duolingo Owl? You may be entitled to compensation.

The language web site released a video that mimicked a late-night TV lawyer commercial, in which a lawsuit against the company's owl allegedly won them $900k.

• New U by Kotox Chocolate pads

Image: Kotex

The brand released images of a horrifying new product, pads made from dark chocolate... with raspberry filling.

• Ipsy gives your pet "the glow-up they deserve"

Image: Ipsy

The beauty subscription box company promoted magnetic lashes for your furry friend. Not going to lie... I kind of want these for my cat.

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