It’s Friday, Digital Darlings. We made it
Time for a social media drama-palooza. I hinted at this last week, and now I’m just gonna say it… I’m tired of talking about Google. So imagine my delight when I saw all the drama happening with Meta, TikTok, and Reddit this week! Let’s get into it.
TikTok is fighting for its life in court
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that TikTok is currently fighting a potential nationwide ban in the US. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall in that courtroom… apparently, the girls were fighting for over two hours on Monday - on one side, TikTok’s team and a group of loyal content creators. On the other, the US government. The critical question is, who controls their precious algorithm - the US-based company that runs the app or its Chinese parent company, Bytedance? Since there is no historical precedent for a case like this, the US judges are struggling a bit to prove TikTok guilty. But all-in-all, things aren’t looking good for TikTok. They keep arguing that Congress lacks the authority to ban them (Weird take… if not Congress, who?) and that TikTok is being unfairly singled out. Since both those arguments are fairly weak, I fear we may live to see a TikTok ban after all. But, don’t worry, because…
Bytedance’s other app, Lemon8, is quickly gaining popularity
The new app is a mix of TikTok and Pinterest or “Pinterest on steroids,” as one influencer aptly coined it. Bytedance has been promoting the platform more and more recently, and it seems like their backup plan following a TikTok ban - influencers will just send all their followers to Lemon8. The good news for us advertisers is that the new app already has a paid advertising platform. So if you’re seeing success with TikTok ads, don’t worry. There’s another TikTok in the works if the first one gets banned.
X says they’re still bigger than Pinterest and Reddit
As part of ongoing efforts to court advertisers, X recently sent out an email blast where they claimed to have 570 million monetizable active users, up from 550 million in May. Now, these numbers are self-reported, and to quote Digiday, “the origin of this growth is still shrouded in mystery,” since, culturally, it seems people are shying away from X. They also self-reported 251 million daily active users, which is pretty huge if true. So maybe it’s not time to scale down spend on X just yet. That said, to quote Josh Rosen, “There is no data to demonstrate X users are more likely to engage with ads more often compared to Meta and TikTok, where this has been proven over and over.” So proceed with caution and do conclusive testing to make sure the channel is truly driving incremental revenue for your business. Speaking of Meta…
Will new Meta Ad formats and tools help drive holiday sales?
The first new feature enables advertisers to highlight promo codes in their ads, and they are currently testing highlights for first purchase offers and personalized discounts, too. Now, your promo codes will be displayed right above your CTA.
Another cool new feature is that Reminder Ads, which notify users of upcoming events or sales, can now ‘remind’ people more frequently, and drive clickers to your mobile app if desired. This will help get users more excited than ever about upcoming sales and product launches.
They’ve also added site links to Facebook Ads, so you can now feature links to several different landing pages within one ad. Then, users can choose to browse the product category that piques their interest most.
And, last but not least, they’re testing shop in-store ads that offer links to Apple Maps directions to the store nearest them. These ads will be shown to users that Meta’s algorithm believes are most likely to shop in-store. If you want to drive in-store traffic, this seems like a great ad format for the holiday season. And in my last bit of social (is Reddit really social?) news…
Reddit shared their golden rules for B2B Ads
Reddit hosted an event just for us B2B marketers last week, and they shared some pretty great insights. If you missed it, here’s a recap. Check it out to understand the best Reddit ad formats for B2B, tips for authentically engaging in the Reddit community, and their four golden rules for advertising on the platform.
All this social drama has been fun, but I’m sure you’re wondering what G’s been up to this week. Back to our regularly scheduled Google tea party…
DOJ says Google knew advertiser exclusivity was the key to dominance
We all know Google’s second antitrust trial started last week, and it’s not going well for them so far. Internal documents revealed that employees expressed concern that if Google’s ad exchange (AdX) lost exclusivity to advertisers, “many publishers would terminate their AdX relationship in favor of their preferred vendors.” Google employees even admitted that its advertising tools were weaker because they were exclusive to AdX. It’s giving monopoly! You can read the juicy details here. There’s no way to know yet what this could mean for us advertisers, but I’ll keep you in the loop. In other Google Ad news…
First position bidding is now available for YouTube ads
Want to make sure your ad is the first thing people see when they start their YouTube binge? Now you can! With this new bidding strategy, you can reach users when they are most engaged with the platform. Studies show that running ads on YouTube first position bidding ahead of big brand events like sales or product launches can significantly bolster brand recognition. I’m sure it’s expensive, but if you’ve got the money, this placement seems worth it. To use this bidding type, you have to book an Instant Reserve deal. Here’s how. And for our last sip of Google tea…
Negative keyword exclusions are finally coming to PMax
Google announced that they’ll launch campaign-level negative keywords for PMax campaigns later this year. Finally! Up until now, we’ve had to either fill out a form or contact our Google Rep to apply negatives to these campaigns. This will give advertisers the power to refine the queries their PMax ads serve for. There’s no set date, but they said they’ll begin rolling out this feature before the end of the year. And lastly, let’s talk about Amazon…
Prime Day 2.0 is happening October 8th and 9th
They’re calling the event ‘Prime Big Deal Days’, and it’ll be here before you know it, so retail marketers - it’s time to lock in. Check out our Prep Guide to make sure all your bases are covered before the big day.
And that’s it for this week’s tea time, darlings, until next week; stay cool and collected as you prep your holiday campaigns. Black Friday will be here before you know it, and so will next Friday, so don’t miss me too much.
You know you love me.
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