Full Transcription
[Introduction] – 00:00
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Episode 63 of This Week In Marketing Show. Today is also the Independence Day here in America. So happy birthday, America. I will be now going over the notable news and updates in the digital marketing space from the week of June 28 through July 3rd, 2021.
[Update 1 – Facebook Releases Bulletin – A Platform for Independent Writers] – 00:46
So today we’re gonna First off start off with an announcement from Facebook where they’re basically rolled out or launched, released a new product called Bulletin. Show Bulletin is a basically a newsletter platform. It’s a fusion between sub stack, Facebook and clubhouse. If you’re not familiar with substance, I would say something like medium where you can have paid subscriber, private subscriber or just just a platform where you can create newsletters and basically email it to your clients and things like that. So Facebook is getting into that game of newsletters. And what they’re saying is a platform for independent writers, and they’re going to basically end wise. It’s a fusion because they’re gonna allow some. You can schedule some, you know, events on bullet in as well as you know audio only features things like that to connect with the community. So then it’s taking a little bit of everything and putting it together. And I do not know about you, but to me it feels like face bullet. Facebook is becoming like a Walmart, right? Everything under the if you walk into Walmart, you find everything under the, you know, everything that you need in there is just Facebook is becoming like a hodgepodge of all these things. And they’re like, you know what, why leave out? This feature or someone else is making money from the list at that feature and then let’s put it in privet into a product. I mean, they’re pretty good at thinking of, you know, TikTok is coming. So we’re gonna do our shrills. You know someone is doing like a photo only sharing up. Let’s go build it. So they’re doing all these things just to keep keep people engaged. We’ll see how that turns out. While talking about that, the other point I want to add is like you know, there has not been any formal announcements and if there has, I probably have missed it. But I sure don’t did not see it is that
[Update 2 – ICYMI: Facebook Is Now Embedding Reels In News Feed] – 02:28
Facebook has started to embed in reels from my friends in my newsfeed. So reels on the app used to be up there. You know there with like saying watch reels and just you have to click on it. Yeah, separately and go watch reels. And I wasn’t doing a whole lot of that. And I think, you know, Facebook’s realizing is there is this fatigue where people don’t wanna just go cereals, cousin reels, while they tend to be entertaining, they they don’t carry the same value as I would say things on the news feed specially. You know, some reels. You wanna read a little longer and it just goes away. You have to click back and come back. But anyway, yeah, it started to show up on my news feed and I think it’s just a matter of time before I, you know, train my brain to say, you know what, these are real. Steal them are. But for now, every time I see it, I stop in my tracks on the news feed. And then I see it. I was like, oh, this is really just go past. But OK.
[Update 3 – Facebook Filing Lawsuits Against Deceptive Advertising] – 03:30
Another thing that came out of Facebook this week is that they have basically sued two people, one in Vietnam and one in California, one the people in California for deceptive advertising. And what did they do? Well, apparently, according to Facebook is like, you know, they ran ads, people shoulders adds other product they went to. Third party website for purchase and once the purchase was completed, they did not either send the product or they send substandard product well I will tell you what what was happening from my point of view one was probably they were doing drop shipping right or they were doing affiliate program. I do not know. I don’t know these people but I’m just telling you what I think happened and then Facebook is like you know the user and they’re also saying you know that. Users complain they give them negative reviews so and they deleted their negative reviews and something like that and they like it. So Facebook is just swing it. So basically Mr Zuckerberg is gonna be the World Cup top cop, right? With two plus billion users, high $100. Know how they’re going to manage this even. The thing that basically they they’re taking too much things on their hand. You know, I do not know what in their heart they’re doing it. The other one, the company in Vietnam, they basically mislead users to compromise their accounts. And they ran over $36 million in unauthorized. That’s not. That’s a real case, right. I agree with that. But the other one. Let the credit card companies handle it. Why are you becoming like, you know, getting into this whole thing of being the cop and, you know, trying to sue people and have you? How many lawsuits are you gonna file? Right. Are you in the business of hiring lawsuits? You’re in the business of. Connecting users, connecting people, building communities and things like that. So I mean, I understand it’s just gonna be like, you know, creating a bad reputation for your platform. But your platform already has bad reputation. Do you know why? Because you banned account for unnecessary reasons and you don’t do this ’cause you never really clearly laid out. The rules of the game, you have your own rules are very shady and dodgy. Great. That’s why it is. Anyways, let’s move on the next update is from Google and this is just a public service announcement.
[Update 4 – PSA: Google Broad Match Modifier Is Going Away This Month] – 05:41
Broad match modified in Google ads is gonna go away in. July, actually this month I had to think for a second, and this was something announced back in February. We covered deeply in our show the good, the bad and ugly about this. If you haven’t. If you’re not familiar with broad match modifier, please do go back and listen to the show from February, where I kind of dived a dove deep into what a broad match. Modify it is and why Google is doing it, but in any case it’s going away, it’s going away. It’s basically from broad match modifying Google ads. It’s gonna become phrase match. So there you go.
[Update 5 – Non-skippable In-stream Ads Can Now Be In YouTube Ad Pods] – 06:23
The other thing that’s coming out from Google family are out say YouTube is that You Tube is not basically adding non skippable in stream ads. In YouTube add bots the water add bots. Add bots are basically two ads served back-to-back, and they typically serve to viewer viewers who watch longer form of content to reduce interruptions to their viewing experience. So for example, if you’re watching a movie one hour whatever show on YouTube they’re gonna show you two ad pods or they’re gonna show you two ads show up to back-to-back and that’s called an ad pod so that they don’t I have to show you add in between you, whatever you’re watching. ’cause, that’s gonna pissing you off more. Right. I guess it was pissing off people more. So now in add pause. What they’re saying is, you know, previously you couldn’t have non skippable instruments and non skippable in stream ads. And those ads that you cannot skip, you have to watch the six seconds. Right. Or you have to watch the 10 seconds we will be saying it’s part of ad pods now off. You know they want to connect. Prizes to future customers. So they’re doing it in a way. It’s good. It’s bad for people who don’t like to see us. But folks, if you don’t like to see us, go ahead and get YouTube Premium, you’ll be glad you did. I have YouTube premium, and I will tell you it’s game changer. Next up Pinterest.
[Update 6 – Updated Pinterest Ad Policy Bans Weight Loss Imagery & Language] – 07:41
Pinterest updated their ad policy and not banning anything with related to? Weight loss images or language in their ads, right? Right. They’re saying, you know, there’s a lot of shame around it, and they don’t want to promote bad stuff like, you know, tell people feel, make people feel ashamed of their body and they don’t wanna like, you know, have people go for like, you know, weight loss or appetite suppressant pills or surgery, things like that. So they’re going to basically ban out. All those things, and they’re just saying, you know, we don’t want any utilities, any languages and things like that. Just you, of course we will allow, you know, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, things like that, how interest is gonna enforce it. I have no idea. Right. All I will tell you is this big. Platforms. They have taken it over themselves over the social responsibility of saying, you know what? We are going to police communities online when? You know, these things happen to offline, right? Imagine what would happen if you and I are talking and I’m talking about I’m body shaming. You know that. But if I was body shaming you and a police comes by and like you know. Takes you away. It’s like those days, you know, back in the day, you know, when I was growing up, I was growing up in a in a country where, you know, before I came to America was in a autocratic country where she taught, if you, if you say anything against the government and if someone the shadow police would hear about it and they will come yank you and put you into jail. Right. And they would With a very, you know, dodgy, you know, legal process. It feels like that’s what’s happening with all these platforms. They’re like, you know, trying to say, oh, we don’t want, you know, body shaming. We don’t want all these things. We don’t want fat burning. We don’t want images weaker. How much of that can you censor? Right when you have, let’s say 100 people, 200 people. And I’m not saying that’s legal, it’s OK for you to Polish him. Someone. I’m not saying that, but basically I’m saying is are you getting into a game of cat and mouse where you are going to constantly evolve? And is there a game worth fighting for is I do not know, I would say. I would rather focus on other things and educate people to boost morale, self-esteem, things like that, because you know what people will figure out things, OK? They’re not gonna use this language. They’re gonna use another language. I’ve seen that with COVID, right? They people right COVID with anti COVID messages with other, you know. Variance of C0V1D I’m just for example or C@V1D. How much of your machine language can catch up OK. Next up is updates from Shopify Unite.
[Update 7 – Updates from Shopify Unite: Shopify App Developers Get A Break] – 10:28
Shopify unite is there, you know flagship event just like all this big company does. One thing that really came out of Shopify Unite is this announcement and that’s why I’m bringing it up. It’s like they’re saying you know if you are a Shopify app developer not an App Store like if you’re not a store owner that’s a different thing. But if you’re an app developer who is developing shop. Or a Shopify store, right? If you’re creating a third party, add on or third party module or probably a theme for Shopify. They’re not gonna charge or revenue cut or a Commission on your first million dollars, and that resets every year, right? So if you make $1,000,000 in revenue this year. Great. Come next January 2022, it’s gonna reset you again. Have a $1,000,000 quota and anything more than a million you pay a 15% revenue share, which is lower than 20% that previously why this is big and word Shopify is going to expand its like now they’re gonna have more developers interested in building app ’cause. Now they realize they don’t have to give out the 15%. Doing it right, that’s a lot of money, about $150,000. So they can take that money and grow and Shopify is becoming pro small businesses and this is gonna just basically Shopify, it’s gonna become a bigger e-commerce platform. That’s all I’m going to say about it. The other things that came out of this event, please check it out if you are interested in Shopify. Arena. They have new teams, they have new layouts, faster checkouts, things like that by Shopify. It’s making basically making big moves and recently in a couple of weeks back, we covered how Shopify partnered with Google. So All in all this is going great.
[Update 8 – Here Are Some Changes That YouTube is Making for Creators] – 12:10
OK. The other thing that You Tube is doing and they should have actually been. Together with the other YouTube update is that creators and viewers have often complained that our channel mentions in video descriptions, and if they do it, and then when people are watching on it and they would click on it and they would go to the other channel and they would move away. So for example sample how this works is like say all our dream show we mentioned say Shopify and we put the link now as you’re watching our video you’re going to click on the shopping for some people are like as they’re watching the click on description they say there’s a shop even let me click on it and they click on it they move over to that Channel or that page and. Walla. You stopped watching my video. YouTube recognized that, and YouTube is saying you know what we’re we’re going to change that from now on. If you’re in a video and if you’re clicking on a link, then the video will still continue to play like it’s just gonna happen. I’m very seamless experience. So that way, you know, you don’t interrupt the video. And I think that’s great ’cause. It just happened to me that I found something that I like. And then I click on it and then as soon as it opens up a new browser window within YouTube and I stopped. So I didn’t like it. But that’s good that you know You Tube is thinking like that from Google, again.
[Update 9 – Redirects and Google Search] – 13:22
The other thing is Google has announced the redirect, not announce. Google has released an updated redirect policy. This is great for people who are in the SEO game, if you will a website, SCO and you have moved things around in your website. You should check this guy out. This is important because it kind of gives you an idea of how Google handles redirects, whether you’re moving domains or you have you have documents say about Dash us, a link called about dash us now that. Changes to why us that change? That’s a redirect. Some people have saved. You wanna signal? So this is a good document if you have. If you are looking for an SUV expert, you could ask them some questions on this. This is a good way. This is something you should know. And now I I personally feel like you know, it doesn’t matter what you do where you are. Every business should have a. Website Just how every business should have an email address. So this is important folks. I’m covering covering it. OK. And then the other update?
[Update 10 – TikTok Announces Longer Videos] – 14:26
Getting to the close to last 2 updates is that thing is number one is TikTok announced that TikToks used to 60 seconds at the whole world. Copied in TikTok came out and they said you know what folks giving allow up to three minutes of TikToks now we saw people can really do things amazing things within one minute and sometimes they would have longer video and they will say OK. What’s the second one? Second one is up was the third one thing to be second, we’re gonna expand, and we’re gonna experiment and see what happens and see what kind of creativity comes out of it. So TikTok. Analysis Three minute TikToks are coming to everyone. They’re gonna roll it out slowly. OK, then next update. And the last update of this week is Instagram.
[Update 11 – Instagram Is No Longer A Photo Sharing App] – 15:05
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announce that Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app platform. They are going to basically become the four things which I’m gonna mention. Number one is. Are they gonna allow people creators to figure out how to make money out of this platform? Second, their priority is going to be video. Third is gonna be Instagram is planning to expand on shopping, and the 4th is going to be Instagram is to plan its plans to build out their messaging. Number one. Yes, I know we have covered this in our plan show. If you’ve been listening that. Instagram has been pushing creators to make money on the platform. I think it was like two or three weeks ago that we covered that video platform. I’m not sure. Sure even I was on clubhouse the other day actually on Friday and people were talking about this just two days ago, right today, Sunday. I’m recording it on July 4th. People were saying, you know what? We went to Instagram because we didn’t want video. We went to Instagram because we want something less engaging and so I’m not sure Instagram and Facebook is becoming like a me two platform like, you know, they’re copying each other. But Instagram is not realizing like, you know why people even came to it for the first place. But hey, he’s the head of platform. I’m sure he works with Mark Zuckerberg. That’s what Mark Zuckerberg wanted. And doing it let them do it. They probably know something that we do not know. But I am only talking it from my end. I don’t go to TikTok because TikTok is time consuming. I rather stay with Instagram the way it has been but anyway. In theory, insert and plastic spanner shopping. Yes, we know that we covered it and I kind of saw this coming. Hey, if you have been following my show, you know this was coming. If you’ve been following my show, I’ve covered it again and again that I know this was happening. It just like they came and announced it on June last end of last week on June. Whereas I’ve been talking about it for the last whole year like this is the direction they’re going. So it gives me validated that you know I was right on. A point I kind of analyzed it, I kind of saw it coming forth. The plan to become some messaging. Well, good luck to them. There are plenty of choices, but I do not know why I want to have Instagram as my messaging choice. But there’s a lot of people use DMS over comments, absolutely ’cause. I don’t want you to see the world to see what I’m writing to you, my friends platform. Instagram feed. Just because there are a lot of hate, a lot of haters, a lot of crap people out there. So sometimes conversations are private, so of course, yeah, I’m glad that they start to expand, but I’d rather use one to one channels than other channels than Instagram. But anyways, that’s about me. That’s it.
[Closing] – 17:46
That’s about me. That’s it for this week in marketing. Now you know everything that you need to know if you’d like to read more, or you want to click on any of these links, please make sure you visit our show page where you will find the links to these articles. Once again, this is your host Sajid Islam signing off until next week. Take care. Bye-bye.
Thank you for tuning in this week. It was a pleasure to serve you all. Hit the subscribe button so that you remember to sign on next week. Same place, same time for another round of This Week In Marketing.
1. Facebook Releases Bulletin – A Platform for Independent Writers (0:46) – Bulletin is a fusion of substack, Facebook, and clubhouse. As of now, Facebook has made the platform available only in the US, moreover, only people with a big audience on Facebook will be able to start a meeting on ‘Bulletin’. Facebook says that this is also an initiative towards making audiences feel more connected to creators and give creators space where they can communicate with their viewers. Bulletin has a lot of features that are similar to its competitors like Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse, one of which is scheduled rooms, which allows creators to allot a certain time they go live and notify the audience prior to it.
To see the full list of writers and their articles visit fyi.bulletin.com.
2. ICYMI: Facebook Is Now Embedding Reels In News Feed (2:28) – While there are no formal announcements, Facebook has started to embed Reels from my friends in my newsfeed. For now, it seems to be working. As I scroll through the newsfeed, I’m stopping right in my tracks. It’s just a matter of time before I train my brain to tune out and keep going.
3. Facebook Filing Lawsuits Against Deceptive Advertising (3:30) – Facebook Inc on Tuesday sued a California marketing company and its representatives as well as a Vietnam-based group of individuals in separate lawsuits for running deceptive and unauthorized advertisements on its platform. The social media giant said the defendants ran misleading ads that promoted the sale of merchandise including clothing, watches, and toys. As soon as someone clicked on the ads, they were directed to a third-party website to pay for their purchase.
But once the payment was completed, users either never got any merchandise or the delivered item was not what they ordered for or it was of poor quality, Facebook said.
The company also sued a group of individuals based in Vietnam who it said “misled the victims into self-compromising their accounts” and ran over $36 million in unauthorized ads.
Can I sing “Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do when Facebook comes for you?”
4. PSA: Google Broad Match Modifier Is Going Away This Month (5:41) – This is just a quick reminder that Broad Match Modifier (BMM) will be going away in July 2021. We covered this topic in detail (including our own analysis) back in Feb 2021 after Google announced that they plan to sunset to BMM.
5. Non-skippable In-stream Ads Can Now Be In YouTube Ad Pods (6:23) – Ad pods – Two ads served back-to-back. Ad pods are typically served to viewers who watch longer-form content to reduce interruptions to their viewing experience. Now ad pods will be eligible to serve non-skippable in-stream ads in addition to skippable in-stream ads and bumpers.
6. Updated Pinterest Ad Policy Bans Weight Loss Imagery & Language (7:41) – As explained by Pinterest: “As our community of Pinners grows, so do searches for topics like healthy eating, healthy lifestyle and fitness tips. We’ll continue providing useful and relevant content for those searching for it while prohibiting content that displays, rationalizes, or encourages eating disorders and other types of self-injury. For example, whenever Pinners search for keywords related to eating disorders, we block search results and direct them to expert organizations, like NEDA, so they can find additional resources. Pinterest also offers a variety of emotional well-being activities developed by emotional health experts, accessible directly within our mobile app and website. Pinners can simply search for “#pinterestwellbeing” to explore gratitude and self-compassion exercises, along with other interactive practices that can help improve their mood.“
Pinterest had already banned ads that featured any of the following: Weight loss or appetite suppressant pills, supplements, or other products; Before-and-after weight-loss imagery; Weight loss procedures like liposuction or fat burning; Body shaming, such as imagery or language that mocks or discredits certain body types or appearances; and Claims regarding unrealistic cosmetic results
The new policy, prohibiting all weight loss related ads now also includes: Any weight loss language or imagery; Any testimonials regarding weight loss or weight loss products; Any language or imagery that idealizes or denigrates certain body types; Referencing Body Mass Index (BMI) or similar indexes; and Any products that claim weight loss through something worn or applied to the skin Pinterest adds that ads promoting healthy lifestyles and habits, like fitness products and services, will still be allowed as long as they don’t promote weight loss.
7. Updates from Shopify Unite: Shopify App Developers Get A Break (10:28) – Shopify wrote: “As of August 1, 2021, we’re offering zero percent revenue share on the first million dollars you make annually on the Shopify App Store.” That’s right—if you make less than $1 million USD per year in the Shopify App Store, you can register to no longer pay revenue share. And every year, those numbers reset. When you earn more than $1 million USD, you’ll pay a 15 percent revenue share, which is lower than the previous 20 percent revenue share. Shopify will also be introducing a one-time registration fee for all developers who sign up after August 1, which will be paid when the developers submit their first app to be reviewed. All the more reason to sign up and start building your app today!
Full announcement here: https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/shopify-unite-announcements-2021
8. Here Are Some Changes That YouTube is Making for Creators (12:10) – Creators and viewers alike often complain about channel mentions in video descriptions, with the primary complaint here being that tapping or clicking on the mention navigates you away from the video that is currently being watched. This hurts creator viewership and also makes it difficult for users to have a consistent experience as well, so in order to address these concerns interacting with a channel mention will now open a card while the video continues to play in the background. This is being done in the hopes that it will create a more seamless experience and improve viewer stats for creators to boot so it is a win-win for all concerned parties.
9. Redirects and Google Search (13:22) – Redirecting URLs is the practice of resolving an existing URL to a different one, effectively telling your visitors and Google Search that a page has a new location. Now, Google has “significantly expanded” the help guide it has for how Google Search handles various forms of redirects. The redirects and Google Search help document used to be a few paragraphs long, but now it goes into much greater detail.
You can find the guide here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/301-redirects
10. TikTok Announces Longer Videos (14:26) – TikTok announced that users will be able to edit, film, and upload videos of up to three minutes in length
11. Instagram Is No Longer A Photo Sharing App (15:05) – Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, shares plans to expand the app into more areas than just photo sharing, such as video and shopping. The company’s first priority is creators and helping them earn a living with new monetization features. Mosseri recognizes there’s been a shift in power from institutions to individuals across industries, and he wants to move Instagram in that direction. Second in priority is video, which is seeing an immense amount of growth online on all major platforms right now. Mosseri says Instagram needs to lean into video more, and later explains how he plans to do that. A third area Instagram plans to expand on is shopping. The pandemic accelerated the shift of commerce from offline to online, moving the industry ahead by a number of years. Instagram is trying to capitalize on that trend. The fourth area Instagram plans to build out its messaging, which Mosseri says has become the primary way people connect with their close friends on the app. Over the past five years, communication has shifted away from feed posts and stories and moved toward DMs.
