Full Transcription

[Introduction] – 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to episode 78 of the twin show. This is your host, Sajid Islam, and today I’ll be going over the notable news and updates in the digital marketing space, from the week of October 11, 2021.

 

[Update1/Facebook Updates Measurement Process for Ads Reach] – 0:14

So First off today we have announcements from, announcement from Facebook where basically they are updating the measurement process for ads reach. Like if you remember in the past episode, I think it was last episode. The episode prior to that where we talked about how Facebook is basically no longer give you the exact reach, but they’re gonna give you a range because of the way they’re doing things. Obviously, you know there’s a lot of issues around it, but what Facebook basically saying this week is that what they’re going to do is in the past they would take a user, say for example myself. Sajid, I have a Facebook account as an Instagram account, right? And. Unless I connected these two accounts together from the account center, and merge them as one Facebook would basically count them as two separate… It would just. Basically, unless I merge them together as count and Facebook will count it as one. And that’s the go-forward process. And if I don’t merge them together, Facebook counts them as two separate accounts even though the underlying I have my same email address for both these accounts. OK, so that’s the main change that Facebook is coming out and this week and saying how they’re going to measure the ad reach. What this will do is it will. Hopefully, it will of course show you you know bigger reach than you would otherwise see if Facebook is to count, you know these are the same user users ’cause obviously, they have the same underlying email address. Now keep in mind, a lot of people have accounts and they don’t necessarily go back into Facebook account center and merge these two. Just for whatever reason, right? Because they’re busy, they don’t care about it, they’re just consumer things like that. So it’s up to you to figure out how you’re going to use this, but I just wanted to kind of bring it up and say what Facebook is doing going forward.

[Update2/ Instagram Now Supports Live Scheduling for Instagram Live Videos – 2:15

With that. Let’s talk about Instagram. While we’re on this topic. Instagram now supports live scheduling for Instagram live videos. Yeah, finally an update from Instagram that I can really support and be excited about. Why, well, you know I always wanted ’cause you know to schedule events, live events on Instagram because you know what, Youtube allows that, and I think I do not know if  Facebook allows that. I think Facebook allows that as well. It’s just that you know. Sometimes I could go live and talk about a very important topic, but people who are my followers, they not necessarily be around with this option. Obviously, you know what’s going to happen, right? You can really schedule things now. Look at the potential like Facebook. Instagram is pushing into becoming an eCommerce app. So what that basically means is that the small businesses and brands can actually schedule a live and do product demo, especially because Instagram is pushing live shopping now, there was an update around live shopping, but it wasn’t really big for small businesses. It was about how Instagram is going to live shopping Fridays. Starting November 5th for the rest of this holiday season, but look at the possibilities of what brands can do, and obviously, we know live shopping is big in China. I read a McKenzie report on that so it helps. OK

[Update3/Facebook Audio Rooms Now Available to Public Figures Globally & More – 3:42

With that, let’s move on to the next part, which is Facebook audio rooms are now available to only public figures. Basically, you must have a verified Facebook accounts. Then you can have a Facebook public room and you know the announcement goes on. Like you know how they’re going to basically separate out the audio room there is going to be. Let me see. There’s going to be have a different option to a dedicated space within the watch tab to see the audio options. Things like that. Like it’s basically Facebook is taking a stab at Cloudhouse and seeing if they can bring some of those users, but that they have lost to Clubhouse back into Facebook, especially if they’re going to start with, you know, big accounts and right now I think when I read somewhere that they can, that Clubhouse is about 700,000 daily rooms being created and being talked on, so this might be in a way Facebook things good hey. Let’s give it to people who have the blue checkmark and they are quote on quote according to Facebook, look oh, they would like influencers and power users. Let’s give it to them and their followers are going to come in and use that. And you know them, and without this option, they’re probably going into Clubhouse and talking into it, which is great, but if you ask me, I would basically tell Facebook, Facebook, why would you want to go create an audio like a MeToo kind of app. Why not just create allow the Facebook live room to be able to like, you know? It’s like when I go live, I cannot bring guest on and I cannot talk so why not take the best but what’s working for Clubhouse and copy it into Facebook live and allow us to bring people up on stage. Talk to them and let’s let them let us kick let us put them back into the que. That would be more awesome. ’cause right now when I do a Facebook live. I can only interact with guests over chat, so I don’t know what these people are doing. This is copying each other from… anyway. I think I’m going on a tangent, but here it is.
The other thing is, Facebook group hosts can also do live audio rooms like yeah, right? I don’t really want to do audio. The only reason I will tell you I can tell you assure you the only reason Clubhouse became Clubhouse is because Clubhouse not only is audio ’cause you can consume passively, the other thing is that you can bring people up on stage, talk to them and then have them ask them to get off stage. Right like you do in a real world. That’s what I think is amazing about Clubhouse. Facebook, you don’t have that. I don’t know who they’ve hired for product management anyways, with that, let’s move on to the next update.

[Update4/Remove Your Twitter Followers Without Having To Block Them – 6:14

The next update is from Twitter with Twitter. This update is all about that Twitter. You can actually block a follower without having to. Sorry, I apologize for misstating it. So you don’t have to block a follower anymore. You can actually remove them from your followers’ list like in what you if you block someone they would get notified that they’ve been blocked and it would create sometimes a very uncomfortable situation, especially if it’s someone you know you don’t want them to know this you block them because they’re probably messaging somethings and they’re seeing your update and there’s. I like you know saying some not so you know amazing things about you but you just want to like you know don’t to push your updates to them. I can think of many reasons why that could happen. Say a lot of Asian people. Asian parents probably follow their kids and they don’t want their parents to get blocked nor do they want their parents to see the updates. So maybe this is a great option from that. You know, avoiding trolls and things like that. OK.

[Update5/Twitter Launches Twitter Spaces ‘Spark’ Program to Fund and Support Audio Creators – 7:10

With that, the other update from Twitter is that Twitter has launched, you know, ‘Spaces Spark programs. Again, what is Twitter Spaces? Twitter spaces like the Clubhouse look-alike option from Twitter, right? And they’re going to give out about. Let’s see. Up, you know 25,000, $2500 per month, plus ad credits. And what’s interesting to see is that you know for you to be. To be eligible to apply, you should have established show in other social audio platforms. You should have 5000 followers in your app. You need to commit to hosting a minimum of two spaces per week and so and so forth, right? And with that, obviously Twitter is going to promote you. Twitter wants to basically grow their spaces again. It may make more sense for Twitter to kinda, you know, copy clubhouse directly because of your situation didn’t have the video aspect, but Facebook has video aspect and their ignoring that, neglecting that, and going into audio. Anyways, that’s the update from Twitter on the audio front.

[Update6/Twitter Now Supports Multi-Destination URL’s for Carousel Ads – 8:20

And the last update from Twitter is that Twitter now supports multi. They support multi-destination, just multi-destination URLs for carousel ads. OK This is quite big if you ask me. From the ad front is that previously you could only have if you have carousel ads and you could only have one destination. So now, and Facebook gives you that option right. Facebook has this option so it’s nothing like heart-shattering that no one else has done it. I’ve seen Facebook ads are especially from Harvard Business Review, where you know each blog post their posting and each block post when you click on it. The carousel ad it goes through that blog posts page, right? So in a way, it’s good and Twitter is saying that they’ve seen 25% lift in click-through rates on average for campaigns that optimize for site visit conversions as well as utilizing this, so check it out and hopefully if you’re on Twitter this is going to be helpful.

[Update7/Microsoft Updates Its Smart Pages Website Builder – 9:17

The second to last update comes from Microsoft this week. Microsoft has launched on. Obviously, Microsoft launched these smart pages back in February and we covered it in our show and now what they’re doing is they’re actually enhancing it and they’re building this thing called ‘Smart Pages stand-alone’ where you can create, edit and publish your website for free. No payment information required and just gets you easy way to get you online OK and this also comes with a reporting feature where you can see your page views, clicks, and other things happening, and then when you’re really Microsoft is hoping if you’re ready then you would be you want to advertise? Well, guess where you’re going to advertise right? That’s how Google got started. Google did that and Google got Google Analytics everywhere Google got data. Even if you don’t advertise what Microsoft is getting a lot of data right? So so win-win situation for Microsoft, but you know I’m not looking at it. You know you can also create. From Bing places, you can integrate that the two just which is being places similar to Google, I forgot what it is called, Google My Business GMB. It’s a similar thing so again you can manage all those things. All in all, it’s good that Microsoft is pushing independent small businesses who don’t have a website who probably are on social. To get a website easily and quickly, obviously Bing, it creates a bigger ecosystem for Microsoft. That’s number one. They have more pages to crawl. They have more potential users to bring on board.
I do not know how competitive this is going to be. When you, when you kind of stack Microsoft smart pages against to Wix or Square space and things like that again. hey if you’re in business in the US and you cannot afford $10 a month to build a website on square or wix I don’t know if you really have a business or not, Microsoft right, but I’ll leave that to you. Microsoft, 15 years ago this made more sense, but now I do not know so much. But hey, what do I know? I don’t work for Microsoft, I just give you my two cents.

[Update8/On Mobile, Google Search Result Will Scroll Continuously – 11:25

Last update for this week is Google has announced starting this week and in the next two weeks in the US. When users on mobile search on Google. They will no longer see this option where you know right now you get 10 results and then you say more results button and then text you the next page Google is saying, oh, we’re going to keep on scrolling, you’re going to keep on showing your ad results like Infinity scrolling or Google is calling it out ‘Continuous scroll. What’s wrong with this? Nothings wrong? It’s great that you get to see it. Where if you’re running Google search ads,  this will potentially affect you right? And even they Google came out and they shared this in the announcement that yes, it will probably affect you, especially when it comes to you may see your ad shown more than once right now. And this may actually show you a lot more. You know a lot more. What is it called? Let me see lot mobile impressions right? As a result, your click-through rate is probably going down, right? That’s one thing, but Google is saying, hey, if your ad rank doesn’t really change, then you know it shouldn’t really affect you much. But also Google is saying that you know. Don’t we expect clicks conversion, average CPC and average cost per acquisition to remain flat? Which is basically it’s not going to change. It’s just I disagree with that. It’s a double-edged sword, so if you were not being shown on page one of Google for whatever reasons, whether for SEO, or whether it’s for Google search ads, then this is great news for you because you are showing up at the bottom of page two, page three. Now you have a higher chance that you know someone you see someone is going to your website or your ad. But if you’re on page one and now you have a lot more competition, right? That’s just the way I look at it. Either way, what can you do? Google changes the rule you go to have to play with it. If you don’t play with it, well, where are you going? Ha-ha they have it right?

[Closing] – 13:20 

Well, with that folks, that’s it for This Week In Marketing. Now you know everything to know. I did go ahead and put some links in the show notes page, so make sure you check it out and I’m 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 Updates Measurement Process for Ads Reach (0:14) – Facebook has announced that it will begin counting people who’ve not connected their Facebook and Instagram accounts in its Accounts Center as separate entities for ad purposes – i.e. if your accounts are not connected, Facebook will now assume that your Facebook and Instagram profiles are two different people.

Facebook’s Accounts Center, which is accessible via your settings in each of its apps (Facebook. Instagram, and Messenger), enables you to connect your accounts on each, so that you can do things like cross-post content, log in using your credentials from each app, use Facebook Pay and more.

“Previously, we counted someone with multiple accounts as one person for ads purposes if they linked their Facebook and Instagram accounts via those apps, or if we believed that the accounts were owned by the same person. For example, if someone used the same email address across their Facebook and Instagram accounts or accessed both platforms from the same device, we counted them as one person when they interacted with ads.”

So this will make Facebook’s ad reach numbers look a lot better, with a much broader scope, based on variable accounting. This is interesting because recently Facebook broadened its campaign reach estimates, with its ‘Potential Reach’ data now being displayed in ranges instead of specific numbers.

You can read more about Facebook’s coming measurement update here.

2. Instagram Now Supports Live Scheduling for Instagram Live Videos (2:15) – Starting immediately, Instagram has added a new option to schedule upcoming IG Live broadcasts in the app, with users then able to tap through to get a reminder notification on the day of the broadcast.

Broadcasters will now be able to schedule an upcoming stream, up to 90 days in advance, from the live composer, which can include a title description, as well as product tags, if you’re looking to promote such in your stream.

The option to schedule your streams provides even more potential on this front, with users, as noted, then able to register for reminders, which will be sent through to them the day before the broadcast, then 15 minutes before the stream begins.

3. Facebook Audio Rooms Now Available to Public Figures Globally & More (3:42) – Facebook has announced an expansion of its audio social plans, with live audio rooms being made available to public figures globally, and a new, dedicated space within the Watch tab to help users connect to all of the platform’s various audio options.

Facebook’s Live Audio Rooms will be displayed at the top of the News Feed for those following each creator (even above Stories), while they’ll also be accessible via a feed post.

The playback format is very Clubhouse-esque, showing the speakers and listeners in separate sections, while Reactions icons will float up the screen as they’re applied, similar to video live-streams.

The new expansion will mean that many more people will now be able to tune in to Facebook audio broadcasts, though creation will remain restricted to only public figures and those with verified accounts at this stage.

Facebook will also now enable all groups to host live audio rooms, another way to boost interest in the option in a more confined, specific contextual environment.

4. Remove Your Twitter Followers Without Having To Block Them (6:14) – The newest update released by Twitter as a part of its bracket of advanced privacy features includes the ability in the first and foremost to remove a user from following while not blocking them. This came around as a blessing as blocking sends a notification to the user of being blocked creating discomfort whereas removing a user as a follower would now not send a notification to the user of any such activity.

5. Twitter Launches Twitter Spaces ‘Spark’ Program to Fund and Support Audio Creators (7:10) – Per Twitter, “The Twitter Spaces Spark Program is a three-month accelerator initiative that’s designed to discover and reward great Spaces on Twitter with financial, technical, and marketing support. We’re looking for emerging Creators who are passionate about the live social audio format and interested in creating recurring programming on Spaces.” 

This is similar to Clubhouse’s Creator Accelerator program, while TikTok has also implemented its own Creator Fund, as has Pinterest, Snapchat, etc. So looks like the major social media platforms are now looking to provide more support and assistance for creators, in order to build their content eco-systems, and keep their best talent aligned to their apps.

Twitter’s Spark program will provide the chosen participants with $2500 per month, along with ad credits and custom Spaces swag. They’ll also be able to connect with the Spaces dev team and get early access to new features, while Twitter may also promote its broadcasts via its brand handles.

From the program overview, it is evident that Twitter is particularly interested in applicants that ‘have an established show in social audio on other platforms’.

To be eligible for Phase 1 of the Twitter Spaces Spark program, you need to be US-based and have over 5,000 followers in the app. You also need to commit to hosting a minimum of two Spaces per week – more info here.

6. Twitter Now Supports Multi-Destination URL’s for Carousel Ads (8:20) – Twitter has announced an update to its Carousel Ad format where it gives you the option to add custom headlines and landing pages into each frame of your Carousel Ads, which will provide more options to build responsive ads for variable audiences within one campaign.

This will provide more capacity to utilize different ad creative within a single campaign, highlighting specific features or use-cases to help broaden appeal. It could also help in your targeting segmentation, with each click highlighting the specific elements of interest for each user, helping to categorize responses.

Twitter says that it’s been testing the new option for the past few months, with beta advertisers seeing a 25% lift in click-through rates, on average, for campaigns that optimize for site visit conversions (relative to single-asset ads).

7. Microsoft Updates Its Smart Pages Website Builder (9:17) – This February, Microsoft launched Smart Pages, a free website builder service to help small businesses that may not have had websites.

“With Smart Pages standalone mode, you can create, edit, and publish your website for free — no payment information required. We know that not every business with a web presence is prepared to advertise online and want to give everyone access to Smart Pages,” wrote Will Rivitz, Program Manager, and Cristiano Ventura Sr. Product Marketing Manager. If business owners choose to partake in Microsoft Advertising later, they can easily sign up when they’re ready.

The new Smart Pages reporting feature allows marketers to track page views, clicks, and more all within the platform. “By tracking these metrics over time, you’ll see how the improvements and edits you make affect your customers’ experiences,” said Rivitz and Ventura.

Marketers will be able to create a new Smart Pages website directly from their Bing Places account and integrate the two properties. “Customers viewing your business on Bing Places will be able to go directly to your Smart Page, where you can show even more information,” according to the announcement.

8. On Mobile, Google Search Result Will Scroll Continuously (11:25) – Rolling out over the next two weeks starting October 14, Google’s mobile search results will offer infinite scroll, what Google is calling continuous scroll. That is, as you scroll, Google will not show you the “more results” button when you reach the bottom of the page, instead, Google will just load the next page of results automatically.

Per Google, it does affect the Google Search Ads a little. “As part of this change to how search results show, we’re redistributing the number of text ads that can show between the top and bottom of pages for US-English mobile queries. Now, text ads can show at the top of the second page and beyond, while fewer text ads will show at the bottom of each page. There is no change to how Shopping and Local ads show. “

And yes, your Ads can be shown more than once.

Finally, as a result of this change, expect to see more mobile impressions for Search, Shopping, and Local campaigns that serve ads on US-English queries, and potentially result in lower CTR. However, Google expects clicks, conversions, average CPC, and average CPA to remain flat.

This change to mobile search results is expected to roll out to additional countries and languages next year.

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