This Week in Digital Marketing - February 18, 2022

We’ve got another week’s worth of digital marketing updates for you! This week, we’re covering some social media news, privacy projects, and customer experience topics. If you’d like some guidance on how to implement any of these for your business, we can help!

YouTube to Double Down on Shorts in 2022
YouTube plans to keep adding features to its Shorts format, the platform’s answer to TikTok and Instagram’s Reels. In addition to new effects and editing tools, YouTube plans to introduce the ability to reply to individual comments by creating another Short (similar to TikTok).

YouTube is also exploring monetization options for this format. In the coming months, it plans to test BrandConnect for Shorts creators, integration of the Super Chat feature (in which viewers can purchase visually distinct chat messages) as well as the ability to shop directly from a Short.

Mozilla and Meta are Working on Privacy-Preserving Attribution
Mozilla, developers of the open-source Firefox web browser and Meta, formerly known as Facebook, have revealed that they are working together on an Interoperable Privacy Attribution solution (IPA). The aim is to allow advertisers insight into campaign performance without breaching individual user privacy. They have jointly proposed to be the in-development solution to the Private Advertising Technology Community Group, part of the World Wide Web Consortium.

In broad terms, the solution seems simple. It would use multi-party computation to allow analysis of user behavior without allowing websites, browsers or advertisers to learn about the behavior of individual users (a version of what is often called a “clean room”). Data would be aggregated to avoid traceability to single users.

Snapchat Introduces Attributable Mid-Roll Ads for Snap Stories
Snapchat is launching mid-roll ads for Snap Star Stories, the company announced Monday. The new, attributable ad product is currently in closed beta and the company expects to roll it out more widely later this year.

Why we care: This new feature gives advertisers another product they can use to reach potential customers. Being able to tie conversions from these ads to a given creator also helps advertisers understand their ROI.

Since creators will get a slice of the revenue generated by their mid-roll Snap Stories, the format might encourage more adoption among influencers, which could, in turn, also increase user engagement and adoption.

Facebook is Still Underreporting iOS Web Conversions, but Not as Much as Before
Facebook estimates that, in aggregate, it is now underreporting iOS web conversions by approximately 8%, down from the 15% in September 2021. The company cited increased adoption of best practices as the main reason for this improvement.

Why we care: While this figure can vary for individual advertisers, 8% is roughly half of 15%, meaning that iOS conversion reporting has gotten a lot better for Facebook advertisers. Still, it’s not completely accurate, which could mean that conversions may be higher than reported for some businesses.

TikTok’s Brand Safety Center Consolidates Transparency Updates, Announcements, and Partnerships
The brand safety center includes TikTok’s mission statement, the latest brand safety announcements, information about its partnerships and certifications, the platform’s transparency updates and case studies.

Why we care: Social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have a range of monetization options for creators — TikTok will need to build out more opportunities for creators to make money if it wants to keep them on its platform.

Who Thinks You’re Customer-Driven, You or Your Customers?
Here’s a fun weekend exercise. Round up 10 marketing executives and ask them if they consider themselves customer-driven. I would bet that nine out of 10 would say yes, and the other person would explain that they focus on other things which eventually benefit the customer.

A few ways to truly improve your customer experience:

1. Shop the business as a regular customer
   
2. Quality over quantity in feedback
   
3. Get an outside perspective
   

Digital Marketing Snippets

• Google is now adding generic videos to Performance Max campaigns that do not have their own videos.
  
• Feminine Brand Name Advantage: Consumers are more likely to choose brands or products that have more linguistically feminine names. The names feel warmer, more inviting. However, when it comes to more functional products, masculine product names were chosen more often.
  
• Android to follow iPhone in restricting cross-app tracking.
  
• After months of feuding, Amazon will continue to accept Visa credit cards at its websites and stores.
  

Some of this information is relevant to your business, and some of it might not be. This is where we can help. We’re able to break down these updates and figure out which ones are most important for you and your business. Contact us for a consultation!