Bizarre Love Triangle

[00:00:00] It is Monday, October 7th. Today, in the uncomfortable threesome of Google brand websites and AI, is relationship harmony possible? Maybe so.

[00:00:12] Also, Microsoft shuts down part of its ads offering, why TikTok growth is slowing, and the pre-roll ad designed to save you money and drive you crazy.

[00:00:25] I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:31] TikTok is getting older, and with age comes slower growth. Big brand accounts are seeing their follower growth rates slow down.

[00:00:39] This, of course, happens when platforms mature, the days of huge follower gains end up behind them.

[00:00:44] And new data from Dash Hudson shows three key trends in brand TikTok account growth.

[00:00:50] First, smaller accounts are growing faster than the big ones.

[00:00:54] Accounts with under about 11,000 followers grew nearly 6% in the second quarter.

[00:01:00] This is compared to less than 3% for large accounts.

[00:01:04] Second, growth rates overall have been falling for the past few quarters.

[00:01:08] In the second quarter of this year, average monthly follower growth for all brand accounts was 3.7%.

[00:01:15] That's down from 4.4% in the previous quarter and 5.3% in the one previous to that.

[00:01:22] And third, some accounts still see high growth rates, though.

[00:01:26] Wellness accounts and home brands grew more than 5%, likely due to the popularity of these topics among young people who use TikTok.

[00:01:39] One of the things website managers worried about when Google started putting AI summaries at the top of search results pages is it would reduce the traffic.

[00:01:47] People would get the answer they were looking for and just leave.

[00:01:51] Turns out, at least with news and entertainment websites, sometimes the opposite is true.

[00:01:56] Adweek reports that Google's AI overview is actually increasing publisher traffic for some sites thanks to a new feature that adds direct links within the text.

[00:02:07] The new version of the summary embeds links within the text of the AI overview.

[00:02:12] For example, a search for the tallest tree in the world now includes a link to the Guinness Book of World Records.

[00:02:19] Previously, the link was in a footnote.

[00:02:21] This is now available in all seven countries where AI overviews are available.

[00:02:26] This is, of course, welcome news for brands who are forecasting a significant drop.

[00:02:31] Some, though, still think a decline in traffic is coming.

[00:02:34] Quoting Adweek, quote,

[00:02:35] Raptive, which runs ad sales for titles like Half-Baked Harvest, Mac Rumors, and Stereogum,

[00:02:41] anticipates at least a 50% reduction in search traffic for publishers by 2025.

[00:02:46] For example, a publisher earning $75,000 annually could see a $37,500 drop in income due to traffic loss, according to Michael Sanchez, co-founder and CEO.

[00:02:59] However, for some, the impact has been less severe than expected.

[00:03:03] During a recent earnings call, Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis, noted that when analyzing thousands of queries across its key domains that generate organic search referrals,

[00:03:13] AI overviews appeared in only 8% of the search queries, with 92% of search results pages remaining unaffected.

[00:03:23] We hypothesize, Shah said during the call, and Google has confirmed that links within AI overviews see higher click-through rates compared to traditional web listing links, unquote.

[00:03:40] Microsoft is shutting down Promote IQ, a retail ad platform it acquired in 2019.

[00:03:46] The company is pushing clients to use Croteo instead.

[00:03:49] Multiple sources say Microsoft began letting retail media publishers know about the change over the summer.

[00:03:55] The decision to shut down Promote IQ was likely due to the low margins of the ad server business.

[00:04:01] Microsoft was trying to make the business more profitable, but it was probably taking too long.

[00:04:05] The company also lost some big clients, including Kroger, which brought its retail media ad tech in-house.

[00:04:12] So instead, Microsoft is now partnering with Croteo to bring its advertiser demand to that company's network of publishers.

[00:04:19] The deal is expected to generate big revenues by next year.

[00:04:23] Croteo will also provide its monetization technology to Microsoft's retailer clients.

[00:04:28] This is par for the course these days, given how fast retail media is moving.

[00:04:33] Still, the shutdown of Promote IQ might be a wake-up call for the sector, highlighting the importance of building resilient, owned architectures to prevent the risk of being deplatformed.

[00:04:49] A nasty bug on YouTube last week removed thousands of accounts that were wrongly marked as sharing spam and deceptive content.

[00:04:56] The issue started Thursday afternoon and affected all sorts of accounts, even those from people who never post content but only use it to browse videos.

[00:05:04] YouTube says the bug was fixed on Friday afternoon, though it took the weekend to shake things out.

[00:05:09] And not everything is back in order.

[00:05:11] It said all channels that were incorrectly removed have now been fully reinstated, but not all videos that were mistakenly removed have been reinstated yet.

[00:05:20] The bug caused a bit of chaos among users who flooded social media to complain about lost access to content and deleted videos.

[00:05:28] Some users also reported that their community posts were removed.

[00:05:31] YouTube is still working on reinstating those last few videos that were removed.

[00:05:35] It is unclear if paid subscribers will be reimbursed for lost access to content.

[00:05:41] YouTube did not respond to a media request for comment.

[00:05:48] And that will bring us to the lightning round.

[00:05:50] Meta says it knows Threads is full of low-effort engagement bait.

[00:05:54] These are posts, usually basic questions, crafted to elicit responses and boost visibility.

[00:05:59] Instagram's head says they're working on a fix.

[00:06:01] Google has discontinued support for the no-archive meta tag, which used to allow websites to prevent their pages from being cached by search engines.

[00:06:11] Google removed its cache entirely a couple of weeks ago.

[00:06:14] It's not clear how this will affect the caching on other search engines.

[00:06:18] Google is experimenting with verified checkmarks in its search results.

[00:06:23] It says this will help users distinguish between official websites and third-party pages, leaving many of us to wonder, why did it take this long?

[00:06:32] And Meta's had a click-to-WhatsApp campaign objective for some time.

[00:06:35] Now, its arch-rival Google even acknowledges WhatsApp's growth.

[00:06:40] It's adding an ad extension button that will let users send messages directly to businesses via Meta's WhatsApp.

[00:06:50] And finally, you know that old Meow Mix jingle?

[00:06:58] It's cute for a few seconds, but could you listen to it for 12 straight hours?

[00:07:03] That's what Meow Mix is hoping people will do in exchange for free cat food.

[00:07:07] The brand has created a 12-hour YouTube video that features the jingle on repeat.

[00:07:13] To win the free cat food, viewers have to listen to the entire 12-hour ad with the sound on.

[00:07:21] Why sound on?

[00:07:22] Because there are 19 unique coupon codes revealed during the video, and those codes are only spoken acoustically.

[00:07:30] And perhaps the best part of this campaign?

[00:07:32] The video's actually a pre-roll ad.

[00:07:35] It's not even something people can find directly with ease.

[00:07:38] It'll just show up in their feed and, well, you either play their little game or maybe never get the chance again.

[00:07:44] It is a remastered version of the classic 80s jingle, which has been re-recorded with real voice talent.

[00:07:51] Meow Mix is following in the footsteps of brands like McDonald's and Ikea, which have tested the boundaries of pre-roll advertising.

[00:07:57] The campaign is also drawing on its own history of brand experimentation with long-form ads.

[00:08:05] That is it for today.

[00:08:07] See you tomorrow.

[00:08:08] Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.