Democracy Manifest.

[00:00:01] It's Monday, November 4th. Today, election ad surge forces brands to go big or go home.

[00:00:09] Threads comes for X with 275 million users, and Amazon's ad growth outperforms its overall sales.

[00:00:17] I'm Steph Gunn sitting in for Tod Maffin. That's ahead, today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:24] When political ad dollars flood the ad market, brands pay the price. Literally.

[00:00:28] With final votes in the U.S. election being cast tomorrow, a spike in political ad spend has caused CPMs on major channels like TV, Facebook, and Instagram to soar, forcing advertisers to seek alternatives.

[00:00:42] Ad prices for some brands on Facebook and Instagram tripled in the election's final weeks as candidates poured in millions to reach voters.

[00:00:50] TV ad costs also surged in swing states, pushing some brands to target areas with less political competition.

[00:00:56] To dodge rising prices, some advertisers shifted budgets to Amazon, which they say is a more stable option when costs get too high elsewhere.

[00:01:04] Others, such as a home fitness brand that mainly advertises on connected TV, remained on competitive ad channels but adjusted their messaging to break through the political noise.

[00:01:14] Quoting eMarketer,

[00:01:16] As the election winds down, spending is likely to return to Instagram, Facebook, and other ad channels affected by the campaign ad surge due to their proven results.

[00:01:25] And, in the case of Meta's platforms, unparalleled reach.

[00:01:29] End quote.

[00:01:34] Although their cage match may have never happened, Mark Zuckerberg may soon metaphorically take down Elon Musk in the battle of social media platforms.

[00:01:43] Zuckerberg recently announced that Threads, Meta's challenger to X, now has almost 275 million monthly active users.

[00:01:52] Launched just nine months ago, Threads started strong, attracting around 8.3 million new users each month.

[00:01:59] Recently, however, its growth has exploded, adding 100 million users in just three months, more than tripling its growth rate.

[00:02:08] This surge comes at a time when user engagement is waning on X.

[00:02:12] Quoting Marketing Tech,

[00:02:14] Controversial decisions from X's leadership, such as dismantling the platform's former moderation team and relying heavily on crowdsourced community notes for content control,

[00:02:25] have sparked concerns about the spread of misinformation, particularly political falsehoods.

[00:02:30] In contrast, Meta appears to be strategically steering threads away from politics,

[00:02:36] driven by user feedback indicating that political divisions contribute significantly to declining Facebook usage.

[00:02:42] This divergence in approach positions threads as an attractive alternative for users, disillusioned with X's current trajectory.

[00:02:50] End quote.

[00:02:51] With a daily growth rate of 1 million new signups,

[00:02:54] Threads could potentially surpass X's monthly active user count by next June if the momentum continues.

[00:03:04] Amazon's ad business is thriving.

[00:03:07] The company last week reported its third quarter results with its ad business growing faster than its overall sales.

[00:03:14] Ad revenue hit $14.3 billion of nearly 20% from last year, making up nearly 9% of Amazon's total sales.

[00:03:22] In comparison, Amazon's overall net sales rose 11% to $159 billion.

[00:03:29] Amazon is projecting a big holiday sales season and it said it will continue to invest heavily in generative AI.

[00:03:35] Looking ahead, the e-commerce giant plans to hire 250,000 additional employees for the holiday season

[00:03:42] and project sales could pass $188 billion in the fourth quarter.

[00:03:51] YouTube is giving brands a clearer picture of content performance by updating the content tab in YouTube Studio.

[00:03:58] The new layout organizes all content types, videos, shorts, live, and playlists,

[00:04:03] into dedicated shelves within Studio's mobile app to track performance by format.

[00:04:09] A view all option will be available on each content shelf, letting users see a list view of each format.

[00:04:15] A scheduled filter will also be available if a creator has content scheduled.

[00:04:20] YouTube says that the revised layout will roll out to creators over the next few weeks.

[00:04:25] YouTube is also updating the comments tab, which is being renamed Community.

[00:04:30] The new tab will feature an overview of audience metrics, including comment counts and stats on returning viewers.

[00:04:37] It's also adding a community spotlight feature, which will highlight some of the most engaged viewers.

[00:04:42] In other updates, YouTube is also expanding AI-generated content summaries on select English videos.

[00:04:48] These summaries offer an additional description to help users find relevant content without replacing creator-generated descriptions.

[00:04:56] The platform is also testing out a new interactive chatbot within YouTube Studio on desktop

[00:05:01] to help creators and brands understand how each feature works.

[00:05:08] And finally, a couple of updates from the professional network.

[00:05:12] First, LinkedIn is rolling out a lead generation objective for boosted posts.

[00:05:17] Advertisers can now select lead generation as their goal when boosting a post directly from their feed.

[00:05:23] Previously, the only available objectives were reach and engagement.

[00:05:27] With this update, the ad setup allows for budget and targeting options,

[00:05:30] plus the addition of a lead form template tied to the campaign.

[00:05:34] However, keep in mind that while boosting posts offers convenience,

[00:05:38] it comes with more limited targeting capabilities compared to LinkedIn's full campaign manager.

[00:05:42] The company says the boosting feature is now available globally.

[00:05:46] And in other news, LinkedIn is saying goodbye to some of its celebratory post templates.

[00:05:52] These are the post types that include animated graphics.

[00:05:54] Almost all of them are being retired, leaving only the confetti template to carry the torch.

[00:06:04] It's a big day for our American friends tomorrow,

[00:06:07] so due to tomorrow's US election,

[00:06:09] which ends up just being a really slow news day for any marketing-related content,

[00:06:13] we won't be publishing a podcast episode or a newsletter issue,

[00:06:17] but I promise we will be back to our regular programming on Wednesday.

[00:06:20] Thanks for listening.

[00:06:21] I'm Steph Gunn.

[00:06:22] We will talk to you then.

[00:06:34] We will talk to you soon.

[00:06:55] We will talk to you soon.

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