Meet the Instagram Ads Everyone Is Going to Hate

[00:00:00] It is Monday, June 3rd.

[00:00:03] Today in Shitification comes to the Instagram feed how old users react to the new ad format

[00:00:10] that stops them from scrolling through content.

[00:00:13] Also Google slows way down on its AI search results, SEO pros figure out how to get their

[00:00:18] brand into those results, and Shopify's acquisition could mean a huge bill for you.

[00:00:25] I'm Tod Maffin, that's ahead, today in digital marketing.

[00:00:31] Instagram is testing unskippable ads that prevent users from scrolling lower until they've

[00:00:37] watched the full ad.

[00:00:39] These ads display a countdown timer and won't let you browse more content until the ad

[00:00:43] finishes.

[00:00:44] You might recognize this from YouTube's free version which also requires users to

[00:00:48] watch ads.

[00:00:49] The ad breaks were showing up in the Instagram feed while watching video posts.

[00:00:54] It was first noticed by Instagram user Dan Levy who posted it to social media.

[00:00:59] Levy said the app stopped him from scrolling past the ad.

[00:01:03] He called this a quote bonkers move unquote.

[00:01:07] Clicking the info icon next to the ad break reveals a message explaining the new feature.

[00:01:12] Instagram confirmed the test to tech crunch.

[00:01:15] Many other users reacted negatively as well with some threatening to stop using Instagram

[00:01:19] if the ads persist.

[00:01:21] Over the last two years, Instagram has become more focused on video content with

[00:01:26] features like stories and reels and is exploring new video ad formats as well.

[00:01:36] Reports say Google has scaled back use of its AI search summaries after a series of

[00:01:40] embarrassing hallucinations, quoting satire as fact and so on.

[00:01:44] The New York Times says it tested the six queries used at Google's announcement

[00:01:49] of the new system.

[00:01:50] Things like how do you clean a fabric sofa?

[00:01:52] And what should I use to get a coffee stain out of my carpet?

[00:01:56] By Friday, only one of the six generated an AI result.

[00:02:00] Instead, Google returned a regular pre AI results page.

[00:02:05] The company's recently promoted head of search wrote in a blog post that the company

[00:02:08] had slowed down on AI overviews and was trying to go slower with results about

[00:02:12] health and sources using satire.

[00:02:15] Quoting the New York Times quote, the backtracking was a blow to Google's efforts

[00:02:19] to keep up with its rivals, Microsoft and OpenAI, the maker of the chat GPT chatbot

[00:02:24] in the frenzied race to lead AI.

[00:02:27] It also underscored the difficult strategic choice that Google faces over

[00:02:31] whether to embrace AI technology that may not be dependable or keep its highly

[00:02:37] popular search engine the same and risk falling behind its peers.

[00:02:42] Google had chosen to go slower than Microsoft, which placed more conversational

[00:02:46] AI into its Bing search engine early last year.

[00:02:49] Google, which has significantly more users than Bing, tested AI features for

[00:02:53] its search engine a year before introducing AI overviews, unquote.

[00:02:58] So while there's a bit of a pause for now, nothing suggests Google is backing

[00:03:02] away from its overall goal to have this rolled out to more than a billion

[00:03:06] users by the end of the year.

[00:03:13] So with Google scaling, it's a summary is back for the time being that

[00:03:16] might give marketers time to get ready for the inevitable relaunch with an eye

[00:03:20] to having their brands appear in that summary text.

[00:03:24] One SEO pro says he's figured out exactly that.

[00:03:28] And it turns out it's easier than anyone thought.

[00:03:32] First, Cyrus Shepherd from Zippy SEO did a search similar to what he

[00:03:35] expected potential customers to do.

[00:03:38] Then he took the text of the AI overview, basically just copied that

[00:03:42] into his web page.

[00:03:44] He says if the site was ranking in the top 10 already, it would typically

[00:03:47] show up as a reference link.

[00:03:49] Shepherd then read Google's patent for the summaries and said he thinks

[00:03:53] the system is more artificial and less intelligent.

[00:03:58] Quote, according to the patent, I believe they simply look for pages

[00:04:02] that closely match the text of their generated answer, which makes it

[00:04:06] incredibly easy to game, unquote.

[00:04:09] But, and this might be a big but, while he succeeded in getting his

[00:04:12] site into the sources cards, Google actually removed his previously

[00:04:17] ranked featured snippet.

[00:04:19] He noted in a social media post that Google is likely changing things

[00:04:23] quickly and that marketers might not want to consider blindly copying

[00:04:26] AI results as a good long-term strategy.

[00:04:30] Easy come, easy go, he said.

[00:04:32] These things change a lot.

[00:04:38] Shopify has acquired another one of its platform partners.

[00:04:41] This time it's Checkout Blocks, which lets merchants tweak their

[00:04:45] checkout pages to upsell things, increase conversion rate, and so on.

[00:04:50] Checkout Blocks, launched just under two years ago, lets you add

[00:04:53] blocks like AI recommendations, custom content, fields, discounts, and so on.

[00:04:58] It competes with similar tools.

[00:04:59] So far only apparently has about 850 merchants using it.

[00:05:03] As part of the deal, the cost for the tool set will go from $99 a month

[00:05:08] to free, but there is a big catch.

[00:05:12] To get access to it, you'll need to be in the Shopify Plus program.

[00:05:17] That costs almost $83,000 US for a minimum three-year term.

[00:05:23] Shopify did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition.

[00:05:31] Dentsu has updated its global advertising forecast predicting a 5%

[00:05:34] growth in ad spend for 2024 up from an earlier 4.6% estimate,

[00:05:39] the increase driven by a strong digital ad market, the upcoming Olympics,

[00:05:43] and American elections.

[00:05:45] If you're freaking out digital ad spending, that's expected to rise by

[00:05:49] 7.4%, making up almost 60% of the overall market.

[00:05:53] Growth in retail media and paid social categories, increasing by 32%

[00:05:58] and almost 14% year over year will support this surge.

[00:06:01] TV spending is expected to grow by 2.6%, but when you look at

[00:06:06] connected TV by itself, that group will be up by more than 24% in spend.

[00:06:13] National broadcast TV will be down a touch.

[00:06:16] Breaking it out by geography, the Americas are predicted to grow

[00:06:19] the fastest at almost 6%.

[00:06:21] Asia Pacific will see just over 4% growth led by China and India.

[00:06:25] The European region is expected to also grow by 4%.

[00:06:31] That's all for today.

[00:06:31] I'm Todd Mappin.

[00:06:32] Thanks for listening.

[00:06:33] See you tomorrow.

[00:06:45] Sorry that's rough, my bad bro.

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