Meta CPMs Are Skyrocketing. Is This The New Normal?

[00:00:00] It is Thursday, April 11th. Today, CPM's up, morale down. Is Timu behind the recent downturn

[00:00:08] in meta-ads? Also, LinkedIn's scam solution will cost you. YouTube's videos for kids

[00:00:14] are getting comments back. And why TikTok says videos in two languages will get you

[00:00:20] better results. I'm Tod Maffin. All that ahead. Today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:27] A new report from Bloomberg says advertisers running campaigns on meta platforms are hitting

[00:00:32] a snag. It confirms what people have been saying on social media that ad costs have soared,

[00:00:38] sales dipped, and there's been no word from meta on what's going wrong. CPMs are up

[00:00:44] an average of two to three times what they were just a few months ago. CPCs up about

[00:00:49] the same. Cody Flocker from Jones Road Beauty, who

[00:00:52] we've had on the podcast, is quoted in the piece saying, quote, it's brutal out there.

[00:00:58] Quoting Bloomberg's piece, quote, Carly London, who runs an agency called Sometimes

[00:01:02] Curly and manages more than $100 million in meta-related advertising spend each year,

[00:01:08] said she saw a 20 to 40% drop in ROAS for a few of her accounts over the past two

[00:01:13] months without any explanation. In practice, that means a marketer used to making $3

[00:01:20] million revenue for every $1 spent on Facebook ads would suddenly be making closer to $2 in

[00:01:25] revenue, a meaningful difference when brands rely on predictable results to budget and manage

[00:01:32] product inventory, unquote. Even seasoned advertisers are struggling

[00:01:36] to find strategies at work, making some people wonder if there's an anomaly in

[00:01:40] Metas usually reliable system? Perhaps the AI race is taking Metas engineers eyeballs

[00:01:46] off the ad platform? Despite these reports, Meta insists that its ad system is mostly functioning

[00:01:51] correctly, acknowledging only a few technical issues. The ad community, though, is still left

[00:01:58] scrambling for explanations and solutions, with some pointing fingers at Tmoo's recent

[00:02:04] advertising spree as a potential cause of the upheaval. After all, digital ad platforms

[00:02:10] are supply-and-demand systems. If one player with a big wallet comes in, that affects

[00:02:14] everyone else. And as advertisers seek more stable grounds, platforms like TikTok and

[00:02:20] Google are becoming more attractive. Metas' first quarter earnings report is on the horizon

[00:02:24] and the marketing community is watching closely, hoping for answers or at least an improvement

[00:02:30] in the system that many have relied on for so long. Even so, as Corey noted in

[00:02:34] the Bloomberg piece, quote, this could be the new normal, unquote.

[00:02:40] One of the many, many scams running around the internet has been recruiter scams. People

[00:02:48] set up fake accounts on LinkedIn, approach someone about hiring them, and then find various

[00:02:52] ways to get money out of them. It's gotten so bad that LinkedIn finally has a solution,

[00:02:57] a new verification badge for recruiters in the app. Once a recruiter has confirmed

[00:03:01] their legal identity and place of employment, they'll get a badge that tells members

[00:03:05] they're on the up and up. Although the badge itself is a little confusing when you tap

[00:03:10] on it, rather than saying something like this person has confirmed they're a legit recruiter,

[00:03:15] it says quote, this recruiter has access to a LinkedIn recruiter corporate subscription

[00:03:19] unquote. So yeah, you'll need to be paying for a subscription package to get this. To

[00:03:24] be fair, most legitimate recruiters on LinkedIn do use a package, and so it's probably

[00:03:29] not a giant hurdle. This is a different process than its identity confirmation

[00:03:34] system for regular users, which gives people a gray verification checkmark that showed up

[00:03:39] about a year ago and uses third party ID providers to work. LinkedIn says verified profiles on

[00:03:44] average get 60% more profile views, 50% more comments and reactions on their posts, and

[00:03:50] 30% more messages. This new recruiter verification system will start to roll out next week.

[00:03:57] If your brand uses YouTube videos to reach kids, there's a big change coming, one that

[00:04:05] almost certainly will affect your engagement and potentially your reach. And this time,

[00:04:11] in a good way. As you might know, YouTube three years ago disabled comments on videos

[00:04:15] intended for kids, this came after a number of media reports found inappropriate content

[00:04:20] in some of the comment sections and attracted the attention of lawmakers. Now parents

[00:04:24] will have more choices in whether and how their kids can engage with a video through a

[00:04:28] new read only comments option. Quoting social media today, quote, the new edition applies

[00:04:34] to two of the three content settings available to parents who want to configure a more kid

[00:04:39] friendly experience for their child, explore more and most of YouTube. The former allows

[00:04:46] kids to explore videos with content ratings for viewers 13 and up, while most of YouTube

[00:04:52] offers older kids access to most of YouTube's content, except for videos that are specifically

[00:04:57] age restricted for adults only. By default, children will be able to read but not write

[00:05:04] comments under both of these content settings modes. Live chat will also be turned on. Meanwhile,

[00:05:10] parents who want to disable comments entirely can switch their child to the explore

[00:05:14] setting aimed at viewers aged nine and up. This option is generally the first step

[00:05:19] into the main YouTube experience after using the dedicated YouTube kids app as a younger

[00:05:23] child, unquote. This is of course great news for brands who use videos to market on YouTube.

[00:05:29] Now comments will not be off by default on their videos.

[00:05:38] At Parker, our purpose is simple. We want to make the world a better place by working

[00:05:44] more efficiently by using more sustainable practices. By developing better technologies,

[00:05:50] we keep moving forward with each new idea, innovation and partnership. We're one step

[00:05:57] closer to fulfilling our purpose every single day. To find out more, visit Parker.com

[00:06:03] slash purpose Parker engineering your success.

[00:06:09] You have one unheard message.

[00:06:12] Hi, I was calling current the influencer marketing platform. But I think I just got

[00:06:18] redirected to a bunch of people listening to a podcast. Well, anyways, I was calling

[00:06:24] current because I was told they could help get my brand set up on TikTok shop and even

[00:06:29] build out an affiliate program of content creators promoting my brand and even have

[00:06:34] those content creators go on live streams and promote my product there. Wow. I could

[00:06:41] really use current. I also heard that the brands they work with are making millions

[00:06:46] in sales. I guess I'll just go to their website at current.tech.

[00:06:53] Snapchat this week announced they've brought some new third party data tools on board.

[00:06:57] First, Snowflake's marketing data cloud will improve targeting and conversions data,

[00:07:01] quoting from Snapchat's announcement here, quote, the integration with Snapchat

[00:07:05] will enable snowflake clients to quickly implement snaps conversions API signal

[00:07:10] solution without needing to build a bespoke back end integration, unquote.

[00:07:16] Also, they're partnering with apps flyers to help advertisers get a better

[00:07:18] view of their campaign performance via the mobile measurement partner

[00:07:22] attribution for their iOS campaigns. And finally, the company teased an improved

[00:07:27] version of its event quality score metric.

[00:07:34] And finally, TikTok this week published a study shining a light on a significant

[00:07:37] trend, the increasing importance of bilingual ads partnering with NRG.

[00:07:42] For this research, TikTok found that as the Hispanic population in the US is

[00:07:47] set to soar, brands might be missing out by not crafting ads in multiple languages.

[00:07:53] Hispanics currently the youngest and largest ethnic group in the U.S.

[00:07:57] will make up a third of the American population by 2060.

[00:08:02] TikTok says the demographics deep engagement with digital and social

[00:08:05] platforms presents an opportunity for brands to connect more meaningfully.

[00:08:10] Specifically, the study highlighted bilingual ads that used voiceovers in

[00:08:15] both languages in the same video, quoting from that TikTok study, quote,

[00:08:21] an ad entirely in Spanish doesn't speak to the dual sense of identity

[00:08:26] these audiences feel layering English and Spanish creative elements to

[00:08:30] create balance ensures that brands can speak to bilingual users in a way

[00:08:35] that feels true to their identity as well as appeal to a broader audience, unquote.

[00:08:40] TikTok even says English speaking audiences showed a positive response

[00:08:44] to inclusive advertising. For instance, millennials viewing Spanish included ads

[00:08:49] are more likely to perceive a brand as caring and trustworthy.

[00:08:57] So the Fallout TV show came out last night.

[00:09:01] My wife and I are huge fans of the Fallout video game series.

[00:09:04] Man, did they ever nail it like they it true to the video game right down to

[00:09:09] the rivets in the walls of the vaults, which we know.

[00:09:14] We know what they look like.

[00:09:15] We were so excited to see it last night.

[00:09:19] It's a great series.

[00:09:20] It's on Amazon Prime.

[00:09:21] It's called Fallout.

[00:09:22] If you're new to the Fallout world, it's definitely worth at least the first episode.

[00:09:27] All right, that's it for today.

[00:09:28] See you tomorrow.

[00:09:29] Holy shit.

[00:09:30] You're an actual vault.

[00:09:32] I am.

[00:09:36] I thought all you dipshits were dead.