Meta's AI Ad Offer You Can't Refuse (Literally)

[00:00:00] Wir sind Teresa und Nemo und deshalb sind wir zu Shopify gewechselt. Die Plattform, die wir vor Shopify verwendet haben, hat regelmäßig Updates gebraucht, die teilweise dazu geführt haben, dass der Shop nicht funktioniert hat. Endlich macht unser Nemo Boards Shop dadurch auch auf den Mobilgeräten eine gute Figur und die Illustrationen auf den Boards kommen jetzt viel, viel klarer rüber, was uns ja auch wichtig ist und was unsere Marke auch ausmacht. Starte deinen Test nur heute für 1 Euro pro Monat auf shopify.de slash radio.

[00:00:27] It is Friday, February 7th. This week, big changes to Meta's main ad product. Google's AI is causing traffic to some websites to plummet. The simple URL hack to boost your local listings. And why are Google reviews disappearing? I'm Todd Maffin. All that ahead in our Friday wrap-up of the Week in Digital Marketing. Big changes on Meta's ad platform this week.

[00:00:56] The company today announcing new updates for its Advantage Plus ad campaigns, handing even more of your campaign targeting decisions to AI. The company is testing a new setup that eliminates the need to choose between manual or Advantage Shopping Plus campaigns, as Advantage Plus will now optimize all campaign elements automatically. A new label that says Advantage Plus on will show when these AI optimizations are active.

[00:01:25] Meta is renaming Advantage Plus Shopping campaigns to Advantage Plus Sales campaigns and expanding Advantage Plus to include leads campaigns. All this while Meta is set to implement 5% workforce cuts on Monday. And starting February 24th, Meta will change its default inventory filter for in-content ads.

[00:01:48] Ads on Facebook in-stream videos, reels, and the Meta audience network will move from moderate to expanded inventory. The current moderate filter blocks ads from appearing alongside sensitive content, while the expanded inventory filter lets ads show in any content that follows Meta's monetization policies.

[00:02:08] This means your ads could show up alongside sensitive content on topics like tragedy or conflict, debated social issues, or objectionable activity. Now, if you've already set a specific inventory filter for your ads, it shouldn't be effective. Still, it's important to check your default filter setting before launching new ad sets and make changes if needed. To Google's advertising news for the week now, and the company's ad revenue growth is slowing.

[00:02:38] In Q4 of 2024, ad revenue increased 10.5% year over year, but that still missed analysts' expectations. YouTube's ad revenue was up 14%, though growth also showed signs of slowing. Search and Other, which is Google's largest segment, increased 12.5%. Google's AI might soon choose your ad backgrounds.

[00:03:02] Some advertisers getting emails this week from Google about a test where AI will automatically generate background images for shopping ad product listings. There is apparently an option to opt out. Still with Google for a bit, the company is now letting advertisers book a tagging consultation through the console to set up conversion measurement. A Google rep will guide you and your developer through implementing a Google tag for tracking ad performance, which they say will take about 30 to 60 minutes.

[00:03:31] Usually these talk-to-a-rep opportunities are thinly disguised sales calls. This one actually might be helpful. And Google also announced it will now use its AI to better prioritize landing pages that align with user intent. Ads that link to confusing or misleading pages will be demoted. And finally, in Google News, some top people are out.

[00:03:56] Joan Braddy, VP of Partnerships and the Google employee who negotiated the search engine deal with Apple more than 20 years ago, reportedly left at the end of last year. And Stephen Yap, a longtime ad executive, is leaving after two decades to become chief revenue officer at the ad tech firm Perrion. Yap most recently served as managing director of the Google marketing platform. All right, two other ad platforms now.

[00:04:21] And Elon Musk has expanded X's advertising lawsuit, adding seven more brands, including Nestle, Lego and Shell, accusing them of, well, not advertising on X and conspiring to withhold billions in ad revenue from the platform following his 2022 takeover of the company. Microsoft announced some new Performance Max tools in Pilot. They'll soon be able to use LinkedIn's professional targeting data, including company, industry and job function signals. Microsoft owns LinkedIn, of course.

[00:04:51] Advertisers will also be able to adjust conversion values in real time based on factors like location and device usage that'll be applicable to all campaign types. And finally, in our wrap up of the advertising news of the week, Snapchat is finally jumping on the AI ad campaign train and it's coming soon. During its earnings call this week, the company revealed it'll test a new smart budget optimization feature this quarter.

[00:05:15] This tool automatically adjusts campaign budgets across all assets to maximize results, which is a pretty standard move for AI driven ad campaigns. But Adweek reports that Snap's version lacks the power of rivals like Google's PMAX and Meta's Advantage Plus. For now, Snap's version is still a mystery. Little is known about its specifics. A spokesperson for the company did hint that while it's not quite on par with its rivals, it is, quote, comparable, unquote.

[00:05:48] All right, turning to social media, we'll start with the meta platforms. Instagram is a previewed feature of its upcoming video editing app called Edits. It'll be launching next month in select regions. It'll offer free tools, including creator collaboration options and AI animation for still images. It'll let you create new video content without recording. Instagram also has a new WhatsApp sticker for stories, which lets you link directly to a WhatsApp chat by providing your phone number for verification.

[00:06:15] Instagram is also testing a feature that lets you rearrange your profile grid with back end code hinting at an upcoming rollout. And Threads is now outpacing X in engagement. With 320 million active users, a recent survey found more than half of marketers are already posting on the platform. And nearly a quarter plan to establish a presence this year. Threads posts are generating more than 73 percent higher engagement rates than X. Snapchat has a new ad free option.

[00:06:45] The platform quietly launched a platinum version of its Snapchat plus subscription, letting users opt out of all ads for 16 bucks Canadian per month. That is more than double the regular Snapchat plus price. Snapchat's Q4 report showed user growth and a 14 percent year over year revenue increase. But challenges still remain. The platform added 10 million users, but lost users in North America, raising concerns about long-term profitability.

[00:07:12] Over at YouTube, despite their shorts push, longer content seems to be winning. A new study finds U.S. YouTube users now spend 8 percent more time on long-form videos than last year, with nearly 75 percent of total watch time going to videos more than 30 minutes long. Brands and creators on YouTube can now see which devices their viewers are using the most. The platform's added a new device-type card in YouTube Studio, available on desktop and mobile,

[00:07:40] which breaks down watch time percentages for TV, mobile, computer, and tablet across long-form videos, shorts, and live streams. And the platform is partnering with Repurpose.io to automate reposting of TikTok and Instagram Reels to shorts. The tool will let users set up an automatic production flow for existing or future content, posting directly from their TikTok or Reels library to shorts.

[00:08:07] The company is offering three months of free usage with up to five videos scheduled per day. Speaking of TikTok, it was reported this week that TikTok users are starting to use shop keywords like cute winter boots to protest against immigrant raids in the U.S. That phrase is a way to avoid censorship while alerting viewers to immigration enforcement activity and providing advice on what to do if immigration officers show up.

[00:08:34] And LinkedIn's Videos for You section is now available on the web and desktop, which features a vertical video feed. Videos play front and center with captions on the right, and you can scroll through with the up and down arrows. Egal ob Sie gerade erst beginnen oder Ihr Sicherheitsprogramm erweitern, herausragende Sicherheitspraktiken zu demonstrieren und Vertrauen aufzubauen ist wichtiger denn je.

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[00:09:30] um Risiken zu managen und Sicherheit in Echtzeit nachzuweisen. Erhalten Sie ein spezielles Angebot von 1000 Dollar Rabatt unter venta.com slash hohren. If that's advertising and social media, let's take a look at what happened in search marketing over the past week. Reports are piling up about missing Google business reviews. Search Engine Roundtable today notes a wave of complaints over the last 24 hours

[00:09:55] in the Google Business Profiles forum with users seeing their review counts drop. No word from Google yet on what's happening. A new study shows that Google's AI overviews are tanking click-through rates for both organic and paid search results. But there's a catch. When clients show up in the overviews, both organic and paid click-through rates increase. Still, queries with these AI overviews generally had lower click-through rates from the start,

[00:10:24] possibly due to zero-click searches. Linking a specific URL in your Google My Business listing can affect local rankings. Sterling Sky tested changing a law firm's URL from its homepage to the company's niche bus accident page and saw improved ranking due to the page's targeted content. While linking to a homepage is ideal for most businesses,

[00:10:48] this study suggests that using a niche URL for certain businesses with multiple listings can boost rankings. Google Business Profile has also added a new feature that lets businesses integrate WhatsApp and text messaging for direct customer communication. The integration can help businesses manage inquiries, share information, handle bookings, and provide customer support. Business owners can set it up by heading to their profile and selecting chat options.

[00:11:16] And heads-up recipe sites, Google's updated quality raters guidelines now slam recipe blogs for excessive scrolling. Warning against burying the main recipe behind a wall of ads and filler and unrelated content. The jump to recipe link should be easy to find, otherwise you might get a low-quality rating. After all, we're just out here trying to make some bannock,

[00:11:42] not read a whole saga about the chef's long-lost Italian lover. A couple of e-commerce updates. Amazon has added some new geographic options in vendor central sales reports, letting sellers analyze sales by city, state, country, and postal code. This added granularity can be useful for identifying top-performing regions, improving inventory allocation, and enhancing shipping cost forecasting for pricing.

[00:12:11] And Google is testing writing product descriptions with generative AI in the popular products carousel in search. While AI-driven copy has already shown up in knowledge panels and local listings, this is the first time it's appeared in such a high-visibility section. The popular products section usually has no descriptions at all. A recent screenshot showed that, indeed, AI-generated descriptions are now being added.

[00:12:41] Some AI updates. OpenAI launched a new AI agent for Deep Research this week, designed for users looking for more detailed answers from multiple sources, not just a quick summary. This feature is only available to ChatGPT Pro users. That's not Plus, that's Pro, which is $200 a month, and is limited to 100 queries per month. And reports today say that DeepSeek's iOS app sends data over unencrypted channels,

[00:13:11] leaving it open to hackers. The data, by the way, is also sent to servers controlled by Chinese-owned ByteDance. Kind of a crazy week for me. After Trump threatened tariffs on Canada, where I live, I made a TikTok about how to find Canadian-owned brands in the grocery stores. It went viral. It's up past 450,000 views. And since then, my personal TikTok account

[00:13:38] went from 400 followers to 21,000. In less than a week, you can follow, too. My TikTok handle is just my name, T-O-D-M-A-F-F-I-N, Todd Maffin. Kind of reminded me of our Today in Digital Marketing TikTok account, which went from nothing to 60,000 followers after I did a skit about Facebook ads. And yes, we have a TikTok account for the newsletter and podcast as well. It is just at Today in Digital. You may notice my voice is a little cracky.

[00:14:08] I've got some medical stuff going on. So thanks to Steph for filling in last week. She may be doing it again in the near future. We'll see. Anyway, those were the top digital marketing stories over the last five days. You'd have gotten all of this news earlier. If you signed up to our email newsletter, which comes out every weekday at five o'clock Eastern and is completely free, sign up at todayindigital.com slash newsletter or tap the link at the top of the show notes. Tuesday on our weekly deep dive episode, our meta ads correspondent, Andrew Foxwell,

[00:14:36] will be here to explain all those big changes to Meta's Advantage Plus campaigns, what they mean for your ad campaigns that are running now. Follow us on social media. We're on Blue Sky, Mastodon, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat and Pinterest or go to todayindigital.com slash social or tap the link in the show notes to get those links again. Follow me on Blue Sky at toddmaffin.com. Thanks for listening. Have a restful weekend. The next newsletter is out Monday. I will be back in your podcast feed on Tuesday.

[00:15:10] Wir sind Teresa und Nemo und deshalb sind wir zu Shopify gewechselt. Die Plattform, die wir vor Shopify verwendet haben, hat regelmäßig Updates gebraucht, die teilweise dazu geführt haben, dass der Shop nicht funktioniert hat. Endlich macht unser Nemo Boards Shop dadurch auch auf den Mobilgeräten eine gute Figur und die Illustrationen auf den Boards kommen jetzt viel, viel klarer rüber, was uns ja auch wichtig ist und was unsere Marke auch ausmacht. Starte dein Test nur heute für 1 Euro pro Monat auf shopify.de slash radio