Tariffs and Trouble

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[00:00:50] Visit kinsta.com to get this limited-time offer for new customers on select plans. Don't miss out. Get started for free today. It is Friday, April 4th. This week, how will the Trump import tax on almost everything affect the digital ad market? Reddit cozies up to Meta. Why your advertising to parents might be going to waste.

[00:01:16] And now you can pay influencers to write comments on your brand's social media posts. What a time to be alive. I'm Todd Maffin. All that ahead in our Friday wrap-up of the week in digital marketing. And just as our deadline happened, we learned that U.S. President Donald Trump has delayed enforcing the U.S. ban on TikTok for another 75 days just before it was set to take effect.

[00:01:42] In fact, you'll hear me reference the fact that the ban comes up tomorrow, later on. This law was passed under Biden. It requires ByteDance to sell the app because of national security concerns. Trump said today a deal is close but needs more time, possibly involving Oracle and other American investors. ByteDance still has not signaled any willingness to sell. All right, on with the show as we had prepared it.

[00:02:07] So U.S. President Donald Trump has now imposed 10% tariffs on nearly all countries with higher rates for prices like China and the European Union. These tariffs are shaking up the U.S. ad market, forcing some firms to cut budgets. Brands are already pulling back due to inflation fears, recession risks, and inventory problems. CMOs are being pushed to do more with less as uncertainty rises across the board. We have a link to a great story about all of this in today's email newsletter.

[00:02:37] CMOs are being pushed to do more with less as uncertainty rises. Madison & Wall now expects just 3.6% ad growth this year. The previous forecast was 4.5%. All right, to some more advertising news. As the U.S. deadline for a possible TikTok ban nears on April 5th, that's tomorrow, ad prices on the app are dropping. Data from Barrows shows TikTok CPMs have fallen sharply this year, while Facebook and Instagram's short-form video ad rates are rising.

[00:03:07] Starting May 1st, Google Ads Performance Max campaigns will automatically use brand guidelines if consistent assets like logos and business names are provided. This change applies first to the Google Ads interface, then to the API in June with full rollout by July end. If you are using a third-party tool that relies on the API, you may want to check to see if there's an update from that provider. Google is also expanding its immersive ads, which appear inside gaming environments like virtual billboards.

[00:03:37] They've added some video formats, and they partnered with big platforms like Roblox. This partnership will allow Roblox to use Google Ad Manager to offer advertisers formats like rewarded video within its experiences, integrating ads more naturally into gameplay. Reddit also this week introduced new tools for smaller businesses, including the ability to import ad campaigns directly from meta platforms.

[00:04:02] They also added a review page to catch errors before launch and integrated Google Tag Manager for better performance tracking. An improved events overview helps advertisers confirm tracking setup. Microsoft Advertising introduced updates, including a test feed for shopping campaigns to check for errors without affecting live ads and a simplified primary feed for local inventory ads. Other changes involve ad disclaimers, longer video ads, and more Performance Max tools.

[00:04:31] The optimization score will be replaced by a digital maturity score in May. A new study by Adlook found that digital ads often mislabel people as parents. In the moms segment, more than half were actually men, and 62% said they didn't have kids at all. In the broader parents group, 67% also said they weren't parents. Adlook says this shows how unreliable traditional targeting is,

[00:04:58] and that brands should use behavior-based data instead to avoid wasting money. Google will now start using content from your email campaigns, like promotions, new arrivals, and social links, to improve how your business appears in search, shopping, and maps. Merchants were automatically opted in yesterday for this. You can opt out in Merchant Center settings if you want to. A couple of YouTube updates for you.

[00:05:26] First, the company has updated its promotions tool to include a new website visits goal. This will help creators drive traffic directly from their videos to their own sites. Creators can now choose from three goals, audience growth, video views, or site visits, when promoting content via YouTube Studio. Promoted videos appear as shorts in feed or skippable ads labeled sponsored. And YouTube is rolling out five new editing tools for shorts this spring,

[00:05:53] including a timeline view for cutting, rearranging, zooming, and adding music or text, similar to TikTok and Reels. Music can now auto-sync with clips, and creators will soon be able to add image stickers from their gallery or generate AI stickers from text prompts. To the world of social media now, and based on data from 30,000 businesses, Spout Social is out with one of its reports, claiming to know the best time for posting on social media in 2025,

[00:06:23] at least in terms of engagement. Their study says Facebook works best in the mornings. If you want to post and get lots of engagement, mornings work best. Instagram is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. LinkedIn from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pinterest starts at around 1 p.m. TikTok from 2 to 5 in the afternoon, and X from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Instagram introduced partnership testimonials this week. This allows brands to pay creators

[00:06:49] to write short sponsored endorsement comments on ad posts. This is, of course, aiming to integrate influencer recommendations more directly into conversations. As you can imagine, there are concerns about authenticity and potential user backlash if the comments feel forced or unnatural, which they will. TikTok is closing its photo sharing app Notes on May 8th, ending its attempt to rival Instagram.

[00:07:18] The app was launched last year in Australia and Canada and lets users post photos with captions and browse a For You feed. In a message to users, TikTok said the decision was not made lightly and encouraged people to switch to Lemon 8, another ByteDance app focused on lifestyle content. Notes users will not have access to features or posts after shutdown. A new report from Amplify shows that most people follow brands on social media to catch deals and promotions, not just product news.

[00:07:47] Offers, user-generated content, and quick replies in DMs help build trust and drive sales. As for how fast you need to have those quick replies, 32% of consumers in this study said they expect a reply within an hour. Most users also prefer brands to post a few times a week, not too often, but enough to stay on their radar. TikTok is now letting users add alt text to image posts, making content more accessible for people using screen readers.

[00:08:15] This shows up in the Photo Post Composer. It also adds to TikTok's existing tools, like auto captions and text-to-speech for videos. Images, of course, are not the main focus of the app, but this could boost engagement on photo posts. And X is setting up a process to let verified organizations buy dormant usernames. Bids will start at $10,000, with some handles possibly selling for over half a million.

[00:08:43] A document in X's web app outlines how businesses will use a bot to request a name, get a response in three days, and receive the handle within one to two days after purchase. I have been away from the mic for a couple of weeks now. My super thanks to Steph for filling in for me. I've been on bed rest, actually, for a medical condition. Nothing terribly serious, just one of those things that you have to stick around and sort of wait it out while it gets better.

[00:09:12] So that has happened, and it's not completely healed up, but it's as good as it can be. So I'm back. I probably wouldn't be, to be honest, if Steph weren't on holidays somewhere beautiful. Judging from her Instagram photos, it looks like it's warm and fantastic and probably smells nice and, you know, all the things. I'm not jealous. Well, anyway, those were the top digital marketing stories over the last five days. You'd have gotten all of this earlier, of course, if you were signed up to our email newsletter

[00:09:40] that comes out every weekday at 5 o'clock Eastern. It's completely free. You can sign up by tapping the link at the top of the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. I'm Todd Baffin. Filling in for Steph Gunn, maybe? Thanks for listening. Have a restful weekend.