The Case of the Missing $16M Google Ad Credit

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It is Thursday August 8th.

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Today, an apparent glitch promises advertisers millions in Google Ad credits, the glitch

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_01]: is fixed but could Google be on the hook?

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Also, reports says Google broke its own ad policies for a big budget advertiser, a new

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_01]: way to avoid Facebook jail and how to sponsor entire LinkedIn newsletters.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Tod Maffin, that's ahead today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_01]: But first, today a bombshell report from the financial times reporting that Google worked

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_01]: with meta on a loophole that would let meta target teenagers with YouTube ads even though

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_01]: that's against Google's policies about advertising to children.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_01]: The YouTube ads promoted Instagram to 13 to 17 year olds in the report says Google got past

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_01]: its policy because rather than running the ads to a specific age group, they ran the ads

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_01]: to the age category called Unknown.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_01]: The reports had based on data like apps installed and online behavior, that was a category

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Google knew skewed toward younger people.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_01]: According to the financial times report, this wasn't an oversight.

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_01]: It's reporting found that, quote, steps were taken to ensure the true intent of the campaign

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_01]: was disguised.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Still quoting from the piece here, Google won the mandate from Spark Foundry, a U.S.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_01]: subsidiary of the advertising giant publicists.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And the teams on both sides took precautions, banning any direct reference to the age range

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_01]: in writing.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Staff used euphemisms in presentations such as slides with only the words, embrace the unknown

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_01]: according to documents reviewed by the financial times, unquote.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_01]: meta is being sued by 33 American states for using manipulative practices toward young

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01]: users, acclaim meta denies.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Separately, the American trade regulator is working on banning meta from making money from teens.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_01]: This as part of an existing privacy settlement, meta is challenging that proposal in court.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Google told the financial times it's launched an investigation into the claims and said,

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_01]: it would remind their sales representatives that they're not allowed to help advertisers

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: or agencies do end runs around policies for its part meta outright denied

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: that using the unknown category was a breach of any policy.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Instagram is changing the primary metric across all its posts and ads in the coming weeks,

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_01]: views will become the main metric for reals, stories, photos, videos, and other posts on the platform.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Historically, Instagram has shown different metrics for reals compared to other types of posts.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_01]: This change should make it easier for brands to understand how their content is doing

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_01]: overall, especially when comparing across formats.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Remember though, one view is not the same as one reach.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_01]: This is of course because the same person can view a piece of content multiple times.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_01]: This move aligns Instagram with meta's approach on threads, which recently added the ability

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: to tap a post to see its total view count.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Similarly, Elon Musk has put an increased focus on view counts since taking over Twitter now known as X.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Don't be surprised to see photos of your bricks in more to location popping up in your Google ads.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_01]: The company yesterday said it will start showing photos you've uploaded to your local

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01]: service ads profile in your LSA ads. Google says that adding photos to your local services ads can

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: help improve your ad ranking. They recommend uploading at least three to five images to your

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: LSA profile on the profile and budget page. Of course, the photos have to be high quality.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Google says they must be relevant to your work. They have to be original and not copy

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: their stolen. And ads won't always include a photo. It depends on the user query and some other factors.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: So can you disable it? Well, we reached out to Jenny Marvin, the Google spokesperson who made

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: the announcement to ask if this is something advertisers can disable if they want.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01]: She did not get back to us by deadline judging from the direction Google's taken in the past with

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01]: these types of changes. This is most likely something Google will do to your ads like it or not.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Google says though you should like it because photos generally increase engagement with ads.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Your brand can now sponsor any LinkedIn newsletter written by a user attaching your brand

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_01]: to content created by thought leaders in your space. Newsletters on the platform have been a

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_01]: big focus for a while now. You've been able to sponsor individual articles for some time,

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_01]: but this option will let you promote your brand across all content in a single newsletter.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, the newsletter author will be able to accept or decline your sponsorship.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_01]: You can also turn your sponsorship into a kind of lead gen ad since sponsored newsletter articles

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_01]: that you set up with the lead generation objective will block reading of the piece

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_01]: until a user coughs up their email address. LinkedIn says there are now more than 184,000

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_01]: newsletters on the platform and in the past year engagement with newsletters has risen by almost 50

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_02]: sponsored newsletters are available now globally. Many marketers who use

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_01]: met as platform for work avoid using any of their sites for personal use. I am one of those people

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_01]: something because I don't like Facebook. It's because I've seen far too many people run a

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_01]: foul of Facebook's policy enforcement bots and get locked out. Post a harmless photo of

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: yourself at the beach and if one of these bots thinks there's too much skin, it can and often does

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_01]: ban your account. Sometimes for a few days, sometimes indefinitely that means you lose access to

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_01]: your business manager, your ads account, your pixels and that of your clients too if you're

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_01]: with an agency. Since there aren't any humans to talk to at meta and filling in the forums usually

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: goes nowhere, many people have to resort to spitting up a brand new account and losing all the

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: history and photos of their original account. It happened so often people even have a name for it.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Facebook jail. These violation penalties even the ones that don't lock you out can carry a big

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01]: price brands and creators with enforcement action on their account lose reach on the platform.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, Facebook has a new way to avoid the virtual prison cell. From now on, the first violation

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_01]: will get you sent to an online training course on good manners and met as policies. If you

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_01]: though is not. But if you then violate that same policy within the next year, the violation is put

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_01]: back and stays. Met a meet clear that there are some kinds of violations where you'll go right

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: to Facebook jail without the benefit of this new program, content like sexual exploitation,

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_01]: the sale of high risk drugs or glorification of dangerous organizations and individuals.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: This is similar to a program YouTube announced last year, we're taking a brief course will

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_01]: remove the warning from the channel as long as you don't violate the same policy within the next 90 days.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks to the efficient management and intuitive social media and online marketplace integration

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[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Street Street Try and Game and Glossling. Met for Germany. Pard by Shopify. Hi, I'm Sean Nelson,

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: founder and CEO of LoveSack and host of the Let me Save You 25 Years Podcast. One of

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: avoid common pitfalls and get straight to the insights that drive success. Join me and recognize

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_00]: names like John Mackey of Whole Foods in Joe Descent of Spartan as we unpack the harder and lessons

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: from their journeys. Ready to streamline your path to success? Listen to let me save you 25 years on

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[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And finally, last night some advertisers got notices in their Google ad accounts saying they could

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_01]: expect a 16 million dollar ad credit in their account soon that they can spend on lead gen campaigns.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Quoting S. E. Roundtable quote, this credit was not related to Google pulling down ad reporting

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_01]: because they had another bug that used the ad account and budget of a different advertiser to

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_01]: advertise the products of another advertiser. Google said it would issue credits, but these credits

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_01]: are not related to this issue, unquote. This morning, the bug was corrected. But is it enforceable?

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Has Google legally created a contract in which they might be liable for those promostre funds?

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_01]: For more on that, I'm joined by Donald Harris, senior litigator at Doe Cheatman How Laugh

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Farm Mr Harris' author of the Amazon best seller feet to the fire. How Thomas's made means money

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_01]: kept. He's gone against most of the major platforms in court. Mr Harris, so did Google create

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_01]: a legal contract with this notification? Like can advertisers actually collect on this?

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: No.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_01]: All right. Thank you for your time. Donald Harris is senior litigator at Doe Cheatman How Laugh

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Farm in Atlanta who sub-stack is called None of this is real and Donald Harris was made up.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Like to ask you, quick favor of you in the fall. We're going to be rolling out an ad campaign

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and we'd like to get some reviews in the hopper. This only takes you a second. All you do is

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_01]: open up your podcast app right now. Swipe over to the show notes and look for the words rate

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and review us near the top. It'll give you the quick instructions on how to do this. We spend a

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_01]: lot of time putting this together for you every day and if you get some value out of it,

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_01]: if it helps you keep on top of the industry, a quick review would be super, super helpful for us.

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, just swipe over to the show notes in your podcast app and look for the text that says rate

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and review us. As if for today, I'm Todd Mathen. See you tomorrow.