When ‘For You’ Becomes ‘Forget You’

[00:00:00] It is Tuesday, September 10th. Today you suck and so do your TikTok videos. Meta cancels

[00:00:08] a sneaky UTM parameter used by some marketers. What the Shopify PayPal deal means? And the

[00:00:15] disturbingly simple trick that's breaking WhatsApp?

[00:00:21] I'm Tod Maffin, that's ahead today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:25] Not very mindful, not very demure. Your brand's TikTok may be more of a miss than a hit. New

[00:00:32] research has found that 8 out of 10 videos on the app fail to capture consumers' attention

[00:00:38] and generate positive emotions. According to new research from the ad agency David, 85%

[00:00:45] of brand videos on TikTok underperform generating weak emotional responses and, more importantly,

[00:00:52] poor brand recall. The study also found that a quarter of these videos actually triggered

[00:00:58] strong negative emotions like anxiety, fear and discomfort potentially risking brand reputations.

[00:01:04] 60% of brand videos were forgettable, ranking below average in both emotional engagement

[00:01:11] and brand recall. Branded TikTok content was 10% less likely to generate intense

[00:01:17] positive emotions than the global average and attracted 2.5% less attention.

[00:01:24] We have a link to the full study in today's email newsletter, which you can get for free by tapping

[00:01:28] the link at the top of the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter.

[00:01:37] Meta has been emailing a very scary sounding email to marketers the last few days. We've

[00:01:42] gotten a few emails asking if we know anything about it. First, the scary part,

[00:01:47] emailing, quote, Soon we may automatically restrict data such as certain parts of URLs

[00:01:53] and custom parameters. Your existing audiences may be using rules that include data that's

[00:02:00] restricted. Some of your ad sets may be paused, unquote. Meta is often unclear about,

[00:02:07] well, everything, and this one is no exception. Let's back up a little. They're talking

[00:02:12] about custom parameters here. That's the data in UTM parameters. UTMs carry information about

[00:02:19] the link source, the medium, the campaign name, and so on. They come at the end of a URL and are

[00:02:25] often used by advertisers to track the effectiveness of a campaign. If you're running 20 ads to the

[00:02:31] same URL, one from Meta, one on Google, one in an email newsletter, one from a QR code on a

[00:02:37] billboard, this lets you encode that URL with a signal that helps you track back the source of that

[00:02:43] click. Although it sounds like what Meta is saying is that they are dropping UTM parameters,

[00:02:50] they're not as far as we can tell. They seem to be talking about UTM data which can compromise

[00:02:56] a user's privacy, specifically, UTM data that discloses what specific web page or path a user

[00:03:04] came from. This could be used to infer more information about that person than Meta or that

[00:03:10] person wants. For instance, it could give away that they clicked that link on a web path about

[00:03:15] Chlamydia and well, now that data is potentially associated with the user. This also means that

[00:03:22] if you use this strategy and you built custom audiences off data that included file paths,

[00:03:28] those audiences will likely break. One person on LinkedIn said he believes that audiences

[00:03:33] that combine URL paths with another rule, like device, don't work anymore and can't be used in

[00:03:41] campaigns. We have reached out to Meta to see if they can provide any other specific examples

[00:03:45] and we'll update this story if we hear back. Shopify merchants in the US can now accept Paypal

[00:03:55] as a payment option. Paypal announced its new role yesterday letting the platform process

[00:03:59] credit and debit card transactions for Shopify payments. This partner brings Paypal alongside

[00:04:05] Stripe, Shopify's main payment processor in the US. It's part of Paypal CEO's strategy to revitalize

[00:04:12] the company and stay competitive with faster growing rivals like Stripe and Adion. Part of the

[00:04:18] strategy included enhancing checkout experiences with features like Fastlane which speeds up

[00:04:24] purchases by auto-filling card and shipping details as well as forming more partnerships

[00:04:29] even with direct competitors. Just a few weeks ago Paypal announced that Adion would offer Fastlane

[00:04:36] to some of its US merchants. Now with this latest move, it seems Paypal is coming for Stripes

[00:04:42] territory. Marketers are ramping up their ad budgets for 2024 according to a new report from

[00:04:52] the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Ad spend projections have jumped to 12% from the 9.5%

[00:04:59] it forecasted at the end of last year. With a resilient economy fueling optimism,

[00:05:04] the report found a 2.5% rise in consumer spending in the second quarter of 2024

[00:05:09] easing buyers' fears of instability. Retail media is also seeing an increase.

[00:05:15] Buyers have revised their year-over-year projections from 22% to 25%.

[00:05:19] The study also found that buyers are prioritizing cross-funnel KPIs and shifting focus to reach

[00:05:28] optimization as interest in new KPIs wanes. Meanwhile, measurement challenges persist

[00:05:34] for the industry despite subsiding economic concerns. The report also notes that goals

[00:05:40] can differ by channel. For example, in digital video, buyers are determining success via

[00:05:45] business outcomes like sales and store and website visits.

[00:05:53] Roblox is leveling up virtual commerce by teaming up with Shopify to let brands sell real-world items

[00:06:00] within its virtual world metaverse. The gaming platform will soon integrate Shopify's checkout

[00:06:06] feature letting developers, creators and brands on Shopify sell physical items directly within

[00:06:12] Roblox games. That helps it tap into its audience of nearly 80 million daily active users as of the

[00:06:19] second quarter of this year. Retailers are increasingly exploring the Roblox platform

[00:06:24] to connect with GenZ and GenAlpha consumers. Walmart was one of the first to sell real-world

[00:06:30] items on the gaming platform back in September of 2022 through its IRL commerce shop,

[00:06:35] the retail giant, let users purchase physical items and receive digital twins for their

[00:06:40] avatars. Users can also try on and buy trending content, customize their virtual Walmart cart

[00:06:47] and showcase their favorite items. This new Shopify integration will expand this kind of

[00:06:53] real-world shopping on Roblox to a wider range of retailers.

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[00:07:58] do it right with popular pays. Hackers are setting their sights on WhatsApp

[00:08:04] ViewOnce privacy feature, with developers from crypto wallet startup Zengo calling it

[00:08:09] completely broken and trivially bypassed. Zengo's team discovered that the feature designed to let

[00:08:16] messages be viewed only once before disappearing was not properly enforced by the server.

[00:08:22] Instead of ensuring messages vanished, ViewOnce messages are treated like regular messages,

[00:08:27] with a flag indicating they should only be viewed once. Attackers, as it turns out,

[00:08:32] can easily remove this flag, turning these messages into regular ones that can be downloaded,

[00:08:37] forwarded and shared. Zengo also found code examples on GitHub of a modified Android client

[00:08:44] and a Chrome extension that can exploit this flaw. The team said it alerted WhatsApp through

[00:08:49] Meta's bug bounty program more than two weeks ago. A spokesperson confirmed the issue is

[00:08:54] under investigation and that they're working on a fix, advising users to only send ViewOnce

[00:09:00] messages to people they know and trust. Was that you know that 10,000 of German

[00:09:32] companies already use Shopify? From innovative startups to family companies with long

[00:09:38] tradition? The Shopify commerce platform revolutionizes millions of companies worldwide.

[00:09:44] With Shopify, you can sell products via popular channels, whether personal POS system or

[00:09:50] comprehensive e-commerce platform. Social media and websites like Facebook, Instagram and

[00:09:56] e-mail are supported. Thanks to the constantly growing selection of innovative functions and

[00:10:01] the reliable technical support, it's very easy to build your business with Shopify.

[00:10:10] Shopify offers everything you need for your business.

[00:10:14] So you can focus on your business. Shopify is free to try and bring your business forward.

[00:10:26] Made for Germany. Powered by Shopify.