Which Font Sells Better — 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 or 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬?

[00:00:00] It is Tuesday, May 7th.

[00:00:03] Today, how curvy is the font you're using in your product ads?

[00:00:07] It could make a difference.

[00:00:09] Also, TikTok isn't going down without a fight.

[00:00:12] How Amazon wants to close the funnel gap and Google removes one of its oldest features.

[00:00:20] I'm Tod Maffin.

[00:00:21] That's Ahead, Today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:25] TikTok is taking legal action against the US government, challenging a recent law that

[00:00:30] could ban the app unless its Chinese owners bite dance, sell it.

[00:00:35] The lawsuit was filed this morning and argues that the law infringes on the First Amendment

[00:00:40] rights of its users.

[00:00:41] TikTok says the legislation, which requires a sell-off in nine months, is unconstitutional.

[00:00:47] It says not only is selling the app not possible given Beijing's stance against

[00:00:52] selling critical operational technology, but that the law also targets a platform that

[00:00:57] many American businesses rely on.

[00:01:00] Legal experts say this case could reach the US Supreme Court.

[00:01:03] The outcome could set a precedent regarding the government's ability to regulate international

[00:01:08] tech companies on national security grounds.

[00:01:12] The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups have also expressed

[00:01:15] opposition to the law, so all signs point to a pretty fierce legal battle ahead.

[00:01:21] TikTok's lawsuit comes amid debate over security risks posed by the app and its immense influence

[00:01:27] on pop culture.

[00:01:28] The company says it's taking action to address concerns it is separating US user

[00:01:33] data and claims to be strengthening content control.

[00:01:37] And so today's trivia question, what was TikTok's Chinese sister app called before

[00:01:43] it was renamed to Doyin?

[00:01:46] Was it A.me, VideoStar, Clipsync, Lucky You, or Vibe Video?

[00:01:52] We'll have the answer in tomorrow's episode.

[00:01:56] Yesterday's trivia question, what was the original concept of YouTube when it was founded?

[00:01:59] It turns out it was originally a video dating site.

[00:02:03] When we asked that in our newsletter, 62% of people got that wrong.

[00:02:12] When launching a new line of chocolate cookies, choosing the right font might be as crucial

[00:02:17] as the recipe itself.

[00:02:19] Some research recently highlighted by the ARRI newsletter has found that for products

[00:02:23] meant for pleasure, like chocolates, fonts with rounded edges significantly enhance

[00:02:28] consumer appeal.

[00:02:30] The insight comes from a series of experiments where so-called pleasure products advertised

[00:02:34] with rounded fonts were preferred over those with sharp edged fonts by up to 26%.

[00:02:40] But the shape of the font becomes less critical when the product's main appeal

[00:02:45] is its functionality, like tools or insect repellent candles.

[00:02:50] Consider brands that sell utility, Microsoft, Dell, Gillette, all companies that use angular

[00:02:55] product fonts.

[00:02:57] In these cases, consumers either didn't seem to have a preference one way or the

[00:03:00] other, or the difference was tiny.

[00:03:03] So why does this rounded font effect happen?

[00:03:06] The researchers say rounded fonts make products seem friendly and engaging.

[00:03:11] There were some limitations to the study.

[00:03:13] In the first, it looked at how people viewed a brand or product.

[00:03:16] It didn't measure how a font choice affected sales.

[00:03:19] It also didn't study other ways of formatting fonts, like using bolds or italics.

[00:03:24] And the study didn't look at products targeting specific genders.

[00:03:27] This could result in some differences since masculine products often use sharp angular

[00:03:32] typefaces.

[00:03:33] The paper was published in the Psychology and Marketing Journal.

[00:03:37] It's called The Role of Typeface Curvature in Increasing Preference Toward Hidonic Products.

[00:03:43] Amazon's Ads Division is rolling out new ad formats for Prime Video.

[00:03:51] First, the lineup includes shoppable carousel ads, a sliding lineup of products that

[00:03:56] viewers can add to their cart using most remotes.

[00:03:59] These ads pause the content, giving viewers time to interact and then resume once

[00:04:03] they're done.

[00:04:04] Additional formats like interactive pause ads and brand trivia ads are also on their

[00:04:09] way across Prime Video TV shows, movies and live sports.

[00:04:13] Like they sound, pause ads activate when viewers press pause, displaying translucent

[00:04:18] ads overlaid with options like add to cart and learn more.

[00:04:23] Brand trivia ads engage users with fun facts and the chance to shop directly,

[00:04:27] gather more information or claim rewards like Amazon shopping credits all from their

[00:04:32] remote control.

[00:04:33] The ad tier of Prime Video, which was launched back in January, initially included

[00:04:38] just standard pre-roll and mid-roll ads.

[00:04:41] But Amazon's been trying to get further down the funnel than the basic brand

[00:04:45] awareness consideration ads.

[00:04:47] These shopping ads, which take place without needing to switch to another device,

[00:04:51] do help marketers get further down funnel.

[00:04:58] You may have noticed when Googling, well, anything in the last couple of years

[00:05:02] that it seems like your results end up coming from some unlisted page on a major

[00:05:06] news publisher site written as a sales listicle.

[00:05:11] To me, Forbes and People were the big chockers.

[00:05:14] Why do they both have pages riddled with affiliate links trying to sell 37

[00:05:18] different models of food processors?

[00:05:20] Well, last night, Google began enforcing its new site reputation abuse policy,

[00:05:26] which it designed partially to respond to these kinds of sites.

[00:05:29] Some people call this practice parasitic SEO, quoting Se Roundtable,

[00:05:34] It seems some large reputable sites were hit by this update, including CNN,

[00:05:39] USA Today, the LA Times, Fortune, The Daily Mail and many more.

[00:05:45] Google specifically targeted these sites using manual actions,

[00:05:49] where Google manually took actions on these sites and notified them of these

[00:05:52] actions with a message in Google Search Console.

[00:05:55] These are not algorithmic actions, unquote, which to me makes it sound like

[00:05:59] they had a list of these sites that they were ready to go after and then

[00:06:02] just pulled the switch yesterday.

[00:06:04] All that to say, if you have these kinds of pages on your site, it might be

[00:06:08] worth checking your Search Console a little more often over the next couple

[00:06:11] of days to make sure that you too are not caught in this net.

[00:06:19] Meta now lets most Instagram accounts cross post their content to threads,

[00:06:24] the company's Twitter challenger.

[00:06:26] This is opt in and you can disable the cross posting toggle anytime you like.

[00:06:30] This is, of course, a quick way to get your brand's content more eyeballs.

[00:06:34] But a couple of things to note if you're considering it.

[00:06:36] First, this applies only to images from the main feed.

[00:06:40] Your Instagram videos and reels won't cross over.

[00:06:44] Any hashtags you have on your Instagram post will be converted to

[00:06:47] plain text when it lands on threads.

[00:06:49] That's because threads doesn't really use hashtags in the traditional sense.

[00:06:53] It lets you apply a single topic tag to a post.

[00:06:57] If this sounds familiar, it's because earlier in the year,

[00:07:00] they started testing cross posting from Facebook to threads.

[00:07:04] This wasn't always seen as positive, as many brands and

[00:07:07] people consider the platforms for two different purposes.

[00:07:16] And finally, one of the telltale signs that a news anchor really didn't

[00:07:20] understand the Internet was when they introduced a story by mentioning

[00:07:24] the raw hit count of a Google search.

[00:07:28] You know, when they would say something like, Google says there are 92,612,000

[00:07:32] pages about anorexia.

[00:07:35] No, that's not what that meant.

[00:07:37] Still, that number was an interesting, if not particularly useful,

[00:07:41] metric to look at.

[00:07:43] Some people used it to see how many pages Google had indexed from

[00:07:46] a particular website, though Google reps have always said that's

[00:07:49] not a particularly accurate measure.

[00:07:51] But now you can't because Google has removed that number from

[00:07:55] the search results page.

[00:07:57] You can still get to it if you really need to for some reason.

[00:07:59] You will now find it buried under the tools menu at the top of the page.

[00:08:07] Don't forget this week only the premium podcast is on sale for 50% off.

[00:08:12] That means you'll get no ads whatsoever.

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[00:08:18] jump directly to a story you're interested in by just tapping

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[00:08:24] We've negotiated deals with marketing platforms to give you discounts

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[00:08:28] If you want to check it out, just go to today in digital.com slash

[00:08:32] half off.

[00:08:33] That's HALFF.

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[00:08:38] And if you've been around here long, you know we rarely put this

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[00:08:41] So again, the ad free premium podcast is on sale at today

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[00:08:47] of the show notes.

[00:08:48] Thanks for listening.

[00:08:49] See you tomorrow.

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