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How Facebook's Ad Review Process Actually Works
The clever way TikTok is helping marketers stay brand-safe... Is Google giving up on AMP?... Snapchat finally rolls out Brand Profiles... Another nail in Clubhouse's coffin... AND MORE.
How Facebook's Ad Review Process Actually Works
I think it's fair to say that Facebook's had a bumpy ride with digital marketers. Our ad campaigns get denied for seemingly no reason, and there's never really been transparency about how their review process works. Do I get one appeal? Is a human reading that or a bot? How many campaigns are denied by AI?
Today, Facebook finally did something we've all been asking for for years β they've detailed exactly how their Ad Campaign Review process works.
Normally, I don't read large passages of text verbatim, but I'm going to make an exception here because I expect every single person listening to this podcast runs Facebook ads.
So, here we go, quoting Facebook:
Our ad review system is designed to review all ads before they go live. This system relies primarily on automated technology to apply our Advertising Policies to the millions of ads that run across our apps. While our review is largely automated, we rely on our teams to build and train these systems, and in some cases, to manually review ads.
While ad review is typically completed within 24 hours, it may take longer, and ads can be reviewed again, including after theyβre live. Based on the results of the review, an ad is either rejected or allowed to run. If an ad is rejected, an advertiser can create a new ad β either with new ad creative or by revising the rejected ad β or request another review if they believe their ad was incorrectly rejected.
Unlike the initial ad review, we rely more heavily on teams of human reviewers to process re-review requests from advertisers but are continuously assessing ways to increase automation.
Beyond reviewing individual ads, we may also review and investigate advertiser behavior, like the number of previous ad rejections and the severity of the type of violation, including attempts to get around our ad review process. Advertisers who violate our policies may have actions taken against them, including losing the ability to run ads on Facebook.
Reviewing ads from millions of advertisers globally against our Advertising Policies is essential, but not without challenges. Our enforcement isnβt perfect, and both machines and people make mistakes. When we launch a new policy, it can take time for the various parts of our enforcement system, both automated technology and trained global teams, to learn how to correctly and consistently enforce the new standard.
How TikTok Does Brand Safety
So that's how Facebook ensures it's protected, but how do you ensure your brand is protected?
That's the role of Brand Safety inside these platforms. Often, like in the case of YouTube, they hand-pick some advertiser friendly channels and content, and if your brand is a little gunshy, you can run ads alongside that smaller but vetted collection of videos.
TikTok has a similar thing, and today we learned a bit more about how it works.
Turns out, they outsource this to a company called OpenSlate.
OpenSlate puts thousands of TikTok videos in front of human reviewers β people who work for the company. Those people then give each video a thumbs up or thumbs down, in terms of brand suitability.
Then, only those videos which have been given the greenlight are placed before and after your TikTok ad, thus ensuring that the content near your ad isn't sensational or offensive.
But that's just ad suitability. Brands still have to figure out the unique culture of the platform. This is partly why TikTok's B2B tagline is "Don't make ads. Make TikToks."
To that end, they have a small catalog of other campaigns in an Ads Library, and some in-app resources on good video design tips.
How to Use the Be.Live Platform with No Monthly Fees
One of the most popular livestreaming tools used by digital marketers today has a surprisingly good deal on right now.
Be.Live β which everybody I know who livestreams uses β now has a limited-time lifetime deal available.
Be.Live lets you livestream to Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn all at the same time. You can have up to four guests on. Unlimited viewers. Unlimited number of livestream events. Full brand customization.
Anyway, usually they charge between $40 and $60 a month, and you pay that whether you use it that month or not.
This week, though, they've created a one-time payment option of $60. Like literally you pay that once, then use it forever. You never pay a monthly fee.
It also comes with the ability to schedule a livestream, provide a countdown for viewers, it'll record your livestream and you can edit it right on their site to repurpose the video for other platforms.
I've never seen this go on sale like this, but if you do any livestreaming for your brand or clients β or you think you might in the future β it's worth picking this up.
Check it out at b.link/livedeal (affiliate link, but Iβve personally used this a lot and it really is best-in class).
It comes with a 60-day no-questions-asked refund policy.
Snapchat Brand Profiles Are Here (Almost)
Digital marketers are indeed jumping deeply into the vertical video format β but it's not just TikTok. The granddaddy β Snapchat β is more than holding its own.
This week, finally announcing the rollout of Brand Profiles. They're calling them "Public Profiles for Businesses." There are like Pages on Facebook, or Company Pages on LinkedIn β an account that's more reflective of its status as a company. That includes some e-commerce blocks like a product catalog.
Quoting the company:
With Public Profiles, you can connect with your customers organically by highlighting useful and engaging content, showcase existing Lens AR Experiences, and share shoppable products directly within the Snapchat app - all while delivering insights for your business. Snapchatters can also subscribe to your Profile to stay up-to-date with your content, new product launches and more.
These actually first launched last summer, but it was only in beta and only to a small handful of selected test accounts.
Snapchat says you'll be able to use their management tools through the Snapchat Business Manager, and they plan to give a discoverability lift to these account types.
It's definitely worth considering setting up your own brand profile.
Today's newsletter has a resource guide with creative best practices and recommendations for those marketers starting out with their first Snapchat brand profile.
Is Google Giving Up on AMP?
Here's one of those stories that seems at first like a small technical thing, but may in fact have broader ramifications.
First, the technical thing: Google says it will no longer require sites that publish news stories to have their pages available in AMP format in order to appear in Google's Top Stories section.
AMP β that's Accelerated Mobile Pages. Those are the mobile-only, very light-weight web pages that preload, so when you tap them they're nearly instantly on screen. Facebook uses something similar they call the Instant Experience.
In the past, Google would only put your news story in that highly trafficked part of search results if that story came in AMP format. But once the new Page Experience Update rolls out to Google Search in about a month, that won't be a requirement.
So what does this mean more broadly? Is it possible Google is giving up on the format? Maybe they think they've pushed enough of the web to be mobile-friendly that they feel they don't need it? We just don't know yet.
But it won't be a free-for-all β publishers that want to be in that coveted spot will still need to be a trustworthy, authoritative source on the topic, have decent inbound links and social shares, and a high article clickthrough rate.
Twitter Spaces Can Be Scheduled Now
Twitter keeps building out its Clubhouse clone, which it calls Spaces β now, users can schedule a Space in advance.
Hosts will get two reminders of their scheduled event - one 30 minutes before it starts, then a final one at start-time. Users can get reminders of upcoming Spaces they're interested in β there'll be a new 'Set Reminder' button on the Space's card.
But as solid as Spaces is, it's still missing one huge chunk.
...discoverability remains the biggest issue for the Spaces experience. It's also problematic on Clubhouse, as it has been in the past for live-streaming, so it's not a unique issue. But if Twitter wants to truly maximize the potential of the audio social format, it needs to ensure that users are able to find the Spaces that will be of most interest and relevance to them - because as more people begin broadcasting, the quality will dilute very quickly, which could turn users off the option.
Incidentally, Clubhouse downloads ticked up a tiny bit this week, probably owing to the availability of Android devices, but the trajectory still points downward, and many industry analysts are putting that app on deathwatch.
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