Payment with the (Literal) Blink of an Eye

YouTube pulls targeting options from conversion campaigns... Facebook kills off an ad placement... Netflix's ad tier details are finally out... Twitter's testing a way to keep you out of the feeds...

October 14, 2022

YouTube Removes Content Targeting from Conversion Ads

We start today with a small but important change to Google Ads that a few eagle-eyed marketers have noticed: a setting that's no longer available when you're setting up a Conversions campaign on YouTube. 

Until now, you could target based on audiences (like remarketing lists), or based on content (like what videos people watched, or what they searched for on Google).

But now, when you're setting up a conversions campaign, that content targeting option is gone. 

I asked Jyll Saskin Gales, one of the industry's top Google Ads trainers, about the change.

THE DEATH OF THE "AND"

JYLL: If you have both audiences and content targeting in a campaign, it treats those like an "AND" relationship. So it really limits the places you can serve, because the person must meet these audiences AND ALSO be consuming certain kinds of content. So by taking that content ability away, it allows Google to show your ads across many more videos that still fit your audience targeting, but may not fit the super-specific content targeting you wanted as well. And so of course, Google believes that by doing so you can drive more conversions.

TOD: Wait a minute, have I had this backwards all this time? I thought AND targeting was a good thing? Isn't the whole point of marketing to be really refined in on your audience? if I want to reach British grandmothers over 80, who really like Chuck Norris, that is an audience and content AND query. 

I like AND queries as a marketer, don't I?

JYLL: You can still use AND queries you can use your ANDs with multiple audiences. So people who are interested in knitting AND interested in Chuck Norris: fine.

But to also show on videos that have to do with Chuck Norris, that's the part that's been taken away. 

This is only for YouTube Conversion campaigns, which aren't a campaign type I use often. If you're running a YouTube campaign optimizing for views — which is my preference for impressions — you can still use content targeting. It's just for the conversion-focused campaigns that this feature is taken away. 

For those who run conversion campaigns, this shouldn't come as a surprise. There are a lot of different YouTube settings that you aren't allowed to change for conversion campaigns. For example, you must opt into YouTube partner sites in a YouTube conversion campaign. So showing ads on other video-playing websites, whereas for other kinds of YouTube campaigns, you can opt out of that.

TOD: And I guess most people consider YouTube to be more of a top-of-funnel approach then bottom.

JYLL: Exactly I'm not going to say it can't drive conversions, but I prefer to use it as an audience building tool and then you can remarket to people on YouTube. And of course Remarketing is an audience, so you could have a YouTube remarketing campaign run on conversions no problem — even with this change.

GOOGLE'S AI INFATUATION

TOD: I know I'm grumpy about this. But it just seems like yet another push toward the black box — the theory that "marketers don't know anything; trust the artificial intelligence and machine learning. It will control your ad campaign."

JYLL: That definitely fits that Google ethos, which I experienced when I worked at Google. There's a belief there that given the time and the data, machine learning knows best. 

And just like Performance Max forces you onto inventory you may not have chosen, like the Display Network, similarly, a YouTube Conversion campaign can now show across any inventory on YouTube or partner sites, not just limited to some super-specific channels or topics the advertiser may have chosen.

PMAX AND B2B/LEAD GEN

TOD: If I'm correct, generally you're bullish on Performance Max campaigns, aren't you?

JYLL: For e-commerce? Yes. For lead gen, there are a lot of challenges.

TOD: I have heard that before — that B2B applications and Performance Max are not necessarily a good match.

JYLL: What is not working very well with Performance Max right now is when you have a conversion action that requires someone to become a lead — get partway down your funnel — but not complete the purchase. When you have a complete conversion tracking information, Performance Max can work wonders, but without it there are a lot of spam problems. So because of that, I've seen a lot of B2B and lead gen advertisers have poor results with PMax.

Jyll's Inside Google Ads program will be doing a full session in a week all about B2B strategies for Google Ads.

RIP Facebook Instant articles 

Image: Meta

Google isn't the only one paring down options in their Ads Manager — you will notice one fewer ad placement on Meta's platform soon: Instant Articles.

This is their take on the AMP format, a quick-loading mobile page that had your brand's content, but was hosted on Facebook's servers. 

This was introduced back in 2015 to lure news publishers to the platform. Originally built to solve slow loading times, it and its AMP cousin have fallen out of favour recently. Google discontinued it a year or so ago.

This is somewhat to do with privacy, and somewhat about the fact that most web sites are perfectly capable of displaying a mobile-friendly look now.

Sources talking to Axios say the tech giant will discontinue Instant Articles support in mid-April 2023.

🤔 Why? 

According to a Meta spokesperson, the format is underutilized. 

Currently less than 3% of what people around the world see in Facebook’s Feed are posts with links to news articles. And as we said earlier this year, as a business it doesn’t make sense to over invest in areas that don't align with user preferences.

Netflix Ads Are (Almost) Here

It's finally happening. After years of its anti-advertising stance, Netflix finally broke. Yesterday, the streaming giant officially announced its ad-supported tier will launch next month cutting it close to the holiday season. 

The new “Basic with Ads” plan will be available on November 3 in 12 markets including the U.S. for $6.99 a month. That's cheaper than Disney+ and Hulu, whose ad tiers will cost $7.99 per month. 

🧰 Verification Tools & Audience Measurement 

The company detailed partnerships to help brands track campaign metrics, including:

  • DoubleVerify

  • Integral Ad Science 

  • Nielsen  

The Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings service will be used in the U.S. sometime next year and eventually be reported through Nielsen ONE Ads. According to executives, the other tools will be available in the first quarter of 2023. 

👉 Ad Format

At launch, ads will be 15- and 30-seconds and will play as pre- and mid-roll units. The tier will serve on average 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour, and in exchange for watching ads, consumers will have access to a variety of programming. Not Netflix's full catalogue though – A limited number of movies and TV shows won't be available due to licensing restrictions. 

Another downfall: video quality is capped at 720p VS. 1080p. 

🔒 Advertiser Controls 

As for advertising controls, Netflix will offer “broad targeting capabilities” based on country, and genre. Sign-ups for the ad-supported tier, however, must provide their date of birth and gender, indicating future targeting options.

Advertisers will also be able to prevent their ads from appearing on content that is inconsistent with their brand, such as: 

  • Sex 

  • Nudity

  • Violence 

💥 Nearly Sold Out 

If you're looking to incorporate Netflix into your media budget, get in line. The company says it has "nearly sold out" of ad inventory. Netflix's CPO noted that the platform is maintaining a light ad load, along with “tight frequency caps.”

💸 How Much is it Gonna Cost? 

Executives declined to share ad rates and suggested that the relatively barebones features reflect the tier getting up and running in just six months.  

Image: Netflix & Cartoon Crave 

Twitter: "Don't @ Me"

Twitter is working on a "Don't @ Me" feature which lets you control who can mention your brand. 

The platform is currently testing two audience control options for your tweets. 

🛑 Stop Mentions 

The first is a new "Allow others to mention you" toggle that lets you stop people from mentioning your @handle entirely.

It's likely this toggle will deactivate any mention of your handle, similar to Twitter’s new ‘Unmention’ option. With Unmention your handle link is deactivated within a thread once you leave the conversation. The user can still mention your handle, but it will not link back to your profile, and you will not be notified.

Presumably, if you use the new toggle to prevent others from mentioning you entirely, users can still @ your handle in tweets, but it would no longer be an active mention.

⚠️ Limit Mentions 

Finally, the second option Twitter is experimenting with lets you limit mentions to only those who follow your brand of business.

Apple: Pay with Your Eyes

First, it was Touch ID, then Face ID. Next up: Eye ID. 

Apple’s AR headset will reportedly use iris scanning tech for logins and payments, The Verge reports. In other words, consumers will be able to pay for your products in the blink of an eye. 

Sources say the eye scanning makes it easier for multiple people to use the headset with their own accounts.

🥊 Apple VS Meta

As The Verge pointed out, it would also help Apple differentiate itself from its main competitor: the Meta Quest Pro. The Quest Pro features inward-facing cameras that track eye and face motion, but it does not use them for authentication (at least not yet). Apple is also reportedly planning to use downward-facing cameras to capture users' legs, something that Meta is struggling with.

⚡ Lightning Round

METAVERSE: Yesterday, we reported how proud Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was that his spanky new VR headset could show your legs. Now, it seems, that may have been a sliiiiiiiight exaggeration. A Meta spokesperson today confirmed the legs were not, actually, rendered in real-time, but rather a pre-made preview that came from motion capture. It's not clear if Meta actually has a working demo of the feature… suggesting there is a lot of leg work to be done.

FACEBOOK appears to be working on a new 'Invite Collaborator' Reels option which would let you invite another business or influencer to your brand's Reel – Once posted the video content would show up on both your brand profile and the collaborator. This feature is already available on Instagram.

CAMPAIGNS: Cards Against Humanity's latest marketing stunt wants you to dig through a jar of Clam-O-Maise for cards. Exclusively sold at Target, this "tangy mayonnaise made with real clams" contains 30 cards with a chance to win prizes such as merch, pearls, a Toyota Camry and more. I'm from Canada where people voluntarily drink clam juice for brunch, so this actually doesn't sound so bad.

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