Is This the Real Ad? Is It Just Fantasy?

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In This Issue:

📊 Marketers and consumers clash over preferred ad platforms

📍 Google revamps Business Profile reinstatement process in the U.S.

💬 WhatsApp begins cross-platform messaging after EU forces its hand

🐦 X runs unlabeled ads; was it a test of more to come?

Are You Running Ads Where Consumers Want to See Them? (Spoiler: Probably Not)

So you’ve had your quarterly planning meeting, you know where you’re going to run your ads — but are they where your targets want to see your ads?

There’s often a disconnect between where people say they want to be reached, and where we marketers try to reach them.

Take YouTube ads, as an example. Ask consumers which ad formats they love, and YouTube ads are not going to be at the top of that list — mostly, because they’re interruptive. They get in the way.

Which is, of course, precisely why we filthy digital marketers choose YouTube ads.

And new numbers out this week from Kantar’s latest Media Reactions report solidifies this.

For the second year in a row, consumers said Amazon was their favourite place to see ads, because they found the ads to be “relevant and useful.”

But for marketers, Amazon Ads didn’t even show up in the top five. Our number one: YouTube, which got a 6% increase in trust among media buyers compared to last year.

In case you’re curious, here’s the top five:

As for television, it didn’t crack the top 5 for either group — a notable change from last year, where marketers placed it firmly as their #3 pick.

This year, it’s down to 12th place, with only 6% of marketers saying they’re planning to increase spending in those spaces.

Also down: the X formerly known as Twitter — 14% of marketers said they plan to reduce spend there next year.

The Kantar study polled 16,000 consumers and 900 senior marketers.

Read more at marketingbrew.com

Google’s New GBP Appeal Process: You’ve Got 60 Minutes. Aaaaaand… Go!

Heads-up if you manage your brand’s Google Business Profile: the company will soon be implementing a new workflow for getting a banned profile reinstated — and it comes with a time limit.

The old process was pretty convoluted and haphazard:

• You’d get a form from a support rep

• Ask them to review

• You’d sometimes get a generic reason for dismissing your appeal

• You could ask them to look again

• And sometimes even have it escalated a third time.

The new process is currently active in Europe.

It’s a kind of step-by-step wizard which should provide more information about why your account was shut off, but reports say when it asks you for documents to prove your case, you only get 60 minutes from that point to upload them.

Read more at seroundtable.com

WhatsApp Gets Ready to Welcome Competing Apps — But Not By Choice

Back in the day — in the early 2000s — the first app I’d install on any new computer was Trillian.

Trillian was an instant messaging app, but it didn’t have its own service. Rather, it pulled in chats from all the popular services of the day: ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and a handful of others. It meant you could chat with your friends on multiple networks without needing to have multiple chat clients open.

There is a sort of a similar app out there now — one that VCs and other tech reporters recommend — but it’s one of those monthly subscription apps.

When I tried it, it got my WhatsApp account banned. I appealed to Meta saying I barely even use my WhatsApp account, and some auto enforcement bot denied my appeal and now, since your WhatsApp account is tied to your phone number, I guess I’m banned from WhatsApp for the rest of my life. Or as long as I’ll have my phone number.

Luckily, though, it sounds like European regulators will do what the big platforms refuse to do: provide real cross-platform messaging.

Techies have noticed that there’s now code in the Android beta version of WhatsApp for a new section called “Third Party Chats.”

There is one notable messenger not on that list — Apple’s iMessage. The reason: The EU’s regulations only kick in when there are more than 45 million users of the service. Apple says it doesn’t have that many.

Read more at techcrunch.com

X Faces Unlabeled Ad Controversy

It’s not difficult to see why advertisers are abandoning X — from Elon Musk’s recent fights with Jewish advocacy groups to the reinstatement of accounts most marketers would consider not brand safe.

And now, X is being accused of hiding ad disclosures.

You might recall a couple of months ago we reported that X had changed the way it indicated a post was a paid ad — with the word “Ad” in light-grey text in the top-right of a post.

Honestly, I had to look for five seconds at the new design before I even saw it.

But last week, people noticed even that disclosure was gone.

There was literally nothing visible disclosing that a post had been paid for. The only way you’d know is if you clicked the more-details button, and you’d see those “Why am I seeing this ad” options.

Also not clear: If this was a test of a forthcoming design, a glitch, a deliberate attempt to deceive consumers, or just a way to rile people up and generate engagement on the platform.

Some tech policy analysts suggested the American trade regulator should step in — that the practice was obviously a violation of the FTC’s rules.

Many media organizations tried to get clarification on the change, but X no longer responds to media inquiries.

Read more at techcrunch.com

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