Weekly Digital Breakdown – 6.19.20
Weekly Digital Breakdown
Jun 19 2020
YouTube Improves Shoppability
YouTube is expanding its TrueView for action ad capabilities by adding product selection. Ecommerce advertisers can now make their ads more shoppable by adding product images under ads to drive consideration and purchases. Brands will need to sync their video ads to their Google Merchant Center feed so that product selection is relevant and shows what is currently in stock with accurate pricing.
Aerie was one of the first brands to test the new ad capabilities in Spring 2020. The company ran targeted ads that resulted in a 25% higher return on ad spend than prior year, despite the troubled economy.
Google continues to focus on ways to boost sales for ecommerce in what appears to be an effort to compete with Facebook and Amazon. The updated YouTube shopping capabilities are just the next step following their move to allow businesses to promote free Google Shopping listings and the enhancement of touchless payments for smart speakers.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/18/youtube-announces-a-new-shoppable-ad-format/
Facebook Allows Users to Disable Political Ads
Facebook continues to find themselves in the center of the political arena but this time they are changing the rules. Over the next few weeks, Facebook and Instagram users in the US will have the ability to “turn off all social issues, electoral or political ads from candidates, Super PACs or other organizations that have the ‘Paid for by’ political disclaimer on them,” according to their recent blog post.
The company is also working to make political ads more transparent to users on the sites. The paid political disclaimer will now appear on any political or issue ad that is shared by a user in an effort to eliminate confusion.
The changes come as Facebook launches the largest voting information campaign in US history which aims to help 4 million people register to vote. These efforts are looking to double the estimated 2 million people Facebook helped register to vote in the past two presidential elections. Much of the initiative was driven by the recent changes to voting processes due to COVID-19 and people looking for resources on voting for the upcoming elections.
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/facebook-instagram-disable-political-ads-1234637910/
Brands Turn to Text to Engage Customers
As retailers are continuing to look for ways to stand out in a crowded market, many are missing out on what consumers say they want most, text messages. A recent survey showed more than 50% of consumers want to receive texts from their favorite brands, specifically promotional information and discount codes.
Text messages are a high impact, low cost that convert. Studies show that more than 90% of text messages are open by recipients and done so quickly versus emails that can often get overlooked. With most people regularly communicating via text, the messages are more likely to catch a user’s attention.
Many well known brands are already using text for promotions, shipping notifications, cart abandonment and customer service needs but they are the minority. These companies are seeing higher propensity to purchase from those who are receiving texts with more than two-thirds making a purchase as a response to receiving a message.
