Digital platform news: International marketing snapshot
Here is Oban’s round-up of some of the digital platform news that caught our eye recently:
Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection presents a challenge
• At its Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple announced new features to give users more access to and control of their data.
• The announcement which received the most attention was Apple’s plan for Mail Privacy Protection – a new feature in the native Apple Mail app which stops senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about the user.
• In practice, this means consumers can block email senders like publishers and retailers from detecting when they open an email (amongst other things).
• This has big implications for email marketers since open rates have been the de facto standard for measuring campaign success and monetising emails through advertising.
• Most email advertising vendors work on a CPM or cost per impression model. If you can’t track email opens, then you can’t track ad views, which makes the CPM model redundant.
• This means email marketers will need to pivot to other metrics instead – such as click throughs and engagement (e.g. responding to calls to action). Email advertisers will need to focus on CPCs rather than CPM – on the positive side, this will give a clearer picture of audience likes, interests and behaviours.
• With a greater emphasis on engagement to demonstrate value, the quality and content of email campaigns will be more important than ever – including ensuring messages are properly tailored to local audiences in target markets.
TikTok launches new advertising features
• In July, TikTok launched Spark Ads, a native ad format which enables brands and businesses to boost their own organic posts and amplify relevant content shared by the community.
• Spark Ads enable brands to identify existing organic videos which might fit their campaign – such as a beauty influencer using a product in their organic clips – and then reach out to the creators to re-purpose the clips for paid campaigns.
• In addition, brands can boost their own organic posts, turning them into InFeed ads or TopView ads.
• Aside from the content benefits, promoted clips through Spark enable brands to use TikTok’s ad targeting tools, ensuring not just reach but also targeted focus, so you can hone in on your key markets.
• TikTok advises advertisers to ‘make TikToks not ads’, because the promotions which work best align with what users are already seeing in their feed.
• The value add for brands is that this ad format can be focused on generating new followers when swiping left or tapping on interactive elements. Non-spark ads are more focused on generating outbound traffic to landing pages, whereas this new format is more about growing your TikTok community.
Microsoft Ads announces Unified Smart Campaigns pilot
• In May, at Microsoft Advertising Elevate, Microsoft trailed a hub that would enable advertisers to set up multi-channel campaigns.
• The hub – called Unified Campaigns – allows advertisers to launch and manage paid social campaigns (and also manage organic social activity).
• Unified Campaigns applies to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google. To repeat: with Unified Campaigns, advertisers will have the option to opt in to Google search ads (though they must also opt in to the Microsoft Ads Search Network, and cannot run ads on Google Ads alone).
• Microsoft will automatically propose ads – with advertisers having the opportunity to review and edit the ads or create their own instead.
• All channels will be considered part of the same campaign, so there will be one budget for the campaign. Microsoft will manage the budget across channels.
• Microsoft will use artificial intelligence to manage keywords, bid management, text ads automation, and budget management across platforms to maximise ad performance. This is in direct competition with Google’s Performance Max campaigns which deliver a similar solution for advertisers.
LinkedIn launches Event Ads and boosted posts
• In response to the number of events which have taken place virtually in the last year or so, LinkedIn launched Event Ads in May.
• This new ad format appears in the LinkedIn feed and highlights important event details like date, time, and how to register. If a user’s mutual connections have expressed interest in attending, that will be shown as well.
• Marketers can see exactly how many LinkedIn users clicked on or saw an ad and then registered for an event, so they know how effective their campaign spend was at driving event registrations.
• LinkedIn also announced the launch of boosted posts. Brand can now increase their organic posts’ reach directly from their LinkedIn page. This feature, called Boost, creates a campaign in an ad account associated with your profile page.
Team Trump launches a Twitter alternative
• In June, former President Donald Trump’s team launched a new social media platform, billing it an alternative to Twitter.
• Called GETTR, the platform’s mission statement refers to “fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a new marketplace of ideas”. The name GETTR is inspired by the phrase, ‘Getting Together’.
• The platform is led by Jason Miller, President Trump’s former spokesperson. Trump’s personal involvement with the app is as yet unclear, including whether he will set up a profile on it – following his expulsion from Twitter earlier this year.
• GETTR posts can be 777 characters long, the app can host videos up to three minutes in length and is also capable of hosting livestreams. The interface is similar to Twitter’s.
• The app positions itself as an alternative for anyone who believes mainstream social media platforms are hostile to right wing ideas. It appeared to suffer a data breach shortly after launch.
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Remember: paid media platform and user behaviour vary by market. The key to successful international paid search and paid social is tailoring your messages and strategy to each target market. Oban’s network of Local In-Market Experts can help – to find out how, please get in touch.
Jules Bodoulé Sosso | Head of Paid Media
Oban International is the digital marketing agency specialising in international expansion. Our LIME (Local In-Market Expert) Network provides up to date cultural input and insights from over 80 markets around the world, helping clients realise the best marketing opportunities and avoid the costliest mistakes.