[Ep122] - Google ‘Helpful Content’ Algorithm Will Target Sites With Low Quality Content

#TWIMshow - This Week in Marketing

1. Snapchat+ Reaches 1 Million Subscribers & Adds New Features - Snapchat+ launch was covered in Episode#115. And now it seems that in 6-weeks, Snapchat+ has crossed 1 Million subscribers. FYI: Snapchat+ is a premium membership tier available for $3.99 per month that grants access to exclusive features. At launch time, it had the following features:

• A Snapchat+ badge.
• “Ghost trails,” which is the ability to see where your friends were in the past 24 hours.
• The ability to see who rewatched your snaps.
• The option to designate a “best friend” and pin them to the top of your feed.
• Various exclusive icons and themes.

And now here are the new features that Snapchat has added:

• Priority story replies: Your replies will be more visible to influencers and celebrities.
• Post-view emoji: Show people a specific emoji after they view your snaps.
• Bitmoji backgrounds: More options when selecting a background for your bitmoji.
• App icons: Change the Snapchat icon on your Home Screen to one of several new designs.

Snapchat+ seems to have better features than the comparable subscription service Twitter Blue. And Twitter Blue is about a $1 more per month ($4.99). While Twitter hasn’t revealed how many premium subscribers it has. However, there’s evidence suggesting the service isn’t doing well. According to Twitter’s Q2 2022 earnings report, revenue from ‘subscriptions and other’ sources is down 36% year-over-year.

2. Pinterest Announces “Hosted Checkout” For Shopify Merchants - Pinterest claims that the Hosted Checkout shopping experience removes multiple steps from the checkout process, making it simpler than ever for people to shop on Pinterest—and for merchants to sell. According to them “This new purchasing process removes friction from the shopping process—making it simpler and faster for people to complete the purchase.”

Prior to hosted checkout, when shoppers wanted to shop from a product Pin, they has to click the Pin, visited the retailer’s own site and go through extra steps to add products to their cart, enter payment and shipping details, etc.

With hosted checkout, shoppers will pick the exact product they want—think colors or sizing. Then, they tap “Buy” to enter the hosted checkout experience via Shopify where they will enter details like shipping and payment.

In my opinion, it does eliminate couple of steps in the checkout process. The hidden benefits of this integration are:

a.) The time delay from transferring a shopper from Pinterest to Shopify store is eliminated

b.) Better conversion data that would otherwise be lost due to Apple’s ATT update.

3. 3 New Types Of Shopping Ads On TikTok - Advertisers can now run shopping ads on TikTok with three different formats to choose from. They are:

• Video shopping ads - Video shopping ads allow advertisers to create shoppable videos for display on the For You page. This ad type combines features from existing TikTok ads — collection ads and dynamic showcase ads. Video shopping ads will dynamically combine video creative and product cards into different variations. The format can be either product-specific to drive sales or a broader brand message to drive consideration. As TikTok gathers data, it will optimize a campaign’s performance by dynamically choosing the top converting combinations. When a user taps on the ad, TikTok will create an in-app landing page to better determine a user’s intent to buy. These pages let shoppers learn more about products and redirect users to a retailer’s site when they’re ready to purchase. Collection ads and dynamic showcase ads will remain available until the end of the year, then TikTok plans to phase them out in favor of video shopping ads.
• Catalog listing ads - Catalog listing ads allow advertisers to promote product catalogs at scale with new placements across TikTok. Something advertisers may appreciate about catalog listing ads is that they’re not required to create video content. The ads allow brands to get in front of the TikTok audience without making videos, which is a first. Instead of video, catalog listing ads pull product images from a retailer’s catalog and promotes them in shoppable placements. Users discover the ads through branded content on the For You page.
• Live shopping ads - Live shopping ads are specifically designed to promote live shopping streams. The ads help direct people from the For You page to a live shopping event. TikTok says these ads can boost traffic to a live shopping event by getting it in front of people who are ready to buy.

The new advertising formats are accessible in TikTok Ads manager through buying objective ‘Product Sales.’

Advertisers can utilize these new shopping ads with or without an e-commerce store on TikTok. Access to shopping ads requires advertisers to reach “level one” status by integrating advanced signals and linking their product catalogs. TikTok has a PDF guide that outlines the whole process. Advertisers are not required to utilize TikTok Shop, an in-app ecommerce solution, to run shopping ads. Although TikTok Shop can be used with shopping ads, advertisers can direct shoppers to an external site.

4. TikTok Recommends You To Use ‘Instant Page’ With Your Ad - Back in Jan 22, we covered “Instant Page” in Episode#93 after it was first announced by TikTok. TikTok “Instant Page” enables brands to connect their TikTok ads through to a lightweight, native landing page, built within TikTok itself, that loads up to 11x faster than standard mobile pages. With “Instant Page”, TikTok users can view videos and images, swipe through carousels, or even click on buttons to explore another destination, all without leaving TikTok itself.

Now in a new tips post, TikTok also says that “Instant Page” can be great for providing additional contextual detail and insight, in order to boost campaign performance.

“Instant Page is especially useful for informing, educating, and engaging users on complex topics where ad creatives can’t go into the necessary detail e.g. for finance brands. With added vital information about the product and service clearly listed on the Instant Page, it provides prospective users with the necessary consideration points in order to make more sound judgments before purchasing. This, in turn, shortens their decision-making time.

Campaign results from our platform prove this again and again. Campaigns that use an Instant Page reduce their cost per acquisition up to 75%, compared to campaigns that don’t use the feature. Not only that, these campaigns also achieve a 25% to 35% higher click-through rate on call to action buttons within the Instant Page. That means out of every three or four people who view an advertiser’s Instant Page, at least one person will engage with the CTA button.”

If you are considering “Instant Page” as a potential addition for your ads, TikTok has also shared some key best practice tips and notes:

• Create an “Instant Page” using one of their many available templates, or customize your own from the ground up
• Set up several different Instant Pages to test their varied ef...