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#NFR 81 - Amazon Vs Facebook Ads, Deadly Tik Tok Trend & Android Privacy Overhaul

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Growth Classics
February 15, 2023

Never Fully Read

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🤖 eCommerce news:

“The Privacy Sandbox on Android is a set of tools that aim to create a new standard for how advertisers and websites access information about consumers without compromising user privacy. Android devices are currently assigned a unique user-resettable “Android Advertising ID,” which is used to track user behavior and build a personal advertising profile that can be used by app developers.”

“Starting Tuesday, when you tap the “Why am I seeing this ad?” message on an ad, you’ll see the following information, according to a blog post from Meta’s Pedro PavĂłn: Information summarized into topics about how your activity both on and off our technologies — such as liking a post on a friend’s Facebook page or interacting with your favorite sports website — may inform the machine learning models we use to shape and deliver the ads you see.  New examples and illustrations explaining how our machine learning models connect various topics to show you relevant ads.   More ways to find our ads controls. You will now be able to access Ads Preferences from additional pages in the “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool.”

“As explained by YouTube: “In a time of multiple screens and countless ways to stay entertained, it can be challenging to get your audience’s attention. But even with so much content available at any time, people are drawn to moments they can experience together: a new movie release, a big game, a product launch, a holiday. And these are key opportunities to connect with a brand. Marketers, you know this well: you center advertising campaigns around the tentpole moments most likely to inspire your audience, shift perceptions or influence a purchase decision.” YouTube’s Cost-Per-Hour Masthead enables brands to own the most prominent placement in the app during the hour(s) leading up to, during or after priority moments.”

“Viewers will purchase stars and use them to send you gifts on Instagram. Instagram will then provide you with a revenue share from your reels that received gifts on a monthly basis equal to $.01 USD for every star received from fans.” One cent per Star. Which doesn’t sound amazing, but still it’s something.That also equates to around a 40% split to creators, based on the current Stars purchase price.”

“while revenue share has always been a challenge for the app – it’s more difficult to directly monetize short-form video, as you can’t insert pre or mid-roll ads – TikTok is working on a new solution, with The Information reporting that the platform will soon launch a new ‘Creator Fund 2.0’ program, which will provide more monetization opportunities for the app’s top stars, while it’s also developing a program that will enable creators to paywall longer videos in the app.”

“It seems that live shopping, which has been huge in Asian markets, and had represented a key hope for revenue growth for western social apps, is still not catching on the way many had hoped. Today, TechCrunch has reported that Meta is abandoning its live shopping push on Instagram, after pulling out of live shopping on Facebook in August last year.As per TechCrunch: “Starting on March 16, 2023, Instagram users will no longer be able to tag products while livestreaming - a capability that has been broadly available to U.S. businesses and creators since 2020.”

“Apparently, based on a mention in the back-end code of the app, TweetDeck, Twitter’s own tweet management platform, will soon become a Twitter Blue exclusive feature, meaning that only paying Twitter users will be able to access the app.”

“In a post on the Google Search Central blog, Google explains that: “When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years. Using automation- including AI - to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies. This said, it’s important to recognize that not all use of automation, including AI generation, is spam. Automation has long been used to generate helpful content, such as sports scores, weather forecasts, and transcripts. AI has the ability to power new levels of expression and creativity, and to serve as a critical tool to help people create great content for the web.”

“→ Facebook’s more limited targeted capabilities coupled with Amazon’s investment in ads products is leading a growing number of brands to shift their ad budgets. → Amazon’s ad business, which has catapulted to third among digital ad companies, grew 19% in the fourth quarter, while Facebook parent Meta reported its third straight drop in revenue. → “We are actively moving our budgets away and decreasing the amount of money that we are spending with Meta,” said Peter Marler, CEO of Robin Golf.”

“Some 625 of the top 1,000 Twitter advertisers, including major brands such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Jeep, Wells Fargo and Merck, had pulled their ad dollars as of January, according to estimates from Pathmatics, based on data running through January 25.”

📈 Top trends:

"Over 8 million vehicles are eligible for the free anti-theft software upgrade after the so-called ‘Kia Challenge’ on social media resulted in thousands of car thefts.

The so-called “Kia Challenge” on the social media platform has led to hundreds of car thefts nationwide, including at least 14 reported crashes and eight fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Thieves known as “the Kia Boyz” would post instructional videos about how to bypass the vehicles’ security system using tools as simple as a USB cable.

The thefts are reportedly easy to pull off because many 2015-2019 Hyundai and Kia vehicles lack electronic immobilizers that prevent thieves from simply breaking in and bypassing the ignition. The feature is standard equipment on nearly all vehicles from the same period made by other manufacturers."

Google also says that:

  • ’Flower bouquet’ is one of the most popular search terms around Valentine’s Day, but ‘beef jerky bouquet’ is also popular (?)

  • Searches for â€˜Galentine’s Instagram captions’ more than doubled in early February

  • ‘Heart-shaped pizza’, ‘heart-shaped cake’ and ‘heart-shaped pasta’ are the most searched foods, while ‘heart-shaped taco platter near me’ queries rose more than 300% in early February.

  • ‘When to break up’ gets three times more searches than ‘when to propose’ around Valentine’s Day

"Airbnb is raking in the dough. The company reported a record Q4 today, beating its previous benchmark both in terms of revenue and net income.

In Q4, Airbnb’s revenue grew 24% year-over-year to $1.9 billion, according to the company, driven by an uptick in stays and Experiences, Airbnb’s curated selection of tours and events. Nights and Experiences booked increased 20% in Q4 2022 compared to a year ago, the company said, while guests stayed at locations longer. Gross nights booked in Q4 2022 for more than a week — a profitable customer segment — were 40% higher than in Q4 2019."

🙉 Stand out creators:

This week I want to shout out...

James and Fuhad of the ShXtsNgigs podcast.

Link to listen here

One of the funniest shows out there.

They were two of the earliest podcasters to do split screen video clips on TikTok, racking up millions of views at a time.

They were two creators who popularised many trends including “Icks” where they read out funny turn off’s from Twitter.

Some of the highlights include:

“When he’s waiting for the lifeguard to let him down the slide”

“When he runs at a pigeon and it doesn’t move”

"When he tries to pull into a lane and no one let's him"

Link to watch here

They've built this incredible audience reaching the top of the pile on Spotify

Working with brands such as Durex, Gymshark & Trainline

Some of the other amazing Q&A’s include:

“What’s a secret that the group chat doesn’t even know?”

“When was the moment you realised you were the problem?”

“How did you find out you were the side piece?”

“What’s the wildest excuse you’ve used for not sleeping with someone?”

“What was the moment you realised you need to get your life in order

Why do I think they are winning?

  • They’ve mastered the art of a good hook

  • Great use of impactful & trending sounds

  • Funny & charismatic. Literally hilarious!

  • Incredible use of vocal tonality and intonations

  • They are tapped into exactly what’s trending and going on in culture

  • Moving to high quality audio and production ◦ Great transitions, edits and zooms

  • No fluff, just the juiciest reacts and commentary

  • Dedicated to their community on Patreon

  • Channel diversification

🐦 Twitter thread of the week:

🤝 Hot jobs:

“We are looking to stand out. There’s nothing like IGB on the market yet, and this role is an excellent opportunity to develop a strong and well-loved brand that will be a defence against new competitors when they come. We want to be bolder with the brand, and are looking for the right person to develop and roll out our new brand identity, in collaboration with the right creative partners.

You will be responsible for the overall strategic direction of the IGB brand, and ensuring consistency of brand standards across all touchpoints. This will involve management of creative agency relationships, as well as internal teams at IGB responsible for campaigns and social media.”

“Minimum Requirements:

  1. Keen interest in Crypto, Blockchain, Defi, NFTs, and Metaverse is required.

  2. Fluency in English is mandatory.

  3. This position will be responsible for all aspects of the Cryptocurrency Marketing/Brand Strategy and Department.

  4. Advertising Agencies' and Crypto Companies' experience are highly preferred.

Who We Are

Unidef is a global organization consisting of a global network of member organizations working together to accelerate the world’s transition to decentralization through brands and actions, and we couldn’t do this without hiring the best people.

What We Do

Unidef Uranium is an experiment in Web3 at scale. It is a band of builders, communities, organizations, and ecosystems united by a mutually beneficial pact to accelerate the world’s transition to decentralization.”

“We are looking for a Head of Marketing who’ll lead all our marketing activities from social media and digital campaigns to advertising and creative projects. Head of Marketing responsibilities include developing plans to help establish our brand, allocating resources to different projects and setting short-term and long-term department goals. If you’re a skilled Marketing strategist, able to inspire your team members, we’d like to meet you. Ultimately, you will run our Marketing department in ways that promote higher user growth, user retention, profitability and competitiveness.”

😂 Meme of the week:

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