Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Searching Social
Google is negotiating potential deals with the parent companies of TikTok and Instagram, ByteDance and Facebook, respectively, to index posts on those platforms in Google search results, The Information reports. Right now, social video search responses are almost entirely sourced from YouTube. Sometimes, those YouTube videos are fuzzy reproductions of TikToks or Stories posts, even when users are explicitly searching for content from TikTok or Instagram. The user experience is bad, and it’s untenable considering Google’s antitrust scrutiny. Google will fork over a sizable chunk of change. It has a similar deal with Twitter, which made $509 million from data licensing and other non-ad revenue in 2020, though its deal terms are not disclosed. ByteDance and Facebook are reluctant to expose valuable data to Google’s scraper algo. But TikTok stars and Instagram influencers would like a potential deal, regardless of the tensions between the parent companies. “You post something on Instagram and two days later it’s forgotten about,” says Katerina Horwitz, who co-runs a travel and lifestyle account. “If it’s searchable, the content can live for longer. People can just find it later if you have the right keywords.”
Streaming Social
Social media may be a major beneficiary of the streaming TV wars. Free, ad-supported platforms are a go-to place to find new subscribers, since major broadcasters and tech companies started investing heavily in CTV numbers, even acquiring subscribers at a loss, because they value the potential market share over the current profitability. The top three companies in terms of share of voice on social media in the past 90 days are Disney+, HBO Max and Hulu, according to the social media analytics company BrandTotal. The mix isn’t consistent. Hulu is all-in on YouTube, where it placed 94% of all social impressions in the period. Netflix held the top spot on Instagram, while Paramount was the leading Facebook advertiser in terms of share of voice. MediaPost has more.
Smashing Social
Apple’s privacy changes have hit Facebook’s measurement capabilities hard. The company acknowledged this week it may be underreporting iOS conversions (sales and app installs) by 15% or more. That’s no surprise, considering the company said in July it would feel the full impact of Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency changes – and a revenue slowdown – beginning in Q3. Facebook product marketing VP Graham Mudd urged advertisers in a blog post this week to update their practices following Apple’s privacy changes. But marketers are struggling with Facebook’s reporting and can’t invest without performance data, Marketing Brew reports. For one thing, Apple’s data privacy policies have increased acquisition costs, said Simon Wool, a performance manager at the baby food brand Little Spoon. And even if the company doubled its budget, volume would increase just 30%. Advertisers must buy more spots to reach the same sales numbers. They can’t target as effectively or identify conversions, which means they’re overworking to reach the same number of sales or installs, and are over-advertising because they can no longer blacklist customers after a purchase.
But Wait, There’s More!
FTC Chair Lina Khan outlines plans for antitrust enforcement. [CNBC]
Google: Bring performance and privacy together with Server-Side Tagging. [blog]
Digital advertising headwinds to fuel the takeoff of connected TV. [The Drum]
The loss of third-party cookies might collapse mid-tier media companies. [Digiday]
Amazon restricts access to CTV data, including IP addresses. [Ad Age]
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions notifies customers of measurement errors. [Adweek]
You’re Hired
Progressive hires Remi Kent as CMO. [WSJ]
Making Science makes six new executive hires. [release]
AMP Agency appoints Michael Mish as president. [Adweek]
