Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Doomsday or Dealsday?
Ben Kruger, Google’s former marketing emissary to DTC brands, left the big G earlier this year and has been chronicling his experience as an ecommerce dropshipper. Essentially, he’s gone from consulting with advertisers to showing how he uses automated tools to mine internet traffic for gold.
His store sells one item: a mic designed for livestreamers, gamers and the like.
In his latest blog article, he discusses some advertising tactics leading up to Black Friday.
As a Google rep, Kruger says he “always pushed the concept of lowering efficiency in exchange for volume to build up a funnel of potential customers” who are retargeted with deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
For the two months leading up to Thanksgiving, he relaxed his ROAS standards, breaking even on about $140,000 in paid media. The lower efficiency meant greater volume. And people who clicked an ad but didn’t convert became the remarketing pool.
He’s pushing even harder in December, though he’s not exactly optimistic for next year, despite the strong month so far.
“The doomsday side of me thinks this is the last real month to push sales before a consumer-economic collapse.”
Ready For Reddit
News publishers are giving Reddit a second look (or third, if not fourth).
Reddit is a natural option for any company that’s had strong paid or organic Twitter/X engagement. It’s text-based, for one, and has an authentic vibe.
Reddit is also a web player, whereas Instagram and TikTok are true mobile denizens. That’s a huge incentive for link-hungry publishers – social app links open to in-app browsers (yuck) but Twitter or Reddit desktop versions send real site traffic.
Social media managers also need something to do. A few years ago, the focus was TikTok. But TikTok isn’t amenable to news. Plus, video production is far costlier than posting text quips.
But can Reddit seize the opportunity?
Since Reddit is built on subreddits overseen by moderators who aren’t in the company’s pay or service, it’s hard to gain access and is risky for the uninitiated.
Business Insider, for instance, is posting on Reddit more and recently linked a story about a female founder’s business going bankrupt to a “snark” subreddit, The Washington Post reports. Except snark is a misnomer since these types of subreddits are best known for identifying a certain subject – in this case, women who post online – to harass or mock.
Friday Night Light (On Viewers)
The first-ever NFL Black Friday game, which was, of course, on Amazon Prime Video, badly underperformed ratings expectations. But brands are waiting on attribution before throwing their challenge flags, Ad Age reports.
Advertisers expected 20 million viewers, but the game averaged about 10 million according to Nielsen, Amazon’s official measurement partner, or about 11 million according to Amazon (which, lol).
Last year, Amazon dished out make-goods when its Thursday Night Football (TNF) audiences missed estimates. But to claim the make-good, a brand had to spend $1.5 million on TNF ads over the course of the season. And since Amazon’s TNF games have drawn larger audiences than expected lately, advertisers with season-long deals likely won’t qualify for make-goods despite low ratings on some games.
Despite missing on viewership, early closed-loop campaign results are encouraging: Black Friday viewers on Prime were 78% more likely to search for brands advertised during the game compared to advertisers who aired during Thanksgiving games the day before, according to measurement platform EDO. And the game drew Amazon’s highest engagement of the season with interactive video and QR codes, says Danielle Carney, Amazon Ads’ head of NFL sales.
But Wait, There’s More!
Simon Owens: How Living Cozy leveraged product reviews to build a successful ecommerce business. [Media Newsletter]
Reddit launches new Conversation Placement ad formats. [Search Engine Land]
A Montana judge has blocked the state’s TikTok ban. [Politico]
Publishers disguising AI-generated content risk commercial and reputational blowback. [Adweek]
You’re Hired!
Adweek reshapes the executive team, with former People GM Zoë Ruderman as chief content officer and Condé Nast vet Drew Schutte as CRO. [release]
Fox ad exec Dan Callahan joins Charter’s Spectrum Reach as group VP of national sales. [NextTV]
Tubi hires David Salmon as EVP and managing director of international. [Variety]
