It’s been a busy week in Digi Marketing-land, with plenty going on at TikTok, while we saw another quarter of ‘record’ growth at LinkedIn – but should we believe everything we hear?

Meanwhile, Google Ads will soon be stepping in and pausing lower volume keywords, while a case bubbling up in the US might redefine how social media platforms are held accountable. Let’s dive in…

All go at TikTok

This newsletter feels like a weekly missive from TikTok plus An Other. Well, they didn’t disappoint; in the wonderful world of TT we saw;

• An agreement was finally struck with Universal Music (remember that?), meaning Universal artists can now be utilised by platform users once again. The answer, as ever, involved more money changing hands.
• TikTok owners Bytedance have reportedly said they are happy to ditch the US altogether rather than sell up, if the company can’t win its case to avoid a spin off. It feels surprising they’d want to leave money on the table (workarounds can often somehow be found) and it does seem like posturing, but fighting talk to say the least.
• Not exactly platform news, but adjacent to this; I found this piece on the emergence of superstar therapists on TikTok fascinating.

LinkedIn seeing record levels of engagement

For around the 25th quarter in a row (no joke, this is enjoyable, and contains some healthy scepticism), LinkedIn has declared record growth levels. In all honesty this is actually believable – it does feel like the platform has gone from strength to strength over the past 3-4 years, with an influx of creators, content types and advertisers.

No real key learnings or headlines beyond the fact that if you/your brand aren’t already upping your LinkedIn game, you really should be looking at your options. More and more consumer brands are starting to see the potential of the targeting capabilities on there. Anecdotally I’m seeing content on there fly at the moment for a couple of clients and peers. Although for balance, it is worth saying that you shouldn’t believe everything you hear from LI.

Google Ads will automatically pause low activity keywords from June

One for the SEM marketers out there, but potentially an important one – Google will start to automatically pause low volume/activity keywords from June onwards. Make sure you keep a close eye on your keyword lists – you might find those long tail, hype-specific and niche terms you have on there suddenly get paused unceremoniously.

Do social media users have the right to control what they see in their feeds?

An interesting question, and one currently being explored via a lawsuit against Meta. This lawsuit is challenging the protections traditionally afforded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the USA. 

This law has historically shielded platforms from liability for user-generated content. The case, notably involving claims that Meta’s ad tools facilitated discrimination in housing ads, could redefine how platforms are held accountable.

This demonstrates the (increasing) importance of ethical ad targeting and is a sign of potential shifts in compliance and liability risks on digital platforms​. One to keep an eye on.

Further Reading

LinkedIn shared an infographic showcasing the most in-demand marketing skills from the platform. Encouragingly for many reading this newsletter, “social media marketing” is right up there.

Pinterest doesn’t attract much drama or attention; it just sits there doing its thing and seemingly seeing solid, sturdy levels of user growth.

Having talked up its AI tools, studies and stories are now showing that Meta’s Advantage+ ‘set and forget’ tools are burning through budget, and in some cases even exceeding budget caps. Alarming and demonstrative of why you need to keep a close eye on your online spend.

Alphabet’s Q1 revenue was up 15%, something it attributes to Gemini AI. This, unsurprisingly, is the strategic focus and integrating it into search will be a key theme of the next 12 months and beyond.

That’s it for another busy week – if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate if you shared this with your friends and colleagues. 

If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!

After a few quiet weeks, we’ve had a very interesting seven days on the business side of social media platforms, with chaotic weeks for both Meta and TikTok. So, without further ado…

US Congress approves possible TikTok ban

After several months of umming and ahhing, the news that Bytedance has been fearing has been confirmed; it needs to sell TikTok out of Chinese ownership or face losing access to one of the world’s most lucrative markets.

• TikTok of course says that it will fight this, as you’d expect.
• Forbes has pulled together a useful timeline and does cast its own doubts on whether or not this ban would actually happen.
• Martech took a look at what this means for marketers and the take wasn’t what I initially expected, but makes a lot of sense. In short – not only do you need to potentially rethink your marketing plan, you also need to deal with 16 different state laws that massively overcomplicate compliance and clearly come from a place of misunderstanding.
• My own view – if you’re based in the States, are relying on TikTok and aren’t already considering your options, then now would be a good time to start contingency planning. If you’re only focussed on other markets, I would keep a close eye on what’s going on, but I wouldn’t be too concerned about changing everything up just yet.

Meta earnings call sparks stock sell-off

Any schadenfreude that Zuck and the rest of Meta might have enjoyed from TikTok’s woes has surely been dampened down this week following a stock sell-off which is set to erase nearly $170 billion from the company’s market value.

The sell off follows a less-than-impressive set of quarterly earnings call which revealed that the company’s big bet on AI will likely take years to pay off.

As a marketer I wouldn’t be unduly worried just yet – but it does show the reality that the rest of the world might not be quite as sold on the potential of AI as we are in our digital marketing bubble. One more positive note from the call is that Threads now apparently has 150 million monthly active users, and is increasingly emerging as a credible channel.

Further Reading

A great one for those writing pitch decks at the moment – Electronics Hub have pulled together an infographic showing average screen time and social media usage split out by region.

Search Engine Land has pulled together a more-than-decent guide to SEO on TikTok and how you can harness it.

Google has now fired over 50 workers following a series of anti-Israel protests. It has also announced that it will be delaying its cookie phase out once again.

That’s it for this week – if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate if you shared this with your friends and colleagues. 

If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!

Happy Thursday! It’s been a relatively quiet week in the wonderful world of digital marketing, although Elon Musk has done his best to give commentators something to discuss.

Also doing their bit are Google, which is laid out plans to fight ad blockers as well as being in the news around a rumoured Hubspot acquisition. Good job both!

Elon Musk’s X planning to charge new users to post

Another week, another wild story coming from Elon Musk and the platform formerly known as Twitter. In the latest edition of declaring your big upcoming strategic replies in casual replies to users, this week Musk informed a user that X is planning to charge new users to the platform, ostensibly to prevent bots from taking over.

In terms of solving that problem, there is a solid rationale; bots are one of the key reasons people are turning away from the platform, and with improvements in AI technology one can only assume this is getting worse and worse. Raising the barrier of registration has always been an issue for a platform that, once upon a time, provided anonymity and credibility to those who needed it.

Now though, it can’t help but also come across as something of a cash grab and a publicity stunt – it would be interesting to know, given that Twitter has been around for the best part of two decades and had a heyday long ago, how many genuine new posters the platform even has to potentially charge.

Google is finding ways to block ad blockers on YouTube

One of the big concerns for advertisers on a platform such as YouTube is around the high number of users utilising ad blocking technology (somewhere around 37% apparently). That should be changing soon, with Google making changes that should in theory block the ad blockers, meaning that there are likely to be a few frustrated users in the next few weeks.

I find ad blocking fascinating, and a damning indictment on the state of the advertising industry – the creative that people come up with is so often self-serving that there’s no wonder so many people turn to tools that block it. The funniest thing for me is the number of my peers who seem to also use ad blockers. No further learnings for marketers here, but I implore you that if you’re reading this and blocking ads, you might well be missing out on the chance to learn from competitors. Anyway, rant over!

Google considering Hubspot acquisition

Certain corners of the internet have been ablaze over the past week with rumours that Google is considering an acquisition of the CRM platform Hubspot.

This could, potentially, be quite a big deal in democratising the platform and also in creating better connections between Google’s ad platforms, its workspace solutions and then also first-party CRM data – and that’s before you even think about Gemini AI being in the mix as well.

Early days and it sounds like the regulators might take an interest, but certainly one to keep an eye on.

Further Reading

It feels somewhat odd as a roundup newsletter to include a roundup article, but Connected TV (CTV) is something I haven’t seen a huge number of materials on, despite the fact that for the right business it feels like a good opportunity. Anyway, LinkedIn has pulled together a few (obviously self serving) different thoughts and pieces – worth a look if it piques your interest.

If you’re advertising on Meta and you’ve seen painful price increases on CPMs in the last few weeks, chances are it’s due to some glitches.

TikTok is exploring options around a feature which would enable brands to ‘deploy’ virtual influencers, who would then be able to sell products on their behalf. The world is getting scarier and scarier.

And finally, a great look by The Economist at Generative AI and the implications of its “theft” of content for learning purposes.

That’s it for this week – if you found this interesting then I would really appreciate if you shared this with your friends and peers. 

If you’re feeling particularly generous, then I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!