In a week where big, blockbuster ads have dominated our social media feeds, it’s been entirely possible to miss a few potentially interesting developments in the world of Digital Marketing.
Firstly, Twitter/X made its first positive advertising announcement (at least that I can remember) for a considerably long time, with a new feature presumably designed to assuage brand safety concerns. LinkedIn also announced a useful evolution of its own (much stronger) ad offering.
Those who closely follow social will already know this, but this week also saw Richard van der Blom’s annual LinkedIn insights report drop, which is essential reading for anyone with a close interest in the platform. If you want to up your LinkedIn game, it’s definitely a great place to start.
Elsewhere there were developments from Google, OpenAI and TikTok.
Twitter/X tries kindness
Elon Musk and the crew at Twitter/X have finally realised that telling advertisers to eff off is potentially not the best strategy to attract their ad spend. Part of the issue Musk has is that even prior to his takeover, Twitter Ads was not a Good product.
Speaking as someone who has managed hundreds of campaigns across well over a dozen self-service platforms, I feel confident saying that actually, Twitter Ads was a Bad product – targeting was inferior to competitors, demographic information was lacking, and all-round accountability was poor.
So, it’s interesting to see the gang (I think there’s just about enough people left there to call it a gang) now looking to improve the offering, by now allowing advertisers to run ads alongside curated content creators. Which sounds amazing in theory, but given these numbers are dwindling, I would expect CPMs to be significantly higher than ads elsewhere – when when internal stakeholders see even less YoY return, they’ll continue to go elsewhere.
Don’t get me wrong – this is a step in the right direction for Twitter/X, but it does feel too little too late. It will be interesting to see if they pursue the path of improving features for advertisers, because there is at least something compelling there.
LinkedIn improves planning
Speaking of platform improvements, LinkedIn this week announced an improvement to its own ad platform, which will enable much more accurate planning in terms of spend x impressions & results. To-date I have always taken the estimates with a pinch of salt, but this sounds like a great development – the idea is that these figures will need some interpretation, but if they actually bear some resemblance to reality then that’ll be a good start.
There was a time when I’d have argued LI was inferior to even Twitter Ads, but those days are long gone.
LinkedIn Algorithm insights
In a week of neat segues, one of the most interesting reports I’ve read for a few months was Richard van der Blom’s annual LinkedIn algorithm update. Some choice cuts include:
- Polls and Documents are the content types most likely to drive reach, with text + image and LinkedIn video further back
- Commenting and Reposting Instantly are the actions you can take to drive success with your own content (although Reposting Instantly feels like something LI will surely look to cut back on if people do it too much)
- If you’re linking out to an article, removing the preview will help reduce reach
- Posting more than once a day is ill-advised
- Engagement in the first hour will play a huge part in determining how successful the post is
These were my key takeaways, but the document has literally hundreds. The whole PDF is pretty chunky, but if you’re someone with either a personal or professional interest in LinkedIn content, it’s worth a look. Alternatively, RVDB pulled together a nice, concise summary infographic.
Further Reading
It seems that OpenAI is working to make sure that ChatGPT can remember conversations in future.
Google said earlier this week that it took down 45% more fake reviews in 2023 thanks to its latest algorithm.
I mentioned last week about TikTok testing a ‘Sub Space’ where private chats could take place between creators and fans – well, TechCrunch have filled in some of the gaps this week.
Having read Walter Isaacon’s recent biography of Elon Musk, this stranger-than-fiction tale of Musk taking over Twitter to try and get revenge following an argument is very believable.
Finally, it would be remiss of me to go through this entire newsletter without mentioning the SuperBowl (I think I can say that legally?), which has dominated my social feeds for the last two weeks; Google unveiled some fun trends, including which states enjoy which dips. Scraping the barrel of PR-friendly content.
That’s it! If you enjoyed this article, then please feel free to tell your friends, say hello or if you’re feeling particularly generous, to buy me a coffee.