Fried Bids, Digital News - 15-23 Apr 2024
This is my personal selection of the most interesting articles published from 15th-23rd April 2024. Let me know what you think in the comments. If you want to receive the 50+ news full newsletter, please reach me through Direct Message.
YouTube has introduced a new feature called "YouTube Select Shorts", allowing advertisers to place their ads alongside top-performing Shorts content in categories such as entertainment, beauty, fashion, lifestyle, food, recipes, gaming, and automotive. This option gives advertisers greater control over their Shorts promotions and maximizes exposure to viewers within specific niches. YouTube's move comes in response to the growing popularity of Shorts, which are now viewed by 2 billion logged-in users each month. The platform has also provided tips on maximizing Shorts content through its "ABCD's of Effective Ads" section. Overall, this development presents an opportunity for advertisers to leverage the reach and engagement of YouTube Shorts.
Google's Gary Illyes confirmed that Google requires minimal links for ranking web pages during a search conference in Bulgaria. This supports the growing evidence that links are becoming less important in SEO, indicating the increasing reliance on AI and natural language understanding in Google's algorithms. The importance of links for ranking dates back to the late 1990s when they were used to validate a website's authority. However, over time, Google has made links less significant due to the prevalence of manipulated and spammy links. This shift in importance highlights the need for publishers to focus on other factors for SEO success.
Twitch is set to roll out its new TikTok-style discovery feed to all users later this month. After a year of testing, the feed will allow users to scroll through separate feeds dedicated to livestreams and clips. It will be available as a tab within the mobile app, and some users may see it as their homepage next month. The feed will feature live content from followed creators as well as recommendations from Twitch. Users can tap on a creator's avatar to enter theater mode and engage with the livestream. Additionally, there will be a clips stream showcasing shortform videos taken from Twitch livestreams. While ads will appear within the feed, users can scroll past them without interruption.
TikTok has introduced TikTok Notes, its new photo-sharing app that serves as a rival to Instagram. The app is currently being rolled out for limited testing in Australia and Canada on iOS and Android platforms. TikTok Notes offers unique features such as the ability to write headlines for images above captions, a feature not available natively on Instagram. The app's homepage is divided into two sections, with one displaying posts from followed accounts and the other featuring a "For You" page that likely showcases content similar to users' preferences. The app was announced earlier this month, and it is unclear when it will be made available in the United States and other regions.
Netflix has announced new ad measurement options ahead of the upfronts. The streaming giant reported a 15% year-over-year revenue growth, driven by account growth and anti-password sharing tactics. To attract more advertisers, Netflix is focusing on developing its ad products and providing robust measurement capabilities. The company has partnered with three new measurement providers, including Kantar, Cint, and NCSolutions, to offer advertisers metrics such as brand awareness, ad recall, and incremental sales lift. Netflix aims to build a larger base of paid members through advertising and increase its revenue from ad-supported accounts. The upfronts presentation is scheduled for May 15.
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Yahoo has expanded its identity solutions to connected TV (CTV) media, aiming to make it easier for digital marketers to incorporate CTV within their digital media plans. By providing consistent data sets for campaign planning, Yahoo enables advertisers to target and measure their CTV investment alongside other channels. The expansion includes Yahoo's identity graph, ConnectID, which is based on first-party data and can be matched with third-party data providers. The move helps address signal loss in CTV advertising, as Yahoo seeks to link TV ads with online behavior without relying on third-party cookies or IP addresses.
Google has announced that it will delay the deprecation of third-party cookies on Chrome for the third time, citing industry and regulatory pressure as the reason. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is closely monitoring the Chrome Privacy Sandbox, needs more time to review evidence from industry tests. Divergent feedback from the industry and developers also influenced Google's decision. The Privacy Sandbox has faced concerns about anticompetitive behavior and limitations in its APIs. The delay may impact the development and testing of cookieless solutions, but industry executives remain confident that Chrome will eventually proceed with the deprecation.
A bill that could lead to the ban of TikTok in the United States is advancing as it moves closer to a Senate vote. The bill, which initially surfaced last month, aims to compel TikTok to be under U.S. ownership or face a ban. It has already been passed by the House of Representatives, and now awaits a Senate vote. To expedite the process, the bill has been included in a broader foreign aid package that encompasses military and humanitarian assistance. However, challenges remain, including constitutional concerns and potential opposition from China. If approved, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, would have a grace period of at least 9 months, possibly extended to 12 months, to arrange a sell-off or propose an alternative solution.
Meta is facing legal challenges in Europe over its ad-free subscription offering. The European Data Protection Board (E.D.P.B.) has published new guidance that may require Meta to provide its apps for free to all EU users, regardless of their consent to data use for ad targeting. Meta's subscription offering, introduced last year to comply with GDPR requirements, allows EU users to opt out of data tracking for advertising by paying a monthly fee. However, the EDPB argues that offering a paid alternative to data processing for behavioral advertising is not in line with valid consent requirements. The EDPB suggests that free alternatives without behavioral advertising should be provided. Meta is expected to appeal the ruling, as it believes its approach aligns with free market principles and the need to recoup costs.
Meta has announced that its latest language model, Llama 3, outperforms other models, including Gemini, according to benchmark tests. Llama 3, available with 8B and 70B parameters, offers improved text-based responses, diversity in answering prompts, better reasoning abilities, and understanding of instructions. The benchmark tests showed that Llama 3 8B performed better than Gemma 7B and Mistral 7B in general knowledge benchmarks, while Llama 3 70B slightly surpassed Gemini Pro 1.5. Human evaluators also ranked Llama 3 higher than other models, including OpenAI's GPT-3.5, in various real-world use cases. Meta plans to expand Llama 3 with larger models capable of multimodal responses. However, the article does not mention GPT-4 or compare Llama 3 to it.
Major companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon are reverting to media mix modeling (MMM) as their preferred measurement approach. MMM is being adopted due to signal loss issues faced by multi-touch attribution (MTA). Companies are strengthening their models with MMM, which offers channel-level measurement. Digital companies are advised to learn more about MMM and implement tactics such as geo testing and incremental testing to introduce time gaps in measurement. The growing connection between TV and commerce, including the rise of shoppable TV, is identified as a crucial focus area for brands adopting MMM.