CCP… Whaaat?
Yeah… CCPA is all over. It looks like a great mystery to the uninitiated, but we found a bunch of insightful posts that might clarify a few things for you.
This is not a binary thing
As Maurice Rahmey stated, CCPA is not a binary choice between limited data use and full data use. Here’s his solution, with the premise that this is not legal advice:
- If you turn off LDU, you can include a string within the FB Pixel for ‘dataProcessingOptions’ that allows your business to specify its degree of CCPA compliance.
The string allows control over who tracks the users’ ID: “If the advertiser chooses to ID a user instead of FB, the advertiser can then set up a way to block only the CA users who’ve opted out from being tracked. Facebook sees only the CA traffic that’s opted in.”
What else can you do?
Should you exclude California from your targeting because it’s under-reporting?
Answering this question will likely depend on how much of your ad spend targets Californians. But you shouldn’t sacrifice good spend in the name of bad reporting. Instead, go beyond ROAS and look into the patterns that shape it.
Additionally, as Luke Austin stated in this thread, check to see how the algorithm is adjusting the spend before making any manual changes.
PRIVACY
iOS 14 privacy woes continue
Apple’s new operating system isn’t slated for a public release until the fall, but its privacy features are already causing problems for users and brands alike.
A new feature coming with iOS 14 will alert users when apps are copying from their clipboard and potentially stealing sensitive information.
Here are two recent developments in the iOS 14 privacy saga:
- More apps are copying from your clipboard than you think. Last week, Twitter users called out LinkedIn for copying sensitive clipboard information. LinkedIn’s response was swift, assuring users that it is a harmless issue that will be fixed soon. You can’t blame some people for not fully believing that, though…
- Sixteen ad associations, some of which are backed by Google, criticized Apple’s move to check in with users on their privacy preferences before allowing their data to be checked. These ad associations claim that this would hurt advertising efforts.
Keep an eye out for more iOS 14 privacy-related news. With the public release drawing closer, the chances are that we haven’t heard the end of these privacy woes.
YOUTUBE
Answering the biggest YouTube algorithm questions
With over 2B monthly active users, YouTube could be classed as both the second biggest social media site and the second biggest search engine.
Marketers and brands certainly understand the power YouTube holds, whether it’s for creating an audience by discovery or nurturing it.
Unsurprisingly, its algorithm is what dictates whether your video is found or buried in the unfathomable depths of the internet. So, here’s what you need to know about it, straight from YouTube product managers Patricia and Rachel, via Social Media Today.
- Click-through rates (CTR) and average viewer duration (AVD) are two big factors for the YouTube algorithm.
- High CTR doesn’t necessarily mean better. If other factors make the algorithm distribute your video to a large, less engaged audience, your CTR will decrease.
- Don’t use a single metric in isolation. Doing so can lead you to the wrong conclusion.
- Context matters for discovery. There are different ranking models for Home or Watch Next placements, which take different signals into account.
- CTR and AVD are good indicators but you have to look at each based on traffic sources, which is possible with the new analytics dashboard.
- For discovery, YouTube looks at both relative and absolute watch time so video length shouldn’t be a limiting factor. Video length still matters here, but probably not as much as creators think.
That sounds fine and dandy, but there are definitely cases where CTR and AVD are both great but the video still flops. Why is that?
- Competition from better videos for the same audience.
- Some topics are just more popular to YouTube users and will inevitably get more views, simply because of the available audience for that topic.
- Seasonality. Interests come and go throughout the year, which can affect discovery.
Do you still have more questions? The original discussion between Patricia and Rachel is on YouTube here.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
GOOGLE: Spam reports are only used to improve spam detection algorithms and they represent a very small fraction of manual actions Google issues to websites.
SEARCH: Want to know why Google was adding products to carts? If you participate in Google Shopping or Shopping Ads you agree that your site can be crawled, including the shopping cart.
E-COMMERCE: Adult toys have seen some of the biggest growth year-on-year when it comes to online shopping during the past few months.
SEO: Bing and Google come together for an SEO mythbusting video, including misconceptions about backlinks, search ads impact, blockers and more.
GOOGLE ADS: The company is testing a new search ads format for mobile devices where the first result has a larger headline font, making it stand out from the rest.
BRAIN TEASER
Some are precious, some are plain, some used for building, some used for pain. What are they?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Did you have a steady finger?
Remember that MrBeast “keep your finger on the app” challenge we mentioned a couple of weeks ago?
Well, it’s over, and it didn’t pan out in the way anyone expected. In fact, four people still had their fingers on the app when Jimmy Donaldson – aka MrBeast – decided it was time to put things to an end.
Instead of one winner receiving $25k, the four final contestants got $20k each. Four other players, who took their fingers off the app earlier, also received payouts of $5k and $10k as part of an incentive to quit early.
It was fun to follow along with, and it seems even Jimmy Donaldson himself didn’t expect the contest to go this far. In any case, this was creative marketing at its finest, with more than 450k people participating and countless more following along.
We’ll see what’s next for Jimmy and his extravagant challenges!