Rabbbits Weeekly: TikTok & More
This weeek we play another round of More, More, Less with marketing and related news. Also, some TikTok benchmarks.
Who Wants to Play More, More, Less?
My brain is still stuck in “more or less” mode after last week, which isn’t helped by the fact that most news seems to fall into one of these buckets these days. Who knows, if someone doesn’t stop me, this might just become a regular format around these parts.
So, again, here is a round-up of recent more, more, more related announcements. And some less, less, less to act as counterpoints.
Meta
Facebook
More prospecting with Advantage Custom Audiences (and even more tips at the link)
Less people in Horizon Worlds. Meta has dropped their year end goal from 500k users to 280k, which is less than a previous user milestone the hit. Also less legs, that video they released with them was fake.
More commerce ad resources from Big Brother Blue.
Instagram
More guides from Meta on how to use the features they want you to use.
Less ad free Instagram. First Apple and now Google have removed The OG App from their app stores, it imported users Instagram feeds without any ads. Wonder why Meta didn’t like it?
More MySpace in your ‘Gram
TikTok
More Creator Marketplace tools and features to help brands capitalize on the “71% of the TikTok community says that it's a creator's authenticity that motivates them to buy from a brand.” (Anecdotal experience/advice: partnering with multiple creators in the same niche could help your product seem less like an ad, “I’ve seen a lot of influencers recommending this specific one.”)
More campaign objectives: Focused View. It’s like Video View ads, but actually geared towards people paying attention. Like watching a video for 6 seconds versus the industry standard 2 (and only half the video has to be on the screen for that 2 seconds for it to count). Plus, you get that first 6 seconds for free.
More #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt: Prime Day edition. Or Prime Early Access Sale, or whatever they call it. Whatever you call it, some brands used TikTok to drive lots of traffic.
More warehouses for TikTok. It’s becoming apparent that they don’t want to be Amazon’s acquisition channel, they want to be Amazon.
More music streaming in The Trend Machine one day? Elon wants to turn Twitter into an “everything app” like WeChat, Zuck has wanted this for Facebook for years now, turns out it might be another Chinese app that cracks the code in the US first.
We interrupt these messages to bring you:
TikTok Tid Bits
I recently collected some ad benchmarks for a client and now I’m going to share them with you, lucky reader. And hey, while we’re here👇
How much can you expect to spend?
In-feed ad CPMs will run you, on average, $10
A hashtag challenge will run you $150k / week
A brand takeover costs $50k / day
This ad type will show as soon as a targeted user opens the app, effectively taking over their screen. One advertiser per category per day.
A click, on average, will cost you $1
Expect a range of $0.20 - $2.00 cost per action
Minimum spend of $20 per day per ad group
What can you expect to get?
Average engagement rate 5-16%
From what I’ve heard, the most cost effective way to advertise on TikTok right now is to run Spark Ads, which is their fancy way of saying promoted posts.
I’ve also heard TikTok reps recommend refreshing ad creative every 72 hours.
If you’re running shopping ads, you may have better luck getting things setup via the Catalog Manager (look for the shopping cart icon that is actually a button).
Now back to your regularly scheduled program.
Pinterest
More Trends! Inspiration Station has expanded the Trends tool and will be better integrating the Conversions API with Shopify and Google Tag Manager (GTM).
Google
More handles, YouTube is jumping on the @ train, which honestly might be a great idea.
Less automatically created Google Ad assets, a request from (some (many?)) advertisers. (I’m curious if these same advertisers use Dynamic Search Ads, because it’s the same concept just applied on a broader scale.)
More privacy-oriented targeting options for publishers (called PAIR, I think). Sounds like it’s a venn diagram approach to first-party retargeting, the advertiser sends a list to the publisher and matched users get ads (wildly oversimplified). Which, honestly, sounds like customer list targeting on social platforms.
More ad spend on Google, so get ready for auctions to cost more.
More Google Workspace (Docs, etc.) features (and in place of Formerly Officr?). The chips feature looks cool, it’s like they finally realized that these things are web apps and not everyone is going to use scripts to take advantage of that.
More experiment ideas for Responsive Search Ads (RSAs).
Microsoft
More tools, this time it’s a Canva knockoff.
Less Microsoft Office, at least in name. Related: more Microsoft 365.
More DALL-E image generation in Bing, search your way to a generated image.
Apple
More ads on Apple TV+. I heard somewhere that the targeting would not be data-rich like other platforms, keeping in line with Apple’s “privacy first” image. So, new tech, old targeting model probably.
Gen Z
More buy now, pay later this holiday szn
More Gen Z’s on Facebook than you might think, they just use Groups.
Gen Z like to accumulate knowledge. Some of them are whip smart, and they are extremely adept at using their phones. They view phones as a portal into the unknown. Ask any question, or engage in a conversation with Gen Z, and they are more likely to look up the answer quickly on their phones than those in other age groups. They are truth seekers. In mentoring students at a college, I found they were far less likely to accept something at face value or to follow a hunch or an assumption, which doesn’t make sense when you can Google it.
Retail Tea Leaves
Less online shopping. That 5 year pull-forward seems more like a blip and less like a paradigm shift. Though I do wonder how much of the current spending environment is driven by cabin fever and the desire for experiences in place of all the shopping that occurred during lockdowns and quarantines. Are we too quick to judge the dip, like we were the spike?
More online shopping this holiday season (but less growth than prior years (according to Adobe)). Expect bigger discounts, more online grocery, and earlier holiday spending.
Less shopping on Prime Day Part 2: Lower Basket Size Boogaloo.
More insights from Klayvio on how generations will shop this holiday season.
More clothing resale options: Shein Exchange. The fast-fashion sensation is creating their own resale market in the app to tap into an existing market. Another interesting example of how Chinese companies are approaching growth avenues differently than their Western counterparts.
Marketing Grab Bag
More Roblox, the real metaverse company. Share price, users, and time spent on/in the platform all increased.
Less active BeReal users. Is the fad already fizzling? Is TikTok Now pulling a Facebook and killing it via clone?
More augmented reality (AR) in your marketing mix, according to consumers in a Snapchat survey. Shopping is the prime use case currently.
Æconomy
More inflation. Fashion might be all about that 90’s nostalgia, but the economy is on an early 80’s nostalgia trip. For reference, the last time inflation was this high, this song was topping the charts. (#2 on the year behind this song.)
Less bad market days, some exchanges saw positive numbers yesterday.
More economists say we’re heading towards a recession (up over 50% now).
Uber, Doordash plunge as Labor Dept proposes gig worker change
Less gig work in the future. Things could get dicey with the Labor Dept planning legislation that would require service providers be categorized as employees instead of contractors.
Attack Vectors
Less cookie consent banners, at least if you use the Brave browser.
Less Huawei and ZTE equipment in the US. The FCC is about to ban new equipment from Chinese telco and surveillance equipment firms. This has been a long simmering security risk vector for many Western nations, now it may be coming to a boil.
Alternates & Assorteds
Less Alaskan snow crabs, like 1 billion less. So no crab fishing this year. Can’t wait for this season of Deadliest Catch.
Less GIFs? (I’m still using them, sorry, not sorry.)